Optimal rotor design for brushless doubly fed reluctance machines

This paper examines the impact of the rotor design on the torque and power factor of the brushless doubly fed reluctance machine (BDFRM) with an axially laminated rotor and radially laminated rotor. The performance of this type of machine depends on the ability of the rotor to couple the field of the primary winding to the secondary and vice versa. Models to date have been based on a first order approach ignoring higher order harmonics. This paper aims to evaluate the theoretical model of this machine by examining higher order harmonics in the gap field distribution, with an aim to determine an optimal rotor design for torque generation and machine power factor.