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Speed control and electrical braking of axial flux BLDC motor

Conference Paper · October 2017

DOI: 10.1109/CERA.2017.8343344

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Anurag Vidyadhar Khergade Sanjay Bodkhe

Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology Shri Ramdeobaba Kamla Nehru Engineering College
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 Speed Control and Electrical Braking of Axial Flux
BLDC Motor
1
Pooja Awari, 1Pankaj Sawarkar, 1Rupal Agarwal, 2Anurag Khergade, 1Sanjay Bodkhe
1
Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur, India 440013
2
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India 440010
awaripv@rknec.edu, sawarkarp@rknec.edu, agarwalr7@rknec.edu, khergadeanurag@gmail.com, bodkhesb@rknec.edu
Abstract—Axial flux brushless direct current motors
(AFBLDC) are becoming popular in many applications including
electrical vehicles because of their ability to meet the demand of
high power density, high efficiency, wide speed range, robustness,
low cost and less maintenance. In this paper, AFBLDC motor
drive with single sided configuration having 24 stator poles and
32 permanent magnets on the rotor is proposed. It is driven by
six pulse inverter that is fed from a single phase AC supply
through controlled AC to DC converter. The speed control and
braking methods are also proposed based on pulse width
modulation technique. The overall scheme is simulated in
MATLAB environment and tested under different operating
conditions. A prototype of proposed AFBLDC motor drive is
designed and fabricated. The control methods are implemented
using DSC dsPIC33EP256MC202 digital signal controller. Tests
are performed on this prototype to validate its performance at
different speeds with and without braking mode. It is observed
that the proposed scheme works effectively and can be used as
wheel direct driven motor for electrical vehicle.
Index Terms—Axial flux machine, BLDC motor, speed
control, electric braking, Hall sensor, microcontroller, permanent
magnet motor.
VI. INTRODUCTION
Axial Flux Brushless Direct Current motors are one of the
motors rapidly gaining popularity. They are used in industrial
applications such as appliances, automotive, aerospace,
consumer, medical equipment, automation and
instrumentation. As the name implies, these motors do not use
mechanical commutator and brushes for commutation, instead
they are electronically commutated. They have many
advantages over brushed DC motor and induction motors. A
few of these are: better speed versus torque characteristics,
high dynamic response, high efficiency, long operating life,
noiseless operation and higher speed range [1]. In addition, the
ratio of torque delivered to the size of the motor is higher,
making it useful in applications where space and weight are
critical factors. One of the prime reasons for above
advantages is the use of permanent magnet on the rotor due to
which both, radial flux and axial flux BLDC motors have
earned a pronounced position in existing as well as new
applications [2]-[3]. Because of high efficiency, it draws less
electrical power and imposes less stress on the power
electronic controller. In electric vehicles, shaft of the machine
is directly coupled to the wheel and gives high compactness to
978-1-5090-4874-8/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
the machine. However it requires high torque capability to
overcome stiction and to run at very low speeds [4]-[5].
AF BLDC motor can be designed as double sided or single
sided machine with internal or external rotor. Based on
mounting of permanent magnet, the rotor could be of surface
mounted type or interior type. The single sided machine
consists of single stator and single rotor. With single sided
topology it is possible to get a very high ratio between
machine diameter and length. The bearing and axel must be
properly dimensioned to withstand the axial force between two
sides. Double sided machine consists of two possible
configurations such as interior rotor and interior stator. In
interior rotor, as the rotor is between the two stators and in the
