Comparative analysis of different synchronous reluctance motor topologies

Synchronous reluctance machines become more popular nowadays. Development of power electronics allowed reluctance motors to be used in many drive applications. Due to increased interest in electric vehicles and high prices of PMs, the research on electric drives is mainly focused on reluctance machines. Lack of rotor winding lowers copper losses, simplifies power supply system and increases machine´s robustness. SynRM produces torque due to rotor´s magnetic anisotropy, which is achieved in machines with transversally laminated rotor by introducing flux barriers. The main goal when designing rotor´s flux barriers is to achieve the highest saliency ratio possible. However, since operation of the machine depends on interaction between stator magnetic field and the rotor, both stator and rotor´s topologies should be taken into account when designing the machine. This paper presents a comparison of SynRMs with stators of three different slot numbers and two different rotor´s topologies.