Switched reluctance motor drive with low-speed performance improvement

This paper deals with the analysis and implementation of a switched reluctance motor drive featuring good performance even at low speeds. The combination of a suitable design and current control strategies can lead to a significant improvement of the motor drive performances. After having identified the electrical parameters of the considered motor in terms of stator resistance and inductance, different current control structures have been compared by numerical simulations and experimental tests, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. Torque measurements are also included to enable analysis of current regulation on the developed electromagnetic torque. Also a new current controller is proposed based on a modification of a PD controller. From the study carried out on a traction drive, it was found that some control strategies can provide a good transient response while preserving low computational requirements. This is important not only for efficient and reliable drive operation, but also for torque ripple minimization.