Sixth-harmonic back-EMF based sensorless control for switched-flux permanent magnet machine

In switched-flux permanent magnet (SFPM) machines, the 6th-harmonic back electromotive force (EMF) is dominant, whilst the 3rd-harmonic back-EMF is much smaller. This paper proposes several new position estimation methods for sensorless control based on the 6th-harmonic back-EMF. Firstly, by detecting the zero-crossings of the 6th-harmonic back-EMF with/without eliminating the influence of the 3rd-harmonic back EMF, the related rotor positions can be determined precisely at these zero-crossings. However, since the intermediate rotor positions need to be determined by linear interpretation between two zero-crossings, it only exhibits excellent performance under steady state. Furthermore, the continuous rotor position can be estimated from the proposed new observer by utilizing the combined signals of 6th-harmonic back-EMF and flux-linkage, together with a synchronous reference frame filter (SRFF) and harmonic elimination. Experimental validation show that (a) by eliminating the 3rd-harmonic back-EMF effect, the accuracy of the proposed 6th-harmonic back-EMF zero-crossings detection method can be improved, (b) SRFF is effective to minimize the influence of non-constant amplitudes of the 6th-harmonic backEMF and flux-linkage, (c) the comparison between the fundamental, the 3rd-harmonic back-EMF and the proposed method are presented in order to highlight the effectiveness of proposed control strategy under different operating conditions.