Variable Speed Drives: Introduction to

VSDs
 FOR TRAINING USE ONLY

This material is for training purposes only and

cannot be substituted for actual written
procedures to perform the task described since
steps in this material may have been
simplified, or may not apply to your
organization, equipment, or process. Any
representative procedures that may be
presented are provided as examples only.
 Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................. 1
Learning Objectives ..................................................................................... 2
Drive and Control of DC Motors ........................................................................ 3
Topic I Learning Objectives ........................................................................... 3
DC Motor Drives .......................................................................................... 3
DC Motor Control ........................................................................................ 5
DC Controller and Component Operation ........................................................... 6
Topic II Learning Objectives .......................................................................... 6
DC Controller .............................................................................................. 6
DC Operation .............................................................................................. 8
AC Inverter Motor Components and Control ..................................................... 11
Topic III Learning Objectives....................................................................... 11
AC Inverter Motor Components ................................................................... 11
AC Inverter Motor Controls ......................................................................... 12
PWM Controller Operation .......................................................................... 14
Flux Vector Dive Control and Operations ......................................................... 19
Topic IV Learning Objectives ....................................................................... 19
Flux Vector Control of AC Motors ................................................................. 19
Flux Vector Controller Operation.................................................................. 20
Summary .................................................................................................... 21
 Table of Figures
Figure 1: Compound Motor ........................................................................................................ 3
Figure 2: Series Motor................................................................................................................ 4
Figure 3: Shunt Motor ................................................................................................................ 4
Figure 4: Separately Excited Motor ............................................................................................ 5
Figure 5: Bridge Rectifier............................................................................................................ 6
Figure 6: Pulses ......................................................................................................................... 7
Figure 7: Chopper Circuit ........................................................................................................... 7
Figure 8: SCR ............................................................................................................................ 8
Figure 9: PWM Inverter .............................................................................................................11
Figure 10: Stator and Rotor .......................................................................................................12
Figure 11: Torque Curve ............................................................................................................13
Figure 12: Faster Motor .............................................................................................................15
Figure 13: Slower Motor ............................................................................................................15
Figure 14: Six-Step Inverter ......................................................................................................16
Figure 15: CSI Drive..................................................................................................................17
INTRODUCTION

Introduction
Variable speed drives are used throughout industry to electronically regulate the speed
and the torque of motors. With nearly half the energy in the world consumed by rotating
machinery, the applications for variable speed drives are enormous, and their use is
spreading rapidly. When applied and installed properly and when operated and
maintained correctly variable speed drives can substantially reduce the power required
for the work being done and can provide the precision control that is now demanded by
modern industry throughout the world. This module will examine three different types of
variable speed drives: DC drives, AC inverter drives, and flux vector drives.

This handbook is comprised of the following four topics:

Topic I – Drive and Control of DC Motors

Topic II – DC Controller and Component Operation

Topic III – AC Inverter Motor Component and Control

Topic IV – Flux Vector Drive Control and Operations

1
INTRODUCTION

Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of the Variable Speed Drives: Introduction to VSD’s training course, you
will be able to:

Classify direct current (DC) drives and control of DC motors.

Describe DC controller components and operation.
Discuss AC inverter motor control and AC inverter components.
Explain flux vector drive control and operation.

2
DRIVE AND CONTROL OF DC MOTORS

Drive and Control of DC Motors

Topic I Learning Objectives
Classify direct current (DC) drives and control of DC motors.

DC Motor Drives
There are two basic kinds of DC drives: those that run motors that use
brushes and those that run motors that do not use brushes. DC motors with
brushes are run by controllers that apply voltage and current to the rotating
part of the motor (the rotor, or armature) through the commutator, which is
part of the rotor. At the same time, the controller also applies voltage and
current to the field windings surrounding the armature. Brushless DC motors,
or BDCMs, as they are sometimes called, have a permanent magnet rotor.
They do not need brushes, because no voltage or current is applied to the
rotor.

