Restricting the design space of multiple-barrier rotors of synchronous reluctance machines
ISSN: 0332-1649
Article publication date: 4 September 2017
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose a numerical methodology to reduce the number of computations required to optimally design the rotors of synchronous reluctance machines (SynRMs) with multiple barriers.
Design/methodology/approach
Two objectives, average torque and torque ripple, have been simulated for thousands of SynRM models using 2D finite element analysis. Different rotor topologies (i.e. number of flux barriers) were statistically analyzed to find their respective design correlation for high average torque solutions. From this information, optimal geometrical constraints were then found to restrict the design space of multiple-barrier rotors.
Findings
Statistical analysis of two considered SynRM case studies demonstrated a design similarity between the different number of flux barriers. Upon setting the optimal geometrical constraints, it was observed that the design space of multiple-barrier rotors reduced by more than 56 per cent for both models.
Originality/value
Using the proposed methodology, optimal geometrical constraints of a multiple-barrier SynRM rotor can be found to restrict its corresponding design space. This approach can handle the curse of dimensionality when the number of geometric parameters increases. Also, it can potentially reduce the number of initial samples required prior to a multi-objective optimization.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The research was funded partially by the Automotive Partnership Canada program of the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Citation
Mohammadi, M.H., Rahman, T. and Lowther, D. (2017), "Restricting the design space of multiple-barrier rotors of synchronous reluctance machines", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 36 No. 5, pp. 1338-1350. https://doi.org/10.1108/COMPEL-02-2017-0109
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited