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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 48, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

A Novel Control Strategy Applicable for a Dual AC

Drive With Common Mechanical Load
Ioannis X. Bogiatzidis, Athanasios N. Safacas, Life Senior Member, IEEE,
Epaminondas D. Mitronikas, Member, IEEE, and George A. Christopoulos

AbstractThe use of a dual electromechanical drive is a

well-established and an efficient solution especially when highpower systems are considered. A very important requirement in
such systems is the accomplishment of a load balance between the
two drives in order to prevent a potential overloading of the one
drive in relation to the other one. Additionally, the appearance of
mechanical oscillations must be avoided as it will be catastrophic
for the mechanical equipment, particularly in the case of mechanical resonance. In this paper, a general analysis of the existing
control strategies already used in dual ac drives is being realized
first, and a new hybrid control method is proposed based on the
need of equal load and power distribution between the two drives.
The efficiency of the proposed method is examined for a cement
kiln which is a typical system whose large size and imperative
uninterrupted operation enforce the use of such a dual drive. A
theoretical analysis is being realized developing a corresponding
mathematical model and using Matlab/Simulink. Finally, the proposed method is verified using a low-power laboratory system
which has been appropriately designed to experimentally simulate
a dual drive cement kiln operation.

TL
i
Lp
Dp
Np
Lk
Dk
Nk
Ia
Ib
V
V

T
Rs
M

Index TermsCement kiln drive, direct torque control (DTC),

dual ac drive, load distribution, motor control, power control,
speed control, torque control.

Jm1 , Jm2
Jp1 , Jp2
Jk
ks1 , ks2
cs1 , cs2
kp1 , kp2
cp1 , cp2
m1 , m2
p1 , p2
k
Rp1 , Rp2
Rk
Te1 , Te2

I. I NTRODUCTION

N OMENCLATURE
Motor inertia values.
Pinion inertia values.
Kilngirth gearload total inertia.
Shaft torsional stiffness coefficients.
Shaft torsional damping coefficients.
Pinion/girth gear tooth stiffness coefficients.
Pinion/girth gear tooth damping coefficients.
Motor rotor positions.
Pinion positions.
Kiln position.
Pinion radiuses.
Girth gear radius.
Motor electromagnetic torque.

Manuscript received November 30, 2011; revised March 17, 2012; accepted
April 10, 2012. Date of publication October 23, 2012; date of current version
December 31, 2012. Paper 2011-IDC-704.R2, approved for publication in the
IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRY A PPLICATIONS by the Industrial Drives
Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society.
The authors are with the Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Rio-Patras 26504, Greece (e-mail: impogiatzid@upatras.gr;
a.n.safacas@ece.upatras.gr; e.mitronikas@ece.upatras.gr; paralos@hol.gr).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2012.2226196

Kiln load.
Gearbox ratio.
Experimental system: pinion length.
Experimental system: pinion diameter.
Experimental system: number of pinion teeth.
Experimental system: kiln length.
Experimental system: kiln diameter.
Experimental system: number of girth gear teeth.
Stator current in alpha-axis.
Stator current in beta-axis.
Stator voltage in alpha-axis.
Stator voltage in beta-axis.
Stator flux in alpha-axis.
Stator flux in beta-axis.
Electromagnetic torque.
Stator resistance.
Parks transformation matrix.

HERE ARE numerous applications such as in paper mills,

textile manufacturing, cement industry, railway traction,
electric ship propulsion, more-electric aircraft, and lately in
electric vehicles where dual or multiple variable speed drives
are required. This has motivated many researchers to investigate
the characteristics of such systems in order to propose control
techniques and solutions for smooth operation.
In-depth studies of multiphase motors have been started
at the early 90s [1][4] and especially for variable speed
multidrive applications [5][8]. The reduced torque ripple in
inverter-fed drives, the improved reliability coming from the
use of smaller overall count of components (saving inverter
legs), the possibility of using a single DSP for the vector control
implementation and the better braking energy management for
multimotor applications are significant advantages of multiphase machines compared to the traditional three-phase ac motors. A serious disadvantage of these motors is the inability to
be fed by a classic three-level inverter which is in abundance in
the market. For this reason and since either multiphase motors
or multiphase inverters are not easily available yet, the use of
three-phase motors fed by three-phase inverters remains the first
solution for multidrive systems, particularly in industrial plants.
Based on this fact, the present research work is focused on the
operation of three-phase motors using traditional inverters.
The operation of two motors fed by a single voltage source
inverter has been investigated in [9][11]. A vector control

0093-9994/$31.00 2012 IEEE

BOGIATZIDIS et al.: NOVEL CONTROL STRATEGY APPLICABLE FOR A DUAL AC DRIVE WITH COMMON MECHANICAL LOAD

Fig. 1.

