Magnetic circuit model for the mutually coupled switched-reluctance machine

The mutually coupled switched-reluctance motor (SRM) appears to have several performance advantages over other motor technologies. The existence of strong coupling between phases, however, makes the analysis of this machine quite complicated. Preliminary design of this machine can be greatly accelerated by the ability to evaluate potential motor geometries quickly. This paper introduces a general magnetic circuit model of the mutually coupled SRM that adapts to any geometry, unlike existing geometry-dependent approaches (such as finite elements), which are numerically intensive and require excessive computation time. The model uniquely implements the magneto-motive force (mmf) sources necessary to accommodate complex flux paths through the machine and includes the effects of magnetic saturation. The results are compared to those of a finite element solver to demonstrate the performance of this method as a first-step to evaluating candidate designs.