Module 3

Reluctance Motor

1. Synchronous Reluctance Motor

2. Switched reluctance motors
 Reluctance Motor

• It is a motor that depends on reluctance torque for its operation.

• Reluctance torque is the torque induced in an iron object in the presence of an external magnetic field.

• It is an induction motor with a modified rotor.

• Rotor turns in synchronism with the rotating magnetic flux.

• It has no starting torque and will not start by itself.

• The airgap between stator and rotor is not uniform.

• No dc supply is given to the rotor.

• Different types of reluctance motor are:

1. Synchronous reluctance motor

2. Split phase Variable reluctance motor
3. Switched reluctance motor
4. Variable reluctance stepping motor
 Synchronous reluctance motor
Construction
• Construction of single phase induction motor with a modified
squirrel-cage rotor is shown in Figure.
• Reluctance motor is actually a split phase induction motor with
salient pole.

Stator
• Stator is made up of laminations of ferromagnetic steel sheets.

• Slots for housing armature conductors are provided along the

inner periphery of the armature.

• The stator of a 3 phase reluctance motor has three phase

distributed winding which creates rotating magnetic field in the air Reluctance Motor
gap.
• The stator of the single phase reluctance motor is similar to that of stator of the single phase induction motor.

• It consists of starting (auxiliary winding) and running winding (main winding) in the stator slots.

• This type of motor is also called as Split phase reluctance motor. There is a phase difference between the current and the
corresponding fluxes in the starting and running winding.

• The interaction between these two fluxes produce rotating magnetic field.
Rotor
• The rotor of the reluctance motor is of salient or projecting poles.

• No dc supply is provided to the rotor.

• The rotor of the reluctance motor is squirrel cage with some rotor teeth
removed in certain places to provide desired number of salient rotor
poles.

• In this Figure rotor teeths are removed in four places to produce four pole
rotor structure.

• So the airgap is not uniform. The reluctance depends on the air gap
length.
• More the airgap, more is the reluctance.

• When the rotator rotates, due to the non-uniform air gap, reluctance also
changes. Rotor of Reluctance Motor

• In a synchronous reluctance motor, the stator and rotor should be

constructed in such a way that the armature inductance varies
sinusoidally.
principle of operation
• Whenever a piece of ferromagnetic material is located in a magnetic field, a force is exerted upon the material, tending to
bring it into the position of the densest portion of the field.

• Therefore tends to align the specimen of the material so that the reluctance of the magnetic path passing through the
material will be at a minimum.

• When the stator of the reluctance motor is supplied with a single phase ac supply the motor starts as an induction motor
(single phase).

• The centrifugal switch disconnects the axillary winding of the motor at a speed of about 75% of synchronous speed.

• Now the motor operates with its main winding in operation.

• Gradually it accelerates and attains speed very close to synchronous speed.

• When the reluctance motor starts to run at a speed close to synchronous speed (critical speed), a reluctance torque is
produced.

• The rotor aligns itself in minimum reluctance position.

• The rotor pulls into synchronism.

principle of operation
• After pulling into synchronism, the induction torque disappears but the rotor remains in synchronism due to synchronous
reluctance torque alone.

• The motor adjusts its torque angle for change in load as in 3-phase synchronous motor.

• Figure (a) shows the rotor synchronized at no load.

• A step increase in load slows the rotor down, and the rotor poles “lag” the stator poles as shown in Figure (b).

• The angle of lag, δ is called the torque angle.

• The maximum torque angle is at δmax=45° as shown in Figure (c).

