26

CHAPTER 2
CONVENTIONAL METHODS OF SPEED CONTROL
OF PMBLDC MOTOR

2.1

INTRODUCTION
PMBLDC motor is basically a surface mounted non-salient pole

machine that induces three phase trapezoidal voltage at the machine

terminals due to the concentrated pitch windings in the stator. The basic
block diagram of PMBLDC drive is shown in Figure 2.1. The three phase
inverter at the input side acts like an electronic commutator that receives
switching logical pulses from the absolute position sensor. The PMBLDC
drive is commonly known as electronically commutated motor (ECM).

Figure 2.1 Basic Block diagram of PMBLDC Drive

2.2

MODELLING OF PMBLDC MOTOR AND INVERTER

The PMBLDC motor is modeled in the stationary reference frame

using 3-phase abc variables. The volt -ampere equation for the circuit shown
in the Figure 2.2 can be expressed as given in Equations (2.1) to (2.3).

27

Figure 2.2 Three Phase Inverter fed PMBLDC Motor

v an

Ri a

d a
dt

e an

(2.1)

v bn

Ri b

d b
dt

e bn

(2.2)

v cn

Ri c

d c
dt

e cn

(2.3)

where van, vbn and vcn are phase voltages where values are given in Equation (2.4)
van = vao- vno, vbn= vbo - vno and vcn = vco - vno.

(2.4)

where vao, vbo, vco and vno are three phase and neutral voltages referred to the
zero reference potential at the mid- point of dc link as shown in the Figure 2.2
R is the resistance per phase of the stator winding

d
- is the time differential operator and
dt

28

ean, ebn and ecn are phase to neutral back-EMFs. The

a,

and

are total

flux linkage of phase windings a, b and c respectively. These values can be

expressed as given in Equations (2.5) to (2.7)
a

= Lsia M (ib + ic)

(2.5)

= Lsib M (ia + ic)

(2.6)

= Lsic M (ia + ib)

(2.7)

where Ls and M are the self and mutual inductance of the stator coil
respectively. The PMBLDC motor has no neutral connection hence, we have
ia+ ib+ ic =0

(2.8)

Substituting Equation (2.8) in the Equations (2.5) to (2.7), the flux

linkages can be rewritten as given in Equations (2.9) to (2.11)
a

= ia(Ls + M)

(2.9)

b= ib (Ls

+ M)

(2.10)

c= ic (Ls

+ M)

(2.11)

By substituting the Equations (2.9) to (2.11) in volt ampere

Equations (2.1) to (2.3) and rearranging them in a current derivative of state
space form, we get

di a
dt
di b
dt

1
(L s

M)
1

(L s

M)

[Van

Ri a

e an ]

(2.12)

[Vbn

Ri b

e bn ]

(2.13)

29

di c
dt

1
(L s

M)

[ Vcn

Ri c

e cn ]

(2.14)

The developed electromagnetic torque can be expressed as given in

Equation (2.15)
Te= [eania+ebnib+ecnic]/
where

(2.15)

is the rotor speed in electrical rad/seconds.

d r
dt

(P / 2)

(Te

TL B
J

(2.16)

where P is the number of poles, TL is the load torque in N-m, B is the

frictional co-efficient in N-ms/rad, and J is the moment of inertia in kg-m2.
The derivative of the rotor position ( r) in state space form is
expressed as given in Equation (2.17)

d
dt

(2.17)

The potential of the neutral point with respect to the zero potential
(vno) is required in order to avoid imbalance in the applied voltage and
simulate the performance of the drive. This neutral point voltage is obtained
by substituting Equations (2.8) in the volt-ampere Equations (2.1) to (2.3) and
adding them together. Hence,
vao +vbo +vco-3vno = R(ia+ ib+ ic)+(Ls + M) (dia/ dt + dib/dt + dic/dt)+(ean+ ebn+ecn)
(2.18)
Substituting Equation (2.8) in Equation (2.18) and simplifying we
get,
vao +vbo +vco-3vno = (ean + ebn+ecn)

(2.19)

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The Equation (2.19) can be rewritten as given in Equation (2.20)

vno = [vao +vbo +vco - (ean + ebn+ecn)] / 3

(2.20)

The set of differential equations mentioned in Equations (2.12) to

(2.14) and (2.16) to (2.20) define the model developed in terms of the
variables ia, ib, ic,
2.2.1

r,

Te with time as an independent variable.

