IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 17, NO.

2, MARCH 2002

255

Torque Ripple Reduction in DTC of Induction

Motor Driven by Three-Level Inverter
With Low Switching Frequency
Kyo-Beum Lee, Student Member, IEEE, Joong-Ho Song, Member, IEEE, Ick Choy, and Ji-Yoon Yoo, Member, IEEE

AbstractA torque ripple reduction technique of direct

torque control (DTC) for high power induction motors driven by
three-level inverters with the inverter switching frequency limited
around 0.51 kHz level is presented. It is noted that conventional
two-level DTC algorithms to reduce torque ripple are devised
for applications with relatively high switching frequency above
23 kHz and cannot accomplish satisfactory torque ripple reduction for three-level inverter systems with such lower switching
frequencies. A new DTC algorithm, especially for low switching
frequency inverter system, illustrates quite reduced torque ripple
characteristics all over the operating speed region. Simulation and
experimental results show effectiveness of the proposed control
algorithm.
Index TermsDirect torque control, induction motor, threelevel inverters, torque ripple reduction.

I. INTRODUCTION

HE industrial application areas of the direct torque control

(DTC) scheme have been increased due to several features
such as quick torque response and robustness against motor parameter variations. The conventional DTC algorithm using the
hysteresis-based voltage switching method has relative merits
of simple structure and easy implementation [1][5], whereas
shows some drawbacks such as large torque ripple in the low
speed region and switching frequency variation according to the
change of the motor parameters and the motor speed. If the hysteresis bands of the torque and flux comparators become relatively wide for high power applications with the low inverter
switching frequency, the resulting torque ripples are enlarged to
an undesired level.
To solve these problems, a direct mean torque control was reported in which the average value of torque ripple area during a
sampling interval is controlled to be the same level as the torque
reference value [6]. It is found in this control scheme that the
torque ripple generated increases in proportion to the increase
of the motor speed. Several torque ripple minimization algorithms, which are originally proposed for two-level inverter with
high switching frequencies above 23 kHz, reveal some limitations for the torque ripple suppression in case that the inverter
Manuscript received November 28, 2000; revised November 6, 2001. Recommended by Associate Editor A. M. Trzynadlowski.
K. B. Lee and J.-Y. Yoo are with the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Korea.
J.-H. Song and I. choy are with the Intelligent System Control Research
Center, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 136-791,
Korea.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8993(02)02245-7.

Fig. 1. Output voltage vectors of three-level inverter.

switching frequency is operated below 1 kHz [7][9]. It can be

said that these control schemes are not effective for high power
inverter system in which the inverter switching frequency is restricted around the low level.
In this paper, a new torque ripple reduction technique, especially for high-power three-level inverter-fed induction motor
drives, is proposed and comprehensively studied. The voltage
selection algorithm to prevent the stator flux demagnetization
in the low speed operation and the torque ripple reduction algorithm showing good effectiveness all over the operating speed
region are proposed. The proposed control strategy is illustrated
by simulation and experimental results.

II. DTC FOR THREE-LEVEL INVERTER

The principle of DTC is briefly discussed and a torque control for three-level inverter system is studied in this section.
Fig. 1 shows space vector representation of three-level inverter
denote zero, half,
output voltages, in which subscripts
intermediate, and full voltages, respectively. Since 27 possible
choices for switching voltage vector selection exist in threelevel inverters, appropriate selection of the inverter switching
voltage vector is more complex than in two-level inverters.

08858993/02$17.00 2002 IEEE

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Fig. 2. Torque slope pattern of three-level inverter.

TABLE I
SWITCHING LOOK-UP TABLE
(a)

