2021 24th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS) Oct 31-Nov 3, 2021 | Hybrid, Korea
A Novel Thrust Control Based on Total
Resistance Force Observation for Long Primary
Linear Induction Motor
Haibin Zhu
Key Laboratory of Power Electronics Key Laboratory of Power Electronics
and Electric Drive, Institute of and Electric Drive, Institute of
Electrical Engineering Electrical Engineering
Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing, China
hedera99@163.com limings@mail.iee.ac.cn
Abstract—This paper introduces a novel cylindrical
structure linear motor, which consists with six symmetrical long
primary single-sided linear induction motors (LP-SSLIMs). In
this paper, a mathematical model of segmented LP-SSLIM is
established, which a virtual secondary is introduced. To
improve the LP-SSLIM control performance and reduce the
2021 24th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS) | 978-8-9865-1021-8/21/$31.00 ©202110.23919/ICEMS52562.2021.9634479
influence of the LIM control performance, the paper presents a
novel thrust control strategy based on total resistance force
observation for LP-SSLIM. An extended state observer (ESO)
is introduced into the direct thrust control algorithm to estimate
the time-varying total resistance force. Finally, the effectiveness
of thrust control based on the proposed control strategy of the
segmented LP-SSLIM with multiple inverters has a better
control performance.
Keywords—long primary single-sided linear induction motor,
thrust control, virtual secondary, extended state observer.
I. INTRODUCTION
With the progress of industry ， long primary linear
induction motor has been applied in the occasions requiring
high thrust and high acceleration[1]. It has been widely used
in electromagnetic launch systems, Electromagnetic delivery
and so on[2]. A novel cylindrical structure linear motor is
presented, which is made up three pairs of single-sided linear
induction motor. The six primary cross-sections are curved or
straight. At the same time, the cylindrical linear induction
motor can be other deformations, such as four primary or 8
primary structures, and so on. The secondary of segmented
LP-SSLIM is a cylinder. The outer layer of the cylinder is
aluminum, and the inner layer of the cylinder is attached with
magnetic material, which is shown in Fig.1.
Secondary Primary
Fig.1 Sectional view of LP-SSLIM
As shown in Figure 1, the primary marked in red is a pair,
the primary marked in blue is a pair, and the primary marked
in green is a pair. A pair of SSLIMs run in parallel. The
primary of the LP-SSLIM can be extended and contracted.
This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China
( Y730261Z01).
.
Copyright ⓒ KIEE Electrical Machinery and Energy Conversion Systems
Authorized licensed use limited to: The University of Toronto. Downloaded on October 28,2022 at 08:11:30 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Liming Shi Mingyuan Zhang
Key Laboratory of Power Electronics
and Electric Drive, Institute of
Electrical Engineering
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing, China Beijing, China
myzhang@mail.iee.ac.cn
The linear motor of this structure is suitable for cylindrical
load ejection
The primary is longer than the secondary in long primary
linear induction motor (LP-LIM). In order to improve the
power factor of the drive system and reduce the reactive power
in the process of operation [3], the primary of LP-LIM adopts
a segmented structure with the same length. The schematic
diagram of the novel cylindrical structure linear motor when
it is unfolded, which is shown in Fig.2.
Fig.2 structure diagram of expanded cylindrical linear motor
In the large thrust application situation, segmented LP-
SSLIM fed by multi-inverter is necessary. All primary
segments are connected to the inverters by solid state switches,
the switch states are determined by the current position signal
of secondary. In the case of not many segments, each segment
can also be powered by an independent inverter. When the
secondary moves into the primary segment which are
alternately powered by way of the inverters. The typical
structure of connected the segmented LP-SSLIM system with
multiple inverters is shown in Fig.3.
Inverter1 Inverter2 Inverter3
Primary
Secondary
Fig.3. Structure of segmented LP-SSLIM with multiple inverters
The direct thrust control strategy is more suitable for LP-
SSLIM’s drive system. However, the change of SSLIM of
parameters makes it hardly establish a precise motor
mathematical model and increases stable thrust control
difficulty. In this paper, we first establish the mathematical
model of unit linear motor model through introducing the
virtual secondary. According to the relative position between
primary and secondary in LIM, the model of valid region and
invalid region are set up respectively. The whole
1798
mathematical model of unit linear motor is obtained by inductance, and the mutual inductance are assigned to αn
adding region. times. While, for the invalid region of the nth linear motor,
However, the LIM control system based on conventional there is no secondary coupling part, so its equivalent
predictive control is still a nonlinear system, but the thrust parameters only remain primary resistance and inductance.
control cannot react directly and fast to deal with unknown The primary resistance and the primary inductance of the
resistance force and the time-varying system. This makes it invalid region are assigned to (1-αn) times. In the stationary
difficult to obtain sufficiently high performance for the two-phase stationary coordinate system, the voltage
nonlinear linear motor drive system. The direct thrust control equations and flux equations of valid and invalid regions for
is to obtain quick thrust response ， but external total the segmented linear motor are expressed as follows:
resistance force may affect the stability of thrust[4]. This usn  Rs isn  p sn
paper proposes an improved thrust control method, thrust 
output characteristics can be improved by compensating for urn  Rr irn  p rn  jr rn
total resistance force. The total resistance force is observed urn  0
 (1)
 sn  Ls isn   n Lm irn
by an extended state observer(ESO)[5-6], which is a kind of
disturbance estimation method. The ESO with accurate and  rn  Lm isn  Lr irn
fast observation effect has already been widely used[7-8]. 
The estimated total resistance observed by ESO is as a part of  ron   n rn
thrust feedback, which suppress thrust fluctuations. where usn is the primary voltage vectors of the nth unit motor,
II. METHOD OF TOTAL RESISTANCE FORCE ψsn is the primary flux linkage vectors of the nth unit motor,
OBSERVATION and ψrn is the secondary flux linkage vectors of the nth unit
motor, ψron is an actual secondary flux linkage vector , isn and
A. Model of LP-SSLIM irn are the primary and secondary current vectors, respectively.
The conventional mathematical model of segmented linear The electromagnetic thrust generated by the nth unit motor is
motor considers the linear change of motor parameters with expressed as follow:
coupling factor αn, which leads to infinite secondary current
and inaccuracy of mathematical model of LIM[9]. To  Lm
facilitate the analysis of segmented LP-SSLIM, the Fen   n  rn  isn (2)
parameters of each primary segment are equivalent and the  Lr
end effect of the linear motor is not considered. The magnetic B. Control strategy of segmented LP-SSLIM
saturation effect of LIM is negligible. The secondary of the
cylindrical linear motor is mainly composed of aluminum. The segmented LP-SSLIM is powered by multiple
The permeability of aluminum is relatively close to that of air. inverters, each segmented LP-SSLIM is composed of
Therefore, Therefore, the added virtual secondary part multiple unit motors. It is necessary to study the
basically does not affect the modeling and analysis of the characteristics of unit motors. The secondary flux linkage
linear motor. Therefore, to get the accurate secondary flux, the equation of a unit motor is derived from (1).
secondary is added to the same length as the primary segment  1 Lm
of the motor. A virtual secondary concept is used to extend the  p rn    rn  jr rn  isn
coupling secondary of each the segmented linear motor. The  Tr Tr (3)
   
