A report on

Speed Control for BLDC Motor using PWM

Submitted
By

Gopal Gupta
2K20/PES/09

Department of Electrical Engineering,

Delhi Technological University.

Under the Guidance of

Dr. Mini Sreejeth

Department of Electrical Engineering

Delhi Technological University
Delhi-110042, India
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the Research Internship Work Report entitled “Speed Control for
BLDC motor using PWM” which is being submitted to Department of Electrical
Engineering, Delhi Technological University is a bonafide report of the work carried out
by me. The material contained in this report has not been submitted to any University or
Institution for the award of any Research Internship or Degree.

Gopal Gupta
Department of Electrical Engineering
Delhi Technological University

Place: Delhi
Date: 14/11/2021
 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the research internship project report entitled “Speed Control for
BLDC motor using PWM” submitted by Gopal Gupta, Department of Electrical
Engineering, Delhi Technological University as the record of the work carried out by him,
is accepted as research internship work report.

Digitally signed by Prof. Mini

Sreejeth
DN: cn=Prof. Mini Sreejeth,
o=Delhi Technological
University, ou=Deptt. of
Elect. Engg.,
email=minisreejeth@dce.ac.i
n, c=IN
Date: 2021.12.03 16:24:06
+05'30'
Dr. Mini Sreejeth
Mentor, MTech Project (PES)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to all those who have
helped me directly or indirectly towards the successful completion of research internship project.
I am highly obliged to Dr. Uma Nanagia, HOD Electrical and to my mentor Dr. Mini Sreejeth
for their guidance in completion of my Major Project.
 ABSTRACT
In the recent push from the Indian government to the switch towards Electric Vehicle, the large
scale application of Brushless DC Motor (BLDC) for light vehicles such as 2-wheeler has
increased. Development of motor drives has yielded increase in efficiency and reliability.
Performance factors like efficiency, higher torque at low speed and high power density are
enhanced by the usage of BLDC. Another advantage of using BLDC is that it has low maintenance
and low noise as compared to other motors. Therefore it is necessary to have a low cost, but
effective BLDC motor controller.

This report present controlling speed of BLDC motor. A general overview of why we use
BLDC motors, working, how we are designing inverter and controlling speed is discussed.
Generally, Voltage Source Inverter fed brushless DC motors are used because of its better
performance at low speed. This report also explains controlling speed of 3-phase brushless DC
(BLDC) motor using Hall sensors for rotor position detection and rotor speed. Majorly, there are
two types of control techniques for three-phase BLDC motors: 120-degree square-wave control
and 180-degree sine-wave control. We have used 120 degrees square wave commutation as it is
more preferable because control will be easy and it occupies small board area. On the Basis of
rotor position, the power devices are commutated in a sequence i.e. after every 60 degrees. For
reaching the desired level of performance the motor requires the speed controllers accordingly. In
this case of PMBLDC, speed control is achieved by using proportional-integral (PI) controller.

This work focuses on investigation and evaluation of the performance of a permanent magnet
brushless DC motor (PMBLDC) drive, controlled by PI speed controllers. The Controllers are for
the PMBLDC motor drive simulated using MATLAB software package. Further, the PI controller
will be implemented on an experimental BLDC motor set up.
 CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

CHAPTER 2 Literature Review

CHAPTER 3 3.1 BLDC Drives operation with Inverter

3.2 Rotor Position Sensors

3.3 Switches Sequences and Pulse Width Modulation

3.4 Inverter Modelling

3.5 Speed Control Block

CHAPTER 4 4.1 Simulation

4.2 Results

4.3 Discussion

CHAPTER 5 Conclusion

REFERENCES
 List of Figures and Tables

Tables:
3.1 Truth table of hall effect sensor and gate state
4.1 Motor Specifications

