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CHAPTER 6

DIRECT TORQUE CONTROL FOR

FIVE PHASE SRM DRIVE

6.1 INTRODUCTION

High phase number drives possess several advantages over

conventional three phase drives such as reducing the amplitude , increasing
the frequency of torque pulsations, reducing the rotor harmonic currents,
reducing the current per phase without increasing the voltage per phase,
lowering the DC link current harmonics and higher reliability. By increasing
the number of phases it is also possible to increase the torque per rms ampere
for the same volume machine.

The high phase order drive is likely to remain limited to

specialized applications where high reliability is demanded such as electric
hybrid vehicles, aerospace applications, ship propulsion and high power
applications where a combination of several solid state devices form one leg
of the drive is needed. Therefore, the requirement of n separate drive units in
a multi-phase system is not oppressive for large drives since many of the
necessary components are presented in the contemporary designs. So multi-
phase SRM is constructed and DTC is implemented for five-phase SRM. The
performance of five phase proves to be better than that of three-phase DTC.

6.2 FIVE-PHASE SRM

In spite of growing interest in the field of SRM, it has not been

exploited for a higher number of phases. The reason is that the number of
switching devices required for the power converter increase with the number
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of phases. But the running performance could be greatly improved, especially

at low speeds, by increasing the number of phases. The idea is based on the
number of torque pulses per revolution and their relation with the number of
phases and the pole configuration. This number equates to only 12 pulses per
revolution for a 3-phase motor with 6/4 poles and equals 24 pulses for a four
phase motor with 8/6 poles. In an attempt to develop an SRM drive with a
higher number of torque pulses per revolution and consequently lower torque
ripple content, a 40 pulse, 5-phase SRM with 10/8 poles is proposed in this
work. With a torque ripple control being the major criteria five phase motors
can offer better torque ripple reduction when compared with three and four
phase motors. These five phase motors, which can be operated up to
23,000 rpm maximum speed, have an 8-pole rotor and a 10 coil stator.

To drive the new control scheme for the SRM, the non-uniform
torque characteristics will first be considered. The motor torque output can be
found using the motors electromagnetic equation.

d ,i
v Ri (6.1)
dt

The energy equation is

dWe dWm dWf (6.2)

where dWm = differential mechanical energy, dWf =differential field energy.

The electrical energy is product of power (e*i) and time. So the differential
electrical energy dWe is given by

dWe eidt (6.3)

Wf Wf
dWf di | const d |i const (6.4)
i

The instantaneous torque expression is

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dWm
T (6.5)
d

Hence by substitutions, the torque expression is derived considering the

variation of magnetic co-energy and is given by

d , i
T i (6.6)
d

This approximate equation is sufficient for control purpose as it controls the

general characteristics of torque production and not the magnitude of torque.

6.3 THE NEW PROPOSED SCHEME FOR SRM

The SRM unlike induction and brushless DC motors is inherently

fault tolerant due to the independence of windings of the machine. This
feature enables the SRM to produce torque with one or more phases having
failed. SRM has nonlinear and non-sinusoidal currents and each phase is
independently excited. However, by re-examining the torque equation of the
switched reluctance motor, a new control technique can be found which uses
a similar philosophy as the conventional DTC of AC machines. As in
conventional DTC, the control scheme directly controls the amplitude of the
flux and torque within hysteresis bands.

The main goal of DTC is to obtain a fast, decoupled control of the

stator flux and torque without inner current control loops. Based on the
difference between the reference and actual values of flux and torque, voltage
space vectors are selected in each sampling period. Thus the number of space
vectors and switching frequency directly influence the performance of DTC
control system. An increase in the number of phases increases the number of
space vectors leading to more accurate control and improved performance. In
the proposed technique, DTC of a five phase SRM is implemented. Here there
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was a significant increase in the number of space vectors providing high

precision control of SRM. In 3 SRM, as there are 3 voltages states for the
converter, 33 (27) possible vectors are generated. But in 5 machine
35 voltage vectors are generated with different amplitude dividing the
switching plane pattern into 10 sectors. By optimal selection of 10 equal
magnitude vectors, ripples in the stator flux and torque are minimized. The
increase in phase number increased the switching frequency leading to
increased commutation torque ripple frequency, thus making its filter easier.
Further, the effective control of the overlapping phase conductions attenuates
the magnitude of torque ripple leading to quieter operation.

