17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
A Drive System Design and Implementation for Switched
Reluctance Motor Based on Wide Range Speed Control
M. Hamouda, A. R. A. Amin and E. Gouda.
Electrical Engineering Department, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
e-mail: m_hamouda26@mans.edu.eg
Abstract– Increased applications ofswitched reluctance
motor (SRM) leads the potential to improve itsdrive system.
Proper operation of the SRM requires the control of theswitching
angles and current magnitudein order to achieve the commanded
objectfor different modes of operation.This paper presents design
and implementation of a SRM drive system. The drive system is
described and studied in details. SRM control requires rotor
position information with reasonably resolution and high degree
of accuracy. The digital controller is implemented using high
speed C2000 Microcontroller (TMS320F28335). The PWM
hysteresis current control is introduced in order to regulate the
current according to the commanded value through asymmetric
bridge converter.The torque speed characteristicsare measured
at different switching angles and several currentmagnitudes.The
drive system is tested with sudden change in operating conditions
at low and high speeds in order to verify its transient
performance.
IndexTerms-Experimental,SRM,Converter,Encoder,Controller.
I. INTRODUCTION
SRM drives have great potential in motion control
applications, because of their outstanding characteristics,
which enable high performance in harsh environments such as
high temperature and dusty environment[1]- [3]. Its simple
construction due to absence of magnets, rotor conductors and
brushes make it an attractive alternative to AC and DC motors
for general-purpose industrial drives, as well as for high
performance automotive drives and other applications. The
rotor is basically a piece of steel (laminations) shaped to form
salient poles making it well-suited for high speed operation
[3]-[5]. The SRM promises a reliable and low-cost variable-
speed drive and will undoubtedly take the place of many
drives now using the cage induction and DC commutator
machines in the short future [3].
SRM drive applications include Electric vehicles [6]-[7],
Aerospace [8], Robotics [9], Variable speed and servo-type
applications [2], [10], Renewable Energy System [11],
Household appliances [1], [12]. Recently SRM has been used
in many applications like: Fuel pump, Throttle control, Oil
pump, ABS, Lawnmower, Automatic doors in buildings and
vehicles, and Fans [13].
Torque and speed control applications of the SRM
requires rotor position information with reasonably resolution
and high degree of accuracy. Rotor position sensing unit is an
integral part of the SRM drives control [14]. The drive circuit
and the machine itself is considered as one integrated system,
one part of such a system can’t be separately designed without
considering the other part.
This paper is organized as follows: Section II describes
the SRM drive system. Section III provides the construction
and operation of converter circuit. While Section IV presents
the gate drive circuit with optocoupler isolation. The position
sensing unit (encoder) is explained through Section V.
Moreover, Section VI illustrates the digital control system and
its programing software. Section VII discusses thedata
measuring system. Section VIII contains the experimental
results and their discussion. And Section IX gives the
conclusion drawn from this research.
II. SRM DRIVE SYSTEM
Fig.1 shows the block diagram of an SRM drive system.
The controller has two loops. The outer loop controller is a
speed or position controller. While the inner loop controller is
a current controller. The outer loop generates the reference
current from the position or speed error. The reference
commanded current is compared with the actual motor current
to estimate the current error signal. This error signal is
processed using a PWM hysteresis current control in order to
regulate the motor current to track its reference
value.WhileFig.2 illustrates the detailed construction of the
experimental setup.The drive system composes of two
different parts. The hardware components which are the
converter circuit, IGBT gate driver, position sensing unit,
digital controller (TMS320F28335), data measurement
systemand personal computer.However, the software part
includes the speed and current controllers in the control
program as software.By using the Microcontroller plug in the
computer board, the control program can be built on the
Microcontroller.A photograph of the experimental rig is given
in Fig.3.
Speed Current PWM IGBT