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Dual cement kiln drive. (a) Basic topology of a dual cement kiln drive. (b) Dynamical model of the mechanical transmission system.

method is being proposed to drive the motors in regard to the

speed and torque responses. It must be remarked that the case
studies gravitate to the electrical coupling of the motors through
the common inverter without concerning the mechanical connection of the motor shafts which can potentially cause an
unbalanced motor loading. A damping control in a single, space
vector modulated, current source inverter for a dual motor drive
is presented in [12] where an eigenvalue analysis is realized and
an appropriate damping control method is proposed to improve
the system stability in regard to the phase motor and dc currents.
In order to realize a parallel speed control of two induction
motors with different mechanical loads, a nonlinear programming method is proposed [13] whereas a study of a dual motor
drive fed by a single inverter for a railway application has
been realized in [14], [15] proposing an effective weighted
control using the energetic macroscopic of the system. A new
generic control method of multi-leg voltage-source converter
appropriate for both balanced and unbalanced loads has been
presented by Delarue et al.[16], and an effective PWM method
to control a multidrive system using a multi-leg inverter is being
presented in [17] as a potential solution to reduce the number of
inverter switches (inverter legs) and the installed power. Finally,
multi-leg inverters are also proposed for fault-tolerant structures
feeding either single [18] or dual ac motors [19], [20].
In most of the aforementioned research works concerning
dual motor drives, a single inverter is used to supply both
motors meaning that the motors are fed with exactly the same
voltage amplitude and frequency. However, there are applications in which the motors must be supplied from two separate
inverters in order to achieve higher availability and to ensure
that the load will be able to rotate, at least for a while, even at
the case of a malfunction at the one drive. Such a requirement
exists at a dual cement kiln drive.
II. C EMENT K ILN
The rotary kiln is the heart of a cement plant, and its
operation is considered as critical for a smooth production
process. The kiln is a long sloping steel cylinder which is
slowly rotating between 1 and 4 r/min to produce clinker. The
kiln rotation is realized using a particular transmission system
due to its large size which can reach the length of 100 m
and the diameter of 7 m. Since the dominant topology for the
kiln rotation consists of a dual electromechanical drive, in rare

cases and especially in small kilns, a single drive can also be

found. This selection depends on the manufacturer and design
limitations for power transfer per drive [21]. In dual drives, the
kiln rotation is realized using two motors, dc motors in older
drives and ac motors in most modern systems [22]. It should
be mentioned that due to the cost reduction of the ac drives
and the fact that the ac motors are almost maintenance free in
comparison to the dc ones, ac drives are already widely spread
in variable speed applications replacing the existing dc drives.
In this instance, the speed or torque control of the ac motor is
achieved by variable frequency systemsinverters consisting
of power transistors. Since the motor synchronous speed is
high (e.g., 1500 r/min) and the desired kiln speed varies from
14 r/min, a high reduction ratio must be accomplished which is
realized using two basic reduction stages. Each motor speed is
initially reduced using a high reduction gearbox whose output
is mechanically connected to a gear pinion through a shaft. The
two pinions transmit the torque to the kiln via a girth gear wheel
which surrounds the kiln periphery, and in this way the kiln rotation is performed [23]. A schematic of the specific mechanical
topology is shown in Fig. 1. The dual ac drive in combination
with the dual mechanical gear transmission unit defines the
kiln as a unique system. Additional to this uniqueness, the
importance of the kiln operation for the cement industry makes
the investigation of the specific system much valuable. The
key reason of using a dual drive instead of a single one is
the capability of higher availability using two less rated power
electromechanical drives reducing in this way the weight and
the dimensions of each drive. Moreover, it must be considered
that if the kiln operation is unexpectedly disrupted, the steel
tube of the kiln case will certainly curve as a result of its load
combined with the high temperature at the kiln interior, causing
a catastrophic damage. For this reason, unscheduled kiln stops
are not permitted. The dual electromechanical drive serves the
fact that if one motor fails, then the other motor can still rotate
the kiln by actions planned to take place for a programmable
stop. All the aforementioned demands impose the use of two
separate electromechanical systems appropriately dimensioned
to be able to undertake the load, at least for a while, in the
case of a malfunction at one drive. For this purpose, the use
of two motors fed by two separate inverters is usually selected.
It must be remarked that in such high-power systems, such as
kilns or mills, the existence of mechanical torsional vibrations
having even small amplitude may result to serious damages due

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 48, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

Fig. 3.
Fig. 2. Single drive operation: torque and speed control applied to a variable
frequency drive.

to resonance phenomena [24][26], and so a special emphasis

must be given to the damping procedure. This should be primarily secured by the applied control method which, besides
the equally load division between the two drives, must also
deter the appearance of mechanical transient phenomena. Such
a control method is going to be theoretically and experimentally
presented at the following sections of this paper.
III. P REVALENT C ONTROL S TRATEGIES
A. Single Motor Drives
Torque and speed control are the two dominant control strategies traditionally applied to a single ac motor basically enforced
by the use of variable frequency drives (VFD). The influence
of a torque and speed control strategy applied to a VFD in
instance of a load variation is presented in Fig. 2. In the case of a
torque control, the motor electromagnetic torque can be maintained to a specific desired value by changing the frequency
of the supply voltage. The motor operation point varies from
point A to point B and vice versa depending on the mechanical
load keeping coincidently the motor electromagnetic torque
stable. On the other hand, the use of a speed control keeps
the motor actual speed equal to a speed reference value despite
the mechanical load changes, by moving the operation point
between points A and B. Summarizing the above, we can
determine that the operation point of the motor at the case of a
single drive is defined by the desirable control which is selected
to be applied and the mechanical load appearing at the motor
shaft.
B. Dual Motor DrivesGeneral Approach
Already published research works concerning a dual ac drive
and three-leg inverters use a single inverter to simultaneously

Dual drive operation with common voltage supply.