Assumed that the stator flux vector is in the th sector, selection of the respective stator voltage vector is shown in Fig. 1.
and
is able to increase the
The selection of
angle between the stator flux and the rotor flux. As a result, the
developed torque can be increased by the application of
or
. It can be also seen in Fig. 1 that the stator flux is in, and decreased by
.
creased by the selection of
If half voltage vector is selected, the lower slope of torque can be
obtained. The double torque hysteresis band method as shown
in Fig. 2 is applied for the three-level inverters. When torque
comes down to the negative upper hysteresis band, the respective full voltage vector is chosen to increase the torque developed. When the controlled torque reaches the positive lower
hysteresis band, the full voltage vector is changed into the respective half voltage. If torque increases beyond the positive
upper torque band, zero voltage vector is applied to decrease
torque value. The same rules for voltage vector selection can
be applied for the reverse direction operation of the induction
motor. The resulted switching look-up table is shown in Table I.
Assumed that is located in the th sector, possible voltage
, and
vectors to increase torque are
. Among these voltage vectors, a certain voltage vector
should be selected, considering the double torque hysteresis
band and the stator flux condition. Meanwhile, only one voltage
vector, , is selected to reduce the developed torque.
The basic DTC algorithm of Table I provokes some problems
such as the demagnetization phenomenon of the stator flux, especially at the low speed region [10][13]. This problem can be
explained as follows: The demagnetization by non zero-voltage
vector is described in Fig. 3(a), where the stator flux is placed in
th sector. It is seen in Fig. 3(a) that , the stator flux in
the
the region near the sector-to-sector boundary happens to be dewhich is selected
creased by the stator voltage vector,

(b)
Fig. 3. Demagnetization problem at low speed operation: (a) demagnetization
by nonzero-voltage vector and (b) demagnetization by zero-voltage vector.

to increase the stator flux magnitude by the basic switching

look-up table of Table I. It is noted that the voltage drop across
the stator resistance takes significant proportion of the applied
voltage especially in the low speed region. On the contrary,
, the stator flux in the region apart from the sector-to-sector
.
boundary is increased by the stator voltage vector,
The demagnetization by zero-voltage vector is described in
Fig. 3(b), where the zero-voltage vector is applied to decrease
the developed torque by holding the stator flux movement.
When the zero-voltage vector is applied, the stator flux change
can be expressed as
(1)
denotes the sampling period.
where
It can be seen from (1) and Fig. 3(b) that the stator flux movement is strongly affected by the stator current vector and the
corresponding stator flux is decreased by the equivalent of the
voltage drop across the stator resistance.
The basic DTC algorithm has some problems such as the demagnetization and the poor torque control especially in the low

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257

TABLE II
MODIFIED LOOK-UP TABLE

III. TORQUE RIPPLE REDUCTION ALGORITHM

A. Machine Equations
The stator and rotor fluxes of the induction motor can be modeled as

Fig. 4. Switching method for low speed operation.

(2)
speed region. The demagnetization appears just after the position of the stator flux vector moves from one sector into next
sector. The application of the zero-voltage vector makes it difficult to decrease the developed torque in the low speed operation.
The basic switching look-up table described in the previous
section cannot solve these problems occurring in the low speed
operation. Even if the flux demagnetization problems can be
worked out by a rotation of the reference frame or the switching
sector that are similar to methods for two-level inverters, a new
method using the intermediate voltage vectors is more desirable
for the three-level inverters. Moreover, the intermediate voltage
vectors can be effective for preventing the torque control from
being inactive. Fig. 4 shows only one sector of the 12-sectors
resulting from subdividing the six-sector plane of Fig. 1 into a
12-sector plane. The th sector in Fig. 1 is subdivided into the
lower sub-sector and the upper sub-sector, each of which has a
width of 30 . In the lower sub-sector, the stator voltage vector,
, which is determined according to Table I, becomes to
be ineffective to boost the stator flux because the full voltage
vector is not able to provide sufficiently a flux vector component to increase the corresponding stator flux. It can be seen in
can be
Fig. 4 that the respective intermediate stator voltage
more effective to increase the resultant stator flux. If the inter, is selected instead of
, the
mediate voltage vector,
demagnetization problem can be resolved.
When the stator flux moves into the upper sub-sector after
, is
passing the lower sub-sector, the voltage selected,
used to increase the developed torque and the voltage vector,
, instead of the zero voltage vector is used to decrease
the developed torque. To obtain the effectively magnetizing effect around the boundary between two sectors especially at the
low speed region, a modified look-up table as shown in Table II
is devised. The transition from conventional look-up table to the
modified one is taken by detecting a certain level of the drooping
magnitude of the stator flux. When the magnitude of the stator
flux is drooped below a minimum fixed level of 90% rated flux
in this paper, the basic look-up table, Table I, is replaced with
the modified look-up table [Table II].

