Six-phase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine Research Articles

An Effective Charging Torque Elimination Method for Dual-Channel Electric-Drive-Reconstructed Onboard Chargers

The idea of electric-drive-reconstructed onboard charger (EDROC) systems, along with the concept of dual-channel charging, offers a novel design, thought to enhance the integration and fault tolerance of the charging system of electric vehicles (EVs). This article investigates a dual-channel EDROC incorporating an asymmetrical six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine (ASPMSM). A unique operation mode, called the unbalanced charging voltage operation mode, exists in this topology, in case the voltages of the two batteries are unequal. This unbalance results in different winding currents following through two channels, leading to an undesired charging torque in the machine. To ensure the safety of the system, an effective charging torque elimination method, based on dual-channel winding current balance, is proposed, which achieves a dot-shaped current path of torque generation-associated subspace (i.e., α–β subspace) by balancing the dual-channel charging power. Eventually, a controller is designed for the system and a prototype is created, to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Open-Phase-Tolerant Online Current References for Maximum Torque Range and Minimum Loss With Current and Torque-Ripple Limits for n-Phase Nonsalient PMSMs With Nonsinusoidal Back EMF

Multiphase permanent-magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) with nonsinusoidal back-electromotive force (back-EMF) offer high fault tolerance and torque density for electric vehicles. Most current-reference generation methods either minimize stator copper loss (SCL) or maximize achievable torque. Optimization of both goals is accomplished by full-torque-range minimum-loss (FRML) strategies, but so far just for sinusoidal back-EMF. Thus, FRML for nonsinusoidal back-EMF should be sought. Moreover, many methods are only suitable for healthy conditions or specific machines, harmonics, or open-phase-fault (OPF) scenarios. Additionally, the torque range may be extended by permitting torque ripple or (transiently) greater rms current, but this approach is not general nor FRML yet. This paper proposes online FRML current-reference generation for multiphase PMSMs with nonsinusoidal back-EMF: nonsinusoidal-back-EMF FRML (NSBE-FRML). When the torque reference is feasible, minimum SCL is attained while maximizing the achievable torque (i.e., FRML). For higher torque references, the instantaneous torque deviation is minimized, and the torque reference is saturated in consecutive samples limiting the torque ripple to a pre-specified threshold. Furthermore, the rms current is limited after transient overload by automatically decreasing the torque reference. The NSBE-FRML is suitable for any harmonics, healthy/OPF conditions, and multiphase PMSMs with negligible saliency ratio. Experiments are performed with a six-phase PMSM.

Armature MMF Reconfiguration Method of Six-Phase Integral-Slot PMSMs for Zero-Order Vibration Reduction Under Open-Circuit Faults

It is well known that the vibration performance of the permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) will deteriorate under the open-circuit fault operation. However, the cause of the vibration deterioration and corresponding methods to reduce the vibration are still unclear. This paper reveals the reason of the zero-order vibration deterioration for integral-slot six-phase PMSMs open-circuit fault operation. Furthermore, a magnetomotive force (MMF) reconfiguration method is proposed to suppress the fault-resulted zero-order vibration. The key is to eliminate the fundamental backward-rotating MMF, which contributes to the fault-resulted zero-order radial force under the open-circuit fault operation. With the aid of the response surface method, the analytical expressions of the optimal reconfigured current are derived considering all four open-circuit fault types. Compared with the conventional method, the fault-resulted zero-order radial force is greatly weakened by adopting the proposed method. Finally, the prototype of a six-phase 72-slot/12-pole PMSM is manufactured. The current and vibration tests are carried out to validate the theoretical analysis.

