A New Concept for Deeper Integration of Converters and Drives in Electrical Machines: Simulation and Experimental Investigations

This paper introduces a new concept for integrated electrical motor drives (IEMD) with the aim of minimizing the number of inverter's power switching components. The latter is switched reluctance motor (SRM) based. The control strategy is jointly designed, inspired by Flyback power supplies operating at very high frequencies. A simple case study on an 8/6 SRM has been carried out. The study enables to highlight most challenging problems that have to be overcome in future works: overvoltages during switching due to the flux leakage, and the efficiency of the magnetic material constituting the machine at high switching frequencies. This concept turns out to be an interesting basis for a very advanced integration of the switching structure within electrical machines.