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Summary Switched reluctance motors have an innate characteristic of producing significant amount of radial forces during its motoring operation owing to the nonuniformity in the air gap of the motor. This inherent radial force can be properly utilized, if produced using an external power source and controlled actively using a controlled algorithm for bearingless operation of the motor. This paper presents a single set of stator winding called bridge configured winding, which has the ability to generate both torque and radial force. The winding structure forms two sets of terminal connections in each phase's winding, one for the torque production and one for generating controllable radial force for suspension of the motor. The potential paths and commutation period for the winding currents to produce both torque and radial forces are identified, and an analytical model is developed for a 12/8 bearingless switched reluctance motor. The principle and insight of the proposed single winding scheme and its behaviour with the incorporation of the power converter circuits coupled with a speed‐current controlled drive system are analysed using a finite element model for both motoring and radial force production. The finite element–based results are validated with the analytical results obtained.

Design methodology for a special single winding based bearingless switched reluctance motor Abstract: Bearingless switched reluctance motors (BSRMs) have both magnetic bearing as well as conventional motor characteristics which make them suitable for diverse industrial applications. This study proposes a design methodology for a BSRM in order to calculate the appropriate geometrical dimensions essential for realising a minimum levitation force at every orientation of rotor. It is based on the stator-rotor overlap angle and helps in reducing the complexities associated with the self-bearing operation of a switched reluctance motor (SRM). Different from a conventional SRM, the motor under study deploys a special single set parallel winding scheme for simultaneous production of torque as well as radial force. An analytical model incorporating this single set winding is developed for calculating the torque and the radial force. The proposed bearingless design is verified by developing a two-dimensional finite-element model of a 12/8 SRM in ANSYS Maxwell.

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