4874 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 57, NO.
5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
Four-Module Three-Phase PMSM Drive for
Suppressing Vibration and Common-Mode Current
Dong Jiang , Senior Member, IEEE, Kang Liu, Zicheng Liu , Member, IEEE, Qiyuan Wang, Zhongxiang He,
and Ronghai Qu , Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—Pulsewidth modulation (PWM) is a determining fac-
tor for the vibration and common-mode (CM) current for motor
drives. Using parallel inverters to drive multiwindings motor can
bring control freedoms to cancel torque ripples and CM voltage,
which would mitigate vibration and CM current. To achieve both
goals, a four-module permanent magnet synchronous motor drive
has been developed. Then, the carrier phase-shift together with
zero CM PWM strategy was proposed to reduce the vibration and
CM current. Two kinds of motor winding phase-shift arrangement
can be designed for this kind of motor, with corresponding PWM
strategies to reduce vibration and CM current together. Compari-
son has been done for these two kinds of motors with experimental
results.
Index Terms—Carrier phase shift, common mode current, four-
module motor vibration, pulsewidth modulation (PWM).
I. INTRODUCTION
OTOR drive systems are now widely used in many
M different occasions, and the requirements for the system
are also different. For example, when the power level breaks
through the withstand capability of the switching device, one
way is to use a parallel connection of switching devices, another
way is to use a parallel inverter to drive a multiphase motor or
multimodule motor to increase capacity [1], [2]. Comparing with
paralleled-switching-devices, which is only with power rating
increasing capability, the motor driven by paralleled inverters
has more optimization freedoms to improve the motor perfor-
mance. For this reason, paralleled inverter is preferable [3]–[5].
In applications such as electric propulsion and high-precision
machine tools, there are high requirements for vibration and
Manuscript received December 8, 2020; revised March 11, 2021; accepted
April 27, 2021. Date of publication June 2, 2021; date of current version
September 16, 2021. This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under Projects 52077088 and 51707007. Paper 2020-
IDC-1685.R1, presented at the 2020 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and
Exposition, Detroit, MI, USA, Oct. 11–15, and approved for publication in
the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Industrial Drives
Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society.(Corresponding author:
Zicheng Liu.)
Dong Jiang and Zicheng Liu are with the School of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074,
China (e-mail: jiangdong.tsinghua@gmail.com; liuzc_thu@163.com).
Kang Liu, Qiyuan Wang, Zhongxiang He, and Ronghai Qu are with the
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China (e-mail:
kang_liu_ami@163.com; qiyuan_wang@hust.edu.cn; 237632488@qq.com;
ronghaiqu@hust.edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more figures in this article are available at https:
//doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2021.3085542.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2021.3085542
0093-9994 © 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Institute of Technology (Ropar). Downloaded on December 17,2021 at 14:19:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
common-mode (CM) current. Motor vibration will influence the
noise and reliability of the system. It usually comes from two
sources which are the motor structure and the electromagnetic
torque ripples. CM current will not only make the electromag-
netic interference (EMI) problem more complex, but also flow
through the insulation materials and bearing of the motor and
impair the reliability of the motor system.
The vibration suppression of the motor system can be roughly
divided into two ideas. One is to optimize the design of the motor
body such as optimizing the pole slot matching, inclined grooves
and inclined magnetic poles [6], permanent magnet forming
[7], and other methods. The other is to optimize the current
excitation. The current harmonics introduced by the inverter will
generate electromagnetic force at the corresponding frequency,
which is a direct excitation source of electromagnetic vibration.
The high-frequency vibration near the switching frequency is
more sensitive to the human ear, so it is also a part that cannot
be ignored. The authors in [8] and [10] have carried out a system-
atic carrier phase shift analysis on the strong-coupling double-
three-phase motor with a common slot winding structure. The
high-frequency vibration noise of the motor is optimized, but
a coupled inductor must be used. For multimodule motors, the
coupling of the windings between the modules is analyzed in
[11]. In terms of the analysis methods, most of the current
research focuses on the effect of electromagnetic radial force on
motor vibration, because the value of electromagnetic tangential
force is small. However, the literature [12] pointed out that the
tangential electromagnetic force and vibration are structurally
related. And tangential force is the source of motor torque, which
affects the vibration of the entire Motor bench system. With
dual-three-phase motor, two groups of three-phase windings can
generate torque and add together. With carrier phase-shift PWM
for two groups of three-phase windings, the certain torque ripple
harmonics can be canceled out and vibration can be reduced [13].
The PWM strategy of the voltage source leads to the gener-
ation of the CM voltage, and then the CM current is generated
through the CM stray loop [14], [15], which is the most important
cause of CM EMI noise interference in the frequency range of
several kHz to tens of MHz. Current methods of suppressing
CM currents can be divided into two categories. The first one
is to block the noise current conduction path. Adding a com-
mon mode filter is an effective method, but reduces the system
power density [16]–[18]. The other one is the active suppression
method from the noise source. In contrast, the active suppression
method based on the improved PWM modulation strategy has
JIANG et al.: FOUR-MODULE THREE-PHASE PMSM DRIVE FOR SUPPRESSING VIBRATION AND COMMON-MODE CURRENT
no additional hardware requirements and lower cost, and has
become a research hotspot for suppressing common mode noise.
