Experimental results of the current-source PWM inverter

fed induction motor drive with an open-loop

stator current control
Mika Salo and Heikki Tuusa
Department of Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics
Tampere University of Technology
P.O.Box 692, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland
Abstract- In this paper the control of the current-source PWM
inverter fed induction motor drive is discussed. The vector control
system of the induction motor is realized in a rotor flux oriented
reference frame, where only the measured angular rotor speed and the
dc link current are needed for motor control. Methods to damp the
stator current oscillations and to compensate the capacitive currents
drawn by the load filter are presented. The proposed methods operate
in an open-loop manner and can be realized without measurement of
any electrical variable. With the presented open-loop control methods
the motor current sensors can be totally eliminated since the
stator current measurements are not needed either for protection
in the current source inverter fed drives. The proposed control
methods are realized using a single-chip Motorola MC68HC916Y1
microcontroller. The experimental tests show excellent performance in
both steady state and transient conditions.

In the PWM current-source inverters a C filter has to be inserted

on the load side to reduce the current harmonics. Due to the
capacitive currents of the filter the motor current references are not
realized accurately, which may cause unsatisfactory performance. A
few methods [1,2], which are based on the measurement of the stator
voltages and/or currents, have been reported to solve the problem.
On the other hand, the C filter and the machine inductances form
a resonance circuit which is stimulated especially when the stator
current references are changed. Some methods [3,4], based on the
measurement of the stator voltages and/or currents have been
proposed to damp the stator current oscillations in the transient
conditions. However, in PWM-CSI drives stator current
measurements are not needed for protection since the overcurrent
can be detected with the dc link current sensor. It is therefore
preferable to use control methods where stator current
measurements are not needed because in that case the motor current
sensors can be totally eliminated.
The authors of this paper presented earlier control methods [5] to
damp the stator current oscillations and to compensate the
capacitive currents taken by the load filter in an open-loop manner.
The proposed methods are based on the combined equations of the
load filter and motor and can be realized without measurement of
any electrical variable. The functioning of the presented methods
was verified by simulation. In this paper, the experimental results of
the PWM-CSI fed induction motor drive with an open-loop stator
current control are presented.

I. INTRODUCTION
The rapid development of power and micro electronics in recent
years allows the use of the induction machine also in high
performance motor drives. At low- and medium power level the
variable speed induction motor drives are usually realized using
PWM voltage-source inverters (PWM-VSI). However, the
switched voltages yield high du/dt-voltage slopes over the stator
windings, which stresses the insulations and causes bearing current
problems. A possible solution for this problem is the use of a PWM
current-source inverter (PWM-CSI) (Fig. 1). Both the voltages and
the currents of the machine are almost sinusoidal and therefore the
voltage stresses in the machine windings are lower.

L dc

Line bridge
Power
supply

Line filter
isupA

Load bridge
Load filter
Machine
iinvA
isA

irecA

IM
u sup

ilifcA

L lif
Clif

ilofcA
idc

Fig. 1. Main circuit of the PWM current-source inverter fed induction motor drive.

839

Clof

Power
supply

Supply filter

Line
Bridge

Load
Bridge

Ldc

Load filter
Machine

udc

usup

idc

Modulator

Modulator

*
i inv

s*

sup

i rec

sup* sup*
i rec = i sup

q*

*
+ isupx

* +
isy

dc current
control

PI

Speed
control

*sl

FG1

Tr

*
isy
r*

r*

*
isupy
+

+
+

e jr

ejsup
*
idc

rm

IM

i inv = i s
+ i*

*
i mr

1+Tr d
dt

sx

FG2

rm
+

*rm

Fig. 2. Basic control system of the PWM-CSI fed induction motor drive.

rotor flux oriented reference frame can be written as [7]

