In conventional three-phase PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) current source converter based STATCOM (Static Synchronous Compensator) applications, DC link current is kept constant at a predefined value and the reactive power of STATCOM is controlled by varying modulation index. This control strategy causes unnecessary power losses especially when the reactive power of STATCOM is low. For this purpose, in order to reduce the active power drawn by STATCOM, the modulation index can be maximized by adjusting DC link current. Within the scope of this thesis, an adaptive control of DC link current will be designed and applied to a 0.4kV 50kVAr three phase current source converter based STATCOM so that the power losses can be reduced. The theoretical work will be compared and discussed with the experimental results.

AC/DC adapters mostly employ two-stage topology: Power Factor Correction (PFC) pre-regulation stage followed by an isolated DC/DC converter stage. Low power AC/DC adapters require a small size to be competitive. Among their components, the bulk DC-link capacitor is one of the largest because it should keep the output voltage with low ripple. Also, the size of this capacitor is penalized due to the universal line voltage application. Synchronization through employing leading edge modulation for the first PFC stage and trailing edge modulation for the second DC/DC converter stage can significantly reduce the ripple current and ripple voltage of the DC-link capacitor. Thus, a smaller DC-link capacitance can be used, lowering the cost and size of the AC/DC adapter. Benefits of the synchronous switching scheme were already demonstrated experimentally. However, no mathematical analysis was presented. In this thesis, detailed mathematical analyses in per-unit quantity are given to facilitate the calculation of the DC-link capacitor ripple current reduction with Leading/Trailing Edge Modulation strategies. One of the limitations of leading/trailing edge modulation is that the switching frequencies of the two stages need to be equal to achieve the best reduction of the DC-link capacitor ripple current. The DC-link capacitor ripple current will become larger if the switching frequency of the DC/DC converter is larger than that of the PFC pre-regulator, which blocks us to employ higher frequency for isolated DC/DC converter to reduce its transformer size. This thesis proposed a new Leading/Trailing Edge Modulation strategy to further reduce the DC-link bulk capacitor ripple current when switching frequency of DC/DC converter stage is twice the switching frequency of PFC stage. This proposed pulse width modulation scheme was verified by simulation. Experimental results obtained through digital control based on FPGA are also presented in this thesis.

L'autonomie est, à l'heure actuelle, un des points les plus bloquants des véhicules électriques. Une optimisation du rendement de la chaîne de conversion est donc un objectif primordial. La thèse s'inscrit donc dans un contexte d'efficacité énergétique et d'intégration en électronique de puissance. Il s'agira d'améliorer les rendements de conversion et la puissance massique à la fois par le choix de technologies adaptées et par la conception de structures de conversion optimisées. Dans un premier temps, nous présentons l’impact de l’évolution de la tension de batterie HT sur le choix des technologies de composants de puissance. Différentes architectures de conversion sont également présentées et l’accent est mis sur un convertisseur en particulier : L’onduleur. Puis, nous comparons les relevés expérimentaux à ceux qui peuvent sont fournis par des fabricants pour certains composants et dans certaines conditions de fonctionnement. Ces essais permettent également d’enrichir les données des fabricants. Enfin, nous comparerons l’impact de la montée en tension des batteries HT sur les performances de différentes structures d’onduleurs (2 et 3 niveaux), pour différentes technologies de composants semi-conducteurs de puissance et pour différents points de fonctionnement de la machine associée. / Currently, autonomy of electric vehicles is one of the most blocking points for developing such mean of transport. An optimization of the efficiency of the power train is thus a primordial objective. The thesis is part of a context of energy efficiency and integration in power electronics. This will improve conversion efficiencies and mass power both by the choice of appropriate technologies and design optimized conversion structures. First, we present the impact of the evolution of the HT battery voltage on the choice of power component technologies. Different conversion architectures are also presented and the focus is on a particular converter: The inverter. Then, we compare the experimental records to those that can be supplied by manufacturers for certain components and under certain operating conditions. These tests also make it possible to enrich the data of the manufacturers. Finally, we will compare the impact of the voltage rise of the HT batteries on the performances of various inverter structures (2 and 3 levels), for different technologies of semiconductor power components and for different operating points of the machine associated.

