IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 11, NO.
1, JANUARY 1996
Torque Ripple Minimization in Switched Reluctance
Motor Drives by PWM Current Control
Iqbal Husain, Member, IEEE, and M. Ehsani, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract-Higher torque ripple is one of the few drawbacks of
switched reluctance motor (SRM) drives which otherwise possess
excellent characteristics for applications in many commercial
drives. This paper begins with an extensive review of torque
ripple reduction methods that appear in the literature and then
presents a new strategy of PWM current control for smooth
operation of the drive. This method includes a current control
strategy during commutation when torque ripple minimization is
of utmost importance.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE inherent simplicity, ruggedness, and low cost of a
switched reluctance motor (SRM) makes it a viable candi-
date for various general purpose adjustable speed applications
[11. The simple power electronic drive circuit requirement and
the fault tolerance of the converter are specific advantages
of an SRM drive for applications requiring a high degree
of reliability. The combination of an SR motor and an ap-
propriately controlled converter provides many of the desired
characteristics of an efficient drive system. The output power
of an SRM is higher than that of a comparable induction motor
and the torque-inertia ratio is also higher due to the absence
of rotor windings.
The primary disadvantage of an SRM is the higher torque
ripple compared with conventional machines, which con-
tributes to acoustic noise and vibration. The origin of torque
pulsations in an SRM is due to the highly nonlinear and
discrete nature of torque production mechanism. The total
torque in an SRM is the sum of torques generated by each of
the stator phases, which are controlled independently. Torque
pulsations are the most significant at the commutation instants
when torque production mechanism is being transferred from
one active phase to another. Cameron et al. [2] demonstrated
that the resonant vibrations of the stator are the dominant
source of acoustic noise in an SRM. These vibrations are
caused by radial magnetic force, which act to decrease the gap
separation between the rotor and stator as their poles approach
alignment.
The minimization of the torque ripple is essential in high
performance servo applications, which require smooth opera-
Manuscript received October 28, 1993; revised July 21, 1995.
1. Husain is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
Akron, Akron, OH 44325-3904 USA.
M. Ehsani is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M
University, College Station, TX 77843-3128 USA.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8993(96)00597-2.
0885-8993/96$05.00 0 1996 IEEE
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83
tion with minimum torque pulsations. The excellent positive
features of an SRM can be utilized in a servo system by
developing techniques of reducing the torque ripple. These
types of drives have extensive applications in automotive
industries, direct drive machine tools, etc.
There are essentially two primary approaches for reducing
the torque pulsations: One method is to improve the magnetic
design of the motor, while the other is to use sophisticated elec-
tronic control. Machine designers are able to reduce the torque
pulsations by changing the stator and rotor pole structures,
but only at the expense of motor performance. The electronic
approach is based on selecting an optimum combination of the
operating parameters, which include the supply voltage, tum-
on and tum-off angles, current level and the shaft load. It must
be noted that the minimization of torque ripple does lead to a
reduction of the average torque, since the capabilities of the
motor are not being fully utilized at every rotor position. In
general, it can be stated that torque maximization and ripple
minimization cannot be achieved simultaneously by electronic
control. N
This paper presents an improved PWM current control
technique for torque ripple minimization in the low speed
mode of operation. The torque pulsations during commutation
are minimized by simultaneous conduction of two positive
torque producing phases over an extended predefined region.
11. TORQUEGENERATION
The doubly salient SR motors have independent phase
windings on the stator and a rotor usually made of steel
laminations. Several possible combinations of stator and rotor
poles are possible, such as, 6/4, 8/6, 12/8, etc. The machine
produces torque on the basis of varying reluctance along the
magnetic circuit. When a stator phase is energized, the stator
pole pair attracts the closest rotor pole pair toward alignment of
the poles. Torque is produced by this tendency of the magnetic
circuit to adopt a configuration of minimum reluctance and is
