Running DFT-Based PLL Algorithm for Frequency, Phase, and Amplitude Tracking in Aircraft Electrical Systems

Phase-locked loop (PLL) algorithms are commonly used to track sinusoidal components in currents and voltage signals in three-phase power systems. Despite the simplicity of those algorithms, problems arise when signals have variable frequency or amplitude, or are polluted with harmonic content and measurement noise, as can be found in aircraft ac power systems where the fundamental frequency can vary in the range 360-900 Hz. To improve the quality of phase and frequency estimates in such power systems, a novel PLL scheme based on a real-time implementation of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is presented in this paper. The DFT algorithm calculates the amplitudes of three consecutive components in the frequency domain. These components are used to determine an error signal which is minimized by a proportional-integral loop filter in order to estimate the fundamental frequency. The integral of the estimated frequency is the estimated phase of the fundamental component, and this is fed back to the DFT algorithm. The proposed algorithm can therefore be considered to be a PLL in which phase detection is performed via a DFT-based algorithm. A comparison has been made of the performances of a standard PLL and the proposed DFT-PLL using computer simulations and through experiments.