UNIT III

SWITCHED RELUCTANCE MOTOR

3.1 CONSTRUCTION

 The Switched Reluctance Motor is a doubly salient, singly excited motor. Which means
that it has salient poles on both the rotor and the stator, but only one member carries
winding (ie) stator winding.
 The rotor has no windings (or) magnets but it is built up from a stack of salient pole
laminations.
 Basically two important parts are Stator & Rotor.
 The Stator has a laminated construction made up of stampings.
 The stampings are slotted on its inner periphery to carry the winding called as stator
winding.
 The laminated construction keeps eddy current losses to minimum. The stampings are
made up of material like silicon steel which minimizes the hysteresis losses.
 The stator winding are concentrated and it is wound for certain definite number of poles.
 The rotor is also made up of stack of laminations with projecting poles.
 Due to rotor shape, the air gap between the stator and rotor is not uniform and no DC
supply is given to the rotor.
 The rotor is free to rotate. Because of non-uniformity in the air gap, the reluctance also
varies in the air gap.
 The stator and rotor are designed in such a manner that the variation of the inductance of
the winding is sinusoidal with respect to the rotor position sensed by the rotor position
encoder.
 The constructional details are shown in the fig 3.1
3.2 Switched Reluctance Motor

Stator Poles
Stator Winding

Rotor Poles

Rotor Shaft

Stator Outer Frame

Fig 3.1

3.1.1 Working Principle

 When the stator windings are excited by the unidirectional supply system, the magnetic
field will be produced by the opposite stator pole pair in the air gap
 The rotor starts rotating through an angle and the rotor position in sensed by the rotor
position encoder .
 If an iron piece is placed in a magnetic field, it aligns itself in a minimum reluctance
position and gets locked magnetically.
 Similarly in the SRM, the rotor tries to align itself with the axis of magnetic field in the
minimum reluctance position.
 The other phases of the stator windings are excited sequentially by the unidirectional
current by synchronism with the rotor position. So that the rotor starts rotating
continuously by sequential excitation of the stator pole pairs by producing unidirectional
torque.
 Special Electrical Machines 3.3

 The torque which is exerted on the rotor is called as reluctance Torque

Advantages

1. No DC supply is necessary for rotor.

2. Constant speed characteristics.
3. Robust construction.
4. Less maintenance.

Limitations

1. Less efficiency.
2. Poor power factor
3. Need of very low inertia rotor.
4. Less capacity to drive the loads.

Applications

 Signaling Devices, Control Apparatus.

 Automatic regulators, Recording Instruments.
 Digital Clocks, Tele-printers, Gramophones, etc.,

3.2 Difference between SRM & Stepper Motor

1. The conduction angle for phase current is controlled & synchronized with the rotor
position usually by means of a shaft position sensor. In this respect the SRM is exactly
like the PM brushless DC motor. But the stepper motor which is usually fed with a
square wave of phase current without rotor position feed back.
3.4 Switched Reluctance Motor

2. The SRM is designed for efficient power conversion at high speeds comparable with
those of PMBLDC motor. Where as the stepper motor is usually designed as a torque
motor with limited speed Range.
3. SRM requires a rotor position sensor where as it is not need in the VR Stepper Motor
4. SRM is designed for continuous rotation where as VR stepper motor is designed to
rotate in steps.
Advantages of SRM
1. The rotor is simple and requires relatively few manufacturing steps, which tends to
have a low inertia.
2. The stator is simple to wind, the end turns are short & Robust and have no phase
crossovers.
3. In most applications the bulk of the losses appear on the stator, which is relatively easy
to cool.
4. Because there are no magnets the maximum permissible Rotor temperature may be
higher than in PM motors.
5. The torque is independent of the polarity of phase current, for certain applications this
permits a reduction in the number of semiconductor switches needed in the
controller.
6. Under fault conditions, the open circuit voltage & short circuit current are zero (or)
very small.
7. The most converter circuits used with SRM are immune from shoot through faults.
8. Starting torque can be very high, without the problem of excessive inrush current.
9. Extremely high speeds are possible.
10. The speed / Torque characteristics can be ‘tailored’ to the application requirement
more easily than the I.M (or) PM motor.
11. There is no magnetic flux fixed value, so the maximum speed at constant power is not
restricted by controller voltage as in PM motors.

