Effect of Winding Design on the Performance of Predictive Current Control of Six-Phase Induction Machine-Based Propulsion Systems

Electric propulsion based on six-phase machines in marine propulsion and automotive traction applications are undergoing rapid development due to its high capacity, fault tolerance, reduced size, and reduced torque pulsations. Among different control techniques of six-phase machines, direct controllers, such as finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC), have extensively been studied in recent literature. One of the main problems of this controller type is the relatively poor current quality due to circulating
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current components. This problem has been tackled in literature through enhanced control techniques and/or winding design. Following both approaches, this paper extends a previous study to deeply investigate the effect of winding design on the performance of the model predictive control applied to a six-phase induction machine (SPIM). Three six-phase winding layouts have been compared, namely, dual-three phase (D3P), asymmetrical (A6P) and symmetrical (S6P) configurations. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of winding chording when standard three-phase stator frames are employed on the current quality of different winding configurations under classical predictive current control (PCC). A 1.5Hp prototype system has been used for this experimental comparative study.