Received September 4, 2019, accepted September 17, 2019, date of publication September 23, 2019,

date of current version October 16, 2019.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2942985

Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual

Three-Phase Permanent Magnet
Synchronous Motor Drives
ZHIHUANG RUAN1 , (Student Member, IEEE), WENXIANG SONG 1,2 , AND YAN YAN1
1 Schoolof Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China
2 Shanghai Key Lab of Power Station Automation Technology, Shanghai 200072, China

Corresponding author: Wenxiang Song (wxsongshu@126.com)

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Project 51377102.

ABSTRACT Due to motor asymmetry and system nonlinear factors, the dual three-phase permanent
magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives produce a large number of current harmonics during operation.
Based on the Vector Space Decoupling model, the six-phase currents of the dual three-phase PMSM
can be decomposed into the αβ, the z1 z2 and the o1 o2 components. Speed and torque are controlled by
controlling the α-β current components. In addition, controlling the z1 -z2 current components is essential
in suppressing current harmonics. In this paper, we propose two current harmonic suppression methods.
Firstly, synchronous, anti-synchronous and bidirectional synchronous PI controllers are proposed to suppress
current harmonics caused by different types of motor asymmetry. Secondly, a quasi-proportional resonance
controller is proposed to suppress current harmonics caused by nonlinear factors of system. Simulation and
experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

INDEX TERMS Dual three-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM), current har-
monic suppression, synchronous/anti-synchronous/bidirectional PI controller, quasi proportional resonance
controller (QPR).

I. INTRODUCTION usefully to electromechanical energy conversion, while the

Multiphase motor drives have attracted extensive research
interest from many scholars, due to their characteristics of low
voltage and high power output [1]–[3]. Among the various
kinds of multiphase motors, the dual three-phase motor is a
good choice, as it has two sets of three-phase stator wind-
ings spatially shifted by 30 electrical degrees with isolated
neutral points and has the advantage of a small torque rip-
ple [4]. In recent years, various control strategies have been
studied for dual three-phase permanent magnet synchronous
motors (PMSM), especially for high-power applications
[5]–[8]. However, there are few studies on harmonic suppres-
sion of multiphase motor drives.
In the Vector Space Decoupling (VSD) model, the dual
three-phase PMSM is divided into three vertical subspaces,
the αβ subspace, the z1 z2 subspace and the zero-sequence
components [9]. For a machine with sinusoidal magnetic
motive force distribution, only the αβ components contribute
The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and
approving it for publication was Madhav Manjrekar.
z1 z2 components and zero-sequence components only pro-
duce losses. The influence of the zero sequence components
can be neglected, since the neutral points of two sets of
windings of the motor are isolated from each other, so the
zero-sequence components cannot flow [10].
Under ideal operation, the currents in the z1 -z2 subspace
should be zero in dual three-phase PMSM systems. However,
dual three-phase PMSMs are high-order, non-linear, strong
coupling systems and their coupling relationship is more
complex than that of three-phase motors. The magnitudes of
z1 -z2 currents indicate the degree of harmonic distortion of
the drive system. Therefore, it is necessary not only to control
the α-β currents to control the torque and flux, but also to
control the z1 -z2 currents to suppress the harmonic magni-
tude [11], [12]. The control strategies should also be adapted
to different situations. It is therefore necessary to establish a
suitable control strategy for suppressing the z1 -z2 currents for
the dual three-phase PMSM [11], [13]. There are two causes
for the generation of z1 -z2 currents: the asymmetry of the
motor and the nonlinear factors of system. Between them,

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
143888 VOLUME 7, 2019
Z. Ruan et al.: Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual Three-Phase PMSM Drives

the asymmetry of the motor makes the fundamental subspace method. Based on the VSD model, the relationship between
no longer perpendicular to the z1 z2 subspace, which causes the control variable and the motor variable of dual three-phase
parts of the fundamental components in the subspace react PMSMs with isolated neutral points can be expressed as:
in the z1 z2 subspace. In this case, the fundamental com-  T  
ponents of the αβ subspace will lead to the introduction fα fβ fz1 fz2 = Tαβ fa fb fc fu fv fw
of certain fundamental frequency current components into (1)
the z1 z2 subspace, which affect the efficient operation of where f represents an arbitrary motor variable. The transfor-
the motor drives. The harmonic currents introduced by the mation matrix Tαβ can be expressed as:
nonlinear factors of the system can be decomposed into a  √ √ 
series of odd harmonics through Fourier decomposition. For 1 1 3 3
1 − − − 0
the dual three-phase PMSM with neutral point isolation, only 
 √2 √2 2 2 

