Fault Tolerant Switched Reluctance Motor for Safety-Critical Automotive Applications

The Switched Reluctance Machine (SRM) based electrical drive systems are ideal for diverse automotive safety-critical applications where the fault tolerance is a basic requirement. The phase independence characteristics of the SRM enable it to operate under partial phase failure conditions also in its classical construction. Its reliability can be improved by applying special fault tolerant designs, respectively monitoring its condition and applying fault detection techniques. In the paper a fault tolerant SRM is proposed together with its power converter excellent fitting to X-by-wire type automotive applications. The fault tolerance capacity of the machine is studied by means of simulations. Two advanced simulation platforms are coupled together to simulate the drive system. All the results of the simulations emphasize the usefulness of the proposed fault tolerant SRM.