Design and Analysis of Maximum Power Factor Control for a Three Phase Synchronous Reluctance Motor

Abstract

In this paper, mathematical models for three phase Synchronous Reluctance Motor (SynRM) and Permanent Magnet Assisted SynRM (PMA-SynRM) in synchronous(d-q) reference frame is developed. The power factor of the obtained d-q model of SynRM in open loop is observed to be very low i.e., 0.309. When saliency ratio is increased by making it PMA-SynRM with NdFeBr permanent magnet (PM) power factor improves up to 0.9. But it is well known that PMA-SynRM exhibits very limited overload capability due to chances of irreversible demagnatisation of these PMs. Therefore, Maximum Power Factor Control (MPFC) is used to improve the power factor of SynRM. One of the technique for MPFC of SynRM is using Fixed Current Angle Control (FCAC). The mathematical models and control scheme is verified using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The results are encouraging, power factor is improved to 0.844 when observed under rated operating conditions.