Comparative Study of Classical and Mutually Coupled Switched Reluctance Motors Using Multiphysics Finite-Element Modeling

This paper presents the numerical modeling of a classical switched reluctance motor (SRM) and a mutually coupled SRM (MCSRM); both have three phases with 12 slots and 8 poles. The multiphysics models have been developed, which can take into account the electromagnetic characteristics, mechanical vibration, and acoustic noise of the foregoing machines. A 2-D electromagnetic model has been used to calculate the magnetic force which is the main source of vibration of the entire motor system. The vibration of the motor is calculated by a mode superposition method, while the acoustic noise is predicted by a 3-D finite-element acoustic model. In order to validate the numerical models, experiments have been carried out. A good agreement between measured and numerical results has been observed, and it is found that the vibration and the noise levels of MCSRM are considerably lower than those of classical SRM.