2006 2nd International Conference on Power Electronics Systems and Applications

Simulation Research of the Matrix Converter

Based on Direct Torque Control
Shi Zhang-hai K.W.E.Cheng
Department of Electric Engineering, The Hong kong Polytechnic University

Abstract: To advance the performance of AC adjustable The early research about MC was focused on two
speed system and to reduce the pollution to power network, key problems: the implementation and communication
this paper proposes a compound control strategy which of four-quadrant switches (4QSW’s) and the MC
combines Matrix Converter (MC) and direct torque control control. The former has been solved by combination
(DTC). The MC controlled by this strategy cannot only of two-quadrant switches (2QSW’s) and four step
achieve DTC to a asynchronous machine but also acquire communication method [1]. About the latter, many
good input currents and adjustable power factor. The control algorithms have been put forward. These
principle of this strategy is: firstly transform MC into an algorithms can be classified into two kinds: one is
equivalent topology that is a combination of a rectifier and direct conversion method, another is indirect
an inverter, and then perform DTC on inverter and current conversion method. The most widely used algorithms
space vector modulation on the rectifier, at last combine two are space vector modulation (SVPWM) [2] and
sides’ strategies and change them into the control signals of instantaneous input voltage synthesis method [3]. They
the MC’s nine bidirectional switches. A simulation about are indirect conversion method. These methods aim to
MC driving asynchronous machine has been done and the acquire expected open-loop sinusoidal output voltage.
results prove that the strategy proposed by this paper is not [4] presents an closed-loop vector control method for
only feasible but also excellent. MC.
Index Terms: matrix converter; direct torque control; When MC is used to drive and control
SVPWM asynchronous machine, a close-loop control algorithm
which combines MC and direct torque control (DTC)
1 Introduction can be adopted. The main principle of DTC is to
The pivotal equipment of variable speed system control the torque of motor by keeping the amplitude
is a frequency converter. At present variable speed of stator’s flux linkage and changing the angle
system with middle and low power mainly adopts between the stator’s flux and rotor’s flux. Compared
indirect converter (so called AC-DC-AC converter). to the vector control, DTC has its advantages. DTC
Traditional indirect converter has a DC link consisted gets rid of complex math transformation and it is not
of a large inductance and a large capacitor. The vulnerable to the impressible rotor’s parameter. This
dynamic response is slow and further more the input paper presents a compound control strategy which
current of this converter contains a lot of harmonics combines Matrix Converter (MC) and direct torque
which make pollutions to the power network and control (DTC) based on SVPWM. The kernel
reduce the power factor of the variable system. Matrix principle of this strategy is as follows. First MC is
converter (MC) overcomes the disadvantages of transformed into an equivalent combination of
traditional indirect converter. Without DC energy rectifier and inverter[2]. Then SVPWM is made on the
storage link MC has good dynamic response rectifier to acquire the sinusoidal input current and
characteristics. It can also get sinusoidal input current, adjustable power factor, DTC is made on the inverter
sinusoidal output voltage and adjustable input to achieve a high-quality control for motor. The
displacement factor (IDF). simulation results presented at the last part of this

199 of 288
 2006 2nd International Conference on Power Electronics Systems and Applications

paper show that the strategy presented in this paper is we learn the electromagnetic torque is determined by
feasible. the amplitude and angle of stator’s and rotor’s flux

2 Compound control strategy linkage. In practical operation, the amplitude of

stator’s flux linkage should be kept on the nominal
level. Electromagnetic torque can be changed by
changing θ [5]
. The variation of θ is achieved by
controlling the rotating speed of stator’s flux linkage.
This is implemented by choosing voltage vector of
inverter eventually.

