Description Of A Versatile Dynamic Simulation Program For Motor
Drive Systems Used In Electric Propulsion Applications
Ahmed El-Antably l, Yefung Liau , Tom Lip0 2, Ron Martin1
1 Delco Remy Division
General Motors Corp.
Anderson, IN USA
Abstract
Many electric vehicle system simulation
programs have been developed to study the
performance of electric vehicles for different
urban, federal, or other driving cycles. Most of
these programs, however, do not include
detailed models of the components of the drive
system (e.g., battery, drive motor, inverter,
etc.) which is very important for proper sizing
and matchmg of these components to meet all
the vehicle specifications during normal and
emergency operating conditions. Ttus paper
describes the model used for simulation o f the
drive system and the flow chart of the program.
Th~sversatile model has the features of studying
normal and possible component fault conditions
to determine the limp-home capability o t the
vehcle. Also, transient performance can be
studied, different battery models, drive motor
control strategies, and various types of power
devices could be checked at the design stage.
Parametric studies can also be performed using
the simulation program to study the impact of
varying the component's system parameters on
the system performance. This program has
been written for an induction motor drive and
can be extended for other motor types.
Introduction
There is a growing global need and strong
commitment to clean up the environment. This
has been demonstrated in the USA, in the state
of California, where the Air Resources Board
has mandated that two percent of the vehlcles
sold in the state have to be zero emission by
1998, rising to 10% by the year 2003 (whch is
about 200.c100 vehiclesl Other states in the
,.A .-r: .xsi.ic.ri, hlnxibr ~ g ~ d i o .U
: ~ .
those mandated in California and it is quite
likely that clean vehicles will be required in
those states too. It appears now that electric
vehicles (EVs) are the best candidates for zero
43
2 University Of Wisconsin
Madison,WI USA
emission vehicles and thus they represent a
potential growing market for auto makers.
Most of the major car manufacturers are
supporting an EV development program to
build electric and/or hybrid vehicles. The
ultimate commercialization of EVs will occur
when a new battery technology is found to
produce batteries with h q h power density (for
good vehcle acceleration), high energy density
(for best range), deep cycle (for long life), low
weight, safe operation, quick recharge,
competitive cost, and are environmentally clean
(for ease of recycling). There is extensive
research in USA, Europe, and Japan to develop
several possible battery technologies for EVs.
Another important factor for the success of
electric propulsion programs is the ability to
design an energy-efficient, reliable, compact,
and low cost electric propulsion systems to
satisfy the challenging vehicle performance
requirements and effectively replace the well
developed internal combustion engine power
train.
The electric propulsion systems (EPS) of
electrichybrid vehicles should have very high
reliability to ensure both convenience and safe
operation of these vehicles on the road. The
designers of the EPS components are looking
for a system which have unique characteristics
such as a motor with fault tolerant capability
(i.e., the ability of the system to continue
operation despite a fault in the motor winding
or the inverter circuits). It is necessary to
decouple the magnetic dependence of the motor
phases and the inverter circuits to continue
operation if one or more phases are disabled.
R i s is denendent on the drive motor choice and
LUtU1gG:acit>fl 2iiJ > * l . ~ t i l f i ~s::;.:<;!i
; 'LX
inverter. The design of the EPS which consists
of the power source (battery and engine), the
electronic drive (inverter), the drive motor, the
gear box, and the reflected inertia of the vehicle
should be handled using a system approach as
opposed to designing each component
separately. The interPCtion of these EPS
components is vital consideration at the initial
design stages to ensure proper matching of the
components to optimize the system performance
to satisfy all the required specifications for
telectridhybrid vehicles. Many system
simulation programs exist which include few of
the EPS components, relying on an energy
balance technique which uses an approximate
representation of these components to determine
the vehicle overall performance and range. This
is quite adequate for h s type of study,
however, more detailed models of the EPS
components in another simulation package are
very desirable for optimum component
matchmg to achieve the best performance under
all operating conditions including partial
component break down and limp home
capability of the vehlcle.
The objective of this paper is to describe such a
simulation program which is concemed with the
detail design level of the main components of
the EPS and the impact of the choice of those
components on the system performance. Thls is
done to give the EPS design engineers an inside
look on the effects of varying the system
component parameters on the system
