Abstract—Electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles
(HEVs) can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while switched reluctance motor (SRM) is one of the promising motor for such
applications. This paper presents a novel SRM fault-diagnosis
and fault-tolerance operation solution. Based on the traditional
asymmetric half-bridge topology for the SRM driving, the central
tapped winding of the SRM in modular half-bridge configuration
are introduced to provide fault-diagnosis and fault-tolerance functions, which are set idle in normal conditions. The fault diagnosis
can be achieved by detecting the characteristic of the excitation
and demagnetization currents. An SRM fault-tolerance operation
strategy is also realized by the proposed topology, which compensates for the missing phase torque under the open-circuit fault, and
reduces the unbalanced phase current under the short-circuit fault
due to the uncontrolled faulty phase. Furthermore, the current
sensor placement strategy is also discussed to give two placement
methods for low cost or modular structure. Simulation results in
MATLAB/Simulink and experiments on a 750-W SRM validate the
effectiveness of the proposed strategy, which may have significant
implications and improve the reliability of EVs/HEVs.
Index Terms—Central tapped node, electric vehicles, fault diagnosis, fault tolerance, switched reluctance motor (SRM), traction drives