1

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 GENERAL
A brushless DC motor (BLDC) is a synchronous electric motor which is
powered by direct-current electricity (DC) and has an electronically controlled
commutation system; instead of a mechanical commutation system with brushes. In
such motors, current and torque, voltage and rpm are linearly related. The permanent
magnet brushless DC (BLDC) motors are increasingly used in computer, automotive,
industrial and household equipments because of its high power density, compactness,
high efficiency, low maintenance and ease of control. BLDC motor is inherently
electronically controlled and requires six commutation points per cycle.
Conventional BLDC motor drive is generally implemented via six-switch three-
phase inverter and three Hall Effect position sensors that generate proper signals for
current commutation. On the other hand, it is important to lower the manufacturing cost
of the BLDC motor drive for many applications. Cost reduction of BLDC motor drive
is accomplished by topological approach and the control approach. From a topology
point of view, minimum number of switches and eliminating the mechanical sensors
are required for the inverter circuit. In the control approach, using high performance
processors, algorithms are designed and implemented to produce the desired
characteristics. In this paper, a low cost BLDC motor drive, both reducing the number
of power switches and elimination of the position Hall sensors is introduced.
Cost reduction of BLDC motor drive is obtained by reducing the number of
power switches and also eliminating the sensors. On the other hand, prediction of an
electric motor performance is necessary for the evaluation characteristics of motor
designs and motor modeling. Available simulation softwares for electronic circuits or
dynamic systems can be classified into two main categories: (1) circuit simulation
programs such as PSpice (2) equation solver programs such as Matlab. These programs
are not designed specifically for power electronic systems so that the users have to
develop their own models to fulfill their needs.


2

1.2 OBJECTIVE
The implementation of sensor less control involves a lot of challenges and
requires the knowledge in the field of electric drives, electric machines, control
systems, power electronics and DSP.
The main intention for doing this project is to thoroughly understand modeling
of the BLDC machine, to thoroughly understand and learn the sensing unit, control unit
and the power processor used in the drive and finally to thoroughly understand the
sensor less control
1.3 OUTLINE OF THE PROJECT
Chapter 1 gives the introduction to the project work. Chapter 2 describes the
literature survey. An introduction to the basics of BLDC motor and its various features
is given in Chapter 3. An introduction to the four switch topology of the inverter to
drive the BLDC motor is given in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 gives the simulation works
done in MATLAB Simulink tool. The Hardware implementation is carried out for the
Trapezoidal BLDC motor using the PIC controller for generating the gate pulses to the
inverter is explained in chapter 6. Chapter 7 gives the conclusion of the project.

















3

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE SURVEY

PM motor drives have been a topic of interest for the last 20 years. Different
authors have carried out modeling and simulation of such drives.
- In 1986, Sebastian T, Slemon G. R. and Rahman M A Modelling of permanent
magnet synchronous motors, Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 22 ,[12]
reviewed permanent magnet synchronous motor advancements and presented
equivalent electric circuit models for such motors and compared computed
parameters with measured parameters.
- In 1988, Pillay and Krishnan, Modelling of permanent magnet motor drives,
Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 35 [13], presented PM motor
drives and classified them into two types such as permanent magnet
synchronous motor drives (PMSM) and brushless dc motor drives (BLDC)
drives. The PMSM has a sinusoidal back emf and requires sinusoidal stator
currents to produce constant torque while the BLDC has a trapezoidal back emf
and requires rectangular stator currents to produce constant torque. Because of
the no sinusoidal variation of the mutual inductances between the stator and
rotor in the BLDC, it is also shown in this paper that no particular advantage
exists in transforming the abc equations of the BLDC to the d,q frame.
- T.Lowand, Mohammed A Jabbar and [14] describe design considerations of
permanent-magnet motors intended for brushless operation. PM motors
operated as brushless dc (BLDC) drives have received wide attention as their
performance can be superior to conventional brushed dc motors and ac motors.
A BLDC drive system is described, and the performance of a neodymium-iron-
boron based magnet excited PM motor with an imbricate rotor in a BLDC drive
is presented.
- In 2008 , Halvaei Niasar, H. Moghbelli and A. Vahedi ,in paper titled A Novel
Sensorless Control Method for Four-Switch, Brushless DC Motor Drive without
Phase Shifter, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 23, No. 6, [10]
presents the analysis, design, and implementation of a cost-effective sensorless
control technique for a low cost four-switch, three-phase inverter brushless dc
motor drive. The proposed sensorless technique is based on the detection of
4

zero crossing points (ZCPs) of three voltage functions that are derived from the
filtered terminal voltages and. Six commutation instants are provided that
coincide to ZCPs of voltage functions. Hence, there is no need for any 30 or 90
phase delay that is prevalent in conventional sensor less methods. Two low-pass
filters are used for elimination of high-frequency noises and calculation of
average terminal voltages. Also, a direct phase current control method is used to
control the phase currents in the four-switch inverter. The performance of the
developed sensor less technique is demonstrated by simulation.
- In 2008, in the paper titled, A Low-Cost Sensor less Control for Reduced-
Parts, Brushless DC Motor Drives, IEEE Transactions on Industry
Applications, Halvaei Niasar, H. Moghbelli and A. Vahedi, explained the
design and implementation of a reduced parts BLDC motor drive. Part reducing
is achieved by elimination of three Hall Effect position sensors and reducing the
number of power switches to four switches. For current commutation, a low
cost sensor less control based on line voltages is developed. Two second-order
Butterworth low-pass filters with little phase delay are designed to eliminate of
high frequency PWM and calculation of average terminal voltages. Proposed
sensor less control doesn't need to any 30
o
or 90
o
phase shift that is prevalent in
other sensor less methods. Moreover, to make the rectangular phase current
waveforms, direct phase current control is used in which the currents of two
phases A and B are controlled independently. The performance of the
developed algorithms is verified via simulation and implementation. It is shown
that the main source of the estimation error is drop voltage on the stator
impendence in which at low speeds and for heavy loads it increases.
- Mingyao Lin, Weigang Gu, Wei Zhang,Qiang Li, Design of Position Detection
Circuit for Sensor less Brushless DC Motor described a back electromotive-
force(EMF) detection circuit for position sensor less brushless DC
motor(BLDCM) drive systems is presented, in which the second-order
Butterworth low-pass filter is used. The detecting circuit is composed of a
voltage divider and an active low-pass filter. First, voltage dividing circuit is
designed, and two design principles should be followed. Second, the selections
of the structure, order and the parameters of the active filter are investigated in
detail. Last, the theoretical analysis, simulation and experiment are all done
5

with the proposed position detecting circuit. The investigation results show that
designed circuit can operate well in BLDCM drive is to design a position
detecting circuit
- In the paper titled A Novel sensor less control method for Four Switch
,Brushless DC motor Drive without any 30
0
phase shifter Halvaei Niasar, H.
Moghbelli and A. Vahedi, introduced a novel and low cost brushless DC motor
drive.The proposed drive is a four switch inverter for three phase BLDC
motor,without any mechanical hall sensors.The proposed concept is based on
the fact that in Four switch topology , the zero crossing points of the stator
terminal voltages V
ao
,-V
bo
and V
ao
-V
bo
coincide to six commutation instants and
can be used to commutate the current in phases A.B and C respectively.These
stator voltages are actually line to line voltages and are measured respect to
point o(middle point of DC bus) easily.Hence it is not necessary to delay 30
0
after zero crossing points of the measured voltages which are prevalent in the
other conventional six-switch and four switch BLDC motor drives.This
approach made it possible to detect rotor position in relatively wide range of
speed variation.Also Direct Phase Current Control(DCC) method is used to
control the phase current in four switch inverter.















6

CHAPTER 3
BRUSHLESS DC MOTOR

3.1 INTRODUCTION
When a trapezoidal back emf PMSM running at self controlled mode, it behaves
similar like a DC motor, but without brushes and commutator, So this kind of motors
are known as BLDC motor. In such motors, current and torque, voltage and rpm are
linearly related. BLDC motors are a type of synchronous motor. This means the
magnetic field generated by the stator and the magnetic fields generated by the rotor
rotate at the same frequency. BLDC motors do not experience the slip that is
normally seen in induction motors.
3.2 BLDC MOTOR CONSTRUCTION
BLDC motors come in single-phase, 2-phase and 3-phase configurations.
Corresponding to its type, the stator has the same number of windings. Out of these, 3-
phase motors are the most popular and widely used. The construction details of a
BLDC motor is shown in Fig.3.1


Fig.3.1- Constructional details of a BLDC Motor
3.2.1 Stator

The stator of a BLDC motor consists of stacked steel laminations with windings
placed in the slots that are axially cut along the inner periphery as shown in Fig.3.2.
Traditionally, the stator resembles that of an induction motor; however, the windings
are distributed in a different manner. Most BLDC motors have three stator windings
7

connected in star fashion. Each of these windings are constructed with numerous coils
interconnected to form a winding. One or more coils are placed in the slots and they are
interconnected to make a winding. Each of these windings are distributed over the
stator periphery to form an even numbers of poles.


