A comparative study of different control techniques for an induction motor fed by a Z-source inverter for electric vehicles

This paper presents a comparative study of the most significant control methods (scalar control (V/F), indirect field oriented control (IFOC) and direct torque control (DTC)) for an induction motor fed by a Z-source inverter (ZSI) for automotive applications. The three control techniques are implemented using PWM voltage modulation. The comparison is based on various criteria including: the motor dynamic performance, the speed and torque ripples, the ac current harmonic content, the control algorithm implementation complexity, the ZSI performance and the overall system efficiency. The study is done by MATLAB simulation of a 15 kW induction motor fed by a high performance Z-source inverter. The simulation results indicates that, the IFOC seems to be the best control techniques suitable for controlling an induction motor fed by a ZSI for automotive applications. In addition, this paper proves that, all control methods used for the voltage source inverter (VSI) can be applied for the ZSI and gaining its advantages.