Design and testing of a switched reluctance motor with additively manufactured ferromagnetic cores

This work presents an additively manufactured 8/6 switched reluctance motor prototype. The motor is designed utilising topology optimisation. The designed motor is then analysed using 2D finite element method (FEM). A prototype motor is built using laser powder-bed fusion manufactured stator and rotor ferromagnetic Fe-Co-V cores. The prototype motor is tested at several operation points, and the torque and rotation speed are measured as well as the phase voltages and currents. The measured quantities are then used to derive the mechanical and electrical power of the motor, with winding resistive and core losses. The results show that because the motor cores are solid, they suffer from high eddy current losses. However, the motor is able to produce the mechanical power that was estimated by the 2D FEM model.