Design and Analysis of a New Fault-Tolerant Linear Permanent-Magnet Motor for Maglev Transportation Applications

This paper proposes a new fault-tolerant linear permanent-magnet (PM) motor, termed as fault-tolerant primary PM (FT-PPM) motor. The proposed motor offers high power density, high efficiency, high fault tolerance and low cost, suitable for maglev transportation applications. Both PMs and windings are set at the steering device of the train, while the only iron stator is fixed between two rails along the whole line. Meanwhile, the new motor topology incorporates the concept of fault-tolerant teeth (FTT) to provide the desired decoupling among phases. The electromagnetic performances are analyzed such as field distributions, inductances, back-EMFs and thrust force. Moreover, by adopting assistant mover teeth, two methods are proposed to reduce the end-effect. Furthermore, the short-circuit current is analytically derived and predicted. The finite-element analysis (FEA) and transient co-simulated results are given for verification.