Speed-Sensorless Vector Control of an Induction Generator Including Stray Load and Iron Losses and Online Parameter Tuning

Field-oriented control (FOC) is standardly used in high-performance induction machine (IM) applications. However, the performance of FOC algorithms strongly depends on the level of agreement between the actual IM and the respective model used for the algorithm design. IM parameters' values are known to vary with the operating conditions, so their online identification is preferable. In addition, it is often preferred to acquire the rotor speed by estimation because speed sensors increase the cost and size of the system while reducing its reliability. Model-reference-adaptive-system (MRAS) estimators are popular due to their simple implementation, but they are sensitive to IM parameters and, hence, usually include a parameter tuning mechanism. This article proposes an indirect rotor-field-oriented controller with the parallel MRAS speed estimation and IM parameter tuning - implemented in an induction generator system. Both the control algorithm and the MRAS include the stray load and iron losses, magnetic saturation, and rotor resistance variation, whereas the MRAS additionally accounts for variations of the stator and stray-load resistances. The system performance is experimentally evaluated over wide ranges of the IM flux, speed, torque, and temperature.