ANJUMAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

AND
TECHNOLOGY,
NAGPUR

Explain the Construction & Working of

Reluctance
Motor
Presented By:-
Lav Godbole (17)

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Reluctance Motor

Figure (1)

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 Reluctance Motor
The origin of this motor can be traced back to
1842. The Synchronous reluctance motor has a stator
wounded as that of a 3-phase induction machine. It works
as a synchronous motor without DC field winding in its
rotor.
A reluctance motor is a type of electric motor that
induces non-permanent magnetic poles on the
ferromagnetic rotor. Torque is generated through the
phenomenon of magnetic reluctance. Hence, it is not a
permanent magnet motor, because its salient rotor is
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composed of soft ferromagnetic material (of a thin

 Construction of Reluctance Motor Rotor

1- Notch-Type Rotor
• “Notch” areas are of
“High-Reluctance”.
• “Pole” areas are known as
“Salient” Poles.
• Number of salient
poles must match the
number of stator poles.
Figure (2) 4
2- Flat and Barrier Slot Rotors

Figure (4)
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 Principle of Operation
When a piece of magnetic
material is free to move in a
magnetic field, it will align
itself with the magnetic field
to minimize the reluctance of
the magnetic circuit. To put it
another way the piece will
orient itself towards the
Figure (5)
magnetic pole creating the
field. The torque on the rotor
created in this way is called
the reluctance torque. 6
Rotor accelerates towards
synchronous speed
At a “critical” speed, the low-
reluctance paths provided by the
salient poles will cause them to
“snap” into synchronism with the
rotating flux.
When the rotor synchronizes, slip
is equal to zero
Rotor pulled around by
“reluctance torque” Figure (6)
Figure (6) shows the rotor 7
synchronized at no load.
• A “step” increase in load slows
the rotor down, and the rotor
poles “lag” the stator poles.
• The angle of lag, δ, is called the
“torque angle”.
• The rotor speed is synchronous
and the slip
• The maximum torque angle, =
45°.

Figure
8 (7)
 • Maximum load happen when .
• If load increases so that , the
flux path is “over stretched”
and the rotor falls out of
synchronism.
• Motor runs at slip speed

°
45 𝑟
𝐹 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 N

Rotor radius S
𝑟
𝑇 =𝐹 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 ×𝑟 N
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S
Figure (9) Figure (8)
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Types of reluctance motor:
There are two types of reluctance motor:
1. Synchronous reluctance motor.
2. Switched reluctance motor, or (Variable
reluctance motor(.

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 Single-phase Reluctance Motor

Figure
(10)

Let us discuss how a single-phase reluctance motor works.

When the stator of the reluctance motor is supplied with an AC
supply as a (single phase), (split-phase) induction motor, the
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motor starts due to the (induction torque) of the induced eddy
current in the rotor short-circuited bars.
 Gradually it accelerates and attains speed very close
to synchronous speed. The starting/ centrifugal switch
disconnects the axillary winding of the motor at a speed of about
75% of the synchronous speed. When the reluctance motor starts
to run at a speed close to synchronous speed, a reluctance torque
is produced. The rotor aligns itself in minimum reluctance
position. The rotor pulls into synchronism. After
pulling into synchronism, the induction torque disappears but the
rotor remains in synchronism due to synchronous reluctance
torque alone. The motor adjusts its torque angle for change in
load as in 3-ph synchronous motor. If load is excessive motor
may not pull into synchronism and it may pull out of
synchronism.
In a 3-phase reluctance motor the stator winding
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are
the same as that of the induction motor with salient pole rotor as
that shown in Fig. (10) above.
Thank
You !!!
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