• The maximum load is at δ= 45°

• If the load increases so that δ > 45, the flux path is “over stretched” and the rotor falls out of synchronism and then the
motor runs at slip speed only.
principle of operation
Torque Equation of Synchronous Reluctance Motor (SyRM)

Let,
V = Terminal voltage/phase
I = Armature current
Xsd = Direct axis synchronous reactance/phase
Xsq = Quadrature axis synchronous reactance/phase
Id = Direct axis component of current
Iq = Quadrature axis component of current
ws = Synchronous speed
Neglecting the losses the power developed by the motor is given by
P =VI cosφ
From the phasor diagram shown in Figure

Rotor at Different Load Conditions

ωs = Synchronous speed
Application

• Metering Pumps.
• Auxiliary time Mechanism.
• Wrapping and folding Machines.
• Proportioning Devices on Pumps or conveyors.
• Synthetic fibre manufacturing equipment.
• Processing continuous sheet or film material.
 Switched reluctance motor
• Switched reluctance motor is similar to variable reluctance stepper motor in closed loop operation.
• It is commonly used for variable speed operation.
• A switched reluctance motor (SRM) is a rotating electric machine where both stator and rotor have salient poles.
• SRM has several advantages like high efficiency, good performance in terms of torque to inertia ratio, maximum operating
speed and simple construction.
Construction of SRM
• Several combinations of stator and rotor poles are
possible, such as 6/4 (6 stator poles and 4 rotor poles),
8/4, 10/6 etc.
• The configurations with higher number of stator/rotor
pole combinations have less torque ripple.
Stator
• Built by stacking suitably punched silicon laminations to
the appropriate length.
• Each salient poles carry concentric windings. Stator
windings on diametrically opposite poles are connected in
series to form one phase of the motor.
• The overlapping of coils is avoided to minimize the mutual
inductance between the phases.
Rotor
• Has no winding or permanent magnets on its rotor.
• It is built up of steel laminations.
• The laminations are stacked to the shaft.
Principle of Operation of 8/6 SRM
• The operation principle is based on the variation in magnetic reluctance.
• The rotor always try to align with low reluctance path. When a stator coil is excited, the rotor experiences a force which
will pull the rotor to the aligned position.
• 8/6 SRM has 4 phases A-A’, B-B’, C-C’ and D-D’.
• These phases are excited by DC supply through switches S1, S2, S3 and S4 as shown in Figure.
• When a stator coil is excited, the rotor experiences a force which will pull the rotor to the aligned position.
• When phase A-A’ is energised, the rotor comes to the maximum inductance (minimum reluctance) position as in the first
case.  
• The rotor teeth 1 and 4 are attracted to the stator teeth A and A’ respectively as shown in Figure (a).
• They are in the minimum reluctance position as far as phase windings is concerned. Then   

• At this position inductance of B windings is neither maximum nor minimum.

• Next, the switch S2, is turned ON and switch S1, is turned OFF.
• Now the phase A is de-energised and the phase B is energised so that the stator teeth 3 and 6 are energised.
• The stator teeth of B and B’ would align with rotor teeth 2 and 5 respectively as shown in Figure (b).
• The rotor rotates in the counter clockwise (CCW) direction and makes an angular displacement of 15.
• The torque developed is equal to

• If this torque is more than

the opposing load torque
and frictional torque
the rotor starts rotating.
• Now phase winding B is switched OFF and phase winding C is turned ON to DC supply.

• Then the rotor experiences a torque as

                                                                                                     exists. 

• The rotor continues to rotate.

• When the rotor rotates further 15, the torque developed due to winding C is shown in Figure (c)

• Then the phase winding C is switched off and phase winding D is energized.

• Then rotor experiences a torque and rotates further step 15.

• This is a continuous and cyclic process.

• Thus the rotor starts. It is a self-starting motor.

