Analysis of a Reduced Parts Converter for Bipolar Excitation of an 8/6 Switched Reluctance Drive

Switched reluctance machines (SRM's) are leading candidates for many industrial and commercial applications. It has been proven that utilizing a bipolar excitation strategy will result in increasing torque production and decreasing torque ripple. However, utilizing an asymmetric bridge bipolar converter induces a cost increase in terms of the necessary power electronic devices; thus employing a reduced parts converter for bipolar excitation is advantageous. This work reports on the analysis and operational characteristics of a reduced parts converter topology for bipolar excitation of a 4-phase 8/6 SRM placing emphasis on basic control strategies, and converter losses with comparison to an asymmetric bridge bipolar converter