ELECTROMAGNETIC DESIGN AND FEM ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL DUAL-AIR-GAP RELUCTANCE MACHINE

The electro-magnetic torque production in the reluctance machine is highly influenced by the magnetic linkages in the air-gap area. The conventional machines derive the drawback of reduction in the air-gap area to a minimal due to influence of mechanical unbalancing thereby restricting the effective energy conversion area. In order to increase the magnetic linkage area the dual-air-gap structure is introduced. The dual-air-gap structure is realised through the division of the magnetic circuit area into two-air-gap while still maintaining the net air-gap length value. A double-rotor with single-stator structure is used to attribute the above concept. The electro-magnetic analysis of such a structure is developed and investigated through numerical analysis. In order to validate the proposed structure the electro-magnetic characteristics are compared with that of the conventional structure at similar operating conditions. The maximum torque generated by the selected dual-air-gap structure is 1.7549 Nm and for conventional structure is 1.2723 Nm. The evaluation of the proposed machine is done at the same operating conditions and it is found that the dual-air-gap structure exhibit 65% increase in average torque value in comparison with that of the conventional single-air-gap structure.