16 IE(I) Journal EL

Direct Instantaneous Torque Control of Switched

Reluctance Motors
K V Reddy, Associate Member
M V Kumar, Fellow
The main disadvantage of switched reluctance motors (SRM) is the higher torque ripple compared to
conventional machines, which results in acoustic noise and vibration. The torque pulsations in an SRM are
due to the highly non-linear and discrete nature of torque production mechanism. This paper proposes the
concept of direct instantaneous torque control (DITC) for SRM to overcome the drawbacks of the indirect
instantaneous torque control (IITC) like complexity in torque-to-current conversion and the requirement of
large amount of memory space. In DITC, the instantaneous torque, estimated from the motor terminal
quantities, is considered directly as a control variable. Hence, the torque-to-current conversion and current
controllers are no longer required. Therefore, DITC is expected to counteract the torque error instantaneously
with fast dynamic response and effectively minimize the inherent torque ripple.
Keywords : Direct instantaneous torque control; Torque ripple minimization, Switched reluctance motor; Torque sharing functions;
DTC
INTRODUCTION
The switched reluctance motor (SRM) is a promising
candidate for various adjustable speed drives in industrial
and consumer product appli cations. The primary
disadvantage of a SRM is the higher torque ripple compared
to conventional machines, which results in acoustic noise
and vibration. The torque pulsations in a SRM are due to
the highly non-linear and discrete nature of torque
production mechanism. Therefore, without proper control,
the inherent torque ripples, vibrations and acoustic noise
can become major problems of the SRM drives. With the
view to achieve high-performance servo drives for SRM,
several instantaneous torque control techniques including
torque ripple minimization features have been successively
proposed in the last three decades
1
.
In the conventional scheme called indirect instantaneous
torque control (IITC), SRM torque is regulated by controlling
the instantaneous phase currents in a cascaded fashion.
The reference torque is converted to equivalent reference
phase currents so that they can be tracked in the inner
current control loops. By using the phase current profiling
technique, optimal phase torques corresponding to torque
sharing functions can be generated and torque ripples can
be minimized. Various indirect instantaneous torque control
(IITC) techniques for the minimizations of the torque ripple
in SRM were surveyed by Husain
1
. However, torque-to-
current conversion in SRM is complex and becomes non-
trivial due to their nonlinear relationship. Analytical
expression of such conversion is complicated and leads to
intensive on-line computation. On the other hand, the
current profiles are to be pre-calculated and pre-stored in
the controller memory. Hence, this method also requires
large amount of on-line memory space.
This paper proposes the concept of direct instantaneous
torque control (DITC) for SRM to overcome the earlier
mentioned drawbacks of the indirect instantaneous torque
control (IITC). In DITC, the instantaneous torque is
estimated from the motor terminal quantities and is
considered directly as a control variable. Hence, the torque-
to-current conversion and current controllers are no longer
required. Therefore, DITC is expected to counteract the
torque error instantaneously with fast dynamic response
and effectively minimize the inherent torque ripple. A DITC
scheme for SRM using the concept of a short flux pattern
that links two separate poles of the stator was proposed by
Jinupun and Luk
2
. This method was expensive and
inconvenient, as it involved motor winding alteration and
bipolar current requirement. Cheok and Fukuda
3
proposed
a DITC strategy for a three-phase SRM, which followed
the conventional DTC technique for three-phase ac
machines. In this scheme, torque is directly controlled
through the control of the magnitude of the flux linkage and
the change in speed (acceleration or deceleration) of the
stator flux vector. However, the technique requires additional
flux linkage controller.
The main aim of this paper is to present a simplified direct
instantaneous torque control for a four phase SRM. Here,
torque sharing functions are used to generate the reference
values of phase torques from the required torque. The
switching signals are directly generated from the
comparison between the reference phase torques and the
estimated phase torques using hysteresis controller. The
K V Reddy is with the Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, University College of Engineering, JNTU Kakinada,
Kakinada 533 003, Andhra Pradesh; and M V Kumar is with the
Department of Electrical Engi neeri ng, Jawaharlal Nehru
Technological University Anantapur, Anantapur 515 002, Andhra
Pradesh.
This paper (modified) was received on April 05, 2011. Written discussion
on the paper will be entertained till September 30, 2011.
Volume 92, June 2011 17
hysteresis torque controller generates gating signals to the
power converter. The instantaneous phase torques can be
calculated from the phase currents and rotor position.
Simulations were carried out on four phase 8/6 SRM using
Matlab/Simulink. Simulation results really validate the
applicability of the proposed direct instantaneous torque
control scheme.
INDUCTANCE MODEL OF SRM
Since the phase inductance of SRM changes periodically
with the rotor position, it can be expressed as a Fourier
series with respect to rotor position
4,5
} }
0
, cos
m
k r
k
L i L i kN
=
=
(1)
where N
r
is the number of rotor poles.
A three-dimensional (3-D) plot of inductance shown in
Figure 1 depicts the profile of inductance variation with rotor
position and phase current. At 0
o
and 60
o
, phase A is at its
aligned positions and has the highest value of inductance.
It decreases when the phase current increases. At 30
o
,
phase A is at its unaligned position and has lowest value of
inductance. The inductance at unaligned position does not
change much with the phase current and can be treated as
a constant. The inductance at midway and aligned position
decrease when current increases due to saturation.
The torque equation of SRM is given by
5
} }
} } }
,
const
0
1
0
,
di
sin di
i
co
e j
i
i
m
r r k
k
i
W
T
kN kN L i i
=
=