*
i
*
6/4
+
-
Controller +
-
Controller Hysteresis converter
SRM
Controller

Filter Encoder
Filter
Fig. 1: Block Diagram of SRM Drive System (Closed-Loop Speed Control).
III. THE CONVERTER CIRCUIT
The most flexible and the most versatile four-quadrant
SRM converter is the classic bridge converter, which requires
two switches and two diodes per phase. The major advantage
of this converter is its flexibility in current control. Each phase
can be controlled in independent way which is very essential
 17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
for very high speed operation. The motor phases are similarly
connected. The asymmetric bridge converter for one phase is
shown in Fig. 4.
The bridge converter operates in three modes. When both
switches Q1 and Q2 are closed, current flows from the source
through the phase winding. When Q1 is open and Q2 is
closed, the phase current freewheels through the phase
winding, D2 and Q2. When both switches Q1 and Q2 are
open, the current flows through the feedback diodes D1 and
D2 against the supply voltage. The energy stored in the phase
winding inductance is returned to the dc source and the current
quickly decays to zero.
The photo of the practical asymmetrical bridge converter
is depicted in Fig.5.The power rating of the IGBT is chosen
such that the maximum current of the target motor is within
the limit of the current rating of the chosen IGBT. The
IGBT was mounted on an oversized heat sink. With this
oversized heat sink, along with the use of a fan as the
IGBT
converter
cooling mechanism. Also, snubber circuits in the form of RC
elements were incorporated to reduce any switching transients
caused by the switching process of the IGBT switches.
IV. THE IGBT GATE DRIVE CIRCUIT
The signal isolation can be obtained by several methods
such as, transformer isolation, opto-coupler isolation, and
isolated DC power supply. The isolation is carried out using a
high speed opto-coupler (ACPL-3130). This low input current
logic gate opto-isolator has a detector with 3-state output
suitable for driving data buses. It has an internal shield which
gives good common mode transient immunity (40 kV/μs). The
opto-isolator circuit used to drive one IGBT as shown in Fig.6,
where the practical circuit is shown in Fig.7. The input signal
to the isolation circuit is 3.3 volt (output of the digital
controller), and the output signal is 15 volt which is isolated
and enough to drive the IGBT.
ia

(asymmetrical bridge
C
DC converter ib 6/4
supply &
SRM
snubber circuit)

Search Encoder
coils Position sensing unit
ic Induced
Va ia
e.m.f
Vb ib
Gate Vc ic
signals Voltage and current Integrator
transducers circuit

Reference Gate Drive Circuit Signal conditioning circuit

speed (isolated power supply & opt- (filter+amplifier)
The digital controller
system coupler isolation circuit)
(TMS320F28335)

ia Flux
Data acquisition
ib Board Speed &
DAQ-NI 6229 Rotor position
ic Speed &
Rotor position

USB

Fig.2: Experimental Setup Configuration.

Fig.3: Test Rig.

17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
V. POSITION SENSING UNIT (ENCODER)
Q1
The operation and control of the SRM requires accurate
D1
knowledge of the rotor position information. According to the
rotor position information, the control system gives a series
C
DC group of pulses to drive the motor. Therefore the magnetic
supply
D2
circuit configuration of the motor is illustrated in
Fig.8.Thisfigure shows also the position sensors which are
termed PS1, PS2 and PS3.Moreover, this magnetic circuit is
Q2
equipped with nine search coils. Three search coils are
wounded on the stator yoke and known as Y1-1’, Y2-2’, and
Y3-3’. While the remaining search coils are wound to measure
Fig.4: The Asymmetric Bridge Converter. the stator pole flux linkage (termed as P1-1’, P2-2’, P2-2’, P4-
4’, P5-5’, and P6-6’).
The sequence of the pulses depends on the direction of
rotation. In order to make the drive system more reliable, a
simple encoder is designed with three U-optocouplers and a
slotted disk. In case of 6/4 SRM, the inductance patterns are
displaced by 30o (mechanical degrees).Hence, the U-
optocouplers are allocated on the stator yoke with
displacement of 30o. The second part of the encoder is a
slotted disk which mounted on the motor shaft. The disk is
designed according to motor geometry. In case of 6/4 SRM,
the conduction angle (θC) is about 30o. The disk is cut with θC
= 32o. The conduction angle is considered 32oinstead of 30o in
order to improve the torque production. The disk is marked in
order to estimate the switch-on angle (θon). The knowledge of
Fig.5. The Practical Converter Circuit. switching-on angle is necessary and very important in SRM
performance analysis. The switching-off angle (θoff) can be
determined according to both θon and θC. The practical encoder
is shown in Fig.9. The output signals of the encoder are
illustrated in Fig.10.
The experimental torque-speed characteristics given in
Fig.11illustrate the effect of switching angles control. The
early switching angles (θon =-5, θoff =27) allowthe motor to
operate at high speeds with reduced torque production. On the
other hand, the delayed switching angles(θon =+5, θoff =37)
allow the motor to generate more torque at low speeds with
limited speed range. The switching angles must be conditioned
according to the motor speed to improve the torque production
and motor efficiency.
Fig.6: wiring diagram of opto-Coupler Isolation Circuit.

