Study of a skewed rotor cage synchronous reluctance motor using finite element analysis

This paper presents the study of a synchronous reluctance motor with skewed rotor cage using finite element analysis (FEM). The study begins with a few introductory aspects regarding the operation of this type of motor. Then the characteristics of the studied motor are introduced and a relatively new method of determining the d- and q-axis inductances using FEM is presented. Afterwards a series of simulations are performed in order to highlight the important aspects of the synchronous reluctance motor transients, such as: start-up at no-load and at rated load and short time disconnection from the power supply.