IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 28, NO.
3, APRIL 2018
Fault-Tolerant Operation of a Novel Dual-Channel
Switched Reluctance Motor Using Two 3-Phase
Standard Inverters
Qian Chen , Member, IEEE, Dezhi Xu, Liang Xu, Jian Wang
Abstract—This paper proposes a novel dual-channel switched
reluctance motor (DCSRM) driven by two 3-phase standard in-
verters. The key of the proposed DCSRM is its two operational
models. For the first operational model (Model I), it works like a
3-phase traditional SRM supplied by an H-bridge inverter, which is
driven by square-wave currents. For the second operational model
(Model II), it can be considered as two mutually coupled SRMs
that are supplied by sine-wave currents. These operational models
are used to overcome different faults, and the corresponding reme-
dial current strategies are proposed to realize fault-tolerant opera-
tion. Then, Model I is adopted for power switch fault. Meanwhile,
Model II is employed for open-circuit fault. Moreover, the perfor-
mances of proposed DCSRM are calculated by a finite element,
method and the fault-tolerant performances under different fault
conditions are verified by cosimulation. Results show that the pro-
posed DCSRM can be used for safety-critical applications by com-
bining the advantages of traditional SRM and mutually coupled
SRM.
Index Terms—Dual-channel switched reluctance motor (DC-
SRM), fault-tolerance, 3-phase standard inverters, cosimulation,
finite element method.
I. INTRODUCTION
WITCHED reluctance motors (SRMs) are widely used in
S safety-critical and harsh environment applications, such as
automotive, renewable energy, aerospace and domestic appli-
ances sectors, due to its low cost, high torque capacity, simple
and robust structure [1]. In conventional SRM (CSRM), square-
wave, unipolar, and non-overlapping phase currents are often
used because of negligible mutual inductances. However, the
traditional inverter topology is adopted, resulting in compli-
cate drive construction. In order to utilize the electric circuit
more efficiently and simplify the inverter, some non-CSRMs
have been proposed. In [2]–[9], fully pitched SRMs are pro-
posed [3], so that the mutual inductances can be fully utilized
Manuscript received August 28, 2017; accepted January 25, 2018. Date of
publication January 30, 2018; date of current version February 26, 2018. This
work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
under Grant 51707083, in part by the China Postdoctoral Project under Grant
2016M591782, in part by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
under Grant BK20160518, and in part by the Priority Academic Program De-
velopment of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions. (Corresponding author:
Qian Chen.)
The authors are with the School of Electrical and Information Engineer-
ing, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China (e-mail: chenqian0501@ujs.
edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TASC.2018.2799838
1051-8223 © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
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5204205
, Zhipeng Lin, and Xuhui Zhu
for torque generation. In these SRMs, the self-inductances are
nearly independent of rotor position and the torque is purely pro-
duced by the change of mutual inductances. Then, these SRMs
are termed as mutually coupled SRMs (MCSRMs). Addition-
ally, MCSRM can be excited by sine-wave currents, and then
the 3-phase standard inverter can be employed [4]–[6]. More-
over, it has been verified that the performances of MCSRM
are better than CSRM due to two factors, i.e., higher mutual
flux (or inductance) and lower magnetic saturation [6]. How-
ever, the fault-tolerant capacity of these SRMs is still low. Then,
a dual-channel SRM (DCSRM) [7] and a multi-mode SRM
are proposed in [8]. The fault tolerant capacity is verified in
[9]. However, the proposed DCSRM cannot overcome different
faults, and fault tolerant control suffers from high amplitudes of
the fault current and torque ripple.
This paper proposes a novel DCSRM driven by two 3-phase
standard inverters. The proposed DCSRM operates like one
3-phase traditional SRM under Model I, and works as two MC-
