Asymmetrical 7-Level Neutral Point Clamped Converter for Switch Reluctance Motors

Torque ripple has been a major challenge in the control of Switched Reluctance Motor. Various control techniques have been proposed to find the optimum current profile for reducing the torque ripple. The ability of the control strategy to impose the desired current depends on the power converter that drives the SRM. A 7-level converter is proposed in this paper to reduce the current ripple. A PWM control strategy with fixed switching frequency is used to generate the switching pulses instead of hysteresis control that leads to varying switching frequency. The 7-level converter and the PWM control is simulated in Matlab and the performance of the proposed converter is compared with the performance of conventional converter topology.