Fig.3.2- Inner details of the stator of a BLDC Motor

There are two types of stator windings: Trapezoidal and Sinusoidal. This
differentiation is made on the basis of the interconnection of coils in the stator windings
to give different types of back Electromotive Force (EMF). A trapezoidal back emf is
shown in Fig.3.3 and Fig.3.4 shows a sinusoidal back emf.

Fig.3.3- Trapezoidal back emf
8


Fig.3.4- Sinusoidal back emf
3.2.2 Rotor
The rotor is made of permanent magnet and can vary from two to eight pole
pairs with alternate North (N) and South (S) poles. Based on the required magnetic
field density in the rotor, the proper magnetic material is chosen to make the rotor.
Ferrite magnets are traditionally used to make permanent magnets. As the technology
advances, rare earth alloy magnets are gaining popularity. The ferrite magnets are less
expensive but they have the disadvantage of low flux density for a given volume. In
contrast, the alloy material has high magnetic density per volume and enables the rotor
to compress further for the same torque. Also, these alloy magnets improve the size-to-
weight ratio and give higher torque for the same size motor using ferrite magnets.
Neodymium (Nd), Samarium Cobalt (SmCo) and the alloy of Neodymium, Ferrite and
Boron (NdFeB) are some examples of rare earth alloy magnets. Continuous research is
going on to improve the flux density to compress the rotor further. Fig 3.5 shows cross
sections of different arrangements of magnets in a rotor.
9


Fig.3.5- Rotor magnet cross-sections
3.2.3 Hall Sensors

These kinds of devices are based on Hall-effect theory, which states that if an
electric current- carrying conductor is kept in a magnetic field, the magnetic field exerts
a transverse force on the moving charge carriers that tends to push them to one side of
the conductor. A build-up of charge at the sides of the conductors will balance this
magnetic influence producing a measurable voltage between the two sides of the
conductor. The presence of this measurable transverse voltage is called the Hall-effect
because it was discovered by Edwin Hall in 1879. Unlike a brushed DC motor, the
commutation of a BLDC motor is controlled electronically. To rotate the BLDC motor,
the stator windings should be energized in a sequence. It is important to know the rotor
position in order to understand which winding will be energized following the
energizing sequence. Rotor position is sensed using Hall Effect sensors embedded into
the stator.
Most BLDC motors have three Hall sensors embedded into the stator on the
non-driving end of the motor. Whenever the rotor magnetic poles pass near the Hall
sensors, they give a high or low signal, indicating whether the N or S pole is passing
near the sensors. Based on the combination of these three Hall sensor signals, the exact
sequence of commutation can be determined. A transverse section of the BLDC motor
is given in Fig 3.6
The back-EMF is the voltage induced in a winding by the movement of the
magnet in front of this winding. It is independent of the energy supplied to the motor.
The back-EMF is directly proportional to the rotation speed, the rotor flux and the
10

number of turns in the corresponding winding where we want to calculate the back-
EMF.

Fig.3.6-Transverse section of BLDC Motor
In one turn of the winding, the back-EMF equation is:
E = -d/dt (3.1)
Where is the rotor flux
In a complete winding, the back-EMF equation is:
E = nN (3.2)
Where E is in V, N is the speed (rotation per second), is in Wb
3.3 THEORY OF OPERATION OF BLDC MOTOR
Each commutation sequence has one of the windings energized to positive
power (current enters into the winding), the second winding is negative (current exits
the winding) and the third is in a non-energized condition. Torque is produced because
of the interaction between the magnetic field generated by the stator coils and the
permanent magnets. Ideally, the peak torque occurs when these two fields are at 90 to
each other and falls off as the fields move together. In order to keep the motor running,
the magnetic field produced by the windings should shift position, as the rotor moves to
catch up with the stator field. A typical speed-torque characteristics of the BLDC motor
is shown in Fig.3.7
3.3.1 Commutation
The Commutation is based on the information of the actual rotor position.
Rotor position encoder is necessary. Different types of commutation used are:-
HALL-sensors--standard, block commutation
Encoder (opt. / magn.)--High-End, positioning, sine commutation
Back-EMF (no sensor)--rotational drives
3.3.2 Torque
The torque equation for the motor is:
11

T = KI (3.3)
Where I is the current in the motor, is the rotor flux and K is a constant giving the
direct proportionality of the torque to the current and the flux.
The power of the motor is then:
P
m
= T (3.4)
Where is the angular speed of the rotor in radians/sec



Fig.3.7- Speed-torque characteristics

3.4 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BLDC AND PMSYNCHRONOUS MOTORS

The characteristic of a brushless DC motor is dependent on its internal
construction. Brushless DC motors are a variant of permanent magnet DC motors
(PMDCM). PM DC motors are simply synchronous motors in which the rotor field is
driven with a constant current. By driving the rotor winding with a constant current, a
constant magnetic flux is developed within the motor. This can also be achieved by
replacing the rotor winding with a permanent magnet. Such motors are called brushless
DC motors. Brushless DC motors dont require slip rings, so motor maintenance is
reduced and reliability is increased. Slip rings create dust as they wear. The dust needs
to be periodically cleaned from the motor housing. When slip rings wear past a certain
length, they need to be replaced. The difference between a synchronous motor and a
BLDC motor is evident from the internal diagrams of these machines shown in
Fig.3.8and Fig.3.9
12


Fig.3.8- Internal diagram of a 3 phase Synchronous motor



Fig.3.9- Internal diagram of a 3 phase brushless DC motor

The stator windings of BLDC motors contain a multi-phase winding. Small
power motors are usually 2-phase, while medium and large power motors are 3-phase.
Some washing machine motors have 4 or 5 phase windings to reduce torque ripple. The
windings may be either wye connected or delta connected. Most motors have
ungrounded wye connections. Brushless DC motors require the motor controller
perform the commutation function. Commutation is a function of rotor position. The
appropriate stator windings of the motor need to be energized when the rotor pole lines
up with winding. It is possible to drive a BLDC motor by simply forcing the
commutation intervals to a preset value. The problem with this type of control is that
the applied phase voltage may not be proportional to the speed forced by the controller
commutation sequence. The generated stator flux interacts with the rotor fluxes, which
is generated by a rotor magnet, defines the torque and thus speed of the motor. The
voltage strokes must be properly applied to the two phases of the three-phase winding
13

system so that the angle between the stator flux and the rotor flux is kept close to 90 to
get the maximum generated torque. Due to this fact, the motor requires electronic
control for proper operation. Most BLDC motors have internal sensors to provide
position information. The most common type of sensor is the Hall Effect sensors. When
the rotor pole lines up with a particular phase, the sensor output goes high and when the
rotor has passed, the output goes low. 3-phase motors typically have three hall sensors.
The sensors are placed in the centre of each phase winding. They may be spaced at 60
or 120 electrical degree intervals. 120-degree spacing is common. Encoders may also
be used. They are used on servomotors. The encoders are usually mounted on the end
of a gearbox. It is also possible to drive a BLDC motor without sensors.
3.4.1 Advantages of BLDC motor
High Speed Operation A BLDC motor can operate at speeds above 10,000 rpm
under loaded and unloaded conditions.
Response & Quick Acceleration Inner rotor Brushless DC motors have low
rotor inertia, allowing them to accelerate, decelerate, and reverse direction
quickly.
High Power Density BLDC motors have the highest running torque per
cubic inch of any DC motor.
High Reliability - BLDC motors do not have brushes, meaning they are more
reliable and have life expectancies of over 10,000 hours.
3.4.2 Disadvantages of BLDC motor
Requires Complex Drive Circuitry
Requires additional Sensors
Higher Cost
Some designs require manual labor (Hand wound Stator Coils)
3.4.3 Applications of BLDC motor
Applications that are best suited for BLDC technology can take full
advantage of its unique operating characteristics - accurately control connected
loads and variable- speed drive capability. Motor speed, applied voltage, and
torque share a linear relationship. Widespread use and acceptance of brushless
14

DC motors in residential products (where motors are small and efficiency
advantage is most significant) has prompted greater competition in the market.
In home appliances, washers, dryers and compressors are good examples. In
automotive, fuel pump control, electronic steering control, engine control and
electric vehicle control are good examples of these. In aerospace, there are a
number of applications, like centrifuges, pumps, robotic arm controls,
gyroscope controls and so on. With market interest comes further research and
development, ultimately reducing first cost and increasing application flexibility.


