Infuence of rotor geometry on NVH behavior of synchronous reluctance machine

High prices of permanent magnets (PM), in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines of current electric vehicles, pushes for the development of reluctance machines. Synchronous reluctance machine (SynRM) can be a competitive technology when compared to other machines, e.g. induction machines, since the lack of rotor winding limit the copper losses. In SynRM torque is produced due to anisotropy of the rotor that is achieved by introducing flux barriers in the rotor. These flux barriers have an influence on Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) behavior of the machine, since they are responsible for variation of magnetic resistance [1]. Torque ripple which is also higher in synchronous machines than in other types of machine causes extra vibrations and noise [2]. In this paper, the influence of flux barriers configuration on the overall NVH behavior of the machine is studied. A multi-physics numerical study also permits to do a review on NVH issues origins in SynRM.