Novel Topology and Control of

Single Inverter System for

Two Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines
Youngnam Kim and Jung-Ik Ha
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Seoul National University
Seoul, Korea
jujdu@snu.ac.kr and jungikha@snu.ac.kr

Abstract— This paper proposes a novel topology which is capa-
ble of operate two permanent-magnet synchronous machines
(PMSM) using a single 6-bridge inverter and its control method.
In the conventional parallel connection method for this applica-
tion, two motors can operate only at the same speed and have a
high risk of loss of synchronism since the single voltage is ap-
plied to both motors. In other inverter topologies, the number of
switches increases or implementation of inverter is complicated.
On the other hand, the proposed topology can employ the con-
ventional six bridge power module without any modification or
addition and operate two motors at the different speeds using
the superposition principle. The analysis of the proposed system
is presented and the control method to independently operate
two motors is proposed. It is verified through experimental re-
sults.
I. INTRODUCTION
The conventional energy conversion system consists of
energy conversion circuits and energy conversion machine. To
operate several machines from a single source, energy conver-
sion circuits of the same number of machines are required. In
this case, the system becomes complicated due to sharing ac
or dc link and the cost increases as the number of circuits. In a
drive system for two motors of the low power ratings, a power
module which has higher current rating is less expensive than
low rating ones. However, driving two motors using one in-
verter has the limitation of single operating speed and may
cause loss of synchronism when it comes to synchronous ma-
chines. In the applications that do not require precise control
as in fans, dual motor single inverter system can reduce cost
highly. Therefore, control method that guarantees stable op-
eration while having the benefit of reduction in the number of
power devices is necessary.
For induction machines, various topologies and control
methods have been researched [1]-[9]. Multiple induction ma-
chine drive system using a modified current source inverter
(CSI) was introduced in [1]. [2]-[5] treated parallel connection
of induction machines. And in [6]-[9], various series and pa-
rallel connections of multi-phase machines are researched.
Many researches on a dual PMSM single inverter system
have focused on parallel connection of two motors [10]-[16].
In [10], ‘average phase current technique’ that controls one
equivalent motor whose phase current and rotor position are
the average values of two parallel connected motors was pro-
posed. In [12], the controller selects the motor under higher
load as master motor and only controls the master motor. And
in [15], only the q-axis currents of both motors are controlled,
while the d-axis currents remain uncontrolled. These methods
cause inaccuracies in control and divergence in the system
since only control the portion of whole system and do not care
the other parts. And in parallel connection method where the
voltage of single frequency and magnitude is applied to both
motors, the two motors operate only at the same speed and
have a high risk of loss of synchronism when there is a large
discrepancy between two rotor positions.
Researches on the other inverter topologies were also con-
ducted [17]-[20]. [17] and [18] proposed 2-leg inverter where
each leg has three switches. And in [19] and [20], 5-leg inver-
ter with ten switches are required than that of 6-bridge inver-
ter. Furthermore, implementation of new inverter is compli-
cated because the conventional power module does not offer
the topology.
This paper proposed a novel topology for dual motor sin-
gle inverter systems and its control method. The proposed
topology consists of two PMSMs and a single conventional 6-
bridge inverter. The proposed control method enables two
PMSMs to be controlled independently and to rotate at differ-
ent speeds.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows.
In chapter II, the proposed topology is presented and its
operation principle is explained.

978-1-4799-2325-0/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 833

 a1

s1 c1
Vdc / 2 b1
A
B
N C
Vdc / 2 a2
s2
c2

b2

Figure 1. Proposed topology.

ia1 k1ic 2
The operation of proposed topology can be described by
the superposition principle. The stator current of one motor
(1 − k1 )ic2
affects the other motor since c-phases of each motor are con-
ib1
nected. Fig. 2 shows the current flowing through each stator
ic2 winding when phase currents of only one motor flow. The
k 2ic1 ic1 ia2 subscripts a, b, and c indicate each phase of motor, respective-
ly, and the subscripts 1 and 2 imply each motor. k1 and k2 are
(1− k2 )ic1 ib2 the ratios of the c-phase current of one motor that is divided
into a and b-phases of the other motor. Consequently, sum of
(a) Motor 1 (b) Motor 2 the currents of Fig. 2 (a) and (b) flows through the motors.

Figure 2. Current distribution where phase currents of Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show the currents flowing into two mo-
only one motor flow. tors when the phase currents of motor 1 and 2 are equal to (1)
and (2), respectively. In (1) and (2), I1 and I2 are current mag-
nitudes determines by torque. ω1 and ω2 are angular frequen-
In chapter III, the proposed control method that reflects the cies of each motor determined by operation speed. The resul-
operation principle is described. tants currents obtained from superposition principle is shown
in Fig. 3(c) and Fig. 4(c).
And experimental results and conclusion will be followed
in chapter IV and V, respectively. ⎧i a1 = I 1 cos ω1t
⎪
⎨i b1 = I 1 cos(ω1t − 2π / 3) (1)
II. PROPOSED TOPOLOGY ⎪ i = I cos(ω t + 2π / 3)
⎩ c1 1 1
The proposed topology is shown in Fig. 1. Two c-phases
of each motor are connected each other and the rest of the ⎧i a 2 = I 2 cos ω 2 t
stator windings are connected to inverter leg A, B, C and neu- ⎪
tral point N. The dc bus voltage is divided by two motors. As a ⎨ib 2 = I 2 cos(ω 2 t − 2π / 3) (2)
result, the input voltages of two motors are different from each ⎪ i = I cos(ω t + 2π / 3)
⎩ c2 2 2
other and the two motors can operate different speeds.

