Six-Phase Switched Reluctance Motors with Small Torque Ripple, Radial Force Ripple, DC Current Ripple, Copper Loss, and Number of Switches

Abstract

The switched reluctance motors (SRMs) are attractive because they are free from the permanent magnet. However, the application of the SRMs is hindered by a trade-off relation among the large torque ripple, radial force ripple, DC current ripple, and copper loss. A recent study revealed that the above issues can be solved by optimizing the phase-current waveform in the case of the SRMs with five and greater phases. However, many switches are required for the SRM inverter, resulting in increment of the inverter cost and volume. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to reduce the torque ripple, the radial force ripple, the DC current ripple, and the copper loss under the small number of switches. This paper focuses on an inverter topology which can apply arbitrary phase-current waveform with the small number of switches and on the six-phase SRMs. Furthermore, a simulation reveals the achievement of the purpose.