Performance evaluation of switched reluctance motors with segmental rotors

This paper examines the performance of switched reluctance machines which employ a segmental rotor construction in preference to the usual toothed structure. Two 3 phase designs are considered, one in which the windings span a number of teeth and one in which they spin a single tooth. Two demonstrators have been built - one for each design type, and their performance is compared with both conventional SRMs and rare earth permanent magnet machines. Both static parameter and running test results are presented. It is shown how these machines can operate from a standard SRM converter: there is discussion of general operating experience, ranging from measurement of mean torque, voltage and current controlled operation to general thermal performance.