Control of circulating current in two parallel three-phase boost rectifiers

One unique feature in parallel three-phase converters is a potential zero-sequence circulating current. To avoid the circulating current, most present technology uses an isolation approach, such as transformers or separate power supplies. This paper proposes a parallel system where individual converters connect both AC and DC sides directly without additional passive components to reduce size and cost of the overall parallel system. In this case, the control of the circulating current becomes an important objective in the converter design. This paper: (1) develops an averaged model of the parallel converters based on a phase-leg averaging technique; (2) a zero-sequence model is then developed to predict the dynamics of the zero-sequence current; (3) based on the zero-sequence model, this paper introduces a new control variable, which is associated with space-vector modulation; (4) a strong zero-sequence current control loop is designed to suppress the circulating current; and (5) simulation and experimental results validate the developed model and the proposed control scheme.     

A multiphase series-resonant converter with a new topology and areduced number of thyristors

Multiphase series resonant (SR) power converters provide a flexible way to transform power between a utility grid and a multiphase load or source. The current implementations all suffer from a high component count, which makes the use of these power converters unattractive from an economical point of view. A new topology for multiphase SR power converters has been proposed in the literature in a simulation context. This topology uses half the number of power semiconductors compared to the existing multiphase SR power converters. The present paper addresses the implementation of the new topology in a prototype power converter. The old and new topologies are presented. The operation of the new topology is explained. In the new topology the resonant circuit is grounded at one side, which compared to the old topology imposes a restriction on the operation. The paper shows both simulation data and measured waveforms. It is explained that the economical gain due to the reduction in component count is offset by a lower power rating. The paper finishes with conclusions and acknowledgments     

A different approach to implement an active input current shaper

In recent years, several AC/DC converters have been presented in order to meet the power quality regulations, while maintaining the lowest number of components with the purpose of minimizing the cost and complexity; for this purpose the active input current shaping technique was proposed. A new active input current shaper (AICS) is presented. Differently from the traditional series AICS, the proposed scheme connects the auxiliary output of the main converter in parallel with the rectified AC mains instead of the series connection. The proposed parallel scheme demands a current with a low harmonic content where the standard specifications are fulfilled. The operation, simulation, and experimental results of the proposed scheme are presented.     

A simple input current wave-shaping technique for three-phase diode and SCR converters

Three-phase converters using diode or silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) are widely employed to convert the commercial AC supply to DC. Such converters inject harmonics into the power supply system and thereby distort supply system voltage waveform. A simple input current wave-shape improvement technique using a shunt-connected harmonic current compensator is presented in this work, intended to reduce the total harmonic distortion (THD) of input current of three-phase diode and SCR phase-controlled rectifiers operating with inductive loads, by matching them to the specific converter as a combined package. The compensator proposed here comprises of a three-limb voltage source converter using insulated-gate bipolar transistor, working on instantaneous current and voltage measurements of the compensator only and not of the load. The technique uses a simple feedforward control for AC source current harmonic compensation of rectifiers without monitoring the AC line currents, i.e. use of online computation. The proposed system is simulated and tested on a laboratory prototype. The measured input current THD values without additional line filters are found to be below 8.3%, which is within acceptable limits, proving that the new technique is capable of compensating predetermined current harmonics of diode or SCRs.     

A review of three-phase improved power quality AC-DC converters

Three-phase AC-DC converters have been developed to a matured level with improved power quality in terms of power-factor correction, reduced total harmonic distortion at input AC mains, and regulated DC output in buck, boost, buck-boost, multilevel, and multipulse modes with unidirectional and bidirectional power flow. This paper presents an exhaustive review of three-phase improved power quality AC-DC converters (IPQCs) configurations, control strategies, selection of components, comparative factors, recent trends, their suitability, and selection for specific applications. It is aimed at presenting a state of the art on the IPQC technology to researchers, designers, and application engineers dealing with three-phase AC-DC converters. A classified list of around 450 research articles on IPQCs is also appended for a quick reference.     

Modeling, control and implementation of three-phase PWM converters

Three-phase voltage- and current-source converters are the building blocks of a great number of power electronic systems. The origin of difficulties in the control of the above converters is in their nonlinear nature. In this paper, a novel modeling technique is introduced to derive the linear models of the converters from the nonlinear transformations of the conventional nonlinear models. Then, based on the derived linear models, a high-performance linear controller with satisfactory performances is designed. The bold feature of the new model is the independence of the controller design from the operating point. A DSP-based control system has been built in the lab to verify the performance of the new models and the control algorithm. The simulation and experimental results are in close agreement. The results show that the DC term and the AC-side reactive power can be controlled independently in less than one cycle.     

