Steady-state behaviour of an ac autonomous switched reluctance generator

The switched reluctance motor can be used in generation mode by selecting the firing angles of the phases. This implies the use of the asymmetrical half bridge Miller converter and position sensors or position estimators. In this paper an alternative current (AC) switched reluctance generator is studied. Generation is obtained by doing resonate each phase inductance with an external AC capacitor. Although the machine only generates periodically in the negative slope of the inductance profile, the set formed with the machine and a resonating capacitor behaves like an AC generator. The energy periodically generated in the negative slope is stored in the capacitor smoothing the pulsed generating process and spread on an AC cycle. So, the set generates when the inductance profile is either positive or negative. Further, position sensors are not used, the magnetic circuit is used in two quadrants and the current profile does not have switching harmonics. The system simplicity suits to battery charge in isolated locations.