Figures:
3.1 Basic block diagram of BLDC motor

3.2 Brushless dc motor drive system

3.3 Hall senor sequence

3.4 Switching sequence of Hall signal and PWM.

3.5 Speed controller block diagram

3.6 Block diagram of hysteresis current controller

4.1 Simulink Model for Speed control of BLDC

4.2 Driving speed vs achieved speed

4.3 Back-Emf response of the Speed control of BLDC Model

4.4 Electromagnetic Torque and Stator Current of motor

4.5 Simulink Model for Speed control of BLDC using hysteresis control

4.6 Driving speed vs achieved speed

4.7 Electromagnetic Torque and Stator Current of motor using Hysteresis control

4.8 Electromagnetic Torque and Stator Current of motor for Speed control using PWM

4.9 Electromagnetic Torque and Stator Current of motor for hysteresis current control
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

There are numerous advantages and benefits of using Permanent Magnet in electrical machines as
compared with electromagnetic excitation machines as these are zero excitation losses which will
eventually result in higher efficiency, simplistic construction, and lower cost, reducing the overall
maintenance and produce high torque or high output power per unit volume [1]. Due to high power
to weight ratio, high torque, good dynamic control for variable speed applications, absence of
brushes and commutator make Brushless dc (BLDC) motor, best choice for high performance
applications. Due to the absence of brushes and commutator there is no problem of mechanical
wear of the moving parts [3].

Brushless DC motors were actually developed from conventional brushed DC motors with the
availability of power semiconductors. Brushless DC motors are similar to AC synchronous motors
as both these motors have permanent magnet on the rotor. The major difference which separates
them is that synchronous motors develop a sinusoidal back EMF, whereas BLDC has a trapezoidal
back EMF [2]. Both motors have stator creating rotational magnetic fields for producing torque in
a magnetic rotor. Brushless-dc motors are made out of a permanent magnet rotor that surrounds
the stator's electromagnetic coils and related control electronics.

The rotor of the motor spins as magnets in the rotor are attracted and repelled by the magnetic
fields produced by stator. The direction of motor rotation can be clockwise or counter clockwise
which can be controlled by controlling the direction of the electric

Brushed DC motors use brushes to send electric currents to coils. A motor’s rotor has coils, and a
commutator is attached on the motor shaft. The coils rotating inside magnetic fields are connected
to the commutator. The rotor coil makes contact with one brush on the power supply side as it
revolves. At this point, the commutator now reverses the current's path through the coil. For
controlling the torque. The sequence is controlled. If we compare this with BLDC motors, they do
not use any brush (i.e., mechanical contactor) or commutator to change the current direction.
Instead, BLDC motors totally depends on sensors and electronic. Brush and BLDC motors have
nearly identical current-to-torque and voltage-to-rpm correlations due to their comparable
operating principles. BLDC motors, on the other hand, have a construction that is similar to that
of alternating-current (AC) motors, therefore they offer the benefits of both DC and AC motors.
BLDC motors are compact, have a high output power, produce no internal sparks or noise from
brushes, have a long service life due to their lack of mechanical wear, and have a minimal energy
loss.

A BLDC motor revolves as a result of the interaction of its permanent magnet rotor with a
magnetic field generated when a DC voltage is connected across a set of stator coils. To maintain
rotation, the orientation of the magnetic field in the stator has to be rotated sequentially. This is
accomplished by connecting the DC voltage across the next set of stator coils as the rotor revolves.
The rotor location must be known at defined angular intervals in order to maintain synchronisation
with the revolving stator magnetic field. BLDCM motors, also known as electronically
commutated (EC) motors, are controlled by a specialised MCU and driven by a DC-to-AC power
converter.
 CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

Conventional dc motors are highly efficient and the characteristic of these motors can very well
be used for servomotors. Their sole disadvantage is that they require a commutator and brushes,
both of which are prone to wear and require maintenance. Maintenance-free motors were obtained
when the functions of the commutator and brushes were implemented by solid-state switches.
These motors are now known as brushless dc motors.

