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A robust numerical method for drawing the fluid flux-barrier geometry in the inner and outer rotor radial flux synchronous reluctance machines based on the finite difference method

Ali Jamali Fard (Electrical Machines and Transformer Research Laboratory (EMTRL), Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran and Department of Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran)
Mojtaba Mirsalim (Electrical Machines and Transformer Research Laboratory (EMTRL), Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran; Department of Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran and Engineering Department, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, USA)

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering

ISSN: 0332-1649

Article publication date: 30 September 2022

Issue publication date: 20 January 2023

120

Abstract

Purpose

Rotor shape optimization is crucial in designing synchronous reluctance machines (SynRMs) because the machine performance is directly proportional to the rotor’s magnetic saliency ratio. The rotor geometry in synchronous reluctance machines is complex, and many geometrical parameters must be optimized. When fluid flux-barrier geometry is desirable, using analytic equations to prepare the rotor geometry for finite element analysis could be tedious. This paper aims to provide a robust numerical procedure to draw the fluid flux-barrier geometry in transversally laminated radial flux inner and outer rotor SynRMs by directly solving the magnetic vector potential equation using the finite difference method..

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the goal is to have a robust procedure for drawing the rotor geometry for an arbitrary number of slots (Ns), poles (p) and flux-barrier layers (Nfb). Therefore, this paper targeted several combinations to investigate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The MATLAB software is used to implement the proposed algorithm. The ANSYS Maxwell software is used for counterpart finite element simulation to check the correctness of the results derived by the proposed method.

Findings

Several inner and outer rotor SynRMs considering a different number of poles and a different number of flux-barrier layers per pole are studied to investigate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Results corresponding to each case are presented, and it is shown that the method is robust, flexible and fast enough, which could be used for the generation of the rotor geometry for the finite element analysis effectively.

Originality/value

The value of the proposed algorithm is its simplicity and straightforwardness in its implementation for the preparation of the rotor geometry with the desired fluid flux-barrier layer curvature resolution suitable for the finite element analysis. The procedure presented in this paper is based on the ideal magnetic loading concept, and in future works, a similar idea could be used for linear and axial flux SynRMs.

Keywords

Citation

Jamali Fard, A. and Mirsalim, M. (2023), "A robust numerical method for drawing the fluid flux-barrier geometry in the inner and outer rotor radial flux synchronous reluctance machines based on the finite difference method", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 565-584. https://doi.org/10.1108/COMPEL-03-2022-0123

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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