Variable Carrier Phase Shift Method for Integrated Contactless Field
Excitation System of Electrically Excited Synchronous Motors
Abstract
This paper presents a novel contactless field
excitation~(CFE) system based on wireless power
transfer~(WPT), which utilizes the existing voltage
source inverter~(VSI) of the motor drive for
electrically excited synchronous motors~(EESMs). In
conventional CFE systems, an extra high-frequency converter is required
to excite the field winding. In this paper, it is proposed to utilize
existing voltage switching harmonics of the VSI for exciting the field
winding while the low-frequency modulated component is used to drive the
motor. In the proposed system, a novel variable carrier phase shift
method~(VCPSM) is developed to achieve constant input
excitation voltage for the WPT part independently from the motor
operation. In addition, a hybrid frequency detuning control method is
introduced to adjust the field current. For experimental validation, a
small-scale prototype with 100~V DC-link and
60~kHz switching frequency is established. It is
observed that the field current could be kept almost constant at
5~A under different motor driving conditions operations
regarding modulation index and fundamental frequency. Also, it is shown
that the field current could be reduced by detuning the switching
frequency. In brief, without an additional active converter and only
with a software update, a cost-effective CFE system for EESMs can be
easily implemented.