Fuzzy logic control of electrodynamic levitation devices coupled to dynamic finite volume method analysis

Abstract

Electrodynamic levitation devices, which utilizing eddy currents induced in the levitated item to produce the repulsive force, are being involved in many engineering applications due to its fast response. This kind of repulsion is particularly used in electromagnetic launcher, electromagnetic brake and other applications. To analyze and improve the dynamic behavior and performances of such devices, the conventional way is using the finite element method (FEM), due to its ability of using adaptive mesh to handle complex geometries. Nevertheless, it has a serious limitation in efficiency for large number of variables which is reflected by the high cost in terms of computational properties. During the past few years, the finite volume method FVM formulations have gained attention inside the electromagnetic community. The method has been proved its effectiveness in the solution of different kinds of problems, such as in magnetostatic field computation and eddy current nondestructive testing. The FVM method is particularly attractive thanks to its small required storage memory and reduced CPU time. In this paper an FVM model is developed to analyze the dynamic characteristic of the motion of the electrodynamic levitation device TEAM Workshop Problem 28. The dynamic characteristic of the motion is obtained by solving the electromagnetic equation coupled to the mechanical one. The repulsive force applied to the levitated plate of TEAM Workshop Problem 28, is computed by the interaction between eddy current induced in the plate and the magnetic flux density. A comparison between experimental and numerical results is carried out to show the efficiency of the developed model. What’s more, based on the developed FVM model, a fuzzy logic controller FLC is designed and implemented to control the position of the levitated item.