A flux-based PMSM motor model using RBF

interpolation for time-stepping simulations

G. Weidenholzer, S. Silber, G. Jungmayr, G. Bramerdorfer, H. Grabner, W. Amrhein
Austrian Center of Mechatronics (ACCM)
Altenbergerstrasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria
Phone: +43 (732) 2468-6078
E-mail: guenther.weidenholzer@accm.co.at

Abstract—This paper describes an advanced method of mod-
eling synchronous machines, in particular interior permanent
magnet (IPM) motors. The dynamic motor model considers
magnetic saturation and the dependence of electrical, magnetic
and mechanical quantities on the rotation angle, and can be
integrated into multidisciplinary system simulations. A set of
magnetic finite element method (FEM) solutions is used to set up
the model based on radial basis function (RBF) interpolation. The
presented motor model can be used to simulate any time-stepping
cases, such as studies of field weakening control, sensorless
motor control algorithms or short circuit behavior. No magnetic
FEM simulation is needed at runtime. We demonstrate the
functionality of our method using the example of a BLDC motor
simulation with voltage block commutation. The model derivated
results are in good accordance with our measurements.
Index Terms—PMSM, IPM, BLDC, dynamic machine model,
flux-based model, circuit field coupled simulation, radial basis
function, thin-plate spline, block commutation mode, field weak-
ening, sensorless control from zero speed
N OMENCLATURE
ω Electric angular frequency
ψ1 , ψ2 , ψ3 Phase fluxes
ψd , ψq Direct and quadrature axis flux
ϕ Electric angle of the rotor
i1 , i2 , i3 Phase currents
id , iq Direct and quadrature axis current
m Number of phases
N Number of simulated load cases
n Number of simulated rotor positions
RS Ohmic phase resistance
T Torque
u1 , u2 , u3 Phase voltages
ud , uq Direct and quadrature axis voltage
I. I NTRODUCTION
The development of highly dynamic and precise electromag-
netic actuators for automotive applications and industrial so-
lutions requires more than conventional motor design methods
can provide. Some requirements are self-evident, such as low
power consumption, weight, torque ripple, or high material
and cost efficiency. Additionally, acceleration, accuracy of
positioning, wide operation range, inverter and sensor costs,
and the cooling conditions must be considered and optimized.
To analyze such complex problems, the dynamic system model
including all the mechanics, the thermal model, and the control
algorithms relating to the actuator must be simulated in time
domain.
Carrying out dynamic simulations employing time-stepping
solvers is an important technique in mechatronic design studies
and optimizations. The behavior of electrical drives as part
of an overall system study can be considered accurately by
carrying out circuit-field-coupled transient finite-element co-
simulations [1]. A huge drawback of this method is its exces-
sive calculation time, as each time step involves an FEM field
calculation. Even a slight change in the dynamic model or the
constraints requires a recalculation of the magnetic field prob-
lem from scratch. An approach that avoids this disadvantage
by applying magnetic network models was published in [2]. It
is, however, less accurate than FEM-based calculations. The
method proposed in [3] uses a machine model, where the
inductances depend on the phase currents and the rotor angle.
Experience shows that flux-based motor models offer clear
advantages concerning the numerical stability of the time-
stepping solvers. Kano et al. [4] explained a technique for
setting up a flux-based machine model in the rotating dq-
reference frame constructed from FEM calculation results,
which maps core saturation and rotor position dependencies.
The method introduced in this paper has been developed
independently but with the same objectives. It shows the
advantage of additionally considering cogging torque and can
be automated easily without user interaction.
II. F LUX - BASED PMSM MODEL IN THE ORTHOGONAL
ROTATING REFERENCE FRAME
A. Dynamic model
The dynamic behaviour of a PM motor (e.g., Fig. 1) is given
by the stator voltage equations
d ψd
ud = R id + − ω ψq (1)
dt
d ψq
uq = R iq + + ω ψd (2)
dt
in the rotating dq-reference frame [5]. Due to saturation, the
torque
T = T (id , iq , ϕ)

