2020 IEEE International Conference on Convergence to Digital World – Quo Vadis (ICCDW 2020)

Torque Ripple Minimization of Switched

Reluctance Motor and Comparison of Controllers
for Electric Vehicle Applications
Apurva Vilas Khachane S. S. Dhamse
M. Tech. Student Electrical Engineering Department
Electrical Engineering Department Government College of Engg.
Government College of Engg. Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India
Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India ssdhamse@yahoo.co.in
2020 International Conference on Convergence to Digital World - Quo Vadis (ICCDW) | 978-1-7281-4635-5/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICCDW45521.2020.9318720

khachaneapurva1696@gmail.com

Abstract—As SRM doesn’t have permanent magnet, it is

light weight motor and has constant power output capability
which finds application primarily in space applications and
Electric Vehicle because of high torque to weight ratio and low
rotor inertia. It has small size, high efficiency, low cost. Hence,
day by day Switched Reluctance Motor is becoming best
alternative to DC and BLDC motors. In this paper MATLAB
Simulink model is used to analyze controller performance.
Selection of angle for region of operation to trigger the converter
is explained here. With feasible approximations, nonlinear
nature of SRM can be explained with its linear model having
Fig. 1. SRM drive system
dynamic behavior, for the sake of simplicity and study purpose.

Keywords—Electric vehicle, Switched Reluctance Motor, PID

controller, Fuzzy logic controller
I. INTRODUCTION
There are two ways to improve performance of Switched
Reluctance Motor. 1st is to improve mechanical design and 2nd
is by implementing advance electronic control scheme. Due to
the scarcity of rare earth permanent magnets, motors in which
permanent magnets are widely used, are becoming more
expensive. SRM has attractive qualities like robustness of
construction, somewhat cheaper than other category of
motors, high efficiency, good thermal management [7]. SRM
has highly non-linear electromechanical behavior due to its
non-linear magnetic characteristics which causes torque
ripples [1]. SRM suffers from noticeable acoustic noises and
torque ripples, that prevent its use in high performance drives.
By increasing number of phases of motor, torque ripples can
be reduced [11]. In this paper these torque ripples are
minimized by using PID and Fuzzy logic controllers.
A. Converter
Asymmetric converter is a half bridge fed with 240V DC
supply as shown in Fig. 2. Each phase has two switches so that
each phase of SRM can conduct independently. Converter can
freewheel during the chopping period to minimize switching
frequency to reduce hysteresis and switching losses. It can
generate sufficient high negative voltage for commutation of
outgoing phase. When Qıᴜ and Qıᴅ switches are turned on,
the phase voltage is equal to the DC supply voltage, and the
phase current increases. When phase current reaches to the
maximum limit of the reference current, both Qıᴜ and Qıᴅ
switches are switched off. The phase current rotates through
Dıᴜ, Dıᴅ to the source. In this way stored energy in the
inductor is returned back to the source and the phase voltage
is equal to negative of DC supply voltage. Hence, the phase
current decreases up to the minimum limit of the hysteresis
band. Asymmetric converter consists of operational modes as
shown in Fig. 3 [12]. Similarly happens for the other phases
also with proper gate pulses [6].

II. SRM DRIVE SYSTEM

Fig. 1 shows SRM drive system. Depending upon the
available mains and load characteristics drives are selected.
There are two control loops in closed loop drive system. First
is outer speed loop and second is inner current loop. To control
current we generally use hysteresis control, PI control and for
outer loop; fuzzy logic, hysteresis, sliding mode control, PID
control is used [3].
Fig. 2. Asymmetric converter

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 C. Operation
With the help of rotor position sensor, rotor position is
detected to excite converter sequentially and synchronously to
get unidirectional torque. By applying stator current pulse for
positive slope of inductance profile, motoring torque can be
produced; whereas for regenerative braking, stator current
pulse is applied at negative slope of inductance profile, as
(3.1) Magnetization (3.2) Freewheeling (3.3) Demagnetization shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 3. Operation modes of asymmetric converter

B. Switched Reluctance Motor

SRM works on variable reluctance principle. When stator
is supplied with AC, rotor places itself in minimum reluctance
position, that’s why we have torque production. When rotor
rotates there is inductance variation (dL/dθ) . Since the
current is switched for each phase, it is called as switched
reluctance motor (SRM). It is singly excited doubly salient
motor i.e. saliency in the stator as well as in the rotor. In this
paper stator has 6 salient poles and it carries windings 6/4
SRM construction is shown in Fig. 4. Rotor has 4 salient poles
and it does not carry any winding. It is just slotted iron rotor.
SRM model used here is three phase, 6/4 poles, 60kW, 450A,
3000 rpm base speed motor. Table I. shows SRM ratings.

