A Novel Double-Sided Linear Flux Switching

Machine with Yokeless Secondary for Long Stroke

Applications
Muhammad Qasim Faisal Khan Basharat Ullah
Dept. of Electrical and Dept. of Electrical and Dept. of Electrical and
Computer Engineering Computer Engineering Computer Engineering
COMSATS University Islamabad COMSATS University Islamabad COMSATS University Islamabad
Abbottabad Campus Abbottabad Campus Abbottabad Campus
2021 International Conference on Emerging Power Technologies (ICEPT) | 978-1-6654-1293-3/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICEPT51706.2021.9435566

qasimrajput217@gmail.com faisalkhan@cuiatd.edu.pk basharat.bigb@gmail.com

Himayat Ullah Jan Shahid Hussain Zia Ul Islam

Dept. of Electrical and Dept. of Electrical and Dept. of Electrical and
Computer Engineering Computer Engineering Computer Engineering
COMSATS University Islamabad COMSATS University Islamabad COMSATS University Islamabad
Abbottabad Campus Abbottabad Campus Abbottabad Campus
jhimayatullah@gmail.com shahidhissain@gmail.com engr.zia308@gmail.com

Abstract—This article introduces a novel double-sided linear
hybrid excitation flux switching machine (DSLHEFSM) with
yokeless secondary suitable for long stroke applications. The sig-
nificant to this novel machine is the elimination of the secondary
yoke, which can reduce the volume of the secondary. To reduce
cost, ferrite magnets with reduced volume as compared to con-
ventional design are utilized. In order to increase the thrust force
density and reduce thrust force ripple under load conditions, the
impact of some main design parameters, including split ratio,
AC winding slot area, stator pole alignment, stator pole width,
stator pole height and turn-on angle are investigated through
finite element analysis. The electromagnetic performances of
the LHEFSM are analysed including flux linkage, detent force,
normal force, no-load EMF, force-velocity curve. Within the same
volume constraint and electrical loading, the proposed model
achieved higher average thrust force than the conventional model.
Index Terms—Hybrid excited linear flux switching machine,
dual mover linear machine, Finite element analysis, Thrust force,
Electromagnetic performances, Optimization
I. I NTRODUCTION
Over the past few decades, Flux Switching Machine (FSM)
have received considerable attention because of its high av-
erage thrust force density and high-power density. One of
the highlights of FSM is its topology, in which all excitation
sources (permanent magnets, AC and DC coils) are placed
only on one side of the machine. Due to its robust design,
FSM has been studied for aircraft and automotive applications
[1]. Several structural topologies are developed and studied
in LFSM [2]. To increase the thrust force density in LFSM
[3], the thrust force ripples reduction technique is introduced.
All single sided linear machines exhibit a problem of high
normal force. Therefore, the double-sided machine structure
is preferred [4]. Double-Sided Linear Flux Switching Machine
(DSLFSM) can be considered as a competitor for short-stroke
and long-stroke applications, such as subway [5], railway
transportation [6] and magnetic levitation transportation [7]
due to its passive stator structure. DSLFSMs can be catego-
rized based on excitation source and geometric structure.
According to excitation source, it can be divided into
permanent magnet DSLFSMs (PMDSLFSMs), field excited
DSLFSMs (FEDSLFSMs), and hybrid excited DSLFSMs
(HEDSLFSMs). In [8], the dual stator FEDSLFSM was de-
signed and optimized for brushless AC operation. However,
compared with PM machines, the thrust density of the field
excited LFSM is low. Although the literature on HEDSLFSM
is very limited. According to geometric structure, it can be
divided into double mover [9] and double stator [10]. Double
stator LFSMs can be further divided into yoke and without
yoke. In [11] PMDSLFSMs with double mover topology
is optimized and investigated. To achieve high thrust force
density PMDSLFSM without yoke is introduced in [12].
In [13], the PMDSLFSM topologies with multi-tooth are
investigated. On the contrary, the multi-tooth structure will
cause more serious magnetic leakage on the mover pole, and
the mover iron teeth will get saturate even under light electric
load condition. A detailed study of LFSM shows that due to
the ”slot effect” and ”end effect”, almost all topologies have
a higher detent force and thrust fluctuation ratio. To overcome
the end effect additional teeth is implemented for a single-
sided LFSM in [14]. The aforementioned solution increased
the perpendicular length (x direction) of the mover. However,
this remedy has not been studied for DSLFSPMM. In [18],
HEDSLFSM was studied to reduce force ripple by optimizing

