University of New South Wales

School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications

ELEC4613 - ELECTRIC DRIVE SYSTEMS

Course Outline
Aims of this course
The aim of this course is to equip students with knowledge of variable-speed drives and motion
control systems which are used in many industrial processes such as in conveyors, machine tools,
pumps, compressors, mining drives, electric vehicles, ship propulsion, wind energy systems, aircraft actuators, servo drives and automation systems, to name a few. The course stresses the basic
understanding of characteristic of machines driven from appropriate power electronic converters
and controllers. Steady-state torque-speed characteristics of drives driven by power electronic
converters, representation of drive dynamics, and design drive control systems will be covered.

Student Learning Outcomes and Graduate attributes

At the conclusion of this course, the students will be able to:
1. understand fundamental elements of drive systems, analyse the steady-state characteristics
of a few commonly used types of drives used in the industry.
2. understand the performance of these drives supplied from appropriate converters.
3. be able to select and design important elements of a drive system.
4. understand the quadrant operation of various types of drives and their control
requirements, selection of converters, components, etc.
5. understand how to design the hierarchical control structures for drive systems.
6. be able to apply the theories of electrical machines, power electronic converters and
control system design to implement drive systems which are appropriate for certain
specific applications requiring adequate performance.

Brief Syllabus:
Elements of drive systems; requirements of industrial drives. Drive representation, quadrant
operation, dynamic and regenerative braking. DC motors, converters for DC motor drives,
performance analysis. Performance analysis of synchronous motor drives with variable voltage or
current source and variable frequency supply. Performance analysis of induction motor drives
with variable voltage or current source and variable frequency supply. Field oriented (or vector)
control of synchronous and induction motor drives; Computer aided design.

Course Webpage:
All lecture notes, assignments, tutorial and laboratory sheets for this subject can be found on the
school webpage, via Current Students Study Notes Lecture Notes. You may have
to enter username: (your student number) and password: ee&tview to access the webpage for
this course. Students will be expected to bring the printed lecture notes, tutorial or laboratory
sheets into the lecture/tutorial room or laboratory, as appropriate. They are also expected to visit
ELEC4613 Course Outline

F. Rahman

this site regularly to keep up-to-date on Lecture Notes, Tutorial and Laboratory sheets,
announcements of mid-session test/ assignment, and other information related to this course.

Lecture Content/Schedule
There will be three hours of lecture per week. The total number of lecture hours over the 12-week
session will about 30, the remaining 6 hours will comprise of problem solving/tutorial/computer
modelling sessions in lieu of formal lectures. The third hour of lecture in even weeks will be used
for these sessions. Lecture notes are available from the course Lecture Notes webpage.

1.

Course Content

Hours

Introduction to Electrical Drives

Rotational Systems, Load couplings, representation of torque referred to

motor and load shafts; Energy relationship.
Quadrant operation
Steady-state and dynamic operation
2.

DC motor drives

Review of DC motors and characteristics

Switched-mode PWM converters.
Single- and three-phase thyristor converter circuits.
Analysis of converter and DC motor circuits.
Effects of discontinuous conduction on drive.
3.

Brushless DC drives

BLDC machine fundamentals; Analysis of machine back emf and

torque; Ideal back-emf and current waveforms, Sensor requirements
4.

Synchronous motor drives

Review of synchronous motors and characteristics

Salient and non-salient pole machines; Reluctance motors
Performance under Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) drive
Performance under Current Source Inverter (CSI) drive
Operation with maximum torque, field-weakening and
Unity power factor.
5.

Induction motor drives

Drive characteristics using equivalent circuit representation

Performance with variable-voltage and rotor power
Static Scherbius drive
Characteristics with VSI-VF inverter and CSI-VF drive
Effect of harmonics on drive performance
6.

Machine representation in orthogonal axes

Representation of machine dynamics; Stator, synchronous

Rotor reference frames. General orthogonal set;
representation of AC machines in orthogonal reference
frames. Representation of synchronous machine dynamics in the
ELEC4613 Course Outline

F. Rahman

stator and rotor reference frames; d- and q-axes currents and fluxes;
rotor flux oriented control (RFOC).
Representation of induction machine dynamics in the stator and
synchronously rotating reference frame; Condition for alignment of
the direct-axis with rotor-flux axis. Indirect rotor-flux oriented
control (RFOC) structure; effect of rotor time-constant on RFOC.
7.

Controller design for electrical drives

Role of various control loops in drive systems; drive system damping;

torque, speed and position control loops; hierarchy of control loops;
Typical controllers; design considerations for each control loop.
Total hours

30

Staff Contact Details

Course
Convener & Lecturer
Tutor
Lab in-charge

Name
F. Rahman
F. Rahman
G. Liyadipitiya

Email
f.rahman@unsw.edu.au
f.rahman@unsw.edu.au
gamini@unsw.edu.au

Location
EE133
EE133
EE119

Phone
93854893
93854893
NA

Tutorial
Tutorial sheets are available on Moodle for this course. Tutorial classes will start in week 2.
Solution of all tutorials will be posted on the course webpage progressively, sometime after the
material for each tutorial has been covered in tutorial class.