the fifth and seventh harmonics introduced by the nonlinear  3 3 1 1 
1 
 0 − −1 
factors need to be considered, as the third harmonic cannot Tαβ = √  2 2 √2 √2 
1 1 3 3

flow and higher harmonics can be neglected [15]. Therefore, 3
 
1 − − − 0 
it is necessary to design additional controllers to eliminate  √2 √2 2 2 
3 3 1 1
 
the harmonic currents generated by the nonlinearity of the 0 − − − −1
motor in the z1 z2 subspace. In [14], the PI controller parallel 2 2 2 2
with resonant controller is employed to suppress the specific (2)
5th and 7th harmonic components, but this method is too According to the above transformation, the voltage and
complicated. A synchronous PI controller for six-phase asyn- flux equations of the αβ subspace in the d-q reference frame
chronous motor is proposed in [15]. However, the effective- can be written as:
ness of this method in the control of dual three-phase PMSM
ψd
        
ud R1 0 id −ψq
is unknown. = + + ωe (3)
uq 0 R1 iq ψq ψd + ψfd
In this paper, a harmonic suppression method for dual
ψd ψfd
      
three-phase PMSMs is proposed and validated. A mathe- LD 0 id
= + (4)
matical model based on the VSD of dual three-phase motor ψq 0 LQ iq 0
drive systems is established in Section II. In Section III, two LD = 3Laad + Laa1
important reasons causing z1 -z2 currents are analyzed: the LQ = 3Laaq + Laa1 (5)
asymmetry of the motor and the nonlinear factors of system.
Then, two corresponding methods are proposed to solve these where (all these variables are in αβ subspace)
problems. Simulations and experimental results are presented R1 stator resistance
in Section IV. The results demonstrate the effectiveness for 9fd permanent magnet flux
suppressing harmonics in the dual three-phase PMSM sys- ωe electrical angular speed
tem. Finally, the conclusion is summarized in Section V. ud , uq d-axis and q-axis stator voltage
id , iq d-axis and q-axis stator current
II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF DUAL ψd , ψq d-axis and q-axis stator flux
THREE-PHASE PMSM LD , LQ d-axis and q-axis stator inductance
In the double-dq model, the dual three-phase PMSM is equiv- Laad , Laaq d-axis and q-axis self-inductances
alent to two three-phase motors. However, the inductance Laa1 stator leakage self-inductance
coefficient matrix of the double-dq model is not a diagonal
matrix, so there is still certain coupling between the d-axis Similarly, the voltage and flux linkage equations in the
and q-axis flux linkage of the two three-phase windings z1 z2 subspace can be written as follows:
[15], [16]. In this section, the VSD method is adopted to 
uz1
 
R1 0
  
iz1 ψz1

establish the mathematical model of the system. = + (6)
uz2 0 R1 iz2 ψz2
According to the VSD model, the PMSM can be repre-
ψz1
     
Laa1 0 i
sented using three orthogonal subspaces (the αβ subspace, = · z1 (7)
ψz2 0 Laa1 iz2
the z1 z2 subspace and the zero-sequence subspace), which
are perpendicular to each other. In this model, harmonics of where, uz1 and uz2 , iz1 and iz2 , ψz1 and ψz2 are the stator
different orders are mapped into different subspaces. More- voltages, stator currents and flux in the z1 z2 subspace, respec-
over, unlike the double-dq model, the VSD model is suit- tively. The torque in the dq frame is given by:
able for multi-phase motors of any phase number. Actually,
Te = np ψfd iq + LD − LQ id iq



(8)
the performance of the double-dq model is very similar to
that of the VSD model, but the former requires solving more where np is the number of pole pairs. The inductance matrix
complex voltage decoupling problems. Due to the clear har- of the dual three-phase PMSM is a diagonal matrix after
monic analysis of the VSD model, most of the works related the VSD transformation, which realizes the decoupling of the
to multiphase motors in recent years are based on this control motor and simplifies control complexity. Physically, only the

