Design and Analysis of Rolled Rotor Switched Reluctance Motor

In the conventional SRM with multi-rotor teeth, the air gap must be very small in order to drive the SRM in the saturation region that is necessary for high output torque. However, this leads to the problem of overheating; particularly in the case of a small-size SRM. This paper discusses the design of a new type of SRM, namely the rolled rotor SRM. This new type does not require more than a single region of a very small airgap. This solves the overheating problem in the small size SRM. Moreover, the use of the rolled rotor, instead of the conventional toothed rotor, grades the airgap region in a fashion that gives a smooth variation in the reluctance and smooth shapes of both current and torque. The latter functional behavior is required in many applications such as servo applications. The paper first addresses general design steps of the rolled rotor SRM then proceeds to the simulation results of the new SRM in order to evaluate the advantages gained from the new design. In addition, this paper compares the torque ripples obtained from the new design to its equivalent conventional one.