For example, in two-level three-phase VSI, AZSPWM (active
zero state PWM) and NSPWM (near state PWM) schemes can
be deduced from the typical SVPWM (space vector PWM).
These methods avoid the use of zero vectors [19]–[21], so that
maximum CMV amplitude can be reduced. But in theory, CMV
cannot be completely eliminated in regular two-level inverter-
based motor drive. Therefore, the effect is with limitation.
In order to further reduce CM current, more control freedoms
need to be brought into the inverter topology. Paralleled VSIs
with six phase-legs can obtain zero CM voltage theoretically
[22]. Based on similar concept, multiphase motors with six
phase-legs inverter can also be controlled with zero CM voltage.
Especially for symmetrical two-module three-phase motors, the
inverse phase of the carrier or the complementary of the voltage
vector makes the output voltages of the bridge arms of each two
phases cancel each other out, and finally the common mode
voltage can be eliminated [23], [24]. For the asymmetrical
even-phase motors, the CM voltage can also be eliminated
according to the symmetry of the CM voltage volt-second area
corresponding to each set of three phases [25]. The realization
of zero CM voltage in the even-phase motor system greatly
suppresses the generation of CM current.
In these discussions, the motor vibration or CM EMI can
be mitigated by the utilization of novel PWM techniques on
modified topologies. The motor with two groups of three-phase
windings can be controlled for either vibration reduction by
torque ripple cancellation or CM current reduction by CM
voltage cancellation. However, none of the methods can ob-
tain the cancellation of torque ripple and CM voltage together.
Therefore, the existing technology of dual-three-phase motor
drive is lacking the capability to achieve reduction of vibration
and CM EMI at the same time.
To mitigate motor vibration and CM EMI together, the free-
dom of dual-three-phase motor is not enough. But to increase
the freedoms to four groups of three-phase windings, there
is a possibility to actively combine both mitigation methods
together. In this article, the modulation scheme based on the
four-module motor provides sufficient freedom for torque ripple
and common mode current suppression. From the perspective
of modulation, a scheme that meets the both requirements at
the lowest cost is discussed in this article, and the advantages
and disadvantages of different methods under different working
conditions are compared [26].
In this article, the design and control of the four-module
motor is introduced in Section II. The principle of CM current
suppression and vibration mitigation are discussed in Sections
III and IV, respectively. Combining the both methods together,
experimental results can prove the mitigation of vibration and
CM current together in Section V. The conclusions are summa-
rized in Section VI.
II. DESIGN AND CONTROL OF FOUR-MODULE MOTOR
As discussed in the first part, some PWM methods are applied
to the two sets of three-phase windings in the motor to achieve
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Institute of Technology (Ropar). Downloaded on December 17,2021 at 14:19:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
4875
Fig. 1. Armature reaction of proposed four-modules motor.
vibration reduction or CM current suppression. In order to obtain
both effects together, four groups of three-phase windings are
needed for the motor. In this part, a four-module PM motor and
its controller are introduced.
A. Modular Design
Depending on the modularity of the poles and slots, the
traditional three-phase motor can be adapted into motors with
several three-phase modules. The PMSM designed in this article
for electric propulsion is originally modified from a three-phase
motor. The motor has 48 slots and 8 poles. According to the
classic winding theory, the motor has four repeating units. So it
can be used as a four-module motor.
By reasonably reducing the overlap of windings in the stator,
each group of three-phase windings is regarded as a basic unit.
The magnetic field distribution diagram during the armature
reaction is shown in Fig. 1, and the rated current is supplied to
the phase A1 of one module. It can be seen that there are very few
magnetic lines passing through the phase A of other modules,
which proves that the magnetic circuit coupling between the
modules is very small. It can be obtained by simulation that the
self-inductance of phase A1 is 3.011 mH, the mutual inductance
of phase A1 and A2 is 0.037 mH, the mutual inductance of phase
A1 and A3 is 0.018 mH, and the mutual inductance of phase A1
and A4 is 0.037 mH. Mutual inductance accounts for about 1.5%
of each phase’s self-inductance.
The reason for emphasizing the coupling relationship between
modules is that mutual inductance between modules is not
desired. If the mutual inductance is too large, the control of each
module will not be independent. For example, in a multimodule
motor with strong coupling, the asynchronous modulation will
cause circulating current between the windings, which must be
suppressed by external coupled inductor. But using the motor
structure in this article, there is no need to add any other
equipment.
4876 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 57, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
Fig. 2. EMF star vector of reverse winding connection. (a) Three-phase
winding. (b) Traditional 4 sets of 3-phase windings. (c) Proposed 4 sets of
3-phase windings.
B. Winding Connection
For traditional three-phase motors, 16-slot windings are con-
nected in series or parallel to form a phase of windings. But for a
four-module motor, 16 slots need to be divided into 4 parts. Each
one is a phase winding. The nearest three-phase symmetrical
winding forms a module. Then according to the selection of
the neutral point, the phase of the back EMF is determined.
The four-module PMSM with reversed windings studied in this
article can be transformed step by step according to Fig. 2.