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 Fig. 1: Design variable of DSLHEFSM

auxiliary teeth. TABLE I: Initial parameters of proposed design

In this paper, a novel double-sided linear hybrid excited Symbol Parameter (Unit) Values
flux switching machine with segmented secondary is studied. τm Mover pole pitch (mm) 21.832
τs Stator pole pitch (mm) 26.19
The ferrite magnets are replaced with rare earth magnets to hm Mover height (mm) 88.4
reduce the cost of machine. Further, the volume of magnet is hac AC Slot height (mm) 32.60
also reduced as compared to conventional DSLHEFSM. The h(dc−upperslot) DC upper Slot height (mm) 12.55
proposed DSLHEFSM topology is based on the FSM topology h(dc−lowerslot) DC lower Slot height (mm) 9.264
hpm Magnet height (mm) 15.169
presented in [15] and introduces a 5/6 stator to mover teeth ws Stator Pole width (mm) 7.85
ratio. By removing the yoke part from the stator, the volume hy Mover yoke height (mm) 7.23
of the machine stator is reduced, thereby used for long stroke g Air gap 0.8
applications. L Stack length (z-axis) (mm) 90
Lmover Mover total length (x-axis) (mm) 131
hs Stator height (mm) 18.55
II. M ACHINE TOPOLOGY kf AC and DC winding fill factor 0.6
bt Mover tooth width 5.5
v Mover velocity (m/s) 4
The shift of the polarity of the flux linkage caused by N(DC−upper) Number of DC upper coil turns 45
following the movement of the salient pole rotor is introduced N(DC−lower) Number of DC lower coil turns 24
by the term “flux switching”. PM becomes the flux source NAC Number of AC coil turns 136
of PMFSM, and the combination of the two sources of hwm Whole machine height (mm) 108.6
S.R Split ratio 0.18
FEC excitation winding and PM becomes HEFSM. In both
cases, PM is placed in alternating primary teeth. In addition,
the magnetic flux generated can be controlled using FEC
III. S INGLE VARIABLE O PTIMIZATION
with variable capabilities. For this proposed DSLHEFSM, the
possible number of stator poles and mover slots is defined by: To improve the thrust force distribution and correct the
problems identified in analysis, a deterministic optimization
k method based on single variable geometry was used. The
Np = Ns (2 ± ) (1) increase in average thrust force is a priority for machine
2q
configuration selection. Compared with advanced simultane-
Where Np is the number of stator poles, Ns is the number ous optimization techniques, deterministic optimization based
of primary slots, k is an integer, and q is the number of on single variable geometry results in a sequential local
phases. DSLHEFSM as a design target in this study consists optimal solution of geometric parameters and has advantages
of a primary winding with 6 slots and a stator with 5 in reducing computational complexity and time consumption.
poles. The length of the mover is fixed at 131mm, same as It must be pointed out that, due to the nature of the order,
the conventional model [8]. Fig. 1. and Table I shows the each subsequent enhanced variable may be dependent on past
design variable and design parameter of proposed machine, factor estimates. Applying optimization methods ensure that
respectively. the main geometric parameters that affect the performance

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TABLE II: Initial values and constraints of optimization coef- The coefficient TAC is the ratio of width and height of
ficients the armature slot with constant slot area. So, the optimal
Sq. No. Coefficients Initial value Constraints width and height of the slot is easily determined using Eq.
1 S.R 0.25 [0.185-0.30] 3. The tooth width and yoke height of primary is optimized
2 TAC 0.07 [0.07-0.10]
3 Sw 0.31 [0.10-0.65]
gradually by changing the armature winding slot coefficient.
4 Sh 0.75 [0.32-1.0] The minimum value of ratio exhibits low thrust force due to
reduced tooth width. The tooth width is not increase further
due the limitation of armature slot width. The armature slot
of the machine are investigated. Throughout the optimization winding area kept constant. The optimum value of the tooth
process, τm , τs , L, g, v, JAC , JDC , NAC , N(DC−upper) and width of primary is 5.5mm. A further decrease in the defined
N(DC−lower) remains constant. The seven design parameters ratio will result in magnetic saturation at hy . By choosing TAC
namely hm , hslot , ws , hy , hpole , hs and S.R are optimized ratio as 0.07, the maximum Tavg can be obtained. The thrust
using the following optimization coefficients: force variation with TAC ratio graph is shown in Fig. 3.

