JCSE Journal of Control Science and Engineering 1687-5257 1687-5249 Hindawi Publishing Corporation 491625 10.1155/2008/491625 491625 Research Article Nonlinear Speed Control of Switched Reluctance Motor Drives Taking into Account Mutual Inductance Alrifai M. alrifm@eng.kuniv.edu.kw 1 Zribi M. mzribi@eng.kuniv.edu.kw 1 Krishnan R. kramu@vt.edu 2 Rayan M. rayan@eng.kuniv.edu.kw 1 Boulet Benoit 1 Electrical Engineering Department College of Engineering and Petroleum Kuwait University P.O. Box 5969 Safat 13060 Kuwait kuniv.edu 2 Center for Rapid Transit Systems Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Virginia Tech University 461 Durham Hall Blacksburg, VA 24061-011 USA vt.edu 2008 25 03 2008 2008 04 11 2007 28 12 2007 2008 Copyright © 2008 M. Alrifai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A speed control algorithm is proposed for variable speed switched reluctance motor (SRM) drives taking into account the effects of mutual inductances. The control scheme adopts two-phase excitation; exciting two adjacent phases can overcome the problems associated with single-phase excitation such as large torque ripple, increased acoustic noise, and rotor shaft fatigues. The effects of mutual coupling between two adjacent phases and their contribution to the generated electromagnetic torque are considered in the design of the proposed control scheme for the motor. The proposed controller guarantees the convergence of the currents and the rotor speed of the motor to their desired values. Simulation results are given to illustrate the developed theory; the simulation studies show that the proposed controller works well. Moreover, the simulation results indicate that the proposed controller is robust to changes in the parameters of the motor and to changes in the load torque.