Simplified control of switched reluctance machines for AC generation

The Switched Reluctance Machine, typically used as a motor, has recently been investigated for use as a DC generator and also as an AC generator. But existing control schemes for AC generation with only one power conversion stage (a cycloconverter) require complex computations and correspondingly sophisticated (digital) circuitry to implement them. This paper describes a simplified scheme for controlling such a machine paired with a cycloconverter to produce single-phase AC voltage. Firstly, polynomial approximations of the solutions to those differential equations governing the combined system's behavior were determined in order to simplify their computation. Then interpolations were used to simplify the calculation of the required switching device firing angles from the approximate solutions. Test results from a lab prototype confirm the speed and effectiveness of this novel simplified control scheme.