CRADA Final Report: Application of Dual-Mode Inverter Control to Commercially Available Radial-Gap Mermanent Magnet Motors - Vol. I
- ORNL
- John Deere -- Moline Tech Center
John Deere and Company (Deere), their partner, UQM Technologies, Inc. (UQM), and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL's) Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Center (PEEMRC) recently completed work on the cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) Number ORNL 04-0691 outlined in this report. CRADA 04-0691 addresses two topical issues of interest to Deere: (1) Improved characterization of hydrogen storage and heat-transfer management; and (2) Potential benefits from advanced electric motor traction-drive technologies. This report presents the findings of the collaborative examination of potential operational and cost benefits from using ORNL/PEEMRC dual-mode inverter control (DMIC) to drive permanent magnet (PM) motors in applications of interest to Deere. DMIC was initially developed and patented by ORNL to enable PM motors to be driven to speeds far above base speed where the back-electromotive force (emf) equals the source voltage where it is increasingly difficult to inject current into the motor. DMIC is a modification of conventional phase advance (CPA). DMIC's dual-speed modes are below base speed, where traditional pulse-width modulation (PWM) achieves maximum torque per ampere (amp), and above base speed, where six-step operation achieves maximum power per amp. The modification that enables DMIC adds two anti-parallel thyristors in each of the three motor phases, which consequently adds the cost of six thyristors. Two features evaluated in this collaboration with potential to justify the additional thyristor cost were a possible reduction in motor cost and savings during operation because of higher efficiency, both permitted because of lower current. The collaborative analysis showed that the reduction of motor cost and base cost of the inverter was small, while the cost of adding six thyristors was greater than anticipated. Modeling the DMIC control displayed inverter efficiency gains due to reduced current, especially under light load and higher speed. This current reduction, which is the salient feature of DMIC, may be significant when operating duty cycles have low loads at high frequencies. Reduced copper losses make operation more efficient thereby reducing operating costs. In the Deere applications selected for this study, the operating benefit was overshadowed by the motor's rotational losses. Rotational losses of Deere 1 and Deere 2 dominate the overall drive efficiency so that their reduction has the greatest potential to improve performance. A good follow-up project would be to explore cost erective ways to reduce the rotational losses buy 66%. During this analysis it has been shown that, for a PM synchronous motor (PMSM), the DMIC's salient feature is its ability to minimize the current required to deliver a given power. The root-mean-square (rms) current of a motor is determined by the speed, power, motor drive parameters, and controls as I{sub rms} = (n, P, motor drive parameters, controls), where n is the relative speed, {omega}/{omega}{sub base} = {Omega}/{Omega}{sub base}, {omega} is the mechanical frequency, {Omega} is the electrical frequency, and P is the power. The characteristic current is the rms current at infinite speed, when all resistance and rotational losses are neglected. Expressions have been derived for the characteristic currents of PMSMs when the motor is controlled by CPA and by DMIC. The expression for CPA characteristic current is I{sub n{yields}{infinity}}{sup CPA} = nE{sub base}/X = nE{sub base}/n{Omega}{sub b}L = E{sub base}/{Omega}{sub b}L, which is strictly a function of the machine parameters, back-emf at base speed, base speed electrical frequency, and inductance. At high speeds, the rms current tends to remain constant even when the load-power requirements are reduced. The expression for DMIC characteristic current is I{sub n{yields}{infinity}}{sup DMIC} = P/3V{sub max} = P{pi}/3{radical}2V{sub dc}, which has nothing to do with machine parameters. This interesting result shows that at high speeds under DMIC control, the rms current diminishes as the load-power requirements are reduced. It also shows that the DMIC characteristic current can be further reduced by increasing the dc supply voltage. This explains the main benefit of DMIC; its ability to minimize the current required to meet a required load.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Facility
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 974598
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/TM-2006/429; VT0405000; CEVT076; C/ORNL 04-0691; TRN: US201008%%495
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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