Five-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor drive for aircraft applications

Reliability is the most important consideration in designing safety critical aircrafts. Multiphase electric machines are gaining a growing interest because of their fault tolerance ability, high reliable and high power density, but the complexity of control structure prohibits its application for aircrafts. The five-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) offers a good trade-off between fault tolerance and system complexity. This paper presents a five-phase PMSM to directly drive the propeller blade of an electric aircraft. Firstly, the torque requirement on propeller blade operation is analyzed in different flying status. Then, a near four vectors (NFV) space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) is employed to realize the closed loop control of the motor speed, aiming to eliminate the third current harmonics in the stator windings. The speed and torque response for the motor control are simulated together with a five phase PMSM drive for aircraft applications. The simulation results confirm the efficacy of the design.