performance. This will allow better component
sizing, proper matching, and parametric studies
(i.e., the effect of varying different component
parameters on system performance). It will also
allow studying of possible failure modes of the
different EPS components on the overall system
performance to determine the limp home
capability of the vehicle in case of failures in
one or more of the system components. It will
also be possible to study the transient system
performance to properly account for voltage
spikes, over current, thermal limit, ..., etc.
The dynamic simulation program developed is
more useful for design purposes and not to
replace the more general existing simulation
packages which are essential to study vehicle
simulation for different driving cycles (e.g.,
urban, federal and other driving cycles).
?ere fore both Fimiilation m o m m s are needed
k r J L J ~ S N A & s i p *nu cycie ixrrur.:-uiGd
prediction of a d v a n d EPS.
Reviewing the literature "e digital simulation
publications can be found l s 2 simulating the
44
motor, invertet, and sometimes the D C link. In
all papers reviewed, the motor was represeated
with the standard symmetrical two axis machine
theory. The model used in this paper USBB
different technique to model the motor as will
be shown later. P. Franz has provided a
mathematical description of a wound rotor
induction motor fed from a subsynchnous
converter cascade with 6/12 pulse feedback
system. The calculation of the magnetic field in
the airgap was limited only to the fundamea~td
while iron losses in the machine were ignored,
resulting in limited accuracy of the predicted
machine perfomce. A. M. sharaf 2 has
developed a digital simulation program for a
current source inverter feeding an induction
motor to sssess the protection requirements for
a large industrial motor drive system. He
included the DC link and the AC system
dynamics but represented the induction motor
using the standard d q model. The models of
the subsystems were developed separately and
integrated using switching matrices. Many fault
conditions in the inverter and the DC link could
be simulated but no faults in the motor stator or
rotor could be studied.
Descriptionof the basic analysis approach
The designers of the modem EPS components
are sometimes faced with the limitation of the
peak current of the readily available high power
solid state devices used in the inverter, and/or
space limitation for their packaging in the
vehicle. Under these conditions one of the best
solutions is to use two inverters to feed one
motor, utilizing parallel windings in the stator
to achieve this goal. This approach is preferred
to putting the devices in parallel which
sometimes requires extensive device matching
and lowers the reliability of the inverter. Such
excitation configuration creates a need to
develop a mathematical model of the induction
machine with multiple coupled circuits to
simulate the behavior of the mechine with
arbitrary winding distribution and c o n n e ~ t i ~ n ~
for different excitation requiremeuts. The
conventional d q model of AC machines,
however, is based on symmetrical sinusoidally
. ~ i ~ ~ n ~c.x~ CzU :aK C i z d k - z f o r e c rr,'
'3.:
usea to rqresenr a machine with aroirrary
winding distributions. The approach used in
this pa& is superior over thi-standard well-
known d q model of AC machines because it
can represent any non-symmetric connections per Hz or constant stator frequency
and abnormal operating conditions, simulating operation.
various machine and inverter fault scenarios. i i i ) k e n t regulated PWM inverter
(CRPWM) which generates sinusoidal
The analysis method described in this paper is a currents from sine wave current
general purpose real time simulation tool for commands compared with a triangular
induction machines. All machine parameters, carrier.
especially the mutual inductancm between stator
and rotor windings, are time-varying, resulting Basic analysis approach
in a time-varying system. The majority of the Assume an induction machine with m stator
m a c h e parameters are computed in real time circuits and n rotor bars (note that there are m
while the secondary parameters such as end-turn stator circuits instead of m stator phases). The
effects and leakage inductances can be treated as cage can be represented by n identid equally
input constants. Transient and steady-state spaced rotor loops.
performance can be predicted prior to building
the machine by running the simulation program
to steady state from any prescribed starting
Stator Voltage Equations:
conditions. This digital simulation tool can
study the motor drive system transient and From Fig. 1 the stator voltage equations are:
steady state performance before building any
system components and provide understanding
c
of the EPS system performance. under normal
and fault operating conditions to evaluate the
limp home capability of the vehicle. ?Ius is
possible because the model developed here
computes real time machme parameters,
whereas, the standard d q model, used
extensively now, relies on inductance
measurements from the machme terminals to
obtain most of the parameters in the inductance Lsl .I
matrix to predict the system performance.

