| Abstract | This paper analyzes and compares the Synchronous
Reluctance Motor (SynRM) performance for a conventional star
winding and for a combined star-delta connected winding under
healthy and faulty conditions. The Finite Element Method (FEM)
is used to simulate the SynRM characteristics in case of normal
star and in case of combined star-delta connected windings. For
the healthy case, it was found that for the same current, the
SynRM output power increased by about 5% for the star-delta
connected windings compared with the conventional star
connection. Moreover, the efficiency increased slightly by 0.20%.
Probably the strongest advantage of the combined star-delta
winding is observed when a phase fault occurs. When one phase is
missing, for the same current, the star-delta connected motor
keeps 80% of the rated torque in the healthy case, while the star
connected motor only keeps 40%. Furthermore, the torque ripple
of the star wound machine is extremely high in case of a missing
phase, compared to the star-delta wound machine. Simulation
results were validated by experimental results to show the
effectiveness of the star-delta connected windings on the SynRM. |