Disadvantages of SRM
1. Absence of free PM excitation imposes the burden of excitation on the stator windings
and the controller.
2. Increase in per unit copper loss and limits the efficiency and torque per ampere.
3. The pulsed or non-uniform torque production which leads to torque ripple and may
contribute to acoustic noise.
 Special Electrical Machines 3.5

4. It is very difficult (or) impossible to maintain very low torque ripple level over a wide
speed Range.
5. Acoustic noise is very severe in large machines where ultrasonic chopping frequencies
are not possible.
6. The noise level is sensitive to the size, mechanical construction and precession of
firing angles.
7. As the torque ripple is larger , larger filter capacitance is required. This will cause
significant Ac line harmonics in the systems operating from rectified Ac source.
8. The SRM typically requires more turns of thinner wire than the A.C motors wound for
the same voltage.
9. For small drives with wide speed range, the SRM requires lower minimum duty cycle
with high chopping frequency. So special high frequency pulse techniques and very
fast power switches and diodes are necessary, which increase the cost.
10. The SRM cannot start (or) run from an ac voltage source and it is not normally
possible to operate more than one motor from one inverter.
11. Cabling for SRM is typically more complex than for I.M Drives, a minimum of four
wires and usually six are required for a three phase motor in addition to the sensor
cabling.

3.3 Poles, phases and windings

The basic rules constraining the choice of pole numbers, pole arcs and phase number
are discussed. The relationship between speed & fundamental switching frequency follows
from the fact that if the poles are wound oppositely in pairs to form the phases, then each
phase produces a pulse of torque on each passing rotor pole, the fundamental switching
frequency in one phase is given as
speed in r. p.m
f1  nN r   Nr ( Hz )
60
When n = Speed in r.p.s.
Nr= number of rotor poles.

If there are ‘m’ phases, then there will be mN r steps per revolution and the step angle (or)
store (  ) is
360 2
 (or ) radians
mN r mN r
The number of stator poles usually exceeds the number of rotor poles.
3.6 Switched Reluctance Motor

The pole arcs are determined by the essential torque production mechanism, which is the
tendency of the poles to align.
When the stator phase is excited, then there must be overlap between a pair of rotor poles and
the stator pole which is excited. During this process sufficient torque should be produced
through an angle . Which is smaller than the stator and rotor pole arcs.
Obviously  must not be smaller than the step angle (  ). Otherwise there will be ‘gaps’ where
no torque is produced, thus  >  .
In order to get the largest possible variation of phase inductance with rotor position, the inter-
polar arc of rotor must exceed the stator pole arc. This leads to the condition.
2
 r  s
Nr
This ensures, during unaligned position, there will be no overlap and therefore a very low
inductance. The unaligned position is defined as the conjunction of any rotor inter-polar axis
with the axis of the stator poles of the phase excited.
The stator pole arc is made slightly smaller than the rotor pole arc. This permits slight increase
in the slot area, the copper winding cross section and aligned/unaligned inductance ratio.
Consider three phase motor with different vertices A,B,& C. In design C is likely to have too
high unaligned inductance and too little winding area. In design B has more copper area but
still the unaligned inductance will be high because of fringing. Design A has a large winding
area and high inductance ratio. Which leads to high efficiency & power density but its torque
ripple is higher than the other design.

Design A Design B
 Special Electrical Machines 3.7

Design C

3.4 Static Torque Production of SRM

Consider the primitive Reluctance motor as shown below.

 

i

Wf

W1

When current is passed through the phase winding of the stator, the rotor tends to align with
the stator poles, ie it produces a torque that tends to move the rotor to a minimum reluctance
position.
In such a case, the most general expression for the instantaneous torque is
 W 1 
T   i = constant Where w1 = co-energy of the magnetic field
  