VOLUME 7, 2019 143889

 Z. Ruan et al.: Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual Three-Phase PMSM Drives
αβ subspace pertains to the conversion between mechanical
and electrical energy. However, the z1 z2 subspace is com-
posed of stator leakage reactance and stator resistance, which
means even a small impedance will cause large harmonic
currents. Therefore, it is vital to eliminate the currents of the
z1 -z2 subspace to suppress the harmonic current and improve
the efficiency of dual three-phase PMSMs.
III. IMPROVED CURRENT HARMONIC
SUPPRESSION METHODS
Through the analysis in this section based on the VSD model
established in Section II, it can be seen that there are two
reasons for the generation of current harmonic of dual three-
phase PMSMs. One is the asymmetry of motor, which will
produce positive or negative sequence components. The other
is the nonlinear factors of system, which will lead to fifth
and seventh current harmonics. In this section, corresponding
mitigation strategies for the two different current harmonic
causes are presented.
fz1 = 0.5(fα1 − fα2 ) (14)
fz2 = 0.5(−fβ1 + fβ2 ) (15)
It can be seen from the above equation that the fundamental
frequency current of the z1 -z2 subspace reflects the degree
of asymmetry between two three-phase windings. For ideal
dual three-phase PMSMs without asymmetry, fundamental
magneto-motive forces will form a circular trajectory gen-
erated by the two sets of three-phase winding. The α1 -β1
currents and α2 -β2 currents form circular trajectories with
the same radius, rotating at the same angular frequency + ωs ,
which can be expressed by the space vector positive sequence
component Iαβ+ . However, if the motor is asymmetri-
cal, the unbalanced current will also contain the negative
sequence component Iαβ− . The currents in the α1 -β1 and
α2 -β2 coordinates can be expressed as the sum of positive and
negative sequence components, which are written as follows.
Iαβ1 = k1 Iαβ+ + k2 Iαβ−
= k1 Iαβ  e+jωs t + k2 Iαβ  e−jωs t
   
(16)
A. CURRENT HARMONIC SUPPRESSION Iαβ2 = k3 Iαβ+ + k4 Iαβ−
FOR MOTOR ASYMMETRY = k3 Iαβ  e+jωs t + k4 Iαβ  e−jωs t
   
(17)
A synchronous PI controller for six-phase asynchronous
motor is proposed in [15], this paper applied this method in In (16) and (17), the direction of positive rotation of the
the dual three-phase PMSM. motor is prescribed counter-clockwise, and ki (i = 1, 2, 3, 4)
In order to analyze the positive and negative sequence represents the type of asymmetry. According to the double-dq
components caused by asymmetry, the double-dq model [17] and VSD models, this can be deduced as follows:
and the VSD model [18] can be written as follows:
Iz1 = 0.5(Iα1 − Iα2 )
1 1
  
  1 − − fa Iz2 = 0.5(−Iβ1 + Iβ2 ) (18)
fα1 2 √2 √2 
=  f  (9)
3 b

fβ1 3 3 Thus, the z1 -z2 subspace current caused by the asymmetry
0 − fc
of the motor can be expressed as:
 √ 2 √ 2  
3 3
0  fu Iz1z2 = (k1 − k3 ) Iαβ  e−jωs t + (k2 − k4 ) Iαβ  e+jωs t
   
−
 
fα2 2
=  2 2   fv  (10)
fβ2 3 1 1 = Iz1z2− + Iz1z2+ (19)
−1 fw
2 2 √ √
  In (19), the current frequency in the z1 -z2 subspace caused
1 1 3 3 by the asymmetry is the fundamental frequency. Based
1 − √2
−
√2 2
−
2
0 
 
fα
  on the above analysis, the three types of asymmetry and
 3 3 1 1 
0 − −1  z1 -z2 subspace current distribution are shown in Table 1. It is
  = √1 
 fβ  
2 2 2
√ √2 
worth noting that the positive sequence component in the αβ
 fz1  3

1 1 3 3


fz2
1 − − − 0  subspace should be a negative sequence component in the
 √ 2 √ 2 2 2 
z1 z2 subspace, while the negative sequence component in
3 3 1 1
 
0 − − − −1 the αβ subspace should be a positive sequence component
  2 2 2 2 in the z1 z2 subspace.
fa
 fb  For the different types of asymmetric current components,
 
 fc  three current harmonic control schemes are proposed.
× fu 
 (11) Table 1 summarizes the positive and negative fundamental
 
 fv  frequency components caused by different types of asym-
metry. As shown in Fig. 1 (a), the positive fundamental fre-
fw
quency in the z1 -z2 subspace is transformed to DC variables
From equations (9), (10) and (11), the asymmetry is first through coordinate transformation, and then adjusted by
deduced as follows. the PI controller. Then, the DC variables are finally anti-
coordinate transformed to the fundamental frequency compo-
fα = 0.5(fα1 + fα2 ) (12) nents. Similarly, the control scheme of negative fundamental
fβ = 0.5(fβ1 + fβ2 ) (13) frequency components is shown in Fig. 1(b). Fig.1(c) is used