The basic assumptions made for the derivation

of the stator-rotor mutual inductances are as
follows: Fig 1 Two Circuits of Stator Winding
Saturation in the machine is accounted for
by a fixed coefficient of 1.2.
Stray load losses in the m a c h e are
computed from an impencal formula. Vs = Rs Is i- d.A
Uniform airgap. dt
Slotting is accounted for by Carters
coefficient.
Uniformly distributed cage bars, or
symmetric rotor windings are assumed.
Inverter could be: and
i) Voltage source inverter (VSI) generating
sine wave voltage for either constant
volts per Hz or constant frequency
nrer2tinrl.
.,I : ,>r-:i..:i :;c:t.it!tm. 75 ii;\r::.-
generates PWM voltage according to
sine wave commands compared with a
triangular carrier. It can also be divided
into two branches, a constant voltage

45
The matrix Rs is a diagonal m by m matrix In case of cage rotor, Vr = [ 0 1, the matrix R,
given by: is n by n symmetric and cyclic matrix:

where rsi is the resistance of stator circuit i.

The matrix L,, is a symmetric m by m matrix
due to conservation of energy and has the and the matrix L, is an n by U symmetric
following form: matrix:
Lmr +2(Lb +Lo) Lr I rZ-Lb Lr113 ... L r l m L b
LrZrl-Lb l.mr+Z(Lb+LC) LrzI3-I.b ... LrZm
Lrhl Lr3rZ-Lb Lnu+Z(Lb+LC) ... Lr3m
.Ir=[ ...
Lmrl-Lb ... ... ... ...
LnVZ Lm3 ... Lmr+Z(Lb+Lc)

The mutual inductance matrix L,, IS an m by n In equation (12) L, is the magnetization

matrix comprised of the mutual inductances
between the stator circuits and the rotor loops.
inductance of each rotor loop, Lb is the rotor
bar leakage inductance, Le is the rotor end ring
leakage inductance, and k r k is the mutual
leakage inductance between two rotor loops i
and k.

Torque Equations
Rotor Voltage Equations
From Fig. 2 the rotor voltage equations are:

where 6 is the mechanical angle.

Mechanical Equation
d20
J 7 = T e - T ~
dt
where J is the inertia of the rotor.

Flux Model
Fig 2 Rotor Loops
Rewriting equations (2) and (10):

M
V, = Rr 1, +2 (9)
-1 -1 T
and
LKAr = L L I,
K sr
+ InIr
T where I, is an m by m unit matrix and I, is an
A+= L 1, + L, 1, (IO) -Ibv n unit matnx. Solviw eauations 15) and
~ - L) 1.dbu&.
where matrix LT is the transpose matrix of
sr
matrix Lsr

46
 1) Readindesigndata
This block reads in the design data for the
system components and calculates circuit
resistances, leakage inductances, volume of
From (1) and (9)

-
the stator teeth and core for estimating iron
losses.

