Performance Prediction of a Fault-Tolerant Motor Drive with a Winding Short-Circuit Fault

Jingwei Zhu, Nesimi Ertugrul, and Wen Liang Soong School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia, SA 5005 Tel: 08-83033160, Fax: 08-83034360 Email: jingwei@eleceng.adelaide.edu.au ABSTRACT
Fault-tolerant motor drives are required in a range of safety-critical applications. Using a special motor design and an appropriate inverter topology, brushless permanent magnet AC motor drives can have a faulttolerant capability. This paper studies the performance of a fault-tolerant dual permanent magnet AC motor drive under a winding terminal short-circuit fault. Among the potential faults that may occur in such drives, this is one of the more critical faults and can significantly affect the drive performance. The paper presents computer simulation studies modeling the motor drive under such a fault condition and provides simulation results of winding currents, output torque and efficiency. Moreover, the paper provides the characteristics of the measured short-circuit winding currents and proposes a hardware solution to reduce the effect of such a fault. short-circuit, power supply fault, position sensor fault and combinations of the above faults. Among the above faults, the winding short-circuit fault may be in the form of a winding terminal short-circuit or as a winding turn-to-turn short-circuit. This paper considers the winding terminal short-circuit fault since it can significantly affect the output characteristics of the motor drive. It should be noted that, a winding short circuit may occur as a result of a shoot-through fault or a DC bus shortcircuit in the H-bridge inverter that powers a motor winding. The winding short-circuit fault is considered to be one of the more serious classes of fault in PM machines, specifically while the motor is running at high speeds. If it is not removed quickly, the corresponding motor winding can be damaged. Furthermore, the negative torque generated by the short-circuit current will reduce the efficiency of the drive and can significantly increase the torque ripple in the motor drive. As proposed in [2], it is possible to limit the short-circuit current in a winding by designing the motor winding inductance to be 1.0 per unit. This paper considers a fault-tolerant motor drive with redundancy, which uses two three-phase fault-tolerant brushless PM motors on a common shaft. The winding terminal short-circuit fault has been simulated using a mathematical model of the drive. The paper provides the operating characteristics of the motor drive under such a fault and proposes a remedial strategy to reduce the effect of the fault. 2.

1. INTRODUCTION
Fault-tolerant motor drives are important in safetycritical applications such as all-electric aircraft, ships, vehicles and the petrochemical industry. In these applications, a failure of a motor drive may result in loss of human life and property, and may be very costly. Therefore, the motor drives in such applications must be fault-tolerant, and as far as possible should continue to operate even in the presence of one or more faults. A number of studies have been reported in the literature investigating fault-tolerant motor drives. Brushless permanent magnet (PM) motor drives can have the capability of fault tolerance by minimizing the electrical, magnetic and thermal interaction between phases and adopting H-bridge inverter circuits for each phase [1-3]. A comparative study carried out in [4] suggested that three-phase brushless PM machines can achieve a similar degree of fault-tolerance as switched-reluctance motors (which are inherently fault-tolerant) while offering higher torque density and lower acoustic noise. In addition, in order to provide redundancy, a dual faulttolerant motor drive system has been proposed in [5]. Furthermore, inverter faults and remedial strategies in a brushless PM motor drive were investigated in [6]. Winding turn-to-turn faults and control methods were studied in [7]. The potential faults in a PM motor drive can be classified into a seven major groups: winding opencircuit, winding short-circuit, switch open-circuit, switch

MOTOR DRIVE AND MATHEMATICAL MODEL

2.1. FAULT-TOLERANT MOTOR DRIVE In order to produce a fault-tolerant brushless PM AC (sinusoidal current) motor, it is important to minimize or eliminate the electrical, magnetic and thermal coupling between the motor windings [1]. Thus, a failure in one winding will not affect the operation of the other windings. This may be achieved by physically separating the motor windings and driving each winding using a separate single-phase H-bridge inverter circuit. It should be noted here that although a single motor fault-tolerant drive system may be sufficient in many critical applications, it does not offer any redundancy if

the entire single motor drive is out of operation. Therefore, this paper considers a dual motor drive system on a common shaft to introduce redundancy. Fig. 1 illustrates the test setup that includes a DC load machine and two fault-tolerant brushless PM AC motor modules with surface-mounted PM rotors, all connected to a common shaft. The motors in this setup were constructed using soft magnetic composite (SMC) stators and which accommodates twelve stator poles with concentrated windings. During the tests, only six stator windings were utilized to form a connection in order to provide electrical, magnetic and thermal isolation. In the system, each motor module has three isolated windings driven by separate H-bridge inverters. The system thus has a total of six independent phases. In addition, each motor module is powered from a separate power supply and an associated controller to offer redundancy. Table 1 lists the measured motor parameters of the PM AC motor modules shown in Fig. 1.
DC machine PMAC Motor 1 PMAC Motor 2

