568 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 24, NO.

4, IULYIAUGUST 1988

Performance Characteristics of Brushless DC

Drives
RENE SPEE, STUDENT MEMBER, IEEE, AND ALAN K. WALLACE, SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE

Abstruct-A simulation model for the performance prediction of EMFs interact. In this case it has been shown that there is
brushless dc drives is used to investigate the speed control obtained from considerable advantage in retaining the motor representation
modulation index and commutation advance variations for a motor of
as an untransformed three-phase system, and detailed studies
complex magnetic circuit geometry powered by a sine-coded PWM
inverter. The results of the study show the effects of motor model of these effects have been presented [9].
complexity on voltage and torque. Optimum performance conditions in The concept of using a three-phase model for permanent-
the field-weakening mode are determined and the value of motors magnet motor drives is not new. Its value has been demon-
employing nonsinusoidal induced voltages is explored. strated for simulation of nonidealized drives, such as those
having appreciable magnetic circuit saturation, unbalanced
I. INTRODUCTION phases (of either motor or inverter), nonsinusoidal EMFs,
nonsinusoidal winding inductances (both self and mutual), and
D EVELOPMENT work on drives using non-dc
permanent-magnet motors of greater-than-fractional
horsepower ratings has been underway for more than a decade
internal faults [lo]-[ 131. The model enables the investigation
of voltage and current waveforms and prediction of torque
pulsation arising from a combination of nonideal features. The
[ 11-[3]. Initially these three-phase machines were intended for
results from simulations of these effects are presented here in
electromechanical actuators, electrohydraulic actuators, and
investigations of both commutation advance and pulsewidth
vehicle propulsion; all systems of high specific cost. More
modulation index as methods of speed control. To obtain
recently, considerable effort has been devoted to the brushless
acceptable run times for computer simulations, which is
dc drive, using motors with nonsinusoidal induced voltages.
particularly significant for PWM operation prediction with a
These drives potentially offer cost-effective energy-efficient
personal computer, a method of dynamically selecting the
alternatives to both domestic induction motor drives and
numerical integration step length has been developed [ 141.
automotive dc motor drives. Possible applications include air
conditioninglheat pump systems and large appliances in the 11. DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFORMANCE COMPUTATIONS
domestic area, and engine cooling fans and failsafe power
A . The System Model
steering for automobiles. All of these uses may depend upon
motors of novel configurations, powered from transistor The simulation technique is based on the model shown in
inverters with pulsewidth modulation (PWM) control. Fig. 1, for which no assumptions are necessary (other than
To avoid the high costs involved with repeated prototyping magnetic linearity) for the general phase-winding equation
of both motors and inverters, modeling and simulation is
important. For an understanding of basic principles and
development of control strategies, such as speed control by the
equivalent of field-weakening techniques, a simple representa-
tion akin to equivalent circuits is appropriate [4], [5]. When
the drive itself is a component in a control system where
dynamic response to rapidly changing requirements may be of to be valid at any instant in time. Although three phases are
interest, the generalized d-q axis model is probably the most shown in Fig. 1, a form of (1) can be developed for any
effective means of representation [6]-[8]. number of phases. The corresponding equation for the
However, the designer/developer of a brushless dc drive electrical torque developed by the motor is
must have access to information on the interactions of power
electronic devices and measurable (or predictable) motor P aw,(Z e,)
parameters. This is of particular importance where PWM Te=-
inverters and trapezoidal (or other nonsinusoidal) motor
2 ae,
which is expended overcoming inertia, drag, and load as
Paper IPCSD 8 7 4 5 , approved by the Electric Machines Committee of the follows:
IEEE Industry Applications Society for presentation at the 1987 Industry
Applications Society Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, October 19-23. Manu-
script released for publication December 14, 1987.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer-
ing, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331.
IEEE Log Number 8820173. Definitions of the terms used in these equations are given in

