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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 103 (2013) 912 921

13th International Educational Technology Conference

Teaching of Simulation an Adjustable Speed Drive of Induction

Motor Using MATLAB/Simulink in Advanced Electrical Machine
Laboratory
Ali Saghafinia a,b,*, Hew W. Ping a, M. Nasir Uddin c, Atefeh Amindoust d
a
UMPEDAC, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia
Electrical Engineering Department, Islamic Azad Univerisity, Majlesi Branch, Esfahan,Iran
c
Electrical Engineering Department, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, P7B 5E1, Canada
d
Engineering Design & Manufacture Department, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia
b

Abstract
The simulation of motor complicated applications conventionally can be a challenge for both undergraduate and postgraduate
levels. To easy implementation for several kinds of control structures of an induction motor (IM) drive, some simulators such
as MATLAB/Simulink to be necessary-especially for students-to develop and test various motor control algorithms in
conducting electrical machines courses. In this paper, how to teach and simulate an adjustable speed drive of IM using
Simulink blocks for an indirect field-oriented control (IFOC) algorithm is presented. The effectiveness of the adjustable IM
drive is verified by simulation results at different operating conditions over a wide speed range.
2013 The
by by
Elsevier
Ltd.Ltd.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
2013
TheAuthors.
Authors.Published
Published
Elsevier
Selection and
under
responsibility
of The
Association
of Science,
Education
and Technology-TASET,
Sakarya Sakarya
Selection
andpeer-review
peer-review
under
responsibility
of The
Association
of Science,
Education
and Technology-TASET,
Universitesi, Turkey.
Universitesi,
Turkey.
Keywords: MATLAB/Simulink, Educational tool, Adjustable speed drive, Induction motor, indirect field oriented control;

1. Introduction
To date, academics and practitioners have focused on power electronics education and new computer-aided
teaching tools to develop a better learning environment (Keyhani, Marwali, Higuera, Athalye, & Baumgartner,
2002; Mohan et al., 2003). One of the challenging subjects in these areas is IMs which have been applied
extensively due to their advantages such as quiet operation, compact form, simplicity, reliability, low maintenance,
economical, rugged, and reliable (Saghafinia, Ping, & Rahman, 2010). However, the IM drives are nonlinear,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +60176109257; fax: +6037975282.
E-mail address: Saghafi_Ali@yahoo.com

1877-0428 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of The Association of Science, Education and Technology-TASET, Sakarya
Universitesi, Turkey.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.413

Ali Saghafinia et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 103 (2013) 912 921

time-varying and complex systems owing to their characteristics (Ojaghi, Faiz, Kazemi, & Rezaei, 2011; Qaseer,
Purushothaman, & de Leon, 2012) which require the complex control, circuitry, and inverter over sizing (Bakshi
& Bakshi, 2009). Finding out of the theory and applications of the IM drives need to some courses including
motion control (Lorenz, Lipo, & Novotny, 1994), power electronics (Goulart & Consonni, 2001; JimenezMartinez, Soto, Jodar, Villarejo, & Roca-Dorda, 2005), electric machinery, electric circuits, and electronic courses
as well as the related laboratory of these courses. So, the IM drive is developed through some available simulation
software to allow students to develop in all of the aforementioned areas in this paper. The simulation of IM drive,
as a teaching tool, supports the classroom teaching as much as its laboratory through the computer-generated
graphics, to illustrate easily steady and dynamic state operation of the IM drive under different operation
conditions (Hoang, 2001). One of the most widespread simulation software is Mathworks MATLA/Simulink
package (Ayasun & Nwankpa, 2005). The Mathworks MATLAB allows to user for analyzing of complex static
systems to be modelled through 'numeric computation and visualization. Also, Simulink allows systems to be
simulated dynamically and allows a controller to be modelled with the aid of block diagrams. Moreover, the user
is allowed to concentrate on the model, rather than its implementation (Rodriguez-Resendiz, Herrera-Ruiz, &
Rivas-Araiza, 2011).
This paper develops a learning environment for IFOC of IM drive using MATLAB/Simulink in advanced
electrical machine laboratory. Several MATLAB toolboxes, tools, and Simulink Blocksets including power
system Blocksets, signal processing toolboxes, Digital motor control (DMC) library, and IQMath library are used
to optimize and design the Simulink model of IM drive. The Simulink model provides tracking of the speed and
flux in the presence of an uncertain load disturbance and parameter variations using the real values of the d-axis
and q-axis motor currents which utilized to estimate the stator flux angle. The IM drive is fed using voltage
source inverter (VSI) which employed the space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) technique to optimize
the harmonic content of current signal, and switching losses. To show the effectiveness of the simulated
adjustable IM drive, simulation results are provided at different operating conditions such as a step change in
command speed, load disturbance and parameter variations over a wide speed range.
Nomenclature
v e ds , v e qs Synchronous frame stator voltages
v e dr , v e qr Synchronous frame rotor voltages
i e ds , i e qs

Synchronous frame stator currents

i e dr , i e qr

Synchronous frame rotor currents

ds ,

qs

Synchronous frame stator fluxes

Differential operator

p
.

