Enhanced Decoupling PWM Methods for Fivephase Open-end Winding Drives

N. Bodo, E. Levi, M. Jones

Abstract Open-end winding topology provides a number

of supply and control possibilities. The dc-bus voltages can be
connected or isolated, of equal or unequal value, the power
can be supplied in a balanced or unbalanced manner, and
even the operating regime of the two inverters can differ. The
open-end topology is also an alternative to multilevel singlesided supply. The focus of the investigation until very recently
in this area has been placed on three-phase machines. An
increase of the phase number leads to an exponential rise in
the available switching states and therefore to a considerable
increase in the modulation algorithm complexity. This paper
deals with an open-end winding five-phase drive system and
investigates the possibility of using one inverter to supply the
bulk of the power, while the other inverter works in pulse
width modulation (PWM) mode, eliminating unwanted
harmonics and contributing to the fundamental. Several
possibilities are described. Finally, the open-end supply system
is implemented to supply a five-phase induction machine and
experimental results are provided.

Index Terms--Inverters, Multiphase drives, Open-end

winding topology, Pulse width modulation.

I.

INTRODUCTION

ultilevel and multiphase drive topologies have been

under intensive investigation in recent times, since
both configurations enable an increase of the overall drive
power rating while relying on the available semiconductors
with limited voltage and current ratings [1]-[3]. These
topologies also provide increased fault tolerance through
redundancy in the number of phases and levels. Typically, a
voltage source inverter (VSI) is used as the power supply.
Advantages of the multilevel topology include
enhancement of the output voltage waveform quality,
reduction of electromagnetic interference through lower
dv/dt, reduction of the common mode voltage steps, etc.
The main multilevel VSI topologies are the neutral-pointclamped (NPC), flying capacitor (FC) and the cascaded Hbridge converters.
In an alternative supply arrangement, a cascade of
converters can be realized by connecting one inverter to
each side of the machines stator winding, which is left
open. As a result, the open-end winding topology (Fig. 1) is
created, providing an alternative to single-sided supply with
multilevel inverters [4], [5]. The topology is characterized
by simple structure and absence of additional
diodes/capacitors required in NPC and FC VSIs. Also,
capacitor voltage balancing is not required, leading to
simplifications of the PWM control algorithm.
As benefits of the open-end topology were recognised, a

considerable amount of research had been directed towards

the three-phase version. The topology, known for 20 years
[6], attracted steadily growing interest. Investigations were
focused on comparison with multilevel topologies [5],
possibilities of power sharing between the two inverters [7],
common mode voltage elimination [8], reduction of the
number of VSI components [9], creation of space vector
patterns in the shape of polygons to reduce ripple [10], etc.
In more recent times research has been directed towards
combining the multilevel and multiphase topologies in
single-sided supply mode [11], [12] and in open-end
winding configuration [13], [14]. An asymmetrical sixphase induction motor drive was considered in [13], [14]. In
[14] the goal was low-order harmonic reduction rather than
the multilevel operation. In [13], four three-phase two-level
inverters, with four isolated dc sources, were employed in
order to prevent the flow of zero sequence currents. The
space vector PWM (SVM) control was performed
separately for each pair of converters connected to a
separate three-phase winding in open-end configuration, so
that use of the SVM for a standard three-level three-phase
NPC converter, based on the nearest three vector approach
[7], was possible. The work focused on controlling the
power sharing between the four converters.
Another possibility offered by the open-end winding
topology is to have different roles for the two inverters.
Given an n-phase machine, a viable solution is to operate
one inverter in 2n-step mode, while the other VSI operates
in PWM mode and eliminates low order harmonics, while
also contributing to the realization of the reference
fundamental voltage [15]. The operating mode and
modulation principles, introduced in [15] for a three-phase
system, have been extended to a five-phase drive in [16].
In the process of the experimental rig commissioning for
the validation of the modulation principles of [16], an
increase in the dc-bus voltage of the PWM inverter has
been experienced for certain modulation indices. This paper
therefore develops alternative, improved modulation
solutions to the one of [16], which enable overcoming of
this drawback. The methods which yield satisfactory
performance are elaborated. Experimental verification is
provided.

This paper was made possible by NPRP grant # 4-152-02-053 from the
Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The
statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.
The authors are with the Electric Machines and Drives Research group,
Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF
(e-mail:
n.bodo@2009.ljmu.ac.uk, e.levi@ljmu.ac.uk, m.jones2@ljmu.ac.uk).

978-1-4673-0142-8/12/$26.00 2012 IEEE

939

Fig. 1. Multiphase open-end winding topology.

II.

