A Unified Approach for the Commissioning of Synchronous Reluctance Motor Drives

This article presents a unified procedure for commissioning synchronous reluctance motor drives based on a fast sequence of targeted feedings using the drive inverter. The method requires measuring the values of the phase currents and their derivatives by time-based samplings with still rotor and subsequent model-based computations. It allows the self-evaluation of the phase resistance and the d-q axes inductances for the pre-set of the field-oriented current regulators. Moreover, it detects the rotor position without movement, a functionality needed at start-up for motors equipped with incremental encoders in the standard service. The study refers to a 3 kW synchronous reluctance motor prototype with a flux barrier rotor. Both realistic simulations accounting for the non-linear machine behavior and experimental tests are presented, showing the error between the estimated position, the phase resistance, and the d-q axes inductances and the effective ones. The results prove the reliability of the method.