A DRIVETRAIN SCHEME OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES USING SWITCHED RELUCTANCE

MOTORS WITH TORQUE RIPPLE REDUCTION

X. D. Xue, K. W. E. Cheng, S. L. Ho and J.K. Lin

Department of Electric Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Email: eexdxue@polyu.edu.hk, eeecheng@polyu.edu.hk, eeslho@polyu.edu.hk

ABSTRACT to sustain the vehicle at its maximum velocity [7].

In addition, the vehicle still runs until maintenance
This paper presents a drivetrain scheme with torque can be performed if one of two electric motors is
ripple reduction, in which two switched reluctance out of service. Thus, this system provides the
motors are coupled mechanically in cascade. The additional benefit of the redundancy.
proposed scheme enables the shaft torque ripple of
switched reluctance motors reduced. The
simulation and experimental results testify the
proposed scheme. The steady-state and dynamic
performances of the drivetrain system are
demonstrated and can be used as the platform
research. Hence, this paper provides a valuable
drivetrain scheme for electric vehicles. It also
provides the method for new traction drive Fig. 1: Cascade-motors drivetrain system
propulsion.

In this paper, electric motors for EVs are selected

1. INTRODUCTION
Due to simple and rugged construction, low weight,
potentially low production cost, easy cooling,
excellent power-speed characteristics, high power
density, high operating efficiency, and inherent
fault tolerance, switched reluctance motors (SRMs)
are ideally suitable for electric vehicles (EVs)
applications [1] – [3]. New control methods have
been developed for switched reluctance drives for
vehicle applications [4-6].
as switched reluctance motors. The study of the
authors shows the shaft displacement angle
between two coupled motor shafts has the
considerable effect on the shaft torque ripple of
SRMs. Hence, the shaft displacement angle will be
optimized in this paper, in order to yield minimum
shaft torque ripple. The simulation and experiment
will demonstrate that the shaft torque has the
minimum torque ripple if the shaft displacement
angle between two coupled shafts is selected as the
proposed optimal value.

For EVs, output characteristics of electric motors

differ from those of internal combustion engines. 2. TORQUE RIPPLE IN SRMs
Typically, the electric motor eliminates the
necessity for a motor to be idle while at a stop. It is The simulation model of SRMs coupled in cascade
also allowed to produce large torque at low speed, can be summarized as [8] [9]
and it offers a wide range of speed variations.
d\
V  ri (1)
A drivetrain system is illustrated in Fig. 1, where dt
two electric motors coupled mechanically in dZ
J Te  TL  T f (2)
cascade may drive wheels directly or indirectly. dt
These two motors can operate at the same time. dT
Z (3)
Furthermore, anyone of both can operate dt
independently. In general, the initial acceleration T ph F (T , i ) (4)
torque takes the vehicle from standstill to its rated N ph
velocity in some specified time. This initial
acceleration torque is supplied by two electric
Tsrm ¦ T phk (5)
k 1
motors coupled in cascade. An electric motor of N srm
two motors should be capable of delivering enough
torque to overcome road load and cruise at the
Te ¦ Tsrmk (6)
k 1
rated vehicle speed. Two electric motors should
where \ represents the phase flux linkage, V
work in combination to provide the required torque
represents the voltage applied to a phase winding, r
represents the phase resistance, Te represent the
electromagnetic torque produced by all SRMs, t is
the time, Z is the angular velocity, J is the inertia
of the whole driving system including SRMs and a
load, TL is the load torque, Tf is the friction torque,
T is the rotor position, Tph depicts the phase torque
that is the function of both the rotor position and
the current, Tsrm depicts the electromagnetic torque
produced by an SRM, Nph depicts the number of
phases, and Nsrm depicts the number of SRMs
coupled in cascade.
For SRM drives, the hysteresis current control is
generally used to accomplish the constant torque
operation and the single-pulse voltage control is
generally utilized to implement the constant power
operation. In this study, the simulated and tested
SRM is selected as the four-phase SRM. The
typical phase current, phase torque and SRM
torque waveforms under the hysteresis current
control are drawn in Fig. 2, and the typical phase
torque and SRM torque waveforms under the
single-pulse voltage control are depicted in Fig. 3.
Clearly, there is the torque ripple and the period of
the torque profiles in the four-phase SRM is 15
degree. It can be seen that SRMs have the inherent
torque ripple due to their specific configuration and
operating mechanism.
Fig. 2: Typical current and torque profiles under the hysteresis
current control
Fig. 3: Typical current and torque profiles under the single-
pulse voltage control
3. PROPOSED DRIVETRAIN SCHEME
Effect of Shaft Displacement Angle on Torque
Ripple
The shafts of two same SRMs are coupled
mechanically in cascade. The angular displacement
between two shafts is named as the shaft
displacement angle. The effects of the shaft
displacement angle on the shaft torque ripple under
the hysteresis current control are illustrated in Fig.
4, where Fig. 4a shows the torque profiles from
each SRM and the shaft torque profiles at the shaft
displacement angle of 0 degree and Fig. 4b depicts
the ones at the shaft displacement angle of 7.5
degree. It is clear that the torque ripple in Fig. 4b is
much less than the one in Fig. 4a.
(a) Shaft displacement angle = 0 degree
(b) Shaft displacement angle = 7.5 degree
Fig. 4: Torque ripple under the hysterresis current control
Fig. 5 shows the effects of the shaft displacement
angle on the torque ripple under the single-pulse
voltage control. It can be observed that the torque
ripple in Fig. 5b is much smaller than the one in
Fig. 5a. In summary, under both the hysteresis
current control and the single-pulse voltage control,
the choice of the shaft displacement angle has the
considerable effect on the shaft torque ripple when
the shafts of two SRMs are coupled mechanically
in cascade.
 (a) Shaft displacement angle = 0 degree (a) Motor speed = 1000 rpm

