College of Engineering

The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference ENG -272

Fuzzy-Logic Control of Single-Phase Induction Motor Operated as Two -
Phase Induction Motor
Naser Abdel-Rahim, Electrical Engg. Department, E-mail: naser.a@yuaeu.ac.ae
Hazem Numan Nounou, EE Department,
U.A.E. University, Al-Ain, P.O. Box: 17555, U.A.E.
Abstract
This paper presents a closed-loop control strategy to operate an off-the-shelf single-phase
induction motor (IM) as an unsymmetrical two-phase motor. The proposed scheme is
capable of making the two-phase unsymmetrical IM behave like a symmetrical two-phase
motor. This control strategy employs the slip frequency control technique to
independently control the stator currents of both the main and auxiliary windings and
make them follow a predefined sinusoidal wave. Fuzzy logic controller is employed in
feedforward path of the control sheme. Simulation and experimental results show that the
proposed scheme is successful in operating the single-phase induction motor as an
unsymmetrical two-phase motor with fast dynamic and transient responses. Notably, the
proposed control scheme achieves reduction in the inherent torque oscillations of the I.M,
rendering its behavior similar to its symmetrical counterpart. In addition, the proposed
controllers achieve cost-effectiveness in both initial and running costs. Thus, this work
presents a novel cost-effective control and application of the single-phase induction
motor.
1. INTRODUCTION
Single-phase induction motors are widely used in several commercial and domestic applications. Although
their performance is inferior when compared to that of poly-phase induction motors, they are still
commonly used in small ratings where the three-phase supply is not usually available. Conventional
methods for the starting and speed control of single-phase induction motors often (i) needed external
electric equipment or (ii) required mechanical switches which are subject to mechanical wear that adversely
affects motor reliability.

With the advent of low-cost power inverters, symmetrical/unsymmetrical two-phase induction (including
single-phase) motors have gained increasing interest for low to medium power applications since they
provide a promising way for energy saving in many drive systems. Analysis of the two-phase induction
motor drive, various control strategies, and circuit topologies have been reported in the literature [1-8].
Open-loop control of the two-phase induction motor using two single-phase half-bridge inverters operated
in the square wave mode [1, 2] was successful in controlling the speed of the two-phase i nduction motor.
Yet, the motor terminal voltage had high harmonic content, which adversely affected motor efficiency as
well as increased its developed torque harmonics. To alleviate the high harmonic content of the motor
terminal voltage and line current, sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) was employed to modulate
the motor terminal voltage [3]. A phase difference angle (PDA) control employing the PWM selective
harmonic elimination technique was reported in [4, 5], where the motor torque was not controlled by the
modulation of the motor terminal voltage, but rather by the control of the PDA. That scheme suffered from
degraded efficiency when the phase angle difference between terminal voltages was small. To compensate
for such a drawback, a hybrid PDA with motor terminal voltage and frequency modulation scheme was
proposed [5]. Although that scheme was successful in operating the two-phase motor with a variable
frequency drive, it was complex to implement. Moreover, high torque pulsations resulted when the phase
angle between the motor terminal voltages was other than 90
o
. Torque pulsations became more pronounced
when the phase angle was small. Space-vector PWM (SVPWM) technique was also reported to facilitate
the implementation of digital control of the two-phase motor [6, 7]. That scheme, however, suffered from
several unresolved problems such as current distortion due to dead-time effects and overmodulation.

While all of the above control schemes provided speed control of the symmetrical/unsymmetrical two-
phase induction motor using open-loop control strategy, this paper proposes a new closed-loop control
scheme for an off-the-shelf single-phase induction motor operated as two-phase (unsymmetrical) motor.
The proposed control strategy employs the slip frequency control technique to independently control the


College of Engineering
The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference ENG - 273
stator currents of both the main and auxiliary windings and make them follow a predetermined sinusoidal
wave. Simulation results show that the control scheme provides good speed regulation with fast dynamic
response. In addition, the proposed control strategy limits the motor line current during transient and
dynamic stages to a predefined value. Moreover, reduction of the inherent oscillations of the developed
torque of the two-phase unsymmetrical I.M. has been achieved. To the best of the authors knowledge,
closed-loop control of single-phase i nduction motor operated as two-phase motor has not been reported in
the literature.

