International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 5, Issue 6, June 2015 1

ISSN 2250-3153

State Space Modeling and Simulation and Analysis of

Sensor-less BLDC motor Using MATLAB/SIMULINK
1
Chitra Chhatre, 2Dr. N. R. Kulkarni
1,
Department of electrical engineering, Modern College
2,
Department of electrical engineering, Modern College

Abstract- This paper represents sensorless state space model II MODELLING OF PMBLDC MOTOR
of BLDC motor .The BLDC is modeled as sub-blocks and these The modeling is based on the following assumptions:
blocks are either logical or S-function blocks. The BLDC main
block is designed using state space model. The Zero cross (1) The motor is not saturated.
detection control technique of back-emf is used for commutation (2) Stator resistances of all windings are equal and self and
of power switching device in 3 phase inverter. Modeling is done mutual inductances are constant.
using MATLAB/SIMULINK and no built in Simpower system (3) Power semiconductor devices in the inverter are ideal.
tool box is used. Motor’s speed is controlled with PID controller (4) Iron Losses are negligible. The voltage equation of a BLDC
and for current control, hysteresis current controller is used. By motor can be expressed as:
reading instantaneous position of the rotor as a one of the output
of the state space model, different variables of the motor can be
controlled without any external sensors hence motor is operating
as sensorless.

Index Terms- BLDC, Sensorless, Back-emf, State Space

Model, Zero Cross detection.

I INTRODUCTION
The PMBLDC motors are normally powered by conventional
three phase inverter, controlled by the rotor position
information obtained from hall sensors. But these position
sensors have numerous drawbacks like increase in cost,
complexity in control, temperatures sensitivity requiring special
arrangements. These sensors reduce the system reliability and Figure 1: Basic PMBLDC Motor Drive Scheme
acceptability.
The sensorless technique used in this paper is based on sensing The Voltage equation of a BLDC motor can be expressed as:
the back-emf. In PMBLDC motors, only two out of Three
Phases are excited at any time leaving the third winding �� ��(�) ��(�) ��(�)
floating. The back-emf in the floating winding can be measured �
��� � = � ��� (�)� +L ��� (�)� +��� (�)� (1)
to determine the switching sequence for commutation of power ��
switching device in the 3 phase inverter. The terminal voltage �� �� (�) �� (�) �� (�)
of the floating winding back-emf with respect to neutral point Where�� , �� , �� are the stator phase voltages;R is the staor
of the motor is needed to get the zero crossing time of the back- resistance per phase; �� , ��, �� are the stator phase currents;
emf. The sensorless technique Based on zero cross detection of
back emf has been widely used. In the ZCP method the back- �� , �� , �� are the back electromotive forces.Back-emf equation
emf cannot be obtained when the BLDC is operating nearly of each phase is given below. Back-emf of the BLDC motor is
zero speed. Therefore special starting control is needed for trapezoidal in nature and is function of speed ω and
smooth starting and reliable transfer to sensorless control.In this position θ with a peak value of Ep. The instantaneous
paper a MATLAB[1]/SIMULINK model of the PMBLDC induced emfs can be expressed as,
motor suitable for sensor less operation is developed. Using this
model the dynamic behavior of the motor with sensorless ea= fa (θ) λ ω (2)
technique is studied. eb= fb (θ) λ ω (3)
ec= fc (θ) λ ω (4)
The peak value, Ep is derived as,
Ep = (B l v) N= N (B l r ω) = = N φ ω = λ ω (5)

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 5, Issue 6, June 2015 2
ISSN 2250-3153

