Comparison of Optimized Control Strategies of a High-Speed Traction Machine with Five Phases and Bi-Harmonic Electromotive Force

The purpose of the paper is to present the potentialities in terms of the control of a new kind of PM synchronous machine. With five phases and electromotive forces whose first (E1) and third (E3) harmonics are of similar amplitude, the studied machine, so-called bi-harmonic, has properties that are interesting for traction machine payload. With three-phase machines, supplied by a mono-harmonic sinusoidal current, the weak number of freedom degrees limits the strategy of control for traction machines especially when voltage saturation occurs at high speeds. As the torque is managed for three-phase machines by a current with only one harmonic, flux weakening is necessary to increase speed when the voltage limitation is reached. The studied five-phase machine, thanks to the increase in the number of freedom degrees for control, aims to alleviate this fact. In this paper, three optimized control strategies are compared in terms of efficiency and associated torque/speed characteristics. These strategies take into account numerous constraints either from the supply (with limited voltage) or from the machine (with limited current densities and maximum acceptable copper, iron and permanent magnet losses). The obtained results prove the wide potentialities of such a kind of five-phase bi-harmonic machine in terms of control under constraints. It is thus shown that the classical Maximum Torque Per Ampere (MTPA) strategy developed for the three-phase machine is clearly not satisfying on the whole range of speed because of the presence of iron losses whose values can no more be neglected at high speeds. Two other strategies have been then proposed to be able to manage the compromises, at high speeds, between the high values of torque and efficiency under the constraints of admissible total losses either in the rotor or in the stator.