Comparison of Current Control Strategies for Low- and High-Power Switched Reluctance Motor Drives

Due to the non-linear characteristics of switched reluctance machines (SRMs), the performance of a current control technique varies drastically depending on the motor, especially those with different power ratings. This paper evaluates multiple current control techniques for two SRM’s-a low-power, four-phase SRM and a high-power, three-phase SRM – and observes the controller performance at different power levels. The simulated current control techniques include hysteresis, a fixed gain proportional-integral (PI), a combination of hysteresis and PI, and predictive control. The results prove that the machine characteristics significantly affect the current waveforms when the same control techniques are being used for the low- and high-power SRM drives.