The main advantage of having a BLDC over a DC motor is that it does not have brushes due to
which it is wear and tear proof. Other advantages of BLDC over an induction motor and DC motor
[4] are that:

• Size is compact
• High efficiency
• High energy density
• Controllability is better
• Quite operation
• Longer life
• Requirement of maintenance is low

The interaction of a permanent magnet rotor with a magnetic field produced when a DC voltage
is applied across a set of stator coils causes a BLDC motor to rotate. The magnetic field in the
stator must be rotated in a sequential manner to maintain rotation. The DC voltage is connected
across the next set of stator coils as the rotor rotates to achieve this. The rotor location must be
known at defined angular intervals in order to maintain synchronisation with the revolving stator
magnetic field. BLDCM motors, also known as electronically commutated (EC) motors, are
controlled by a specialised MCU and driven by a DC-to-AC power converter. By controlling the
commutation of six switching elements of inverter [6], the DC bus voltage can be applied across
any combination of two stator coils of the BLDCM and we are controlling the speed of this motor
by using closed loop feedback system and by using hysteresis current controller for controlling
torque.
The control algorithm for a DC brushed motor is more sophisticated. The rotor position data must
be detected by BLDC, and the correct commutation must be made. There are two types of methods:
sensored and sensorless. The sensored technique, which is the simplest, requires position sensors,
such as Hall Effect sensors, to determine optimum time for rotor commutation. Sensorless
methods, which do not require a position sensor, but do necessitate a higher-performance
processor, more software routines, and more memory consumption [7]. The sensorless solution,
of course, lowers the cost of the position sensors. On the contrary, the expense is offset by
disadvantages such as: (a) Back-EMF requires a motor to rotate at a low speed to generate, making
the sensorless technique unsuitable for low-speed applications. (b)When the motor load varies
rapidly, the back-EMF is generated, which the driving loop may misinterpret and cause out of lock
[8]. For these reasons I am implementing trapezoidal sensored control.

A trapezoidal drive approach [9] is used to switch the BLDC using Hall Effect sensors. The initial
rotor position data detection and management of commutation after switching to closed loop
control are handled by Hall Effect sensors. The current is measured via the shunt resistor, with
conversion occurring in the midst of the PWM duty cycle. Because the difference in mechanical
degrees between two commutation signals is 60 degrees, it is easy to compute the speed of the
motor with the passing mechanical degrees per elapsed time using the speed feedback from Hall
Effect sensors. The PI controller receives feedback from the speed information.
 CHAPTER 3

3.1. Introduction

A brush less dc motor is defined as a permanent synchronous machine with rotor position
feedback. The brushless motors are generally controlled using a three phase power semiconductor
bridge. The motor requires a rotor position sensor for starting and for providing proper
commutation sequence to turn on the power devices in the inverter bridge. Based on the rotor
position, the power devices are commutated sequentially every 60 degrees. Instead of
commutating the armature current using brushes, electronic commutation is used for this reason it
is an electronic motor. This eliminates the problems associated with the brush and the commutator
arrangement, for example, sparking and wearing out of the commutator brush arrangement,
thereby, making a BLDC more rugged as compared to a dc motor.

The basic block diagram of brushless dc motor is as shown Fig.3.1.The brush less dc motor
basically consist of four main parts which are power converter for feeding power to motor,
permanent magnet-synchronous machine (PMSM) sensors like hall sensors and speed sensor to
give inputs to the controller, and control algorithm to give switching pulse to power converter in
accordance to the desired speed and power. The structure of the control algorithms determines the
type of the brush less dc motor of which there are two main classes voltage source based drives
and current source based drives.

Both voltage source and current source based drive used with permanent magnet synchronous
machine with either sinusoidal or non-sinusoidal back emf waveforms

Power Converter BLDC

Control Algorithm Sensors

Fig.3.1. Basic block diagram of BLDC motor

3.2. BLDC drives operation with Inverter

A three phase two level inverter powers the BLDC motor. A speed controller block injects the
PWM gating signals for firing the power semiconductor devices in the inverter, which is essential
to keep the current constant within the 600 interval of one electrical revolution of the rotor. Within
the hysteresis band surrounding the reference currents, it governs the actual current. Depending
on the steady state operating mode, a reference current generator generates the reference currents.
The reference currents are in the shape of a quasi square wave. The reference torque is used to
compute the magnitude of the reference current.

The reference torque is obtained by limiting the output of the PI controller. The PI controller
receives the speed error signal, which is the difference between the reference and actual speed of
the motor. The motor will drive at reference speed due to the presence of an outer speed feedback
loop, which is a closed loop control drive system.