1st derivative of x

x
e

sl

Synchronous speed and rotor speed, respectively

Slip angular frequency

Number of poles

R s , Rr

Stator and rotor resistance, respectively

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Ali Saghafinia et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 103 (2013) 912 921

Total leakage factor

L2m
Ls Lr

Ls , Lr

Stator and rotor inductance, respectively

Lm

Mutual inductance

Jr

Inertia of rotor

Friction factor

Te

Electromagnetic torque

TL

Load torque

2. Mathematical Model of IFOC for an IM Drive

This section explores the mathematical model of IFOC an IM drive for simulation purpose. The Control
structure of an IFOC induction motor drive is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Control structure of an IFOC induction motor

The mathematical models of the induction motor model in d-q synchronously rotating reference axis are shown
in (1)-(2).

Rs
Vdse
Vqse
0

Ls P
LS

Lm

Rr
Lr

0
0

Lm
P
Lr
L
Rs Ls p m e
Lr
Rr
0
p
Lr
R
Lm r
sl
Lr
LS

Lm
e
Lr
e
Ids
Lm
P Ie
qs
Lr
sl

Rr
Lr

e
dr
e
qr

(1)

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Ali Saghafinia et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 103 (2013) 912 921

3 Lm e
(iqs
2 2 Lr

and, Te

e
dr

e
ids

e
qr )

(2)

In IFOC, the rotor flux is oriented entirely in the d-axis by setting

e
r

e
dr

e
qr

0 . So,

(3)

The slip frequency is obtained as,

sl

Lm R r e
( )i qs
e L
r
r

(4)

The electromagnetic developed torque is given by:

Te

3 p L2 m * e * e
i qs i ds
2 2 Lr

*e
K t i qs

(5)

where,
Kt

3 p L m 2 e*
ids
2 2 Lr

(6)

The mechanical equation of an induction motor can be presented as follows (Saghafinia, Ping, Uddin, &
Gaied, 2012).

Jr

r (t )

r (t )

Te TL

(7)

Where J r , B and TL are represented as rotor inertia, friction factor and the external load disturbance,
respectively.
As shown in Fig. 1, two Parks transformation and Clarkes transformation with along their inverse are used to
implement IFOC for IM drive. Equations of Parks transformation and its inverse and Clarkes transformation
and its inverse are shown in (8) to (10), respectively.

xdq

T (x

T 1 ( xdq )

T ( xabc )

xd
xq

x
x

cos
sin

e
e

cos

sin

2 1
3 0

sin

cos

sin
cos
1/ 2
3/2

xd
xq

(9)

xa
1/ 2
xb
3/2
xc

(10)

e
e

(8)

In the above equations, x can be phase variables of voltage or current so that

phase coordinates with daxis. Since the Clarkes transformation has two inputs (shown in Fig. 1) considering balanced three phase
induction motor, x c is replaced with ( x a x b ) and the Clarkes transformation is changed as,

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Ali Saghafinia et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 103 (2013) 912 921

T ( xab )

1/ 3

xa
0
2 / 3 xb

(11)

The PI controllers and speed controller as shown in Fig. 1 are initially tuned by the ZieglerNichols method
based on stability boundary. The saturation of the controller is avoided by adding a correction of the integral term
(KC) (Franklin & Powell, 2006) as shown in Fig. 2. This method has a good load disturbance attenuation which
is also suggested by TI and MathWorks companies. According to the suggestion of the TI Company, KP
(proportional gain), KI (integral gain), and KC (integral correction) are tuned (the readers are referred to (Akin;
& Bhardwaj, 2010) for more details).

Fig. 2. PI controller structure with anti-windup correction term.