SRMs under Model II. Then, the corresponding fault-tolerant
control is proposed to overcome power switch fault and phase
open-circuit fault, respectively. Topology and operational prin-
ciple of the proposed DCSRM will be given in Section II. In
Section III, fault tolerant control for two models will be pro-
posed. Besides, the co-simulation will be adopted to verify the
effectiveness of fault-tolerant operation of the proposed DC-
SRM in Section IV. Finally, some conclusions will be drawn in
Section V.
II. TOPOLOGY AND OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLE OF DCSRM
The cross section of the proposed DCSRM is shown in Fig. 1,
in which “–” represents a GO conductor while “+” represents
a RETURN conductor. As shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b), the two
opposing coils on poles A11 and A12 are placed in series to
constitute the phase A1 of channel-1, the other two coils on
poles A21 and A22 are placed in series to form the phase A2 of
channel-2. In the arrangement as shown in Fig. 1(a), it leads to
an “NSNSNSNSNSNS” magnetic polarity on the stator poles
resulting in model I. Conversely, the magnetic polarity on the
stator poles is “NNNNNNNNNNNN” as shown in Fig. 1(b)
resulting in model II. Although the directions of injected cur-
rents of channel-2 are opposite in two models, the location of
channel-2 is fixed. Then, the flux distributions of two opera-
tional models are compared in Fig. 2(a) and (b) when 10 A dc
5204205
Fig. 1. Cross section and winding configuration of proposed DCSRM.
(a) Model I. (b) Model II.
Fig. 2. Comparison of winding configuration and magnetic flux distributions
between two models. (a) Model I. (b) Model II.
TABLE I
MAIN DIMENSIONS OF PROPOSED DCSRM
Items Value
Outside stator radius (mm) 77.5
Inside stator radius (mm) 49
Outside rotor radius (mm) 48.5
Inside stator radius (mm) 30
Stator yoke width (mm) 8 2
Rotor yoke width (mm) 10
Arc angle of stator pole (◦ ) 15
Arc angle of rotor pole (◦ )
15.75
Airgap length (mm) 0.5
Number of turns 50
current is injected into the channel-1 and channel-2 properly
and the rotor is at aligned position. As shown in Fig. 2(a), the
flux distribution of Model I is the same as that of conventional
SRM, while the flux distribution of Model II is the same as
that of MCSRM. Under Model I, the flux paths of channel-1
and channel 2 are in serial, while flux paths of channel-1 and
channel 2 are in parallel under Model II. The main dimensions
of the proposed DCSRM are summarized in Table I.
In order to realize two operational models, the two 3-phase
standard inverter topology for DCSRM is given in Fig. 3. The
terminal points (O1 and O2) are connected together. Under
Model I, the S1 and S8 are turned on when the current is in-
jected into A1 and A2. Under Model II, the current of O1 and
O2 should keep to zero to ensure no close loop current between
channel-1 and channel-2 when the sine-wave current is injected.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 28, NO. 3, APRIL 2018
Fig. 3. Inverter topology for DCSRM.
III. FAULT TOLERANT CONTROL FOR TWO MODELS
As shown in Fig. 3, when the proposed DCSRM operates
under Model I, the proposed DCSRM is driven by H-bridge
inverter, then, there are four switches work in channel-1 and
channel-2. Hence, the power switch fault can be overcome.
However, when the proposed DCSRM operates under open-
circuit fault, the currents of healthy phases will increase greatly
and the torque ripple will become unacceptable under Model I.
In order to solve this problem, the sine-wave currents are injected
into the proposed DCSRM to make it operate under Model II.
Then, the average torque remains by increasing the currents of
healthy channel, and the torque ripple reduces through ripple
current injection of healthy channel. The realization of fault-
tolerant control under two models will be given as follows.
A. Model I
For the model I, the square-wave currents are injected into
phases, the electromagnetic torque is obtained from the mag-
netic co-energy
∂W
Te = (1)
∂θ
In a linear magnetic system, the co-energy is equal to the
stored energy
1 T
W = i L(θ)i (2)
Therefore, the electromagnetic torque can be expressed as
 
