MARCH 25-28

Detection of Position Sensor Default on a Railway Traction PMSM Drive Using Multiresolution Analysis
Houda Ben Attia Sethom The Laboratory of Electrical Systems University of Tunis El Manar, National Engineering School of Tunis, BP 37 Le Belvdre 1002, Tunisia E-mail: Houda.BenAttia@esti.rnu.tn Manef Bourogaoui The Laboratory of Electrical Systems University of Tunis El Manar, National Engineering School of Tunis, BP 37 Le Belvdre 1002, Tunisia E-mail: manef_bourogaoui_lse@yahoo.fr
Copyright 2010 MC2D & MITI

Abstract: The paper proposes a study of a rapid detection of a position sensor default, affecting a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) traction drive. The default detection is based on the multiresolution analysis (MRA) technique. The default considered is a total loss of the position measure from the sensor. The impact of the default occurrence on the PMSM traction drive operating has been studied. The detection of the default occurrence has been carried out starting from the PMSM stator currents. The wavelet mother used has provided effective detection of the default occurrence. The study has shown that the detection is also robust against noisy traction drive functioning conditions. Keywords: PMSM, position sensor, electrical railway traction, default, detection, noise, multiresolution analysis. 1. Introduction The transport domain, and particularly that of the electric railway traction, is a domain which does not stop knowing nowadays modernization and technological evolutions. These evolutions aim to insure a better service, a higher level of performances in term of speed, of availability of the rolling stock and a higher degree of safety for the travellers. Indeed, the electrification of this domain continues to be the object of several headways and researches in this direction. Moreover, researches in the field of the traction electric drive and their control continue to be of a very importance [1], [2],[3], [4], [5]. The realization of performances, such as the trains velocity, the service quality, the travellers safety, has certainly made the transport systems more sophisticated and complex, but requires better safety and reliability of the material and equipment functioning on board. For example, traction electric drives can present many defaults which may occur in the traction motors, in the converters supplying the motors, in the DC links or even in the different sensors (voltage, current, speed, position, etc.). These defaults can lead to dangerous functioning, drive instability or even to the breakdown of the traction drives. Consequently, the defaults occurrence must be detected rapidly and the

defaults must be isolated in an early stage [4], [5]. In this context, this paper aims to study a rapid detection of defaults affecting a position sensor associated to a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) traction drive, by using the multiresolution analysis (MRA) technique. The paper aims also to show the robustness of this detection towards noisy conditions. The default considered is a total loss of the position measure. In the second section, defaults which may affect position sensors associated to electric drives will be presented. In the third section, the impact of the loss of the position measure on the traction drive operating will be discussed. In the forth section, the multiresolution analysis technique will be presented and applied to the detection of the default occurrence starting from simulation results. In the fifth section, the robustness of the default detection against noise will be studied and discussed.

The abrupt defaults occur suddenly in the system and can be modelled by a step in order to represent the measure deviation. The intermittent defaults occur in a random manner and are characteristics of loose connections in sensors. Spike defaults are characterised by an appearance of a spike in the measured signal. Finally, incipient defaults are characterised by a gradual and slow evolution in the time domain. For this paper, we propose in the next section to study the impact of a position information total loss on the traction drive operating, when it occurs abruptly on the system.

3. Default Impact on the Drive Operating The traction drive considered is composed of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM), a PWM inverter supplied by DC source, and a position sensor. The drive control is insured thanks to a FOC algorithm. The PMSM traction motor following characteristics: Rated Power: 58kW. Rated Current: 122A. Maximal current: 368A. Number of poles pair: 5. Rated speed: 600rpm. presents the

2. Defaults Affecting Position Sensors Associated to Electric Drives Possible defaults which can affect position sensors associated to variable speed drives in a general way, and those used in electric traction drives in a particular way, are [5], [6], [7], [8]: partial loss of the position information, total loss of the position information, disturbance, offset, measure deviation, channel mismatch, etc. The partial or total loss of the position information can be caused by a breakdown of the sensor, of its supply or of its connexions. Disturbance can be caused by external noise sources which can be aerodynamic, mechanical or magnetic sources. The offset can be caused by damages or breakdown of electronic components which constitute the sensor. According to their speed of occurrence and their time evolution, the defaults can be classified into [5], [6]: abrupt defaults, intermittent defaults, spike defaults, incipient defaults.

