International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE)

Vol. 9, No. 5, October 2019, pp. 3333~3343

ISSN: 2088-8708, DOI: 10.11591/ijece.v9i5.pp3333-3343  3333

Modelling of sensored speed control of BLDC motor using

MATLAB/SIMULINK

Basim Alsayid, Wael A. Salah, Yazeed Alawneh

Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology,
Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie (PTUK), Palestine

Article Info ABSTRACT

Article history: Recent developments in the field of magnetic materials and power
electronics, along with the availability of cheap powerful processors, have
Received Nov 19, 2018 increased the adoption of brushless direct current (BLDC) motors for various
Revised Mar 27, 2019 applications, such as in home appliances as well as in automotive, aerospace,
Accepted Apr 9, 2019 and medical industries. The wide adoption of this motor is due to its many
advantages over other types of motors, such as high efficiency, high dynamic
response, long operating life, relatively quiet operation, and higher speed
Keywords: ranges. This paper presents a simulation of digital sensor control of
permanent magnet BLDC motor speed using the MATLAB/SIMULINK
BLDC motors environment. A closed loop speed control was developed, and different tests
Hall sensors were conducted to evaluate the validity of the control algorithms. Results
Modelling confirm the satisfactory operation of the proposed control algorithms.
Speed control
Copyright © 2019 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science.
All rights reserved.

Corresponding Author:
Wael A. Salah,
Department of Electrical Engineering,
College of Engineering and Technology,
Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie (PTUK),
P.O. Box: 7, Yafa Street, Tulkarm, Palestine.
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

1. INTRODUCTION
Brushless direct current (BLDC) variable speed drives are increasingly applied in many new
industrial applications. Recent developments in power electronics and semiconductor technology have led to
their widespread use [1]. This type of motor is now more popular in applications, such as for electric
vehicles, due to its energy-efficent consumption [2]. Furthermore, the BLDC motor has many advantages
over the induction motor and brushed DC motor, including better efficiency, power factor, less maintenance,
longer life, and less rotor inertia. BLDC motor is also easier to control with its trapezoidal configuration.
This study utilizes a three-phase BLDC motor with trapezoidal back EMF [3]. The brushes and commutators
have been eliminated, and the windings are connected to the control circuits. Commutation is done
electronically instead of using brushes [4]. Because such motors have no brushes, they need a solid state
commutation circuit in order to supply the stator windings according to the rotor position [5]. Rotor position
can be obtained by either a shaft encoder or, more often, by Hall Effect sensors [6].
The dynamic features and digital control of the BLDC motor furthered its wide utilization in
different high and low power applications, compared with other types of motors. Moreover, these motors
became one of the major components used to develop 3D printers due to its compatibility and easy
integration with used digital controllers [7], which are digitally controlled through power electronic
converters integrated with high speed microcontroller. The use of such devices enabled an easy adaption of
BLDC motors in 3D printers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices [8]. Nowadays, real-time connection
technologies, either at the residential or industrial level, is considered as the primary technology that
established a wide range of IoT applications, such as smart homes and automated industrial applications [9].

Journal homepage: http://iaescore.com/journals/index.php/IJECE

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A review of the variety of microcontroller-based applications shows the rapid developments in

science and technology. The advantages in developing embedded microcontrollers in many industrial
applications realized remote monitoring and using wireless/wired techniques of different systems [10].
A BLDC motor drive can be considered a digitally controlled drive system. Therefore, sensors are
implemented to realize control and drive system [11]. This is mainly required for rotor position.
The commutation process was accomplished using a digitally controlled inverter based on Hall-effect sensors
signals. The BLDC motors are characterized by their rectangular current, which needs six discrete rotor
positions [7].
Permanent magnets create the rotor flux, and the energized stator windings create electromagnet
poles. By using the appropriate sequence to supply the stator phases, a rotating field on the stator is created
and maintained. According to the rotor position, the phase windings are switched in a sequence to obtain the
rotation [4]. The speed of a motor can be controlled using open loop control. However, accurate speed
control is necessary in various applications, which can only be achieved by closed loop speed control [12].
The torque produced in a BLDC motor with trapezoidal back electromotive force (BEMF) is not constant due
to torque ripples that appear on the delivered output torque. These torque ripples are an issue that could
highly affect the BLDC drive system performance [7, 11]. In this paper, digital closed loop speed control is
used by implementing control algorithms in MATLAB/SIMULINK [13].
The performance of a BLDC motor control based on a single sensor for position detection is
presented [14]. The proposed design, which replaces the three conventional sensors with a single one,
reduces cost and complexity. In addition, the proposed drive system will be powered directly from the PV
system, based on the designed high voltage-gain DC-DC converter. MATLAB/SIMULINK results showed a
proper operation of BLDC motor for variable ramped up and down speeds with fixed torque [14].
Another study presented the speed control of BLDC motor control using Single Input Fuzzy PI Controller as
a replacement for the commonly used conventional linear controller. The advantages of the proposed system
include a single control configuration which combines the performance of different systems.
The performance of the proposed system, compared with the conventional system, showed a better
dynamic response [15].

2. CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION PRINCIPLE

2.1. Motor construction
The BLDC motor is an AC synchronous motor. It is basically inside-out DC motor as it has the
windings on the stator and the rotor is a permanent magnet, as shown in Figure 1 [16]. The main function of
the brushes in the DC motor is to reverse the polarity of the electric current using the mechanical
commutator. This process results in heating and sparks during the motor operation, in addition to electrical
losses, which in return require periodic maintenance. The issue with current commutation can be overcome
using electronic commutation. The polarity reversal in the brushless DC motor is performed by the
semiconductor power switches. A group of hall-effect sensors is used to synchronize the switching with
instantaneous rotor position. The most commonly used sensor control is the six step control. This control is
based on capturing the rotor position at six angles using the hall sensors. The sensor signal is needed to align
the applied voltage with the motor back-EMF. To validate this type of control, a power converter, with the
control based on rotor position measurement, is required. The extra cost for power converter is compensated
by the advantage the BLDC drive system offers over DC motors, and also by the decreasing prices of power
components and control circuits. Other advantages include excellent performance and higher reliability with
low maintenance requirement [17]. Figure 2 shows the motor circuit and its connection to the inverter.

Figure 1. Structure of BLDC motor

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Figure 2. Motor connection to the inverter

Excluding the mutual inductance between phase windings, the motor equations can be expressed as:

𝑉𝑎= 𝑅𝑖𝑎+ Ld𝑖𝑎/dt+ 𝑒𝑎

𝑉𝑏= 𝑅𝑖𝑏+ Ld𝑖𝑏/dt+ 𝑒𝑏

𝑉𝑐= 𝑅𝑖𝑐+ Ld𝑖𝑐/dt+ 𝑒𝑐

Te=1/ωm (eaia+ebib+ecic)

2.2. Motor operation and control

The BLDC motor detects the position of the rotor using Hall sensors. Three sensors, HA, HB, and
HC are required for position information. With three sensors, six possible valid commutation sequences
could be obtained. Every 60 electrical degrees of rotation, one of the Hall sensors changes state. Therefore,
it takes six steps to complete an electrical cycle [18]. Table 1 shows the switching sequence used to run the
motor in the clockwise direction. Figure 3 shows the Hall sensor signals with respect to back EMF and the
phase currents [3, 19, 20].

Table 1. Sequence for rotating the motor in clockwise direction

Hall sensor Hall sensor Hall sensor Active Phase Phase Phase
Sequence
A (HA) B (HB) C (HC) Switches Current A Current B Current C
1 1 1 0 S3,S2 0 +1 -1
2 1 0 0 S1,S2 +1 0 -1
3 1 0 1 S1,S6 +1 -1 0
4 0 0 1 S5,S6 0 -1 +1
5 0 1 1 S5,S4 -1 0 +1
6 0 1 0 S3,S4 -1 +1 0

According to Table 1 and Figure 3, for sequence 1, S3 and S2 are switched on, and accordingly,
Phase B current is positive, Phase C current is negative, and Phase A current is zero. In Figure 4, we can see
the energized windings and the stator electromagnetic field (ST) resulting from this situation. In the same
figure, we can see the rotor magnetic field (R) forming 120 electrical degrees with the stator
electromagnetic field. For sequence 2, S1 and S2 are switched on, and accordingly, Phase A current is
positive, Phase C current is negative, and Phase B current is zero. In Figure 5, we can see the energized
windings and the stator electromagnetic field (ST) resulting from this situation. In the same figure we can
see the rotor magnetic field (R) forming 120 electrical degrees with the stator electromagnetic field.
For sequence 3, S1 and S6 are switched on, and accordingly, Phase A current is positive, Phase B current is
negative, and Phase C current is zero.
In Figure 6, we can see the energized windings and the stator electromagnetic field (ST) resulting
from this situation. In the same figure, we can see the rotor magnetic field (R) forming 120 electrical
degrees with the stator electromagnetic field. For sequence 4, S5 and S6 are switched on. Accordingly, Phase
C current is positive, Phase B current is negative, and Phase A current is zero. In Figure 7, we can see the
energized windings and the stator electromagnetic field (ST) resulting from this situation. In the same
figure, we can see the rotor magnetic field (R) forming 120 electrical degrees with the stator
electromagnetic field. For sequence 5, S5 and S4 are switched on. Accordingly, Phase C current is positive,
Phase A current is negative, and Phase B current is zero.
Modelling of sensored speed control of BLDC motor using MATLAB/SIMULINK (Basim Alsayid)
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Figure 3. Wave forms of Hall sensors, BEMF, torque and phase currents

