Design and development of Switched Reluctance Motor for electric vehicle application

Wide torque-speed range and high reliability are the primary need of the traction motor in electric vehicles. Switched Reluctance machine (SRM) offers numerous advantages such as simple and robust construction, high speed and high durability, low cost, and fault tolerance control capabilities, high reliability as each phase works independently. In view of this, the paper describes the design methodology of 8/6, 7.5 kW, 4000 RPM `Saturated SRM', which allows high energy conversion ratio for the converter. The design step verification of the motor winding inductance at different rotor positions from unaligned to aligned position and static flux-linkage characteristics is carried out. Design verification and performance calculation are carried out using finite element analysis method using Ansys Maxwell Software. Flux distribution is managed efficiently to minimize losses. The mechanical design of motor is done considering the stresses and forces exerted on the motor structure, which involved the drive arrangement used. In order to make the design process more efficient Ansys Simplorer software is used to analyze the performance verification of motor for converter control system. The same design procedure was carried out to design another low voltage 3.5 kW SRM. The paper presents the comparison of proposed machines with the Induction motors of the same outer geometrical dimensions.