10C2-4 The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy

ICPERE 2014

Synthesis Modeling of 10 kW BLDC Controller

for City Electric Car Based on PSIM

Alfi Satria, Veladito Farisi, Arwindra Rizqiawan Nana Heryana, Agus Purwadi, Yanuarsyah Haroen
School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics Electrical Energy Conversion Research Laboratory
Institut Teknologi Bandung Institut Teknologi Bandung
Bandung 40132, Indonesia Bandung 40132, Indonesia
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—A model of a 10 kW BLDC motor controller is controller. The modeling process is based on the characteristics
reconstructed by utilizing PSIM software. This design process of data sampling and relevant literature.
starts by identification of the controller characteristics. The
identifications includes the work mechanisms, capability work PSIM is a simulation software package specifically
rating and other significant factors that must be considered in designed for power electronics and motor control. PSIM is
utilizing BLDC motor controller as electric vehicle drive. In this used for power converter analysis, control loop design, and
controller, there are some modes identified and modeled: torque motor drive studies. It is fast, friendly user interface and can
controlled, speed controlled, regenerative braking, cruise mode, provide waveform processing. It also supports links to other
and forward/reverse rotation selection. Through the simulations simulation software like MATLAB, JMAG using Simcoupler
and analyses, the modeled circuit is tested so it can represent the blocks, and C code through dynamic link library (DLL) block.
features of the controller. The package consists of the circuit schematic program,
simulator engine, and the waveform processing program
Keywords-BLDC motor controller, city electric car, PSIM SIMVIEW [3] as shown below.
model

I. INTRODUCTION Circuit schematic

PSIM Schematic
The utilization of electric motor has grown in very diverse editor
application especially in industry. In high industrialized
country, the utilization of electric motor can take 60% of total
electricity production. In few decades, the proportion can even PSIM Simulator PSIM Simulator
higher as the electric car industry which its main drive is
electric motor grows.
In electric car industry, there are some characteristics that Waveform
need to be satisfied in electric motor so it can operate SIMVIEW
processor
optimally. The characteristics could be torque versus speed
characteristic, high efficiency, high ratio of power versus size,
good dynamic response, long lifetime, and low noise operation. Figure 1. PSIM simulation process
Those characteristics naturally met by using brushless dc
(BLDC) motor. So it is undeniable that BLDC is one of the
favorite choice of electric car drive selection [1].
II. BLDC MOTOR MATHEMATICAL MODEL
Electric motor need a driver that suitable with the motor to BLDC motor equation model cannot be transformed easily
function properly. The drive system consists of controller and to d-q axis because of the shape of back electromagnetic force
power converter, besides the motor itself. The driver ensure (EMF) that is not sinusoid. Tha back EMF shape of BLDC
that the power supplied by power converter is matched with motor is trapezium, so it is easier to built the mathematical
motor demand in fulfilling the load requirement of certain model of the motor using intrinsic phase variable of motor [4]
torque and speed criteria [2]. with the assumptions:
This paper deepens the study of electric car in more specific 1. The stator winding is concentrated, equispaced 60o
section that is BLDC motor controller. The BLDC motor and Y-connected.
controller which had been implemented as the drive of ITB city 2. The magnetic saturation and hysteresis are neglected.
electric car is going to be reverse engineered to understand the 3. The armature reaction is neglected.
controller work mechanism. The main contribution of this 4. The distribution of air gap field is uniform.
paper is to synthesize the model of circuits inside the black box

978-1-4799-6402-4/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 251

10C2-4 The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy
ICPERE 2014

The equivalent circuit diagram of BLDC motor is shown in

figure 2.

