Torque Ripple Reduction Method in a Multiphase PM Machine for No-Fault and Open-Circuit Fault-Tolerant Conditions

• Main Authors: Ali Akay, Paul Lefley
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: five-phase machine; third harmonic current injection; multiphase machine; permanent magnet machine; torque ripple; torque ripple suppression
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/9/2615

This paper presents a method that has been developed to reduce the torque ripples under healthy and open-circuit fault-tolerant (OCFT) conditions for a multiphase permanent magnet (PM) machine. For smooth torque, both the phase current and the back electromotive force (back-EMF) should be purely sinusoidal. To improve the torque in a multiphase machine, higher-order current harmonics are injected, which are related to the harmonics in the back-EMF. For this reason, generally, multiphase machines are designed with higher-order back-EMF harmonics. However, these harmonics produce ripples in the torque. In light of this, a torque ripple cancellation method has been developed that first determines an additional current component from the harmonic content of the back-EMF and then injects these additional components to cancel the torque ripple. It has been found that this new torque ripple cancellation method works for both faultless and faulty conditions in a five-phase PM machine. The method has been validated using Finite Element Analysis, and the results are presented in this paper.