The paper is aimed at a 3D magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC)-based modelling of claw pole synchronous machine topologies. Beyond the magnetic saturation and the armature magnetic reaction, the proposed modelling approach takes into consideration the rotor position variation, yielding the socalled: rotor position-dependant MEC. Accounting for the complexity of the magnetic circuit of claw pole topologies, specific assumptions are adopted prior a general analytical derivation of their MEC models. The developed analytical approach focuses on the air gap reluctance under variable rotor position considering a simplified geometry of the claw. A dedicated numerical procedure based on the Newton-Raphson algorithm is proposed for the resolution of the designed rotor position-dependant MEC. The proposed approach is applied to three claw pole topologies. The two first ones are equipped with a single source of excitation achieved by a field. Their analytically-predicted features are validated by experiments. The third topology has a dual excitation achieved by a field and permanent magnets (PMs) in the rotor. Its analyticallypredicted features are validated by 3D finite element analysis (FEA). It is found that both experimental and FEA results are in quite good agreement with the analytical predictions yielded by the proposed rotor position-dependant MEC.INDEX TERMS Armature magnetic reaction, claw pole topologies, magnetic saturation, no-/on-load features, rotor position-dependant magnetic equivalent circuit, single/dual excitation, three dimensional finite element analysis.