143890 VOLUME 7, 2019

Z. Ruan et al.: Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual Three-Phase PMSM Drives
TABLE 1. Asymmetric types corresponding to the current component
distribution of z1 z2 subspace.
FIGURE 1. PI controller of z1 -z2 currents, implemented in different
reference frames: (a) Synchronous reference frame. (b) Anti-synchronous
reference frame. (c) Bidirectional synchronous reference frame.
in the case of positive and negative fundamental frequencies.
Therefore, different types of positive and negative fundamen-
tal frequency components can be suppressed.
B. CURRENT HARMONIC SUPPRESSION
FOR NONLINEAR FACTORS
The non-linear factors of motor drive systems mainly pro-
duce fifth and seventh harmonics of currents [19]. Since the
impedance of the z1 z2 subspace of dual three-phase PMSM is
VOLUME 7, 2019
FIGURE 2. Proportional resonance control block diagram.
very low, greater fifth and seventh current harmonics will be
introduced by non-linear factors. The traditional PI controller
can be used to suppress z1 -z2 currents, but its bandwidth is
limited, which makes it difficult to track AC variables without
static error [15], [20].
In the dual-three-phase PMSM systems, the fifth and
seventh harmonics of the stator currents rotate at angular
frequencies of +5ωs and −7ωs in the z1 z2 subspace respec-
tively. In order to suppress the harmonics caused by the
nonlinear factors of the drive system, a proportional resonant
controller is used in the anti-synchronous reference frame.
These current harmonics are positive sixth harmonics and
negative sixth harmonics in the anti-synchronous reference
frame. By setting the resonant frequency of the proportional
resonance (PR) controller to 6ωs , the fifth and seventh current
harmonics can be suppressed.
The PR controller is composed of the proportional part and
a generalized integral, and its transfer function is:
s
GPR (s) = Kp + KR (20)
s2 + ω02
where, Kp is the proportional constant, KR is the integral time
constant, and ω0 is the resonant frequency. The PR controller
has an infinite gain when the cut-off frequency is ω0 , so it
can track the AC variables without error in steady state. The
block diagram of the PR controller is shown in Fig. 2.
The bandwidth of the PR controller is insufficient, as it
can only reach large enough gain when the frequency is
close to the resonance frequency, which makes the system too
sensitive to the frequency of the input signal [21]. Therefore,
the PR controller can only achieve error-free steady-state
tracking in a short frequency range. However, motors are
usually required to work in a wide speed range at differ-
ent operating conditions in engineering applications. Obvi-
ously, the proportional resonance controller cannot meet this
requirement.
In order to suppress the fifth and seventh harmonics of
current in a wide frequency range, a quasi-proportional res-
onance (QPR) controller is adopted in this paper. Its transfer
function is as follows.
ωc s
GQPR (s) = Kp + KR (21)
s2 + 2ωc s + ω02
143891
 Z. Ruan et al.: Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual Three-Phase PMSM Drives
FIGURE 3. QPR control block diagram.
FIGURE 4. Bode diagram of PR and QPR controllers.
where ωc is the cut-off frequency. The QPR controller extends
the system bandwidth and ensures that the system works in
steady state without static error. Similarly, by transforming
the currents of the z1 z2 subspace into anti-synchronous coor-
dinates and controlling the resonant frequency point at 6ωs ,
the transfer function of the QPR controller can be changed to:
ωc s
GQPR (s) = Kp + KR 2 (22)
s + 2ωc s + (6ωs )2
The block diagram of the QPR controller is shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 4 is the Bode diagram of the PR and QPR controllers.
As shown in the figure, the response bandwidth of the QPR
controller is obviously higher than that of the PR controller.
Because of its high bandwidth characteristics, the suppression
effect for the fifth and seventh harmonic currents of the
QPR controller is greatly improved, and the sufficiently large
gain in a wide frequency range easily achieves error-free
steady-state operation.
