Variable-Gear EV Reluctance Synchronous Motor Drives—An Evaluation of Rotor Structures for Position-Sensorless Control

The reluctance synchronous motor (RSM) is identified to be well suited for the variable-gear (VG) electric vehicle (EV) drive. It is shown in this paper, however, that the RSM drive´s position-sensorless capability is limited at zero or very small current magnitudes due to a limited saliency magnitude. In this paper, a novel epoxy-resin-casted rotor with no iron ribs is proposed to increase the saliency of the RSM at zero reference current. This rotor RSM is simulated in finite-element (FE) analysis, built, evaluated, and compared with conventional flux barrier rotor RSMs. The effect of rotor skewing on the position-sensorless control (PSC) capability of the RSM is also evaluated by means of FE analysis and measurements. Other performance aspects are also considered in this paper. It is concluded that, overall, the skewed epoxy-resin-casted rotor RSM drive has no PSC problems in the entire load and speed regions and is well suited for VG EV drives.