3.8 Switched Reluctance Motor
i

The Co-energy is defined as W   di

1

 w f 
An equivalent expression is T     = constant
  

Where w f is the stored field energy and it is defined as


w f    i d
0

When evaluating the partial derivates it is necessary to keep the indicated variables constant.
If the differentiation is done analytically, then w f must first be expressed as a function of flux
or flux linkage and rotor position only with current i is absent from the expression. Similarly
w1 must first expressed as a function of current and rotor position only with flux (or) flux
linkage absent from the expression.
If magnetic saturation is negligible, then the relationship between flux linkage & current at the
instantaneous rotor position  is a straight line whose slope is the instantaneous inductance L.
Thus

  Li
1 2
 w1  w f  Li
2

1 dL
 T  i2 ( Nm)
2 d
If there is magnetic saturation this formula is invalid and the torque should be derived as the
derivative of co-energy (or) field energy.
A though saturation plays an important role in determining the characteristics and
performance limits of SRM, most of the basic control characteristics can be understood from
an analysis of the magnetically linear motor. Considering only one phase in isolation. Mutual
coupling between phases is ignored in this analysis.
As the rotor, rotates, the inductance L varies between two extreme values. The maximum L a
occurs when the rotor and stator poles are aligned. The minimum inductance L u occurs when
a rotor inter-polar axis is aligned with the stator poles.
If the rotor and stator pole arcs are different then there will be a small “dwell” at maximum
inductance. Similarly if the inter-polar arc of the rotor exceeds the stator pole arc then there
will be a small “dwell” at minimum inductance.
 Special Electrical Machines 3.9

If the steel is assumed to be infinitely permeable and fringing is neglected, then the inductance
can be estimated roughly as
 0 r1l 
L( )  2 N p2 Pg  Lu  2 N p2  Lu
g

Where  is the overlap angle between the rotor and stator poles. The  and  are related by
the following expression throughout the rising inductance interval as

     x where  x     y
2   r  s 
where x   
Nr  2 

2   r  s 
y   
Nr  2 

L()

a u a u
0 x y 

The Torque is independent of the direction of the current. Its direction depends only on sign of
dL . When the rotor poles are approaching the aligned position, this is positive Torque.
d
When the rotor poles are leaving the aligned position and approaching the unaligned position,
this is negative (or) braking Torque. The ideal motoring current waveform is a rectangular
pulse that coincides with the rising inductance. Similarly the ideal braking current must be
switched ON & OFF in synchronism with the rotor position.
3.10 Switched Reluctance Motor

Motoring Torque

Braking Torque

To produce torque at all rotor positions the entire 360 0 must be “covered” by segments of
rising inductance from different phase as shown in the figure 3.2 and the phase currents must
be commutated and sequenced to coincide with the appropriate segments as shown.

i1 i2 i3 i4

Fig 3.2

“Commutation under lap” is permissible only for speeds high enough so that the rotor inertia
can maintain rotation through the torque notches. Any under lap at zero speed may result in
failure to start if the rotor position happens to fall between the turn off angle of one phase and
the turn ON angle of the next.

3.5 Convert circuit:

The torque is independent of the direction of the phase current, which can therefore be
unidirectional. This permits the use of uni-polar controller circuits with a number of
advantages over the corresponding circuits for AC (or) PMBLDC which requires alternating
current. Although the SR motor could be operated with alternating current, unidirectional
current has the added advantage of reducing hysteresis losses.
Figure 3.3 shows a CKT well suited for use with transistors. The phases are
independent and in this respect the SR controller differs from the A.C Inverters, in which the
motor windings are connected between the mid points of adjacent inverter phase legs. The
windings are in series with both switches, providing valuable protection against faults. In Ac
 Special Electrical Machines 3.11

Inverters the upper and lower phase legs switches must be prevented from switching on
simultaneously and shorting the D.C supply, this is possible only by means of additional
control circuitry, which is unnecessary in the SR controller.
The upper and lower phase legs switches are switched on together at the start of each
conduction period (or) working stroke. At the commutation point, they are both switched off.
During the conduction period either or both of them may be chopped according to some
control strategy such as maintaining the current with in a prescribed “hysteresis band”. This
mode of operation is necessary at low speeds when the self Emf of the motor is much smaller
than the supply voltage. At high speeds both transistors remain ON throughout the conduction
period and the current waveform looks ‘natural’ shape depending on the speed and Torque. It
is convenient in the logic design to use ON the transistor primarily for ‘commutation’ and the
other for regulation (or) chopping. At the end of the conduction period when both switches are
turned off, any stored magnetic energy that has not been converted to mechanical work is
returned to the supply by the current free wheeling through the diodes.

