Several space vector modulation schemes have been analyzed for three-leg and four-leg voltage source inverters. The analysis is performed with respect to a) switching losses, b) total harmonic distortion, c) peak-to-peak ripple in the line current and d) the ease of digital implementation. The analysis is performed over the entire range of modulation index and for varying load power factors (leading and lagging) under both balanced and unbalanced load conditions. The analysis shows that the performance of four-leg inverters is similar to three-leg inverters for various space vector modulation schemes. The analysis also verifies the fact that a modulation scheme with good harmonic performance usually has high switching losses and vice-versa. The analysis is verified using simulation and experiments. A novel algorithm for the calculation of total harmonic distortion of PWM signals has been proposed. / Master of Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-107). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

This dissertation covers three levels of issues and solutions dealing with unbalanced and/or nonlinear situations in power electronic systems, namely power converter level, power converter system level, and large-scale power electronics system level. At power converter level, after review of traditional PWM methods, especially two-dimensional space vector modulation schemes, three-dimensional space vector modulation schemes are proposed for four-legged voltage source converters, including inverters and rectifiers. The four-legged power converters with three-dimensional space vector modulation schemes have a better DC link voltage utilization and result in a low distortion. It is an effective solution to provide the neutral point for a three-phase four-wire system and to handle the neutral current due to unbalanced load or source and nonlinear loads. Comprehensive design guidelines for a four-legged inverter are presented. The four-legged rectifier is also presented which allows not only fault tolerant operation, but also provides the flexibility of equal resistance, equal current, or equal power operation under unbalanced source. Average large-signal models of four-legged power converters in both the a-b-c and d-q-o coordinates are derived. Small signal models are obtained in the d-q-o rotating coordinates. Voltage control loops are designed in the d-q-o coordinates for a high power utility power supply. Performance is studied under various load conditions. At the power converter system level, the load conditioner concept is proposed for high power applications. A power converter system structure is proposed which consists of a high-power low-switching frequency main inverter and a low-power high-switching frequency load conditioner. The load conditioner performs multiple functions, such as active filtering, active damping, and active decoupling with a high current control bandwidth. This hybrid approach allows the overall system to achieve high performance with high power and highly nonlinear loads. At the large-scale power electronics system level, the nonlinear loading effect of load converters is analyzed for a DC distribution system. Two solutions to the nonlinear loading effect are presented. One is to confine the nonlinear load effect with the sub-converter system, the other is to use a DC bus conditioner. The DC bus conditioner is the extension of the load conditioner concept. / Ph. D.

Variable speed drive technology has advanced dramatically in the last 10 years with the advent of new power devices. In this study, a three phase induction motor drive using Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) at the inverter power stage is introduced to implement speed and position control for the revolving stage in the Frederic Wood Theatre This thesis presents a solution to control a 3-phase induction motor using the Texas Instruments (TI) Digital Signal Processor (DSP) TMS320F2407A. The use of this DSP yields enhanced operations, fewer system components, lower system cost and increased efficiency. The control algorithm is based on the constant volts-per-hertz principle because the exact speed control is not needed. Reflective object sensors which are mounted on concrete frame are used to detect accurate edge position of revolving stage. The sinusoidal voltage waveforms are generated by the DSP using the space vector modulation technique. In order to satisfy some operating conditions for safe and agreeable operation, a look-up table, which is used to give command voltage and speed signals in software, is applied to limit the maximum speed and acceleration of the revolving stage. Meanwhile, a boost voltage signal is added at the low frequency areas to make the motor produce maximum output torque when starting. A test prototype is then built to validate the performance. Several tests are implemented into the IGBT drive to explore the reason for unacceptable oscillations in IGBT’s gate control signals. Improvement methods in hardware layout are suggested for the final design.

Variable speed drive technology has advanced dramatically in the last 10 years with the advent of new power devices. In this study, a three phase induction motor drive using Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) at the inverter power stage is introduced to implement speed and position control for the revolving stage in the Frederic Wood Theatre This thesis presents a solution to control a 3-phase induction motor using the Texas Instruments (TI) Digital Signal Processor (DSP) TMS320F2407A. The use of this DSP yields enhanced operations, fewer system components, lower system cost and increased efficiency. The control algorithm is based on the constant volts-per-hertz principle because the exact speed control is not needed. Reflective object sensors which are mounted on concrete frame are used to detect accurate edge position of revolving stage. The sinusoidal voltage waveforms are generated by the DSP using the space vector modulation technique. In order to satisfy some operating conditions for safe and agreeable operation, a look-up table, which is used to give command voltage and speed signals in software, is applied to limit the maximum speed and acceleration of the revolving stage. Meanwhile, a boost voltage signal is added at the low frequency areas to make the motor produce maximum output torque when starting. A test prototype is then built to validate the performance. Several tests are implemented into the IGBT drive to explore the reason for unacceptable oscillations in IGBT’s gate control signals. Improvement methods in hardware layout are suggested for the final design.