II. CONTROL OF THE PWM-CSI FED INDUCTION

MOTOR DRIVE

3 Lm
t e = --- p ----- i mr i sy
2 Lr

Fig. 1 shows the main circuit of the PWM current source inverter
fed induction motor drive. L lif and Clif are the inductance and
capacitance of the line filter and usup the supply voltage. Clof is the
load filter capacitance. The line and load bridges are identical. Both
bridges consist of six controllable switches such as IGB transistors
(IGBTs). Antiparallel diodes of the IGBTs in the commercial power
modules are also shown in the figure. Because of these diodes and
the very low reverse voltage blocking capability of traditional
IGBTs, additional diodes have to be connected in series with the
transistors. However, the new IGBTs with reverse blocking
capability are being launched on the markets which makes the
series diodes unnecessary [6]. A smoothing inductor ( L dc ) is
connected between the bridges.
In the PWM-CSI drives the line converter is used to control the
dc current. The line filter takes reactive power which can be
compensated by the control system. The stator currents are
generated by the load converter. The load filter takes capacitive
currents which are proportional to the square of stator frequency in
the constant flux region and linearly proportional to the stator
frequency in the field weakening region.

(1)

where p is the number of pole pairs, L m magnetizing inductance,

Lr rotor self inductance, i mr rotor magnetizing current and isy
the imaginary axis component of the stator current vector in the
rotor flux based coordinate system. Below nominal rotor speed
i mr is kept constant and the electromagnetic torque is controlled
with isy . Above nominal rotor speed the reference value of the
magnetizing current is reduced to keep the stator voltage at an
acceptable level. In the rotor flux oriented reference frame i mr can
be controlled with the real axis component of the stator current
vector isx as follows [7]:
i sx = T r

d
i + i mr
d t mr

(2)

where Tr is the rotor time constant.

Fig. 2 shows the block diagram of both line and load converter
control systems. The vector control system of the induction motor
is realized in the rotor flux oriented reference frame and is based on
indirect vector control scheme [7]. The y-component of the stator
current reference vector i*sy is obtained as the output signal of the
speed controller. The x-component of the stator current reference
*
vector isx
is generated according to magnetizing current reference
using (2). These two vectors form the inverter current reference
r*
vector i inv expressed in the rotor flux oriented reference frame

A. Rotor flux based motor control system

In the vector control strategies the AC motors are controlled like
dc motors which have independent channels for flux and torque
control. The electromagnetic torque of the induction motor in the

840

which is transformed to the stationary reference frame.

The magnetizing current reference value is generated by FG2.
i *mr is kept constant below nominal rotor speed and above nominal
speed the magnetizing current reference value is inversely
proportional to the rotor speed.
In the indirect vector control system the rotor flux angle r is
calculated as a sum of the measured rotor angle and the reference
value of the slip angle in the following way [7]:
i *sy
r = r + sl* = r + sl* dt = r + -----------dt (3)
T r i *mr

u*dcbr,ff = udc

i*supx

r*

(5)

i supx

The control system of the line converter is realized in the

synchronously rotating reference frame where the real axis is tied to
the supply voltage vector. In the supply voltage vector based
reference frame the active and reactive power of the line converter
can be expressed in terms of the quadrature components of the
supply voltages and currents with the following two simple
equations [8]:
2

2
*
*
= --------------- udcbr
i dc = c 2 u dcbr i dc

C. Capacitive current compensation

(6)

The problem in the Fig. 2 control system is that the stator current
references are not realized accurately because of the capacitive
currents drawn by the load filter. The combined steady state
equations of the load filter and motor, expressed in the rotor flux
oriented reference frame, can be used to compensate the stator
current error caused by the load filter. The needed equation in space
vector form is [5]:

and
q

(9)
3u supx
which is used in Fig. 3 to transform the dc voltage reference of the
rectifier to the vector variable.
It is also possible to compensate the reactive power drawn by the
line filter and to damp the supply current oscillations without any
measurements. However, these control methods are not included in
the block diagram shown in Fig. 2. The complete description of the
line converter control can be found in [8].

B. Supply voltage vector based line converter control system

3
= --- u supx i supx

c2

3
--- u supx i supx = udcbr i dc
(8)
2
i.e. that the ac and dc active powers of the converter are equal in
steady state if the losses of the converter are ignored. By solving (8)
*
for isupx and by using the reference values of udcbr
and isupx we
have

where the constant c 1 1 i.e. the magnitude of the dc link current

should be equal or greater than the length of the inverter current
reference vector in order to keep the modulation in the linear region.

u*dcbr

*
from udcbr
we first consider that

r mr

+ ( i *invy )

PI

Fig. 3. Content of the dc current control block in Fig. 2.

