Modeling, Simulation and Implementation of position

sensorless Permanent magnet BLDCM drive

Extended Abstract of M Tech Project

Submitted by
M MANOHAR
(Roll No.M080146EE)
(Power Electronics)

Under the guidance of

Dr Saly George
Assistant Professor

Department of Electrical Engineering

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALICUT
NIT Campus P.O., Calicut - 673601, India
October- 2009

Date of submission:
Signature of the Guide

Abstract
The Brush less DC motors have only decades of history. They are
now getting popular due to numerous advantages they offer. In
brushless dc motors the commutation of phases is achieved by an
electronic commutation system instead of a brushes and commutator
type mechanical commutation system in conventional motors. So we
need rotor position at six discrete steps to achieve electronic
commutation perfectly.
In the earlier days of its development direct sensored control that
is mounting three hall effect sensors on the motor will serve the
purpose of tracking the rotor position. Those sensing mechanisms were
not much reliable too. And the cost of their control systems were so
high that this BLDC motors couldnt be applied for small scale
purposes. So we go for sensorless control of brushless dc motors in
which we sense some other parameters to estimate the rotor position
instead of using Hall Effect sensors which are not so reliable and also
complexive.
There are many methods implemented to track the rotor position
which includes Back-EMF Sensing Techniques, Back-EMF Integration
Technique, Flux Linkage-Based Technique, Third harmonic Back emf
sensing technique etc and there are many control logics implemented,
few of them are with the use of micro controllers, DSP controllers etc.
In this project we are going to simulate and implement a
sensorless controlled

brushless dc (BLDC) motor drive. Using Hall

Effect sensors for tracking the rotor position is unreliable and

expensive. Improper mounting of Hall Effect sensors will always lead to
position errors. So with the proposed rotor position tracking that is
without Hall Effect sensors we can reduce the addition cost for Hall
sensors and also we can track the rotor position exactly because we

will use any of the techniques like Back emf sensing or Back emf
integration technique etc. We will check the validity of the proposed
drive scheme with both simulation and implementation.

Literature survey
Since from the past two decades, many methods have been
implemented for the sensorless control of brushless dc motor drive.
Among which the most common techniques are
1. Back-EMF Sensing Techniques.
2. Third harmonic Back-EMF sensing technique.
3. Back EMF integration technique.
4. Flux linkage based technique.

Back emf sensing technique:[3]

The BLDC motor has a trapezoidal shape of the induced backEMF in the stator winding. Monitoring the phase back-EMF measured
from terminal voltages in the silent phase, the zero crossing of the
back-EMF can be detected. From the zero crossing of the back emf
waveform the commutation instant is estimated which is 30 degrees
ahead.

Third harmonic Back emf sensing technique :[4]

In this technique we will sense the third harmonic back emf first.
Integration of this third harmonic emf will give the third harmonic flux
linkage function. The zero crossings of this third harmonic flux function
exactly gives the information about the commutation instants. So there
is no need for phase shifting which is required in back emf detection

technique which avoids errors due to shifting of 30 degrees which is

normally required in back emf detection technique.

Back EMF integration technique:[5]

In this method, position information is extracted by integrating
the back-EMF of the silent phase. Integration starts when the open
phases back-EMF crosses zero. A threshold is set to stop the
integration that corresponds to a commutation instant.

Flux linkage based technique:[6]

In this method, the flux linkage is calculated using measured
voltages and currents. The fundamental idea is to take the voltage
equation of the machine and by integrating the applied voltage and
current, flux can be estimated. From the initial position, machine
parameters, and the flux linkages relationship to rotor position, the
rotor position can be estimated.
Some recent papers on brushless dc motor system:
After few years many attempts have been made to reduce the
cost and to avoid the filters required to reduce the switching noise and
to get wide speed range control. The main problem of BLDC sensorless
control its incapability at low speeds. Many methods have been
proposed to solve these problems. Out of them a few techniques will
be discussed here
In 2002 a novel back EMF detection method for Sensorless BLDC
motor drives without the motor neutral point voltage information is
implemented. The true phase back EMF signal can be directly obtained
from the motor terminal voltage by properly choosing the PWM and
sensing strategy. As a result, this method is not sensitive to switching
noise, no filtering is required, and good motor performance is achieved
over a wide speed range.[7]
In 2004 a novel sensorless control technique for BLDCM was
implemented. which solves the problem of sensorless BLDCM at low

speeds. For this purpose a new flux linkage function is defined which is
speed

independent.