978-1-4673-4974-1/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 1418

 simulation, while the resulting flux signals values have to be
transformed back from m phases into dq-coordinates.
The resulting signals are ψd,k (ϕj ), ψq,k (ϕj ), and Tk (ϕj ),
(Fig. 3, 4, and 5 ) where k = 1..N and j = 1..n. The colors in
Figs. 2 to 5 reflect different d-currents. The signals are sampled
n times per electrical period at presumed equal intervals
Each signal can be expressed as a Fourier series, in order to
interpolate between the angular samples within a time-stepping
algorithm. Figures 6, 7, and 8 show snapshots of the relations
ψd (id , iq ), ψq (id , iq ), and T (id , iq ) at a particular rotor angle.
A significant property of the Park transformation into the ro-
tating dq-reference frame is that it enforces angular symmetry
about 360°/m of each dq-quantitiy.
As previously mentioned, the relation between currents and
Figure 1. PMSM cross section fluxes must be inverted to match (8) and (9). Even though
id and iq can be placed on an accurate grid, ψd and ψq
are nonuniformly distributed generally. Therefore, multidimen-
and the flux components depend nonlinearily on the stator sional interpolation methods for scattered data are required.
current, and all these quantities are functions of the rotation
angle: III. RBF I NTERPOLATION
Most of the techniques for interpolating scattered data in
multidimensions are either kriging methods or based on RBF
ψd = ψd (id , iq , ϕ) (3) interpolation [6]. Our motor model uses the RBF method for
ψq = ψq (id , iq , ϕ) . (4) reasons of simplicity. Since explaining the theory of radial
basis functions is beyond the scope of this paper, only the
The torque can be expressed by
basic idea will be presented. For more details about radial
T = T (id , iq , ϕ) (5) basis functions, refer to [7], [8], [9].
RBFs are suited to interpolate N scattered data points fi
without loss of accuarcy in terms of saturation and harmonics. given at xi of dimension d. The interpolating function
Assuming that the function
    N
ψd i
X
= Lϕ d (6) s(x) = wi φ (kx − xi k2 ) + p(x), x ∈ Rd (10)
ψq iq i=1

is bijective for each ϕ, it can be inverted. The current phasor is a weighted sum of translations of a radially symmetric basic
components functions, augmented by a polynomial term p(x).
    For functions of two variables (x = [x y]T ), the thin-plate
id −1 ψd
= Lϕ (7) spline
iq ψq φ(r) = r2 log(r) (11)
combined with the stator voltage equations (1), and (2) give
is a good choice of RBF kernel and
a system of first-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs)
with the state variables ψd and ψq . The formulation p(x) = a0 + ax x + ay y (12)
d ψd a suitable polynomial term. The kernel function is physically
= ud − R id (ψd , ψq , ϕ) + ω ψq (8)
dt motivated and minimizes the bending energy of a thin plate
d ψq clamped at the points fi at the positions xi .
= uq − R iq (ψd , ψq , ϕ) − ω ψd (9)
dt The equations above yield a nonsingular linear problem
is well suited for the implementation in a time-stepping     
simulation model, because there is no need for time derivation L P w f
= (13)
blocks. PT 0 a 0

B. FEM pre-simulation with

In practice, a set of N load case simulations is organized as
a grid, as pictured in Fig. 2. The diagrams shown correspond
to the simulation results of the example motor described
in section IV. Of course, the excitation currents must be
transformed into the non-rotating stator coordinate system in
order to obtain m sinusoidal phase currents prior to the FEM
Li,j = φ kxi − xj k2 + λIi,j ,


(14)
where i, j = 1...N , Pi = [1 xi yi ], and a = [a0 ax ay ]T .
Small values of the smoothing parameter λ produce more
exact approximations at the supporting points, while greater
values produces smoother interpolation. Since the solution of
the linear problem (13) has been derived, the weights w and

1419
 20 0.02

15 0.015
q−axis current / A

d−axis flux / Vs
10
0.01

5
0.005

0
0
−10 −5 0 5 10 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
d−axis current / A Rotor angle / °el.

Figure 2. FE-Simulation load cases

Figure 3. d-axis flux components of simulated load cases

−3
x 10
12

10 0.8

8 0.6
Torque / Nm
q−axis flux / Vs

6
0.4
4

2 0.2

0 0
−2
−0.2
−4 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360 Rotor angle / °el.
Rotor angle / °el.

Figure 5. Torque of simulated load cases

Figure 4. q-axis flux components of simulated load cases

Figure 6. direct axis flux ψd (id , iq ) Figure 7. quadrature axis flux Figure 8. torque T (id , iq ) at ϕ = 0°
at ϕ = 0° ψq (id , iq ) at ϕ = 0°

1420
 2
phi

1 omega
omega idq dq0
InvPark abc 1
phi
i_123
phi
Inverse Park Transform

3 abc torque 2
u_123 Park dq udq
torque
phi

Park Transform
Motor model

Figure 9. ebmpapst ECI-63.40 BLDC motor

Figure 14. Simulink Model

1
psid 3−D T(u)
omega u1
psiq torque
u2 2

u3
torque
the stator flux by using the RBF-interpolation technique. Figs.
K*u [0,−1; 1,0] Torque table
10 and 11 plot the results for the current phasor components
1
psid
u1
3−D T(u)
for rotor angle ϕ = 0º; the associated torque is shown in Fig.
3 psid psiq id
udq
s
Integrator1
psiq
u2