Search-Coil Based Stator Interturn Fault Detection in Permanent Magnet Machines Running under Dynamic Condition

Interturn short circuit (ITSC) fault is a common fault in electric machines, which may severely damage the machines if no protective measure is taken in time. There are numerous fault diagnosis methods under a steady-state condition. However, there is relatively limited research on fault diagnosis under dynamic conditions. The dynamic operation of motors, such as in electric cars, is a very common scenario. Hence, this paper proposes a search-coil based online method for detecting ITSC fault in permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) under a dynamic condition. The search coils are placed on the stator circumference at equal intervals. Each search coil reflects the information about the magnetic field in its vicinity and also contains the fault information. In this paper, the voltage induced by the odd sideband harmonics around the even carrier (2ωc±ω0) is selected as the fault characteristic to be used in effectively improving the detected signal-to-noise ratio by excluding the interference of the counter-potential of the permanent magnet. Since two adjacent search coils are placed one pole apart, a set of quadrature signals can be acquired. The Digital Lock-In Amplifier (DLIA) technology is applied to extract the amplitude of the characteristic voltage, which overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional spectrum analysis in applying to non-stationary conditions. The amplitudes of the voltage at different search coils can be compared to further determine the occurrence of a fault and also its rough location if occurred. Experiments were conducted with a six-phase PMSM for demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed method. The obtained results show that the proposed method can accurately determine the occurrence of a fault.

A Direct Model Predictive Control Strategy With an Implicit Modulator for Six-Phase PMSMs

This article proposes a direct model predictive control (MPC) scheme for asymmetric six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs), which combines control and modulation in one computation stage. By emulating the switching pattern of space vector modulation (SVM), the MPC problem is formulated as a 4-D current control problem where the switching sequences and instants are computed and directly applied to the inverters. This implicit modulation addresses the issue of a variable switching frequency and spread harmonic spectra of conventional direct MPC methods. Moreover, the effect of the modulation constraints and controller bandwidth on the system performance is investigated as well. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, experiments are carried out with an asymmetric six-phase PMSM driven by two three-phase two-level inverters.

Fault-Tolerant Predictive Current Control of Six-Phase PMSMs With Minimal Reconfiguration Requirements

By manipulating the additional degrees of freedom of multiphase machines, inherent to this type of machine, fault-tolerant control strategies are able to keep multiphase drives in service after one or more open-phase faults (OPFs). Therefore, multiphase machines controlled by finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) strategies are an excellent fit for critical systems, where reliability and excellent dynamic performance are necessary. However, the existing fault-tolerant FCS-MPC strategies typically require considerable changes to the structure of the control algorithm when transitioning between healthy and fault-tolerant modes of operation. Therefore, this article proposes a novel fault-tolerant predictive current control (FT-PCC) strategy with minimal reconfiguration requirements for the six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) drives. The proposed method only requires the adjustment of current references during fault-tolerant operation and keeps the structure of the control algorithm unchanged. To validate this FT-PCC strategy, several simulation and experimental results are presented for different OPF scenarios, in which the excellent performance obtained with the proposed method is demonstrated.

Self-Sensing Six-Phase PMSM Drive Based on Back-EMF Measurement

This paper presents a novel procedure for the emergency sensorless operation of a six-phase electric drive. More degrees of freedom provided by multiphase technology have been utilized to determine the rotor flux position. The proposed technique is based on the direct measurement of the back EMF generated on a disconnected three-phase winding of a six-phase permanent-magnet synchronous machine (PMSM). The method is suitable for the emergency operation of an electric drive in the case of speed/position sensor failure. The proposed solution has been verified utilizing a six-phase permanent-magnet synchronous machine with a displacement of 30° between two three-phase sets of the stator winding and a power of 1 kW.

Low-Speed Sensorless Control for Six-Phase PMSM Based on Magnetic Anisotropy

The paper presents a sensorless control technique for the low-speed region. The method is based on tracking of the six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) saliencies with high-frequency (HF) signal injection. The six-phase system is an effective fault-tolerant propulsion for transport vehicles where the sensorless control can be utilized as the speed/position sensor backup. The machine has negligible geometrical saliencies, so the magnetic salience is excited utilizing the flux-producing component of the field-oriented control. The possibilities of HF injection and the demodulation processes for the whole six-phase system and one of the three-phase systems are examined. The sensorless control technique is verified experimentally on the six-phase PMSM with 30° displacement between two three-phase windings and the power of 1 kW.

