Additive Manufacturing and Testing of a Soft Magnetic Rotor for a Switched Reluctance Motor

Additive manufacturing is acknowledged as a key enabling technology, although its adoption is still constrained to niche applications. A promising area for this technology is the production of electrical machines (EMs) and/or their main components (e.g. magnetic cores, windings, heat exchangers, etc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE access 2020, Vol.8, p.206982-206991
Main Authors: Gargalis, Leonidas, Madonna, Vincenzo, Giangrande, Paolo, Rocca, Roberto, Hardy, Mark, Ashcroft, Ian, Galea, Michael, Hague, Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3D printed rotor
AC electric drives
Additive manufacturing
Benchmark testing
Coils (windings)
Comparative studies
Electric bridges
finite element simulation
Heat exchangers
laser powder bed fusion
Magnetic cores
Magnetic materials
Moments of inertia
Performance evaluation
Powder beds
Powders
Reluctance machinery
Rotors
Silicon
silicon steel
Silicon steels
soft magnetic material
Soft magnetic materials
Steel
switched reluctance machine
Three dimensional printing
Three-dimensional displays
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Summary:Additive manufacturing is acknowledged as a key enabling technology, although its adoption is still constrained to niche applications. A promising area for this technology is the production of electrical machines (EMs) and/or their main components (e.g. magnetic cores, windings, heat exchangers, etc.) due to the potential of creating lightweight, highly efficient rotating motors, suitable for applications requiring a low moment of inertia. This work investigates the readiness of metal additive manufacturing, specifically Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), applied to the field of EMs to bridge the gaps of how to use this technological approach in this field. A soft magnetic material featuring high silicon content (Fe-5.0%w.t.Si) has been developed for LPBF and a rotor has been 3D-printed for a switched reluctance machine. The printed rotor was assembled into a conventionally laminated stator and the performance of the whole machine was evaluated. Its performance was compared against an identical machine equipped with a laminated rotor of the same dimensions made of conventional non-oriented silicon steel. A comparative study was carried out through both finite element simulations and experimental tests. The efficiency of the two machines was assessed together with the principal electrical and mechanical quantities under several operating conditions.
ISSN:2169-3536
2169-3536
DOI:10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3037190