A Measurement Method of the Exact Variations of the Self and Mutual Inductances of a Buried Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor

and its Application to the Reduction of Torque Ripples.

Christophe Delecluse, Damien Grenier
Laboratoire dElectrotechnique et dhstrumentation (LEI) Faculte des Sciences Appliquees - Universite Catholique de Louvain BPtiment Maxwell Place du Levant, 3 B-1348 Louvain-La-Neuve - Belgium Phone : +32.10.47.22.86 - Fax : +32.10.47.86.67 - E-mail : grenier@lei.ucl.ac.be

Abstract
In this paper, a new measurement method of the variations of the self and mutual inductances of a buried permanent magnet synchronous motor is proposed. This method allows to calculate the inductances variations in the Concordia s reference frame without recurring to the Parks assumption of sinusoidal pattern. Afterwards, these parameters are used to develop a new nonlinear torque control strategy. This controller simultaneously achieves accurate torque control (in fact, the torque ripples are reduced to zero) and copper losses minimization. To reach this goal, we apply input-output linearization techniques where the inputs are the stator voltages and the outputs are the provided torque and a judiciously chosen output linked to the copper losses in such a way that, when forced to zero, it leads to the maximum machine eficiency. The performance of the measurement method and of the control strategy is demonstrated by simulations. The results are compared to the ones obtained with a controller based on Parks assumptions

Introduction

The permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) offer several advantages for applications, which require high accelerations because of their high torque to inertia ratio. In addition, due to their excellent power factor linked to the fact that no magnetization current has to flow in the stator phases, a PMSM needs, for the same input voltage and the same delivered mechanical power, a smaller line current value, which is favorable to the design of the electronic power converter feeding the drive. The control of the PMSM is based on its analytical model which is generally described by considering the following Parks assumptions : AI. the saturation level is fully determined by the permanent magnets and hence the value of the relative permeability of the iron does not significantly change with the stator current values.

As a result, the flux induced by the rotor PM in the stator phases and the self and mutual stator inductances depend only on the rotor position. A2. the cogging torque is ,neglected. If the effects of the magnetic saturation are negligible, this cogging torque depends however only on the rotor position. It can then be anyway compensated by considering this phenomenon in the torque reference generation. A3. iron losses are neglected. A4. the variations of the flux induced in the stator phases by the rotor magnets are sinusoidal, which implies that the induced electromotive forces are sinusoidal; A5. the variation of the self and mutual stator inductances as the function of the rotor position is sinusoidal. h t h e case of motors for which the controller has been designed using these Parks assumptions, the smoothness of the provided torque (which is a critical criterion in many applications such as robotics, flexible manufacturing or aerospace applications [l]), is directly linked to the fact that the last two assumptions are more or less fulfilled. Several design techniques allow to build motors for which the back electromotive force and inductance variation shapes are very close to the sinusoidal pattern. All these techniques lead nevertheless to a decrease of the average torque value (and hence to a reduction of the torque to inertia ratio) and to additional manufacture costs [2]. Another approach is, instead of making the motor to fit its model, to make the analytical model more suitable for the actual motor. For this purpose, new modelings of the PMSM have been proposed to take into account the exact variation of the back electromotive force. Most of these new modelings deal with surface-mounted PMSM (which have naturally smooth poles and hence constant inductances). By considering the exact variations of the flux induced in the stator phases by the rotor magnets, linearization of the torque/current relationship [ 3 ] or even of the torqueivoltage relationship [4] is possible. In the

0-7803-4484-7/98/$10.00 0 1998 IEEE

191

AMC 98 - COIMBRA

last-mentioned case, an equivalent of the Park's transformation can then 'be defined. The aim of this paper is to propose a torque/voltage relationship linearization in the case of a buried PMSM, which non-sinusoidal variations in function of the rotor position of both the flux induced by the PM in the stator phases; the stator self and mutual inductances. As it will be shown in section 4, this modeling is obtained by means of state feedback linearization techniques of which Park's transformation can be considered as a particular case in the case of non salient pole motors [ 5 ] . This modeling is based on the exact knowledge of motor fundamental parameters. A measurement method of these parameters will be then proposed in section 3 and the influence of the uncertainty on these parameters will be studied in section 5 .

