Wide Air-gap Control for Multi-module Permanent Magnet Linear Synchronous Motors without Magnetic Levitation Windings

This paper proposes a wide air-gap control method for the multi-module permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (MM-PMLSM) based on independent vector control. In particular, the MM-PMLSM consists of symmetrical multi-module and multi-phase structures, which are basically three-phase configurations without a neutral point, unlike conventional three-phase machines. In addition, there are no additional magnetic levitation windings to control the normal force of the air-gap between each stator and mover. Hence, in this paper, a dq-axis current control applying a d-q transformation and an independent vector control are proposed for the air-gap control between the two symmetric stators and mover of the MM-PMLSM. The characteristics and control performance of the MM-PMLSM are analyzed under the concept of vector control. As a result, the proposed method is easily implemented without additional windings to control the air-gap and the mover position. The effectiveness of the proposed independent vector control algorithm is verified through experimental results.