.
where
The electromagnetic torque is expressed in terms of the stator
and rotor fluxes as
(3)
where is the number of poles. The stator and rotor fluxes of
(2) can be expressed in discrete form as
(4)
(5)
is the sampling interval. Then the electromagnetic
where
can be described as
torque neglecting the square of

(6)

B. Torque Slope Calculation

When the full voltages or the half voltages are applied, the
increment in torque is given by

(7)
When the zero voltage is applied to the motor, the resultant
torque decreases as follows:

(8)

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 17, NO. 2, MARCH 2002

(a)

(b)

(c)
Fig. 5. Torque ripple pattern according to motor speed. (a) normal speed operation, (b) low speed operation (lower sub-sector), and (c) low speed operation (upper
sub-sector).

Such variation of the torque ripple can be represented as shown

in Fig. 7, which shows the torque slope patterns based on the operating speed regions. This figure is a graphical presentation of
both the torque slope pattern generated by Table I in the normal
operating speed region and the torque slope pattern by Table II
in lower speed region.
When induction motors are operated in the normal speed re, can be calculated as
gion, the respective torque slope,

In the low speed operation, the following

and
denote
the torque slope when the stator flux is located in the lower
sub-sector. It is noted that the intermediate voltage vectors only
are applied in this case

(11)

(8)
(12)
(9)
(10)
where

When the stator flux is located in the upper subsector at low

,
frequencies, the corresponding torque slopes,
are derived. Note that the full and half voltage vectors
and
only are applied in this case

(13)

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259

(a)

(b)
Fig. 6. Speed, slope S

;S

, and S (from top to bottom).

Fig. 8. Switching time; t ; t : (a) low speed operation (30% rated value)
and (b) high speed operation (95% rated value).

switching modes can be calculated to minimize the torque ripple

generated.
C. Reduction Algorithm
First, considering the torque slope pattern in the normal speed
operation as shown in Fig. 5(a), the square of the rms torque
ripple during one switching interval, , can be expressed as

(17)

Fig. 7.

The switching time to minimize the torque ripple can be ob, with retained by taking the partial derivatives of (17),
and . By solving (18), the candidates for proper
spect to
switching times can be obtained as

Change of torque ripple pattern according to motor speed.

(18)
(14)

(19)
or

(15)

(20)
where

(16)
Considering these torque ripple patterns that depend on the
, and
in each of the
motor speed, the switching times,

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 17, NO. 2, MARCH 2002

Fig. 9. Schematic diagram of the proposed control strategy.

Secondly, regarding the torque slope pattern of the lower subsector in the low speed operation as shown in Fig. 5(b), the
square of the rms torque ripple during one switching interval
and the respective switching time can be written as

The switching time to minimize this torque ripple can be obtained by taking the partial derivatives of (23),
, with re, and
. The candidates for proper switching
spect to
times can be obtained as (24)(26) shown at the bottom of the
next page, where

(21)
(22)
Finally, regarding the torque slope pattern of the upper subsector in the low speed operation as shown in Fig. 5(c), the
square of the rms torque ripple during one switching interval,
, can be described as

(23)

It is well-known that the corresponding sign of the second

derivative values of (17), (21), and (23) should be checked out
to calculate the optimal switching times. Unfortunately, the
respective sign is varied according to the motor speed, since the
, and , which are basic arguments
torque ripple slopes
of the respective sign functions, are changed as shown in
Fig. 6. Therefore, a little complicated calculation, considering
the times of the start and end of a switching cycle as well as
the above-mentioned candidate times of (22) and (24)(26) is
required to determine the optimal switching times.

(24)
(25)
or

(26)

LEE et al.: TORQUE RIPPLE REDUCTION IN DTC OF INDUCTION MOTOR

261

(a)

(a)

(b)

(b)

Fig. 10. Simulation results at 1% rated speed; estimated speed, flux

magnitude, and torque: (a) proposed algorithm and (b) conventional algorithm.