independent of the direction of current flow. By consecutive
energization of successive phases, continuous rotation in either
direction is possible. The torque in terms of co-energy is given
as Dl
phase
where T , i , and 6' represent the torque, current, and rotor
angular position respectively. The co-energy can be calculated
 84
Aligned posltlon
!/--
00 8C
(a)
‘4 #---I1
I -1
Fig. 1. Idealized inductance profile and the phase excitation currents. (a)
Motor phase inductance. (b) Phase current for motoring torque. ( c ) Phase
current for braking torque.
from
W’ = I’ $(8, i ) d i
where $ represents the stator flux.
Under the simplifying assumption of magnetic linearity, the
torque equation becomes
1 . dL
T(0,i) = -z2-. (3)
2 d8
phases
The idealized inductance profile for one phase of an SRM
is shown in Fig. l(a). The phase excitation currents are syn-
chronized with the rising inductance region for positive or
motoring torque and with the decreasing inductance region
for generating or braking torque. The phase currents for
motoring and generation are shown in Fig. l(b) and (c),
respectively. The optimum performance of an SRM depends
on the appropriate positioning of the phase currents relative
to the rotor angular position. The motor controller selects the
turn-off angles in such a way that the residual magnetic flux
in the commutating phase decays to zero before the negative
$$ region is reached in the motoring mode of operation.
In the low speed mode of operation, torque is maintained
constant by keeping the phase current constant. The inde-
pendent stator phases contribute, in succession, to maintain
continuous torque production in the direction of rotation.
During commutation each of the two adjacent conducting
phases produce torques which are additive. Torque ripple
is inversely related to the smoothness of current transfer
between phases, and it is possible to minimize the ripple during
transition by controlling currents in the overlapping phases.
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E E E TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL 11, NO. 1, JANUARY 1996
111. REVLEW OF PREVIOUS METHODS
Various methods of torque control appear in the literature
[3]-[9]. The most popular approach for ripple minimization
has been to store the torque-angle-current characteristics in
a tabular form so that the optimum phase current can be
determined from position measurement and torque require-
ment. Some of the previous studies have outlined methods
e,
of obtaining the torque-angle-currentcharacteristics accurately
by conducting static tests on the motor [5]-[7]. One method of
obtaining these characteristics curves, described by Kavanagh
et al. [5] is based on a series of experiments performed with
the drive in a self-leaming mode, without the need for an
external loading device. The technique is not trivial, taking
several minutes, as the amount of computation and the number
of steps to be performed are significant.
The method described by Moreira in [7] is based on the
estimation of the instantaneous SR motor torque from the flux
linkage versus current and rotor position characteristics curves.
These curves were obtained by experimental measurement
of voltage and current at different rotor positions and then
using a bi-cubic spline interpolation. In this method, the
instantaneous torque estimates is obtained in real time from
third-order polynomial evaluations whose coefficients have
been precomputed and stored in memory locations of the
digital signal processor used to implement the control. The
estimated torque is compared with a constant reference value
and the result of this comparison drives a current regulator to
control the motor phase currents. The algorithm of this method
(2)
involves the computation of third order polynomials and does
not take advantage of overlapping positive
phase inductance to minimize the torque ripple.
regions of the
The method of ripple reduction by optimizing current over-
lap during commutation at all torque levels was studied in [6].
The algorithm is based on defining a central commutation point
at which two phases carry equal current so that the summed
torque matches the desired torque. This method also used the
experimentally obtained static torque-angle-current curves to
find the desired currents for a required torque.
The research on ripple reduction by Taylor et aZ. [9]-[ll]
resulted in a number of control schemes based on feedback
linearization. In these methods, a state feedback control algo-
rithm is designed, which compensates for all the nonlinearities
of the machine modes and decouples the effect of stator phase
currents in torque production. The position dependent logic of
the commutation circuit assigns control to one phase which
controls the motion, while the remaining phase currents are
forced to decay to zero. Although conceptually successful, the
control algorithm is highly complex and difficult to implement.
