During the charging process of flywheel driving by permanent magnet synchronous motor, the three-level converter operates in a low modulation index for a long time, and the traditional virtual space vector pulse width modulation (VSVPWM) strategy frequently generates narrow pulses. Due to the discrete nature of digital control, the sector boundaries in the traditional VSVPWM strategy can shift, exacerbating the narrow pulse issue. These narrow pulses lead to significant distortion in the voltage and current waveforms of the converter and even damage the power devices.

This paper proposed an analysis method considering the discreteness of motor digital control and a hybrid VSVPWM strategy based on vector sequence optimization. Firstly, the variation characteristics of the voltage reference vector and its influence on sector boundary under digital control were studied based on the steady-state mathematical model of the motor. Then, the minimum pulse width function was established to quantitatively analyze the distribution of narrow pulses in the traditional VSVPWM within the low modulation index region. Consequently, according to the narrow pulse distribution law, a hybrid VSVPWM strategy based on vector sequence optimization was proposed.

The traditional VSVPWM (Seg9_VSVPWM), the thirteen-segment VSVPWM (Seg13_VSVPWM), and the proposed hybrid VSVPWM (LH_VSVPWM) were compared. The simulation results show that when the modulation index is 0.1 and 0.3, Seg9_VSVPWM continuously presents narrow pulses less than 2 μs at the boundary between sectors F and A with 672 and 219 times within 1 s. When the modulation index is 0.5, Seg13_VSVPWM would produce the narrowest pulses and accumulate 1 102 times within 1s. However, when the modulation index is 0.1, the proposed LH_VSVPWM eliminates the narrow pulse by optimizing the vector sequence. In addition, LH_VSVPWM has the fewest switching action times in the modulation index of 0.3 and 0.5, which is 5 836 and 5 875 times in 1s, respectively. Meanwhile, the proposed strategy performs well in limiting narrow pulses, occurring only 11 and 32 times within 1 s. The experimental results further demonstrate that LH_VSVPWM can effectively suppress the narrow pulse and keep the minimum pulse width above 6 μs in low modulation index region. Moreover, LH_VSVPWM improves the three-level converter’s output current waveform quality, with THD values of 22.24%, 13.78%, and 17.47% in the modulation index of 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5, respectively. It is the lowest among the three modulation strategies. Compared with Seg9_VSVPWM, the proposed LH_VSVPWM keeps the neutral-point potential balanced during motor start.

The following conclusions can be drawn. (1) The discreteness of motor digital control affects the variation characteristics of the voltage reference voltage and sector boundary of VSVPWM, which aggravates the narrow pulse problem. (2) In the low modulation index region of three-level converters, the effective vector durations are short, and the first vector of switching sequence changes between sectors F and A, B and C, and D and E. Therefore, the traditional VSVPWM maximum coding vectors are prone to narrow pulses at the boundary of these sectors. (3) The proposed method effectively suppresses the narrow pulse and reduces the switching times of power devices. Besides, LH_VSVPWM improves output waveform quality and solves the problem of neutral-point potential imbalance during motor startup.