According to the reversed winding connection method, the
back EMF of each winding has complementary phases. The back
electromotive force of winding A1 B1 C1 and winding A2 B2 C2
is opposite and can be regarded as a group of complementary
units. Similarly, winding A3 B3 C3 and winding A4 B4 C4 are the
second group of complementary units.
The strategy of grouping each two sets of windings can be
extended to 2N (N is a natural number greater than or equal
to 2) number of modules. The object studied in this article is a
four-module motor with N = 2.
Take the phase A1 as the d-axis, and select the coordinate
transformation matrix of the d–q coordinate system as the con-
stant amplitude transformation matrix
abc
Cdq = diag (C11 , C22 , C33 , C44 )
when
 
2 cos θ cos (θ − 120◦ ) cos (θ + 120◦ )
Cii =
3 − sin θ − sin (θ − 120◦ ) − sin (θ + 120◦ )
i = 1, 2, 3, 4.
Since the phase of the back EMF of A2 B2 C2 and A4 B4 C4
is opposite to the d-axis, the related variables after coordinate
transformation are all negative. Its model in the d–q coordinate
system is shown in the following:
ψ f dq
dq =Ldqidq + ψ
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Institute of Technology (Ropar). Downloaded on December 17,2021 at 14:19:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Fig. 3. Space vector control of four-module motor.
 dq = Rsidq + d ψ
U dq .
dq + ωr Dψ (3)
dt
In (2) and (3)
 
 dq = Ud1 Uq1 −Ud2 −Uq2 Ud3 Uq3 −Ud4 −Uq4 T
U
 T
dq = ψd1 ψq1 −ψd2 −ψq2 ψd3 ψq3 −ψd4 −ψq4
ψ
 
idq = id1 iq1 −id2 −iq2 id3 iq3 −id4 −iq4 T
Ldq= diag (Ld1 , Lq1 , . . . , Ld4 , Lq4) , D=diag (−1, 1, . . . , −1, 1).
The electromagnetic torque is
⎡ ⎤
ψ (i −i + iq3 −iq4 ) + (Ld1 −Lq1 ) id1 iq1
3 ⎣ f q1 q2 ⎦.
Te = p + (Ld2 −Lq2 ) id2 iq2 + (Ld3 −Lq3 ) id3 iq3
2
+ (Ld4 −Lq4 ) id4 iq4
(4)
C. Control Framework
Although the winding structure of the multimodule motor is
more complicated, the control method is almost the same as
the traditional three-phase motor. For the four-module motor
shown in Fig. 2(c), and even more modules, a modular control
framework in Fig. 3 is proposed in this article. This control
scheme divides every two sets of windings into one group, which
is called complementary unit.
All control loops have only one speed regulator. Because the
inductance and resistance of the complementary unit are very
close, the currents of the windings are similar under the same
voltage excitation. In this way, the complementary unit only
(1) needs one set of current loops. The advantage of using the same
voltage command is to ensure that the common mode voltage is
zero during modulation.
Fig. 4 shows the relationship between modulation and control.
For a multimodule motor, the complementary unit can be mod-
ulated by RWPWM, and then the carrier phase shift strategy can
be implemented between the units. It can be seen that modulation
is only the last step in the realization of the control algorithm.
When the carrier ratio of PWM is large, changing the modulation
strategy has little effect on control.
Compared with traditional control methods, the control archi-
tecture proposed in this article mainly adjusts the modulation
(2) part. By controlling the action of the switching devices in the
JIANG et al.: FOUR-MODULE THREE-PHASE PMSM DRIVE FOR SUPPRESSING VIBRATION AND COMMON-MODE CURRENT
Fig. 4. Sequence of control algorithm and modulation algorithm.
Fig. 5. Common mode voltage and common mode current.
parallel inverter, the performance of the system at the switch-
ing frequency is improved. No matter what the motor control
algorithm is, as long as the closed-loop part can output a voltage
control vector or a modulation wave, the modulation strategy in
this article can be effective.
III. COMMON MODE CURRENT SUPPRESSION
When the inverter uses PWM to drive the motor, since the
three-phase instantaneous voltage is always asymmetric, there
will be a high-frequency CM voltage.
A. Generation of Common Mode Current
As shown in Fig. 5, due to the compact structure, there are
stray capacitances in the windings of the motor, between the
stator and the rotor, and its common mode impedance is low in
the high-frequency domain. Therefore, the high-frequency CM
voltage generated by the inverter will produce the CM current
in drive system. The high-frequency CM current will circulate
through the earth as a loop. More importantly, the CM current
will circulate through the bearing, causing electric corrosion,
which seriously threatens the life of the bearing.
To suppress the generation of CM current, it is mainly con-
sidered from the two aspects of CM loop and CM voltage
generation. At present, the research on the common mode loop
is almost the same. The method of increasing the common mode
impedance in the motor requires a high price and the effect is
limited. Since the CM impedance is different at each frequency,
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Institute of Technology (Ropar). Downloaded on December 17,2021 at 14:19:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
4877
the CM current depends not only on dv/dt, but also on the ampli-
tude and duration of the CM voltage. The latter is very important
for common mode current at medium frequencies. So this article
proposes a modulation method applied to multimodule motors to
reduce the CM current by suppressing the system’s CM voltage.
