Reduced Switch Fault Tolerant Converter for an 8/6 SRM Drive With Multilevel Voltage Characteristics

The Switched Reluctance Machine (SRM) needs a drive for its operation, highlighting the essential role of maintaining its health for proper machine functioning. In this context, this paper proposes a new power converter topology for the SRM drive that provides fault-tolerant capability. However, since fault-tolerant topologies require an important amount of extra switches, the proposed topology was designed with the purpose of minimizing them. Compared to other similar topologies, it requires nearly half of the number of switches. Another specific characteristic of this drive is that it allows to provide several voltage levels to improve the machine's performance. The operation of the drive and machine under normal and fault-tolerant conditions will be presented. On the other hand, the claimed characteristics of the proposed system will be verified by several simulation studies. These studies will show that the machine can operate normally even when there are switches under fault.