2015 Seventh International Conference on Computational Intelligence, Modelling and Simulation

Electric Propulsion Unit Powered by Switch Reluctance Machine SRM

Farukh Abbas, Sun Yingyun, Usama Rehman
North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China
farukhabbas32@gmail.com,sunyingyun@gmail.com,usama.rehman21@gmail.com

For designing mechnical part the weight is taken into

account for better performance by choosing light weight
metal and structure and for machine the reference of a DC
machine alread used for wheelchairs is taken with rated
power of 1.2kw, rated torque 3.4Nm and rated speed of
3400r/min, having a gear mechanism increasing torque by
ratio of (1:20), having 24vdc power supply and drain 80A
from the converter.

Abstract the paper deals with designing and fabrication of a

light weight (one man) electric vehicle prototype powered by
switched reluctance machine SRM and controlled by half
bridge low-voltage high-current converter. The machine will
provide propulsion to drive light weight electric vehicle. The
idea is to utilize the vehicle for disable persons by utilizing the
methodology with advance design. The paper reveals the
mechanical design specifications, control mechanism for SRM,
different signals of power converter is analyzed using digital
oscilloscope and discussion on the weight, speed and
price/distance of prototype is given. The aim at the moment is
to design, construct and perform an experimental run of a
prototype in order to get a more comprehensive idea of the
mechanical design and the driving circuitry.

Inorder to test a prototype is made and tested on road

and result for the speed, miliage,driving circuirtry is
recorded.
II. STRUCTURAL DESIGN
The main challenge in fabricating an effective vehicle
chassis is to increase the strength and safety, but the weight
should be minimized. Every extra kilogram requires more
energy to move on the road. This means we must struggle to
minimize weight and a key area is the metallic chassis.
However, safety is a main concern and the chassis must
meet appropriate strength and safety requirements. Usually,
there are three types of chassis structure used in electric
vechicles: space frame, semi monocoque, monocoque[8].

Keywords-SRM, design, SRM converter, experimental run.

I. INTRODUCTION
The transport needs of our ever growing and changing
society is becoming increasingly complex and more
demanding.The need is to make more efficient and low cost
propulsion units. A large number of propulsion systems and
renewable energy sources have undergone research studies
to find potential commercial and industrial applications of
electric vehicle. Some projects have shown to work
successfully, while other technologies are still well in their
initial stage of development.Permanent magnet(PM) based
designs are popular but have some international market
problems[1].Induction machine(IM) on the other hand have
no slip rings and PM, but its control is sometimes difficult
due to real time calculation of slips and IM has high
manufacturing price and complex structure than switched
reluctance machine(SRM).SRM is cheap,efficient , endure
electrical and mechinical stress and have simple control
mechanism.

A space frame uses a welded or attatched tube type

structure to support both body and load. The body is a light
weight part, bearing no load, shell composite that is
attached to the chassis independently. The carbon beam or
semi-monocoque type chassis uses bulkheads and composite
beams to support the loads part and is integrated into a
type(non load bearing) composite belly pan. The upper
sections of the car are usually separate body parts that are
bolted to the belly pan. A monocoque type chassis ususlly
uses the body structure to support the loads part. Using
these three types of chassis we can make strong lightweight
vehicles. The design used is a collective combination of the
chassis types mentioned here. The design specification is
given below in Figure 1(A, B, C) and Figure 2.

The design process of entire vehicle consists of two

parts: one contains the design specification of mechanical
structure(Chassis, Outer shell), the other part consists of the
design specification of electronic power converter. The goal
is to fabricate a prototype and test the vechicle on the road
ensuring that the controller perform requird control strategy.
2166-8523/15 $31.00 2015 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/CIMSim.2015.19

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B
B

Figure 3. Showing a three dimensional model.

Outer Shell is made of carbon fiber or glass Fiber with

the polycarbonate or acrylic windscreen. A threedimensional model is given in Figure 3(A, B).
In our design we are used knuckles steering system. It is
a type of steering system in where the axles themselves are
use to control movement, which are attached on a knuckles,
out and away from the go kart, and they are actually rotating
around t pivots, and makes the wheels to turn. Braking
system; the braking should be done through simple spring
loaded disk brakes on both front and rear wheels. The
overall weight of the vehicle consists of: chassis(8kg),
carbon fibre outer shell(15kg), gear box-driving seatwheels-stearing-break mechanism(18.5kg), with motorbatteries and driving circuitry the overall weight of vehicle
is approximatly 60Kg.

Figure 1. Shows in meters ,a(top view),b(front view),c(side view).

