Steady-state performance of reluctance motors under combined fundamental and third-harmonic excitation. II. Experimental results

Experimental results for two prototype, grooved and segmental type, reluctance motors under combined fundamental and third-harmonic excitation are presented. Test data are used to verify the theoretical models. The agreement between theoretical and experimental values is very good. Experimental data show the torque capability increase made possible by the injected third-harmonic MMF interacting with the third space harmonic flux resulting from the interaction between the fundamental MMF and the rotor is 10% for a grooved-type reluctance motor operating in the saturated region. For a segmental-type reluctance motor, the capability increase is 20%, even when the motor is still operating in the nonsaturated region