Nonlinear Control of Five Phase Induction Motor

with Synchronized Third Harmonic Flux Injection

Marek Adamowicz1, Jaroslaw Guzinski2, Zbigniew Krzeminski3
Gdansk University of Technology
Faculty of Electrical and Control Engineering
Gdansk, Poland
1
marek.adamowicz@pg.gda.pl, 2jaroslaw.guzinski@pg.gda.pl, 3zbigniew.krzeminski@pg.gda.pl

Abstract The paper deals with the novel control system for
five phase induction motor (IM) that enables the injection of the
rotor flux 3rd harmonic component. Two multiscalar models are
transformed from the 1- 1 and 2- 2 vector models developed in
the 1st and 3rd harmonic planes. Based on the obtained
multiscalar models the synthesis of dual multiscalar control is
established. The obtained two multiscalar control systems can
independently regulate amplitudes and the relative position of
rotor flux and stator current vectors in the 1st and 3rd harmonic
plane respectively. Full decoupling of rotor angular speed and
rotor flux control and possibility of the injection of third
harmonic flux exactly synchronized with fundamental flux
component are main benefits of the proposed control. The
alignment of 1st harmonic and 3rd harmonic components of the
rotor flux is provided by the action of the second multiscalar
control system. The cascade of two controllers: 3rd harmonic flux
angle controller and 3rd harmonic flux angular velocity
controller is used for generation of torque reference signal in the
second control system. Compared to previously published control
schemes the proposed algorithm gives the possibility of exact
alignment of the fundamental and 3rd harmonic rotor flux
waveforms. The newly derived control structure was investigated
by simulations. The obtained simulation results show that the airgap flux is aligned both in steady state and transients of the five
phase IM which ensures trapezoidal shape of air gap induction
waveform independently of the machine load condition.
Keywordsfive phase induction motor; nonlinear control;
multiscalar model; thrid harmonic flux injection

I. INTRODUCTION
Considerable attention is currently being paid to utilization
of multiphase drives [1]-[3], particularly for sustainable
transportation. The development of electric mobility makes it
necessary to introduce innovative technologies. While leaving
unchanged the weight and size of batteries the range of an
electric vehicle can be extended practically only by increasing
its energy efficiency. Multiphase machines used in variable
speed drives offer several advantages over the three phase
drives such as: higher torque density, lower torque pulsation
and noise, better fault tolerance and reduction of rated current
of power converters. In recent years number of papers has
been published on the modeling and control of five phase
1. The project was financed by the National Science Centre with funds
allocated on the basis of the agreement No. DEC-2013/09/B/ST7/01642.
2. The project was financed by the National Science Centre with funds
allocated on the basis of the agreement No. DEC-2011/01/B/ST7/06593.

induction motors [4] [7]. A stator winding of the five phase

IM can be designed to yield either near-sinusoidal or quasirectangular MMF distribution, by using distributed or
concentrated windings. The airgap waveshape has a direct
influence on the output torque and the 3rd harmonic
component of the air gap flux can be used together with the
fundamental to enhance the torque production in the fivephase IM with concentrated type of winding. In [4] a rotor
field oriented control (RFOC) with the combined fundamental
and 3rd harmonic currents for concentrated winding five phase
IM has been proposed. Unfortunately the use of reference
values of 3rd harmonic direct and quadrature currents
proportional to respective fundamental currents does not
guarantee the alignment of 1st and 3rd harmonic air gap
fluxes during load variations. An improved dual-plane control
for five-phase IM has been discussed in [7]. The reference
signal of 3rd harmonic direct current is calculated from the
outer speed loop and the reference of 3rd harmonic quadrature
current is taken from simple synchronization unit to guarantee
the fundamental and 3rd harmonic flux waveforms alignment.
However, the synchronization unit used in [7] contains only
proportional gain which should be carefully selected to avoid
system instability.
In the present paper the multiscalar control, successfully
used for three phase induction motors [8] [12] is now
extended for application to five phase IM. The multiscalar
variables are reference frame independent quantities
representing: rotor angular speed (mechanical speed), square
of the magnitude of rotor flux vector, vector product of rotor
flux and stator current vector components - proportional to
electromagnetic torque and scalar product of rotor flux and
stator current vector components, which can be interpreted as
reactive torque. Two multiscalar models are transformed from
five phase IM models developed in the 1st harmonic and 3rd
harmonic orthogonal planes and two multiscalar control
systems are synthesized. While the mechanical speed and the
square of the magnitude of fundamental harmonic rotor flux
are controlled in the first multiscalar control system, the
reference torque in second multiscalar control system is taken
from the additional cascade of two controllers: 3rd harmonic
flux angle controller and 3rd harmonic flux angular velocity
controller. The application of two system multiscalar control
to five phase IM provides the possibility of exact alignment of

