Comparison of a High Thrust Force Density Segmental Stator Linear Switch Reluctance Machine for with Different Topologies

Abstract

Linear switch reluctance machine (LSRM) has been an alternative to linear permanent magnet synchronous machine and linear induction machine. However, the nature of reluctance force production, together with the air gap which is always much larger than rotary SRM, result in low propulsion force density in LSRM. This is an inherent demerit of LSRM, limiting its applications where the machine size is strictly set. This paper presents a novel linear switch reluctance machine with segmental stator, which consists of series of ferrite-magnetic segments. The principle of the proposed LSRM featuring high force density has been introduced. A variety of topologies of the proposed machine have been presented including single stator, dual stator and non-stator yoke structure. This paper deals with the comparison of the proposed segmental stator linear switch reluctance machine and traditional teeth type linear reluctance machine in terms of the propulsion force, normal force and force ripple as well as the force density and active pay load ratio. Finite Element Method is implemented to obtain the correlated results. Some conclusions are drawn to verify the analysis above.