MODELING, ANALYSIS, AND CONTROL OF A RADIAL ELECTRODYNAMIC WHEEL VEHICLE AND ANALYSIS OF AN AXIAL ELECTRODYNAMIC WHEEL

1 online resource (346 pages) : PDF

2019

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Maglev, the concept of using magnetic forces to levitate a vehicle above a guideway for frictionless motion, has received renewed interest as of late due to several high profile projects, including the proposed next-generation transit system Hyperloop, and imaginative gadgets such as the Lexus Slide and Hendo Hoverboard, both of which allow the user to levitate off of a surface using magnetic fields. One emerging technology, the Electrodynamic Wheel (EDW) offers the integration of lift, thrust, and braking which can all be generated from a single device. This is accomplished by rotating a magnetic rotor above a passive conductive surface (typically referred to as the "track"). The time-varying field intercepting the track induces eddy currents in the conductive material, causing the track to generate its own magnetic fields which interact with the rotor’s field. Depending on the motion of the rotor, this can generate the aforementioned lift, thrust, and/or braking forces.This dissertation focuses on applying a computationally efficient analytic solution for calculating the forces from an EDW to build and simulate multi-EDW vehicle models. The force model allows for the quick calculation of each EDW’s stiffness and damping coefficients. These terms are analyzed from a vehicle dynamics perspective by identifying which values carry the potential to destabilize the system, and how various motions of the vehicle could drive these terms towards increasing instability. The terms are then used to develop a 4 degrees of freedom (DOF) model of a 4-rotor/EDW prototype vehicle that has also been replicated experimentally. Using reasonable assumptions about the vehicle’s run-time parameters, the differential equations are simplified and decoupled into a simple state-space system. Various controls are applied to the 4-DOF system, emphasizing that the analytical force model’s stiffness and damping terms have now greatly reduced the complexity required to control and EDW vehicle system, and the rapid re-calculation time of these terms even allows the controller’s estimation of the system to be updated at run-time. An alternate topology of rotor called an axial EDW is also explored using finite element models, an analytic model, and an experimental prototype.

doctoral dissertations

Electrical engineering
Electromagnetism

Ph.D.

Controls
Electrodynamic
Levitation
Maglev
Magnetic
Modeling

Electrical Engineering

Kakad, Yogendra

Bird, Jonathan
Kamalasadan, Sukumar
Vermillion, Christopher

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2019.

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Wright_uncc_0694D_12067

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2355