L-M
R
ua
ia
L-M ea
R
ub
ib eb
L-M ec
R
uc
ic

Figure 2. Equivalent circuit diagram of BLDC motor

The voltage equation of three-phase BLDC motor:

‫ݑ‬௔ ܴ Ͳ Ͳ ݅௔ Figure 3. Control scheme of 3-phase BLDC motor
൥‫ݑ‬௕ ൩ ൌ ൥ Ͳ ܴ Ͳ ൩ ൥݅ ௕ ൩ ൅
‫ݑ‬௖ Ͳ Ͳ ܴ ݅௖ With the same magnitude of phase current flows in opposed
݁௔
‫ܮ‬െ‫ܯ‬ Ͳ Ͳ ݀ ݅௔ direction then will be created a torque with the same magnitude
൥ Ͳ ‫ܮ‬െ‫ܯ‬ Ͳ ൩ ൥݅௕ ൩ ൅ ൥݁௕ ൩ but the direction of torque will oppose the original torque. This
݀‫݅ ݐ‬ ݁௖
Ͳ Ͳ ‫ܮ‬െ‫ܯ‬ ௖ (1) principle also could be applied as a brake when BLDC motor is
݅௔ ൅ ݅௕ ൅ ݅௖ ൌ Ͳ (2) running [5].
‫ܯ‬௜௔ ൅ ‫ܯ‬௜௕ ൌ െ‫ܯ‬௜௖ (3) The value of processed hall sensor reading which is still
1,0, or -1 then multiplied with reference current produced by
And electromagnetic torque is torque reference generator circuit. The outcome of the
ͳ multiplication is the current reference of each phase for various
ܶൌ ሺ݁ ݅ ൅ ݁௕ ݅௕ ൅ ݁௖ ݅௖ ሻ (4)
߱ ௔௔ rotor positions. In BLDC motor, the actual torque produced by
the machine is proportional to the phase current supplied. The
where current reference of each phase then fed to current controller to
‫ݑ‬௔ ǡ ‫ݑ‬௕ ǡ ‫ݑ‬௖ phase winding voltage of stator (V) regulate switches so the actual current of each phase is equal
݅௔ ǡ ݅௕ ǡ ݅௖ phase winding current of stator (A) to reference current of each phase. On this control scheme, the
݁௔ ǡ ݁௕ ǡ ݁௖ phase winding back EMF of stator (V) current control scheme is hysteresis control.
‫ܮ‬ phase winding inductance (H)
‫ܯ‬ phase winding mutual inductance (H) To avoid the potential of phase current flows exceed the
߱ rotor speed (rad/s) capability rating so the current fed to current controller must
fed to current limiter first. Limiter aims to limit current to reach
certain level. If phase current flows more than the cable and
III. BLDC MOTOR CONTROL SCHEME apparatuses can sustain, it will damage the other components.
The BLDC motor control scheme used in this modeling of In controlling BLDC motor there are two kinds of reference
BLDC 10 kW controller depicted in figure 3. From the hall value input. First method is to directly input the amount of
sensor signal reading in motor we can get rotor position torque to achieve. It is called torque controlled method. This
information. The information is very important to know which scheme is the same scheme we use everyday when we want to
phase to be connected to positive dc bus or the negative dc bus use our conventional car by varying the throttle. The second
for every 60 degrees. From the reading we could also extract method is speed controller. In this method, the input we give is
the speed information through calculating the rate of change of speed reference while the torque reference is generated by
hall sensor output. In this hall sensor, the output has been speed controller using various ways. The way utilized here is
processed to return value of 1, 0, or -1. The output 0 is to PID method by setting proportional gain only for 1.6 and
command the phase to remain inactive. The output 1 is to torque limiter for 50 Nm [6].
command the phase to connect to positive dc bus while output -
1 to connect to negative dc bus to provide a positive torque. The controller that is going to be modeled:
Product name : HPC500H72500
The reading of hall sensor then fed to part of the scheme
Manufacturer : Golden Motor
that control the motor direction, forward or reverse. If the
Rating : 72 V / 350 A
desired direction is forward then it will multiply the reading by
Dimension : 117 x 72,5 x 42,5 mm
1. Otherwise, the reading will be multiplied by -1. This
Mass : 2,9 kg
multiplication aims to change the polarity of produced torque.

252
10C2-4 The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power En
ngineering and Renewable Energy
ICPERE 2014

selection of current reference is a compromise between the

amount of energy to be recoverred and the driving comfort. The
excessive amount of current reggenerative reference could bring
opposing torque that is too stronng and discomfort user [8].