DC motors with brushes are the most common. Probably the one you will
deal with most often is the compound motor. Figure 1 is an example of a
compound motor.

Figure 1: Compound Motor

The compound motor has dual field windings, one wired in parallel with the
rotor windings and the other in series with the rotor windings. Two other
kinds of DC brush-type motors are also common: those with field windings

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DRIVE AND CONTROL OF DC MOTORS

wired in series with the armature winding - the series DC motor; and those
with field windings wired in parallel with the armature windings - the shunt
DC motor (Figure 2). When you are talking about motors, "shunt" means
wired in parallel.

Figure 2: Series Motor

Figure 3 is an example of a schematic of a shunt motor.

Figure 3: Shunt Motor

4
DRIVE AND CONTROL OF DC MOTORS

In many DC motors, the electrical relationship between the rotor and the
field windings has a significant effect on the operating speed of the motor
and on the torque the motor develops at different speeds. However, most
modern DC drive applications use motors with armatures and fields that are
separately excited by their controllers. Figure 4 is an example of a
separately excited motor.

Figure 4: Separately Excited Motor

Recently, a new type of DC motor that has no field windings at all has been
developed. This is the permanent magnet DC motor, or PMDC, in which the
field windings have been replaced with magnets. In this motor, only the
armature is energized.

DC Motor Control
The control method for all of these brush-type DC motors is virtually the
same: changes in voltage change the speed and torque. You can increase the
speed by increasing the voltage to the armature or decreasing the voltage to
the field windings; or you can increase the torque by increasing the voltage
to the field windings or decreasing the voltage to the armature.

As you might expect, in a permanent magnet brush-type DC motor, where

the strength of the permanent magnet field is fixed, both speed and torque
are controlled by varying the voltage applied to the armature.

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DC CONTROLLER AND COMPONENT OPERATION

DC Controller and Component

Operation
Topic II Learning Objectives
Describe DC controller components and operation.

DC Controller
Today, most DC drive controllers have two major sections: a power section,
which produces the variable voltage that actually runs the motor; and a
control section, which monitors the operation of the drive and regulates the
voltage and current sent to the armature and possibly to the field windings.
The power section of a DC drive does two things: it rectifies or changes the
rising and falling AC voltage into steadier DC voltage that can run the motor,
and it changes the level of voltage that is applied to the motor, making it
higher or lower. This is typically done with a bridge rectifier. Figure 5 is an
example of a bridge rectifier.

Figure 5: Bridge Rectifier

Electrically, its most typical configuration is an arrangement of diodes and

SCRs (silicon-controlled rectifiers) that change the applied AC into pulses of
DC. This is the common NEMA "Code K" configuration, a standard of the
National Electrical Manufacturers Association.

The SCRs are turned on and off very rapidly to divide the full DC pulses into
smaller pulses that get larger when the application requires higher voltage
and smaller when the application requires lower voltage.

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DC CONTROLLER AND COMPONENT OPERATION

Figure 6 is an example of pulses.

Figure 6: Pulses

Nearly all DC drives operate from standard AC current, because their first
component, a rectifier bridge, converts the applied AC into DC. Very often
(and especially in industrial applications), the current required is obtained
from a single-phase 120/240-volt electrical service. This is typical for low-
power applications, usually below 50 amps.

Above that, however, the DC current becomes difficult to commutate through

the brushes in the motor. For these high-power applications, a three-phase
rectifier bridge may be used. It produces much smoother armature current.
In controllers for some small motors, there may be no SCRs in the rectifier.
In that case, the controller will use a separate "chopper" circuit of SCRs that
chop the DC into the specific pulse width required for the application.

Figure 7 is an example of a chopper circuit.

