Control of Switched Reluctance Motor Drive With Reduced Current Sensors

Abstract

To reduce the cost and to improve system performance and reliability, this paper deals with a current sensor reduction technique for switched reluctance motor (SRM), running using fundamental switching of a midpoint converter with fewer devices than a conventional SRM asymmetric half-bridge converter. A midpoint converter energizes phases of SRM drive and requires four current sensors for a 4-phase SRM. The developed current sensing technique with reduced current sensors for mid-point converter-based SRM drive is presented. The torque sharing function (TSF) based indirect instantaneous torque control is implemented, reducing torque ripple and contributing to current reconstruction. The presented current sensing technique uses one neutral current sensor and two sensors for any two-phase windings and TSF commutation angles. The commutation angles are optimized as a multiobjective problem to improve drive performance with reduced torque ripple and increased average torque. Utilizing presented approach, drive-effective cost is reduced simultaneously, and there is an increase in system reliability and improved performance. A 4-phase, 8/6 SRM is employed to validate viability of presented technique with simulation and experimental results.