Comparative performance of singly salient reluctance, switched reluctance, and induction motors

Reluctance motors, both singly and doubly salient, are receiving ever increasing interest because of their low cost, rugged construction and high performance. This is particularly true when the reluctance motors are excited by currents which are synchronized with the rotor position, as is the case in this paper. The doubly salient reluctance motor, with position-synchronised excitation, is commonly referred to as a switched reluctance motor (SRM). The paper compares a singly salient reluctance motor (SSRM), an SRM and an `off-the-shelf induction motor' (IM). Every attempt has been made to make this comparison `fair'. All three motors have the same cooling, use the same frame, have the same temperature rise, use the same air gap and use the same steel. The paper concludes that both of the reluctance motors have superior performance to the IM and that the SRM has superior performance to the SSRM. The comparison is for D80 sized motors with a nominal top speed of 1500 RPM.