Modeling and Simulation of Dual

Redundant Power Inverter Stage

to BLDCM for MEA Application

B. Suresh Kumar, B. V. Ravi Kumar and K. Sindhu Priya

Abstract The increasing demand for electrification functions on control surfaces of

aircraft leads to a new concept of new advancement “more electric aircraft (MEA)”.
In the aviation industry, an electromechanical actuator (EMA) is used to maintain
the orientation of aircraft, landing gears, and braking systems. As the electrical
components such as inverter and BLDC motor are key components in EMA, the
designing of these components became a critical issue. To enhance the reliability
in actuation system in aircraft, this paper proposes dual redundant power inverter
system to run BLDC motor with redundancy management and logic, fault tolerant,
and fault diagnosis by using MATLAB/SIMULINK with the results.

Keywords Electromechanical actuator (EMA) · Dual redundant · Inverter ·

BLDC drive · Fault diagnosis

1 Introduction

More electric aircraft (MEA) [1] is a new concept which involves the maximum
utilization of electrical technology in control surfaces with expertise mastered control
architectures. In such flight control surfaces, an electromechanical actuator (EMA)
[2] plays a major role to control the direction of aircraft. A subsystem of an EMA
includes power electronic circuitry, controller, a BLDC drive, ball screw mechanism
for position detection, and its associated components. As the fundamental structural

B. Suresh Kumar · B. V. Ravi Kumar · K. Sindhu Priya (B)

CBIT, Gandipet, Hyderabad, India
e-mail: kalvasindhupriyareddy@reddifmail.com
B. Suresh Kumar
e-mail: bskbus@gmail.com
B. V. Ravi Kumar
e-mail: venkataravi.kumar@rcilab.in
B. V. Ravi Kumar
Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad, India
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 167
H. S. Saini et al. (eds.), Innovations in Electronics and Communication
Engineering, Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 65,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3765-9_18
168 B. Suresh Kumar et al.

Fig. 1 Electromechanical actuator block diagram

blocks in EMA are power converters and BLDC drive, designing of these components
became a challenge. A simple fault occurrence in any subsystem of electromechanical
actuator leads to whole outage in the system and many lives would be at risk. So,
aircraft applications require safety and accessibility. So “redundancy management”
is necessary.
Dual redundant [3] logic consists of two modules consisting of power inverter
stage and BLDC motor windings as shown in Fig. 1. If any fault occurs, the other
alternative module will drive the whole actuation system maintaining the reliability.
But how rather it switches to other alternative is discussed in this paper.
This paper presents the MATLAB simulation of mathematical model of BLDC
drive, power inverter stage to EMA.

2 Redundancy Management

The redundancy logic [4] to this system is limited for only one fault in each module.
In Fig. 2, Primary chain is always in operation under normal conditions. If any fault
occurs, then only redundant chain takes the service. If there is a fault in PI-1, the
system can run without interruption either through PI-2, W2 and PI-2, W1. Of course,
the latter is preferred because if the second fault occurred in W2, and then the whole
system will be out of redundancy.

3 Mathematical Modeling of BLDC Motor

The BLDC motor can be modeled in the same way as conventional dc motor. The
detailed approximated equations d-q transform is discussed in the paper [5]. The
equivalent electrical circuit is shown in Fig. 3.
Modeling and Simulation of Dual Redundant … 169

Fig. 2 Redundancy management

Fig. 3 Mathematical model of BLDC motor

The electrical equivalent of the armature coil can be described by an inductance

(L a ) in series with a resistance (Ra ) in series with an induced voltage (V a ) which
opposes the voltage source.
A differential equation for the equivalent circuit can be derived by using Kirch-
hoff’s voltage law around the electrical loop.

Va  Ia Ra + L a di/dt + eb

By using Laplace transform of the above equation,

I (s)  (Ia (s) − eb (s))/(Ls + Ra )

The electromagnetic torque is proportional to the current and can be written as

170 B. Suresh Kumar et al.

Table 1 Possible switching

Healthy/section Faulty section Recommended
cases
path
Case-I
PI-1 → W1 If Fault at W1 PI-1 → W2
PI-1 → W2 If fault at PI-1 PI-2 → W2
Case-II
PI-1 → W1 If Fault at PI-1 PI-2 → W1
PI-2 → W1 If Fault at W1 PI-2 → W2
Case-III
PI-1 → W1 If Fault at both PI-2 → W2
PI-1 and W1

Te  K t Ia and Te  J dw/dt + Bω;

where ω  dθ/dt

On Laplace transform ω(s)  Te /(J s + B).

Here K t is torque constant and J is inertia of motor.

3.1 Power Inverter Design

A various number of inverter topologies with the fault diagnosis and fault treatment
have been presented in the previous papers [6]. On comparison and analysis, two
three-phase standard six switch power inverters are used.

4 Fault Diagnosis and Fault Management

With the aim to improve the reliability of the system, dual redundancy brushless dc
motor [7] is designed. Fault diagnosis and fault treatment are discussed in previous
research papers [8] by various techniques. In this paper, the probability to occur faults
in various available subsections is presented in the table for different cases (Table 1).

5 SIMULINK Diagram

The whole actuation system with the redundancy is shown in Fig. 4. It consists of
primary chain and redundant chain, an LC filter to get smoother current waveform,
Modeling and Simulation of Dual Redundant … 171

Fig. 4 Simulation diagram of EMA with dual redundancy logic

Table 2 Simulation
Rating of BLDC motor 10 Kw
parameters
Voltage 100 V
Current 50 A
Inductance 160 µH
Armature resistance 0.1 
Torque constant 0.08
Torque 8 Nm
Inertia J 2 × 10−5 kg m2

and a mechanical transmission system where the electrical motor output is converted
into mechanical system as position, and this position is taken as feedback signal.
The chosen parameters which are used in the simulation of this paper have been
presented in the following tabular column (Table 2).

5.1 Simulation Results

In Fig. 5, the output of the actuator position follows the input signal. Due to the
velocity feedback loop, the phase delay occurs between the input commands and
output produced, which is shown in Fig. 6. When an overload fault occurs in motor
Winding1, due to high rise in current, the motor could not drive the load and deviates
from the output and comes out of scope which is shown in Fig. 7. And the respective
fault currents and the power inverter voltages switching are shown in Figs. 8 and 9,
respectively.
172 B. Suresh Kumar et al.

Fig. 5 Electromechanical actuator position under normal condition

Fig. 6 Phase lag due to velocity loop

Fig. 7 When fault occurs in Winding1 due to overload

Modeling and Simulation of Dual Redundant … 173

Fig. 8 Motor currents when W1 fails

Fig. 9 Power inverter voltages

6 Conclusion

An electromechanical actuator comprised of position control system with the dual

redundancy technique applied to both BLDC motor and power inverter has been
designed and simulated, and results are presented. The fault diagnosis and treatment
within the stipulated time are well explained through the presented output results.

References

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