Electrimacs 2002, August 18-21, Switched Reluctance Motors
Performance Simulation of Switched Reluctance
Motor Drive System Operating With
Fixed Angle Control Scheme
Hamid Ehsan Akhter
Department of Electrical Engineering
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi-110025
India
1. Author for correspondence
email: vsharma@ele.etsmtl.ca
Abstract –– This paper presents the performance of a 4kW
8/6-pole configuration SRM drive with fixed turn-off angle
control scheme. Turn -off angle plays an important role in
developing electromagnetic torque in Switched Reluctance
Motor (SRM) and leads to stable or unstable operation of the
drive. The value of turn-off angle is usually variable and
depends upon the motor speed and other parameters of the
inverter that excites the SRM. However, this study is conducted
for full-load and partial load starting and operation of the drive
with fixed turn-off angle control scheme. The simulated
performance of SRM drive system is presented to analyze the
effect of fixed value of turn -off angle on transient and steady
state performance of the drive in terms of speed, current and
torque response. The advantages inherent in fix ed turn-off
angle control scheme are emphasized.
Index Terms ––– Modeling, performance analysis,
simulation, switched reluctance motor, turn -off angle.
I. INTRODUCTION
witched Reluctance Motor (SRM) for variable speed
S application is a robust, reliable and almost maintenance free
electric drive suitable for industrial, transport and domestic
sector [1]. The specific advantages of SRM have made it a
worthy competitor to converter/inverter fed AC/DC drives.
The high level performance expected from a variable speed
drive includes minimum torque ripple, low steady state error,
reduced speed overshoot, low starting time and reduced speed
oscillation. Such a performance is not easy to meet, as it is
required to accommodate a large number of system non-
linearities. The electromagnetic torque developed by the SRM
is a nonlinear function of stator current and rotor position θ.
For forward motoring, the appropriate stator phase winding
must remain excited only during the period when rate of
change of phase inductance is positive. Else, the motor would
develop braking torque or no torque at all. The inductance of a
stator phase is maximum when its pole is directly opposite the
rotor pole and is minimum when the inter-polar rotor region is
opposite it. The stator phase must be excited when its
inductance starts rising and must be de-excited when the
phase inductance ceases to increase. The switching function
Virendra K. Sharma1, A. Chandra, and
Kamal Al-Haddad
Département de génie électrique
École de technologie supérieure
1100 Rue Notre Dame
Montréal (Québec), H3C 1K3
Canada
thus must ensure that current in phase winding reaches its
reference value at the desired instant of inductance rise and is
again brought to zero when inductance reaches its maximum
and does not increase further. Due to delay in current rise and
fall on account of winding inductance, the switch must be
closed at a turn-on angle (also called advance angle) θon and
must similarly be opened at a turn -off angle θ off. These
switching angles are variable and depend mainly on speed and
desired current in phase windings of SRM [2].
Various researchers have presented their findings on
switching angles of SRM. A few papers [3]-[7] have elaborated
on the performance of SRM with angle control. Orthmann and
Schoner [3] have discussed the on-line calculation of turn-off
angle for optimum torque output of SRM. Fixed switch-on and
switch-off angle control scheme with flat-topped current has
also been reported [4] which emphasizes on the development
of a proper voltage excitation scheme to form the required flat-
topped current. Torque ripple reduction by turn-off angle
compensation [5], reduction of SRM vibrations by random
variation of control angles [6] and self-tuning of switching
angle for speed control of SRM [7] has been reported.
However, it is observed from the available literature that any
investigation on the relative performance of SRM drive, while
turn -off angle is varied, has not been reported.
The present work analyzes the performance of SRM drive
with different values of fixed turn-off angles and recommends
an optimum value that gives an acceptable performance of the
drive. The turn -on angle remains fixed throughout the study.
The drive performance in terms of speed, winding current and
electromagnetic torque is presented. Simulated results
pertaining to starting time, overshoot, steady state error,
settling time, speed ripple and torque ripple are also presented.
Comparative study [8] of PID (Proportional, Integral and
Differential), sliding mode and fuzzy logic control for four-
quadrant operation of SRM has suggested that the PID
controller offers a simple control structure to achieve an
optimum performance. Hence, in this study, PID controller has