Fig.7: The Practical Circuit Of Opto-Coupler Isolation.

Fig. 8: SRM Magnetic Circuit Configuration.
 17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
Moreover, the experimental torque speed curve given in
Fig.12 shows the effect of changing the output maximum
permissible current from the outer-loop speed controller. At
high speeds the three curves are matched. But at lower speeds
the hysteresis current controller is employed to regulate the
current to its commanded value. The grater the current the
greater torque.
VI. THE DIGITAL CONTROLLER SYSTEM
Fig.13 shows the high speed (150 MHz) C2000
Microcontroller board (TMS320F28335) from Texas
Instruments. The Microcontroller is utilized to control the
switching sequences of the IGBT switches. The software Fig.11: The torque-speed characteristics at different switching angles.
control program is constructed by the author to implement the
proper required functions using MATLAB/Simulink. This
program is converted into C-codes and downloaded into the
Microcontroller board using specific software (code composer
studio).
The Microcontroller reads the input signals (digital
&analogue) and executes the control program to control the
IGBT switching. The input signals are the reference speed,
actual speed, the rotor positions and the current in each phase.
The control program contains a PID (Kp=0.05, Ki=0.0001 and
Kd=0) speed controller and also PWM Hysteresis current
controller .
Fig.12: The torque-speed characteristics at different current magnitudes.

Fig.13: Digital photo of Microcontroller board.

VII. DATA MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

Fig.9: the practical encoder circuit.
Fig.10: The Encoder Output Signals.
The data measurement system consists of four voltage
transducers and four current transducers, signal conditioning
circuits, and data acquisition system (DAQ). The data
measurement was carried out using DAQ system from
National Instruments (NI USB-6229) at a data measurement
sampling rate of 12 k.Samples/sec for each signal.
A. Voltage and current transducers
The main purpose of transducers is to step down the
voltage and current , as well as to provide electrical
galvanic isolations between the high power stages of the
motor and low power stages of the DAQ. Since the analogue
inputs of the DAQ board only accept signals ranging from -10
to 10 V.
The three phase currents and the supply current were
measured using four current transducers made by LEM
International module (LA 100-P). Each transducer was
designed to measure a maximum of 100 A with a sensitivity of
100 mV/A. If lower currents are to be measured then the
 17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
sensitivity can be increased by using more than one turn in the 150K Op-Amp Analog Input
741 to DAQ
primary current. The per-phase circuit is shown in Fig.14. The Current
signal
+

