Simulation of Brushless DC motor

Vidhya M.P.
M.Tech. Student Department of Electrical Engineering College of Engineering, Trivandrum

A.S. Shajilal.
Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering College of Engineering, Trivandrum

Jaya B.
Scientist/Engineer CECD, VSSC,Trivandrum

Abstract Brushless permanent magnet 'motors are being applied in an increasing number of applications. They can be classified as of sinusoidal or trapezoidal type according to the rotational voltage (back emf) induced. The sinusoidal commutation has a sinusoidal back emf and requires sinusoidal stator currents to produce constant torque while the trapezoidal commutation has a trapezoidal back emf and requires rectangular stator current to produce constant torque. A comparative study has been made between the two commutation techniques. In this paper, a mathematical model of the three-phase brushless permanent magnet AC motor drives is described. The modeling, analysis, simulation of commutation of permanent magnet brushless dc motor (PMBLDCM) drive is developed using Simulink. Sinusoidal commutation is used when very smooth torque response is desired. The simulation results of both trapezoidal and sinusoidal commutation of PMBLDCM is provided in this paper. Keywords- PMBLDCM, Trapezoidal Commutation, Sinusoidal commutation, PWM current controller, Brushless Motor

The excitation method can also be classified according to the modulation scheme used. A trapezoidal scheme is easier to implement and uses pulse width modulation (PWM) with an essentially constant pulse width. A sinusoidal excitation scheme involves modulation of the pulse width within one output cycle in order to control the harmonic content of the voltage. Ideally, sinusoidal excitation should be used for a sinusoidal type of motor and trapezoidal excitation should be used for a trapezoidal type of motor. In many applications, however, trapezoidal excitation has been used to drive brushless dc motors with sinusoidal emf waveforms. For trapezoidal excitation, the bottom three MOSFETs of the inverter are modulated by a PWM signal generated by hardware. At any moment, only two of the three phase coils are connected to the power supply. Since the principle of operation in trapezoidal excitation closely resembles that of a permanent magnet brush-type dc motor, the resulting drive system is referred to as a "brushless dc motor drive", and the inverter with the incorporated PWM function is called a "converter-commutator". Many applications may benefit from the use of sinusoidal excitation yet, due to various constraints, do not permit the use of an external position sensing device other than the Hall sensors. Thus, the designer is faced with a choice of six-step stator excitation using the Hall Sensors, or using one of the many techniques that have been developed for the PMSM . Sinusoidally commutated brushless controllers attempt to drive the three phase motor windings with three currents that vary smoothly and sinusoidally as the motor turns. This eliminates the torque ripple and commutation spikes associated with trapezoidal commutation. In order to generate smooth sinusoidal modulation of motor currents as the motor turns , an accurate measurement of rotor position is required. One of the advantages of Sinusoidal commutated BLDC motor is that it is not overly complicated. Improvements and additions are therefore very easy to make. The implementation of additional control techniques like sensor less control is also possible. A detailed Simulink model for BLDC motor with Trapezoidal and sinusoidal commutation is presented in this paper. A comparative study has been made between the two commutation methods. The basic building blocks of BLDC motor drive system are described

I.INTRODUCTION Due to the increasing demand for compact and reliable motors and the evolution of low cost power semiconductor switches and permanent magnet (PM) materials, brushless motors became popular in every application from home appliance to aerospace industry. Unlike brushed DC motors, every brushless motor requires a drive to supply commutated current to the motor windings synchronized to the rotor position. In other words, some kind of feedback position sensors are necessary to commutate brushless motors. Some drives are just commutating while others may include voltage control with or without current-loop. Depending upon the stator winding arrangement and the shape and the location of the permanent magnets on the rotor, the motors can be broadly classified into two groups.[5] The first type possesses trapezoidal back emf and is called Brushless Trapezoidal Permanent Magnet Motor, which is also known as Brushless DC Motor. The second type possesses sinusoidal back emf and is called Brushless Sinusoidal Permanent Magnet motor. Since BSPM employs a sinusoidal variable frequency PWM inverter as power supply ,the motor is also called brushless permanent magnet synchronous motor.