SVM FOR A TWO-LEVEL FIVE-PHASE VSI A REVIEW

A SVM algorithm for the five-phase open-end winding

three-level drive was proposed in [16]. The drive is supplied by two two-level five-phase inverters. The SVM algorithm is based on decomposition of the three-level space
vector pattern into several two-level patterns. The methodology was developed following the reasoning of [17] for a
three-phase NPC VSI and [15] for a three-phase open-end
winding drive.
It is a known fact that a five-phase machine can be modelled in two planes: - and x-y planes [18]. Only current
harmonics which map into the - plane develop useful
torque and torque ripple. Harmonics that map into the x-y
plane do not contribute to the flux that links with the rotor
and hence create no torque. As a consequence, the impedances that restrict these currents are low and, therefore,
such low-order harmonics must not exist in the voltage
waveform. The sinusoidal voltage reference maps into the
first plane while the reference in the x-y plane is zero.
Two-level five-phase inverters generate 25 voltage space
vectors. Their components in the - and x-y planes are
shown in Fig. 2. Space vectors are labeled with the values
of the switching states of the inverter legs. There are three
space vectors magnitudes - small, medium and large:
and
v s = 4 5 cos ( 2 5 )V dca ,
v m = 2 5 V dca ,
vl = 4 5 cos ( 5)V dca , respectively. In addition to the zero
space vector, four active space vectors are required to generate the reference voltages [1] in order to provide zero
average voltage in the x-y plane. Two large and two medium space vectors are selected, that neighbour the reference voltage in the - plane [18].
This SVM method yields the same performance as the
carrier-based PWM method with zero-sequence injection
determined according to:
(1)
vzs = 0.5 (vmin + vmax )
Here vmin and vmax are the minimum and maximum instantaneous values of the sinusoidal reference voltages [19].
III. OPEN-END WINDING TOPOLOGY
Fig. 1 illustrates the open-end topology with two inverters supplying a machine with an arbitrary phase number
from the two sides of the stator winding. Two isolated dc
supplies are assumed so that the common mode voltage
(CMV) v NaNb can be present without the flow of the zerosequence current.
The resulting space vector pattern of the topology depends on the ratio of the two dc-bus voltages. When the dc
voltages are set to be equal, Vdca = Vdcb = Vdc / 2 , the resulting space vector pattern is identical as with the equivalent
single-sided three-level supply. Phase voltages of the stator
winding can be given as:
v ph1
4 1 1 1 1 vla1 vlb1

v
ph 2
1 4 1 1 1 vla 2 vlb 2
v ph3 = (1 / 5) 1 1 4 1 1 vla3 vlb3 (2)

v ph 4
1 1 1 4 1 vla 4 vlb 4
v
1 1 1 1 4 vla5 vlb5

ph5
Space vectors of phase voltages in the two planes are determined with:

Fig. 2. Two-level five-phase VSI space vectors in the - and x-y planes.

(
= (2 5)(v

v = (2 5) v ph1 + a v ph 2 + a 2v ph3 + a 3v ph 4 + a 4 v ph5

vx y

ph1

)
(3)
)

+ a 2v ph 2 + a 4v ph3 + a 6v ph 4 + a 8v ph5

where a = exp( j 2 / 5) . Using (2) and (3), one gets

v = v (VSIa ) v (VSIb )
v x y = v x y (VSIa ) v x y (VSIb )

(4)

since v NaNb (1 + a + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 ) = 0 .
In (4) the two space vectors on the right-hand sides of
the two equations are corresponding voltage space vectors
of the two five-phase two-level VSIs, already discussed in
the previous section. Their combinations give 211 voltage
space vectors, produced by 1024 possible switching states.
These are illustrated in Fig. 3. A consequence of the much
greater number of switching states and voltage space vectors is an increased number of phase voltage levels.
IV. PRINCIPLE OF THE DECOUPLING MODULATION
METHOD
Another consequence of the large number of switching
states and space vectors is that the development of a suitable SVM strategy is challenging. To reduce the complexity, the three-level space vector decagon is decomposed into
a number of two-level decagons, as illustrated in Fig. 3.
The centre decagon provides possibility of operating
only one inverter in two-level mode with the other one
clamped to zero state. The operation in the other decagons
is achieved by applying the nearest large vector from one
inverter (denoted with large dots in Fig. 3), while the rest of
the reference is achieved by operating the second inverter in
PWM mode.
Let the applied vector by one inverter be vi (either zero
vector or large vector) and let the reference be v * . The reference for the other inverter v ** is then set as:
(5)
v ** = (v * vi )
When the magnitude of the reference voltage exceeds
the maximum value obtainable in two-level mode, one inverter is operated in ten-step mode while the second inverter is modulated in the standard way, its reference being
the remaining part between the total reference and the voltage provided by the ten-step inverter according to (5).
The ten-step mode operation leads to a leg voltage waveform with constant harmonics and fundamental, which can
be expressed as a Fourier series as follows:
2
1
1
1
vleg = Vdca[sin t + sin 3t + sin 5t + sin 7t...] (6)

3
5
7
In a five-phase system, harmonics of the order 10k1 (k
= 0, 1, 2, 3...) map into the torque/flux producing subspace,
-, while harmonics of the order 10k3 map into the x-y
subspace. It is mandatory for the inverter working in PWM

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