Operation of a fault tolerant PM drive for an aerospace fuel pump application

The paper discusses the design of a fault tolerant permanent magnet drive based on a 16 kW, 13000 rev/min aircraft fuel pump specification. A ʹproof of conceptʹ demonstrator has been built to this design and key parameters measured on the demonstrator drive are given. A novel current controller with near optimal transient performance is developed to enable precise shaping of the phase currents at high shaft speeds. A list of the most likely electrical faults is considered. Fault detection and identification schemes are developed for rapid detection of turn to turn faults and power device short circuit faults. Post fault control strategies are described which enable the drive to continue to operate indefinitely in the presence of each fault. Finally, results show the initially healthy drive operating up to, through and beyond the introduction of two of the more serious faults.