Unified Calculation Method for Motor Torque in Reluctance Network Analysis

Abstract

A reluctance network analysis (RNA), which is an improved magnetic circuit method, has some advantages: the analytical model is simple, the calculation accuracy is relatively high, and a coupled analysis with an electric circuit, a heat circuit, a motion equation, and so on, is fundamentally easy. The RNA has been applied to the dynamic analysis of several motors such as a surface permanent magnet (SPM) motor, an interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor, and a switched reluctance (SR) motor. The dynamic characteristics of these motors including starting and a sudden load change can be calculated by an RNA. However, the torque calculation methods for these motors are different from each other. This paper presents a unified calculation method for the motor torque in an RNA, which does not depend on the types and structures of motors. The validity and availability of the proposed method are demonstrated by a finite element method (FEM) and an experiment. C⃝ 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 198(1): 25-33, 2017; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).