IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 36, NO.

1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000 111

Advantages of Switched Reluctance Motor

Applications to EV and HEV: Design
and Control Issues
Khwaja M. Rahman, Student Member, IEEE, Babak Fahimi, Student Member, IEEE, G. Suresh, Student Member, IEEE,
Anandan Velayutham Rajarathnam, Student Member, IEEE, and M. Ehsani, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—Land vehicles need their drivetrain to operate will be made for this optimal operation. Simulation results of
entirely in constant power in order to meet their operational the designed SRM will be presented for vehicle acceleration. To
constraints, such as initial acceleration and gradability, with demonstrate the capability of the SRM in producing an extended
minimum power rating. The internal combustion engine (ICE) is constant power range, experimental results will be presented,
inappropriate for producing this torque–speed profile. Therefore, however, for a reduced size motor available commercially.
multiple gear transmission is necessary with the ICE in a vehicle. Index Terms—Constant power range, electric vehicle, hybrid
Some electric machines, if designed and controlled appropriately, electric vehicle, switched reluctance motor drive.
are capable of producing an extended constant power range.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the capabilities of the
switched reluctance motor (SRM) for electric vehicle and hybrid I. INTRODUCTION
electric vehicle applications. This investigation will be carried out
in two steps. The first step involves the machine design and the
finite-element analysis to obtain the static characteristic of the
motor. In the second step, the finite-element field solutions are
T HE switched reluctance motor (SRM) is gaining much in-
terest as a candidate for electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid
electric vehicle (HEV) electric propulsion for its simple and
used in the development of a nonlinear model to investigate the
dynamic performance of the designed motor. Several 8-6 and 6-4 rugged construction, ability of extremely high-speed operation,
SRM geometries will be investigated. Effects of different stator and hazard-free operation. In view of these characteristics, one
and rotor pole widths and pole heights on the steady state as well of the early SRM’s was designed and built for EV application
as on the dynamic performance of the motor will be studied. The [1]. In designing this SRM, the major attention was given to the
air gap for each motor will be made as small as manufacturally
efficiency of the drive. Later, an optimized design method of an
possible. The aspects of performance to be compared for each
design motor are: 1) the range of the constant power operation; SRM was reported in [2] for EV application. The design opti-
2) drive efficiency in this extended constant power range; 3) the mization was based on a static analytical model of an SRM, sim-
power factor in this operational range; and 4) the short time ilar to the one developed by Corda and Stephenson [3]. More-
overload capability. The first performance index defines the rated over, the efficiency optimization was carried out for the con-
power of the motor. The longer the constant power range, the
lower is the power rating for the same vehicle performance. Hence,
stant-speed operation of the drive with nonoptimal control. Like
special emphasis will be given to this. In the high-speed operation the previous design, the special emphasis was given in this de-
of the SRM, there will be considerable phase overlapping. Hence, sign to the drive efficiency and, additionally, to the drive cost.
thicker back iron than usual might be needed to prevent the back Most recently, a 100-hp SRM was designed and built in [4] for
iron from saturating. However, since flux peaking of each phase EV application. No special control scheme, design method, or
occurs at different rotor positions, the phase overlapping might
not necessitate special designing of the back iron. However, the
optimization technique were, however, presented.
possibility of the back iron being saturated will not be neglected While designing an SRM in all the previous methods, no at-
and will be investigated. The optimal control parameters of the tention was given to the vehicle dynamics. Vehicle dynamics
SRM, which maximize the constant power range with maximum dictate a special torque–speed profile for its propulsion system.
torque per ampere, will be calculated. A performance comparison Our recent study has shown that, a vehicle, in order to meet
its operational constraints, such as initial acceleration and grad-
Paper IPCSD 99–11, presented at the 1998 Industry Applications Society An- ability with minimum power, needs the power train to operate
nual Meeting, St. Louis, MO, October 12–16, and approved for publication in entirely in constant power [5]. The power rating of a motor that
the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Electric Machines
Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. Manuscript submitted for deviates from the constant-power regime can be as much as two
review July 24, 1998 and released for publication July 23, 1999. This work was times that of a motor operating at constant power throughout its
supported by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Advanced Tech- speed range in a vehicle. Operation entirely in constant power
nology Program, the Texas Transportation Institute, and the Texas Instrument
Digital Control Systems Division. is not possible for any practical drive. An extended constant
K. W. Rahman was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas power range is, however, possible if the motor is appropriately
A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3128 USA. He is now with Gen- designed and its control strategy is properly selected.
eral Motors, Advanced Technology Vehicle, Torrance, CA 90509-2923 USA
(e-mail: rahmank@pcssmtp.hac.com). This paper will investigate the capabilities of the SRM for
B. Fahimi, G. Suresh, A. V. Rajarathnam, and M. Ehsani are with the De- vehicle traction. For this purpose, several SRM’s will be de-
partment of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, signed and their optimal control parameters, which maximize
TX 77843-3128 USA (e-mail: fahimi@ee.tamu.edu; suresh@ee.tamu.edu; ra-
jarath@ee.tamu.edu; ehsani@ee.tamu.edu). the constant horse power range, will be calculated. A two–di-
Publisher Item Identifier S 0093-9994(00)00037-2. mensional (2-D) finite-element analysis will be used to obtain
0093–9994/00$10.00 © 2000 IEEE