Variable speed drive technology has advanced dramatically in the last 10 years with the advent of new power devices. In this study, a three phase induction motor drive using Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) at the inverter power stage is introduced to implement speed and position control for the revolving stage in the Frederic Wood Theatre This thesis presents a solution to control a 3-phase induction motor using the Texas Instruments (TI) Digital Signal Processor (DSP) TMS320F2407A. The use of this DSP yields enhanced operations, fewer system components, lower system cost and increased efficiency. The control algorithm is based on the constant volts-per-hertz principle because the exact speed control is not needed. Reflective object sensors which are mounted on concrete frame are used to detect accurate edge position of revolving stage. The sinusoidal voltage waveforms are generated by the DSP using the space vector modulation technique. In order to satisfy some operating conditions for safe and agreeable operation, a look-up table, which is used to give command voltage and speed signals in software, is applied to limit the maximum speed and acceleration of the revolving stage. Meanwhile, a boost voltage signal is added at the low frequency areas to make the motor produce maximum output torque when starting. A test prototype is then built to validate the performance. Several tests are implemented into the IGBT drive to explore the reason for unacceptable oscillations in IGBT’s gate control signals. Improvement methods in hardware layout are suggested for the final design. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of / Graduate

Three-phase voltage source inverters are increasingly employed in power systems and industrial applications. Various pulse width modulation strategies have been applied to control the voltage source inverters. This dissertation presents a hybrid 2D-3D space vector modulation algorithm for three-phase voltage source inverters with both three-wire and four-wire topologies. The voltage magnitude and phase angle of the inverters fundamental output phase voltage are precisely controlled under either balanced or unbalanced load conditions, and hence, the space vector algorithm offers synchronization controllability over generation control in distributed generation systems. The numerical efficiency and simplicity of the proposed algorithm are validated through conducting MATLAB/Simulink simulations and hardware experiments. Mathematical description and harmonic analyses of output phase voltages of three-phase voltage source inverter which employs a hybrid 2D-3D SVM are presented in this dissertation. Explicit time domain representation of the harmonic components in addition to the total harmonic distortion of the output phase voltages are given in terms of system and switching parameters. The dissertation also investigates the harmonic characteristics and low total harmonic distortion performance against the linearity of modulation region which helps in the harmonic performance and design studies of such inverters employing the hybrid 2D-3D SVM. Experimental results are used to validate these analyses. In addition, the performance and the harmonic contents of the inverter output phase voltage when applying the proposed hybrid 2D-3D SVM are compared to that obtained from conventional 2D SVM and 3D SVM. As a result, the proposed new algorithm shows advantages in terms of low total harmonic distortion and reduced harmonic contents in both three-wire and four-wire systems.

No description available.