u3
12.
id Table
1 Using finite element simulation results in a
idq

K*u
Rs
psid
u1
3−D T(u)
MATLAB® /Simulink simulation requires evaluating the
psiq
u2
iq
interpolating RBFs on a three-dimensional regular grid in
2
phi
u3

iq Table
order to feed multidimensional lookup-table blocks. The first
two dimensions of the grid represent the d- and the q-axis
components of the stator flux vector. The RBF problems
must be solved and evaluated for each of the discretized
Figure 13. dq-motor model
rotor angles, which are mapped by the third dimension of the
lookup tables. The angular symmetry, explained in section
the polynomial coefficients a are known, and the interpolation II-B, means that, in the case of the reference motor, it is
function (10) can be evaluated for arbitrary values x. sufficient to map 60° (el.) and then to repeat the table data
Note that the values x should not exceed the space of the accordingly..
supporting values xi . The convex hull of all known points can Fig. 13 shows the machine model subsystem, which is
be used to check if x is located inside the valid range. composed of the ODEs (8) and (9) and the 3D lookup
tables. On the input side of the motor model in Fig. 14,
IV. E XAMPLE : BLDC BLOCK COMMUTATION OPERATION a Park transformation block transforms the phase voltages
into the dq-reference frame; on the output side, an inverse
Table I
R EFERENCE MOTOR PARAMETERS
Park transformation block calculates the corresponding three
phase currents. A suitable state machine must be established
Quantity Symbol Value Unit to control the block commutation cycle. In block operation
Number of pole pairs pz 2 mode, one terminal is floating when no commutation is in
Number of slots Ns 6
Number of windings per tooth wc 40 progress. Since the simulation model expects impressed termi-
Phase connection star nal voltages, a fast PI-controller can be used as a workaround
Coil connection series to enforce the voltage of the floating terminal such that the
Magnet grade N38
Stator diameter dso 55.85 mm terminal current equals zero.
Rotor diameter dro 27 mm
Core length lf e 40 mm B. Comparison with measurements
Phase resistance Rs 180 mΩ

Table II
To show the functionality of the proposed motor model, M OTOR LOAD POINT
we present the analysis of a BLDC motor ebmpapst ECI- Quantity Symbol Value Unit
63.40 (Fig. 9) with the parameters listed in Table I and the Speed n 3000 rpm
cross-section shown in Fig. 1. The simulation of the IPM Commutation offset angle β 0 °
motor model operated in block voltage mode is an interesting DC bus voltage UDC 19.4 V
practical example. Compared to sinusoidal operated machines,
BLDC motors behave quite differently. To verify the simulation methods described above, a specific
motor load point (Tab. II) was measured on a motor test rig
A. Simulation comprising a torque sensor and a load machine. An accurate
As shown in section II-B, the current phasor components in power analyzer system was used to record the waveforms
the rotating reference frame can be expressed as functions of of voltage, current, and torque quantities. In our experience,

1421
 1.5
15 20

10 1
15

torque / Nm
d−axis current / A

q−axis current / A
5
10 0.5
0
5 0
−5

−10 0
−0.5
10
−15 −5
10 10
5
5 0.02 5 0.02 −3
x 10
−3
0.015 −3
0.015 0.02
x 10 x 10 0
0 0 0.015
0.01 0.01
q−axis flux / Vs 0.01
q−axis flux / Vs −5 0.005 d−axis flux / Vs q−axis flux / Vs −5 0.005 d−axis flux / Vs −5 0.005 d−axis flux / Vs

Figure 10. direct axis current Figure 11. quadrature axis current Figure 12. torque T (ψd , ψq ) at ϕ =
id (ψd , ψq ) at ϕ = 0° iq (ψd , ψq ) at ϕ = 0° 0°

0.5

20 0.4
phase to phase voltage / V

10
torque / Nm
0.3

0
0.2
−10
0.1
−20
measured average simulated
0
−30 measured simulated 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
time / s
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
time / s Figure 17. Torque waveform of a block commutation cycle

Figure 15. Phase-to-phase voltage of a block commutation cycle

perfect angular sensor measurement and practically consant

speed are essential to obtaining waveforms that are comparable
to the simulated data.
15
Figures 15, 16, and 17 illustrate the return on this investment
10 of effort. Current and voltage results accord well with the
measurements, while the average torque deviates due to iron
5 losses, which are not yet included in the motor model. Rotor
phase current / A

inertia rendered recording the torque ripple impossible.