Fig.3.10 - Brushless DC motor application
Fig.3.10 shows a BLDC motor powering a micro remote-controlled airplane.
The motor is connected to a micro processor controlled BLDC controller. This 5gm
motor is approximately 11 watts and produces about two times more thrust than the
weight of the plane.






15

CHAPTER 4
THE FOUR-SWITCH INVERTER TOPOLOGY

4.1 MODELING OF BLDC MOTOR
The modeling of BLDC motor drive system is based on the following
assumptions:
1. All the stator phase windings have equal resistance per phase and constant self
and mutual inductances.
2. Power semiconductor devices are ideal.
3. Iron losses are negligible.
4. The motor is unsaturated.
Based on the above assumptions, the three phase input voltages can be written as:
V
al
= Ri
a
+L
a
dt
dia
+e
a
(4.1)
V
b
= Ri
b
+L
b
dt
dib
+e
b
(4.2)
V
c
= Ri
c
+L
c
dt
dic
+e
c
(4.3)
The Electromagnetic torque is expressed as
T
e
=
e
1
(e
a
i
a+
e
b
i
b+
e
c
i
c
) (4.4)
The electromagnetic torque can also be expressed as
T
e
=
e
EI 2
(4.5)
The electromagnetic torque can be expressed in terms of mechanical parameters as
T
e
=T
L
+J
dt
de
+B
e
(4.6)
16

where v
a
, v
b
, and v
c
are the stator phase winding voltages of phase a, b and c
respectively, e
a
, e
b
, and e
c
are the back-emfs of phase a, b and c respectively, i
a
, i
b
, and
i
c
are the phase currents of phase a, b and c respectively, T
L
is the load torque, J is
inertia, is angular speed, B is viscous damping coefficient. The voltage equation can
be written in matrix form as:
(
(
(

c
b
a
V
V
V
=
(
(
(

R
R
R
0 0
0 0
0 0

(
(
(

c
b
a
i
i
i
+
(
(
(

M L
M L
M L
0 0
0 0
0 0
dt
d
(
(
(

c
b
a
i
i
i
+
(
(
(

c
b
a
e
e
e
(4.7)
BLDC motor needs quasi square current waveforms, which are synchronized
with the back EMF to generate constant output torque. Also, at every mode only two
phases are conducting and another phase is inactive. However, in the four-switch
inverter, the generation of 120 conducting current profiles is inherently difficult.
Hence, the direct phase current (DPC) control method is used . Therefore, the currents
of phase A and B in modes 2 and 5 are controlled independently and the current
profiles are the same as the currents of a conventional six-switch inverter BLDC motor
drive. The current and back-emf profiles of a BLDC motor is shown in Fig.4.1

Fig.4.1: Profile of current and back emf of a BLDC motor


17

4.2 SIX SWITCH INVERTER TOPOLOGY
The basic six switch inverter topology is shown in figure. It comprises six
power switches together with six associated reactive feedback diodes. Each of the three
inverter legs operates at a relative time displacement (phase)

Fig.4.2-Conventional six-switch three phase BLDC motor drive system
- 180 conduction
In 180
0
conduction each switch conducts for 180, such that no two
semiconductors switches across the voltage rail conduct simultaneously. Six patterns
exist for one output cycle and the rate of sequencing these patterns specifies the bridge
output frequency. The conducting switches during the six distinct intervals are shown.
The three output voltage waveforms can be derived by analyzing a resistive star load
and considering each of the six connection patterns. Effectively the resistors
representing the three-phase load are sequentially cycled anticlockwise one at a time,
being alternately connected to each supply rail. The output voltage is independent of
the load, as it is for all voltage source inverters.
18


Fig.4.3-180 Degree conduction wave forms

- 120 conduction

The basic three-phase inverter bridge in figure can be controlled with each switch
conducting for 120. As a result, at any instant only two switches (one upper and one
non-complementary lower) conduct and the resultant quasi-square output voltage
waveforms are shown in figure. A 60 (), dead time exists between two series
switches conducting, thereby providing a safety margin against simultaneous
conduction of the two series devices (for example T1 and T4) across the dc supply rail.
This safety margin is obtained at the expense of a lower semiconductor device
utilization and rms output voltage than with 180 device conduction.
19


Fig.4.4- 120 Degree conduction wave forms
4.3 FOUR-SWITCH THREE-PHASE BLDC MOTOR DRIVE
According to the working of BLDCM, at a time only two phases are
conducing.So the costs and losses can be reduced by minimizing the number of
switches. In this project inverter with a three phase four switch topology is used. In
Figure the four switch topology is shown.

Fig.4.5- The four switch topology
20

A BLDC motor needs quasi-square current waveforms, which are synchronized
with the back-EMF to generate constant output torque and have 120 degree conduction
and 60 degree non-conducting regions. Also, at every instant only two phases are
conducting and the other phase is inactive. However, as mentioned earlier, in the four-
switch converter, the generation of 120 degree conducting current profiles is inherently
difficult. This can be explained as follows: In the four-switch configuration, there are
four switching status as shown in Fig.4.6, such as (0, 0), (0, 1), (1, 0), and (1, 1), in
which the motor load is replaced by a resistive load and the switches are replaced by
simple ideal switches. 0 means that the lower switch is turned on and 1 the upper
switch is turned on.
The two switches never turn on and off simultaneously. In the case of the six-switch
converter, switching status (0, 0) and (1, 1) are regarded as zero-vectors, which cannot
supply the dc-link voltage to the load, so that current cannot flow through the load.
However, in the four-switch converter, one phase of the motor is always connected to
the midpoint of the dc-link capacitors, so that current is flowing even at the zero-
vectors, as shown in Fig.4.6(a) and (b). Moreover, in the case of (0, 1) and (1, 0), the
phase which is connected to the midpoint of dc-link capacitors is uncontrolled and only
the resultant current of the other two phases flow through this phase. If the load is
ideally symmetric, there is no current in the (0, 1) and (1, 0) vectors. Therefore, in order
to use the four-switch converter topology for the BLDC motor drive, a new control
scheme should be developed.
21


Fig.4.6- Voltage vectors of four-switch converter: (a) (0,0) vector (b) (1,1)
vector (c) (1,0) vector (d) (0,1) vector
The two-phase currents need to be directly controlled using the hysteresis
current control method by four switches. Hence, it is called the direct current controlled
PWM scheme.The different modes of operation of four-switch BLDC motor with
PWM strategy is shown in Fig.4.7
22


Fig.4.7- Different modes of operation of PWM strategy: (a) Mode 1 (b) Mode 2 (c)
Mode 3 (d) Mode 4 (e) Mode 5 (e) Mode 6
The current equations for various modes of operations are given in Table 4.1.




23

TABLE 4.1
DETAILED CURRENT EQUATIONS ACCORDING TO THE OPERATING
MODES
Mode I (0
0
30
0
) I
b
+I
c
=0 and I
a
=0
Mode II (30
0
90
0
) I
a
+I
b
=0 and I
c
=0
Mode III (90
0
150
0
) I
a
+I
c
=0 and I
b
=0
Mode IV (150
0
210
0
) I
b
+I
c
=0 and I
a
=0
Mode V (210
0
270
0
) I
a
+I
b
=0 and I
c
=0
Mode VI (270
0
330
0
) I
a
+I
c
=0 and I
b
=0

Sequence of switching of the four-switch converter is shown in Table 4.2.
TABLE 4.2
SWITCHING SEQUENCES OF THE FOUR-SWITCH CONVERTER
Modes Active phases Silent phases Switching devices
Mode I Phases B and C Phase A S4
Mode II Phases A and B Phase C S1 and S4
Mode III Phases A and C Phase B S1
Mode IV Phases B and C Phase A S3
Mode V Phases A and B Phase C S2 and S3
Mode VI Phases A and C Phase B S2

Table 4.3 shows the voltage and current equations in different modes of
operation for certain conditions

