The multi‐slice method for the design of a tubular linear motor with a skewed reaction rail

Abstract

Purpose

A fundamental disadvantage of three‐dimensional finite element (FE) simulations is high computational cost when compared to two‐dimensional models. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to minimize the computation time by achieving the same simulation accuracy.

Design/methodology/approach

The applied approach for avoiding high computational cost is the multi‐slice method. This paper presents the adoption of this method to a tubular linear motor.

Findings

It is demonstrated that the multi‐slice method is applicable for tubular linear motors. Furthermore, the number of slices and thereby computation time is minimized at the same accuracy of the simulation results.

Practical implications

The results of this paper offer a faster computation of skewed linear motors. At this juncture, the results are independent from the deployed FE solver.

Originality/value

The methods developed and proved permit a faster and more accurate design of tubular linear motors.

Citation

Schmülling, B., Leßmann, M., Riemer, B. and Hameyer, K. (2010), "The multi‐slice method for the design of a tubular linear motor with a skewed reaction rail", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 1184-1194. https://doi.org/10.1108/03321641011061407