C. CONTROL SCHEME DESCRIPTION
Based on the above analysis, the control block diagram of
the dual three-phase PMSM drive system is shown in Fig. 5.
Using the VSD model, the six-phase currents are decom-
posed into the fundamental (αβ), harmonic (z1 z2 ), and zero-
sequence (o1 o2 ) subspaces. There is no need to consider the
zero order subspace component since the neutral points of
the two windings are not connected. A double closed-loop
structure consisting of an external speed control loop and
143892
FIGURE 5. Dual Three-Phase PMSM control block diagram.
TABLE 2. Control methods of z1 z2 subspace.
an internal current control loop is used to adjust the torque
and speed in the αβ subspace. A proportional integral (PI)
controller is used for the two closed loops in the αβ subspace.
It is very important to choose appropriate control schemes
to suppress current harmonics depending on the cause of har-
monic generation. For different situations, the control meth-
ods for the harmonic (z1 z2 ) subspace currents component are
shown in Table 2.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
A simulation of the dual three-phase PMSM driving system
was set up in MATLAB / Simulink has been set up to verify
the effectiveness of the proposed methods. The parameters of
the PMSM are as follows: pole pairs p = 3, magnetic flux
ψf = 0.3wb, and power P = 5.5kW.
A. SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS OF CURRENT HARMONIC
SUPPRESSION FOR MOTOR ASYMMETRY
In order to verify the approach presented in part A of
Section III, the asymmetry was simulated by adding external
resistors in series with the stator windings.
The stator resistance of phase-A was then increased
to 4.2. In this case, the z1 -z2 currents contain both positive
and negative sequence fundamental frequency components.
VOLUME 7, 2019
Z. Ruan et al.: Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual Three-Phase PMSM Drives
FIGURE 6. Simulation results showing the effect of current harmonic suppression for motor asymmetry.
The simulation results are shown in Fig. 6. The results
without control (reference voltage set to zero) are shown
in Fig. 6(a) and Fig. 6(b). Due to asymmetry of the motor, the
z1 -z2 currents have a definite amplitude, which is also
reflected in the of the six-phase currents. Fig. 6(c) and
Fig. 6(d) show the stator currents is and the z1 -z2 currents
iz1 , iz2 obtained using the synchronous PI controller. Com-
pared with Fig. 6(a) and Fig. 6(b), it can be seen that the
amplitudes of the z1 -z2 currents decrease when using the syn-
chronous PI controller. The simulation results obtained using
the anti-synchronous PI controller are shown in Fig. 6(e) and
Fig. 6(f). Similarly, the amplitude of the z1 -z2 currents are
also reduced compared to those obtained without the current
controllers. Fig. 6(g) and Fig. 6(h) are the simulation results
of the bidirectional synchronous PI controller. In this case,
the amplitudes of the z1 -z2 currents decrease by nearly 50%.
In fact, as analyzed in part A of Section III, only one of the
positive or negative sequence components can be eliminated
VOLUME 7, 2019
by using synchronous controllers or anti-synchronous con-
trollers, but the use of the bidirectional synchronous PI con-
troller can suppress both the positive and negative sequence
current components effectively.
B. SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS OF CURRENT HARMONIC
SUPPRESSION FOR NONLINEAR FACTORS OF DRIVE
SYSTEM
To verify the results of part B of Section III, the simula-
tion results of QPR current controller in anti-synchronous
coordinates are shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 7(a) and Fig. 7(b) are
the comparison results when switching from no-z1 z2 current
controller to the QPR controller.
At 0.12s, the QPR controller is added to the motor driver
system. In Figs. 7(a) and 7(b), the stator current is becomes
nearly symmetrical, and the z1 -z2 currents iz1 and iz2 tend
to zero rapidly after adding the QPR controller. The steady
state results obtained using the QPR controller are shown
143893
 Z. Ruan et al.: Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual Three-Phase PMSM Drives