Modelling of Back - EMF Using Rotor Position

The per phase back- EMF in the PMBLDC motor is trapezoidal in

nature and are the functions of the speed and rotor position angle ( r). The
phase back- Emf ean can be expressed as given in Equations (2.21) to (2.24)
ean = E

ean = (6E/ ) ( - r) - E

120 <

ean = -E
ean = (6E

/) ( r -2 ) + E

<

<120

(2.21)

< 180

(2.22)

180 <

< 300

(2.23)

300 <

< 360

(2.24)

where E = Kb .
and ean can be described by E as shown in Figure 2.3.
The back-Emf functions of other two phases ebn and ecn are defined
in similar way using E.

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Figure 2.3 Phase Back- EMF of Three Phase Voltage

2.3

THREE PHASE INVERTER FED PMBLDC MOTOR

The three phase inverter circuit is shown in Figure 2.4. The

MOSFET is used as a switch, which can operate at high switching frequency.

This feature is helpful in driving the motor at high current and low voltage
conditions. Each MOSFET conducts for a duration of 120 degrees. When
using a VSI, the desired current profile is achieved by controlling the
switching of the MOSFET. The gating signals given to the MOSFET are
sequenced to every 60 degree interval.

Figure 2.4 Three Phase Inverter

32

At any given time, only two switches out of the six switches of an
inverter are conducting. This means that only two phases are conducting at
any instant, with current entering in one of the phases and leaving through the
other. The convention used in this thesis is that, the current entering any
phase of a motor is assigned a positive sign and the current that is leaving any
phase of a motor is assigned a negative sign. Therefore, the upper switches of
the inverter, namely, S1, S3 and S5, carry a current (flowing into the motor)
which is assigned a positive sign. The lower switches of the inverter, namely,
S2, S4 and S6 carry a negative current (flowing out from the motor).

Figure 2.5 Variation of Phase Back- EMF and Phase Current

The back-EMFs, stator phase currents and Hall sensor outputs are as
shown in Figure 2.5. It is seen clearly that there is a definite relation between
the back-EMFs and the current waveforms, as a function of the rotor position.
Hence, to have proper operation of PMBLDC motor, it is necessary to
synchronize the phase currents with the phase back -EMFs. This is achieved
by the use of Hall position sensors which detect the position of the rotor field
and hence the position of the rotor shaft. Corresponding to the rotor field, the
Hall position sensors output a combination of binary numbers. A motor with
synchronized switching is able to produce a positive torque.

33

Figure 2.6 PMBLDC Stator Phase Back-EMFs, Stator Phase Currents

and Hall Sensor Outputs
Figure 2.6 depicts the definite sequence in which the phases conduct
and turn off. The current commutation from one phase to the other phase
corresponding to that particular state of the back- EMF is synchronized by the
Hall position sensors, and it occurs after every sixty electrical degrees. It
takes a finite interval of time for commutation, to transfer the current from
one phase to the other phase in the appropriate sequence.
2.4

VOLTAGE CONTROL METHOD USING PI CONTROLLER

The closed loop speed control system of a PMBLDC motor using

voltage control method with PI controller uses speed regulator to control the
DC bus voltage is as shown in Figure 2.7. The three phase inverter fed
PMBLDC motor uses MOSFET as the switch.

34

Figure 2.7

Simulink Diagram for Speed Control of PMBLDC Motor

Using PI Controller

Two control loops are used to control the speed of PMBLDC motor,
in which the inner loop synchronizes the output of the inverter with the back
EMF of the motor. The outer loop controls the speed of the motor, by varying
the DC bus voltage using PI controller. The actual speed of the motor is
compared with its reference value and the error in speed is processed by the
PI controller. The output of PI controller is applied as the input voltage.
The stator voltage to the motor is varied in linear proportion to the supply
frequency to maintain the flux at a constant value. Hall sensors are used to
identify the rotor position. The gates of the inverter are controlled by the Hall
effect switches, passing through a gates decoder.

35

Figure 2.8 Stator Flux Vectors

The Hall sensors generate

/3 angle phase shifted square waves.