To study the default effects on the traction drive functioning, we model the total loss of the motor position information by a switch, placed between the position sensor and the speed controller, which turns off abruptly at the default occurrence instant noted t0. Indeed, in normal functioning, according to the FOC algorithm principle, the speed controller receives the derived position. When the default occurs, the position is equal to the last measure indicated by the sensor just before t0, because there is not measure anymore. This position becomes and remains constant in the case of an absolute position sensor and becomes equal to zero in the case of an encoder. Thus, the position error is equal to the reference speed. This leads to an important increase of the error that the speed controller does not any more manage to correct. Thus, the value of the isqref current becomes erroneous and important. Consequently, the isq current controller does not any more manage to correct the error on isq. The error increasing engenders an over voltage on

vsq. On the other hand, the default occurrence has direct consequences on the Park transform performing. In fact, when the position value remains constant, the Park transform matrix elements become constant too. Then, the reference voltages varef, vbref and vcref (used to perform the PWM inverter control), are incorrectly performed and the motor is badly supplied. Figure 1 shows respectively the phase a stator current, the phase a voltage supply, and the mechanical motor speed, before, during and after the default occurrence.
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Figure 2 presents a zoom of the stator current around the default occurrence instant.
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Figure 2: Zoom of the stator current evolution before, during and after the default occurrence.

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Results highlight the default occurrence conditions which lead to an over-current, a motor instability and so to very dangerous consequences on the traction system. Thats why a rapid and effective detection of the default occurrence instant must be performed to avoid bad damages on the traction system and to have time to make rapid decision to reconfigure the traction drive control.

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4. Multiresolution Analysis Technique Applied to the Detection of the Position Sensor Default
A Multiresolution Analysis Technique

t (s)

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(c) before the default occurrence. after the default occurrence. Figure 1: Evolution of stator current (a), voltage supply (b), and motor mechanical speed (c) before, during and after the default occurrence.

Wavelet theory provides a number of techniques, which have been developed for various signal processing applications, and in particular power engineering applications [9]. One of these techniques is the Multi Resolution Analysis (MRA) algorithm, which decomposes a signal into scales with different time and frequency resolutions. Mallats algorithm based on convolution with quadrate mirror filter is a fast MRA algorithm. The MRA algorithm expresses both a decomposition of the signal in an orthonormal wavelet basis and a decomposition of the signal in a set of independent frequency bands. A sampled signal S(n) can be decomposed in J levels. The maximum level depends on the number of samples N according to the following condition: 2JN (1) S(n) can be approximated by the sum of an approximation signal at level J noted aJ(n) and

J detail signals noted dI(n) where I varies from 1 to the level J [10], [11]: S(n)= aJ(n)+ dI(n)++ d1(n) (2)

The mother wavelet choice is of paramount importance to allow better detection results. For a better and a rapid detection of the position sensor default, we have carried out many tests to conclude to the better mother wavelet. We have studied the multiresolution analysis of the stator current isa of the phase a by applying three types of mother wavelets which are Daubechies, Symlets and Coiflets. These mother wavelets were also considered with various orders. We have noticed that the detection varies according to the wavelet order. Indeed, a better default transient detection is obtained by increasing the mother wavelet order, and this is available for all wavelet types mentioned above [11]. In fact, the wavelet order increase leads to the increase of the number of its zero moments. Thus, a better detection is obtained for a high order wavelet. On the other hand, the number of zero moments increase engenders a longer filter.