= =


=

(2)
The Figure 2 shows the torque variation with the rotor
angular position at different values of phase current. Since
the inductance gradient is negative from 0
o
to 30
o
the torque
is negative and when the inductance gradient is positive
from 30
o
to 60
o
the torque is positive.
The torque-speed equation can be expressed as
d
dt
e l
J T T =
(3)
where J is the moment of inertia of rotor; T
e
, the
electromagnetic torque; and T
l
, the load torque. The
electromagnetic torque, T
e
can be computed as follows,
,
1
n
e e j
j
T T
=
=

(4)
where T
e, j
is the electromagnetic torque of the jth phase
and n, the number of phases.
TORQUE SHARING FUNCTIONS
At any time, the resultant output torque of SRM is the
summation of the torque in all phases. If the phase current
is fixed, the torque of an 8/6 SRM will have a profile as
shown in Figure 3.
From Figure 3, it is clear that high torque is not available
near aligned/unaligned position even when high phase
current is presented. To generate a ripple-free output torque,
there must be overlapping between phases. During phase
overlapping, the current in one phase is decreasing, and
that in the other phase is increasing. To obtain a constant
torque, the summation of the torque generated by these
currents must be equal to the torque generated in non-
overlapping period. To determine the desired torque
produced by each phase, torque sharing functions (TSFs) Figure 1 Profile of nonlinear phase inductance
3
0
2
0
1
0
0
C
u
rre
n
t, A
0
20
40
60
, degree
I
n
d
u
c
t
a
n
c
e
,

H
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
10
3
Figure 2 Torque at different currents and different rotor positions
30
20
10
0
C
urrent, A
0
20
40
60
, degree
T
o
r
q
u
e
,

N
-
m
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
18 IE(I) Journal EL
are introduced, which are defined as
ref
1 1
TSF ( )
N N
j j
j j
T T T
= =
= =

(5)
where TSF
j
() is the torque sharing function for phase j at
rotor position , and T
ref
is the reference torque.
The motor used in this work is a four phase 8/6 switched
reluctance motor. To generate desired torque, the torque
sharing function must meet the following requirements:
4
1
TSF ( ) 1
j
j =
=

(6)
TSF ( ) TSF
3
j j

= +

(7)
TSF ( ) TSF ( )
12
j k
j k

=

(8)
For 8/6 SRM, the inductance increasing/decreasing period
for each phase is /6. In this work, the conduction angle is
chosen as /8. This means
off on
8

