The switched reluctance machine (SRM) is one of the most interesting machines, being adopted for many applications. However, this machine requires a power electronic converter that usually is the most fragile element of the system. Thus, in order to ensure high reliability for this system, it is fundamental to design a power electronic converter with fault-tolerant capability. In this context, a new solution is proposed to give this capability to the system. This converter was designed with the purpose to ensure fault-tolerant capability to two types of switch faults, namely open- and short-circuit. Moreover, apart from this feature, the proposed topology is characterized by a multilevel operation that allows improvement of the performance of the SRM, taking into consideration a wide speed range. Although the proposed solution is presented for an 8/6 SRM, it can be used for other configurations. The operation of the proposed topology will be described for the two modes, fault-tolerant and normal operation. Another aspect that is addressed in this paper is the proposal of fault detection and diagnosis method for this fault-tolerant inverter. It was specifically developed for a multilevel SRM drive. The theoretical assumptions will be verified through two different types of tests, firstly by simulation and secondly by experiments with a laboratory prototype.

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Fault-Tolerant Multilevel Converter to Feed a Switched Reluctance Machine

There is a strong general demand for the permanent improvement of electrical machines. Nowadays, these are at their near maximum potential, and even small further improvements can only be achieved with great effort and high cost. The single solution should be a paradigm shift in their development, by using radically new approaches to topology, materials, and fabrication. Therefore, the application of diverse 3D printing techniques for advanced fabrication in this field is inevitable. Therefore, these new approaches are receiving a great deal of attention among electrical machines designers. In the paper, the possible applications of these new fabrication technologies in the field of electrical machines are surveyed. The focus is set on emphasizing the advancement over the traditional manufacturing approaches.

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The Key Role of 3D Printing Technologies in the Further Development of Electrical Machines

Compared to the proportional-integral strategy, the repetitive control strategy possesses high suppression ability for the alternating current (AC) harmonics of control signals. Thus, RC controllers are widely used in closed-loop control systems to suppress the periodic harmonics. In order to further improve the brushless DC (BLDC) motor operation performance, a frequency adaptive repetitive controller (FARC) is proposed, and then a novel current loop scheme that concatenation of proportional-integral controller (PIC) and FARC controller is established in this paper. Firstly, due to the real sampling number of the delay element in the BLDC, the motor control system may not be an integer, the designing process of the FARC parameters was studied, and an adaptive internal model controller and a novel decomposition rule for FARC were designed based on Lagrange interpolation theory. Secondly, the PIC parameters were analyzed through three-dimensional and two-dimensional images of the frequency characteristics. Furthermore, a composite controller that added a forward channel in the novel current loop was proposed, and the stability of the control system used the composite controller was analyzed through Lyapunov theory. It should be noted that the analysis of FARC mainly focused on the simplified structure and the parameter optimization, which is usually ignored in the previous studies. Finally, the BLDC motor control system model was established through Matlab/Simulink software, and the operation performances of the BLDC motor control system utilizing different current loop controllers were studied. The simulation results show that the proposed FARC can reduce current distortion and torque ripples, thus, the BLDC motor operation performances can be improved effectively.

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Current Harmonic Suppression of BLDC Motor Utilizing Frequency Adaptive Repetitive Controller

This paper addresses the fault detection and diagnosis of a fault in the switches of the Switched Reluctance Machine (SRM) power electronic converter. Due to the advantages of using multilevel converters with these machines, a fault detection and diagnosis algorithm is proposed for this converter. The topology under consideration is the asymmetric Neutral Point Clamped (ANPC), and the algorithm was developed to detect open and short circuit faults. The proposed algorithm is based on an approach that discriminates eccentricity of the images formed by the converter voltages. This discrimination is realized through the development of normalized indexes based on the entropy theory. Besides the different fault type the algorithm is also able to detect the transistor under fault. The possibility to implement the proposed approach will be verified through simulation tests.

A Fault Diagnosis Scheme Based on the Normalized Indexes of the Images eccentricity for a Multilevel Converter of a Switched Reluctance Motor Drive

Switched reluctance motors (SRMs) are simple in structure, easy to manufacture, magnet-less, brushless, and highly robust compared to other AC motors which makes them a good option for applications that operate in harsh environment. However, the motor has non-linear magnetic characteristics, and it comes with various pole-phase combinations and circuit topologies that causes many difficulties in deciding on which type to choose. In this paper, the viability of SRM as a low-cost, rugged machine for vehicle radiator cooling fan is considered. First, necessary design considerations are presented, then three commonly use types of SRM are analyzed: A 3-phase 6/4, 3-phase 12/8, and a 4-phase 8/6 to find their static and dynamic characteristics so the most suitable type can be selected. Simulation results show that the 8/6 SRM produces the highest efficiency with less phase current which reduces the converter burden. However, with asymmetric half bridge converter, eight power switches are required for 8/6 SRM and thus put a burden on the overall drive cost. As a solution, the Miller converter with only six switches for four phase SRM. To verify the proposed idea, the 8/6 SRM was manufactured and tested. The results show that Miller converter can be used for the proposed SRM with slightly reduced efficiency at 80.4%.

Mazahir Hussain Shah

Papers

Design Considerations and Selection of Cost-Effective Switched Reluctance Drive for Radiator Cooling Fans