Sensorless Control of Doubly Fed Induction Machines Using Only Rotor-Side Variables

In this study, a sensorless vector control method was proposed for a doubly fed induction machine (DFIM), where the stator is directly connected to the grid. The DFIM is a three-phase symmetric system without saliency, and when the stator side is directly connected to the grid, the magnitude and frequency of the stator flux are almost fixed and determined by the grid voltage. Due to its three-phase symmetric configuration, this structure can be modeled in a manner similar to that of a symmetric permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). It enables the application of back-EMF-based sensorless control methods commonly used for symmetric PMSMs. In PMSMs, sensorless estimators typically estimate the back-EMF using only stator voltage and current measurements. By extending this modeling concept to DFIMs, a similar estimator can be designed that utilizes only rotor-side voltage and current for sensorless back-EMF estimation. This paper proposes a back-EMF estimator using only rotor-side voltages and currents, which were implemented on a stator flux reference frame. The proposed algorithm also estimates the stator-side variables, including the magnitudes of stator voltage, current, and stator power factor. These variables can be used to detect grid faults. The feasibility of the proposed method was validated via experiments using a 2.4 kW DFIM. It was confirmed that the sensorless operation functioned properly even during speed acceleration/deceleration and step load conditions. Additionally, the system maintained stable operation and achieved an accurate estimation of stator voltage and current, even under a 30% voltage sag in the stator grid voltage.