Development and analysis of U-core switched reluctance machine

Switched reluctance machines (SRMs) have seen a lot of interest due to their rugged and fault tolerant construction as well as their high efficiency over a wide speed range. The technology however suffers from torque ripple, acoustic noise and low torque density. Many concepts to address these disadvantages have been presented, but not all of them have been demonstrated practically. This paper presents a practical demonstration and assessment of a segmented U-core SRM, which copes with some of the disadvantages of the regular SRM. The U-core SRM has a segmented stator, with a short flux path and reduced flux reversal, reducing core losses. Due to an increased number of poles, torque density is increased and torque ripple reduced. A prototype is built and through a number of tests, the machine is mapped and all loss components are analysed. As a result of the analysis, an assessment is presented, which addresses the shortcomings of the U-core technology, as well as general considerations for SRMs. This allows for further development and improvement of the technology, and also contributes to improve the development and modelling of conventional SRMs.