The Dynamic Response of a Linear Brushless D.C.

Motor

J. S. Moghani, J. F. Eastham
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, Bk2 7AY,
U.K.
Analogue Simulation Toolbox 'I SIMULINK ".

Abstract -The paper describes the use of the Matlab

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Analogue Simulation Toolbox 'SIMULINK' for the

closed loop dynamic modelling of a linear brushless dc
motor which is supplied from a delta-modulated
inverter.
The work is validated by experimental results taken
from a large test rig.
I. INTRODUCTION

1-

Linear version of all rotating machines are possible; a

rotating machine can be notionally cut along a radial
plane and unrolled to yield a linear version.
The most popular form of linear machine, as judged
by the quantities that have been produced is the linear
induction motor. This has the advantage of first an
inexpensive secondary that is often a simple iron
backed conducting plate, and secondly the possibility
of simple voltage control.
The linear brushless synchronous motor is potentially
more expensive to produce than its induction
counterpart because of the permanent magnets which
provide the excitation mmf and the necessity of an
invertor supply. However the machine has a power
factor efficiency product which can be double that of
an induction motor together with about twice the
tractive force per pole area .

a.Cross Section

b.Side View
Fig.1. Topological change to produce a brushless dc
linear motor

IT. LINEAR BRUSHLESS DC MOTORS

The linear brushless dc motor is a synchronous linear
machine which is controlled so that the load angle is
constant, thus simulating the action of a dc
machine.The geometry of this machine may be
adduced by subjecting a conventional rotary version to
a topological change. Fig. 1.a shows a 6-slot two pole
rotary synchronous machine with permanent magnet
excitation. This machine is cut along the radial line 4B and unrolled, forming the planar linear brushless dc
machine shown in side view in fig. 1.b.

111. SYSTEM SIMULATION

The dynamic behaviour of a brushless dc machine /
invertor system was simulated using the Matlab
0-7803-2795-0

In order to simulate any machine the electrical

parameters must be known. They can be either
measured or calculated and in this study measurements
were used. The parameters required for the Brushless
DC machine simulation are the self and mutual
induchces and the flux linkages of the stator phases
due to the permanent magnet field. This latter
parameter can be found from an open circuit test.The
result is shown in Table 1. The self and mutual
inductances can be found in two ways;first from a
short circuit test and secon
technique. In the step transie
phases are connected first in series aiding and
secondly in series opposition. The application of a step
voltage in each case yields transient result which can
be used to calculate the inductance parameters. The

599

The above equations are ac

procedure [11. This makes
and mutual phase inductances are equal.
A mechanical equation is required which relates
acceleration to the total
acting on the. rotor.
Consideringthat the cogging force were minimized by
skewing the rotor poles and assuming that the
magnetic end effect force is negligible,[ 11 thdn the
electromagnetic force can be equated to :

results from the two techniques gave answers which

were in reasonable agreement as may be seen from
Table 2.

I Machine

Measurement

Table 1

Phase Self

Inductances

Short Circuit
Test

Step Transient

Techniaue

Where M is the mass of the moving parts.

The block diagram of the simulation is shown in Fig.

2 .There are two major blocks that need to be
discussed. A block called Current Modulation
handles the modulation @fthe three phase currents and
produces appropriate line voltages. Using delta
modulation techique the modulation band of currents
can be preset to a known value by means of
hysteresis loop, which is employed in this block. This
enables the simulation to be used at different
hysteresis width.
The line voltages together with the emfs
the motor are put in to the State-Space block, and
solution of the equation yield i, and i, .Using these
values of currents and knowing the value of flux
linkage from the permanent magnet poles, the
instantaneous electromagnetic force can be
calculated.Then using the mechanical parameters-of
the machine, the force equation may be solved for
speed v and position x. The outputs from this stage are
used to feed the appropriate p o w to complete the
closed loop simulation of the action.
I

Table 2

l The parameters calculated above were used in the

, system electrical equations. These are shown in the

general matrix form as below.

