Design Optimization of Synchronous Reluctance Machines for Railway Traction Application Including Assembly Process Constraints

Abstract

This paper presents the coupled electromechanical design of a synchronous reluctance machine. The purpose of the study is to decide whether such motor could substitute usual induction machines in railway traction applications. Reluctance machines are indeed competitive for applications requiring high efficiency at low cost. However, it is a challenging task to find design solutions that ensure structural integrity of the motor without compromising its overall performance, in particular in the presence of optimized flux barriers in the rotor. The design strategy presented in this paper is a combined electromagnetic and structural optimization, the latter accounting not only for the centrifugal force but also for the overstress due to manufacturing.

Multidisciplinary Design Automation of Electric Motors—Systematic Literature Review and Methodological Framework

“…If a static model is sufficient to predict the behavior of a machine, as is the case for synchronous machines, the electromagnetic and electrical analyses can be combined in an FEA or MEC without requiring an extra EEC [63]. In this context, static or quasi-static analysis means an analysis for one or more static rotor position points [68], which results in lower computational effort [45] and faster analysis if it is used to replace a transient simulation [38]. However, in general, transient analysis serves to more accuracy [69] and is also utilized to analyze transient behavior caused by eddy currents [70].…”

“…Since this form of geometry simplification is limited when dealing with more complex geometries, FEA calculations tend to be used for this purpose in the reviewed papers. Thus, there are a variety of papers that use 2D FEA simulations to evaluate detailed rotor geometries in synchronous reluctance machines [44,68,83] and permanent magnet-excited machines [22,43,66,84]. For the design of high-speed rotors that include retention sleeves, 2D FEA is also utilized [50,60].…”

A New Design Procedure for Rotor Laminations of Synchronous Reluctance Machines with Fluid Shaped Barriers

“…The first step to take in the rotor design is to determine the flux barriers number by considering the issues stated in Section 1 and in particular in [9,14], it was decided to use 3 barriers, that have been appropriately distributed within the structure of the rotor. Their shape must follow stator flux lines path as much as possible (Figure 1) otherwise, their thickness can be adjusted to determine the rotor best configuration.…”

“…The most common barrier shapes can be divided into circular, segmented or fluid shaped ones. The structure of the lamination can be symmetrical or asymmetrical, but many variants have been investigated in the literature, with the aim of optimizing the performance of the SynRM, e.g., in [9][10][11][12]. Moreover, several tools have been proposed to automate the design of these barriers.…”

“…Further, very recent papers have investigated the potential of SynRM with fluid shaped barriers. In [9] an electromechanical optimization has been presented, based on a compromise between magnetic performance and mechanical integrity of the rotor. It has been shown that if more barriers are used, higher average torque and lower the torque ripple can be achieved.…”