SMSITIVITY OF Faz A R c m PITCH RATIO CN

SWITCHED RELuCIwa

m a"P

R. Arumugam
J.F. Lindsay
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engr.
Concordia University
Montreal, Canada, H3G 1M8

etract
In this paper, the sensitivity of the pole
arc/pole pitch ratio of the stator and rotor on the
performance of a switched reluctance [SRI motor is
investigated. An analytical method based on "magnetic
flux path" and a two dimensional finite element
analysis are used for the study. The method of
sensitivity study is performed by comparing the average
torque developed for different stator as well as rotor
pole arc/pole pitch ratios and choosing the ratio
combination that produces the greatest value of ,average
torque.
uct1or-l
In recent years a number of papers on SR motors
has been published in the literature [11-[141. Only a
few of them address the design aspects [l, 6, 9, 101.
The design philosophy published so far, is based on the
knowledge of variable reluctance stepper motor designs.
In these papers, the pole arc/pole pitch ratio has been
either derived from the permeance values assuming
parallel sided teeth and slots or taken to be slightly
less than that used for variable reluctance stepper
motors. Unlike these variable reluctance stepper
motors, SR motors have smaller, unequal but even
numbers of poles on the stator and rotor. Moreover, SR
motors can be used for higher power applications
requiring larger sizes. Hence, the change in motor
performance due to variations of the stator and rotor
pole arc/pole pitch ratios will be of interest to the
SR motor designer. With the above considerations the
present study has been undertaken.
analytical method based on the lumped magnetic
circuit model at different judiciously selected
sections of the magnetic circuit has been proposed by
Corda and Stephenson 1151. This method is used, as a
first approximation, to determine the suitable pole
arc/pole pitch ratio that enables the .SR motor to
develop the greatest value of the average torque.
An

The advantage of using finite element analysis for

electromagnetic field analysis and particularly for the
SR motor, in which high levels of saturation are
encountered, has already been reported.[16,171 A two
dimensional finite element analysis is used in this
study to calculate the energy stored in the motor when
its rotor is in the aligned and unaligned positions.
The coenergy change between the above two positions of
the rotor is computed from which the average torque
developed is determined. As in the analytical method,
the best choice for the pole arc/pole pitch ratio is
determined by considering the average torques for
different pole arc/pole pitch ratio combinations.
Basis of Sensitivity Stub!
In SR motors the air-gap geometry plays a vital
role on their performance. A suitable choice of the
air-gap length, pole width and pole height is necessary
for a better design of the motor. Therefore, attention

R. Krishnan
Dept. of Electrical En-.
VPI &

su

Blacksburg, VA 240612

has been directed to optimize the air-gap geometry so

that an SR motor with a greater value of torque is
desiqned. The radial lenqtth of the air-gap is made as
small as mechanically possible so that the torque
developed is maximum when ail other air gap parameters
are held constant. In this study it is assumed that the
height of the pole is fixed. The pole arcs on the
stator and rotor are changed in steps of about 0.05 of
a pole pitch, starting from a pole arc/pole pitch ratio
of 0.25 up to 0.55. Values below 0.25 and above 0.55
are not required in this study as will become evident
from the trend of the results which follow.
Due to the nonlinear nature of the magnetic fields
in the SR motor under normal operating conditions, the
virtual displacement principle provides the most
convenient method of calculating the average torque.
The flux linkages are calculated for different
excitation currents when the rotor is in the aligned
and unaligned positions. The coenergy change is
obtained from which the average torque is calculated.
The range of pole arc/pole pitch ratios which produces
the greatest average torque is chosen as.thepreferred
values for a better design.

