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AbstractThe usage of niche copper-rotor induction motor iqr : Rotor q-axis current
(CRIM) in all the variants of the Tesla Roadster electric vehicle idm : d-axis magnetizing current
has bolstered the technology of using induction motor for electri- iqm : q-axis magnetizing current
fied transportation. Understanding the merits, demerits and state
idc : d-axis core loss current
of art technology of induction motor and its drive in electric and
hybrid electric vehicle (EV/HEV) application, this research man- iqc : q-axis core loss current
uscript proposes a novel approach towards electrical loss minimi- Te : Electromagnetic torque
zation in vector controlled induction machine drives for the : Speed of the arbritarily rotating d-q frame
aforementioned application. This paper serves as a good theoreti- r : Rotor speed
cal study of the developed loss minimization scheme which would P : Number of poles
be later incorporated into an overall vector controlled induction p : d/dt operator
machine drive for enhancing the efficiency of the electrified vehi- J : Moment of inertia
cle. Firstly, an insight is provided on the state or art induction
motor technology in EV/HEV and the significance of incorporat-
ing core loss in an induction machine. Secondly, the conventional II. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND STUDIES
two-axis model of an induction motor incorporating core loss has
been used to propose a novel loss minimization algorithm. Rotor The threat of global warming and other environmental
flux has been used as the control variable for this purpose. concerns have made the automobile industry shift its focus to
hybridize and electrify the vehicles they manufacture. Hybrid
Index Terms Copper-rotor induction machine, electric vehi- electric vehicles (HEVs) have been with us for a considerable
cle, loss minimization, rotor flux-oriented vector control, efficien- time now. The progress towards complete electrification of
cy. vehicles has been gradual though as evident from Table I.
There has always been a debate over the motor best suited
I. NOMENCLATURE for electric vehicle (EV) propulsion. The requirements for
vds : d-axis stator voltage drive systems of HEV/EVs are high torque and high power
vqs : d-axis stator voltage density combined with a wide range of speed and high effi-
vdr : d-axis rotor voltage ciency. Other minor factors that should not be neglected are
vqr : d-axis rotor voltage cost and ruggedness, augmented with reliability. Thus, for EV
Rs : Stator resistance propulsion, the induction motors seem to be a good candidate
Rr : Rotor resistance, referred to stator that fulfills the above mentioned criteria. However, permanent
Rc : Core loss resistance magnet (PM) brushless motors have been the favorite choice
Lls : Leakage inductance of stator of car manufacturers to be used as propulsion engines. The
Llr : Leakage inductance of rotor, referred to stator advantages of using a PM motor are that they have high power
Lm : Magnetizing inductance density and most importantly high efficiency. The main reason
ds : Stator d-axis flux for its high efficiency is the fact that the rotor does not have
qs : Stator q-axis flux windings which contribute to loss, but at higher speeds the
dr : Rotor d-axis flux, referred to stator efficiency does tend to drop. Also, the permanent magnets of
qr : Rotor q-axis flux, referred to stator the PM motor may suffer from demagnetization, whereas no
ids : Stator d-axis current such problems exist for induction motors. The closest com-
iqs : Stator q-axis current, referred to stator petitor of the PM motor in HEV/EV application is therefore
idr : Rotor d-axis current the induction motor. Factors favoring the induction motor to
have such high recommendations are reliability, ruggedness,
low maintenance, low cost and the ability to operate in hostile
The authors of this paper are with the Centre for Hybrid Automotive Re- environments [1]. Improving the efficiency of an induction
search and Green Energy, University of Windsor, ON, Canada. (email: motor would therefore make it a formidable contender to the
1
biswasd@uwindsor.ca, 2kmukh@uwindsor.ca, and 3nkar@uwindsor.ca) PM motor.
Toyata Prius Chevrolet Volt Honda CR-Z Honda FCX Clarity Honda Insight Honda Civic Tesla Roadster Mitsubishi Nissan Leaf
Vehicle (HEV/PHEV) (PHEV) (HEV) (Fuel Cell HEV) (HEV) Hybrid (HEV) (EV) iMiEV (EV) (EV)
Battery Type NiMH Li-ion NiMH Li-ion NiMH Li-ion Li-ion Li-ion Li-ion
Motor Type PMSM PMSM BLDC PMSM BLDC PMSM IM PMSM Sync-motor
Power 80 hp 150 hp 13 hp 134 hp 13 hp 23 hp 288 hp 49 kW 80 kW
Torque 207 Nm 368 Nm 79 Nm 256 Nm 79 Nm 106 Nm 370 Nm 196 Nm 280 Nm
E-Range 23 km 40 to 80 km -- 240 -- -- 394 km 155 km 160 km
Conventional induction motors have aluminum rotors and nipulating the slip also provides a novel method of achieving
these motors have proven to be less efficient. These rotors are maximum efficiency [8], [9].