1 dLA 2 dLB 2 dLC 2
Te = i + i + i
2 dθ A dθ B dθ C
 
dMA B dMA C dMB C
+ iA iB + iA iC + iB iC (3)
dθ dθ dθ
Since the mutual-inductances between phases are negligi-
ble under Model I, then the torque contributed by mutual-
inductances can be omitted. Hence, the torque only has the
relationship with the square of currents and the rake ratio of
rising side of self-inductances. Moreover, the DCSRM works
like a traditional SRM under model I, then positive and nega-
tive DC currents will result in the same torque if the amplitudes
of them are equal. Fig. 4 shows the fault capacity of proposed
DCSRM under power switch fault. It can be observed that the
current flows following the green line and the power switches
S1 and S8 are turned on under normal condition. While current
will flows negatively following the green line, and the power
switches S2 and S7 are turned on if the power switch S1 is fault.
Although the currents under health and fault are opposite, the
CHEN et al.: FAULT-TOLERANT OPERATION OF A NOVEL DUAL-CHANNEL SWITCHED RELUCTANCE MOTOR USING TWO 3-PHASE 5204205

Then, the torque in the fault channel can be expressed as

3
Te1 = p(Ld − Lq )id iq
2
3 i2
= p(Ld − Lq ) m [sin (2θ + γ1 ) − sin (γ1 )]
2 3
× [cos(2θ + γ1 ) + cos(γ1 )]

p 2 1 1
= (Ld −Lq )im sin (2θ)+ sin (4θ+2γ1 )− sin (2γ1 )
2 2 2
(7)
If Ld > Lq , the γ1 equals to –π/4 in order to obtain positive
torque. Then (7) can be yield as

Fig. 4. Fault tolerant capacity under Model I. (a) Normal condition. (b) Power p 2 1 1
Te1 = (Ld − Lq )im sin (2θ) − cos (4θ) + (8)
switch fault (S 1 ). 2 2 2
It can be seen that there are 2nd and 4th order harmonic of
amplitudes of current can be set as the same. Then, the pro- torque ripple in channel-1 when phase A1 is open-circuit. The
posed DCSRM can offer the same torque under power switch sum of torque of two channels is twice of that indicated in (4),
fault (S1 ). Additionally, the proposed DCSRM can operate nor- which can be expressed as
mally even the upper power switches (S1 , S3 and S5 ) or down 3
power switches (S2 , S4 and S6 ) are fault. Hence, the proposed TeΣ = p(Ld − Lq )i2s sin (2γ)
2
DCSRM offers high fault tolerance of power switch fault under
3
Model I. = p(Ld − Lq )i2s (9)
2
Then, γ is chosen as π/4 for positive torque. In order to reduce
B. Model II
the torque ripple and keep the average torque of DCSRM, the
For the model II, the sine-wave currents are injected into torque of channel-2 is obtained as
phases, the electromagnetic torque of one channel under healthy
condition is obtained as Te2 = TeΣ − Te1
3
3 = p(Ld − Lq )i2s
Te = p(Ld − Lq )id iq 2
2 
p 2 1 1
3 − (Ld − Lq )im sin (2θ) − cos (4θ) + (10)
= p(Ld − Lq )i2s sin (2γ) (4) 2 2 2
4
If the current amplitudes of healthy phases under fault are
where Ld and Lq are the d- and q- axis inductances, id and iq are set as the same as that under health (is = im ), the torque of
the d- and q- axis currents. p is the pole pairs of each channel, channel-2 can be expressed by
is is the amplitude of phase current, and γ is the current angle. 
Under Model II, when one phase is open-circuit in channel-1, p 2 5 1
Te2 = (Ld − Lq )im − sin (2θ) + cos (4θ) (11)
and the currents of healthy phases are set as negative to keep the 2 2 2
current to zero of point O1. Then, the current of each phase in
Combining (4) and (11), the amplitude of current in channel-2
channel-1 is given as
can be obtained as
⎧

⎪
⎨ ia = 0  2 5 1
is = − sin (2θ) + cos(4θ) im (12)
ib = im cos(θ + γ1 ) (5) 3 2 2
⎪
⎩ i = −i cos (θ + γ )
c m 1
Finally, the currents in channel-2 are given as
⎧ 
where θ is rotor position. Then, the d- and q- axis currents in ⎨ ia = i s cos (θ + γ)
⎪
the fault channel can be expressed as ib = i s cos (θ − 23 π + γ) (13)
⎪
⎩
⎧ im ic = i s cos (θ + 23 π + γ)
⎪
⎨ id1 = √ [sin (2θ + γ1 ) − sin (γ1 )]
3 (6) It can be seen that the amplitude of current in channel-2 is
⎪ i
⎩ iq 1 = √m [cos(2θ + γ1 ) + cos(γ1 )] variable for creating torque ripple to compensate that produced
3 by fault channel.

