Speed Control of Fault-Tolerant Switched

Reluctance Motor Drive with Current and Voltage

PWM Control Techniques
2022 IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics, Drives and Energy Systems (PEDES) | 978-1-6654-5566-4/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/PEDES56012.2022.10080303

1st Julakanti Santhosh Reddy 2nd P Parthiban

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Electrical and Electronics Engineering
National Institute of Technology Karnataka National Institute of Technology Karnataka
Surathkal, India Surathkal, India
santhoshreddy521.imp@gmail.com parthiban@nitk.edu.in

Abstract—Nowadays, switched reluctance motor (SRM) is

highly reliable in drive applications because it has a simple S1 D1 S3 D3 S5 D5 S7 D7
construction, high robustness, variable speed applications, low
Phase A Phase B Phase C Phase D
cost, etc. The best advantage of this motor is magnetic inde-
pendence between the phases and negligible mutual flux linkage Vs
between the phases. This drive can operate under one or more D2 S2 D4 S4 D6 S6 D8 S8
fault conditions to maintain rated output without faulted phases,
since SRM machines are having fault tolerant capability. In this
paper different types of faults that occur in SRM drive are
(a)
presented and the performance of the closed loop speed control of
fault tolerant (open circuit fault) SRM using current and PWM
control techniques is analyzed. This control method is applied
to an 8/6 SRM prototype when an open circuit fault occurs in S1 D1 S1 D1
semiconductor switch and all the results are verified before and
after the fault using MATLAB/Simulink software. A A
Index Terms—Switched Reluctance motor (SRM), Vs Vs
Asymmetric-H Bridge (AHB) Converter, Hysteresis Control,
Pulse Width Modulation Control (PWM). D2 S2 D2 S2

I. I NTRODUCTION
(b) (c)
Due to the independency of motor phases in SRM, the
power electronic converter can be able to drive the motor
under one or more fault conditions [1]. This phenomenon S1 D1
mainly tells about the fault tolerance capability of the SRM
motor. But power reduction levels depend on the number of A

phases under fault condition [2]–[4]. Permanent Magnet (PM) Vs

machines produce higher torque density than the SRM. But, if
any fault occurs permanent magnet machines reduce the torque
handling capability more than the SRM. So, SRM is a better
choice than the PM machine [5]. SRM machines have the fault
tolerance capability, but are mechanically unbalanced due to
electrical faults. So different electric winding configurations
were developed to increase the reliability of the drive, and
the different type of coils were also developed to reduce the
unbalanced lateral forces during the fault condition [6] [7]
[8]. Cascaded controller for fault-tolerant SRM reduces the
torque ripple, vibrations, and acoustic noise [9]. Complete
pole winding short circuit reduces the torque, but it can be
compensated by short circuit current. Even if some part of
the pole winding turns gets short circuited, it leads to only a
negligible loss in the torque.
D2 S2
(d)
Fig. 1. (a) Asymmetric H-Bridge Converter (b) Magnetization Mode (c)
Demagnetization Mode (d) Freewheeling Mode.
The various types of faults in SRM drives occur due to
the converter switches, windings, sensors, etc., and each of
these faults lowers the drive’s performance. As a result, various
fault diagnosis techniques are created to enhance the drive’s
performance [10] [11]. SRM can’t be controlled directly with a
dc supply because of positioning of stator and rotor, and it can

