Modular Multi-Three-Phase Electric Drives for Enhanced Reliability and Current Ripple Minimization

Abstract

High reliability motor drives for more electric transportation has been the topic of research both for the academia and the industry. Multi-phase electric drives have been long investigated for fault tolerant applications due to their inherent redundant construction. They represent an ideal component for safety critical applications in transportation, e.g. in ground vehicle and aerospace applications. This paper reviews the drive topologies and control strategies, focusing on the multi-three-phase architecture with modular inverter topologies. The impact of the PWM switching pattern on DC link capacitor current ripple has been analytically investigated and an approach will be proposed in order to minimize DC current ripple RMS value, when using more than one three-phase converter. Numerical simulations results agree with the analytical ones.