Performance Comparison of Two Soft Starting Schemes of Power Converter for a Switched Reluctance Motor Lab Prototype

This paper deals with two soft-start methods for a double-sided axial flux switched reluctance motor driven by a modified split-DC converter. A thorough analysis of transient speed response and starting current of the motor has been performed with the conventional split-DC converter. It was found that the motor took significantly longer time to reach the steady speed due to insufficient air-gap flux during initial duration of PWM. To overcome this drawback, a modification in the power converter has been suggested which has shown significantly better performance. The motor under test is a laboratory designed and fabricated with a rating of 0.75 hp, 24 V, 8S/6R DSAF-SRM. The motor performances with PWM soft start method have been analysed in FEM for both the converters which is next validated experimentally also. The results are found to be in good mutual agreement.