Performance evaluation of electric vehicle brushless direct current motor with a novel high-performance control strategy with experimental implementation

International audienceIn this article, a new control strategy for electric vehicle battery autonomy and performance improvements is proposed. This method is based on the use of a DC-DC converter combined with a brushless DC motor as an electric vehicle propulsion engine. First, an analysis of the three-phase brushless DC motor performance based on analytical modeling is addressed. This model stands on the derivative of the commutated and non-commutated phase currents from which the speed response is induced. The proposed model presents different brushless DC motor pulse width modulation control modes and allows highlighting the most appropriate mode with lower current ripple and power loss, higher efficiency and faster response. Furthermore, a DC-DC boost converter is integrated in the motor control scheme, to describe after, how the electric vehicle performance is increased when implementing this control mode. Evaluation of the analytic results has been validated through simulations on MATLAB/Simulink. The evaluation focuses on speed response for different pulse width modulation control modes, current ripple rate in addition to the electric vehicle performance with and without DC-DC converter. In addition, an experimental validation using a laboratory designed platform is performed. The proposed method demonstrates a better electric vehicle performance in terms of increasing the battery autonomy and speed range