been used in speed loop for predicting the drive performance.
II. SWITCHED RELUCTANCE M OTOR DRIVE
This section describes the control requirements of a typical
Electrimacs 2002, August 18-21, Switched Reluctance Motors
8/6 pole SRM shown in Fig. 1(a). It is a four-phase machine
(a) (b)
Fig. 1. (a) Cross section of 4-phase SRM. (b) Ideal inductance profile of SRM. (c) Turn-on and turn -off angles of any ph ase of SRM.
Ideal inductance profile of the four phase windings of motor
versus rotor position θ is shown in Fig. 1(b) where the different
zones of inductance, namely minimum inductance zone, rising
inductance zone, maximum inductance zone and falling
inductance zone of different phases of SRM are seen. The
inductance profile of a switched reluctance motor depends
upon its configuration and pole geometry and therefore the
profile of say a 6/4 pole configuration SRM will be different
from that of a 8/6 pole configuration motor. In the present case,
the motor is an 8/6-pole configuration SRM with 20° stator pole
breadth, 24° rotor pole breadth, 45° stator pole pitch and 60°
rotor pole pitch. This results in 16° minimum inductance zone,
20° rising inductance zone, 4° maximum inductance zone and
20° falling inductance zone. In motoring, the current is
established for the positive slope region (rising inductance
zone), as the developed torque is positive when dL/dθ is
positive. The four phase windings should ideally become
excited with reference current at instants θ 1, θ2, θ3 and θ4
respectively [Fig. 1(b)]. The respective semiconductor
switches therefore are closed at a turn-on angle, so that current
in the particular phase rises to the reference current at the start
of its rising inductance. Similarly, the respective switches are
opened at a turn-off angle to ensure that the current in the
particular phase decays to zero by the end of the end of the
positive slope region. Zero turn-on angle corresponds to the
instant when a rotor pole just enters the stator pole to be
excited and hence is the instant when the inductance of the
excited winding starts rising. Zero turn -off angle corresponds
to the instant when a leading pole of the rotor just leaves the
trailing pole of the excited stator phase. This is the instant
when the inductance of the excited phase has attained its
maximum value and remains at this value for some time
depending on the overlap of stator and rotor pole widths. Later
the inductance begins to fall as the rotor pole moves away
from the stator pole. Fig. 1(c) presents the concept of turn-on
and turn -off angles for any phase winding of switched
reluctance motor. The practical range of turn-on angle and
turn -off angle depends on the inductance profile and therefore
on the configuration and pole geometry of the particular
switched reluctance motor.
excited by a semiconductor-controlled mid-point inverter.
(c)
A. Control Philosophy
The schematic of the closed loop drive system of a typical 4
phase SRM is shown in Fig. 2. It consists of outer speed loop
comprising motor with rotor position sensor, speed controller
and inverter. The inner current loop consists of current
sensors, reference current generator, current controller and
commutation logic. The working of the system is briefly
discussed here so as to develop the control algorithm.
Rotor position θ is sensed by position sensor, the
derivative of which gives the rotor speed ω. The reference
speed ω is compared with the rotor speed ω. The error signal
*
ωe is fed to the PID speed controller. The output of the speed
* th
controller is the reference torque T which at any n instant is
*
T (n) , and is fed to the limiter. The output of the limiter is the
*
reference current magnitude I for all the four phases. The
signals of reference current magnitude, rotor position θ, fixed
turn -on angle θ on and fixed turn -off angle θ off are fed to the
commutation logic block. The commutation logic decides the
phase winding to be energized. The sign of reference torque
signal indicates whether torque required is for motoring or
braking purpose. Having identified the winding and the
duration for which this winding is to be energized, the
*
reference current magnitude I is latched as the reference
* * * *
current, say 1I , I2 , I3 or I4 for the corresponding phase
Electrimacs 2002, August 18-21, Switched Reluctance Motors
windings. The winding current of each phase is sensed at the
output of the inverter by the current sensor and compared with
its reference counterpart in the current controller. The current
controller then decides the switching (on/off) instants for the
corresponding device of the inverter. In response to the
sequentially controlled excitation of the windings through the
inverter and controlled by the controller, the motor drives the
load torque Tl at the reference speed ω*. Any change of state
in the operating condition by way of change in reference
speed, load torque, inverter voltage etc. is taken care of by