Fig.1 Equivalent virtual rectifier and inverter

According to the indirect conversion method,

MC can be transformed into an equivalent
combination of rectifier and inverter. As figure 1
shows. This equivalent structure has an virtual DC
link.
To combine MC and DTC, we can implement
DTC on the virtual inverter; to gain sinusoidal input
current and adjustable power factor, it is needed to
implement current SVPWM[2]. At last the control
strategies at both sides should be combined and
changed into the compound control strategies of the
nine bi-direction switches of MC.
（1） DTC on the virtual inverter
Based on the theory of asynchronous machine, it Fig.2 Voltage space vector on the virtual inverter side and flux

can be proved that the electromagnetic torque of trace of motor stator

machine under the stable α － β two axes reference If the middle point is defined as neutral point, the
frame can be calculated by (1) voltage vector, the axes of three phase of motor and
sectors can be drawn as figure 2. In figure 2 the
Lm
Te = n p ⋅ 2
⋅ ψ 1 ⋅ ψ 2 ⋅ sin θ . (1) broken lines divided the plane into six sectors. In the
L s Lr − Lm three homocentric circles, the middle one denotes the
In (1) Te is the electromagnetic torque; n p is the reference value of stator’s flux linkage, and the circles
on two sides denote the tolerance. The amplitude of
pole number; Ls and Lr denote the inductance of
stator’s flux linkage and torque are controlled by two
stator and rotator respectively, Lm is the mutual
hysteresis controllers respectively. The inverter has 8
inductance between stator and rotor. ψ 1 andψ 2 are voltage vectors V0～V7. Every vector correspond to
denote the flux linkage vector of stator and rotor one state of inverter’s switches. To keep the trace of
respectively. θ is the angle between them. All these flux linkage always in the tolerance and to insure the
variable are under the α － β reference frame. And rotating speed of stator’s flux linkage comply with the
orthogonal transform is used in this paper to transform reference value of torque, we need to choose voltage
three phase system into two phase system. From (1) vector in reason. It is based on sector signal n , flux

200 of 288
 2006 2nd International Conference on Power Electronics Systems and Applications

decided by these polarities. For example, if three

linkage error signal Δψ and torque error signal
components’ polarities are ＋,－,－, then ψ s is in
ΔT to choose the optimal voltage vector. For sector 1 according to figure 2. The rest may be
example, at a particular instant, the output voltage deduced by analogy.
vector is in the first sector, if Δψ > 0 , then the actual
（2） Current SVPWM on rectifier
flux linkage is smaller than the reference value and
needed to increase. According to figure 2 two vectors
can make the flux linkage increase. They are V2 and
V6. If ΔT > 0 meanwhile, that means the actual
torque need be increased, then we can only choose
vector V2 because only V2 can increase the rotating
speed so as to increase the torque. Inversely if
ΔT < 0 , only V6 can be chose. To reduce the
frequency of switches, the torque hysteresis controller
can be improved into a three-level comparator (see

figure 3). It’s principle is as follow: if ΔT > μ (μ

is torque tolerance), then increase torque; if Fig.4 Current space vector and hexagon sector

ΔT < − μ , then reduce torque; if − μ < ΔT < μ ,

The rectifier’s current space vectors are shown as
then keep the stator’s flux linkage stable by choosing figure 4. There are six non-zero current vectors I1～I6
zero vector V0 or V7. and three different zero current vector denoted by I0.
Stator's
flux linkage Ψs
Sector These vectors can be produced by rectifier directly
determin
observation
model
a-tion and called switching state vectors (SSV’s). The
- ΔΨs principle of current space vector modulation is to
+ Voltage
vector
Ψs reference selector insert more current vectors in every sector so as to
Torque T- ΔT
－µ
make the input current be more close to symmetrical
is detector µ
Ψ×i + sine wave. These inserted vectors can be synthesized
T reference PWM
ω - PI by two adjacent SSV’s and zero vectors according the
signal
regulator Virtual
+ decoder inverter synthesis principle of vector. [2] describes the
ω reference
principle of current SVPWM in detail.
（3） Compound control strategy
Fig.3 principle diagram of direct torque control The current modulation on rectifier and DTC on
on the virtual inverter side inverter should be combined to form the control
Figure 3 is the block diagram of the principle of strategy of nine switches of MC. Each current vector I
DTC on inverter side. To control the stator’s flux of rectifier and each voltage vector V of inverter can
linkage, estimate of torque and flux linkage is needed. be combined to form an I－V pair. Each I－V pair
About the estimation techniques Ref [5] presents correspond to only one state of MC’s switches.
many useful methods. In figure 3 the sector can be Compound control can be implemented as follows. At
decided by the following method. First project the each sample instant, execute the current SVPWM on
stator’s flux linkage ψ s to the three phase axes to get virtual rectifier to choose the current vector Ii, execute
ψ
three componentsψ A ,ψ B , C . Then examine three DTC on virtual inverter to choose voltage vector Vj,
components’ polarity. Sector’s serial number can be then combine them to form vector pair Ii－Vj, at last