24

TABLE 4.3
VOLTAGE AND CURRENT EQUATIONS

4.4 COMPARISON OF THE CONVENTIONAL SIX-SWITCH TOPOLOGY &
THE PROPOSED FOUR-SWITCH TOPOLOGY
The cost reduction of variable-speed drives is accomplished by two approaches.
One is the topological approach and the other is the control approach. From a topology
point of view, minimum number of switches is required for the converter circuit. In the
control approach, algorithms are designed and implemented in conjunction with a
reduced component converter to produce the desired speedtorque characteristics. Until
now, the reduced part converters have been applied mainly to ac induction motor drives
However, these days, the BLDC motor is attracting much interest, due to its high
efficiency, high power factor, high torque, simple control, and lower maintenance.
Thus, the possibility of the reduced part converter for BLDC motor drives with
advanced control techniques is getting investigated. Consequently, it is found that one
switch leg (two switches) in the conventional six-switch converter, as shown in Fig.4.2,
is redundant to drive a three-phase BLDC motor. It results in the possibility of the four-
switch configuration instead of the six switches, as shown in Fig.4.5. Compared with
the four-switch converter for the induction motor [1], it is identical for the topology
point of view. However, in the four-switch converter, the generation of 120 conducting
current profiles is inherently difficult due to its limited voltage vectors. This problem is
well known as asymmetric voltage pwm. It means that conventional pwm schemes
25

for the four-switch induction motor drive cannot be directly used for the BLDC motor
drive. Therefore, in order to use the four-switch converter topology for the three-phase
BLDC motor drive, a new control scheme should be developed. The solutions can be
obtained from a modification of the conventional voltage controlled pwm strategies,
such as the space vector pwm. The current control block becomes much more
complicated. Moreover, in order to handle the complicated calculations in one sampling
period, a high-speed digital processor is also necessary, which increases the
manufacturing cost. Therefore, for the low cost BLDC motor applications, voltage
vector pwm schemes cannot be regarded as a good solution for cost effectiveness.
4.5 METHODOLOGY
In this work, a low cost BLDC motor drive with reduced parts that is by
reducing the number of switches from six to four is to be developed. The
implementation of a low cost, reduced parts BLDC motor is desired with high system
reliability. Sensorless algorithm via back-emf method will be used. Also the developed
sensorless algorithm should eliminate the motor neutral voltage, the fixed phase shift
circuit and low starting speed.
4.6 REVIEWS ON SENSORLESS METHODS
Manufacturing cost of a BLDC motor drive can be reduced by elimination of
position sensors and by developing feasible sensorless methods. Further, sensorless
control is the only choice for some applications where these sensors cannot function
reliably, especially in hostile environments. If low cost is a primary concern and low
speed motor operation is not a requirement and the motor load is not expected to
change rapidly, then sensor less control may be the better choice.
The sensor less technique generally used can be grouped into 5 categories:
using measured currents, voltages, fundamental machine equations and algebraic
manipulations
using observers
using back-emf methods
sensorless starting techniques
novel techniques not falling into the previous four categories.


26

4.6.1 Methods Using Measurables and Math
This method is based on
1. The voltages and currents to calculate flux linkages
2. The difference between the prediction of a voltage or current of a model and the
actual value
3. The machine equations, measurables, known as machine parameters and algebraic
manipulations to calculate position and speed.
Using voltages and currents
The voltage equation of any machine can be written as:
V=RI+
dt
d
(4.8)
Where,
Vis the voltage vector,
I is the current vector,
R is the resistance matrix, and
is the flux linkage vector.
This equation is then manipulated to obtain,
(V-RI) d (4.9)
Knowing the initial position, machine parameters, and the relationship of flux
linkage to rotor position, the rotor position is estimated. Determining the rate of change
of the flux linkage from the integration results, the speed is determined. A variation
includes using the previous position data and polynomial fitting, extrapolating to obtain
the next step position prediction. An advantage of the flux-calculating method is that
line-line voltages may be used in the calculations.
Using the machine model
In this method, a d-q model of the machine, the actual dq transformed currents and
voltages, and those on a hypothetical axis offset from the dq axis by a small angle ,
the output voltages of the model, on the hypothetical axis, and those on the actual dq
axis are compared.
Using machine parameters and equations
This method uses machine parameters and equations, measurables, and algebra,
reference frame theory and transformations to calculate position and speed. Initially the
measured voltages and currents are transformed to rotor and stator d-q reference frame
27

variables. Relation between stator and rotor reference frames, denoted with superscripts
s and r, respectively, are
v
r
q
= v
s
q
cos
r
- v
s
d
sin
r
(4.10)
v
r
d
= v
s
q
sin
r
+ v
s
d
cos
r
(4.11)
i
r
q
= i
s
q
cos
r
- i
s
d
sin
r
(4.12)
i
r
d
= i
s
q
sin
r
- i
s
d
cos
r
(4.13)
By substituting the rotor and stator reference frame equations in terms of stator
variables, the rotor angle and so the rotor speed can be calculated.
4.6.2 Methods using observers
An observer provides a mathematical model of the brushless DC motor, which
takes measured inputs of the actual system and produces estimated outputs. The error
between the estimated outputs and measured quantities is fed back into the system
model to correct the estimated values, such as the rotor position and speed, as would be
the actually measured variables in a closed-loop system control. Although most of the
observer-based methods are used for PMAC motors, which have sinusoidal back-EMF
and need continuous rotor position, for the BLDC motors, which require just six
position points for one electrical cycle, the continuous position information from the
observer is not necessary typically. But, for special purposes, such as flux weakening
operation based on advanced angle control, the positions between commutation points
are required.
Sliding-Mode Observer (SMO)
For controlling BLDC motor, it is necessary to know an absolute position of the
rotor, so an absolute encoder or resolver can be used for sensing the rotor position. But,
these position sensors are expensive and require a special arrangement for mounting.
Also, the state equation of BLDC motor is nonlinear, so it is difficult for the linear
control theory to be applied and the stability of position and velocity estimation have
not been clarified. To improve the mechanical robustness and to reduce the cost of the
drive system, several estimation techniques eliminating the encoder or resolver can be
applied. Some relevant methods have been developed using the sliding-mode observer,
which are briefly explained next.
In the Direct Torque Control method (DTC), the state equation of the BLDC
motor is utilized to achieve a relationship between the angle of the stator current vector
and the back-EMF vector angle, obtaining minimum error angle estimation and
28

reducing the torque ripple in com-mutation regions. In this control method, the proper
voltage vector is selected from a look-up table using the rotor flux vector position and
torque error, which is led to the predefined hysteresis . However, DTC methods based
on hysteresis controllers have some serious drawbacks such as a high amount of torque
and flux pulsations and variable switching frequency of the inverter. Also, in the direct
torque control of brushless DC motor, the stator flux linkage observation is needed, and
the accuracy of the observed stator flux linkage is affected by the variation of stator
resistance, electric interference, magnetic interference, measurement error and so on.
These drawbacks are solved with the DTC Space Vector Modulation (DTC-SVM)
scheme, which uses a constant switching frequency.
However, the DTC-SVM scheme needs a transformation from stationary
reference frame to stator flux field orientation frame and vice versa, therefore it has a
high computation time and could be an erroneous cumulative scheme . Also, with the
introduction of DTC technique and the advances of speed sensor less systems, the
interest in stator resistance adaptation came to scene for an optimal performance of
speed sensor less systems in low speed region.
Recently, and commented above, low speed operation with robustness against
parameter variations remains an area of research for sensor less systems, taking into
account that an accurate value of stator resistance is of utmost importance for its correct
operation in low speed region. As in the upper speed range, the resistive voltage drop is
small as compared with the stator voltage; hence the stator flux and speed estimation
can be made with good accuracy. At low speeds the stator frequency is also low, but
stators voltage reduces almost in direct proportion and the resistive voltage drop
maintains its order of magnitude and becomes significant. This greatly influences the
estimation accuracy of the stator flux and hence the speed estimation. An estimation
algorithm based on SMO in conjunction with Popovs hyper-stability theory can be
used to calculate the speed and stator resistance independently, which can guarantee the
global stability and the convergence of the estimated parameters.
The SMO is widely studied in the field of a motion control, and it can be
applied to nonlinear systems, such as BLDC motors. This technique applied to control
systems encounters restrictions in practice, due to the high voltage values of the power
supply needed and severe stress given to the static power converters. On the other hand,
the sliding mode has been shown very efficient in the state estimation due to its salient
29

features, i.e., robustness to parameter variations and disturbances including the
measurement noise. The use of sliding mode in state observer does not present physical
restrictions relative to the convergence condition (the estimation error moves toward
zero) and does not subject the system to undesirable chattering. These problems can be
alleviated using a binary observer with continuous inertial Coordinate-Operator
Feedback.
Extended Kalman Filter (EKF)
The extended Kalman filter algorithm is an optimal recursive estimation
algorithm for nonlinear systems. It processes all available measurements regardless of
their precision, to provide a quick and accurate estimate of the variables of interest, and
also achieves a rapid convergence. This is done using the following factors: the
knowledge of the system dynamics, statistical description of the system errors (noises,
disturbances, etc.), and information about the initial conditions of the variables of
interest. The algorithm is computationally intensive, thus an efficient formulation is
needed rather than a straightforward implementation. Moreover, for a practical
application of the filter in real time, different aspects of implementation have to be
addressed, such as the computational requirements (processing time per filter cycle,
required memory storage, etc.) and the computer constraints (cycle execution time,
instruction set, arithmetic used, etc.).
This method can be used to estimate the rotor position and speed. Motor state
variables are estimated by means of measurements of stator line voltages and currents,
and applying EKF next. During this process, voltage and current measuring signals are
not filtered, and rotor position and speed can be estimated with sufficient accuracy in
both steady state and dynamic operations. Unlike the deterministic base of other
studies, the model uncertainties and nonlinearities in motors are well suited to the
stochastic nature of EKFs, as well as the persistency of excitation due to the system and
measurement noises. This is the reason why the EKF has found wide application in
speed-sensorless control, in spite of its computational complexity. However, with the
developments in high performance processor technology, the computational burden and
speed of EKF has ceased to be a problem.
The block diagram of the system for speed and rotor position estimation of a
BLDC motor is shown in Figure 4.8. The system can be functionally divided in two
basic parts: the speed control system and the estimation system. The first one consists
30

of a power circuit (DC supply, inverter and motor) and control circuits, which perform
three functions: current commutation, current control and speed control. The measured
speed (k) and phase currents (ik) as well as the estimated rotor position (^k/k) are
used as feedback signals. The main blocks of the estimation algorithm are the EKF and
the block for calculating average motor line voltages during sampling time. The
average line voltages vector, defined on the basis of average line voltages in the k-
sampling time (uk), is calculated at the beginning of the sampling time by means of
terminal voltages to neutral-point vector (uNk), the inverter transistors duty cycle (k),
the inverter DC voltage (U0), the estimated speed (^k/k), the rotor position (^k/k),
and measured currents vector (ik).

