An Experimentally Validated Novel Analytical Approach for Modeling of a Saturated Switched Reluctance Motor

This article proposes a new "switched lumped reluctance network"-based equivalent circuit for a switched reluctance motor (SRM) under saturation. The proposed circuit incorporates the effects of the position-dependent switching of the phase windings and changing position of the rotor with respect to the stator. This feature enables the analysis of non-uniform and dynamic variation of flux in motor iron sections along with that in the air gap and their effects on the phase current. The proposed model, thus, emulates the operation of an SRM, more truly, through an equivalent circuit approach. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified by comparing the analytical results of five different stator-rotor sets (having different air gaps and tooth angular widths) with the finite-element method (FEM) simulated results and found to be in excellent mutual agreement. The static and dynamic performance obtained using the proposed model has been validated by experiments on a four-phase, 1-kW, 300-V, 1000-rpm SRM.