Electrical Drives (EPO640)

ASSOC PROF TS DR MOHAMMAD

NAWAWI BIN SEROJI

School of Engineering
Universiti Teknologi MARA, MALAYSIA

SESSION SEPT 2021 – JAN 2022

Brushless DC Motor
(BLDC)
Keeping the Force uni−directional with commutators

7
 INTRODUCTION
➢A brushless dc motor (also known as a BLDC motor or
BL motor) is an electronically commuted dc motor
which does not have brushes.
➢Commutated by power switches.
➢Widely used in applications including appliances,
automotive, aerospace, consumer, medical,
automated industrial equipment and instrumentation.
Compared with a brushed DC motor or an induction
motor, the BLDC motor has many advantages:
1) Higher efficiency and reliability - BLDC motors do not have
brushes, meaning they are more reliable and have life
expectancies of over 10,000 hours. This results in
fewer instances of replacement or repair and less overall
down time.
2) Lower acoustic noise.
3) Smaller and lighter.
4) Greater dynamic response.
5) Better speed versus torque characteristics.
6) Higher speed range - A BLDC motor can operate at
speeds above 10,000 rpm under loaded and
unloaded conditions.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF BLDC MOTOR
Types of Brushless DC Motors
Inner Rotor Design Outer Rotor Design

Source: [Link]/brushless-dc-motors/
THE CONSTRUCTION OF BLDC MOTOR
STATOR
➢ There are three classifications of the BLDC
motor: single-phase, two-phase and three- phase.

➢ The single-phase and three-phase motors are the

most widely used.
➢ Figure below shows the simplified cross section of a
single-phase and a three-phase BLDC motor.

Simplified BLDC Motor Diagrams

➢ The rotor has permanent magnets to form 2

magnetic pole pairs, and surrounds the stator, which
has the windings.
➢ A single-phase motor has one stator winding—
wound either clockwise or counter-clockwise
along each arm of the stator—to produce four
magnetic poles as shown in Figure (a).
➢ By comparison, a three-phase motor has three
windings as shown in Figure (b). Each phase turns
on sequentially to make the rotor revolve.
➢ There are two types of stator windings:
trapezoidal and sinusoidal, which refers to the shape
of the back electromotive force (BEMF) signal.
➢ The shape of the BEMF is determined by different coil
interconnections and the distance of the air gap.

➢ In addition to the BEMF, the phase current also

follows a trapezoidal and sinusoidal shape.

➢A sinusoidal motor produces smoother

electromagnetic torque than a trapezoidal motor,
though at a higher cost due to their use of extra
copper windings.

➢ A trapezoidal stator windings motor has more

simplified structure.
 ROTOR
➢ A rotor consists of a shaft and a hub with permanent
magnets arranged to form between two to eight pole
pairs that alternate between north and south poles.
Figure below shows cross sections of three kinds of
magnets arrangements in a rotor.

Rotor Magnets Cross-Sections

4-Pole and 8-Pole Permanent Magnet Rotor
➢ There are multiple magnet materials, such as
ferrous mixtures and rare-earth alloys.

➢ Ferrite magnets are traditional and relatively

inexpensive, though rare-earth alloy magnets are
becoming increasingly popular because of their
high magnetic density.

➢ The higher density helps to shrink rotors while

maintaining high relative torque when compared
to similar ferrite magnets.
 THE OPERATION OF BLDC MOTOR

1) Three Hall sensors embedded into the stator on the non-driving end of the
motor. This embedded construction is complex process because any
misalignment with respect to rotor magnet will generate an error in
determination of rotor position. Halls sensors sense the position of the coils.
2) The decoder circuit turns appropriate switches ON and OFF.
3) The voltage through the specific coils turns the motor.
4) When electric current passes through a coil in a magnetic field, the magnetic
force produces a torque which turns the motor.
 THE APPLICATIONS OF BLDC MOTOR
1) Computer hard drives. 6) Cordless power tools where the increased
efficiency of the motor leads to longer
2) CD/DVD players.
periods of use before the battery needs to
3) Small cooling fans in electronic be charged.
equipment. 7) Low speed, low power BLDC motors -
4) High power BLDC motors - electric direct-drive turntables for "analog" audio
vehicles and hybrid vehicles. discs.
5) Electric bicycles.
 ADVANTAGES OF BLDC MOTOR
1) Brushless motors are more efficient as its velocity is determined by the frequency at
which current is supplied, not the voltage.
2) As brushes are absent, the mechanical energy loss due to friction is less which
enhanced efficiency.
3) BLDC motor can operate at high-speed under any condition.
4) There is no sparking and much less noise during operation.
5) More electromagnets could be used on the stator for more precise control.
6) BLDC motors accelerate and decelerate easily as they are having low rotor inertia.
7) It is high performance motor that provides large torque per cubic inch over a vast
sped rang.
8) BLDC motors do not have brushes which make it more reliable, high life expectancies,
and maintenance free operation.
9) There is no ionizing sparks from the commutator, and electromagnetic interference is
also get reduced.
10) Such motors cooled by conduction and no air flow are required for inside cooling.
 DISADVANTAGES OF BLDC MOTOR
1) BLDC motor cost more than a brushed DC motor.
2) The limited high power could be supplied to BLDC motor,
otherwise, too much heat weakens the magnets and the
insulation of winding may get damaged.
STEPPER MOTOR
 INTRODUCTION