fabricated by pressure die casting which is an extremely eco- The control technique used to implement loss minimiza-
nomical method of manufacturing these rotors. Recently, cop- tion can be categorized as: 1) loss-model-based controller
per rotors are also being manufactured in the same process. (LMC) and 2) search controller (SC). LMC calculates the op-
Copper has proved to be huge advancement as far as efficien- timum flux level required for minimum loss based on the mo-
cy is concerned in induction motors. Recent developments tor model being used. However, inaccuracies in the model and
have shown that die casting copper rotors can bump up the approximations made in the measurement of the parameters
efficiency of an induction motor by 2.1% [2]. will reflect in the control technique. On the other hand, search
Another aspect that plagues operation of any electrical mo- control measures input power for the optimization process. For
tor is the generation of heat within the motor itself. Not only any load torque and speed the flux level is iteratively adjusted
does this mean that the heat given off by the motor is essen- until the minimum value is obtained. This technique favours
tially loss but it also adversely affects the life of the motor. As vector controlled drives as the torque and flux control can be
a general rule, for every 7-10oC increase in the motor operat- decoupled [10]. Care should be taken that the measurement of
ing temperature above the maximum temperature as dictated input power should be accurate. The major advantage of this
by its class of insulation, the insulation life of the motor is method is that prior knowledge of the motor parameters is not
halved. required [11].
The shift towards the use of induction motors has already Loss minimization approach has been utilized till date to
begun for electric vehicles. Tesla has launched the Tesla improve the performance of induction motors in general appli-
Roadster not very long ago which uses an induction motor. cations. This paper aims at implementing the algorithm for the
However, they themselves agreed that it was a difficult task to benefit of EVs. Minimizing losses will eventually lead to less
come up with a motor design that offered less resistance so heat being generated. Thus, the motor size can be reduced by a
that higher values of currents could be handled. This shows certain extent and the available space can be utilized for some
that the losses incurred by the motor is always a concern and other application in the EV as from Figure 1 we can infer that
industries strive towards keeping the losses as low as possible. electrifying a vehicle leads to the increment in motor size [12].
The various losses that affect an induction motor are: 1) Also, a smaller motor means that the overall weight of the EV
stator copper losses; 2) hysteresis and eddy current losses will be lower giving the EV extended range per charge.
commonly known as core loss; 3) rotor copper losses; and 4)
rotational losses such as friction and windage losses. Eddy III. LOSS MODEL OF INDUCTION MOTOR AND CALCULATION
current losses and hysteresis losses, which essentially make up OF ROTOR FLUX FOR OPTIMAL CONDITIONS
the core loss are frequency dependent. State of the art control, The two-axis model of an induction motor neglecting iron
such as vector control and direct torque control (DTC) use the loss is very well depicted in [13]. As in the per phase equiva-
method of varying the frequency in order to control the syn- lent circuit the core loss is modeled by connecting a resistance
chronous speed of the induction motor. The core loss compo- in parallel with the magnetizing branch [14]. The machine
nents mentioned earlier are functions of frequency. Thus any equations thus obtained are as follows.
change in frequency will change the value of the core loss
exhibited by the machine. The higher the frequency the more
will be the core loss of the machine. Also, the efficiency of an 160
induction motor decreases under light loads due to the imbal-
Peak On-boardsupply/Vehicle
IM Load
ia ib
abc to de-qe r
PWM conversion
Slip speed
estimator
sl +
+
Fig. 2. Block diagram of proposed loss minimization controlled induction motor drive.
The induction motor under consideration has star connect- [7] G. O. Garcia, J. C. Mendes Luis, R. M. Stephan, and E. H. Watanabe,
An Efficient Controller for an Adjustable Speed Induction Motor
ed stator windings. Thus measuring the currents from only two
Drive, IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 41, No. 5, 1994.
phases serves the purpose as the current in flowing in the third
[8] B. Kou, L. Li, S. Cheng, and F. Meng, Operating Control of Efficiently
phase can easily be calculated. Having made these measure- Generating Induction Motor for Driving Hybrid Electric Vehicle, IEEE
ments the phase currents can now be easily transformed into Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 41, No. 1, January 2005.
their corresponding direct- and quadrature-axis values. The [9] B. Zahedi and S. V. Zadeh, Efficiency Optimization Control of Single-
Phase Induction Motor Drives, IEEE Trans. on Power Electronics, Vol.
novel vector control block then generates the three-phase ref-
24, No. 4, April 2004.
erence voltages required for ensuring loss minimized rotor- [10] D. A. Souza, W. C. P. A. Filho, and G. C. D. Sousa, Adaptive Fuzzy
flux oriented control performance and sends them to the pulse Controller for Efficiency Optimization of Induction Motors, IEEE
width generation (PWM) block which eventually generates the Trans. on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 54, No. 4, August 2007.
