Improvement on Thrust Control for Start-Up and Piston Motion of Free-Piston Linear Generator

Free-piston linear generators (FPLGs) without a crank mechanism are promising to be used in hybrid vehicles due to their unique operation characteristics. However, the FPLG currently still faces challenges in the start-up and piston control. In this article, the start-up and operation process of FPLG are analyzed deeply and the improved thrust control strategies for the linear electric machine are presented accordingly. First, the mechanism that the vibration center shifts under the general constant thrust resonance starting method is revealed, considering the asymmetric potential energy caused by nonlinear compression spring effect in the combustion chamber. Then, a compensation thrust iteratively adjusted by the vibration offset is added to stabilize the swing center during start-up. Next, the coupling effect between the dead centers under single-stroke independent thrust control method is analyzed by modeling the piston motion from the aspect of energy flow. Accordingly, an improved thrust control method for coupling suppression is presented to enhance the accuracy and robustness of piston motion. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is verified by controlling a permanent-magnet linear synchronous machine in experiments and simulations.