As the demands for electric vehicles, electric aircrafts, unmanned aircraft systems, and other motor-driven systems increase, high-performance motor drives employing variable frequency control with higher efficiency and reliability are becoming increasingly important parts of the ever-changing technological landscape. This study proposes a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based variable frequency soft-starting motor drive for a three-phase induction motor. The inverter output voltage and the load currents are analyzed for the harmonic contents using MATLAB. In the experimental realization, a four-pole squirrel cage delta-connected induction motor is utilized with a switching frequency of 4 kHz. The current and voltage characteristics of the induction motor are studied under different operating conditions to study harmonic contents and the effect of changing soft-start duration. The findings demonstrate a low-cost, flexible control of the induction motor with improved harmonic performance.
@article{arxiv.2311.00720,
title = {Harmonic content analysis of a soft starting variable frequency motor drive based on FPGA},
author = {Yogesh Sapkota and Suman Devkota and Vamsi Borra and Pedro Cortes and Frank Li and Srikanth Itapu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.00720},
year = {2023}
}