The dc link current reference value is generated by FG1 as

follows:
i dc = c 1 i inv = c 1 ( i invx )

u*dcbr,cl

idc
+

If the angular rotor speed r instead of r is measured, as is the

case in Fig. 2, (3) can be written as
i *sy
r = r dt = ( r + sl* ) dt = r + -----------dt (4)
T i*

*
idc

= 3--- u supx i supy

(7)
2
The block diagram of the line converter control system is shown
in Fig. 2. The x-component of the supply current reference vector
*
isupx
is obtained as the output signal of the dc current control. The
y-component of the supply current reference vector i*supy is
generated according to reactive power reference using (7).
Fig. 3 shows the content of the dc current control block shown in
Fig. 2. The reference value for the dc voltage of the rectifier bridge
*
*
udcbr
is constructed as a sum of the voltage reference udcbr
, cl
obtained as an output of the PI controller and the voltage reference
*
udcbr
, ff obtained from the feedforward control. By using
feedforward control the dynamics and the stability of the dc-current
*
control can be improved. To understand how isupx
is constructed

r*

r*

r*

i comp = jR s C lof r i s Ls C lof r i s (1 ) L s C lof r i *mr

(10)
2
Lm

( L s L r ) is the resultant leakage constant. The

where = 1
stator resistance term in (10) is usually neglibly small and can be
ignored. When the resulting equation is expressed in terms of direct
and quadrature axis components we have
*

icompx L s C lof r i sx (1 ) L s C lof r i *mr

841

(11)

and
2

r*,k+1

*
L s C lof r isy
icompy

iinv

(12)

*
icompx

Reference
filter

,k+1

isy*

*
isy,av

Fig. 5. Damping of the stator current oscillations.

p.u.

*
isx

i *sxy

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

1.00

tk+2

tk+3

tk+4

r*

icomp

Capacitive current
compensation
*
imr

r*,k+1

0.70

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

0.25

. . . . . . . . . . .

Fig. 4. Compensation of the capacitive currents drawn by the load filter.

tk

D. Damping of the stator current oscillations

tk+1

*
i sxy

tk+5

Fig. 6. Filtering the stator current references.

The load filter capacitance and the machine inductances form a

resonance circuit which is stimulated especially when the stator
current references are changed. One solution to overcome this
problem is to use combined dynamic equations of the load filter and
the motor. With the dynamic equations the stator currents can be
controlled in such a way that the impulses for oscillations are
eliminated. The needed discrete equations in quadrature axis
component form are [5]:

Because in practice real stator currents cannot follow the step

responses of the stator current references, modified (filtered) current
*
*
references( isx
and isy
) are used in (14) and (15). The proposed
current damping method is shown in Fig. 5, which again replaces
the area surrounded by the broken line in Fig. 2.
An example of filtering the stator current references is shown in
Fig. 6 where the subscript sxy refers to both stator current vector
components. The unit step change of the stator current reference
vector component is plotted with the broken line and the filtered
stator current reference with the solid line. A change in stator
current reference value is obtained at time tk. The realization of the
reference value is begun at time tk+1 because of the one time interval
calculation delay. The filtering is completed after three time
intervals.
In discrete realization the average values of modified stator
current references during a time interval should be used which can
be expressed as

k+1

i *sx
* k+1
*k+1
i sx
i sy
--------
*,k+1
i dampx = R s C lof -------- + L s C lof t 2L s C lof r --------
t
t
------------t
(14)
and
k+1

i *sy
* k+1
*k+1
i sy
i sx
--------
*,k+1
idampy = R s C lof -------- + L s C lof t + 2L s C lof r --------
t
t
------------t
(15)
where (both components combined in one expression)
* k+1
i sxy
*, k + 2 *, k + 1
---------- = ( i sxy i sxy ) t
t

,k+1

i*
Reference sx
filter

idamp

. . .

