Analysis of a Dual-Winding Fault-Tolerant Permanent Magnet Machine Drive for Aerospace Applications

This paper proposes a new electric drive helicopter winch system based on a dual-winding fault-tolerant permanent magnet (DFPM) machine. The proposed DFPM machine consists of an optimal surface-mounted PM rotor and a 12 slots stator with two sets of independent three-phase concentrated armature windings on alternate teeth. Hence, it incorporates the merits of high-power density and high efficiency of a PM machine and high fault-tolerance of a dual-winding machine. To achieve the fault-tolerant performance, the redundant fault-tolerant control strategy based on speed, current, voltage two-way (electric and braking) control is proposed and analyzed first. Then, the electromagnetic performances of the DFPM machine drive system at two open-circuit fault conditions, namely, load hoisting and dropping operation mode, have been verified by experiments. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed fault-tolerant control strategy and the high performance of the fault-tolerant characteristic of the proposed DFPM machine drive.