Notably, the proposed system achieves cost-effectiveness in both initial and running costs. Initial costs are
reduced by virtue of (i) dispensing of the need to manufacture specially-designed two-phase symmetrical
motors, (ii) increasing the output power of the single-phase motor, thus enabling it to drive the same load
with a frame size factor lower than that of the conventional single-phase motor, and (iii) limiting the
starting current of the motor to reduce the rating of the inverter switching devices, and hence their cost.
Running costs are cut down by reducing the motor losses and improving its power factor, thus enhancing
the motor efficiency [8].
2. MODEL OF TWO-PHASE UNSYMMETRICAL INDUCTION MOTOR
Fig 1 shows the layout of the motor under study. The stator windings are unsymmetrical but they are
orthogonal with a 90 electrical degree phase shift, and thus they are assumed to represent the d-q axis.
Stationary reference frame is considered to facilitate the inclusion of the power inverter.
v
sq
Main
Windings
Rotor
Auxilliary
Windings
v
sd
(a)
v
sq
Main
Windings
Auxilliary
Windings
v'
sd
(b)
D-axis
Q-axis
i'
sd
v
sd
isd


sq
i

Fig 1: Unsymmetrical two phase-motor: (a) Auxiliary and main windings of the single-phase motor, (b) D-
Q transformation of the motor
The rotor has a squirrel cage winding and is represented by equivalent two coils transformed to the
stationary d-q axis as shown in Fig 1.b. Since the two stator windings; namely, the main and auxiliary coils,
have different numbers of turns, they will yield different mutual reactances. Therefore, a transformation is
made to refer the auxiliary winding to an equivalent winding with the same number of turns as that of the
main coil.
The voltage equations in the stationary d-q axis are given by Eqs. (1)-(4) [11]:
' ' ' '
1
sd sd sd sd
s
v r i

+ (1)
1
sq sq sq sq
s
v r i

+ (2)
1
0
m
r r d rq rd
s s
r i

+ + (3)
1
0
m
r r q rd rq
s s
r i

+ (4)
The equation of motion is given by:
' '
.
( )
2
e sd sq sq sd
s
P
T i i

(5)


College of Engineering
The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference ENG -274
( )
2
m
e L damp
P
T T T
J

(6)
The stator and rotor currents are given by:
' '
0 0
0 0
0 0
0
sd lsd m m
sq lsq m m
rd m lr m
rq m
X X X
X X X
X X X
X

1 +
1
+
1

1
+
1
1
]
'
0
sd
sq
rd
rq m lr
i
i
i
i X X
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1
1 1 +
] ]
(7)
where prime superscript indicates quantities referred to the main (Q-windings), and:
'
sd
,
sq
are the d- and q- stator flux linkage, respectively,

rd
,
rq
are the d- and q- rotor flux linkage, respectively,
'
sd
i , i
sq
are the d- and q- stator currents, respectively,
i
rd
, i
rq
are the d- and q- rotor currents, respectively,
'
lsd
X , X
lsq
are the leakage reactances of the stator auxiliary and main (D- and Q-) windings,
respectively,
X
lr
is the rotor leakage reactance,
'
sd
r , r
sq
are the d- and q- stator resistances, respectively,
r
r
is the rotor resistance,
T
e
, T
L
,

T
damp
are the developed, load, and damping torques, respectively,

s
is the supply frequency in rad./sec.,

m
is the motor speed in rad./sec., and
P is the number of poles.
And,
' 2
( / )
sd sd sq sd
r r N N (8),
' 2
( / )
lsd lsd sq sd
X X N N (9),
'
( / )
sd sd sq sd
v v N N (10),
'
( / )
sd sd sd sq
i i N N (11),
where,
N
sq
is the number of turns of the main windings, and
N
sd
is the number of turns of the auxiliary windings.
3. SLIP FREQUENCY CONTROL SCHEME
The slip-frequency (also known as constant air gap flux) control scheme is employed in this paper to
operate the single-phase induction motor as a two-phase unsymmetrical motor. The objective of the slip-
frequency control (SFC) scheme is to maintain the motor air gap flux at its rated value at various motor
operating conditions. This ensures that the motor never enters saturation and resolves the induction motor
into an equivalent separately-excited DC motor in terms of its speed of response, not in terms of decoupling
of the flux and torque channels [9].

Fig 2 shows the block diagram of the SFC scheme. The scheme consists of an outer speed feedback loop
and an inner current loop. The principle of operation of the control scheme is as follows. First, the actual
motor speed, m, is compared with its reference signal, ref, to produce the slip frequency, sL. Secondly,
sL is conditioned by the fuzzy logic controller (FLC) and then passed through a limiter which limits the
excursion of the slip frequency to a maximum predetermined value. The value of sL also determines the
magnitude of the command currents of the stator windings (main windings, Isq, and auxiliary windings, Isd)
through look-up tables. Thirdly, sL is added to the motor actual speed to produce the frequency command
of the inverter. Finally, the actual stator currents (auxiliary and main) of the motor are compared with their
reference waveforms in hysteresis current controllers. The outputs of the hysteresis comparator of the
auxiliary windings are used to control the inverter switching devices S
1
and S
2
while the output of the
current controller of the main windings is used to control the i nverter switches S
3
and S
4
such that the error
between the motor actual and reference speed is reduced.