A Hybrid Two-Stage Control Solution for Six-Phase PMSM Motor With Improved Performance

This article proposes a hybrid two-stage control solution for a six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) motor with enhanced control performance. The original direct torque control (DTC) and model predictive control (MPC) are artfully integrated together to alleviate the computational burden and the harmonic currents. The proposed method is implemented in two steps. First, the original DTC method is adopted to determine the orientation vector from six existing vectors. It is worthy to mention that the orientation vector is different from the commonly used reference vector calculated through the deadbeat control theory. Second, the prediction vectors located in the same sector with the orientation vector will be evaluated in the original MPC manner. In this way, the enumeration of all the prediction vectors is avoided and the computational burden is avoided. In addition, discrete duty ratios are assigned to define other two groups of virtual vectors to enhance the current quality. In this way, high-performance control of a six-phase motor can be achieved by simply combining the standard DTC and MPC control structure. Experimental results have been used to assess the goodness of the proposed method.

Research on Open-circuit Fault Tolerant Control of Six-phase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine Based on Fifth Harmonic Current Injection

This paper proposes a novel control approach for fault-tolerant control of dual three-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) under one-phase open-circuit fault. A modified six-phase static coordinate transformation matrix and an extended rotating coordinate transformation matrix are investigated considering the influence of the fifth harmonic space on fault-tolerant control. These mathematical models are further analyzed in the fundamental space and the fifth harmonic space after the fault and to eliminate the coupling between the d-q axis voltage equation in the fundamental wave space and the d-q axis voltage equation in the fifth harmonic space, a secondary rotation coordinate transformation matrix is proposed. To achieve the purpose of reducing torque ripple, the fault-tolerant control method proposed in this paper not only takes the minimum copper loss as the constraint condition, but also injects the fifth harmonic current. The experimental result of current and torque is used to verify the accuracy of fault-tolerant control.

Magnetic Field and Radial Force Analysis of Six-Phase Rotary Machine

Six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine and the control system are also widely used in industry, precision instruments and aerospace. However, most PMSMs employ magnet patterns either in alternatively radial magnetization or Halbach array, which may constrain the performance improvement in a certain degree. Therefore, a novel six-phase trapezoidal Halbach magnet array (THMA) is proposed in this paper. Six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) can reduce the harmonic components of magnetic flux in air gap, and decrease the iron loss and electromagnetic vibration caused by harmonic torque. Thus, it helps to improve the working efficiency and depress the torque ripple of the electrical machine. Dual three-phase windings are employed for the stator design to further improve the power density and reliability of the machine. Six-phase vector model of the machine is built based on dual dq control. It can minimize the electric coupling, magnetic coupling and thermal coupling. The radial electromagnetic force of the machine under load or no load is extracted, then the harmonic decomposition of the radial electromagnetic force for the spatial with time Fourier decomposition is carried out to obtain the force amplitude of different orders which is conducive to analyze the vibration characteristics of the machine.

Pre- and Post-Fault Operations of Six-Phase Electric-Drive-Reconstructed Onboard Charger for Electric Vehicles

The concept of electric-drive-reconstructed onboard charger (EDROC) potentially opens the door to harness the existing drivetrain in electric vehicle (EV) to do the job of battery charger, thus performing a remarkable value in commerce. In this article, the pre- and post-fault operations of an EDROC are studied, which incorporates an asymmetrical six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine (ASPMSM) drive. At first, the decomposed currents of the machine in healthy and faulty cases are solved and their trajectories are depicted, indicating that a rotating field will exist if an open-phase fault (OPF) occurs. Afterward, a rotating field cancellation scheme based on the minimum copper loss criterion is proposed by rearranging stator currents, with two constraints under consideration that are responsible for generating pulsating field and balanced grid currents, respectively. Following this, a control scheme shared for both pre- and post-fault conditions is proposed, where the carrier-based modulation without any zero-sequence signal injection is employed. Finally, the proposed rotating field cancellation scheme is verified by experimental results.

