Mutual coupling and its effect on steady-state performance and position estimation of even and odd number phase switched reluctance motor drive

In this paper, we analyze mutual coupling of switched reluctance (SR) motors with even and odd numbers of phases. We illustrate that SR motors with an even number of phases produce asymmetric mutual flux in different phases. On the other hand, an SR motor with an odd number of phases produces symmetric mutual coupling in all the phases. Then, we explain a practical way of measuring the mutual flux in SR motors and present the test results for an 8/6 pole, four-phase 4 kW motor. We simulated the performance of the SR motor with and without mutual flux, thereby demonstrating the effect of mutual flux on phase current, flux, and average torque. We verified the effect of mutual flux on position estimation by simulation and experiment. We show that appropriate correction for mutual flux may improve the accuracy of estimated position by 3 degrees, which will give better performance of the drive while driven without any shaft sensors. We also show that an SR motor with an odd number of phases is a better choice than one with an even number of phases because of its symmetric mutual coupling, its ability to utilize short flux paths, and the fact that it does not require costly bipolar excitation.