BULETINUL INSTITUTULUI POLITEHNIC IAI TOMUL XLVI (L), FASC.

5, 2000 ELECTROTEHNIC, ENERGETIC, ELECTRONIC A X-A CONFERIN NAIONAL DE ACIONRI ELECTRICE

HOW TO CORRELATE THE MECHANICAL LOAD CHARACTERISTICS, PWM AND FIELD-ORIENTATION METHODS IN VECTOR CONTROL SYSTEMS OF AC DRIVES
BY

MARIA IMECS
Abstract. The paper deals with an overview regarding the main parts of electrical drives and their interactions, exemplified by the electric car, as load. There is presented a synthesis about DC-link frequency converters, pulse modulation procedures and characteristics of field-controlled induction motors. Control strategies for AC drives regarding scalar- versus vector-structures are treated. Keywords: vector and scalar control, frequency converter, pulse modulation.

1. Introduction In the control of a technological process the electric motor (EM) is the actuator of the mechanical load (ML), but in the control of the electrical drive the power-electronic converter (PEC) will be the actuator of the motor, as is shown in figure 1 [8].

LOAD
Actuator Current Torque

CONTROLLERS POWER and ELECTRONIC SIGNAL Control CONVERTER PROCESSING variables

Supply voltage

ELECTRIC MOTOR
Speed

TECHNOLOGIC PROCESS

CONTROL SYSTEM

ELECTRICAL DRIVE

Fig. 1.- General block diagram of electrical drive systems.

The control system needs information about the technological process and about the drive; that means sensing and computing mechanical, electrical and

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magnetic quantities. Usually, the motor position, speed, voltages and currents are measured, while the torque and magnetic field may be only identified. Such a drive system can not operate in feedforward, not only from point of view of the control loop feedbacks, but also due to the natural perturbations. They appear as a reaction of the mechanical load upon the motor (e.g. the loadtorque dependence on the motor speed) and the motor effect upon the converter. 2. The mechanical load of electrical drives The above-described problems can be exemplified for the drive system of an electric car (EC), as is presented in figure 2. There are put in evidence the inputs, outputs and perturbations of each part of the drive system [8].
IMPOSED REFERENCE VALUES:

CONTROL

LOAD

Fig. 2.- Principle block diagram of the electric-car drive system.

The load torque can be expressed as follows:

tL =

mg DW [sin + (sign m ) cos ] + m k mt 2

(1)

It is depending on the value of the mass (m) to be carried (it is the proper load), the route ( slope angle, which gives the active- or reactive-character of the load) and the weather conditions ( and friction coefficients), which are considered perturbations. Coefficient kmt is the mechanical transmission ratio and DW is the diameter of the wheel, both characteristic of the drive mechanical part. The load torque and inertia perturb the motor. On its turn the motor can also disturb the operation mode of the power electronic converter. If the current is interrupt, e.g. due to the too low level of the motor torque, the output-voltage control of the power-electronic converter will be lost.

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3. Static frequency converter topologies In AC drives the motor is fed by a static frequency converter (SFC). They will be direct (cyclo-) converters for very high power range or indirect (i.e. the so-called DC-link) converters AC line, 50 Hz, Ul=ct. AC line, 50 Hz, Ul=ct. for medium and low power drives. The DC link filters the Ld >> voltage or the current obtained Ld >> from a line-side rectifier and it constitutes the input for the US=var. fS=var. US=var. fS=var. motor-side inverter. Figure 3 AC motor AC motor b) shows current source inverters a) (CSI) used for higher power drives. Conventionally they AC line, 50 Hz, Ul=ct. AC line, 50 Hz, Ul=ct. operate in full six-step mode Inverter Rectifier and they are controlled by pulse Ld >> Ld >> amplitude modulation (PAM). Rectifier Consequently, they need a lineInverter side phase-controlled rectifier, Ur =var. fr=var. US=var. fS=var. which can also realize the Rotor of IM Over-excited Sy M reversed energy flow. The c) d) GTO-thyristor-based inverter (figure 3,b), in order to reduce Fig. 3.- Converters with current-source DC link. the harmonic content of the current can operate also with optimal-programmed pulse-width modulation (PWM). The current PWM has restrictions due to the absence of the anti-parallel diodes. The PWM pattern of the three phases must be correlated in order to ensure the continuous flow of the DC-link current. This kind of current PWM, having a fixed pattern of the pulses, should be combined with PAM [6] Voltage-source inverters (VSI) realized with turn-off devices, i.e. GTOthyristors, bipolar transistors (BT), IGBTs, MOS-FETs etc., can operate with PWM without the above mentioned restrictions. They will need on the line side a diode rectifier, but for the reversed energy flow it is necessary in addition a braking resistor for low power range or a line-side anti-parallel phase-controlled thyristor inverter for high power converters, as is presented in figure 4. Inverters realized with conventional thyristors usually need condensers for internal forced commutation or they operate with external natural commutation realized from the load if it is an over-excited synchronous machine (shown in figure 3,c). Scheme from figure 3,a has commutation condensers between phases in delta connection and works auto-sequentially with 2/3 pulse-width. Scheme from figure 4,a has commutation condenser on each phase. The double-fed wound-rotor induction motor, connected in a sub-synchronous cascade, will be

