Time Stepping Simulation of Synchronous Reluctance Motors Using Non Linear Reluctance Network Method

This paper provides a non linear reluctance network approach for the computation of the EMF waveforms of synchronous reluctance motors (SynRM) with a massive and a flux barrier rotors. All ferromagnetic parts of the machine are modeled by non linear reluctances in order to take into account the saturation. The model of the motor consists of three parts: the reluctance network of the stator, the reluctance network of the rotor and the reluctance network of the airgap. The originality of the work is the automatic computation of the topology and the reluctance values of the reluctance network which models the airgap for any relative position of the rotor and the stator: thus, the movement of the rotor can be taken into account. Comparison with time stepping finite element results shows a good accordance as for the EMF fundamental and the EMF harmonics of order lower than the slotting ones for any saturation level. For normal saturation level, the reluctance network models compute accurately the slotting harmonics