Fault Detection and Fault-Tolerant Control of Switched Reluctance Motor Based on Dual-Sensor Current Detection Scheme

This article proposes a fast fault identification method and a fault-tolerant control method for the power converter of a six-phase switched reluctance motor (SRM). First, a dual-sensor current detection scheme is presented for six-phase SRMs. By treating the six-phase system as two independent single-sensor systems and analyzing the current overlapping states of SRM drives across different phases, the proposed method eliminates the need for additional current sensors or complex algorithms. Second, by analyzing the current error of each phase in the driving system, the proposed control method can effectively detect and locate the fault type and location of the power converter. Finally, a new multilevel converter topology for power converters is introduced to achieve fault tolerance. This novel topology reduces the number of transistors while providing the ability to tolerate open-circuit and short-circuit faults of a single transistor. The proposed method is experimentally validated using a 12/10 six-phase SRM. Driving experiments are performed on this power converter under both normal and fault-tolerant modes, and the current and torque characteristics are compared. These experiments confirm the unique characteristics and capabilities of the proposed SRM drive.