Two-Converters Based Synchronous Operation and Control of a Brushless Doubly-Fed Reluctance Machine

The Brushless Doubly Fed Reluctance Machine (BDFRM) has promising prospect as a commercial machine, since it's a low cost, low maintenance machine. It does not require brushes, slip rings, rotor circuit or magnets. Having a robust winding-free ducted rotor, it can also work with a simpler control technique than a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG). Therefore, BDFRM can be very useful for applications like wind turbine system and electric vehicle. Apart from research on BDFRM, recent research efforts also address the analysis of other similar machines, and their comparisons with BDFRM. However, topics like control and operation of prototype machines have remained largely unexplored. This paper focuses on this side of BDFRM research. An analytical magnetic design process is carried out, and a prototype machine is built based on the proposed optimum design. Subsequently, two-converters based control approach and real-time synchronous operation are investigated.