High Speed Permanent Magnet Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Machines - Part I: A General Design Approach

The design of synchronous reluctance machines with and without permanent magnets assistance constitutes a challenging engineering task due to the numerous design variables and performance indexes to be considered. The design complexity increases even further when the application requires high speed operation, with consequent rotor structural constraints and related effects on the electromagnetic performance. Structured as two-parts companion papers, this work proposes a comprehensive design procedure able to consider all the non-linear aspects of the machine behaviour, greatly reducing the number of independent design variables, without worsening the computational burden. In particular, the non linear behaviour of the rotor iron ribs and the effect of the permanent magnets on the structural design are all taken into account with the proposed iterative design procedure targeting the achievement of a desired power factor. The proposed method will be then used to draw some preliminary design considerations highlighting the several trade-offs involved in the design of high speed permanent magnet assisted synchronous reluctance machine. Part I is setting the theoretical bricks that will be further expanded and experimentally validated in the companion paper Part II.