Design and Control of Electrical Motor Drives

Dear Colleagues, I am very happy to have this Special Issue of the journal Energies on the topic of Design and Control of Electrical Motor Drives published. Electrical motor drives are widely used in the industry, automation, transportation, and home appliances. Indeed, rolling mills, machine tools, high-speed trains, subway systems, elevators, electric vehicles, air conditioners, all depend on electrical motor drives.However, the production of effective and practical motors and drives requires flexibility in the regulation of current, torque, flux, acceleration, position, and speed. Without proper modeling, drive, and control, these motor drive systems cannot function effectively.To address these issues, we need to focus on the design, modeling, drive, and control of different types of motors, such as induction motors, permanent magnet synchronous motors, brushless DC motors, DC motors, synchronous reluctance motors, switched reluctance motors, flux-switching motors, linear motors, and step motors.Therefore, relevant research topics in this field of study include modeling electrical motor drives, both in transient and in steady-state, and designing control methods based on novel control strategies (e.g., PI controllers, fuzzy logic controllers, neural network controllers, predictive controllers, adaptive controllers, nonlinear controllers, etc.), with particular attention to transient responses, load disturbances, fault tolerance, and multi-motor drive techniques. This Special Issue include original contributions regarding recent developments and ideas in motor design, motor drive, and motor control. The topics include motor design, field-oriented control, torque control, reliability improvement, advanced controllers for motor drive systems, DSP-based sensorless motor drive systems, high-performance motor drive systems, high-efficiency motor drive systems, and practical applications of motor drive systems. I want to sincerely thank authors, reviewers, and staff members for their time and efforts. Prof. Dr. Tian-Hua Liu Guest Edito

Sensorless control strategy for light-duty EVs and efficiency loss evaluation of high frequency injection under standardized urban driving cycles

Sensorless control of Electric Vehicle (EV) drives is considered to be an effective approach to improve system reliability and to reduce component costs. In this paper, relevant aspects relating to the sensorless operation of EVs are reported. As an initial contribution, a hybrid sensorless control algorithm is presented that is suitable for a variety of synchronous machines. The proposed method is simple to implement and its relatively low computational cost is a desirable feature for automotive microprocessors with limited computational capabilities. An experimental validation of the proposal is performed on a full-scale automotive grade platform housing a 51¿kW Permanent Magnet assisted Synchronous Reluctance Machine (PM-assisted SynRM). Due to the operational requirements of EVs, both the strategy presented in this paper and other hybrid sensorless control strategies rely on High Frequency Injection (HFI) techniques, to determine the rotor position at standstill and at low speeds. The introduction of additional high frequency perturbations increases the power losses, thereby reducing the overall efficiency of the drive. Hence, a second contribution of this work is a simulation platform for the characterization of power losses in both synchronous machines and a Voltage Source Inverters (VSI). Finally, as a third contribution and considering the central concerns of efficiency and autonomy in EV applications, the impact of power losses are analyzed. The operational requirements of High Frequency Injection (HFI) are experimentally obtained and, using state-of-the-art digital simulation, a detailed loss analysis is performed during real automotive driving cycles. Based on the results, practical considerations are presented in the conclusions relating to EV sensorless control.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Sensorless Commissioning and Control of High Anisotropy Synchronous Motor Drives

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Sensorless control for limp-home mode of EV applications

PhD ThesisOver the past decade research into electric vehicles’ (EVs) safety, reliability and availability has become a hot topic and has attracted a lot of attention in the literature. Inevitably these key areas require further study and improvement. One of the challenges EVs face is speed/position sensor failure due to vibration and harsh environments. Wires connecting the sensor to the motor controller have a high likelihood of breakage. Loss of signals from the speed/position sensor will bring the EV to halt mode. Speed sensor failure at a busy roundabout or on a high speed motorway can have serious consequences and put the lives of drivers and passengers in great danger. This thesis aims to tackle the aforementioned issues by proposing several novel sensorless schemes based on Model Reference Adaptive Systems (MRAS) suitable for limp-home mode of EV applications. The estimated speed from these schemes is used for the rotor flux position estimation. The estimated rotor flux position is employed for sensorless torque-controlled drive (TCD) based on indirect rotor field oriented control (IRFOC). The capabilities of the proposed schemes have been evaluated and compared to the conventional back-Electromotive Force MRAS (back-EMF MRAS) scheme using simulation environment and a test bench setup. The new schemes have also been tested on electric golf buggies. The results presented for the proposed schemes show that utilising these schemes provide a reliable and smooth sensorless operation during vehicle test-drive starting from standstill and over a wide range of speeds, including the field weakening region. Employing these new schemes for sensorless TCD in limp-home mode of EV applications increases safety, reliability and availability of EVs

An Equivalent Circuit Model for Predicting the Core Loss in a Claw-Pole Permanent Magnet Motor with Soft Magnetic Composite Core

