Sensitivity-Based Design and Optimization of Line Start Synchronous Reluctance Motor

Abstract

Energy resources are decreasing in the world and the use of electrical machines is increasing. Motor design and development studies are carried out to reduce the losses and increase the efficiency of motors, which are widely used especially in industry. In this study, Line Start Synchronous Reluctance Motor (LS-SynRM) was designed by taking an induction motor, one of the most widely used motors in the industrial field, as a reference. With its rotor cage structure feature, it can be line-start without the need of a driver. The rotor has a lot of design variables due to slots and barriers. Sensitivity analysis was used to determine the effect of design variables on performance criteria such as power factor, efficiency and torque ripple. Subsequently, Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) optimization was used to find the values of the design variables that bring the motor performance closer to the optimum result. The results of the reference induction motor, initial LS-SynRM, and the optimized LS-SynRM are compared. It has been taken care to preserve the synchronization feature of the LS-SynRM and the related results are given in the analyses. It is shown that the optimized motor is in IE4 efficiency class and operates with low torque ripple.