Efficiency Enhancement of Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motor Drives by Online Loss Minimization Approaches

In this paper, a new loss minimization control algorithm for inverter-fed permanent-magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs), which allows for the reduction of the power losses of the electric drive without penalty on its dynamic performance, is analyzed, experimentally realized, and validated. In particular, after a brief recounting of two loss minimization control strategies, namely, the "search control" and the "loss-model control," both a new modified dynamic model of the PMSM (which takes into account the iron losses) and an innovative "loss-model" control strategy are presented. Experimental tests on a specific PMSM drive employing the proposed loss minimization algorithm have been performed…

Performance evaluation of a multisource renewable power converter prototype

Design of a solar-battery-thermoelectric power converter prototype

In this paper a multisource renewable energy system for high-current applications is proposed. The power architecture is based on a multi-input power converter including control and reconfiguration subsystems. Independently of the type of connected renewable sources, a proper control of the output DC voltage bus is provided as well as a proper control on the operating point of each renewable source to achieve the maximum power transfer. A 48V thermoelectric-photovoltaic-battery system in a three input configuration is designed. Three interacting feedback networks are implemented: the outer loop which controls the output voltage and as many inner loops as connected renewable sources to achie…

Automotive Brushless Motor Powered by Fuel Cell

Analysis a DSP Implementation and Experimental Validation of a Loss Minimization Algorithm Applied to Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Drives

In this paper a new loss minimization control algorithm for inverter-fed permanent-magnet synchronous motors (PMSM), which allows to reduce the power losses of the electric drive without penalty on its dynamic performances, is analyzed, experimentally realized and validated. In particular, after a brief recall of two loss minimization control strategies (the "search control" and the "loss-model control"), both a modified dynamic model of the PMSM, which takes into account the iron losses, and a "loss-model" control strategy, are treated. Experimental tests on a specific PMSM drive employing the proposed loss minimization algorithm were performed aiming to validate the actual implementation.…

Efficiency Improvement of Inverter-Fed Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors

In this paper a control algorithm for the efficiency improvement of inverter-fed permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) is presented. The proposed algorithm allows reducing the losses of the drive without reduction of its dynamic performances. In details, after recalling a dynamic model of the PMSM, which has been purposely modified and that takes into account the iron losses, the basic equations and the constraints to obtain the loss minimization are presented and discussed. Some simulations of a specific PMSM drive employing the proposed algorithm are performed. The results of these simulations show that the dynamic performances are maintained, and enhancement of the efficiency up to…

A reexamination of voltage distortion for classical carrier-based vs B-Spline modulation of three-phase Voltage Sources Inverters

Voltage waveform improvement has been the object of several investigations for many years and a manifold of different solutions have been proposed to reduce the harmonic content in Voltage Source Inverters (VSI) power application. In many cases this improvements have been obtained by modifying the reference voltage modulating signal. The recent introduction of cardinal B-spline functions, used as carrier signals, has given rise to a new modulation technique whose main characteristic is a lower value of the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). After the discussion on the B-Spline modulation principle and on its computational effort, a performance comparisons is carried out by means of Total Harm…

Generalized PWM-VSI Control Algorithm Based on a Universal Duty-Cycle Expression: Theoretical Analysis, Simulation Results, and Experimental Validations

This paper presents a new approach in realizing various carrier-based pulsewidth-modulation techniques by a generalized control algorithm, which is referred to as the universal control algorithm and is obtained via unequal sharing of null states. The flexibility of such an approach allows one to easily and quickly control two-level inverters. Furthermore, this approach may be also extended with few changes to the control of multilevel inverters. The algorithm that is presented here for two-level voltage-source inverters (VSIs) also obtains efficient detection and management of both the linear and overmodulation ranges. In the overmodulation range, which is treated by using the alpha-beta co…

Test cycles for the characterization of electrical drives devoted to wheelchair applications

Today electrical wheelchairs are giving valuable increase of the quality of life of disabled people in developed countries. Despite the increasing diffusion of such an aid tool, specific standards for the characterization of their electric drives are not so developed as those available for urban electric vehicles. This paper presents a proposal for the test characterization of a wheelchair drive by means of test cycles with fixed speed trajectories. To this aim, the method, which is well known in the field of automobiles, has been purposely adapted and the obtained simulation results are satisfactory.

Monitoring and diagnoses by a vibration analysis procedure of incipient failures in squirrel cage induction motors due to cracker or broken bars

In this paper a vibration analysis based diagnostic procedure for the detection and monitoring of incipient faults as cracks or bar breaks on squirrel cage motors is presented. A mathematical model from the Authors set up for the determination of axial vibrations due to these faults is utilized as reference incipient fault model in order to determine prefault indexes for the above mentioned procedure. The experimental investigations, performed on a test bench set up for this purpose, confirmed the effectiveness both of the mathematical model and of the diagnostic procedure. Finally, the architecture of the diagnostic system that implements the proposed diagnostic procedure and its functioni…

Performances of a three-phase five-level cascaded H-bridge inverter with phase shifted B-spline based modulation techniques

This paper presents a novel study of the performances of a five-level three-phase Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter with Phase Shifted B-Spline based modulation techniques. The study has been focused on the use of B-Spline functions as carrier signals in order to evaluate the performances of the converter in terms of harmonic content on the output voltage. In the first step of this analysis the THD% has been taken into account to compare the voltage waveforms. Interesting results have been found on the fundamental amplitude of the phase and line voltage. Moreover, harmonic spectra has been compared to evaluate the different harmonic distribution in the voltage waveforms. In this work th…