Where:
V is the stator phase voltage
R is the phase resistance
L is the inductance
yois the phase flux linkage due to the pm field
v is the instantaneous rotor velocity
As the machine is fed by a three phase supply from
an invertor, the above phase equation was changed to
an equivalent line equation form.The line equations
were fmally transformed to the two axis ( o! and p )
form and the final state equations are shown below.

IV. PRACTICAL MACHINE

The linear machine under investigation is an arc type,

mounted on a rotating drum rig 1200 mm in diameter.
The stator of the machine carries 2 poles, each of 215
mm pitch. A double layer winding is used. Essentially
the winding is conventional in form but to achieve
balanced induced emfs the number of turns in some
coils at the machine ends have been adjusted. The
rotor has nine pole pairs and its excitation is provided
by plastic bonded neodymium-iroQ-bornmagnets. The
magnet poles are arranged in a herringbone pattern to
minimise slot locking forces [2].
The primary is mounted on a three-dimensional force
measuring platform, and the three forces that are
present in the machine can be therefore measured.
The primary windings are supplied by a three-phase

600

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Constant6

Currant Moduletion

Scope

Gain4

Fig.2.Simulation block diagram

IGBT invertor which uses the delta modulation
technique, mentioned above, so that within the
limits of supply voltage any current wave shape ( in
this case, sinusoidal )may be forced.
i

The output phase currents in the invertor are controlled

by means of rotor position detection. The positions of
the poles are detected by a nine bit absolute shaft
encoder that is coupled to the rotary rig by a toothed
belt. The nine bit data from the encoder with four bit
information for waveform selection are the basis of the
delta modulation process.

V. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

The simulation results for phase currents and traction
force produced are compared with the results from the
practical rig under two different modes of operation
namely modulated and unmodulated.
The modulated behaviour of the system occurs at
conditions where there is enough voltage to force the
currents through the phase windings. Fig. 3.a shows a
modulated phase current at supply voltage of 300
volts, phase current of 10 amperes (rms), and at speed
of 5.8 metres per second. Fig. 3.b presents the
practical current waveform at the same settings.
As the speed increases, the induced emfs rise to a
level close to supply voltage, causing the phase current
to fall out of modulation. In these
60 1

circumstances the phase currents are only controlled

by the 120 degrees of ON time intervals of the
switching devices. Fig. 4 shows both simulation and
practical unmodulted phase current waveforms. These
are achieved using a lower supply voltage of 60 volts,
lower current setting of 3.5 amps (rms), and at higher
speed of 8.6 m / s
The full
dynamic response of the generated
electromagnetic force is shown in fig. 5. The condition
for this was set to be the same as that in fig. 4.
It will be observed that the agreement between the
calculated and measured results are good and it
follows that the procedure developed in this paper can
be used for system design.
REFERENCES

1. R. AKMESE, and J. F. EASTWAM, : "Dynamic

performance of a Brushless DC Tubular Drive
System" , IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, Vol MAG-25,
pp 3269-3271, 1989.
2. J. S . MOGHANI, J. F. EASTHAM, R. AKMESE,
: Three Dimensional Force Prediction in a Model
Linear Brushless DC motor", IEEE Trannsaction on
MAGNETICS, Vol. 30, No. 6, pp 4752-4754,
November 1994.
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Time ( 0.05 sMiv)

Time ( s )
b.Practica1

a.Simulation

Fig.3. Simulation and Practical Modulated Current Waveforms

4.5

4
T

3.0

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121
I41

13

26

39

52

6s

1.5

1.5
4.5

78

12

24

36

Time(mS)

Tme(ms)
b.Practica1

a.Simulation

Fig.4. Simulation and Practical Unmodulated Current Waveforms

Time ( 10 ddiv)

Time(s)
a.Simdati w

b.Practica1
F1g.5. Dynamic Response of Electromagnetic Force
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