Professional Documents
Culture Documents
5, MAY 2015
1381
I. I NTRODUCTION
OMOPOLAR motors and generators have been investigated since their invention in the early 1800s. Much
of the work throughout the past few decades has been on
large-scale motors for pulse power applications, the generation
of high currents, energy storage mechanisms, and high-power
propulsion drives [1][14]. Many successful designs have
utilized single- and multiturn coils to produce the magnetic
field necessary for motor excitation, with more complicated
superconducting coil designs being the focus of [12][14].
Homopolar machines may be able to reach new performance
levels as large-scale devices and as compact dc electric
motors or generators with modern high-strength permanent
magnets. The efficiency and optimum design parameters of
homopolar machines have not been fully investigated in
Manuscript received October 12, 2014; revised December 30, 2014;
accepted February 17, 2015. Date of publication March 13, 2015; date of
current version May 6, 2015.
T. G. Engel is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA (e-mail:
engelt@missouri.edu).
E. A. Kontras was with the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA. He is now
with Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, Kansas, MO 64131
USA (e-mail: ekontras@kcp.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2015.2405531
(1)
(2)
Current flows through the conducting disk of Fig. 1 producing a resistive voltage drop. The disks resistive voltage drop
is found by integrating over the disk material as
r1
I
dr
Vd =
r0 2r h
I
r1
=
ln
(3)
2t
r0
0093-3813 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1382
(6)
(4)
(5)
Vs = Vr + Vc + Vd + VL + Vb
(8)
ENGEL AND KONTRAS: MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF HOMOPOLAR MOTORS AND GENERATORS
Fig. 5.
1383
Fig. 6. Schematic showing PSpice model to calculate all the rotor motion
variables.
Fig. 3.
Schematic showing PSpice model to calculate opposing circuit
voltages.
Fig. 7.
Fig. 4.
forces.
1384
Fig. 9. Magnetic flux density between magnets in a C-shaped flux concentrator as a function of radial position.
(9)
ENGEL AND KONTRAS: MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF HOMOPOLAR MOTORS AND GENERATORS
1385
TABLE I
M ODEL PARAMETERS FOR H OMOPOLAR M OTOR
Fig. 12. Effect of rotor mass on efficiency as predicted by the PSpice model.
V. S ENSITIVITY A NALYSIS
With the accuracy of the simulation now verified within
reasonable limits, a sensitivity analysis was performed. The
sensitivity analysis is used to optimize a homopolar motor
for efficiency based on the trends observed in the simulation. The results given in the following are taken from
the simulation with the homopolar motor parameters listed
in Table I.
A. DC Circuit Resistance
Static resistance is critical since its value determines the
Lorentz driving force and Joule heating effects. Increasing the
static resistance causes a decrease in efficiency to near-zero
levels. Decreasing the static resistance causes the motor to
reach its peak efficiency. This limit occurs when the static
resistance equals the effective load resistance. With a larger
static resistance, more energy is lost due to Joule heating. The
thermal resistance voltage drop will subsequently increase and
account for a larger portion of the opposing voltages. It is easy
to observe that a low static resistance is preferable.
B. Magnetic Field Strength
Maintaining a high flux density will increase motor performance. The efficiency over the range from 0.1 to 10 T was
analyzed using PSpice, and the results are shown in Fig. 11
where the efficiency is 1/1000 on the y-axis. There is a steady
increase in efficiency with increasing magnetic field strength,
1386
R EFERENCES
[1] R. J. Thome, W. Creedon, M. Reed, E. Bowles, and K. Schaubel,
Homopolar motor technology development, in Proc. IEEE Power Eng.
Soc. Summer Meeting, vol. 1. Jul. 2002, pp. 260264.
[2] C. Bianchini, F. Immovilli, A. Bellini, E. Lorenzani, C. Concari, and
M. Scolari, Homopolar generators: An overview, in Proc. IEEE Energy
Convers. Congr. Expo., Sep. 2011, pp. 15231527.
