Fault-tolerant permanent-magnet synchronous machine drives: fault detection and isolation, control reconfiguration and design considerations

In this work, a multidisciplinary approach for the design of fault-tolerant permanent-magnet synchronous machine drives is presented.

The drive components are described, including the electrical machine, the IGBT-based two-level inverter, the capacitors, the sensors, the controller, the electrical source and interfaces. A literature review of the failure mechanisms and of the reliability model of most of these components is performed. This allows understanding how to take benefit of the redundancy generally introduced in fault-tolerant systems.

A necessary step towards fault tolerance is the modelling of the electrical drive, both in healthy and faulty operations. A general model of multi-phase machines (with a number of phases equal to or larger than three) and associated converters is proposed. Next, control algorithms for multi-phase machines are derived. The impact of a closed-loop controller upon the occurrence of faults is also examined through simulation analysis and verified by experimental results.

Condition monitoring of electrical machines has expanded these last decades. New techniques relying on various measurements have emerged, which allow a better planning of maintenance operations and an optimization of the uptime of electrical machines. Regarding drives, a number of sensors are inherently present for control and basic protection functions. The utilization of these sensors for advanced condition monitoring is thus particularly interesting since they are available at no cost.

A novel fault detection and isolation scheme based on the available measurements (phase currents, DC-link voltage and mechanical position) is developed and validated experimentally. Change-detection algorithms are used for this purpose. Special attention is paid to sensor faults as well, what avoids diagnosis errors.

Fault-tolerant control can be implemented with passive and active approaches. The former consists in deriving a control scheme that gives acceptable performance for all operating conditions, including faulty conditions. The latter consists in applying dedicated solutions upon the occurrence of faults, i.e. by reconfiguring the control. Both approaches are investigated and implemented.

Finally, design considerations are discussed throughout the thesis. The advantages and drawbacks of various topologies are analyzed, which eventually leads to the design of a five-phase fault-tolerant permanent-magnet synchronous machine.