Current Source Inverter-Fed Variable Reluctance Motor Drive with DC-Machine-Like Control Characteristics

Abstract:
Variable reluctance motor (VRM) drives have been a subject of research for many years due to their simple construction and the ability to operate with unipolar phase currents, which simplifies inverter design. As a result, numerous inverter topologies tailored for VRMs have been proposed in the literature. However, irrespective of the chosen topology, the challenge of controlling the VRM phase currents remains. To relieve the user of the burden of managing VRM current control, this paper proposes a current source inverter (CSI)-supplied VRM drive system, where the CSI operates in open loop using only rotor position information, without requiring any user interaction. This approach allows the complete drive system to emulate the behavior of a series-excited DC machine from the CSI’s DC side, enabling straightforward operation. A DC-side equivalent speed-torque characteristic is derived to support this concept, and simulation results are presented to validate the proposed approach.