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controlled by means of the slip-power transfer using a rotor-side DC-link converter (see figure 3,d). It can also work in super-synchronous mode, if the rotor-side rectifier is controllable and works in inverter operation mode.
AC line Ul=ct. 50 Hz Cd >> L AC line Ul=ct. 50 Hz AC line Ul=ct. 50 Hz Cd >> Cd >> L RBr TBr L Cd >> AC line Ul=ct. 50 Hz L

US=var. fS=var. AC motor a)

US=var. fS=var. AC motor b)

U S=var. fS=var. AC motor c)

US=var. fS=var. AC motor d)

Fig. 4.- Frequency converters with voltage-source DC link.

Diode- or thyristor-rectifiers and inverters operate with square-wave currents, which introduce harmonics in the AC line and damage the power factor. The double-side- or dual-PWM converter (see figure 4,d) can eliminate this inconvenience. It is line-friendly because operates with sine-wave currents at unity power factor, satisfying EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) standards. 4. Pulse-modulation procedures The control of the three-phase converters can be analyzed based on the space-phasor theory. The control of the converter is made either in voltage or in current. The space-phasor expression of these quantities can be written as: j j i = ie = k i + a i + a2 i and u = u e = k u + a u + a 2 u , (2)
Ph 1

Ph 1

where i1,2,3 and u1,2,3 are the instantaneous three-phase currents and voltages, respectively. The space-phasor coefficient usually is kPh=2/3, because in this case the module of the phasor will be equal to the amplitude of the sine-wave phase variables [1], [2]. Angles and are the electrical position of the respective vectors. The inverter output frequency is given by the derivative of these angles. The command variables of the converter have to be generated in three-phase or polar coordinate, in current or in voltage, as is shown in table 1. A proper CSI works with PAM by controlling the DC-link current. VSIs can operate with voltage- and current-PWM procedure. The current-PWM is realized with inverter feedbacks for the currents, which change the source character at the output of the converter [3], [4], [5]. CSIs are recommended for speed reversing at constant torque, while VSIs are more suitable for variable-torque drives at constant speed [11].

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Table 1. Inverter types, pulse modulation procedures and control variables. SCALAR CONTROL Inverter type MOS-FET/BT/IGBT-VSI GTO-CSI Thy-CSI Converter output Voltage-source character Current-source character Open-loop feedforward Closed-loop Pulse modulation PAM PAM method voltage-PWM current- PWM Inverter control CarrierSpace-vector Bang-bang DC-link current control procedure wave modulation current modulation SVM control Instantaneous Voltage-vector: Instantaneous Current-vector: Current: Inverter control three-phase three-phase module i magnitude i module u variables voltages: and currents: and and u1, 2, 3 i1, 2, 3 frequency f phase angle phase angle Control type VECTOR CONTROL

For high power drives the PWM-VSI can be also used in tandem topology with a PAM-CSI [6], [7]. 5. Voltage-, current- and field-controlled AC machines A SFC-fed induction motor is supplied not only with variable frequency, but also with variable voltage in order to realize the speed, flux and currents at the prescribed reference values. In analyzing the motor performance the classical mechanical characteristics, where the stator voltage was considered constant, will have no more importance. For current- and field-controlled induction machines are more suitable characteristics calculated at constant current and flux. The analytical equations of these characteristics result from the T-equivalent circuit of the induction machine. Neglecting the iron losses in the machine for Us=ct. the well-known Kloss's expressions are obtain, as follows:
2 M k (1 + ) u M = ; e ku + + 2 k u

= k

(1 ) r s o ;
2 2 1 + s o

( 3)

k 1+ U s Lm r 1 u o s . (4) M k = kM ; R 1 + (1 + ) 1 + 2 2 ku = u 2 2 2 s r s o r 1+

2 2

o s

Above the pull-out torque and the corresponding critical slip are denoted with Mk and k. The self-cyclic inductance Lm corresponds to the three-phase useful field, s, r and are the stator-, rotor- and resultant-leakage coefficients, s and r are the stator- and rotor-time constant, respectively. Coefficient in

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fact is depending on the supply frequency due to the electrical synchronous speed 0=2fs and for this reason the classical voltage-constant characteristics are not parallel.

