New Integrated Multilevel Converter for Switched Reluctance Motor Drives in Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles With Flexible Energy Conversion

Abstract-In the first place, presents an integrated multilevel converterof switched reluctance motors (SRMs) fed by a modular fron-end circuitfor plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) applications. Several operating modes can be achieved by changing the on-off states of the switches in the front-end circuit. In generator driving mode, the battery bank is employed to elevate the phase voltage for fast excitation and demagnetization.In battery driving mode, the converter is reconfiguredas a four-level converter, and the capacitor is used as an additional charge capacitorto produce multilevel voltage outputs, which enhances the torque capability. The operatingmodes of the proposed drive are explained and the phasecurrent and voltage are analyzed in details. The battery charging is naturally achieved by the demagnetizationcurrent in motoring mode and by the regenerative current in braking mode. Moreover, the battery can be charged by the external AC source or generator throughthe proposed converter when the vehicle is in standstill condition. The SRM based PHEV can operate at different speeds by coordinating the power flow between the generator and battery. Simulation in MATLAB/Simulink and experiments on a three-phase 12/8 SRM confirm the effectiveness of the proposed converter topology.