201 of 288
 2006 2nd International Conference on Power Electronics Systems and Applications

decode the vector pair Ii－Vj to get the PWM signals to vector pair I1－V1. That is SaA, ScB and ScC are
of nine switches of MC. For example, the selected closed and the others are open. The corresponding
vector of rectifier and inverter are I1 and V1 relationship between vector pair and switches’ state of
respectively. Then the combined vector pair is I1－V1. MC can be transformed into table and put into micro
I1 correspond to the rectifier’s state that Spa and Snc are processor. Micro processor looks into this table and
closed and the others are open (see figure 1 and 4). V1 decodes it to produce the PWM signal of nine
correspond to the inverter’s state that SAp, SBn and SCn switches of MC.
are closed and the others are open. Combining the
switches’ states on both side and making a
transformation, we get the MC’s state corresponding

Sector n Current vector Ii

Vi selector on
Determi-
ϕi nation Time t rectifier side I i -- V j Matrix
calculator De-
m Vj coder converter
ω∗ Voltage vector
selector on
ψs∗ inverter side

ω is
Rotate
speed M
sensor

Fig.5 Combinated controller block

Figure 5 is the block diagram of combined 172.2mH, J＝0.0131kg·m2, Pole＝2. The inductances
controller. ϕ i is input power factor angle. It can be above are all the equivalent inductance of motor’s
set arbitrarily. m is modulation index ( 0 < m ≤ 1 ). model under the α － β two stable axes reference
It influences v pn that is the voltage of virtual middle frame. In the simulation course, ideal bi-direction

DC link. The relationship between them is switch is used as the main switches of MC. Fix-step
3 four order Runge-Kutta method is used. The step is
v pn = × m × Vim × cos ϕ i [2]
. To maximize the
2 0.05ms. The PI controller’s parameter of rotate speed
voltage of virtual middle DC link m can be set to unit.
is: P＝0.8, I＝5. The input phase voltage of MC is
ω * and ψ s * are the reference value of rotating
270V. The input power factor is set to unit. The
speed and amplitude of stator’s flux linkage
amplitude of stator’s flux linkage is kept on 1.2 Wb.
respectively. This combined controller as figure 5 Figure 6 is the dynamic response waveform when
shows can be implemented by DSP. motor’s rotate speed varies. The rotate speed
command is 900 rpm → 1200 rpm → 900 rpm. In the
3 Simulation result
simulation course, keep the load torque on 20N·m that
Based on the strategy above, the author use is 75％rating torque. In the figure ωr is the rotator’s
software Simulink of Matlab 7.0 to conduct a speed, Te is electromagnetic torque, isa is the current
simulation. The simulation block diagram is shown in of phase a of stator. According to the figure, the
figure 5. The parameters of motor are as follows: Pn＝ dynamic response of rotate speed is rapid without
4kW, VL＝400V, n＝1430rpm, fn＝50Hz, Rs＝1.045Ω, overshoot. Response time of the system with load is
not more than 0.3 second. Electromagnetic torque is
Rr＝1.395Ω, Ls＝178.039mH, Lr＝178.039mH, Lm＝