Fig. 5. (a) Motoring and (b) regeneration actions of the SRM

From equivalent circuit diagram of SRM, we can have output

voltage equation [9],
dØ
V = Vdc = r. i + N (1)
dt
Neglecting the resistance drop as it is small, we have
dØ
Vdc = N (2)
dt

Vdc
Ø=∫ dt (3)
N

Vdc
Ø=∫ wdt (4)
wN

Vdc
Fig. 4. SRM construction Ø=∫ dθ (5)
wN

Vdc
Ø= θ (6)
wN
TABLE I. SRM RATINGS
Hence, flux in this case increases linearly with θ.
Phase 3 Similarly, when we apply −Vdc, flux will decrease linearly
DC Voltage 240V with θ.
Stator Resistance 0.01Ω i=
N∅
(7)
Inertia 0.007kg.m² L

Friction 0.01N.m.s N Vdc θ

Unaligned Inductance 0.67e-3H i= (8)
wNL
Aligned Inductance 23.6e-3H
Vdc θ
Saturated aligned 0.15e-3H i= (9)
wL
Inductance
Maximum current 450A Where, w is speed of the rotor
Maximum flux linkage 0.468V.s L is inductance varies from Lmin to Lmax linearly.
Power 60kW θ is position of rotor.

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So, current in stator phase winding in SRM is proportional to To maximize the torque, the current is switched into the stator
θ and inversely proportional to inductance L. winding only during +ve (dL/dθ) . Due to the saturation
θ feature of magnetic material, actually the value of inductance
iα (10) is a function of rotating angle and current through winding
L

By properly controlling the applied voltage Vdc, we can Lα(θ, i).

increase or decrease current and that will basically help us to
control the torque.
D. Modes of Operation
SRM operates in three modes of operation as follows:
1) Current chopping control mode:
At low speed current rises quickly as it has lower back EMF
and therefore, the converter has to be operated in current
chopping mode i.e. alternately apply +Vdc and −Vdc to limit
the current within band. When inductance is minimum
current can change very quickly. If the inductance is large
current would not change that quickly because inductance
opposes change in current. Current chopping control mode is
shown in Fig. 6 for speed w < base speed w𝑏. This is also
known as constant torque mode.
As current is i², it doesn’t matter whether current is positive or
negative. As name implies, this motor has to be switched at
regular intervals with position sensor to optimize torque
production. Apply negative voltage after positive inductance
profile for commutation of phase.
2) Advanced angle control mode:
After the base speed we have to maintain the current and
current doesn’t increase so quickly because speed has become
large. So, we don’t keep the current constant, we try to keep
the power (T. w) constant by controlling θ₀. Hence, this is also
known as constant power mode. Current increases torque and
torque increases speed. When current reaches its maximum
value we can further increase speed with advanced angle
control in SRM. Fig.7 shows inductance, current, torque
profile with advanced angle control mode.
From (13)
T = K i² (15)
(dL/dθ) is constant during rising edge of inductance.
P = Tw (16)

Vdc2 θ₀²
P=K .w (17)
w2 L2

Vdc2 θ₀²
P=K = constant (18)
wL2
θ₀= Advanced angle
It means we are applying the voltage in θ₀ advanced of the
commencement of +ve (dL/dθ) i.e. before inductor starts
rising.

Fig. 6. Current chopping control mode

1
Stored Energy = L i2 (11)
2

∂E
T= |i = constant (12) Fig. 7. Inductance, current, torque profile with advanced angle control mode
∂θ

1 dL βs=Stator pole arc, βr=Rotor pole arc, θ₀=Advanced angle,

T= i² (13) θf=Fall angle
2 dθ

It means with relative motion of stator and rotor, if the 3) When 𝜃₀ reaches 𝜃₀ max:
inductance changes, there is definitely torque production θ₀ is kept constant.
which comes out of motor. From (16) and (18)
Vdc2 θ₀²
dL P=K = Tw (19)
wL2
T α i² (14)
dθ
Vdc2 θ₀²
Maintain, Tw 2 = K = constant (20)
L2