C
1 2 3

Figure 3.3

The figure 3.3 can be profitably reduced to the circuit figure 3.4, in which the
chopping is performed by one transistor in common to all the phases. The lower transistors
commutate the chopped voltage to the phases in proper sequence under the control of the shaft
position sensor and gating logic. This circuit requires only (n+1) transistors and (n+1) diodes
for a motor with ‘n’ phases. This makes the motor to run smoothly at low speeds. Its main
limitation is that at very high speeds the phases can’t be ‘de-fluxed’ (or) de-energised fast
enough through the diodes, because the control transistor keeps switching on with a long duty
3.12 Switched Reluctance Motor

cycle. As the chopping duty cycle and the speed increases further, net Torque decreases
rapidly and the losses increase.

C
1 2 3

0
Figure 3.4
Many other circuits have been developed in attempts to reduce the number of switches all the
way down to ‘n’ and take full advantage of uni-polar operation. The split-link circuit in
figure 3.5 has been successfully used with GTO thyristors in a range of highly efficient drives
from 4-80 KW. When the device count is reduced to one per phase, there is a penalty in the
form of extra passive components (or) control limitations.

C1
1 3

2 4

C2

0
 Special Electrical Machines 3.13

Figure 3.5
In the circuit of Figure 3.6 which has bifilar winding, suffers from double the number of
connections, a poor utilisation of copper and voltage spikes due to imperfect coupling between
the bifilar windings.

1 2 3

Figure 3.6
In the figure 3.7, the device count is reduced to (n+1) device with the stored energy from the
dump capacitor C back to supply via the step down chopper circuit. The mean capacitor
voltage is maintained well above the supply to permit rapid defluxing after commutation. A
control failure in the energy recovery CKT would result in the rapid build up of change on the
dump capacitor and if protective measures were not taken, the entire converter could fail from
over voltages.

1 2 3

0
Figure3.7
3.14 Switched Reluctance Motor

3.6 Speed / Torque Characteristics

The Generic form of the Torque - speed capability curve is shown in the figure 3.8.
For speeds below wb, the torque is limited by the motor current (or) controller current. Up to
the base speed wb, it is possible by means of the regulator to get any value of current into the
motor up to the maximum. The precise value of current at a given operating point depends on
the load characteristics, the speed and the control strategy. In the speed range below wb, the
firing angle can be chosen to optimize efficiency (or) minimize torque ripple.
The corner point (or) base speed wb is the highest speed at which maximum current
can be supplied at rated voltage with fixed firing angle. If these angles are still kept fixed, the
maximum torque at rated voltage decreases with speed squared (above point p) in the curve.
However, if the conduction angle is increased, there is a considerable speed range over
which maximum current can still be forced into the motor and this decreases the Torque level
in order to maintain a constant power characteristics even though core losses and windage
losses increases quite rapidly with speed. This is shown between the points B and P. The angle
D is the dwell (or) conduction angle of the main switching devices in each phase. Generally
constant power is maintained up to 2-3 times base speed.
The increase in conduction angle may be limited by the need to avoid continuous
conduction, which occurs when the conduction angle exceeds half the rotor pole pitch. It may
be limited to lower values by the core loss (or) other factors. At p, the increase in D is halted
and higher speeds can now only be achieved with the natural curve (ie) torque decreasing with
speed squared.

chopping D increasing D Fixed

T (Nm) Current Constant Natural
Limit Power
(ii) B
T = constant
(i)

Max D
T = constant
P
T2 = constant

Speed 
 Special Electrical Machines 3.15

Fig 3.8
At very low speeds, the torque speed curve may deviate from the flat Torque
characteristics. If the chopping frequency is limited (or) current band width of the regulator is
limited, then it may be difficult to limit the peak current without the help of self Emf of the
motor. So the current reference may have to be reduced. This is shown is curve (i).

On the other hand, the very low windage (or) core losses may permit the copper losses
to be increased, so that with higher current, higher torque is obtained as shown is curve(ii).
Under the intermittent conditions, very much higher torque can be obtained in any part of the
speed range up to base speed.

