Design and Development of Switched Reluctance Motor Towards Minimizing Torque Ripples and Acoustic Noise

Abstract

Recently, the use of switched reluctance motors (SRMs) has considerably increased due to technological developments of systems and devices requiring more control. More so, peculiar features of SRMs such as robustness, reliability, low cost construction makes it ideal for applications in ventilation systems, pumps and systems that require high speed. However, SRMs have the problem of torque ripples and high acoustic noise from design and development stage. The torque ripples experienced by the SRM ensues as the rotor tries to align itself to an excited phase on the stator. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to design and develop a 3 phase, 6/4 switched reluctance motor in order to reduce the issues of torque ripple and acoustic noise. Finite element analysis software (Ansys-Maxwell) was used to carry out the nonlinear electromagnetic transient analysis of the motor while the control topology used was simulated using the MATLAB software. The design stages involved suitable assumptions which were made for the stator design, winding design and rotor design. The results from the analysis and performance of the motor have been presented in the work. The magnetic field plot of the developed motor does not present saturation effect on any part.