Study on Analysis and Design of Line-Start Synchronous Reluctance Motor Considering Rotor Slot Opening and Bridges

According to International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 60034-1, in industrial applications not only efficiency but also power factors are important performance indexes. When comparing line motor to induction motor (IM), a line-start synchronous reluctance motor (LS-SynRM) has a high efficiency but a low power factor than that of IM. In this article, the analysis and design of LS-SynRM are carried out considering the rotor slot opening and bridges for improving the efficiency and power factor. The reference machine is selected with a 2.2 kW IM, and the performance of the reference model is analyzed based on finite element analysis (FEA). To analyze the effect of rotor slot opening and bridges, an optimal model of LS-SynRM is designed through a two-step design process. First, the design of rotor slot for synchronization is carried out, and second, the design of barriers using the response surface method (RSM) is carried out under the same conditions of the stator size of IM. Based on the basic model, the performances of LS-SynRM are analyzed according to the slot opening and bridges. Furthermore, the parametric analysis is carried out and the final model is designed considering the efficiency and power factor based on the design parameters. Finally, the final model is manufactured, and the experiment is carried out to verify the FEA result.