(b) Shaft displacement angle = 7.5 degree (b) Shaft torque = 3 Nm

Fig. 5: Torque ripple under the single-pulse voltage control Fig. 6: Optimization of the shaft displacement angle under the
hysteresis current control

Optimization of Shaft Displacement Angle

In order to optimize the shaft displacement angle

for yielding minimum shaft torque ripple, the
torque ripple factor is selected to evaluate the shaft
torque ripple. It is defined as

Tmax  Tmin
f tr (7)
Tave

where Tmax represents the maximum

electromagnetic torque, Tmin represents the
(a) Motor speed = 1000 rpm
minimum electromagnetic torque, and Tave
represents the average electromagnetic torque.

It can be seen from (7) that the torque ripple factor

fully indicates the shaft torque ripple. Large torque
ripple factor implies high torque ripple. Inversely,
small torque ripple factor implies low torque
ripple. The choice of the shaft displacement angle
will affect the torque ripple factor because the shaft
displacement angle affects the shaft torque ripple
strongly. For four-phase SRMs, the period of the
phase commutation is 15 degree. Hence, the period
of the torque ripple factor versus the shaft
displacement angle is also 15 degree. (b) Shaft torque = 3 Nm
Fig. 7: Optimization of the shaft displacement angle under the
single-pulse voltage control

Under the hysteresis current control, the effects of
the shaft displacement angle on the torque ripple
can be observed in Fig. 6. For various values of the
average torque and motor speed in Fig. 6, it can be
found that the optimal shaft displacement angle
must be equal to 7.5 degree in order to obtain
minimum torque ripple factor or minimum shaft
torque ripple.
Fig.7 illustrates the effects of the shaft
displacement angle on the shaft torque ripple factor
under the single-pulse voltage control. Similarly, it
also can be seen that the optimal shaft
displacement angle must be equal to 7.5 degree in
order to obtain minimum shaft torque ripple, for
various values of the average torque and motor
speed.
Fig. 9 shows the acquired torque waveforms when
SRMs operate at 1000 rpm. The top profile
(Torque-1) is the shaft torque produced by one
SRM. The middle profile (Torque-2) is the shaft
torque produced by two SRMs with the shaft
displacement angle of 0 degree. The bottom profile
(Torque-3) is the shaft torque produced by two
SRMs with the shaft displacement angle of 7.5
degree. Similarly to Fig. 9, Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 also
illustrate the acquired torque waveforms with the
motor speeds of 800 rpm and 700 rpm,
respectively.

