Performance Improvement of Synchronous Reluctance Motor Using Rotor Structure Modification and Parameter Variation

The demand for Electric Vehicles (EVs) is increasing, leading to the expansion of the market. Most EVs use Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) for propulsion due to their good efficiency. Rare earth permanent magnets in PMSMs increase the cost of EVs. The cost-effective alternative to PMSM is the Synchronous Reluctance Motor (SynRM) since it does not require rare earth permanent magnets. The primary obstacles faced by SynRM technology are its poor power factor and high torque ripple. The appropriate design parameters and rotor structure are critical to improving its performance. This paper proposes a detailed design model of SynRM to investigate and verify the performance of SynRM and to identify suitable design parameters. In addition, this paper also proposes rotor modification of SynRM to lessen the torque ripple and improve the power factor. The detailed design model considers rotor parameters, which are extracted from the virtual model of the SynRM and developed by using Ansys Electronics Desktop. Parameters of the SynRM, such as the power factor, the weight, the power density, the speed, the torque responses, the input voltage, the current, and the output power are analyzed at variable specific magnetic and electric loading. The proposed SynRM structure using the suitable design parameters has reduced the torque ripple to 29.33 % from 53.5 % with a power factor of 0.76.