Real-time simulation on FPGA of a permanent magnet synchronous machine drive using a finite-element based model

This paper presents the development of high fidelity real-time model of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive, to be used in hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) application. The PMSM model is based on a finite-element analysis (FEA) method and implemented on an FPGA chip. The motor inductances and flux maps are computed from the JMAG-RT finite element analysis software. A 3-phase IGBT inverter drives the PMSM machine. Both models are designed in Simulink using the Xilinx Blockset and then automatically compiled and loaded on the FPGA using the RT-LAB real-time simulation platform. The complete PMSM drive model runs with an equivalent 10 nanosecond time step and has a latency of 300 ns (PMSM machine and inverter), with a total HIL delay from external PWM inputs to analog outputs with 1 microsecond settling time on the FPGA of just 1.3 microseconds.