N is number of turns per phase, B is flux density of the field, l is

gathered in above steps by adopting any of below suitable IV Simulation blocks and operations:
approaches: N is number of turns per phase is flux density of the
field ,l is length of rotor,v is velocity,r is radius of rotor bore, ω The BLDC control system is divided into isolated function
is angular speed in rad/sec , φ is flux linkage=(Blr) , λ represent modules. In MATLAB/SIMULINK environment, these function
the total flux linkage as the product of number of turns modules are established respectively and then combined
and flux linkage/conductor. effectively to form the integrated simulation model for BLDCM.
This Simulink model has several main blocks i.e. BLDC motor
Total Torque output can be represented as summation of each block, Reference current block, switching logic block ,Initial
phase control block, Controller block, Inverter block etc.
The BLDC motor block contains state space sub block and S-
�� �� +�� �� +�� �� function sub block.
Te= (6)
� The reference current controller block starts with calculating the
Where T e is total torque output[Nm] error in speed and uses PID controller to estimate the torque and
Also is calculated by
�ωm
Te= J + B ωm + T L (7) ��
�� ���� =�� × (�� + (�� × 0.5 × �� ) + )�+
Where T L =load torque[Nm], J= inertia of rotor and coupled ��
shaft[]kgm2], B is Friction constant. ��
The rotor speed and its position are related as follows: ��−1 × (0.5 × �� × �� − )� (15)
�� �
��
= � (8) Where E is the angular speed error, E is the previous time step
�� 2
error in angular speed, t is the sampling time, �� �� , �� are
where p is number of machine poles. proportional, integral and derivative constants. The total current
command is evaluated from estimated torque. Then it is
converted by means of an approximated Park’s Transformation
III State Space Modeling to three phase currents. The approximated park’s transformation
gives the corresponding phase current to every stator phase
The general equations for state space modeling are: according to the rotor’s position[6].
. A Trigger block is used to hold on both the required and
X=Ax+Bu (9) instantaneous current values in the open loop. Once the changer
Y=C �+Du (10) block closes the control loop, the Trigger block will give an
access to the current values to pass to the present controller
scheme. In this simulation, hysteresis controller function is
Where state vector � = [�� �� �� � � ]� chosen.In hysteresis type control[7]the controller is switched on
(11) and off according to whether the current generated is greater or
u =[��� ��� ��� �� ]� less then reference current. Usually, the controller is used to fire
(12) the gates of six step inverter switches, as in [8].
The Matrix A,B are given as:

� fa (θ)λ
⎡ −� 0 0 �
0⎤
⎢ � fb (θ)λ ⎥
0 − 0 0
⎢ � � ⎥
� fc (θ)λ
A=⎢ 0 0 − 0⎥ (13)
� �
⎢f (θ)λ ⎥
fb (θ)λ fc (θ)λ �
⎢ a� � �
−
�
0⎥
⎢ � ⎥
⎣ 0 0 0
2
0⎦
1
⎡ 0 0 0 ⎤
�
⎢ 0
1
0 0 ⎥
⎢ � ⎥
B=⎢ 1
0 0 0 ⎥ (14)
�
⎢ 1 ⎥
⎢ 0 0 0 −� ⎥
Figure 2:Simulation Model of BLDC motor
⎣ 0 0 0 0 ⎦

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 5, Issue 6, June 2015 3
ISSN 2250-3153

Zero Crossing Block: • I _A, I_ B and I_ C are the values of the phase currents
that are required to decide the freewheeling logic.

• PHASE A, PHASE B and PHASE C are the signal

This block evaluates the zero crossings of BEMF A - BEMF B THE OUTPUTS OF THE BLOCK ARE:
(A-B), BEMF B - BEMF C (B-C) and BEMF C - BEMF A (C-
A). These signals can be used to synchronize the controller or the voltages of the respective phases.
inverter.

V Simulation Results

The motor specifications used in this simulation are shown in

Table. 1. The simulation was run for 0.17 seconds
(simulation time). When the reference speed equals 3600 rpm,
the simulation curves of 3Φ back emfs (Fig. 5), 3Φ currents (Fig.
6), 3Φ torques (Fig. 7) and rotor position are shown in, Fig. 9.
Load torque is applied at 0.01 seconds. The motor speed
stabilizes in 0.058 seconds with 0% overshoot. From Fig. 5 and
Fig. 6, the back emf is almost trapezoidal with 120º phase
difference.
Figure 3:Inside of Zero Crossing Block 5
Back EMF for Phase a

. 0

Inverter Block: -5

5
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08
Back EMF for Phase b
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16

-5
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
Back EMF for Phase b
5

-5
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16

Figure 5:Back-emf

Current in phase a
20

-20
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
Current in phase b
50

-50
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
Current in phase c
20

-20
Figure 4:Inside of the inverter Block 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16

Figure 6:Phase currents

This is a logical version of the power electronics 6 transistor
inverter. As the core module BLDC MOTOR.mdl is written as a 1
Torque Generated in Phase a

set of differential equations, the voltages that are impressed upon 0

the module are signals derived from the general sources in -1

1
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08
Torque Generated in Phase b
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16