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This work explores how GaN devices and advanced control can improve the power density of battery chargers for the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Gallium nitride (GaN) devices are used to increase switching frequency and shrink passive components. An innovative DC link reduction technique is proposed and several practical design issues are solved. A multi-chip-module (MCM) approach is used to integrate multiple GaN transistors into a package that enables fast, reliable, and efficient switching. The on-resistance and output charge are characterized. In a double pulse test, GaN devices show fast switching speed. The loss estimation based on the characterization results shows a good match with the measurement results of a 500 kHz GaN-based boost converter. Topology selection is conducted to identify candidates for the PHEV charger application. Popular topologies are reviewed, including non-isolated and isolated solutions, and single-stage and two-stage solutions. Since the isolated two-stage solution is more promising, the topologies consisting of an AC/DC front-end converter and an isolated DC/DC converters are reviewed. The identified candidate topologies are evaluated quantitatively. Finally, the topology of a full bridge AC/DC plus dual active bridge DC/DC is selected to build the battery charger prototype for fixed switching-frequency, low loss, and low realization complexity. The DC link capacitor is one of the major power density barriers of the charger, as its size cannot be reduced by increasing the switching frequency. This work proposed a charging scheme to reduce the DC link capacitance by balancing the ripple power from input and output given that the double-line-frequency current causes minor impact to the battery pack in terms of capacity and temperature rise. An in-depth analysis of ripple power balance, with converter loss considered, unveils the conditions of eliminating the low-frequency DC link capacitors. PWM-zero-off charging where the battery is charged by a current at double-line-frequency and DC/DC stage is turned off at the zero level of the waveform, is also proposed to achieve a better tradeoff between the DC link capacitor size and the charger efficiency. The practical design issues are outlined and the solutions are given at different levels of implementations, including the full bridge building block, the AC/DC stage, and the DC/DC stage. The full bridge section focuses on the solution of a reliable driving and sensing circuitry design. The AC/DC stage portion stresses the modulator improvement, which solves the often-reported issues of the current spike at the zero-crossing of the line voltage for the high frequency totem-pole bridgeless converter. In the DAB section, analytical expressions are given to model the converter operation at various operating conditions, which match well with the measurement results. The overall charging-system operation including the seamless transition of bi-directional power flow and the charging-profile control is verified on a laboratory GaN charger prototype at 500 kHz and 1.8 kW with an efficiency of 92.4%. To push the power density, some bulky components including the control board, the cooling system, and the chassis are redesigned. Together with other already-verified building blocks including full bridges, magnetics, and capacitors, a high-density mock-up prototype with 125 W/in3 power density is assembled. / Ph. D.

In this thesis / analysis, design and implementation of a DC-DC converter with active clamp forward topology is presented. The main objective of this thesis is generating a rectified sinusoidal voltage at the output of the converter. This is accomplished by changing the reference signal of the converter. The converter output is applied to an inverter circuit in order to obtain sinusoidal waveform. The zero crossing points of the converter is detected and the inverter drive signals are generated in order to obtain sinusoidal waveform from the output of the converter. Next, the operation of the DC-DC converter and sinusoidal output inverter coupled performance is investigated with resistive and inductive loads to find out how the proposed topology performs. The design is implemented with an experimental set-up and steady state and dynamic performance of the designed power supply is tested. Finally an evaluation of how better performance can be obtained from this kind of arrangement to obtain a sinusoidal output inverted is thoroughly discussed

This thesis presents a parallel-series two-bridge DC/DC converter topology with the ability to operate with ZVS over a wide input and load range. The intended application is power conditioning systems (PCS) of photovoltaic (PV) arrays used in hybrid renewable energy system architectures. The proposed topology provides two degrees of freedom which allows the PV-PCS to regulate the DC-link voltage, while tracking the maximum power point (MPP) of the PV array. This topology distributes the main power into two bridges and the phase-shift between the two bridges and provides another degree of freedom for the PCS to track the MPP. The proposed topology is also able to achieve soft-switching over a wide range. The power conditioning system shows a modular structure to efficiently transfer the power to the load as the main power is divided between two bridges. In addition, the proposed control scheme provides complete decoupling between the input side controller from the output side controller in order to perform MPPT and regulate the the DC-link voltage simultaneously. A 2kW Experimental prototype has been provided to validate the feasibility and performance of the converter. Experimental results prove that the converter is able to regulate the DC-link voltage and track the maximum power extracted from the PV array simultaneously. / Thesis (Master, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2012-04-18 19:51:43.405

In variable speed motor drive and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) applications, taditional method is to employ some kind of a modulation technique at a high frequency typically 6 kHz to 20 kHz range. In these modulation techniques, the switches are hard switched. The result is application of a series of pulses to the load, and if the load is inductive, sine wave current flows into the load. Hard and rapid switching causes a voltage waveform with a very high dv/dt (rate of change in voltage) causing high EMI problems, reduced life expectancy of the motor and additional losses. So a power supply generating pure sinusoidal voltage waveform is very desirable. In industry some low pass filters called sinusoidal filters, are used at the output of the inverters but this comes with additional cost and bulky filter elements. In this study, a novel approach for generating power level sinusoidal waveforms is proposed. The basic structure is a DC-DC converter that produces a rectified DC-link at its output and an H-bridge inverter that inverts the rectified sinusoids to form a sinusoidal voltage. Main advantages of the circuit are that the H-bridge inverter switches have no switching stresses, they are switched at low frequency so the reliability is increased. Throughout the study different circuit topologies have been investigated and the analysis of the chosen topologies is supported with computer simulations. The system is then set up in the laboratory. In order to prove of the concept, only a single phase inverter has been investigated at steady state conditions. Efficiency, distortion level, magnitude error and device stresses have been obtained. The results indicate that the proposed configuration is very promising.