Figure 4. Sequence 1 Figure 5. Sequence 2

Figure 6. Sequence 3 Figure 7. Sequence 4

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In Figure 8, we can see the energized windings and the stator electromagnetic field (ST) resulting
from this situation. In the same figure, we can see the rotor magnetic field (R) forming 120 electrical
degrees with the stator electromagnetic field. For sequence 6, S3 and S4 are switched on, and accordingly,
Phase B current is positive, Phase A current is negative, and Phase C current is zero. In Figure 9, we can see
the energized windings and the stator electromagnetic field (ST) resulting from this situation. In the same
figure, we can see the rotor magnetic field (R) forming 120 electrical degrees with the stator
electromagnetic field [21]. From the above considerations, we can see that the relative position between
stator and rotor magnetic fields at the beginning of all the six sequences is 120 electrical degrees.

Figure 8. Sequence 5 Figure 9. Sequence 6

If returned back to sequence 1, at the beginning of the sequence, the relative position between the
stator and rotor fields is 120 electrical degrees, as shown in Figure 10. Assuming that after 30 electrical
degrees the rotor position become as shown in Figure 11, this means that the stator magnetic field and the
rotor magnetic field are now perpendicular. If the same considerations are made at the end of sequence 1 and
before the beginning of sequence 2, then we still have the same stator field, whereas the rotor field has
moved by another 30 electrical degrees in clockwise, as shown in Figure 12. The angle between stator and
rotor magnetic fields is 60 electrical degrees.
By studying the relative position between stator and rotor magnetic fields during all the 6 sequences,
it is found that it varies between 60 and 120 electrical degrees with an average value of 90 degree. Figure 10
shows the relative position of stator and rotor magnetic fields at the beginning of sequence 1 (120 o).
Figure 11 shows the relative position of the same magnetic fields in the middle of sequence 1 (90o). Figure 12
shows the relative position of the same two magnetic fields at the end of sequence 1 (60o).

Figure 10. Relative position of stator and rotor magnetic fields at (120o)

Modelling of sensored speed control of BLDC motor using MATLAB/SIMULINK (Basim Alsayid)
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Figure 11. Relative position of stator and rotor Figure 12. Relative position of stator and rotor
magnetic fields at (90o) magnetic fields at (60o)

2.3. Closed loop speed control

The closed loop speed control of BLDC is shown in Figure 13. The speed of the motor ω m is
compared with the reference ωm* speed value, and speed error Δωm is processed by a proportional-Integrative
PI controller. The output of this controller is considered as the reference current. A current limiter is put on
the output depending on maximum permissible windings currents [4, 22-24].

Figure 13. The closed loop speed control of BLDC

Depending on the rotor position, the reference current generator block generates three-phase
reference currents, Ia*, Ib*, and Ic*, by taking the value of the PI speed controller and limiter. The reference
currents are fed to the Hysteresis current controller [4]. The hesteresis current controller contributes to the
generation of switching signals for the inverter. Hesteresis-band PWM is basically an instantaneous feedback
current control method of PWM, where the actual current continually tracks the command current within
hysteresis-band, as shown in Figure 14. As current exceeds upper band limit (UBL), the upper switch turns
off and the lower switch turns on. As the current exceeds the lower band limit (LBL), upper switch turns on
and lower swich turns off [4].

Figure 14. Hesteresis controller

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The switching pattern for the proposed model is shown in Table 2 [25]. This clarifies the sequence
needed to drive the power switches of the inverter in the appropriate manner. The sequence form the base to
design the suitable algorithm to drive the BLDC motor.

Table 2. Switching pattern

Case Activated switch
IA ˃ UBL S1 is off and S4 is on
IA < LBL S1 is on and S4 is off
IB ˃ UBL S3 is off and S6 is on
IB < LBL S3 is on and S6 is off
IC ˃ UBL S5 is off and S2 is on
IC < LBL S5 is on and S2 is off

The closed loop speed control block, as shown in Figure 13, is implemented in
MATLAB/SIMULINK, shown in Figure 15. The shown figure presents the complete system in the BLDC
motor and its connection with the drive and control side, based on sensored operation.