FIGURE 7. Simulation results showing current harmonic suppression effect for nonlinear factors.

FIGURE 8. FFT analysis of A-phase current.

in Fig. 7(c) and Fig. 7(d). The six-phase currents are approx-
imately sinusoidal and the z1 -z2 currents fluctuate slightly
near zero.
Fig. 8 shows the FFT analysis results of the steady current
of phase-A. The THD of the current is reduced from 18.71%
to 0.54% through the use of the QPR controller. The fifth and
seventh harmonic contents specifically are greatly reduced.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the QPR controller sup-
presses the fifth and seventh harmonic currents introduced by
the nonlinear factors of the drive system effectively.

V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

The experimental setup is shown in Fig. 9.
Experimental tests were conducted on a dual three-phase
PMSM configured with two isolated neutral points. A
5.5-kW, 380-V, 50-Hz motor was used, with a rated sta-
tor current, rated flux linkage, the pole pairs and rated
speed of 15A, 0.875mH, 3 and 1000r/min, respectively.
The motor was supplied using two single two-level voltage
FIGURE 9. The experiment platform.
source converters (VSCs). The platform consisted of a control
board, in which the control algorithm was implemented in a two inverters simultaneously, and a diode rectifier system,
TMS320F2812 DSP that can generate 12 PWMs and drive and negative sequence fundamental components of the z1 z2

143894 VOLUME 7, 2019

Z. Ruan et al.: Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual Three-Phase PMSM Drives

FIGURE 10. Experiment results without control and with synchronous PI control.

FIGURE 11. The experiment results between without control and anti-synchronous PI control.

FIGURE 12. The experiment results between without control and bidirectional synchronous PI control.

subspace by increasing the stator resistance. For case A,
The which is used to provide the DC-link voltage of 540V
supplied to the VSCs. The dual three-phase PMSM drove a
DC generator, which was connected to an adjustable power
resistor used as load.
A. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF CURRENT
HARMONIC SUPPRESSION FOR MOTOR ASYMMETRY
To verify the harmonic suppression effect of the approach
presented in part A of Section III, we simulated the positive
stator resistances of phase-A and phase-U were increased
to 4.2. As can be seen from Fig. 10 (a), the phase of iz2
leads the phase of iz1 , indicating that the positive sequence
fundamental components of the z1 -z2 currents are present,
while currents iz1 and iz2 almost coincide and fluctuate around
zero, as shown in Fig. 10(b). It can be concluded that the
positive sequence fundamental components are practically
eliminated through the use of the synchronous PI controller.
For case B, the stator resistances of phase-A, phase-B
and phase-C were increased to 4.2. It can be seen from
Fig. 11 (a) that the phase of iz2 lags the phase of iz1 , indi-
cating that the negative sequence fundamental components
of the z1 -z2 currents are present. As shown in Fig. 11(b)
and similarly to Fig. 10, the negative sequence fundamental
components are practically eliminated through the use of the
anti-synchronous PI controller.

VOLUME 7, 2019 143895

 Z. Ruan et al.: Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual Three-Phase PMSM Drives

FIGURE 13. QPR controller experiments at different motor speeds.

FIGURE 14. Dynamic experiments switching from without control to QPR control at different motor speeds.

For case C, the stator resistance of phase-A was increased
to 4.2. As shown in Fig. 12(a), in this case there is no
obvious lead or lag relation between iz1 and iz2 , indicating
that the z1 -z2 currents contain both positive and negative
fundamental components. It can be seen from Fig. 12(b)
that the positive and negative sequence fundamental fre-
quency components of the motor are practically eliminated
through the application of the bidirectional synchronous PI
controller.
Based on these results, it can be concluded that each cur-
rent controller can suppress the corresponding fundamental
components of the z1 z2 subspace for the different cases. How-
ever, single synchronous PI controllers or anti-synchronous
PI controllers cannot eliminate positive and negative current