The back-EMF voltage e(t) is proportional to the rotor speed and can be expressed as :

e(t ) = k e m (t ) sin( r (t ) )

(2)

where ke is the back-EMF constant of the motor, m(t) is the mechanical speed of the rotor; r(t) is the rotor position, and is the phase difference between the motor phases and equals to 0, 2/3 and 4/3 for a three-phase motor. Fig. 2 illustrates the equivalent circuit of a phase under a winding terminal short-circuit fault. Hence the shortcircuit fault can be represented by:
R i (t ) + L di (t ) dt + e( t ) = 0

(3)

L R e(t) i(t)

Figure 2: Equivalent circuit of winding terminal short-circuit fault.

Moreover, the electromagnetic torque produced by the short-circuit current can be written as:
Figure 1: The test setup including a dual faulttolerant PM AC motor drive and a DC load machine. Table 1: Electrical parameters of the motor modules Parameters Winding resistance () Winding inductance (mH) Back-EMF constant (V/rad/s) Motor 1 0.254 0.387 0.0404 Motor 2 0.717 1.79 0.0931

Teshort =

e(t ) i (t ) m (t )

(4)

Three modes of operation were defined for the model as described in Table 2.
Table 2: Operation modes of the motor drive Mode Description Type Mode A Healthy operation Mode B Motor 1 phase C short-circuit fault operation Mode C Motor 1 phase C short-circuit fault operation after a remedial strategy is employed

The motor modules have identical outer dimensions and similar torque ratings. The main difference is that Motor 2 has roughly twice the number of turns per phase as Motor 1 and hence its winding inductance about four times greater and a back-EMF constant is about two times greater. The back-EMF waveform is similar for the two motor modules and can be approximated with an ideal sinusoid. This approximation was used in the simulation and in the implementation of the real time motor control, where the back-EMF waveforms and the reference current waveforms are defined as sinusoids. 2.2. MATHEMATICAL MODELS The windings of brushless PM AC motors can be modeled by a series circuit consisting of a resistance R, an inductance L and a speed dependent back-EMF voltage e(t). Hence, the voltage equation of one phase as a function of winding current i(t) can be given as :
v (t ) = R i (t ) + L di (t ) dt + e (t )

3. OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS UNDER WINDING SHORT-CIRCUIT

3.1. SHORT-CIRCUIT CURRENT To realize the winding short-circuit fault and to measure the current waveform, the test setup shown in Fig. 1 was utilized. Firstly, the stators of the two motor modules were aligned to bring their corresponding back-emf waveforms in phase when the motors were driven by the DC motor. Secondly, the winding terminals of Phase C of Motor 1 were connected together to simulate the short-circuit fault. The winding short-circuit current is measured by using a Hall-Effect current transducer. Fig. 3 displays the short-circuit current of Phase C of Motor 1 and the back-EMF waveform of Phase C of Motor 2 at a steady-state rotor speed of 480 rpm. Due to the inductive nature of the short-circuit current, it can be seen in the

(1)

figure that the back-EMF waveform leads the shortcircuit current waveform. The above testing procedure was repeated for a range of rotor speeds and the corresponding rms values of the short-circuit current were plotted in Fig. 4. In addition, the figure provides the computer simulation results for the same fault and also the phase current in Mode A (healthy) operating condition. The computer simulation was realized in Matlab using the motor model described in the previous section. It can be seen in Fig. 4 that the winding short-circuit current increases linearly with rotor speed, and there is a close correlation between the measured and the simulated values. The winding current under 0.6 Nm output torque was about 5 A, while the level of shortcircuit current reached 15 A under a rotor speed of 1500 rpm.
Voltage (V), Current (A)
9 6 3 0 -3 -6 -9 0 0. 03 0. 06 0. 09 0. 12 Time (Second)

(6) where T1 and T2 are the starting and ending times of the power measurement, and vi(t) and ii(t) are the instantaneous values of the phase voltage and the phase current in phase i respectively. TL and m are the output load torque and the rotor speed of the motor drive. Fig. 9 illustrates the simulation results of the efficiency versus rotor speed characteristics of a healthy motor drive and one with a short-circuit fault. It can be seen in these characteristics that the winding short-circuit significantly reduces the efficiency of the motor, more than 10% above the operating speed of 600 rpm.
20 15 10 5 0 200
3 1 2

Pout = TL m

Current (A)

700

1200

1700

Speed (RPM)

Figure 3: Measured back-EMF waveform of Phase C of Motor 2 (Trace 1), and short-circuit current of Phase C of Motor 1 (Trace 2) @ 480 rpm.

