This project was intended to complete the design, fabrication and testing of a brushless permanent magnet direct current (PMDC) locomotive traction motor. This motor has the potential for higher torque and power capacity than either conventional DC or AC traction motors, and would be ¼ the size and weight of present motors of the same horsepower rating. The PMDC traction motor would have an electronic commutator arrangement that reconfigures the stator windings from series to parallel combinations to reduce the rate at which back-emf increases with speed. This reduces the voltage increase normally required to overcome increased back-emf associated with increasing speed, and thus improves the torque-speed performance. The initial design, analysis, and testing of this motor was performed under a previous contract (HSR-44). The findings of this previous work demonstrated that the concept has potential but problems with the control circuit design were identified. Tasks for this follow-on contract will include the redesign of the control circuits, and the fabrication and bench testing of a prototype motor.
Unfortunately, the principal investigator for the project, Mr. Nick Rivera, died before the work was completed. As a result, the project had to be terminated.