[3] M. D. Driga, S. A. Nasar, H. G. Rylander, W. F. Weldon, and
H. Woodson, Fundamental limitations and topological considerations
for fast discharge homopolar machines, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., vol. 3,
no. 4, pp. 209215, Dec. 1975.
[4] I. R. McNab, Homopolar generators for electric guns, IEEE Trans.
Magn., vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 461467, Jan. 1997.
[5] J. H. Price, J. H. Gully, and M. D. Driga, The high voltage homopolar generator, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 16901694,
Nov. 1986.
[6] C. Persad, D. Peterson, and R. C. Zowarka, Composite solid armature
consolidation by pulse power processing: A novel homopolar generator
application in EML technology, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 25, no. 1,
pp. 429432, Jan. 1989.
[7] J. H. Gully, D. J. Hildenbrand, and W. F. Weldon, Balcones homopolar generator power supply, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 25, no. 1,
pp. 210218, Jan. 1989.
[8] J. H. Gully, E. Estes, W. A. Walls, and W. F. Weldon, Compact
homopolar generator developed at CEM-UT, IEEE Trans. Magn.,
vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 203206, Mar. 1984.
[9] R. L. Sledge, G. W. Brunson, W. A. Walls, M. D. Werst, and
W. F. Weldon, Energy transfer from a homopolar generator to a
single turn coil toroidal field magnet, in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Plasma
Sci. (IPI), p. 166. May 1990.
[10] A. Mitcham, D. H. Prothero, and J. C. Brooks, The self-excited
homopolar generator. I. Theory and electrical design, IEEE Trans.
Magn., vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 362368, Jan. 1989.
[11] R. J. Hayes and R. C. Zowarka, Jr., Experimental results from
CEM-UTs single shot 9 MJ railgun, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 27, no. 1,
pp. 3338, Jan. 1991.
[12] D. J. Waltman and M. J. Superczynski, Jr., High-temperature superconducting magnet motor demonstration, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.,
vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 35323535, Dec. 1995.
[13] B. Aliyevsky, B. A. Bazarnov, A. M. Oktyabrsky, N. N. Popov,
A. G. Sherstuk, and D. P. Shopen, Superconductor homopolar machines
with liquid-metal contacts, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 28, no. 1,
pp. 287290, Jan. 1992.
[14] D. W. Hazelton et al., HTS coils for the Navys superconducting
homopolar motor/generator, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., vol. 7,
no. 2, pp. 664667, Jun. 1997.
[15] R. W. Chabay and B. A. Sherwood, Matter and Interactions: Electric
and Magnetic Interactions, vol. 2. New York, NY, USA: Wiley, 2010.
[16] D. Brown and E. P. Hamilton, III, Electromechanical Energy Conversion.
New York, NY, USA: Macmillan, 1984.
[17] J. A. Guala-Valverde and P. Mazzoni, The unipolar Faraday generator
revisited, Galilean Electrodyn., vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 107108, 1993.
[18] K&J Magnetics, Inc., Pipersville, PA, USA. [Online]. Available:
http://www.kjmagnetics.com/
[19] D. Meeker. [Online]. Available: http://www.femm.info/wiki/HomePage
[20] J. Guala-Valverde, P. Mazzoni, and R. Achilles, The homopolar motor:
A true relativistic engine, M.S. thesis, Dept. R&D, Confluencia Tech
Univ., Neuqun, Argentina, 2002.
[21] J. Guala-Valverde and P. Mazzoni, The unipolar dynamotor: A genuine
relational engine, Apeiron, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 4152, 2001.
[22] T. G. Engel, J. M. Neri, and M. J. Veracka, Characterization
of the velocity skin effect in the surface layer of a railgun
sliding contact, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 44, no. 7, pp. 18371844,
Jul. 2008.
[23] T. G. Engel, J. M. Neri, and M. J. Veracka, The maximum
theoretical efficiency of constant inductance gradient electromagnetic
launchers, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 608614,
Apr. 2009.