0

−5
C. Current and flux trajectories
−10
Figures 18 and 19 show the simulated block commutation
−15 mode trajectories of the phase current, and the flux phasors.
measured simulated
−20
Interestingly, due to the inductive phase lag, the d-component
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 of the current phasor is mostly positive. For particular rotor
time / s configuration, the reluctance torque lowers the total torque if
id > 0. Thus, increasing the commutation offset angle β is
Figure 16. Phase current of a block commutation cycle
advisable in order to achieve a reluctance torque greater than
zero.

1422
 −3
x 10 which has been under development at the Austrian Center of
Mechatronics (ACCM).

7 VI. O UTLOOK
As part of future work, we will refine our model by ad-
q−axis flux / Vs

ditionally considering iron losses. A generalized model could

6.5
also support separately excited and hybrid excited motors. For
further optimization, we are considering use of the Shepard
6 interpolation [6] , a special case of RBF that does not require
matrix inversion in order to obtain the interpolating function.
5.5 ACKNOLEDGEMENT
2 phases active
commutation This work was conducted within the strategic research pro-
5 gram at the Austrian Center of Competence in Mechatronics
0.0125 0.013 0.0135 0.014 0.0145 0.015 (ACCM), which is a part of the COMET K2 program of the
d−axis flux / Vs
Austrian Government. The projects are kindly supported by
Figure 18. Simulated flux trajectory of a block commutation cycle the Austrian Government, the Upper Austrian Government
and Johannes Kepler University, Linz. The authors thank all
partners involved for their support, with special thanks to ebm-
12.5
papst St. Georgen GmbH & Co. KG, the manufacturer of the
brushless-DC motor, who provided the technical data of the
12
BLDC for this study.
q−axis current / A

11.5
11
10.5
10
2 phases active
commutation
9.5
−4 −2 0 2 4 6
d−axis current / A
Figure 19. Simulated current trajectory of a block commutation cycle
V. C ONCLUSION
The dynamic motor model described in this paper is based
on magnetostatic FEM simulations and allows fast system-
level simulations to be performed using a time-stepping solver
without no need for an FEM calculation during computation.
The flux-based motor model was tested in a voltage block
commutation application. Our simulation completes within
seconds, whereas a comparable transient simulation takes
at least several minutes. With the exception of the phase
resistance, which is measured, the model is based purely
on simulation results. Simulated and measured waveforms
matched almost perfectly in our experiments. Further, our
motor model is optimally suited to analyzing sophisticated
control methods, such as sensorless motor control at zero
speed, where cross-saturation effects must be considered [10].
Due to its good performance and accuracy, and because
the model setup can be implemented fully automatically, our
method was chosen as the core functionality of the Mo-
tor Postprocessing Library of the MagOpt software product,
R EFERENCES
[1] Y. Wang, K. Chau, C. Chan, and J. Jiang, “Transient analysis of a
new outer-rotor permanent-magnet brushless dc drive using circuit-field-
torque coupled time-stepping finite-element method,” Magnetics, IEEE
Transactions on, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 1297 –1300, mar 2002.
[2] H. Goto and O. Ichinokura, “A new analytical model of ipm motor based
on magnetic reluctance matrix,” in Electrical Machines (ICEM), 2010
XIX International Conference on, sept. 2010, pp. 1 –4.
[3] O. Mohammed, S. Liu, Z. Liu, and A. Khan, “Improved physics-
based permanent magnet synchronous machine model obtained from
field computation,” in Electric Machines and Drives Conference, 2009.
8 IEMDC ’09. IEEE International, may 2009, pp. 1088 –1093.
[4] Y. Kano, K. Watanabe, T. Kosaka, and N. Matsui, “A novel approach for
circuit-field-coupled time-stepping electromagnetic analysis of saturated
interior pm motors,” Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions on,
vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 1325 –1333, july-aug. 2009.
[5] P. Vas, Electrical machines and drives: a space-vector theory approach,
ser. Monographs in electrical and electronic engineering. Clarendon
Press, 1992.
[6] W. H. Press, S. A. Teukolsky, W. T. Vetterling, and B. P. Flannery,
Numerical Recipes 3rd Edition: The Art of Scientific Computing, 3rd ed.
Cambridge University Press, 2007.
[7] R. L. Hardy, “Multiquadric equations of topography and other irregular
surfaces,” Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 76, no. 8, pp. 1905–
1915, 1971.
[8] M. D. Buhmann, “Radial basis functions,” Acta Numerica 2000, vol. 9,
no. 2, pp. 1–38, 2000.
[9] M. Buhmann, Radial basis functions: theory and implementations, ser.
Cambridge monographs on applied and computational mathematics.
Cambridge University Press, 2003.
[10] P. Guglielmi, M. Pastorelli, and A. Vagati, “Cross-saturation effects
in ipm motors and related impact on sensorless control,” Industry
Applications, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 42, no. 6, pp. 1516 –1522,
nov.-dec. 2006.

1423