978-1-4673-6765-3/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

1st harmonic and 3rd harmonic rotor flux waveforms.

Moreover, the applied multiscalar control ensures the optimal
efficiency operation of five phase IM by fully decoupled
control of rotor flux magnitude, which is important especially
under light load. The PI controllers used in the proposed
control scheme may be tuned with the application of known
methods for linear systems [9].

five phase IM with concentrated windings can be used

therefore to improve the torque density. Furthermore, when
the 1-st and 3-rd harmonic components of the air-gap flux are
exactly aligned, it is possible to increase the amplitude of the
fundamental component without incurring the magnetic
saturation of the iron core.

II. DESCRIPTION OF FIVE PHASE IM IN STATIONARY

REFERENCE FRAME
The five phase induction machine has spatial displacement
of 2 / 5 between two consecutive stator phases which is
called characteristic angle and which is 72 degrees. The
natural coordinates of the machines is five phase abcde frame.
The model in abcde coordinates cannot be immediately used
in the control system. The components of mutual inductances
matrix in abcde coordinates are depended on instantaneous
position of magnetic axis. The basis for the modeling of multiphase machines is the use of transformations leading to the
replacement of a multiphase system with variables specified in
orthogonal reference frames to avoid the cross-coupling of
variables. To simplify the model calculation it is necessary to
apply a power invariant coordinate transformation.

III. MULTISCALAR MODEL OF FIVE PHASE IM

The synthesis of the control system require to receive
variables that do not contain periodical components. The stator
current and rotor flux vector components developed in the two
orthogonal planes 1 1 and 2 2 are periodic and are
transformed using nonlinear transformation, first proposed by
Krzeminski in [8]:

For the control synthesis usually it is assumed that number

of stator and rotor phases is identical. The application of the
Clarke transformation enables to separate zero sequence
components from abcde components. As the zero coordinate
does not participate in the effective electromechanical energy
conversion in the five phase IM, zero components can be
eliminated. The Clarke transformation [9] maps the five phase
IM instantaneous abcde voltages, currents and fluxes on the
two orthogonal 1 1 and 2 2 planes. The dynamics of
1 and 1 components of stator current and rotor flux vectors
represented in the first plane, does not influence the dynamics
components in the second plane.
of the 2 and 2
Moreover, there exists a separate set of motor parameters
describing stator and rotor inductances and resistances in each
plane [5]. After Clarke transformation, the variables in the first
and the second orthogonal plane are 1-st harmonic and 3-rd
harmonic components of stator currents, rotor fluxes and stator
voltages respectively.
Concentrated windings of five phase IM, when taking into
account first two terms of the Fourier series expansion air gap
induction square wave, provides a non-zero value of mutual
inductance for the 3rd harmonic in the 2nd plane. This
corresponds to three times the number of pole pairs, and three
times the rotor angular velocity in the 2nd plane compared to
1st plane. Between the angular rotor velocities r1 and r 2 in
the first and second coordinate system, there is a following
dependency:

r2 3r1

(1)

Taking above into consideration, stator-to-rotor couplings

will appear, independently, both in 1 1 and 2 2
equations, for the 1st and 3rd harmonic components
respectively. The 3-rd harmonic of the magnetic field of the

q12 i r ( i )is ( i ) r ( i )is ( i ) ,

(2)

q21i r ( i ) r ( i ) r ( i ) r ( i ) ,

(3)

q22 i r ( i )is ( i ) r ( i )is ( i ) .

