Question

A brushless DC electric motor (BLDC motor or BL motor), also known as electronically commutated motor (ECM or EC motor) and synchronous DC motors, are synchronous motors powered by direct current (DC) electricity via an inverter or switching power supply which produces electricity in the form of alternating current (AC) to drive each phase of the motor via a closed loop controller. The controller provides pulses of current to the motor windings that control the speed and torque of the motor. Explain construction and working of BLDC motor in terms of working, construction and applications.

Book name # fundamental of electric machines

Answer 1

Construction of BLDC Motor

The main design difference between a brushed and brushless motors is the replacement of mechanical commutator with an electric switch circuit. Keeping that in mind, a BLDC Motor is a type of synchronous motor in the sense that the magnetic field generated by the stator and the rotor revolve at the same frequency.

Brushless Motors are available in three configurations: single phase, two phase and three phase. Out of these, the three phase BLDC is the most common one.

The following image shows the cross-section of a BLDC Motor.

000 00 Jog rotor 00000000000 stator N S N С S coil PM material

As you can see in the image, a BLDC Motor consists of two main parts: a stator and a rotor.

Stator

The structure of the stator of a BLDC Motor is similar to that of an induction motor. It is made up of stacked steel laminations with axially cut slots for winding. The winding in BLDC are slightly different than that of the traditional induction motor.

Generally, most BLDC motors consists of three stator windings that are connected in star or ‘Y’ fashion (without a neutral point). Additionally, based on the coil interconnections, the stator windings are further divided into Trapezoidal and Sinusoidal Motors.

0 60 120 180 240 300 360 60 - 1 1 - Sinusoidal Back EMF - — Phase A-B Trapezoidal Back EMF 0 60 120 180 240 300 360 60 1 - 1 - Phase B-C Phase A-B - Phase B-C Phase C-A - Phase C-A -

In a trapezoidal motor, both the drive current and the back EMF are in the shape of a trapezoid (sinusoidal shape in case of sinusoidal motors). Usually, 48 V (or less) rated motors are used in automotive and robotics (hybrid cars and robotic arms).

Rotor

The rotor part of the BLDC Motor is made up of permanent magnets (usually, rare earth alloy magnets like Neodymium (Nd), Samarium Cobalt (SmCo) and alloy of Neodymium, Ferrite and Boron (NdFeB)).

Based on the application, the number of poles can vary between two and eight with North (N) and South (S) poles placed alternately. The following image shows three different arrangements of the poles. In the first case, the magnets are placed on the outer periphery of the rotor.

N S S N N S N N S

The second configuration is called magnetic-embedded rotor, where rectangular permanent magnets are embedded into the core of the rotor. In the third case, the magnets are inserted into the iron core of the rotor.

Position Sensors (Hall Sensors)

Since there are no brushes in a BLDC Motor, the commutation is controlled electronically. In order to rotate the motor, the windings of the stator must be energized in a sequence and the position of the rotor (i.e. the North and South poles of the rotor) must be known to precisely energize a particular set of stator windings.

A Position Sensor, which is usually a Hall Sensor (that works on the principle of Hall Effect) is generally used to detect the position of the rotor and transform it into an electrical signal. Most BLDC Motors use three Hall Sensors that are embedded into the stator to sense the rotor’s position.

The output of the Hall Sensor will be either HIGH or LOW depending on whether the North or South pole of the rotor passes near it. By combining the results from the three sensors, the exact sequence of energizing can be determined.

Working Principle

Consider the following setup of three windings in the stator designated A, B and C. For the sake of understanding, let us replace the rotor with a single magnet.

3 A N S B

We know that when a current is applied through a coil, a magnetic field is generated and the orientation of the field lines i.e. the poles of the generated magnet will depend on the direction of the current flowing through the coil.

Using this principle, if we supply current to the coil A so that it will generate a magnetic field and attract the rotor magnet. The position of the rotor magnet will shift slightly clockwise and will align with A.

If we now pass current through coils B and C one after the other (in that order), the rotor magnet will rotate in clock wise direction.

C B So A z S B

To increase efficiency, we can wind the opposite coils using a single coil so that we get double attraction. Further increasing the efficiency, we can energize two coils at the same time so that one coil will attract the magnet and the other coil will repel it. During this time, the third will be idle.

For a complete 3600 rotation of the rotor magnet, six possible combinations of the coils A, B and C are applicable and are shown in the following timing diagram.

6 5 4 6... +V - A Float - - - - -V +V - -H B Float - - 1 -V +V | || - F Float 1 C - -V - — - - 1 -

Base on the above diagram, we can confirm that at any time, one phase is positive, one phase is negative and the third phase is idle (or floating). So, based on the inputs from the Hall Sensors, we have two switch the phases as per the above diagram.

Motors

Some of the areas of applications of BLDC Motors are mentioned below:

• Single speed applications
• Adjustable speed applications
• Position control
• Low noise applications
• High speed applications