Technical Paper Presentation

On

Switched Reluctance Motor Drive

- A Concept in Variable Speed
Drive

A.Sanjay
V.Ravi Kanth
03571A0253
03571A0249
EEE III/IV EEE
III/IV
sanjay0220@yahoo.com
ravi_kanth232003@yahoo.com
 Sree Visveswaraya Institute
Of

Technology & sciences

Abstract:-
An important factor in selection of a motor and a drive
for an industrial application is the cost .The general trend in motor is to design low
cost, highly energy efficient and high reliability .The Switched Reluctance Motor
(SRM) is a simple, low cost and robust motor and is therefore suitable for variable
speed and servo type application. With relatively simple converter and control
requirement, the Switched Reluctance Motor is gaining an increasing attention in the
drive industry. The name switched reluctance has now become the popular term for
this class of electrical machine .Sometimes the variable reluctance motor is called
switched reluctance motor or simply reluctance motor. The VR motor is called the
worlds simplest motor.

Introduction:-
The switched reluctance motor (SR motor) is also called the variable
reluctance motor (VR motor). In 1838, Davidson made the first model of this
type. This motor has neither a permanent magnet nor a coil in its rotor, so its
structure is simple and cheap, and its mechanism is durable. The lack of a
permanent magnet in the rotor prevents overheating magnetic interference
with the transmission; it can also be driven under high-temperature conditions.
However, the control system must be able to control the current precisely to
drive this motor. They can only drive such as the base of a cannon common at
that time technology level.
 In the 1950s, the motor was used as a step action motor, but
it was known for its noise and vibration problems. Through progress in
simulation technology and electronic controls, the design of the poles and
coils was improved, as was the wave shape control of the drive current. The
SR motor has recently become the motor of choice in mass-produced electric
vehicles because of its low cost and good durability .

Construction Principle of Operation:-

A Reluctance motor is an electrical motor in which torque is
produced by tendency of its movable parts to move to position where the inductance of
the excited winding is maximum.

The SRM is a single excited motor with salient pole on both stator
and rotor with phase coils mounted around diametrically opposite on stator poles.
Energisation of a phase will lead to the rotor moving into alignment with the stator
poles, so minimizing the reluctance of the magnetic path .The rotor turn is sequentially
switch the current from one phase to next page and to synchronize each phase excitation
as a function of rotor position .The direction of rotation is independent of current
direction flowing through phase windings ;it only depends on the sequence of stator
winding excitation .The reluctance of flux path between two diagonally opposite stator
pole varies as a pair of rotor poles moves in and out of alignment. Since inductance is
inversely proportional to reluctance as the rotor pole moves from the unaligned
position, with a stator pole, the inductance of that stator coil varies from minimum
value to maximum value.

The SR motor has pointed poles in both the stator and the rotor. Each of the coils of the
pointed poles in the stator is fed the actuating current according to the location of the
rotor. The current creates a continuous magnetic pulling force for the rotor that allows it
to rotate. Figure 5.52 shows the structure and the actuating principle. This figure shows
the example of 6 poles in the stator and 4 poles in the rotor. This is called a 3-phase 6/4
structure. The stator is made of laminated silicon steel sheets and the coils of all the
opposite poles are connected in series. The rotor is also made of laminated silicon steel
sheets. Figure 5.52 shows the actuating principle. The current is fed to stator poles I and I'
to induce the magnetic force that pulls the rotor poles a and c to I to I', respectively. This
in turn creates clockwise rotation torque. Pole a of the rotor comes to the same position as
pole I of the stator (status 2), the reluctance of the magnetic circuit is minimum, and the
pulling force acts in only the radial direction and does not create more torque. The coils
of the stator poles II and II' are then switched on to feed the current. Pole b of the rotor is
pulled toward pole II' of the stator, and pole d of the rotor is pulled toward pole II of the
stator, thereby causing the rotor to rotate clockwise. And when pole d comes to the same
position as pole II (status 3), the coils of the stator poles III and III' are switched on to
pull pole a of the rotor to pole III of the stator to induce a continuous clockwise rotation.

Production of Torque:-
The basic difference in torque production mechanism between the SRM
and conventional DC and AC motors is the dependency of mechanism on rotor position.
In conventional motor, the torque is produced by mutual interaction of two mmf created
by the armature flux and field flux.

Torque production in Reluctance machine is achieved by the tendency

of rotor to move to a position where the inductance and hence magnetic field energy of
 the excited winding is minimized. The direction of current is immaterial in torque
production .Positive torque can be produced only if rotor is between unaligned position
and next aligned position in forward direction .Motoring torque can be produced in
direction of raising inductance. If the current is flowing when rotor is in a position
where the inductance is decreasing in direction of rotation, the torque is negative
(breaking or generating torque).The torque ripple in SRM drive also effected by number
of phases as shown in fig.3.