drive both motors. This results to the fact that the motors
are supplied with the same voltage amplitude and frequency.
Supposing that the two motors are appropriately selected in
order to have the same nominal power and approximately the
same characteristics, a speed control applied to both motors
leads to the same electromagnetic torque produced and consecutively to an equal power division as shown in Fig. 3. This
is very significant considering that an equal power distribution is simply ensured between the two motors taking into
account only the motor speeds. Unfortunately, this assumption cannot be valid in the case of two motors fed by two
inverters.
C. Dual Motor DrivesCement Kiln Application
As previously described, the kiln rotation must be accomplished using two separate inverters to supply the two motors
in order to achieve higher availability and to decrease the
possibilities of an unplanned shutdown. Due to the requirement
for a specific kiln speed defined by the type and the quantity
of the produced clinker [27], the one of the two drives must
necessarily determine the kiln speed, and so it should be
speed controlled while the second drive can be either speed
or torque controlled. Considering the complicate mechanical
transmission system consisting of two gearboxes, two elastic
shafts, and a further dual pinion/girth gear coupling (Fig. 1),
different mechanical loads are likely to appear at the motor
shafts due to different gearbox efficiencies (e.g., different or
loss of lubrication at the one gearbox [28]), differences of the
shaft stiffness values [29], varying stiffness at the gear coupling
(e.g., lateral displacement or wear at the tooth profile) [30][32]
or due to misalignment [33][35]. The dual operation using
speed control and the same speed reference at both drives is
shown in Fig. 4(a). The point A corresponds to the operation
point of the first drive (master drive) and the A to the desirable
operation point of the second one (follower drive) in order

BOGIATZIDIS et al.: NOVEL CONTROL STRATEGY APPLICABLE FOR A DUAL AC DRIVE WITH COMMON MECHANICAL LOAD

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Fig. 4. Dual motor operation in a masterfollower control strategymotors supplied from separate inverters. (a) Speed control of master and follower motors.
(b) Master motor speed controlled and follower motor torque controlled.

to obtain a balanced motor loading. Because of the separate

voltages coming from the two inverters, the follower electromagnetic torque is likely to oscillate between points B and B 
at the case of an instant differentiation of the mechanical load.
In the same way, a torque-controlled follower may result to a
motor speed oscillation [Fig. 4(b)]. It must be remarked that
even a slight difference at the speed of the two drives may cause
a pinion lateral displacement leading to stress concentration
and spalling according to [25]. To highlight these problems a
comparative study concerning the aforementioned controls is
being realized. Additionally, in this research work, a new hybrid
control method is proposed which combines the two methods
already presented in Fig. 4 intending to guarantee an equal load
distribution limiting at the same time the transient phenomena
caused by a differentiation at the dual mechanical transmission
system.

operation at the theoretical model [29]. Additionally, the gear

tooth connection between the two pinions and the kiln through
the common girth gear rim is also modeled using stiffness and
damping coefficients according to [36][38]. A schematic of the
dynamic model of the whole mechanical transmission system
has already been presented in Fig. 1(b) whereas
Jm1 m1 + cs1 (m1 p1 )/n + ks1 (m1 p1 )/n = Te1 (1)
Jm2 m2 + cs2 (m2 p2 )/n + ks2 (m2 p2 )/n = Te2 (2)
Jp1 p1 + cp1 Rp1 (Rp1 p1 Rk k )
+ kp1 Rp1 (Rp1 p1 Rk k ) cs1 (m1 p1 )
ks1 Rp1 (m1 p1 ) = 0

(3)

Jp2 p2 + cp2 Rp2 (Rp2 p2 Rk k )

+ kp2 Rp2 (Rp2 p2 Rk k ) cs2 (m2 p2 )

IV. D UAL K ILN D RIVE S IMULATION R ESULTS

A. Modeling of the Electromechanical System
Considering Fig. 1(a) and expressing the equations of
motion, a mathematical model of the whole mechanical arrangement has been developed first, and a corresponding electromechanical simulating model has been built up using the
environment of Matlab/Simulink. In the simulation model,
the dual kiln drive operation is realized using two separate
drives, each one composed of a motor, a gearbox, a shaft,
and a pinion, similar to the real dual system. The two gear
pinions are coupled to a girth gear rim which surrounds the
kiln periphery. The shafts which connect the pinions with the
outputs of the gearboxes have been assumed as flexible, and so
stiffness and damping factors have been used to simulate their

ks2 Rp2 (m2 p2 ) = 0

(4)

Jk k cp1 Rp1 (Rp1 p1 Rk k )

cp2 Rp2 (Rp2 p2 Rk k ) kp1 Rp1 Rk p1
kp2 Rp2 Rk p2 + (kp1 + kp2 )Rk2 k + TL = 0

(5)

express the corresponding mathematical model [36], [39], [40].

The symbols are defined in the nomenclature. The values of the
variables used in (1)(5) are presented in the Appendix (Table I)
considering data from a real-world kiln system installed in a
cement plant. According to [41], the kiln load expressed by TL
at (5) was assumed to have the form presented in Fig. 20 in
the Appendix. For the electrical drive simulation, the models of
two three-phase, four-poles induction motors of 200 kW power

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 48, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

each, fed by two separate IGBT inverters and a single ac/dc

rectifier bridge, are used.
B. Control Method
A basic demand of the cement industry is the supply of
high starting torque to the kiln [41]. Moreover, rapid transient
phenomena appear due to the wobble motion of the clinker
inside the kiln [27], and so a quick and robust control strategy must be applied in order to achieve a smooth operation.
Considering these demands, direct torque control (DTC) was
chosen as the most suitable method for a cement kiln [42], [43].
DTC uses the equivalent adaptive vector model of the motor
in the alpha-beta reference frame where two phase currents
and the dc bus voltage are required to determine the motor
state from

 


Va
Ia


I
Va

a
(6)
= [M ] Ib

= [M ] Vb

V
I

Vc
Ic



a =
Va Ia Rs dt =
V I Rs dt (7)
T = p(a I Ia )

