Figure 4 shows the design parameters of the magnets and coils. There are six independent parameters, five dependent parameters, and three pre-defined parameters, which are the dimensions of the magnets and coils. Descriptions of each parameter and the relationships between them are shown in
Table 2, along with Equations (1)–(5).
Using design parameter analysis, the effect of the dependent design parameters on the important indices was inspected. The generated force, the mass of the mover, and the ohmic loss were observed when the height of the magnet, the ratio of the magnet length, the width of a coil bundle, the height of the coil, the current, and the diameter of the coil all varied from their nominal values. To calculate the indices, the number of coil turns and the electric resistance were obtained using Equations (6) and (7), respectively.
ρe is the electric resistivity of the coil wire.
For the maglev planar motor, the thrust and levitation forces are the most important factors. Since the magnetic flux density has a harmonic form, the thrust and levitation forces of the equations can be approximated to first-order harmonic terms [
9,
15]. The amplitude of the force is represented by the product of the current and the force constant,
kfx and
kfz, as shown in Equations (8) and (9).
If we use three coil windings to create the constant force of a 3-phase coil set, the current can be provided as a harmonic function, while the resultant thrust and levitation forces are as shown in Equations (10) and (11). The magnitude of the generated force of a 3-phase coil can be defined as shown in Equation (12), where
ic is the amplitude and ϕ is the phase of the provided current required to control the magnitude and the ratio of the thrust and levitation forces.
Then, the ohmic loss of (13) can be obtained from (7), (10), and (11). The mass is given by (14).
M0 is the mass of the coarse stage mover, excluding the coils.
To compare the indices, the values were normalized by the nominal performance values obtained from the nominal values of the design parameters.
Table 3 shows the nominal values and the variation in the design parameters.
Figure 5 shows the tendency and sensitivity of the indices to the design parameters.
Figure 5a shows that the force is saturated to a certain level when the height of the magnet array increases. The magnitude of the force with an
hm of 20 mm is about 99.2% of the magnitude of the force with an
hm of 45 mm. The magnetic flux density also shows similar behavior when the height of a magnet increases [
15]. From
Figure 5a, the design parameter
hm was fixed to 20 mm for the later optimization process, because magnets that are larger than 20 mm barely increase the force and also make manufacturing and assembly difficult.
Figure 5b shows that the Halbach magnet array is more advantageous than the normal magnet array corresponding to a ratio of 1.
Figure 5b also shows that there is an optimal ratio which can be used to determine the size of the Halbach magnet array. Thus, the design variable
α, which determines the sizes of the magnets, should be determined in the design process and handled well in the manufacturing process. From
Figure 5c–f, it was found that there is a trade-off between heat generation and force generation. If the width and height of the coil winding are increased, the Lorentz force and electric resistance are also increased. An increase in force is desirable, but the accompanying increase in heat generation is unfavorable. The generated force and heat also increase simultaneously when the electric current increases. This phenomenon clearly shows that force is proportional to the current and that heat is proportional to the square of the current.
Figure 5f shows that heat generation is very sensitive to variations in the coil diameter below the value of about 0.8 mm.
Figure 5c,d show that mass is relatively insensitive to the design parameters, since the portion of the coil is small compared to the main body of the coarse stage mover. The mass is changed by less than 5% or so when the design parameters related to the coil winding vary. However, the other performance indices show a trade-off, and the optimal performance and the optimal design parameters should be determined through an optimization process. The graphs in
Figure 5c,d,f are not smooth because the number of coil turns does not vary continuously with respect to the coil’s width, height, and diameter. Thus, the design parameters
wc,
hc, and
d are handled in a discretized manner through the optimization process.