Based on a research conducted by the Civil Aviation Organization, by the year 2050 the emissions of aviation are expected to be 7 to 10 times higher than the levels in the beginning of the century. This will result in the emissions of CO2 from the aviation industry alone, to be h
...
Based on a research conducted by the Civil Aviation Organization, by the year 2050 the emissions of aviation are expected to be 7 to 10 times higher than the levels in the beginning of the century. This will result in the emissions of CO2 from the aviation industry alone, to be higher than what the entire transportation industry is allowed for, according to the Paris Agreement. While the High Speed Rail industry has partially helped to suppress these emissions, it cannot really compete with aviation in speed or costs. And so, now more than ever, it is important to start thinking about alternative transportation modes, which will not only reduce the carbon emissions but will also be able to compete with aviationin terms of safety, comfort, speed and cost. A viable alternative, on which scientists and engineers have worked on since the beginning of the 20th century is Hyperloop. This system comes with a dramatically lower energy consumption compared to airplanes and even high speed trains. Furthermore, the Hyperloop system has shown capability to reach speeds which are comparable to, or even higher than those of airplanes. And so, this thesis work investigates the application of a primary segmented permanent magnet linear synchronous motor as a driving source in a high speed transportation system. The motor considered has a short primary and long secondary (mover), with the primary being the static part hence resulting in an active guideway transportation system. The segmentation of the primary, into several stator blocks, results in discontinuities of the electromagnetic circuit of the motor which gives rise to acceleration and thrust losses in the form of dips. These irregularities will also lead to high jerking motions which result in a very uncomfortable travelling experience and may also lead to mechanical stresses and breakdowns in the system. Here, a preactivation strategy is proposed, which will be incorporated in the control domain of the inverter units and will suppress the distortions occurring in the acceleration and thrust characteristics. The uniqueness of this proposal lays on the fact that no complex control strategies are involved in the solution, the approach is very practical and can be easily incorporated in the control system. The work carried out and presented in this thesis report includes the design of an algorithm used to describe the magnetic interaction between the primary and secondary and a predictive algorithm used to generate an inverter activation command signal which will be responsible for the preactivation of any inverter unit. Moreover, considerations and implications related to the particular solution are also given. The strategy proposed results in significant improvement of the behavior of the motor system during propulsion, accompanied by the reduction of the dips in the acceleration and thrust profiles.Furthermore, an extensive thermal analysis has also been carried out with regards to the thermal developments in the power modules installed in each inverter unit that will be supplying each stator block. Considering the fact that the duty cycle of these inverter units is rather short, the aim of this part of the research is to prove whether underrated power modules can be used in this application. Referring to the obtained results it can be concluded that such a strategy can be applied provided that several technical requirements are satisfied. The successful implementation of such strategy has the potential to lead to substantial financial benefits in terms of product costs.