Comparison of the Stator Step Skewed Structures for Cogging Force Reduction of Linear Flux Switching Permanent Magnet Machines

Linear flux switching permanent magnetic (LFSPM) machines, with the armature windings and magnets both on the mover in addition to a robust stator, are a good choice for long stoke applications, however, a large cogging force is also inevitable due to the double salient structure, and will worsen the system performance. Skewing methods are always employed for the rotary machines to reduce the cogging torque, and the rotor step-skewed method is a low-cost approximation of regular skewing. The step skewed method can also be applied to the linear machines, namely, the stator step skewed. In this paper, three stator step skewed structures, which are a three-step skewed stator, a two-step skewed stator and an improved two-step skewed stator, are employed for the cogging force reduction of two types of LFSPM machines. The three structures are analyzed and compared with emphasize on the influence of the skewed displacement on the cogging force and the average thrust force. Based on finite element analysis (FEA), proper skewed displacements are selected according to maximum difference between the reduction ratio of the cogging force and the decrease ratio of the average thrust force, then, the corresponding results are compared, and finally, valuable conclusions are drawn according to the comparison. The comparison presented in this paper will be useful to the cogging force reduction of LFSPM machines in general.