Ramin Salehi Arashloo

Fault Detection and Fault Tolerant Operation of a Five Phase PM Motor Drive Using Adaptive Model Identification Approach

Nowadays, the use of multiphase fault tolerant permanent magnet (PM) machines is a suitable solution for increasing the reliability of high-performance motion control applications. This solution requires fault detection, isolation, and control adaptation. For this reason, a new open switch fault detection scheme in voltage-source inverter supplying a PM motor is presented in this paper. The detection method is based on model identification of the motor phase currents. The detection scheme is fast, robust, general, and capable of detecting multiple faults. The control algorithm, detection method, isolation, and reconfiguration strategies are discussed. After that, the proposed method is implemented in the fault tolerant control of a five-phase brushless direct current (BLDC) motor drive. Simulation results in MATLAB/Simulink are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed detection technique. Experimental results on a five-phase fault tolerant BLDC motor validate the theoretical developments.

Fault tolerant operation of a five phase converter for PMSM drives

In this paper a five phase fault tolerant converter is proposed for permanent magnet (PM) drives. The proposed configuration is an extension of conventional three phase double switch redundant topologies. In contrast to three phase systems, the proposed configuration has more flexibility and reliability regarding simultaneous faults in more than one phase. Different faulty cases are explained. Optimal reconfiguration strategies are derived under several faulty conditions. Design criteria are defined and a comparative loss analysis is conducted on converter behavior under various conditions. Simulation results are included to validate the theory.

On the effect of accessible neutral point in fault tolerant five phase PMSM drives

This study deals with the fault tolerant vector control strategies of a five-phase permanent-magnet (PM) machine. The analysis is focused on the effect of accessible neutral point under faulty conditions. Open circuit fault of one and two phases are considered, and proper control strategies are proposed to reduce the amplitude of currents in the remaining healthy phases. Simulations under both healthy and faulty conditions have been undertaken, and the effect of accessible neutral point on current amplitudes and torque ripple is evaluated.

Ripple free fault tolerant control of five phase permanent magnet machines

This study is dealt with fault tolerant control of five phase permanent magnet (PM) machines. The main objectives are to increase the output power while eliminating the generated torque ripples. As a new aspect, the effect of available neutral connection is evaluated on the output power and torque ripples.

FPGA Based Robust Open Transistor Fault Diagnosis and Fault Tolerant Sliding Mode Control of Five-Phase PM Motor Drives

The voltage-source inverters (VSI) supplying a motor drive are prone to open transistor faults. To address this issue in faulttolerant drives applicable to electric vehicles, a new open transistor fault diagnosis (FD) method is presented in this paper. According to the proposed method, in order to define the FD index, the phase angle of the converter output current is estimated by a simple trigonometric function. The proposed FD method is adaptable, simple, capable of detecting multiple open switch faults and robust to load operational variations. Keeping the FD in mind as a mandatory part of the fault tolerant control algorithm, the FD block is applied to a five-phase converter supplying a multiphase fault-tolerant PM motor drive with nonsinusoidal unbalanced current waveforms. To investigate the performance of the FD technique, the fault-tolerant sliding mode control (SMC) of a five-phase brushless direct current (BLDC) motor is developed in this paper with the embedded FD block. Once the theory is explained, experimental waveforms are obtained from a five-phase BLDC motor to show the effectiveness of the proposed FD method. The FD algorithm is implemented on a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

A novel broken rotor bar fault detection method using park's transform and wavelet decomposition

Detection of broken rotor bars has been an important but difficult work in fault diagnosis area of induction motors. The characteristic frequency components of faulted rotor are very close to the power frequency component but by far less in amplitude, which brings about great difficulty for accurate detection. In the present study, a new method is proposed in order to remove the main frequency component, resulting in more efficient detection of the rotor fault characteristics in the frequency spectrum of stator currents. The method is based on Parks transformation in combination with discrete wavelet decomposition to eliminate the effect of main frequency and zoom on the energy of objective fault related frequency components. In addition, the method efficiency is evaluated using Simulations in Matlab.

Open circuit fault detection based on emerging FCS-MPC in power electronics systems

In this paper, a novel fault detection method based on cost fault evaluation is proposed. The cost function is same as one used in finite control set model predictive control of power converters. Two simple methods are presented to locate the faulty IGBT. Considered methodology is studied for fault detection and fault tolerant operation in a five phase PMSM drive. Theory has been developed and validated by simulation results of a five phase two level converter in Matlab/Simulink.

Efficiency evaluation of five-phase outer- rotor fault-tolerant BLDC drives under healthy and open-circuit faulty conditions

Fault tolerant motor drives are an interesting subject for many applications such as automotive industries and wind power generation. Among different configurations of these systems, five-phase BLDC drives are gaining more importance which is because of their compactness and high efficiency. Due to replacement of field windings by permanent magnets in their rotor structure, the main sources of power losses in these drives are iron (core) losses, copper (winding) losses, and inverter unit (semiconductor) losses. Although low amplitude of power losses in five-phase BLDC drives is an important aspect for many applications, but their efficiency under faulty conditions is not considered in previous studies. In this paper, the efficiency of an outer-rotor five phase BLDC drive is evaluated under normal and different faulty conditions. Open-circuit fault is considered for one, two adjacent and two non-adjacent faulty phases. Iron core losses are calculated via FEM simulations in Flux-Cedrat® software, and moreover, inverter losses and winding copper losses are simulated in MATLAB® environment. Experimental evaluations are conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the entire BLDC drive which verifies the theoretical developments.

Impact of neutral point current control on copper loss distribution of five phase PM generators used in wind power plants

Efficiency improvement under faulty conditions is one of the main objectives of fault tolerant PM drives. This goal can be achieved by increasing the output power while reducing the losses. Stator copper loss not only directly affects the total efficiency, but also plays an important role in thermal stress generations of iron core. In this paper, the effect of having control on neutral point current is studied on the efficiency of five-phase permanent magnet machines. Open circuit fault is considered for both one and two phases, and the distribution of copper loss along the windings are evaluated in each case. It is shown that only by having access to neutral point, it is possible to generate less stator thermal stress and more mechanical power in five-phase permanent magnet generators. Wind power generation and their applications are kept in mind, and the results are verified via simulations and experimental tests on an outer-rotor type of five-phase PM machine.

A simple and robust method for open switch fault detection in power converters

In this paper, a new fault detection method based on signal normalization using a simple trigonometric function is presented and applied to a five phase converter for fault tolerant application under nonsinusoidal unbalanced current waveforms. Generality, simplicity, ability to localize faulty switch, multiple switch fault detection and robustness are achieved using this approach. Once theory is explained, simulation results with Matlab/Simulink and experimental waveforms are described to show the effectiveness of the proposed detection method. Experimenal results corroborate these simulation results.