➢ A stepper motor or step motor or stepping motor is a

brushless DC electric motor that divides a full rotation into a
number of equal steps.

➢ The motor's position can then be commanded to move and

hold at one of these steps WITHOUT any feedback sensor
(hence, an open-loop controller), as long as the motor is
carefully sized to the application in respect to torque and
speed.
 FUNDAMENTALS OF OPERATION
➢ The stepper motor is known by its property to convert a train of
input pulses (typically square wave pulses) into a precisely
defined increment in the shaft position.

➢ Each pulse moves the shaft through a fixed angle.

➢ Stepper motors effectively have multiple "toothed"

electromagnets arranged around a central gear-shaped piece of
iron.
 FUNDAMENTALS OF OPERATION
➢ The electromagnets are energized by an external driver circuit
or a micro controller.

➢ To make the motor shaft turn, first, one electromagnet is given

power, which magnetically attracts the gear's teeth.

➢ When the gear's teeth are aligned to the first electromagnet,

they are slightly offset from the next electromagnet.
➢ This means that when the next
electromagnet is turned on and the first
is turned off, the gear rotates slightly to
align with the next one.
 FUNDAMENTALS OF OPERATION
➢ From there the process is repeated. Each of those rotations is
called a "step", with an integer number of steps making a full
rotation.

➢ In that way, the motor can be turned by a precise angle.

 TYPES OF STEPPER MOTORS
➢ There are three main types of stepper motors:

a) Variable reluctance stepper

b) Permanent magnet stepper
c) Hybrid stepper

➢ Variable reluctance (VR) motors have a plain iron rotor and

operate based on the principle that minimum reluctance
occurs with minimum gap, hence the rotor points are attracted
toward the stator magnet poles.

➢ Permanent magnet motors use a permanent magnet (PM) in

the rotor and operate on the attraction or repulsion between
the rotor PM and the stator electromagnets.
 VARIABLE RELUCTANCE MOTORS
➢ A simplified diagram of a 30° per step VR stepping motor is shown in Figure
below:

Principle of operation of 30° per step variable reluctance stepping motor

➢ The stator is made from a stack of steel laminations, and has six equally
spaced projecting poles, or teeth, each carrying a separate coil.

➢ The rotor, which may be solid or laminated, has four projecting teeth, of the
same width as the stator teeth.
 VARIABLE RELUCTANCE MOTORS
➢ There is a very small air-gap – typically between 0.02 and 0.2 mm – between
rotor and stator teeth.
➢ When no current is flowing in any of the stator coils, the rotor will therefore
be completely free to rotate.
➢ VR stepper motor can be single-stack or multiple-stack type.

Single-stack Multiple-stack
 VARIABLE RELUCTANCE MOTORS
➢ Diametrically opposite pairs of stator coils are connected in
series, such that when one of them acts as a N pole, the other
acts as a S pole.

➢ There are thus three independent stator circuits, or phases,

and each one can be supplied with direct current from the
drive circuit.
 VARIABLE RELUCTANCE MOTORS

Principle of operation of 30° per step variable reluctance stepping motor

➢ When phase A is energised (as indicated by the thick lines in

(a)), a magnetic field with its axis along the stator poles of
phase A is created.

➢ The rotor is therefore attracted into a position where the pair

of rotor poles distinguished by the marker arrow line up with
the field, i.e. in line with the phase A pole, as shown in Figure
(a).
 VARIABLE RELUCTANCE MOTORS

Principle of operation of 30° per step variable reluctance stepping motor

➢ When phase A is switched-off, and phase B is switched-on

instead, the second pair of rotor poles will be pulled into
alignment with the stator poles of phase B, the rotor moving
through 30° clockwise to its new step position, as shown in (b).
 VARIABLE RELUCTANCE MOTORS

Principle of operation of 30° per step variable reluctance stepping motor

➢ A further clockwise step of 30° will occur when phase B is

switched-off and phase C is switched-on.