For the sake of simplicity of explanation, the behavior of

only the torque ripple reduction algorithm corresponding to the
normal speed operation region is here described in more detail.
As the motor speed ramps up, the torque slope variation related
with the normal speed operation is shown in Fig. 6. It can be
and
vary from positive
seen in this figure that the slopes
to negative. These phenomena can be graphically described by
the torque ripple pattern change of Fig. 7, which shows that the
slopes and become slower and becomes steeper as the
motor speed increases. Fig. 8 shows the change of the switching
times according to the motor speed. It is noted that the switching
in the high speed
time, , tends to be fixed at the value of
region. This results from the fact that the slope , as shown in
Fig. 6, remains in the negative value as the motor operates at
the high speed. In other words, a selection of the half voltage
in the high speed region causes the generated torque to actually
decrease down as if the zero voltage is applied. As a result, the
respective voltage selection consists of only the full voltage and
the half voltage in the high speed region.

Fig. 11.

Simulation results in the middle speed; torque, speed estimation,

d-axis flux, and phase current: (a) proposed algorithm and (b) conventional
algorithm.

IV. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENT RESULTS

To confirm validity of the proposed control algorithm of
Fig. 9, simulation and experiment have been carried out. The
overall control system consists of the basic DTC block, the
torque ripple reduction block, the adaptive observer block for
the stator flux and the stator resistance estimation, and speed
regulator block. The induction motor used in this paper reads
a nameplate of three-phase 220 Vac, 10 hp, the rated speed
of 1740 rpm, and the rated torque of 40 Nm. In this case, the
transfer boundary between the normal speed and the low speed
operation algorithms proposed in Sections II and III is around
23% rated speed.
Fig. 10 shows comparatively the responses of torque, speed,
and stator flux at 1% rated speed when the proposed and conventional algorithms are employed. The low speed performance
with the peak-peak ripple torque reduced above about 30% is
obtained by using the low-speed algorithm proposed for torque

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 17, NO. 2, MARCH 2002

(a)

(b)
Fig. 12. Simulation results in the high speed; torque, speed estimation, d-axis
flux, and phase current: (a) proposed algorithm and (b) conventional algorithm.

ripple reduction. It can be seen in Fig. 11 that the torque ripple is

reduced above about 60% by using the normal-speed algorithm
proposed for torque ripple reduction. Fig. 12 shows simulation
results obtained in the high speed operation, where the torque
ripple is reduced up to about 50% with the help of the proposed
algorithm. It is noted that Figs. 11 and 12 are obtained from
the condition that the motor speed ramps up to investigate the
ramp-up transient characteristics.
The experimental set-up is implemented based on the main
controller board DS1003. The sampling time of control cycle is
set at 200 s for the proposed torque ripple reduction algorithm,
while at 60 s for the conventional DTC. It is noted that the
proposed algorithm is sufficiently calculated within the longer
sampling interval although it seems to be more complex. The
switching frequency of the conventional DTC is in the range of
500 Hz2 kHz according to the motor speed and torque, whereas
that of the proposed DTC algorithm remains in the region of
500 Hz1.0 kHz. Fig. 13 shows the experimental responses at

(a)

(b)
Fig. 13. Experimental results at 1% rated speed; torque, speed estimation,
d-axis flux, and phase current: (a) proposed algorithm and (b) conventional
algorithm.

1% rated speed. Also, Figs. 14 and 15 show the experimental results of the ramp-up transient responses in the middle and high
speed operations, respectively. It can be said that the proposed
DTC scheme shows relatively small torque ripple all over the
speed range and experimental results are similar with the respective simulation results.
V. CONCLUSION
A new DTC algorithm for high power three-level inverters
with the inverter switching frequency limited around 0.51 kHz
has been presented to achieve a torque ripple reduction. The
stator flux demagnetization occurring in the low speed operation has been comprehensively investigated and resolved out by
a new voltage selection method using the intermediate voltage
vectors. A new torque ripple reduction technique based on the
voltage vector selection calculated during the sampling interval
of 200 s has made it possible to reduce the torque ripple more

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263

(a)

(a)

(b)

(a)
Fig. 14. Experimental results in the middle speed; torque, speed estimation,
d-axis flux, and phase current: (a) proposed algorithm and (b) conventional
algorithm.

