Performance enhancement of single-phase switched-reluctance motor by DC link voltage boosting

A novel and simple DC link voltage boosting circuit is proposed to enhance the performance of inverters for single-phase switched-reluctance motors. It consists of only two additional components to the single-phase switched-reluctance motor inverter, namely a capacitor and a diode. Except for some increase in the voltage rating of the inverter components, no change to the inverter hardware is needed. The boost circuit provides many operational advantages. It generates a high boost voltage during the current pull-up and pull-down periods and hence decreases the current rise and fall times. The boost feature thus reduces the magnitude of the negative torque pulses, increases the mean motor output power and improves the efficiency of energy recovery. The paper presents the basic operating principle of the boost circuit, a method for the sizing of the boost capacitor and the results of time stepping simulations of a boosted single-phase switched-reluctance drive. The simulated and measured results presented correlate well