appropriate control action generated by the speed controller in
close interaction with current controller and commutation logic.
The detailed specification of the motor used in this
investigation is given in Appendix.
III. MODELING
This section briefly describes the modeling and simulation
of motor and PID speed controller. The mathematical model of
SRM is a set of differential equations obtained using dynamic
electric machine theory. The mathematical description of
electronic controller includes the modeling of inverter, current
controller, commutation logic, and reference current generator.
The detailed modeling of electronic controller has been
presented elsewhere [9], and hence is not being presented here
for brevity.
A. Switched Reluctance Motor
The SRM is a nonlinear control structure and therefore it is
important to develop relevant model representing the plant
dynamics under various operating conditions. The model
equations of the SR motor are:
dψj /dt = -rij + v j (1)
dω/dt = (Te – T l)/J (2)
dθ/dt = ω (3)
where j=1, 2, 3, 4 represents the phase of the SRM, r is the
winding resistance per phase, vj , ij , ψ j are applied voltage,
current, and flux-linkage respectively of phase j, T e is
electromagnetic torque developed by the motor, and Tl is the
load torque. The net torque at any instant is the sum of the
torque developed by all four phases, as given by
T e=∑T j (θ,ij) (4)
The model equations are numerically solved to calculate the
value of flux linkage ψ, and from the experimental
magnetization data [10], the value of current i is interpolated at
any rotor position θ. The instantaneous torque is estimated for
the known current and rotor position angle using measured
static torque data [8] by quick interpolation.
B. PID Speed Controller
The rotor position is sensed by position sensor, the
derivative of which gives the rotor speed. The rotor speed is
compared with set reference speed and the speed error is
processed in PID speed controller. The speed error at nth
sampling instant is given by:
ωe(n) = ω*- ω
The output of the speed controller at n th sampling instant is
given by:
T(n) = T(n-1) + Kp{ωe(n) -ωe(n-1) } + Kiωe(n) + Kd{ωe(n) -2ωe(n-1) +
ωe(n-2)} (5)
where Kp, Ki and Kd are proportional, integral and derivative
gain constant respectively of the speed controller, and ωe(n-1)
and ωe(n-2) are the speed error at (n -1)th and (n -2)th sampling
instants respectively. The values of Kp, Ki and Kd depend on
the parameters of the drive system. The complex control
structure of the SRM does not necessarily lead to optimum
stable performance by conventional pole placement technique.
Hence the controller gains are selected by comparing the effect
o f Kp, Ki and Kd on the speed response of the drive. The
numerical values of PID controller gains providing the optimum
performance of SRM drive are given in Appendix. A simulation
algorithm has been developed [9] which makes use of the
above set of differential equations, excitation conditions,
switching pattern, commutation logic, and machine
experimental data. Simulation of integrated mathematical model
described above is carried out to compute the performance of
the SRM drive system.
IV. RESULTSAND DISCUSSIONS
Using the algorithm developed in the previous section, the
performance of the drive system starting from standstill up to
the reference speed is simulated for various fixed values of
switching angles. The reference speed is set equal to the rated
speed (1500 r/min) of the SRM. Speed within 1% of reference
value is considered adequate for performance evaluation of the
SRM drive system.
The effect of variation of turn-off angle is evaluated in
terms of the following performance indices:
a) Time required by the motor (in accelerating from rest) to
reach within 1% of reference speed (Rise time).
b) Speed overshoot over and above 101% of reference value.
c) Speed undershoot under and below 99% of reference
value.
d) Time required to reach and stay within 1% of reference
speed (Settling time).
e) Steady state speed ripple (peak to peak).
f) Steady state torque ripple (peak to peak).
The study is first conducted on full-load (25 Nm) for turn-
off angles starting at 0° with increments of 1°. The turn-on
angle is fixed at 15° and remains unchanged throughout the
study. The comparative speed response on full -load is shown
in Fig. 3(a) wherein it is seen that the drive fails to pick up
speed with 5° turn-off angle.
The load torque is now reduced to find out the maximum
value of load torque that can be accelerated from standstill to
rated speed with 5° turn-off angle. The comparative speed
response with this (5°) turn-off angle for two different values
of load torques is shown in Fig. 3(b). It is found that half-load
(12.5 Nm) too is not supported by this value of turn-off angle.
However a further reduction of 0.5 Nm in load torque to 12 Nm
results in successful acceleration to rated speed with 5° turn-
Electrimacs 2002, August 18-21, Switched Reluctance Motors

