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Design and Analysis of a Multiphase PermanentMagnet Brushless DC Motor Drive Systemfor High Power Applications
J. Wang, L. B. Zhou, and G. L. Tao
College of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,Huazhong University of Science and Technology,Wuhan, Hubei 430074 P.R.China
 Abstract-
The structure and design method of an electric drivesystem for high power applications are presented. A multiphasepermanent magnet brushless dc motor (PMBDCM) fed by acurrent source inverter (CSI) with thyristors acts as the kernel of the proposed electric drive system. Therefore, the system takes onadvantages of both those two
 
devices. The PMBDCM is simulatedby FEM. The performance of power electronic converters (PEC) isanalyzed analytically and simulated with MATLAB/Simulink. Thesimulation results show that the main circuit parameters have highinfluence on the system performance, so the parameters should beoptimized by simulation, even by experiment. A prototype is buildfor verification. The experimental results are in good agreementwith the simulation, which validates the feasibility of the proposedelectric drive system as well as its design method.
I. I
NTRODUCTION
 Permanent magnet brushless dc motors (PMBDCM) havebeen used in many drive applications
，
because of theiradvantages such as great power density, high efficiency, lownoise and minimal maintenance. Although there are severalmanufactures and prototypes developed successfully by fewcompanies in the world [1], the research and development of high power PMBDCM used in pump, marine propulsion andelectric vehicle applications is underway in fact.To enhance the output power of electric machines withoutincreasing the power rating of the vested switching tubes, theconfiguration of multiphase is favored in the design of PMBDCM [2]-[9], and also in the design of induction machines[10]-[13]. Besides the foregoing advantages, PM brushless dcmotors adopting multiphase technology have considerablebenefits in torque ripple reduction (because of the increasing of phase number) and fault tolerance (because the winding phasesare independent electrically).Several types of multiphase PMbrushless dc machines have been explored in many papers, butmost of them is fed by voltage source inverter (VSI) with forcedcommutated power switches such as Insulated Gate BipolarTransistors (IGBTs), Gate Turn Off Thyristors (GTOs) andIntegrated Gate Commutated Thyristors (IGCTs). Comparedwith the VSI, the current source inverters (CSI) have manybeneficial factors, including better load current shape, inherentshort circuit protection and regeneration capability[14]-[17].Accordingly, the electric drive system combining amultiphase PMBDCM with a thyristor based CSI may offeradvantages of both of them, and is suitable for high powerapplications especially. Reference [18] presented an equipmentlayout of an electric propulsion system for nuclear submarines,and a thyristor-based CSI was introduced. But there are nosimulation and experiment. In reference [19], a mathematicalmodel of multiphase brushless dc motors was established, and adouble three-phase brushless dc motor was analyzed withsimulation and experiment. But that paper emphasizes on themathematical model and the torque ripple. Furthermore,reference [20]-[22] have reported some works on the PMBDCMfed by CSI with thyristors.The multiphase configuration is a good approach to achievereliable and economical high power drives, but it make thecontrol and drive system complex. To solve that problem, awhole structure of an electric drive system with multiphasePMBDCM and its design method have been presented in thispaper. The coordinated control system has also been described.Performance of the drive system has been estimated. The PMbrushless dc motor has been simulated with static FEM, and theoperation performance of the power electronic converter hasbeen evaluated by MATLAB/Simulink. A prototype has beenbuild, and experimental verification has been put into practice.Based on the simulation and experiment results, the impact of the main parameter variations on the system performance hasbeen analyzed. II. D
ESIGN OF THE
E
LECTRIC
D
RIVE
S
YSTEM WITH
M
ULTIPHASE
PM
 
B
RUSHLESS
DC
 
M
OTOR
 The general structure of the proposed multiphase PMBDCMdrive system is shown in Fig.1. It consists of four parts, detailsas follow.
Fig.1. Functional block diagram of drive system with multiphase PMBDCM
 
