The effects of accounting for material anisotropy on the energy performance
characteristics of the axially laminated anisotropic (ALA) rotor synchrono
us reluctance motor (SynRM) are presented. These effects are evaluated from
the simulation of indirectly coupled magnetic field-electric circuit model
s which fully accounts for magnetic saturation and space harmonics, to a ti
me variant state space model describing the SynRM drive system. Furthermore
, the simulation method fully accounts for strong "material" and "structura
l" anisotropy exhibited in the curved flux barrier regions of the rotor ALA
-rotor SynRM. The simulation results are validated by direct measurement of
inductances and energy conversion performance of a 100 kW prototype ALA-ro
tor synchronous reluctance machine.