Figure 15. MATLAB/SIMULINK closed loop speed control block diagram

3. SIMULATION RESULTS
The BLDC motor drive used for simulation is shown in Figure 15. The specifications of the BLDC
motor are listed in Table 3. Different simulation parameters have been captured. In the following figures,
some of the results, relative to a step speed of 1500 rpm and load torque of 10 Nm, are included.

Table 3. Motor parameters

Parameters
No. of poles 2
No. of phases 3
Type of connection Star
Resistance /Ph 0.2 Ω
Self-inductances 0.0085 H/Ph
Moment of inertia 0.89 Kg/m2
Torque constant 1.4

The speed response and reference speed are shown as in Figure 16. The electromagnetic torque
developed by the motor is shown in Figure 17. The shown results of the proposed design revealed a
satisfactory speed and torque response. In Figure 18, the steady-state reference currents are shown.
In addition, in Figure 19, steady-state reference and real currents are shown.

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Figure 16. Speed response for a step of 1500 rpm, load torque 10 Nm

Figure 17. Torque developed for a step speed of 1500 rpm, load torque 10 Nm

Figure 18. Steady-state reference currents for speed of 1500 rpm and load torque of 10 Nm

Figure 19 Steady-state reference and real currents for speed of 1500 rpm and load torque of 10 Nm

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The three-phase trapezoidal back EMF (ea, eb, ec), are shown in Figure 20. Figure 21 shows the
Hall Effect sensor, HA, BEMF ea, and phase A real current and torque. The different speed responses and
references for different speed steps are shown in Figure 22. The presented results show a satisfactory
response at various motor speeds. The output current and EMF generated by BLDC motor are shown in
Figure 23. The results of the developed motor controller show a smooth output EMF and current.

Figure 20. BEMF (ea, eb and ec) for speed of 1500 rpm and load torque of 10 Nm

Figure 21. Hall sensor A, BEMF (ea), phase current A and torque for speed of 1500 rpm and load
torque of 10 Nm

Figure 22. Speed responses for different step speeds, load torque 10 Nm

Figure 23. The output current and EMF toruge ripples generated
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4. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the main features of the BLDC motor were discussed and analyzed. A model of the
digital speed control of BLDC Motor, in clockwise and counterclockwise directions, is presented. The
presented model was successfully developed in Matlab/Simulink environment and tested at different speeds.
The simulation results confirmed the validity of the proposed controller in terms of satisfactory operation.
The proposed design exhibited a good dynamic performance and speed regulation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie for supporting this
research.

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BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS

Basim Alsayid received his B.Sc. Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Bologna,
Bologna, Italy in 1991, where he also obtained his Ph.D. Electrical Drives Engineering degree in
2002. From 2002 to 2007, he worked as Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical
Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology, Palestine Technical University
(Kadoorie), Tulkarm, Palestine. From 2007 to 2009, he served as the Head of the Electrical
Engineering Department, and from 2009 to 2013, he was the Dean of the College of Engineering
and Technology at the same university. In 2013, he became an Associate Professor. He is also a
member of IEEE- Palestinian Engineers Association. His research areas include electrical drives
and renewable energy. He was also involved in a two-year research program on design and
control of photovoltaic systems with a French research group. His research are published in
international journals and presented in various conferences throughout the world.

Wael A. Salah was born in Hebron, Palestine in 1978. He received a bachelor’s degree in
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU) in
2001, and was awarded with M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in 2007 and 2012, respectively. He was attached to the
Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University - Malaysia since October 2012 until July 2014.
Currently, W. Salah is an Associate Professor at the Palestine Technical University–Khadoori.
His research interests are in Power Electronics and Electric Drives, Energy Management, Energy
Efficiency, Power Control and Management, and Renewable Energy System. He has published
more than 50 papers in international journals and conferences. Dr. Wael is a recognized board
member for several international journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Wael is a member of
the Jordanian Engineers Association (JEA), Arab Engineers Association, and a Senior Member
of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), US.

Yazeed Alawneh received his bachelor’s degree in Mechatronics from Palestine Technical
University – Kadoorie (PTUK). He is currently working as a research assistant at the Department
of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology, Palestine Technical
University – Kadoorie (PTUK), Tulkarm, Palestine.

Modelling of sensored speed control of BLDC motor using MATLAB/SIMULINK (Basim Alsayid)