978-1-6654-5566-4/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: National Institute of Technology- Delhi. Downloaded on July 16,2024 at 05:39:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
be controlled with the help of the power electronic converters
because of magnetic independency in SRM motor. As per the
literature, different topologies of converters were developed
for the high reliable operation of SRM drive. But, asymmetric
H-bridge converter is a widely used power converter in SRM
drives [12] [13]. The center tap winding configuration avoids
the complete pole winding fault condition and during a fault
state, the power levels are not significantly reduced. Therefore,
the drive’s performance is enhanced [6]–[8]. Mostly, SRM
machines are controlled by hysteresis current control, which
is used for low-speed operation. The PWM technique is used
for wide-speed operation, and the voltage pulse control method
is used for high-speed operation [14]–[16]. In this paper, the
speed control operation of the SRM drive before and after the
occurrence of the fault with current and voltage PWM control
technique is discussed and the dynamic response of the SRM
drive is observed. This paper is organized into five sections:
Section II different types of faults, Section III control methods,
Section IV proposed control technique, Section V results and
discussion, and Section VI concludes the paper.
Switch fault
Winding fault
S1 D1
Vs
D2 S2
Logic controller fault
Switching Pulses
Current Sensor
Position Sensor
Commutation Logic
Controller
Current Sensor fault
Position Sensor Fault
Fig. 2. Different types of faults.
A. Asymmetric H-Bridge Converter
The 4-phase 8/6 SRM motor is operated in three modes with
the help of asymmetric H-bridge converter shown in Fig. 1a.
In Mode 1 (Fig. 1b) phase A winding is positively energized
from Vs through the S1 and S2 switches. In Mode 2 (Fig. 1c)
stored energy in motor the phase winding is fed back to the
source through diodes D1 and D2 . So negative voltage appears
across the motor phase A winding. During Mode 3 (Fig. 1d)
energy freewheels between S2 and D2 or otherwise S1 and
D1 which means, the energy is dissipated in the form of heat
and therefore no voltage appears across the winding. This
operation is similar for other phases (B, C, D) as well.
II. D IFFERENT T YPES OF FAULTS O CCUR IN SRM D RIVE
Some of the faults which may occur in SRM drive is shown
in Fig. 2 Generally, in SRM drives open and short circuit
Authorized licensed use limited to: National Institute of Technology- Delhi. Downloaded on July 16,2024 at 05:39:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
fault in semiconductor switches, winding, logic controller and
sensor faults are present. Therefore, these drives will have
more torque ripple, acoustic noise under those fault conditions.
The open and short circuit faults occurring in stator windings
and semiconductor switches are most common faults. Open
circuit faults are less severe than short circuit faults. As shown
in Fig. 9 current unbalance occurs after the fault but may
not cause much problem to the motor. But in short circuit
fault very high current flows through the windings. These high
currents cause more mechanical vibrations in the motor. So,
efficiency of the motor performance under fault is less because
of the mechanical vibrations. As a result proper diagnosis is
required to improve the performance of the drive.
S1 S1
S2
θon θoff
S2
θon θoff
(a) (b)
Fig. 3. (a) Soft chopping mode. (b) Hard chopping mode.
III. C ONTROL M ETHODS
A. Hysteresis Current Control Method
During the starting condition, the current flowing through
the SRM phases are very high, and torque production also
increases as the torque is proportional to the current phase
square. Therefore, current must be restricted within a certain
limit of imax = i∗ + Δi, imin = i∗ − Δi (Fig. 9). This means
that SRM also operates as a DC motor. If the applied load
torque on the motor is low, the hysteresis band appears until
the speed reaches a steady state. If load torque on the motor
is high, then the hysteresis band appears for longer period
because the motor draws a higher current.
The two types of gate pulses used in the hysteresis current
control method are shown in Fig.3. In Fig. 3a, S1 switch is
continuously on, but the S2 switch is continuously on and off
between the period θon to θof f . The corresponding voltage and
current response are shown in Fig. 5, from period on to off
which includes phase winding magnetization and freewheeling
mode. After pulse commutation, stored energy in the winding
feedbacks to the source through the diodes. In Fig. 3b, S1 and
S2 switches simultaneously on and off between the period θon
to θof f . Corresponding voltage and current response in Fig. 4
from period on to off shows the phase winding magnetization
and demagnetization mode. After pulse commutation stored
energy in the winding feedbacks to the source through diodes.
But comparing both the cases, switch utilization is less in soft
chopping mode as compared to hard chopping mode. As a
consequence, the switching losses are less in soft chopping
mode than the hard-chopping mode. Generally in any electrical
drive, during the operating condition high voltage spike may V ∝ω (3)
occur which may damage the windings. So proper design of
IV. P ROPOSED C ONTROL T ECHNIQUE
the snubber circuit across semiconductor switch is needed to
reduce the voltage spikes. In other words, there should be a The control technique block diagram shown in Fig. 7, is de-
protection against high voltage across the switch and motor veloped based on combining the current and PWM controllers.
winding. In the hysteresis control method, the current is regulated within
the limits. The PWM control method regulates the voltage but
Voltage/Current
not the current. The speed error is processed with the help of
+Vdc a speed controller (PI controller) and the output of the speed
controller is fed to the current controller. The optimized duty
cycle from the current controller is compared with the carrier
Iref signal. The signal from the position sensor is processed with
the commutation angle controller, which produces the turn-
Time
Phase
demagnetization
on and turn-off angles for different phases. The commutation
angle of the phases and the comparator output signal is used to
Phase
magnetization Effect of Snubber
produce the gate pulses to the asymmetric H-bridge converter.
-Vdc
circuit in switches
This control method improves the dynamic response of the
Phase conduction due to
controlling switches, diode system (Fig. 10).
Phase conduction due
to diodes