primary segment is divided into a valid region and an invalid  ron n rn
region, as shown in Fig. 4. Setting that the length of a primary In the synchronous rotating dq coordinate system, the d
segment is L1, and the secondary coupling the primary axis is oriented to secondary flux linkage, (4) is decomposed
segment is Dn. into d-axis and q-axis components as follows.
Valid Invalid 

Tr p rn   rn  Lm isdn
region region Primary

Secondary Virtual  ron   n rn (4)
 i
  m L sqn
Dn 

fn
Tr  rn
L1
nth unit motor
Fig.4 Valid region and invalid region in the primary segment where Tr=Lr/Rr.
Define the coupling factor of the nth primary segment The electric angular speed of the secondary flux linkage
αn=Dn/L1. While Dn is equal to L1, the primary segment and vector is
secondary is full coupling. Under this condition，Rs is the en  r  fn (5)
primary resistance, Rr is the secondary resistance, Lls is the The electromagnetic thrust is
primary leakage inductance, Llr is the secondary leakage
inductance, the mutual inductance is Lm, τ is the pole pitch, L
Fen   nm
 rn isqn (6)
the primary inductance is Ls=Lm+Lls, and the secondary  Lr
inductance is Lr= Lm+Llr, respectively.
Before the secondary enters the next segmented LP-
The parameters of the motor remain unchanged with
SSLIM, energize the segmented motor in advance in order to
changes the secondary position. The valid region of the nth
achieve pre-excitation, and the pre-excitation time is greater
segmented linear motor, the primary resistance, the primary

