Inductance prediction in a switched reluctance motor by means of a magnetic equivalent method

Torque is proportional to the rate of change of inductance in a switched reluctance motor (SRM), and hence, phase inductance is an important parameter in determining the behavior of an SRM. Therefore, the accurate prediction of inductance with respect to rotor position makes a significant contribution to designing an SRM and its analytical approach is not straightforward due to nonlinear flux distribution. Although several different approaches using a finite element analysis (FEA) or curve-fitting tool have been employed to compute phase inductance [2-5], they are not suitable for a simple design procedure because the FEA necessitates a large amount of time in both modeling and solving with complexity for every motor design, and the curve-fitting requires the data of flux linkage from either an experimental test or an FEA simulation. In this paper, phase inductance is predicted by means of a permeance method, and the proposed approach is analytically verified in terms of the accuracy of estimated inductance compared to inductance obtained by FEA.