Figure 7: Chopper Circuit

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DC CONTROLLER AND COMPONENT OPERATION

In most DC controllers, the outputs to the armature and the field are either
90 volts or 180 volts DC, depending on the applied AC. For example, when
the controller is wired into 120-volt AC, the maximum voltage the controller
can produce is the average voltage produced by the AC circuit - 108 volts.
Typical maximum output will be 90 volts. If the controller is wired into 240-
volt AC, the maximum is 216 volts, the average voltage produced by the
240-volt AC circuit. Typical maximum output is 180 volts.

The major function of the control section of the controller is to switch the
SCRs on and off at the proper moment to match the voltage to the
application. Since the voltage required to switch the SCRs on is very small,
the controller usually just needs low-power components. These components
apply a few volts or less to the "gates" of the SCRs in order to turn them on
at a particular moment. The SCRs turn themselves off automatically each
time voltage between the anode and the cathode drops to zero.

Figure 8 is an example of the gate of an SCR.

Figure 8: SCR

DC Operation
If voltage is applied to the input of the drive, then pulsating AC appears at
the anode of the SCRs. For example, assume that each pulse rises from 0
volts to 170 volts and drops back to 0 volts. The average voltage of the
entire pulse is 108 volts.

If the SCR is gated "on" at 108 volts, then half of the pulse will be conducted
through the SCR and applied to the motor. What the motor "sees" - that is,
what it responds to - is an average of 54 volts, half the average voltage of
the pulse. As soon as the voltage drops to zero, the SCRs stop conducting,
and they will not come back on unless they are gated again by the control
circuit.

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DC CONTROLLER AND COMPONENT OPERATION

To increase the voltage to the armature and speed the motor up, the gate
should be opened, or "fired," as it is usually called, sooner in the pulse. That
lets more of the pulse through before the SCR turns itself off again. The gate
or trigger point has been advanced. To decrease the voltage to the armature
and slow the motor down, the SCR should be fired later in the pulse, so that
less of the pulse gets through before the SCR turns itself off. The trigger
point has been retarded.

Even though we are talking about pulses of voltage that are being fired at the
motor 120 times a second, the inductance of the motor smoothes the pulses
out, so the motor responds as though it were straight DC of a particular
voltage.

You can see from this explanation that the timing of the firing of the SCRs is
critical to controlling the voltage at the motor. When you are trying to control
the exact size of 120 pulses every second, SCRs that misfire by even a
thousandth of a second can have a significant effect on the performance of
the motor. As you might expect, when things go wrong in the controller, it is
nearly always the SCRs or their gating circuits.

How closely a controller can match the actual speed of a motor to the desired
speed is called its regulation. To maintain precise regulation, the control
section monitors two signals: a command, or reference, signal and a
feedback signal.

The first signal, the command signal, is often set by an operator, but it may
also be set by some other part of the system. For example, in a typical
conveyor operation controlled by a DC drive, an operator sets the speed at
which the conveyor runs. But other command signals can also come from
other drives, from other drive controllers, and from other parts of the system
such as from a programmable controller. The second signal, the feedback
signal, often indicates the actual speed of the motor.

Feedback can be manual or automatic. In manual, the operator sets the

speed of the motor at the controller. Increasing the voltage applied to the
armature speeds up the motor, while decreasing the voltage slows it down.
The operator sets the reference speed - for example, by punching up the
speed on an HMI - then provides feedback by observing the operation and
making further adjustments, if necessary.

In automatic, the feedback signal is often the internal voltage produced by

the armature as the motor changes speed. This is the counter-electromotive
force, or CEMF. The changing internal voltage indicates the motor's changing
speed. If the motor slows down, CEMF decreases. Circuits in the controller
sense the change and adjust the timing of the SCRs to include more of each
voltage pulse, thus raising the applied voltage and speeding the motor back
up again.

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DC CONTROLLER AND COMPONENT OPERATION

DC motors controlled in this way with CEMF feedback can generally maintain
a speed to within about 1-2% of the set speed within about 15 or 20 rpm in
an 1,800-rpm motor.

