805

DETERMINATION OF MACHINE PARAMETERS FOR

INTERNAL PERMANENT MAGNET SYNCHRONOUS
MOTORS
M.A. Jabbar*, Jing Dong, Zhejie Liu
*Department of ECE, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117596
Tel: 65 6874 6500; E-mail: elemaj@nus.edu.sy; Fax: 65 6777 3117

Keywords: parameter estimation, permanent magnet In this work both computational and experimental methods
synchronous motors (PMSM), linear regression, Hopfield have been used to determine the parameters of a PMSM. In
neural network, finite element method. dealing with experimental methods, we have examined firstly
previous works in section 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3, in which DC
Abstract current decay measurement method, no load test and load test
method are applied. We have introduced two new ideas
Experimental methods used recently by many researchers for through the application of linear regression and Hopfield
the determination of PMSM parameters have been reviewed. neural network for the analysis and determination of machine
Analysis and experimentations show many shortcomings and parameters in section 3.1 and 3.2. Finally the computational
inaccuracies involved in those methods. Two novel results using finite elements are also included in section 4.
techniques for better results through the application of linear
regression and neural network are presented, and the results 2 Review of previous experimental methods for
from these methods are also included. In addition,
computational design values obtained by finite element
parameter estimation of PMSM
computations are also compared to the experimental values.
2.1 DC current decay measurement method
1 Introduction
The PMSM synchronous reactances can be measured from a
Permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) are widely static test provided that the rotor is locked to prevent any
used in industry for various applications [S, 1 I]. The PMSM induced voltage from movement of the magnetic field. There
has been studied for efficiency and control performance using are two approaches taken, direct flux integration [I31 and
lumped parameter models [17, 181 that require machine current integration with computation [28]. The first method
parameters. It is very important to have the correct values for requires direct computation of flux within the circuit as wcll
machine parameters for accurate modelling of the PMSM. as balancing the inductance bridge to eliminate the effect of
Among various parameters, the measurement of the direct rotor cage bars (damper windings) on the AC measurements.
axis reactance X ,the quadrature axis reactance X, and the The requirements include balancing the inductance bridge and
permanent magnet excitation voltage EO of the lumped integrating the flux. The common flux integrator cannot be
parameter model are the most challenging ones. used in this case, and the use of L-R circuits for flux
integration is complicated.
The methods generally used for determining parameters of
PMSM can be classified as either computational methods or The second method requires a simpler setup, which is shown
experimental methods. Computational methods, such as finite in Fig. 1. Yamamoto with others [28] used this method. In
element method or boundaly-integral solutions, allow this method the rotor must be locked along the direct-axis and
assessment of parameters which may prove difficult to he the terminal voltages are applied as shown in Fig. 2 (a). The
determined experimentally [22]. Computational means also current waveforms are captured upon opening the switch. For
allows estimation of various parameters even before the the q-axis, we keep the rotor locked in the same position and
machine prototype is made. Experimental methods, such as apply a different stator terminal voltage configuration to it as
frequency response tests [4, IO, 13, 281, load tests [6, 19, 21, shown in Fig. 2 (b). The impedance corresponding to each
241 and other methods [2, 141 have been applied by many frequency is calculated through the integration of current
researchers. This' work critically examines and assesses (with time) as explained below:
various measurement techniques proposed in previous works
by many researchers; the main emphasis is put on finite
element method, frequency response tests, no load test and
load tests. The d and q-axis operational impedances @er phase) at motor
start-up can be calculated as:
 806

x, (is) = {Zd( w )- 2 r } / ( j 2 s ) p =iT/2+6- y (4)

x q ( j s )= 2 { Z q ( w ) - 3 r / 2 } / ( j 3 s )
It is assumed that at no load, the angle S is zero and f q = 0 (no
torque current). As stator voltage Vvaried, stator current will
also vaty. Taking the value of Vat the point of minimum f as
EO, from Equation (I), the reactance of d-axis can be
calculated as:
x,= I V - E , l / I
The result o f & (reactance of d-axis) is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. I DC current decay experimental setup