Laboratory
The laboratory for this course consists of four experiments, E1 E4, which will be conducted in
room EE119. There are two laboratory sets for each experiment. A maximum of two students can
be accommodated for each set. Laboratory will start in week 3 or 4 for students enrolled in even
and odd weeks, respectively. Laboratory sheets are available from the course website.
Students are required to read the School Safety Manual for Laboratory and Laboratory
Safety Instructions for Laboratory for this course, and submit the signed Laboratory Safety
Declaration form to the lab supervisor before they start the first laboratory experiment.
Laboratory experiments:
Experiment E1. Speed control of a DC motor with an inner current loop
In this experiment, the speed of a DC motor will be controlled by using a pulse-widthmodulated (PWM), four-quadrant, H-bridge switching amplifier. An inner (minor) current
loop is used to control the torque continuously and an outer speed loop is used to reduce
the speed error.

ELEC4613 Course Outline

F. Rahman

Experiment E2. Brushless DC Drive

This experiment introduces you to a brushless DC motor drive which has permanent magnet
excitation in the rotor, and has as the armature a 3-phase winding which is supplied by a
three-phase inverter. The armature windings are supplied from the inverter; these are
switched autonomously by Hall sensors mounted on the rotor. The amplitudes of the motor
currents are regulated by PWM duty cycle control of the inverter. In this way, the motor
develops torque which is proportional to the amplitude of the motor current, which is the
hallmark of a brushed DC machine, with requiring a commutator-brush assembly.
Experiment E3. V/f and rotor flux oriented (vector controlled) induction motor drive
This experiment helps you to study and compare the performance of a three-phase induction
motor driven from a voltage source variable frequency supply (V/f) and with a rotor flux
oriented controllers (RFOC). With V/f control, the voltage to frequency ratio of the supply is
kept nearly constant. This method is based on the steady-state equivalent circuit of the motor.
With RFOC, three-phase currents supplied to the motor are first resolved into two quadrature
current sources which independently regulate the torque and rotor flux linkage of the motor.
The quadrature currents, id and iq, are expressed in the synchronously rotating reference
frame. The particular topics of interest in this experiment are the control characteristics for
torque and flux of the motor under RFOC and comparison of the dynamic performance of the
drive supplied from the V/f supply.
Experiment E4. V/f and rotor flux oriented (vector controlled) synchronous motor drive
This experiment helps you to study the performance of the three-phase PM synchronous
motor driven with variable-voltage, variable-frequency (V/f) and rotor flux oriented
controlled (RFOC) current-source inverters. In the constant V/f scheme, the applied per-phase
RMS voltage to the motor is made proportional to the applied frequency using a PWM VS
inverter. With current-source drive, three-phase currents supplied to the motor are first
resolved into two quadrature current sources which independently regulate the torque and
rotor flux linkage of the motor. The quadrature currents, id and iq, are expressed in the rotor
reference frame. The particular topics of interest in this experiment are the control
characteristics of torque and flux of the motor under V/f and RFOC and comparison of the
dynamic performance of the drive with the two control schemes.

Mid-session Test
There will be one Mid-session Test (closed-book) in week 7. It will consist of numerical problem
solving and descriptive parts based on material covered up to week 6. Time and location of the
test will be announced in due course. This test will be held under normal examination-like
conditions. Mark scored in this test (out of 10) should be indicative of the level of understanding
of and proficiency in the topics covered prior to the assignment.

Simulation Assignment
One Matlab-Simulink or PSIM based drive system simulation assignment will be allocated to one
Assignment Group of three students. Students will be expected to form their preferred groups by
week 8. The purpose of these assignments will be to give students a taste of drive system
simulation using suitable platforms and predict the steady-state and dynamic behaviour of a
specified drive system. More than one group may have the same assignment.

Course Assessment
ELEC4613 Course Outline

F. Rahman

The distribution of assessment marks for the course is indicated below.

Laboratory, including one report on an experiment to be advised.
Report due in week 12

20 %

Mid-Session Test in week 7

10 %

Assignment (using PSIM or Matlab/Simulink;

Assignment due in week 13

10 %

Final examination

60 %
Total

100 %

Text Books and References

1.

Electric Drive Systems comprehensive lecture notes from lecturer (F. Rahman) in
PDF format will be available via Moodle for this course (ELEC4613). The following
books may be consulted for further reading:

Reference books:
2.

Control of Electric Machine Drive Systems - Seung-Ki Sul, IEEE Press and John
Wiley, 2011.

3.

Advanced Electrical Drives: Analysis, Modelling and Control R. De Doncker, D.

Pulle and A. Veltman, Springer, 2011.

ELEC4613 Course Outline

F. Rahman