0093-9994/88/0700-0568$01.OO O 1988 IEEE

SPEE AND WALLACE: PERFORMANCE OF BRUSHLESS DC DRIVES 569

-----f
’ cs
Fig. 1. System circuit diagram

the Nomenclature; these are the actual phase variables and

related parameters of the machine at the specific time interval
being considered.
The inverter model is a set of switches. From the character-
istics of the devices, “on-state’’ voltage drops and/or small
finite resistances can be added into the phase impedances of
the motor as appropriate for the conduction conditions.
Combining the motor and converter equations in this way
enables time-domain solutions by numerical integration meth-
ods such as Runge-Kutta. This constitutes a state variable
approach with dynamic updating of the equation parameters.
When this technique is used to simulate non-steady-state
inverter operation, particularly for a PWM scheme which
derives its switching operations from the comparison of Steel Core Permanent Magnets
sinusoidal and triangular reference signals, it is essential that
Fig 2 C r o s section of prototype motor
the choice of integration step length be such that none of the
switching operations is missed. Choosing very small step
lengths can ensure that this does not happen, to within an
acceptable tolerance, but the resulting computational times
become prohibitively long and have the potential of introduc-
ing considerable rounding errors. This problem has been
successfully overcome by a technique that continuously
updates the integration step size, subject to constraints of
accuracy and numerical stability [ 141.
The basis for the technique is an examination of the events
that would occur within a maximum permissible time step
length, which is dictated by the PWM switching frequency and
the time constants of system components. If it is determined I
that an operational state transition would be missed, the step Fig. 3 . Induced open-circuit phase voltage
length is reduced and an interpolative procedure determines
the system conditions that would be valid at the time of the
switching operation. Simulation of the startup through one full sectional schematic of the four-pole motor is shown in Fig. 2 .
period of steady-state operation of a 2.5-kHz PWM drive was The windings are single-layer and undistributed so that,
obtained in approximately 2 min of personal computer time. In combined with the effects of the shaping of the neodymium
comparison, a simulation using small fixed step lengths alloy magnets, the induced open-circuit phase voltage was
required computer runs of 1 h or more. virtually trapezoidal as shown in Fig. 3. This design has
secondary effects that result from the square section shape of
B. The Developmental Drive System the ferromagnetic part of the rotor. Phase winding inductances
A prototype motor and a sine-coded synchronous PWM and interphase mutual inductances have the forms shown in
inverter were used as the basis for this simulation study. A Figs. 4 and 5. As was explained in the previous paper [9],
570 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 24, NO. 4, JULYIAUGUST 1988

260 r monic components, rms values, and mean values. These can
then be applied to allocate system losses and estimate stresses
for the various system components.
While the simulation results are being developed it is also of
interest to compare predictions obtained by use of either the
“exact” or ‘‘sinusoidal’’ effective equivalent motor model
parameters. These serve as an indicator of the necessity of
model complexity and also provide a guide for designers on
the effects of motor geometry and winding formation.
The results presented in the following subsections were
obtained for a drive designed to produce 1.47 Nm from
L I I I I I I I
standstill up to 11 0o0 r/min operating from a 270-V dc (i.e.,
0 100 200 300
rotor angle (el. degrees) 300 V - 10%) supply. The four-pole motor has the following
Fig. 4. Motor phase inductance. parameters:
phase resistance 0.3 0;
rotor angle (el. degrees) phase inductance and mutual as shown in Figs. 4 and 5,
0 IO0 200 300
1 I I I 1 1 I
respectively;
effective flux linkage 0.0525 V per el rad/s;
moment of inertia 28 x kgm2.
The study assumed a PWM fundamental chopping ratio of 21
and investigated the effects of various modulation indices and
advance angles for operation of a load of constant rated torque
and negligible mechanical damping.

A . Phase Voltages and Currents

The voltage applied to the motor by the inverter can be
determined directly from the chopping ratio and the modula-
tion index. The voltages that will be measured at the motor
-I4OL
terminals result from the interaction of the applied voltages,
Fig. 5 . Motor mutual inductance. the rotationally induced voltages, and the effects of winding
currents and impedances. The resulting forms of phase voltage
these EMF and inductance waveforms can be represented by for “exact” and “sinusoidal” model representation are
relatively simple explicit functions. However, these forms do compared at rated torque and balance speed in Figs. 6(a) and
not transform readily to a d-q axis model without initially 6(b) for a modulation index of 0.9 and a phase advance of 10”
being replaced by the approximate equivalent sinusoidal electrical using a base value of 2 7 0 / a V. The effects of the
functions, which can either meet the maximum variations of phase advance are noticeable in introducing a slight ripple in
the exact forms, as indicated in Figs. 4 and 5, or be derived as the “sinusoidal” representation, which becomes very pro-
fundamental components. Having the sinusoidal inductance nounced in the exact model case.
representations meet the peaks of the exact forms requires only As expected, the current waveforms corresponding to the
two inductance measurements and thus greatly simplifies the voltages of Fig. 6 are predominantly sinusoidal with small
evaluation of a prototype motor. The time saved over taking harmonic components. There is little difference in the values
enough measurements to allow for the determination of the obtained from the two representations. The results of the study
fundamental component via Fourier transform will especially of the effects of commutation advance and modulation index
be appreciated in an industrial environment. on the rms current predicted for balance conditions is shown in
Fig. 7 for a base of 10 A. This indicates a minimum current
111. PERFORMANCE
PREDICTIONS condition will be reached between 2” and 3 ” of advance. An
The purpose of the study presented here was to investigate analysis that supports the numerical predictions is presented in
the effectiveness of modulation index ( M ) and commutation the Appendix. Beyond the minimum current condition, the
advance (a)as methods of speed control for a constant load “field weakening” effect is apparent for all values of
torque system. In addition, for domestic and automotive modulation index.
applications, efficiency and the frequency and magnitude of
torque pulsations are of interest if the drive is to be B. Motor Shaft Torque
incorporated as part of a system. This will enable the The motor torque will depend on many mechanical design
prediction of complete system performance and will help in features, such as rotodshaft construction, bearings and
avoiding mechanical resonance problems. Finally, the detailed couplings, which are not considered here, and the developed
drive design will benefit from predictions of voltage and electrical torque. The electrical torque has a constant compo-
current waveforms which allow for the calculation of har- nent, equal to the load at the balance condition, plus significant
SPEE AND WALLACE: PERFORMANCE OF BRUSHLESS DC DRIVES 57 1
2 T
I 6o r
M 0.7

