Current Source Inverter Drive System for Switched Reluctance Motors

This paper presents a new switching scheme for Current Source Inverter (CSI)-based drive system of Switched Reluctance Motors (SRMs). With respect to Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) circuit, the CSI circuit can operate with a higher switching frequency but generates a relatively high voltage spike (di/dt) during the phase shift. The proposed method modifies the switching pattern generator to suppress the voltage spike across the switching devices. This technique also reduces the motor torque ripple to damp mechanical vibrations. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique, the entire system was modeled in Matlab/Simulink, and results are compared to conventional (VSI) and conventional (CSI) drive systems.