s of torIn this study, two methods have been used for

torque prediction. One is an analytical method which is
used to calculate the aligned and unaligned flux
linkages for various pole arc/pole pitch ratios. The
other is a finite element analysis. The following
sections give a brief description of these methods.
Analytical method
The analytical method describes the determination
of the minimum and maximum inductances when the
configuration of the motor is known. The minimum
inductance is calculated using the assumption that the
magnetic fields in the interpolar and air-gap regions
consist of straight line segments and circular arcs.
Unlike earlier methods, this one takes into account the
actual distribution of the winding on the stator poles.
The flux linkages when the rotor is in the unaligned
position are obtained assuming that the minimum
inductance remains constant for the range of excitation
used in the analysis. When the rotor is in the aligned
position there is considerable mmf drop in the stator
and rotor cores compared with that in the air-gap.
Hence, the conventional magnetic circuit analysis is
used to determine the flux linkages.
The application of the technique proposed by Corda
et al. may lead to large errors in the minimum
inductance calculation unless care is exercised. The
formulae derived for permeance components are based on
the assumption that the ratio of pole arc/pole pitch is
0.5 for both the stator and rotor. Also, the windings
are taken to be extended U? to the middle of the stator
interpolar regions. Hence a suitable modification of
the formulae is required when this technique is used
for a particular motor configuration and winding
arrangement.

88CH2565-0/88/050$01.000 1988 IEEE

In the maximum inductance position the cores are

saturated even at lower excitations due to the shorter
air-gap length. Hence the mmf drops in various sections
of the core and the nonlinear magnetization
characteristic of the core are taken into account when
the flux linkages vs current characteristic of the
motor is computed.
The data for the magnetization characteristic of
the iron (M-19 steel) is taken from the manufacturer's
data sheets. The characteristic is divided into 20 line
segments and each segment is represented using cubic
spline polynomials. For flux densities beyond the range
of available values, a linear extrapolation is used.
In order to determine the flux linkages vs current
characteristic in the aligned position, the flux
linkages are assumed and the excitations required to
establish the assumed flux linkages are calculated.
From the known number of turns, the flux and flux
densities in various sections of the magnetic circuit
are computed. Using the magnetization characteristic
and the flux densities, the mmf drops in the different
sections of the core are determined. The excitation
current is obtained as the ratio of the total mmf to
the number of turns.

Determine
the
flux
characteristics for the
positions.

linkages
vs current
aligned and unaligned

Calculate the change In coenergy and

average torque develope.'.

hence the

Tncrernent the pole arc/pole pitch ratio of the rotor

by 0.05.

If the rotor pole arc/pole pitch ratio is greater

than 0.55, then go to step 7. Otherwise, go to
step 3 .
Increment the stator pole arc/pole
by 0.05.

pitch ratio

If the stator pole arc/pole pitch ratio is greater

than 0.55, then go to step 9. Otherwise, go to
step 2.

Tabulate the average torque developed as a function

of the stator and rotor pole enclosures for
different excitations.
10 Choose the pole arc/pole pitch ratios corresponding
to the greatest average torque for a given current.

It can be realized that there are 49 combinations

of pole arc/pole pitch ratio when both the stator and
rotor pole arcs are wried in this manner. For each
combination,
one
flux
linkages
vs current
characteristic is obtained for both aligned and
unaligned positions. When five excitation currents are
considered for each combination, there are 245 average
torque values computed. It is presumed that this will
give sufficient informtion on the nature of torque
development for the changes in stator and rotor pole
widths. Any number of average torque values can be
calculated if a suitable number of excitations is
considered. On the other hand, when finite element
analysis is used, separate problems are to be set up
and solved for each excitation and pole arc/pole pitch
ratio combination in the aligned and unaligned
positions. Thus,
for the chosen five excitation
currents 490 problems are solved and post-processed to
obtain the coenergy for both aligned and unaligned
positions. The coenergy is directly computed in the
finite element analysis and hence the flux linkages vs
current characteristic need not be plotted to determine
the average torque.
lement Analvsis
The finite element formulation used for field
analysis has already been described in [161. The
configuration of the SR motor considered for
investigation is shown in Fig. 1.