=
(9)
So the phase overlapping for each two adjacent phases is
/8 /12 = /24.
In the proposed work, a sinusoidal torque sharing functions
are used. The sinusoidal torque sharing function means
that the torque produced by the phases, during phase
commutation, changes with the rotor position in terms of
the sinusoidal function. On the basis of the sinusoidal torque
sharing function presented by Husain and Ehsani
6
, in this
work, the improved sinusoidal torque sharing functions have
been developed and used. The sinusoidal torque sharing
function for phase j in a rotor period can be expressed as
on on on
on
off off of
1 1
cos24( ) for
2 2 24
1 for
24 24
Fact ( )
1 1
cos24 for
2 2 24 24
0 otherwise
j j j
j off j
j
j j f j

< +

+ <

=

+ <

(10)
The Figure 4 shows the sinusoidal torque sharing functions
of all four phases in forward motoring operation. In this
figure, the dotted line represents the summation of all the
four torque sharing functions which is equal to 1 at any
rotor position.
DIRECT INSTANTANEOUS TORQUE CONTROL OF
SRM
The block diagram of the direct instantaneous torque control
is shown in Figure 5. First, the phase torques are calculated
from the measured phase currents and rotor position using
the torque expression [equation (2)]. The magnitudes of
the reference phase torques are calculated using the torque
sharing functions. The input reference phase torques are
compared with the feedback estimated phase torques using
hysteresis controller. The hysteresis controller outputs three
discrete voltage levels +V
dc
, 0, V
dc
to be applied to the
motor.
Sinusoidal torque sharing functions
Figure 4 Sinusoidal TSFs for forward motoring operation
30 20 10 0 10 20 30
, degree
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0.2
A B C D
Figure 3 Phase torque profile under fixed current
30 20 10 0 10 20 30

T
o
r
q
u
e
,

N
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Volume 92, June 2011 19
The justification of using applied phase voltage to directly
control the instantaneous torque of switched reluctance
motor is explained here.
The nonlinear instantaneous torque of SRM can be found
from co-energy principle, as expressed in equation (2)
earlier. For simplification, the torque equation becomes
} }
,
0
, ,
di
i
e j
i i
T i i



(11)
Thus, the instantaneous torque of the saturated SRM can
be found from the product of the flux linkage derivative (with
respect to rotor position) and the phase current, as shown
in equation (11).
The phase voltage equation of SRM is given by
d ( , )
dt
d d
dt dt
d
( , )
dt
i
V Ri
i
Ri
i
i
Ri l i

= +

= + +

= + +

(12)
This incremental inductance l(i,) has significantly large
value such that phase current can be assumed unchanged
in one sampling period. Once the resistive drop is negligible
and the current is considered constant, the phase voltage
equation can be approximated as equation (13)
V

(13)
Consequently, the instantaneous phase torque equation of
SRM can be simplified to:
i
T i V

(14)
The rotor speed and the phase current are assumed
constant during the control cycle. As a result, the torque
expression has been linearized and the phase voltage V
becomes an effective control variable for the DITC.
SIMULATION RESULTS
The proposed direct instantaneous torque control scheme
is implemented and simulated in the Matlab / Simulink
environment for a four phase switched reluctance motor
with eight stator poles and six rotor poles. Figure 6 describes
the profile of the total torque produced by SRM without
torque control for turn-on angle
on
= 30
o
, turn-off angle

off
= 52.5
o
, constant speed N = 500 rpm and a current
reference of I
ref
= 12 A with hysteresis current control. From
Figure 6, it is clear that the total torque produced by the
SRM has high amount of torque ripple. The magnitude of
the torque is varying between 0.6 Nm and 0.9 Nm.
Here a torque ripple factor (TRF) is defined and used to
measure the ripple of the torque produced by the motor.
Figure 6 Total torque produced by SRM without DITC
Total torque
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05
Time, s
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
T
o
r
q
u
e
,

