ISSN (Print) : 2320 – 3765

ISSN (Online): 2278 – 8875

International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering
(An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization)

Vol. 2, Issue 12, December 2013

Simulation of sensorless operation of BLDC

motor based on the zero-cross detection from
the line voltage
S. Tara Kalyani 1, Syfullah khan Md2
Professor, Dept of EEE, JNTUH College Of Engineering, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India1
PG Student(Power Electronics), Dept of EEE, JNTUH College Of Engineering, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India2

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the simulation of sensorless operation of permanent magnet brushless direct current
(BLDC) motor. The position sensorless BLDC drive simulated, in this paper, is based on detection of zero crossing
from the terminal voltages differences. This method relies on a difference of line voltages measured at the terminals of
the motor. It is shown, in the paper, that this difference of line voltages provides an amplified version of an appropriate
back EMF at its zero crossings. The commutation signals are obtained without the motor neutral voltage. The
effectiveness of this method is demonstrated through simulation.

Keywords: BLDC motor, simulation, sensorless operation, zero crossing

I. INTRODUCTION
In the literature there are several simulation models available for BLDC motor drives. These models employ state-
space equations, Fourier series or d-q axis model. Even though these models have made a great contribution in the
BLDC motor drives, there is no comprehensive model for the analysis of motor used in sensorless operation [1]. The
machine models are often transformed to a rotating reference frame to simplify and to improve the computational
efficiency. But, this approach will not improve the computational efficiency because the d-q transformations are
suitable only for machines with sinusoidal voltage as discussed in [2]. The BLDC motors are normally powered by
conventional three phase voltage source inverters (VSI) or current source inverters (CSI) which are controlled based on
the rotor position information obtained from hall sensors, resolvers or absolute position sensors. But these position
sensors have numerous drawbacks like increase in cost, complexity in control, temperature sensitivity requiring special
arrangements. These sensors reduce the system reliability and acceptability. Therefore, sensorless techniques have
become a subject of great interest in recent times. A number of sensorless techniques have been developed for BLDC
motor. Some of the techniques presented [3] in the literature are based on position sensing using back emf zero
detection crossing, terminal voltage sensing, sensing third harmonics of the motional emf, integration of the back emf,
position sensing using inductance variation, position sensing based on flux linkage variation, Extended Kalman filter
estimation or detecting the freewheeling diode conduction in open phase proposed in [4, 5].

In BLDC motors, only two out of three phases are excited at any time leaving the third winding floating. The back emf
in the floating winding can be measured to determine the switching sequence for commutation of power switching
devices in the 3 phase inverter. The terminal voltage of the floating winding with respect to the neutral point of motor is
needed to get the zero crossing time of the back emf. The sensorless control technique based on Zero Cross Point
(ZCP) of the back emf has been widely used for low cost application proposed by J. Shao [6]. In the ZCP method the
back emf cannot be obtained when the BLDC motor is at standstill or operating nearly zero speed as discussed by Yen-
Shin Lai and Yongkai Lin [7]. Therefore, a special control is needed for smooth and reliable sensorless control
operation of BLDC motor [8].

In this paper a Matlab/Simulink sensorless operation is developed. This paper simulates a simple and reliable method
for the detection of back EMF zero-crossings for sensorless operation using MATLAB/SIMULINK as discussed and
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 ISSN (Print) : 2320 – 3765
ISSN (Online): 2278 – 8875

International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering
(An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization)

Vol. 2, Issue 12, December 2013

simulated using SABER software in [8] . In this paper, the zero crossings of the back EMF are estimated indirectly
from the terminal voltages measured with respect to dc negative terminal. The method does not involve any
integrations. Further, since line voltages are used, the requirement of neutral potential has been eliminated. This also
eliminates the common mode noise. Device drops and their variations would also not play a part since line voltages are
used. Using this model of BLDC motor suitable for the dynamic behavior of the motor is studied. Also simulation has
been carried out to study the effectiveness of the sensorless control based on detection of zero crossing from the
terminal voltages differences. The organization of this paper is as follows. Section II describes the proposed back EMF
zero-crossing estimation method. Section III presents the simulation results of the proposed method. Section IV
presents the conclusion.