Figure 4.8- System configuration for speed and rotor position estimation of
a BLDCM
Among recent speed-sensorless studies using EKF based estimation, the
simultaneous estimation of the rotor angular velocity, the rotor flux and the stator
resistances, via a Kalman filter in combination with the model reference adaptive
system (MRAS), have been performed, but are sensitive to variations in the stator and
rotor resistances. Some innovative techniques have been currently developed, such as
the Bi Input-EKF (BI-EKF). This method utilizes a single EKF algorithm with the
consecutive execution of two different inputs, which are calculated from the two
extended models based on the rotor and stator resistance estimation, respectively. These
two different inputs are used for the rotor flux based speed control both in the transient
31

and steady-state over a wide speed range. Also, the load torque is estimated, including
viscous friction term, rotor angular velocity, rotor flux, and stator current components
without the need for signal injection.
Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS)
In some cases, the stator and rotor resistance estimation is not applicable when the
speed-sensorless control system is in transient state, such as operation under largely
varying load torque and/or changes in the speed command. In other cases, the rotor
time constant via high frequency signal injection, the stator resistance and the rotor
angular velocity can be estimated by using MRAS. However, the stator resistance
estimation is turned on for short time intervals when the rotor angular velocity
estimation has reached its steady-state; that is, both the stator resistance and rotor
angular velocity estimations are performed interchangeably.
The model reference adaptive system, developed using Popovs stability criterion,
is one of many promising techniques employed in adaptive control for estimating the
speed and stator resistance. Among various types of adaptive system configuration,
MRAS is important since it leads to a relatively easy-to-implement system with a fast
adaptation for a wide range of applications. The basic principle is illustrated in Figure
4.8, called parallel MRAS. The dynamic models are represented by the block
Reference Model, which is the actual system (for example, the motor, containing all
unknown parameters, i.e., motor speed, stator and rotor resistances) and the block
Adjustable Model, which has the same structure as the reference one (i.e., motor, but
with the adjustable or estimated parameters, instead of the unknown ones). An error
vector is derived using the difference between the outputs of two dynamic models and
is driven to zero through an adaptation law. As a result, the estimated parameter vector
will converge to its true value X. One of the most noted advantages of this type of
adaptive system is its high speed of adaptation. This is due to the fact that a
measurement of the difference between the outputs of the reference model and
adjustable model is obtained directly by comparison of the states (or outputs) of the
reference model with those of the adjustable model system. It is remarkable that the
error signal may be formulated with flux (F-MRAS), back-EMF (E-MRAS), reactive
power (Q-MRAS) and active power (P-MRAS).

32

Figure 4.9- Basic configuration of a MRAS
For instance, a MRAS with instantaneous reactive power can be used for speed
estimation of sensorless vector controlled motor drive. This MRAS converts a vector
quantity (i.e., current vector) into a scalar quantity using the concept of reactive power,
and the reference model utilizes measuredcurrent vector. Also, the adjustable model
uses the estimated stator current vector, and the current, estimated through the machine
state equations, is configured in terms of reactive power. An active power MRAS based
scheme can also be used for rotor resistance identification, whose estimation is
effective in wider range of variations and could be applied in real time field-oriented
control (FOC) .
Adaptive Observers
The interest in stator resistance adaptation came to scene much recently, with the
advances of speed sensorless systems and with the introduction of DTC technique. An
accurate value of the stator resistance is of crucial importance for correct operation of a
sensorless drive in the low speed region, since any mismatch between the actual value
and the set value used within the model of speed estimation may lead not only to a
substantial speed estimation error but also to instability as well. Therefore, to develop
online stator resistance identification schemes are of utmost importance for accurate
speed estimation in the low speed region. These estimators often use an adaptive
mechanism to update the value of stator resistance. Some of the most relevant are
MRAS, explained previously, and adaptive full-order flux observers (AFFO).
Adaptive Full-order Flux Observer (AFFO)
The AFFO scheme has been developed using Lyapunovs stability criterion and
allows estimating the rotor speed and stator resistance simultaneously. Using this
33

observer, the estimated quantities converge to their real values if the persistency of
excitation condition is also satisfied. Correct estimation of rotor flux space vector and
rotor speed is therefore possible through this observer according to the stator and rotor
resistances online adaptation. Jointly with MRAS, AFFO is not computationally
intensive, but with a non-zero gain matrix may become unstable. In such methods, the
stator resistance adaptation mechanism is determined with the difference between the
measured and observed stator currents. With a maximum torque per ampere (MTPA)
strategy, based on slip frequency (inverse of the rotor time constant in the rotor flux
oriented reference frame) adjustment, the stator current amplitude can be minimized for
each value of motor speed.
Apart from the variation of the stator resistance with temperature, other parameters
in the AFFO will change during operation as well, such as the rotor resistance due to
temperature changes, which will have an important influence on the speed accuracy of
the adaptive observer. The stator and rotor self-inductance and magnetizing inductance
vary due to magnetic saturation, being it possible to use a nonlinear magnetic model. In
steady state, it is known that a misestimating of the rotor resistance provides correct
estimations of the stator and rotor flux, but results in a misestimating of the speed.
4.6.3 Methods using back emf sensing
Terminal voltage sensing
In field-oriented operation of the BLDC, phase back emf is aligned with phase
current. Switching instants of the converter can be obtained by knowing the zero-
crossing of the back-emf and a speed-dependent period of time delay. Monitoring the
phase back-emf when the particular phase current is zero (the silent phase), the zero
crossing is detected. Low pass filters are used to eliminate higher harmonics in the
terminal voltages. With this method, a reduced speed operating range is normally used,
typically around 1000-6000 rpm.
Third harmonic back emf sensing
The third harmonic based method is one of most relevant back-EMF sensing
schemes. It has a wider speed range and smaller phase delay than the terminal voltage
sensing method. However, at low speed, the integration process can cause a serious
position error, as noise and offset error from sensing can be accumulated for a
relatively long period of time . At lower speeds, detection of both the third harmonic
and the zero-crossing of the phase voltage become difficult due to the lower signal
34

levels. In comparison, the conventional back-EMF control scheme is able to drive the
motor from 6,000 rpm to about 1,000 rpm, but the third harmonic control scheme is
capable to operate the motor from rated speed (6,000 rpm) down to about 100 rpm.
This does not introduce as much phase delay as the zero-crossing method and requires
less filtering . Then, the efficiency drop is more accentuated for the terminal voltage
sensing scheme, because the delay introduced by the low pass filter decreases with the
motor speed. This phase delay introduced by the filter is responsible for the loss of field
orientation and loss of the quadrature condition between rotor flux and stator current.
The immediate consequence is the reduction of the torque per current ratio of the
motor, which implies in larger copper losses . Also, the third harmonic back-EMF
method is applicable for the operation in flux weakening mode, and the methods based
on zero-crossing of the back-EMF are simple. However, it is only applicable under
normal operating conditions (commutation advance or current decay in free-wheeling
diodes lower than 30 electrical degrees)
Freewheeling diode conduction
This method uses indirect sensing of the zero crossing of the phase back-emf to
obtain the switching instants of the BLDC motor. In the 120 degree conducting wye-
connected BLDC motor, one of the phases is always open-circuited. For a short period
after opening the phase, there remains phase current flowing, via a freewheeling diode.
This open phase current becomes zero in the middle of the commutation interval, which
corresponds to the point where back-emf of the open phase crosses zero. By this
technique, 45-2300 rpm sensorless operation has been achieved. This technique
outperforms the previously mentioned back-emf methods at low-speeds
Back-emf integration
In this method position information is extracted by integrating the back-emf of
the unexcited phase. The integration is based on the absolute value of the open phase
back-emf. Integration of the back-emf starts when the open phase back-emf crosses
zero. A threshold is set to stop the integration which corresponds to a commutation
instant. As the back-emf is assumed to vary linearly from positive to negative
(trapezoidal back-emf assumed), and this linear slope is assumed speed-insensitive, the
threshold voltage is kept constant throughout the speed range. If desired, current
advance can be implemented by changing the threshold. The integration approach is
35

