Sensorless super-high-speed switched reluctance generators

Operating at super high speeds emerges as a need in various sectors of industry including military, automotive and home appliances. Generation of electric power at such speeds has the inherent advantage of compactness and elimination of speed adaptation means. Switched reluctance (SR) drives favor high speed operation due to their inherent ruggedness and robust structure. In addition they represent a very long constant power region allowing an efficient operation in a compact form. Moreover, SRM drives can tolerate structural and thermal conditions imposed by the application. Finally, they are inherently fault tolerant due to their modular configuration. To take steps towards making SR a superior choice for generation at super high speed, availability of a reliable sensorless control and a proper design and control is inevitable. The present paper addresses these critical technologies as related to aerospace applications. Experimental and simulation results are also presented to validate the claims.