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112 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 36, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000

the static characteristics of designed motors. The finite-element sented in [15] is used with the SRM nonlinear model to predict
field solutions will then be used in the development of a non- the core losses of each designed SRM.
linear model to investigate the steady-state and the dynamic per-
formance of the designed motors. The nonlinear model will also IV. DETERMINATION OF THE OPTIMAL CONTROL PARAMETERS
be used to search for the optimal control parameters (turn-on and
turn-off angles) of each designed SRM which extends the con- Base speed in any motor is defined as the speed at which the
stant power range with maximum torque per ampere. A perfor- back EMF equals the bus voltage. The motor also reaches its
mance comparison will be made for this optimal operation. Sev- rated power at this speed for rated excitation (current). Torque in
eral 8-6 and 6-4 SRM geometries will be investigated. Effects of an SRM below base speed, when the back EMF is lower than the
different stator and rotor pole geometries on the steady— state bus voltage is controlled, like all other motors, by the pulsewidth
as well as on the dynamic performance of the motor will be modulation (PWM) control of current. Above base speed, due
studied. In the high-speed operation of the SRM, there will be to the high back EMF which cannot be field weakened, PWM
considerable phase overlapping. Hence, thicker back iron than control of current is not possible. Operation in constant power is
normal might be needed to prevent it from saturating. However, made possible in this motor by the phase advancing of the stator
since flux peaking of each phase occurs at different rotor posi- phase current until overlapping between the successive phases
tions, the phase overlapping might not bring the back iron into occurs [9]. Torque control below base speed can be optimized
saturation. However, the possibility of back iron being saturated by the stator current profiling [10], [11]. However, above base
will not be neglected and will be investigated. Besides the range speed, the only control parameters are the phase turn-on and the
of the constant power operation, the other aspects of perfor- turn-off angles. The phase turn-on and the turn-off angles can be
mance which will be investigated for each designed motor are: optimally controlled above base speed to maximize the range of
1) the drive efficiency in this extended constant power range; 2) the constant power operation with maximum torque per ampere.
the power factor (PF) in this operational range; and 3) the short To find the optimal turn-on and the turn-off angles, the dynamic
time overload capability. Simulation results of each designed model developed in the earlier section is used. The search proce-
SRM in vehicle acceleration will be presented. To demonstrate dure for the optimal angles is lengthy and time consuming. Any
that the SRM is capable of producing a long constant-power standard root-seeking methods, such as the Secant method [12],
range when controlled optimally, experimental results will also may be used to accelerate the speed of the searching process.
be presented, however, for a reduced size motor available com- After a series of iterations, the dynamic model finds the optimal
mercially. turn-on and turn-off angles. To implement the control scheme
in real time, a neural-network-based controller may be imple-
mented [10].
II. SRM STATIC CHARACTERISTICS
To investigate the dynamic and steady-state performance of V. DESIGN METHODOLOGY
each SRM geometry considered in this paper, the static torque
and flux-linkage characteristics as functions of stator current The design process starts with the hand calculation of several
and rotor position are required. The nonlinearity of the SRM SRM geometries with varying pole numbers and pole dimen-
owing to its saturation region of operation, however, compli- sions. A 2-D finite- element analysis is then performed to ob-
cates the analysis. Several nonlinear analytic models of SRM are tain the nonlinear field solutions within the motor. The finite-el-
presented in the literature to obtain the static data [3], [6]–[8]. ement field solutions are used in the development of a nonlinear
For accuracy, we will, however, rely on the finite-element anal- SRM model. The developed model is used to search the optimal
ysis to obtain the static data. Finite-element analysis will be per- control parameters which extends the constant power range of
formed on several 6-4 and 8-6 SRM geometries with varying each motor with maximum torque per ampere. Both the steady-
stator and rotor pole widths and heights. Later, the static torque state and the dynamic performance of each designed SRM are
and flux-linkage data obtained from the finite-element analysis investigated for these optimal control parameters. These steps
will be used in the dynamic model to determine the drive per- are repeated for each designed SRM in an attempt to determine
formance with optimal control parameters. an appropriate SRM geometry for EV and HEV applications. In
this paper, we will consider only the 8-6 and 6-4 SRM geome-
III. NONLINEAR SRM MODEL tries. SRM geometries with more stator and rotor poles will have
less space for phase advancing. As a consequence, the motor
A block diagram of the nonlinear SRM model is shown in will suffer from limited constant-power range. Moreover, the
Fig. 1. The static flux-linkage and torque data as functions of ratio of the aligned to unaligned inductance will reduce with in-
the stator current and rotor position, obtained from the finite-el- creased number of rotor and stator poles. This will reduce the
ement analysis for each SRM geometry, are used in the dynamic static torque and increase the converter voltamperes [9].
model in order to include the effect of magnetic nonlinearity.
This model is used to predict the drive performance at steady
VI. DESIGN EXAMPLES
state and in the dynamics. The optimal control parameters are
obtained by using the dynamic model. A linear model of the con- In this section, we will present several SRM designs and
verter is used in the dynamic model. The semiconductor switch will investigate their performance when controlled optimally.
and diode parameters used in the dynamic model are obtained Our goal is to extend the constant-power range with maximum
from the manufacturer’s provided data. The core loss model pre- torque per ampere. Special attention will also be given to the