3. The Switching Technique of VSI Fed IM Drive

The SVPWM as the best method for switching technique (Bose, 2002) is considered for VSI fed IM drive in
this work as shown in Fig. 3. In this method, the insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) must be controlled so
that at no time are both switches in the same leg turned on or else the DC supply would be shorted. This
requirement may be met by the complementary operation of the switches within a leg. This leads to eight possible
switching vectors for the inverter, V0 through V7 with six active switching vectors and two zero vectors as
shown in Table 1.
4. The IM Drive Overview and Its Modeling

The digital motor control (DMC) suggested by TI and Mathworks Companies are used to optimize the
Simulink models. TI and Mathworks Companies also provide a library of highly optimized and high precision
math functions in the form of the IQMath library. These libraries allow the engineers/students to quickly build, or
customize, their own systems. These libraries along with the discrete time Simulink libraries are employed to
generate the IFOC of IM drive. The designed IM drive which configured using discrete-time Simulink with a
sampling frequency 10 KHz for the tuned PI controller based IM drive are shown in Fig. 4. Parameters of the
laboratory 1kw 2-pole IM are given in Table 2. To prepare the simulation of the whole system some
consideration must be taken into account as follows:
Since the Simulink models in the MATLAB library are designed carefully, the existing induction motor model
in the power system library is used to simulate the induction motor in the proposed model.
To implement the external load and speed reference command, the existing simulation signal in Signal
Processing library along with manual switches are used to make different shapes of them as shown in Fig. 4.
To change the sampling frequency from 10 KHz for each part of the model, the Rating Transition block
must be employed.

Ali Saghafinia et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 103 (2013) 912 921

To implement the VSI inverter, the ideal switches are applied so that the switches are excited using the
SVPWM technique as described in the previous section.
The sensors including the rotary optical encoder as speed sensor and transducer as current sensor are modeled
using a constant coefficient in accordance with their characteristics.

Fig. 3. VSI fed inverter of the IM drive.

As shown in Fig. 4, a subsystem block is applied to generate the three-phase inverter using 600 Vdc. The duty
cycle of this inverter is controlled using the vector control Simulink model which shown in Table 1.
Table 1. SVPWM technique switching
Vector

V0
V1
V2
V3
V4
V5
V6
V7

{000}
{100}
{110}
{010}
{011}
{001}
{101}
{111}

Q1

Q3

Q5

Q4

Q6

Q2

VAB

VBC

VCA

OFF

OFF

OFF

ON

ON

ON

ON

OFF

OFF

OFF

ON

ON

+VDC

VDC

ON

ON

OFF

OFF

OFF

ON

+ VDC

VDC

OFF

ON

OFF

ON

OFF

ON

VDC

OFF

ON

ON

ON

OFF

OFF

VDC

OFF

OFF

ON

ON

ON

OFF

VDC

+ VDC

ON

OFF

ON

OFF

ON

OFF

+VDC

VDC

ON

ON

ON

OFF

OFF

OFF

+ VDC

+ VDC

Vector Control block as the main part of the model (shown in Fig. 4) is shown in Fig. 5. As can be seen in
Fig. 5, the currents in ABC coordinates are converted into the rotating reference frame of d-q axes coordinates
through Clarke and parks transformation from the DMC library. Since the prototype system of the model in
advanced electrical machine laboratory employees an encoder 5000puse/revolution, the rotor position obtained
from the motor is scaled in pulse resolution by multiplying 4*5000/2 . Based on the measured rotor position, the
rotor speed is computed using numerical backward differentiation with sampling time 1 kHz which its detail is
shown in Fig. 6. Then according to the actual and command speed, the q-axis reference current is calculated.
Considering the nominal value for d-axis reference current, the current controllers calculate the d-axis and q-axis
reference voltages. Finally, the six SVM pulses for the inverter switches are made through the inverse parks
transformations, space vector generator, and PWM Scaling block as can be seen in Fig. 5. The PWM Scaling
block is employed to adjust the switching frequency of SVM-PWM for 18 KHz.
The motor currents (Ia, Ib) calculated from the motor is scaled (by multiplying their inputs by 2048/10 and the
getting results plus by 2048) to match the transducer sensor inputs which applied in the prototype system. It is
worth to note that the maximum current measured by transducers is 10A. These currents are given to scaling
block (shown in Fig. 4) for preparing the suitable value (by multiplying their inputs by 10/2048 and the getting
results subtract from 2048) in ABC coordinates.

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Table 2. Induction motor parameters
Parameters

Value

Parameters

Value

Rated power

1000W

Rated torque

Rs

Jr

3.37NM

Rr

5.72

.001Kg.m^2/s

Ls

428.7e-3H

Lr

428.7e-3H

Rated speed

2830rpm

Lm

416.6e-3H

.0055Kg.m^2
2

Fig. 4. The main Simulink model for the IFOC of IM drive.

Fig. 5. The Simulink Model of Vector control to generate the space vectors.