Terminal line-line Voltage, Volt

Fig. 4 Result o f & using no-load test method
(a) (b)

VDC Iv IDc 1A L I mH this point the current is at a minimum, and any error in the
d-axis 4.95 3.00 12.3482 measurement of a small current then will be amplified to get
q-axis 3.59 3.00 35.0981 erratic X, values. At a certain distance away from this point,

This method gives single values for X, and Xq for one
frequency, hence putting some limitations on variable load
operations of machines under dynamic conditions.
2.2 Sensorless no-load test
Mellor et a/ [13] and Nee et a1 [I51 used a no-load test
method with variable stator voltage to determine the motor
2.3 Load test method
The load test method for PMSM was first proposed by Miller
[I41 and further modified by Rahman and Zhou [I91 to
account for the irregularities in thc d-axis reactance (X,)
measurements by not making the simplifying assumption that
the permanent magnet excitation voltage Eo is constant.
Instead, an attempt was made to solve for X, and EO

lRKd
parameters. It is based on the PMSM phasor diagram during
motoring operation as shown in Fig. 3 and two-axis model in
Equation (l)-(4), where S is the load angle and yl is the power
factor angle.
simultaneously by getting two sets of readings while making
a 0.1' change in angle j. The definition of 0 is given in
Equation (4). This method is also based on the phasor
diagram shown in Fig. 3 and two-axis model in Equation ( I )
and (2).

In this test we have 3 unknowns (X,X, and Eo) and only 2

equations; this is why a small change of 0.1" in p is required

load
in order
testtowas
make
used
the in
system
this experiment,
solvable: Theand
typical
the setup
resultsforarea
plotted in Fig. 5.
6

1,
Fig. 3 The phasor diagram of a PMSM

V C O S G= E , iX , .I, +R .Iq (1)

Vsin6 = X o . I q -R . I , (2)
Current Magnkude. A
I , = I c o s p ; I q = Isinp (3) Fig. 5 Parameters of load test method
 807

From the results, we can see that the values of X,and Eo are V, = R,i, - wLqi, + L,(di, ldt) ' (6)
fluctuating, while that of X, showed a more consistent trend.
The main reason for this inconsistency could be due to the V, = R,i, + wL,i, + L, (di, ldt) + &Eo (7)
change in the angle by a very small angle, such as 0.1",
where L,, L, are the inductances of d and q - axis respectively,
which make the equations ill-conditioned and cannot be and w is the electrical rated speed of the rotor. After applying
solved accurately. Equation (7) + (6) and Equation (7) (6), we can get
~

I
3 Novel experimental methods for parameters Y, = L,X,, + L,X,, +bo
estimation of PMSM
Y,= L,X2, iL,X,, +bo
3.1 Combination of load test and linear regression I bo = &Eo
The load test suffers from the shortcoming of the fact that we di,
need a very small change of angle p. The change of such a - , x., , = - -
~ X , , = w z , +did wi,
small margin in experiment is very difficult to achieve, and it dt dt
could also lead to the inconsistency of experimental results. In X 2 2. = - + wdi,
X - w i d - - , did i,
order, to overcome this difficulty the load test was applied in 21 -
combination with a linear regression model. By using the dt dt
combined method, one would avoid the measurement of the
load angle S, and the power factor angle y, but the rotor
position would be required. This load test process is much
simpler. Taking X,,,
I Y, =(V, -R,i,)+(V,
Y, = ( V , -R,i,)-(V, -R,i,)
X,,,X,,and X
-Riiq)