*
isx
AV

Oscillations
damping

r*

iinv
+

,k+2

,k+1

*
+ isx,av

AV

2 *
L s C lof r i sx

(13)
The proposed compensation method is shown in the block
diagram form in Fig. 4 which replaces the area surrounded by the
broken line in Fig. 2.

*
isy

,k+2

,k+1

*
isy

*
In the constant flux region isx = i mr and (11) can be written as

*,k+1
*,k+2 *,k+1
i sxy, av = ( i sxy + i sxy ) 2

(18)

Finally, the modified stator current reference, which is filtered

according to Fig. 6, can be written as

(16)

*,k+1
*,k
*,k+2 *,k+1
i sxy = i sxy + 0.25 ( i sxy i sxy)

and
i *sxy
-----------
t
------------------t

k+1

k+1
*
*
i sxy i sxy
= ----------- -----------
t t

+ 0.45 ( i sxy i sxy ) + 0.3 ( i sxy

*,k

(17)

*,k-1

*,k-1

i *,k-2
sxy )

(19)

With typical load filter and motor parameters, like those given in

842

Table I, the effect of the first and third terms on the right side of (14)
and (15) in damping control are neglibly small and the following
approximation can be made:
i *sxy

*,k+1
----------
i dampxy L s C lof t
--------------t

TABLE I
TEST PARAMETERS

k+1

Motor:
Nominal stator phase voltage UsN
Nominal stator current IsN
Nominal shaft power PN
Number of pole pairs p
Nominal speed nN
Magnetizing inductance Lm
Stator leakage inductance Lsl
Rotor leakage inductance Lrl
Stator resistance Rs
Rotor resistance Rr
Converter:
Load filter capacitance Clof
Dc-link inductance Ldc
Line filter capacitance Clif
Line filter inductance Llif

(20)

III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The vector controlled PWM current-source inverter fed induction
motor drive is realized using the parameters shown in Table I. Both
bridge circuits are built using 1200 V, 50 A IGBTs. The line and
load filter capacitors are wye connected.
The control system realization of both converters is based on the
Motorola MC68HC916Y1 16-bit single-chip microcontroller
whose main features are: 48 kbytes on-chip FLASH EEPROM, 4
kbytes on-chip RAM, 8- or 10-bit A/D-converter with 8 input
channels, General Purpose Timer (GPT), Time Processing Unit
(TPU), 2*Serial Communication Interfaces (SCI), 0.5 s 16x16
fractional multiply and 1.5 s 32/16 divide (at 16 MHz clock
frequency).
The time scheduling of the control tasks is based on the interrupts
made by the timer unit. The interrupts are generated twice in every
modulation period. The modulation frequency is set to 5 kHz
resulting in an interrupt rate of 100 s. The software procedures are
divided into four different priority levels. At the highest level are the
stator current oscillations damping and the modulator updating. At
the second level are the speed and flux control, which are done
every 8th interrupt time after high priority level tasks. The stator
current phase-error is compensated after speed and flux control
tasks. At the third level is the updating of r and it is begun every
16th interrupt time. The rotor flux angle is obtained by integrating
r every interrupt time before modulator updating. At the lowest
priority level are the protection and the user interface tasks and
these are done at the main program level.
Fig. 7 shows the test results of the current oscillations damping
method. The y-component of stator current reference vector is
suddenly changed at time instant 40 ms. Figs. 7(a) and 7(b) show
the results without and with damping control respectively. The test
results show that oscillations can be significantly reduced with the
proposed damping method.
Fig. 8 shows the experimental results of the whole vector
controlled drive. The reference values are plotted with the broken
line and the measured values with the solid line. The proposed
control methods of the stator current phase-error compensation and
oscillations damping are used. During test period the motor is
unloaded. The magnetization of the motor is begun at 50 ms. The
reference value of the rotor magnetizing current is rate limited in
*
order to keep isx
at an acceptable level. Then, at about 150 ms n*r
is changed from 0 to 1000 r/min. The dc link current reference value

220 V
6.2 A
2.2 kW
3
940 r/min
155 m
7.2 mH
7.2 mH
2.3
1.8
8 F
30 mH
8 F
2.3 mH

15
10

isA[A]