New control scheme of three-phase PWM AC/DC converter without phase angle detection under the unbalanced input voltage conditions

In general, three-phase PWM AC/DC power converters have been implemented in the synchronous frame model to eliminate steady state errors effectively and to obtain fast transient response characteristics. However, controllers designed in such way would have input current harmonics and DC-link voltage ripples under the unbalanced input voltage conditions due to the assumption of the balanced input voltage conditions. This paper describes a new control scheme to minimize harmonic distortions of the input current and DC-link voltage in the converter under the unbalanced input voltage. conditions. The synchronous frame input voltage, which is considered as the input side back-EMF component, is regulated pertinently according to the input voltage conditions. The current command is selected to eliminate the reactive power and the second order harmonic component of active power. In this case, the analysis of the input voltage is implemented in the synchronous frame without detecting the phase angle and magnitude of each phase voltage. The proposed control scheme is simple and effectively minimizing the harmonic distortions in the input and output system under the unbalanced input voltage conditions.     

An active power factor correction technique for three-phase dioderectifiers

A novel active power factor correction method for power supplies with three-phase front-end diode rectifiers is proposed and analyzed. The implementation of this method requires the use of an additional single switch boost chopper. The combined front-end converter draws sinusoidal AC currents from the AC source with nearly unity input power factor while operating at a fixed switching frequency. It is shown that when the active input power factor correction stage is also used to regulate the converter DC bus voltage, the converter performance can improve substantially in comparison with the conventional three-phase AC-to-DC converters. These improvements include component count reduction, simplified input synchronization logic requirements, and smaller filter refractive components. Theoretical results are verified experimentally. The proposed method has the disadvantage of substantially increasing the current stresses of the switching devices and the high-frequency ripple content of the prefiltered AC input currents     

变速恒频电源闭环控制系统的设计与仿真

提出了一种小功率变速恒频电源系统的设计方法。在此系统中交流发电机使用永磁同步电机,交直交变换器采用PID加重复的控制策略。这种设计可以明显地减小系统的体积和重量。通过仿真分析可知,电源系统输出电压的频率和幅值恒定,精度高,畸变小。     

三相电压暂变补偿装置控制策略的研究

提出了一种三相电压暂变补偿装置的主电路拓扑。该方案利用线电压对直流母线电容充电,扩大了补偿电压的范围。针对此方案对三相电压暂变进行独立补偿,采用了补偿装置的三角波比较控制方法,通过对比3种常见的控制策略的原理,最终给出了采用能量最优控制法系统的仿真结果和主电路补偿的实验结果。     

An alternative to supply DC voltages with high power factor

AC/DC is one of the most common power conversions in power electronics, DC loads should be fed with a stable and a tight regulated voltage. At the same time, the AC/DC converter should comply with low-frequency harmonic regulation. The classical two-stage AC/DC converters achieve these two objectives, although the overall efficiency is low because the power is processed twice. An alternative solution is presented in this paper. It is based on the division of the input power in two parts, one of them processed only once and keeping a unity power factor. This strategy improves the efficiency and reduces the size of the converter without any complex control scheme. This proposal can be implemented with a great variety of well-known topologies. The experimental results show that this solution is a good tradeoff between efficiency and size     

Extension of inductor voltage control to three-phase buck-typeAC-DC converter

A novel inductor voltage control (IVC) method capable of achieving near unity power factor is being proposed for buck-type AC-DC pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) converters. In this method, the input inductor voltages are kept within a hysteresis band about a sinusoidal template, thus ensuring sinusoidal input currents. This control method is much less sensitive to parameter and control variations than the existing delta modulation control (DMC) method. A companion paper has introduced the IVC method for the case of a single-phase buck-type converter. In the present paper, problems involved in direct extension of the IVC method to a three-phase buck converter are discussed first. Following this, a new switching logic scheme is proposed which enables these problems to be overcome and for IVC (as well as DMC) to be extended to a three-phase converter as well. Detailed simulation and experimental results have been provided to verify the expected good performance with IVC. The proposed IVC method has potential in applications such as those requiring AC-DC rectifiers with current limiting     

Sliding mode multilevel control for improved performances in powerconditioning systems

A novel control technique has been devised to obtain high dynamics responses from a multilevel power conditioning converter. The theory of variable structure control systems with sliding mode has been followed, taking into account several problems that may be encountered in space environments. The analytical study made provides general tools to design AC power conditioning systems for any application. The new control scheme, its mathematical analysis and digital simulation results relevant to a 115 V/400 Hz AC power system are presented and discussed     

Modified Pulse-Adjustment Technique to Control DC/DC Converters Driving Variable Constant-Power Loads

