2014 17th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS),Oct.
22-25, 2014, Hangzhou, China
A Torque Measuring Method Based on Encoder
for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine
Xing Liu1, Deliang Liang1, Jinhua Du1*, Yanan Yu1, Xinning Yang1
1
State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
E-mail: liuxingxj@stu.xjtu.edu.cn
Abstract —Direct measuring of mechanical torque is
important for permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM)
testing system. However, mechanical torque is usually measured
by torque meters under steady state, which increase the system
cost and reduce the system reliability. In this paper, a torque
measuring method for PMSM in the back-to-back testing system
is introduced based on the encoder signals and the shaft torsional
stiffness of the coupling and shaft. Finally, experiments are
performed to verity the correctness of the proposed method. The
comparison results show that the proposed method is an effective
way to measure the torque value in the testing system.
I. INTRODUCTION
The permanent-magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs)
have been applied widely due to high-power density, high
efficiency, ease of control, high torque-to-inertia ratio, and
high reliability[1]. The main research for PMSMs focuses on
modeling of the motor control systems [2, 3] and how to reduce
the torque ripple[4]. However, in order to make PMSMs supply
the better services for the industry, the PMSMs should be
tested. So the testing system of PMSMs are taken more and
more attention[5]. Loading equipment and measuring torque
values are important part in the motor testing system.
One important part for PMSM testing system is loading
equipment. The traditional loading equipment for motor
testing system is hysteresis dynamometer or eddy current
dynamometer, but both them converted the mechanical energy
into heat energy consumed, which does not meet the
requirements of energy saving and environmental protection.
Nowadays most of the loading equipment is electric
dynamometer, who converted the mechanical energy into
electric energy. According the loading equipment the type of
test bench for machine tested with electric dynamometer is
divided into energy consuming, energy feedback and energy
mutual fed. In the energy consuming pattern, electric energy
who comes from electric dynamometer is consumed by the
resistance, it does not meet the requirements of energy saving.
Energy feedback type is sent the electric energy back to the
grid. In the energy mutual fed pattern, the tested machine and
electric dynamometer share a common DC bus. The mutual
fed structure will sent the electric energy comes from
dynamometer back to the DC bus and supply power for the
tested motor. Under the energy mutual fed experimental
conditions, the energy supplied by grid is only the loss during
the test process. So that the mutual fed type not only saving
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energy, but also reducing the impact on the grid caused by the
mutation of the load, and improving the dynamic
characteristics of the load. The type of energy mutual fed is
used in advanced motor testing platform.
Another important part for PMSM testing system is
measuring torque values. Currently, almost all of motor testing
systems are used the torque sensor to complete the torque
measurement [6-8]. There are many test solutions for the torque
sensor, the strain and electromagnetic is used in the traditional
one, the surface acoustic wave and inverse magnetostrictive
method is used in novel ones. According to the different
measurement methods, the torque measuring method can be
summarized into three categories [9]. First, torque measuring
by strain measurements, the stress and strain values of rotation
axis was measured , and then translated the measured values
into corresponding mechanical formulas, finally obtained the
torque of the shaft to bear. Second, torque measuring with
angle measurements, which is more suitable for measuring the
torque of slender shaft. Third, torque measuring by measuring
reaction torque, the torque measured by a braking torque
measuring. The third method has certain limitations that it can
only measure static torque. The above tests programs are
needed to measure the torque by introducing a torque sensor.
The sensor can accurately measure the torque value, but it not
only increasing the system cost, with the same time, the
system reliability will be reduced. Since most of the PMSM
controls strategies require accurately obtain the position
information of the rotor, the encoder was mounted to the rotor.
During the test, it can obtain the measuring torque value by
the second methods to determine the torque of the tested
PMSM beard.
In this paper, the proposed measurement method is based
on the encoder signals and the shaft torsional stiffness of
shafting to calculate the torque value of the tested PMSM in
the back-to-back testing system.
II. CALCULATION METHOD
A. Energy mutual fed of the PMSM testing system
The general structure of energy mutual fed motor testing
system for PMSM is shown in Fig. 1. It main include the
tested machine, load machine (dynamometers), dynamic
torque meter, couplings, inverters, controllers, filters and data
acquisition system (computer). As can be seen from Fig. 1, in
the entire test system, two machines are simultaneously
controlled via the computer and shared a common DC bus.
