Analysis of switched reluctance motor drive under fault conditions

The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of a switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive system under different realistic fault conditions. A simple modeling and simulation technique is used to investigate the fault tolerant behavior of SRMs, based on current and position dependent nonlinear flux linkage, which is found to be more appropriate compared to other methods reported in literature. Typical cases considered are: open circuit faults on windings, converter device short or open circuit, and reduced DC link voltage caused by rectifier faults and single phasing of input supply. Pre-fault condition is taken to be the steady state operation under no load or full load torque at rated speed. The performance indices under fault conditions are speed ripple, torque ripple, steady state error in speed, starting and reversal time. The response of speed, current and torque under pre-fault and pod-fault conditions are compared to illustrate the fault tolerant capabilities of the SRM drive under dynamic operating conditions.