High Performance Switched Reluctance Motor Drive for Automobiles using C-dump Converters

Small electric motors in an automobile perform various tasks such as engine cooling, pumping, and in heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system. At present, most of dc motors are supplied by 12V or 24V batteries. However, DC motors surfer from lack of efficiency, low life cycles and unreliability. Therefore, there is a growing interest in substituting DC motors for advanced AC motors including switched reluctance motors. Although there are several other forms SRM converters, they are either unsatisfactory to the control performance or unsuitable for the 12V-battery powered 3-phase SRM drives. Taking into account the requirement for effective operation and simplicity structure of converter in the limited internal environment of automobiles, the author inclines toward selecting the modified C-dump converter as well as the energy efficient C-dump converter. This is so that more economical and efficient converter topology in automobile industries can be utilized. This paper describes the foundation for the design and development of a 12V-250W-3000rpm SRM drives for automobiles. Furthermore, complete circuit, computer simulation and experiment results are presented to verify the performance of the C-dump converters.