Adaptive Harmonic Elimination Model Predictive Current Control of PMSM in Aviation Electric Propulsion Systems

Electric propulsion technology has become a key trend in the electrification of aircraft power systems. However, the motor drive generates unwanted harmonics during operation, which can lead to issues such as drive motor vibrations and degradation of internal components. Excessive harmonics directly impair motor performance and efficiency, potentially affecting the aircraft’s flight attitude. In severe cases, propeller blades may be damaged. Herein, a model predictive current control (MPCC) method with an adaptive harmonic elimination (AHE) strategy is utilized to reduce unwanted harmonics in permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drivers. By adjusting the weights of the adaptive filter, this method effectively removes unwanted frequency components from the main input signal, as determined by a cost function, resulting in an ideal reference voltage for the converter input. Experiments on a PMSM show that the proposed method effectively eliminates harmonics generated by the motor drive dead-time effect while preserving the system response speed, thereby enhancing the stability of the electric propulsion system. Compared with the dead-time compensation method and the harmonic extraction algorithm, the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the proposed algorithm is reduced by approximately 47.36% and 15.64%, respectively.