Power Hardware-In-The-Loop Emulation of a Brushless DC Motor
Tshamala Kalonji Gael, MASc.
Concordia University, 2023.
The current awareness towards global warming, green energy and energy saving is the driving force behind the development of power electronics. Power electronics plays a significant role in many industrial, commercial and military applications such as electric vehicles (EVs), photovoltaic (PV) inverters, transportation, distribution, home appliances, electric drive systems, etc. Many of the technological advancements recorded nowadays are made possible because of the rapid development in the field of power electronics over the last few decades. Therefore, more energy-savvy, reliable, intelligent, and efficient devices are currently being developed and deployed because of the rapid development of power electronics. Hence power electronics is, to a great extent, one of the biggest enablers of environmental clean energy.
Electric motors are the workhorse of the industry and it is estimated that 90 % of industrial electricity consumption is used to power electric drive systems. Electric drive systems are made up of various parts among which the most important are the electric motor, the drive inverter, the load and the drive controller. In conventional electric motor testing, the electric motor of the drive system to be tested is mounted on a test bench and coupled to a dynamometer for testing the drive system for various speeds and loading conditions. However, the conventional dynamometer-based drive testing method has many limitations., An alternative solution which is currently gaining popularity in the industry is the use of power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) emulation for performing electric machine testing. 
In this research work, a PHIL emulation of a brushless DC (BLDC) motor for a BLDC drive utilizing sensored trapezoidal control is presented. First, an improved BLDC model is used for simulating the drive. Then a BLDC drive setup is built and tested. The simulation results obtained are validated using the results from this physical BLDC motor drive. Next, the simulations of PHIL emulators for permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) and BLDC are performed. Then the emulator hardware for BLDC emulation is built and tested. Open-loop emulator control is employed for emulating the BLDC motor. The results from the emulator are validated for steady-state and transient operations using results from the physical BLDC motor drive.