II.PROPOSED BACK EMF ZERO-CROSSING ESTIMATION METHOD

Consider a BLDC motor having three stator phase windings connected in star[8]. Permanent magnets are mounted on
the rotor. The BLDC motor is driven by a three phase inverter in which the devices are triggered with respect to the
rotor position as shown in Fig. 1. The phase A terminal voltage with respect to the star point of the stator 𝑉𝑎𝑛 , is given
as

𝑑𝑖𝑎
𝑉𝑎𝑛 = 𝑅𝑎 𝑖𝑎 + 𝐿𝑎 + 𝑒𝑎𝑛
𝑑𝑡
Where 𝑅𝑎 is the stator resistance, 𝐿𝑎 is the phase inductance, 𝑒𝑎𝑛 is the back EMF, and 𝑖𝑎 is the phase current of the
“A” phase.
Similar equations can be written for the other two phases, as
𝑑𝑖𝑏
𝑉𝑏𝑛 = 𝑅𝑏 𝑖𝑏 + 𝐿𝑏 + 𝑒𝑏𝑛
𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝑖𝑐
𝑉𝑐𝑛 = 𝑅𝑐 𝑖𝑐 + 𝐿𝑐 + 𝑒𝑐𝑛
𝑑𝑡
Where symbols have their obvious meanings.

Fig.1. BLDC motor drive along with typical phase current and back EMF[8]

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Vol. 2, Issue 12, December 2013

From above equations, the line voltage 𝑉𝑎𝑏 may be determined as

𝑑 𝑖𝑎 − 𝑖𝑏
𝑉𝑎𝑏 = 𝑉𝑎𝑛 − 𝑉𝑏𝑛 = 𝑅 𝑖𝑎 − 𝑖𝑏 + 𝐿 + 𝑒𝑎𝑛 − 𝑒𝑏𝑛
𝑑𝑡
Similarly
𝑑 𝑖𝑏 − 𝑖𝑐
𝑉𝑏𝑐 = 𝑉𝑏𝑛 − 𝑉𝑐𝑛 = 𝑅 𝑖𝑏 − 𝑖𝑐 + 𝐿 + 𝑒𝑏𝑛 − 𝑒𝑐𝑛
𝑑𝑡
𝑑 𝑖𝑐 − 𝑖𝑎
𝑉𝑐𝑎 = 𝑉𝑐𝑛 − 𝑉𝑎𝑛 = 𝑅 𝑖𝑐 − 𝑖𝑎 + 𝐿 + 𝑒𝑐𝑛 − 𝑒𝑎𝑛
𝑑𝑡
These line voltages can, however, be estimated without the need for star point by taking the difference of terminal
voltages measured with respect to the negative dc bus.
Subtracting 𝑉𝑏𝑐 from 𝑉𝑎𝑏 gives

𝑉𝑎𝑏𝑏𝑐 = 𝑉𝑎𝑏 − 𝑉𝑏𝑐

𝑑 𝑖𝑎 − 2𝑖𝑏 + 𝑖𝑐
= 𝑅 𝑖𝑎 − 2𝑖𝑏 + 𝑖𝑐 + 𝐿 + 𝑒𝑎𝑛 − 2𝑒𝑏𝑛 +𝑒𝑐𝑛
𝑑𝑡
Consider the interval when phases A and C are conducting and phase B is open as indicated by the shaded region in
Fig. 4.3. In this interval, phase A winding is connected to the positive terminal of the dc supply, phase C to the negative
terminal of the dc supply and phase B is open. Therefore, 𝑖𝑎 = −𝑖𝑐 and 𝑖𝑏 = 0. It can be seen from Fig. 1 (shaded
region) that the back EMF in phases A and C are equal and opposite. Therefore, in that interval 𝑉𝑎𝑏𝑏𝑐 may be simplified
as
𝑉𝑎𝑏𝑏𝑐 = 𝑉𝑎𝑏 − 𝑉𝑏𝑐 = 𝑒𝑎𝑛 − 2𝑒𝑏𝑛 +𝑒𝑐𝑛 = −2𝑒𝑏𝑛
The difference of line voltages waveform is, thus, an inverted representation of the back EMF waveform. The EMF
values would be those in a resistance, inductance, EMF (RLE) representation of the phase (not referred to ground). It
may also be noted that the subtraction operation provides a gain of two to the EMF waveform thus amplifying it. It is
again evident from Fig.1 that during this interval (shaded portion) the back EMF 𝑒𝑏𝑛 transits from one polarity to
another crossing zero. Therefore, the operation 𝑉𝑎𝑏 − 𝑉𝑏𝑐 (𝑉𝑎𝑏𝑏𝑐 ) enables detection of the zero crossing of the phase B
EMF. Similarly, the difference of line voltages 𝑉𝑏𝑐𝑐𝑎 enables the detection of zero crossing of phase C back EMF when
phase B and C back EMFs are equal and opposite. The difference of line voltages 𝑉𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑏 waveform gives the zero
crossing of phase A back EMF where phases C and B have equal and opposite back EMFs. Therefore, the zero-
crossing instants of the back EMF waveforms may be estimated indirectly from measurements of only the three
terminal voltages of the motor.