Figure 3.9 given below is the speed - Torque curve of a small motor designed to
compare with the PM motor. The constant torque curve is maintained up to point B which is
limited by motor current. At speeds above the base speed the natural curve is shown at rated
voltage with torque decreasing roughly as speed squared. The natural characteristics for
different fixed values of the chopping duty cycle d as shown, which has the same effect as
varying the DC supply. With the chopper saturated at d = 1, the applied voltage remains at its
rated value and as the speed is increased, the maximum torque is decreased by advancing the
turn ON angle with fixed commutation angle. The decrease in the torque is mainly due to the
fact that more of the current is being conducted when the rotor is in a position of Low dL d
and also due to core loss.
3.16 Switched Reluctance Motor

T = constant
chopping current
T (Nm) B
C
Angle control
T = constant

d = 1.0 Fixed angles

d = 0.2 d = 0.4 d = 0.6 d = 0.8 T2 = constant

Speed 

Fig 3.9

3.7 Energy conversion loop of SRM

The average torque can be estimated from the “energy conversion loop” which is the
locus described on the flux linkage / current diagram by the point whose co-ordinates are
(i, ) during each step (or) working stroke.
 Special Electrical Machines 3.17

Intermediate position
 Aligned

Unaligned

Current limit

Fig 3.10
Rectangular current pulses can be realized at low speeds if the phase is switched ON at
the unaligned position and Off at the aligned position and the current is maintained constant
by some external means such as P.W.M regulator (or) a large external reactor. There is also a
natural speed at which the current waveform is flat-topped, this speed and the corresponding
current are related by the equation.

dL
V - Ri  i _____ (1)
d
The above equation is valid only if saturation is negligible.
The electromagnetic energy that is available to be converted into mechanical work is equal to
the area W. In one revolution each phase conducts as many strokes as there are rotor poles, so
that there are mNr strokes (or) steps per revolution. The average torque is therefore given by

number of strokes per revolution

Average Torque  work per stroke 
2
mN r
Tav  W   Nm  _____ (2)
2
The Average electromagnetic power converted is

Pe   Ta _____ (3)
3.18 Switched Reluctance Motor

Where  is the speed in rad/sec.

The area W shown in figure 3.10 represents the maximum energy available for energy
conversion with the flux linkage limited to the value shown. The Torque per ampere will be
maximized if the area is maximized. It required the following.
i. The largest possible unsaturated aligned inductance, implying a small airgap with
wide poles.
ii. The smallest possible unaligned inductance, implying a large inter-polar arc on the
rotor, narrow stator poles and deep slotting on both stator and the rotor.
iii. The highest possible saturation flux density.

To achieve the above objectives in the single SRM it is impossible. The main reason is the
SRM is usually applied as a high speed machines with a wide range of variable speed and
therefore the current wave form is almost never a pure rectangle wave. The current wave form
may vary from the one shown in figure 3..12 at low speeds to the one shown in figure 3.13 at
high speeds.

I
C
i

Figure 3.12 Figure3.13

At low speeds the current is forced to have an approximately rectangular shape by

chopping (or) P.W.M in the controller. At high speeds there is no chopping and the current
wave form takes up a natural shape determined by the speed, turn ON and turn OFF angles,
the applied voltage and the rate of change of inductance.
If the vertical line represents the maximum permissible current which is swept from
left to right, the area W initially increases with the square of the current, but as saturation sets
in it becomes nearly linear. The torque per ampere thus becomes more nearly constant as the
current increases. The rough estimate of the maximum torque is nearly constant as the current
increases. The rough estimate of the maximum attainable torque per unit rotor volume can be
derived from an idealized triangular area and it is given as
 Special Electrical Machines 3.19

T N r BS2 (  1)m  g
 Nm / m 3
V 2  2  0 r1

Where Bs – Flux density

 - Inductance ratio
 - Pole arc
g - air gap length
Nr - No of rotor poles

m - No of phases

3.8 Current Regulation & Commutation control of SRM

For motoring operation, the pulses of phase current must coincide with a period of
increasing inductance. The timing & dwell of the current pulse determine the torque,
efficiency and other parameters. Generally simple control scheme is used for SRM. But more
complex controls are required for high power driver where a wide speed range is required at
constant power and microprocessor have been developed and used effectively.

