Sensorless Switched Reluctance Machine and speed control: A study to remove the position encoder at high-speed of operation

High-speed electrical machines have been of great interest of study to increase efficiency and outreach storage capabilities. In the case of switched reluctance machines, high-speed operation may represent high cost and difficult implementation. This paper proposes and analyses a new methodology to estimate the position of a switched reluctance machine and remove the sensor of the position to apply the machine as a flywheel at 50000 rpm. The machine is modelled with non-linear characteristics and it is simulated under single-pulse operation due to the high-speed. Two configurations of the sensorless method are presented: robust and sequential methods. Both configurations present advantages and disadvantages in relation to the error of estimation and to the number of estimations. The method is also tested in closed-loop speed control. The estimation of the position from both methods resulted in successful simulation of the machine operating at high speed.