Establishing the Relative Merits of Synchronous Reluctance and PM-Assisted Technology Through Systematic Design Optimization

This paper describes a systematic method for optimally designing with multiple objectives and differential evolution (DE) algorithms, current regulated electronically controlled synchronous reluctance (SynRel) machines. A large-scale study with thousands of designs calculated with a ultrafast computationally efficient electromagnetic finite-element analysis (CE-FEA) establishes the performance limitations of conventional radially laminated technology with multiple flux barriers. The potential advantages of employing permanent-magnet (PM)-assisted technology with additional ferrites in the rotor are quantified in terms of substantially improved power factor, specific power, and efficiency. Numerical and experimental results for a 10-hp, 1800-r/min typical rating are included.