Design and control of a variable reluctance drive with axially orientated DC flux assistance

Switched reluctance motor drives have been shown to benefit from DC flux assistance from a coil arrangement that is mutually coupled to all its phase windings. This paper proposes an alternative way of providing this additional DC flux through a toroidal, axially oriented coil. The motor comprises a two phase 4/2 switched reluctance stator adjacent to an axially orientated coil. The paper describes the magnetic structure of the motor, its design and construction. The possible power electronic and control circuits for the motor are described and test results are presented.