An adapted converter for switched reluctance motor/generator for high speed applications

In this paper, the authors present two DC voltage-boosting circuits which enhance the performance of three-phase switched reluctance motors (SRMs) by raising the inverter voltage temporarily. The first one consists in a parallel capacitor-diode combination, in the second one, a parallel transistor is added to the former circuit. Both circuits are placed between the DC feeding and the converter. The boost circuit generates an additional voltage during the commutations, which increases the current derivative, so that a quasi square current waveform can be imposed even at high speeds.