off angle. 5°. Turn-off angle above 4° results in failure of start at full-load.
Further investigation is carried out to determine the maximum However, a reduction in the value of load
value of turn-off angle that is able to accelerate a load torque
of 12 Nm to rated speed while turn -on angle remains fixed at
15°. Speed response with two different turn-off angles for 12
Nm load torque is presented in Fig 3(c). It is seen that the
reduced load torque can now be accelerated to rated speed
using a maximum value of turn-off angle equal to 15°, though
the response becomes much slow. A further increase by 1° in
turn -off angle raising it to 16° results in failure of speed rise to
rated value and the motor reaches a peak speed of 146 r/min
before returning to standstill condition.
It is evident from the above that a very narrow zone of turn-
off angles (from 0° to 4°) is available for successful full-load
start. However, lowering of starting load torque to 12 Nm
(a)
permits the use of 15° as the higher limit of turn-off angle.
Since full-load start is the most rigorous starting condition,
further performance analysis is carried out for this condition in
order to arrive at an optimum value of fixed turn -off angle that
may be used for the SRM for all regimes of operation.
An exploded view of speed response around rated speed is
presented in Fig. 3(d) for comparison of steady state speed
ripples with different turn-off angles. The SRM phase current
and net torque response for turn-off angles 0°, 1°, 2°, 3° and 4°
are also investigated and these are shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5
respectively. The performance indices vary with different turn-
off angles and are briefly discussed hereunder.
i) 0°: With zero turn-off angle, the speed rise is fast initially
but slows down later. Rise time is 71.65 ms and though (b)
the drive is stable, steady state speed ripple (17.9 r/min)
and torque ripple (26.6 Nm) are highest.
ii) 1°: The speed response is better than with 0°. Rise time in
this case is 69.23 ms while speed ripple (9.9 r/min) and
torque ripple (22.0 Nm) are lower than with 0°.
iii) 2°: The speed response is better than with 1°. Rise time is
66.48 ms, which is minimum, and speed ripple (6.4 r/min)
and torque ripple (16.9 Nm) are lower than with 1°.
iv) 3°: The rise time (67.23 ms) is very slightly higher than
with 2° but speed ripple (5.1 r/min) and torque ripple (15.7
Nm) are lower.
v) 4°: The speed rise remains slow from the beginning and
the rise time is 69.70 ms. However, the speed ripple (5.0
(c)
r/min) and torque ripple (15.1 Nm) are minimum once
steady state condition is reached.
vi) 5°: The motor fails to start on full-load with this turn-off
angle and grinds to a halt after reaching 11.1 r/min.
It is observed that corresponding to a particular starting
load, the performance of the SRM drive is considerably
affected by the value of turn-off angle. With full-load (25Nm)
startup, the operation of the drive remains acceptable with
varying degree of performance for turn-off angles ranging from
0° to 4°. However, 3° is an optimum value of turn-off angle
which gives ideal performance in terms of defined indices as its
speed rise is reasonably fast throughout and its steady state
speed ripple and torque ripple are only negligibly higher than
with 4°. Turn-off angle 4° is not considered suitable as (d)
optimum angle because it gives slow speed rise throughout
and is critical, being the immediate neighbor of the risky angle Fig. 3. Speed response of SRM on (a) full-load (25 Nm) with 0° to 5°
turn -off angles, (b) partial loads with 5° turn -off angle, and (c) 12 Nm
Electrimacs 2002, August 18-21, Switched Reluctance Motors