Phase
current

Rotor angle

Fig 3.14 Current waveform

3.20 Switched Reluctance Motor

iref 2, 3

1
_

Figure 3.15

Regulating the current has a marked effect on the performance and the operating
characteristics. Figure 3.15 shows schematically the method of control called hysteresis type
of current control method that maintains a more (or) less constant current throughout the
conduction period in each phase.
As the current reference increases, the torque increases. At low currents, the torque is
roughly proportional to current squared, but at higher currents it become more nearly linear.
At very high currents of saturation, the torque per ampere decreases. This type of control
produces a constant- torque type of characteristics as shown in figure 3.16.
 Special Electrical Machines 3.21

T
Figure 3.16

With some loads whose torque increases monotonically with speed such as fans,
blowers. The hysteresis type current regulator may require current transducers of wide
bandwidth, but the SRM has the advantage that they can be grounded at one end with the
other connected to the negative terminal of the lower phase leg switch. Shunts (or) hall effects
sensors can be used (or) Sensefets with in built current sensing can be used.

Another regulator using fixed frequency PWM of the voltage with variable duty cycle
is shown in figures 3.17
3.22 Switched Reluctance Motor

2, 3

+
Vref
Monostable
1
_

Figure 3.17

The current waveform is shown in the figure 3.18 below such that after commutation, the
current decays through the diodes some what more rapidly because the reverse voltage applied
is effectively 1 d times the forward voltage applied before commutation. Where d = duty
cycle. The duty cycle of the PWM can be varied by a simple mono-stable circuit. This form of
control is similar to armature voltage control in a DC motor.

Phase
current

Rotor Angle
 Special Electrical Machines 3.23

Fig 3.18 Current Waveform

Current feedback can be added to the circuit to provide a signal which when subtracted
from the voltage reference modulates the duty cycle of the P.W.M and compounds the torque
speed characteristics. It is possible in this way to achieve under compounding over
compounding (or) flat compounding just as in Dc motor with a wound field.

When the PWM duty cycle reaches 100 percent, the motor speed can be increased by
increasing the dwell (or) conduction angle. When the conduction angle reaches the maximum
practical values, after which the torque becomes inversely proportional to speed squared but
they can typically double the speed range at constant torque. The speed range over which
constant power can be maintained is also quite wide and very high maximum speed can be
obtained.

3.9 Microprocessor Based control of SRM

For wide range of speed control we need microprocessor to perform the operation of
SRM. Smoothly & accurately by properly interfacing the SRM with the microprocessor. The
main purpose of microprocessor is to produce proper pulse signals with proper timing in order
to switch the semi conductor device to excite the phases of SRM. The closed loop control of
SRM with microprocessor is shown in the figure 3.19
3.24 Switched Reluctance Motor

Power supply

Programmed Pulse generating Converter Circuit

Microprocessor circuit

Current
Controller
SRM

Position Sensor

Speed controller TG

Fig 3.19
The rotor position of SRM is sensed by any of the position sensors (or) shaft encoders.
The speed of the SRM is sensed by the speed sensors such as tacho-generator. It has got a
inner current control loop which maintains the motor current with in the prescribed limit.
Control signal for the microprocessor is given from the SRM motor through the control
cables. The speed of the SRM motor is taken by the Tacho-generator and given to the speed
controller and then to the programmed microprocessor. The position of SRM is sensed by
shaft encoder (or) Hall effect sensor and this signal is also given to the microprocessor. Apart
from this signal, the current signals is also sensed by the current sensing device and then
through the current controller to the microprocessor.
The microprocessor will process all these control signal through the main program and it
will set the accurate value for the duty cycle to operate the SRM. The signal from the
microprocessor to the pulse generating circuit will generate proper current pulse with proper
timings and conduction angle through the power converter circuit to the SRM. So that the
SRM will operate safely with good accurate control and performance for wide range of speed
control.
 Special Electrical Machines 3.25

