This thesis deals with an alternate method for computing the external magnetic field from a circular cylindrical magnetic source. The primary objective is to characterize the magnetic source in terms of its equivalent multipole distribution. This multipole distribution must be valid at points close to the cylindrical source and a spherical multipole expansion is ill-equipped to handle this problem; therefore a new method must be introduced. This method, based upon the free-space Green's function in cylindrical coordinates, is developed as an alternative to the more familiar spherical harmonic expansion. A family of special functions, called the toroidal functions or Q-functions, are found to exhibit the necessary properties for analyzing circular cylindrical geometries. In particular, the toroidal function of zeroth order, which comes from the integral formulation of the free-space Green's function in cylindrical coordinates, is employed to handle magnetic sources which exhibit circular cylindrical symmetry. The toroidal functions, also called Q-functions, are the weighting coefficients in a ''Fourier series-like'' expansion which represents the free-space Green's function. It is also called a toroidal expansion. This expansion can be directly employed in electrostatic, magnetostatic, and electrodynamic problems which exhibit cylindrical symmetry. Also, it is shown that they can be used as an alternative to the Elliptic integral formulation. In fact, anywhere that an Elliptic integral appears, one can replace it with its corresponding Q-function representation. A number of problems, using the toroidal expansion formulation, are analyzed and compared to existing known methods in order to validate the results. Also, the equivalent multipole distribution is found for most of the solved problems along with its corresponding physical interpretation. The main application is to characterize the external magnetic field due to a six-pole permanent magnet motor in terms of its equivalent multipole distribution.