1799
Authorized licensed use limited to: The University of Toronto. Downloaded on October 28,2022 at 08:11:30 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
than 5 times the electrical time constant of the motor. From acceleration reference and speed reference of the load
(4), assuming the isdn is constant, ψrn can be considered equal propulsion process are designed in advance, as shown in Fig.
to Lmisdn. Equation (6) can be written as 5. Obtain the thrust reference value from this curve.
 L2m
Fen   n i i (7) 2
 Lr sdn sqn 60 Acceleration(m/s )
50
The total electromagnetic thrust and the amplitude of total 40

secondary flux linkage can be written as 30

Speed(m/s)
 L2m 20

Fe  (1   2  ...   n )
Pre-ex
isd isq
 Lr
10 citation
(8) 0
0.0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5

 r  (1   2  ...   n ) Lm isd

-10
Time（s）
-20

Where isd is sum of the d-axis current of LP-SSLIM, isq is

sum of the q-axis current of LP-SSLIM. Fig. 5 The acceleration and speed references.
It can be seen from (8) that when the d-axis current It can be seen from Fig.1 and Fig.2 that the cylindrical
components and the q-axis current components of all unit structure linear motor is divided into three sections, and each
motors are equal to isd and isq respectively, electromagnetic section is composed of two unilateral linear motors running
thrust equation and secondary flux linkage equation of the in parallel.at least 2 inverters are required. In view of the
segmented LP-SSLIM with multiple inverters system are mathematical model of LP-SSLIM established, the control
similar to those of rotating induction motor. When isd is system is constructed. In the direct thrust control algorithm,
constant, the amplitude of secondary flux linkage ψr is the total resistance force in the drive system is considered in
constant, and the electromagnetic thrust can be calculated by order to further improve the stability of output thrust. The
the Q-axis current isq. control block diagram is shown in Fig. 6.
udc
Ψs* u*sd
C. Total Resistance Force Observation based on Extended PI d,q ua
ub SVPWM
F*e u*sq uc
state observer PI a,b,c

According to the equation of motion in the mathematical ωψs PLL

M
modeling of the linear motor, θψs
pv  (Fe  ftotal ) / M Resistance
Ψs Stator flux
Observer
isd
d,q isa
isb


Force and isc
Fe
(9) observer Thrust
estimation
isq a,b,c udc
us
Fe  Mpv  ftotal
v
The total resistance force is observed by an extended state
observer. where M is the sum of load and secondary mass; LP-SSLIM
ftotal is the total resistance force including friction, wind
resistance force, and other unknown resistance force and so Fig. 6 Control diagram of the thrust control based on total resistance force
observation for segmented LP-SSLIM
on. The ESO is constructed as
e  v  ve III. MAGNETIC FIELD AND CIRCUIT SIMULATION
 RESULTS
 1
 pve  ae  1 fal (e, 1 ,  )  Fe (10) In this paper, the six single-sided linear motor stator
 M
segments are divided into three groups, which run in parallel
 pae   2 fal (e,  2 ,  )
in pairs and share a secondary. Two single-sided linear
where v is the secondary movement speed , ve is the motors in each segment are controlled by an inverter. The
estimation of v , ae is the estimation of total resistance force connection type is shown in Fig.1. For comparison, the
control results of direct thrust control and the new thrust
acceleration, p is the differential operator, 1 and  2 are the control based on total resistance force observation are both
observer gains, k1 and k2 are a constant between 0 and 1,  is shown in this section.
a constant that affects the filtering effect. In theory, each single-sided linear motor is completely the
same, so as long as one section of the single-sided linear
 1 i
e /  ; e  magnetic field is simulated. The finite element simulation of
fal (e,  i ,  )    (11) the LP-SSLIM is carried out through Infolytica Magnet
 e sign(e); e  
 i
simulation software. The transient magnetic field distribution
diagrams are shown in Fig.7 and Fig.8.
Fal function is the core unit of ESO. The selection of the TABLE I
parameters of the Fal function largely depends on the PARAMETERS OF PRIMARY PARAMETERS
engineer’s engineering experience. But all follow a principle: Symbol Definition Value
the greater the error, the smaller the gain, and vice versa. The
Dso Primary outer diameter 542mm
Fal function has fast convergence characteristics, so the Fal Dsi Primary inside diameter 402mm
function has become a commonly used nonlinear feedback p Number of poles 24
structure later[10]. In the segmented LP-SSLIM control  Polar distance 207mm
system, the speed error is relatively large while starting, and P Phase 3
the gain coefficient of the FAL function is given according to C Core grade DW470
the change trend of the coupling coefficient (1-αn). The

