Performance prediction of a fault-tolerant motor drive with a winding short-circuit fault

Abstract

Fault-tolerant motor drives are required in a range of safety-critical applications. Using a special motor design and an appropriate inverter topology, brushless permanent magnet AC motor drives can have a fault-tolerant capability. This paper studies the performance of a fault-tolerant dual permanent magnet AC motor drive under a winding terminal short-circuit fault. Among the potential faults that may occur in such drives, this is one of the more critical faults and can significantly affect the drive performance. The paper presents computer simulation studies modeling the motor drive under such a fault condition and provides simulation results of winding currents, output torque and efficiency. Moreover, the paper provides the characteristics of the measured short-circuit winding currents and proposes a hardware solution to reduce the effect of such a fault.