Study of motoring operation of in-wheel switched reluctance motor drives for electric vehicles

Based on the requirements of electric vehicles on electric motor drives, this paper presents three criteria to evaluate motoring operation of in-wheel switched reluctance motor drives for electric vehicles. They are the average torque, the average torque per rms current, and torque smoothness factor. They indicate the motoring torque, copper loss and torque ripple, respectively. The model of motoring operation under the current hysteresis control is developed to investigate the effects of the turn-on angle, the turn-off angle, and the current reference on these criteria. The simulated and measured current waveforms verify the proposed model. The simulated results show that the turn-on angle and the turn-off angles have considerable effects on motoring operation of switched reluctance drives. The optimal turn-on angle and the optimal turn-off angle can be optimized in order to maximum the average torque, the average torque per rms current, or the torque smoothness factor. In addition, the larger current reference results in the larger average torque, average torque per rms current and torque smoothness factor. Thus, this study is helpful for developing new control method to implement the best motoring operation of in-wheel switched reluctance motor drives in electric vehicles.