Other controllers may use feedback devices mounted on the motor shaft to
monitor the motor's actual speed and sometimes to monitor its position.
Tachometers that produce a voltage proportional to the speed of the motor
are the most common type of feedback device, but some drives may use
simple magnetic pickups or proximity pickups. High-performance drives and
the systems they run often use optical encoders or resolvers that monitor the
actual position of the shaft as it turns.

When using these kinds of feedback, the controller circuitry compares the
command signal with the feedback signal and produces an error signal, which
indicates how far from the command signal the drive is actually operating.

Typically, the error signal is used directly by the controller to modify the
command signal, so that the motor moves closer to the commanded speed or
position. Errors with this type of feedback can be reduced to 1/100 of 1%
and less, down to a small fraction of a single revolution of the motor shaft
even as it turns at high speed.

Most feedback loops have cycle times measured in thousandths and even
millionths of a second, so the adjustments the controller makes seem
continuous. The DC drive that runs a part-positioning machine, for example,
makes continuous calculations of the error in travel and can position a part
precisely, even slowing the motor down gradually during the last few
milliseconds in order to minimize mechanical stresses on the equipment as
the load reaches the correct position.

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AC INVERTER MOTOR COMPONENTS AND CONTROL

AC Inverter Motor Components and

Control
Topic III Learning Objectives
Discuss AC inverter motor control and AC inverter components.

AC Inverter Motor Components

Certain basic components are common to all PWM inverters. Figure 9 is a
diagram that shows the parts of a typical PWM inverter.

Figure 9: PWM Inverter

PWM inverters include a full-wave rectifier, which is usually called a converter

because it converts the applied AC sine wave into individual pulses of DC
current. There are six power diodes arranged in a bridge configuration. If the
frequency of the applied sine wave is 60 hertz, then it creates 120 pulses per
second as it turns the negative pulses upside down into a continuous train of
pulses.

Next, the pulse train is fed into a DC bus section, which has inductors and
capacitors that smooth out the pulses. The inductors help create a steadier,
more continuous flow of energy out of the converter and into the DC bus.
There, the capacitors store it up in a kind of electrical reservoir, where it is
available on demand from the inverter section. The section of the controller

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AC INVERTER MOTOR COMPONENTS AND CONTROL

that gives inverter drives their name consists of six high-speed switches.
Older inverters used SCRs or other components, but now nearly all inverters
use insulated gate bi-polar transistors, or IGBTs, as they are commonly
called.

Electrically, the IGBTs are arranged with pairs wired in parallel across the DC
bus and three phases to the motor fed from between the pairs. The specific
sequences in which the IGBTs are switched, or "gated," on and off by the
controller and how often they are gated on and off determines both the
frequency and the amplitude of the voltage applied to the motor.

AC Inverter Motor Controls

Three basic types of inverter drives are common, but virtually all new
installations use what is becoming the standard technology for three-phase,
variable speed, AC applications: the pulse width modulation, or PWM drive.
Since PWM technology is so common, we will cover it first, then go on to the
other two major types: the variable voltage inverter (VVI) and the current
source inverter (CSI).

To understand the operation of a PWM drive, you need to remember how a

three-phase AC motor works. In an operating motor, three separate magnetic
fields are continuously changing, each field growing stronger and weaker in a
specific sequence that makes it seem as though the fields are revolving
around the stator.

The rising and falling stator fields cut through the metal bars in the rotor,
creating high currents and strong magnetic fields that try to lock into step
with the fields in the stator, but they never really make it. Figure 10 is an
example of the stator and rotor.

Figure 10: Stator and Rotor

12
AC INVERTER MOTOR COMPONENTS AND CONTROL

The rotor bars and their fields are almost continuously out of step. That is
what creates the fields in the rotor. The farther they are out of step, the
greater the current and the fields induced in the rotor, and the greater the
torque produced by the rotor as it turns.

