Analysis and Operational Characteristics of a Reduced Parts Converter for Bipolar Excitation of SR Drives

Switched reluctance machines (SRM's) are leading candidates for automotive 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 part 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