Coordinated and fault‐tolerant control of tandem 15‐phase induction motors in ship propulsion system

Abstract

Electric propulsion is widely used in ship propulsion systems, and multiphase machines are gaining increasing popularity because of their fault-tolerant ability, high power density, and reduced torque ripple. This study concentrates on the tandem ship propulsion configuration with two 15-phase induction machines (IMs) fixed on the same shaft. Based on field-oriented control and reconfiguration fault-tolerant control for the single 15-phase IM, the master–slave coordinated control strategy is designed for the tandem motors, which can not only achieve power allocation between two motors during normal operation, but also minimise the total stator copper loss of the two motors and maximise the propulsion output power ability during fault-tolerant operation. Experiment results from a ship propulsion experimental platform verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategies.