Investigating Integrated Multilevel Converter for Switched Reluctance Motor Drives in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

The present study offers a multilevel converter for switched reluctance motors (SRMs) comprised of an asymmetrical half-bridge converter and a front-end circuit and it is applied for the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). Several operation states can be obtained by changing the on-off statuses of the front-end circuit’s switches. In the generator’s drive state, the battery’s bank is applied for elevating the phase voltage in line with quick evocation and demagnetization. In the battery drive state, the converter is configured as a four-level converter and the capacitor is used as an extra charge capacitor for producing the multilevel output voltage that causes an increase in the torque capability. The operational states suggested for the drive are explained and the phase flow and voltage are each analyzed in details. The battery charge can be naturally obtained by the demagnetization current in motor state and with the regenerative flow in brake state. Moreover, the battery can be charged by an external AC source and/or generator through the proposed converter when the vehicle is in a motionless condition. SRM-based PHEV can work in various speeds through the electrical current’s coordination between the generator and battery. In the end, the effectiveness of the proposed converter’s topology was simulated on a four-phase 8/6 SRM in PSIM Software so that the capability of the proposed plan can be investigated.