Magnetic Field Analysis and Dynamic Characteristic Prediction of AC Permanent-Magnet Contactor

This paper reports a thorough investigation into the magnetic field of an ac permanent-magnet contactor and its control principles. Such contactors offer many advantages over conventional electromagnetic contactors in terms of energy saving and reliability. The simulation model, which couples the interaction of the magnet, circuit, and motion, is synthesized using MATLAB software. In order to speed up the simulation process, the model computes the nonlinear relationships of displacement, flux linkage, and current separately, using the finite-element method. We report simulation results for various phase angles of current flowing in the full bridge rectifier at full voltage. We have validated the calculated static force and the dynamic simulation experimentally.