A Multi-Physics Simulation Model Based on Finite Element Method for the Multi-Layer Switched Reluctance Motor

Using ANSYS finite element (FE) package, a multi-physics simulation model based on finite element method (FEM) is introduced for the multi-layer switched reluctance motor (SRM) in the present paper. The simulation model is created totally in ANSYS parametric design language (APDL) as a parametric model usable for various conventional types of this motor and it is included electromagnetic, thermal, and structural analyses. The static characteristic of flux-linkage with a phase, phase current waveform, instantaneous torque, and electromagnetic losses are predicted using the developed electromagnetic model. Carrying out 3D FE thermal analysis, the temperature rise due to the calculated core and copper losses is predicted in the developed thermal model. The transient, modal and harmonic analyses are done in the introduced structural model to determine the mode shapes, natural frequencies, displacement, and sound pressure level (SPL) in both time and frequency domains. In order to evaluate the developed simulation model, it is applied to a typical multi-layer SRM, and simulation results related to all the above-mentioned analyses are presented.