(a)

0
-5
-10
-15

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.06

0.08

0.1

t[s]
15
10

(b)

isA[A]

5
0
-5
-10
-15

0.02

0.04

t[s]
Fig. 7. Experimental waveforms of phase-A stator current at sudden change in
i *supy (a) without oscillations damping control and (b) with damping control.
*
is calculated using c1=1.2 in (5). Negative slopes of idc are filtered
using time constant of 100 ms. The output of the speed controller is
limited to 1.5* 2IN . The results show that the operation of the
drive is stable. Also, it can be concluded that the measured stator
currents follow the stator current references closely and that the

843

7.5

10

isx[A]

15

imrref[A]

(a)

10

(b)

5
0

2.5
0
0

0.2

0.4

-5

0.6

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.4

0.6

0.4

0.6

0.4

0.6

t[s]

t[s]
15

1500

isy[A]

(c)

nr[r/min]

10

1000

(d)
500

5
0

0
0

-5

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.2

t[s]

t[s]
15
20
10
5

(f)

10

isA[A]

(e)

idc[A]

15

0
-5

-10

0
0

0.2

0.4

-15

0.6

0.2

t[s]

t[s]
15
600
300

5
0

(h)

usAB[V]

(g)

isupA[A]

10

-5

-300

-10

-600

-15

0.2

0.4

0.6

t[s]

0.2

t[s]

Fig. 8. Experimental waveforms of changing the magnetizing current and rotor speed reference values: (a) Rotor magneziting current reference i *mr , (b) x-axis stator current
isx , (c) rotor speed nr , (d) y-axis stator current isy (e) dc current idc , (f) phase-A stator current isA , (g) phase-A supply current isupA and (h) main stator voltage usAB .

of the rotor speed is rate limited in order to keep changes in i *mr ,

*
and that way isx
, at an acceptable level. It can be seen that there is
some increase in the magnitude of the stator voltage during transient
state when entering the field weakening region. This is caused
probably by inaccurate estimate of the rotor time constant when
there exists an error between the real and calculated angle of the
rotor flux based reference frame.

oscillations in the stator currents are low.

Fig. 9 shows the experimental results of PWM-CSI fed induction
motor drive in the field weakening region. The field weakening
point is set to 1000 r/min. During test period the load torque is half
of the nominal value (11 Nm). Initially, the reference value of the
rotor speed is 1000 r/min. Then, at about 50 ms n *r is changed to
1500 r/min and back to 1000 r/min at 500 ms. The reference value

844

10

1500

7.5

(b)

1000

imrref[A]

nr[r/min]

(a)

2000

500
0
0

5
2.5

0.2

0.4

0.6

0
0

0.8

0.2

t[s]

0.4

0.6

0.8

0.6

0.8

t[s]
10

15
10

isx[A]

isy[A]

(c)

(d)

-5
-10
-15

0.2

0.4

0.6

0
0

0.8

0.2

t[s]

0.4

t[s]

20
600
300

(f)

usAB[V]

(e)

isA[A]

10

0
-300

-10

-600
-20

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

t[s]

0.2

0.4

0.6

t[s]

Fig. 9. Experimental results of PWM-CSI fed induction motor drive in the field weakening region: (a) Rotor speed nr , (b) rotor magneziting current reference i *mr , (c) y-axis
stator current isy , (d) x-axis stator current isx , (e) phase-A stator current isA and (f) main stator voltage usAB .

III. CONCLUSIONS

[2]

In this paper the control of the PWM current source inverter fed
induction motor in the rotor flux based reference frame has been
discussed. New methods for compensating the error between the
reference and measured value of the stator current caused by the
load filter and for damping the stator current oscillations, when the
stator current references are changed, without feedback variables
have been presented. The proposed control methods enable the
elimination of the stator current sensors since the stator current
measurements are not needed either for protection. The tests with
the prototype show that stable operation of the drive in both
constant flux and field weakening regions can be achieved.

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

REFERENCES
[1]

[7]
[8]

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845

A. Dakir, R. Barlik, M. Novak and P. Grochal, Computer simulations for two

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