Ultracapacitor energy storage system for material handling applications based on short primary linear induction drives

Short primary linear drives on passive track are advantageous in material handling applications, where high precision, long track and a closed path are required. This paper presents a linear induction motor (LIM) drive with short primary (moving windings), in which a contactless energy transmission provides the basic power and an ultracapacitor (UC) storage system provides the peak power. The system uses a bidirectional DC-DC converter between the ultracapacitor bank and the DC-link, to make sure that the ultracapacitor can store the braking energy and supply the peak power demanded by the active vehicle. A control strategy has been developed for controlling the ultracapacitor to deliver the peak of power, to charge, to protect against overvoltage and to recover the energy generated when the vehicle is braking. Experimental results of the short primary linear induction motor and the bidirectional DC-DC converter are presented, and the control strategy is discussed.

[1]  Jennifer Bauman,et al.  A Comparative Study of Fuel-Cell–Battery, Fuel-Cell–Ultracapacitor, and Fuel-Cell–Battery–Ultracapacitor Vehicles , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.

[2]  R.A. Dougal,et al.  Power enhancement of an actively controlled battery/ultracapacitor hybrid , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[3]  A. von Jouanne,et al.  Assessment of ride-through alternatives for adjustable speed drives , 1998, Conference Record of 1998 IEEE Industry Applications Conference. Thirty-Third IAS Annual Meeting (Cat. No.98CH36242).

[4]  M. Mihalachi,et al.  Long primary linear drive for material handling , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems.

[5]  P. Mutschler,et al.  Linear drives for material handling and processing: A comparison of system architectures , 2008, 2008 34th Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics.

[6]  R. Leidhold,et al.  Speed sensorless control of a long-stator linear synchronous-motor arranged by multiple sections , 2005, 31st Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, 2005. IECON 2005..

[7]  Peter Knaup A method to optimize the size of the transformer core for magnetic power transfer to linear moving devices , 1998 .

[8]  Ion Boldea,et al.  Linear Motion Electromagnetic Devices , 1997 .

[9]  Robert D. Lorenz,et al.  Analysis of competing topologies of linear induction machines for high speed material transport systems , 1993 .