The current is always positive as SRM is a unipolar drive. Hence,

the sign of torque is directly related to the sign of / . The increase in
stator flux amplitude with respect to rotor position (positive value of /)
produces a positive torque and is called flux acceleration. Whereas a
negative value of / called flux deceleration produces a negative
torque. As this is held for both directions of rotation a four quadrant operation
is achieved using unipolar currents. The definition of phase voltage vectors
for a five phase is represented in Figure 6.1. Also, this five phase SRM has
three possible voltage states for a unidirectional current like three phase motor
which is described earlier.

Figure 6.1 Definition of Phase Voltage Vectors in Five Phase SRM

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The new proposed technique similar to the three-phase motor can

be defined as follows.

i) The stator flux linkage vector of the motor is kept at constant

amplitude.

ii) Torque is controlled by accelerating or decelerating the stator

flux vector.

This is similar to conventional DTC of AC machines except that it

is dependent on stator current. The stator current is found to have a first order
delay relative to the change of stator flux /.

6.4 VOLTAGE VECTORS FOR FIVE PHASE SRM

So with each phase having three possible states (0, 1,-1), a total of
27 configuration is possible for three phase drive. However for five-phase
drive 3 5 voltage vectors are possible leading to more number of space vectors
and greater flexibility in choosing them. Ten equal magnitude voltage vectors,
separated by 2/10 radians (Figure 6.2) are considered as DTC allows no
other states to be chosen by the controller. One out of the ten states is chosen
to keep torque and flux within the hysteresis bands.

E(-)
N=4 N=3
B(+)
V4 V3 N=2

C(+) V2
D(-)

N=5 N=1
V5 V1

A(-) A(+)

N=6 N=10

V6 V10

D(+) C(-)
N=7 N=9
V7 V9
N=8
B(-) E(+)
V8

Figure 6.2 Definitions of SRM Voltage Vectors for Five-Phase DTC Drive
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For the selection of these ten vectors as the optimum vectors

certain criteria is involved and due to the complexity involved in representing
all the 243 vectors for a five-phase motor, the concept of selection from a
three phase SRM is described for easy understanding which is implemented
on a broad scale for a five phase SRM. For a three-phase drive 33 vectors are
possible with different amplitude which can be grouped as shown in Table 6.1

Table 6.1 Voltage Vector Groups for Three Phase SRM

Vector groups Voltage vectors

Large vectors pnn, ppn, npn, npp, nnp, pnp
Medium vectors pon, opn, npo, nop, onp, pno
Small vectors poo, onn, ppo, oon, opo, non, opp, noo, oop,
nno, pop, onn
Zero vectors ppp, ooo ,nnn
Note: P-positive state (Sq=1), N- Negative state (Sq= -1), O-zero state (Sq=0)

In a DTC drive, by the selection of optimum voltage vectors, stator

flux linkage and electromagnetic torque are controlled directly. The selection
is made to restrict the flux linkage and torque error. The required vectors can
be selected from an optimum look-up table, which can be obtained by
knowing the position of stator flux linkage, the required torque and flux
linkage. For example, when the stator flux linkage goes into the shadowed
region as shown in Figure 6.3, vector pon, ppn, ppo, and oon are all suitable
for increasing the stator flux and torque, where ppn has the greatest effect on
torque response and pon can lead to the fastest increase of flux, etc.
Generally, the nearest vector, in this case, vector pon is preferred to reduce
the harmonics in output voltage and the torque ripples.
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Figure 6.3 Voltage Vectors for Three Phase SRM

However, the principle of single vector in one sampling period,

which is used in most DTC, cannot be applied in some cases. i.e., when the
flux is in the shadowed region, and flux is to be decreased while torque
should be increased, then vector npn, opo, non or npo is generally preferred.
However, if the vector currently applied to the inverter is pon, none of these
four vectors is allowed because they lead to high V in phase A (from
positive voltage level directly to negative one). It is one of the problems that
must be solved to apply DTC. Fortunately, the frequency of high V
occurrence are greatly reduced if one of the successive vectors is zero or small
vector after all possible successive vectors have been reviewed, i.e. zero and
small vector is the most preferable in vector selection. In other words, zero or
small vectors can be used to reduce the high V caused by successive vectors.
In practice, multiple vectors are applied in one sampling period, and
zero/small vectors are preferable at the beginning and end of each sampling
period.

