Effects of windows in stator and rotor poles of switched reluctance motors in reducing noise and vibration

High vibration and acoustic noise are known to be the most dominant disadvantages for utilizing SRMs in Hybrid electric vehicles or home appliance applications. One of the methods for mitigating these disadvantages is to introduce windows in the SRM structure to reduce the magnitude of the radial force responsible for stator deformation. Previous studies are focused on introducing windows in the rotor. This paper investigates the effectiveness of introducing windows in the stator or rotor laminations of SRMs. An optimization process was first done based on finite element electromagnetic analysis to determine the best windowing design for both stator and rotor. Afterwards, mechanical structural analysis was conducted to compare the vibration and acoustic noise performance of the two methods with the conventional SRM.