The general voltage expression of an electrical coil with a resistance

R and with (t) represented the instantaneous flux coupled with this coil is given by

V=R*i (t) +d (t) ------------- ( 1 )

dt

In Switched Reluctance Motor the inductance L is a complex

function of position and current in the coil:

(t) =L {i (t), (t)*i (t)} and m= (d/dt) --------------- ( 2 )

Where is the mechanical angle of rotor position and m the rotational

speed.

Using equation (1) and (2), the dynamic phase voltage equation of a
Switched Reluctance Motor with the rotor position and rotational speed m, neglecting
mutual coupling effects, can be stated as follows:

Vph= R*i (t) +i(t)+L(i,)*di + i(t)L(i,)m --------------( 3 )

i dt

The last term in equation (3) is a back emf of SRM.

e= m*i* L(i,) ----------------------( 4 )

With constant current ,equation (4) is linked to both increase in magnetic field energy and
produced mechanical power .In unsaturated condition ,both term equal each other ,and
torque is expressed as
 T2= i2*L(i,) ----------------------( 5 )
2

When (L/) >0 the torque is positive and electrical power is converted into mechanical
power (monitoring), while (L/) <0 the torque is negative and mechanical power is
converted into electrical power (generating) .The produced torque is independent of
direction of current, since i2 is always positive.

There are primarily two approaches for reducing torque ripple. One
method is to improve the magnetic design of the motor. The machine designer is able to
reduce the torque ripple by changing the rotor and stator structure. Other is used to
sophisticated electronic control technique. The electronic approach is based on
optimizing the control parameter .Which include the supply voltage, turn-on and turn-off
angle and current level.

The recent approaches of torque ripple minimization attempt smooth

torque over a wide speed range. Although the torque ripples wil progressively increase
the speed. The advancement of powerful microprocessor and DSPs is reducing both the
cost and complexity.

Converters for SRM:-

A number of power electronic converter circuits exist for Switched
Reluctance Machines, which are generally allocable to most loads .The phase
independence and unipolar current requirement have generated a wide variety of
converters for SRM drives. For each stroke of motor, the power electronic converter for a
Switched Reluctance Motor is requires three conditions. They are:
1. A positive voltage loop to increase the flux in phase winding.
2. It must have ability to reduce the applied voltage if the desired current level is reached.
3. It must apply a negative voltage to turn off, also refer to as a negative voltage loop.

Some functional requirement of converter should ideally meet:

It needs to control the voltage applied to the winding at low speed, so as
to limit the winding current .Either voltage or current PWM control can
be used.
 It needs to have sufficiently high forcing voltage at each operation point
so that the current is injected sufficiently quickly in to the winding .This is
requirement is critical at high speed since the time available is decreased .
Its has to have a high demagnetizing voltage as possible in order to
shorten the current tail, thus avoiding negative torque and/ or permitting
an extension of dwell angle.
It has provide independent control of phase current in motors having
current overlap ,so that energy can be supplied to one phase while
extracting it simultaneously from the other phase.
It has to provide efficient energy recycling during a demagnetizing
interval. This is an important requirement given the highly cyclically
energy exchange between the converter and motor.
It should isolate the AC network from the current pulse the shocks caused
by the motor.

As the torque is independent of direction of current, the flux linkage and

the current as well as the topology of converter circuit is a unipolar this mode of operation
is permits the simpler form of converter .the basic converter of Switched Reluctance Motor
is shown in fig 4.This converter circuit is known as Half Bridge converter or classic
converter .This converter uses to power semiconductors switches and two diodes for each
phase winding, each switch rated to withstand DC supply voltage. Each motor phase has
three possible states during conductions of phase .Consider the phase 1.
State 1: Magnetization- both semiconductors switches, s1 & s2 are on. The motor winding
experiences the full dc supply voltage.The current increases rapidly in a positive volt loop.

State 2: Free wheeling-the motor winding is short circuit ed either throw s1 or s2 and rate
of demagnetization is low. This is a zero volt loop in which one of switches is off the
current continuous to flow through the free wheeling diode associated with the open
switch.

State 3: Forced demagnetization-the final mode of operation is a negative volt loop. Both
s1 & s2 are off and full dc supply voltage appears across the motor winding in reverse
direction. The winding current charges the capacitor C against the dc link voltage. The
current falls quickly as energy is returned to the supply via both the free wheeling diodes.