To implementation IFOC algorithm properly, the real values of the d-axis and q-axis motor currents are
applied to estimate the stator flux angle as can be seen in Fig. 7. The accuracy of this algorithm depends on the
accuracy of some motor parameters such as rotor time constant which obtained for the model equal to 0.07149 as
shown in Fig. 7. Some parts of the laboratory 1Kw motor can be seen by right clicking on the motor and
choosing the look under musk. The modelled motor parameters also can be changed by choosing link options
and break link by right clicking on the part of the motor which must be changed.

Ali Saghafinia et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 103 (2013) 912 921

Fig. 6. The Simulink model of speed calculation.

Fig. 7. The Simulink Model of stator flux angle estimator.

5. Simulation Results

For simulation tests, following cases including parameter variations and external load disturbance are
considered. If not mentioned, other parameters are considered nominal in all the cases for the tuned PI. The PI
parameters are found as, Kp=0.3, Ki=0.0001, and Kc=0.0001. Step changes in command speed with no load is
considered for case-1. Also, step increase in load from 0 to 75% of rated load at t=7s is done in case-2. Finally,
inertia and friction coefficients are increased three times of nominal value at t=7s while half rated load is applied
from the beginning in case-3.
For case-1, simulation results are illustrated in Fig. 8. From Fig. 8a, it can be seen that the tuned PI shows the
acceptable speed response in the case of the dynamic and steady-state performance. It can also be seen from Fig.
8b that the suitable tracking response of speed and flux has been obtained for the tuned PI which verifies the
suitable performance of the implemented IFOC algorithm.
For case-2, simulation results are shown in Fig. 9. From Fig. 9a, it can be seen that the PI controller shows a
significant dip in speed ( 60 RPM) when the step increase in load is applied at t=7s. It is also found that the
tuned PI follows the q-d-axis commands despite the large uncertainties which shows the suitable performance of
the IFOC algorithm in this case.

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Ali Saghafinia et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 103 (2013) 912 921

In case-3, simulation results are shown in Fig. 10. It is found from Fig. 10 that the PI shows the suitable
responses in spite of the parameter variations and it has acceptable tracking performance in both speed & current.
Thus, the high accuracy of the implemented IFOC algorithm is obtained despite uncertainties such as external
load disturbance and parameter variations in the simulated model.
3000

Reference
Actual

Actual

10

Reference
Actual

Reference

2850

Current, Iq(A)

Speed, Wm (rpm)

2000

1000

(a)

2800
0

2750

-1000

Reference

(c)
-5

-2000
2700

Actual

-10

.2

.4

.6
0

-3000
0

10

Time(sec)

10

Time(S)

Fig. 8. (a) The simulated speed response of the PI based IM drive in case-1; (b) The simulated q-axis current response of the PI based IM
drive in case-1

2500

Reference
Actual

(a)

Reference

10

Actual

2000
5

1500

Current, Iq(A)

Speed, Wm (rpm)

Reference
Actual

Actual
Reference

1000

500
2000
0

-500

1950

-5

75% rated load Disturbance at t=7sec

-10

5
0

(c)

7
8

10

10

Time(sec)

Time(sec)

Fig. 9. (a) The simulated speed response of the PI based IM drive in case-2; (b) The simulated q-axis current response of the PI based IM
drive in case-2

Reference
Actual

2500

(a)

Reference

10

Reference
Actual

Actual

2000

Current, Iq(A)

Speed, Wm (rpm)

5
1500

Actual

1000
parameter variations at t=7sec
500

2010

Reference 2000
0

1990
1980

-500

Time(sec)

5
6

6
8

(c)

-5

Parameter variations at t=7sec

-10
0

10

Time(sec)

Fig. 10. (a) The simulated speed response of the PI based IM drive in case-3; (b) The simulated q-axis current response of the PI based IM
drive in case-3

10

Ali Saghafinia et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 103 (2013) 912 921

6. Conclusion

A simulation model of an adjustable speed drive of IM using the optimized Simulink blocks for an IFOC
algorithm has been presented in this paper. The work presented has verified to be effective and valid for
measuring IM drive parameters. Also, an educational tool in learning improvement of electrical machines course
through the Simulink models for adjustable speed drive of 1 kW laboratory IM has provided in the method
described. Moreover, all aspects of simulation implementation have been explored through the Simulink to give
the student the opportunity to easy implement the IM drive. The system has been found to be well suited for
simulation learning of the various motor control algorithms in advanced electrical machine laboratory for both
undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the model.
Acknowledgements

This research is supported by University of Malay (UM) High Impact Research Grant UM.K/636/1/HIR
(MOHE)/ENG22 from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.
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