II FUNDAMENTALS OF BRUSHLESS MOTORS =R +p =R +p Where defined as = , + + , (2) (3) are phase voltages and may be

(4)

, . and are three phase and neutral voltages with respect to zero reference potential at the midpoint of dc link. The are total flux linkages of phase windings a,b,c respectively. The PMBLDC motor has no neutral connection and hence this results in Fig.1 Basic block diagram of PMBLDC drive system A brushless dc motor has a rotor with permanent magnets and a stator with windings. It is essentially a dc motor turned inside out. The brushes and commutator have been eliminated and the windings are connected to the control electronics. The control electronics replace the function of the commutator and energize the proper winding. The windings are energized in a pattern which rotates around the stator. The energized stator winding leads the rotor magnet, and switches just as the rotor aligns with the stator. To simplify the explanation of how to operate a threephase BLDC motor a fundamental BLDC with only three coils is considered. To make the motor rotate the coils are energized (or activated) in a predefined sequence, making the motor turn in one direction, say clockwise. Running the sequence in reverse order the motor run in the opposite direction. One should understand that the sequence defines the direction of the current flow in the coils and thereby the magnetic field generated by the individual coils. The direction of the current determines the orientation of the magnetic field generated by the coil. The magnetic field attracts and rejects the permanent magnets of the rotor. By changing the current flows in the coils and thereby the polarity of the magnetic fields at the right moment and in the right sequence the motor rotates. Alternation of the current flow through the coils to make the rotor turn is referred to as commutation III MODELLING OF PMBLDC MOTOR The windings of brushless PMAC motors can be modeled by a series circuit consisting of a resistance R, an inductance L (equivalent winding inductance in magnetically coupled windings) and a speed dependent voltage source en(t) (which is known as the back EMF voltages due to the rotor magnets) [4]. The principal dynamic equations describing the brushless PMAC motors are given below. =R +p + (1) The potential of the neutral point with respect to the zero potential( is required to be considered in order to avoid imbalance in the applied voltage in simulating the performance of the drive. + = + (13) + + =0 = ( +M), = ( +M), = ( +M) (5) (6)

By substituting eq.6 into eq.(1),(2)&(3) and rearranging these equations in a current derivative of state space form gives: p =1/( p =1/( p =1/( +M)( +M)( +M)( (7) (8) (9)

The developed electromagnetic torque may be expressed as =( + + )/ (10)

The mechanical equation of motion in speed derivative form can be expressed as p =(P/2)( )/J (11) in state space form is (12)

The derivative of rotor position ( expressed as p =

The three phase back emf in PMBLDC motor is trapezoidal in nature and is the function of speed( ) and rotor position. The normalized function of back emf

can be expressed as shown below .Where E= =E =(6E/ )( = E =(6E/ )( ) ) 0 120 180 300 (14) The magnitude of the three reference currents is determined using reference torque and back emf constant. Depending upon the rotor position, the reference current generator block generates three phase reference currents by taking the reference current magnitude as , and zero. Rotor Position Signal 60 120 180 240 300 Reference currents 0 0 0 0

terminal potential (with reference to ground) changes from zero to the dc supply voltage. If the pulse width changes periodically according to rotor position, sinusoidal excitation results. V.SIMULATION OF BLDC MOTOR a.Trapezoidally commutated BLDC motor Figure shows the complete SIMULINK model of Trapezoidally commutated BLDC motor. The speed of the motor is compared with reference speed and speed error is processed in proportional speed controller.The output of this controller is compared with actual current which forms the error signal of PWM block. In the PWM block this error signal is compared with ramp signal of 20 KHz frequency. By controlling the PWM duty cycle, the speed of the motor can be controlled by adjusting the pulse width. Input voltage is 25V.This voltage is chopped with PWM signal to generate switching signal.

