Design and optimization of an external-rotor switched reluctance motor for an electric scooter

Abstract

In order to reduce the global carbon foot print, the need of the hour is to provide pollution free and economically viable electric vehicles (EVs) as potential alternatives to the conventional ones. Amongst the different traction motors employed in EVs, switched reluctance motors (SRMs) being magnet-free, rugged in construction and fault-tolerant is a potential forerunner for automotive applications in the near future. Therefore, in this work, an external-rotor (ER) SRM has been designed for an electric scooter application. The proposed 4-phase SRM configuration comprises of 8 and 10 poles on the stator and rotor respectively. To achieve a well-balanced design with due consideration to the various performance indicators, a multi-objective design optimization (MOO) has been performed using particle swarm optimization (PSO). The optimization was based on the results obtained from the two-dimensional (2D) electromagnetic static finite element analysis (FEA) which aimed to maximize average torque, efficiency and minimize torque ripple respectively. In comparison to the preliminary design, the optimized ER-SRM demonstrated an increased average torque and decreased copper loss by 3% and 14% respectively. The large scale of simulations performed and the results thereby obtained confirmed that the proposed SRM design met the performance demands of the electric scooter application. The average torque at the rated and the maximum speed exceeded the desired torque requirements demanded by the electric scooter by 13.1% and 42.2% respectively.