During the test, changing the given electromagnetic torque
value of the load machine can adjust the load which applied to
the tested motor. The speed control strategy was used to the
tested motor, while the torque control strategy was used to the
load machine. All of the experimental data is collected by the
computer.
Fig. 1. Structure diagram of energy mutual fed motor test system
B. Calculation
In the motor testing system, the rotating part is composed
by the shafting. One flexible shaft is shown in Fig. 2. From the
knowledge of the kinematics, it can be obtained that (1) the
transmitted torque of the flexible shaft when it is rotating in
the process of the testing [10].
Fig. 2. Structure diagram of flexible shaft
ΔT = k (θ m1 − θ m 2 ) + c(ωm1 − ωm 2 )
Where, ΔT is the transmitted torque of the flexible shaft, k
is the shaft torsional stiffness of the shaft, θ m1 and θ m 2 is the
angle between the reference point and the initial position of
both ends of the shaft during operation at torque force. c is the
damping coefficient, ωm1 and ωm 2 is the angular velocity value
of both ends of the shaft. In steady state, the angular velocity
of the both shaft ends is the same value. So it can be obtained
that (2).
ωm1 = ωm 2
Therefore, (1) can be rewritten as (3).
ΔT = k (θ m1 − θ m 2 )
In Fig.1, the shaft of the tested motor, load machine,
couplings and torque meter connected in coaxial. Therefore,
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the shaft of them bears the same torque value in the steady
state testing process. Thence the shaft of them in the test
system can be equivalent to a shaft. However, the shaft
torsional stiffness of the equivalent one should be made a
correction. Because the encoder of both tested motor and load
machine are usually mounted to the outermost end of the
shafting in the back to back motor testing system. So it can get
the basic method for correcting the axial rigidity of the
equivalent shaft. In the steady state, each shaft in the coaxial
system bears the same torque value. Therefore, under steady
state conditions the axial rigidity correction method of
equivalent shaft as follows[11]. It can be seen (4) from the
structure in Fig. 1.
T0 = k1θ1 = k2θ 2 = k3θ 3 = k4θ 4 = k5θ5 (4)
Where, T0 is the transmitted torque value by the shafting
during the steady state testing, k1 , k2 , k3 , k4 and k5 is the
shaft torsional stiffness of load machine, coupling, torque
meter, coupling and tested motor, θ1 , θ 2 , θ 3 , θ 4 and θ 5 is
the torsion angle of load machine, couplings, torque meter,
couplings and tested motor during the testing.
In the testing system, both the encoder of load machine
and tested motor are attached at both ends. The position signal
of outermost end can be derived from the encoder signal. The
difference of outermost end position signal is the sum torsion
angle of each axis is given in (5).
θ = θ1 + θ 2 + θ3 +θ 4 +θ5
T0 T0 T0 T0 T0 (5)
+ + + +
=
k1 k2 k3 k4 k5
Where, θ is the difference of two machine’s outermost
end position signal.
The transmitted torque value of entire shaft is shown in (6).
T0 = keqθ (6)
Where, keq is the equivalent shaft torsional stiffness of the
shafting.
The (7) can get from (4), (5) and (6).
1 1 1 1 1 1
= + + + + (7)
keq k1 k2 k3 k4 k5
(1) Thus, in steady state testing of the PMSM, knowing the
each part shaft torsional stiffness of the entire shaft and the
position obtained by encoder. The transmitted torque on the
shaft can be mathematically calculated.
III. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION
In order to verify the correctness of the proposed
calculation method, the connected model of the actual
experimental system is shown in Fig. 1. Both the tested motor
(2) and load machine are PMSM. During the experiment, the
tested motor acts as the motor model, with the same time, the
load one acts as generator model. The torque value is
(3)
measured by the dynamic torque meter. The given value of
electromagnetic torque of load machine is 10 Nm, 15 Nm and
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20 Nm. The measured torque by torque meter during the
experiment is shown in Fig. 3, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. It can be seen
from Fig. 3, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, the actual transmitted torque of
the shaft is 10.68 Nm, 15.67 Nm and 20.68 Nm, which are
bigger than the given values of electromagnetic torque of the
load machine. The reason for this is that the friction and loss
of testing system.