SIMULINK. Hence, the inverter block is a completely logical 0

unit. -1

1
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08
Torque Generated in Phase c
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16

The logic used is straight forward,If the gate of transistor T4 is 0

negative , the phase A is connected to the negative terminal of -1

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16

the voltage source. If however T1 is activated, the phase A is

Figure 7:Torque generated
connected to the positive terminal of the voltage source. If
however both the transistors are off, then depending upon the
sign (i.e. direction) of the current I_A, the phase A may be
connected to either side of the voltage source. This is to simulate
freewheeling. If the switches are off and the current is +ve, then
the phase A is connected to the -ve side of the voltage source and
vice versa. Similar logic is followed for the other legs. THE

• GATE1, GATE2, . . . . . . , GATE6 are the logical

INPUTS TO THE BLOCK ARE:

signals (zero/non-zero) that activate the transistors

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International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 5, Issue 6, June 2015 4
ISSN 2250-3153

Zero Crossing Detection instants for BEMF (a-b)

1

0.5

0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18
REFERENCES
Zero Crossing Detection instants for BEMF (b-c)
1

0.5

0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18
[1] MATLAB 7.6(2008a),The Mathworks Inc
1
Zero Crossing Detection instants for BEMF (c-a)
[2] Figueroa, J.; Brocart, C.; Cros, J.; Viarouge, P. (2003): Simplified
methods for ployphase brushless DC motors. Mathematics and Computer in
0.5
Simulation, 63 (3-5), pp. 209-224.
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 [3] Duane, C. Hanselman. (1994): Brushless permanent-magnet motor design.
New York, McGraw-Hill.
[4] Debjyoti Chowdhushrury,Mashurima chattopadhyay,Priyanka
Figure 8:Zero crossing instance
Rotor Speed in electrical rad/s
roy(2013)”Modelling and simulation of cost effective sensorless drive for
100
brushless DC motor”
50
[5] Krishnan, R. (2007): Electric motor drives-modeling, analysis and control.
0
Pearson prentice Hall, India.
-50
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 [6] Dixon, J. W.; Rodriguez, M.; Huerta, R. (2002): Position estimator and
Rotor Displacement in electrical rad
10 simplified current control strategy for brushless motor using DSP
5 technology.IEEE Industrial Electronics conference IECON’02, pp. 5-8.
0 [7] C.Subba Rami Reddy and M.Surya Kalavathi Performance studies of
-5
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
Integrated Fuzzy logic controller for Brushless DC motor Drives using Advance
Simulation Model.
Figure 9:Rotor speed and Rotor Position [8] Somanatham, R.; Prasad, P. V. N.; Rajkumar, A. D. (2006): Modeling and
simulation of sensorless control of PMBLDC motor using zero-crossing
back EMF detection. IEEE International Symposium on Power Electronics,
Electric Drives, Automation and Motion,
Current 20A Rotor length 30cm SPEEDAM 2006, pp. 984-989.
Torque 0.45N.m Rotor radius 20cm
Self- 2.72mH No.of turns 120
inductance per Phase
per
winding AUTHORS
Mutual -1.5mH Flux density .8167wb First Author – Chitra Chhatre is currently pursuing master’s
inductance degree program in control Systems in electrical engineering in
Motor inertia .0002kg-m2 Coulomb .0178 N Modern College, Pune University, India and completed degree at
friction MPCT Gwalior ( M.P.)In 2000.
Rated speed 3600 RPM Static .089N Email [email protected]
Friction
Number of 4 Viscous .002N
poles friction
Number of 3 Input dc 160V
phases voltage
Winding .29Ω No of slots 120
resistance per per pole per
phase phase

TABLE1:BLDC MOTOR SPECIFICATIONS

VI CONCLUSION

In this study MATLAB\SIMULINK based modeling and

simulation of the BLDCM is presented, for the specified motor.
The simulation results satisfy the theoretical analysis. This model
can provide a guide in the modelling of the PMBLDC for
investigators. State space model, the performance characteristics
of the BLDC motor can be evaluated for different machine
parameters which can be easily varied in the simulation study
and useful information can be obtained. This model has a flexible
structure and enables to users to change motor parameters easily.

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