A Performance Comparison of Excitation Strategies For a Low Noise SRM Drive

A simple construction, low cost, and a fault tolerant power electronic drive have made the switched reluctance drive a strong contender for many applications. But the switched reluctance drive exhibits higher levels of vibration and acoustic noise than most competing drives. The main source of vibration in the switched reluctance drive is generated by the rapid change of radial magnetic force when the phase current is extinguished during commutation. In this paper, some excitation methods are proposed to reduce the vibration and acoustic noise of the switched reluctance drive. The excitation strategies considered in this research are 1-phase, 2-phase and hybrid excitation methods. The 1-phase method is the conventional approach, while in the 2-phase method, the two phases are excited simultaneously. The hybrid excitation has 2-phase excitation using a long dwell angle as well as conventional 1-phase excitation. The vibration and acoustic noise are compared and tested. The suggested 2-phase and hybrid strategies reduce acoustic noise because the schemes reduce the abrupt change in excitation level by using distributed and balanced excitation.