III. THE SRM AND ITS CONTROL CIRCUITRY

As the interest is to develop a propulsion unit for light
weight vehicle, the first step is to choose the electrical
machine, the second step is the designing and building of
the power converter to run the machine and have desired
output power. This section will focus on some main design
and control strategy related to the SRM[7].
Figure 2.Placement of equipment in structure.

A. SRM specifications
The SRM for such propulsion system we chose SRM
with respect to their stator to rotor number of poles ratio. A
machine with 6/4 ratio is financially easy to build and
control, but have high torque ripples. The chosen machine is
an 8/6 ratio machine.

Chassis is made by Aluminum - Square (1x1) rods or

rectangular (2x1) rods of 3mm (millimeter) gauge or with
a combination of pipes and rods depending on the strength
required at the particular support.

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The parameters of SRM are given in table I. The

parameters consist of: the machines rated power (P2N),
rated current (I), ), the rated speed (nN)and the rated torque
(TN).

TABLE I. SRM SPECIFICATIONS

Chosen
Parameters(SRM)
Battery voltage
Current imposed
Rated torque
Rated speed
Output power
Stator
poles(numbers)
Rotor
poles (numbers)

Rated
Value
24
80
3.4
3400
1.2
8
6

Unit
specification
[V]
[A]
[Nm]
[r/min]
[kW]
-

Figure4. FEA simulated result on rated power of SRM

The DITC strategy directly controls the torque by

using a double hysteresis band , computing the firing
moments of the switches function of the imposed torque.It
involves switching the supply voltage between positive
DC, 0 and negative DC for each phase in order to shape
the individual torque produced by each phase in such way
that the overall torque is possibly close to straight line. In
Figure 5 it can be seen that using this strategy the torque
is smooth. This strategy is feasible for our desired
process.

B. Control Srategy of SRM

SRM has a disadvantage regarding the torque ripples as
the current is switched from one phase to the other during
operation [2]. This problem puts SRM in a position that is
not suitable for propulsion system like electric vehicle, the
other problem is related to mechanical stress of the
transmissions.

Dicussing two methods to control SRM: the classical

hysteresis current controller, direct instantaneous torque
control(DITC) [3].
In classical hysteresis current controller further advance
studies need to be done in order to have smooth torque. it
can be seen in simulation in Figure 4(A, B) that using the
classical hysteresis control of the currents the torque ripples
are quite high, Simulation is done using finite element
analysis (FEA) - using FLUX 2D software. This method is
not feasible for our application.

Figure5. DITC topology, A (Instantaneous torque), B (Adjacent phase

voltage), C (phase torque).

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IV. CONVERTER
(2)

The required converter consists of following

specifications: dc bus voltage of 24V, phase current of 80A
and switching frequency of 30 to 60 kHz. Separate power
stages is needed for each phase driven by independent
driver.

Here, Crss is the reverse transfer capacitance and RdV

is the established voltage rise slope.For external additional
gate resistance, putting value from equation 2 to equation 3.

A. Components
(3)

One half H-bridge configuration for each phase is used,

power stage consist of twoIRFP4886PBF power switches on
one diagonal of the bridge and the freewheeling diodes in
pairs of two are in parallel for desired current achievement.
The diodes type 60APU04PBF of 60A rating placed in
parallel. For safe operation, the input of the driver is isolated
using a high speed optocoupler. For a half H-bridge firing
the power switches is complicated because of the floating
side capacitor of driver (bootstrap capacitor), that is need to
be charged through load. A direct connection between the
Cboot (bootstrap capacitors) and the phase of the machine
makes this a serious problem. Moreover highly variable
inductance of machine, resonance can also damage the
driver. So, in order to charge bootstrap capacitor
independently from load MOSFET type transistors are used
to make sure the charging of capacitor during off stage of
switches.

Here, RDRV is drivers internal resistance. From equation

3 the calculated value for on resistance is 32.5ohm, so a
resistance of 33ohm is placed in series with the gate of the
power switches.
Using too high resistances in series with the gate would
eliminate the voltage spikes when switching to transistor
OFF state. However, the transient section is affected, having
increased heat dissipation and reducing switching frequency
range.
Using a too low valued resistance will increase transient
state voltage spikes (ON-OFF states). These spikes can
destroy the power switches, reaching voltages over their
absolute maximum values.
B. Performance test
Analyzing hysteresis current control strategy on data
acquisition based oscilloscope(channel1-red,channel2purple,channel3-green,channel4-blue), few tests are done
with detail as follows: Currents on the four phases of the
machine are analyzed (during operation) at different
rotational speeds and different amplitudes. Figure 6 shows
all the four currents at switching frequency reaching about
40 kHz. Using four channels (four phases), Vertical 1V/div,
Horizontal 500 s.