al
40
-- - - __ - -
.............
M.09
c

0 4 8 12 16
commutation advance (el degrees)

(h)
Fig. 8. Torque ripple. (a) Exact representation (b) Sinusodal representa-
tion.

30 31 32 33 a
v

time (ms)
0)
a
Lo
(b) 08
Fig. 6. Phase voltage waveforms. (a) Exact representation. (b) Sinusoidal
reprewntation. ’E

commutation advance (el degrees)

Fig. 9. Motor speed. (a) Exact representation. (b) Sinusoidal representation.

index serves to reduce torque pulsations, as does initial

commutation advance. However, beyond an advance region of
6-10”, the “exact” model predicts a return to increasing
I I I I I I I I I
torque ripple: this feature is absent from the ‘‘sinusoidal”
0 4 8 I2 16 representation predictions.
commutation advance (el. degrees)
Fig. 7. Motor rms phase current C. Motor Speed
The balance speed attained by the motor as a function of
pulsations. This torque ripple content can be calculated from commutation advance is compared for the “exact” and
instantaneous electromagnetic torque, T,(t), and mean torque, “sinusoidal” representations for two modulation indices in
T,,,,,,, as follows: Fig. 9 (base speed 11 OOO r/min). Only for large commutation
advance angles is there a significant difference in the results
for the two modeling approaches considered.

