Advance AC Drives 2009

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Advanced AC Drives Permanent Magnet Machine Drives

Dr. Chris Gerada
chris.gerada@nottingham.ac.uk

Advance AC Drives 2009

Part III Control of PMSM Drives

V/F control Basic Vector Control MTPA control Field Weakening

Advance AC Drives 2009

Operating PM synchronous machines

The basics for operating BLAC drives are very similar to those for operating Induction Motor drives. The main differences are :

The rotor field in PMSM rotates synchronously with the rotor, thus there is no slip like IM The main air gap field in PMSM is produced by the magnet and thus there is no need for a magnetising current. This implies : A) operation with a high power factor (no need for an id) B) cannot switch the field off; need a demagnetisation current to weaken the field

PMSM can be salient. PMSM in their basic form are not able to operate from a fixed voltage and frequency supply. When such operation is required a squirrel-cage can be incorporated in the rotor to start the machine up. Once it reaches synchronous speed the cage is ineffective.

In the majority of applications PMSM are operated from power electronic converters and there are basically 3 control strategies which can be adopted :

Open-Loop V/Hz Control Closed Loop Control

Constant flux (id=0) Controlled flux (id finite) MTPA control

Advance AC Drives 2009

V/Hz open loop control

No speed or position sensor required. By increasing smoothly the supplied frequency from a value close to zero to the rated speed, the motor will run synchronously during the entire starting period. The voltage needs to be increased proportianally to the frequency to match the back emf increasing with speed. The rate of change of frequency will depend on the inertia of the drive. If rate of change is set high the machine will not start and large torque oscillations occur. The open loop nature of this control scheme makes it poor in transient performance. The speed of the PMSM can however be precisely controlled by the excitation frequency without slip compensation as for IM. Can be easily supplied from a general purpose V/Hz IM drive. Cage winding can be used to improve stability and start-up.

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Closed loop vector control of PMSM (id=0)

As we have previously seen the torque produced by a PMSM can be expressed as :

T=

k I q E + I d I q ( X d X q )
e

Magnet alignment component

Reluctance component

For non-salient machines such as for surface mount PMSM, the second component is zero, thus:

T=

I q E = k I q f

Having E fixed by the magnet flux linkage, Torque is directly proportional to the q-axis current component. This provides for a simple way of controlling non salient PMSM :

I d = 0, I q T

This control strategy is also often used with salient PMSM. In principle it works well, however it would not operate at its full potential as the second torque component, ie the reluctance torque component is not utilised. The reluctance torque component is also highly non-linear as we will see later on and using it effectively can be quite difficult especially if machine data is not available. The control structure employed is very similar to that of IM.

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Closed loop vector control of PMSM (id=0)

As we have previously seen the torque produced by a PMSM can be expressed as :

Advance AC Drives 2009

Closed loop vector control of PMSM (MTPA)

For maximum efficiency, a maximum torque per amp (MTPA) control strategy should be used. (assuming copper losses are dominant) This utilises the reluctance torque component of salient machines. As we have seen the angle

should be advanced to archive this. ( i.e. utilise negative id)

max T

E E 2 + 8 I 2 X 2 a = sin 4 X I a
1

As we previously observed the angle of advance, (or the magnitude of id) is a function of the supply current. This is expectable since the reluctance torque, for a given angle of advance is proportional to the current squared whilst the magnet torque is only proportional to the current. The optimum angle of advance is also a function of the saliency ratio, and the magnet flux linkage which in an ideal machine are fixed. Knowing the above parameters, relationships between T, iq and id for MTPA operation can be derived.

Advance AC Drives 2009

Torque Loci

If we calculate maxT for various values of Ia and substitute in the equations below :
2 Ia k T= EI a cos ( ) sin ( 2 ) ( X d X q ) e 2

I q = I a cos ( )

I d = I a sin ( )

We can then plot Torque loci as a function of the d- and q- axis current components The first figure shows such a locus for a non salient machine. As one expects the locus is on the q-axis as the d-axis current component would not produce any torque.

