Design and Performance Evaluation of a High-Speed Switched-Reluctance Integrated Motor-Compressor

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to design a newly conceived high-speed integrated motor-compressor (IMC) based on a switched reluctance machine (SRM) and to evaluate four different designs by changing the stator tooth thickness and skew angle between stator and rotor. The proposed reluctance-based machine is a magnet-less machine which makes the compressor unit low cost as well as allows for higher operating temperatures. The rotor of the proposed integrated machine has poles shaped like airfoils, functioning as both a rotor of the motor as well as an axial fan. It can rotate to draw air into the rotor and accelerate the flow through the rotor stage. The high-speed flow provides forced convection to the rotor, stator, windings, and magnets. In this work, the high-speed performance of the motor as well as the characterization of motor parameters are evaluated by finite element analysis (FEA).