High performance disturbance observer based control system design for permanent magnet synchronous AC machine applications

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonAn electrical machine is one of the main workforces in different industries and serves them in various applications. Machine drive control design involves many technical issues for efficient and robust exploitation. Over several decades, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) is getting preferred for industrial applications over its counterpart Squirrel Cage Induction Motor (SCIM) drive, because of their higher efficiency, power density, and higher torque to inertia ratio. In the prospective that PMSM drives are considered the drives of the future, there are still technical challenges and issues related to PMSM control. Many studies have been devoted to PMSM control in the past, but there are still some open research areas that bring worldwide researchers’ interests back to PMSM drive control. One of the approaches that may facilitate better performance, higher efficiency, and robust and reliable work of the control system is the disturbance observer-based control (DOBC) with linear and nonlinear output feedback control for PM synchronous machine applications. DOBC is adopted due to its ability to reject external and internal disturbances with improving tracking performance in the variable speed wind energy conversion system (WECS) to maximize power extraction. The high order disturbance observer (HODO) is utilized to estimate the aerodynamic torque-based wind speed without the use of a traditional anemometer, which reduces the overall cost and improves the reliability of the whole system. Also, this method has been designed to improve the angular shaft speed tracking of the PMSM system under load torque disturbance and speed variations. The model-based linear and nonlinear feedback control are used in the proposed control systems. The sliding mode control (SMC) with switching output feedback control law and integral SMC with linear feedback and state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) based approaches have been designed for the systems. The SDRE control accounts for the nonlinear multivariable structure of the WECS and is approximated with Taylor series expansion terms. The chattering inherited from SMC is eliminated by the continuous approximation technique. The sliding mode is guaranteed by eliminating the reaching mode in the proposed integral SMC. The model-free cascaded linear feedback control system based on the proportional-integral (PI) controllers use a back-calculation algorithm anti-windup scheme. The proposed speed controllers are synthesized with HODO to compensate for the external disturbance, model uncertainty, noise, and modelling errors. Moreover, servomechanism-based SDRE control, a near-optimal control system is designed to suppress the model uncertainty and noise without the use of disturbance observers. The proposed control systems for PMSM speed regulation have demonstrated a significant improvement in the angular shaft speed-tracking performance at the transients. Their performances have been tested under speed, load torque variations, and model uncertainty. For example, HODO-based SMC with switching output feedback control law (SOFCL) has demonstrated improvement by more than 78% than the PI-PI control system of the PMSM. The performance of the HODOs-based Integral SMC with SDRE nonlinear feedback is improved by 80.5% under external disturbance, model uncertainty, and noise than Integral SMC with linear feedback in the WECS. The HODO-based SDRE control with servomechanism has shown an 80.2% improvement of mean absolute percentage error under disturbances than Integral SMC with linear feedback in the WECS. The PMSM speed tracking performance of the proposed HODO-based discrete-time PI-PI control system with back-calculation algorithm anti-windup scheme is improved by 87.29% and 90.2% in the speed commands and load torque disturbance variations scenarios respectively. The simulations for testing the proposed control system of the PMSM system and WECS have been implemented in Matlab/Simulink environment. The PMSM speed control experimental results have been obtained with Lucas-Nuelle DSP-based rapid control prototyping kit.Center for International Program “Bolashak” of the Ministry of Education and Science Republic of Kazakhsta

Field Oriented Sliding Mode Control of Surface-Mounted Permanent Magnet AC Motors: Theory and Applications to Electrified Vehicles

Permanent magnet ac motors have been extensively utilized for adjustable-speed traction motor drives, due to their inherent advantages including higher power density, superior efficiency and reliability, more precise and rapid torque control, larger power factor, longer bearing, and insulation life-time. Without any proportional-and-integral (PI) controllers, this paper introduces novel first- and higher-order field-oriented sliding mode control schemes. Compared with the traditional PI-based vector control techniques, it is shown that the proposed field oriented sliding mode control methods improve the dynamic torque and speed response, and enhance the robustness to parameter variations, modeling uncertainties, and external load perturbations. While both first- and higher-order controllers display excellent performance, computer simulations show that the higher-order field-oriented sliding mode scheme offers better performance by reducing the chattering phenomenon, which is presented in the first-order scheme. The higher-order field-oriented sliding mode controller, based on the hierarchical use of supertwisting algorithm, is then implemented with a Texas Instruments TMS320F28335 DSP hardware platform to prototype the surface-mounted permanent magnet ac motor drive. Last, computer simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed field-oriented sliding mode control approach is able to effectively meet the speed and torque requirements of a heavy-duty electrified vehicle during the EPA urban driving schedule

Induction Motors

AC motors play a major role in modern industrial applications. Squirrel-cage induction motors (SCIMs) are probably the most frequently used when compared to other AC motors because of their low cost, ruggedness, and low maintenance. The material presented in this book is organized into four sections, covering the applications and structural properties of induction motors (IMs), fault detection and diagnostics, control strategies, and the more recently developed topology based on the multiphase (more than three phases) induction motors. This material should be of specific interest to engineers and researchers who are engaged in the modeling, design, and implementation of control algorithms applied to induction motors and, more generally, to readers broadly interested in nonlinear control, health condition monitoring, and fault diagnosis

Advances in Rotating Electric Machines

It is difficult to imagine a modern society without rotating electric machines. Their use has been increasing not only in the traditional fields of application but also in more contemporary fields, including renewable energy conversion systems, electric aircraft, aerospace, electric vehicles, unmanned propulsion systems, robotics, etc. This has contributed to advances in the materials, design methodologies, modeling tools, and manufacturing processes of current electric machines, which are characterized by high compactness, low weight, high power density, high torque density, and high reliability. On the other hand, the growing use of electric machines and drives in more critical applications has pushed forward the research in the area of condition monitoring and fault tolerance, leading to the development of more reliable diagnostic techniques and more fault-tolerant machines. This book presents and disseminates the most recent advances related to the theory, design, modeling, application, control, and condition monitoring of all types of rotating electric machines