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E. Selection of angle This is a periodic waveform as we have repetitive slots and
6- Stator poles or stator teeth poles. Here, all the distances are expressed in terms of angle.
4- Rotor poles or rotor teeth We can have motoring operation in increasing inductance
If Tooth: Tooth pitch = Pole arc: Pole pitch = 0.45 [5]. profile. Hence, we have taken θon=45° and θoff=75° [10] as
shown in Fig. 9.
If inductance is a function of θ and Lmin is minimum
inductance in which rotor pole arc comes under stator pole arc,
there is gradual increase in inductance i.e. linearly with θ
So, inductance can be defined as permeance:

Fig. 10. Part of rotor

Fig. 8. a) Rotor structure Assuming iron to be infinitely permeable,

b) Pole arc and slot arc angles
μ₀ laxial r θ
P= (33)
Pole arc lg
= 0.45 (21)
Pole pitch
𝜇₀ A
P= (34)
lg
It means 45% of pole pitch is occupied by pole arc. This is true
for stator as well as rotor. We tried to open a part of stator and Inductance, L = N2 P + Lmin (35)
rotor. Hence, we are able to see angles as linear distances as
shown in Fig. 8. μ₀N2 laxial r θ
L= + Lmin (36)
lg
360°
Stator pole pitch = = 60° (22)
6
Where, μ₀ is permeability of air
360° N is number of turns
Rotor pole pitch = = 90° (23)
4 lg is air gap length between stator and rotor
θ is an overlap angle between stator pole and rotor pole.
Stator pole arc = Pole pitch × 0.45 (24)

Stator pole arc = 60° × 0.45 (25) F. Fuzzy Logic Control

Fuzzy logic is one of the branches of artificial
Stator pole arc = 27° (26) intelligence. It is a method of reasoning that resembles human
reasoning. It reduces mathematical burden. Fuzzy logic
Stator slot arc = 60° − 27° (27) control is an adaptive and nonlinear control, which has robust
behavior for a linear as well as nonlinear plant with change in
Stator slot arc = 33° (28) parameters [8]. FLC rules are used for fuzzification of input
variables as shown in Table II.
Rotor pole arc = 90° × 0.45 (29) NL-Negative Large, NM-Negative Medium, NS-Negative
Small, Z-Zero, PS-Positive Small, PM-Positive Medium, PL-
Rotor pole arc = 40.5° (30) Positive Large.

Rotor slot arc = 90° − 40.5° (31)

TABLE II. FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER RULES
Rotor slot arc = 49.5° (32) Change in error
Error NL NM NS Z PS PM PL
NL NL NL NL NL NM NS Z
NM NL NL NL NM NS Z PS
NS NL NL NM NS Z PS PM
Z NL NM NS Z PS PM PL
PS NM NS Z PS PM PL PL
PM NS Z PS PM PL PL PL
Fig. 9. Inductance profile PL Z PS PM PL PL PL PL

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 III. RESULTS

A. MATLAB Simulink Model

Fig. 14. Torque characteristics with PID

Fig. 11. SRM drive using PID controller

Fig. 15. Torque characteristics with FLC

Fig. 12. SRM drive using FLC controller

C. Observations and Calculations

Tmax − Tmin
B. Graphs %Torque Ripple = × 100
Tavg
Where, Tmax=Maximum torque (N.m)
Tmin=Minimum torque (N.m)
Tavg=Average torque (N.m)
For PID controller:
24 − 10
%Torque Ripple = × 100
14.19
%Torque Ripple = 98.66
For FLC controller:
21 − 9
%Torque Ripple = × 100
14.22
Fig. 13. Comparison of speed characteristics %Torque Ripple = 84.38

From Fig. 13 we can observe that speed characteristics with

PID has settling time=28msec and speed characteristics with
FLC settles earlier at 25msec with some steady state error.

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 TABLE III. COMPARISON OF SPEED CONTROLLERS

TL= 10 N.m, wref = 4000 rpm

Sr. Controller Settling %Torque ripple

no time
1. PID 28msec 98.66
2. FLC 25msec 84.38

IV. CONCLUSION
Thus, in this paper responses of PID and FLC speed
controllers are compared. It is proved that FLC is suitable for
SRM drive to reduce the torque ripples to achieve the smooth
speed response over a wide speed range by using MATLAB
simulation. Above results indicate that fuzzy control is very
useful for complex nonlinear processes and gives superior
performance. We can conclude from the simulation results
that the SR motor with low torque ripples and good speed
response is suitable for electric vehicle applications.

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