TABLE I. BLDC
C MOTOR PARAMETERS

Parameter Value
Phase resistance 6 m
Phase inductance 0,076 mH
Speed constant 1/58
Torque constant 1/6.65
Pole number 4
Rotor inertia moment 3,84 mg.m2
No load speed 6000 rpm
Load inertia 1 kg.m2
Battery nominal voltage 72 V
Figure 4. Wiring diagram of 10 kW BLDC controller
c [7] Current hysteresis band 20 A
The 23 pins available in the controller couuld be divided into Overvoltage shutdown 90 V
five major parts based on the functions: Undervoltage shutdown 55 V
Command when throttle =1
Accelerator (pin 6-8) • Torque controlled 30 Nm
Motor Hall effect sensor (pin 18-23) • Speed controlled 4000 rpm
Control (pin 9-13)
Contactor (pin 1-5)
Table I shows the paraameters used to conduct the
Communication (pin 14-17)
simulation. Figure 5-7 show the t component configuration in
Accelerator pins are responsible to give torque and speed operating the BLDC 10 kW. There are several components
references, as which mode is active. Motor hall effect sensor needed to run the motor besides b the motor itself. The
pins are used to retrieve physical informatiion from the rotor components need to be connectted to controller are motor itself,
such as rotor position and temperatures. Conntrol pins are used battery, throttle, control pins annd contactor.
to select which mode to be implemented, such as braking,
cruise speed, and forward or reverse rotationr selection.
Contactor pins are used as safety switch which only close
automatically if safety requirement is mett. Communication
pins allow us to edit the settings of the conttroller through the
computer. The settings include mode selectioon, speed limit and
current limit.

IV. MODELED CIRCUIT

Firstly, the data is collected from city eleectric car testing to
determine the motor characteristics. The testiing is conducted in
torque controlled mode. In this mode, the acctual torque of the
motor has to follow the reference torque givven by the user by
varying gas pedal position. In this operration mode, the
reference value has to processed in time delaay first to make the
change of torque occur gradually so the user u does not feel Figure 5. Complete picture off BLDC motor modeling scheme
uncomfortable by the acceleration.
Although the data corresponding to speeed controlled were
not taken but it is shown in this mode that the
t motor in speed
controlled produce the sudden torque referennce change to adapt
with user speed reference input. Whenever there is difference
in actual and desired speed the motor alw ways output a big
torque reference so that the actual speed is equal the desired
speed.

There are also regenerative braking modee which change the

current flow from motor back to battery. In this mode, the

253
10C2-4 The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power En
ngineering and Renewable Energy
ICPERE 2014

Figure 6. Power circuits inside the conntroller

Figure 9. Rotation and current versuus time graph in torque controlled mode
data saampling

Figure 7. Contactor logic and reference torque gennerator subcircuits

The observation data regarding torque conntrolled mode and

regenerative braking mode is shown in figuure 9-10 based on
NEDC driving cycle (figure 8) [9].

Figure 10. Regenerativve braking data sampling

In regenerative braking dataa sampling there are two graphs

with different peaks and time needed
n to stop. The 20 A current
and 50 A current are the valuue reference current to produce
regenerative braking torque refference. It can be seen, when the
specified reference current is higher,
h then the maximum speed
produced is lower and the distaance needed to stop the car is the
same while the time required too stop the car will be longer.
Figure 8. New European Driving Cycle (NEDC
C) driving cycle