➢ At this stage the original pair of rotor poles come into play
again, but this time they are attracted to stator poles C, as
shown in Figure (c).
 VARIABLE RELUCTANCE MOTORS

ACBA ABCA

Principle of operation of 30° per step variable reluctance stepping motor

➢ By repetitively switching on the stator phases in the sequence

ABCA, etc. the rotor will rotate clockwise in 30° steps, while if
the sequence is ACBA, etc. it will rotate anticlockwise.

➢ This mode of operation is known as ‘one-phase-on’, and is the

simplest way of making the motor step.
 PERMANENT MAGNET STEPPER MOTORS
➢ The Permanent Magnet Stepper Motor has a stator
construction similar to that of the single stack variable
reluctance motor.
➢ Rotor is made of permanent magnet high
retentivity steel and is cylindrical in shape.
➢ Concentrating windings on diametrically
opposite poles are connected in series to
form a two phase winding on the stator.
➢ Have higher inertia and therefore, lower
acceleration than variable stepper motors.
➢ The permanent magnet stepper motor produces more torque
than the Variable Reluctance Stepper Motor.
 TWO-PHASE STEPPER MOTORS
➢ There are two basic winding arrangements for the
electromagnetic coils in a two phase stepper motor:

a) Unipolar.

b) Bipolar.
 UNIPOLAR MOTORS
➢ A unipolar stepper motor has one winding with center tap per
phase. Each section of windings is switched ON for each
direction of magnetic field.

➢ Since in this arrangement a magnetic pole can be reversed

without switching the direction of current, the commutation
circuit can be made very simple (e.g., a single transistor) for
each winding.

Unipolar stepper motor coils

 UNIPOLAR MOTORS

Unipolar stepper motor coils

➢ Typically, given a phase, the center tap of each winding is made common: giving
three leads per phase and six leads for a typical two phase motor. Often, these two
phase commons are internally joined, so the motor has only five leads.

➢ A micro controller or stepper motor controller can be used to activate the drive
transistors in the right order, and this ease of operation makes unipolar motors
popular with hobbyists; they are probably the cheapest way to get precise angular
movements.
 BIPOLAR MOTORS
➢ Bipolar motors have a single winding per phase.

➢ The current in a winding needs to be reversed in order to

reverse a magnetic pole, so the driving circuit must be more
complicated, typically with an H-bridge arrangement (however
there are several off-the-shelf driver chips available to make
this a simple affair).
 ADVANTAGES OF STEPPER MOTORS
➢ Positioning – Since steppers move in precise repeatable steps,
they excel in applications requiring precise positioning such as
3D printers, Computer Numeric Control (CNC), Camera
platforms and X,Y Plotters. Some disk drives also use stepper
motors to position the read/write head.

➢ Speed Control – Precise increments of movement also allow for

excellent control of rotational speed for process automation and
robotics.

➢ Low Speed Torque - Normal DC motors don't have very much

torque at low speeds. A Stepper motor has maximum torque at
low speeds, so they are a good choice for applications requiring
low speed with high precision.
 DISANVANTAGES OF STEPPER
MOTORS
➢ Low Efficiency – Unlike DC motors, stepper motor current
consumption is independent of load. They draw the most
current when they are doing no work at all. Because of this,
they tend to run hot.
➢ Limited High Speed Torque - In general, stepper motors have
less torque at high speeds than at low speeds. Some steppers
are optimized for better high-speed performance, but they
need to be paired with an appropriate driver to achieve that
performance.
➢ No Feedback – Unlike servo motors, most steppers do not have
integral feedback for position. Although great precision can be
achieved running ‘open loop’. Limit switches or ‘home’
detectors are typically required for safety and/or to establish a
reference position.
 SUMMARY
➢ The construction of stepping motors is simple, the only moving
part being the rotor, which has no windings, commutator or
brushes: they are therefore robust and reliable.

➢ The rotor is held at its step position solely by the action of the
magnetic flux between stator and rotor.

➢ The step angle is a property of the tooth geometry and the

arrangement of the stator windings, and accurate punching and
assembly of the stator and rotor laminations is therefore
necessary to ensure that adjacent step positions are exactly
equally spaced.
 SUMMARY
➢ The step angle is obtained from the expression

➢ The variable reluctance (VR) motor as discuss in the previous

section has four rotor teeth, three stator phase windings and
the step angle is therefore 30°, as already shown.

➢ It should also be clear from the equation why small angle

motors always have to have a large number of rotor teeth.