Search

Interior permanent magnet synchronous motors have been widely used in electric vehicles. These motors employ Nd-Fe-B as the permanent magnet, which is vulnerable to temperature variations. Moreover, some features of Nd-Fe-B magnets are related to temperature, which can affect motor characteristics. Therefore, magnet temperature is an important parameter and methods for estimating it have been developed. In particular, a signal injection method has been developed for low-speed regions. In this method, two parameters are employed: high-frequency resistance and high-frequency inductance. In this paper, these two methods are compared to determine which parameter is more appropriate for estimations at low speeds and to reveal whether signal injection methods can be applied to the standstill condition. The comparison indicated that the high-frequency inductance-based method has a stronger correlation with the magnet temperature at low speed and standstill conditions than the high-frequency resistance-based method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interior permanent-magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) has been widely used as the traction motor in electric/hybrid vehicles because of its high torque density and wide operating speed range. During the operation of the IPMSM, the stator winding temperature and magnet temperature should be monitored to prevent winding insulation breakdown and irreversible demagnetization and to improve the torque accuracy. This article devised a method involving the use of a high-frequency (HF) resistance and an HF inductance for estimating these two temperatures at low motor speeds. The relationship between the HF impedance and both temperatures was determined and verified using an experimental setup in which both temperatures could be measured. Based on the relation, the temperature estimation method has been proposed, in this article, and verified by the experimental test. The proposed method was used to estimate the stator winding and the magnet temperatures simultaneously for 6000 s, and the maximum error was 6 °C and 3 °C for the stator winding and magnet temperature, respectively, even when the load and the temperatures varied considerably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alongside the rapid increase in distributed power generation and load, the demand for highly efficient and reliable power converters is increasing. This has resulted in the rise of grid interfaced renewable energy sources (RES), rapid deployment of battery energy storage systems (BESS) coupled with energy managment systems (EMS), and DC based grid. This paper presents a center-tapped transformer-based single-stage single-phase full-bridge (FB) bidirectional AC-DC converter and its control strategy to improve controllability and reliability in applications such as DC distribution, PV/BESS grid interfacing, vehicle to grid (V2G), and so on. In contrast to conventional galvanically isolated topologies, a single-phase center-tapped transformer is introduced. It links and galvanically isolates the converters and the grid and provides its leakage inductance as the needed inductor required for current control (depending on the design). Furthermore, it reduces the number of conventionally required power conversion stages by employing a wide DC-bus voltage control strategy, resulting in a single converter that undergoes a single power conversion. Additionally, the voltage level can be increased to further enhance the output quality by cascading multiple converters (Multi-Level). The structure, operation, and basic control scheme are discussed in detail. Verification through a 220 V r m s , 1.8 kVA, and 45∼100 V D C simulation and small-scale experimental prototype (60∼100 V D C voltage) for practical validation of the topology is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a magnet temperature estimation method applicable to an interior permanent magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM) at a standstill has been newly devised. First, it is analyzed that an inductance of IPMSM varies according to not only a magnet temperature but also a rotor angle, which is spatial harmonics. The analysis is verified in a small-scaled motor-generation set (MG-set), where magnet temperatures can be directly measured. Based on the analysis and experimental results, it is demonstrated that spatial harmonics can make no negligible error in the magnet temperature estimation. Therefore, the estimation method has been newly devised in this article, considering spatial harmonics. As a result, the devised method can reduce the maximum estimation error from 25.3 to 6 °C based on experimental results in the small-scaled MG-set. Additionally, the devised method has been verified as feasible for use in the small-scaled motor and the traction motor of a mass-produced electric vehicle. As a result, the proposed method can estimate the magnet temperature accurately at every rotor position of both motors. Through this online estimation, the maximum estimation error is less than 5 °C even when the stator winding temperature is varying in both a small-scaled motor and the traction motor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a method to estimate the temperature of an NdFeB magnet in an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) has been developed in medium and high speed operating conditions. Fundamental reactive energy is newly brought out and directly used in the developed method to estimate the magnet temperature accurately, which results in higher sensitivity with respect to the magnet temperature variation compared to the conventional methods. It is because the variation of the reactive energy caused by the magnet temperature includes variations of inductances in addition to that of the magnet flux linkage. In the proposed method, a stator resistance error effect caused by a stator temperature is inherently removed without any additional temperature sensor on stator winding. Moreover, the proposed method is robust to an inverter nonlinearity effect and ac resistance effect. As a result, the proposed method can estimate the magnet