Optimization of a reluctance actuator for automotive applications

In this paper, a single-phase reluctance actuator for an automotive application (throttle plate actuator) is investigated. It is explained that for the automotive industry additional optimization criteria have to be considered as against usual line-fed applications. Mainly, this comes from the small battery capacity and/or the finite electrical power delivery of the automotive generator, resulting in a strictly limited electrical power consumption for each electrical device in a passenger car. It is shown that the optimum saturation level of the reluctance actuator, described by the normalized current i (i=1 means operation at the saturation limit in aligned position), depends very much on the importance of the different optimization criteria. In contrary to line-fed reluctance devices, in numerous cases high saturation is not the best choke. In fact, even an unsaturated operation may be advantageous.