Switched Reluctance Motor Drives for Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Abstract

Because of the ever-increasing concerns on the energy utilization and environmental protection, the development of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) has become a hot research topic. As the major part of HEV technologies, the electric motor drives have to offer high efficiency, high power density, high controllability, wide-speed operating range, and maintenance free operation. In particular, the switched reluctance (SR) motor drive can achieve most of these goals; therefore, this motor type has drawn much attention in the past. This chapter aims to serve as an overview of the latest developments of the SR motor drive, purposely for HEV applications. To be specific, the discussions on motor structures for torque density enhancement and torque ripple minimization are covered.