Figure 5 presents the electromagnetic torque versus slip frequency (speed) characteristics at constant rated values of the rotor-, stator- and air-gap flux and stator-current comparatively with the constant statorvoltage curves (at zero and rated frequency with the same break-down torque). Figure 6 shows the speed-torque characteristics for different stator frequency at rated stator- and rotor-flux and also in the fieldweakening region [8], [9].

Fig. 5.- Voltage-, current- and field-controlled slip characteristics of the induction motor.

Fig. 6.- Mechanical characteristics of frequencyand field-controlled induction machine.

For a constant stator-current, stator- or air-gap flux the simplified Kloss's expression results, i.e. coefficient =0, as follows:

k i, s, m M e = 2M k + i ,s ,m k i, s, m
2 k Lm I s Mk = M ; i 2(1 + r ) = i 1

1
, ( 5)

where the pull-out torque and critical slip are

k

( 6)

for the constant stator-current characteristics,

2 1 M k = kM s ; s 2 Lm (1 + s ) k = s 1

( 7)

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BUL. INST. POLIT. IAI, TOMUL XLVI (L), FASC. 5 A X-A CONFERIN NAIONAL DE ACIONRI ELECTRICE

for the constant resultant stator-flux characteristics and 2 1+

m ; M k = kM m 2 Lm r k = m

( 8)

r r

for constant resultant air-gap-flux characteristics. The above characteristics in spite of the fact they are a combination of a linear- and hyperbolic shape will be all parallel. Particularly in the case of the resultant rotor-flux-control the characteristics become linear without any hyperbolic effect, because:
2 M r . M e = 2M k = r R kr r k

(9)

The torque coefficient is kM = zp 3/2 if Us, Is ,s, m and r are the module of the corresponding space phasors or kM = 3 zp if they are r.m.s. values.

Fig. 7.- Field-orientation frames in vector control systems of induction and synchronous machines.

Figure 7 presents the correlation between electric and magnetic quantities, which may be controlled in the electric machine. Control error can be appear not only due to the magnitude difference of the resultant fluxes, but also due to the angle deviation between the corresponding field vectors, specially in vector control systems. Rotor-field orientation is recommended for current-controlled induction motors with short-circuited rotor. Stator-field orientation is suitable for voltage-controlled induction motors, cascades and for synchronous machines.

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6. Control strategies of AC motors The SFC controls the motor by means of two variables, i.e. the supply frequency and voltage or current. Mathematically that means there could be imposed also two reference values for the motor control system. Usually in a drive system the mechanical quantities, as position, speed or/and torque, are controlled in the so-called active loop and in the reactive loop will be controlled a magnetic quantity of the motor, which usually is a resultant field in the motor. In the case of a synchronous machine, other reactive quantities could be controlled as the power factor, the rotor- or field-oriented longitudinal armature reaction. If the synchronous motor operates with variable-exciting field, realized by means of a phased-controlled rectifier, consequently it could have three control loops, due to the two reactive ones. The classical Voltage/Hz method is an indirect field control of AC motors. It has only one mechanical reference value and tries to keep empirically the stator flux at constant level. The actual field is not identified at all, because its control is realized without flux controller. It is a typical scalar method, controlling the inverter by means of frequency and not position of the reference voltage phasor.
CURRENT/ VOLTAGE MODULUS COMPUTATION

STATIC FREQUENCY CONVERTER

FIELD MAGNITUDE AND TORQUE IDENTIFICATION

Fig. 8.- Block diagram for scalar control of induction motor speed and flux.

The proper (or direct) field control of an AC machine can be made by means of scalar- or vector procedure. A scalar AC-drive system controls only the magnitude of the prescribed quantities, without taking into account the relative position of the field-, current- and voltage space phasors, corresponding to the three-phase variables of each quantity. Consequently there is identified only the module of the controlled flux. Vector control systems are based on the fieldorientation principle and they need the resultant-flux identification, not only in magnitude, but also in position angle, because the current-control variables will be generated in field-oriented axis frame.

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In scalar-control schemes (see figure 8) the two control-loops work independently. The mechanical loop generates the operating frequency while the reactive one gives the reference value of the stator voltage or current, missing its torque-producing effect. In this way in the control system structure the natural behavior of the machine is not taken into account.
REACTIVECURRENT COMPUTATION CURRENT/ VOLTAGE VECTOR COMPUTATION ACTIVECURRENT COMPUTATION FIELD VECTOR AND TORQUE IDENTIFICATION STATIC FREQUENCY CONVERTER

Fig. 9- Block diagram for vector control of induction motor speed and flux.