Figure 4: Winding currents versus rotor speeds: Simulated short-circuit current (Curve 1), measured short-circuit current (Curve 2), and simulated phase current under healthy conditions (Mode A) with 0.6 Nm output torque (Curve 3).
0.15 Torque (Nm)

3.2. SHORT-CIRCUIT TORQUE A short-circuit fault generates a negative torque due to the extra copper loss caused by the fault current. Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show the simulated steady-state output torque curves of Phase C of Motor 1 alone when healthy, and also under a short-circuit fault. The steady-state rotor speed under this operating condition was 382 rpm, and the total load torque 0.2 Nm. The total steady-state electromagnetic output torque of the motor drive under the two different operating conditions described above was also simulated and is illustrated in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8. These results demonstrate that the short-circuit fault phase generate negative torque and increase the total output torque ripple. It was estimated that while the torque ripple was 8.5% under healthy conditions, it increased to 19.5% with a winding short-circuit fault. 3.3. MOTOR DRIVE EFFICIENCY It is important to perform efficiency calculations in faulttolerant motor drives as the extra losses under fault conditions may cause thermal problems. The input and the output powers of a three phase dual fault-tolerant brushless PM AC motors can be given as follows:
T2 6 1 Pin = vi (t )ii (t )] dt T T2 T1 1 i =1

0.1

0.05

0 0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

Time (Second)

Figure 5: The simulated steady-state electromagnetic torque of Phase C of Motor 1 under healthy conditions at 382 rpm.
0.05
Torque (Nm)

0 -0.05 -0.1 -0.15 -0.2 0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

Time (Second)

(5)

Figure 6: The simulated steady-state electromagnetic torque of Phase C of Motor 1 under a winding short-circuit fault at 382 rpm.

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 Time (Second)

Torque (Nm)

instead sustained for a long time, it can damage the corresponding motor winding. In addition, as stated earlier, the short-circuit current generates negative torque and hence reduces the total efficiency of the motor drive. Therefore, it is important to implement a remedial strategy to interrupt the short-circuit current. Consider a winding short-circuit which occurs outside the winding, e.g. due to a short-circuited switch. In the simulation study, the arrangement shown in Fig. 10 is proposed to eliminate the winding short-circuit in the above case. As it can be seen in the circuit, a triac or a back-to-back thyristor pair is placed in series with the phase winding. Under normal operation the AC switch remains on all the time. If a winding short-circuit occurs due to a fault outside the winding, the switch is turned off to interrupt the short-circuit current.

Figure 7: The simulated total steady-state electromagnetic torque waveform under healthy conditions at 382 rpm and 0.2 Nm load torque.
0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 Time (Second)

T1 VDC C

D1 T5

T3

D3

Torque (Nm)

winding

T4

D4

T2

D2

Figure 10: Proposed fault-tolerant inverter circuit for one phase winding and the static ac switch to eliminate the faulty phase.

Figure 8: The simulated total steady-state electromagnetic torque waveform under a shortcircuit fault (Phase C of Motor 1, Mode B) at 382 rpm rotor speed and 0.2 Nm load torque.

4.1. SIMULATION RESULTS The proposed remedial strategy has been investigated using a MATLAB/Simulink based computer simulation study. The motor parameters given in Table 1 were used in this study, and it was assumed that the electromagnetic torque generated by both motor modules is same, while the magnitudes of the two machines phase currents are different. In addition, it was assumed that the drive system was operating at a steady rotor speed of 382 rpm with a winding terminal short-circuit fault in Phase C of Motor 1 and the remedial strategy is adopted at 1.8 s. Fig. 11 displays the phase current waveforms of Motor 1. As illustrated in the figure, since the faulty phase produces negative torque, the current values in the shortcircuit fault condition are higher than the current values after the remedial strategy is adopted, so that the desired load torque can be produced. During the operation of the motor drive, when a short-circuit fault is detected, the turn on signal to the AC thyristor switch is removed. However, there is a turn-off delay time since the thyristor-based AC switch turns off only when the current in the phase reaches zero. Fig. 12 and 13 illustrate the electromagnetic torque of the faulty phase and the total electromagnetic torque of the motor drive system respectively, before and after the remedial strategy is adopted. As shown in Fig. 13, while the average value of the output torque remains same, the torque ripple is reduced significantly after the fault control method is introduced.