The above study shows that the optimal shaft

displacement angle is equal to 7.5 degree for
yielding minimum shaft torque ripple when the Fig. 8: Block diagram of the experimental set-up
shafts of two four-phase SRMs are coupled
mechanically in cascade.

Drivetrain Scheme

From the above investigation, the proposed

drivetrain scheme for EVs can be summarized as
follows:
1) The shafts of two SRMs are coupled
mechanically in cascade to drive wheels.
2) The shaft displacement angle between two
shafts must be selected as the optimal value for
obtaining minimum shaft torque ripple. For four-
phase SRMs, the optimal shaft displacement angle
is equal to 7.5 degree. Fig. 9: Measured torque waveforms with the motor speed of
3) Anyone of two SRMs may operate 1000 rpm
independently to drive vehicle wheels. In addition,
two SRMs also may operate in combination to
drive vehicle wheels.

4. IMPLEMENTATION

Experimental Set-up

In order to validate the proposed drivetrain scheme,

the experimental set-up is constructed. The block
diagram of the experimental set-up is depicted in
Fig. 8. Two SRMs are the same. Their main data
are described as follows: rated output power is 550
W; the stator has eight poles and the rotor has six Fig. 10: Measured torque waveforms with the motor speed of
poles; SRMs have four-phase windings; and the 800 rpm
rated speed is 1500 rpm.

Steady-state Operation For three cases above, the acquired torque ripple
factors are shown in Table 1. It can be seen that the
torque ripple factors under three operations are
minimum when the shaft displacement angle is
equal to 7.5 degree. These measured results
validate the proposed drivetrain scheme.
Fig. 11: Measured torque waveforms with the motor speed of
700 rpm
Table 1: Acquired torque ripple
Condition Case-1 Case-2 Case-3
An SRM 0.3714 0.6175 2.1975
Cascade
0.3997 0.6066 1.9070
SRMs (0o)
Cascade
0.2932 0.5422 1.6378
SRMs (7.5o)
Dynamic Operation
In order to exhibit the dynamic performance of the
proposed drivetrain scheme, Fig. 12 and Fig. 13
illustrate the dynamic operations of two SRMs
coupled mechanically in cascade. In Fig. 12, the
drivetrain system is started at standstill and the
shaft speed reference is equal to 700 rpm. It can be
observed that the shaft speed is accelerated from 0
to 700 rpm. After about 15 seconds, the shaft speed
reference is set as 975 rpm. Consequently, it can
be seen that shaft speed changes from 700 to 975
rpm. In Fig. 13, the load is increased in comparison
with Fig. 12. Initially, the shaft speed reference is
set as 1000 rpm and the system is started at
standstill. Consequently, it is observed from Fig.
13 that the system is accelerated from 0 to 1000
rpm. After about 30 seconds, the shaft speed
reference is set as 735 rpm. It can be seen from Fig.
13 that the shaft speed changes from 1000 rpm to
735 rpm. Therefore, the above experimental results
demonstrate the dynamic and steady-state
operations of the proposed drivetrain scheme.
Fig. 12: Dynamic operation-1 of two SRMs coupled in cascade
Fig. 13: Dynamic operation-2 of two SRMs coupled in cascade
5. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, SRMs are selected to apply to EVs.
Consequently, the improved drivetrain scheme is
proposed as follows: a) two SRMs are coupled
mechanically in cascade to drive vehicle wheels, b)
anyone of two SRMs may operate independently to
drive vehicle wheels. In addition, two SRMs also
may operate in combination to drive vehicle
wheels, and c) the shaft displacement angle
between two SRMs must be selected as the optimal
value in order to yield minimum shaft torque
ripple.
The simulation investigation shows the shaft
displacement angle can be optimized to obtain
minimum shaft torque ripple and the optimal shaft
displacement angle is equal to 7.5 degree for four-
phase SRMs. Furthermore, the simulated and
experimental results demonstrate the proposed
drivetrain scheme. The proposed drivetrain scheme
is capable of improving torque ripple in SRMs.
Thus, this paper provides a valuable drivetrain
scheme for SRMs applications to EVs.
6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors acknowledged the part support from
the Research Committee of The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University.

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