Control of Pseudo-Sinusoidal Switched Reluctance Motor with Zero Torque Ripple and Damped Input Current Ripple

Switched reluctance motor(SRM)drives are favored in many industrial applications because of their cost advantage and ruggedness. However, the torque ripple and bus current ripple of SRM restrict its application range  compared with traditional AC and DC motors due to the doubly salient pole structure and the highly non-linear coupling between torque, rotor position and phase current. As a result of the torque ripple on the shaft, unwilling large acoustic noises are generated. The large current ripple at the DC bus input requires large electrolytic capacitors for attenuation. However, electrolytic capacitors are of low reliability, which will reduce the duration of the control system. Because of these disadvantages, the acceptance of SRM by the industry, especially in servo-type applications which require stationary torque at low speed, is quite slow. In order to obtain high quality control, there have been many efforts in developing techniques for torque ripple attenuation. Primarily, two approaches are used to give a smooth torque. One is to improve the magnetic design, the other is to use sophisticated control techniques. Some torque control techniques have been proved to obtain a relatively good performance by simulations and experimental results. This thesis gives an alternative torque ripple minimization technique. Simulations and Experiments are conducted to show the effectiveness of this new control scheme. Under this new control scheme, the current controller are much easier to be designed under high speed application, which could be an advantage of it.

First, the SRM operating principle is presented. The torque of SRM is produced by the tendency of its moveable part shifting to a position where the inductance of the exited winding is maximized. The torque ripple origin is discussed in terms of both magnetization and control. The torque ripple is produced during phase commutation interval because the phase current cannot rise from zero to the nominal value instantaneously due to the existence of the phase inductance.

Second, a new torque control scheme is proposed. The new torque control of SRM is split into two cascade sub-tasks. At first, a current reference for ripple free torque is determined. Then a current controller is designed to regulate the current in the stator winding to reference value. Simulations are conducted to verify the effective of this torque control scheme in both ideal 'sinusoidal' SRM and a 'Pseudo-Sinusoidal' SRM.

Finally, a motor drive control system is built to implement the new control scheme. The motor is tested under different speeds to see the torque ripple produced in different speed ranges.

As a conclusion, the new control algorithm for constant torque and damped input bus current ripple is investigated. The advantages of this new torque control method are listed in the paper. Simulation and experimental results show the effectiveness of this new control method.