Shuai Liu

Accurate flux observation is crucial for the high-performance control of induction motors (IMs). Implementing a full-order flux observer algorithm in digital controllers requires discretizing the continuous-domain full-order flux observer. However, the errors introduced by discretization increase with rising rotor speed. In the field-weakening region, inappropriate discretization methods can lead to significant flux estimation errors, severely affecting the performance of model predictive control-based induction motors and potentially causing system instability. To enhance the convergence speed and stability of the observer and reduce discretization errors in the field-weakening region, this paper designs a feedback gain matrix suitable for high-speed field-weakening regions and conducts a study and summary of commonly used discretization methods. Discrete full-order flux observer models based on the forward Euler method, improved Euler method, and third-order Runge–Kutta method are designed. The discretization error, stability, and model complexity of the observers using these three discretization methods in the field-weakening region are analyzed. The experimental results demonstrate that the improved Euler method can achieve high discretization accuracy with relatively low computational complexity, making it a suitable discretization approach for full-order flux observers.

In the field-weakening region, the traditional field-weakening method for induction motor drives based on model predictive control (MPC) is to take a no-load operation as the premise and adjust the flux reference in the cost function proportional to the inverse of the rotor speed, which leads to poor torque output. This paper presents a novel field-weakening method for IM drives based on MPC. Considering the induction motor field-weakening limiting conditions and according to the speed adaptive field-weakening strategy with a voltage closed-loop, the speed adaptive field-weakening controllers were designed to optimize the references of the excitation current and torque current. In the rotor field-orientation d–q coordinate system, the stator flux amplitude and torque reference values were optimized by the optimal distribution current. Then, according to the dead-beat control principle, they were converted into an equivalent stator flux vector reference. Moreover, the stator voltage vector reference can be obtained. For an induction motor fed by a three-level neutral point clamped (3L-NPC) inverter, the cost function was constructed by combining all the constraints, including the voltage vector, the neutral potential balance, and the switching frequency. In this way, the high-performance field-weakening operation for the induction motor based on a model predictive control can be realized. The simulation and experiment results show that the proposed method can increase the torque output by 22% in the field-weakening region; at the same time, the steady characteristics and the dynamic response performance can be maintained well.