50

Efficiency (%)

40 30 20 10 0 0 500 1000

1500

Speed (RPM)

Figure 9: The simulated efficiency characteristics in a healthy and a faulty motor drive, with a 0.4 Nm load torque: Healthy case (Curve 1, Mode A) and winding short-circuit (Curve 2, Mode B).

It should be noted here that the motor system utilized in this test were not optimized for the efficiency. It was primarily used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model developed. The relatively low efficiency of the motor drive is largely associated with high friction losses and only using half windings in the motors.

4. A REMEDIAL STRATEGY AND SIMULATION STUDIES

From the above results it was found that the winding short-circuit fault produces a large short-circuit current. If such a large current is not removed quickly, and is

Torque (Nm)

Fig. 14 shows the efficiency characteristics of the drive at different operating conditions while the load torque is 0.4 Nm. The figure indicates that after the remedial strategy is adopted, the efficiency of the motor drive is close to the value during the healthy state.

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 1.6 1.7 1.8 Time (Second) 1.9 2

5. CONCLUSION
The paper considered a fault-tolerant motor drive that uses two electrically and magnetically uncoupled threephase brushless PM motors, which offers motor redundancy. This paper studied the performance characteristics of the fault tolerant motor drive under a winding short-circuit fault, since it is considered to be the most critical faults that may occur in such drives. The study utilized the actual motor parameters in the computer simulation. The effect of the winding terminal short-circuit fault on the winding current, the output electromagnetic torque and the motor drive efficiency were studied. In addition, a remedial strategy was proposed and simulated for removal of the winding terminal short-circuit fault. The motor drive performance was also studied after the removal of the fault. Future work in this research will include the real time implementation of the proposed fault-tolerant drive system, and the implementation and investigation of potential fault detection and elimination methods.
10

Figure 13: Simulated total output electromagnetic torque waveforms of motor drive before and after the remedial strategy is adopted at 1.8 s with 382 rpm rotor speed and 0.2 Nm load torque

Figure 14: Efficiency comparison at 0.4 Nm load torque: Healthy (Curve 1), short-circuit fault (Curve 2) and after the remedial strategy is activated (Curve 3).

REFERENCES
ia ib

Current (A)

[1] B. C. Mecrow, A. G. Jack, J. A. Haylock, J. Coles, Fault-tolerant permanent magnet machine drives, IEE Proceedings on Electric Power Applications, Vol. 143(6), Nov. 1996, pp. 437-442. [2] J. A. Haylock, B. C. Mecrow, A. G. Jack, and D. J. Atkinson, Operation of a fault tolerant PM drive for an aerospace fuel pump application, IEE Proceedings on Electric Power Applications, Vol. 145(5), September 1998, pp. 441-448. [3] B. C. Mecrow, A. G. Jack, D. J. Atkinson and S. R. Green, Design and testing of a four-phase faulttolerant permanent-magnet machine for an engine fuel pump, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 19(4), Dec. 2004, pp. 671-678. [4] A. G. Jack, B. C. Mecrow, and J. A. Haylock, A comparative study of permanent magnet and switched reluctance motors for high performance fault-tolerant applications, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 32(4), July-Aug. 1996, pp. 889-895. [5] N. Ertugrul, W. Soong, G. Dostal, and D. Saxon, Fault tolerant motor drive system with redundancy for critical application, IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference, Cairns, June 2002. [6] S. Bolognani, M. Zordan, and M. Zigliotto, Experimental fault-tolerant control of a PMSM drive, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 47(5), Oct. 2000, pp. 1134-1141. [7] C. Gerada, K. Bradley, and M. Sumner, Winding turn-to-turn faults in permanent magnet synchronous machine drives. IEEE IAS Annual Meeting, Hong Kong, Oct. 2005

0 -5

ic
-10 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 Time (Second)

Figure 11: Simulated phase current waveforms of Motor 1 before and after the remedial strategy is adopted at 1.8 s. The load torque is 0.4 Nm.
0 -0.05 -0.1 -0.15 -0.2 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 Time (Second)

Torque (Nm)

Figure 12: Simulated Motor 1 phase C electromagnetic torque waveform before and after remedial strategy is adopted at 1.8 s at 382 rpm and 0.2 Nm load torque