A Large Linear Interior Permanent Magnet Motor for Electromagnetic Launcher.pdf

1566 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 39, NO. 6, JUNE 2011 A Large Linear Interior Permanent Magnet Motor for Electromagnetic Launcher Mehran Mirzaei, Seyed Ehsan Abdollahi, and Hamid Lesani Abstract—In this paper, a magnetic analysis of large linear motors with long primary and short interior permanent magnet (PM) secondary is presented. The calculations are carried out using a finite-element method, taking into account the secondary motion and saturation in iron parts. Reluctance force could be increased using interior PM secondary. The thrust force oscilla- tions are evaluated to obtain minimum force ripple. Furthermore, a magnet demagnetization analysis is presented to evaluate the magnet demagnetization risk under loading. Reduction in the magnet volume is considered for cheaper and simpler secondary structure. Index Terms—Finite-element method, interior permanent magnet secondary, large linear motor, thrust force. I. INTRODUCTION D IFFERENT types of linear motors are widely used forlinear motion applications, which include low-power ac- tuator to very high thrust force linear motors for Earth to space launching. Accelerating a mass to reach a desired speed at short time and distance can be achieved using high-thrust force density linear motors. For example, these motors are employed in car-accident simulator, aircraft and satellite launching from carriers, and other instances where high thrust is needed at a short time. The aircraft launch systems currently use steam technology for launching, which has been used operationally for over 50 years. However, the old mechanical system can be replaced by an electromagnetic launch system with linear motor propul- sion [1], [2]. Recently, linear induction, permanent magnet (PM), superconducting, and reluctance synchronous motors have been analyzed, and no full-scale electromagnetic launch- ers for aircraft have been built based on the references cited [3]–[7]. The advantage of linear induction motors is low-ma