Simplified versions of the above algorithm based on reduced
order SRM model have been presented in [ 101 and [ 111.
IV. TORQUERIPPLE MINIMIZATION
The torque ripple minimization method proposed in this pa-
per is based on optimum profiling of the phase currents during
an extended overlapping conduction period of two phases. The
method of control is on an instantaneous basis instead of the
conventional time-averaged torque control. The instantaneous
 HUSAIN AND EHSANI: TORQUE RIPPLE MINIMIZATION IN SWITCHED RELUCTANCE MOTOR DRIVES
I- f-1
0 100 zo SM
Rotor posttton in electrtcal degrees
Fig. 2. Contour functions for profiling individual phase currents and torque.
control reduces the time of response in addition to minimizing
the torque ripple. In conventional methods, the phase current
is maintained at the reference level by hysteresis control or
PWM control to produce constant torque. The torque ripple
minimization is of utmost importance at commutation, where
overlapping conduction of phases occurs. Current profiling at
commutation has not been discussed in detail in the published
literature, although the control algorithms described in [7]-[ 111
apply for single-phaseconduction as well as for multiple-phase
conduction. Also, the available literature on torque ripple
minimization stresses more the determination of the torque-
angle-current characteristics and rarely addresses the current
profiling algorithm. A PWM strategy of c;qent profiling
for the entire region of operation, including cohutation, is
presented in the following.
0
A. Torque and Current Profiling Strategy
The torque control strategy is based on following a contour
for each of the phases of the SR motor such that the sum
of torques produced by each phase is constant and equals the
desired torque Tref.In order to achieve this constant torque,
we define a contour function f ~ ( 6 ' ) such that
where
n
k=l
Here f k is the contour function for the kth phase.
One possible choice for the contour function f ~ ( 6 ' ) for a
four-phase 816 SRM is shown in Fig. 2. The equation of the
function for phase 1 is
fl(6') = .5 - . 5 ~ 0 ~ 4 (-6 d' o ) , 6'0 5 6' < 6'1
= 1, 61 5 6' < 6'2
+ .5cos4(8 - e2), (5)
= .5 o2 5 e < e3
= 0, otherwise.
The contour function for a phase is nonzero only during its
positive inductance slope. The choice of the reference angles
depends on the inductance profile of a particular motor.
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85
A similar method of torque control based on a defining
function was proposed in [8]. The authors attempted to develop
a generalized concept of instantaneous torque control for
rotating machines by a reference frame transformation based
on the Floquet theory. The computational complexity and
speed requirements required to achieve the desired control
pose a potential drawback for the implementation of the
concept. However, this paper presents a simpler algorithm for
torque ripple minimization based on contour functions.
The contour function predefines the conduction of each
phase with three distinct modes of profiling. In two of these
modes, two phases conduct simultaneously over an extended
prolonged period and only one phase conducts in the remaining
mode. The commutation is designed to take place over a
prolonged period for smoothness of operation during transition
of current conduction from an outgoing phase to the incoming
one. The torque control strategy forces the outgoing phase
current to follow a decaying contour rather than allowing it to
freewheel naturally. The incoming phase current is also forced
to follow an increasing contour by active control. Four phase
SRM's are readily adaptable to this scheme since there is a
region in the inductance profiles of two adjacent phases where
they simultaneously possess positive slopes.
B. Algorithm for Current Control
The torque command Tref is set by the load requirement in
torque controlled drives and the reference current is readily
obtained from the torque-angle-current characteristics if only
one phase is conducting. The contour function comes into the
picture during multiple-phase conduction periods. From (4)
where T I ,T2,T3,and T4 are the torques produced by each of
the phases separately. The individual phase current require-
ments can now easily be determined from these phase torque
requirements and the torque-angle-current characteristics. If
saturation can be neglected, the desired current can easily be
obtained from the instantaneous torque equation
However, to take saturation into account, the torque-angle-
current characteristics must be stored in tabular form for quick
access and retrieval of data.
The algorithm for current control with torque ripple mini-
mization is given below:
Obtain Tref from user.
Calculate f ( 6 ' 1 ) at position 191 (from tables).
Calculate TI and TZfrom Tref* f(O1).
Obtain I1des and I2des from tables.
Regulate the current to maintain the desired values.
