Department of Engineering

Centre for Advanced Electronically Controlled Drives

SWITCHED RELUCTANCE DRIVES – A Tutorial

This centre and these projects have mostly moved to the Company Technelec Ltd, that was set up
by Professor Pollock to exploit this technology

Switched reluctance drives offer a simple and rugged solution for many variable speed drive applications.  The low manufacturing cost of the motor has not however, been matched by low cost electronics to allow the widespread commercial exploitation of this exciting motor technology.  This tutorial presents the results of recent research and development work which has focused specifically on reducing the cost of power electronic converters for switched reluctance drives without reducing the performance of the motor.  The tutorial will present low cost switched reluctance drives which although using the minimum of electronics are still superior to existing technology.  This has been achieved through innovative design of the motor, its windings and the power electronic circuit configuration.  New solutions are proposed to the problems of starting and reversing low phase number motors.  

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Author: Ewan Goodier, last updated 17/10/2000.
This document has been approved by the Head of Department.