2020 IEEE 9th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (IPEMC2020-ECCE Asia) | 978-1-7281-5301-8/20/$31.
00 ©2020 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/IPEMC-ECCEAsia48364.2020.9368078
A Flux-Weakening Method for PMSM
Based Model Predictive Direct Speed Control
Xiaoguang Zhang
North China University o f Technology North China University o f Technology
Beijing, China
zhangxg 123456789@163.com
Abstract—In order to improve the high-speed performance of
conventional speed prediction control, expand the speed
regulation range of permanent magnet synchronous motor
(PMSM). A flux-weakening method-based model predictive direct
speed control (MP-DSC) is proposed in this paper. In this control
strategy, when the motor breaks through the rated speed and runs
in the high-speed area, flux-weakening control is achieved to
break through the rated speed by controlling the d-axis reference
current, which is applied to obtain reference voltage. Based on the
principle of deadbeat control, the cost function of conventional
speed prediction control including the speed error and current
error is converted into a cost function containing only the voltage
error. Thus, the weighting factor in conventional MP-DSC
method is eliminated in the proposed method, and the flux­
weakening control is implemented in the high-speed operation
area. Simulation and experiment results demonstrate the
feasibility of the proposed method.
Keywords—model predictive control, flux-weakening control,
weighting factor, over speed.
I. In t r o d u c t io n
More and more attention has been paid to the research of
permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) and it control
system in recent years due to its wide range of speed regulation
and high efficiency [1]-[5]. PMSM are required to work in the
flux-weakening region, in order to get wider speed range.
In general, the conventional flux-weakening control strategy
is based on the field-oriented control (FOC). However, FOC
consists of multiple proportional-integral (PI) controllers and
complicated parameter tuning schemes are usually required
[6][7].
Model predictive control (MPC) has become an international
research hotspot in recent years because of its advantages of
online optimal control, fast dynamic response and easy to
increase constraints. MPC predicts the system state at the next
time according to the system model and the current time state,
and selects the optimal control options to act on the control
object by establishing the quality function [8]. It have been
applied to the control of PMSM. However, the outer speed loop
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Zhihao Zhao Chi Xu
North China University o f Technology
Beijing, China Beijing, China
1434376387@qq.com 1107750848@qq.com
is still retained in some MPC methods (such as model
predictive current control and model predictive torque control).
Therefore, in [9], a MP-DSC method is presented to
overcome disadvantages of cascaded linear controllers. This
method completely eliminates the cascading structure in FOC
and does not need the participation of PI controller. However,
the flux-weakening operation are not investigated in that
method. Therefore, in this way, it does not allow PMSM to run
in the over speed area. Then, a flux-weakening method based
on MPC is mentioned in [10], but the weighting factor of
traditional direct speed control is retained. In order to obtain
better control performance, the weight factors of current and
speed need to be adjusted reasonably, which greatly increases
the calculation burden. In [11], a speed predicted control
method applied to PMSM is proposed, which eliminates the
weight factor in traditional DSC methods. This method does
not consider the motor running above the base speed.
Combined with the above ideas, in this paper, a flux­
weakening method of the PMSM drive based on MP-DSC is
proposed. This method takes a cascade-free structure and no PI
controller, and eliminates the weighting factor in the traditional
DSC cost function. Besides, it can meet the requirements of
PMSM over speed operation, and has good steady-state
performance in the flux-weakening region. It has a wider range
of speed regulation and application value.
II. M a t h e m a t ic a l M o d e l
The voltage equation (1) and mechanical equation (2) of
PMSM in d-q rotating synchronous coordinate system [12] are
shown as follows
did
Ud = RJd + Ld ■- T - a eWq
dt (1)
diq
Uq = R f + Lq ' ^ + t LJd + t V f
J ■ dt = T e -T - t (2)
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where ud and uq are, respectively, the d-axis and q-axis voltage Reference ^
Cost function V,

components, R s is the stator resistance, id and i q represent the voltage

minimizing and u
optimal vector
current components of d-axis and q-axis, We and am are the prediction selection
electrical angular velocity and the mechanical angular velocity
of the motor rotor, J is the moment of inertia, B is the
coefficient of viscous friction, ¥f stands for permanent magnet
flux linkage. Te and Ti denote electromagnetic torque and load
torque respectively, L d and L q are the dq-axes inductance.
Besides, the equation of electromagnetic torque is as follows flux-weakening
judgement

