Design of a Single-Phase DC-Excited Flux Switching Machine for Home Appliance with Improved Starting Toque

Flux switching machine (FSM) is a motor class which becomes popular in recent years. Among various FSM topologies, the single-phase DC-excited flux switching machine (DCFSM), which the PMs are replaced with field winding, has potential in low cost and high speed application such as home appliances. However, like the single-phase BLDC and SRM, the single-phase DCFSM suffers from low or null starting torque at some rotor positions which limits the applications of the single-phase DCFSM. In this paper, a single-phase 8-slot, 4-pole DCFSM is designed and a novel rotor structure which uses reluctance torque produced by field current is proposed to improve starting torque. The performance of the proposed single-phase DCFSM is analyzed with FEA software and the results are presented. The results show that the motor is able to deliver approximately 61% to 114% of the rated output torque, depending on the stop position, when starting.