(4)

As a result a set to the multiscalar variables which are:

electromagnetic torque (2),
square of rotor flux (3) and
reactive torque related to the IM energy (4) obtained, where
is ( i ) ,is ( i ) are the stator current vector components,

r ( i ) , r ( i ) are rotor flux vector components in stationary

reference frame of the i-th plane (i = 1,2). The fourth
multiscalar variable which is mechanical speed of the rotor is
represented in each plane as follows:
q111 r

and q11 2 3r

(5a),

(5b)

For further reading about Krzeminski transformation and

multiscalar variables, the reader is referred to [9] and [10].
The dynamic equation for the mechanical speed of five
phase IM can be written using multiscalar variables related to
the 1st plane:

dq111 1 Lm1
L

q12 1 Tload m2 q12 2 ,

(6)

dt
J Lr1
Lr2

where Tload and J denotes load torque and moment of inertia

of the five phase IM respectively. It can be deduced from (1)
and (5) that q11 2 3q11 1 .

The dynamic equations for q12 i , q21 i , and q22 i for

i=1,2 are as follows:
Rr( i ) Ls( i ) Rs( i ) Lr ( i )
dq12 i

q12 i
dt
( i ) Lr ( i ) Ls( i )
q11 i ( q22 i

Lm( i )

( i ) Lr ( i ) Ls( i )

q21i )

Lr ( i )

( i ) Lr ( i ) Ls( i )

(7)
u1( i ) ,

Rr ( i )
Lm( i )
dq211
2
q21 i 2Rr ( i )
q22 i
dt
Lr ( i )
Lr ( i )

(8)

Rr ( i ) Ls( i ) Rs( i ) Lr ( i )
dq22i

q22 i q11i q12 i

( i ) Lr ( i ) Ls( i )
dt

Rr ( i ) Lm( i )

( i ) L2r ( i ) Ls( i )

q21i Rr ( i )

Lm( i )
Lr

is2 i

Lr ( i )

( i ) Lr( i ) Ls( i )

(9)
u2( i ) ,

where:
u1( i ) r ( i ) vs ( i ) r ( i ) vs ( i )

(10)

u2( i ) r ( i ) vs ( i ) r ( i )vs ( i )

(11)

u1( i ) , u2( i ) are control variables dependent on the stator

voltages

vs ( i ) ,vs ( i )

and the rotor flux components,

IV. PROPOSED CONTROLLER

Application of nonlinear feedback (14) - (15) to the system
(6) (9) results in the linearization and decoupling of two
multiscalar models for 1st harmonic and 3rd harmonic planes.
Fig. 1 presents the two multiscalar control systems which can
independently regulate amplitudes and the relative position of
rotor flux and stator current vectors in the 1st and 3rd
harmonic plane respectively. Full decoupling of torque and
rotor flux control is obtained in each multiscalar control
system. Cascaded PI controllers may be applied for the control
of multiscalar variables. It can be seen from (16) and (17) that
variables q12 i and q22 i have first order dynamic described
by the same time constant rs( i ) :

rs( i )

Rr ( i ) Ls( i ) Rs ( i ) Lr ( i )

( i ) Lr ( i ) Ls ( i )

(18)

Ls( i ) , Lr ( i ) , Lm( i ) are the stator, rotor and mutual inductances in

i-th plane. Rs( i ) and Rr ( i ) are stator and rotor resistances in ith plane. Making an assumption that RMS value of phase
current is I s / 2 it can be written for magnitudes of stator
current vectors in each plane:
2
2
I s2 I s1
I s2

(12)

For a given I s( i ) , the maximum achievable value of nonlinear

combination of multiscalar variables for each plane can be
achieved [8]:
I s2( i )

2
2
q12
i q22 i

(13)

2
q21
i

The application of nonlinear feedback of the form:

harmonic (2nd plane) flux angular velocity r2 controller is

ref
used for generation of the torque reference signal q12
. The
2

u1( i )

Variable q12 1 controlled in the 1st multiscalar control

system is limited on the output of speed controller and q22 1 is
limited on the output of 1st harmonic flux (square) controller.
Torque production in the 1st multiscalar control system has no
effect on the 2nd multiscalar system. The main objective of
the second multiscalar control system from Fig. 1 is to control
the magnitude of injected third harmonic rotor flux by the
in
control of multiscalar variables q21 2 and q22 2
electromagnetic subsystem and to align its waveform with
fundamental rotor flux component. The alignment of 1st
harmonic and 3rd harmonic components of the rotor flux is
provided by the action of mechanical subsystem of the second
multiscalar control system. The cascade of two controllers: 3rd
harmonic (2nd plane) flux angle r2 controller and 3rd

