A New Hybrid reluctance Motor/Field-Assisted Generator

The switched reluctance motor is a simple and robust machine, which has found application over a wide power and speed ranges in different shapes and geometries. This paper introduces a new configuration for a switched reluctance motor with field assisted generator. The proposed novel motor/generator consists of two magnetically independent stator and rotor sets (layers), where each stator set includes twelve salient poles with windings wrapped around them, while the rotor comprises of eight salient poles. There are different ways of connecting the motor phase windings in order to run the unit in the motor mode. The first scheme is to connect the two sets independently in series or in parallel. In this method the poles in each layer can have both north and south poles configurations. The second method is to connect the windings in each layer such that all the poles in that set have either north or south pole configuration or the poles in the other set (layer) have the opposite configuration. In this format, the magnetic field passes through a guide to the rotor then the stator and finally completes its path via the motor/ generator housing. This type of connection is also utilized in the generator mode. To evaluate the motor performance, two types of analysis, namely, the numerical technique and the experimental study have been utilized. In the numerical analysis, the finite element analysis is employed, where as in the experimental study, a proto-type motor has been built and tested. The calculated results compare favorably with the experimental test results.