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5204205 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 28, NO. 3, APRIL 2018
Fig. 5. Power switch fault. (a) Normal operation. (b) Proposed fault-tolerant
control under S 1 opens. (c) Fault-tolerant control under S 1 opens in Ref. 9.
IV. VERIFICATION BY CO-SIMULATION
The effectiveness of co-simulation, realized by Maxwell and
Simplorer, has been verified in [10], especially in fault-tolerant
operation. Then the co-simulation is adopted and the results are
given in Figs. 5 to 6.
For normal operation of model I, power switch S1 and S8 are
used to inject DC current into phase A1 and phase A2. When
a power switch S1 is opened, S2 and S7 are controlled to re-
place S1 and S8 . At this time, current direction in phase A1 and
phase A2 is opposite to normal situation. However, reluctance
torque is not related to direction but current amplitude. There-
fore, the output torque capacity will not reduce when open-
circuit fault happens in a power switch.
Fig. 5(a) shows the waveforms of torque and phase currents
when the proposed motor works as traditional SRM, which is
driven by H-bridge inverter and supplied by DC 10 A square-
wave currents. The average torque is 2.23 N·m and torque rip-
ple is 1.9 N·m. In Fig. 5(b), the power switch S1 is opened. In
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Fig. 6. Phase open-circuit fault. (a) Normal sinusoid currents supply.
(b) Sinusoid currents supply under fault-tolerant control. (c) Comparisons of
the output torque in three situations.
this situation, DC current path in phase A1 and phase A2 will
be changed from (S1 , S8 ), to (S2 , S7 ). The average torque is
2.19 N·m and torque ripple is 2.02 N·m. As shown in Fig. 5(a)
and (b), the torque performances pre- and post-fault are ap-
proximate, in spite of the direction of current in phase A1 and
phase A2 is opposite. In order to illustrate the advantages of
the proposed DCSRM, the drive system and performances are
compared with the traditional DCSRM in Ref. 9. Obviously, the
topology of inverter for proposed DCSRM can be realized more
easily because of combining two 3-phase standard inverters.
Besides, the power switch fault will lead to phase open-circuit
fault in conventional DCSRM. Fig. 5(c) shows the simulated
result under fault-tolerant control with S1 opened in conven-
tional DCSRM. When the power switch fault (S1 ) happens in
conventional DCSRM, the current amplitude of phase A2 will
increase to 1.7 times to keep the same output torque. Then, the
CHEN et al.: FAULT-TOLERANT OPERATION OF A NOVEL DUAL-CHANNEL SWITCHED RELUCTANCE MOTOR USING TWO 3-PHASE
average torque is only 2.3 N·m and the torque ripple is 2.2 N·m.
However, in the proposed drive of DCSRM, only the direction
of the current is needed to adjust, and the current amplitude can
be maintained. Furthermore, the proposed drive of DCSRM
can overcome the fault of upper or down power switches
fault in one 3-phase standard inverter without changing current
amplitudes of healthy phases.
For the model II, when one phase in channel-1 is opened,
the currents of other two phases in channel-1 are forced to be
opposite. The purpose is to keep the neutral current to be zero.
Since only two phases can work in fault channel-1, the 2nd
and 4th order harmonic of torque ripple cannot be neglected. In
order to compensate the torque loss and torque ripple produced
by channel-1, the amplitudes of currents in channel-2 are set
as a variable. Fig. 6 shows the simulation results with sinusoid
current supply. Fig. 6(a) shows the torque and current under
normal situation. The effective value of phase current is 10 A,
average torque is 3.72 N·m and torque ripple is 2 N·m. Fig. 6(b)
shows the torque and current under fault-tolerant control when
phase A1 is open-circuit. The current B1 and current C1 are set
as symmetric sinusoid. The current amplitudes of A2, B2 and
C2 in channel-2 are variable. The average torque is 3.45 N·m
and the torque ripple is 4.37 N·m. Fig. 6(c) compares the torques
under the normal, fault and fault-tolerant operation. The average
torque under fault is 2.03 N·m and torque ripple is 8.29 N·m.
Although there is 7.2% torque loss and 70% increase of torque
ripple compared with normal situation, the average torque under
fault-tolerant control is improved 42% and the torque ripple is
reduced 280% compared with the torque under fault condition.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a novel DCSRM has been proposed. This mo-
tor can operate as traditional SRM or mutually coupled SRM
when the square-wave currents or sine-wave currents are in-
jected, respectively. Meanwhile, this motor has been provided to
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5204205
overcome power switch fault and open-circuit fault by appropri-
ate selection of current path and fault-tolerant strategy. Hence,
this motor can be used in safety-critical applications.
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