less sensitive to switching noise, automatically adjusts to speed changes, but the low
speed operation is poor.
4.6.4 Methods using starting techniques
To operate a BLDC without a rotor position sensor, requires some method to
start the motor. Several methods are used for starting namely
1. open-loop
2. with known initial position
3. Using a method for machine interrogation and signal processing
4. Using computationally complex methods
5. A method that relies on winding inductance which varies with rotor position due to
saliency.
Open-Loop Starting
The back-EMF detection methods cannot be applied well when the motor is at a
standstill or low speed, since back-EMF is zero. A starting procedure is needed to start
the motor from standstill. The open-loop
starting is accomplished by providing a rotating stator field which increases gradually
in magnitude and/or frequency. Once the rotor field begins to become attracted to the
stator field enough to overcome friction and inertia, the rotor begins to turn and the
motor acts as a permanent magnet synchronous machine with the disadvantage that the
initial rotor movement direction is not predictable. When the stator field becomes just
strong enough, the rotor could move in either direction. If the speed of the stator field is
slow enough and the load torque demanded does not exceed the pull-out torque the
motor will operate synchronously in the desired direction. The change over from open-
loop to sensorless method is made when sufficient back-EMF is generated, so that the
sensorless method should start generating the switching instants of all transistors.
Taking all this into account, the procedure starts by exciting two arbitrary
phases for a preset time (for example, 0.5 s). At the end of the present time, the open-
loop commutation advancing the switching pattern by 120 is done, and then, the
polarity of the motor line current is altered. Then, the rotor turns to the direction
corresponding to the exited phases as is shown in Figure 4.10. Next, the commutation
signal that advances the switching pattern by 120 is given, as Figure 4.9b indicates,
and the open-loop commutation is immediately switched to the sensorless drive. After
the next commutation the position sensorless drive is attained (Figure 4.10), and the
36

motor line current indicates that satisfactory sensorless commutations are performed by
the position-detecting method.
This method is simple but the reliability is affected by the load and it may cause
temporarily reverse rotation of the rotor during the start-up. This is not allowed in some
application, such as disk drives, which strictly require unidirectional motion. However,
it may be satisfactory in others such as pump and fan drives.




Figure 4.10- Open-loop starting procedure
Another problem exists if the stator field is rotating at too great a speed when
the rotor field picks up. This causes the rotor to oscillate, which requires the stator field
to decrease in frequency to allow starting.
The stator iron of the BLDC motor has non-linear magnetic saturation
characteristic, which is the basis for determining the initial position of the rotor. In
order to overcome the drawbacks mentioned above, the rotor position detecting and
speed up methods based on saturation effect of the stator iron can be applied, such as
the short pulse sensing technique. This scheme adopts a voltage pulse train composed
of the successive short and long pulses to generate positive torque to speed up the
motor, and it does not bring any reverse rotation and vibration during the start-up
process. The response speed of the stator current and the response peak value of the
current of the stator winding can be used to detect the rotor position .

37

4.7 SENSORLESS TECHNIQUE FOR FOUR SWITCH THREE PHASE
INVERTER DRIVEN BLDC MOTOR [3, 11]
A BLDC motor can be driven by an inverter using six switches and four
switches as shown in Fig.4.2 and Fig.4.5 respectively. Most of the sensorless methods
for a six-switch inverter BLDC motor drive are not directly applicable to the four-
switch inverter. The main reason is that in the four-switch topology, some methods
detect less than six points, and other commutation instants must be interpolated via
software. This paper presents a novel sensorless method for four-switch BLDC motor
drive based on zero crossing points of stator line voltages.
In a four-switch inverter topology, as in Fig.4.5, terminal C is connected to the
middle point of DC bus (point O). With point O as reference, Fig.4.11 shows the three
line voltage waveforms, V
ao
, V
ba
and -V
bo
. Zero crossing points (ZCPs) of these
voltages lag 30
o
from ZCPs of phase back EMF voltages and so are coincident to the
commutation instants. Therefore, by detecting the zero crossing points of three line
voltages, six commutation points are obtained. Three line voltages are derived from
terminal voltages V
ao
and V
bo
. They have higher magnitude compared to back EMF
voltages (3 times phase voltages plus drop voltage on the stator impedance). The three
voltage functions are:

Fig.4.11 Stator line and phase back emf voltage
VF
a
(V
ao,
V
bo
) = V
ao
(4.14)
VF
b
(V
ao,
V
bo
) = V
bo
V
ao
(4.15)

VF
c
= -V
bo
(4.16)
Due to PWM control of the inverter, stator terminal voltages V
ao
and V
bo

contains high frequency switching signals and thus; detection of the zero crossings
38

of three line voltages is difficult. Hence, two low pass filters should be used to
eliminate high frequency harmonics and for calculation of the average of the line
voltages. Fig.4.12 shows the estimation of three position signals from zero crossing
detection of line voltages. The position signals can be estimated by either hardware
or software. Using DSP controller with embedded A/D inputs eliminates the use of
extra hardware to detect zero crossing points and it can be implemented using
software. However, hardware implementation is less expensive avoiding the use of
highly expensive microcontrollers.








Fig.4.12 Determination of position signals from line voltages
Table 4.4 summarizes the commutation logic with respect to line voltages.
Table 4.4
COMMUTATION LOGIC WITH RESPECT TO LINE VOLTAGES
Line voltage Sign before ZCP Sign after ZCP Next mode H
a
H
b
H
c
V
ba
+ - 1 100
V
ba
- + 2 101
-V
bo
+ - 3 001
V
ba
- + 4 011
V
ao
+ - 5 010
-V
bo
- + 6 110

4.8 A SENSORLESS CONTROL METHOD BASED ON TERMINAL
VOLTAGE SENSING
The terminal voltage equations of the four-switch inverter BLDC motor with
respect to point O (natural ground in the middle point of DC bus) can be expressed as:
39

V
a0
= RI
a
+ L
dt
dia
+ e
an
+ V
no
(4.17)
V
b0
= RI
b
+ L
dt
dib
+ e
bn
+ V
no

(4.18)
0

= RI
c
+ L
dt
dic
+ e
cn
+ V
no
(4.19)
Because the drive employs the Direct Current Control method, the motor adopts
120
0
conducting mode and only two phases are energized at one time. So, the current in
the two phases has the same amplitude and opposite direction, while in the third phase,
the current is zero. As shown in Fig.4.13, in the four-switch inverter topology, phase
voltages V
ao
and V
bo
are at a phase difference of 60. It results V
ao
and V
bo
are 30
0

phase lag respect to e
an
and e
cn
respectively. Moreover, V
ba
voltage (or V
bo
- V
ao
) vector
has 30
0
delay respect to e
cn
. It means that the zero crossing points of V
ao
and V
bo
can
be used to commutate the current in phase A and C, and also, while two voltages V
ao

and V
bo
become equal together, two commutation instants of phase B may be detected.

Fig.4.13 Stator line to line voltage vectors of a FSTPI-BLDC motor drive






40

CHAPTER 5
SIMULATIONS
A complete simulation of the system is done in Simulink of the MATLAB
environment. The system consists of a BLDC motor with the dc link voltage and
inverter.
5.1 MACHINE PARAMETERS
The Table 5.1 below gives the machine parameters used for all the simulation works
TABLE 5.1
MACHINE PARAMETERS
Pn 425 [W] Zp 16 [pole]
Tn 10 [Nm] n 700 [rad/sec]
R 0.64 [] J 5e-4 [Kg.m2]
Ls 1.0 [mH] M 0.25 [mH]
Kf 1.194 [Nm/A] Ke 0.0667 [V/rpm]

5.2 SIMULATION OF SENSORLESS FSTPI BLDC MOTOR
DRIVE
In sensorless control scheme, control is achieved via terminal voltage sensing. The
three voltage functions are used to get the commutation points. A voltage divider
circuit is used first, followed by low pass filter (second order Butterworth) and then a
zero crossing detection circuit to get the virtual hall signals.
The gate signals are obtained as required exactly as per the switching sequence of
four switch topology. Each switch has a 120 degree conducting period. Among the 6
modes of operation, only in mode 2 and mode 5, two switches are ON together. In rest
all diodes; its just one switch that is ON.



