STATIC AND TRANSIENT THERMAL ANALYSIS OF POWER FACTOR CONVERTERS IN SWITCHED RELUCTANCE MOTOR DRIVE

Abstract

Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) drives are gaining popularity due to their simple construction, easy of control and reduced maintenance requirements. Power electronic converters are used to switch currents into the windings of SRM for their operation. The input current waveforms of the power controllers are distorted due to switching operation, which results in poor input power factor in the supply side. Input Power factor controllers are implemented along with the power converters, thereby improving the input power factor. The switching devices of the input power factor controller and power converter devices are mounted on the same base of a heat sink. In this paper an attempt is made to investigate the temperature distribution in the power factor controller and converter devices under steady state and transient condition of operation. The thermal analysis is performed using ANSYS software and the results are reported. The real time temperature of the hardware circuit also measured for various load current and the relation between the temperature and load current tabulated and compared.