(8)

where
 
2 1
M=
3 0

1/2

3/2)


1/2

.
3/2)

(9)

The calculated actual motor flux (7) is compared with a flux

reference value, which in most cases is the motor nominal
flux, via a two-level comparator. In this way, high starting
torque and quick response in transient phenomena are achieved.
The calculated electromagnetic torque (8) is compared to a
torque reference value via a three-level comparator as well.
When a closed speed loop is used, the torque reference is
produced from a PI speed controller which handles the error
between the actual and the reference speed. The results of
the torque and flux comparators and the actual state of the
inverter switches are the inputs of a pulse selector algorithm
(DTC table) which determines the next appropriate switch
combination.
In a dual cement kiln drive, the one drivemaster drive
should be speed controlled in order to determine the kiln rotational speed, while the second drivefollower drivecan be
either speed or torque controlled. In an ideal transmission system, both controls ensure an equal load distribution. However,
a slight difference between the two mechanical transmission
systems, which is likely to exist due to either a dissimilar
lubrication at the gear couplings (gearboxes, pinion/girth gear
coupling) or due to different shaft stiffness values or even due
to a tooth wear, may be critical. Originally, the system response
in a sudden change of the stiffness value kp2 at the pinion/girth
gear coupling of the follower drive is investigated applying a
speed control at the master motor and examining separately the
application of a speed or a torque control at the follower. Such
a mechanical malfunction is possible to appear in the case of a
pinion tooth wear or a sudden lateral displacement of the one

drive [25]. In addition, the operation of the system having a

permanent differentiation at the dual mechanical transmission
system is also investigated having the master motor speed
controlled and regarding to the applied control strategy of
the follower. This permanent differentiation is simulated using
different pinion stiffness values (kp2 = 0.7kp1 ).
A significant characteristic that must be focused is that all
the simulation results have been obtained setting low values
for the damping coefficients cs1 , cs2 , cp1 , and cp2 , equal to
0.01% of the corresponding stiffness coefficient values. This
means that the simulation of the kiln drive operation has been
realized considering a low mechanical damping integrated into
the transmission system. This has been assumed in order to
minimize the effect of a mechanical damping factor on the
system response focusing in this way entirely on the control
strategy.
C. Master Speed ControlledFollower Speed Controlled
In this arrangement, both drives are speed controlled having
the same speed reference. A schematic of this control strategy
is presented in Fig. 5. In each drive, the motor actual speed
is compared with the common speed reference, and the speed
error is transmitted to a PI controller which produces a torque
reference handled by the DTC algorithm. In this arrangement,
there is no need for mutual communication between the two
drives.
The motors accelerate from 0 to 750 r/min in 10 s following
a corresponding speed ramp reference signal. The speed reference remains at 750 r/min until t = 20 s. A sudden change of
the stiffness value of the follower pinion to the 70% of its initial
value is being simulated at t = 15 s. The simulation results of
the motor speeds and the motor electromagnetic torques are
shown in Fig. 6. The fluctuation of the electromagnetic torque
observed in the steady state is coming from the DTC control,
and several papers deal with the torque ripple elimination
[44][46]. Configuring the two PI speed controllers, the proportional gain was set to Kp = 20 and the integral gain to Ki =
200. Additionally, the integrator outputs were saturated to an
upper and lower limit of 5000 to avoid a possible overflow. As
both motors are controlled by two separate speed control loops,
the motor speeds remain close to the desired value of 750 r/min
before and after the appearance of the mechanical abnormality at the pinion. Contrarily, while the motor electromagnetic
torques are equal before the appearance of the mechanical abnormality, there is a significant overloading of the master motor
after t = 15 s. Essentially, due to the change of the stiffness
value of the follower pinion, the mechanical load on the master
motor shaft is higher and as the motor speeds are maintained
stable by the dual speed control, the master motor takes over
higher percentage of the load. This has also been described
previously using Fig. 4(a). In the steady-state operation and for
10 < t < 15 s, the two motors operate at point A and A , respectively, having the same speed and the same electromagnetic
torque. Due to the mechanical load change at the follower (t =
15 s) in combination with the active dual speed control loop,
the actual follower operation point will be at B. Simultaneously,
the master operation point will be moved to a different position

BOGIATZIDIS et al.: NOVEL CONTROL STRATEGY APPLICABLE FOR A DUAL AC DRIVE WITH COMMON MECHANICAL LOAD

Fig. 5.

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Schematic of the control strategy of a dual drive operation: both master (drive 1) and follower (drive 2) are speed controlled.

Fig. 6. Masterfollower motor operation applying a dual speed control at both

master and follower motors: simulation results with a 30% reduction of the
follower pinion stiffness value kp2 at t = 15 s.

Fig. 7. Masterfollower motor operation applying a dual speed control at both

master and follower motors: simulation results with a permanent differentiation
at the pinion stiffness values (kp2 = 0.7kp1 ).

having the same speed and producing a higher electromagnetic

torque resulting to an unbalanced motor loading.
In the case of a permanent differentiation at the dual mechanical transmission system, unequal master and follower pinion
stiffness values will exist. In order to simulate this situation,

the stiffness value of the follower pinion was considered to be

permanently equal to 70% of the stiffness value of the master
pinion. The simulation results are presented in Fig. 7 where
it can be clearly observed that during the start-up as well as
on a steady-state operation, the master motor electromagnetic

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 48, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

Fig. 8. Schematic of the control strategy of a dual drive operation: Master motor (drive 1) is speed controlled, and follower motor (drive 2) is torque controlled.

torque is higher than the follower motor electromagnetic torque.