In one of the modes of operation only one phase will be
conducting and the multiplication of Tref with f(6') will give
one nonzero torque value in the third step of the algorithm.
 86
1.6 I
-- Analytical
Experimental
0.2 I I I the back-EMF is a function of speed and the inductance slope.
O 1w 200 3w
Rotor position in electrical degrees
Fig. 3. Experimentally detemned and analytically obtained self-inductance
of a phase for an 8/6 four-phase SRM.
V. CONTROLLER IMPLEMENTATION
The factors involved in implementing the proposed al-
gorithm are the torque-angle-current (T-i-0)characteristics,
the shape of the contour function, the overlap angle for
simultaneous phase conduction, and the current regulation
algorithm. The ,T-i-8 characteristics can be determined off-
line by static tests. The characteristics of all the phases are
approximately the same except that they are phase shifted by
15 mechanical degrees for an 8/6 four-phase motor. Therefore,
a single three-dimensional table is adequate to detei-mine the
reference current for all the four phases.
The T-i-8 characteristics curves can also be obtained from
the self-inductance data, when magnetic nonlinearity is ne-
glected. This procedure of obtaining the T-i-0 characteristics
from self-inductance characteristics has been used in the sim-
ulation of the algorithm. The self-inductance of a four-phase
SRM at different rotor positions were measured experimentally
by exciting the coils with a 2 kHz sinusoidal signal. Since
these inductance profiles are periodic in nature, a Fourier
series representation can be obtained by spectrum analysis.
The derived analytical expression is as follows:
L a ( 0 ) = 0.000758 + . 0 0 0 4 7 ~ 60' ~ .000071
- COS 28
+ 0.000009 cos 38 + 0.000032 cos 48
- .000022 COS 50.
The experimentally determined and the analytically obtained
profiles for one phase are shown in Fig. 3.
The selection of the appropriate contour function is also very
important for efficient operation. There are two primary con-
ditions that the contour function must satisfy. The conditions
are the following:
* The sum of the functions for all the phases must be unity
at all times, and
The actual current must be able to follow the contour
0
defined by the function.
The choice of f ( 0 ) is nonunique and many functions will
satisfy the first criterion. The second criterion depends on
the motor parameters as well as on the slope of the contour
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LEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 11, NO. 1, JANUARY 1996
1 function. The motor phase voltage is given by
di dL
V = iR+ L- S i -
dt dt
where R is the phase winding resistance and L is the instanta-
neous phase inductance. Recognizing that w = g,
the voltage
equation can be written as
where E = i w g and is known as the back-EMF. Note that
The rate of change of current can be derived from the above
equation as follows:
di V-E
- -- exp (-RtIL).
dt L
The desired current, obtained from the torque command and
the contour function is
Therefore, the condition to be satisfied by the function is given
bY
di diA
The above relationship is a function of speed, which limits
the implementation of the torque minimization scheme up to
a certain speed. The back-EMF increases with speed and the
rate of rise of current decreases due to limited inverter voltage.
The PWM duty-cycle is increased to counter the back-EMF
up to the base speed where PWM duty-cycle reaches 100%.
Base speed is defined as the highest speed at which maximum
current can be applied to the motor at rated voltage with
fixed firing angles. Constant torque production is no longer
possible above the base speed, since the controller is unable
to regulate the current by duty-cycle control. The motor then
enters the constant power region where peak torque production
is maintained by controlling the conduction angle. Therefore,
the torque minimization algorithm described in this paper is
possible only up to where PWM current control is possible,
or in other words, up to the base speed.
The overlap angle during which the two phases conduct
simultaneously must be maximized so that the demand on
the current regulator is minimal. The angular spread over
which two phases will simultaneously possess positive %
slopes depends on the stator and rotor structures. The angular
spread is maximized when the motor is designed to have
a maximum possible variation of phase inductance between
aligned and unaligned rotor positions. Consequently, this is
also the criterion for maximum torque production.
The phase current can be regulated to follow the desired
contour by either bang bang control or PWM control. A
fixed-frequencyvarying duty-cycle PWM control strategy was
adopted for current regulation in this project. The actual
current is sensed and fed back to the controller to generate
the error after comparing with the reference current. The error
 ~