1800
Authorized licensed use limited to: The University of Toronto. Downloaded on October 28,2022 at 08:11:30 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 The secondary
The primary core The primary winding
Fig.7 Two-dimensional transient magnetic field distribution of the primary
and secondary coupling parts of single-side and single-segment motors
Fig.8 Three-dimensional transient magnetic field distribution of the single-
side and single-segment motors
The magnetic field simulation results show that the LIM
body parameter design is reasonable, the magnetic field is
uniformly distributed, and there is no magnetic saturation.
To verify the correctness of the effectiveness of the thrust
control strategy, the simulation is implemented based on a
segmented LP-SSLIM with multiple inverters. The sampling
period and control period are both 500μs. The position sensor
provides the position signal. The speed is calculated from the
position signal. Pre-excitation is carried out in simulation.
Simulation is implemented in PSIM9.1.4 simulation software.
Fig.8 shows the direct thrust control without ESO
simulation result. The thrust set is 20kN and the real thrust
can follow the reference value, but the thrust still has an bias
about 2kN as shown in Fig.9.
TABLE II
PARAMETERS OF THE SSLIM
Symbol Definition
Rs Primary resistance
Lls Primary leakage inductance
Rr Secondary resistance
Llr Secondary leakage inductance
Lm Mutual inductance
L1 Each segmented LIM length
L2 Secondary length
M Load weight
30
Thrust（kN）
20
10
0 experimental evaluation,” IEEE Transactions on industrial electronics, vol.
Fig.9 Simulated thrust waves in the direct thrust control without ESO
On the basis of direct thrust control, by observing the total
resistance, it is taken into consideration in the thrust control.
Fig.10 shows the direct thrust based on total resistance force
observation simulation result. The thrust set is 20kN and the
Authorized licensed use limited to: The University of Toronto. Downloaded on October 28,2022 at 08:11:30 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
real thrust can follow the reference value, the thrust still has
a small bias.
30
Thrust（kN）
20
10
0
Fig.10 Simulated thrust waves in the direct thrust control with ESO
Simulation result verify the effectiveness of the proposed
control strategy.
IV. CONCLUSION
This paper proposes a novel cylindrical linear induction
motor structure. At the same time, based on the concept of a
virtual secondary, a mathematical model of the single-sided
linear induction motor is established. Based on the accurate
establishment of the unit linear induction motor mathematical
model, which presents the thrust control by introducing total
resistance force observation in parallel connected SSLIM
system. The aim is to maintain the whole thrust and secondary
flux. Compared with traditional direct thrust control, the total
resistance force observation is more complicated in
calculation and has higher requirement to the control chip of
drive system. But the simulation results verified the effective
usage of total resistance force observation to suppress the
thrust fluctuation, and it does have good control performance.
The novel cylindrical linear induction motor structure has a
reasonable structure and strong operability.
REFERENCES
[1] Ruiwu Cao，Yi Jin，Zheng Zhang，Ming Cheng. A New Double-
Sided Linear Flux-Switching Permanent Magnet Motor With Yokeless
Mover for Electromagnetic Launch System [J] IEEE Transactions on
Energy Conversion, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 680-690, 2019.
[2] G. Lv, T. Zhou, D. Zeng and Z. Liu, “Design of Ladder-Slit Secondaries
and Performance Improvement of Linear Induction Motors for Urban Rail
Value Transit,” in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 65, no. 2, pp.
0.02Ω 1187-1195, 2018.
0.0011H [3] T. Onuki, Y. Kamiya, Y. Kurimoto and M. Yoshizawa, “A novel block
0.038Ω feeding method in the single-sided linear induction motor with a short
0.00085H secondary member,” in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 14,
0.00086H no. 4, pp. 1323_1328, 1999.
[4] D. Casadei, F. Profumo, G. Serra, et al. “FOC and DTC: two viable
1000mm
schemes for induction motors torque control,”. Converter Technology &
1000mm Electric Traction, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 779-787, 2004.
150kg [5] T. Geyer, G. Papafotiou, and M. Morari, “Model predictive direct torque
control—Part I: Concept, algorithm, and analysis,” IEEE transactions on
industrial electronics, vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 1894-1905, 2009.
[6] H. Liu and S. Li, “Speed control for PMSM servo system using predictive
functional control and extended state observer,” IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Electronics, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 1171- 1183, 2012.
[7] T. Geyer, G. Papafotiou, and M. Morari, “Model predictive direct torque
control—Part I: Concept, algorithm, and analysis,” IEEE transactions on
industrial electronics, vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 1894-1905, June 2009.
[8] G. Papafotiou, J. Kley, K. G. Papadopoulos, P. Bohren, and M. Morari,
“Model predictive direct torque control—Part II: Implementation and
56, no. 6, pp. 1906-1915, June 2009.
[9] X. Sun, L. Shi, Z. Zhang and H. Zhu, “Thrust Control of a Double-Sided
Linear Induction Motor With Segmented Power Supply,” in IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 66, no. 6, pp. 4891-4900, June
2019.
[10] H. Liu and S. Li, “Speed control for PMSM servo system using
predictive functional control and extended state observer,” IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 1171- 1183,
February 2012.
1801