Power-Sharing Control in Bearingless Multi-Sector and Multi-Three-Phase Permanent Magnet Machines

This article deals with the power-sharing control of bearingless multisector and multithree-phase permanent magnet machines. The proposed control strategy allows to distribute the power flows among the three-phase inverters supplying the machine during bearingless operation of the drive. The control technique is based on the extension of the vector space decomposition modeling approach. The components producing the electromagnetic torque, i.e., the q-axis currents, are controlled independently from the d-axis ones, also with the aim of managing the power flows among the three-phase systems. Conversely, the d-axis currents are exploited for the generation of the radial forces needed to levitate the rotor, while considering the compensation of the forces caused by the q-axis currents in case of unbalanced power sharing strategy. The validity of the proposed method is confirmed by simulations and experimental tests on a prototyped bearingless multisector permanent magnet synchronous machine. The proposed approach is a contribution to the development of advanced control systems employing multiphase drives in the field of bearingless and multiport applications.