Fault-Tolerant Performance Analysis of a Modified Neutral-Point-Clamped Asymmetric Half-Bridge Converter for an In-Wheel Switched Reluctance Motor

Abstract

Reliability is an essential factor for the operation of the Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) drive. Electric vehicles operate in harsh environments, which may degrade the operation of power converters. These failure modes include transistor open- and short-circuits, freewheeling diode open- and short-circuits, and DC-link capacitor failures. This work presents a performance analysis of an in-wheel SRM for an electric vehicle under short-circuit (SC) and open-circuit (OC) faults of a modified Neutral-Point-Clamped Asymmetric Half-Bridge (NPC-AHB) Converter. The SRM is modeled as an in-wheel electric vehicle. A separate vehicle model attached to the motor is also developed for validation and performance of the NPC-AHB under different faulty scenarios. The performance of the modified NPC-AHB is also compared with that of a conventional AHB under faulty conditions for an in-wheel 8/6 SRM. The performance indicators such as torque, speed, current, and flux are presented from MATLAB/Simulink 2023b numerical simulations.