In this paper, the actual experimental equipment employs
the motor system of Siemens S120 series. The speed signal of
both the tested motor and load machine can be obtained in real
time during the experiment, which is get and processed from
the encoder mounted at the outermost end. Therefore, the
position information of the outermost end of tested motor and
load machine can be obtained by processing the speed signal
of two machines. The testing process is that before each
experimental, let the tested motor run in the given speed,
Fig. 5. The measured torque by torque meter when the given value of
while the given value of electromagnetic torque of load electromagnetic torque of load machine is 20 Nm.
machine is 0 Nm. The angular velocity of the two motors can
be converted by the speed signal of them. Then the position angular velocity signal.
information of the outermost end can get from the integral of When 0 < t0 < t < t0 + t1 the given value of
electromagnetic torque of load machine is 0 Nm, and the
tested motor steady-state operation at given speed. The no
load calculated torque is given in (8).
ΔT = k
0
t
eq {³
0
1
t
³
[n (t) * 2π / 60] − [n (t) * 2π / 60]
0
2
(8)
}
Where, ΔT0 is the calculation torque values, which caused
by the two motor’s difference of initial position. n1 (t) is the
real time speed value of the tested motor, n 2 (t) is the real
time speed value of the load machine.
When t0 + t1 < t < t0 + t2 the given value of electromagnetic
torque of load machine is the experimental value, and the
tested system has been run at steady-state. The on load
calculated torque is given in (9).

Fig. 3. The measured torque by torque meter when the given value of
ΔT = k
1
t
eq {³
0
1
t
³
[n (t) * 2π / 60] − [n (t) * 2π / 60]
0
2
(9)
}
electromagnetic torque of load machine is 10 Nm. Where, ΔT1 is the calculation torque values when the
electromagnetic torque of load machine is the experiment
value.
So under the experimental, the actual transmitted torque of
the shaft is given in (10).
ΔT2 = ΔT1 − ΔT0 (10)
Where, ΔT2 is the calculated transmitted torque value of
the shaft by the mathematical model when the test system runs
at the steady-state.
The mathematical process of (8), (9) and (10) can achieve
by programmable software of SCOUT in S120 PC.
In the experiment, the mechanical torque values of the
testing system can be calculated by the mathematical method
of (7), (8), (9) and (10), when the given electromagnetic
torque of load machine is 10 Nm, 15 Nm and 20 Nm is shown
Fig. 4. The measured torque by torque meter when the given value of in Fig. 6, Fig. 7 and Fig. 8.
electromagnetic torque of load machine is 15 Nm.

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Fig. 6. The calculated torque values when the electromagnetic torque of load
machine is 10 Nm.
Fig. 7. The calculation torque values when the electromagnetic torque of load
machine is 15 Nm.
Fig. 8. The calculation torque values when the electromagnetic torque of load
machine is 20 Nm.
IV. COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS
It is a limited constant that the resolution of encoder. So
the encoder will introduce measurement error in calculated the
position signal. In this paper, the maximum error of the
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calculated data of the torque value in the experiment is given
in (11).
2k (11)
ξ max = eq
mq
Where, ξ max is the maximum error of the calculated data of
the torque value, m is the multiplier of encoder signal
processing circuit, q is the resolution of encoder.
Since the data obtained by the encoder within the error
range is random, the final result of calculated data of the
torque value can be corrected by the average processing of the
data. The average processing result and the measured torque
were drawn in Fig. 9. It can be found the difference between
the values measured by torque meter and the processed
mathematical calculated torque value is very small.
Fig. 9. The values measured by torque meter and the processed of
mathematical calculated
V. CONCLUSION
The proposed torque mathematical calculated method
based on the encoder signals can accurately calculate the
torque value during the steady-state test of PMSM in back-to-
back test system. Eliminating the need of torque meter greatly
reduces system cost and improves the system reliability. It is
particularly suitable for calculated the torque value of test
system with elongate shaft. However, the calculation precision
influence by the resolution of encoder and axial rigidity of the
shaft. The higher resolution of the encoder, the smaller axial
rigidity of the shaft, the error of calculated torque value will
be smaller.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51177125).

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