Comparison of SRM and other drives:-

Different industry motors have been compared in order to gain an
overview of the characteristic of electrical motor. An objective theory based comparison
of different drive systems (working principles, material characteristics etc.,) is very
difficult. It is therefore compared the data of existence of Drive systems. The appropriate
systems can be modified according to the specific need as given below.
System Dc motor BLDC Induction Switched
(Permanent Motor Reluctance
Magnet) (Squirrel Motor
Cage)
Sensors NO Yes NO Yes
Magnet NO Yes NO NO
Robustness Least Moderate Highest High
Electronic Simple Complex Complex Simple
Converter
Efficiency Low High High High
Performance poor Excellent Good Very Good
Noise Medium Least Least High
Comfort Less High High High
The performance of SR drive is much better than other industrial drives. The efficiency of
SR drive is 2- 7% more than induction motor at base speed as shown in figure 6. The
characteristics of SR drive are fully programmable and it can change as per requirement
of application .The Switched Reluctance Motor has reduced requirement in respect of
motor winding, commutator, balancing etc.SR drive gives better performance at variable
speed application as shown in figure 7.At low speed torque, SR drive gives 1.6-1.8 time
more torque for same frame size induction motor .
The Switched Reluctance Motor has about half inertia as compare to other servo drives .It
is suitable for servo application. At low speed power drives drive can accurately
programmable control.
Advantages of SRM:-
Rugged, simple, low cost machine.
Permanent magnets not used to produce torque.
Operates without any mechanical brush/commutator range.
Capable of operation over wide temperature range.
Zero torque under short circuit conditions.
High torque low speed gearless design possible.
Relatively simple drive topology required and eases the production leading
to further reduction in switch size up to 50%.
It can potentially operate in high temperature environment.
It gives almost unlimited starts/stop frequency with very high speed.
It has wide torque bandwidth and it can be design and program as per
application requirement.
No additional soft starter is required because control circuit itself is work as
soft starter.
 Disadvantages of SRM:-

It provides higher sound and vibration.

It is a new technology causes lack of infrastructure, lack of experience and

inherent risk.
Below rated power, efficiency is very poor.
High quality motor steel and good production methods are mandatory.

Noise and Vibration: Causes & Reduction

Techniques:-
The generation of acoustic noise is a characteristic of all electric motors; it is more
problematic in Switched Reluctance Motors. the possible noise sources in a SRM are

Radial forces are developed by the tendency of rotor to aligned minimum

reluctance position.
Force acting on the current carrying phase winding.
Magnetostrictive forces in all compressible magnetic materials under
magnetic field.
The imperfection in bearing can lead to vibrations of rotor shaft.
Non uniformities in the manufacturing process can produce radial or axial
forces lead to vibrations.

The magnitude of radial forces is proportional to the square of the air gap flux, making its
relationship with current very nonlinear.The largest vibrations are produced when an odd
harmonics of exciting phase current and the resonant frequency of the stator are
coincident .The smaller vibrations are produced with the coincidence of even harmonics
of the exciting current and resonant frequency of the stator.
There are several techniques were developed for reducing the noise and vibrations.Some
of them are

Selection of current conduction angle away from the aligned position.

Controlling the firing of the phases based on the mechanical vibrations.
Implementing turn off in two stages so that the induced vibrations cancel
each other.
The hybrid excitation method has and additional overlap of the two phase
excitation region.
To reduce acoustic noise and vibration by introducing improved slot wedges
referred as structural stator spacers. These spacers are made of very stiff
dielectric and nonmagnetic material.

Application of SRM:-
The application of SRM should focus on those areas where it is superior. These areas are

High efficiency at rated load like pumps, compressors and fans.

Ease of sensorless feedback, highly efficient hermetically sealed
compressors.
High temperature ambient environment aerospace, drilling.
Large motor with high power density traction drive, linear drives.
Good power density and high speed efficiency turbine starters/generators,
high speed compressors.
Special application electric bike.
It is a low inertia motor and used for servo control applications.

Conclusion:-
Presently the enormous investment in tooling and infrastructure related to the design,
manufacturing, sales, commissioning, maintainence, and control for the Switched
Reluctance Motor is less. Now research and development work is making more effort to
minimize the all drawbacks.

Reference:

S Mir, A High Performance Switched Reluctance Motor Drive, March

1998(Abstract).

Switched Reluctance drives limited, UK, products catalog.

D E Cameron and J H Lang and S D UMANS.The Origin Of Acoustic Noise

In Variable Reluctance Motors, Proc IEEE IAS,PP 108-115,1989.