Design and performance analysis of a switched reluctance motor for low duty cycle operation

A design methodology is presented here for a low duty cycle switched reluctance motor. Since winding temperature cannot rise instantly to the steady state value due to the gradual heating of the thermal masses, a low duty cycle motor can withstand higher current density. Since there is a relation between current density and stack length, it is possible to reduce the stack length for intermittently operating motors. A lumped parameter thermal model is used to predict the transient thermal characteristic necessary for the resizing of the motor. Static performance simulation and finite element analysis are presented to validate the proposed method.