The difference in speed between the turning rotor and the "spinning" stator
fields is called "slip." Generally, in a fully loaded motor, the slip will be about
3% - about a 50-rpm difference in a typical 1,750-rpm motor. In general,
higher slip results in higher torque. That is because as the motor is loaded
down, the "slip" increases this induces more current in the rotor bars, which
increases the strength of the rotor fields so that they can grab onto the
spinning stator fields more easily.

At some point, generally somewhere around 12% slip, the motor reaches its
breakdown torque, and the rotor stalls. You can see breakdown torque very
clearly on a graph of a typical motor's torque curve (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Torque Curve

When breakdown torque is reached, motor torque falls off precipitously as

speed rises. The speed of an AC motor is dependent on the "speed" of the
fields that seem to move through the stator. This apparent movement is in
exact synchronization with the applied AC, which is typically 60 hertz.

If the frequency of the applied voltage is lowered, the speed will be lowered,
because the stator fields will rise and fall less frequently. If the frequency is
raised, the speed will be raised, because the stator fields will rise and fall
more frequently.

Torque is dependent largely on the voltage applied to the motor, because

higher voltages produce stronger stator fields. The stronger stator fields
induce greater currents in the rotor. These greater currents create stronger
rotor fields, which latch onto the stator fields more solidly.

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AC INVERTER MOTOR COMPONENTS AND CONTROL

In every motor, there is a relationship between voltage and frequency. It is

important for that relationship to remain constant, because motors are
designed for a specific ratio. If the ratio changes either up or down then the
motor may start to overheat, and it could be damaged. What this means is
that if we slow the motor down to half speed, for example, by cutting the
frequency of the applied voltage by half, then the amplitude of the applied
voltage must also be cut in half.

And, as you might expect, if we speed the motor back up again by doubling
the frequency, then the applied voltage must also double. The controller in a
PWM drive can do this very simply, because it literally manufactures the
necessary frequency and voltage "on the fly" as the application needs it.

PWM Controller Operation

If we apply 480 volts to a PWM controller, then a continuous train of DC
pulses flows into the DC bus, charging it to nearly 680 volts. That is because
480 volts is the RMS voltage, while the peak voltage is 680 volts. With a
smooth, high-voltage reservoir to draw on, the IGBTs can turn on all that
voltage for a fraction of a thousandth of a second. What the motor sees is an
equivalent voltage of a fraction of a thousandth of 680 volts, and one that
creates very weak stator fields. But if the IGBT turns on for a longer time,
the motor will see a greater equivalent voltage, more current will flow into
the motor, and the stator fields will get stronger.

If the IGBTs turn on for a progressively longer period of time, then the motor
will see voltage and current that rise progressively over time. Once the rising
voltage that the motor sees reaches the peak required for the application,
then the IGBTs can start turning on for a progressively shorter period of time,
and the motor will see a voltage that falls progressively over time.

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AC INVERTER MOTOR COMPONENTS AND CONTROL

In the best inverters, the rising and falling current seen by the motor is
nearly identical to the rising and falling current produced by a real sine wave.
While the current seen by the motor is never perfect, the faster the IGBTs
switch, the more perfect it becomes. That is because the applied voltage
becomes less and less jagged, and current cannot fall off as much between
the pulses. Varying the frequency and the speed is simple. The faster the
peak voltage is reached and the faster it falls off, the greater the frequency
and the faster the motor (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Faster Motor

To slow down the motor, just gate the IGBTs so that the peak voltage is
approached more slowly and departed from more slowly (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Slower Motor

How well the speed of an inverter drive can be controlled - its regulation -
depends on several key factors, including the accuracy of the gating circuits
and the design and construction of the motor. A motor designed for 60 hertz
operation running at 1,750 rpm at full load with a slip of 3% may not run at
875 rpm when operated at 30 hertz. However, most AC motors will provide
very good speed regulation, generally within 1-2% of the predicted speed,
based on the applied frequency, as long as the volts-to-hertz ratio remains
constant.

