Comparison of two different fault-tolerant switched reluctance machines for fuel pump drive in aircraft

Abstract

As switched reluctance machines (SRM) generally offer a simple and robust design, they are very suitable for an aircraft main engine fuel pump drive which needs to be actuated by fault-tolerant drives. In this paper two different fault-tolerant SRM topologies for fuel pump drive in aircraft are analytical compared: Firstly a 6/4-topology with two identical motors on one axis as a dual-redundancy drive system, and secondly a dual-channel 12/8-topology, where one 3-phase-system uses every other stator tooth and the second 3-phase-system that provides redundancies uses the rest of the stator teeth. The first of two schemes is turned out to be the better solution concerning ruggedness, weight, inertia, torque quality and magnetic isolation.

Control of switched reluctance motor by current profiling under normal and open phase operating condition

“…In the case of power circuit fault, the system is transferred into single channel mode, so a fault tolerated operation mode can be used in this system for high reliability. A modular SRM for fault tolerant drive systems was proposed in [12]. Its stator has no mutual coupling between adjacent phases, so it can work also when a part of the coils is faulted.…”