Current Sensorless Control for a Wound Rotor Synchronous Machine Based on Flux Linkage Model

Reducing manufacturing costs and increasing reliability are two major issues for the automotive industry. The development of sensorless control methods and estimation techniques for synchronous machines are ways to reduce the impact of these constraints. In this article, a control method is applied to a wound rotor synchronous machine (WRSM), often used in HEV applications, to estimate stator currents and control the machine without using any current sensor on the stator side. In this estimator, instead of the electric state model based on the currents, a flux-based model is used, which increases the precision of the estimator, improves the dynamics of stator currents, and has a better behavior in the case of magnetic saturation. Using this model and applying a Luenberger observer, the stator currents are estimated and then used in the current control loop. The performances of the proposed method are studied in a simulation part. Experimental tests are also performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method.