In the traditional three-phase drive system, the common mode
voltage is expressed as
1
Vcm = (VAO + VBO + VCO ) (5)
3
where VAO , VBO , VCO can be Vdc /2 or –Vdc /2. The total
mode voltage contributed by the three-phase bridge arm in this
equation cannot be zero or remain unchanged during operation.
Therefore, the number of bridge arms must be increased to an
even number, for example, 12 bridge arms. Then the common
mode voltage is expressed as
1
Vcm = 12 (VA1O + VA2O +VA3O + VA4O + VB1O + VB2O
+VB3O + VB4O + VC1O + VC2O + VC3O + VC4O ).
(6)
B. Common Mode Voltage Elimination PWM
It is not difficult to see from Fig. 5 that each bridge arm
contributes to the CM voltage. For SVPWM of a three-phase
motor in Fig. 6(a), CMV is always changing according to the
switch state. The sum of the voltages of the three bridge arms
can never be zero, so the number of bridge arms needs to be
expanded.
In order to achieve a common mode voltage of 0 in the
complementary unit, it is necessary to make the voltage between
the bridge arms always reverse. There are two main ideas in this
regard.
One method is called zero common mode modulation [21],
[23] (ZCMPWM). This method was originally mainly used
in three-phase load topologies with coupled inductors, so two
parallel inverters only use one voltage vector plane. As shown
in Fig. 6(b), the V1 and V2 are redefined here. When the basic
vector V1 is maintained, the switch shape of one set of inverters is
100, and the other set must be 101. This mode is also used for V2
and zero vectors. The target voltage vector Vref is decomposed
on a new vector plane with zero common mode. Calculate the
time that the basic vectors V1 and V2 need to be maintained in
one switching cycle, and output a zero vector for the remaining
time. When the inverter works in Area I, the bridge arm voltages
of VSI-1 and VSI-2 are always complementary
Another method is to use the reversed winding connection
method as in Fig. 2(c). The target voltage vector Vref at this time
is different for different windings, and the two are completely
opposite. Therefore, the switch states of VSI-1 and VSI-2 can
be directly opposite. This can also maintain CMV at 0 at any
time. The space vector coordinate system is shown in Fig. 6(c).
This method is called reverse winding pulsewidth modulation
(RWPWM) in this article. For multimodule motors, the cost of
winding reconnection is not high. Therefore, RWPWM with
high modulation ratio is more suitable for multimodule motor
drive.
4878 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 57, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
Fig. 6. Space vector coordinate system and the CMV of (a) SVPWM, (b) ZCMPWM, and (c) RWPWM.
Fig. 7. Relationship between bridge arm voltage and current polarity during
dead time. (a) Same polarity of phase current. (b) Opposite polarity of phase
current.
When the switching device enters the dead time, the voltage
of the bridge arm will be clamped to the positive bus or the
negative bus. As shown in Fig. 7, this is related to the polarity
of the phase current flowing through the bridge arm at this time.
When using ZCMPWM or RWPWM, only two bridge arms will
always enter the dead time at the same time.
If the two bridge arms entering the dead time have the same
phase current polarity, the contribution of the bridge arms to
the common mode voltage is no longer complementary, and the
CMV will not be zero. When the current is close to 0, this CM
voltage glitch will be more serious.
In theory, both ZCMPWM and RWPWM can eliminate the
CM voltage, but the principle of elimination is different. The A1
bridge arm of the VSI-1 always acts simultaneously with the B2
or C2 bridge arm of the VSI-2 to maintain the balance of CMV.
However, the polarity of the phase current of B2 or C2 at this
time is not necessarily opposite, resulting in the destruction of
the common mode balance condition during the dead time. From
this perspective, RWPWM performs better in dead time. Because
in RWPWM, the amplitude of the A1 phase and the A2 phase are
always the same, but the polarity is opposite. Therefore, even in
the dead time, the switch device always meets the zero common
mode condition.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Institute of Technology (Ropar). Downloaded on December 17,2021 at 14:19:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
In addition, due to the different ON/OFF characteristics of the
switching devices, the CM voltage will briefly appear as a glitch.
However, compared with the traditional SVPWM, its impact on
the common mode current has been greatly reduced, and the
effect of using RWPWM will be better.
IV. VIBRATION SUPPRESSION
To analyze the electromagnetic vibration in the motor, the
source of the vibration must be clarified. It is generally be-
lieved that, in addition to mechanical reasons, electromagnetic
excitation force is the main source of vibration in motors. The
formation of electromagnetic force has both structural reasons
and control reasons. In this article, the characteristics of torque
ripple are considered to be improved through control. Torque
ripple is the excitation source of the torsional vibration of the
motor. When the motor is running, it is often integrated with the
load. The high-frequency torsional force caused by the torque
ripple will not only act on the load side, but also on the entire
motor bench. Therefore, torque ripple is also one of the sources
of motor vibration.