• If the switching sequence is changed to S1, S4, S3, S2, S1, S4. . . ., then the direction of rotation is reversed.
Torque Equation
Torque is due to variable reluctance principle.
The flux linkage Ѱ due to the excitation of winding is given by, Ѱ=Li
According to Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction, the emf induced is given by,
e=
Substituting the value of Ѱ
 Torque Speed Characteristics

• For speeds below the torque is limited by the motor

current.
• Up to the ’base speed’ it is possible, by means of the
regulators, to get any value of current into the motor,
up to the maximum.
• The precise value of current at a given operating
point depends on the load characteristics, the speed,
and the regulator and control strategy.
• In the speed range below the firing angles can be
chosen to optimize efficiency or minimize torque
ripple.
• The corner point or base speed is the highest speed
at which maximum current can be supplied at rated
voltage, with fixed firing angles.
• If these angles are still kept fixed, the maximum
torque at rated voltage decreases with speed
squared.

• However, if the conduction angle is increased there is a considerable speed range over which maximum current can still be
forced into the motor, and this sustains the torque at a level high enough to maintain a constant-power characteristic,
even though the core losses and windage losses increase quite rapidly with speed. This is shown in Figure between points
B and D
Power converter circuits
• The selection of controller (converter) depends upon the application.
• The main objectives of the design of the converter are the performance of the drive and the cost of the drive.

Two Power Semiconductor Switching Devices per phase and two diodes

• When the phase winding A is to be energized the

devices T1 and T2 are turned ON.
• When phase winding A is to be disconnected from
the supply the devices T1 and T2 are turned off.
• The stored energy in phase winding A tends to
maintain the current in the same direction.
• This current passes from the winding through D1
and D2 to the supply.
• Thus the stored energy is fed back to the mains.
 Two Power Semiconductor Switching Devices per phase and two diodes

• Similarly phase winding B & C are also switched on

to the supply and switched off from the supply in a
cyclic manner.
• This circuit requires 2 power switching devices and 2
diodes for each phase winding.
• For high-speed operation, it is required to see that
the stored energy can be fed back to the mains
within the available period.
• Usually the upper devices T1, T3 and T5 are turned
on and off from the signals obtained from the rotor
position sensor.
• The duration of conduction or angle of conduction θ
can be controlled by using suitable control circuitry.
• The lower devices T2, T4, T6 are controlled from
signals obtained by chopping frequency signals.
• The current in the phase winding is the result of the
rotor position and chopping frequency.
• As a result, it is possible to vary the effective phase
current from a very low value to a high value.
 (n+1) power switching devices and (n+1) diodes

• This circuit makes use of less number of power switching devices and diodes as shown in Figure.
• When the switching devices T and T1 are turned on phase winding A is energized from the dc supply.
• When these devices are turned off the stored energy in the phase winding is fed back to the mains through diodes D
and D1.
• When devices T and T2 are turned on the phase winding B is energized.
• When they are turned off, the stored energy in B phase is fed back to the mains through diodes D and D2.
• When devices T and T3 are turned on the phase winding C is energized.
• The cycle gets repeated.
• This circuit makes use of (n+1) power-switching devices and (n+1) diodes where n is equal to the number of phases
 Phase winding using bifilar wires
• Each phase winding has two exactly similar phase windings as shown in Figure.
• Each phase consists of two identical windings and are magnetically coupled when one of them are excited.
• In stepper motor, the purpose of bifilar winding is for bipolar excitation with a reduced number of switching elements.
When T1 is turned on the dc current passes through the phase winding A.
• When the devices T1 is turned off the stored energy in the magnetic field is fed back to the dc source through the
winding A’ and D1 to the supply.
• The three devices operate in a sequential way depending upon the signals obtained from the rotor position sensor and
the chopping signals for PWM technique obtained from the controller.
 Split – link circuit used with even phase number
• This converter circuit is used when the number of
phases is even.
• The circuit diagram for 4 phase motor is shown in
figure.
• The main power supply is divided into two halves using
split capacitors.
• During conduction energy is supplied to the phase by
one half of the power supply.
• During commutation period the stored energy is fed
back to the other half of the supply.
• For example when T1 is turned on phase A is energized
by the upper half of the supply.
• When T1 is turned off the Stored energy is fed back
through D2 due to the lower half

C-Dump circuit
• The circuit uses (n+1) additional devices to feed the
stored energy from the dump capacitor C back to the
supply through step down chopper circuit.
Torque pulsation in switched reluctance motor

• Torque pulsation is a common phenomenon in Switched Reluctance Motors (SRMs).