This means that the master motor takes over higher amount of
the common mechanical load, and, although the actual speeds
of both motors are exactly the same, the power is not equally
divided.
D. Master Speed ControlledFollower Torque Controlled
In this control strategy, the master is speed and the follower
is torque controlled, meaning that the output of the master PI
speed controller is used as a torque reference for the follower
(Fig. 8). Thus, that the torque reference could be transmitted
from the master to the follower, the specific configuration
requires the two inverters to be able to communicate to each
other. Similar to part C, a sudden reduction of the stiffness of
the follower pinion/girth gear coupling to the 70% of its initial
value has been simulated, and the effects of this reduction at
the motor speeds and the motor electromagnetic torques are
presented in Fig. 9 keeping the same configuration for the
master PI speed controller (Kp = 20, Ki = 200).
A slight speed oscillation of the follower motor can be distinguished at the steady-state operation and before the sudden
change of the follower drive stiffness (10 < t < 15 s). This
oscillation is significantly increased after t = 15 s because of
the irregularity at the transmission system and due to the lack
of a follower motor speed observer. Considering the change of
the follower drive stiffness, the mechanical load of the follower
is instantly decreased whereas the corresponding mechanical
load of the master is increased. This results to an increase of
the master electromagnetic torque in order to maintain its actual
speed close to the speed reference. The value of the master
electromagnetic torque is transferred to the follower as a torque
reference. The higher value of the follower electromagnetic
torque in combination with the lower mechanical load results

Fig. 9. Masterfollower motor operation applying a speed control at the

master motor and a torque control at the follower: simulation results with a
30% reduction of the follower pinion stiffness value kp2 at t = 15 s.

to a follower speed rush which turns into a non-damped speed

oscillation as presented in Fig. 9. This phenomenon has been
previously demonstrated in Fig. 4(b). In this specific control
strategy, the follower motor speed is incontrollable, and so it is
free to oscillate from point B to B  and vice versa following
the master electromagnetic torque. Resembling results are extracted for a permanent differentiation of the pinion stiffness

BOGIATZIDIS et al.: NOVEL CONTROL STRATEGY APPLICABLE FOR A DUAL AC DRIVE WITH COMMON MECHANICAL LOAD

2029

in [48] in which the author, without presenting any experimental results, proposes the dual speed control as the most
applicable control strategy for a dual cement kiln drive in order
to overcome the backlash phenomena at the gear transmission
system.
In this paper, the design of an appropriate controller responsible to equalize both motor speeds and motor electromagnetic
torques is proposed based on the observation of the corresponding speed and torque mutual errors. This control should be
considered as indispensable for a smooth kiln operation having
concurrently the mechanical load equally divided to the dual
drive.
E. Hybrid Speed and Torque Controller

Fig. 10. Masterfollower motor operation applying a speed control at the

master motor and a torque control at the follower: simulation results with a
permanent differentiation at the pinion stiffness values (kp2 = 0.7kp1 ).

values and particularly by setting kp2 = 0.7kp1 (Fig. 10). A

slight speed oscillation of the follower motor can be noticed
during the start-up which is significantly increased at higher
speeds. The follower motor speed oscillation becomes much
more intense in the steady-state operation after t = 10 s. Such
an oscillation is likely to cause resonance phenomena leading
to component damages, maintenance problems, and cracks as it
is mentioned in [24] and [47]. Recorded incidents concerning
torsional vibration problems are referenced in [25] and [26].
According to [24] and [47] regarding a dual cement kiln drive
with dc motors, a mechanical way to provide as much damping
throughout the drive is by using elastomer-type couplings between the major components. On the other hand, an electrical
way to reduce the risk of such potential problems is to ensure
an optimized interaction between the two drives by introducing
an electrical damping torque in the case of speed oscillations
at the mechanical system. In this way, the speed oscillations
are extinguished from their creation which is undoubtedly more
effective and reliable than basing the smooth kiln operation on
the use of elastometer-type couplings.
Comparing Figs. 6 and 7 with Figs. 9 and 10, it should be
observed that, if both drives are speed controlled, the motor
speed oscillation is deterred even in the case of a differentiation at the mechanical transmission system. Moreover, the
obvious disadvantage of demanding a higher torque from the
one motor is not critical as in a cement kiln drive the motors
are overdimensioned to produce the demanded high starting
torque of the kiln [41], [48]. For this reason, the dual speed
control of the cement kiln drive should be considered as more
effective than the speed-torque control. This is also mentioned

To overcome the apparent disadvantages of the aforementioned control methods, a new control strategy is proposed
as applicable for dual motor drives when power balance is
needed. In this method, both motors are simultaneously speed
and torque controlled aiming to assure the same operation point
at the case of a differentiation at the mechanical transmission
system. It must be mentioned that in the previous decades, when
the kiln rotation was realized using dual dc motor drives, the
prevalent technique in order to achieve an equal load distribution between the two drives was the use of parallel connected
cross compounded dc motors [49]. An equivalent topology can
also be obtained for dual ac motor drives applying an appropriate mutual control. The analytical schematic of the proposed
control method is shown in Fig. 11. A PI controllerspeed
PIhandles the speed error of the first motor (reference
speedactual speed) and produces a corresponding reference
value. At the same time, a second PI controllertorque PIis
added in parallel with the speed PI controller which in turn produces a reference value using as input the difference of the mean
values of the electromagnetic torques of both motors. The outputs of the speed and torque PI controllers are added together,
and the consequent result is used as a torque reference handled
by the torque comparator. It should be underlined that applying
such a parallel control, the two PI controllers must be appropriately tuned to each other to avoid instabilities. This means
that the speed controller must be much quicker than the torque
controller. The key idea is to primarily apply a speed control of
the drive using a quick speed PI controller in order to avoid the
appearance of speed oscillations. At the same time, the additional slower PI torque controller will be responsible to handle
the difference between the mean electromagnetic torques of the
two motors intending to eliminate the corresponding error. The
same control configuration is also used for the second motor. It
must be noticed that the output values of the two PI controllers
of the first drive are subtracted whereas the same outputs of the
second drive are added. This depends on how the electromagnetic torque error is defined. In our case, the specific torque
error handled by the PI torque controllers has been defined
as Tdrive1 Tdrive2 . Besides, using the particularly proposed
control strategy, there is no more masterfollower configuration
because both motors can either be master or follower in relation
to the mechanical load at their shaft. For this reason, this control
could be considered as equivalent to a mutual compensation of