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RAHMAN et al.: ADVANTAGES OF SRM APPLICATIONS TO EV AND HEV 113

(a)

Fig. 1. A block diagram of the dynamic SRM model.

drive efficiency. All the design examples considered in this

paper have almost the same stator outer dimension and stack
length. We begin with the 6-4 SRM designs.

A. 6-4 SRM Design

First, we will examine the effect of the pole widths on the
SRM performance. The minimum stator and rotor pole widths
of a 6-4 SRM should be 30 in order to have adequate starting
torque from all positions. To maximize the room available for (b)
winding placement, we will keep the stator pole width fixed at
30 , while the rotor pole widths will be varied. The considered Fig. 2. (a) Extended constant power range and (b) optimal control angles and
rms phase current for SRM designs 1–4.
SRM’s have the following dimensions:
• stator outer diameter, 13.58 in;
• rotor outer diameter, 7.4694 in; ranges are obtained for these designs when controlled with the
• stack length, 7.4694 in; optimal parameters. The extended constant-power range is max-
• air gap, 0.0373 in; imum (5.7 times the base speed) for design 1 (narrowest rotor
• stator slot height, 1.7166 in; pole), while it is minimum (4.7 times the base speed) for design
• rotor slot height, 0.9763 in; 4 (widest rotor pole). However, the rated torque is minimum for
• stator core thickness, 1.3017 in; design 1 and maximum for design 4. The long constant-power
• rotor core thickness, 1.3517 in; range available from motor 1 will make it highly favorable for
• M19 steel; vehicle applications, despite the fact that it has a lower rated
• shaft diameter, 2.8135 in; torque (power). The vehicle performance analysis for all these
• number of turns per pole, 14; motors will be presented later. We can see in Fig. 2(b) that lower
• dc-bus voltage, 240 V; than rated rms current is needed at higher speeds to maintain
• rated phase current, 168.3 A (air cooled, 4 A/mm2); constant power at the output. This is a direct consequence of the
• stator pole arc, 30 ; fact that the PF of operation of the motors is improving at higher
• rotor pole arcs, 30.31 (same pole width as the stator), speed. The PF’s and the drive efficiencies for these motors are
31.5 , 34 , and 36 . presented in Fig. 3 for the constant-power operation. We have
used the following definition for calculating the PF:
The dimensions of the four SRM’s are the same except for
the rotor pole arc, which varies from 30.31 (same as the stator output shaft power
pole width) to 36 . For convenience, we will label these designs PF (1)
input rms voltampere
as designs 1–4. Finite-element analysis is performed on each
of these motors in order to obtain the nonlinear field solutions. Design 1 exhibits both the best efficiency and the PF among
These field solutions are then used in the nonlinear model to de- these designs.
termine the steady-state and the dynamic performance of each of Since the rms phase current decreases during high-speed
the designed SRM’s. Fig. 2(a) shows the constant-power ranges constant-power operation, it should be possible to obtain more
of these motors. The optimal turn-on and the turn-off angles than the designed rated powers from these motors at high speed
and the phase rms currents for the constant power operation of without exceeding the bus voltage and the rated current of each
Fig. 2(a) are shown in Fig. 2(b). Extended speed constant-power motor. This is shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 4(a) shows the maximum