, as the inputs, Y, and Y, as the

The main concept of linear regression model is to adapt
parameters from input and output data by searching for the
minimum of the mean square error (MSE). For example,
suppose d is the desired output of n inputs x,. x2, ..., x., the
errorbetween the estimated output and the desired output is:
E =d - hkx,
~
desired outputs, L,, L, and boas the weights, all we need to do
is to find the best linear regression on all the inputs using
Equation ( 5 ) so that we can determine the values of L d , L, and
Eo.
The results obtained by using this technique are shown in Fig.
6. All the parameters vary smoothly with the current and the
trends shown in the variations'of waveforms are more

k=O obvious. This improvement can be very significant in the

where hk ( k = 0,1, ._.,n) are the weights, ho is the bias and x g analysis for dynamics and transients.
is 1. Hence the MSE of m samples is:
2
J = - -1'c di-zhkx,
2m [ klO
The derivation of J with respect to the unknowns (hk) is:

where,

Fig. 6 Results from regression model

T 3.2 Combination of load test and Hopfield neural network

H = [h,,h, ,..., h,]
The optimal H' is obtained by setting v = 0 . Therefore,
H' = C-'D
To apply this method for the processing of load test data, the
oscillations of stator currents in the steady state are taken into
account. A series of values of io, ib, i,, V,, V, and V, were
recorded in the experiment, then id, i,, V, and V, can be
calculated using Park's transformation, hence diddt and di,ld!
can be determined. The governing equations in the steady
state are:
Hopfield neural network model was proposed by Hopfield [7]
and was further explored to solve some classes of
(5) optimization problems by Hopfield and Tank [S, 9, 251. In
1990, S. R. Chu et a/ [ 3 ] modified this network and applied it
successfully for identification of linear time invariant or time
varying systems, by measuring the inputs, states and
derivatives of the states. In the following years, this method
was used by many researchers for system identification, state
estimation and control in various areas [12, 16, 20, 23, 271.
As for the applications of Hopfield neural network in the
parameter estimation of electric machines, some work has
been done in induction machines and DC machines [16, 26,
 808

271. In order to get more accurate PMSM parameters and also
to overcome the difficulties of load test, we have applied the
Hopfield neural network in combination with the load test.
A simplified continuous Hopfield model is given by [3]:
which are crucial for the training of the neural network.
Defining Q as
Q = [all,...,qn,...,anl ,...,ann, b l ,,...,blm,...,
bnl,...,b,,lT
the weight matrix [TJ and bias matrix [I,] can be computed
using Equation (12), and the definition of the matrix elements
in [PI is shown in the Appendix.

Q, = g(u,), j = 1, ...,n
where n is the number of neurons, U; are the neuron states, T,
are the weights, 4 are the bias inputs, and Qj are the neuron 1' .
[ I ; ]= - / [ X I . ,...)x,x,x,u ,...)f"*]'dt
outputs. Hence the standard energy function of Hopfield
neural network is defined as:
t*
Therefore, for the sigmoid function shown in Equation (9),
the expression for the evolution of Q can be obtained as:

Hopfield [SI has shown that we can get the minima of the
energy function if the function Q; = g(uJ is mono-increasing
and [Tg] is symmetric. Generally, function g(uJ is selected Integration of the above equation gives the solution to the
as: parameter estimation problem.
,
Q, = g(u = p(1- )/(I e?") + (9) To apply this method in the parameter estimation of PMSM,
Here k is the slope of the sigmoid nonlinearity, the p is such firstly the governing equations (6) and (7)of PMSM in steady
that when U; tends to im,the function Q, = g(uJ tends to 9. state are rewritten as a state space model as:

For example, we consider a dynamical system in state space X = A,X+B,U (14)

as:
1 = Ax+ Bu (10)
The definition of A , B, x and U are listed in Equation (1 I),
where A and B are the system matrices, x is the state vector
and U is the input. The aim of system identification is to get A
and B with known values ofx, X and U.