Fig. 4. Voltage and current response in soft chopping mode.

Generic model - Magnetization Characteristics
0.9
Slope = Saturated Aligned Inductance(Lsau)
0.8

Flux-linkages (volt-sec)
0.7 Angle - 0°(Aligned)
Voltage/Current
0.6
+Vdc
0.5

0.4
Slope = Unaligned Inductance(Lu)
0.3
Iref
0.2

0.1
Angle - 60°(Unaligned)
Time Slope = Aligned Inductance(Lu)
00
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Effect of Snubber
Phase Freewheeling circuit in switches
Current (Amps)
magnetization mode

(a)
-Vdc
Phase conduction due to
controlling switches, diode 50
40
Phase conduction due
to diodes Current increase from 0 to 80Amps
30
20
Torque (N-m)

Fig. 5. Voltage and current response in hard chopping mode. 10

0
-10
B. PWM Control Method -20
-30
Generally, the hysteresis control method is mainly used -40
for over-current protection for phase currents of the SRM to -50
0 10 20 30 50 60
40
control the torque component. But along with that, voltage Rotor Position (Deg)
also need to be controlled for controlling the speed. In the
(b)
PWM control technique, the average voltage across the phase
winding depends on the duty cycle. As the period of turn-on to Fig. 6. (a) Flux linkage characteristics. (b) Torque characteristics.
turn-off in Fig. 3 is more, then the period of duty cycle is also
more. So, the average voltage also increases which increases V. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
the speed range. The phase voltage is defined as Vavg = DVdc
(where D = Duty cycle). As per this method voltage, duty cycle To verify this control technique for fault-tolerance of non-
and speed are directly proportional to each other. linear 4 phase, 8/6 SRM a generic model is developed with
finite element data (FEA) using lookup table characteristics
P = V i = τω (1) shown in Fig. 6. In Fig. 6a shown the flux linkage char-
acteristics (ψ, I, θ) is and Fig. 6b represents the torque
at constant Torque
τω characteristics (τ , θ, I). For the 8/6 generic model SRM motor
V = (2) the maximum current capability is 80 A and the step angle
i

Authorized licensed use limited to: National Institute of Technology- Delhi. Downloaded on July 16,2024 at 05:39:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Current Controller + PWM Controller

PWM Controller

Carrier Asymmetric Bridge

Signal Conveter
Switched
Reluctance Motor
Gate
Iref pulses Speed
ωref Speed Current
+- Controller Controller
Comparator
Duty Cycle θ AND Current
ωactual Iactual

Commutation
Angle
Position Sensor

Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of the implemented current control and PWM control method.