This

function

has

the

information

about

commutation instants and because it is speed independent it can give

exact information of rotor position even at low speeds. [8]
After that a method that provides wide range of speed control for
BLDCM drives. The previous techniques can be used either for only low
duty ratios or only high duty ratios. This technique can give both low
and high duty ratios without invoking any position and current sensors.
The zero crossing instants of back emf are used for proper
commutation control and is calculated by sampling the voltage of
floating phase . So no current and position sensors are required. This
can be implemented using digital controllers.[9]
To make cost effective analysis, design and implementation of
sensorless control a new technique was proposed that uses four switch
converter.. This technique is based on detection of zero crossing points
of three voltage functions. So six commutation instants are provided
that coincides with zero crossings of voltage function. So no need of
30 o delay circuit that is prevalent in conventional sensorless methods.

Low pass filters are used to eliminate high frequency components.[10]

Problem definition
The main problems that are associated with Hall effect sensors
are listed below
1. Unreliabile
2. Costly
3. Makes the controller implementation complex
4. improper mounting of hall sensors gives error in rotor position
detection

Hall sensor required for commutation control of BLDCM drives

brings potential reluctance. To reduce the cost of BLDCM drives,
sensorless control of BLDCM is one of the main research topics.

Methodology
To solve the problem with Hall effect sensors, a speed
independent function is given[7] that can give exact information about
the commutation instants. Since the proposed function can exactly
give the commutation instants, no need of extra circuitry for 30
degrees phase shift that is prevalent in Back emf ZCP detection
techniques. And the this method can give accurate results at low
speeds also, because the function we are defining is independent of
speed, so speed ripple cannot cause error in estimating commutation
instants.

Work completed
1.Modeling of brushless dc motor drive:
The flux distribution in the permanent magnet brushless dc
motor drive is trapezoidal. Therefore the d-q rotor reference frames
model that is used for the permanent magnet synchronous machines is
not applicable.
Given the non sinusoidal flux distribution, It is prudent to derive a
model of permanent magnet BLDCM in phase variables.
Model is derived on the following assumptions
1. Induced currents in the rotor due to rotor harmonic fields is
neglected
2. Iron and stray losses are neglected.
Here we derive the model for three phases but it is applicable for
any number of phases.
The coupled circuit equations of the stator windings of motor
electrical constants are

 Vas
V
bs
Vcs

Rs

= 0
0

0 i as
Laa

0 ibs +p Lba

Lca
Rs i
cs

0
Rs
0

Lab
Lbb
Lcb

eas
Lac i as

Lbc ibs + ebs

Lcc i

e
cs
cs

Where Rs is the stator resistance/phase (assumed equal for all

phases)
All eas , ebs , ecs are assumed to be trapezoidal, Where Ep is the
peak value derived as
Ep = BlvN = NBlrwm = N a m = p m
Where N is number of conductors
v = velocity
l = length of the rotor bore
m = angular speed

B = flux density of field in which conductors are placed

The product Blr has the dimensions of the flux and so denoted as
a and this is directly proportional to airgap flux g .

a = Blr =

(B lr) =

(g )

The product a N has the dimensions of flux linkages and hence

is denoted by p .
Assuming nonsalient rotor, So there wont be any change in the
reluctance to magnetic path so
Laa = Lbb = Lcc = L
Lab = Lbc = Lca = M in henries
So the relation between phase quantities now becomes
Vas
V
bs
Vcs

