Four-quadrant fully controlled mechanical load simulator

Mechanical load simulators are useful in various cases, where we wish to test an electromechanical system. A mechanical load simulator can be used to emulate a wide variety of loads, such as industrial loads, electric vehicle drivetrain, etc. In this paper, a load simulator build for the testing of various electromotion systems, with the capability of four quadrant operation (positive or negative torque, positive or negative rotational speed) and very good transient behavior is presented. The four quadrant operation allows bidirectional power flow, thus enables the study of energy recovery braking. The overall system will be investigated, the control method will be analyzed and finally, simulation and experimental results will be presented.