v AN = I1 Z1 cos(ω1t + ϕ1 ) + (k 2 − 3) I1 Z1 cos(ω1t + ϕ1 + 2π / 3)
(3)
+ I 2 Z 2 cos(ω2t + ϕ 2 ) + (k1 + 3) I 2 Z 2 cos(ω2t + ϕ 2 + 2π / 3)
v BN = I1 Z1 cos(ω1t + ϕ1 − 2π / 3) + (k 2 − 3) I1 Z1 cos(ω1t + ϕ1 + 2π / 3)
(4)
+ I 2 Z 2 cos(ω2t + ϕ 2 ) + (4 − k1 ) I 2 Z 2 cos(ω2t + ϕ 2 + 2π / 3)
vCN = (2k 2 − 1) I 1 Z 1 cos(ω1t + ϕ1 + 2π / 3) + I 2 Z 2 cos(ω 2 t + ϕ 2 ) − I 2 Z 2 cos(ω 2 t + ϕ 2 − 2π / 3) (5)

834
 [A]
4
ia2
ib2
2 ic2

-2

-4
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 [s]
(a) (a)
[A]
5 k2ic1
(1-k2)ic1
-ic1

-5
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 [s]

(b) (b)

[A]
10

-5

-10
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 [s]
(c) (c)
Figure 3. Waveforms of current flows through motor 1. (a) Figure 4. Waveforms of current flows through motor 2. (a)
Phase currents of motor 1. (b) Divided c-phase Phase currents of motor 1. (b) Divided c-phase
current of motor 2. (c) Resultant current. (k1 = current of motor 2. (c) Resultant current. (k2 =
0.4, I1 = 5A, I2 = 3A, ω1 = 2π⋅80 rad/s, ω2 = 0.6, I1 = 5A, I2 = 3A, ω1 = 2π⋅80 rad/s, ω2 =
2π⋅60 rad/s) 2π⋅60 rad/s)

III. CONTROL FOR PROPOSED TOPOLOGY
The control block diagram of proposed topology is shown
in Fig. 5. The proportional and integral (PI) controllers are
used for speed controller as in a conventional single motor
single inverter system. To apply aforementioned superposition
principle, d and q-axis current references are the outputs of the
speed controller and they are transformed into a, b, and c-
phase quantities. Then, the current command generator out-
puts A, B, and C leg current references using the a, b, and c-
phase current references as shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b). Three
PI controllers are used as current controller as shown in Fig. 5.
The proposed controller requires three current sensors for
feedback while typical motor drive system requires two ones
per motor.
In Fig. 5, when the current command generator outputs
current references, k1 and k2 are required to be determined.
The voltages between inverter connected nodes can be ex-
pressed as (3), (4), and (5) where Z is the stator impedance,
|Zx| is the magnitude of Z, and x is each frequency component.
After I1, I2, ω1, and ω2 have been determined according to

835
 i*a1
ω*rm1
e *
i ds
1
1 i *A + v*A
dq i*b1
ω rm 1
e *
i qs
1
1
abc i *c1 −
iA

i *B + v*B
θ1

ω*rm 2
e *
i ds
2
2
i*a2 −
iB
dq i*b2
e *
i qs
2 i*C + v*C
ω rm 2
2
abc i*c2
−
iC
θ2

Figure 5. Proposed control block diagram.

0.9 50 IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

0.8 To verify the proposed topology and control method, expe-
48 riments are accomplished. Table 1 lists motor parameters. At
0.7 first, two motors rotate at the same speed of 200 r/min, and
0.6 then speed references of each motor are changed to 300 r/min
and 100 r/min, respectively. The load torque for both motors is
46

k2 0.5 2.5 Nm. Fig. 7 shows the speed of each motor. Despite differ-
0.4
44 ent rotational speeds, two motors show stable operations. Fig.
8 shows steady-state current waveforms when speeds are 300
0.3
42
r/min and 100 r/min, respectively. Here, k1 and k2 are chosen
to 0.5 and 1, respectively. The current command generator
0.2
makes leg current reference (iA*) using the outputs (ias1*, ics2*)
0.1 40 of speed controller as in Fig. 4. The leg current (iA) consists of
20 Hz and 6.67 Hz components, which are equivalent to 300
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 r/min and 100 r/min, respectively.
k1
V. CONCLUSIONS
Figure 6. Minimum peak values of maximum voltage This paper proposes a novel topology for dual motor single
according to k1 and k2. inverter systems and its control method. In proposed topology,
two c-phases of each motor are connected each other and the
rest of the stator windings are connected to three inverter legs
and neutral point, respectively, and the conventional 6-bridge
TABLE I. MOTOR PARAMETERS
inverter is used.
Prated 560 W By superposition principle, two motors can work at differ-
Irated 5.5 A ent speeds as well as at the same speed. The proposed control
Trated 16.7 Nm method includes the command generator which makes current
No. of Poles 8 references using superposition and two motors are controlled
Rs 3.25 Ω with minimum voltage.
Ls 28 mH
The proposed topology and its control method are demon-
λf 0.358 V/(rad/s) strated through experimental results. The experimental results
show that two motors can rotate at different speeds without
loss of synchronism.
speed, torque, k1 and k2 are calculated. They make peak value
of maximum voltage among (3), (4), and (5) minimize. The ACKNOWLEDGMENT
peak ones of maximum voltage according to k1 and k2 are This research was supported by Samsung Electronics Co.,
shown in Fig. 6. In the case that k1 and k2 are equal to 0.62 and Ltd.
1, respectively, minimum voltage operation is possible at giv-
en drive condition.

836
 ω rpm1
ω rpm 2
Figure 7. Experimental results: waveforms of rotational
speeds.
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