Research ArticleFault diagnosis and fault-tolerant finite control set-model predictive control of a multiphase voltage-source inverter supplying BLDC motor

•Developing and implementation the fault-tolerant control algorithm of a five-phase BLDC motor drive.•Developing an open transistor fault diagnosis (FD) method in voltage source inverter (VSI).•Detection and localization of the faulty switches in a five-phase VSI supplying motor drive.•Comparison between the presented control method and conventional control methods.•Validating the presented theory with simulation and experimental results.

Due to its fault tolerance, a multiphase brushless direct current (BLDC) motor can meet high reliability demand for application in electric vehicles. The voltage-source inverter (VSI) supplying the motor is subjected to open circuit faults. Therefore, it is necessary to design a fault-tolerant (FT) control algorithm with an embedded fault diagnosis (FD) block. In this paper, finite control set-model predictive control (FCS-MPC) is developed to implement the fault-tolerant control algorithm of a five-phase BLDC motor. The developed control method is fast, simple, and flexible. A FD method based on available information from the control block is proposed; this method is simple, robust to common transients in motor and able to localize multiple open circuit faults. The proposed FD and FT control algorithm are embedded in a five-phase BLDC motor drive. In order to validate the theory presented, simulation and experimental results are conducted on a five-phase two-level VSI supplying a five-phase BLDC motor.