Multiphase Electric Motor Drive with Improved and Reliable Performance: Combined Star-Pentagon Synchronous Reluctance Motor Fed from Matrix Converter

Abstract

This paper investigated and demonstrated an electric drive topology with inherently high reliability and improved performance. The topology combines a five-phase combined star-pentagon synchronous reluctance machine (SynRM) and a power electronic “matrix” converter without vulnerable electrolytic capacitors, which are often a point of failure of conventional drives. This drive is suitable for harsh environments, with possibly high ambient temperatures and limited maintenance. In this paper, an accurate model of the five-phase combined star-pentagon SynRM was introduced considering the effect of magnetic saturation and cross saturation on dq-flux-linkages. The five-phase combined star-pentagon SynRM will be connected to a three-to-five-phase indirect matrix converter (IMC) and the indirect field-oriented control based on a space vector pulse width modulation was applied. The introduced SVM commutates the bidirectional switches of the IMC at zero current which enhance and minimize the switching losses. The performance of the proposed drive system was studied and experimentally validated at different loading conditions. Finally, the reliability, cost, and performance of the proposed drive system were compared with the conventional drive system (three-phase star-connected SynRM fed from rectifier-inverter).