Modeling and analysis of bearingless switched reluctance motor equipped with specialized stator winding

Abstract

Conventional switched reluctance motor undergoes extensive vibration and undesirable acoustic noise caused by the production of significant amount of radial force. The reason behind this is the non-uniformity in air-gap of the motor which can be controlled in order to make it more efficient. A viable solution to pacify this problem is the introduction of bearingless technology with a special winding scheme called bridge configured winding in switched reluctance motor. Various designs of winding have been introduced by researchers to produce radial force which can be utilized in order to make the motor bearingless. This paper presents the incorporation of a single set winding called bridge configured winding in a 12/8 switched reluctance motor capable of producing both torque and controllable radial force, which can be used for bearingless operation of the motor. An analytical model of a 12/8 switched reluctance motor equipped with bridge configured winding is developed considering the effects of magnetic saturation of the motor. A mathematical model is obtained by solving the magnetic equivalent circuit of the proposed design. Also a finite element model of the design is developed in ANSOFT Maxwell 2D in order to verify the developed analytical model.