From those circuits, the simulation outpuuts are yielded, as A. Torque Controlled Mode
described below. From the simulation result shown in figure 11 we can see that
The controller is operated in torque controlled mode the amount of actual electrom magnetic torque always follow
without activating the cruise mode. So thee torque reference reference torque inputted. Thee amount of reference torque is
only comes from the various throttle positioon inputted by the proportional to depth of the peedal gas multiplied with amount
user. In the graph also we can see the variatioon of phase current maximum torque provided. Inn this simulation, the maximum
which is the representation of actual electrromagnetic torque torque provided is 30 Nm.
produced. So it can be concluded that in torque controlled
mode, the actual torque has to be able to folloow the variation of
pedal gas position as the user input. B. Speed Controlled Mode
The data sampling is conducted by following NEDC In speed controlled mode, iti can be seen that the reference
driving cycle as its reference. The cycle is a speed versus time input is speed reference. To minimize
m the gap between actual
graph. So if the user itself is considered ass a part of control speed and desired speed, the controller will regulate
system which drive the amount of speed waant to be achieved electromagnetic torque so the gap will less and maintained in
we can think this system as speed controllled mode. In this small value. Because in this mode
m the torque is not controlled
mode, to minimize the difference of actual speed and desired directly, compared to torque controlled mode the torque change
speed, the high amount of torque has to be b generated. This will be less gradually. The result shown in figure 12.
phenomenon will be checked in simulation iff the result agrees.

254
10C2-4 The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy
ICPERE 2014

The results of simulation confirm that the torque controlled

mode can run well as the amount of electromagnetic torque
always be able to follow the pedal gas input. The speed
controlled mode also can run well as high amount of torque are
applied to minimize the gap between the actual speed and
desire speed. And the regenerative braking mode can give the
opposing torque to slow the motor rotation and return the phase
current back to the battery.
These results of model simulation give help in building
hardwares with expected results.

Figure 11. Torque controlled mode simulation output

C. Regenerative Braking Mode

The regenerative braking operation only can be activated
when cruise mode is not in use, the speed is not zero and the
pedal gas is not being pushed. It is shown in regenerative
braking mode, there will be change of torque actual value and
dc current from positive become negative. These two changes
confirm there are opposing torque which will slow the motor
and energy recovered through this mode (figure 13).

Figure 13. Regenerative braking mode simulation output

Figure 12. Speed controlled mode simulation output

REFERENCES
The amount of energy recovered depends on the selection
of regenerative current reference. This selection is
[1] A. Tashakori, M. Ektesani and N. Hosseinzadeh, "Characteristics of
compromised between the amount of energy to save and Suitable Drive Train for Electric Vehicle," in 3rd International
amount of opposing torque which still comforts the user. Conference on Power Electronic and Intelligent Transportation System
(PEITS), Shenzhen, China, 2010.
[2] R. Khrisnan, Electric Motor Drives: Modeling, Analysis, and Control,
V. CONCLUSION New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001.
[3] G. R. Kumar, M. A. N. Doss, K. Prasad and K. Jayasankar, "Modeling and
The investigated motor controller has torque controlled, Speed Control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor at Constant
speed controlled, regenerative braking, cruise and reverse Load Torque Using PSIM," in International Conference on Sustainable
modes. A PSIM model based on the controller characteristics is Energy and Intelligent System, Tamil Nadu, India, 2011.
designed to represent the features of the controller and the [4] H. x. Wu, S. k. Cheng and S. m. Cui, "A Controller of Brushless DC
results are shown. Motor for Electric Vehicle," IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS,

255
10C2-4 The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy
ICPERE 2014

vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 509-513, 2005. [9] 7 2013. [Online]. Available:
[5] A. S. B. S. Krishan K. Sharma, "Performance Evaluation of a Binary https://www.dieselnet.com/standards/cycles/ece_eudc.php. [Accessed 15 8
Control Technique for Brushless DC Motor Drives," in International 2014].
Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, Beijing, China, 2011.
[6] U. Ansari, S. Alam and S. M. u. Nabi Jafri, "Modeling and Control of
Three Phase BLDC Motor using PID with Genetic Algorithm," in
International Conference on Modelling and Simulation, Cambridge, UK,
2011.
[7] "Miromax ECO TRANSPORT - ELECTRIC CONVERSION KIT,"
Miromax, [Online]. Available: http://www.miromax.lt/. [Accessed 1 9
2014].
[8] F. P. a. H. Z. Xiaohong Nian, "Regenerative Braking System of Electric
Vehicle Driven by Brushless DC Motor," IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, vol. 61, no. 10, pp. 5789-5808, 2014.

256