aJ(n) is the product of the scaling coefficients J,p by the scaling function J,p at level J, defined as follows: aJ(n)=

J,p.J,p(n)

(3)

p =1

dI(n) is the product of the wavelet coefficients J,p by the wavelet function J,p at each level I, defined as follows : dI(n)=

I,p. I,p(n)

(4)

p =1

There are various types of mother wavelet: Haar, Symlets, Daubechies, Coiflet, etc [11].
1000 0 -1000 0 500 0 -500 0 50 0 -50 0 50 0 -50 0 20 0 -20 0 20 0 -20 0 20 0 -20 0 10 0 -10 0 5 0 -5 0 2 0 -2 0 1 0 -1 0 0.5 0 -0.5 0 0.5 0 -0.5 0 D5 D4 D3 Isa

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Figure 3: Multiresolution analysis of the stator current isa before, during and after the occurrence of the position sensor default using Daubechies-10.

This explains the disappearance of the transient state with an upper order wavelet. In this study, the tests carried out indicates the use of a 10 order Daubechies, noted DB10 as a mother wavelet for its good performance in the detection of abrupt changes [6], [9], [12], [13]. B Detection of the Position Sensor Default A 12-level multiresolution analysis was applied to the stator current of phase a, in order to cover a maximum of frequency bands of the signal. Figure 3 shows the multiresolution analysis of the motor stator current isa of phase a before, during and after the occurrence of the position sensor default. Figure 4 shows clearly that the contents of details signals d8, d9 and d10 inform about the abrupt change occurred further to the position sensor default. In fact, these details are related to the high frequencies of the stator currents and then they can be used to highlight the occurrence of an abrupt phenomenon in the current signals.
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5. Robustness of the Position Sensor Default Detection Against Noise In order to show robustness of the default detection against noise, we simulate the drive functioning in noisy conditions by adding respectively a -50dB and a -40dB uniform noise to the stator currents (figure 5).
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(b) Figure 5: Stator current evolution before, during and after the default occurrence, in presence of an additional noise of -50dB (a), and an additional noise of -40dB (b).

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Figure 4: Zoom on details d8, d9 and d10 before, during and after the occurrence of the position sensor default using Daubechies-10.

As the rated load torque is applied at the instant t=0.4s (figure 1), which corresponds to a condition variation of the drive functioning, it is very important to notice that this transient related to the torque change doesnt affect the content of the signals details. Then, the multiresolution analysis allows discrimination between transient corresponding to a torque variation and transient related to a position sensor default occurrence.

As it can be seen in figure 6, the noise doesnt affect the default occurrence detection. In fact, the abrupt change, caused by the default in the stator current, appears clearly in the details d9 and d10 exactly at t0 = 0.6 s. We also can notice that the default occurrence is highlighted in details d8 but with a delay of about half a period of the stator current. This is due to the wavelet filter bank properties. Then, in presence of additional noise, the same signal details studied in the section 4 highlight the abrupt change corresponding to the position sensor default. The obtained results confirm that the multiresolution analysis provides not only rapid detection but also

robust detection against noisy functioning conditions.

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explorations in this study are going on in order to carry out an implementation of the fast MRA algorithm on a dsPIC33F and to validate experimentally the obtained results on a test bench.

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Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Tunisian Ministry of High Education, Research and Technology.
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References
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(b) Figure 6. Detection of the default occurrence from d8, d9 and d10 using Daubechies-10, in presence of an additional noise of -50dB (a), and an additional noise of -40dB (b).

6. Conclusion This paper has presented an effective detection of a position sensor default occurring in a PMSM traction drive. The default is an abrupt total loss of the sensor measure. The study has shown that the multiresolution analysis is an effective tool for the monitoring of the traction drive. In fact, the default detection was ensured thanks to a DB10 multiresolution analysis of the PMSM stator currents. The study has shown also that the detection remains robust against noisy drive functioning conditions. The

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