temperature accurately in real time, even in load variation, regardless of the stator temperature variation. The magnet temperature estimation error has been less than 3.7 °C in the online estimation for 10 000 s under wide speed and torque variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel filter structure to suppress circulating currents is proposed based on the sequence of pulsewidth modulation voltage harmonics for high-power interleaved motor-drive systems. The sideband harmonics can be divided into positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence components. Through 120° interleaving among three paralleled inverters, a majority of positive- and negative-sequence harmonics are phase shifted. By these phase shifts, the differential-mode circulating currents between the paralleled ac–dc converters can be suppressed with the proposed filters, which have an identical structure to the three-phase common-mode chokes. Such a structure highly benefits the design and manufacturability for high-power applications where a choice of magnetic-core shapes is limited. Compared to coupled inductors (CIs) with cyclic-cascade or monolithic configurations, the number of magnetic cores can be reduced by one-third. Peak flux-linkages of the proposed filters and the conventional CIs were compared to estimate the size reduction in case of flux-limited designs. Considering the whole modulation index range, which may be required in the motor-drive systems, the maximum flux-linkage can be reduced by 50%. Prototype filters are built and showed a 33% reduction in weight and size compared to the conventional CIs. The validity of the proposed filter is verified through the simulation and a small-scale experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a current controller for a parallel operation of inverters is described. When inverters operate in parallel, it is a well-known fact that the inverter current is composed of the average current (AVC) and the zero-sequence circulating current (henceforth ZSCC), which inevitably flows between inverters under the parallel operation. Considering this, previous studies concentrated on reducing ZSCC. However, in this paper, it is found that the inverter current has another component, a differential current, in addition to the two components of AVC and ZSCC. Based on these three decomposed current components, three equivalent circuits are derived from n-paralleled inverters. To minimize the differential current and improve the regulation performance of the total output phase current, a decomposed current control scheme is proposed from equivalent circuit models. The proposed algorithm is applied to a system consisting of three paralleled two-level inverters with small shared inductance whose dc links are connected in common. Additionally, synchronous pulsewidth modulation is employed as the PWM method for each inverter. The proposed current controller is compared with two conventional current controllers, one where each inverter controls its own currents and the other where only AVC is controlled. Through experiments, it is shown that these conventional controllers have limitations and the proposed current controller overcomes these limitations. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed control scheme are verified through experimental results. Especially, both theoretical analysis and experiment results verify that the proposed method is robust with regard to parameter errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a dc-link voltage control method of a single-phase back-to-back cascaded H-bridge inverter (SBCI) for a medium-voltage motor drive system. The main advantage of the SBCI topology over the conventional regenerative cascaded H-bridge topology with a three-phase active front-end (AFE) is a simple system structure, which is composed of an input transformer, a power cell, a current sensor, etc. However, the challenging points of the SBCI are larger voltage ripple in the dc-link capacitor and imbalance of dc-link voltages of each phase. The asymmetric dc-link voltage of each power cells could cause unstable operation such as over-modulation due to the lack of the dc-link voltage of a particular phase and result in over-voltage or under-voltage faults. In this paper, the control strategy of the dc-link voltage for the SBCI that uses the negative-sequence voltage of the converter is described. The proposed control method is verified with a computer simulation whose target is a 6.6-kV–1.25-MW medium-voltage drive system. Also, through the experimental setup with the prototype SBCI whose power rating is 16.2 kVA, the dc-link voltage of each AFE has been controlled within a 0.5% error of its reference value at the full load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cascaded H-bridge (CHB) inverter is the most widely used topology for a medium-voltage drive system due to the high degree of modularity, easier implementation of medium output voltage, and the ability to continuous operation under the cell fault condition. Because each power cell of CHB should have isolated dc source, multiwinding input transformer and three-phase active front end (AFE) are generally used for regenerative applications. The whole system can be simplified by replacing the three-phase AFE with single-phase AFE. However, if the control strategy of normal operation is adopted under the cell fault condition, input power imbalance among three phases inevitably occurs. In that situation, not only faulty cells, but also some unscathed cells should be excluded with giving up the maximum capability of the system, not to deteriorate grid current. This paper proposes a control scheme against the cell fault condition of the single-phase AFE CHB. By applying the proposed control scheme to the system, dc-link voltage of each cell and grid current are well regulated without imbalance even under the cell fault conditions. Finally, it can minimize the number of undamaged cells which should be turned off and maximize the capability of the system under the cell fault condition. Simulation and experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a method to