Brushless DC Motor

Ansuman Sharma 109EE0305

Abstract
With the advent of technology brushless dc motor have been widely used in low-power
applications such as blower motors, computer disk-drive spindle motors, and in copiers and
laser printers, small fans for cooling electronics instruments. The conventional dc motor uses
brushes and commutator which are subject to wear and require maintenance. When the
function of commutator and brushes were implemented by solid state switches, maintenance
free motors were realised. These motors are known as brushless dc motor. The brushless dc
motor cannot operate without its electronic controller. Therefore the brushless dc motor is a
motor drive system consisting of an ac motor, solid state inverter and a rotor position sensor.
These motors has permanent magnet field poles on the rotor and polyphase armature winding
on the stator. The mechanical commutator in conventional dc motor is performed by
electronic commutator in BLDC motor. This motor has a very high efficiency and widely
used now a days. In future if power rating of these motors rise they can be used in traction
systems.

Introduction
The brushless dc motor are synchronous motors which are powered by a dc electric source
via an integrated inverter, which produces an ac electric signal to drive the motor, additional
sensors to control inverter output. The rotor of the motor is a permanent magnet while that of
stator is a armature winding with three phase winding in it. The phase windings are always
energized in sequence and the energization is done by the transisitors. The rotor position
sensor is always on the motor shaft which provides apposition feedback. It monitors the shaft
position and sends signal to the drive circuitry of the inverter circuit. In response to these
signal the inverter allows the flow of current to stator phase windings in controlled manner
so that motor produce desire speed. The commonly used rotor position sensors are Hall
effect sensor and electro optical sensor. Here a brief description on 3 phase 3 pulse dc motor
is discussed.

Description
The construction of modern brushless motors is very similar to the ac motor, known as the
permanent magnet synchronous motor. Below the figure given illustrates the structure of a
typical three-phase brushless dc motor. The stator windings are similar to those in a
polyphase ac motor, and the rotor is composed of one or more permanent magnets. Brushless
dc motors are different from ac synchronous motors in that the former incorporates some
means to detect the rotor position (or magnetic poles) to produce signals to control the
electronic switches . The most common position/pole sensor is the Hall element, but some
motors use optical sensors.

Disassembled view of brushless dc motor

Let us consider a 3 phase stator winding and two poles permanent magnet rotor Suppose
phase A is excited stator S and N poles are created. The stator S pole repels Rotor S pole
attracts N pole thus producing a clockwise torque and is given by

T= K sin
=torque angle, =stator field flux, =rotor field field flux
The strength of rotor field flux is constant as it is produced by permanent magnets. The
magnitude of stator field is proportional to stator current. As the stator current is constant the
stator field flux is also constant so the torque equation of phase a can be written as
TA=K IA sin
where IA=constant stator current in phase A
So the torque developed by A varies sinisoidally with torque angle .Similarly for phase B,
torque also varies sinusoidally but displaced by angle 120 degrees from torque produced by
A. Likewise for phase C it also varies sinusoidally shifted by 120 degrees with respect to
B.
But if phase winding carries instantaneous currents ,the resultant torque from instantaneous
torque is given by
T=1.5 K Im
where Im=maximum value of current

This above equation gives that the shaft torque is independent of rotor position.

Conclusion
As no brushes and commutator are required ,it has longer life. This motor can run at speeds
much higher than those obtained in conventional DC motor .This motor is more efficient.
Sparking are prevented here with less noise in this type of motor. Brushless motor of higher
rating find applications in aircraft and satellite systems. Their popularity has also risen in the
radio controlled car sector. Brushless motors have been legal in North American RC car
racing in accordance to ROAR since 2006. These motors provide a great amount of power to
RC racers and if paired with appropriate gearing and LiPo Batteries, these cars can go up to
100 Miles/Hour (161km/h).These motors are very small and compact in size and are easy to
handle.In near future if the ratings of the brushless dc motor is increased they may be used
more widely and also can find applications in traction systems.
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brushless_dc_motor
2. Dr P.S. Bimbhra, Generalized Theory Of Machines
3. http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/brushless-motor.htm
4. T. Kenjo, Permanent magnet and brushless dc motors