period is 60°. The, performance of the fault tolerant SRM
machine shown in Figures 8 to 11 and are verified with the
help of MATLAB/Simulink. The results are taken under under
open-circuit fault condition in AHB converter switch during
the speed control operation of SRM.
Fig.8, represents the 4 phase voltage waveforms of 8/6
SRM drive. Each phase position is changing for every 15°.
In this paper hard chopping technique in Fig. 3b is used and
according to Fig. 4 this technique produces magnetization and
demagnetization. current is within the limits due to current
controller and voltage also +ve, -ve with no freewheeling
action. This means the combined controller improves the
performance of the drive by controlling both voltage and
current. In phase A open circuit fault occurs exactly at t=10 s
and as result zero voltage appears across phase A.
VA VB
300
Fig. 9, represents the 4 phase current waveforms of 8/6
SRM drive. As per current control method in section III, Phase
current is controlled within the limits. In phase A open circuit
fault occurs exactly at t=10 s then after phase A current is zero.
But to maintain rated output after the fault other phase currents
magnitudes increases Ib > Ic > Id this high magnitudes will
appears immediately after the fault. After phase A fault more
burden is on the phase B and little burden is on the phases
C and D. This phase unbalance is only for a intial period.
This phase unbalance may not cause sever problem to the
machine under open circuit fault condition. In case of short
circuit fault, very high current will flow through the phases. So,
these high currents create mutual flux linkages between other
phases which may lead to reduce the performance. So better
diagnosis method needs to apply for the better performance
under any fault condition.
VC VD
20
100
18
Actual Current(A)

80 Phase Unbalances
200
16 60
40
14 20
100
Current (A)

0
12
Voltage(V)

-20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
10 Time(S)
0
Open circuit
8 fault
IA IB IC ID

-100 6
4
-200 2
0
9.985 9.99 9.995 10 10.005 10.01 10.015 10.02 10.025
-300
9.95 9.96 9.97 9.98 9.99 10 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 Time(S)
Voltage before fault Time(S) Voltage after fault Current before fault Current after fault

300
200 6
5 Open circuit
100
VA (V)

4 fault
0 3
IA (A)

-100 2
-200 1
Open circuit 0
-300 fault -1
9.96 9.98 10 10.02 10.04 9.98 9.985 9.99 9.995 10 10.005
Time(S) Time(S)

Fig. 8. Simulation results of fault tolerant SRM drive before and after fault Fig. 9. Simulation results of fault tolerant SRM drive before and after fault
of the Four phase Voltage. of the Four phase Controlled Current.

Authorized licensed use limited to: National Institute of Technology- Delhi. Downloaded on July 16,2024 at 05:39:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 The main objective of this work is to control the speed VI. C ONCLUSION
of the motor under open fault condition at 1000 rpm. As per This paper presented the speed control of fault-tolerant SRM
Fig. 7, the control technique produced speed based on average drive. The generic model of the SRM using finite element
duty cycle with controlling of current by commutation angle data and the control technique An asymmetric H- bridge
control. In Fig. 10 speed before and after fault is validated converter is used and the speed control of 4 phase SRM,
through simulation. Before the fault, the motor speed is 1000 with combination of current and PWM control techniques
rpm and after the fault the speed varies between 1005 rpm to is presented under the open circuit fault condition. All the
995 rpm. During fault period, we can observe that the internal results are verified before and after the fault with the help
ripple is less. The main advantage of this control technique of the MATLAB/Simulink. The presented model has better
is proper speed regulation as well as controlling the current controlling capability because it can control both voltage and
within the limits. Current control method for low speed range current. So, this model is highly reliable for the SRM drives
and voltage PWM method for wide speed range. So overall under fault condition.
this technique useful for medium to high speed ranges. The
dynamic response of the motor is fast as the settling time is R EFERENCES
t=0.05 s. So, the proposed technique in Fig. 7 gives better [1] R. Krishnan, Switched reluctance motor drives: modeling, simulation,
result in comparison to current and PWM control techniques analysis, design, and applications. CRC press, 2017.
[2] C. M. Stephens, “Fault detection and management system for fault-
separately. tolerant switched reluctance motor drives,” IEEE Transactions on In-
dustry Applications, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 1098–1102, 1991.
[3] I. Husain and M. Anwa, “Fault analysis of switched reluctance motor
Open circuit fault drives,” in IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference.
1200 IEMDC’99. Proceedings (Cat. No. 99EX272). IEEE, 1999, pp. 41–43.
[4] B. Lequesne, S. Gopalakrishnan, and A. M. Omekanda, “Winding short
1000
circuits in the switched reluctance drive,” IEEE Transactions on Industry
1015
800
Speed (RPM)

Applications, vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 1178–1184, 2005.

