Hybrid flux-switching linear machine with fault-tolerant capability

Safety critical applications such as in naval and aerospace industries demand electrical drives with fault-tolerant capabilities. A novel hybrid flux-switching linear machine capable of operating reliably under short-circuit faults is proposed in this paper. The proposed topology has a yokeless translator and two stator modules. Alnico magnets along with DC windings are used to provide the field excitation. It has been shown that by controlling the current through the DC field windings, magnet flux can also be controlled. Under a short-circuit fault in one of the windings, it is seen that by turning the magnet off, the fault current is reduced to 50% of its original value. Also, the phase windings of the proposed machine have high self inductance and low mutual inductances thereby, achieving good phase isolation for fault-tolerance.