( i ) Lr ( i ) Ls ( i )
Lr ( i )

u 2( i )

( q11 i ( q22 i

( i ) Lr ( i ) Ls ( i )
Lr ( i )

Lm( i )

( i ) Lr ( i ) Ls ( i )

( q11 i q12 i

q21 i ) m1i )

Rr ( i ) Lm( i )

( i ) L2r ( i ) Ls( i )

(14)

are tracked using

refr2 K p1 i1 refr 2 r 2 ,
s

(19)

ref
q12
K p2 i2 refr2 r2 ,
2
s

(20)

q21 i

2
2
Rr ( i ) Lm( i ) q12
i q22 i

m2 i ),
2
Lr ( i )
q21
i

reference signals refr2 and refr2

proportional-integral (PI) regulators:

(15)

where m1i , m2 i are new controls, linearizes equations (7)

and (9). These equations can be rewritten in the linear form:
(16)

Rr ( i ) Ls( i ) Rs( i ) Lr ( i )
dq22i

q22 i m2 i .
dt
( i ) Lr ( i ) Ls( i )

(17)

where r 2 is calculated from (21):

r 2 3r

Rr ( i ) Ls( i ) Rs( i ) Lr ( i )
dq12 i

q12 i m1i ,
dt
( i ) Lr ( i ) Ls( i )

Rr2 Lm2 q12 2

.
Lr 2 q21 2

(21)

The variable q12 2 controlled in 2nd multiscalar control

system is proportional to the electromagnetic torque produced
by 3rd harmonic stator current and 3rd harmonic rotor flux
and is limited on the output of 3rd harmonic rotor flux angle
controller. It can be deduced from (21) that in motoring mode
with positive rotor angular speed r the multiscalar variable
q12 2 has negative value.

Fig. 1. Proposed control scheme with applied dual multiscalar control: 1st multiscalar control system is related to control of 1st
harmonic rotor flux and the 2nd multiscalar control system is related to control of 3rd harmonic rotor flux.

Stator voltage components vs ( i ) ,vs ( i ) are calculated from

the nonlinear feedback u1( i ) , u2( i ) and actual rotor flux vector
components:
vs ( i )

vs ( i )

u2( i ) r ( i ) u1( i ) r ( i )

r2 ( i ) r2 ( i )
u1( i ) r ( i ) u2 ( i ) r ( i )

r2 ( i ) r2 ( i )

(22)

(23)

V. SIMULATION RESULTS
The proposed control system was investigated by digital
simulations using PSIM simulation software. The parameters
of investigated 3kW, two pole, five phase IM are shown in
Table 1. The nominal stator current in per unit (p. u.) is isN =
1, the nominal stator voltage is vsN = 1 p.u.. The nominal rotor
flux is rN =0.98 p.u., which correspondents to nominal value
of multiscalar variable q21 1 N of 0.96 p.u..

The nominal electromagnetic torque is TeN =0.8 p.u. which

correspondents to nominal value of multiscalar variable
q12 1 N of 0.81 p.u..
The conventional multiscalar control system without third
harmonic rotor flux injection was examined as the first. The
speed transient after step change of rotor speed command from
0.05 p.u. to 0.95 p.u. is shown in Fig. 2. The load torque Tload
was set to 0.3 p.u.. The limit of the multiscalar variable q12 1
was set to 1.215 p.u. which corresponds to 150% of the
nominal torque. The measured time duration of the speed
transient was 300 ms.
TABLE I.

3KW FIVE PHASE IM PARAMETERS

First Harmonic
Rs
0.056 p.u.
Rr
0.044 p.u.
Ls
2.813 p.u.
Lr
2.813 p.u.
Lm
2.737 p.u.

Third Harmonic
Rs
0.056 p.u.
Rr
0.05 p.u.
Ls
0.989 p.u.
Lr
0.955 p.u.
Lm
0.913 p.u.

