Transient Analysis of an Induction Motor and its Control System using Cosimulation

A virtual test bench based on the cosimulation of finite element analysis and circuit simulation has been applied to evaluate controllers in three-phase induction motors. A finite element model is used to carry out the electromagnetic analysis of the induction machine. This model has the advantage of considering a precise distribution of induced eddy-currents, the material nonlinearity, space and time harmonics, and torque pulsation. The speed and rotor magnetic flux norm tracking problems are tackled with a nonlinear passivity-based control. The results show the existence of an overexcitation problem in the control action when the motor operates at full load and nominal speed. This problem was not so evident in the state space simulation, which confirms that the use of this cosimulation platform represents a helpful and reliable starting point before experimentally implementing the controller.