Design and control of a switched-reluctance motor-driven cooling fan

This study presents the design, implementation and driving control of a switched-reluctance motor (SRM)-driven cooling fan. First, after exploring the motor structural features, a 70-W three-phase SRM with six of four teeth is designed, manufactured and estimated its key parameters. Secondly, a Miller converter and an asymmetric bridge converter are constructed with their switching and commutation shift schemes being properly designed. Thorough experimental evaluations are conducted for the SRM-driven fan powered by different converters. It shows that proper commutation shift can enhance the driving performance of SRM drive, particularly for the one powered using Miller converter. Further comparative performance assessment is also made between the developed SRM-driven fan and an available brushless DC motor fan with the same fan blade, the results confirm the application potential possessed by SRM. Finally, a front-end flyback switch-mode rectifier (SMR) is developed and used to establish well-regulated DC-link voltage for the SRM converter from mains with satisfactory line-drawn power quality.