HUSAIN AND EHSANI: TORQUE RIPPLE MINIMIZATION IN SWITCHED RELUCTANCE MOTOR DRIVES 87

-
Power
converter

Fig. 4. Block diagram of the SRM drive with torque ripple minimization.

t 220 240 260 280 500 320 340

z
F 0.05 ~

- T-a Rotor posltlon In electrical degrees

.E 0.01-
-- T- b Fig. 6. Simulation results of desired and actual currents in different phases
--- T-d to maintain constant torque.
fg 0.0s -
--. T-total

-
+
U
8
+
0.02-

2
0
0.01 -
g
z
a 0.00 I I I I I 1
220 240 260 280 500 s20 340

Rotor position In electrical degrees

Fig. 5. Simulation results of phase torques and total torque of an 8/6,

1 hp SRM.

is passed through a PI controller which generates the desired

duty-cycle for the active phase or phases.
The overall block diagram of the controller is shown in
Fig. 4. An encoder is used to feedback the rotor position
continuously to the controller. The torque is regulated in the
inner control loop, while the speed is controlled in the outer
loop. The speed error signal generates the torque command
which is the input to the proposed controller. The desired
current determined by the current calculator is compared with
the actual current, and the generated switching pattern is fed
to the power converter.
RESULTS
VI. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL
The simulation and experimental results are given based on
a torque regulated drive designed for automotive applications.
The motor used for simulation as well as for experiments is a
1 hp, 816, four-phase SRM having a maximum inductance of
1.2 mH and a minimum inductance of 0.26 mH. The stator
phase winding resistance is 0.03 ohm. The rotor is made
of steel laminations to reduce the effects of eddy currents
and hysteresis losses. Simulation results for constant torque
production for the motor running at a constant speed of
500 r/m is shown in Fig. 5. The phase torque as well as the
total torque are shown in the figure. The reference and actual
currents in different phases, for constant torque and minimum
torque ripple, are shown in Fig. 6. The oscillograph in Fig. 7
shows the four phase-currents in the lower traces while the
torque delivered by the motor is shown in the upper trace. The
Fig. 7. Phase current and motor torque for the experimental SRM. Lower
trace: Phase currents, 12.5 Ndiv. Upper trace: Motor torque, 20 lb-iddiv.
torque was measured using the Himmelstein torque measuring
instrument, which has sufficient bandwidth to demonstrate the
ripples at the experimental speeds. The smooth operation with
minimized torque ripple for a desired torque of 12 lb-in. is
evident from the oscillograph.
VII. CONCLUSION
This paper addresses the issue of torque ripple in switched
reluctance motor drives for low-speed, high-performance ap-
plications. The origin of torque ripple and the previous at-
tempts on ripple reduction that appear in the literature have
been reviewed. A novel method of torque ripple reduction
for low-speed SRM drives has been presented. The method
includes a new PWM current control strategy where the current
follows a contour for constant torque production. The scheme
is capable of taking into account the effects of saturation,
although in some cases more accurate modeling of the motor
inductance may be required.
The results presented demonstrate that servomotor perfor-
mance can be achieved with switched reluctance motor drives

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 88 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 11, NO. 1, JANUARY 1996
in the low-speed mode of operation. These types of drives
have applications in automotive power steering, direct drive
machine tools, robotic manipulators, etc.
REFERENCES
[l] P. J. Lawrenson, J. M. Stephenson, P. T. Blenkinsop, J. Corda, and
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[2] D. E. Cameron, J. H. Lang, and S. D. Umans, “The origin of acoustic
noise in variable-reluctance motors,” in IEEE-IAS Con$ Rec. ’89, pp.
89-98.
[3] J. T. Bass, M. Ehsani, and T. J. E. Miller, “Simplified electronics for
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[4] J. T. Bass, M. Ehsani, and T. J. E. Miller, “Robust torque control of
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Ind. Electron., vol. IE-33, no. 3 , pp. 212-216, Aug. 1986.
[5] R. C. Kavanagh, J. M. D. Murphy, and M. G. Egan, “Torque ripple min-
imization in switched reluctance drives using self-leaming techniques,”
in IEEE-IECON Con$ Rec. ‘91, pp. 289-294.
[6] D. S. Schramm, B. W. Williams, and T. C. Green, “Torque ripple
reduction of switched reluctance motors by phase current optimal
profiling,” in IEEE-PESC Con$ Rec. ’92, pp. 857-860.
[7] J. C. Moreira, “Torque ripple minimization in switched reluctance
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[8] M. IliC-Spong, T. J. E. Miller, S. R. MacMinn, and J. S. Thorp,
“Instantaneous torque control of electric motor drives,” in IEEE-PESC
Con$ Rec. ‘85, pp. 4 2 4 8 .
[9] M. Ilik-Spong, R. Marino, S. M. Peresada, and D. G. Taylor, “Feed-
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[lo] D. G. Taylor, “An experimental study on composite control of switched
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[l 11 D. G. Taylor, M. J. Woolley, and M. Iht-Spong, “Design and imple-
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lqbal Husain (S’89-M’94) received the BSc. de-
gree from Bangladesh University of Engineering
and Technology, Dhaka, and the M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees from Texas A&M University, College Sta-
tion, all in electrical engineering, in 1987, 1989, and
1993, respectively.
He is currently Assistant Professor in the Depart-
ment of Electrical Engineering at the University of
Akron, Ohio, engaged in teaching and research. His
research interests are in the areas of adjustable speed
drives, microcomputer control of drives, energy
conversion, network analysis, and modeling of power converters. He has
worked toward the development of several indirect rotor position sensing
schemes for switched reluctance motor drives.
Dr. Husain is the recipient of an IEEE-IAS Industrial Drives Committee
prize paper award.
M. Ehsani (S’70-M’81-SM’83) for a photograph and biography, see this
issue, p. 82.