Switched Reluctance Drive Systems

Abstract

The term switched reluctance (SR) may to the uninitiated reader convey the notion that the reluctance of the machine is switched. In reality the magnetic reluctance of the machine is rotor angle dependent and the term switched refers to the electronic commutation of the electrical phases by means of a power electronic converter. Torque production based purely on variation of the magnetic reluctance is well established and the first patent based on this approach stems from 1839 Taylor (Obtaining motive power). Despite being one of the oldest known machine concepts, it has not been able to maintain its hierarchical position in comparison to machines which utilize the Lorentz force as a basis for torque production. Since the development of power electronics, there is no readily identifiable single reason for this sequence of events, but it is perhaps useful to consider some of the factors which may well have facilitated this state of affairs.