Fault-tolerant switched reluctance machine
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorThomas M. Jahns
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A switched reluctance motor drive or generator takes advantage of the characteristic independence of concentrated phase windings to optimize fault-tolerant operation. No "dead zones" in motor torque production or generator voltage output are created by faulted phases. One embodiment prevents unbalanced magnetic pull on the rotor despite deactivation of a faulted phase by employing multiple pairs of opposed stator pole windings in each phase.
Claims20
A fault-tolerant switched reluctance machine drive, comprising:
- a multiphase switched reluctance machine including a rotor and a stator, said rotor having a plurality of rotor poles, said stator having a plurality of pairs of opposing stator poles, each phase of said machine comprising at least one said pair of opposing stator poles, each of said stator poles having a concentrated stator pole winding wound thereon;
- a plurality of independent power inverters, the number of said inverters being equal to the number of said stator pole windings corresponding to each machine phase, each of said inverters comprising a power supply for impressing a DC voltage across said stator pole windings, each of said inverters including at least one current switching device connected in series with a separate one, respectively, of said stator pole windings, the series combination of each said stator pole winding and the corresponding series-connected switching device comprising a separate respective phase leg of the corresponding inverter;
- and
- gate drive means coupled to each respective current switching device for exciting the corresponding stator pole winding connected in series therewith, the stator pole windings of said inverters corresponding to the same machine phase having substantially the same conduction interval, the conduction intervals for the different machine phases being mutually time-shifted.
A fault-tolerant switched reluctance machine drive, comprising:
- a multiphase switched reluctance machine including a rotor and a stator, said rotor having a plurality of rotor poles, said stator having a plurality of pairs of opposing stator poles, each phase of said machine comprising at least two said pairs of opposing stator poles, each of said stator poles having a concentrated stator pole winding wound thereon;
- a plurality of independent power inverters, the number of said inverters being equal to the number of said pairs of opposing stator poles, each of said inverters comprising a power supply for impressing a DC voltage across said stator pole windings, each of said inverters including at least one current switching device connected in series with a separate respective pair of stator pole windings corresponding to each respective pair of said opposing stator poles, the combination of each respective pair of stator pole windings and corresponding series-connected switching device comprising a separate respective phase leg of the corresponding inverter;
- and
- gate drive means coupled to each respective current switching device for exciting the corresponding stator pole winding pair coupled thereto, the stator pole winding pairs of said inverters corresponding to the same machine phase having substantially the same conduction interval, the conduction intervals for the different machine phases being mutually time-shifted.
The switched reluctance machine drive of claim wherein each said phase leg further comprises at least one diode coupled to the respective pair of stator pole windings for circulating inductive winding currents.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.