PROBLEMS

1. What is the step angle of a 3 pahse Switched Reluctance Motor having 12 slots in
the stator and 8 rotor poles. What is the commutation frequency in each phase at
speed of 6000 rpm.
Jan 2005
Given data:

Number of stator slots, Ns = 12

Number of rotor slots, Nr = 8
Number of phases, q = 3
To find
i. Commutation frequency (or) fundamental switching frequency (F) in Hz.
ii. Step angle 

Solution
i. Commutation frequency = n Nr
= 100 x 8
F = 800 Hz

ii. Step angle

2

qN r

2
  0.2618 radians
3 8
1800
  0.2618   150

3.26 Switched Reluctance Motor

2. What is the step angle of a five phase switched reluctance motor having 10 slots
(poles) in the stator and 4 rotor poles? What is the commutation frequency in each
phase at a speed of 6000 rpm?
April/May 20003
Jan 2005
Jan 2006
Given data:

Number of stator slots, Ns = 10

Number of rotor slots, Nr = 4
Number of phases, q = 5
Speed, n = 6000 rpm
6000
n  100 rps
60
To find

i. Commutation frequency (F) in Hz

ii. Step angle 

Solution
i. Commutation frequency F = n Nr
= 100 x 4
F = 400 Hz
2
ii. Step angle  
qN r

2
  0.314 radians
5 4
1800
  0.314   1800

 Special Electrical Machines 3.27

3. A switched reluctance motor with 6 stator poles and 4 rotor poles has a stator pole
arc of 300 and a rotor pole arc of 320. The aligned inductance is 10.7 mH and the
unaligned inductance is 1.5 mH. Saturation can be neglected. Calculate the
instantaneous torque when the rotor is 30 0 before the aligned position and the
phase current is 7A. Neglect Fringing.
April / May 2005
Jan 2006
Given data
Number of stator slots, Ns = 6
Number of rotor slots, Nr = 4
Stator pole arc, s = 300
Rotor pole arc, r = 320
The aligned inductance, La = 10.7 mH
The unaligned inductance, Lu = 1.5 mH
Number of phases, q = 5
To find
i. The instantaneous torque (Te) in N-m
Solution
1 dL
Te  i 2
2 d
dL = La – Lu = 10.7 – 1.5
dL = 9.2 mH
2
d =    0.5235
qN r

Ns  Nr
  360
Ns Nr


 300   0.5235
1800
Another way,
2  r   s
x  
Nr 2
3.28 Switched Reluctance Motor

2 r  s
y  
Nr 2

d = y - x
1 9.2 103
Te  i 2
2 0.5235

Te = 0.4305 N-m

4. In the above problem, what is the maximum energy conversion in one stroke if the
current is limited to 7,0 amps? Determine the average torque corresponding to this
energy?

Given data
q = 3 ; i = 7 amps,; Nr = 4
To find
i. Maximum energy conversion in one stroke (step angle) in watts.
ii. Average torque corresponding to this energy in N-m
Solution
1
i. Maximum energy conversion W  Leq i 2
2
Leq = La – Lu = (10.7 – 1.5) x 10-3
Leq = 9.2 mH
1
W   9.2 103  7 2
2
W = 0.225 Joules
ii. Average Torque
W q Nr
T
2
0.225  3  4

2
T = 0.43 N-m
 Special Electrical Machines 3.29

5. In the motor of problem 3, what is the flux linkage in the aligned position when
phase current is 7.0 amps. If this flux linkage can be maintained constant while the
rotor rotates from the unaligned position to the aligned at low speed, determine the
energy conversion per stroke and the average torque.
Given data
i = 7 amps
To find
i. Energy conversion per stroke and
ii. Average torque
Solution
Flux linkage is constant at aligned position
[La = 10.7 mH, Lu = 1.5 mH]
ie   La i

= 10.7 x 7
 = 74.9 mVs

 
ia 
La
, iu 
Lu
   L i

74.9 74.9
ia  , iu 
10.7 1.5
ia = 7 amps, iu = 49.9 amps
i. Energy conversion per stroke
1
W    iu  ia 
2
1
  74.9  49.9  7  103
2
W = 1.6 Joule
W q Nr
ii. Average Torque, Tave 
2
1.6  3  4

2
Tave = 3.07 N-m