Critical Aspects of Electric Motor Drive Controllers and Mitigation of Torque Ripple - Review

Electric vehicles (EVs) are playing a vital role in sustainable transportation. It is estimated that by 2030, Battery EVs will become mainstream for passenger car transportation. Even though EVs are gaining interest in sustainable transportation, the future of EV power transmission is facing vital concerns and open research challenges. Considering the case of torque ripple mitigation and improved reliability control techniques in motors, many motor drive control algorithms fail to provide efficient control. To efficiently address this issue, control techniques such as Field Orientation Control (FOC), Direct Torque Control (DTC), Model Predictive Control (MPC), Sliding Mode Control (SMC), and Intelligent Control (IC) techniques are used in the motor drive control algorithms. This literature survey exclusively compares the various advanced control techniques for conventionally used EV motors such as Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM), Brushless Direct Current Motor (BLDC), Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM), and Induction Motors (IM). Furthermore, this paper discusses the EV-motors history, types of EVmotors, EV-motor drives powertrain mathematical modelling, and design procedure of EV-motors. The hardware results have also been compared with different control techniques for BLDC and SRM hub motors. Future direction towards the design of EV by critical selection of motors and their control techniques to minimize the torque ripple and other research opportunities to enhance the performance of EVs are also presented.publishedVersio

Sensorless Passive Control Algorithms for Medium to High Power Synchronous Motor Drives

This study is focused on the definition of sensorless algorithms for Surface-Mounted Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (SM-PMSM) and Electrically Excited Synchronous Motors (EESM). Even if these types of motors are rather different from a constructive point of view, they have some common issues regarding sensorless drives. Indeed, SM-PMSMs, which are usually used for low-medium power applications, have a low rotor anisotropy, therefore it is complicated to use sensorless active methods (which are based on high-frequency voltage injection), due to the low signal to noise ratio. On the other hand, active methods on high-power EESM have the drawback of high torque ripple. For these reasons, both for SM-PMSM and EESM, it is interesting to define and use sensorless passive algorithms (i.e., based on observers and estimators). The drawback of such algorithms is that their performance deteriorates significantly in the low-speed region. The aim of this thesis is to define a robust sensorless passive algorithm that could work in a wide speed region and that could start the motor from standstill even with a high load torque. The initial objective of the work is to find, among the various algorithms proposed in the technical literature, the most promising one. For this purpose, four different algorithms are selected. They are chosen considering the most recent articles presented in the technical literature on high reputable journals. Since many improvements are proposed in the literature for the different algorithms, the most recent ones are candidates for being the ones with higher performance. Even if the experimental tests of the four different algorithms are shown in the literature, it is difficult to evaluate a priori which offers the best performance. As a matter of facts, for each algorithm different tests are carried out (e.g., different speed and torque profiles). In addition to that, motor sizing and features are different. Moreover, the test bench characteristics can significantly affect sensorless performance. As an example, inverter features and non-linearities (e.g., switching frequency, dead times, parasitic capacitance) and current measures (e.g., noise, linearity, bias) play a key role in the estimation of rotor position. The added value of this thesis is to perform a fair comparison of the four algorithms, performing the same tests with the same test bench. Additional tests are performed on the most performing algorithm. Even if this sensorless technique is already proposed in the technical literature, a methodology for observer gain tuning is not shown, which is proposed, instead, in this thesis. Moreover, the algorithm is enhanced by adding a novel management of direct axis current, which ensures the stability during fast transient from medium-high speed to low speed. The algorithm is tested with different test benches in order to verify the control effectiveness in various operating conditions. As a matter of facts, it is tested at first in the University of Genoa PETRA Lab on two different test benches. The first test bench is composed of two coupled motors, in which the braking motor could realize different torque profiles (linear torque, quadratic torque and constant torque), whereas in the second test bench the motor is coupled with an air compressor, which is a demanding load since high and irregular torque is applied at standstill. After the test at the University of Genoa, the algorithm is implemented in Phase Motion Control and Physis drive and tested on a six-meter diameter fan. Regarding the EESMs, for these type of motor is necessary to estimate the stator flux amplitude and angle. Indeed, the stator angle is usually used to perform the Park transformations in the FOC scheme and the stator flux amplitude is used to control the excitation current. In this study, the RFO is adapted for estimating the stator flux of an EESM. Regarding the control for EESM, it is tested on a simulative model for high-power motors provided by NIDEC ASI and tested on a small-scale test bench at the University of Genoa

Dynamic Performance Analysis of a Five-Phase PMSM Drive Using Model Reference Adaptive System and Enhanced Sliding Mode Observer

This paper aims to evaluate the dynamic performance of a five-phase PMSM drive using two different observers: sliding mode (SMO) and model reference adaptive system (MRAS). The design of the vector control for the drive is firstly introduced in details to visualize the proper selection of speed and current controllers’ gains, then the construction of the two observers are presented. The stability check for the two observers are also presented and analyzed, and finally the evaluation results are presented to visualize the features of each sensorless technique and identify the advantages and shortages as well. The obtained results reveal that the de-signed SMO exhibits better performance and enhanced robustness compared with the MRAS under different operating conditions. This fact is approved through the obtained results considering a mismatch in the values of stator resistance and stator inductance as well. Large deviation in the values of estimated speed and rotor position are observed under MRAS, and this is also accompanied with high speed and torque oscillations