Inverter Fault Diagnosis of an Electrical Series-Connected Two Sinusoidal Six-Phase Permanent Magnet Machines Drive

Abstract

This paper investigates a real-time fault diagnostic of a transportation system which needs two drives with fault-tolerance capabilities. Because of constraints on the mass of the system and on the cost of the Voltage Source Inverter (VSI), a drive with two Six-Phase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines (PMSM) in series-connection supplied by two six-leg inverters is chosen. Despite the serial -connection, independent control of the two machines and fault –tolerance to open-switch fault is ensured. Nevertheless, a Fault Detection Identification (FDI) process is required for analysis and/or control reconfiguration. The proposed FDI is based on the combination of different criteria obtained from the two zero-sequence currents and from the normalized currents mapped into two frames defined by the Concordia Transformation. Results obtained from simulation and experimental tests show the effectiveness of the proposal.