2hs + 2g
S.R = (2)
2hs + 2g + hm

wslot
TAC = (3)
hslot

ws
Sw = (4)
Ts

hpole
Ss = (5)
hs
The size optimization coefficient of TAC is applicable to
the AC winding slot area to optimized primary pole teeth
width. Sw and Sh are the optimization coefficients of sta- Fig. 3: Thrust force variation with armature slot ratio
tor pole width and stator pole height, respectively. Table II
lists the order of optimization coefficients, initial values, and To obtain more sinusoidal no-load flux waveforms with
constraints. lower no load THD and maximum Tavg , the stator pole width
As defined in Eq. 2, the S.R is the ratio of the height of is optimized through coefficients defined in Eq. 4. By choosing
the stator to the height of the entire machine. Due to the Sw = 0.299 as shown in Fig. 4, minimum no load THD
dependence of material cost and thrust output, it is essential and the maximum Tavg is achieved. Therefore, we choose
to conclude the best S.R. The S.R versus thrust force graph is DSLHEFSM with stator pole width of 7.85mm as optimum
shown in Fig. 2. By choosing S.R to be 0.18, the maximum value.
Tavg can be achieved. The Optimal value of S.R is less than
the initial S.R indicating that the weight and volume of the
stator are reduced. Therefore, the model with S.R of 0.18 was
carefully chosen for additional analysis. The value of S.R is
not further decreased due to increase volume of mover.

Fig. 4: Stator pole width factor versus average thrust force

As mentioned earlier, DSLHEFSM is designed for long-

stroke applications with infinitely long stators, hpole optimiza-
tion is essential to reduce material cost and volume. The stator
Fig. 2: Variation of thrust force with split ratio pole height is optimized using Eq. 5. The results in Fig. 5

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shows that maximum Tavg can be obtained at stator pole Where e and φ represent back-EMF and flux linkage respec-
height factor 1. The yoke of the stator is removed during stator tively. Back EMF of machine is shown in Fig. 7 at velocity
pole height optimization and height of stator is 18.55mm. The of 4m/s.
segmented stator is used for further analysis. The height of the
segmented stator is not further decreased because we already
optimized height of stator in split ratio analysis. Table III
compares the initial and the optimized performance index of
proposed machine.

(a)

Fig. 5: Stator pole height factor versus average thrust force

TABLE III: Initial and optimized performance index

Key Performance Indicator Initial Design Optimized Design
F luxlinkageP −P (W b) 1.33 1.37
F orceDetentP −P (N ) 6.89 6.54
T hrustf orceavg (N ) 353 370
N ormalf orcep−p (N ) 0.59 0.18
T F RR(%) 21.7 26.1 (b)
T HDN,F (%) 2.16 2.19
Fig. 6: (a) Flux Linkages and (b) harmonic waveform of three
phases
IV. E LECTROMAGNETIC PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
According to the concluding assembly of 6/5 mover/stator
pole DSLHEFSM, its fundamental electromagnetic properties
are determined and analysed.

