Rotor Losses in a Switched Reluctance Motor - Analysis and Reduction Methods

¹ Institute of Electrical Measurement and Measurement Signal Processing, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
² Institute of Sensor and Actuator Systems, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

^a e-mail: bernhard.schweighofer@tugraz.at

Abstract

Due to the increasing hybridization and electrification of vehicles, flywheel energy storage devices are an important area of research. In automotive application besides the weight criteria, some additionally constrains, such as size, efficiency and especially cost have to be fulfilled. Therefore typically a compact design, in which the rotor of the needed electrical machine simultaneously acts as storage mass is chosen. Since the machine is running in vacuum and the rotor can dissipate its heat only by means of thermal radiation or through the bearings if conventional bearings are used, the rotor losses play a vital role. In this work the rotor losses of a switched reluctance machine are analyzed in detail and a method to reduce the rotor losses is proposed.