41

SIMULATION CIRCUIT

Fig.5.1-simulation of FSTPI circuit



42

OUTPUT WAVEFORMS

Fig.5.2- Gate signals vs time (sec)
The gate signals for four switches are obtained as shown above. The signals
have a magnitude of 1V

Fig.5.3- Virtual hall signals vs time (sec)
Virtual Hall signals for sensing the three phases of rotor windings each
displaced by a delay are obtained and shown above

Fig.5.4- Rotor speed (rad/sec) vs time (sec)
The rotor speed implies that it follows the reference speed is shown above
43


Fig.5.5- Back emf of phase c vs time (sec)
The trapezoidal back emf of phase c is obtained. Similarly for other phases
similar waveform can be obtained

Fig.5.6- Stator current of phase c vs time (sec)
Stator current of phase c is obtained and the waveform is slightly distorted









44

CHAPTER 6
HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION

6.1 PMBLDC DRIVE SYSTEMS
A block diagram of Permanent Magnet Brush less DC Motor is shown in the
Figure 6.1. It consists of a three phase inverter, position sensor and a controller. The
inverter along with the position sensor arrangement is functionally analogous to the
commutator of a conventional dc motor. The commutation of a BLDC motor is
controlled electronically. To rotate the BLDC motor, the stator windings should be
energized in a sequence depending on the rotor position. So it is important to find out
the position of the rotor either by hall elements, light-emitting diodes, phototransistors
or encoders. Normally hall sensors are used to detect the rotor position. For every 60
electrical degrees of rotation, one of the hall sensors changes the state, so it takes six
steps to complete an electrical cycle


Fig.6.1-Block diagram of PMDC drive system


45

6.2 PWM BASED MOSFET DRIVER
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) of a signal or power source involves the
modulation of its duty cycle, to either convey information over a communications
channel or control the amount of power sent to a load. This circuit is mainly designed
to control the speed of the AC induction motor and DC motor. The MOSFET are used
to control the speed of the motor by varying the supply voltage to the motors. The
MOSFET is switched with very high speed with the help of PWM waves. The PWM
waves are generated by the PIC microcontroller. The PWM time period and duty cycle
is controlled by the software.
In the microcontroller we are generating two PWM waves with different time
period. They are used to drive the two set of MOSFET drivers through AND gate. So
the AND gate is used to change the switching time between the two set of MOSFET
drivers. When the duty cycle of both the PWM waves is high, the output of the AND
(IN1) gate is high which is given to transistor network. The transistor network is
consists of BC 547 and BC 557 transistor. Now the both the transistor is conducting,
due to that 12v is given to MOSFET Q1 and Q2 gates. So the MOSFET are switched
ON and delivered the output on the center tapped transformer.
In the center tapped transformer, the DC input is given to middle terminal and
other two end terminals are connected in the each of the MOSFET drivers Drain
terminal. The DC input negative terminal is connected in the source terminal. Similarly
in the next of duty cycle, another AND gate (IN2) output is high which drive another
set of MOSFET drivers.
Due to high switching speed the given DC input is converted to related sine
wave which is step up through the transformer. This AC voltage is delivered in the
transformer secondary. This AC voltage can be used to drive the AC induction motor.
Suppose if you want to drive the DC motor the corresponding AC voltage is rectified
through bridge rectifier.

46


Fig.6.2-PWM based MOSFET driver circuit
6.3 CURRENT MEASUREMENT CIRCUIT
This circuit is designed to monitor the supply current. The supply current that
has to monitor is step down by the current transformer. The step down current is
converted by the voltage with the help of shunt resistor. Then the converted voltage is
rectified by the precision rectifier. The precision rectifier is a configuration obtained
with an operational amplifier in order to have a circuit behaving like an ideal diode or
rectifier.
The full wave rectifier is the combination of half wave precision rectifier and
summing amplifier. When the input voltage is negative, there is a negative voltage on
the diode, too, so it works like an open circuit, there is no current in the load and the
output voltage is zero. When the input is positive, it is amplified by the operational
amplifier and it turns the diode on. There is current in the load and, because of the
feedback, the output voltage is equal to the input.
47


Fig.6.3-Current measurement circuit
In this case, when the input is greater than zero, D2 is ON and D1 is OFF, so the
output is zero. When the input is less than zero, D2 is OFF and D1 is ON, and the
output is like the input with an amplification of R
2
/ R
1.
The full-wave rectifier
depends on the fact that both the half-wave rectifier and the summing amplifier are
precision circuits. It operates by producing an inverted half-wave-rectified signal and
then adding that signal at double amplitude to the original signal in the summing
amplifier. The result is a reversal of the selected polarity of the input signal.
Then the output of the rectified voltage is adjusted to 0-5V with the help of
variable resistor VR1. Then given to ripples are filtered by the C1 capacitor. After the
filtration the corresponding DC voltage is given to ADC or other related circuit.
6.4 Power supply
The ac voltage, typically 220V rms, is connected to a transformer, which steps
that ac voltage down to the level of the desired dc output. A diode rectifier then
provides a full-wave rectified voltage that is initially filtered by a simple capacitor filter
to produce a dc voltage. This resulting dc voltage usually has some ripple or ac voltage
variation.
A regulator circuit removes the ripples and also remains the same dc value even
if the input dc voltage varies, or the load connected to the output dc voltage changes.
48

This voltage regulation is usually obtained using one of the popular voltage regulator
IC units.
Fig.6.4-Power supply circuit
6.5 DAC CIRCUIT
In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC or D-to-A) is a device for
converting a digital (usually binary) code to an analog signal (current, voltage or
electric charge). Digital-to-analog converters are interfaces between the abstract digital
world and analog real life. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) performs the reverse
operation.
DAC usually only deals with pulse-code modulation (PCM)-encoded signals.
The job of converting various compressed forms of signals into PCM is left to codes.
The DAC fundamentally converts finite-precision numbers (usually fixed-point binary
numbers) into a physical quantity, usually an electrical voltage. Normally the output
voltage is a linear function of the input number. Usually these numbers are updated at
uniform sampling intervals and can be thought of as numbers obtained from a sampling
49

process. These numbers are written to the DAC, sometimes along with a clock signal
that causes each number to be latched in sequence, at which time the DAC output
voltage changes rapidly from the previous value to the value represented by the
currently latched number. The effect of this is that the output voltage is held in time at
the current value until the next input number is latched resulting in a piecewise constant
output. This is equivalently a zero-order hold operation and has an effect on the
frequency response of the reconstructed signal.
The DAC0800 series are monolithic 8 bit high speed current output digital to
analog featuring typical setting times of 100ns. When used as a multiplying DAC,
monotonic performance over a 40 to 1 reference current range is possible. The
DAC0800 series also features high complementary current output to allow differential
output voltages of 20 Vp-p with simple resistor loads. The reference to full scale
current matching of better than l LAB eliminates the need for full scale trims in most
application while the nonlinearities of better than 0.1 over temperature minimize
system error accumulations.

Fig.6.5- DAC Circuit
The noise immune inputs of the DAC0800 series will accept TTL levels with
the logic threshold pin grounded. Changing the Voltage potential will allow direct
interface to other logic families. The performance and characteristics of the device are
50

essentially unchanged over the full 4.5v to 18v power supply range power dissipation
is only 33mvw with +5v supplies and is independent of the logic input states.
The output of the DAC is current signal. So it is given to current voltage
converter which is constructed by the LM 741 operational amplifier. Finally the analog
voltage is given to Triac or SCR control circuit.
6.6 INTRODUCTION TO PIC :
The microcontroller that has been used for this project is from PIC series. PIC
microcontroller is the first RISC based microcontroller fabricated in CMOS
(complementary metal oxide semiconductor) that uses separate bus for instruction and
data allowing simultaneous access of program and data memory.
The main advantage of CMOS and RISC combination is low power consumption
resulting in a very small chip size with a small pin count. The main advantage of
CMOS is that it has immunity to noise than other fabrication techniques.
6.6.1 PIC (16F877) :
Various microcontrollers offer different kinds of memories. EEPROM,
EPROM, FLASH etc. are some of the memories of which FLASH is the most recently
developed. Technology that is used in PIC16F877 is flash technology, so that data is
retained even when the power is switched off. Easy Programming and Erasing are other
features of PIC 16F877.
- I/O PORTS:
Some pins for these I/O ports are multiplexed with an alternate function for the
peripheral features on the device. In general, when a peripheral is enabled, that pin may
not be used as a general purpose I/O pin.
- PORTA AND THE TRISA REGISTER:
PORTA is a 6-bit wide bi-directional port. The corresponding data direction
register is TRISA. Setting a TRISA bit (=1) will make the corresponding PORTA pin
an input, i.e., put the corresponding output driver in a Hi-impedance mode. Clearing a
51