College of Engineering
The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference ENG - 275
Motor speed

ref
look-up table
for aux. current
-
+
Reference Current
Generator (aux.)
Aux. Winding
Current Controller
Gate Drive Circuit
s
1
s
2
L
f
+
-
3-Ph
Supply

sl
c
f
Main
Windings
Rotor
Auxilliary
Windings
c
f
sq
|I |
sd
|I |

m
+
+

sq
I
*
sd
I
*
Main Winding
Current Controller
Gate Drive Circuit
s
3
s
4
s
1
s
2
s
3
s
4
look-up table
for main current

sl
Reference Current
Generator (main)
FLC
+
-
V
dc
+
-
V
dc


Fi g 2:: Schematic diagram of the proposed control
From the principle of operation of the proposed control scheme, it can be seen that the design of the look-up
table takes into account that the peak value of the motor current never exceeds a predetermined value (1.5
pu. in this work) during both dynamic and transient stages.
The unsymmetrical motor employed here is, originally, an off-the-shelf single-phase I.M. The motor
equivalent circuit with both the unsymmetrical windings of the motor excited is shown in Fig 3 [13]. The
parameters of the unsymmetrical motor are given in Appendix A. It can be seen from Fig 2 that, the voltage
source inverter along with the control scheme, in effect, creates a current source out of the DC supply and
the inverter. The two-phase I.M. can be analyzed as being fed from a current source. Fig 3 shows the
motor equivalent circuit when supplied by a current source. Neglecting the switching harmonics, the
magnetizing current forward component of the main windings, I
mfq
, is obtained
2 2
( )
2 2 2
lr r
mfq sq
lr m r
jX r
s
I I
X X r
j
s
_
+



+ +

,
(12),
where s is the motor slip. Since
s m r
s s
s

(13),
Eq. (12) can be rearranged as:
( )
r r r
mfq sq
r r r m
r j L
I I
r j L L

_ +

+ +
,
(14).
Where,
r
is the rotor frequency.
Similarly, the main windings magnetizing current backward component, I
mbq
, is obtained by
2
( )
2
r
l r
mbq sq
r
lr m
r
jX
s
I I
r
X X
s
_
+

+ +

,
(15).
Rearranging Eq. (15) gives


College of Engineering
The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference ENG -276

( ) ( )
(2 )
2
r lr r r
mbq sq
r lr m r r m
r j X L
I I
r j X X L L

_
+


+ + + 1
] ,
(16).

Fig 3:: Equivalent circuit of the unsymmetrical two-phase motor
The total magnetizing current of the main windings, I
mq
, is given by

mq mfq mbq
I I I + (17).
The purpose of the slip frequency control scheme is to keep the magnetizing current at its full -load value
under various loading conditions; i.e.,
( )
mfq mbq mq fl
I I I + (18),
where (I
mq
)
fl
is the full load value of the magnetizing current of the main windings. Equation (18) gives the
value of the relationship between the stator current of the main windings in terms of the motor parameters,
the motor slip, and the full-load value of the magnetizing current of the main windings. The value of (I
mq
)
fl

at full load is computed from the equivalent circuit shown in Fig 3. Equation (18) is then used to obtain the
look-up table for the main windings current (see Fig 2). A similar expression can be obtained for the
auxiliary windings and this expression is also used to evaluate the look -up table of the auxiliary windings.
4. FUZZY LOGIC CONTROL
Fuzzy logic has gained great attention in the area of electromechanical devices due to its ability to
incorporate human intuition in the design process [14-21]. A fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is employed here
to explore its potential in the slip frequency control of the unsymmetrical two-phase IM. In this paper we
employ PI-Fuzzy logic controller.
The PI-type FLC is shown in Fig 4. It has two inputs: the error and the integral of the error. To cut down on
the execution time for the experimental verification of the PI FLC only three triangular membership
functions are used for each input universe of discourse and for the controller output as shown in Fig 5 to Fig
7. Also, the membership function centers for each input and for the output are distributed uniformly
between -1 and +1. The rule base used here is shown in Table 1.
The controller uses minimum to represent the premise and "center of gravity" for defuzzification. After
some tuning, the scaling gains were selected as to be g
e
=0.33, g
i
=0.2, and g
u
=15.