Multilevel converters are finding increased attention in industry and academia as the preferred choice of electronic power conversion for high power applications. They have a wide application area in a variety of industries involving transportation and energy management, a significant portion of which comprises of multilevel inverter fed induction motor drives. Multilevel inverters are ideally suitable for high power drives, since the switching frequency of the devices is limited for high power applications. In low power drives, the switching frequency is often in the range of tens of kHz, so that switching frequency harmonics are pushed higher in the frequency spectrum thereby the size and cost of the filter are reduced. But higher switching frequency has its own drawbacks, in particular for high voltage, high power applications. They cause large dv/dt stress on the motor and the devices, increased EMI problems and higher switching losses. An engineering trade-o is thus needed to select the minimum switching frequency without compromising on the output voltage quality. The present work is an alternate approach in this direction. Here, new inverter topologies and PWM strategies are developed that can eliminate a set of harmonics in the phase voltage using 12-sided polygonal space vector diagrams, also called dodecagonal space vector diagrams. A dodecagonal space vector diagram has many advantages over a hexagonal one. Switching space vectors on a dodecagon will not produce any harmonics of the order 6n 1, (n=odd) in the phase voltage. The next set of harmonics thus reside at 12n 1, (n=integer). By increasing the number of samples in a sector, it is also possible to suppress the lower order harmonics and a nearly sinusoidal voltage can be obtained. This is possible to achieve at a low switching frequency of the inverters. At the same time, a dodecagon is closer to a circle than a hexagon; so the linear modulation range is extended by about 6.6% compared to the hexagonal case. For a 50 Hz rated frequency operation, under constant V/f ratio, the linear modulation can be achieved upto a frequency of 48.3 Hz. Also, the harmonics of the order 6n 1, (n=odd) are absent in the over-modulation region. Maximum fundamental voltage is obtained from this inverter at the end of over-modulation region, where the phase voltage becomes a 12-step waveform. The present work is developed on dodecagonal space vector diagrams. The entire work can be summarized and explained through Fig. 1. This figure shows the development of hexagonal and dodecagonal space vector diagrams. It is known that, 3-level and 5-level space vector diagrams have been developed as an improvement over 2-level ones. They Figure 1: Development of hexagonal and dodecagonal space vector diagrams have better harmonic performance, reduced dv/dt stress on the motor and devices, better electromagnetic compatibility and improvement of efficiency over 2-level space vector diagrams. This happens because the instantaneous error between the reference vector and the switching vectors reduces, as the space vector density increases in the diagram. This is shown at the top of the figure. In the bottom part, the development of the dodecagonal space vector diagram is shown, which is the contribution of this thesis work. This is explained in brief in the following lines. Initially, a space vector diagram is proposed which switches on hexagonal space vectors in lower-modulation region and dodecagonal space vectors in the higher modulation region. As the reference vector length increases, voltage vectors at the vertices of the outer dodecagon and the vertices from the outer most hexagon is used for PWM control. This results in highly suppressed 5th and 7th order harmonics thereby improving the harmonic profile of the motor current. This leads to the 12-step operation at rated voltage where all the 5th and 7th order harmonics are completely eliminated. At the same time, the linear range of modulation extends upto 96.6% of base speed. Because of this, and the high degree of suppression of lower order harmonics, smooth acceleration of the motor upto rated speed is possible. The presence of multilevel space vector structure also limits the switching frequency of the inverters. In the next work, the single dodecagonal space vector diagram is improved upon to form two concentric dodecagons spanning the space vector plane (Fig. 1). The radius of the outer dodecagon is double the inner one. It reduces the device rating and the dv/dt stress on the devices to half compared to existing 12-sided schemes. The entire space vector diagram is divided into smaller sized isosceles triangles. PWM switching on these smaller triangles reduces the inverter switching frequency without compromising on the output voltage quality. The space vector diagram is further refined to accommodate six concentric dodecagons in the space vector plane (Fig. 1). Here the space vector diagram is characterized by alternately placed dodecagons which become closer to each other at higher radii. As such the harmonics in the phase voltage are reduced, in particular at higher modulation indices. At the same time, because of the dodecagonal space vector structure, all the 6n ± 1, (n=odd) harmonics are eliminated from the phase voltage. A nearly sinusoidal phase voltage can be generated without resorting to high frequency switching of the inverters. The above space vector diagrams are developed using different inverter circuits. The first work is developed from cascaded combination of three 2-level inverters, while the second and third works use 3-level NPC inverters feeding an open end induction motor drive. The circuit topologies are explained in detail in the respective chapters. Apart from this, PWM switching schemes and detailed analysis on duty cycle calculations using the concept of volt-second balance are also presented. They show that with proper switching schemes, the proposed configurations can substantially reduce the overall loss of the inverter. Other operational issues like capacitor voltage balancing of 3-level NPC inverters and improvement of input current drawn from the grid are also covered. All the above propositions are first simulated by MATLAB and subsequently verified by an experimental laboratory prototype. Motor current waveforms both at steady state and transient conditions during motor acceleration show that the induction motor can be fed from nearly sinusoidal voltage at all operating conditions. Simplified comparative studies are also made with the proposed converters and higher level inverters in terms of output voltage quality and losses. These are some of the constituents for chapters 2, 3 and 4 in this thesis. Additionally, the first chapter also covers a brief survey on some of the recent progresses made in the field of multilevel inverter. The thesis concludes with some interesting ideas for further thought and exploration.