High-precision torque control of reluctance motors

The high-precision torque control of a reluctance motor for servo applications is described. The prototype is a three-phase, eight-pole reluctance motor driven by a MOSFET inverter. The current control and the speed control are performed by software of the digital signal processor TMS 32010. The motor is supplied by sinusoidal current, and two current control methods are proposed. One is based on a vector control principle to achieve the linearity between current and torque, and another is developed to obtain the maximum torque/current ratio. Due to the saliency, the instantaneous torque contains a large ripple component. In the case of the test motor, the torque ripple was as much as 26% of the rated torque under sinusoidal current drive. The experiment showed that the ripple component could be reduced to 6% by superimposing a compensation current component on the current reference