Rotor vibration control of hybrid pole bearingless switched reluctance motor with C-dump converter

Rotor vibration control during start up, acceleration and deceleration phases is one of the key problems besides stable levitation, in high-speed applications of bearingless switched reluctance motor (BSRM). In this paper, an effective intelligent sliding mode controller is proposed for suppressing the rotor vibration due to residual unbalance and external disturbance during levitation and motoring phases. The parameters of time-varying sliding surface for avoiding high control gains and chattering are adjusted integrating the sliding mode control (SMC) and features of fuzzy logic control. The experimental studies conducted on a prototype BSRM system confirm that the application of fuzzy SMC guarantees the robust performance with less chattering under model uncertainties and unknown external disturbances compared to classical sliding mode controller. © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.. All rights reserved.