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AC INVERTER MOTOR COMPONENTS AND CONTROL

When greater accuracy is required from an inverter drive, the motor can be
matched with the controller. Such "matched" drives, as they are called, are
becoming more and more common, and regulation on these drives is
generally well within 1%. When even more accuracy is required, shaft-
mounted tachometers and encoders are usually used. Speed regulation with
such feedback devices can be as close as 1/100 of 1%, so that speed never
varies more than one small part of a single turn of the shaft, even during
operation at high speed.

Two other common types of inverters that are still in use are the variable
voltage inverter (the VVI drive) and the current source inverter (the CSI
drive). Typically, because the technology for VVI and CSI drives is older than
that of PWM drives, you are most likely to find these in existing high-
horsepower applications where the replacement cost is significant. Today,
nearly every three-phase variable speed AC drive under 20 horsepower, and
most of the new drives over 20 HP, are operated by PWM drives.

The VVI and CSI drives are both very similar to the PWM drive. The major
difference lies in how the DC voltage out of the converter is applied to the
motor. Figure 14 is an illustration of a six-step inverter.

Figure 14: Six-Step Inverter

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AC INVERTER MOTOR COMPONENTS AND CONTROL

In the VVI inverter, an arrangement of power transistors similar to the IGBT-

based PWM inverter are turned on in a particular sequence. In the first step,
transistors 1, 5, and 6 are turned on. In the second step, transistor 5 is
turned off and transistor 2 is turned on. In the motor, the appearance is that
a magnetic field has begun moving through the stator. In the third step,
transistor 6 is turned off and transistor 3 is turned on. The field seems to
move again. In the fourth step, transistor 1 is turned off and transistor 4 is
turned on. In the fifth step, transistor 2 is turned off and transistor 5 is
turned on. Finally, in the sixth step, transistor 3 is turned off and VVI
transistor 6 is turned on, completing the apparent movement of the field
through the motor.

To change the frequency, the sequence is repeated slower or faster. However,

to maintain the correct volts-to-hertz ratio, SCRs must be used in the
converter section. To lower the voltage, the SCRs are turned on late in the
cycle of the applied AC sine wave, and they turn off when the voltage drops
to zero. Including less of the wave lowers the voltage available at the DC
bus. To raise the voltage, the SCRs are turned on earlier in the applied AC.
Including more of the sine wave raises the voltage available at the DC bus.

A CSI drive is very similar to a VVI drive. Figure 15 is an example of a CSI

drive.

Figure 15: CSI Drive

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AC INVERTER MOTOR COMPONENTS AND CONTROL

The major difference between a CSI drive and a VVI drive is that the CSI
drive eliminates the capacitor in the DC bus and substitutes a large inductor.
The inductor provides a nearly constant current to the CSI inverter section of
the controller. Otherwise, in operation, the CSI drive is nearly identical to the
VVI drive.

In the case of both the VVI drive and the CSI drive, a variety of other control
methods were sometimes blended together. For example, both types of
drives sometimes substituted DC "chopper" circuits for the SCRs in the
converter section. Choppers are high-speed power transistor switches that
"chop" the DC from the converter into smooth pulses before passing them to
the inverter.

This eliminated the need for SCRs in the converter, and usually smoothed out
the operation of both types of drives. Later versions of both drives
sometimes used PWM techniques in the inverter section of the drive, so it is
often difficult to clearly distinguish some older types of inverter drives from
each other based on their components.

18
FLUX VECTOR DRIVE CONTROL AND OPERATIONS

Flux Vector Dive Control and

Operations
Topic IV Learning Objectives
Explain flux vector drive control and operation.