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 48, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

Fig. 11. Detailed schematic of the proposed hybrid control for a dual drive operation with common mechanical load.

mechanical disturbances between the two drives acting as an

electrical damper.
The responses of the proposed control in the same case
studies as investigated previously are presented in Figs. 12 and
13. The configuration of the speed PI controllers was kept the
same, and the values of the PI torque controllers used for the
simulation were set at Kp = 1, Ki = 10. A small disruption
at the follower motor speed can be observed in Fig. 12 at t =
15. Particularly, the drive 2 motor speed is slightly increased,
whereas the drive 1 motor speed is consequently decreased due
to the reduction of the follower mechanical load. Nonetheless,
the speed control loops becomes active, and both motor speeds
maintain their previous values. Additionally, the dual torque
control gradually reduces the corresponding torque error equalizing in this way the motor loading. Comparing the response
of the proposed hybrid control with the previously mentioned
control methods, it should be noticed that the motor operation
is similar to the case of a dual speed control except that the
permanent torque error appearing at Fig. 6 (dual speed control)
for t > 15 s has been whittled away at Fig. 12 due to the
additional torque control loop, which has been added to the
proposed control strategy. Similarly, in the case of a permanent differentiation of the dual mechanical drive, the proposed
method is primarily responsible to keep the motors at the same
speed avoiding in this way any motor speed oscillation, whereas
the torque controller handles the corresponding electromagnetic

torque error intending to equalize the mechanical load between

the two motors. The controller operation under these circumstances is presented in Fig. 13. The fact that similar controls are
applied at both drives results to a quick and coinstantaneous
response. Special attention has been given to the PI tuning.
The torque PI controller is temperate as well as slower than
the speed PI controller to avoid inconstancies. In any way, a
specific procedure for the determination of the PI parameters
must be accomplished but this does not constitute the purpose
of this paper as these PI parameters vary depending on the
characteristics of the specific system. In addition there is a
variety of PI tuning and loop optimization methods ensuring
reliability and robustness [50], [51]. In this paper, the PI parameters for the simulation and the experimental procedure
have been determined using the Ziegler-Nichols method. The
effectiveness of the proposed control method is additionally
verified through experimental investigation.
V. L ABORATORY E XPERIMENTAL S YSTEM
Due to the prohibition of experimental procedures in a critical operating industrial system, such as the cement kiln, and in
order to verify the efficiency and the stability of the proposed
control method, a precise under-scale laboratory kiln drive has
been developed. The particular system consists of a hollow
cylinder simulating the kiln, a twin mechanical transmission

BOGIATZIDIS et al.: NOVEL CONTROL STRATEGY APPLICABLE FOR A DUAL AC DRIVE WITH COMMON MECHANICAL LOAD

2031

gearbox/pinion, and pinion-girth gear/kiln as in the real investigated system, having in this way two equivalent systems with
respect to their per unit values.
A. System Configuration

Fig. 12. Dual drive operation applying the proposed hybrid control strategy:
simulation results with 30% reduction of the follower pinion stiffness value kp2
at t = 15 s.

Fig. 13. Dual drive operation applying the proposed hybrid control strategy:
simulation results with a permanent differentiation at the pinion stiffness values
(kp2 = 0.7kp1 ).

system, two motors, and an electrical unit. The design of

the whole electromechanical system has been based on maintaining approximately the same proportions of motor/gearbox,

