Abstract
The Electrically Excited Doubly Salient Variable Reluctance Machine (EEDSVRM) is a new type of brushless machine designed according to the principle of air gap reluctance change. There is neither permanent magnet steel nor excitation winding on the rotor. The rotor is made of silicon steel sheets, thus the structure of the variable reluctance machine is very simple. There are many optimization methods for this type of machine optimal design, such as novel machine topology optimization, finite element simulation-based optimization, mathematical analysis-based optimization, intelligent algorithm-based optimization, and multiple fusion-based optimization. Firstly, this article introduces the basic structure and working principle of the EEDSVRM and analyzes both its common regularity and individual difference. Then, the different optimization design methods of EEDSVRM are reviewed, the advantages and disadvantages of the different optimization methods are summarized, and the research interests of the optimization design of variable reluctance machines in the future are prospected.