Te = 2 P ( + (Ld - L q ) id iq ) (3) Fig. 1 Control structure diagram of the flux-weakening control based MP-DSC

where p is the number of pair pole. A. The prediction o f reference voltage vector
In order to eliminating weight factors in traditional methods,
In order to predict the voltage at the next time, the first order it is necessary to convert the variables in the cost function to
Euler method is used to discretize the voltage equation (1), and
the same dimension.
the voltage prediction equation can be obtained as (4).
Due to the existence of load torque in the speed prediction
id (k +1)- ld (k ) equation, a load torque observer should be designed to observe
ud(k ) = Lq - Q (t)Lqiq(k + 1)
T load torque information. In [13], the design process of load
+ RPd (k + 1) torque observer has been introduced in detail.
lq (k + 1) - ig (k ) (4)
+ O (t ) LJd (k + 1) + o (t '¥ f According the predicted speed equation (6), the expression
Uq (k ) = Lq
' T of q-axis current with respect to speed can be obtained. Then,
+ Rlq (k + 1) based on the deadbeat control principle, the q-axis reference
current is expressed as follows
Similarly, to obtain prediction speed at the next moment, the
mechanical equation (neglecting the influence of the damping i 2 I"J W L + 1) We L )] +T (7)
on the system) is discretized. The expression of predicted speed qref = 3PWf Tv Tl ( )
is as follows
Based on (7) and the discrete voltage equation (4), The
TvP ( .5( ( q +( - Lq ) idiq) ~ voltage equation, which is related to the predicted speed, can
O (t +1) = rne(t ) + (5)
J be calculated by (8):

where Tv is the velocity sampling time. It should be noted that L 2J ( o (t +1)—O (t) ) + )TvpTi
the sampling frequency of current is higher than that of velocity. uq (k ) - Rslq(k + 1) +
T 3P2¥ f Tv
In addition, It is known that the inductance of d-axis is equal to (8)
that of q-axis for SPMSM, i.e. L d =Lq =L. Therefore, the Liq (k + 1)
Oe(t) \_Lid (k + 1) + ¥ f ]
predicted velocity equation can be rewritten as (6) T '

Tvp (1-5P ¥ f iq - T ) Next, it is known from the mathematical model of SPMSM

o e(t + 1) Oe(t) + q - (6)
that the flux linkage equation is as follows

III. Co n t r o l St r a t e g y
In order to improve the steady-state performance of PMSM
above the base speed, a flux-weakening control method based
on MPC is proposed. Fig. 1 shows the method of flux­
weakening control based MP-DSC, which mainly includes the
following parts: load torque observer design, prediction of
reference voltage vector; flux-weakening control (FWC); the
cost function minimizing. Then, these parts will be described
in detail below.
Similarly, the predicted flux linkage f can be shown as
below:
¥ s {k +1) = "Lid(k + 1) + ¥ f ] 2 + [ Liqi + 1)]2 (10)
Substituting the predicted current equation and (8) into (9),
similarly, the another expression between predicted speed
and q-axis voltage can be obtained. In order to obtain the
desired reference voltage vector, the reference values of
speed and flux linkage are needed in the voltage equation.
Hence, it is assumed that the speed and flux linkage can

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reach the reference value of the given command after a voltage limiting ellipse and current limiting circle
control cycle, i.e. aeref = ae (t+1), f f f =fs (k+1). respectively in dq coordinate system.

Finally, the reference voltage vector can be obtained by Fig.2 shows the working limit area of the PMSM. When
the above derivation as (12) the motor is running normally, the stator current trace must
fall in the common area of current limit circle and voltage
" " r 2J ( - o (t)) + 2TvpTl Ì limit ellipse. According to the running speed, the running
udref lu/1 L2
W sref L state of the motor can be divided into two cases. Below the
v 3P2/ fTv y base speed, the maximum torque per ampere (MTPA) is
(11)
used to control PMSM to obtain the maximum torque. For
SPMSM, the control mode of MTPA is the same with id =
0.

_ L _ 2J ( eref- Q (t)) + 2T, PTl - Liq (k + 1) Due to the PMSM magnetic field is constant, the back
Uref _ T ' 3p2Vfry Ts (12) EMF of the motor increases with the increase of speed and
is limited by input voltage. Therefore, above the base speed,
+ Rs iq (k + 1) + +a(t) [ L d (k + 1) +V f ] it is necessary to weaken the air gap flux by compensating
the d-axis current in order to maintain the motor voltage
where the reference flux linkage fsref can be calculated by
balance. The calculation method of base speed in [14] is
the reference current as (13) proposed based on the control of MTPA.

v sref _ ( ( + f f )2 + ( w ) (13)

The q-axis reference current can be obtained from (7).

