Large switched reluctance machines: a 1 MW case study

The inherent simplicity, low cost, fault tolerance and safety of the switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive have made it an attractive candidate for replacing many adjustable speed AC and DC drives in aerospace, manufacturing and home appliances. Despite these advantages, the suitability of SRM drive for large power applications such as ship propulsion or other heavy duty traction applications has not yet been properly explored. This paper reports the design philosophy for a large power SRM drive. Salient prospects for design and performance prediction of a high voltage/high power SRM have been addressed. These include magnetic design of the machine, performance prediction, calculation of losses, vibration and acoustic noise, temperature distribution and converter related issues. Design of a 1 MW/2 kV SRM drive has been presented in this paper. Results of this study show that SRM drive is a reasonably good candidate for high power applications while offering much simpler manufacturing and control.