I mean
Comparisons of predictions for “exact” and ‘‘sinusoidal”
model representation are shown in Figs. 8(a) and 8(b). The
corresponding current waveforms, however, do not exhibit
such marked differences when computed by “exact” or
“sinusoidal” methods. Therefore the difference in predicted
torque ripple is attributable mainly to the nonsinusoidal EMF
of the “exact” representation and, to a lesser degree, the
interaction of slight differences of current and inductance. For
either type of model representation the increase of modulation
D. Motor Efficiency
The major contributor to motor loss derives from winding
resistance. Consequently, overall efficiency is expected to
suffer as commutation advance is increased to promote field
weakening. However, because minimum currents are not
expected at zero commutation advance, as shown in the
Appendix, efficiency may initially be improved by a small
degree of field weakening, which depends upon the parame-
ters of the machine and its operating conditions. This is shown
for the motor design under consideration here, with a
modulation index of 0.7, in Fig. 10. More detailed studies are
572
100 r
4 8 12 16
commutation advance (el. degrees)
Fig. 10. Motor efficiency.
needed to account for high-frequency converter and motor
losses.
IV. CONCLUSION
The three-phase state variable model employed in the study
has advantages in that it enables direct computation of inverter
component ratings and representation of unbalanced (e.g.,
fault condition) operation, as has been shown in previous
studies [9], [ 121. The additional development of a technique
for detailed simulation of PWM operation now makes more
general performance predictions possible without excessive
computational requirements. In particular, the sensitivity of
drive performance to variations in commutation advance and
modulation index can be investigated.
It has been shown that the complexity of the “exact”
modeling of motor EMF and inductances is warranted if
voltage waveforms and torque pulsations are required of the
simulation. For most other performance features, the predic-
tions obtained from the “sinusoidal” representation (equiva-
lent to d-q axis models) will be adequate.
For drives intended for operation at small commutation
advance angles in order to optimize efficiencies, it has been
shown that reduced torque ripple is a benefit derived from
trapezoidal induced voltage, even with sinusoidal PWM
NOMENCLATURE
Commutation advance angle.
Mechanical damping coefficient of motor and
load.
Motor current vector.
Direct and quadrature axis currents.
Moment of inertia of motor and load.
Permanent-magnet flux linkage vector as viewed
from the stator.
Amplitude of the per-phase magnetic flux linkages
as viewed from the stator.
Motor inductance matrix as function of rotor
position.
Components of self inductance.
Effective motor axis inductance.
Modulation index; ratio of the amplitudes of
reference sine and modulation waves.
Number of poles.
Differential operator B d / d t .
Motor resistance matrix.
Motor phase resistance.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 24, NO. 4, JULYIAUGUST 1988
Rotor angle in electrical degrees from a reference
phase winding axis.
Shaft speed.
Electrical torque developed by motor.
Load torque.
Waveform period.
Motor applied voltage vector.
Fundamental component of applied phase voltage.
Direct and quadrature axis voltages.
Energy stored in the coupling field.
APPENDIX
The results of computations to determine the effects of
commutation advance angle ( a )on the rms current and motor
efficiency are given in Figs. 7 and 10, respectively. These
indicate that the motor being considered here will operate with
minimum winding losses when the commutation advance is in
the region of 2-3 electrical degrees. The determination of this
optimum angle in an analytical manner is approached by i)
simplifying the representation of the motor to an approximate
case of balanced symmetrical windings having constant
inductances (both self and mutuals) and sinusoidal induced
voltages, and ii) simplifying the excitation by considering only
the fundamental component of the applied voltage (VI).
With these simplifications the performance equations can be
transformed to the rotor reference frame [8] with the following
results (neglecting leakage and mechanical damping):
digs
-
uqs= V , cos a = r s i q s + e r ( L s i d s + X ~ ) + Ls
dt
did,
Uds = - VI sin a = rsids- 6,L,iq, + L, -
dt
3P 2 d .
T e =2- -2A ~ i q s = JP- -dt
68,+TL.
Since only the quadrature axis current is torque-producing, it
follows that optimum operation should result if the system
control forces the direct axis current to zero [15]. With this
constraint and for steady-state operation, (Al) reduce to
and
3P
- - A;iqs= TL. (-43)
22
Thus, for a specific example of a motor of known flux linkages
which is required to produce constant load torque, the
quadrature axis current can be calculated and used to optimize
the advance angle. From (A2)
a=tan-l( Lsiqser . ).
rsiqs+Ak6,
SPEE AND WALLACE: PERFORMANCE OF BRUSHLESS DC DRIVES
-1
300
200
advance angle (el deg. x 100)
IO0
rated speed
0 5000 10,000 15.000
speed (rlmin)
Fig. 11. Optimum-efficiency control algorithm.
In turn, this can be used to specify the system voltage from
A test of this approach, using the machine described in Section
111, driving a constant load of 1.47 Nm, forcing ids to zero, and
calculating iqs as 9.32 A, results in the control algorithm and
resulting efficiency characteristic shown in Fig. 11. Consider-
ing the approximations made, this shows good correlation with
the exact simulation results presented in Section 111.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank Versatron Corporation of
Healdsburg, CA, for their help in providing the prototype
motor.
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131 M. A. Rahman, “High efficiency permanent-magnet synchronous
motors,’’ in Conf.Record ZEEE-ZAS Ann. Meeting, 1979, pp. 561-
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N. A. Demerdash and T. W. Nehl, “Dynamic modeling of brushless dc
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MAG-17, no. 6, pp. 3284-3286, 1981.
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R. Spee, A. K. Wallace, and J. Davis, ”Modeling of brushless d.c.
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Record of the Sixth International Conf.on Mathematical Modeling
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Rene Spee (S’84) was born in Stuttgart, West
Germany. He attended the University of Stuttgart
and Oregon State University, where he received the
M.S. degree in electrical engineering in 1984.
Currently he is finishing his dissertation on brush-
less dc drives and will receive the Ph.D. degree
from Oregon State University in 1988.
His areas of interest include brushless dc drives,
ac adjustable-speed drives, and power electronic
systems.
Alan K. Wallace (M’75-SM’84) was born in
Sheffield, England, in 1942. He received the
B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical power
engineering from the University of Sheffield in
1963 and 1966, respectively.
From 1966 to 1967 he worked with Imperial
Chemical Industries on the application of digital
computers to process control. In 1967 he joined the
University of Nottingham and taught electrical
machine design and power system analysis until
1974. From 1974 to 1984 he was engaged in design
and development activities in the ground transportation industry in Canada.
He worked with Spar Aerospace of Toronto and Canadair Services, and was
Manager of Power Distribution with Metro Canada Limited (a wholly owned
subsidiary of the Urban Transportation Development Corporation) located in
Kingston, ON. In 1984 he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at Oregon State University, Covallis. His interests are primarily
in adjustable-speeddrives and power electronic applications.
Dr. Wallace is a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (London,
U.K.) and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario.