Space vector modulation schemes for a five-phase voltage source inverter

Application of power electronics in electric drives enables utilisation of AC machines with a phase number higher than three. Such multiphase motor drives are nowadays considered for various applications. Multiphase drives are invariably supplied from multiphase voltage source inverters (VSIs) and adequate methods for VSI pulse width modulation (PWM) are therefore required. This paper analyses different space vector PWM (SVPWM) schemes for a five-phase VSI, which can be used for five-phase motor drives. A detailed model of a five-phase VSI is presented first in terms of space vectors. Next, the existing technique of utilising only large space vectors is elaborated. It is shown that this SVPWM method leads to generation of high amounts of low-order output voltage harmonics. Finally, a novel SVPWM method is introduced, which enables operation with pure sinusoidal output voltages up to a certain reference voltage value, which is smaller than the maximum achievable with the given DC link voltage. To enable full utilisation of the DC bus voltage, this SVPWM scheme is complemented with another one, which unavoidably does lead to generation of some low order harmonics. These harmonics are however of significantly lower values than when only large vectors are used. A detailed performance evaluation of the existing and newly developed schemes is done and it is presented in terms of quality of the output voltage waveforms. Simulation results are included throughout the paper to illustrate and verify the theoretical considerations