© 1965-2012 IEEE. Soft magnetic composite (SMC) materials and SMC electromagnetic devices have attracted strong research interest in the past decades. However, SMC devices have large core loss that needs to be put into consideration even at the design stage. Effective and accurate prediction of the core loss becomes crucial for the design and optimization of high-performance motors with these materials. Equivalent circuit model is a widely used method for machine analysis, due to the advantages in the fast calculation with a clear physical mechanism. This paper presents an equivalent circuit model to predict the core loss of a claw-pole permanent magnet motor with SMC stator core. All the parameters including the equivalent core-loss resistance in the equivalent circuit model are identified based on the finite-element method to achieve high accuracy, and the effectiveness of the parameters identification methods is experimentally verified. The proposed equivalent circuit model can predict the core loss and motor's performance efficiently both under no-load and loading conditions

Analytical prediction of the electromagnetic torques in single-phase and two-phase AC motors

The single-phase and two-phase versions of AC motors can be modelled by means of the two-axis (d-q) theory with sufficient accuracy when the equivalent circuit parameters are correctly estimated. This work attempts to present a unified approach to the analytical prediction of the electromagnetic torque of these machines. Classical d-q axes formulation requires that the reference frame should be fixed on the frame where the asymmetries arise, i.e. the stator and rotor. The asynchronous torques that characterize the induction motors are modelled in a stationary reference frame, where the d-q axes coincide with the physical magnetic axes of the stator windings. For the permanent magnet motors, that may exhibit asymmetries on both stator and rotor, the proposed solution includes: a series of frame transformations, followed by symmetrical components decomposition. As in single-phase and two-phase systems the homopolar component is zero; each symmetrical component – negative and positive – is further analysed using d-q axes theory. The superposition principle is employed to consider the magnets and rotor cage effects. The developed models account for the most important asymmetries of the motor configuration. These are, from the stator point of view, different distribution, conductors' dimensions and number of effective turns, non-orthogonal magnetic axes windings and from the rotor point of view, asymmetrical rotor cage, variable reluctance, and permanent magnets effect. The time and space harmonics effect is ignored. Test data are compared with the computed data in order to observe how the simplifying assumptions affect the level of accuracy. The analytical prediction methods make possible torque computation according to the nature of the torque being computed, namely, induction, reluctance and excitation (permanent magnet). The results are available for quasi steady-state, steady-state (rated or synchronous speed) and dynamic analyses. All the developed mathematical models can be used in preliminary design for further optimisation and accurate estimation in complex numerical models. Another important feature of the analytical models for single-phase and two-phase AC motors, is that they can be directly implemented in any suitable electrical drives control strategy.reviewe

Mathematical Approaches to Modeling, Optimally Designing, and Controlling Electric Machine

Optimal performance of the electric machine/drive system is mandatory to improve the energy consumption and reliability. To achieve this goal, mathematical models of the electric machine/drive system are necessary. Hence, this motivated the editors to instigate the Special Issue “Mathematical Approaches to Modeling, Optimally Designing, and Controlling Electric Machine”, aiming to collect novel publications that push the state-of-the art towards optimal performance for the electric machine/drive system. Seventeen papers have been published in this Special Issue. The published papers focus on several aspects of the electric machine/drive system with respect to the mathematical modelling. Novel optimization methods, control approaches, and comparative analysis for electric drive system based on various electric machines were discussed in the published papers

Field weakening and sensorless control solutions for synchronous machines applied to electric vehicles.

184 p.La polución es uno de los mayores problemas en los países industrializados. Por ello, la electrificación del transporte por carretera está en pleno auge, favoreciendo la investigación y el desarrollo industrial. El desarrollo de sistemas de propulsión eficientes, fiables, compactos y económicos juega un papel fundamental para la introducción del vehículo eléctrico en el mercado.Las máquinas síncronas de imanes permanentes son, a día de hoy la tecnología más empleada en vehículos eléctricos e híbridos por sus características. Sin embargo, al depender del uso de tierras raras, se están investigando alternativas a este tipo de máquina, tales como las máquinas de reluctancia síncrona asistidas por imanes. Para este tipo de máquinas síncronas es necesario desarrollar estrategias de control eficientes y robustas. Las desviaciones de parámetros son comunes en estas máquinas debido a la saturación magnética y a otra serie de factores, tales como tolerancias de fabricación, dependencias en función de la temperatura de operación o envejecimiento. Las técnicas de control convencionales, especialmente las estrategias de debilitamiento de campo dependen, en general, del conocimiento previo de dichos parámetros. Si no son lo suficientemente robustos, pueden producir problemas de control en las regiones de debilitamiento de campo y debilitamiento de campo profundo. En este sentido, esta tesis presenta dos nuevas estrategias de control de debilitamiento de campo híbridas basadas en LUTs y reguladores VCT.Por otro lado, otro requisito indispensable para la industria de la automoción es la detección de faltas y la tolerancia a fallos. En este sentido, se presenta una nueva estrategia de control sensorless basada en una estructura PLL/HFI híbrida que permite al vehículo continuar operando de forma pseudo-óptima ante roturas en el sensor de posición y velocidad de la máquina eléctrica. En esta tesis, ambas propuestas se validan experimentalmente en un sistema de propulsión real para vehículo eléctrico que cuenta con una máquina de reluctancia síncrona asistidas por imanes de 51 kW