The value of I s2 1.625 p.u. was measured during speed

change with electromagnetic torque stet to maximum limit.
Fig. 3. presents characteristic waveforms of the
investigated nonlinear control system with third harmonic flux
injection. The step change of rotor speed command from
0.05p.u. to 0.95 p.u. was simulated. The load torque during
simulation was set to Tload = 0.3 p.u.. A rotor flux square q21 2
of 0.022 p.u. was set in the second multiscalar control system
(see Fig. 1) which corresponds to injection of 3rd harmonic
rotor flux equal to 15% nominal value of 1st harmonic flux.
Therefore 1.15% of 1st harmonic could be set in the 1st
multiscalar control system which corresponds to q21 1 =1.27
p.u.. It can be seen from Fig. 3 that generated value -0.06 p.u.
of multiscalar variable q12 2 in the 2nd multiscalar system
(see Fig. 1) ensures exact tracking of reference value of flux
angular velocity refr2 , and thus exact regulation of 3rd
Fig. 2. Simulated transients after rotor speed command change in the
conventional multiscalar control system without third harmonic
injection: Tload=0.3 p.u, transient time duration 300 ms.

Fig. 3. Transient waveforms after rotor speed change in the proposed

control system with third harmonic injection in 2nd multiscalar
control system: Tload=0.3 p.u, transient time duration 275 ms.

harmonic rotor flux angle r2 during speed transient. The

exact alignment of 1st harmonic and 3rd harmonic rotor flux
waveforms is obtained in the proposed nonlinear control
system, even electromagnetic torque changes rapidly. To meet
the same limit of square stator I s2 = 1.625 p.u. as in previously
investigated conventional multiscalar control system (Fig. 2) a
higher limit of electromagnetic torque q12 1 =1.27 p.u. in the
1st control system could be set. The possible increase in
electromagnetic torque limit thanks to third harmonic injection
was 9% of nominal value.

Fig. 4. Simulated transients after step change of Tload from 0.3 p.u to
0.8 p.u. in the proposed nonlinear control system with third harmonic
injection in 2nd multiscalar control system.

The shorter transient time duration of 275 ms compared to

300ms in conventional multiscalar control system was
therefore obtained.
Finally, Fig. 4 shows the characteristic waveforms of the
proposed nonlinear control system from Fig. 1 after step load
torque change from 0.3 p.u to 0.8 p.u. at constant rotor speed
of 0.05 p.u..
The generated value of multiscalar variable q12 2 = -0.035
p.u. in the 2nd multiscalar system guarantees exact regulation
of 3rd harmonic rotor flux angle r2 and, thus, exact
alignment of 1st harmonic and 3rd harmonic rotor flux
waveforms. The maximum value of square stator current
2
2
I s2 I s1
I s2
= 0.746 p.u., which is 11% less than compared
2
with the value I s2 I s1
= 0.84 p.u. obtained in the
conventional control system without third harmonic injection.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
Based on the authors experience with application of multiscar
control to industrial variable speed drives a novel control
system with third harmonic rotor flux injection for five-phase
IM is proposed in the paper. Dual multiscalar control is
applied which can improve the efficiency of the motor with
the same generated torque or increase the motor power with
the same losses. 1st multiscalar control system is related to
control of 1st harmonic rotor flux and the 2nd multiscalar
control system is related to control of 3rd harmonic rotor flux.
Two rotating fields are controlled in the five-phase IM and the
waveforms of the first harmonic rotor flux and third harmonic
rotor flux are exactly aligned even during speed and load
torque changes. While the fully decoupled control of rotor flux
and rotor angular speed are achieved in the 1st multiscalar
control system, the 2nd multiscalar control system exactly
controls the slip related to the 3rd harmonic rotating field
according to demanded 3rd harmonic flux injection and thus
enables the increase the overall motor torque and improve its
dynamics. The value of stator current square I s2 , which can be
described as a function of multiscalar variables is investigated
in the paper and used to compare of conventional multiscalar
control with proposed dual multiscalar control with third
harmonic flux injection. As show the preliminary simulation

results for the investigated 3kW five-phase induction motor

the improvement of 9% in generated electromagnetic torque
can be reach or improvement of 11% in motor efficiency with
the same generated torque can be reached in the proposed
control system.
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