Performance improvement and comparison of concentrated winding segmental rotor and double stator switched reluctance machines

Abstract

Switched reluctance machine (SRM) is well known for its simple and robust design as well as its good high speed performance. On the other hand, its shortcomings are the moderate power/torque density, high torque ripple and high acoustic noise. Having one of the simplest mechanical designs, these machines have potential for a significant improvement. Accordingly, segmental rotor and double stator SRM (DSSRM), which also has a segmental rotor shared by two stators, are designed to improve the performance of SRM. Both of these machines have full pitch or concentrated windings topologies. Among these, concentrated winding topology is highly preferable due to reduced amount of copper and modular winding design. However, this requires a careful magnetic design optimization. This study introduces new magnetic design aspects for segmental rotor SRMs. Consequently, the advantages of DSSRM structure in terms of energy conversion efficiency and torque/power density are addressed in detail.