I ... I I ... I

Comparing with the standard model in Equations (IO) and

( I I), we can get n = 2, m =3; and the number of unknown
values is IO, and matrix Q is:
Q = [Qi > Q2, Q3rQ4, Q, 1 Qs,Q7 Q8 3 Qy I !&I
- RI L L,
-[--,w"-w--l R -ooo---
1 1 &E,
, 1 i , > l

Ld 'd ' Lq' Lq ' Ld L, L,

Suppose A , and B, are estimated parameter values ofA and B, From the expression of matrix Q, we can see that the values
then the error between the real system and the estimated of Q are not the free unknowns, but have some constraints.
system is: Taking R , and w as known values, the constraints are:
e = X- A , x - B,u Q, = Q 7 =Qz =O
And the identification energy function is defined as: Qi =-RiQS; Q4 =-RlQy (16)

Q2Q3 =-w2; Q Y =w(Q5/Q2)

Using Equation (13) together with the constraints in Equation
When we compare this energy function with the standard (l6), matrix Q can be computed; and hence the values of Lh
energy function of Hopfield neural network in Equation (S), L, and Eo can be determined.
we can get the weight matrix [TJ and the bias matrix [I,],
 809
The results obtained using the combined Hopfield neural
network and the load test methods are shown in Fig. 7. The
results using this method are very close to those obtained by
the regression model in section 3.1. The variations of all the
parameters are very smooth and the trends are very obvious.
Current Magnhde, A
Fig. 7 Results of Hopfield neural network
4 Parameter determination of PMSM using
finite element method (FEM)
Finite element computation is expensive hut provides an easy
means of computing machine parameters. Normally, this
method can he used for benchmarking all other experimental
methods. However, the main limitation of FEM is getting a
correct and accurate model of the machine. Since FEM
provides an extensive set of values for flux distributions all
around, it is much more transparent and can he used to
compute machine parameters, although many aspects like
eddy losses and hysteresis are very difficult to represent in
FEM models.
Using FEM models, the flux linkages in the d and q-axis can
he represented by:
Ad = Ldid iAm (17)
a, = L,;, (18)
and W A , = &E, (19)
where i. is the flux linkage and w is the electrical rated speed
of the rotor.
In the calculation of d and q-axis reactances, a current source
was used. The flux linkages of a, h, c-axis were calculated
first using the equation:
where A I and A2 are vector potentials. Cl’ and Cl are the total
areas of positively and negatively oriented coil sides of the
phase conductors in the FEM solution sector [I]. Park‘s
transformation is used to change the flux linkages from a, b,
c-axis to d and q-axis. Since Equations (17) and (18) are
inadequate for 3 unknowns, a small change in angle B
(definition is given in Equation (4)) is exerted to obtain
another set of data and the following equations are obtained:
A, ’= Ldid‘+Am (20)
,Iq ‘= Lqi, ‘ (21)
With the calculated d and q-axis flux linkage values, the
injected current values and Equations (l7)-(21), Ld,L, and Eo
can he obtained easily as:
The results are shown in Fig. 8. The results obtained by FEM
are comparable with the experimental results, hut the value of
Eo was not very similar with the other experimental results as
it is almost constant for different current magnitudes. This
may be because of the use of current sources, rather than
voltage sources for FEM method. It may also he that the
model did not take into account the armature reaction effects
on magnet flux.
cumnt MagnRuda, A
Fig. 8 Parameters calculated by FEM
Conclusions
We have discussed various techniques for determining
machine parameters for an internal PM synchronous motor.
We have identified difficulties of measurements and
shortcomings of these methods, and introduced two new
methods for more accurate estimation of machine parameters.
Results from these methods show good agreements with other
methods as well as results from FE computations.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the National University of
Singapore for the funding of this project.
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Appendix
[41]”2x)12
=diug[xxT xx‘ ... xw‘]
[42],2,,,
= diug[xu‘ xuT ... xu‘]
[ P ~ = , diug[ux‘ ~ ~ ...
] ~ ~ ux‘ ~ ux‘]
[P22]nmx,,
= diug[uu‘ uu’ ... uu‘]
where ‘diag’ means diagonals of the matrix. The other
elements of matrices [ P I , ] [P12],
, [Pzl]and [PZz]are all zeros
except the diagonals.