Design Optimization of Switched Reluctance Motor for Aerospace Application

The switched reluctance motor, due to the high MTBF, mates properly the aerospace reliability requirements. In normal operation the electric machine operates in healthy mode but it is designed to satisfy the load specifications also with one or two faulty phases. This paper presents a design optimization for a five-phase switched reluctance motor developed to satisfy the requirements of flap actuators in medium size aircrafts. The design issues are described at the beginning in order to introduce the problem, than the optimization procedure is described. A new Controlled Random Search (CRS) algorithm is used for minimizing the optimization function. The detailed finite-element analysis validates the better performance of the optimized solution. Experimental tests on the motor prototype are included.