Iron loss in a modular rotor switched reluctance machine for the "More-Electric" aero-engine

This paper investigates the iron loss that results in a novel topology of switched reluctance (SR) machine which has been developed for application as a starter/generator within the high pressure region of an aero-engine. It will be shown that the machine has a significantly lower loss than that of an equivalent SR machine equipped with a conventional rotor and, thus, a lower operating temperature, which is a critical factor. The iron losses in the cobalt-iron stator and rotor laminations are calculated on a per-element basis using flux density data derived from electric circuit-coupled finite-element analysis.