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Thrust ripple and density greatly impact the performance of the linear machine and other linear actuators, causing positioning control precision, dynamic performance, and efficiency issues. Generalized pole-pair combinations are difficult to satisfy both the thrust and ripple for double salient reluctance linear machines. In this paper, a DC-Biased vernier reluctance linear machine (DCB-VRLM) is proposed to solve the abovementioned issues. The key to the proposed design is to reduce the ripple and enhance the thrust density with non-uniform teeth by utilizing and optimizing the modulated flux in the air gap. To effectively verify the proposed design, the DCB-VRLMs with different winding pole pairs and secondary poles are compared. The 12-slot/10-pole combination is chosen to adopt a non-uniform air gap structure. Moreover, the energy distribution of AC/DC winding is studied and optimized to further enhance the performance of the proposed DCB-VRLM. The results indicate that the DCB-VRLM with the non-uniform air gap has a lower thrust ripple, better overload capability, and higher thrust density, which confirms its superiority in long-stroke linear rail transit and vertical elevator applications.

This paper presents a characteristics analysis and performance comparison of high-speed two-phase 4/2 and hybrid single-phase 4/4 switched reluctance motors (SRMs). Although the motors are advantageous as high-speed drives, both conventional structures have high torque ripple as a result of the presence of the torque dead zone. In this paper, solutions to the torque dead zone problem for each motor are discussed. For the 4/2 SRM, a wide-rotor stepper-type is adopted, while for the 4/4 SRM, the structure is changed to a hybrid by adding permanent magnets (PMs). Both motors have a non-uniform air gap to modify their inductance profile, which leads to the elimination of the torque dead zone. A finite-element method was used to analyze the characteristics of each motor. Then, the manufactured motors were tested through experiments, and lastly, their performance was compared.