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114 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 36, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000

(a)

Fig. 3. Efficiency and PF of motors 1–4 for constant power operation.

power available from these motors and Fig. 4(b) shows the
phase current and the control angles for the maximum power
outputs. The output shaft powers are shown as a ratio of the
ideal output power (unity PF) which is only possible from
a separately excited dc motor. The power curves shown in
Fig. 4 are the maximum powers these motors are capable of
delivering, given the voltage and the current limitations. Again,
design 1 is exhibiting better performance (higher power) at
(b)
higher speeds. It may be noted that almost 40% more than
the design rated power is obtained. The difference between Fig. 4. (a) Maximum output power and (b) optimal control angles and rms
the ideal power and the actual power is narrowing at the high phase current for SRM designs 1–4.
speed. It is interesting to note that, beyond a certain speed, the
rms phase current is reduced from the rated value in order to
obtain more power. Any current higher than this will actually
reduce the output torque due to the development of more
negative torque. Hence, beyond that speed, it is advantageous
to reduce the current rather than maintaining the rated current.
Motor efficiency and PF for its operation on the maximum
power curve of Fig. 4(a) are shown in Fig. 5. Although the rated
PF is low for the SRM, this difficulty is greatly overcome at
higher speeds and the SRM output power approaches the ideal
power (Fig. 4). This will make SRM attractive for applications
requiring high-speed operatios, e.g., the vehicle propulsion
system.
Vehicle application also requires short-term overload capa-
bility from its propulsion system. Hence, finally, we will ex-
amine the overload capabilities of these motors. The SRM does
not have any breakdown torque like the induction motor. The
overload capability, however, would depend on how much cur-
Fig. 5. Efficiency and PF of motors 1–4 for maximum power output.
rent can be pushed in to the motor against the high back EMF
and how fast it can be pushed. Obviously, a low unaligned in-
ductance will be favorable for both these conditions. Design 1, extent of overload from thermal (cooling requirement) point of
which has narrow poles (low unaligned inductance), will have view. We would, however, like to point out that the actual over-
a good overload capability. This is shown in Fig. 6 in per unit load power would be less than this theoretically predicted over-
of the rated power. As expected, maximum overload capability load power. When the motor is severely overloaded, the back
decreases as the speed increases. Peak overload capability for iron will saturate. This will introduce strong coupling between
design 1 at the rated speed is almost 4.5 times its rated power. phases, which is neglected in the developed model of this paper.
RMS phase current and optimal control angles are shown in Due to these phase couplings, torque and, hence, power will be
Fig. 6(b). These phase currents for the overload condition may reduced. Efficiency and PF during motor overloading are shown
be compared with the currents of Figs. 2 and 4, to understand the in Fig. 7.

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RAHMAN et al.: ADVANTAGES OF SRM APPLICATIONS TO EV AND HEV 115

making the rotor pole very long will not be very useful in re-
ducing the unaligned inductance. We will consider four more
designs. The rotor pole height of design 2 (rotor pole arc 31.5 )
is increased 10% and 20%, and these two designs will be labeled
design 5 and 6, respectively. Also, the rotor pole height of de-
sign 3 (rotor pole arc 34 ) is increased 10 and 20%. These two
designs will be labeled design 7 and 8, respectively.
As before, the finite-element analysis is performed on these
motors to obtain the field solutions. The nonlinear field solu-
tions are then used in the nonlinear SRM model to examine the
drive performance. For better understanding, the performance
of designs 5–8 will be presented along with the performance
of designs 2 and 3. Fig. 8 shows the constant-power ranges of
these motors when controlled optimally. Design 6, which has
(a)
the narrowest and longest rotor poles among these designs, has
the longest constant-power range (7.75 times the base speed),
however, the lowest rated torque. On the other hand, design 3,
which has the widest and shortest rotor pole, has the highest
rated torque, but the shortest constant power range (5.1 times
the base speed). The PF and the efficiency of these designs for
the constant-power operation are shown in Fig. 9.
The maximum power available from these motors, operating
within the voltage and the current limitations, is shown in
Fig. 10 and the corresponding efficiencies and PF’s are shown
in Fig. 11. The overload capabilities of these motors are shown
in Fig. 12 and the PF’s and the efficiencies are shown in Fig. 13.
Design 6 has an overloading capability of almost seven times
the rated power.
(b)
Among the eight designs we have presented so far, design
Fig. 6 (a) Maximum overload power and (b) rms phase current and optimal 6 has the longest constant-power range, however, the lowest
angles for SRM designs 1–4. power rating, while design 4 has the shortest constant-power
range, however, the highest power rating. A valid comparison
between these motors, however, should be made in terms of the
vehicle performance, which we will make in the next section.
We will present two 8-6 SRM designs next.