The minimum capacitance is calculated as follows:

equation 1 [4].

(1)
where: Qg, gate charge of high side FET, I(qbs)
quiescent current for high side driver circuitry, Q(ls) level
shift charge required per cycle, I(cbs - leak) Bootstrap
capacitor leakage current, fs is the minimum switching
frequency,
Vcc is the drivers power supply voltage, VF the bias
voltage of the internal diode, VLS the voltage drop on the
drain to source circuit, Vmin is the minimum source
voltage. From the equation 1 the bootstrap capacitance
calculated is 1.2f.
The bootstrap capacitance consists of two capacitors as
follows: equivalent system resistance (ESR) for fast
recovery, electrolytic one in parallel. Protect circuit even in
case of voltage spikes.

Figure6. Current (each of four phase)

The current and the voltage of one phase of the

converter is shown in figure 7, having a fast current increase
to achieve the desired result. In order to maintain the current
(within hysteresis band), voltage switching is done between
positive and negative DC values. Due to back EMF and selfinductance the current creates a negative voltage for small
interval. In figure 7 channel1 (Vertical 2V/div) and channel
2 (Vertical 20V/div), Horizontal (200s/div).
All main signal are shown in figure 8. Channel 1
showing phase current, channel 2 showing output of

Another problem, when dealing with high currents at

high frequencies switching, is having external gate resistor
with correct value. It is calculated as [4], the total gate
circuit resistance (internal and external) is given by equation
2.

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optocoupler, channel 3 showing gate to source voltage,

channel 4 showing the phase voltage. When switching at
high frequencies with high value of current, the problem of
spikes occurs. These can be minimized by proper gate
resistances and by using snubbers and proper circuit layout.
In figure 8 Vertical divisions (channel (1) 1V/div, channel
(2) 10V/div, channel (3) 10V/div, channel(4) 50V/div),
Horizontal(10s/div).

The voltage spike during switching off of transistor is

shown in figure 9. A short interval voltage spike of 7V
amplitude for DC link of 24V. In figure 9: channel1 (phase
current) vertical (1V/div), channel 3(gate to source voltage)
vertical (1V/div), channel 2(phase voltage) vertical
(10V/div), horizontally 2s/div.
V. VEHICLE TEST
The experimental run of a prototype is done in order to
get a more comprehensive idea of the design performance of
the chassis and the driving circuitry, this would enable us to
point out the short-comings and the problems in the design
and improve our design before constructing the final thing.
Table II shows some parameters analyzed by running the
prototype.
TABLE II. ROAD TEST PARAMETERS

Parameters

Values

Units

Speed
Vehicle(max)

of

34.4

Km/h

Weight
vehicle

of

130

kg

24

118.6

km

Figure7. Current and voltage (converter phase)

Batteries
Distance
covered(one
charge)

If batteries are charged by simple silicon controlled

rectifier SCR of 10A rating and approximate ten hours
required to completely charge two 12V-18Ah sealed
rechargeable lead acid battery then power consumed in
Kwh with a distribution system of 220V will be 22kWh
given by equation 3[5].

Figure8. Main converter signals.

Figure10. Test vehicle

Energy (kWh) = wattage hours of day

(3)

Figure9. Switching off transistor voltage spikes

For Pakistan the average price per kWh is 13.99[6].

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Total price for one charge will be Rs305.8 covering

distance of 118.6 km. So per kilometer the price will be
Rs2.58 ($0.026).The prototype constructed is shown in
figure 10.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by grant from Pakistan Navy
Engineering College.
REFERENCES

VI. CONCLUSION
[1]

The paper deal with the design, analysis and fabrication

of light weight electric vehicle using low voltage, high
current SRM drive, for controlling SRM we use hysteresis
and direct instantaneous torque control and use half Hbridge configuration. In this paper details regarding the
mechanical design and SRM are given and details regarding
control strategy are given.
The vehicle is fabricated and experimental run is done,
the final prototype and price detail is given. The light
vehicle with SRM machine is suitable for application in
wheel chair technology or can be taken as commercial
vehicle for short distance travel. Further with advance
storage technology better performance can be achieved.
Electric and hybrid powered vehicles are emerging as a
popular transport mean.These types of vehicles emit less
pollutants to the atmosphere and are more environment
friendly than the single internal combustion engine, and
have been proven to display cosiderable driving range.

[2]

[3]

[4]
[5]
[6]

[7]

[8]

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