 A. Multiphase PM Brushless DC Motor 
Three versions of the PM brushless motor are considered aspotential designs for drive– the radial flux version, the axial fluxversion, and the transverse flux version. In view of reliability,the radial flux version PMBDCM is more maturetechnologically than the other two versions. Consequently, it isselected to actualize the proposed electric drive system.The configuration of the proposed multiphase PMBDCM isshown in Fig.2. The stator core is similar with the traditionalmachines, while the stator windings comprise six sets of symmetrical star-connected three-phase windings. The six setsof windings are isolated electrically, and displaced by 10
°
electrical degrees in the stator core. The exciting magnets areembedded in the rotor core and excite in parallel.
(a) (b)
 
Fig.2. (a) Schematic of prototype motor (b) photograph of the rotor
 B. Power Electronic Converters
As shown in Fig.1, the power electronic converters (PEC)involve six isolated units (PEC1, PEC2,
…
PEC6), which feedcurrent from the battery to the above-mentioned six sets of three-phase windings of the motor respectively. All the six PECunits have the same topological structure, and Fig.3 shows theschematic diagram of one PEC unit.The power circuit consists of a Buck converter (IGBT K
1
anddiode D) and a CSI, as show in Fig.3. Pulse width modulation(PWM) technique is use to control the IGBT K
1
, and the outputvoltage of the Buck converter is defined as:
outin
UMU 
= ⋅
 
(1)whereis the voltage of battery
in
U  M 
 
is the duty cycleBy changing the output voltage of the Buck converter, theamplitude of the current flowing to the three-phase winding canbe adjusted, so flux and torque of the motor are controlled.Six thyristors (S
1
-S
6
) make up of a full-bridge inverter.Because the thyristors are only on-controllable, the inverteroutput current is composed by quasi square waves with the wideof 120
°
electrical degrees. The inductor L
2
is used to maintainthe dc link current, so the inverter can be regarded as a CSI.Different from the naturally load commutated CSI, theproposed CSI with thyristors is commutated not only by theback electromotive force (back-EMF) of the synchronousmotors. A force-commutation circuit, which includes thecapacitor C
2
, the thyristors S
7
-S
11
and the inductor L
3
, is utilizedto avoid the commutation failure when the motor back-EMF isnot high enough at low speed. Detailed analysis of theforce-commutation circuit will be described in Section III.
Fig.3. Schematic of one power electronic converter unit
C. Coordinated Control System
As can be seen in Fig.1, the coordinated control systemconsists of ten parts: remote control and monitor (RCM),command unit, two general control units and six control anddrive units (CDU). CAN bus technology is introduced into thecommunication between different functional units except for theRCM. The RCM communicates with the command unit throughCOM port.The command unit takes charge of the manual control and thecommunication with RCM.The two general control units compose a redundancy toprovide alternative functional channels in case of failure. Theydeal with the feedback speed and figure out the reference valuesof the phase currents, and then deliver them to the six CDUthrough CAN bus. Thus, the external loop control isimplemented.The six CDU deal with the feedback phase currents, andaccomplish the inner loop control, and then trigger the thyristorsin step with the variety of the position of the rotor.
 D. Position Sensor 
The position of the rotor determines the triggering signals forthe thyristors, so veracious detection of it is indispensable. Arotary transformer and its relevant resolve-to-digital converter(RDC) elements are adopted.III. P
ERFORMANCE
E
STIMATION
 It is well known that the ideal PM brushless dc motors haveperfect performance, as shown in Fig.4 (a). The phase currentsare 120
°
square waveforms, and there are two phasesconducted at any moment.
(a)
 
(b)Fig.4. Schematic waveforms of the various quantitiesin three-phase PMBDCM. (a) Ideal. (b) Practical.
 