Multiconverter-distributed DC architectures have been utilized for power distribution in many applications such as telecommunication systems, sea and undersea vehicles, an international space station, aircraft, electric vehicles, hybrid-electric vehicles, and fuel-cell vehicles, where reliability is of prime concern. The number of power-electronic converters (AC/DC, DC/DC, DC/AC, and AC/AC) in these multiconverter electrical power systems varies from a few converters in a conventional land vehicle, to tens of converters in an advanced aircraft, and to hundreds of converters in the international space station. In these advanced applications, power-electronic converters might need to have a tight output-voltage regulation. From the output perspective, this property is highly desirable. However, since power-electronic converters are efficient, tight regulation of the output makes the converter appear as a constant-power load (CPL) at its input side. Dynamic behavior of CPLs is equivalent to negative impedance and, therefore, can result in instability of the interconnected power system. In order to mitigate the instability of the power converters loaded by CPLs, this paper presents the pulse-adjustment digital control technique. It is simple and easy to implement in application-specific integrated circuits, digital-signal processors, or field-programmable gate arrays. Moreover, its dynamic response is fast and robust. Line and load regulations are simply achievable using this technique. Analytical, as well as simulation and experimental results of applying the proposed method to a DC/DC buck-boost converter confirm the validity of the presented technique.     

Soft-switched DC/DC converter with PWM control

In this paper, a new power converter with two variations is proposed. A novel asymmetrical pulse-width-modulation (PWM) control scheme is used to control the power converter under constant switching frequency operation. The modes of operation for both variations are discussed. The DC characteristics, which can be used in the design of the power converters, are also presented. Two 50 W power converters were built to verify the characteristics of the converters. Due to the zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) operation of the switches and low device voltage and current stresses, these power converters have high full- and partial-load efficiencies. They are, therefore, potential candidates for high-efficiency high-density power supply applications     

A novel three-phase single-stage distributed power inverter

In this paper, a novel three-phase, DC/AC converter suitable for distributed power applications is proposed. The system consists of three DC/DC boost converters with a common point and operating as a three-phase inverter with intrinsic step-up capability. The converter obtained can invert, amplify and, where possible, regenerate bidirectional power sources such as fuel-cells, small gas turbines, and photovoltaic arrays. There are two main advantages to the system: the use of only six insulated gate bipolar transistors and small passive elements, and the fact that it does not need reverse voltage blocking capability. Simulation and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed system during both steady-state and dynamic operations.     

A Novel Driving Scheme for Synchronous Rectifiers in LLC Resonant Converters

This paper proposes a novel synchronous rectifier (SR) driving scheme for resonant converters. It is very suitable for high-frequency, high-efficiency, and high-power-density dc–dc resonant converters with SRs. In this paper, an LLC resonant converter with the proposed synchronous rectification is designed and analyzed. With the proposed driving scheme, the SR body diode conduction is reduced to almost zero. The driving scheme eliminates the reverse-recovery problem of SRs. Both current and voltage stresses are greatly decreased, and the conduction loss and switching loss of SRs are also reduced considerably. The experimental results show that the proposed LLC resonant converter with SRs can achieve low stress, high efficiency, and high power density.      

Analysis and performance characteristics of three-phase, thyrode ACvoltage controllers

A generalized approach based on numerical evaluation of the Fourier coefficients is used to determine the performance of three-phase phase-controlled thyrode AC voltage controllers. Balanced resistive and inductive loads of different power factors are considered. Various electrical properties are computed and compared graphically for different circuit configurations. It is found that although the branch-controlled delta-connected load gives the highest distortion and power factors, it offers limited control of input power. The line-controlled star-connected circuit offers full range of power control, a simple control scheme over a wider range of firing angle retardation, and good distortion and power factors. For applications where even harmonics can be tolerated in the line currents, such a controller has superior performance characteristics compared to that of the conventional thyristor voltage controller of similar configuration     

Benchmark of power packaging for DC/DC and AC/DC converters

This paper presents the first reported final results of a benchmarking project "StatPEP" which investigated the Status of Power Electronic Packaging used in commercial DC/DC and AC/DC switch mode power supplies. The methodology of the project is first described. Some of the salient results of a comprehensive benchmarking of DC/DC converters (rated power of 100 W) and AC/DC converters (rated power up to 576 W) are presented. Examples for figures-of-merit are presented. The results of the investigation are presented in a generic form, which does not identify individual products. A comparison of the performance of the units shows that the measured power density of the AC/DC units is approximately 10% that of the DC/DC while the thermal density based on footprint is 50%. Also the switching frequency of the AC/DC is 50% that of the DC/DC. Some of the reasons for these differences are discussed     

PSPICE simulation of three-phase inverters by means of switchingfunctions

Static power converters can be analyzed by means of widely available circuit simulation software packages such as PSPICE. However, they are usually modeled as a set of real switches, which results in long execution times and possible convergence problems in the case of complex circuits. This paper proposes macromodels to simulate three-phase power converters on such packages. The proposed macromodels are based on converter switching functions rather than actual circuit configuration, and they are suited for steady state and large signal transient analysis at system level. In this approach, voltage source inverters (VSI), current source inverters (CSI), and controlled rectifiers (CR) are simulated as multiport networks avoiding the physical nonlinear micromodels of the power switches. Computer memory and the run-times required for the simulation are thereby minimized. Complete examples of VSI, CSI and CR, with different PWM techniques, are given with specific reference to the PSPICE software to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed models