Diode Clamped Multilevel Inverter fed
BLDC Motor using SEPIC Converter
Dr.N.MANOJ KUMAR1,SANJAY2, HARIHARAN3, MANIKANDAN4, MANOJ V5
Abstract—This paper presents a modified SEPIC
Converter based diode clamped Multilevel Inverter
fed BLDC Motor For efficient suppression of torque
pulsation, the dc-bus voltage selector circuit is used to
apply the regulated dc-bus voltage from the SEPIC
converter during the commutation interval. In order
to further mitigate the torque ripple pulsation, the 3-
level DCMLI is used in the proposed circuit. The
trapezoidal based back EMF is used to reduce the
torque ripple in the proposed converter. The
performance of proposed method is simulated using
Matlab/Simulink and Compared with hardware
results.
Index Terms—Brushless direct current motor
(BLDCM), dc- bus voltage control, 3-level diode
clamped multilevel inverter (3-level DCMLI).
I. INTRODUCTION
A brushless dc motor is a dc motor turned
inside out, so that the field is on the rotor
and the armature is on the stator. The
brushless dc motor is actually a permanent
magnet ac motor whose torque-current
characteristics mimic the dc motor. Instead
of commutating the armature current using
brushes, electronic commutation is used.
This eliminates the problems associated
with the brush and the commutator
arrangement, for example, sparking and
wearing out of the commutator-brush
arrangement, thereby, making a BLDC
more rugged as compared to a dc motor.
Having the armature on the stator makes it
easy to conduct heat away from the
windings, and if desired, having
cooling arrangement for the armature
windings is much easier as compared to a
dc motor. In effect, a BLDC is a modified
PMSM motor with the modification being
that the back-emf is trapezoidal instead of
being sinusoidal as in the case of PMSM.
The “commutation region” of the back-
emf of a BLDC motor should be as small
as possible, while at the same time it
should not be so narrow as to make it
difficult to commutate a phase of that
motor when driven by a Current Source
Inverter. The flat constant portion of the
back- emf should be 120° for a smooth
torque production. The analysis of induced
EMF waveform and the torque ripples
waveform of the skewed stator slots or
skewed rotor magnets by one slot is
studied. This skewing normally used to
reduce the cogging torque in the machine
makes the induced EMF as more non
trapezoidal which causes the ripples the
torque.The separation of the stator and
rotor parameters method is used to reduce
the torque ripples due to skewing
II. Analysis of BLDC Drive System
The working principle for the basic
DTC is to select a voltage vector based on
the error between requested and actual
(sensed and estimated) values of torque
and flux, rotor position estimation. DTC
has the capability to work without any
external measurement sensor for the rotors
mechanical position. To satisfy the correct
direction of rotation of a BLDC, the rotor
position is required at the motor start up.
DTC is simple because it does not require
any kind of current regulators, rotating
reference frame transformation or a PWM
generator as shown in Fig.1
 Fig 1. BLDC Direct torque control system significant torque ripple reduction during
block diagram commutation interval. The Hall Effect sensors
The advantages of the DTC are to are used to electronically commutate the
eliminate the d-q axis current controllers, inverter switches. PWM generator is used to
generate pulse signals for SEPIC converter.
associated transformation networks, and
The Controlled DC bus voltage is applied to
the rotor position sensor. The NPC converter for BLDC drive system.
disadvantages are low speed torque
control difficulty, high torque and current
ripple value, variable switching
frequency, high noise level in low speed
range.
Accurate flux estimation in Direct
Torque Controlled BLDC system is
required to have proper drive operation
and stability. Most of the flux estimation
techniques known are based upon voltage
modeling, current modeling, or
combination of both of these. The
estimation based upon current is generally
applied at low frequency, and the
knowledge of the stator current and rotor Fig.2 Proposed Converter Topology for
mechanical speed or position is required in BLDC drive System
this case.
IV.SIMULATED CIRCUITS AND
By using rotor parameters for
the estimation there is high introduction WAVEFORMS
of error at higher speed of rotation due The simulated circuit of proposed DCMLI
to the variations in rotor parameters.
Hence this DTC control method the flux fed BLDC drive system is shown in Fig.3
and torque are calculated .There is no
need of a position sensor and the only
stator resistance is used as motor
parameter.
Ψsα = ∫( Vsα – RsIsα )dt
Ψsβ = ∫( Vsβ – RsIsβ )dt
The torque is calculated by the following
equation
Torque = (3P/4ω)*(ed*id+eq*iq)

III. Modified Topology of BLDC Fig.3 Proposed Neutral Point Diode Clamped
Drive System BLDC drive System
The proposed SEPIC converter topology for
based on a 3-level DCMLI fed BLDC drive The trapezoidal shaped back emf
system is shown in Fig. 2. In this topology, the for a speed of 500rpm is shown in Fig. 4
3-level DCMLI is proposed to reduce current
ripple, and modified SEPIC converter is
included to adjust the dc-bus voltage based on
the rotational speed of the BLDCM. The dc-
bus voltage selector circuit is constructed with
power MOSFETs (S1, S2, S3, and S4). It is
used to select the desired dc-bus voltage for

Fig.4 BLDC Motor back emf waveform
The estimated and actual rotor position
angle in triangle waveform is shown in
Fig.5 and Fig.6. The rated speed waveform
for simulation and experimental is shown
in Fig. 7 and Fig.8
Fig 5 BLDC Estimated rotor position
angle waveform
Fig 6 BLDC Motor actual rotor position
angle waveform
VI. Refernces
[1] Afjei.E ,Anvari.B, A.Siadatan” Design and [2] Bangcheng Han, Haitao Li and Jiancheng Fang,”
Fig 7 Simulated BLDC Motor speed
waveform
Fig 8 Experimental BLDC Motor speed
waveform
The electromagnetic torque for rated load
of 4Nm is applied and reduced load of
2nm applied at 0.25seconds as shown in
fig. 9. The speed waveform remains same
irrespective of load variations.
Fig 9 Electromagnetic torque Waveform
V.Conclusions
A converter topology based on Modified
SEPIC converter is analyzed for reducing
commutation torque ripple in BLDCM
drives. The reduction in voltage and
current stress of the main switches are the
main advantage of this topology.
Simulation is done for wide range of
speeds and from the results it is apparent
that the torque ripple is effectively
reduced. The close correlation between
simulation and hardware results illustrate
that speed remains constant for dynamics
in load torque.
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