Figure 1: Typlcal SR motor configuration

The flux linkages vs current characteristic for

the aligned and unaligned positions are stored in a
data file. The area between these curves is obtained
using numerical integration. Having obtained the
coenergy change for the chosen ratios of pole arc,/pole
pitch in the stator and rotor, the average torque
developed is calculated.
The procedure used to determine the optimum pole
arc/pole pitch ratio is as follows:
1 Set the pole arc/pole
to 0.25.
2

For each stator pole arc/pole pitch ratio, the

rotor pole arc/pole pitch ratio is changed from 0.25 to
0.55 in steps of 0.05. Thus, seven finite element
analysis mdels are developed for the aligned position,
each model having provision to change the rotor pole
arc/pole pitch ratio. Since, the field solutions are
obtained for five chosen excitations, 35 problems are
set up for each stator pole arc/pole pitch ratio.
Similarly, for the unaligned position, seven different
each time solving and
models have been used,
postprocessing 35 problems.

pitch ratio of the stator

Set the pole arc/pole pitch ratio of the rotor

to 0.25.
51

The coenergy for each pole arc/pole pitch ratio

combination and current, when the rotor is in a given
position, is directly computed as described earlier.
The change in coenergy and the average torque are
determined.

Results

the stator m y be limited by considerations of winding

space and the necessary clearance &tween the windings.

The average torque values calculated by the

analytical method are given in Table I. To illustrate
the nature of the results that lead to these values, a
typical flux linkages vs current characteristic for a
pole arc/pole pitch ratio of 0 . 4 on the stator and 0.35
on the rotor is shown in Fig. 2. The variation of the
average torque with changes in stator pole arc/pole
pitch ratio is plotted for different rotor ?le
arc/pole pitch ratios and is shown in Fig. 3. Keeping
the pole arc/pole pitch ratios for the stator and rotor
the same, average torque values are calculated for
various excitation currents. The resulting average
torque variation for different pole arc/pole pitch
ratios is shown in Fig. 4 .

At a l l excitation currents, the average torque

value increases with increase in rotor pole arc,
reaches a peak value and then decreases when the stator
pole arc is held constant. It is observed that there is
no increase in torque developed when the rotor pole
arc/pole pitch is increased beyond 0.45. Higher
excitation currents produce maximum values of average
torques when the ratio is slightly less than 0 . 4 ,
whereas, at lower currents the average torque values
reach peaks when the ratio is slightly above 0.4.
Considering the nature of
currents, normally
encountered in SR motors, choosing the rotor pole
arc/pole pitch ratio around 0 . 4 may produce the highest
torques. The average torque is less for a rotor pole
ardpole pitch ratio of 0.25 compared with that for
higher ratios when the stator pole arc/pole pitch ratio
is in the range of 0.35 to 0.5.

>U7 .

c.4l-

L//

0
L
0
*,

LL
c

6 -

Rotor p o l e enclosure

LEGEND

:4 -

1 0 1 2 1 4

E x c i t a t i o n i n amperes

-. 2 5

Figure 2: Flux linkages vs excitation current

(AnalyticalMethod)

6s:

0.35

- _ . 0.40
- - 0.45
0.50
--0.55

.>

.A5

.4

S t a t o r P o l e arc/Pole

The average torque is proportional to the change

in coenergy =lues when the rotor moves from the
unaligned to the aligned position. Hence, the results
obtained by the finite element method are presented in
terms of coenergy itself. Excitation currents of 1, 2,
4, 8 and 12 amperes are used for the investigation. The
results for 1 A excitation are. not presented as they
are very similar to the 2 A results. Fig. 5 shows the
variation of coenergy change with varyingstator and
rotor pole arc/pole pitch ratios when the excitation is
2 A. The results for excitations of 4, 8 and 12 amperes
are shown in Figs. 6, 7 and 8, respectively.

0.3

1-

2 -

.:5

.5

.:5

pttch Ratto

Figure 3: Average torque vs stator pole arc/pole pitch

ratio (Excitationat 12 A)

z
E

Conclusions
The changes in stator pole arc greatly influence
the average torque compared with the changes in rotor
pole arc. At lower excitation currents, when the
saturation in the core is not appreciable, the
developed torque increases invariably with increase in
stator pole arc for a given rotor pole enclosure.
Instead, at higher excitations, the increase in average
torque with stator pole enclosure is less and at higher
stator pole arcs the average torque decreases. It is
particularly evident at a steady excitation of 12 A
where the average torque is less for a stator pole
arc/pole pitch ratio of 0.55 compared with that for
0.5. When the stator pole arc/pole pitch ratio is less
than 0.35, there is distinctly less developed torque at
all excitations. Hence, it may be recommended that the
stator pole arc/pole pitch ratio be chosen in the range
of 0.35 to 0.5. Higher pole arc/pole pitch ratios for