Regardless of the end effect, the motor is reduced to a 2-D
plane for processing. The electromagnetic torque can be ex-
pressed as
Tem (t) = Llength r2 ft (θ, t) dθ
Llength
= r2 Bn (θ, t) Bt (θ, t) dθ
μ0
= Tav + T̃1 + T̃2 + T̃3 + T̃4 . (7)
At this time, the path of torque integration is a circle with
radius r along the air gap. θ is the motor position angle, μ0 is
the air permeability, Bn (θ, t) is the radial magnetic flux density,
JIANG et al.: FOUR-MODULE THREE-PHASE PMSM DRIVE FOR SUPPRESSING VIBRATION AND COMMON-MODE CURRENT 4879

Fig. 8. Carrier phase shift modulation.

and Bt (θ, t) is the tangential magnetic flux density. Llength is the

effective length of the rotor. To simplify the analysis, the torque
can be divided into several parts. Tav represents the average
electromagnetic torque of the motor. The next four components
represent the electromagnetic torque pulsation related to the Fig. 9. Principle of suppression of high-frequency electromagnetic torque.
switching frequency of the four modules.
Equation (7) shows that the electromagnetic torque is the stator winding can be expressed as
integral of the electromagnetic force in space. In the following
ia1 = I1 cos ω0 t+
analysis, the main focus is on the torque ripple affected by the 
∞ 
+∞
(10)
electromagnetic force of the switching frequency. Imn sin nπ π
3 sin(m + n) 2 cos (mωc t + ωn t)
From the perspective of the source, the radial magnetic flux m=1 n=−∞

density and tangential magnetic flux density can be expressed
as the product of magnetomotive force and permeance Λ(θ).
The magnetomotive force includes permanent magnetomotive
force FPM (θ, t) and armature magnetomotive force Fa (θ,
t). Obviously, only the armature magnetomotive force can be
where I1 is the amplitude of fundamental current, and Imn is the
nth current harmonic amplitude of the m sideband. ω c is carrier
angular frequency. For windings with carrier phase shifting
ia3 = I1 cos ω0 t+

changed by controlling the PWM modulation Therefore, the
electromagnetic force generated by the armature magnetomotive
force is the key factor to reduce torque ripple
B(θ, t) = (FP M (θ, t)+Fa (θ, t)) Λ (θ)
∞ 
 ∞
Fa (θ, t) = kh In cos(hθ − ωn t + θn )
n h
where In is the nth harmonic of the armature current, h is
the spatial order generated by the structure, kh is the conversion
factor at this order, and ω n is the angular frequency of the nth
harmonic of the current. θn is the phase of the magnetomotive
force related to the current order. The specific derivation of the
two can refer to the literature [26].
Equation (9) shows that the phase of magnetomotive force is
consistent with the phase of each harmonic current. As long as
the phase of the current is changed, the phase of the electromag-
netic force can be changed finally. Compared with a sinusoidal
power supply, the chopping voltage generated by VSI inevitably
produces harmonic currents near the switching frequency and its
sidebands in the stator windings. The original intention of the
carrier phase shift strategy is to suppress the high frequency
harmonic components of the current, which is often used in
parallel inverters.
The relationship between current harmonics and carrier phase
shift angle in Fig. 8 can be derived as follows. If the initial phase
of the current harmonic is set to 0, the A1 -phase current in the
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Institute of Technology (Ropar). Downloaded on December 17,2021 at 14:19:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
∞ 
+∞
3 sin(m + n) 
Imn sin nπ
π
2 cos [m (ωc t−θc ) + ωn t] .
m=1 n=−∞
(11)
Taking the current ripples of A1 and A3 phases as an example,
(8)
if
(9) θn =mθc = (2l + 1) π, l=1, 2, 3 . . . (12)
is satisfied, the corresponding (2l+1)π/θc order harmonics in
the current have the same amplitude and opposite phases.
As shown in Fig. 9, the four sets of windings distributed in dif-
ferent positions of the motor will all generate the magnetomotive
force of the switching frequency, and the phase of force can be
changed by the carrier phase shift angle. According to Maxwell’s
equation, the torque of the motor is the result of integrating the
magnetic density along the air gap. Therefore, if the phase of the
magnetomotive force at the switching frequency is different for
different windings, the result after integration can be reduced.
The amplitude of the current ripple at the switching frequency
depends mainly on the voltage modulation ratio. For the motor
drive system, it is mainly reflected in the speed and load of
the motor. For most operating conditions, the current ripple
amplitude around the doubled switching frequency is the largest
[28], [29]. Therefore, the phase shift angle θc can be designed as
π/2, Then, the even-numbered electromagnetic force harmonics
of order m = 4l+2 all reverse each other, acting on the rotor to
cancel each other.
Using the modulation algorithms in Section III and this sec-
tion, the voltages of the bridge arms of the corresponding phases
4880 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 57, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
Fig. 10. Voltages of the bridge arms of the corresponding phases of the four
module inverters.
Fig. 11. Experimental equipment and motor test bench.
(such as phase A) of the four module inverters are shown in
Fig. 10. The common mode voltage is zero for both VSI-1/VSI-2
and VSI-3/VSI-4 groups. The carrier phase shifted between
VSI-1/VSI-2 and VSI-3/VSI-4 is to cancel the vibration.
