Online Efficiency Optimization and Speed Sensorless Control of Single-Phase Induction Motors

Abstract

Single phase induction motors (SPIM) are widely used in residential and commercial applications. Enhancement of efficiency of SPIMs can lead to huge energy savings. This paper presents a novel mechanical sensorless control method for SPIM drives. In this method, a machine learning algorithm is used to estimate the slip based on the ratio of main and auxiliary winding currents. To enhance the efficiency, the terminal voltage is reduced under light load conditions. The optimal operating voltage is implicitly obtained by equating the ratio of main and auxiliary winding currents to its optimum value. This optimal operating point is first calculated based on the frequency from a lookup table and then updated by using gradient descent algorithm. This way, the optimal operating point is realized despite motor parameter variations. The proposed scheme is suitable for low-power applications where working at different speeds and load torques is demanded, such as ventilation systems and various household appliances. Simulation results are presented to verify the efficacy of the proposed method.

Electromagnetic Compatibility Characterization of Start-Capacitor Single-Phase Induction Motor

“…The single-phase induction motor has two windings in the stator [15,33,34], while the rotor has a standard squirrel cage. The first winding is the main winding (or run winding) and the second winding is an auxiliary winding (or start winding) [35][36][37][38], these windings are displaced in space by 90° electrical degrees], the auxiliary winding operates only during the brief period when the motor starts up when it is unplugged from the power source by a centrifugal switch [39].…”

“…Control: The authors improved the performance of single-phase induction machines (SPIMs) by modifying their geometry and control techniques. This improvement led to more efficient and robust machines [9,15,16].…”

Special Issue on Power Converters: Modelling, Control, and Applications

“…Zhang et al [6] presented sensorless PI passivity-based control for a DC/DC boost converter to avoid the need for the current sensor. Golsorkhi et al [7] presented a novel sensorless control method of the single-phase inverter as the induction motor drive that can lead to huge energy savings. Górecki and Górski [8] proposed a new form of a compact electrothermal model of impulse transformers taking into account electrical, thermal, and magnetic phenomena occurring in the considered device.…”

“…Summarizing the first Special Issue edition, papers [1,5,7,9] referred to the design and modelling of the inverters including motor drives, papers [3,4] concerned the implementation of renewable energy sources, papers [2,3,6] described DC/DC converters and their control, and [2] was devoted to the electromagnetic compatibility of the power factor corrector, and paper [8] presented electrothermal model of the components of the power converters. All the expected key areas were presented in the first Special Issue.…”

Simulation based testing and performance investigation of induction motor drives using matlab simulink

“…Sensorless control technology has lately achieved significant advancements in the control of IM with the development of the quadrature model reference adaptive system (Q-MRAS), upgraded (Q-MRAS), and neural network for the management of instantaneous reactive power, speed, and torque [22][23][24]. Like all systems, IMs are prone to faults; however, techniques for fault-tolerant control of IMs have been developed using a variety of methods, including modified rotor flux estimators [14], virtual current sensor (VCS), wavelet index based boosted model reference adaptive system (BMRAS) [24] and CB-MRAS [25].…”