Hence, the voltage vector selection method can be summarized

with 3 principles:
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i) Select the vector (which should meet the flux and torque
command) nearest to stator flux

ii) The selected vector should not generate high dv/dt

iii) Zero or small vector is preferred at the beginning/end of each

sampling period.

Based on these criteria the optimum voltage vectors comes out to

be the six medium equal amplitude vectors for a three phase SRM from
27 vectors. Similar considerations are carried over and the optimum vectors
arrived to be the ten voltage vectors as in Table 6.2 for a five-phase SRM
from the 35 vectors combinations.

Let the stator flux vector be located in the Kth sector

(K = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,). In order to increase the amplitude of the stator flux,
the voltage vector VK, VK+1,VK-1 can be applied and VK+4,VK+5,VK-4, can be
applied to decrease the flux. VK and VK+5 are zero space vectors.

As in conventional DTC, the proposed control scheme of SRM is

based on the results as follows

i) The motor is solicited only through the converter voltage

space vectors.

ii) The amplitude of the stator flux is affected by the component

of voltage space vectors along the same flux.

iii) The motor torque is affected by the component of the voltage

space vector orthogonal to the stator flux.

iv) The zero space vectors do not affect the space vector of the
stator flux.
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Table 6.2 Pseudo Code for Voltage States

VK+2
VK+3
VK+1

VK+4 VK
s
s

VK+5 VK-1

VK-4 VK-2

VK-3

Figure 6.4 Inverter Voltages and Corresponding Stator Flux

So from Figure 6.4, the stator flux when increased by VK , VK+1

,VK+2, VK-1 and VK-2 vectors and decreased by VK+3 ,VK+4 , VK+5 ,VK-3 and VK-4
affect the torque. As VK+1 to VK+4 vectors affect the stator flux linkage in the
direction of rotation they tend to increase the torque. But VK-1 to VK-4 affects
the flux in the opposite direction and decreases the torque. Hence the
switching table becomes Table6.3. The flux control using hysteresis is
achieved by vectors VK+4 and VK+1 that increase the torque as shown in
Figure6.5.

Table 6.3 Stator Flux and Torque Variations Due to Applied Inverter
Voltage Space Vector

T T T T
VK+1 VK+4 VK-1 VK-4
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V8 V V4 V7
V5 7
V6
V8 V3
V9 N=4 N=3
N=2 V6
V6 V3
V4 V2 V5
N=5 N=1
V9 V2
V5 V1
V10 V5
N=6 N=10 V4
V7
V6 V10 V1
V10 V7 V9
V8 V4
V1 N=7 N=9
N=8 V3
V8 V1 V10
V2 V9 V2 V3

Figure 6.5 Flux Control Using Hysteresis.

The instantaneous torque and flux magnitudes are to be known as

they are controlled in the hysteresis manner. In conventional DTC, the stator

flux vector s is expressed as

T
s (Vs Is R s ) s0 (6.7)
0

where s0 is the initial value of stator flux vector and can be assumed zero.
The magnitude of individual phase flux linkage varies with time
but the direction is always along the stator pole axis. To resolve the phase flux
vectors, the five phases of SRM are transformed onto a stationary orthogonal
two axis - reference frame as shown in Figure 6.6.

3 2

36 72

36 72 1

4
5

Figure 6.6 Definition of Two Frame Reference Axis for Motor Voltages
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The orthogonal flux vectors are expressed as

1 2Cos72 3Cos36 4Cos36 5Cos72 (6.8)

2 S in 72 3Sin 36 4 Sin 36 5S in 72 (6.9)

The magnitude of s and angle of the equivalent flux vector is defined as

s 2 2 (6.10)

arctan (6.11)

6.5 SIMULATION RESULTS

To simulate the system a Matlab/Simulink closed loop model was

constructed for the SRM and the control system as in Figure 6.7. The motor
parameters such as torque, phase flux and position are obtained from the
5 SRM. The five phase-flux vectors are transformed on to a
stationary orthogonal - reference frame to calculate the net flux. The
multi-phase drives divide the controlled power on more inverter legs. The
Increased phase number reduces the current stress on each switch, lowers the
amplitude and increases the frequency of torque pulsations. It further reduces
the rotor harmonic currents and increases the voltage per phase thus
increasing the reliability of motor drive. Also, the increase in phases increases
the torque per RMS ampere ratio for the machine of same volume.