Torque locus for a non salient machine

max T = sin 1 [ 0]

At the other extreme, if we had no magnets, (ie having a synchronous reluctance machine) the angle fro MTPA would be such that -id=iq for any T

max T = sin 1

1 2
Torque locus for a synchronous reluctance machine (salient PMSM without magnets)

The torque produced by a salient PMSM is a hybrid of the above, thus the locus will be in between the two loci above

Advance AC Drives 2009

Torque Loci

Since the saliency torque increases with I2, the actual torque maximum of the salient P.M. machine moves asymptotically towards 135 as i increases. However, for low values of i, the saliency torque is small compared to the field torque (3PEi/w). Consequently the locus of i starts from zero and moves along the iq (90) axes. We can also plot id and iq as a function of toque to give us the MTPA

iq
+T motoring loci of i for maximum torque per amp
1350

field

-T generating

id
0

Advance AC Drives 2009

Torque Mapping Functions

The process is simple - given a required torque, look up values of id and iq necessary to obtain this value.

i
iq = f q (T )

id = f d (T )

-T motoring

+T motoring

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Closed Loop Control MTPA Scheme

The process is simple - given a required torque, look up values of id and iq necessary to obtain this value.

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Simple or MTPA Control?

Mainly depends on how large the reluctance torque component is in relation to the magnet component and how well the variation of the inductances are known to derive the mapping functions. Note that all the mapping functions discuseed are pased on constant Ld and Lq. The extra information on how Ld and Lq change with magnetic saturation may cause problems for drives where the power electronics is "general purpose", since extra effort will be required to set up the drive. To achieve simple control, all that is required is to control iq so that T iq. Example of Parameter Variation for a Burried Magnet PMSM :

Note : The larger bridge depth increases saliency (higher Lq) but results in larger magnet leakage flux. Saliency ratio changes by more than 30% over load range

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Field Weakening

As the machine speeds up the back emf E increases: E = e f This is the same concept for requiring field weakening in DC machines. The main difference is that in this case we do not have a field winding and the rotor field is set by the magnet. When E approaches the maximum voltage the inverter can supply, operation in the simple mode with id=0 is no longer possible. Consider the phasor diagram with a machine operating in the field weakening region. It illustrates motoring operation with E greater than V. Id is principally responsible for the demagnetisation effect. However, this requires an increased phase current which is not used for torque and so reducing the power capability of the machine if i is limited.

There are two limiting conditions :

the maximum available inverter voltage. the maximum inverter or machine current.

Advance AC Drives 2009

Voltage and Current Limits

In order to understand the concepts behind PMSM field weakening we will take a number of simplifying assumptions. We will assume a non salient machine and neglect stator resistance drops. Ld = Lq = L We will use the id-iq plane to plot the limits of the operating region for given current and voltage limits. As we have already seen the phase current is equal to this translates into a circle with the value of the rated current as radius. If we look at the Voltage Equation in steady state :

V = ( E L I d e ) + ( L I q e )
2 2
2 V f = Id + ( Iq ) e L L 2 2

This represents an offset circle in the id,iq plane with centre point and radius being :

id =

f
L

iq = 0

radius =

V e L

Advance AC Drives 2009

Voltage and Current Limits

In order to understand the concepts behind PMSM field weakening we will take a number of simplifying assumptions.

Advance AC Drives 2009

Voltage and Current Limits

The voltage limit circles get smaller as wm increases. If wm=wm2 then the current can only have the value in the shaded region, Under this condition, most of the current is used to deflux the machine (id) and very little current is available for torque (iq). Hence the falling torque curve as wm increases. If the origin of the voltage limit circle lies on the current limit circle (or inside it) the machine is theoretically capable of infinite speed - but zero torque (see diagram on next slide). The voltage limit circle which cuts the origin of the current plane is the case where vmax = E. With only iq control, this is the condition of zero torque and current (wm2 condition for diagram on next slide) . As the voltage limit circle cuts the optimum torque/amp locus it is necessary to reduce the iq component and increase id. This has the effect of advancing the angle g. A high L is needed to achive fw

id =

f
L

Advance AC Drives 2009

Voltage and Current Limits

In order to understand the concepts behind PMSM field weakening we will take a number of simplifying assumptions.