The mechanical part is constituted by two gearboxes flanged

to the motor shafts. The outputs of the gearboxes are mechanically connected to two pinions who in turn are coupled to
a girth gear rim surrounding the kiln. Both the pinions and
the girth gear rim were constructed using spur gears as in
a real kiln drive. The kiln was 20% filled with wet sand to
emulate a real kiln operation filled with clinker. The detailed
characteristics of the mechanical part are shown in Table II at
the Appendix. The kiln rotation is realized using two threephase, four-pole induction motors, 370 W each, fed by two
separate inverters. The use of motors with such a low nominal
power was inevitable due to the restrictions of constructing a
long laboratory kiln in combination with the demand of having
the same per unit values with the real system. The use of two
inverters supplied by a common ac/dc unit via a common dc bus
is also selected, designed, and constructed.
A variable speed drive has been developed using the DTC
principles for both inverters. Two phase currents and the common dc voltage are measured separately for each drive using
Hall Effect transducers, and all the sampled signals are differentially amplified using AD622 instrumentation amplifiers.
A DSP microprocessor was used (dspic30f4011) to realize the
required DTC principles, and a sample rate of 33 kHz was set
for the two phase current and the dc voltage in order to reduce
the torque ripple. Equations (6)(9) are digitally processed via
the microprocessor. The motor speeds are measured with two
ROD-426 pulse encoders of 2 4500 lines per revolution
which have been appropriately coupled back to the motor fans.
Each encoder binary signal is sampled at 1 kHz and is transferred to the DSP microprocessor to realize the required control.
Due to the need of mutual communication between the two inverters, a CAN bus has been added through which the reference
signals from the master to the follower and vice versa can be
rapidly transferred. Finally, monitoring of the whole drive is
achieved by a developed SCADA unit based on the Labview
environment and using an Advantech 16-bit data acquisition
PCI card. The motor phase currents and the dc voltages are
directly measured and sampled by the PCI Card at 1 MHz
using a digital low-pass filter with cutting frequency at 10 kHz,
whereas the motor speeds and the calculated electromagnetic
torques are transferred from the DSP microprocessors to a D/A
unit through the CAN bus. The motor speeds are sampled with
1 kHz using a low-pass filter with cutting frequency at 100 Hz
whereas the motor electromagnetic torques are sampled with
10 kHz using a low-pass filter with cutting frequency at 1 kHz.
A detailed schematic of the whole system and the laboratory
experimental kiln in operation are shown in Fig. 14. Because
of the difficulty to experimentally simulate a sudden change
of the gear stiffness during kiln operation, the responses of
the aforementioned controls are investigated in the case of a
permanent differentiation at the dual mechanical transmission
system caused by a misalignment. For this purpose, the master

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 48, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

Fig. 14. (a) Schematic of the experimental electrical drive. (b) The laboratory experimental system in operation.

drive (motor-gearbox-pinion) was deliberately installed with

a misalignment of approximately 2 in relation to its ideal
position. In all the experimental procedure, the speed reference
has a ramp form changing from 0 to 750 r/min in the first 10 s
and remaining to this value (750 r/min) for the next 10 s.
B. Experimental Results: Master Speed ControlledFollower
Speed Controlled
The responses of the experimental system applying a dual
speed control at both master and follower drive (Fig. 5) and
focusing on the motor operations (motor speeds and motor
electromagnetic torques) are presented in Fig. 15. Despite the
increase of the sampling frequency, a torque ripple can still be
perceived caused by the DTC. The experimental results have
been taken having the parameters of the PI speed controllers set
to Kpspeed = 5 and Kispeed = 1. As it can be observed, since
the motor speeds are exactly the same due to the dual speed
control, the motor electromagnetic torques are slightly different
because of different mechanical load at the motor shafts caused
by the misalignment. This means that the master motor takes
over higher percentage of the total load leading to unequal
load distribution. These experimental results correlate with the
results presented at Fig. 7 simulating a drive misalignment.
C. Experimental Results: Master Speed ControlledFollower
Torque Controlled
The system operation applying a speed control at the master
and a torque control at the follower (Fig. 8) is illustrated in
Fig. 16. Since the follower motor follows the master motor
electromagnetic torque, there is a remarkable speed oscillation
of its shaft similar to the speed oscillation which is presented
in Fig. 10. Moreover, it must be highlighted that this nonsmooth experimental system operation always lead to extended
vibrations of the whole system, and so it had to be turned off
immediately at t 15 s to prevent the equipment from irreversible damages. Similar malfunctions were also noted in the
case of a correct alignment of the drives. This can be explained
considering that, although the motor shafts are mechanically

Fig. 15. Masterfollower motor operation applying a dual speed control

at both master and follower motors: experimental results with a permanent
differentiation at the pinion stiffness values caused by misalignment of the
master drive.

connected to a gear transmission system, potential stiffness

differentiations in each mechanical part combined with the high
reduction ratio and the backlash phenomena in each reduction
stage are likely to lead to different motor actual speeds. If
there is no speed control of the follower, speed oscillations are
possible be observed. The appearance of a similar abnormality
at a real installed kiln will certainly be catastrophic.
Taking into account that the observed speed oscillations depend on the mechanical characteristics of the system (moments
of inertias, stiffness coefficients, damping coefficients) it is
obvious that the results presented at Figs. 10 and 16 cannot
be directly compared because the simulating and the experimental procedures correspond to different systems (different
dimensions). Nonetheless, it is theoretically and experimentally
proven that applying the specific control in a dual drive with
unequal mechanical parameters, there is a similar response
especially of the follower in which motor speed oscillations are
occurred demonstrating a non-smooth operation. Due to these
speed oscillations, unwanted resonance phenomena which may
result to potential shaft cracks are possible.

BOGIATZIDIS et al.: NOVEL CONTROL STRATEGY APPLICABLE FOR A DUAL AC DRIVE WITH COMMON MECHANICAL LOAD

2033

Fig. 18. Master and follower phase current fundamental frequencies: experimental results for 10 < t < 20 s (steady-state operation) applying a dual speed
control.

Fig. 16. Masterfollower motor operation applying a speed control at the

master motor and a torque control at the follower: experimental results with a
permanent differentiation at the pinion stiffness values caused by misalignment
of the master drive.

Fig. 19. Master and follower phase current fundamental frequencies: experimental results for 10 < t < 20 s (steady-state operation) applying the proposed
hybrid control.

Fig. 17. Dual drive operation applying the proposed hybrid control strategy:
experimental results with a permanent differentiation at the pinion stiffness
values caused by misalignment of the master drive.