V. EXPERIMENT AND RESULT ANALYSIS
The PMSM designed in Section II is selected to verify the
ideas provided in this article. The winding of the motor is
completely opened, so the experiment is carried out according to
the two connection methods described in Section-II by changing
the connection terminal. The output terminals are respectively
connected to four independent three-phase inverters.
Four inverters share the same dc bus, and the driving signals
come from the same DSP chip, which supports 24 PWM signal
outputs. The experimental hardware is shown in Fig. 11. The
relevant operating parameters during the experiment are shown
in Table I.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Institute of Technology (Ropar). Downloaded on December 17,2021 at 14:19:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
TABLE I
EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS
Fig. 12. Motor steady-state waveform.
Fig. 13. Motor casing voltage.
The modulation strategy of RWPWM with carrier phase shift
90° is used, compared with conventional SVPWM with no
carrier phase shift and ZCMWPWM with carrier phase shift 90°.
In the legend, the above three are expressed as RWPWM-FS90,
SVPWM-noFS and ZCMPWM-FS90
In the experiment, regardless of the modulation method used,
the vector control method is used to control the motor under the
same working condition. The current of the motor windings in
the steady state is shown in Fig. 12, and the dynamic performance
is also normal.
In addition to the basic control performance, this article
mainly focuses on the high frequency performance of the motor
side, including CMV, CMI, and vibration, etc. The common
mode conducted EMI on the dc side is also reduced. Fig. 13 is
the motor casing voltage measurement result when the motor
casing is not connected to ground. RWPWM-FS90 has the best
performance, but there will still be CM voltage glitches due to
the differences in the actions of the switching devices.
Fig. 14 is the suppression effect of common mode current.
The CM current suppression effect of RWPWM is better. Similar
results appear in the conducted EMI on the dc side. Fig. 15 is the
test result of common mode EMI at the motor output power of
JIANG et al.: FOUR-MODULE THREE-PHASE PMSM DRIVE FOR SUPPRESSING VIBRATION AND COMMON-MODE CURRENT
Fig. 14. Common mode current when the phase current peak is 9 A.
Fig. 15. Common mode EMI of dc bus.
Fig. 16. Calculated electromagnetic torque using current.
Fig. 17. Vibration acceleration of the surface of the motor casing.
2.4 kW. Both ZCMPWM-FS90 and RWPWM-FS90 can reduce
the dc side CM EMI from conventional PWM.
During the experiment, the oscilloscope simultaneously col-
lected the AB phase currents of four sets of windings. The
torque ripple using the three methods was calculated by (4). As
shown in Fig. 16, RWPWM-F90 suppresses the total excitation
of high-frequency torque current by about half.
The comparison of the vibration acceleration on the motor
stator in Fig. 17 also reflects the reduction of the torque ripple.
The acceleration sensor was installed on the surface of the motor
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Institute of Technology (Ropar). Downloaded on December 17,2021 at 14:19:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
4881
casing. The signal is collected by Siemens SCM202 vibration
measuring instrument and analyzed by FFT.
It can be seen that after using the carrier phase shift technique,
the vibration of the motor at a switching frequency of two times
is reduced by about half. It should be noted that although the
motor vibration is reduced at a switching frequency of 10 kHz,
the reduction in torque ripple and the reduction in vibration
are not certain. This is also related to the vibration mode and
natural frequency of the motor stator. At present, there is no clear
mathematical relationship to explain the relationship between
the two, but torque ripple is indeed one of the factors. This is
also what needs to be studied in the future
VI. CONCLUSION
AC motor fed PWM-modulated inverters will bring vibration
and CM current problems to the system because of the pulse-
series excitation in the motor terminals. This article proposed a
method for four-module three-phase PMSM drive to mitigation
both vibration and CM current through advanced PWM. The
four three-phase modules of the motor can be divided into
the two adjacent or nonadjacent groups. The core ideas of the
proposed methods can be summarized in the following two parts.
1) Two groups of three-phase modules can be controlled with
CM cancellation PWM, then the total CM voltage of the motor
can be suppressed to be zero in theory.
2) Another two groups can be fed with carrier phase-shift
PWM between each other, which can further cancel certain
switching harmonics for torque ripple and vibration of the motor.
With these two methods, the mitigation of CM current and
vibration can be achieved in the same four-module motor with
reverse windings. RWPWM with the carrier phase shift of 90°
has the best suppression effect. The addition of this modulation
algorithm will not affect the control performance and speed
range of the original system, and still has the advantage of
modular configuration in the control and hardware framework.
In summary, the method proposed in this article can significantly
improve the operating quality and reliability of the system in the
high-frequency field.
REFERENCES
[1] E. Levi, R. Bojoi, F. Profumo, H. A. Toliyat, and S. Williamson, “Mul-
tiphase induction motor drives - a technology status review,” IET Elect.
Power Appl., vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 489–516, Jul. 2007.
[2] G. Wu, S. Huang, Q. Wu, F. Rong, C. Zhang, and W. Liao, “Robust
predictive torque control of N∗3-Phase PMSM for high-power traction ap-
plication,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 35, no. 10, pp. 10799–10809,
Oct. 2020.
[3] D. Zhang, F. Wang, R. Burgos, R. Lai, and D. Boroyevich, “Impact of
interleaving on AC passive components of paralleled three-phase voltage-
source converters,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 1042–1054,
May/Jun. 2010.
