Development and Performance Analysis of a Switched Reluctance Motor Drive for an Automotive Air-Conditioning System

This paper presents a methodology for the application of a switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive in an automotive air-conditioning (A/C) system. The development includes a complete A/C system and cabin whose components have been modelled by steady-state mathematical models. Furthermore, the compressor motor, which is an 8/6 SRM, has a torque/speed controller. Operating ranges are analysed and a study of the entire refrigeration cycle performance is presented, while the temperature control of the A/C system is done by a fuzzy-control method. The results obtained for different sequences of the outside/set-point temperatures have reached a compressor motor efficiency above 75% during most of the operation while a higher coefficient operational performance (COP) for the overall system is achieved for each sequence.