Comparative Framework for Inter-Turn Short-Circuit Fault-Tolerant Control in EV PMSM Drives

Abstract

Electric vehicle (EV) traction drives are vulnerable to critical electrical machine faults, including inter-turn short circuits (ITSC), which degrade performance and threaten operational safety. Demagnetization is discussed as a related concern, but the main emphasis remains ITSC faults. This paper presents a comparative framework for ITSC fault-tolerant control in EV PMSM drives, reviewing representative methods across compensation-based control (harmonic/negative-sequence current injection, torque reshaping), loss- and thermal-constrained operating-point adaptation, robust nonlinear control, predictive control, and integrated detection-accommodation schemes. The approaches are compared using traction-relevant criteria: torque ripple suppression, current/voltage headroom, efficiency penalty, thermal containment as severity increases, and achievable torquespeed capability. The synthesis reveals a fundamental tradeoff between ripple mitigation and electrical/thermal headroom, demonstrating that severity-aware thermal constraints are essential to prevent fault propagation while preserving traction performance. A major gap in the literature is the lack of validated four-quadrant operation and high-electrical-frequency benchmarking, which limits confidence in field-weakening and high-speed operation in EV applications.