2 -

Figure 4: Average torque vs pole arc/pole pitch ratio

(Stator and Rotor ratios are equal)
52

1.

sq

W
U

13

[r

I
t

12

I1

ia

Z
W
0
U

9
8
.5

'

vQ

.2s

.38

.3s

.48

.4s

.sa

.ss

STATOR

Figure 8: Average torque vs pole arc/pole pitch ratios

of stator and rotor (Excitation at 12A)

Figure 5: Average torque vs pole arc/pole pitch ratios

of stator and rotor (Excitation at 2 A )

Average Torque Calculated Using Analytical Method

jy

- - -.-

'ps u-re

0.30

1
i

.wroQ

.8s

.38

.35

.48

.45

.58

i
'

.55

STATOR

'
:

F i ~ u r e6 Aver3Se torque vs pole arc/pole pitch ratios

of stator and r o t o r (ExcitJtion at 4A)

'

W
U

8.58

'

7.84

.. -

_ _

.-..- ..

! stator
I pole

__-- .__

_-

Rotor pole enclosure

- -

0.35

0.40

.- .

0.45

0.50

Excitation = 1 A
0.357
0.355
0.418
0.416
0.476
0.475
0.530
0.528
0.686
0.629
0.629
0.685
0.683
0.628

0.357
0.413
0.476
0.530
0.732
0.731
0.728

0.357
0.418
0.476
0.530
0.769
0.768
0.764

1.257
1.437
1.509
1.729
1.997
1.990
1.979

1.257
1.435

0.25
0.30
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55

0.354
0.415
0.472
0.524
0.562
0.561
0.560

0.25
0.30
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55

1.254
1.434
1.607
1.782
1.779
1.774

Excitation = 2 A
1.257
1.256
1.437
1.436
1.511
1.610
1.723
1.72:
1.945
1.976
1.940
1.872
1.931
1.865

0.25
0.30
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55

3.158
3.872
4.123
4.342
4.424
4.406
4.380

Excitation = 4 A
3.141
3.149
3.862
3.868
4.109
4.118
4.326
4.338
4.588
4.522
4.561
4.501
4.469
4.521

3.133
3.953
4.096
4.308
4.629
4.593
4.542

3.123
3.840 !
4.077 '
4.282
4.645 j
4.596 I
4.526 '

0.25
0.30
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55

6.010
7.255
9.353
9.722
9.810
9.732
9.619

Excitation = 8 A
5.919
5.964
8.312
8.273
9.266
9.313
9.675
9.614
9.873
9.888
9.779
9.771
9.645
9.606

5.875
8.226
9.206
9.533
9.855
9.704
9.493

5.824
8.166
9.124
9.422
9.764
9.559
9.273

0.25
0.30
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55

8.136
12.816
14.514
15.030
15.102
14.922
14.666

Excitation = 12 A
8.019
7.915
7.810
12.727 12.635 12.528
14.414 14.301 14.162
14.913 14.770 14.585
15.090 15.009
14.846
14.874 14.740 14.500
14.570 14.367 14.023

7.690
12.391
13.975
14.331
14.568
14.102
13.454

I.719

1.506

I.715
2.034
2.024
2.007

U 7.18

t
0

6.52

Z
5.86

0
5.2h
.55

Qo7OQ

. 3 5 y
.25

,
.38

.3S

.48

.45

.SE

-55

STATOR

Figure 7: Average torque vs pole arc/pole pitch ratios

of statcr and rotor (Excitation at 8A)

It can be concluded that the pole arc/pole pitch

ratio on the stator and rotor of an SR motor need not
be the same. The range of values that m y be used f o r
the pole arc/pole pitch ratio of the rotor can be C.3
to 0.45 and that of the stator 0.35 to 0.5.
53
-

Wknovledaements
E81

This research forms part of a project receiving

financial support from the Natural Science and
mgineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The
authors are also grateful for the computational support
made available by Infolytica Corporation of Montreal.

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54

7 . -

[141 J.T. Bass, M. Ehsani, T.J.E. Miller, and R.L.

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[171 J.F.