Speed (RPM)

1000 1010
Speed (RPM)

1005 [5] A. G. Jack, B. C. Mecrow, and J. A. Haylock, “A comparative study of

600 600
1000
Settling time
995
permanent magnet and switched reluctance motors for high-performance
200 Speed after fault
400 00
0.01 0.03 0.05 0.07 0.09
990 fault-tolerant applications,” IEEE transactions on industry applications,
1.678 1.679 1.68 1.681 1.682 1.6825

200
Time(S)
0 0 2 4
Fig. 10. Simulation results of fault tolerant SRM drive before and after fault
Controlled Speed 1000 rpm.
In Fig. 11, represents the torque which is resultant of all
phase torques. Before the fault torque ripple low so motor
runs normally but after the fault also motor runs because
of phase independency but the ripple content is more due
to phase current unbalance in Fig. 9 in the phases. As per
general principle operation of SRM toque is proportional to
the square of current. Due to that phenomenon torque ripple
is more under fault condition. So, as per the literature torque
ripple minimization need to be developed for better efficiency.
80
70
Torque(A)
Time(S) vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 889–895, 1996.
[6] T. J. Miller, “Faults and unbalance forces in the switched reluctance
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 machine,” IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 31, no. 2,
Time(S) pp. 319–328, 1995.
[7] Y. Hu, C. Gan, W. Cao, W. Li, and S. J. Finney, “Central-tapped node
linked modular fault-tolerance topology for srm applications,” IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 1541–1554, 2015.
[8] Y. Hu, C. Gan, W. Cao, J. Zhang, W. Li, and S. J. Finney, “Flexible
fault-tolerant topology for switched reluctance motor drives,” IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 4654–4668, 2015.
[9] S. K. Sahoo, S. K. Panda, and J.-X. Xu, “Iterative learning-based high-
performance current controller for switched reluctance motors,” IEEE
Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 491–498, 2004.
[10] S. Gopalakrishnan, A. M. Omekanda, and B. Lequesne, “Classification
and remediation of electrical faults in the switched reluctance drive,”
IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 479–
486, 2006.
[11] C. Gan, Y. Chen, R. Qu, Z. Yu, W. Kong, and Y. Hu, “An overview
of fault-diagnosis and fault-tolerance techniques for switched reluctance
machine systems,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 174 822–174 838, 2019.
[12] Q. Sun, J. Wu, C. Gan, and J. Guo, “Modular full-bridge converter for
three-phase switched reluctance motors with integrated fault-tolerance
capability,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 34, no. 3, pp.
2622–2634, 2018.
18
16
[13] V. F. Pires, A. Cordeiro, D. Foito, A. J. Pires, J. Martins, and H. Chen,

12 “A multilevel fault-tolerant power converter for a switched reluctance

8
60
4
machine drive,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 21 917–21 931, 2020.
50 0 [14] C. Gan, J. Wu, Y. Hu, S. Yang, W. Cao, and J. L. Kirtley, “Online
9.97 9.98 9.99 10 10.01 10.02 10.03
40 Time(S) sensorless position estimation for switched reluctance motors using one
Torque (N-m)

Open circuit current sensor,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 31, no. 10,
30
fault pp. 7248–7263, 2015.
20 Torque after fault [15] S. S. Ahmad and G. Narayanan, “Evaluation of dc-link capacitor rms
Torque before fault
10 current in switched reluctance motor drive,” IEEE Transactions on
0 Industry Applications, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 1459–1471, 2020.
-10
[16] B. Shao and A. Emadi, “A digital pwm control for switched reluctance
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 motor drives,” in 2010 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference.
Time(S) IEEE, 2010, pp. 1–6.

Fig. 11. Simulation results of fault tolerant SRM drive before and after
Torque.

Authorized licensed use limited to: National Institute of Technology- Delhi. Downloaded on July 16,2024 at 05:39:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.