Design and Modeling of a Reversible 3-Phase to 6-Phase Induction Motor for Improved Survivability

In this investigation, a design has been developed for a 6-phase induction machine, which is based on an existing 3-phase design. This approach involves reconfiguration of an existing 3-phase induction machine into a 6-phase winding design using the same stator core lamination structure. This redesigned motor was simulated, using a time-stepping finite-element (TSFE) technique, under open-loop controller operation with different types of phase-loss scenarios such as loss of adjacent phases and the loss of nonadjacent phases. A comparative analysis of the motor performance, under these various phase-loss conditions of the 6-phase configuration versus the healthy 6-phase case, is presented. The analysis of the torque-ripple content with the help of current-space vector concepts was used. The results show that the ripple content in the torque is found to be a much lesser problem for the 6-phase configuration in comparison to the 3-phase configuration under phase-loss conditions