[4] D. Jiang, Z. Shen, and F. Wang, “Common-mode voltage reduction
for paralleled inverters,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 33, no. 5,
pp. 3961–3974, May 2018.
[5] A. von Jauanne and H. Zhang, “A dual-bridge inverter approach to elim-
inating common-mode voltages and bearing and leakage currents,” IEEE
Trans. Power Electron., vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 43–48, Jan. 1999.
[6] D. Torregrossa, F. Peyraut, M. Cirrincione, C. Espanet, A. Cassat, and A.
Miraoui, “A new passive methodology for reducing the noise in electrical
machines: Impact of some parameters on the modal analysis,” IEEE Trans.
Ind. Appl., vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 1899–1907, Sep./Oct. 2010.
4882 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 57, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
[7] Y. Li, J. Xing, T. Wang, and Y. Lu, “Programmable design of magnet
shape for permanent-magnet synchronous motors with sinusoidal back
EMF waveforms,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 44, no. 9, pp. 2163–2167,
Sep. 2008.
[8] W. Zhang, Y. Xu, H. Huang, and J. Zou, “Vibration reduction for dual-
branch three-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor with carrier
phase-shift technique,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 35, no. 1,
pp. 607–618, Jan. 2020.
[9] Y. Miyama, M. Ishizuka, H. Kometani, and K. Akatsu, “Vibration reduc-
tion by applying carrier phase-shift PWM on dual three-phase windings
permanent-magnet synchronous motor,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Elect. Mach.
Drives Conf., 2017, pp. 1–6.
[10] C. Lin and Y. Tzou, “An innovative multiphase PWM control strategy for
a PMSM with segmented stator windings,” in Proc. IEEE Appl. Power
Electron. Conf. Expo., Charlotte, NC, USA, 2015, pp. 270–275.
[11] O. Dieterle and T. Greiner, “Impact of the magnetic coupling in a
quadruple-star permanent magnet synchronous machine with segmented
stator windings,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Elect. Mach. Drives Conf., Miami,
FL,USA, 2017, pp. 1–8.
[12] H. Lan, J. Zou, Y. Xu, and M. Liu, “Effect of local tangential force on
vibration performance in fractional-slot concentrated winding permanent
magnet synchronous machines,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 34,
no. 2, pp. 1082–1093, Jun. 2019.
[13] X. Han, D. Jiang, T. Zou, R. Qu, and K. Yang, “Two-segment three-phase
PMSM drive with carrier phase-shift PWM for torque ripple and vibration
reduction,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 588–599,
Jan. 2019.
[14] Y. Murai, T. Kubota, and Y. Kawase, “Leakage current reduction for a
high-frequency carrier inverter feeding an induction motor,” IEEE Trans.
Ind. Appl., vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 858–863, Jul./Aug. 1992.
[15] A. Boglietti, A. Cavagnino, and M. Lazzari, “Experimental high frequency
parameter identification of AC electrical motors,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf.
Elect. Mach. Drives, San Antonio, TX, USA, 2005, pp. 5–10.
[16] D. A. Rendusara and P. N. Enjeti, “An improved inverter output filter
configuration reduces common and differential modes DV/DT at the motor
terminals in PWM drive systems,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 13,
no. 6, pp. 1135–1143, Nov. 1998.
[17] A. von Jouanne, H. Zhang, and A. K. Wallace, “An evaluation of mit-
igation techniques for bearing currents, EMI and overvoltages in ASD
applications,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 1113–1122,
Sep./Oct. 1998.
[18] S. Ogasawara, H. Ayano, and H. Akagi, “An active circuit for cancellation
of common-mode voltage generated by a PWM inverter,” IEEE Trans.
Power Electron., vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 835–841, Sep. 1998.
[19] A. M. Hava and E. Ün, “A high-performance PWM algorithm for common-
mode voltage reduction in three-phase voltage source inverters,” IEEE
Trans. Power Electron, vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 1998–2008, Jul. 2011.
[20] E. Un and A. M. Hava, “A near-state PWM method with reduced switch-
ing losses and reduced common-mode voltage for three-phase voltage
source inverters,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 782–793,
Mar./Apr. 2009.
[21] R. M. Tallam, R. J. Kerkman, D. Leggate, and R. A. Lukaszewski,
“Common-mode voltage reduction PWM algorithm for ac drives,” IEEE
Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 1959–1969, Sep./Oct. 2010.
[22] D. Jiang, Z. Shen, and F. Wang, “Common-mode voltage reduction
for paralleled inverters,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 33, no. 5,
pp. 3961–3974, May 2018.
[23] Z. Liu, Z. Zheng, S. D. Sudhoff, C. Gu, and Y. Li, “Reduction of
common-mode voltage in multiphase two-level inverters using SPWM
with phase-shifted carriers,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 31, no. 9,
pp. 6631–6645, Sep. 2016.
[24] Z. Shen, D. Jiang, T. Zou, and R. Qu, “Dual-segment three-phase PMSM
with dual inverters for leakage current and common-mode EMI reduction,”
IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 5606–5619, Jun. 2019.