College of Engineering
The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference ENG - 277

Fig 4:: PI Fuzzy Controller Structure

Fig 5:: Membership functions of the error signal

Fi g 6:: Membership functions of the integral of the error signal

Fi g 7:: Membership functions of the output signal


Fuzzy Sets Rule Base
Knowledge Base
Inference
Mechanism
Fuzzy Controller

2-Phase
Unsym-
metrical
IM
g
i
g
u
g
e

m
e(t)
+
-

ref


College of Engineering
The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference ENG -278


Table 1: Rule Base of the PI Fuzzy Controller
5.

6. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION RESULTS
Fig 8 shows the simulation results of the speed response SFC scheme with PI FLC. The figure shows that
the FLC is capable of regulating the motor speed to track its reference signal with small steady-state error
with only as few as three membership functions. Fig 9 shows experimental results of the SFC scheme with
PI FLC. The figure shows that the speed tracks its command signal with fast dynamic response and
negligible zero steady-state error. The FLC based SFC possesses superior performance measures than those
of the PI type controller.

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Time (sec.)
S
p
e
e
d

(
r
a
d
.
/
s
e
c
.
)
Simulation results with the FLC
Motor speed
Command speed

Fig 8:: Simulation results of the speed response of the unsymmetrical 2-ph IM
with the SFC scheme and PI FLC.

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
-20
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Time (sec.)
S
p
e
e
d

(
r
a
d
.
/
s
e
c
.
)
Experimental results with FLC
Actual speed
Command speed

dt t e ) (
) (t u
1 0 -1
1 -1 -1 0
0 -1 0 1

) (t e
-1 0 1 1


College of Engineering
The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference ENG - 279
Fig 9:: Experimental results of the speed response of the unsymmetrical 2-ph
IM with the SFC scheme and PI FLC.

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
Time (sec.)
C
u
r
r
e
n
t

i
n

t
h
e

m
a
i
n

w
i
n
d
i
n
g
s

(
A
m
p
s
)
Simulation results with FLC

Fig 10: Simulation results of the current in the main windings of the unsymmetrical
2-ph IM with the SFC scheme and PI FLC.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
Time (sec.)
C
u
r
r
e
n
t

i
n

t
h
e

m
a
i
n

w
i
n
d
i
n
g
s

(
A
m
p
s
)
Experimental results with FLC

Fi g 11:: Experimental results of the current in the main windings of the unsymmetrical 2-ph IM with the
SFC scheme and PI FLC.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
Time (sec.)
C
u
r
r
e
n
t

i
n

t
h
e

a
u
x
i
l
i
a
r
y

w
i
n
d
i
n
g
s

(
A
m
p
s
.
)
Simulation results with FLC



College of Engineering
The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference ENG -280
Fig12:: Simulation results of the current in the auxiliary windings of the
unsymmetrical 2-ph IM with the SFC scheme and PI FLC.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
-10
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
Time (sec.)
C
u
r
r
e
n
t

i
n

t
h
e

a
u
x
i
l
i
a
r
y

w
i
n
d
i
n
g
s

(
A
m
p
s
)
Experimental results with FLC

Fig.13:: Experimental results of the current in the main windings of the
unsymmetrical 2-ph IM with the SFC scheme and PI FLC.
Fig 10 shows simulation results of the current of the main windings while
Fig 11 shows its experimental verification. The figures show good agreement between the simulated and
experimental verification results. Fig12 and Fig.13 show the simulated and experimental results of the
current in the auxiliary windings. Once again, there is good agreement between the two figures.
CONCLUSION
A closed-loop control technique operating a conventional single-phase induction motor as an
unsymmetrical two-phase motor has been presented in this paper. The currents in the two stator windings
of the resultant two-phase motor were controlled independently using the slip frequency control strategy.
Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) is used in the feed-forward pat h of the slip frequency control scheme. It was
shown in the paper that the FLC offered excellent speed regulation.
It is worth mentioning that the proposed scheme achieves cost-effectiveness in at least two respects. First,
it operates conventional single-phase motors in a manner similar to symmetrical 2-phase motors, rendering
more output power. In other words, this control scheme allows for using lower motor frame size for the
same load. Second, the proposed control strategy, independently, limits the starting currents in both the
main and auxiliary windings to predetermined values. This means that the rating and, consequently, the cost
of the power inverter are reduced. In addition to cost effectiveness, the proposed control strategy reduces
the inherent torque oscillations in the unsymmetrical two-phase I.M., and hence endows the unsymmetrical
motor with a desirable natural feature of its symmetrical counterpart.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The investigators would like to express their sincere appreciation to the Research Affairs at the United Arab
Emirates University for the financial support of this project under fund grant # 04-04-7-11/04. The principal
investigator would also like to extend his thanks to Engineers Adel Hussein and Ahmed Abd-Rabou of the
Electrical Engineering Department for their help during the experimental phase of the project.
REFERENCES
1. I. Smith, G. Creighton, and L. Mhango, Analysis and Performance of a novel Two-Phase Drive
for Fan and Water-Pumping Applications, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 36,
No. 4, November 1989, pp. 530-538.
2. L. Mhango and G. Creighton, Novel Two-Phase Inverter-Fed Induction Motor Drive, IEE
Proceedings, Vol. 131, Pt. B, No. 3, May 1984, pp. 99-104.
3. C.-M. Young, C.-C. Liu, and C.-H. Liu, New InverterDriven Design and Control for Two-Phase
Induction Motor Drives, IEE Proceedings, Power Applications, Vol. 143, No. 6, November 1996,
pp. 458-466.