B. 8-6 SRM Design

We will present two 8-6 SRM designs in this section. These
two designs have the following dimensions:
• stator outer diameter, 13.66 in ;
• rotor outer diameter, 7.5156 in ;
• stack length, 7.5156 in;
• air gap, 0.0376 in;
• stator slot height, 1.9303 in;
• rotor slot height, 1.3152 in;
• stator core thickness, 1.1066 in;
• rotor core thickness, 1.1987 in;
• M19 steel;
• shaft diameter, 2.4878 in;
Fig. 7 Efficiency and PF of motors 1–4 during the overloading condition. • number of turns per pole, 11;
• dc-bus voltage, 240 V;
Next, we will investigate the effect of rotor pole height on the • current density 4 A/mm2 (air cooled);
SRM performance. If the stator outer diameter is fixed, an in- • stator and rotor pole arcs 21 , 23 (design 9), and 19 , 21
crease in rotor pole height, however, will decrease the stator slot (design 10).
area. As a consequence, winding area will decrease. Hence, the We have labeled the two SRM designs presented in this sec-
rated current of the motor will decrease. In the unaligned posi- tion as designs 9 and 10. After performing the finite-element
tion, flux also fringes through the side of the rotor pole. Hence, analysis, the optimal constant-power ranges are calculated using

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116 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 36, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000

(a)
(a)

(b)

Fig. 10 (a) Maximum output power and (b) optimal control angles and rms
(b)
phase current for SRM designs 5–8.
Fig. 8. (a) Extended constant power range and (b) optimal control angles and
rms phase current for SRM designs 5–8.

Fig. 11. Efficiency and PF of motors 5–8 for maximum power output.

Fig. 9. Efficiency and PF of motors for constant power operation. PF improves considerably in the high-speed constant-power op-
eration of the motors. Design 10 has a lower PF than design 9 at
the dynamic model. Fig. 14 shows the constant-power ranges the rated speed, however, it improves rapidly and shows better
of these motors along with the rms phase current and the op- PF than design 9, roughly after 7000 r/min. The 8-6 designs,
timal angles. Design 9, which has wider poles, produces higher although they have shorter constant-power range, are showing
rated torque, however, a constant power range of only 3.2 times better PF and much better power ratings than the 6-4 designs
the base speed. Design 10 has slightly lower rated torque and (Figs. 2 and 3). The 8-6 SRM’s, due to their pole widths being
rated power than design 9, but has a much longer constant power narrower than the 6-4 SRM’s, operate in higher saturation level
range (4.125) than 9. The rms phase current also decreases while (6-4 and the 8-6 designs have comparable winding areas). More-
maintaining the constant-power operation. The PF and motor ef- over, the higher phase overlapping in 8-6 motors is contributing
ficiency for the constant-power operation are shown in Fig. 15. more to the average torque. The back iron in 8-6 designs are,

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RAHMAN et al.: ADVANTAGES OF SRM APPLICATIONS TO EV AND HEV 117

(a)
(a)

(b)

Fig. 14. (a) Extended constant power range and (b) optimal control angles and
(b) rms phase current for 8-6 SRM designs 9 and 10.

Fig. 12. (a) Maximum overload power and (b) rms phase current and optimal
angles for SRM designs 5–8.

Fig. 15. Efficiency and PF of operation for motors 9 and 10 for their operation
Fig. 13. Efficiency and PF of motors 5–8 during the overloading condition. on the constant power profile.

however, saturating. The stator and rotor back-iron thickness in Next, we will examine the maximum power capability oper-
both the designs are chosen as 80% of the design 9 respective ating within the rated voltage and current of the motors. Fig. 16
pole widths. The back irons in both the designs, especially in shows the maximum power capability of these two motors in per
design 10 (design 10 has higher ampere–turn rating), saturate unit of their ideal output power. Design 10 has higher and wider
for the rated torque and near the rated speed of the motor. To power capability at high speeds. This is obviously desirable for
prevent this from happening, design 9 would require 6% more EV and HEV applications. Efficiency and PF for this operation
core thickness, whereas design 10 would require 20% more core are shown in Fig. 17. Design 10 is also showing higher PF and
thickness. efficiency at higher speeds.