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Multilevel converters are being increasingly employed nowadays, specially in mediumand high-voltage industrial applications. Even though these converters are able to synthesize output line-to-line voltages with a high number of levels, close to a sinusoidal waveform, their modulation is more complex than the one for two- and three-level converters. In this context, this dissertation proposes new modulation strategies for multilevel converters, specifically symmetrical and asymmetrical cascaded multilevel ones, composed of many full-bridges, or power cells, per phase. If the converter has one or more faulty cells, they can be bypassed and the converter can continue to feed the load, increasing the process reliability. However, the converter phase voltages must be modified so as to keep the output line-to-line voltages balanced. With the objective of proposing modulation strategies that allow the cascaded multilevel converters to satisfactorily operate under these conditions, an extensive bibliographical review of the existing modulation techniques has been carried out. The carrier-based modulation approaches were studied first. It could be noticed that all these strategies belong to a larger set of solutions for the obtention of the converter modulating phase voltages. This set is derived in this work, resulting in a generalized geometrical modulation strategy for symmetrical and asymmetrical cascaded multilevel converters with any number of levels and operating under normal or faulty conditions. As the faulty cells are restrictions for converter operation, for each fault condition the region that contains all the possible converter common-mode voltages, that compensate for the loss of cells, is derived. The choice of a common-mode pertaining to this set allows the entire converter synthesis capability to be explored. The modulating voltages are the sum of the reference and the common-mode voltages, maximizing the amplitudes of the output line-to-line voltages. For asymmetrical cascaded multilevel converters, the voltages synthesized by the highervoltage cells are restrictions for the operation of the lower-voltage ones. Concerning the Space Vector (SV) modulation, it was derived only for the asymmetrical cascaded multilevel converter. The higher-voltage and lower-voltage cells switch, respectively, with low frequency by the choice of the nearest vector to the reference, and with high frequency, by the choice of the three nearest vectors to the reference, in one switching period. The voltage synthesized by the higher-voltage cells is subtracted from the reference, resulting in the new reference for the lower-voltage cells, and so successively, until the cells with the lowest voltages. A specific switching sequence is defined off-line for each sector of the SV diagram. The algorithm is carried out in a modified αβo coordinate system, resulting in switching vector with only integer entries. The choice of the switching vectors considers all the possible redundancies in abc coordinates. At last, simulation and experimental results Abstract that prove the good performance of the proposed modulation strategies are presented. / Conversores multiníveis são cada vez mais empregados, especialmente em aplicações industriais de média e alta tens~ao. Apesar de serem capazes de sintetizar tensões de linha de saída com um grande número de níveis, se aproximando de uma forma de onda senoidal, sua modulação é mais complexa, quando comparada com conversores de dois ou três níveis. Neste contexto, esta dissertação propõe novas estratégias de modulação para conversores multiníveis, especificamente multiníveis em cascata simétricos e assimétricos, compostos por diversos full-bridges, ou células de potência, por fase. Caso uma ou mais células sofram faltas, estas podem ser retiradas de operação, e o conversor pode continuar a alimentar a carga, aumentando a confiabilidade do processo. Contudo, as tensõe de fase do conversor devem ser modificadas, a fim de manter as tensões de linha de saída equilibradas. Com o objetivo de propor estratégias de modulação que permitam aos conversores multiníveis em cascata operar satisfatoriamente nestas condições, foi realizada uma extensa pesquisa bibliográfica a respeito dos métodos de modulação já existentes na literatura. Primeiramente, foram estudadas estratégias de modulação baseadas em portadora. Pode-se perceber que estas pertencem a um conjunto maior de possíveis soluções para a obtenção das tensões modulantes para as fases do conversor. Este conjunto é derivado neste trabalho, resultando em uma estratégia generalizada de modulação com abordagem geométrica para conversores multiníveis em cascata simétricos e assimétricos com qualquer número de níveis, em operação normal ou sob faltas. Como as células com falta são restrições para o funcionamento do conversor, para cada condição de falta é definida a região que contém todas as possíveis tensões de modo comum que podem ser sintetizadas pelo conversor a fim de compensar a perda de células. A escolha de uma tensão de modo comum pertencente a este conjunto permite explorar toda a capacidade de síntese de tensão do conversor. As tensões modulantes são obtidas como a soma das tensões de referência de fase e de modo comum, maximizando as amplitudes das componentes fundamentais das tensões de linha de saída. Para os conversores multiníveis em cascata assimétricos, as tensões sintetizadas pelas células de maior tensão são restrições para a operação das demais. Quanto à modulação Space Vector (SV), optou-se por desenvolvê-la apenas para conversores multiníveis em cascata assimétricos. As células de alta tensão comutam em baixa frequência pela escolha do vetor mais próximo da referência, e as células de baixa tensão comutam em alta frequência pela escolha dos três vetores mais próximos da referência, em um período de comutação. A tensão sintetizada pelas células de alta tensão é subtraída da referência, resultando na nova referência para as próximas células, e assim sucessivamente até as células de menor tensão. Para cada setor do Resumo diagrama SV é definida off-line uma sequência de comutação específica. O algoritmo implementado realiza todos os cálculos em um sistema de coordenadas αβo modificado, resultando em vetores de comutação apenas com elementos inteiros. A escolha dos vetores de comutação a serem implementados considera todas as suas possíveis redundâncias em coordenadas abc. Por fim, são apresentados resultados de simulação e experimentais que comprovam o ótimo desempenho das estratégias de modulação propostas neste trabalho.