• It occurs due to the variation in the reluctance of the motor's magnetic circuit during operation.
• When the rotor aligns with a stator pole, the reluctance is low, and the magnetic flux is high.
• On the other hand, when the rotor aligns with the stator slot, the reluctance is high, and the magnetic flux is low.
• This variation in the magnetic flux results in a pulsating torque, which can cause vibration and noise in the motor.
• Torque pulsation can also affect the performance of the motor and reduce its efficiency.

There are several techniques used to reduce torque pulsation in SRMs:

Phase current control: This technique involves adjusting the timing and magnitude of the phase currents to minimize
torque ripple.

Rotor pole shaping: This technique involves changing the shape of the rotor poles to minimize the variation in the
magnetic flux density.

Stator pole shaping: It involves modifying the shape of the stator poles to reduce torque pulsation.

Sensorless control: By using advanced control algorithms and sensorless techniques, it is possible to reduce torque
pulsation in SRMs. This technique involves estimating the position and speed of the rotor without using sensors, which can
reduce cost and improve reliability.
sources of noise
Switched reluctance motors (SRMs) are known to be noisy due to the rapid switching of current in the stator windings and
the abrupt changes in the magnetic flux in the rotor.

Some common sources of noise in SRMs include:

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise: SRMs can produce EMI noise due to the switching of the phase currents in the
motor. This type of noise can interfere with other electronic devices. This noise can be reduced by using shielded cables or
by adding filters to the power supply.

Acoustic noise: The abrupt changes in magnetic flux in the rotor cause vibrations that generate acoustic noise. This noise
can be reduced by using soft magnetic materials in the rotor or by adding damping materials to the motor structure.

Mechanical noise: SRMs can produce mechanical noise due to the vibration and movement of the rotor and stator
components. This can be reduced by improving the mechanical design of the motor or by using high-quality bearings.

Magnetic noise: This type of noise is caused by the interaction between the magnetic field and the stator and rotor
components of the motor. This can be reduced by using proper magnetic design techniques or by optimizing the shape and
position of the rotor poles.

Air-gap noise: The air-gap between the stator and rotor can cause noise due to the interaction of the magnetic fields. This
can be reduced by optimizing the air-gap design or by using high-quality insulating materials.
Noise mitigation technique in SRM
There are several noise mitigation techniques that can be used to reduce the noise produced by Switched Reluctance Motors
(SRMs). Here are some of the commonly used techniques:

Vibration isolation: SRMs can produce mechanical noise due to the vibration and movement of the rotor and stator
components. Vibration isolation techniques, such as mounting the motor on vibration-absorbing materials, can reduce this
type of noise.

Magnetic shielding: Magnetic noise produced by the interaction between the magnetic field and the stator and rotor
components can be reduced by using magnetic shielding. This involves using materials that are highly permeable to magnetic
fields to contain the magnetic flux and reduce noise.

EMI filters: SRMs can produce electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise due to the switching of the phase currents in the
motor. EMI filters can be used to reduce this type of noise by attenuating the high-frequency noise and preventing it from
interfering with other electronic devices.

Sound-absorbing materials: Acoustic noise produced by the motor's air movement and the sound waves generated by the
rotating components can be reduced by using sound-absorbing materials. These materials can be used to line the motor's
casing and absorb the sound waves, reducing noise levels.

Improved motor design: Improved motor design can help reduce noise levels by reducing the vibration and movement of the
motor's components. Techniques such as optimizing the motor's shape, improving the balance of the rotor, and using better-
quality materials can all contribute to reducing noise levels.
Applications

1. Pumps
2. Wrapping or folding machines
3. For the processing of film material
4. recording instruments
5. synthetic fiber manufacturing industries