case when the distance from the rotor to each stator is equal,
the attraction forces are equilibrated, avoiding possible stress
in mechanical parts. Interior stator axial flux machines can be
configured in two ways, namely, North-North (N-N)
configuration and North-South (N-S) configuration [5]. The
axial flux motor topologies proposed in literature are mostly
double rotor with internal stator [3]. This requires more axial
space and cost. The motor proposed in this paper is of single
sided type with concentrated stator coils as discussed in
section II. This allows trapezoidal waveform of back emf in
addition to reduction of space requirement and cost.
In electrical vehicle, precise control over speed and
stopping of machine is important along with start. In order to
control the speed and acceleration as well as deceleration,
speed control method and braking is necessary. In mechanical
braking, motion is diminished by the friction applied by
brakes which is preferred during low speeds where mechanical
brake dissipated energy. The purpose of electrical braking is to
restrict the motion of the machine gradually or as desired
without wear and noise. Various speed control techniques and
braking method are proposed in literature [6]-[10]. They fall in
two categories; one is by controlling the input dc voltage and
other by controlling PWM duty cycle. In order to implement
braking, different methods are suggested by researchers such
as using additional boost converter, ultra-capacitor or by
changing the switching sequence of the inverter [7]-[10].
Reference [10] has suggested the use ultra-capacitor in place
of battery for hybrid electrical vehicle. A boost converter is
used to enable the regenerative action during braking mode in
[8]. These methods are effective, however they add to the cost
and complexity of overall drive. This limitation is addressed
by a new cost effective method which is based on modification
of switching sequence and do not use any additional converter
or ultra-capacitor [7]. However, the above methods have been
executed on radial flux type BLDC motor and none are found
implemented on AFBLDC motor.
This paper presents the proposed AFBLDC motor drive
with speed control and electrical braking implemented by
using dsPIC33EP256MC202 digital signal controller. The
braking is performed by modification of switching sequence
and do not suggest the use of additional boost converter or
ultra-capacitor. The paper is organized as follows. Section I
introduces the research motivation and existing state of
technology. Section II & III briefly describes the design and
operating principle of AFBLDC motor. Section IV presents
the proposed scheme along with speed control and braking Fig. 1. Prototype of single sided AFPM BLDC motor.
methods. Simulation and experimental results are illustrated in
section V and section VI respectively. Section VII present
conclusion.
VII. DESIGN OF AFBLDC MOTOR
Fig. 1 shows structure of proposed single rotor-single stator
AFBLDC motor [5]. Procedure of the motor design and
fabrication is based on [5]-[6].
A. Stator Design
The primary purpose of the stator is to provide a structure
that allows the flux and the current to interact and to produce
usable torque. Stator designs are of two types, one is slotted
stator design and another is slotless stator design. The slotted
stator design is associated with few disadvantages such as Fig.2. Stator design of proposed prototype
cogging. Due to saliency effect of the slotted stator it increases
the cogging torque.
A circular back plate of aluminum is used which supports
the laminated Si-steel core. The laminations are circular sheets
of 300 mm outer diameter. Twenty four concentrated coils are
fixed on the stator core. 106 turns of 20 gauge copper wire are
wound on the former to form these stator coils on T-shaped
stampings. The back Si-steel core provides a return path for
the magnetic flux. The stator coils are grouped in three single
phase circuits each consisting of eight coils connected in
series. Fig. 2 shows the disassembled view of stator. The other
details are as given below.