Torque Improvement of Six-Phase Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Machine Drive with Fifth-Harmonic Current Injection for Electric Vehicles

This paper proposes a method to improve the output torque of a six-phase permanent-magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) within the same current peak limit through a fifth-harmonic injection into each phase current of the stator. Compared to the fifth + seventh-harmonic current-injection method used to improve the output torque of the six-phase PMSM, the control system can be stably controlled, and the controller design complexity decreased. This is because the harmonic component was converted into a direct current (DC) component and controlled by a proportional-integral (PI) controller instead of the fifth + seventh-harmonic injection method, which converts the harmonic component into an alternating current (AC) component and controls it with a resonance controller. The appropriate fifth-harmonic ratio for maximum output torque through fifth-harmonic injection was selected through optimization using values analyzed via fast Fourier transform (FFT) for stator phase harmonic current terms caused by inverter nonlinearity and motor design errors. Therefore, it was possible to optimize the fifth-harmonic ratio to be injected without requiring torque modeling using the physical properties of the motor. The experimental results were obtained under the rated current condition with six-phase PMSM in the laboratory, and the average output torque increase under fifth-harmonic injection was about 5% compared to the method without harmonic injection.

An Improved Finite-Control-Set Model Predictive Flux Control for Asymmetrical Six-Phase PMSMs With a Novel Duty-Cycle Regulation Strategy

This work presents an improved finite-control-set model predictive flux control (FCS-MPFC) for asymmetrical six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine (ASPMSM) with a novel duty-cycle regulation strategy. Firstly, virtual vector concept is adopted to suppress harmonic currents without additional cost function and the corresponding weighting factor. Then, 12 virtual vectors with higher voltage utilization are developed. Meanwhile, for the sake of strengthening steady-state performance, a novel duty-cycle regulation strategy incorporating the well-known Lagrange multiplier method is proposed. In this strategy, the reconfigurable set of voltage vectors (SVV), which consists of an active and a null virtual vector, can be determined without second modification, hence highly mitigating additional computation burden. Furthermore, in order to realize the purpose of unified switching frequency, the SVVs are implemented in terms of regular rather than irregular PWM signal pattern. Finally, experimental results prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Disturbance Observer Based Predictive Current Control of Six-Phase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines for the Mitigation of Steady-State Errors and Current Harmonics

Multiphase machines, associated with state-of-the-art control strategies like finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) are suitable for applications where reliability and disturbance-free operation are key factors. Although FCS-MPC provides good transient performance and straightforward design, the performance of the drive system is affected by model inaccuracies due to parameter mismatch and unmodeled dynamics, such as deadtime effects in the power converters and back-electromotive force harmonics. In this context, this article proposes a novel and robust disturbance observer based predictive current control strategy for six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine drives that minimizes the steady-state errors due to parameter mismatch errors, while simultaneously reducing the amplitude of the fifth- and seventh-order current harmonics due to unmodeled dynamics, which are non-negligible in six-phase machines. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the very good performance of the proposed strategy even when considering significant errors in the system parameters and different values of the deadtime in the power converters.

Multistage Predictive Current Control Based on Virtual Vectors for the Reduction of Current Harmonics in Six-Phase PMSMs

The most recent finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) strategies for six-phase electric drives avoid the excitation of the secondary subspace by using virtual vectors to minimize the current ripple. However, these strategies can only control the fundamental current components, which adjust the machine flux and torque and leave the secondary current components unregulated, which should be zero during regular operation in order to reduce the losses in the machine. Due to this limitation and also due to the low impedance of the secondary subspace in machines with distributed windings, the stator currents might contain non-negligible low-frequency harmonics caused by small asymmetries in the machine, non-linear dynamics of the semiconductors in the power converters and back-EMF harmonics. This article proposes a novel multistage predictive current control strategy based on virtual vectors (MVV-PCC) for six-phase drives based on permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs), which contains a fundamental and a secondary control stages that are responsible for tracking the reference currents in both subspaces separately. The obtained experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in the minimization of the current harmonics and the reduction of the torque ripple for different operating conditions of the six-phase drive.