The torque and flux errors are generated by the hysteresis comparator
based on the difference between reference and actual values of torque
and stator flux respectively. Based on the present position of motor,
Torque error and Flux error, the optimal selection of voltage space vector is
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done with the help of switching table. With 35 space vectors with different
amplitudes, large amplitude vectors can be used for large errors and small
amplitude ones for small errors. Subsequently higher the number of voltage
vectors, the more ability to reduce the torque and flux amplitudes.

Figure 6.7 Block Diagram of DTC Control of Five-Phase SRM Drive

However, more vectors leads to more complicated and more time-

consuming voltage vector selection strategy. Whereas usage of less vectors
does not provide a more accurate control as illustrated by the comparison
between three-phase (6 vectors) and five-phase (10 vectors). A good solution
is an appropriate compromise between the torque and flux ripple amplitudes
and the complexity of voltage vector selection. So, ten equal amplitude
voltage vectors are chosen for effective and simple control.

Thus the converter switches and hence the motor is controlled by

DTC scheme. In this simulation test, the motor reference flux and torque were
maintained at a constant of 0.1 Wb and 20 Nm respectively. The hysteresis
band limits were defined to be of 0.01 Wb and 0.1 Nm for the flux
linkages and torque respectively. In Figures 6.8 and 6.9, the phase flux and
current values are shown. It is seen clearly that in steady state the DTC leads
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to regularly spaced flux linkage and currents. The individual flux linkages
lead to smooth constant amplitude flux vector in the stator air gap.
Flux (Wb)

Time (sec)

Figure 6.8 Simulation Results of Phase Flux

Current (A)

Time (sec)

Figure 6.9 Simulation Results of Phase Current

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Flux (Wb)
Current (A)

Time (sec)
Figure 6.10 Simulation Results of (a) Flux, (b) current
Torque Nm

Time (sec)

Figure 6.11 Simulation Results of Torque

Figure 6.12 Comparative FFT Analysis for 3 and 5 SRM

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The torque results in Figure 6.11 shows lower ripple content and
constant amplitude nature. The FFT analysis in Figure 6.12 shows lower
ripples of torque for five-phase motor when compared to that of the three
phase motor. Also at a higher frequency the magnitude of ripples is less.
Further the effective control of the overlapping phase conduction attenuates
the magnitude of torque ripple leading to quieter operation.

6.6 RESULT ANALYSIS

For the purpose of analysis, a comparative work is done between

three phase DTC, DSVM-DTC and five phase DTC. The three phase SRM
with DTC control and DSVM- DTC control is done on 6/4 SRM drive with
12 pulses per revolution. A DC supply voltage of 240 V is used for the
converter configuration. For the purpose of analysis, low torque operation
with enlarged portion of torque ripple component is shown in Figure 6.13.
The three phase DTC with torque reference 0f 3 Nm shows torque ripple of
0.6 variation whereas in DSVM-DTC and Multi-phase DTC for SRM, the
torque ripple is reduced.
Torque Nm

Time (sec)

Figure 6.13 Torque Ripple in Conventional Three Phase DTC

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Figure 6.14 Torque Ripple in Three-Phase DSVM- DTC

Figure 6.15 Torque Ripple in Five phase DTC

The torque reference for DSVM-DTC and five phase DTC is kept
as 3 Nm as shown in Figures 6.14 and 6.15. It can be seen that the torque
ripple is reduced with the amplitude variation of 0.2 error for DSVM-DTC
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and 0.1 for Multi-phase SRM DTC. Increased number of voltage space
vectors has concentrated on both large and small errors thereby resulting in
accurate control and reduced torque ripple.

The five phase SRM gave satisfactory results and reduce the
computation burden by avoiding unnecessary complex mathematical
modeling of the nonlinear systems. Both the methods had lead to fast control
of torque and flux within 200 ms leading to less computation time. Better
performance can be achieved at a lower switching frequency compared to the
conventional three phase DTC, which in turn increases the efficiency of the
drive by reducing losses due to currents and flux harmonics.

6.7 SUMMARY

The chapter clearly states the implementation of DTC for five phase
SRM drive. The concept of multiple space vectors is achieved by increasing
the phase number and is validated through simulation results. The next
chapter concludes the research work presenting scope for further research in
future.