The simulated sensorless method uses this approach to estimate the zero-crossing instants of the back EMF from the
terminal voltages of the motor from which the correct commutation instants are estimated. This sensorless method is
simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK software. The functional sequence of operations of the simulated back EMF zero-
crossing detection for sensorless operation is shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 Functional sequence of operations[8]

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Vol. 2, Issue 12, December 2013

III. SIMULATION AND RESULTS

This section presents the aspects of continuous sensorless operation. This sensorless method is simulated in
MATLAB/SIMULINK. The motor parameters are given in Table I.
Table I
Parameter Values
Stator phase resistance 2.8750 Ohms
Stator phase inductance 8.5 mH
Flux linkage established 0.175 V.s
by magnets
Voltage constant 146.6077(V_ peak L-
L/krpm)
Torque constant 1.4 N.m/A _ peak
Back emf flat area 120 degrees
Inertia 0.8m kgm2
Friction factor 1m N.m.s
Number of poles 8

The functional sequence of operations of the simulated back EMF zero-crossing detection for sensorless operation is
shown in Fig. 2, and is further explained in the following.

The Fig. 3 shows the circuit diagram of simulation of BLDC MOTOR, in sensorless mode From the sensed terminal
voltages with respect to negative dc bus (𝑉𝑎𝑏 , 𝑉𝑏𝑐 , 𝑉𝑐𝑐𝑎 ), line voltages, and subsequently their differences (𝑉𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑏 ,
𝑉𝑎𝑏𝑏𝑐 , 𝑉𝑏𝑐𝑐𝑎 ) are determined. Fig. 4 shows the simulated back EMF waveform of the three phases and the
corresponding line voltage difference waveforms. From the line voltage difference waveforms zero crossings are
detected using the zero crossing detection model shown in fig. 5. These zero crossings are decoded to corresponding
signals using ZCD decoding system shown in fig. 6. These decoded signals are fed to Hall sensor decoder system
which provides gate signal to the inverter. Two control loops are used. The inner loop synchronizes the inverter line
voltage difference zero crossing signals with the electromotive forces. The outer loop controls the motor's speed by
varying the DC bus voltage. The simulated speed waveform is shown in Fig. 7.

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Fig. 3 Simulation of BLDC motor in sensorless mode

Fig. 4 Back EMF and corresponding line voltage difference waveforms

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Fig 5 Zero crossing detection model Fig 6 ZCD Decoding model

Fig. 7 Simulated speed waveform of BLDC motor in sensorless operation

IV. CONCLUSION

A simple technique to detect back EMF zero crossings for a BLDC motor using the line voltages is simulated using
MATLAB/SIMULINK. It is shown that the method provides an amplified version of the back EMF. Only three motor
terminal voltages need to be measured thus eliminating the need for motor neutral voltage. Running the machine in
sensorless mode is then simulated, in this paper. Hardware model can be developed based on the proposed simulation
method of sensorless control of BLDC motor. Thus this primitive model can be extended as an industrial module, by
incorporating the safety features, such as over current, over-voltage protection. This can be achieved by monitoring the
inverter input voltage and also the inverter input current. . It is also required to monitor the temperature of the
semiconductor power-devices, as these devices are very sensitive to temperature.

REFERENCES
[1] Lee B.-K., Ehsani M., Advanced simulation model for brushless DC Motor drives. Electric power components and systems, pp. 841-868 (2003).
[2] Luk P.C.K., Lee C.K., Efficient Modeling of Brushless DC motor drives. [In:] Industrial Electronics, Control and Instrumentation (1994).
[3] Acarnely P.P., Watson J.F., Review of position – sensorless operation of brushless permanent – magnet machines. IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron. 53(2): 352-
362 (2006).
[4] Kim D.K., Lee K.W., Kwon B.I., Commutation torque ripple reduction in a position sensorless brushless DC motor drive. IEEE Trans. Power Electron.
21(6): 1762 1768 (2006).
[5] Lin C.T., Hung C.W., Liu C.W., Position sensorless control for four-switch three-phase brushless dc motor drives. IEEE Trans. Power Electron. 23(1): 438-
444 (2008).
[6] Shao J., An improved microcontroller-based sensorless brushless DC(BLDC) motor drive for automotive applications. IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl. 42(5): 1216-
1222 (2006).
[7] Lai Y.-S. Lin Y.-K., A unified approach to zero crossing point detection of back EMF for Brushless DC motor drives without current and hall sensors.
IEEE Trans. Power Electron. 26(6), (2011).
[8] P. Damodharan and Krishna Vasudevan, Sensorless Brushless DC Motor Drive Based on the Zero-Crossing Detection of Back Electromotive Force (EMF)
from the Line Voltage Difference, IEEE Trans on energy conversion, vol. 25, no. 3, september 2010.

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