Computationally efficient modelling of permanent magnet synchronous motor drives for real-time Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation

Hardware-in-the-Loop testing allows the development and performance evaluation of a controller for a physical system in a realistic environment where the system under test is emulated in an accurate real-time simulation. The paper proposes the use of a computationally efficient, yet accurate approach for a real-time modeling of permanent magnet synchronous machines drive system. The proposed method is based on a synchronous reference frame approach where higher harmonics of the stator winding distribution and rotor magnet flux are fully represented up to a specified order. A procedure for extracting parameter from a set of Finite Element calculations is also reported. The real-time model is coded on a commercially available FPGA based platform. The proposed approach is verified on an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor designed for traction applications. Comparison of real-time implementation and experimental measurements on the actual motor are used to validate the proposed modeling.