-
measuring range can be changed by varying the measuring 0.47uF
100
resistance. 150K 150K
Since the analogue inputs of the digital controller system
only accept signals ranging from 0 to 3.3 Volt, A voltage and
470pF
current transducers is used to step down the supply voltage (a)
and current to an accepted level. The voltage transducers are 10K
LEM Module LV 25-P. These transducers also provide voltage signal
47K
from tachometer Op-Amp 5K Analog Input
electrical isolation between the power circuit and the -
741 Op-Amp
to DAQ
- 741
controller. Fig.15 presents the block diagram of the voltage 2nF
+
+
100
transducer. The implementation of the practical circuit is 100K
shown in Fig.16.
B. Signal Conditioning Circuit 100pF
(b)
The output signals from transducers must be conditioned Fig.17: Signal Conditioning Circuits, (a) Current. (b) Speed Circuit.
using signal conditioning circuit which is necessary to shield
the signals from noise and distortion. The signal conditioning C. DAQ card
board, which is shown here in Fig.17 consists of two circuits The DAQ card used in this work is a state-of-the-art
for the motor phase currents (per-phase circuit), and a speed technology hardware and software developed by National
sensing circuit. Instruments (NI). The high accuracy and precision of the NI-
LA 100-P + +15 V DAQ system makes it a very attractive and reliable data
- -15 V collection tool. The high sampling rate and high resolution of
the DAQ system allow the user to obtain very precise and
M accurate data structures. The DAQ system uses an E-Series
0V technology (NI-USB 6229) to deliver high performance,
reliable data acquisition capabilities to meet a wide range of
Fig.14: Current Transducer. application requirements. It provide sampling rate of 250
k.Samples/sec and 16-bit resolution on 32 single-ended
+15 V analogue inputs. Then by using the DAQ plug in on the
computer board, the real time data which are fed into the
+ + analogue inputs of the DAQ board can be appearing on the PC
LEM monitor using specific software such as either LabVIEW or
VDC LV 25-P M 0V
MATLAB-SIMULINK software. In this work, LabVIEW
- software was used.
VIII. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
-15 V
Fig.15: Voltage Transducer.
Experimental tests have been carried out to investigate the
performance of the driving system in two steps. The first step
issuddenchange in load torque at low and high speeds.
Moreover, the second step includes sudden change by opening
one phase of the motor under operation.
1) Sudden change in load torque at low and high speeds

At starting, the motor draws the maximum permissible

Fig.16: the practical circuit of the current and voltage transducers.
current due to the low speed. After the motor speed reaches its
reference value, the motor current is conditioned according to
the load torque.When the load torque is suddenly increased,
the motor speed is expected to decrease rapidly. The SRM
behaviour can be classified as series characteristics where the
speed is decreased rapidly with the increased load torque as
shown by the torque speed characteristics curve.The drive
system forces the motor to operate at constant speed when the
load torque is increased by increasing the motor applied
voltage. The speed remains constant, but the motor current is
increased as shown in Fig.18 for low speed of 250 rpm and
high speed of 2000 rpm.
 17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(A) (B)
Fig.18: the experimental results for sudden loading test.
(A) Sudden loading of 1.0 Nm at Low speed of 250 rpm, (B) Sudden loading of 0.65 Nm at High speed of 2000 rpm.
(a) the motor speed, (b) Phase A current, (c) Phase B current, (d) Phase C current, (e) the supply current.

2) Sudden change by opening one phase of the motor
The motor starts its operation with a load torque of 0.65
Nm. After the motor reaches its steady state speed of 2000
rpm. One phase of the motor is opened and reconnected again.
The phase could be opened by fault, bad connection, melting
wires or destroyed power electronic switch. When the motor
phase is disconnected, the motor speed is reduced but with a
limited range according to the load torque. The health phases
draw more current to generate greater torque in order to gain
the motor speed as shown in Fig.19.
 17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015
IX. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents the design and implementation of
closed-loop speed controlof 6/4 SRM.The process of the
driving system operation has been carried out using software
(a)
implemented by the author and built on the
microcontroller.The encoder is designed with three U-
optocouplers to simplify the drive system and also to increase
the system reliability. The SRM operation requires current
control according to the commanded value. This is done using
hysteresis current controller through asymmetric bridge
converter which offers highflexibility in current regulation.
(b) The hysteresis current controller is employed especially at low
speeds where the back-emf is neglected.A sudden change in
the operating conditions has been carried out to test transient
performance of the drivesystem. These experimental tests
have been carried out by making sudden change in the load
torque and sudden change by opening one phase of the
motor.The experimental results illustrate the drive system
capability of wide range speed control.

(c)
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 17th International Middle East Power Systems Conference, Mansoura University, Egypt, December 15-17, 2015

Appendix
TABLE I
The SRM parameters.
Geometry parameter symbol Value unit
Rated output power 𝑃 1.1 [Kw]
Rated voltage 𝑉 270 [V]
Rated current 𝑖 6 [A]
Phase resistance 𝑅 2.267 [Ω]
Turns per phase 𝑁 400

Typical current waveforms with idealized inductance profile (a) Idealized

inductance profile; (b) Current waveform at low speeds; (c) Current waveform
at high speeds.