The Fault-Tolerant Quad-Channel Brushless Direct Current Motor

In this study, a permanent magnet brushless direct current machine with multi-phase windings is proposed for critical drive systems. We have named the solution, which has four-stator winding, a quad-channel permanent magnet brushless direct current (QCBLDC) motor. The stator windings are supplied by four independent power converters under quad-channel operation (QCO) mode. After a fault in either one, two, or three channels, further operation of the machine can be continued in triple-channel operation (TCO) mode, dual-channel operation (DCO) mode, or single-channel operation (SCO) mode. In this paper, a novel mathematical model is proposed for a QCBLDC machine. This model takes into account the nonlinearity of a magnetic circuit and all of the couplings between the phases within a given channel, as well as between channels. Based on numerical calculations, the static electromagnetic moment and the coupled fluxes were determined for the individual windings of the variants and work modes being analyzed. A normal work condition can be achieved in the QCO or DCO modes. For the DCO mode, an acceptable case uses a balanced magnetic pull (A and C channels supplied). The DCO A and B type work mode is comparable to the DCO A and C mode with regard to its efficiency in processing electrical energy. The vibroacoustic parameters of this mode, however, are much worse. In fault states, TCO, DCO, and SCO work modes are possible. As the number of active channels decreases, the efficiency of energy processing also decreases. In a critical situation, the motor works in overload mode (SCO mode). Laboratory tests conducted for one of the variants demonstrated that the TCO work mode is characterized by worse vibroacoustic parameters than the DCO A and C mode.