Workshop on SRM drives an alternative for E-traction

SRM drives an alternative for E-traction

Pere Andrada
GAECE, DEE EPSEVG.
UPC-BARCELONATECH,
Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain
pere.andrada@upc.

 The experience of past turbulences (2011) in the

I. INTRODUCTION price of the permanent magnets.

Electrification of road vehicles is one of the most consistent

These reasons advise to reduce the weight of permanent
initiatives to achieve a clean, environmentally friendly and
magnet into the electric machines or even to dispense of it.
efficient transport system. The choice of the electric machine
Thus, nowadays, there is a great interest in the development of
for the powertrain is an important consideration, nowadays
magnet-less electric drives; the most relevant drives in this
tilted towards permanent magnet synchronous machines.
category are: induction motor (IM) drives, synchronous
However, rare earth permanent magnet supply drawbacks open
reluctance motor (SyncRM) drives and SRM drives [3-6].
up new prospects for other types of machines, such as switched
reluctance machines (SRM). This Workshop, Switched
reluctance motor drives an alternative for E-traction, aims to II. SRM DRIVES
deepen into the potential of SRM for electric traction, to be a
meeting point for groups that are currently working on the This Workshop is devoted, exclusively, to one of these
development of SRM drives and an opportunity to establish candidates of magnet-less drives the SRM drives. From the
future collaborations. The Workshop consists of two parts. In point of view of electromechanical conversion, SRM is a
the first part, participants will present papers about issues doubly salient pole device with single excitation that usually
related with switched reluctance machines for electric traction works strongly saturated [7]. The rotary SRM can be classified
applications. In the second part, they will discuss what aspects according their airgap flux direction as radial, axial and
slow down the application of SRM drives for electric traction transverse flux machine. In radial flux SRM the air gap flux is
and their possible solutions. mainly in the radial direction relative to the axis of rotation.
The sales of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and battery This type of SRM, usually have a cylindrical shape with a
electric vehicles (BEVs) have reached significant levels stator and a rotor that can be internal, the most common
worldwide and are expected to grow even more in the coming disposition, or outer. In axial flux SRM the air gap flux is
mostly parallel to the axis of rotation. The stator and rotor are
years [1]. In order to further boost this growth, technological
parallel plates arranged perpendicular to the axis of rotation. In
improvements and cost reductions have to be done not only in transverse flux SRM the air gap flux is tangentially, transverse,
the electric storage system, mainly batteries, but also in the to the axis of rotation [8]. In all cases, torque is produced by
electric propulsion system, traction drives. Right now most of the tendency of its rotor to move to a position where the
the traction drives for HEVs and BEVs are permanent magnet inductance of the excited phase winding is maximized, i.e. to
synchronous motor (PMSM) drives due to their high power and reach the alignment of stator and rotor poles. Therefore, a
torque density, wide speed range and high efficiency. The main power converter with solid-state switches is needed to generate
drawback of the PMSM drives is the use of rare earth the right sequence of phase commutations for which it is
permanent magnets. Although rare earth elements are not very required to known the position of the rotor. In variable speed
scarce, some circumstances as: applications, the SRM operates in one of the following three
 The 50% of reserves are located in China. control modes: current mode, voltage mode and single pulse
 China, in addition, controls most of the world mode. Generally the SRM is controlled in the low speed range
production of rare earth permanent magnets. by current control maintaining current within a given hysteresis
 The growing demand of permanent magnet for the band or by voltage control using PWM. At high speeds single
green industries (wind generation, electric pulse control is used adapting the conduction period and the
current waveform to the speed and torque requirements.
vehicles,...).

Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain. February 2, 2018 7

 Despite SRM drives present drawbacks such as: large multilayer SRM [36] in which each phase of the machine is
number of connections, phase-leg power modules developed wounded in independent parallel salient pole stators and the
for inverters cannot be used in SRM’s power converters, high rotors corresponding at each stator are shifted between them a
torque ripple and acoustic noise, they have advantages like: determined angle. Some of these proposals, in order to
torque-speed characteristic matches very well to the needs of facilitate the construction of the machine and increase its fault
electric vehicle traction and simple and robust construction. tolerance, are modular i.e., built with independent common
parts that are then assembled to form the complete machine
III. SRM FOR ELECTRIC TRACTION [37]. The presentation of Land Rover, at the 2013 Geneva
Motor Show, of a range of new Defender electric vehicles
A. Early achievements powered by SRM units, developed and built by Nidec SR
SRM has always been related to electric traction. The first Drives Ltd was an event that opened great expectations on the
documented switched reluctance motors appeared in the application of SRM drives for electric traction [38].
period 1837-1840, and one of their earliest applications (as in
C. Axial Flux SRM
Robert Davidson’s design) was powering a locomotive on a
section of the railway between Glasgow and Edinburgh [7]. Some studies carried out in axial flux SRM, demonstrate
However, the rapid development of D.C. motors in the second that with this type of machine is possible to obtain higher
half of the 19th century eclipsed switched reluctance motors. torque density than in radial flux switched reluctance
The appearance of solid state controlled switches started to machines. These better features of the axial flux SRM are due
renew interest in switched reluctance motors, but the modern to the increase of the air-gap area, which depend on the
era of SRM did not begin until the late 70s of the last century diameter of the machine, whereas in the radial type machine
thanks to a research project on battery powered electric air-gap area depend on the machine length. Although,
vehicles carried out by the Universities of Leeds and Unnewher and Koch reported a first variable reluctance axial
Nottingham and sponsored by Chloride Technical Ltd. flux motor, as early as 1973 [39], it was not until recently that
[9],[10]. Later, due to the renewed interest in electric vehicles some authors have made important contributions to the
at the end of the last century and at the beginning of the development of axial-flux SRM. Arihara et al. have presented
current, several important automobile manufacturers Toyota the basic design methodology for the axial counterpart of the
[11], Daimler-Chrysler [12-13], Volkswagen [15], General classic radial flux SRM [40]. Murakami et al, have studied the
Motors [16] and a research agency CSIRO developed radial- optimization of an axial-flux 18/12 SRM [41]. Labak et al.
flux switched reluctance motors as drive trains for their have proposed a novel multiphase pancake shaped SRM with
prototype electric cars [16]. Although some of these initiatives a stator composed of a series of C-cores, each with an
were successfully proved in test vehicles, they were not used individual wound coil, perpendicularly disposed to a rotor
in commercial cars. Nevertheless, at that time the commercial made with aluminum in which a suitable number of cubes, the
electric motorcycle, EMB-LECTRA [17], with a two phase rotor poles, of high permeability material have been added. In
variable reluctance motor was launched and four 400 kW this machine, the torque production is due to the tendency of
SRM were used as traction motors in LeTourneau L-1350 any of these cubes to align with the two poles of an energized
electric wheel loader [18]. In the last years there has been C-core [42]. Madahvan et al. have contributed to the
great concern in research and development of SRM, especially development to the axial counterpart of rotor segmented SRM
of radial and axial flux (transverse flux due to its cumbersome in a machine with two rotors and a stator with a toroidal type
structure has deserved little attention), for electric traction winding [43]. Bo et al [44] designed an axial field SRM with
applications. The main trends of this research and single teeth stator and segmental rotor. Recently, Potgieter et
development are reported below. al. [45] have released a high-speed rotor segmental two-phase
axial-flux SRM. Andrada et al. have presented a new axial
flux-switched reluctance machine with a particular distribution
B. Radial Flux SRM of stator and rotor poles that results in short flux paths without
Great efforts are being made to try to improve the power flux reversal proposing two different types of rotors, one
and torque density of SRM to match the values of PMSM [19- conventional [46] and the other segmented [47]. In some of
23]. One attempt is to maintain the conventional structure of the contributions cited above the manufacturing problems of
the SRM and use special soft magnetic materials with high these machines have been exposed and the use of soft
performance [24]. Others are based on the consideration of magnetic composites materials has been proposed for building
constructive structures that tend to increase the inductance in their magnetic circuit.
the position of alignment and reduce it in the non-alignment
position. Among these, stand out the SRM with segmented After this presentation, where a brief description of the
rotor with which good results have been obtained [25-28]. SRM drives and a review of their application as a powertrain
Also interesting are the structures with segmented stator of has been provided, the Workshop starts with a paper that
which several variants have been presented [29-33]. Recently, emphasizes the importance of the soft magnetic powder
alternative proposals have been made such as SRM double metallurgical materials in the development of new types of
stator [34] or double rotor [35] that aim to achieve very electric machines, Powder Metallurgical Materials and
promising results. Another option is the multistack or Processes for Soft Magnetic Applications. The following

Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain. February 2, 2018 8

paper, Modular Switched Reluctance Machines to be Used [12] H. Bausch, A. Greif, A.B.A. Nickel. “A switched reluctance and an
induction machine in a drive train for an electrical vehicle under the
in Automotive Applications, is a survey of the main conditions of car application”. ICEM 2000, 28-30 August, Espoo,
achievements in the field of modular SRM, including hybrid Finland, pp. 1313- 1316.
reluctance machines, focused in electric traction applications. [13] R.B.Inderka, J-P. Altendorf, L.Sjöberg, R.W. De Doncker. Design of a
In the paper, Torque Control Strategy for an Axial Flux 75 kW Switched Reluctance Drive for Electric Vehicles”. EVS 18 Berlin
Switched Reluctance Machine, reflects the work done to 2001.
design a torque control strategy for an axial flux SRM. Then, [14] K.M. Rahman & S.E.Schulz. “Design of high efficiency and high
density switched reluctance motor for vehicle propulsion”. IAS’2001,
in the next paper, In-Wheel Axial-Flux SRM Drive for Chicago, pp.2104-2110.
Light Electric Vehicles, an axial-flux SRM with short flux [15] W. Wu, H. C. Lovatt, J. B. Dunlop.”Optimisation of switched reluctance
paths and without flux reversal able to work in the range of motors for hybrid electric vehicles” 2002 International Conference on
low speeds with high torque values is presented. In the next Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (Conf. Publ. No. 487), 017
paper, A Novel Topology of High-Speed SRM for High- [16] LECTRA.http://www.electricmotorbike.org/index.php?page=lectra
Performance Traction Applications presents a novel SRM [17] LeTourneau. http://www.srdrives.com/wheel-loader.shtml
concept featuring a 2-phase axial flux topology with a [18] K. Boynov, J.H. Paulides, E.A. Lomonova. “Comparative analysis of
segmented stator and twin segment rotors for high-speed the SRM as an alternative to the PM motor for automotive applications”.
COMPEL: The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics
operation with values of power density in the range of 7 in Electrical and Electronic Engineering Vol. 33 No. 5, 2014 pp. 1-14.
kW/kg. Finally the paper, Are SRM a Real Alternative for [19] E.Bostanci, M. Moallem, A.Parsapour and B.Fahimi. “Opportunities and
EV Powertrain?, gathers the most relevant of the issues Challenges of Switched Reluctance Motor Drives for Electric
discussed in the round tables of the Workshop. Propulsion: A Comparative Study”. IEEE Transactions on
Transportation Electrification, Vol. 3, No. 1, March 2017, pp. 58 - 75,
[20] Q.Yu, B.Bilgin, A.Emadi.“Design considerations of switched reluctance
machines with high power density”.2016 IEEE Transportation
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC), pp. 1 – 5.
[21] B.Burkhart, A.Klein-Hessling,I.Ralev, C.P.Weiss, R. W.De Doncker.
The Workshop was supported by Spanish Ministry of “Technology, Research and Applications of Switched Reluctance
Economy and Competitiveness (DPI 2014-57086-R). Drives”. CPSS Transactions on Power Electronics and Applications, Vol
2, No1, March 2017, pp 12-26.
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for Variable Speed Applications,” Jan./Feb. 1974, IEEE Transactions on
Power Apparatus and Systems.
received the M.Sc. and the PhD. degrees in Industrial
[39] H. Arihara and K. Akatsu.”Characteristics of axial type switched
Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
reluctance motor”. 2011, pp 3582-3589. (UPC), Barcelona, Spain, in 1980 and 1990 respectively. In
[40] S. Murakami, H. Goto, O. Ichinokura. “A Study about Optimum Stator 1980 he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Pole Design of Axial-flux Switched Reluctance Motor”. ICEM 2014 Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya UPC, where he is
Berlin. currently Associate Professor in the Escola Politècnica
[41] A. Labak, N.C. Kar. “Designing and prototyping a novel five-phase Superior d’Enginyeria de Vilanova i la Geltrú (EPSVG). He is
pancake-shaped axial flux SRM for electric vehicle application through
dynamic FEA incorporating flux-tube modeling”. IEEE Transactions on member of the Electronically Commutated Drive Group
Industry Applications, Vol. 49, No 3, May/June 2013. (GAECE). His teaching activities and research interests
[42] T. Lambert, M. Biglarbegian, S. Mahmud. “A novel approach to the include design, modeling and control of electrical machines
design of axial-flux switched reluctance motors”. Machines 2015,3, 27- and drives.
54.
[43] R. Madhavan and B.G. Fernandes. “A novel axial flux segmented SRM
for electric vehicle application”. XIX ICEM 2010, Roma, pp. 1-6.

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