Permanent-Magnet Temperature Estimation in PMSMs Using Pulsating High-Frequency Current Injection

The injection of a high-frequency signal in the stator via inverter has been shown to be a viable option to estimate the magnet temperature in permanent-magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs). The variation of the magnet resistance with temperature is reflected in the stator high-frequency resistance, which can be measured from the resulting current when a high-frequency voltage is injected. However, this method is sensitive to d- and q-axis inductance (L
_d
and L
_q
) variations, as well as to the machine speed. In addition, it is only suitable for surface PMSMs (SPMSMs) and inadequate for interior PMSMs (IPMSMs). In this paper, the use of a pulsating high-frequency current injection in the d-axis of the machine for temperature estimation purposes is proposed. The proposed method will be shown to be insensitive to the speed, L
_q
, and L
_d
variations. Furthermore, it can be used with both SPMSMs and IPMSMs.