Brushless DC Motor Drive

Implement brushless DC motor drive using Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM)
with trapezoidal back electromotive force (BEMF)

Library
Electric Drives/AC drives

Description

The high−level schematic shown below is built from six main blocks. The PMSM, the
three−phase inverter, and the three−phase diode rectifier models are provided with the
SimPowerSystems library. The speed controller, the braking chopper, and the current
controller models are specific to the Electric Drives library. It is possible to use a simplified
version of the drive containing an average−value model of the inverter for faster simulation.

Note   In SimPowerSystems software, the Brushless DC Motor Drive block is

commonly called the AC7 motor drive.

High−Level Schematic
Simulink Schematic
Speed Controller
The speed controller is based on a PI regulator, shown below. The output of this regulator is
a torque set point applied to the current controller block.

Current Controller
The current controller contains four main blocks, shown below. These blocks are described
below.

The T−I block performs the conversion from the reference torque to the peak reference
current. The relation used to convert torque to current assumes pure rectangular current
waveforms. In practice, due to the motor inductance, it’s impossible to obtain these
currents. Therefore the electromagnetic torque may be lower than the reference torque,
especially at high speed.
The Hall decoder block is used to extract the BEMF information from the Hall effect signals.
The outputs, three−level signals ( 1, 0, 1), represent the normalized ideal phase currents to
be injected in the motor phases. These type of currents will produce a constant torque. The
following figure shows the BEMF of phase A and the output of the Hall decoder for the phase
A.

The current regulator is a bang−bang current controller with adjustable hysteresis bandwidth.
The Switching control block is used to limit the inverter commutation frequency to a
maximum value specified by the user.
When using the average−value inverter, theabc current references are sent to the simplified
inverter.

Braking Chopper
The braking chopper block contains the DC bus capacitor and the dynamic braking chopper,
which is used to absorb the energy produced by a motor deceleration.

Average−Value Inverter
The average−value inverter is shown in the following figure.
It is composed of one controlled current source on the DC side and of two controlled voltage
sources on the AC side. The DC current source allows the representation of the DC bus
current behavior described by the following equation:
Idc = (Pout + Plosses ) / Vin,
with Pout being the output AC power, Plosses the losses in the power electronic devices, and
Vin the DC bus voltage.
On the AC side, the voltage sources are fed by the instantaneous voltages provided by the
Trapezoidal PMSM dynamic model (see PMSM documentation for machine model). This
dynamic model takes the reference currents (the rate of these currents has been limited to
represent the real life currents), the measured BEMF voltages and the machine speed to
compute the terminal voltages to be applied to the machine.
The dynamic rate limiter limits the rate of the reference currents when transitions occurs.
The rate depends of the inverter saturation degree.
During loss of current tracking due to insufficient inverter voltage, the dynamic rate limiter
saturates the reference current in accordance to this operation mode.

Remarks
The model is discrete. Good simulation results have been obtained with a 2 μs time step. To
simulate a digital controller device, the control system has two different sampling times:
Speed controller sampling time
Current controller sampling time

The speed controller sampling time has to be a multiple of the current controller sampling
time. The latter sampling time has to be a multiple of the simulation time step. The
average−value inverter allows the use of bigger simulation time steps since it does not
generate small time constants (due to the RC snubbers) inherent to the detailed converter.
For a current controller sampling time of 40 μs, good simulation results have been obtained
for a simulation time step of 40 μs. The simulation time step can, of course, not be higher
than the current controller time step.

Dialog Box
PM Synchronous Machine Tab

The PM synchronous machine tab displays the parameters of the PM synchronous machine
block of the powerlib library. Refer to Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine for more
information on the PM synchronous machine parameters.
Model detail level
Select between the detailed and the average−value inverter.
Mechanical input
Allows you to select either the load torque or the motor speed as mechanical input.
Note that if you select and apply a load torque, you will obtain as output the motor
speed according to the following differential equation that describes the mechanical
system dynamics:

This mechanical system is included in the motor model.

However if you select the motor speed as mechanical input then you will get the
electromagnetic torque as output, allowing you to represent externally the
mechanical system dynamics. Note that the internal mechanical system is not used
with this mechanical input selection and the inertia and viscous friction parameters
are not displayed.
See for example Mechanical Coupling of Two Motor Drives.

Converters and DC Bus Tab

Rectifier section
The rectifier section of the Converters and DC bus tab displays the parameters of the
Universal Bridge block of the powerlib library. Refer to the Universal Bridge for more
information on the universal bridge parameters.
Inverter section
The inverter section of the Converters and DC bus tab displays the parameters of the
Universal Brige block of the powerlib library. Refer to the Universal Bridge for more
information on the universal bridge parameters.

The average−value inverter uses the following parameter.

On−state resistance
The on−state resistance of the inverter switches (ohms).
DC Bus Field ˙ Capacitance
The DC bus capacitance (F).

