Research Projects

Electric vehicles (EVs) have become important because they offer solutions to many of the current problems in transportation. In its current form, transportation is mostly done by internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs); however, this expectation has proven problematic because ICEV emissions create greenhouse gases and air pollution. Therefore, EVs have become a big decision now, helping to reduce carbon monoxide emissions and save non-renewable resources. Due to their importance, the continuous development of EVs is important, and many engineering concepts can be used to improve the performance of EVs. Since the electric propulsion is the main part of an EV, such technologies need constant maintenance and improvement. The development of power semiconductor technology has made three-phase asynchronous and permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) the most widely used motors in EV applications. PMSM is the most efficient candidate to meet the motor requirements of EVs. However, the high cost and supply uncertainty of rare earth permanent magnets (PMs) have recently led to a decline in the use of permanent magnets. To solve these problems, a new type of motor called permanent magnet assisted synchronous reluctance motor (PMa-SynRM) has been introduced for EVs. The development of this type of motor was driven by the need to improve performance such as torque, efficiency and operational reliability while reducing the dependency on rare-earth material. The development of electric motors has replaced the traditional three-phase design with polyphase configurations. Especially, five-phase motor drive have the advantage of reduced torque ripple, increased fault tolerance, and better power distribution. The advantages and multiphase features of PMa-SynRM make the five-phase PMa-SynRM drive the best multiphase drive option for EV applications. Torque ripple is the first indicator of five-phase PMa-SynRM drive operation with advanced speed control strategies such as field oriented control (FOC), direct torque control (DTC) and model predictive control (MPC) for EV applications. Excessive torque ripple increases motor vibration and noise, thereby shortening the life of motor drive in EVs. Therefore, this research work, mainly focus on reduce the torque ripples of the five-phase PMa-SynRM drive by using modified DTC and MPC strategies. In this research work, utilising the inherent property of the PMa-SynRM, the maximum torque per ampere (MPTA) and maximum torque per voltage (MTPV) techniques are adopted to calculate the reference flux for proposed DTC and MPC strategies, with reduced torque ripple. In addition, the control concept will be designed to tolerate five-phase PMa-SynRM drives without the need for additional hardware connections. This features are essential in electric vehicles where reliability is essential. The effectiveness of the modified DTC and MPC strategies will be validated through the experimental results.