Investigation of induction motor drive behavior in low-cost fault tolerant control for electric vehicles

In this paper, the induction motor drive behavior in a low-cost fault tolerant control system for electric vehicles is investigated. The presented control strategy focuses on the faults of inverter power switches (ie. short-circuit and open circuit of the inverter legs). The induction motor drive system is based on a voltage source inverter (VSI) controlled with space vector modulation (SVM) algorithm. The presented control system is able to adoptively change-over to different control algorithms when the faults are occurred; also it creates the smooth transitions of the motor current, torque and speed when changing over between the switching algorithms. A 15kW induction motor is used for simulations. The results of the simulations: stator current, electromagnetic torque and speed regulation behaviors demonstrate the performance and validity of the presented fault-tolerant control for induction motor drive fault mitigation.