A. Flux-linkage and back-EMF

The two main parameters to determine the performances of
DSLHEFSM are flux linkage and back EMF. It is important
to determine flux linkage and back EMF to analyse the effect
of harmonics on the machine. The loaded flux linkage and the
corresponding harmonic waveform of each phase is shown in
Fig. 6a and Fig. 6b. The higher order components obtained
in flux linkage of phase A and phase B proves that the phase
A and phase B are more affected by end effects. Only phase
C is truly unaffected by the longitudinal end effect because Fig. 7: Back-EMF at 4m/s
it is located in the centre of the machine. It is considered
that DSLHEFSM is an asymmetric system, but here, the
difference between the three phases is not that big for the basic B. Thrust Force
components. Generally, the output thrust is directly related to The average thrust has been improved after optimization as
the back EMF. Back EMF can be obtained by: shown in Fig. 8. The optimized model has a 4.5% increase
dφ in average thrust force to the initial and 15% increase as
e= (6) compared to conventional DSLHEFSM at same machine size
dt

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and electric loading. In the initial model thrust force is 353N
and increases to 370N after optimization at the same current
density. In Fig. 9, the thrust force is observed with the
variation of armature current density from 0 to 18A/mm2 .
Thrust force increases linearly with increase of current density
up to 10A/mm2 . Nevertheless, when the current density
exceeds 10A/mm2 , the thrust force slowly increases due to
the saturation of the magnetic circuit.
Fig. 8: Comparison of Initial and Optimized Thrust force
Fig. 9: Armature current density versus thrust force
C. Detent Force
To analyse the noise and vibration, the detent force of the
presented machine is important to determine, and it is also the
main factor in evaluating DSLHEFSM performance. Detent
force is the no load force which is the combination of the end
effect and the slot effect. At no load condition, only a detent
force is present which is the force of attraction between the
iron core of the secondary and the PM of the primary. The
stronger force of attraction leads to higher vibration and noise
and the output force would be low. The detent force is due to
the slot effect whereas, the end effect is due the finite length
of the mover. Detent force is comprised of oscillations which
repeat themselves after a certain time period in one electrical
cycle. The end components of detent force should be minimum
to reduce noise and improve machine performance. Fig. 10
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shows that the detent force has 6.54N fluctuation range and
average detent force is zero.
Fig. 10: Initial and Optimized Detent force
D. Normal Force
The net normal force is the restoring force, which is
considered to always keep the vehicle at the target position
to prevent side interference. The normal force always acts
in the direction perpendicular to the contact plane and acts
outward. The normal force in double sided models is due to
the asymmetrical air gap distribution. The net normal force
in a double-sided machine is almost zero because they cancel
the effect of each other with symmetric air gaps. As compared
with detent force, vibration is more affected by normal force
[16]. With the change of displacement in the X direction, the
normal force fluctuates with the fluctuation range of 0.18N
and average normal force of 0.0056N as shown in Fig. 11.
Fig. 11: Initial and Optimized Normal force
E. Comparison of Force-Velocity Characteristic
In order to achieve proper position control, machines usually
require force-velocity characteristics. The force velocity and
output power-velocity curve can be obtained by using the pro-
cedure introduced in [17]. Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 shows the force
velocity curve, and the power velocity curve, respectively. The
force of DSLHEFSM starts decreasing when the velocity goes
beyond 9m/s. DSLHEFSM generates power i.e. 3338 watts
at a velocity of 9m/s. The decrease in power from 3338 watts
to 2892 watts is absorbed with velocity changing from 9 to
39m/s. It can be seen from the Fig. 14 that the DSLHEFSM
shows a better constant power operation capability.
Fig. 12: Force velocity curve verse thrust force
Fig. 13: Power velocity curve verses thrust force
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, a novel double-sided yokeless secondary linear
hybrid excited flux switching machine is proposed, which
replaces rare earth magnets with ferrite magnets. A yokeless
secondary structure is introduced to reduce the volume of
the secondary. The ferrite magnets is used instead of rare
earth magnets. The volume of magnet is reduced 25% as
compared to conventional design. The middle magnet combi-
nation between field windings is used, it improves the average
thrust force among conventional machines named as PM-Top,
PM-Bottom and has best magnet utilization. In addition, the
proposed machine is subjected to deterministic optimization
based on single variable geometry, followed by average thrust.
The optimized thrust is increase by 4.5% compared to initial
design. Average normal force is 0.0056N in 2D model. The
proposed machine has the advantages of high thrust density,
high power density, high no-load electromotive force, and low
normal force, making it suitable for long-stroke applications.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by COMSATS University Islam-
abad, Abbottabad Campus and Higher Education Commission
of Pakistan (N o.T DF − 03 − 067/R&D/HEC/2019).
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