Basically it is an electronic motor and requires a three-phase inverter in the front end as shown in
Fig.3.2. In self control mode the inverter acts like an electronic commutator that receives the
switching logical pulse from the absolute position sensors. The drive is also known as an electronic
commutated motor.[11]

Fig.3.2. Brushless dc motor drive system

3.3. Rotor position sensors
As discussed earlier, unlike the DC motor, BLDC motor commutation is done electronically. A
sequence has to be followed to energize the stator winding for rotating the BLDC motor. This
makes us important to know about the rotor position to be able to energize the winding in sequence.
Rotor position is sensed using the hall effect sensor which is embedded into stator. Before we
move ahead we need to know about the hall effect [12]. The sensorless control would need
estimation of rotor position from the voltage and current signals, which are easily sensed [5].

Hall Effect Theory: When a magnetic field is applied to an electric current carrying conductor, the
magnetic field exerts a transverse strain on the moving charge carriers, pushing them to one side
of the conductor. A thin flat conductor is the best example of this. The magnetic influence will be
balanced by a build-up of charge on the conductor's sides, resulting in a detectable voltage between
the conductor's two sides. Hall effect refers to the presence of a measurable transverse voltage.

Hall Effect sensors give a portion of the data required to synchronize motor excitation with rotor
position and provide constant torque. It detects variations in the magnetic field. The hall sensors
are triggered by the rotor magnets. A TTL-compatible pulse with sharp edges is produced by a
signal conditioning circuit integrated with a hall switch. On the stator frame, three hall sensors are
attached, each 120 degrees apart. The rotor location is sensed via information from hall sensors.

Fig3.3. Hall senor sequence [11]

3.4. Switches Sequence and Pulse Width Modulation
Before starting the motor, rotors position data as first input need to be gathered by Hall effect
sensors. After that, Table I. shows the switches sequence should follow. All the switches sequence
must be controlled properly so that the current flow to the correct phase winding. As the six timing
sequences, the trapezoidal control also called six steps control. In the Figure 3.4, the switches
sequence and corresponding conduction phase of each winding is more clearly. In this method,
the PWM applied on high side and lower side, the PWM duty controls the quantity of the current
flows to the DMC, the wider the PWM duty, the faster BLDC spinning.[10]

Table 3.1. TRUTH TABLE OF HALL EFFECT SENSORS AND GATE STATE
Hall Input Phase A Phase B Phase C
Time
U V W SW1 SW2 SW3 SW4 SW5 SW6
1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0
2 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0
3 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0
4 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
5 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0
6 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

Figure 3.4. Switching sequence of Hall signal and PWM.

3.5. 3 Phase Inverter Modelling

The input voltage for the three phases of the BLDC motor is fed by the inverter as shown in fig.3.2.
the inverter consists of two MOSFET of each leg. Based the input from the hall sensor as discussed
above the MOSFET are fired. Three phases are commutated for every 600. As the sensors are
direct fed back of the rotor positions, synchronization between the rotor flux and stator flux is
achieved.

3.6. Speed Controller Block

Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller is most common block that is being used in
simulation. In fig. 3.5 the speed controller block diagram has been given where we are taking the
difference between the actual speed which we are getting from our motor and the desired speed
creating an speed error. We feed this speed error as an input to the PI controller to create a duty
cycle. Kp and Ki have been determined by hit and trial method.[13]

Fig.3.5. Speed controller block diagram

3.7. Hysteresis Current Controller Modelling

The block diagram of hysteresis current controller shown in Fig.3.6 generates the switching signals
for the three phase inverter. The input currents, Iu, Iv, Iw are measured and compared with the
reference currents, Iu*, Iv*, Iw*. The error is fed to a comparator with a predetermined hysteresis
band. When the current attempts to exceed a set value with regard to the desired current switching
signals to the power semiconductor devices (S1 ON and S2 OFF) occurs. The reverse switching
(S1 OFF and S2 ON) occurs when the current attempts to become less than the reference current.
If ΔIu >H , S1 is on and S2 is off and If ΔIu <L , S1 is off and S2 is on. Where ΔIu=Iu*-Iu and H,
L are the upper and lower limits of hysteresis band. Thus, by regulating the current desired quasi-
square waveforms can be obtained.

