Study on Performance of Adaptive Maximum Torque Per Amp Control in Induction Motor Drives at Light Load Operation

Abstract

Efficient operation of induction motor at light loads has been getting wide attention recently because the operating of induction motor at light loads occupies big portion of its operating regions in many applications such as environment friendly vehicle. As one of approaches to improve efficiency, Adaptive Maximum Torque Per Amp (Adaptive MTPA) control for induction motor drives has been proposed to achieve a desired torque with the minimum possible stator current. However, the Adaptive MTPA control was validated only at heavy load where, in general, control scheme tends to perform better than at light loads since the error in measurement of sensors is lower and signal to noise is better. Thus, although the performance of a control scheme is good at rated operating point, its performance at light load is somewhat in doubt in practice. This has led to considerable interest in efficiency of Adaptive MTPA control at light loads. This work experimentally demonstrates performance of Adaptive MTPA control at light loads regardless of rotor resistance variation, thus showing its good performance over all operating conditions.