Design of a switched reluctance machine for off-road vehicle applications based on torque-speed curve optimization

Design of a Switched Reluctance Machine (SRM) for off-road hybrid electric vehicle applications is presented in this paper. SRMs are ideally suited for this application for their low cost, fault tolerance and reliable operations. A methodology to get an optimized design for meeting the torque-speed requirements is developed. The process aims in determining the best speed at which the SRM would start single pulse mode operation for a given set of specifications while delivering the best efficiencies over the specified operating range. The designed machine has been prototyped and then experimentally tested.