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118 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 36, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000

(a) (a)

(b) (b)

Fig. 16. (a) Maximum output power and (b) optimal control angles and rms Fig. 18. (a) Maximum overload power and (b) rms phase current and optimal
phase current for SRM designs 9 and 10. angles for SRM designs 9 and 10.

Fig. 17. Efficiency and PF of motors 9 and 10 for the maximum power output. Fig. 19. Efficiency and PF of motors 9 and 10 during overloading condition.

Finally, in Fig. 18 we show the overload capabilities of these longer constant power capability and much higher overload ca-
designs. The PF’s and efficiencies for the overloaded operation pability than the 8-6 designs. The 8-6 designs, however, have
are shown in Fig. 19. Design 10 has better PF, better efficiency, higher rated torque and power. They also exhibit better PF and
and also better overload capability. Due to the higher unaligned efficiency. A valid comparison between these designs can only
inductance, the overload capability of the 8-6 designs are, how- be made if we compare the vehicle performance, e.g., the initial
ever, lower than the 6-4 designs. acceleration performance, when these motors are used as the
In this section, we have presented eight 6-4 SRM designs propulsion system. This comparison will be made in the next
and two 8-6 SRM designs. The 6-4 designs are showing much section.

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RAHMAN et al.: ADVANTAGES OF SRM APPLICATIONS TO EV AND HEV 119

TABLE I
MOTOR POWER RATINGS AND VEHICLE
ACCELERATION TIME

(a)

VII. VEHICLE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

In this section, we will compare the performance of the de-
signed SRM’s for a vehicle propulsion system by calculating the
0–60-mi/h acceleration time. The SRM performance will also
be compared with the performance of an induction motor (IM)
and a brushless dc (BLDC) motor. For the later comparison, we
will calculate the power and the input voltampere requirements
of an IM and a BLDC motor for the 0–60-mi/h acceleration in
(b)
times specified by the SRM’s. For this purpose, we consider the
following vehicle: Fig. 20 (a) Experimentally measured torque and (b) rms phase current at high
speed.
• vehicle rated speed of 26.82 m/s (60 mi/h);
• vehicle maximum speed of 44.7 m/s (100 mi/h);
• vehicle mass of 1450 kg; and, consequently, the constant-power range, the overload capa-
• rolling resistance coefficient of 0.013; bility, as well as the PF will be reduced. SRM’s are exhibiting
• aerodynamic drag coefficient of 0.29; equal or better performance than the induction and BLDC mo-
• frontal area of 2.13 m2; tors. Of course, a more valid comparison should also include the
• wheel radius of 0.2794 m (11 in); volume and the weight of the motors. This is, however, beyond
• level ground; the scope of this paper.
• zero head wind.
VIII. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
For calculating the acceleration time, the maximum power
capabilities of SRM’s, presented in Figs. 4, 10, and 16, will be SRM designs presented inSection VI show that an extremely
assumed. For calculating the IM power and voltampere, we will long constant-power range is possible if the motor is designed
assume a constant-power capability of four times the base speed appropriately and controlled optimally. A range of three
and a PF of 0.8. While, a constant-power range of 2.2 times the to seven times the base speed has been demonstrated with
base speed and a PF of 0.9 will be assumed for the BLDC motor. different designs. In this section, we will present experimental
Table I lists the 0–60-mi/h acceleration time, power, and input results to demonstrate that an extended constant-power range
kilovoltampere ratings of the IM, BLDC motor, and SRM’s. is possible from the SRM. The experimental motor, however,
Among the 6-4 designs, design 1, which has the narrowest is a small motor available commercially. The motor was not
rotor poles, requires the least amount of time for the accelera- designed specifically following the methodology presented
tion. Design 6, which has the longest constant power range, is in this paper. However, it will be controlled with the optimal
requiring longer time for the initial acceleration due to its lower control parameters. The optimal control parameters are calcu-
power rating. The 8-6 designs have a much higher power rating lated from the dynamic model. The nonlinear field solutions
than the 6-4 designs, the acceleration time is, therefore, much for this motor are calculated from the experimentally collected
lower for the 8-6 designs, despite their relatively lower constant data. Simulation results for this motor show that an extended
power range. The 6-4 SRM’s have better overload capability range exceeding 6.5 times the base speed is possible. Detailed
than the 8-6 designs. They also operate in a lower level of sat- simulations results of this motor can be obtained in [16].
uration. Their performance, therefore, can be improved signifi- Fig. 20 shows the experimentally measured torque and rms
cantly by increasing the current density. However, more efficient phase current at high speed when the motor is controlled opti-
cooling of the motor would be required. The rotor pole height of mally. The experimental setup has a maximum speed limitation
designs 1–4 can also be reduced to make more room for phase of 6000 r/min. Therefore, we limited our experiment to 6000
windings. This will, however, increase the unaligned inductance r/min. The measured constant-power range is almost 4.35 times

