Energy efficiency and dynamic performance are key factors
to drives, which, however, will be deteriorated by air
leakage between the air pockets and friction distributions to
the pneumatic drives. This paper presents a novel magnetic
scroll expander, aiming at improving the typical scroll
expander performance and energy efficiency especially
when the expander operates at low compressed air
pressures. The mathematical model of the proposed
magnetic scroll expander is developed. ANSYS Maxwell
software is employed to analyse the generalised magnetic
field strength and magnetic forces/torque. The development
of a prototype of magnetic scroll expander is described.
From the initial study, it shows that the proposed magnetic
scroll expander has potential in improving scroll expander’s
energy conversion efficiency.