TRISA bit (=0) will make the corresponding PORTA pin an output, i.e., put the
contents of the output latch on the selected pin.
- PORTB AND TRISB REGISTER:
PORTB is an 8-bit wide bi-directional port. The corresponding data direction
register is TRISB. Setting a TRISB bit (=1) will make the corresponding PORTB pin
an input, i.e., put the corresponding output driver in a hi-impedance mode. Clearing a
TRISB bit (=0) will make the corresponding PORTB pin an output, i.e., put the
contents of the output latch on the selected pin. Three pins of PORTB are multiplexed
with the Low Voltage Programming function; RB3/PGM, RB6/PGC and RB7/PGD.
The alternate functions of these pins are described in the Special Features Section. Each
of the PORTB pins has a weak internal pull-up. A single control bit can turn on all the
pull-ups.
This is performed by clearing bit RBPU (OPTION_REG<7>). The weak pull-
up is automatically turned off when the port pin is configured as an output. The pull-
ups are disabled on a Power-on Reset.
- PORTC AND THE TRISC REGISTER:
PORTC is an 8-bit wide bi-directional port. The corresponding data direction
register is TRISC. Setting a TRISC bit (=1) will make the corresponding PORTC pin
an input, i.e., put the corresponding output driver in a hi-impedance mode. Clearing a
TRISC bit (=0) will make the corresponding PORTC pin an output, i.e., put the
contents of the output latch on the selected pin. PORTC is multiplexed with several
peripheral functions. PORTC pins have Schmitt Trigger input buffers.
- PORT D AND TRISD REGISTERS:
This section is not applicable to the 28-pin devices. PORTD is an 8-bit port with
Schmitt Trigger input buffers. Each pin is individually configurable as an input or
output. PORTD can be configured as an 8-bit wide microprocessor Port (parallel slave
port) by setting control bit PSPMODE (TRISE<4>). In this mode, the input buffers are
TTL.
52

- PORT E AND TRISE REGISTER:
PORTE has three pins RE0/RD/AN5, RE1/WR/AN6 and RE2/CS/AN7, which are
individually configurable as inputs or outputs. These pins have Schmitt Trigger input
buffers.
The PORTE pins become control inputs for the microprocessor port when bit
PSPMODE (TRISE<4>) is set. In this mode, the user must make sure that the
TRISE<2:0> bits are set (pins are configured as digital inputs). Ensure ADCON1 is
configured for digital I/O. In this mode the input buffers are TTL.
PORTE pins are multiplexed with analog inputs. When selected as an analog
input, these pins will read as '0's. TRISE controls the direction of the RE pins, even
when they are being used as analog inputs. The user must make sure to keep the pins
configured as inputs when using them as analog inputs.
- MEMORY ORGANISATION:
There are three memory blocks in each of the PIC16F877 MUCs. The
program memory and Data Memory have separate buses so that concurrent access can
occur.
- PROGRAM MEMORY ORGANISATION:
The PIC16F877 devices have a 13-bit program counter capable of addressing 8K
*14 words of FLASH program memory. Accessing a location above the physically
implemented address will cause a wraparound. The RESET vector is at 0000h and the
interrupt vector is at 0004h.
- DATA MEMORY ORGANISTION:
The data memory is partitioned into multiple banks which contain the General
Purpose Registers and the special functions Registers. Bits RP1 (STATUS<6) and RP0
(STATUS<5>) are the bank selected bits.
Each bank extends up to 7Fh (1238 bytes). The lower locations of each bank
are reserved for the Special Function Registers. Above the Special Function Registers
53

are General Purpose Registers, implemented as static RAM. All implemented banks
contain special function registers. Some frequently used special function registers from
one bank may be mirrored in another bank for code reduction and quicker access.
- EEPROM:
EEPROM (electrically erasable, programmable read only memory) technology
supplies Non volatile storage of variables to a PIC-controlled device or instrument.
That is variables stored in an EEPROM will remain there even after power has been
turned off and then on again. Some instruments use an EEPROM to store calibration
data during manufacture. In this way, each instrument is actually custom built, with
customization that can be easily automated. Other instruments use and EEPROM to
allow a user to store several sets of setup information. For an instrument requiring a
complicated setup procedure, this permits a user to retrieve the setup required for any
one of several very different measurements. Still other devices use an EEPROM in a
way that is transparent to a user, providing backup of setup parameters and thereby
bridging over power outages
The data EEPROM and flash program memory are readable and writable during
normal operation over the entire VDD range. A bulk erase operation may not be issued
from user code (which includes removing code protection. The data memory is not
directly mapped in the register file space. Instead it is indirectly addressed through the
special function registers (SFR).There are six SFRS used to read and write the program
and data EEPROM memory.
- TIMERS
There are three timers used Timer 0, Timer1 and Timer2 .The Timer-0 module
is a 8-bit timer/counter.The timer-1 module is a 16-bit timer/counter consisting two 8-
bit register (TMR1H) and TMR1L), which are readable and writable. The TMR1
register pair (TMR1H:TMR1L) Increments from 0000h to FFFFH and rolls over to
0000h. The tmr1 interrupt, if enabled, is generated on overflow, which is latched in
interrupt flag bit tmr1IF. This interrupt can be enabled/disabled by setting/clearing tmr1
interrupt enable bit tmr1IE.
54

Timer2 is an 8-bit timer with a pre scaler and a post scaler. It can be used as
the PWM Time-base for the PWM mode of the CCP module(s). The TMR2 register is
readable and writable, and is cleared on any device reset. The timer2 module has an 8-
bit period register PR2. Timer2 increments from 00h until it match PR2 and then resets
to 00h on the next increment cycle. PR2 is a readable and writable register. The PR2
register is initialized to FFh upon reset. Timer 2 can be shut off by clearing control bit
tmr2on to minimize power consumption.
- ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTER (ADC)
There are two types of analog to digital converter is present in this IC. Here
using 10-bit ADC. The ADC module can have up to eight analog inputs for a device.
The analog input charges a sample and hold capacitor. The output of sample and hold
capacitor is the input into the converter. The converter then generates a digital result of
this analog level via successive approximation. The A/D conversion of the analog
input signal results in a corresponding10-bit digital number. The A/D module has high
and low voltage reference input that is software selectable to some combination of
VDD, VSS, and RA2 Or RA3.The A/D module has four registers. These registers are
1. A/D result high register (ADRESH)
2. A/D result low register (ADRESL)
3. A/D control register 0 (ADCON0)
4. A/D control register 1 (ADCO
- INTERRUPTS
The PIC16F87X family has up to 14 sources of interrupt. The interrupt control
register (INTCON) records individual interrupt requests in flag bits. It also has
individual interrupt requests in flag bits. It also has individual and global interrupt
enables bits.


55

6.7 HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION

Fig.6.6. Hardware setup
56


- OUTPUT WAVEFORMS
The voltage and virtual hall signal outputs are taken at two conditions, as one in
lower speed region around 450 rpm and other at high speed region around 1000 rpm.
The voltage and virtual hall signals are shown below:-
PC interfacing is done using VB techniques and speed variations can be known
from the output waveforms. The motor speed depends only on the amplitude of the
applied voltage; the amplitude of the applied voltage is adjusted by using the PWM
technique.















57

CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSION
The BLDC motor kit was designed to work with the SEPIC Converter. A Speed
control scheme with Torque Ripple minimization is executed by means of the sensors
to further reduce cost and increase reliability. Furthermore, the only choice for some
applications where those function reliably due to harsh environmental conditions and a
higher performance is required.
A circuit topology and control strategy has been proposed to suppress
commutation torque ripple of BLDCM in this work. A SEPIC converter is placed at the
input of the inverter, and the desired DC link voltage can be achieved by appropriate
voltage switch control. No exact value of the commutation interval T is required, and
the proposed method can reduce commutation torque ripple effectively within a wide
speed range and load

As future work the PI controller in simulation circuit can be replaced by fuzzy
controller which gives a smooth variation of speed without oscillations. The Hardware
implementation can be modified with DSP processor, such that wide speed range
applications are possible.










58

REFERENCES
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brushless dc motor drive based on TMS320LF2407 DSP, 2007 IEEE
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[2] T.J.E. Miller, "Brushless permanent magnet and reluctance motor drive",
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[3] Halvaei Niasar, H. Moghbelli and A. Vahedi, A Low-Cost Sensorless
Control for Reduced-Parts, Brushless DC Motor Drives, IEEE Transactions on
Industry Applications, 2008, pp 662-667.
[4] B.K. Lee, T.H. Kim, M. Ehsani; On the feasibility of fourswitch three-
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59

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o
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60

- DRIVE PARAMETERS
Name/ Model : BLDC Motor Driver / AMB364
Supply Voltage : 12-24V DC

Maximum Current : 10A
Drive Power : 96W
Speed Range : 3000 rpm to motor rated speed
Functions : Internal / External Speed control
Analogue Input : 0-5V DC