Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose the complementary design rules, give a quantitative comparison and analyze the force production mechanism of two kinds of primary wound field flux-switching linear (PWFFSL) motors.
Design/methodology/approach
PWFFSL motors have the merits of no use of rare-earth magnet, low cost and a wide operation range in which the armature windings and the field windings are all located at the short primary mover and the secondary is very robust. Hence, the PWFFSL motor is ideal for rail transportation systems which need a long stator and a wide speed range. To overcome the disadvantages of the existing PWFFSL motors, new complementary design rules will be proposed. Also, to offer a better PWFFSL motor for the rail transportation systems, it is necessary to investigate different structures of PWFFSL motors and give a comprehensive comparison. To predict the force performance of two kinds of PWFFSL motors with different secondary types, their flux density analysis and force production mechanism will be presented and compared.
Findings
The comparison result shows that the PWFFSL motor with toothed secondary can offer larger thrust force, higher force density and higher efficiency, whereas the PWFFSL motor with segmented secondary has the merits of lower force ripple, less use of stator iron, higher power factor and less critical saturation.
Research limitations/implications
Many PWFFSL motors with different primary/secondary pole pitches based on the proposed design principle have not been considered in this paper.
Originality/value
This paper has presented the air-gap flux analysis, proposed the complementary design rules for two kinds of PWFFSL motors with different secondary types and compared the electromagnetic performance of the two motors.
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