In this paper, a novel 12/8 segmental rotor type switched reluctance motor (SRM) is proposed for cooling fan applications. Unlike conventional structures, the rotor of the proposed structure is constructed from a series of discrete segments, and the stator is constructed from two types of stator poles: exciting and auxiliary poles. Moreover, in this structure, short flux paths are taken and no flux reversion exists in the stator. While the auxiliary poles are not wound by the windings, which only provide the flux return path. When compared with the conventional SRM, the proposed structure increases the electrical utilization of the machine and decreases the core losses, which may lead to a higher efficiency. To verify the proposed structure, the finite element method (FEM) and Matlab-Simulink are employed to get the static and dynamic characteristics of the proposed SRM. Finally, a prototype of the proposed motor was tested for characteristic comparisons.