Designing and Prototyping a Novel Five-Phase Pancake-Shaped Axial-Flux SRM for Electric Vehicle Application Through Dynamic FEA Incorporating Flux-Tube Modeling

Switched reluctance motors (SRMs) show crucial attributes to applications where light weight, high-temperature adaptability, fault-tolerance capability, ruggedness, and simplicity are strongly required. The axial-flux configuration of SRM has additional features over the radial-flux configuration. This paper presents the design and analysis of a novel axial-flux SRM. Detailed procedures of deriving the output power equation as a function of the motor dimensions and parameters are provided. A modified phase winding design approach is thoroughly explained, a flowchart describing the design algorithm is presented, and the inductance determination by different methods is verified experimentally. The 3-D finite-element analysis (FEA) unveils the excessive end core and radial-flux fringing effects in the axial-flux configuration. An exclusive pole-shape design is also proposed. The operation of the motion model using 3-D dynamic FEA is analyzed, and its prototype development process and static testing are demonstrated.