The electromagnetic torque T results from a power balance expressing the equality between the electric power provided to the machine and the algebraic sum of the copper losses, of the variation of the energy stored in the windings and the mechanical power provided by the machine :

2.2

Concordia's transformation

2
2.1

PMSM analytical model

Model in the stator reference frame

The aim of the Concordia's transformation is to break up the model of a system expressed in the stator reference frame into two systems: a single-phase current system (homopolar) and a two-phase system. The homopolar component of a data represents the sum of the components of this data expressed in the stator reference frame. If the machine is star-connected (without access to the neutral point), the homopolar component of the current is equal to zero. Let Xabc be an electrical quantity expressed in the stator
-

Assuming that the assumptions A l , A2 and A3 defined above are true, the equations of a three-phase PMSM can be written as follow :

three-phase reference frame. transformation is defined by :

The

Concordia's

%
In this equation :
Uabc = (ua Lib -

5 . x o + --= k - x o + 3*xap

s.( ):

(3)

u c ) T ,where ua, ub and uc are the

where x is the homopolar component, x and x are the 0 a P two-phase components of the electrical quantity. We note :

phases voltages applied to the motor and the exponent 'T' means the transpose of a matrix. R, is the resistance of the stator windings ;
__

inbc = (iu ib i c ) T , where ,i

Lbb Mbc

ib and ic are the

currents in the stator phases;

& = [ M o b Lua

Mac

y;,]

is the matrix of the

In this new reference frame the equations of the PMSM become :

11,

= R, .io +-[Lo,

self and mutual stator inductances. This matrix is symmetrical; o i s the rotor angular velocity; Ltabc Labc - is the derivative of - in function of the
~ ~

d dt

.io

uap = R,.iap

- dt -

+-

'I . J 'I __- I

M,,p.r,

+-

dt

Lap.iap

+ p.o.cp',,p ( 5 ) -

electrical rotor position p.8 defined as the product of the mechanical rotor position 0 and the number of pole pairs p ;

v'rabc = ( $ ' m $'rb

+Irc

where 4'rai $'rb and are the derivatives of the flux induced by the
I

rotor magnets in the stator phases, in function of the

electrical rotor position p.6;

192

(9)
i.e. :

describing the variation of the self and mutual stator inductances as a function of the rotor position.

3.1
2 2 1 1 -I 2 -2

Identification of Rs

1 - 1 -4 -4 2 -2 0 0

1 0

I 2 -I 0 1 - 2

We can appraise the value of a winding resistance by feeding only two phases with a continuous voltage, the third remaining disconnected. After the transient, the result of the quotient of the voltage by the current equals the double of stator resistance.

3.2

Identification of the variation of flus induced by the rotor PM

We only take into account the star-connected machines in this paper. Therefore, the sum of the currents in the various phases is equal to zero. It means that the homopolar component of the current is equal to zero :

A no-load test is carried out i.e. the windings are open circuits :

i,+ib+ic=O-io

=O

(1 1)

Therefore, the equations describing the behavior of the motor in the two-phase reference frame are reduced to :

The PMSM is driven by an auxiliary motor at constant speed. The voltages equation (1) is reduced to :
uubc

P.0.-

(16)

d lap u a = R, .ius + Lab .-y=+ p.w.L rclP.iuD , ~(1 3) ~ +p.~.$

We do not have access to the neutral point. Therefore it is not possible to measure the phase voltages ua, ub and ziC but we can know the terminal voltages V,, Vb and l > defined from an external reference point.

Fig. 1 : Star-connected PMSM

mH
Lua Mab
H O

H2
2,5
1,16

H4
0,Oj 0,18

H6
0,12
0

H8
0,03
0,025

HLO
0,08
0,05

HI2
0,l
0,04

4,3 1,29

H14 0.05
0,03

Moreover we have the following relation :

V for IOOOrpm

p.w.g,.,

1 H1 I I 27.2 I

H3

Hj
0

I I

H7
0,7

H9
1,6

I H I 1 I HI3 1 0,7 I I , I

Table 2 . harmonics ofindilced electronzotive forces

Parameters identification

As the matrix 3 is singular, it is impossible to find out ziu, ub et uc. However we are going to show that it is possible to find out the parameters 4, and 4e, which appear in , . a . the torque equation (14) and are hence useful to the motor control. According to ( 3 ) , (16) and (17), we have :

The parameters to identify are the stator resistance, the function describing the variation of the flux induced by the rotor magnets in the stator phases and the functions

193

It is easy to find out :

It implies the following relation :

v=vfl-vb= U a - U b
= 2.R,.i+[L,,(8)-2.MUb(8)cLbb(B)j-

di dt

(28)

and hence :

These relations show us that when the neutral point is not accessible, it is possible to identify the functions of variation of 'raand 4 'rp,but not that of 4 'yo. We have :

The measurement method is then the following one : three locked-rotor tests are carried out by feeding phases 'a' and 'b' by a crenellated voltage. The amplitude of this voltage is chosen so that the maximum current in the machine is not exceeded. Let us postulate that we want to know the value of the inductances for 0 = 8*. Tests are carried out for 0 = e*, 8 = 0*+21r/3p and 8 = 8*+4d3p. The combination of equations (23), (24) and (28) allows us to write :
mesf(8*) = [V-2.RS.il]

(ddr)i

3.3

Identification of the variations of the self and mutual stator inductances

As in the previous case, we could show that there is an impossibility to identify all the parameters describing the variations as a function of the electrical position of the self and mutual stator inductances. It is nevertheless possible to find out the three parameters La,, L,, and Map useful to the control of the star-connected motor. We know that, the ones compared to the others, the stator windings have a 120" electric phase shift. It is expressed by the following relations :

The combination of (29), (30) and (3 1) gives

Le,

~,,(e)-

Lbb

[e + -);

L,,

[e + -);

By using (1 0), we finally compute ;

(23)

We will carry out locked-rotor tests. So, the voltage equation (1) is reduced to :

So the value of these three parameters can be evaluated for any rotor position from three measurements per position. The measurement to carry out depends on the inverse of the derivative of the currents il, i and i3. We 2 will have to observe the sensitivity of the measurements in relation to an error in the measurement of this derivative (see section 5 ) .

Nonlinear torque control

The aim is to control the torque provided by the machine.

This torque is a nonlinear function of both the rotor position 8 and the ap-components of the stator currents.

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For a given position, ,there is an infinity of possible combinations of stator currents delivering the reference torque. Among these combinations of currents, we are going to choose the only one that allows a maximization of the energy conversion. To reach this goal, we have to minimize the power losses, or equivalently, since the analytic model of the motor neglects all the other losses sources, we have to minimize the copper losses. We will use the state-feedback input-output linearization technique [7]. The method consists in deriving the outputs of the system as many times as required so that at least one component of the command variables appears in the derivative expression. In the case of our PMSM, the inputs of the system are the voltages u, and up. We still have to choose outputs so that our goals become achievable. One output will be the electromagnetic torque T(ia,zD,(3) by (14). Let p], a given quantity proportional to the copper losses be the second output of the system :
(34)

the control vector (in our case the voltage vector) appears. For both the output one differentiation is enough and we obtain :

2 ! -

dt J

0 *.=+
=
=

diap dt

p.0.-(a~ ap.0

J)

. _ _ -

Let us postulate that we want to impose a first order answer on the system : dT ---=Kp,.(T-Tref)=~~
dt

Since our goal is to minimize this copper losses i.e. to cancel the value of the derivative of p when the ; electromagnetic torque is constant. The operating point will be defined by :

d J -= K,,.J = V* dt Since the matrixg is non singular, this objective can be achieved by imposing voltages equal to

dpj = L . d i a +--.drp EO diu dip with di, and dip such that :
dT dT=-.dra
.

aP

'

apj

(35)
= R, .iap

-+ p.o.L',p .i,p + p.o.cp',,p -___

(43)

ai,

aT +-.dip aip

=O

From (35) and (36), we deduce that the desired operating point should verify :
(37)

Simulation Results

It can be shown (cf. [SI), that the system having as outputs the torque T and a quantity to be minimized such as p; can not be input-output linearized since its relative degree is not defined for the desired operating point. Let us choice as system outputs the torque T and quantity J , which will be controlled in order to reach the value 0. This quantity J can be also defined as the Jacobian of the function f defined by : f :N3+'ill3 :(i,.!D,O)+(T,p,,O) Straightforward calculation gives :
J = p . ( ~ ' , ,- ~ ' p p ) i , .ip

(38)

+ p . ~ ' , p(ip - 1; .2

'1

+ P 4 ' r a .ip - P 4 ' r p J a

(39)

We applied the input-output linearization techniques. Both the outputs are differentiated until one component of

Simulations were carried out with the parameters described in section 2 with the help of the software Matlab - Simulink@). First, the inductance matrix identification procedure described in section 3 has been tested. The critical point in this procedure is the estimation of the derivative of the currents il, i2 and i3 present in the (29), (30) and (3 I). In order to evaluate the impact of a measurement error on these derivatives, they have been replaced by a relatively bad first-order estimation : d i i(t) - i(t -At> -= dr Al where the time step (At) has been chosen relatively high (3ms). The goal of this handling is to prove that the identification method is valid even when measurements are more degraded than it will be in real experiment. The successive derivative as a function of the electrical position of the inductance matrix embedded used in the

195

control algorithm described in section 4 have been estimated through a a second order numerical derivation method : aLap ~ a bp. e + ~ ( ~ . e ) ] - [~ a~p A ( P . Q ) ] P- - Lfap=-- -- = ap.e 2.A(p.8)
=== ==E

Fig. 6 shows the results obtained with the same torque controller while using, for the calculation of the applied voltages, the value of the inductances and of their derivatives spoilt by errors due to a wrong estimation of the currents derivative.
$ 3

a_ _, - rap [p.e + ~ ( ~ . e )L]vap [p.e - A ( ~ . B ) ] ~' ~ L = -L",p = Z.A(p.0)

Fig. 2 shows that the error on the derivative of the 2 3 currents il, i and i causes a vertical shift of the La, and L,, curves. The derivative of these quantities as function of the electrical position won't be therefore spoilt by any error as it is shown in Fig. 3.