However, the d-axis reference current need to be obtained
from the flux-weakening control part according to the motor
operation requirements.
Thus, a flux-weakening control method based on MP-
DSC is proposed in this paper.
B. The method o f flux-weakening control
When the motor runs at high speed and stably, the voltage
drop of stator can be directly ignored, and the change rate of
flux linkage in steady state is zero. Hence, the voltage
equation can be rewritten as below

In this paper, speed is used as a judgment condition of

Because the input stator voltage will be limited by the DC whether to enter the weak magnetic region. The d-axis
bus voltage and inverter capacity, the voltage limiting current is applied as a reference value in the calculation of
equation exists and can be expressed as reference flux linkage by comparing the relationship
between the motor speed and the base speed. Further, the
reference voltage vector of MP-DSC can be obtained. The
Us = ( j qL q) + ( jd L d + ® e¥f ) - m ax 2 (15)
d-axis current in different modes is shown as (17)
where us is stator voltage vector, Umax represents the
maximum voltage output by the inverter. / f - y jV f2+4 ( -L d ) q ref
d -mtpa O < O ase
Similarly, due to the limitation of motor structure, there 2 ( - Ld )
are also constraints on stator current.
O > O ase
is = V ^ + C - Kmax| (16)
(17)
where is and ismax are, respectively, the stator current vector
and maximum stator current. It can be found that the where obase represent the base speed of PMSM.
constraint equations of voltage and current are expressed as
The control system with wider speed range is obtained

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due to the addition of flux-weakening method. 3000

C. Cost function
In the conventional speed prediction control, the cost 2000
function usually includes speed error, d-axis current error c
and of q-axis current error. This method needs different
weighting factors to balance the control effect of current and
^1000
speed. In this paper, a new cost function is used to select the
optimal voltage vector, as shown as (17).
0
G = |u* " u 'd \ + |u* - ui | (18) 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
time (s)
where uid and uiq represent the candidate voltage vector. In Fig.3 Simulation results of speed from 0 to 1500 and then to 2500 with
this cost function, the speed error and the dq-axes current 4N • m load
error are transformed into the d-axis and q-axis voltage
errors of the same dimension as components of the cost 2510
function. Therefore, only the voltage error is included and
the weighting factor is eliminated.
Finally, when the motor works in the field weakening
area, the optimal voltage vector can be selected through the
above-mentioned control strategy.

IV. Sim u l a t io n and E x p e r im e n t a l Re s u l t s

In order to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the
proposed control strategy about flux-weakening based on Mp-
DSC. A simulation is built with Matlab/Simulink according to
the motor parameters in the following TABLE I.

TABLE I PARAMETERS OF SPMSM

Name Symbol Value time (s)

DC-bus voltage Vdc 310 V
Fig.4 Simulation result of speed with 2500 r/min at 4 N^m load
based speed nN 2000 r/min
Stator resistance R 3n Experimental tests are carried out on a SPMSM drive
d-axis inductances Ld 11 mH platform to demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed method
q-axis inductances Lq 11 mH in this paper.
Flux linkage Vf 0.24 Wb
Number of pole pairs P 3
Rotational inertia J 0.00129 kg^m2
The simulation results are shown in Fig.3 and Fig.4. Fig.3
shows the speed dynamic waveform from 0 to 1500 r/min and
then from 1500 to 2500 r/min at 4 N^m load. It can be seen that
The speed can be steadily increased to the reference speed and
enter the weak magnetic field area for operation. From 1500r /
min to 2500r / min, it needs 0.02s dynamic response time. In
the process, the control mode is switched from MTPA to FWC
(a) No-load speed up from 1800-2300r/min
when the motor speed is increased to 2000 r/min.
The steady-state responses of the proposed method at 4 N^m - n (2300rpm/min)
load with 2500 r/min is shown in Fig.4. The simulation result 2000rpm/div
l 2 (4A/div
shows that, above the base speed, the d-axis current is
compensated to a negative value in order to weaken the air gap ^ (4A/div)
flux above the base speed. In addition, in case of motor over E>: ' i a(5A / div)
speed, the proposed method has small torque ripple and phase
current ripple.
5.WA
2.WA O -WA fi«0ro ïmtrt
(b) Loading experiment with 4N^m

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 Fig.5 Flux-weakening experiment based on MP-DSC
As shown in Fig.5, when the speed reference changes from
1800 to 2300 r/min, the motor enters the field weakening area
at 2000 r/min. The motor speed can be maintained stable when
load torque suddenly changes from 0 to 4 N^m at 2300r/min.
V. Co n c l u s io n s
A flux-weakening method-based model predictive direct
speed control (MP-DSC) is proposed for drive system of
PMSM with wide speed range in this paper. The simulation and
experiment result show that: 1) PMSM can operate steadily at
high speed in the flux-weakening region under this control
strategy; 2) The method avoids the distribution of weighting
factors in conventional method.
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