N
-
m
Figure 5 Block diagram of the direct instantaneous torque control
Torque sharing
functions
Direct torque
controller
Torque calculation from T(i,)
equation
Power converter
SRM
Position
encoder
Gating
signals
T
ref
T
Aref
T
Bref
T
Cref
T
Dref
i
a
i
b
i
c
i
d
T
A
T
B
T
C
T
D

on

off
20 IE(I) Journal EL
the maximum extent. With the implementation of the
proposed direct instantaneous torque control, the TRF of
SRM is less than 2% which is acceptable.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper proposes a simplified direct instantaneous torque
control (DITC) for a four phase 8/6 SRM which overcome
the drawbacks of the indirect instantaneous torque control
(IITC) schemes like complexity in torque-to-current
conversion and the requirement of massive memory space
for storing the current values corresponding to torque and
all position. In DITC, the phase torques are calculated from
the measured phase currents and rotor position. The
magnitudes of the reference phase torques are calculated
using the torque sharing functions. The input reference
phase torques are compared with the feedback estimated
phase torques using hysteresis torque controller. The
hysteresis torque controller have three discrete voltage
levels outputs which are to be applied to the motor. As the
instantaneous torque is considered directly as a control
variable, DITC counteracts the torque error instantaneously
Figure 10 Total torque produced by SRM in DITC
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05
Time, s
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
T
o
r
q
u
e
,

N
-
m
Actual
Reference
Figure 8 Phase torques in DITC
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05
Time, s
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
T
o
r
q
u
e
,

N
-
m
Phase AA
Phase B
Phase C
Phase D
Figure 9 Phase currents in DITC
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05
Time, s
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
T
o
r
q
u
e
,

N
-
m
Phase AA
Phase B
Phase C
Phase D
Figure 7 Reference phase torques in DITC
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05
Time, s
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
T
o
r
q
u
e
,

N
-
m
Phase AA
Phase B
Phase C
Phase D
The torque ripple factor (TRF) is defined as follows.
avg
avg
RMS value of [ ( ) ]
TRF,% 100
T t T
T

=
(15)
Without the torque control the TRF of SRM is observed as
10% to 15% which is not desirable for many applications.
The simulation results, shown in Figures 7 to 10, have been
achieved using the proposed direct instantaneous torque
control scheme for the same turn-on and turn-off angles
and at the same speed and with a step change in the
reference torque. The reference torque is 0.4 N-m up to
0.025 s and 0.6 N-m from 0.025 s to 0.05 s. Figure 7 shows
the reference phase torques of the SRM which are obtained
using the torque sharing functions. Figure 8 depicts the
torques produced by each phase of the SRM. The phase
currents of the motor are described in Figure 9. Figure 10
illustrates the profile of the total torque produced by the
SRM. In Figure 10, it can be observed that ripple in the
total torque produced by the SRM has been minimized to
Volume 92, June 2011 21
with fast dynamic response and effectively minimize the
inherent torque ripple. The DITC scheme also eliminates
the use of current controllers. With the implementation of
proposed direct instantaneous torque control (DITC)
scheme, the torque ripple factor (TRF) of SRM is reduced
to less than 2% which is tolerable. Simulation results really
vali date the applicabi lity of the proposed direct
instantaneous torque control scheme.
REFERENCES
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Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol 49, no 1, 2002, pp 28-39.
2. P Jinupun and P Chi-Kwong Luk. Direct Torque Control for Sensorless
Switched Reluctance Motor Drives. Proceedings of the Seventh
International Conference on Power Electronics and Variable Speed
Drives, 1998, pp 329-334.
3. A D Cheok and Y Fukuda. A New Torque and Flux Control Method for
Switched Reluctance Motor Drives. IEEE Transactions on Power
Electronics, vol 17, no 4, 2002, pp 543-557.
4. B Fahimi, G Suresh, J Mahdavi and M Ehsani. A New Approach to
Model Switched Reluctance Motor Drive Application to Dynamic
Performance Prediction, Control and Design. PESC 98 Record 29th
Annual IEEE, vol 2, nos 17-22, May 1998, pp 2097- 2102.
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Reluctance Motors. Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India),
Electrical Engineering Division, vol 89, no 4, March 2009, pp 1-8.
6. I Husain and M Ehsani. Torque Ripple Minimization in Switched
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