In vector-control system structures (see figure 9) these two loops operate with the de-coupled field-oriented components of the stator current, but recoupling them the converter variables will be generated in vector form, respecting the motor mathematical model. Such a system needs vectorial identification of the field. Feedback (i.e. the angle of the field position) realizes in fact the self-commutation of the current phasor with respect to the flux vector and due to this fact the system achieves high performance considering its stability and dynamics. Synchronous motors always need selfcommutation, but they can be "oriented" also according to the rotor mechanical position, because they operate without slip. VSIs with proper voltage-PWM are more suitable for relative rotorparameter-independent identification procedure of the orientation field and also for sensorless drives, using the voltage reference variables instead measure ones. 7. Conclusions In order to realize an optimal control structure for a specific application, it is recommended to take into account the following aspects: the power- and speed range of the drive, the character of the mechanical load, the type and operating-quadrant number of the electrical machine; the pulse modulation procedure and the type of the frequency converter, the imposed reference values for the control system, the sensors and feedback variables, the orientation-field identification procedure, etc. These criteria are not independent, they should be correlated in order to choose a viable control structure of the AC drive system.

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AC drives containing converter with current-source character are more simple control structure in comparison with voltage-source one, considering the computation of the reference and control variables.

Technical University of Cluj, Department of Electrical Drives and Robots, P.O. 1, Box 99, RO-3400 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

REFERENCES 1. Kelemen A. and Imecs Maria, Vector Control of AC Drives, Volume 1: Vector Control of Induction Machine Drives, OMIKK-Publisher (ISBN 963 593 140 9), Budapest, 1991. 2. Kelemen A. and Imecs Maria, Vector Control of AC Drives, Volume 2: Vector Control of Synchronous Machine Drives, Ecriture-Publisher (ISBN 963 593 140 9), Budapest, 1992. 3. Imecs Maria, Synthesis About Pulse Modulation Methods in Electrical Drives - Part 1 and Part 2, Proceedings of CNAE98, Craiova, Romania, pp. 19-33. 4. Imecs Maria, Synthesis About Pulse Modulation Methods in Electrical Drives - Part 3, Acta Universitatis CIBIENSIS, Vol. XVI Technical series, H. Electrical Engineering and Electronics, Lucian Blaga Univ. of Sibiu, 1999, pp. 15-26. 5. Imecs Maria, Open-Loop Voltage-Controlled PWM Procedures, Proceedings of ELECTROMOTION 1999, Patras, Greece, Volume I, pp. 285-290. 6. Trzynadlowski A. M., Imecs Maria and Patriciu Niculina, Modeling and Simulation of Inverter Topologies Used in AC Drives: Comparison and Validation of Models, Proceedings of ELECTRIMACS 1999, Lisboa, Portugal, Volume I/3, pp. 47-52. 7. Imecs Maria, Patriciu Niculina, Trzynadlowski, A. M. and Radian Kreiszer Melinda, Tandem Inverter with Space-Vector Modulation for Vector control of Induction Motor, Proceedings of PCIM 2000, Nrnberg, Germany, Volume: Intelligent Motion, pp. 79-84. 8. Imecs Maria, From Space Phasors to Motion Control via Power Electronics, Invited Lecture, Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark, April 1998. 9. Imecs Maria, Sisteme de reglare vectorial a poziiei motoarelor asincrone alimentate de la convertoare, PhD Dissertation, Polytechnic Institute, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 1989. 10. Imecs Maria, Patriciu Niculina, Benk Enik, Synthesis about Modeling and Simulation of the Scalar and Vector Control Systems for Induction Motors, Proceedings of ELECTROMOTION 1997, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, pp. 121-126. 11. Imecs Maria, Patriciu Niculina, Benk Enik, Synthesis about Electrical Equivalent Circuits of Induction Machine Used in Scalar and Vector Control Systems, Analele Universitatii din Oradea, Fascicola Electrotehnic, Seciunea: C (ISSN-1223-2106), EMES97 Engineering of Modern Electric Systems, Bile Felix, Romania, pp. 50-55. CORELAREA CARACTERULUI SARCINII MECANICE, A METODEI DE MODULAIE I A PRINCIPIUMUI ORIENTRII DUP CMP IN SISTEMELE DE REGLARE VECTORIAL. (Rezumat) Lucrarea se ocup cu trecerea n revist a principalelor pri componente ale unei acionri electrice n general i interaciunea acestora, exemplificat la un electromobil, considerat sarcin mecanic. Se prezint o sintez privind convertoarele statice de frecven cu circuit intermediar de c.c. i procedurile de modulaie a pulsului. Sunt tratate caracteristicile mecanice ale motorului de inducie cu fluxul reglat la valoare constant. Se trateaz strategiile de reglare vectorial comparativ cu cea scalar ale acionrilor de curent alternativ.

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