These waves are in phase with the respective phase voltage. Each of Hall
sensor states correspond to a certain stator flux vector. The Hall sensor states
with corresponding stator flux vectors are illustrated in Figure 2.8. The same
information is detailed in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1 Truth Table Representation of Stator Vector Flux

Hall Sensor A Hall Sensor B Hall Sensor C Emf_a Emf_b Emf_c

0

-1

+1

-1

+1

-1

+1

+1

-1

+1

-1

+1

-1

36

The decoder circuit is shown in Figure 2.9. This circuit uses logical
AND gates and generates EMFs based on the Hall sensor signals.

Figure 2.9 Decoder Circuit

Figure 2.10 shows the gate pulse circuit. Table 2.2 shows the
commutated output based on Hall sensor signals.

Figure 2.10 Gate Pulse Circuit

37

Table 2.2 Electronic Commutator Output Based on Hall Sensor Signals

Emf_a Emf_b Emf_c

S1

S2

S3

S4

S5

S6

-1

+1

-1

+1

-1

+1

+1

-1

+1

-1

+1

-1

Three upper switches of the inverter are turned on sequentially in

the middle of the respective positive voltage half-cycles. The lower devices
are chopped in sequence for 2 /3 angles in the respective negative voltage
half cycles with the help of decoder for controlling the current.
2.4.1

Motor Specifications
The PMBLDC motor specification is given in Table 2.3.
Table 2.3 The PMBLDC Motor Specification
Type

Trapezoidal Motor

Voltage

415 Volts

Stator Resistance

18.7 ohms

Inductance

0.02682 H

Flux Induced By Magnets

0.1717 wb

Friction Factor

1.349e-005

Pole Pairs

Back Emf

Trapezoidal

RatedSpeed

1500 rpm

38

2.4.2

Simulation Results
Figure 2.11 shows the gate driving pulses to the MOSFETs. These

driving pulses make the MOSFET to conduct in 120 degree mode of

conduction and remains in off condition for the 240 degrees. Successive base
drives are delayed by 60 degrees. Six intervals are present for one cycle.

Figure 2.11 Gate Driving Pulses

Figure 2.12 shows the output of controlled voltage source which is
fed to three phase inverter. The PI controller takes about 6 seconds to
maintain a constant input voltage to an inverter when there is a speed
variation.

39

Figure 2.12 DC Voltages to Inverter

The simulation results of stator current are shown in Figure 2.13 (a) to
(d). The currents are quasi square wave with a displacement of 120. The
stator phase back-EMF is shown in Figure 2.13(b). The phasor back-EMF is
trapezoidal as shown and is in phase with stator phase current.

Figure 2.13

(a) Stator Phase Current ia (c) Stator Phase Current ib

(b) Phase Back- EMF in Phase a (d) Stator Phase Current ic

40

The speed response curve with and without disturbance using PI

controller with step load is shown in Figure 2.14.

Load disturbance is

applied at t = 20 seconds. The PI controller is capable of tracking the desired

speed at t = 27 seconds with a delay of 7 seconds to reach the desired speed.

Figure 2.14 Variation of Speed Response with and without Disturbance

with Step Load
The simulation carriedout in the presence of Ramp followed by
Step load without disturbance is given in Figure 2.15. The variation in speed
with ramp followed by step has larger amount fluctuation in speed as compared
to Step load. The settling time is almost equal for both the load variation.

Figure 2.15 Variation of Speed Response with Ramp + Step and Step
Load

41

Figure 2.16 shows the variation of torque for Step load and Ramp
followed by Step load. While using Step load the torque increases to nearly
15 N-m when the motor starts and stabilizes rapidly when the motor reaches
the reference value.

Figure 2.16 Comparison of Variation in Torque Ramp+ Step and Step Load
The speed variation curve with and without disturbance using Ramp
followed by Step load is shown in Figure 2.17. Load disturbance is applied at
t = 25 seconds. The PI controller is capable of tracking the desired speed at
t = 37.5 seconds. It takes 12.5 seconds delay to reach the desired speed.

Figure 2.17 Comparison of Variation in Speed of PMBLDC Motor in

the Presence of Load Disturbance

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2.5

THREE PHASE INVERTER FED PMBLDC MOTOR WITH

FLC
The closed loop speed control of PMBLDC motor with FLC

scheme is shown in Figure 2.18. The FLC scheme observes the pattern of
the speed loop error and correspondingly updates the output of the controller
to match the actual speed with the reference speed.

The triangular

membership function with 7 linguistic variables and 49 rules are used in the
FLC design.