143896 VOLUME 7, 2019

Z. Ruan et al.: Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual Three-Phase PMSM Drives
FIGURE 15. The dynamic experiments from without control switch to QPR controller.
component at the same time, so bidirectional synchronous
PI controllers are the appropriate choice in cases where the
asymmetry type of motor is unknown.
In addition, the results show that PI controllers in syn-
chronous or anti-synchronous reference frames can also
achieve good performance compared with using the bidi-
rectional synchronous PI controllers if the type of motor
asymmetry is fixed and known.
B. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF CURRENT
HARMONIC SUPPRESSION FOR NONLINEAR FACTORS OF
DRIVE SYSTEM
This section shows the experimental results obtained using
the QPR controllers discussed in part B of Section III.
Fig. 13 shows the steady experimental results of the QPR
controller when the motor is running at 300r/min, 400r/min,
500r/min and 600r/min. As shown in Fig. 13, the QPR con-
trollers can reduce the fifth and seventh harmonics of the out-
put currents at different speeds effectively. The α-β currents
are close to sinusoidal and the z1 -z2 currents are reduced to
nearly zero. It should be noted that the QPR controller can
only suppress the fifth and seventh current harmonics, so the
z1 -z2 currents still have a small magnitude.
Fig. 14 shows a comparison of experimental results
obtained when switching between no z1 -z2 current control
to QPR control. In Fig. 14, it can be seen that the dynamic
switching process is smooth at different rotational speeds,
which proves that the QPR controller has good robustness.
Compared with no z1 -z2 current control, the magnitude of the
z1 -z2 currents is reduced to nearly zero with QPR control and
the α-β current harmonics are significantly reduced.
Fig. 15 shows the results of the dynamic response with a
load step change. When the motor is running at 600r/min,
the load is suddenly changed from 0 to 15 Nm. It can be
seen from Fig. 15(a), the transition is smooth and the tracking
time is short. The electromagnetic torque follows the dynamic
variation of load torque quickly, and the speed and current
quickly respond to the change of torque.
VI. CONCLUSION
The current harmonics of the dual three-phase PMSM drive
system are divided into two categories. One is the positive
and negative components of the z1 -z2 currents caused by
VOLUME 7, 2019
the asymmetry of the motor, and the other is the fifth and
seventh harmonic currents caused by the nonlinear factors
of the drive system. Through the analysis of the estab-
lished VSD model, we conclude that controlling the z1 -z2
current components can suppress current harmonics effec-
tively. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is demon-
strated through simulations and experimental evaluation. For
harmonic suppression caused by motor asymmetry, syn-
chronous or anti-synchronous PI controllers can eliminate
positive or negative current components, but bidirectional
synchronous PI controllers can suppress positive and negative
current components simultaneously and effectively. Bidirec-
tional synchronous PI controllers are the appropriate choice
in cases where the asymmetry type of the motor is unknown.
As for the fifth and seventh current harmonics caused by
the nonlinear factors of the drive system, the QPR controller
proposed in this paper has sufficient bandwidth in a wide
frequency range. The fifth and seventh current harmonics can
be suppressed effectively, but the QPR controller acting on the
anti-synchronous coordinate cannot simultaneously suppress
positive sequence components. This will be the focus of
future research work.
REFERENCES
[1] A. S. Abdel-Khalik, R. A. Hamdy, A. M. Massoud, and S. Ahmed, ‘‘Post-
fault control of scalar (V/f) controlled asymmetrical six-phase induction
machines,’’ IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 59211–59220, 2018.
[2] S. Han, C. Liu, X. Sun, K. Diao, and J. Wu, ‘‘Investigation of static
characteristics in six-phase switched reluctance motors under different
winding connections,’’ IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 71174–71184, 2019.
[3] A. S. Abdel-Khalik, R. A. Hamdy, A. M. Massoud, and S. Ahmed,
‘‘Low-order space harmonic modeling of asymmetrical six-phase induc-
tion machines,’’ IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 6866–6876, 2019.
[4] R. Bojoi, M. Lazzari, F. Profumo, and A. Tenconi, ‘‘Digital field-oriented
control for dual three-phase induction motor drives,’’ IEEE Trans. Ind.
Appl., vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 752–760, May 2003.
[5] X. Wang, Z. Wang, Z. Xu, M. Cheng, W. Wang, and Y. Hu, ‘‘Comprehen-
sive diagnosis and tolerance strategies for electrical faults and sensor faults
in dual three-phase PMSM drives,’’ IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 34,
no. 7, pp. 6669–6684, Jul. 2019.
[6] G. Feng, C. Lai, M. Kelly, and N. C. Kar, ‘‘Dual three-phase PMSM torque
modeling and maximum torque per peak current control through optimized
harmonic current injection,’’ IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 66, no. 5,
pp. 3356–3368, May 2019.
[7] L. Shang, W. Zhu, P. Li, and H. Guo. ‘‘Maximum power point tracking
of PV system under partial shading conditions through flower pollina-
tion algorithm,’’ Protection Control Modern Power Syst., vol. 3, no. 3,
pp. 400–406, 2018.
143897
 Z. Ruan et al.: Current Harmonic Suppression for Dual Three-Phase PMSM Drives

