An Improved Flux Estimator for Gap Flux Orientation Control of DC-Excited Synchronous Machines

Flux estimation is a significant foundation of high-performance control for DC-excited synchronous motor. For almost all flux estimators, such as the flux estimator based on phase locked loop (PLL), DC drift causes fluctuations in flux magnitude. Furthermore, significant dynamic error may be introduced at transient conditions. To overcome these problems, this paper proposes an improved flux estimator for the PLL-based algorithm. Filters based on the generalized integrator are used to avoid flux fluctuation problems caused by the DC drift at the back electromotive force. Programmable low-pass filters are employed to improve the dynamic performance of the flux estimator, and the cutoff frequency of the filter is determined by the dynamic factor. The algorithm is verified by a 960V/1.6MW industrial prototype. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed estimator can estimate the flux more accurately than the PLL-based algorithm in a cycloconverter-fed DC-excited synchronous machine vector control system.