Pv powered linear motor controlled piston type water pump

This thesis presents a unique technique to control a photovoltaic (pv) powered piston type water pump. This method uses a linear motor with a control circuit and is mounted directly onto the piston rod of the pump.; The linear motor method replaces the traditional piston type water pump which employs a dc motor with a bulky gear mechanism to convert the rotational motion of the motor to linear motion for the piston.; The electric circuit used to control the linear motor employs a four quadrant chopper which uses four fast MOSFETs and a simple logic circuit for the switching.; A setup of the pv-powered linear motor piston type water pump was built at the university. The system worked for two months without any major problems.; The experimental results show that the linear motor system is more efficient than the dc motor-gear system. As a result, the linear motor system needed less pv panels for the same output, making the system presented cost effective because of the high expense of the panels.; The performance of the linear motor water-pump system is presented and analyzed.