[25] Z. Shen, D. Jiang, Z. Liu, D. Ye, and J. Li, “Common-mode voltage elim-
ination for dual two-level inverter-fed asymmetrical six-phase PMSM,”
IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 3828–3840, Apr. 2020.
[26] K. Liu, Z. Liu, D. Jiang, Q. Wang, and Z. He, “Four-module three-phase
permanent-magnet synchronous motor based PWM modulation strategy
for suppressing vibration and common mode current,” in Proc. IEEE
Energy Convers. Congr. Expo., Detroit, MI, USA, 2020, pp. 2328–2335.
[27] T. Hattori, K. Narita, T. Yamada, Y. Sakashita, and K. Akatsu, “Influence of
harmonic components on electromagnetic vibration for a permanent mag-
net motor,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Elect. Mach. Syst., 2010, pp. 1131–1136.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Institute of Technology (Ropar). Downloaded on December 17,2021 at 14:19:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
[28] TIMAR.P, Noise and Vibration of Electrical Machines. Amsterdam,
Netherlands: Elsevier, 1989.
[29] W. Liang, J. Wang, P. C. K. Luk, W. Fang, and W. Fei, “Analytical modeling
of current harmonic components in PMSM drive with voltage-source
inverter by SVPWM technique,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 29,
no. 3, pp. 673–680, Sep. 2014.
Dong Jiang (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.S.
and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Ts-
inghua University, Beijing, China, in 2005 and 2007
respectively. He began his Ph.D. study in Center for
Power Electronics Systems (CPES) in Virginia Tech
in 2007 and was transferred to University of Ten-
nessee with his advisor in 2010. He received the Ph.D.
degree in power electronics and motor drives from
University of Tennessee in Dec. 2011. He was with
United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) in
Connecticut as a Senior Research Scientist/Engineer
from Jan 2012 to July 2015. He has been with Huazhong University of Science
& Technology (HUST) in China as a Professor since July 2015. Dong Jiang’s
major research area is power electronics and motor drives, with more than 100
published IEEE journal and conference papers in this area. He is the holder of
more than 50 patents/patent applications. He has 6 best paper awards in IEEE
conferences. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY
APPLICATIONS.
Kang Liu was born in Hubei, China, in 1996. He re-
ceived the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from
the Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
Wuhan, China, in 2018, where he is currently working
toward the M.S. degree in electrical engineering with
the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
His research interests include motor control and
common mode current suppression
Zicheng Liu (Member, IEEE) received the B.S. de-
gree in hydropower engineering from the Huazhong
University of Science and Technology (HUST),
Wuhan, China, in 2011, and the Ph.D. degree in elec-
trical engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing,
China, in 2016. During Oct. 2014 to Mar. 2015, he
was a Visiting Student at Purdue University, West
Lafayette, IN, USA. During Jun. 2016 to Sep. 2018,
he was a Postdoc Researcher at Beijing Jiaotong Uni-
versity, Beijing, China. He is currently an Associate
Professor at HUST. His research interests include
multiphase motor control systems and transportation electrification. He has
more than 50 technical papers, and is the holder of more than 10 patents/patent
applications.
Qiyuan Wang was born in Henan, China, in 1995.
He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering
from the Huazhong University of Science and Tech-
nology, Wuhan, China, in 2017, where he is currently
working toward the M.S. degree in electrical engi-
neering with the School of Electronic and Electrical
Engineering.
His main research interests include motor control,
motor vibration, and power electronics noise suppres-
sion.
JIANG et al.: FOUR-MODULE THREE-PHASE PMSM DRIVE FOR SUPPRESSING VIBRATION AND COMMON-MODE CURRENT 4883

Zhongxiang He was born in China, in 1991. He Ronghai Qu (Fellow, IEEE) was born in China.
received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical en- He received the B.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from
gineering from the Huazhong University of Science Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and the Ph.D.
and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2013, and the M.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin– Madison,
degree from the Wuhan Institute of Marine Electric Madison, WI, USA, in 1993, 1996, and 2002, respec-
Propulsion, Wuhan, China, in 2016. tively, all in electrical engineering.
His main research interests are multiphase motor In 1998, he joined the Wisconsin Electric Machines
control, analysis, and suppression of vibration and and Power Electronics Consortiums, University of
noise. Wisconsin–Madison, as a Research Assistant. He be-
came a Senior Electrical Engineer with Northland,
a Scott Fetzer Company, Watertown, NY, USA, in
2002. Since 2003, he had been with the General Electric (GE) Global Research
Center, Niskayuna, NY, USA, as a Senior Electrical Engineer with the Electrical
Machines and Drives Laboratory. Since 2010, he has been a Professor with
the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. He has
authored or coauthored more than 230 published technical papers and is the
holder of more than 50 patents/patent applications.
Dr. Qu is a Full Member of Sigma Xi. He was the recipient of several
awards from the GE Global Research Center since 2003, including the Technical
Achievement and Management Awards. He was also the recipient of the 2003 and
2005 Best Paper Awards, third prize, from the Electric Machines Committee of
the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) at the 2002 and 2004 IAS Annual
Meeting, respectively.

Authorized licensed use limited to: Indian Institute of Technology (Ropar). Downloaded on December 17,2021 at 14:19:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.