DC power systems have a constant DC-link voltage, as well as the advantages such as high stability, high efficiency, small size and light weight; therefore, they are widely used in stand-alone power systems, e.g. the power systems in aircrafts and automobiles, isolated wind power generation systems, etc. Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Generators (PMSGs) possess the advantages including high power density, high efficiency, and high control precision, and have obtained great attention and have been widely used in military, inductry, and daily life. Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) rectifier has been one of the main power conversion topologies thanks to its full controllability. The key point in the dissertation is to study the DC power system consisting of a PMSG to be the main power input device and a PWM rectifier to be the main power conversion topology. The objective of control is to output a constant DC-link voltage in a wide PMSG speed range. Since the PM-excited flux linkage is constant, when the PMSG is working at a high speed, field-weakening is needed to stabilize the stator voltage, further to stabilize the DC-link voltage. Hybrid excitation may be used to realize the field-weakening, but it has complex structure; no auxiliary devices are needed in the field regulation with the armature current, and can be easily realized with the PWM recifier and field-regulation control strategies. In this dissertation, the typical applications of the DC power systems are first introduced, with a comprehensive analysis and elaboration on the relevant research throughout the world. The research work is focused on the DC power system and its stabilization control, which is composed of a PMSG and a PWM rectifier. The involved research content in this dissertation includes the following aspects: 1. DC power system design with a wide-speed-range PMSGAs for the common DC power systems, PMSG with high power density, high efficiency is selected to the system power input device, usually with a variable-speed prime mover. The PWM rectifier with fully controlled switches is chosen to be the power conversion topology, which converts the AC power generated by PMSG into DC power, and supplies the DC load after the DC filter. The matching between the system requirements and the generator parameters are determined. Through finite-element analysis (FEA), a PMSG with strong field-weakening ability and suitable for wide-speed-range operation has been designed and manufactured, and the system test bench has been built based on dSPACE. 2. Study, analysis, optimization and experimental verification of the traditional control strategiesAccording to the PMSG designed in part 1, the DC-link model has been built, as well as the control model of the traditional control strategies, e.g. field-oriented control (FOC), direct torque control (DTC), and the effectiveness of the DC-link voltage stabilization control has been verified in a wide speed range. The theory of active damping has been proposed and analyzed, and has been utilized in the DC-link voltage control. When the load on the DC-link changes, the dynamic response of the DC-link voltage has been greatly accelerated, and it recovers quickly to its reference value. In the meantime, the performance influence of the prime mover speed on the actual system test bench should be considered. Finally, the performance of FOC and DTC has been compared and analyzed. 3. Analysis and experimental verification of the direct voltage control (DVC), and the comparative study of all the studied control strategiesThe derivation process of DVC has been theoretically analyzed: the inner current loops in FOC have been eliminated to obtain the direct voltage field-oriented control (DVFOC); the reference value of d-axis voltage in DVFOC has been replaced by the product of the stator voltage calculated by the speed and the load condition, and the sine value of load angle generated by the DC-link voltage PI controller, in order to form the DVC-1. Further, the DC-link voltage PI controller directly outputs the reference value of load angle and it becomes DVC-2. Finally, the comparative study has been carried out among all the studied control strategies. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Wind turbine modelling using doubly-fed induction generators is a well-known subject. However, studies have tended to focus on optimising the components of the system rather than considering the interaction between the components. This research examines the interaction of the control methods for a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) in a wind turbine application integrating them with the crowbar protection control and DC-link brake control to make the best use of the converter. The controls of the rotor-side and the grid-side converters of the DFIG model are both well established and have been shown to work. Typically the crowbar protection is designed in order to protect the rotor-side converter and the power electronic components of the DFIG system from high currents occurring in the rotor due to the faults. The DC-link brake-overvoltage protection is also designed to prevent the overcharging of the DC-link capacitor placed between the rotor-side converter and the grid-side converter. In order to show that these protection schemes work and with thought can co-ordinate with each other, tests consisting of a number of balanced three-, two- and one-phase voltage sags are applied to the network voltage. The main contributions of this thesis are establishing operational tuning and design limits for the controllers and system subassemblies. This is to minimise the electrical subsystem interaction while maintaining adequate performance, and have an improved DC-link control. This work also includes a full electrical system study of the wind turbine and an essential literature review on significant references in the field of the DFIG wind turbine system modelling, control and protection. Specifically this research project makes a number of novel contributions to the literature: enhanced DC voltage control including operating point sensitivity analysis and dynamic stiffness assessment, sensitivity and robustness analyses of the power loop control and control loop segmentation by appropriately tuning the controller loops.