Comparing Figs. 6 and 15 with Figs. 7 and 16, it should

also be noticed that, except master motor overloading, the dual
speed control results to a more even system operation, and this
is why it is proposed as the basic control strategy for a dual kiln
drive [48].
D. Experimental Results: Hybrid Speed and Torque Control
In order to extinguish the master motor overloading presented in the dual speed control, the proposed hybrid control
was applied to the laboratory system having the parameters of
the PI speed controllers set to Kpspeed = 5, Kispeed = 1 and
the parameters of the torque PI controller to Kptorque = 0.2,
Kitorque = 0.5. The experimental results in relation to the
motor speeds and the motor electromagnetic torques are shown
in Fig. 17. Besides that there are no inconstancies at the motors
operation, the electromagnetic torque error at the steady-state
operation (10 < t < 20 s) has been notably reduced compared

with the corresponding operation when the dual speed control

is applied. To strengthen the efficiency of the hybrid control,
the aforementioned inference can also be verified focusing on
Figs. 18 and 19. In these diagrams, the FFT transformation of
both master and follower phase currents, sampled at the steadystate operation (106 samples from t = 10 s to t = 20 s), are
presented. A difference of approximately 1.1 Hz at the two
motor current fundamental frequencies is evidenced in Fig. 18.
Since the motor speeds are equal, the specific difference of
the supply frequency demonstrates a master motor overloading.
The particular frequency error has been eliminated to 0.15 Hz
in the case of the hybrid control (Fig. 19) showing that the two
motors are approximately at the same operation point of the
characteristic speed-electromagnetic torque curve and the load
is balanced between them.
VI. C ONCLUSION
A new hybrid control strategy for dual drive applications
having a common mechanical load is being proposed in this
paper. The proposed method is considered as a general control
procedure suitable for applications which request two inverters
to supply two motors and two drives consecutively. The cement
kiln drive consists of a typical system where the industrial
demands impose the use of two separate inverters, one for each
motor. Using a developed theoretical model of the kiln drive,
it has been proven that the proposed method exceeds all other
existing dual control methods especially when an abnormality

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 48, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

TABLE I
C HARACTERISTICS -VALUES OF THE M ECHANICAL T RANSMISSION
S YSTEM U SED AT THE S IMULATION M ODEL OF THE K ILN

TABLE II
C HARACTERISTICS OF THE L ABORATORY
M ECHANICAL T RANSMISSION S YSTEM

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge TITAN Cement
Group-Cement Plant of Drepano Achaia and Cement Plant of
Kamari Elefsina for providing useful data from a real-world
dual cement kiln drive installed at the specific plants.
R EFERENCES

Fig. 20. Kiln load torquespeed curve used at the simulation procedure.

such as a different stiffness value exists at the mechanical transmission system. Balanced loading and damping of resonant
phenomena are succeeded using an appropriately tuned speedtorque control unit which creates an effective power observer
equalizing the power transferred to the load. Simulation results
are experimentally verified using an under-scale laboratory
system appropriately developed to simulate a dual kiln drive
operation. A differentiation of the mechanical transmission
system was created by installing one drive with a volitional
misalignment compared to the other one. The experimental
results prove that the proposed method surpass among the other
control methods making clear that it can be reliably used in a
dual cement kiln drive to overcome potential abnormalities at
the mechanical transmission system.
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Ioannis X. Bogiatzidis was born in Athens, Greece,

in October 1983. He received the Dipl.-Eng. degree
in electrical and computer engineering from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Patras, Rio-Patras, Greece, in 2006,
where he is currently working toward the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering.
His main research interests include electrical machines, drive systems, power electronics, and fault
diagnosis of electromechanical drives.
Mr. Bogiatzidis is member of the Technical Chamber of Greece.

Athanasios N. Safacas (M76SM10LSM11)

was born in Amphilohia, Greece, in January 1943.
He received the Dipl.-Ing. and the Dr.-Ing. degrees
in electrical engineering from Karlsruhe University,
Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1967 and 1970, respectively.
During 1971, he was with Siemens, Karlsruhe.
Since 1975, he has been a Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Patras, Rio-Patras, Greece, and the Director of the Electromechanical Energy Conversion
Laboratory. His teaching and research activities were
in electrical machines, power electronics, and electric motor drive systems.
Since 2010, he has been an Emeritus Professor with University of Patras.
Prof. Safacas is a member of VDE, CIGRE, EPE Association, AVERE,
IASTED, the Technical Chamber of Greece, and of the Editorial Boards of
several international journals.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 48, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

Epaminondas D. Mitronikas (M07) was born in

Agrinio, Greece, in March 1973. He received the
Dipl.-Eng. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Rio-Patras,
Greece, in 1995 and 2002, respectively.
He is an Assistant Professor in the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras. His research interests include power
electronics, electrical machines, modeling, design,
digital control and diagnostics of electric motor drive
systems, and control of low-power electromechanical systems.
Prof. Mitronikas is a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece.

George A. Christopoulos was born in Athens in

1967. He graduated in 1990 from the University of
Patras, Rio-Patras, Greece, receiving the Diploma
in electrical engineering, and, in 1991, he received
the M.Sc. degree in power plectronics from the
University of Bradford, U.K. In 2000, he received
the MBA degree from ALBA Graduate Business
School, Athens, Greece, for facilitating his occupation needs. Currently, he is working toward the Ph.D.
degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Electromechanical Energy Conversion
Laboratory, University of Patras.
His employment experience began as the Head of the Electrical Department
of the Titan Cement Company at the Kamari Plant in 1994. In 1999, he was
promoted to Assistance Production Manager and a year later to Technical Manager. Since 2002, he has been the Technical Manager of Paralos Engineering
S.A., working in the field of heavy industry in Greece and internationally.