[11] S. M. Yang and F. C. Lin, Loss-Minimization Control of Vector-
switching pulses of the six inverter devices.
Controlled Induction Motor Drives, Journal of the Chinese Institute of
Engineers, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 37-45, 2003.
V. CONCLUSION [12] E. D. Tate, M. O. Harper, and P. J. Savagian, The Electrification of the
Automobile: From Conventional Hybrid, to Plug-in Hybrids, to Extend-
In this paper loss minimization approach is taken to ensure ed-Range Electric Vehicles, SAE International, 2008.
that maximum efficiency is extracted from an induction motor [13] P. C. Krause, O. Wasynczuk, and S . D. Sudhoff, Analysis of Electric
to be used for electric vehicle applications, where, constraints Machinery. New York IEEE Press, 1995.
[14] E. Levi, Impact of Loss on Behaviour of Vector Controlled Induction
on size, space, weight, temperature rise and burden on the Machines, IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 31, No. 6,
vehicles battery pack are critical issues. To implement this, Nov/Dec 1995.
the rotor flux is taken as the control variable. An analysis has
also been provided in the paper which targets the rotor flux to VII. BIOGRAPHIES
be controlled in an effective way to minimize the losses, main- Debarshi Biswas received the B.Tech. degree in Elec-
taining decoupled rotor flux oriented control considering pres- tronics and Communication Engineering from Sikkim
Manipal Institute of Technology, Sikkim, India, in the
ence of stator core losses. The novelty of the paper lies in the year 2008. He is currently pursuing the MASc degree in
fact that a conventional two-axis model of an induction motor Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of
incorporating loss has been used to compute the losses. Also, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. His research presently focuses
on design of efficient electric machine drives for electri-
it has been shown that to ensure proper vector control the fied transportation application.
magnetizing branch currents should be controlled and not the
stator currents to maintain proper detuning between the d- and
q-axis components. A block diagram of the control scheme is Kaushik Mukherjee (M03) was born in 1970. He re-
presented ultimately in this paper. It comprises of a suitable ceived the B.E. degree from the Department of Electrical
Engineering, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India, in
loss minimization controller and a novel rotor flux oriented
1993, the M.E. degree from the Department of Electrical
controller considering core losses, which are capable of im- Engineering, Bengal Engineering College, Howrah,
plementing the targeted loss minimization. India, in 1998, and the Ph.D. degree from the Department
The theory is yet to be verified experimentally which will of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur, India, in 2003. Since 1993, he has spent
be the future scope of this research. It is expected that the ma- almost two and a half years in the industry. In 2002, he joined the Department
chine losses will be less when this algorithm is put into place of Electrical Engineering, Jadavpur University, India as a Lecturer. From
as compared to the losses when the induction motor is running 2006 onwards, he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical
Engineering, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Howrah, India. Dr.
with the algorithm switched off. Mukherjee is presently a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Hybrid Automo-
tive Research & Green Energy, Department of Electrical & Computer Engi-
VI. REFERENCES neering, University of Windsor, Canada. His research interests include electri-
cal machine drives and power electronics applications in general.
[1] M. Zeraoulia, M. E. H. Benbouzid, and D. Diallo, Electric Motor Drive
Selection Issues for HEV Propulsion Systems: A Comparative Study,
in Proc. of the IEEE Conf. on Vehicle Power and Propulsion, 2005.
[2] Copper.org, CDA Press Releases, Building a better electrical motor, Narayan C. Kar received the B.Sc. degree in Electrical
January 2005. Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering
[3] M. N. Uddin, and S. W. Nam, New Online Loss-Minimization-Based and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1992 and the
Control of an Induction Motor Drive, IEEE Trans. on Power Electron- M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
ics, Vol. 23, No. 2, March 2008. Kitami Institute of Technology, Hokkaido, Japan, in
1997 and 2000, respectively. He is an associate professor
[4] A. Haddoun, M. E. Benbouzid, D. Diallo, R. Abdessemed, J. Ghouili,
in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
and K. Srairi, A Loss-Minimization DTC Scheme for EV Induction at the University of Windsor, Canada where he holds the
Motors, IEEE Trans. on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 56, No. 1, 2007. Canada Research Chair position in hybrid drivetrain
[5] P. Famouri and J. J. Cathey, Loss Minimization Control of an Induction systems. His research presently focuses on the analysis, design and control of
Motor Drive, IEEE Trans. on IAS, Vo1.27, pp.32-37, 1991. permanent magnet synchronous, induction and switched reluctance machines
[6] C. Chakraborty and Y. Hori, Fast Efficiency Optimization Techniques for hybrid electric vehicle and wind power applications, testing and perfor-
for the Indirect Vector-Controlled Induction Motor Drives, IEEE mance analysis of batteries and development of optimization techniques for
Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 39, No. 4, July/August 2003. hybrid energy management system. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.