0 300 0

The above equations defines the developed model in terms of the variables , , and time as an independent variable. IV.BRUSHLESS MOTOR COMMUTATION Two techniques are commonly used for commutation of PMAC machines Trapezoidal Commutation and Sinusoidal Commutation[3]. For trapezoidal excitation, only two phase coils are active at any instant. The third one is disconnected. Of the two active coils, one is connected to the positive pole of the power supply; the other is connected to either the negative pole or the positive pole (freewheeling). This makes the motor rotate in the required direction. One electric cycle is divided into 6 60-degree sections. Commutation occurs every 60 electrical degrees. That is one active coil is commutated by the previous inactive coil. A Hall effect position sensor is used to produce a 3-bit rotor position signal which indicates the instantaneous position of the rotor relative to the coil. This position signal is used to determine the moment for commutation b. Sinusoidal commutation

a.

Trapezoidal commutation

Fig.2 Simulink model for trapezoidally commutated BLDC motor b.Sinusoidally commutated BLDC motor Figure shows complete SIMULINK sinusoidally commutated BLDC motor. model of

With sinusoidal excitation, every one of the three motor terminals is either connected to the positive pole or the negative pole of the dc power supply at any instant. A sinusoidal excitation voltage can be generated by controlling the pulse width of the motor terminals during an output cycle. When the pulse width changes slowly from 0 to 100% of a switching period, the average value of the corresponding motor

Fig.3 Simulink model for Sinusoidally commutated BLDC motor

The actual speed of the motor is compared with reference value and the speed error is the input to the proportional speed controller. The output of this controller becomes input to the reference current generator block. The three reference current generated by this block is compared with actual current in the current compare block to generate U, V, W signals. These U, V, W are compared with ramp signal of 20 KHz frequency. These signals are then multiplied by the applied voltage to produce voltage signals , , for the three phases in the PWM block. VI.SIMULATION RESULTS The Simulink model of the BLDC system is simulated with two commutation methods, Trapezoidal and Sinusoidal commutation. Simulation parameters: inductance = 0.006H Mutual inductance = 0 Resistance = 12.5 Moment of inertia = 0.2156kgBack emf constant= 0.6 Frictional coefficient = 0.2Nm/rad Number of poles = 16 Fig.5 Three phase current waveforms

a.Trapezoidal commutation Figure shows the simulation results for trapezoidal commutation of BLDC motor. The electromagnetic torque, speed, current, back emf and voltage of trapezoidal commutated motor is shown. From the figure it is known that there is torque ripple at 60 phase commutation, The current has square wave shape. The notches at the commutation points occur because the rise of current in the phase that is being turned on is slower than the decay of current. Fig.6 Three phase Voltage waveforms

Fig.7 Torque and speed waveforms

b.Sinusoidal commutation
Figure shows the simulation results for commutation of BLDC motor with Sinusoidal commutation. The back emf and current waveforms have sinusoidal shape. From the figure it is known that the torque produced is constant and is independent of shaft position. Since the torque is constant, the motor provides smooth and precise control than trapezoidally commutated motor.

Fig.4 Back emf waveforms

Fig.8 Three phase back emf waveforms

Fig.11 Torque and speed waveforms VII.CONCLUSION The Simulink model for BLDC motor with Trapezoidal and Sinusoidal commutation is developed. A comparative study is made between the two methods. From that it is found that Sinusoidally commutated BLDC motor results in smoothness of control that is unachievable with trapezoidal commutation VIII.REFERENCES [1] P. Pillay and R. Krishnan, Modeling, simulation, and analysis of permanent-magnet motor drives, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications., Vol. 25, No.2, pp. 265278, 1989

Fig.9 Three phase current waveforms

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Fig.10 Three phase voltage waveforms

conference on Power Electronics and variable speed drives, Vol.17, pp.446-450, 1991.

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