Rs

= 0
0

0
Rs
0

0
0
Rs

i as
L
i
M
bs + p
M
ics

M
L
M

eas
M i as

M ibs + ebs

L i

e
cs
cs

The stator phase voltages are constrained to be balanced i.e.,

i as + ibs + i cs = 0

So that leads to simplification of inductance matrix

 Vas
V
bs
Vcs

Rs

= 0
0

0
Rs
0

0 i as

0 ibs

Rs i
cs

LM

+ p 0

0
LM
0

eas

ibs + ebs
L M i
ecs
cs
0
0

i as

The electromagnetic torque is given by

Te = ( eas . i as + ebs . ibs + ecs . i cs )/ m N.m

The instantaneous induced emfs can be given as

eas = f a ( ) p m
ebs = f b ( ) p m
ecs = f c ( ) p m

Where f a ( ) , f b ( ) and f c ( ) are functions of rotor angle

The induced emfs does not have sharp corners, as is shown in
trapezoidal functions, but rounded edges.
Te = p ( f a ( ) . i as + f b ( ) . ibs + f c ( ) . i cs )

N-m

It is significant to observe that the phase voltage equation is

identical to the armature voltage equation of the dc machine, this is
one main reason why this permanent magnet BLDCM is called like
that.
The equation of motion for a simple system with inertia J and
friction coefficient B and load torque Tl is

d m
+ B m = Te - Tl
dt

And electrical rotor speed and position are related by

d
P
=
* m
dt
2

Simulink model of permanent magnet BLDCM

TEXT BOOKS

1) A text book on Electric Motor Drives : Modeling, Analysis and control

by R Krishnan.
2) A text book on Modern power electronics and AC drives by B.K.Bose,
Prentice Hall publications.
REFERENCES
3) Hideo Uzuhashi, Minoru Kano, Tsunehiro Endo, And Katsuo Mohri
Microcomputer Control for Sensorless Brushless Motor by Kenichi
Iizuka, IEEE transactions on industry applications, vol. ia-21, no. 4,
May/June 1985.
4) Julio G. Moreira, Member, IEEE Indirect sensing for rotor flux position
of permanent magnet AC motors

operating over a wide speed range

IEEE transactions on industrial applications 1996.

5) R. C. Becerra, T. M. Jahns, and M. Ehsani Four-quadrant sensorless
brushless ECM drive IEEE APEC conference 1991.
6) Nesimi Ertugrul and Paul Acamley 1994 A New Algorithm for
Sensorless Operation of Permanent Magnet Motors IEEE transactions
on industry applications, January/February 1994
7) Jianwen Shao, Dennis Nolan, and Thomas Hopkins A Novel Direct Back
EMF Detection for Sensorless Brushless DC (BLDC) Motor Drives IEEE
transactions on industrial applications 2002.
8) Tae-Hyung Kim, Member, IEEE, and Mehrdad Ehsani, Fellow, IEEE
Sensorless Control of the BLDC Motors From Near-Zero to High
Speeds IEEE transactions on power electronics, vol. 19, no. 6,
November 2004
9) Yen-Shin Lai, Senior Member, IEEE, and Yong-Kai Lin Novel Back-EMF
Detection Technique of Brushless DC Motor Drives for Wide Range
Control Without Using Current and Position Sensors ieee transactions
on power electronics, vol. 23, no. 2, march 2008.
10)

Abolfazl Halvaei Niasar, Member, IEEE, Abolfazl Vahedi, and

Hassan Moghbelli, Member, IEEE A Novel Position Sensorless Control

of a Four-Switch, Brushless DC Motor Drive Without Phase Shifter IEEE
transactions on power electronics Nov-2008
11)

Ji Hua and Li Zhiyong Simulation of Sensorless Permanent

Magnetic Brushless DC Motor Control System Proceedings of the IEEE

International Conference on Automation and Logistics Qingdao, China

September 2008