Design Procedures and Analysis for Single-Phase Variable Reluctance Motors
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24084/repqj14.273Keywords:
Variable reluctance motors, finite-element method, design procedure, magnetic saturation, inductancesAbstract
Variable reluctance motors have been increasingly used as an alternative for variable speed drives in many industrial applications, due to many advantages like it's construction simplicity, robustness, and low cost. For low power applications, the single-phase variable reluctance motors stands out because the simplicity of the drive contributes to the cost reduction of the machine. This paper presents a design methodology for single-phase variable reluctance motors and a way to survey of ideal profiles of inductance and torque produced by the motor through computational simulation using finite element methods. The simulation is performed for various currents in order to determine the maximum motor operating current through the analysis from the saturation of magnetic materials. In addition, an analysis is made on the influence and importance of rotor and stator polar arcs in the design of reluctance motors based on its driving system. The prototype has been designed to replace a single-phase induction motor with 0.18 kW and has four poles on stator and rotor, the nominal power is 0.125 kW and can deliver up 0.30 kW when operated with the maximum allowed current.