202 of 288
 2006 2nd International Conference on Power Electronics Systems and Applications

calm enough. Stator’s current can enter into steady

state rapidly. Start current of the motor with load is 20
small enough, about 3～4 times bigger than rating

ia (A)
0
current.
-20
1200 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
wr (rpm)

900
600
t (s)
3.5

Amplitude (A)
300 3
0
2
80 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Te (Nm)

1
40
20 0
0 050 200 400 600 800 1000
-20
f (Hz)
500 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Fig.8 Waveform and spectrum of
isa (A)

0 input phase a current

-50 Figure 8 is the wave form and frenquency

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
spectrum of current of MC’s input phase a. In
t (s)
simulation course keep rotate speed command on 900
Fig.6 Dynamic response waveform under
rpm, load torque on 20N·m. From the figure we can
the variation of rotation speed
see that: fundamental component is the main part in
1100 input current. There are also some high frequency
wr (rpm)

harmonics. They can be easily filtered by adding a

900
small filter. Figure 9 is the fundamental component’s
700 angle of the current of input phase a. the figure clearly
30 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 shows that the input power factor can be reach 1.
Te (Nm)

20 Figure 8 and indicate that the wave form of input

7 current is very good and will cause little pollution to
0 power network. Figure 10 is the trace plot of stator’s
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
10 flux linkage of motor. This circular plot corresponds
isa (A)

0 to the demand of DTC.

-10
100
angle (degree)

0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

t (s)
0
Fig.7 Dynamic response waveform under
the variation of load
-100
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Figure 7 is the dynamic response waveform of t (s)
the system when the load is sudden changed. The Fig.9 Fundamental wave’s angle of input
variation of load torque is: 7 N·m（25％TN）→ 20 N·m phase a current
（75％TN） → 7 N·m（25％TN. In simulation course
the command of rotate speed is kept on 900 rpm.
From the figure we can see that: when the load torque
varies, the fluctuation is small, output electromagnetic
torque can track the load torque rapidly.

203 of 288
 2006 2nd International Conference on Power Electronics Systems and Applications

1.5
References
1
[1] N.Burany, “safe control of four-quadrant switches”
0.5
in IEEE. 1989. 1190-1194
phy qs (Wb)

0 [2] Huber L, borojevic D. “Space vector modulat-ed

three-phase to three-phase matrix converter with
-0.5
input power factor correction,” IEEE Trans.
-1 Ind.Applicat., vol.31, no.6, Nov/Dec, 1995.
-1.5
1234-1246
-1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
phy ds (Wb) [3] Akio Ishiguro, Takeshi Furuhashi, Shigeru Okuma.
Fig.10 Flux vector trace of motor’s stator “A Novel Control Method for Forced Commutated
Cycloconverters Using Instantaneous Values of
Input Line-to-Line Voltages,” IEEE
4 Conclusion Trans.Ind.Electronics.,vol.38, no.3, June, 1991.
Based on the idea that using MC implements 166-172
DTC, this paper proposed a compound control [4] Sun Kai, Huang Li-pei, Matsuse Kouki. Vector
strategy for AC adjustable speed system. The MC control of induction motors fed by matrix converters
controlled by this strategy cannot only achieve DTC [J]. Journal of Tsinghua University: Science and
to an asynchronous machine but also decrease Technology, 2004, 44(7):909-912.
pollutions to power network. The results of simulation [5] Li Su, Direct torque control of asynchronous
show that when motor’s speed or load varies, this machine [M]. Mechanism industry press, Bei Jing,
strategy can make adjustable speed system exhibit 1994: 6-7.
good dynamic characteristics and can make MC have
an input current closed to symmetrical sine wave. All
these characteristics indicate that the compound
control strategy proposed by this paper is not only
feasible but also excellent.

204 of 288