load with 15° and 16° turn -off angles. (d) Exploded view of full-load
response showing full-load speed ripples with different turn-off angles. Fig. 4. Phase current and reference current of SRM during full-load
starting with (a) 0 °, (b) 1 °, (c) 2 °, (d) 3 °, and (e) 4° turn-off angles.

(a)
(a)

(b)
(b)

(c)
(c)

(d)
(d)

(e)
(e)
Electrimacs 2002, August 18-21, Switched Reluctance Motors

Fig. 5. Net torque of SRM during full-load starting with (a) 0°, (b) 1°, (c)
2°, (d) 3°, and (e) 4° turn -off angles.
Electrimacs 2002, August 18-21, Switched Reluctance Motors

torque to 12 Nm permits the use of higher turn-off angles and

the maximum value of turn -off angle that ensures successful
acceleration to rated speed is found to be 15°. REFERENCES
It is seen that when the phase excitation is switched off at
the optimum turn-off angle, the positive dL/dθ zone i.e. the [1] P. J. Lawrenson, J. M. Stephenson, P. T. Blenkinsop, J. Corda,
and N. N. Fulton, “Variable speed switched reluctance motors,” IEE
rising inductance zone of inductance profile is optimally used
Proc., Vol. 127, Pt. B, No. 4, pp. 253-265, July, 1980.
resulting in high starting torque. Consequently acceleration is [2] B. K. Bose, T. J. E. Miller, P. M. Szczesny, and W. H. Bicknell,
high and speed builds up fast. The PID controller senses this “Microcomputer control of switched reluctance motor,” IEEE
and quickly decreases the value of reference torque, which Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. IA-22, No. 4, July/August 1986,
consequently brings down the value of reference current I* as pp. 708-715.
well. The phase current follows the reference current faithfully [3] R. Orthmann, and H. P. Schoner, “Turn-off angle control of
and quickly settles to a lower value, which is sufficient enough switched reluctance motors for optimum torque output,” Record of
European Power Electronics Conference EPE, 1993, Brighton, pp. 20-
to sustain load torque at the reference speed.
25.
Turn-off angles lower than optimum value mean that the [4] Jin-Woo Ahn, Young-Joo An, Cheol-Je Joe, and Young Moon
phase current may continue to flow in the region where Hwang, “Fixed switching angle control scheme for SRM drive,”
positive dL/dθ zone is followed by zero dL/dθ and then IEEE Conference Record of Applied Power Electronics Conference
negative dL/dθ zones. This results in either zero phase torque APEC’96, pp.963-967.
or negative phase torque being developed in the respective [5] M. Rodrigues, P. J. Costa Branco, W. Suemitsu, “Fuzzy logic
phase windings just before their respective phase currents torque ripple reduction by turn-off angle compensation for
switched reluctance motors,” IEEE Trans. Industrial Electronics, Vol.
finally die out. The total net torque magnitude therefore is 48, June 2001, pp. 711-715
adversely affected resulting in torque ripples and speed [6] T. Boukhobza, M. Gabsi, B. Grioni, “ Random variation of control
oscillations. angles, reduction of SRM vibrations,” IEEE Conference Record of
Turn-off angles higher than optimum value me an that the Electric Machines and Drives Conference IEMDC 2001, pp. 640-643
phase winding is de-energized at an instant when sufficient [7] Seo Jong-yun, Cha Hyun -Rok, Yang Hyong-yeol, Seo Jung-Chul,
positive dL/dθ zone is still available. Hence despite the Kim Kwang-Heon,Lim Young-Cheol, Jang Do-Hyun, “ Speed
currents being at their limiting values, the initial acceleration is control method for switched reluctance motor drive using self-
tuning of switching angle,” Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on
very low. With still higher turn-off angles, the net torq ue Industrial Electronics ISIE 2001, Vol. 2, pp. 811-815
developed remains too low to overcome the rigorous [8] Bhim Singh, Virendra Kumar Sharma, and S.S.Murthy,
conditions put up by starting on load conditions and the drive “Comparative study of PID, sliding mode, and fuzzy logic
fails. The maximum value of turn-off angle that ensures controllers for four-quadrant operation of switched reluctance
successful acceleration from start depends on the load-torque motor,” IEEE Conference Record of PEDES’98, Australia, pp. 99 -105.
at start and thus while this value is 15° for 12 Nm it is only 4° [9] Bhim Singh, Virendra Kumar Sharma, and S.S.Murthy,
for full-load (25 Nm). “Performance analysis of adaptive fuzzy logic controller for
switched reluctance motor drive system,” Proc. of 33rd Annual
Meeting of IEEE Industry Applications Society, St. Louis, MO, USA,
V. CONCLUSIONS 1998, Vol 1, pp. 571-579.
[10] Virendra Kumar Sharma, S. S. Murthy, and Bhim Singh, “An
This paper analyzes the effect of fixed turn -off angle control improved method for the determination of saturation
scheme on the starting performance of switched reluctance characteristics of switched reluctance motors,” IEEE Trans. Instrum.
motor drive system when it is started on load. The motor is Meas., Vol. 48, Oct. 1999, pp. 995-1000.
modeled through experimental flux-linkage and static torque
characteristic for different rotor positions. The effect of turn- Appendix
off angle on the transient performance is demonstrated and it
has been established that it has a very strong influence on Motor and controller specifications
speed, reference current, winding current, phase torque and
net torque, ultimately affecting the performance of the drive Power 4 kW
system as a whole. Since full-load start is the most rigorous Speed 1500 r/min
starting condition, the optimum turn-off angle corresponding DC link voltage 600 V
to a pa rticular fixed turn-on angle should be determined for this No. of phases 4
Peak current 28 A
condition and then used for all other loads, so as to ensure Stator poles 8
optimum performance of SRM drive for all loads. It is seen that Rotor poles 6
the drive operates satisfactorily for the proposed fixed turn-off Moment of In ertia 0.008 Kg.m 2
angle control and therefore this simple scheme should be Stator resistance 0.72 Ω
preferred to variable turn-off angle control that requires high Aligned inductance 150 mH
speed signal processing. The performance of the drive with Unaligned inductance 10 mH
lower values of fixed turn-on angles is under study to Proportional gain 3.2
determine an optimum pair of fixed turn-on angle and turn-off Integral gain 0.001
Differential gain 0.01
angle for SRM drive and results of the study would be °
reported soon. Turn-on angle 15
RMS current 9A
Electrimacs 2002, August 18-21, Switched Reluctance Motors