A study on different topologies of the tubular linear permanent magnet motor designed for linear reciprocating compressor applications

• Main Authors: Abdalla, I.I., Ibrahim, T.B., Nor, N.M.
• Format: Article
• Published: Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) 2016
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84958244540&partnerID=40&md5=10f7c2789fa4c69b69419bc6c37aa1b5; http://eprints.utp.edu.my/25553/

This paper presents a study on three different topologies of tubular linear permanent magnet motors (TLPMMs), with different permanent magnet (PM) structures. These motors provide direct conversion for electrical energy into a linear mechanical force, and they are directly coupled to the load. The proposed motors are equipped with quasi-Halbach magnetized moving-magnet armatures and their stator cores have been made from a soft magnetic composite (SMC) material, Somaloy 700. Based on the nonlinear time-stepping two-dimensional finite-element analysis (2-D FEA) an extensive magnetic field analysis of the proposed designs has been established. The simulation results indicate the effectiveness of the designs to drive a linear reciprocating compressor in a household refrigerator. Moreover, the simulation results have shown that, the superiority of the two designs with T-shaped and trapezoidal-shaped PMs structures over the TLPMM with conventional rectangular-shaped PMs. In addition to that, the usage of quasi-Halbach for the PMs array arrangement has a significant effect on the motor performance. © 2016 ACES.