This paper describes the performance of an experimental 5kW nine-phase synchronous reluctance motor (Syncrel) drive. Increasing the number of phases of the Syncrel above three allows the stator MMF's to be shaped, producing significantly greater torque / RMS ampere in the same volume machine. Generalized d-q voltage and torque equations are derived for the nine-phase Syncrel. These demonstrate that harmonic direct and quadrature components of current contribute to torque production in the machine and can be controlled by applying appropriate stator voltages. A fieldoriented controller is described and implemented using a TMS320C32 digital signal processor board. The controller designates portions of the stator winding as supplying either direct or quadrature excitation. A simple inverter switching strategy is used to control the phase currents to their reference values. Experimental current regulation, speed response and torque measurements are presented from the drive. These results validate the system model and demonstrate the drive capability. 2041 0-7803-7116-X/01/$10.00 (C) 2001 IEEE

A new high-performance sensorless speed vector controller that implements the maximum torque per ampere control strategy for the inverter-driven synchronous reluctance machine is presented in this paper. It is based on a parameterdependent technique for on-line estimation of rotor position and angular velocity at the control rate. The current ripple principle is used to estimate position. The estimates are fed to a conventional closed-loop observer to predict the new position and angular velocity. The very high accuracy of the sensorless control algorithm at both low and high speeds is confirmed by experimental results.

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