Switched reluctance machines (SRMs) are attractive because of their manufacturing simplicity and high reliability. They do not have any... Show moreSwitched reluctance machines (SRMs) are attractive because of their manufacturing simplicity and high reliability. They do not have any windings or permanent magnets on the rotor, which makes them robust and easy to maintain. On the other hand, SRMs are highly non-linear since they work in saturation. This causes problems such as high torque ripple and system noise. In addition, mutual inductance needs to be considered for the high performance systems such as electric vehicle or aerospace applications. This effect could become critical when more than one phase is conducting. This also makes them difficult for modeling and control. Significant research on different SRM control techniques has been done in order to improve the performance of the controller and present a good solution for the industrial applications with a reasonable cost. Conventional control techniques for SRMs include chopped current control (CCC), angular position control (APC), and pulse-width modulation (PWM). Proportional-integral (PI) and other linear controllers are also used in the drive systems. However, because of the non-linearity of the machine, classic linear control techniques are not ideal for SRMs as they have challenging control issues in wide speed ranges. Different methods have been presented to implement non-linear control techniques for SRM drives or linearize the SRM motor equations. Many SRM controllers are using one or more look-up tables. The behavior of the controller is adjusting in real-time depending on the data in the look-up tables. This could increase the cost and complexity of the system. In this Ph.D. dissertation, an advanced digital control concept is presented for SRMs in both motoring and generating modes. By treating the system digitally, the controller switches between two pre-defined states to get the desired output. The proposed control technique does not need any look up tables, is not sensitive to the motor parameter variations, is low cost, and has a wide speed range. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the proposed digital control approach. Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, May 2011 Show less