Flux Vector Control of AC Motors

Flux vector drives are always PWM-type inverter drives, but they have the
added ability to directly control the torque produced by the drive at all
speeds. In the standard inverter drive, there is very little control of torque.
Flux vector drives can produce variable speeds and variable torques on
command, even when the shaft of the motor is at standstill. In the past, such
performance was only possible with DC drives.

In order to achieve this level of control, the motor in a flux vector drive is
nearly always matched to the controller. That is because, in most instances,
the controller includes a mathematical model of the motor in its memory, so
that it can accurately predict the response of the motor at changing loads,
speeds, torques, temperatures, and internal magnetizations.

To understand how flux vector control works, we need to go back to how a

motor operates and how it responds to three-phase current - either "real" AC
sine waves or the simulated sine wave produced by a PWM drive.

As long as there is slip between the stator and the rotor, the rotor can
develop magnetic fields that will follow the apparent movement of the fields
through the stator and drag the rotor along with it. The slip does not have to
be much, since 3% slip is generally enough to drive a normal load.

What is happening, of course, is that the magnetic flux from the stator and
the magnetic flux from the rotor are interacting with each other. The flux
vector drive controls that interaction. Consider the magnetic flux in the stator
first. As voltage rises and falls in the stator, current rises and falls, too,
creating a constantly changing flux field that sweeps through the stator.
Higher currents pushed into the stator windings by higher voltages create a
stronger flux. Since the PWM drive creates that flux artificially, from moment
to moment, it can also change the flux from moment to moment.

Now, suppose we choose some point in the cycle and stabilize all three
phases. The stator flux freezes. Of course, the rotor would stop, too, very
quickly, because its flux fields depend on the rotor bars being cut by the flux

19
FLUX VECTOR DRIVE CONTROL AND OPERATIONS

lines in the stator. But remember that it is just the relative motion - the slip -
between the stator and rotor that creates the rotor flux.

Suppose the slip at full speed and normal running torque were 50 rpm.
Holding the rotor still and moving the stator field at 50 rpm creates the same
slip and the same flux in the rotor and the same torque.

Of course, it is not nearly this simple. Often, flux vector drives operate a
motor right at the cusp of its breakdown torque, so continuous, high-speed,
precision monitoring of multiple factors is required in order to assure robust
operation of the motor. For example, the reactance and the resistance of both
the stator and the rotor change independently of each other in response to
temperature, load, flux levels, and slip, and all of these factors are
interrelated with each other. Changes in load at one operating temperature,
for example, will never result in the same change in rotor reactance and slip
at other temperatures.

Flux Vector Controller Operation

In most flux vector drives, one of the key components providing the
necessary information to control the process is a shaft-mounted tachometer,
encoder, or resolver. These feedback devices provide accurate measurements
of rotor speed, and sometimes position.

Coupling this information with real-time temperature, current, and voltage

measurements from inside the motor and with accurate models of the motor
itself (the reactances and resistances of both the stator and the rotor over
time and at varying temperatures) allows the flux vector controller to
construct precision voltage and frequency outputs that can change from one
microsecond to the next.

Some advanced flux vector drives, the so-called "sensorless" vector drives,
do not even need feedback from the shaft. Instead, precision measurements
of the actual voltage and current levels are used in complex equations that
are solved "on-the-fly" and reveal the orientation of the stator and rotor flux
fields while the drive is in operation.

This control requires precision measurements that have only recently been
possible, for example, accurate measurements of changes in the dead time
between individual PWM pulses.

Some flux vector drives can now match the performance of DC servo drives,
and they are even being used in applications such as hoists and cranes. As
flux vector technology continues to mature and as the use of these drives
spreads throughout industry, you can expect to be working with flux vector
controllers and their motors more and more frequently: installing them,
replacing them, and troubleshooting them.

20
SUMMARY

Summary
Over the course of this module, you have learned to:

 Classify direct current (DC) drives and control of DC motors.

 Describe DC controller components, and operation.
 Discuss AC inverter motor control and AC inverter components.
 Explain flux vector drive control and operation.

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