College of Engineering
The Sixth Annual U.A.E. University Research Conference ENG - 281
4. D. Jang, G. Cha, D. Kim, J. Won, Phase-difference control of 2-phase inverter-fed induction
motor, in the proceedings of the 20
th
IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference (PESC), 26-
29 June 1989, vol.2, pp. 571 -578.
5. D.-H. Jang and J.-S. Won, Voltage, Frequency, and Phase-Difference Angle Control of PWM
Inverter-Fed Two-Phase Induction Motor, IEEE Trans. on Power Electronics, Vol. 9, No. 4, July
1994.
6. M. Corra, C. Jacobina, A. Lima, and E. Silva, A Three-Leg Voltage Source Inverter for Two-
Phase AC Motor Drive Systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics , Vol. 17, No. 4, July
2002, pp. 517-523.
7. D.-H. Jang and D.-Y. Yoon, Space Vector PWM Technique for Two-Phase Inverter-Fed Two-
Phase Induction Motor, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 39, No. 2, March/April
2003, pp. 542-549
8. Naser Abdel-Rahim and Adel Shaltout, "Operation of Single-Phase Motor as Two-Phase Motor,
in the proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
(IECON), Sevilla, Spain, Nov. 5 to 8, 2002, pp. 967-972.
9. R. Krishnan, Electric Motor Drives: Modeling, Analysis and Control, Prentice Hall, 2001, pp.350.
10. MATLAB, The Matworks Inc., 2004
11. Chee-Mun Ong, Dynamic Simulation of Electric Machinery Using MATLAB/SIMULINK, Prentice
Hall, 1998.
12. P.C. Krause, O. Wasynczuk, S. D. Sudhoff, Analysis of Electric Machinery and Drive Systems,
IEEE press, 2002.
13. B. S. Guru and H. R. Hiziroglu, Electric Machinery and Transformers, Oxford University Press,
2001.
14. K.M. Passino and S. Yurkovich, Fuzzy Control, Addison-Wesley, Menlo Park, CA, 1998.
15. B. Heber, L. Xu and Y. Tang, Fuzzy logic enhanced speed control of an indirect field oriented
induction machine drives, IEEE Transaction on Power Electronics, vol. 12, No. 5, September
1997, pp. 772-778.
16. M. N. Uddin, T. S. Radwan and M. A. Rahman, Performance of fuzzy-logic-based indirect
vector control of induction machine, IEEE Transaction on Industry Applications, Vol. 38, No. 5,
Sep./Oct 2002, pp. 1219-1225.
17. Y-S. Lai, J-C. Lin , New hybrid fuzzy controller for direct torque control induction motor
drives, IEEE Transaction on Power Electronics , Vol. 18, No. 5, September 2003, pp. 1211
1219.
18. L. Zhen and L. Xu,, On-line fuzzy tuning of indirect field oriented induction machine, IEEE
Transaction on Power Electronics, Vol. 13, No. 1, January 1998, pp. 134-141.
19. E. Bim, Fuzzy optimization for rotor constant identification of an indirect FOC induction motor
drive, IEEE Transaction on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 48, No. 6, December 2001, pp. 1293-
1295.
20. L. Zhen and L. Xu, Fuzzy learning enhanced speed control of an indirect -field oriented induction
machine drive, IEEE Transaction on Control System Technology, Vol. 8, No. 2, March 2000, pp.
270-278.
21. Z. Ibrahim, E. Levi , A comparative analysis of fuzzy logic and PI speed control in high
performance AC drives using experimental approach, IEEE Transaction on Industry
Applications, Vol. 38, No. 5, Sep/Oct 2002, pp. 1210-1218.