:I

0.5

Fig. 4 : Step torque response obtained with the non-linear torque controller when using the exact inductances values

-40

0 /

(7

Fig. 2 : Estimated and actual values of the inductances L,, (l), La, (2) and Mme( 3 ) as a function of the mechanical rotor position Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 shows the results of a torque control using the method described in the section 4. The simulation has been done with proportional controller ( K p l = 6000, Kp2 = 100000) and by using the exact values for the inductances and their derivatives. We notice that the obtained torque presents no ripples.
41
21

ms

Fig. 5 : Line currents obtained with the non-linear torque controller when using the exact inductances values

"

ms

Fig. 6 : Step torque response obtained with the non-linear torque controller when using the estimated inductances values. The observed torque ripples in Fig. 6 are to be compared to those in Fig. 7 showing the results of a control strategy

196

based on the first harmonic model of the PMSM (when assuming that the motor fulfills A4 and A5 defined above) [8]. The motor is then supplied by nearly sinusoidal currents (Fig. 8). It appears that a knowledge of the exact flux distribution, even if the parameter measurements contain errors, gives better results than the classical sinusoidal flux distribution assumption.

05;

'I I
I

motors without worrying about fitting its model to Park's assumptions. It will lead to an increase of the average torque value (and hence to an increase of the torque to inertia ratio) and to a decrease of manufacture costs. The next step will be a real-time implementation using a digital signal processor (DSP) to experiment the measurement method (we have to examine the effects of measurement noises) and the torque control strategy with a real machine (we have to examine the ability of a power converter to provide calculated reference currents). We will also have to take the saturation of ferromagnetic materials involved in the motor building into account in the modeling (hence in the measurement method and in the torque control strategy).

References
4

'i
-O 5

Y. Fu, E. Gilson, J.-L. Debauche, F. Labrique, H. Buyse, "Current control in fully digital VSI fed SMPM synchronous motor drive systems." Proc. Of the IEEE
Power Electronics Specialists Conference (PESC 96),

ms

Fig. 7 : Step torque response obtained with a torque controller based on the lstharmonic model of the PMSM

Baveno, Italy, June 1996, pp. 1568-1574. T. M. Jahns, W. L. Soong, "Pulsating Torque Minimization Techniques for Permanent Magnet AC Motor Drives - A Review", IEEE Trans. On Indzwtrial Electronics, Vol. 43, No. 2, April 1996, pp. 321-330.
I.J. Ha, C.-I. Kang "Explicit Characterization of All Feedback-Linearizing Controllers for A General Type Brushless D : Motor", IEEE Trans. On Automatic C Control, Vol. 39, No. 3, March 1994, pp. 673-677.

to
ms

15

D. Grenier, S.Yala, J.-P. Louis, "DCfinition d'extensions de la transformation de Park pour la commande de moteurs synchrones A aimants permanents montes en surface", The
European Physical Journal ( I 998).

Fig. 8 : Line currents obtained with a torque controller based on the lstharmonic model of the PMSM

- Applied

Physics I , 233-2-16

Conclusion

Zribi, J. Chiasson "Position Control of a PM Stepper Motor by Exact Linearization", IEEE Trans. on Automatic Control, Vol. 36, No. 5, May 1991, pp. 620-625.
F. Colamartino "Contribution 5 I'Ctude de la commande . numtrique des machines synchrones ii aimants permanents. Minimisation des pulsations de couple Commande sans capteur de position. ", ThBse de doctorat
de I'UniversitP Paris VI, DCcembre 1993. F. Isidori, "Nonlinear Control Systems. An Introduction", Springer-Verlap, 1989.

In this paper, we proposed a method for identifying the inductances variations in the Concordia's reference frame for a star-connected buried PMSM. This method is only based on electrical quantities (currents and voltages) and on a position measurement. So it could easy be achieved by using standard equipment. In the second part of this paper, we proposed a new non-linear torque control strategy using the identified parameters. With this controller, we are able to exploit the reluctance torque due to saliency while reducing torque ripples in comparison with a torque controller using Park's assumptions about sinusoidal pattern of the flux induced or inductances variations. Moreover, the copper losses are minimized. So, using this method, it is possible to design

D. Grenier, L.-A. Dessaint, 0. Akhrif, Y. Bonnassieux. B. Le Pioufle "Experimental Nonlinear Torque Control of a Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motor Using Saliency", IEEE trans. on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 44, No. 5, October 1997, pp. 680-686.

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