Abstract:
Nowadays, switched reluctance motors (SRMs) attract more and more attention. Switched reluctance machines have emerged as an important technology in industrial automation. They represent a real alternative to conventional variable speed drives in many applications. It not only features a salient pole stator with concentrated coils, which allows earlier winding and shorter end turns than other types of motors, but also features a salient pole rotor, which has no conductors or magnets and is thus the simplest of all electric machine rotors. Simplicity makes the SRM inexpensive and reliable, and together with its high speed capacity and high torque to inertia ratio, makes it a superior choice in different applications.
However, the control of the SRM is not an easy task. The motor flux linkage appears to be a nonlinear function of stator currents as well as rotor position, as does the generated electric torque. Apart from the complexity of the model, the SRM should be operated in a continuous phase-to-phase switching mode for proper motor control. This makes the control of SRM a tough challenging. This thesis attempts to first create a MATLAB model of multiphase SRM using the equations governing the dynamic behavior of linear inductance profile SRM. Based on this model, an example case study of single phase SRM operation has been. Small signal analysis of linearized single phase SRM was simulated. Performance analysis of the speed control loop, current control loop and overall SRM drive using PI controller was simulated in MATLAB environment and later all those were simulated again after PI controller was tuned by genetic algorithm. Performance improvement of genetically tuned PI controller is proved in this thesis.