than at least 30%, compared with the conventional DTC algorithm. The torque ripple reduction has been accomplished by
the proposed control scheme in the steady state and the ramp-up
transient state all over the speed range.
REFERENCES
[1] G. Buja, D. Casadei, and G. Serra, Direct stator flux and torque control
of an induction motor, in Proc. IECON98 Tutorial, 1998, pp. T50T64.
[2] D. Casadei, G. Serra, and A. Tani, Analytical investigation of torque
and flux ripple in DTC schemes for induction motors, in Proc.
IECON97 Conf., 1997, pp. 552556.
[3] J. N. Nash, Direct torque control, induction motor vector control
without and encoder, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 33, pp. 333341,
Mar./Apr. 1997.
[4] P. Vas, W. Drudy, and A. F. Stronach, Present and future of drives, sensorless and artificial intelligence application, in Proc. EPE97 Conf.,
1997, pp. 4.5734.578.
[5] F. Busschots, B. Renier, and R. Belmans, Direct torque control: Application to crane drives, in Proc. EPE97 Conf., 1997, pp. 4.5794.584.
[6] E. Flach, Design of a Kalman filter for direct mean torque control, in
Proc. EPE99 Conf., 1999. (in CD format).

Fig. 15.

Experimental results in the high speed; torque, speed estimation,

d-axis flux, and phase current: (a) proposed algorithm and (b) conventional
algorithm.
[7] J.-K. Kang and S.-K. Sul, New direct torque control of induction motor
for minimum torque ripple and constant switching frequency, IEEE
Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 35, pp. 10761082, Sept./Oct. 1999.
[8] N. R. N. Idris and A. H. M. Yatim, Reduced torque ripple and constant
switching frequency strategy for direct torque control of induction machine, in Proc. APEC00 Conf., 2000, pp. 154161.
[9] Y.-C. Luo, C.-H. Lui, and Y.-S. Lai, Adaptive stator resistance estimation and low speed torque ripple minimization for a sensorless direct
torque control induction motor drive, in Proc. IPEC00 Conf., Tokyo,
Japan, 2000, pp. 10871092.
[10] K. B. Lee, J. H. Song, I. Choy, J. Y. Choi, J. H. Yoon, and S. H. Lee,
Torque ripple reduction in DTC of induction motor driven by threelevel inverter with low switching frequency, in Proc. PESC00 Conf.,
2000, pp. 448453.
[11] C. G. Mei, S. K. Panda, J. X. Xu, and K. W. Lim, Direct torque control
of induction motor-variable switching sectors, in Proc. PEDS99 Conf.,
1999, pp. 8085.
[12] D. Alfonso, G. Gianuluca, M. Ignazio, and P. Aldo, An improved
look-up table for zero speed control in DTC drives, in Proc. EPE99
Conf., 1999.
[13] Y. A. Chapuis, T. Kosaka, and N. Matsui, Performance improvement
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induction machine, in Proc. IPEC00 Conf., Tokyo, Japan, 2000, pp.
11891194.

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Kyo-Beum Lee (S01) was born in Seoul, Korea, in

1972. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical and electronic engineering from Ajou University, Suwon, Korea, in 1997 and 1999, respectively,
and is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at Korea University.
Since 1999, he has been with the Intelligent
System Control Research Center, Korea Institute
of Science and Technology, Seoul, as a Student
Researcher. His research interests include electric
machine drives and power electronics.

Ick Choy received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees

from Seoul National University, Korea, in 1979,
1981, and 1990, respectively.
Since 1981, he has been with the Intelligent System Control Research Center, Korea
Institute of Science and Technology. His main
research interests include microprocessor applications, high-performance drives, and emerging
technologies.

Joong-Ho Song (M97) received the B.S. and M.S.

degrees from Seoul National University, Korea, in
1980 and 1982, and the Ph.D. degree from the Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
(KAIST), Seoul, in 1993.
He was an Engineer in Ehwa Electrical Co., Korea,
from 1982 to 1985. Since 1985, he has been with the
Intelligent System Control Research Center, KAIST.
He was a Visiting Scholar in the WEMPEC, University of Wisconsin, Madison, from 1995 to 1996. His
primary research interests are in switching converter,
electric machine drives, and servo control technologies.

Ji-Yoon Yoo received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in

electrical engineering from Korea University, Korea,
in 1977 and 1983, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree
in electrical engineering from Waseda University,
Japan, in 1987.
From 1987 to 1991, he was an Assistant Professor
in the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Changwon National University. Since 1991, he has
been a Professor in the Department of Electrical
Engineering, Korea University. His research interests
include DSP-based real-time control of electrical drives, power converters, and
power electronics.