A Variable Pole Pitch Linear Induction Motor for Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System

Abstract

A variable pole pitch linear induction motor (VPPLIM) is proposed as a new member of the family of electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). With proper designing of the variation of the pole pitch, the VPPLIM could accelerate the aircraft almost uniformly at the condition of the usual ac supply, avoiding the use of large-scale power electronic converters. Special considerations in the design of VPPLIM, such as the structure topology, the variation of the pole pitch, and the winding arrangement are discussed in detail in this paper. The acceleration performance of the VPPLIM fed by a constant-voltage constant-frequency supply is analyzed by means of the quasi-steady-state 2-D magnetic field model and the difference model of mover's dynamics. A two-stage method is proposed to simulate the acceleration performance of the VPPLIM based on a 2-D thrust table of the motor achieved by the finite-element method. The calculated features of the prototype VPPLIM consist well with those expected for EMALS.