Experimental determination of torque-current- position characteristics of a switched reluctance motor with high number of poles

A knowledge of the electromagnetic characteristics of switched reluctance motors (SRM) is crucial for the simulation, analysis, control and development of drive systems based on these machines. Various experimental methods for determining flux-linkage-current-position characteristics can be found in the literature. References relating to the experimental determination of torque-current-position characteristics are few and focus on motors with a low number of poles. Moreover, in all of them the procedure uses the same number of tests as current and position samples necessary for the motor characterization (N_I*N_P tests, N_I being the number of current samples and NP the number of position samples). This paper analyzes the problems related to the application of classical methods for torque experimental determination in a SRM with a high number of poles. We present a new method that avoids these problems and reduces the number of tests (independently of the number of current samples) to one for each position sample. The results are compared with those of classical methods, showing the improvements provided by the proposed experimental determination of the torque-current-position characteristics of a SRM.