The number of stator coils per rotor pole per phase (Nspp),

Fig.3. Front view of rotor.

N s = N sp = 8 = 0.25
N spp = (1)
N m N ph 32
B. Rotor Design
The rotor is composed of thirty-two NdFeB permanent
The number of coils per magnet pole (Nsm), magnets alternating in polarity separated by non-magnetic
spacers which is air in this case and attached to ferromagnetic
N s 24 back iron. Rotor core or rotor back iron of Si-steel laminations
N sm = = = 0.75 (2)
is used to provide a return path for magnetic flux. It is
N m 32 supported by aluminum back plate of 300 mm diameter. Fig. 3
shows front view of rotor.
 VIII. OPERATING PRINCIPLE
To drive the motor, a six step inverter is used as shown in Fig.
4. The switches can be either MOSFET or IGBT which are
driven by gate pulses. But pulses cannot be given directly
from microcontroller to the gate of a switch because of low
magnitude. Therefore it is passed through a driver circuit. The
driver circuit involves a driver and optocoupler. Driver is used
for fast turn on and turn off of switches and optocoupler is
used to provide isolation. Fig. 5 shows the block diagram of Fig.4. Three-phase equivalent circuit of inverter fed BLDC motor.
driver circuit for a single switch. To avoid burden on
controller, buffer IC is used which strengthens the pulses
coming from controller and then this is given to the
optocoupler driver IC.
The commutation of three phase windings on the stator is
done electrically. The switching instants are decided on the
basis of rotor position identified by Hall sensors. For rotation,
the stator winding should be energized in sequence. It is
important to know the rotor position in order to understand
which winding will be energized following the energizing
sequence. The Hall Effect sensors are embedded into the stator
at 120 degrees interval on the non-driving end of the motor.
Whenever the rotor magnetic poles pass near the Hall sensors,
they generate high or low signals, indicating the North or Fig.5. Block diagram of driver circuit for single IGBT switch
South Pole as shown in Fig. 6 [1].
The switching sequence is as given in Table 1. Each
switching state has one of the windings energized to positive
power (current enters into the winding), the second winding is
negative (current exits the winding) and the third is in a non-
energized condition. Torque is produced because of the
interaction between the magnetic field generated by the stator
coils and the permanent magnets. Ideally, the peak torque
occurs when these two fields are at 90° to each other and falls
off as the fields move together. In order to keep the motor
running, the magnetic field produced by the windings should
shift position, as the rotor moves to catch up with the stator
field. The Hall sensor signal has the rising edge and the falling
edge for each phase. That is, the six trigger signals are
generated per cycle. Using these trigger signals, motor control
Fig.6. Back emfs and Hall sensor signal for each phase
is carried out.

IX. PROPOSED SCHEME Table 1. Switching Sequence

Switching Hall Sensor Switch Phase Voltage
The proposed scheme of AFBLDC motor drive is presented
sequence Ha Hb Hc Position A B C
in Fig. 7. The power electronic circuit consists of a controlled
single phase rectifier which feeds DC power to the six step
inverter. The three phase AC output of the inverter is used to 1 1 0 1 Q1 Q6 DC+ DC- OFF
drive the motor. With the help of Hall sensors the rotor 2 1 0 0 Q1 Q2 DC+ OFF DC-
position is detected and the signal that is generated from Hall 3 1 1 0 Q3 Q2 OFF DC+ DC-
sensor is given to the controller which energizes appropriate 4 0 1 0 Q3 Q4 DC- DC+ OFF
winding of the motor and it starts running at speed ωr.
5 0 1 1 Q5 Q4 DC- OFF DC+
To control the rotor speed, the output voltage of rectifier is
controlled by varying the duty cycle and applying appropriate 6 0 0 1 Q5 Q6 OFF DC- DC+
triggering pulses. The actual speed is compared with speed
command and error signal is processed by PI controller as During the motoring mode, as seen from Table 1, only two
shown in Fig. 8. The constant PI controller is selected by trial switches will conduct simultaneously. The equivalent circuit
and error. A 10kΩ potentiometer is linked up with PWM during switching state (101) is shown in Fig. 9. The
generator to vary pulse width of the signal. methodology used for electrical is based upon generation of

Fig.7. Block diagram for closed loop speed control and electrical braking of
AFBLDC motor.
Fig 8: Speed controller details.
negative torque by switching ON appropriate switch of lower
group. During braking period all upper switches of inverter are
turned OFF. The inductive energy stored in stator winding is
dissipated through the winding, lower switch and freewheeling
diode of adjacent leg [7]- [10]. Hence rotor decelerates rapidly
and stops running. The equivalent circuit during braking mode
is shown in Fig. 10. By using this braking technique, the
problem of reverse motoring during plugging is overcome.
Fig.11 shows waveform of hall sensors, back emf, switching
pulses of inverter during motoring mode and braking mode.
Fig.9. Equivalent circuit during motoring mode.
Fig.10. Equivalent circuit during braking mode.
\
Electromotive force ea
<Stator back EMF e_b (V)>
Time
Fig.11. Waveform of hall sensor, back EMF, switching pulses of inverter
during motoring mode and braking mode.
V. SIMULATION STUDY
To study the performance of proposed drive of Fig. 7 during
motoring and braking operation, simulation is carried out in
MATLAB/Simulink software. The study is carried out for
three operating conditions. They are (1) free acceleration, (2)
step change in load, and (3) forced deceleration by electrical
braking. A fixed-step ode4 (Runge-Kutta) solver with fixed
step size of 5x10-6s was used.
1. Free Acceleration:
On application of AC supply from the inverter, the motor
accelerates freely at no-load and it’s speed reaches steady state
in 0.05s. The back emf is trapezoidal due to concentrated
windings. The simulation results are shown in Fig. 12 & 13.
2. Step Change in Load:
In this case, mechanical step load of 1Nm is applied at 0.06 s
on the rotor shaft. Due to application of load on motor, the
equilibrium state between electromagnetic torque and load
torque gets altered resulting in a short time dip in actual speed.
Due to closed loop control, error between the actual speed and
reference speed activates the PI controller that provides
appropriate triggering to the six switches to reduce this speed
error. From Fig.14 & 15, it is observed that the drive takes
about 0.03 s to regain its original speed after a dip due to
application of load.
3. Electrical braking: 5000
In this case, a comparative study between two performances
was carried out. In one case, the input supply to the motor was 0

