Performance evaluation of a direct torque controlled drive in the continuous PWM-square wave transition region

This paper investigates the operation of a direct torque controlled drive when operating under transient conditions and when operating in overmodulation conditions or in the “transition region” to six-step operation. The direct torque control is a dead-beat control of the torque and flux magnitude. In the steady-state, the stator voltage vector which drives the torque and flux to the reference value is calculated during each fixed switching period. Under transient or overmodulation conditions, an alternative switching algorithm must be used since dead-beat control is no longer possible. Two alternatives are presented for operation in overmodulation. The first involves a determination of the switching state a priori, and calculating the duty cycle for each phase based on the torque and flux error. A much simpler scheme is presented which utilizes the voltage reference vector from the direct torque control algorithm. This scheme, although not resulting in dead-beat control, is shown to provide very satisfactory performance in overmodulation. The direct torque control method shows great promise for light traction applications where a large quasi-constant power region is required. The scheme operates very satisfactorily in overmodulation, compared with existing current regulated PWM-based schemes, due to the fact that the voltage space vectors are directly controlled. A complete experimental evaluation of the proposed scheme operating in the transition region is also given.