START
dA
-= Vr-RrIr
I
dt [Read i n Design Datal
I
I Set lnltlal Conditions]
Thus, the flux model of an induction machine I
can be represented by equations (13) - (20). [Form Matrices Rs & Lss I
I
Calculation Of Inductances (Calculate and Store Cuwes LsdBladLsrlB Yd9 ]
The calculation of the machme inductances as IFrom Matrices Ftr h LrJndu1-
defined by the inductance matrices in the I
previous section is the key to the successful l F o m Matrices Lsr 6 dlsr/dS I
simulation of an induction m a c h e . The [Flnd Is. Ir. Tc 1
machine inductances can be calculated by a I
variety of means including field theory, various [ Flnd Vs b y CRPWMISlnrTrl.11
I
circuit approaches, and finite element method. 1 Integrate s. r. wr.
However, a particularly convenient approach 1
Icr I
known as the method of winding functions is t > tstp?
the most suitable for our case. The method
assumes no symmetry in the placement of any
motor coil in the slots. According to winding
function theory, the mutual inductance between
any two windings "i" and "j" in M Y electric Fig 3 Flowchart of Digital Simulation Program
machme can be computed by:
2??
2) Set initial conditions
Lij(8) = 1r g-'(0.4) Ni(0,d) Nj(e,4) dd(21) As we use flux linkage L, and Lr as state
0 variables, in this block we set zero initial
where 8 is the angular position of the rotor with conditions to all of them.
respect to some stator reference, 9 is a 3) Form matrices R, and Lss
dL& .
particular angular position along the stator inner 4) Calculate and store Lsr(B) and usmg
surface, g-l(&+) is termed the inverse gap the winding function method and store the
function which becomes l/g due to the values in two vectors. The values of these
assumption of a uniform airgap. 1 is the length WO functions are obiained from a look up
of the stack and r is the average radius of table in the derivative block.
airgap. The term Ni(8,d) is called the winding The following blocks are located in the dynamic
function and represents in effect the MMF block of the digital simulation program so that
distribution along the airgap for a unit current they can be repeatedly computed in every
flowing in winding i. The self inductance can integral step.
be calculated when i=j. 5 ) Form sine wave VSI excitation voltage
This block is to produce sine VSI excitation
''ln:v c':?dq:f"'.p P-nrr-a
Slmii; 1<:.*3 ..,:,>.. 'I . .:-e .,,.I-;?
...1:rs
1-2- ','.,:.: : ' - C

timer COI~SWL v o m per I;L 3r w i l s u t

Tne fiow cnan of the aigital simulation program
stator frequency operation.
is given in Fig. 3 and the explanation of its
steps are as follows: 6 ) Form P W VSI excitation voltage

47
 'Ihis block is to produce PWM VSI
excitation only. It generatea PWM voltage
auxmling to sine wnve commrnde Aclolowledgment
compusd with high frequabcy triangular
The authors would like to thank T. Poor",
CIVTicT. It can produce e i k corlmm volts
W. Wylam, and R. P o w of DelCO Remy for
p e r H z o r c o ~ f t . d q u m c y ~ ~
supporting the developnrat of this work rad to
Form matrices R, and &
R. b f t a for reviewing thia paper.

This is done using look up table

Rf#-
Find I, , I,, T,
10) Find <,&, 0;, by integrahon
11) Find B , copper, and iron losses
[l] Franz P., M e y a A., "Digital s
of a complete subs-u
i "
converter casca&
with 6/12 pulse feedback system", IEEE Trpna,
12) Find 4 by CRPWM on power appruptus and systems, vol. PAS-100,
110.12,p.4948-57, Dec. 81.
This block is only to generate voltage mput
by CRPWM [2] Shatof A.M., Gokd P., "Digit91
simulation of current sourcc induction motor for
Repeat blocks 5 to 12 untd the specified protection assessment" Proceedings of the
simulation time is completed. annual Pittsburgh codmeace, vol. 17, pt.2,
published by ISA, Research Triangle Park, NC,
Digital simulation results USA, p.519-523, 1986
Samples of the simulation results are shown
here. The program IS now bemg validated by
comparing pred~cted and test results on a
laboratory standard 215T NEMA frame
mductlon motor. The types of faults that CM be
simulated usmg t h s program mclude:
disconnected phase (open clrcut), shorted stator
cod, short to ground, phase-to-phase short
circmt, broken bar or bars, broken end nng,
vanous device faults. Figures 4, 5 and 6 show
some simulahon results of a standard 215T
NEMA frame motor. It can be seen that the
current, flux density, and torque can be
predicted d u n g vanous fault condibons.

Conclusions
A digit91 simulation progrun has been
developed to predict faults in the motor and/or
the inverter using the winding function
technique. This simulation tool is very useful
for EPS system component designers to help in
proper sizing and matching of the system ....... ."..-..
components. This program is also very helpful 4, !. 1, , L. 6. !.
for wide m g e of industrial applications of
induction motors to predict the current wave
.-,,-:s ,-- ,:' .,_ *.? :r.p
3;i-c.
.. 2 *>,r*:yT p . 2 -
.L.
.A
1 .

e m MY. This w u r a c e me a w n time UT

large industrial motors fed from the 60 Hz
mains or variable-speed applications.

48
49