Braking Chopper Section

Resistance
The braking chopper resistance used to avoid bus over−voltage during motor
deceleration or when the load torque tends to accelerate the motor (ohms).
Frequency
The braking chopper frequency (Hz).
Activation Voltage
The dynamic braking is activated when the bus voltage reaches the upper limit of the
hysteresis band. The following figure illustrates the braking chopper hysteresis logic.
Deactivation Voltage
The dynamic braking is shut down when the bus voltage reaches the lower limit of the
hysteresis band. The chopper hysteresis logic is shown in the following figure.

Controller Tab
Regulation Type
This pop−up menu allows you to choose between speed and torque regulation.
Schematic Button
When you press this button, a diagram illustrating the speed and current controllers
schematics appears.

Speed Controller section

Speed cutoff frequency
The speed measurement first−order low−pass filter cutoff frequency (Hz). This
parameter is used in speed regulation mode only.
Speed controller sampling time
The speed controller sampling time (s). The sampling time must be a multiple of the
simulation time step.
Speed Ramps ˙ Acceleration
The maximum change of speed allowed during motor acceleration (rpm/s). An
excessively large positive value can cause DC bus under−voltage. This parameter is
used in speed regulation mode only.
Speed Ramps ˙ Deceleration
The maximum change of speed allowed during motor deceleration (rpm/s). An
excessively large negative value can cause DC bus overvoltage. This parameter is
used in speed regulation mode only.
PI Regulator ˙ Proportional Gain
The speed controller proportional gain. This parameter is used in speed regulation
mode only.
PI Regulator ˙ Integral Gain
The speed controller integral gain. This parameter is used in speed regulation mode
only.
Torque output limits ˙ Negative
The maximum negative demanded torque applied to the motor by the current
controller (N.m).
Torque output limits ˙ Positive
The maximum positive demanded torque applied to the motor by the current
controller (N.m).

Current Controller Section

Sampling Time
The current controller sampling time (s). The sampling time must be a multiple of the
simulation time step.
Current controller hysteresis band
The current hysteresis bandwidth. This value is the total bandwidth distributed
symmetrically around the current set point (A). The following figure illustrates a case
where the current set point is Is * and the current hysteresis bandwidth is set to dx.
This parameter is not used when using the average−value inverter.
 Note   This bandwidth can be exceeded because a fixed−step simulation is used.
A rate transition block is needed to transfer data between different sampling rates.
This block causes a delay in the gates signals, so the current may exceed the
hysteresis band.

Maximum switching frequency

The maximum inverter switching frequency (Hz). This parameter is not used when
using the average−value inverter.

Block Inputs and Outputs

SP
The speed or torque set point. Note that the speed set point can be a step function,
but the speed change rate will follow the acceleration / deceleration ramps. If the load
torque and the speed have opposite signs, the accelerating torque will be the sum of
the electromagnetic and load torques.
Tm or Wm
The mechanical input: load torque (Tm) or motor speed (Wm).
A, B, C
The three phase terminals of the motor drive.
Wm or Te
The mechanical output: motor speed (Wm) or electromagnetic torque (Te).
Motor
The motor measurement vector. This vector allows you to observe the motor’s
variables using the Bus Selector block.
Conv
The three−phase converters measurement vector. This vector contains:
The DC bus voltage
The rectifier output current
The inverter input current
Note that all current and voltage values of the bridges can be visualized with the
Multimeter block.
Ctrl
The controller measurement vector. This vector contains:
The torque reference
The speed error (difference between the speed reference ramp and actual speed)
The speed reference ramp or torque reference

Model Specifications
The library contains a 3 hp drive parameter set. The specifications of the 3 hp drive are
shown in the following table.
3 HP Drive Specifications

Drive Input
Voltage

Amplitude 220 V
Frequency 60 Hz
Motor
Nominal
Values
Power 3 hp
Speed 1650 rpm
Voltage 300 Vdc

Example
The ac7_example demo illustrates an AC7 motor drive simulation with standard load
condition. At time t = 0 s, the speed set point is 300 rpm.

There are two design tools in this example. The first block calculates the gains of the speed
regulator in accordance with your specifications. The second block plots the operating
regions of the drive. Open these blocks for more information.
As shown in the following figure, the speed precisely follows the acceleration ramp. At t =
0.5 s, the nominal load torque is applied to the motor. At t = 1 s, the speed set point is
changed to 0 rpm. The speed decreases to 0 rpm. At t = 1.5 s., the mechanical load
passes from 11 N.m to 11 N.m. The next figure shows the results for the detailed converter
and for the average−value converter. Observe that the average voltage, current, torque, and
speed values are identical for both models. Notice that the higher frequency signal
components are not represented with the average−value converter.
AC7 Example Waveforms (Blue: Detailed Converter, Red: Average−Value Converter)

References
[1] Bose, B. K., Modern Power Electronics and AC Drives, Prentice−Hall, N.J., 2002.
[2] Krause, P. C., Analysis of Electric Machinery, McGraw−Hill, 1986.
[3] Tremblay, O., Modélisation, simulation et commande de la machine synchrone à
aimants à force contre−électromotrice trapézoïdale, École de Technologie Supérieure, 2006.

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