Modeling, Control and Power Management of Six-Phase PMSM Based Shipboard MVDC Distribution System

In the modern shipboard power system, there is a growing concern about reduced fuel economy, efficiency improvement, and minimized emission in recent years. Besides, considering the islanded nature of the shipboard power system, ensuring the system reliability at both generation and load side is crucial. In this context, a hybrid medium voltage DC (MVDC) distribution system concept with diesel engine, PV system, and battery energy storage system (BESS) as the generators for the shipboard power system is proposed. Variable speed operation of a diesel engine is considered for the benefit of minimal specific fuel oil consumption (SFOC). Regarding the fault-tolerant characteristics of six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM), it is used for both generating and motoring application, thus maintaining system reliability at any time. A hierarchical control system is designed and implemented to ensure proper load power-sharing among the generators and to regulate the dc-link voltage of the proposed MVDC distribution system. To bolster the intent of minimal SFOC zone operation of diesel engines and coordination between the generators and load, a deterministic rule-based power management system is proposed and implemented. The simulation is carried out for potential operational modes of a cruise ship in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. Simulation results show that the proposed topological and control structure has satisfactory performance in terms of power delivery, stable dc-link dynamics, and overall system stability.

Inverter fault diagnosis of an electrical series‐connected two sinusoidal six‐phase permanent magnet machines drive

This study investigates a real-time fault diagnostic of a transportation system which needs two drives with fault-tolerance capabilities. Owing to the constraints on the mass of the system and on the cost of the voltage source inverter, a drive with two six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machines in series-connection supplied by two six-leg inverters is chosen. Despite the serial connection, independent control of the two machines and fault-tolerance to open-switch fault is ensured. Nevertheless, a fault detection identification (FDI) process is required for analysis and/or control reconfiguration. The proposed FDI is based on the combination of different criteria obtained from the two zero-sequence currents and from the normalised currents mapped into two frames defined by the concordia transformation. Results obtained from simulation and experimental tests show the effectiveness of the proposal.

Finite Control Set Model Predictive Control of Six-Phase Asymmetrical Machines—An Overview

Recently, the control of multiphase electric drives has been a hot research topic due to the advantages of multiphase machines, namely the reduced phase ratings, improved fault tolerance and lesser torque harmonics. Finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) is one of the most promising high performance control strategies due to its good dynamic behaviour and flexibility in the definition of control objectives. Although several FCS-MPC strategies have already been proposed for multiphase drives, a comparative study that assembles all these strategies in a single reference is still missing. Hence, this paper aims to provide an overview and a critical comparison of all available FCS-MPC techniques for electric drives based on six-phase machines, focusing mainly on predictive current control (PCC) and predictive torque control (PTC) strategies. The performance of an asymmetrical six-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine is compared side-by-side for a total of thirteen PCC and five PTC strategies, with the aid of simulation and experimental results. Finally, in order to determine the best and the worst performing control strategies, each strategy is evaluated according to distinct features, such as ease of implementation, minimization of current harmonics, tuning requirements, computational burden, among others.

Influence of Gear Ratio on the Performance of Fractional Slot Concentrated Winding Permanent Magnet Machines

Fractional slot concentrated winding (FSCW) permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) have been a research hotspot over the past few decades. Recently, the magnetic gearing effect in FSCW PMSMs is revealed along with its gear ratio, which is a function of slot/pole number combination. At the design stage of FSCW PMSMs, one of the key issues is the selection of the slot/pole number combination. This paper shows that the gear ratio can contribute to a proper slot/pole number selection in any multiphase FSCW PMSMs by acting as a unified index for a quick overall performance comparison. In this paper, first, the magnetic gearing effect in FSCW PMSMs is explained and the gear ratio is further discussed. The advantages of adopting gear ratio as the overall performance index over other indices are revealed. The influence of the gear ratio on the winding factor, torque output, cogging torque, inductance, and rotor losses of three- and six-phase FSCW PMSMs is analyzed and validated by experiments, thus proving the analyses.