A method to evaluate the parameters and to predict the performance characte
ristics of Axially Laminated Anisotropic (ALA) rotor Synchronous Reluctance
Motor (SynRM) drive systems is presented. The method is based on the use o
f an iterative approach which indirectly couples a two dimensional (2D) non
linear finite element (FE) model, which accounts for anisotropy, to a state
space model describing the SynRM drive system. At the heart of this method
is an inductance computation technique which is based on the use of a relu
ctivity tensor. The results of applying this approach to a prototype ALA ro
tor SynRM drive system are presented.