Minimal Current Sensing Strategy for Switched Reluctance Machine Control With Enhanced Fault-Detection Capability

Abstract

This paper focuses on a minimal current sensing strategy and fault detection of switched reluctance machines (SRMs). In order to reduce the number of required current sensors in multiphase motor drives, the optimal selection and location of current sensors is presented in consideration of the precise actual phase current measurement, open- and short-circuit fault detection. The proposed scheme requires two current sensors to replace the phase current sensors placed in each phase without any additional devices for multiphase SRMs to achieve a more compact and low-cost drive. Different current regulation methods are employed for single phase conducting region and commutation region. To obtain the phase currents from the proposed approach, different settings of the pulsewidth modulation signals for adjacent phases during the commutation region are implemented. The simulation and experiments on a four-phase 8/6 pole SRM are carried out to verify the effectiveness of this approach in the healthy and faulty cases.