A Switched Reluctance Motor Drive System for Future Applications in the Emerged IMPS

The dynamic evolution of the electrical loads aboard ships and vessels within the marine industry in the twenty-first century calls for further research and development of integrated marine power systems (IMPS) with drive systems and electrical propulsion components. As the future IMPS will become predominantly driven by power electronic devices, switched reluctance motor drives (SRM) would subsequently pave their way into the future shipboard systems. SRMs are double-salient machines that have salient poles on both the stator and rotor. This double-salient structure of the stator and rotor provides the motor with high starting torque characteristics that makes it suitable for maritime industry, in particular traction and hoist applications. Furthermore, as the phases of the SRM drive are electrically-separated, this feature makes the motor attractive for marine applications since survivability is extremely significant in marine systems. This paper presents an analytical design of an SRM drive system. The work reported here represents a part of an ongoing research carried out at the undergraduate level. In this work, an 6/4 SRM drive system is designed and tested. Since the torque production in SRMs is mainly depending on the magnetic characteristics of the motor, an algorithm is developed to determine the inductance profile vs. the rotor position of the SRM. The phase currents and the average torque produced by the motor are also obtained using proper control schemes. Additionally, an advanced angle control technique is developed to retain motoring operation (i.e. operation in Quadrant 1). Techniques to revamp the performance of the drive system are still being under study and will be reported shortly in due course.