Fault-tolerant SRM drive with a diagnosis method based on the entropy feature approach

The power electronic converter design is essential for the operation of the switched reluctance motor (SRM). Thus, a fault-tolerant power converter is fundamental to ensure high reliability and extend the drive operation. To achieve fault tolerance, fault detection and diagnosis methods are critical in order to identify, as soon as possible, the failure mode of the drive. To provide such capability, it is proposed in this paper a new fault-tolerant power converter scheme combined with a fault detection method regarding the most common power semiconductors failures in SRM drives. The fast and reliable proposed diagnosis method is based on the entropy theory. Based on this theory, normalized indexes (diagnostic variables) are created, which are independent from the load and speed of the motor. Through this method, it is possible to identify the faulty leg, as well as the type of power semiconductor fault. To test and evaluate the proposed solution several laboratory experiments were carried out using a 2 kW four-phase 8 / 6 SRM.