disconnected at 0.06 s and it was allowed to decelerate freely -5000

depending on its mechanical time constant. In the second case,
braking signal was applied at the same instant and deceleration 1

time was noted. This is shown in Fig. 16. It is observed that 0

the time required by the motor to come to rest when braking is
applied is about one-third to that during free deceleration. -1
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1

20
Fig.16 Variation of speed & toque during braking and free deceleration

0
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
-20 The hardware set up of proposed drive is shown in Fig. 17. It
500 includes prototype of AFBLDC motor, three phase inverter,
and dsPIC33EP256MC202 digital signal controller with hall
0 sensor circuitry. The control code was developed in MPLAB
and dumped on microcontroller by using Pikit3 dumper. The
-500
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1 performance was evaluated at three operating conditions (1)
motoring, (2) change in reference speed, (3) free deceleration
Fig.12 Stator current and back emf during free acceleration at no-load and (4) forced deceleration by electrical braking.
Stator current ia Fig. 18 presents the experimental result when the motor
4000
was excited and allowed to run freely upto 1000 rpm at no-
2000
load. The speed was then reduced to 50% by changing the
reference speed. The result is shown in Fig. 19. To test the
0 effectiveness of electrical braking, the motor was first de-
Electromotive force ea energized and allowed to decelerate freely. Thereafter, it was
50
again energized and after attaining the rated speed, electrical
0 signal was applied to the microcontroller. The difference
between deceleration times was noted. The results are
-50
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
presented in Fig. 20 and 21 respectively.

Fig.13 Rotor speed and torque during free acceleration at no-load

20

-20

500

-500
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1

Fig.14.Stator current and back emf during step change in load. Fig.17. Complete experimental set up of AFBLDC motor

4000

2000

50

-50
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1

Fig.15 Variation in speed and torque on application of load. Fig.18 Experimental result during motoring mode.

Fig.19 Experimental result during reduction in reference speed
Fig.20 Experimental result during free deceleration
Fig.21 Experimental result during forced deceleration by electrical braking
VII. CONCLUSION
This paper has proposed a simple but effective method of
speed control and braking technique for AFBLDC motor.
Prototype of a single sided, 24/32 poles, AFBLDC motor has
been designed and fabricated. The simulation results of the
proposed scheme prove its effectiveness at different operating
conditions. By using PWM technique for speed control power
loss in the switching devices is low. Speed reversal of motor
during plugging is overcome using proposed braking
technique. After performing the simulation study, a power
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electronic drive along with microcontroller based control
circuit is designed and fabricated. The experimental results
validate the effectiveness of proposed scheme.
APPENDIX
DC link voltage = 48 V
Rated Speed = 1000 rpm
Stator resistance/phase Rs = 0.50 ohm
Stator inductance/phase Ls = 0.005 H
Flux linkage established by magnets = 0.057 V.s
Torque Constant = 0.34 Nm/A
Friction factor = 0.001 Nm.s
Pole pairs = 4
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