A Mechanically Robust Rotor With Transverse Laminations for a Wide-Speed-Range Synchronous Reluctance Traction Motor

From a traction application point of view, proper operation of the synchronous reluctance motor over a wide speed range and mechanical robustness is desired. This paper presents new methods to improve the rotor mechanical integrity and the flux weakening capability at high speed using geometrical and variable ampere-turns concepts. The results from computer-aided analysis and experiment are compared to evaluate the methods. It is shown that, to achieve a proper design at high speed, the magnetic and mechanical performances need to be simultaneously analyzed due to their mutual effect.