Figure 2.18 Simulink Diagram for Speed Control of PMBLDC Motor

The triangular membership function is used to partition the input
and output spaces. The various linguistic variables used are negative large
(NL), negative medium (NM), negative small (NS), zero (ZE), positive small
(PS), positive medium (PM), positive large (PL). The rule set then contains
forty nine (7x7) rules to account for every possible combination of the input
fuzzy sets. The rules are of the form, IF (x is {NL, NM, NS, ZE, PS, PM,
PL}) and (y is {NL, NM, NS, ZE, PS, PM, PL}) THEN {output}, where

43

output is one of the fuzzy sets used to partition the outer space. The Table 2.4
shows the FLC design parameters for the voltage control based speed control
of PMBLDC motor in the presence of Hall sensors.
Table 2.4

FLC Design Parameters for the Voltage Control Based

Speed Control of PMBLDC Motor

Parameters
Membership Function
No. of Input variables

Values
Triangular
2(error, change in error)

No. of linguistic variables error- NL, NM, NS, ZE, PS, PM, PL
change in error- NL, NM, NS, ZE, PS, PM, PL
Decision making logic
Defuzzification
No. of rules

Max-Min logic
Centre of Area
49

The two input space use a total of fourteen triangles, so that the
string to represent a given rule set and membership function combination
would have forty nine bits as shown in Table 2.5.
Table 2.5 Rule Base Matrix

e(u)/ ce(u)

NL

NM

NS

ZE

PS

PM

PL

NL

NL

NL

NL

NL

NM

NS

ZE

NM

NL

NL

NL

NM

NS

ZE

PS

NS

NL

NL

NM

NS

ZE

PS

PM

ZE

NL

NM

NS

ZE

PS

PM

PL

PS

NM

NS

ZE

PS

PM

PL

PL

PM

NS

ZE

PS

PM

PL

PL

PL

PL

ZE

PS

PM

PL

PL

PL

PL

44

2.5.1

Simulation Results
The simulation is carriedout in the presence of Step load disturbance

with the fuzzy controller. Figure 2.19 shows the speed response plot of FLC
and PI controller schemes. There is an overshoot in FLC, but it settles with
lesser settling time of 3.5 seconds and also settles at rated speed. Though,
there is slight overshoot in PI controller it takes 6 seconds to settle with a
speed of 1480 rpm which is lesser than rated speed.

Figure 2.19 Variation of Speed of PMBLDC Motor with PI and FLC

Schemes
The speed variation curve with and without disturbance is shown in
Figure 2.20. Load disturbance is applied at t = 20 seconds. FLC is capable of
tracking the desired speed at t = 26 seconds. It takes 6 seconds delay to reach
the desired speed which is lesser than conventional PI controller.

45

Figure 2.20 Comparison of Variation in speed of PMBLDC motor in the

presence of load disturbance using FLC
The torque responses of FLC and PI controller schemes are shown
in Figure 2.21. While using FLC scheme the torque increases to nearly
31.25 N-m when the motor starts and stabilizes rapidly when the motor
reaches the reference value.

Figure 2.21 Comparison of Variation in Torque Using PI and FLC

Schemes
When the nominal torque is applied at t = 0.1 second, the controller
reacts rapidly and increases the DC bus voltage to produce the required

46

electric torque. In the case of PI controller, the torque raises nearly to 15N-m
when the motor starts and takes larger time to stabilize compared to FLC
scheme.
Table 2.6 shows the comparison of performance analysis of PI and
FLC controller. It is clear that the FLC has improved performance in all
aspects compared to conventional PI controller. The results have shown that
fuzzy controller is robust to external load disturbances. The performance of
the PMBLDCM drive with the application of FLC in reference to both the
steady state and the dynamic conditions is improved.
Table 2.6 Performance Analysis
Performance measures
Settling Time (Ts) in Seconds
RMS current in amperes
IAE
ISE
THD in %

2.6

PI
6
1.93
25.59
13700
4.072

FLC
3.5
3.066
14.04
8599
2.278

SUMMARY
In the PI and FLC schemes presented above, there are two

drawbacks. Embedding the Hall sensors into the stator is a complex process
and involves high implementation cost. Moreover, the stator current contains
harmonics which deteriorate the motor performance.

Hence, sensorless

method of speed control is preferred, with a suitable input filter to reduce

THD and also to improve the power factor.
In the subsequent chapter a suitable filter is designed for a three
phase inverter to obtain the output with less THD and improved power factor.