Rotary machine control apparatus

A method for controlling a drive of a rotary machine that has a plurality of winding groups and electric power converters in a plurality of systems, each of the electric power converters having a switching element in an upper arm and a switching element in a lower arm and converting DC power to supply to a corresponding winding group corresponding to each of the electric power converters, and the switching element in the upper arm being bridge connected to the switching element in the lower arm, the method comprising:

• detecting a failure of an electric power converter or a winding group;
• calculating a current command value, which instructs current sent to each of the winding groups in the rotary machine and a maximum current limit value to the current command value;
• and
• controlling an output to each of the electric power converters for each of the systems, wherein a partial system short circuit failure corresponds to a case where any portion between wirings in the electric power converters or the winding groups in either of the systems is in a conductive state against a control indicating a non-conductive state;
• and
• when the partial system short circuit failure in the electric power converter or the winding group in either of the systems is detected, the method further comprises:
• stopping the output to the electric power converter in a failure system;
• increasing the maximum current limit value as a rotation angular velocity of the rotary machine is larger;
• and
• controlling the output to an electric power converter as a normal system.

A system for controlling a drive of a rotary machine that has a plurality of winding groups, the system comprising:

• electric power converters in a plurality of systems, wherein each of the electric power converters has a switching element in an upper arm and a switching element in a lower arm and converts DC power to supply to a corresponding winding group corresponding to each of the electric power converters, and the switching element in the upper arm is bridge connected to the switching element in the lower arm;
• a central processor;
• a computer-readable storage medium;
• and
• a set of computer-executable instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium that cause the central processor to implement:
• detecting a failure of an electric power converter or a winding group;
• calculating a current command value, which instructs current sent to each of the winding groups in the rotary machine and a maximum current limit value to the current command value;
• and
• controlling an output to each of the electric power converters for each of the systems, wherein a partial system short circuit failure corresponds to a case where any portion between wirings in the electric power converters or the winding groups in either of the systems is in a conductive state against a control indicating a non-conductive state;
• and
• when the partial system short circuit failure in the electric power converter or the winding group in either of the systems is detected, the set of computer-executable instructions further comprises:
• stopping the output to the electric power converter in a failure system;
• increasing the maximum current limit value as a rotation angular velocity of the rotary machine is larger;
• and
• controlling the output to an electric power converter as a normal system.