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120 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 36, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000

[4] T. Uematsu and R. S. Wallace, “Design of a 100 kW switched reluctance

motor for electric vehicle propulsion,” in Proc. IEEE APEC, 1995, pp.
411–415.
[5] M. Ehsani, K. M. Rahman, and H. Toliyat, “Propulsion system design
of electric and hybrid vehicles,” IEEE Trans.Ind. Electron., vol. 44, pp.
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[6] J. V. Byrne and J. B. O’dwyer, “Saturable variable reluctance machine
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Motors and Systems. Leeds, U.K., 1976, pp. 11–16.
[7] T. J. E. Miller and M. McGlip, “Nonlinear theory of switched reluctance
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[8] D. A. Torrey, X.-M. Niu, and E. J. Unkauf, “Analytical modeling of
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[9] T. J. E. Miller, Switched Reluctance Motor and Their Control. London,
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[10] K. M. Rahman, A. V. Rajarathnam, and M. Ehsani, “Optimized instanta-
neous torque control of switched reluctance motor by neural network,”
in Conf. Rec. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting, New Orleans, LA, Oct. 1997,
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[11] I. Husain, K. R. Ramani, and M. Ehsani, “Torque ripple minimization in
switched reluctance motor drives by PWM current control,” IEEE Trans.
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r/min. The oscilloscope scales are 21 and 20 A per division for the commanded [12] A. Ralston and P. Rabinowitz, A First Course in Numerical Anal-
and the actual current, respectively. ysis. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.
[13] T. J. E. Miller, Brushless Permanent-Magnet and Reluctance Motor
Drives. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford Science, 1989.
the base speed. There is still some room available for phase ad- [14] W. L. Soong and T. J. E. Miller, “Field weakening performance of
vancing. This can be seen from the phase current waveform near brushless synchronous AC motor drives,” Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng.—Elect.
Power Applicat., vol. 141, no. 6, pp. 331–340, Nov. 1994.
6000 r/min (Fig. 21). The measured rms phase current decreases [15] P. N. Materu and R. Krishnan, “Estimation of switched reluctance motor
while maintaining constant power, indicating, as predicted the- losses,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 28, pp. 668–679, May/June
oretically, an improvement in the PF. 1992.
[16] K. M. Rahman, G. Suresh, B. Fahimi, A. V. Rajarathnam, and M. Ehsani,
“Optimized torque control of switched reluctance motor at all opera-
tional regimes using neural network,” in Conf. Rec. IEEE-IAS Annu.
IX. CONCLUSION Meeting, St. Louis, MO, 1998, pp. 701–708.