[8] V. Dabra, K. K. Paliwal, and P. Sharma, ‘‘Optimization of photovoltaic
power system: A comparative study,’’ Protection Control Mod. Power
Syst., vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 29–39, 2017.
[9] H. S. Che, W. P. Hew, N. A. Rahim, E. Levi, M. Jones, and M. J. Duran,
‘‘A six-phase wind energy induction generator system with series-
connected DC-links,’’ in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Power Electron. Distrib.
Gener. Syst., Jun. 2012, pp. 26–33.
[10] E. Levi, ‘‘Multiphase electric machines for variable-speed applications,’’
IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 1893–1909, May 2008.
[11] A. G. Yepes, F. D. Freijedo, Ó. Lopez, and J. Doval-Gandoy, ‘‘High-
performance digital resonant controllers implemented with two integra-
tors,’’ IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 563–576, Feb. 2011.
[12] A. G. Yepes, F. D. Freijedo, J. Doval-Gandoy, O. López, J. Malvar, and
P. Fernandez-Comesaña, ‘‘Effects of discretization methods on the per-
formance of resonant controllers,’’ IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 25,
no. 7, pp. 1692–1712, Jul. 2010.
[13] R. Cárdenas, C. Juri, R. Peña, P. Wheeler, and J. Clare, ‘‘The applica-
tion of resonant controllers to four-leg matrix converters feeding unbal-
anced or nonlinear loads,’’ IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 27, no. 3,
pp. 1120–1129, Mar. 2012.
[14] L. Yuan, M.-L. Chen, J.-Q. Shen, and F. Xiao, ‘‘Current harmonics elim-
ination control method for six-phase PM synchronous motor drives,’’ ISA
Trans., vol. 59, pp. 443–449, Nov. 2015.
[15] H. S. Che, E. Levi, M. Jones, W.-P. Hew, and N. A. Rahim, ‘‘Current
control methods for an asymmetrical six-phase induction motor drive,’’
IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 407–417, Jan. 2014.
[16] C. Zhou, G. Yang, and J. Su, ‘‘PWM strategy with minimum harmonic dis-
tortion for dual three-phase permanent-magnet synchronous motor drives
operating in the overmodulation region,’’ IEEE Trans. Power Electron.,
vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 1367–1380, Feb. 2016.
[17] F. Baneira, A. G. Yepes, O. López, and J. Doval-Gandoy, ‘‘Estimation
method of stator winding temperature for dual three-phase machines based
on dc-signal injection,’’ IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 31, no. 7,
pp. 5141–5148, Jul. 2016.
[18] Y. Zhao and T. A. Lipo, ‘‘Space vector PWM control of dual three-phase
induction machine using vector space decomposition,’’ IEEE Trans. Ind.
Appl., vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 1100–1109, Sep./Oct. 1995.
[19] T. A. Lipo, ‘‘A d-q model for six phase induction machines,’’ in Proc. Int.
Conf. Elect. Mach., Athens, Greece, 1980, pp. 860–867.
[20] T. Takeshita and N. Matsui, ‘‘Current waveform control of PWM converter
system for harmonic suppression on distribution system,’’ IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 1134–1139, Dec. 2003.
[21] Z. Pan, F. Dong, J. Zhao, L. Wang, H. Wang, and Y. Feng, ‘‘Combined
resonant controller and two-degree-of-freedom PID controller for PMSLM
current harmonics suppression,’’ IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 65, no. 9,
pp. 7558–7568, Sep. 2018.
[22] J. Karttunen, S. Kallio, P. Peltoniemi, P. Silventoinen, and O. Pyrhönen,
‘‘Dual three-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine supplied by
two independent voltage source inverters,’’ in Proc. Int. Symp. Power
Electron. Power Electron., Elect. Drives, Automat. Motion, Sorrento, Italy,
Jun. 2012, pp. 741–747.
ZHIHUANG RUAN was born in 1994. He received
the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from
the Hubei University of Science and Technology,
Xiannning, China, in 2017. He is currently pursing
the M.S. degree in electrical engineering with the
School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automa-
tion, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China. His
current research interests include optimal PWM
control for power converters and motor drives.
WENXIANG SONG received the B.S. and M.S.
degrees from the China University of Mining and
Technology, Xuzhou, China, in 1995 and 1998,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the School
of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation,
Shanghai University, Shanghai, China, in 2006, all
in electrical engineering. From September 2006 to
December 2008, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar
with Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai.
From 1998 to 2002, he was with Dongfang Elec-
tronics, Yantai, China. In 2009, he joined the School of Mechatronic Engi-
neering and Automation, Shanghai University as an Associate Professor,
where he has been a Professor, since 2015. His current research interests
include AC motor control, power electronic converters, and PWM con-
verter/inverter systems.
YAN YAN received the B.S. degree in elec-
trical engineering from Zhengzhou University,
Zhengzhou, China, in 2016, and the M.S. degree in
electrical engineering from the School of Mecha-
tronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai
University, Shanghai, China, in 2019.
His current research interests include power
electronic converters, PWM control technology,
and intelligence algorithms.

143898 VOLUME 7, 2019