As the world moves towards a cleaner and greener future, electrical machines for various industrial purposes and transport applications have gained a lot of attention. Permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) are usually the solution for electric vehicle (EV) applications thanks to their high efficiency, compactness and high-power density. On the downside, although the price of rare-earth materials has recovered close to historical levels, concerns still remain and the questions on the environmental sustainability of these materials have also been raised, which has encouraged the researchers to consider rare-earth-free machines.The switched reluctance machine (SRM) is one of the competitive alternatives, thanks to the simple and robust construction, high reliability and inherent fault tolerance capability. However, it has a bad reputation when it comes to torque ripple and acoustic noise. And the highly nonlinear characteristic brings much difficulty to routine design purposes and machine optimisation.Therefore, some of the above mentioned problems are addressed - a torque-ripple-reduction, reliable and low-cost system of SRMs is presented in this thesis. Firstly from the modelling point of view, a combined magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC) and finite element (FE) model of SRMs is developed for fast characterization the nonlinear behavior. Secondly from the control point of view, various torque-ripple reduction techniques are implemented and compared. Moreover, a minimal current sensing strategy with enhanced fault-detection capability is proposed and validated experimentally. It requires two current sensors, to replace the phase current sensors, with no additional devices for fault detection, to achieve a more compact and low-cost drive. Finally from the reliability point of view, an interturn short-circuit fault detection method and a rotor position estimation approach are investigated and validated experimentally, which leads to a more reliable system. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

<p>As a cost-effective, healthy, and environmentally friendly personal mode of transportation, electric bicycles (E-bikes) are gaining an increasing market share from conventional bicycles and automobiles. Considering the legal rules in Ontario, Canada, a 500W motor makes the E-bike more attractive for travelling use. At the same time, the simple structure, high torque and power density, as well as the low cost of the switched reluctance machine (SRM) makes it a strong candidate for E-bikes.</p> <p>In this thesis, a 3-phase, external-rotor SRM with 6 stator poles and 10 rotor poles is designed for E-bike. The design of an external rotor arrangement of the 6-10 SRM topology has not previously been reported, hence it offers a new contribution to the published works. The machine design is initiated by the output power equation and is followed by a comprehensive finite element analysis (FEA). The external-rotor arrangement is chosen to facilitate ease of integration into the wheel hub structure of a typical pedal bicycle. The increasing rotor poles yield improved torque ripple reduction than more conventional (i.e. 6-4, 12-8 etc.) SRM design, which is an essential feature for low speed rider comfort.</p> <p>A new torque ripple reduction control scheme is investigated. Although the comparison shows that the torque sharing function has more positive result than angular position control with regards to torque ripple, this is at the expense of higher losses. Detailed thermal analysis ensures this machine is suitable to require no additional cooling system. The final machine design is experimentally tested via a full system prototype. Results highlight some limitation of the 2-D FEA in terms of the winding inductance calculation. Here, the end winding introduce more influence on short thickness machine, which will reduce its output power. However, its power-speed curve shows that this prototype machine has very strong overload ability.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

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