High-speed capabilities of several 6-4 and 8-6 designs have

been presented in this paper. Simulation results show some in-
teresting characteristics of the SRM. Extremely long constant-
power ranges are available from the 6-4 designs. PF improves Khwaja M. Rahman (S’94–M’98) received the
B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Bangladesh University
significantly at the high speeds from its low-speed values. Al- of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
most 40% more than the design rated power is obtained at high in 1987 and 1990, respectively, and the M.S. and
speed without exceeding the voltage and the current ratings of Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M University, College
Station, in 1992 and 1998, respectively, all in
the motors. Excellent efficiencies are exhibited by these designs electrical engineering.
at high speed. The design examples presented in this paper by From 1987 to 1990, he was with the Electrical En-
no means are the best design geometries. Nevertheless, a design gineering Department, Bangladesh University of En-
gineering and Technology, as a Lecturer. In 1998, he
methodology is presented and the potential of the SRM for ve- joined General Motors Advanced Technology Vehi-
hicle application is clearly demonstrated. The SRM definitely cles, Torrance, CA, as a Research Engineer. His research interests include vari-
shows the potential for performance superior to BLDC’s and able-speed motor drives and motor drives design and control for electric and
hybrid electric vehicles.
IM’s. A constant-power range of more than four times the base
speed is demonstrated by the 8-6 experiment motor. The exper-
imental results also demonstrate the improvement of PF at the
high-speed operation.
Babak Fahimi (S’96–M’99) received the B.S.
and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from
REFERENCES Tehran University, Tehran, Iran, in 1991 and 1993,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
[1] P. J. Blake, R. M. Davis, W. F. Ray, N. N. Fulton, P. J. Lawrenson, and engineering from Texas A&M University, College
J. M. Stefenson, “The control of switched reluctance motors for bat- Station, in 1999.
tery electric road vehicles,” in Proc. Int. Conf. PEVD, May 1984, pp. From August 1993 to September 1995, he was a
361–364. DAAD Scholar at the Institute for Electric Machines,
[2] J. H. Lang and F. J. Vallese, “Variable reluctance motor drives for elec- Aachen, Germany. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral As-
tric propulsion,” U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC, Rep. sociate in the Department of Electrical Engineering,
DOE/CS-54209-26, May 1, 1985. Texas A&M University, involved in design and con-
[3] J. Corda and J. M. Stephenson, “Analytical estimation of the minimum trol of electric motor drives for traction applications, application of advanced
and maximum inductances of a doubly-salient motor,” in Proc. Int. Conf. motor drives in automotive industry, and noise and vibration in electric ma-
Stepping Motors and Systems, 1979, pp. 50–59. chinery.

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RAHMAN et al.: ADVANTAGES OF SRM APPLICATIONS TO EV AND HEV 121

G. Suresh (S’95) received the B.E. degree in 1989 M. Ehsani (S’73–M’75–SM’84–F’96) received the
from Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, India, Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Uni-
and the M.S. degree in 1992 from the Indian Institute versity of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1981.
of Technology, Madras, India, both in electrical en- Since 1981, he has been with Texas A&M
gineering. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. University, College Station, where he is currently a
degree in electrical engineering at Texas A&M Uni- Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of
versity, College Station. the Texas Applied Power Electronics Center (TAPC).
From June 1992 to August 1995, he was a Senior He is the author of more than 180 publications on
Engineer in the Research and Development Depart- pulsed-power supplies, high-voltage engineering,
ment, Kirloskar Electric Company, Bangalore, India. power electronics and motor drives. In 1992, he was
His research interests include electrical machines, named the Halliburton Professor in the College of
power electronics, and microcomputer applications in control of switched Engineering, Texas A&M University. In 1994, he was also named the Dresser
reluctance and induction motor drives. Industries Professor in the same college. He is the coauthor of a book on con-
verter circuits for superconductive magnetic energy storage and a contributor
to the IEEE Guide for Self-Commutated Converters and other monographs. He
is the holder of thirteen U.S. and EC patents. His current research work is in
Anandan Velayutham Rajarathnam (S’95) power electronics, motor drives, hybrid electric vehicles and systems.
received the B.Eng. degree in electrical and elec- Prof. Ehsani has been a member of the IEEE Power Electronics Society
tronics engineering from Coimbatore Institute AdCom, Past Chairman of the PELS Educational Affairs Committee, Past
of Technology, Coimbatore, India, in 1992. He Chairman of the IEEE Industry Applications Society Industrial Power
is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in Converter Committee, and Past Chairman of the IEEE Myron Zucker Stu-
electrical engineering at Texas A&M University, dent-Faculty Grant Program. He was the General Chair of the IEEE Power
College Station. Electronics Specialist Conference for 1990. He is an IEEE Industrial Elec-
For a year following receipt of the B. Eng. degree, tronics Society Distinguished Speaker and IEEE Industry Applications Society
he was with Southern Petrochemical Industries Cor- Distinguished Lecturer. He was the recipient of the Prize Paper Award in Static
poration, Madras, India, as an Engineering Manage- Power Converters and Motor Drives at the IEEE Industry Applications Society
ment Trainee, involved in the study of industrial vari- 1985, 1987, and 1992 Annual Meetings. He is also a Registered Professional
able-speed motor drives and captive power generation and distribution. His re- Engineer in the State of Texas.
search interests include power electronics, variable-speed drives and digital ap-
plications in control and sensorless operation of electric drives.
Mr. Rajarathnam is a student member of the IEEE Industry Applications and
IEEE Power Electronics Societies.

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