estimate the temperature of a permanent magnet of a traction motor for automotive applications is derived by analyzing the high-frequency inductance of an interior permanent-magnet synchronous motor. The derived method exploits the high-frequency inductance as an indicator of the magnet temperature, and it does not require a temperature sensor not only on the rotor side but also on the stator side. Hence, the method is truly noninvasive. The proposed method has been verified in a small-scale experimental setup. The performance of the method has been evaluated at various torques, speeds, and magnet temperatures ranging from −24 to 82 °C. Through testing at various operating conditions, it has been confirmed that the maximum error is less than 2.9 °C even when the speed and torque vary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-space control could provide both high dynamic performance and sufficient stability margin to voltage source converters with LC filter. However, an inherent digital delay induced by a digital control system deteriorates performance and even induces instability. In this paper, a discrete-time voltage controller is proposed based on a discrete state-space model. First, a state feedback control with a reference feedforward path is designed in the discrete-time domain with consideration for the digital delay. Second, an output current decoupling path is augmented to minimize the effects of an output current disturbance. Controller gains are derived as the functions of system parameters and design specifications, which is based on a direct pole placement and pole-zero cancellation method in a rotating reference frame. Moreover, a parameter sensitivity and digital implementation are discussed to improve the performance and stability of the proposed controller. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is verified with various experimental results. It shows that a filter resonance is well damped out while maintaining wide voltage control bandwidth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the characteristics of ripple current of a multimegawatt drive system fed by a pulse-width modulation (PWM) inverter are investigated. Based on the investigation, a novel PWM scheme is devised to reduce the switching loss of the inverter under an identical amount of torque ripple of a motor. The proposed PWM is composed of two parts. The first is minimum torque ripple PWM (MTRPWM), which is optimized in terms of the minimum torque ripple in high modulation index (MI). The second determines the minimum switching frequency while holding the average torque ripple less than the allowable value under various operating conditions. It is termed reduced switching frequency PWM (RSFPWM). Consequently, by simply changing the PWM method from conventional fixed switching frequency continuous PWM to the proposed PWM, MTRPWM and RSFPWM, simulation results show that the switching loss of the inverter driving a 3.5 MW induction motor is reduced to 51.6% while keeping the torque ripple in the allowable boundary, where MI is 1.12. This approach is applied to small-scale experimental sets consisting of an interior permanent magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM) motor-generator set, and an induction machine MG set in an effort to verify the validity and feasibility of the proposed method. Based on these experimental results, the cost indexes of the IPMSM and the induction machine, as defined in this paper, decrease by up to 66% and 77%, respectively, when the proposed method is applied when MI is 1.12 compared with the outcome with the conventional PWM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, it is described how the circulating current flows between inverters that have isolated dc link such as cascaded H-bridge (CHB) topology when they are operating in parallel. In this case, zero sequence circulating current, which normally flows through shared dc link, cannot flow between inverters in parallel. However, circulating current is provoked by asynchronous switching instant of devices, difference of dc-link voltages of parallel inverters, and unbalanced impedance. The circulating current should be suppressed by a sharing inductor that is inserted between inverters. Generally, all of the inverters should synthesize the same output voltage reference for load current control to minimize the size of this sharing reactor. However, this conventional method cannot guarantee diminishing circulating current in the transient state and even in the steady state. In this paper, in order to reduce sharing reactance, after deriving circulating current model from general case of n-parallel operation, circulating current control method is devised based on the model. This proposed algorithm is applied to active front end five-level-CHB inverter system for medium voltage drive. Simulation and experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If a small dc-link capacitor is used in the dc link fed by a single-phase ac source, then the dc-link voltage severely fluctuates at twice of the source frequency. To handle this fluctuation, the concept of “average voltage constraint” is proposed in this study. On the basis of this concept, a flux-weakening scheme, generating the d-axis current reference (ids^{r}^{\ast}) for the interior permanent-magnet synchronous machine, is devised. The q-axis current reference (iqs^{r}^{\ast}) is modified for the unity power factor operation in the viewpoint of an ac source without an additional sensor. The proposed scheme has been applied to the inverter-driven 1-kW compressor of an air conditioner. From the experimental results, it has been verified that the compressor operates well at the required operating condition, regardless of the severe fluctuation of dc-link voltage, because of the reduced dc-link capacitance. The frequency spectrum of the ac source current reveals that the harmonics of the source current meet the regulation of IEC 61000-3-2 Class A and that the overall power factor is above 96% without any additional circuit, such as an input filter and a power factor correction circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]