But in practice, the armature reaction and the phasecommutation make the back-EMF and the current waveformsnonideal respectively.In order to analyze the influence of the commutating processon the system performance conveniently, the impact of thearmature reaction on the back-EMF is neglected.The force-commutation circuit contains seven main elementsmentioned above. The elements S
10
、
S
11
and L
3
are used (whennecessary) to reverse the voltage polarity of C
2
. S
9
and S
8
 provide a loop circuit to charge the capacitor C
2
at start. S
8
isalso used to shut off the main thyristors (S
2
, S
4
, S
6
).Correspondingly, S
7
can be operated to turn off S
1
, S
3
and S
5
.Suppose the inductance of L
2
is large enough to keep the dclink current constant. According to the operation principle,commutation occurs six times with the rotor rotating 360
°
 electrical degrees.
 
It can be supposed that the phase-b winding isin nonoconducting state at the moment, and the dc current
I 
d
 flows through the phase-a and c windings. When the rotorrotates to a appropriate position, the thyristor S
7
will be fired toconnect the capacitor C
2
in parallel with the phase-a winding,and the negative voltage of C
2
forces the phase-a current to falldown to zero quickly, hence the thyristor S
1
is turned off, asshown in Fig.5 (a).The differential equations can be written as:
C22dasaa0
a
dU CIidt di LiREU dt 
⎧= −⎪⎪⎨⎪+ + =⎪⎩
C2
(2)and the initial condition is:
adC2C20
(0),(0)
iIUU 
= = −
 Where
U 
C2
is the voltage of the capacitor C
2
 
 I 
d
is the dc link current
C 
2
is the capacitance of C
2
 L
s
is the equivalent phase inductance
 
 R
a
is the phase-a resistance
 
i
a
is the phase-a current
 E 
0
is the back-EMF
 
As shown in Fig.5 (b), after the thyristor S
1
is turned off, thedc link current flows through the capacitor C
2
and the phase-cwinding. The equation is
'dC2C22
 I UU C 
= +
t 
(3)where is the voltage of C
'C2
U 
2
when the phase-a current fallsto zero.In this period, the voltage of C
2
drops to zero, and thenreverses to positive.When the voltage of C
2
rises to the predefined value
U 
0
, thethyristor S
3
is fired, so the phase-b winding is conducted, asshown in Fig.5 (c).The differential equations are similar with (2):
C22dbsbb0
b
dU CIidt di LiREU dt 
⎧= −⎪⎪⎨⎪+ + =⎪⎩
C2
(4)and the initial condition is:
bC20
(0)0,(0)
iU 
= =
U 
 where
 R
b
is the phase-b resistance
i
b
is the phase-b current
U 
0
is the predefined voltage of C
2
The phase-b current rises to
 I 
d
, when the thyristor S
7
is turnedoff naturally due to the zero-crossing current of C
2
. Thus thecommutating process ends.
(a) (b) (c)Fig.5. Equivalent circuits of the force-commutation process.
Based on (2), (3) and (4), the visual representations of thephase currents and the voltage of C
2
are shown in Fig.6.As shown in Fig.6, there is only one phase winding (phase-cwinding) conducted during the period of commutation betweenthe other two phases (phase-a and b). Schematic waveforms of the various quantities in three-phase PMBDCM are shown inFig.4 (b). As can be seen, the square current waveforms arenarrower than 120
°
because of the commutation, and leads tothe ripple of the instantaneous torque. The amplitude of theripple is about 50% of the total torque in three-phase PMBDCM.The multiphase configuration can reduce the torque ripple, asshown in Fig.7. The torque T
x
(x=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) is generated byeach three-phase windings, and T is the total torque. As will beseen, the amplitude of the ripple is about 8.33% of the totaltorque, while the frequency of the ripple is increased by sixtimes. 
Fig.6. Calculated result of force-commutation process.
TT
1
T
2
T
3
T
6
T
4
T
5
Time
   T  o  r  q  u  e
 
Fig.7. Schematic waveforms in multiphase PMBDCM.
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