Fig.3.6. Block diagram of hysteresis current controller

 CHAPTER 4
Results and Discussions
4.1. Simulation
This simulation was carried out using MATLAB SIMULINK. The simulation model of speed
control of BLDC is developed and shown. The Simulink consists of star connected PMBLDC, 3-
phase inverter, PWM and controller. The specification of motor used is provided below. For speed
control loop, European-15 driving speed cycle is given as the reference speed.

Table 4.1 Motor Specifications

Motor Parameter Value
Input DC Voltage 72V
Stator Resistance 2.875 ohm
Stator Inductance 8.5e-3 H
Rated Torque 2.5 N-m
Pole Pair 4

Simulink Model for the Speed Control of BLDC in fig.4.1. is shown where we have taken a battery
of 72V, 3.6 kWh is taken. Then we have taken to 3 phase inverer to run the motor. Motor
specifications are given above in the table 4.1. the switching of the inverter is based on the
switching pulses generated by the controller which used the rotor speed and the hall sensors to
know the correct position of the rotor. A driving cycle pattern is giving for reference. The rotor
speed is in rad/sec so this is converted to rpm. After this error speed is taken fed to PI controller.
Kp and ki vales are taken on trial and error basis. Output from the PI is fed to PWM to generate
pulses. We compare these pulses with the hall sensor pulses generated to give the switching to the
inverter.

Fig4.1. Simulink Model for Speed control of BLDC

4.2. Results
At European-15 driving cycle, the simulation is done and the results obtained were satisfying.
Fig.4.2. shows the driving speed given and the speed we obtained.

Fig.4.2. Driving speed vs achieved speed

Fig.4.3 shows trapezoidal back emf of all the phases response of the simulation model. It can be
observed that we are getting perfect trapezoidal shape for back EMF.

Fig.4.3. Back-Emf response of the Speed control of BLDC Model

Fig.4.4. shows the electromagnetic torque and stator current for the BLDC motor. But here we can
observe the ripples in the electromagnetic torque and stator current. Which will not deliver us a
smooth driving experience.

Fig.4.4. Electromagnetic Torque and Stator Current of motor

To solve the problem of ripples we obtained in previous model, we went for the hysteresis control.
Fig.4.5. shows the hysteresis current control Simulink model for speed model of BLDC motor.

Fig.4.5. Simulink Model for Speed control of BLDC using hysteresis control

The speed obtained is shown in 4.6. which seems to be same but the ripples on zooming the curve
shows that it has reduced significantly. Vehicle maintains the speed pretty well.

Fig.4.6. Driving speed vs achieved speed

The electromagnetic torque and stator response obtained from the hysteresis current control of
BLDC motor is shown in Fig.4.7. here we can see the ripples are more smoothened out.

Fig.4.7. Electromagnetic Torque and Stator Current of motor using Hysteresis control
4.3. Discussion
To show the proper outcome of the control strategies I have shown up curve of both the techniques
used. Zoomed up curves in Fig.4.8 show the ripples in the electromagnetic torque and stator
current for speed control using PWM. These need to be rectified so moved towards hysteresis
current control. Fig.4.9 clearly shows ripples are quite smoothened out and looks good.

Fig.4.8. Electromagnetic Torque and Stator Current of motor for Speed control using PWM

Fig.4.9. Electromagnetic Torque and Stator Current of motor for hysteresis current control
 CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION

BLDC motor is now widely being used for 2 wheeler and other high performance application
because it is very much efficient, maintenance is low, high torque in low speed range and less
noisy as compared with other motors.

We have achieved estimated speed calculated from rotor similar to the actual driving cycle speed
and hence we can conclude that this model worked.

The proposed was able to minimise the ripple in the torque and stator current enhancing the overall
performance.

We were able to trace the trapezoidal back EMF from the stator which shows the operation was
successful.

The results show that the dynamic performance of the motor is quite satisfactory.

Future Work
My future will be improving the overall performance of the model and further implementing it on
hardware. Implementing on hardware I would check the real world performance of the motor
under different loading condition. I would be analysing speed limits for efficient running of
electric vehicle.
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