Increasing the Efficiency of the Power Electronic Converter for a Proposed Dual Stator Winding Squirrel-Cage Induction Motor Drive Using a Five-Leg Inverter at Low Speeds

Abstract

A dual stator winding squirrel-cage induction motor (DSWIM) is a brushless single-frame induction motor that contains a stator with two isolated three-phase windings wound with dissimilar numbers of poles. Each stator winding is fed by an independent three-phase inverter. The appropriate efficiency of this motor is obtained when the ratio of two frequencies feeding the machine is equal to the ratio of the number of poles. In the vector control method at low speeds, flux is difficult to estimate because the voltage drop on the stator resistance is comparable with the input stator voltage, disturbing the performance of the motor drive. To solve the abovementioned problem, researchers have benefited from the free capacity of the two windings of the stator. This makes the motor deviate from its standard operating mode at low speeds. The main purpose of this paper is reducing the power losses of the inverter unit in the DSWIM drive at low speeds via the proposed control method and a five-leg inverter. This paper deals with two topics: 1. Using the idea of rotor flux compensation at low speeds, the motor works in its standard operating mode. Therefore, the power losses of the utilized power electronic converters are also reduced to a considerable extent; and 2. Reduction in capital cost can be achieved by utilizing a five-leg power electronic converter. The proposed methods are simulated in MATLAB/Simulink software, and the results of simulation confirm the assumptions.