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A novel torque control algorithm, which adopts a two-phase excitation, is proposed to improve the performance of the Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) drive. By exciting two adjacent phases instead of single phase, the changing rate and the magnitude of the phase currents are much reduced. Therefore the existing problems caused by the single-phase excitation such as large torque ripple during commutation, increased audible noise and fatigue of the rotor shaft are mitigated. The electromagnetic torque is efficiently distributed to each phase by the proposed Torque Distribution Function (TDF) that also compensates the effects of mutual coupling. To describe the effects of mutual coupling between phases, a set of voltage and torque equations is newly derived for the two-phase excitation. Parameters of the SRM are obtained by Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and verified by measurements. It is shown that the mutual inductance of two adjacent phases partly contributes to generate the electromagnetic torque and introduces coupling between two adjacent phases in the current or flux linkage control loop, which has been neglected in the single-phase excitation. The dynamics of the current or flux linkage loop are coupled and nonlinear due to the mutual inductance between two adjacent phases and the time varying nature of inductance. Each phase current or flux linkage needs to be controlled precisely to achieve the required performance. A feedback linearizing current controller is proposed to linearize and decouple current control loop along with a gain scheduling scheme to maintain performance of the current control loop regardless of rotor position as well as a feedback linearizing flux linkage controller. Finally, to reduce current or flux linkage ripple, a unipolar switching strategy is proposed. The unipolar switching strategy effectively doubles the switching frequency without increasing the actual switching frequency of the switches. This contributes to the mitigation of current or flux linkage ripple and hence to the reduction of the torque ripple. / Ph. D.

In recent decades there has been a rapidly growing demand for high quality, uninterrupted power. In light of this fact, this study has addressed some of the causes of poor power quality and control strategies to ensure a high performance level in inverter-fed power systems. In particular, specific loading conditions present interesting challenges to inverter-fed, high power systems. No-load, unbalanced loading, and non-linear loading each have unique characteristics that negatively influence the performance of the Voltage Source Inverter (VSI). Ideal, infinitely stiff power systems are uninfluenced by loading conditions; however, realistic systems, with finite output impedances, encounter stability issues, unbalanced phase voltage, and harmonic distortion. Each of the loading conditions is presented in detail with a proposed control strategy in order to ensure superior inverter performance. Simulation results are presented for a 90 kVA, 400 Hz VSI under challenging loading conditions to demonstrate the merits of the proposed control strategies. Unloaded or lightly loaded conditions can cause instabilities in inverter-fed power systems, because of the lightly damped characteristic of the output filter. An inner current loop is demonstrated to damp the filter poles at light load and therefore enable an increase in the control bandwidth by an order of magnitude. Unbalanced loading causes unequal phase currents, and consequently negative sequence and zero sequence (in four-wire systems) distortion. A proposed control strategy based on synchronous and stationary frame controllers is shown to reduce the phase voltage unbalance from 4.2% to 0.23% for a 100%-100%-85% load imbalance over fundamental positive sequence control alone. Non-linear loads draw harmonic currents, and likewise cause harmonic distortion in power systems. A proposed harmonic control scheme is demonstrated to achieve near steady state errors for the low order harmonics due to non-linear loads. In particular, the THD is reduced from 22.3% to 5.2% for full three-phase diode rectifier loading, and from 11.3% to 1.5% for full balanced single-phase diode rectifier loading, over fundamental control alone. / Master of Science

Fuel cells have the potential to provide clean power for a variety of uses including stand-alone residential power. But to increase the acceptance of fuel cells for off-grid generation, the cost of the energy management system must be greatly reduced. Of the many ways to accomplish this, this paper looks at reducing cost through topology changes and elimination of current sensors. A dual 2.5kW non-isolated bidirectional boost converter is designed and analyzed. The various bidirectional boost topologies are compared on cost and ability to meet the specifications. A sensorless average current mode is designed, implemented and verified through testing in a low-cost fixed-point DSP. Both boost and buck modes are accurately modeled and voltage and current controllers are designed for good closed-loop response. The accuracy of the sensorless average current measurement is investigated in both modes of operation. A classical dual-loop controller is implemented in boost mode with the sensorless average current and in buck mode, a dual controller operating in either current or voltage mode is implemented. The design is verified through testing in boost and buck mode and it is shown that the results are acceptable. / Master of Science

As ondulações na corrente do estator e o forte impacto de erros em parâmetros são apontados como desvantagens do controle preditivo finite control-set (FCS) quando aplicado no controle de máquinas elétricas trifásicas. Neste contexto, o objetivo deste trabalho é propor métodos para aprimorar tanto o desempenho em regime permanente quanto à robustez frente a erros paramétricos do controle preditivo de corrente, conhecido como model predictive current control (MPCC). No presente trabalho são propostas as abordagens MPCC baseada na aplicação de dois e três vetores de tensão durante o mesmo período de controle com intuito de aprimorar o desempenho do controle preditivo de corrente, sem a necessidade de elevar a frequência de amostragem do sistema. Os princípios para escolha dos vetores ótimos e seus respectivos tempos de aplicação são baseados nas expressões para controle desacoplado de torque e fluxo do FOC e no princípio de funcionamento do deadbeat. A robustez paramétrica é garantida por meio de um observador de distúrbios discreto incorporado ao método de controle MPCC. Com a estimação dos impactos causados por variações de parâmetros e dinâmicas não modeladas é possível corrigir os erros dos sistema de controle, mas mantendo-se as suas características transitórias e de regime permanente. Resultados de simulação computacional bem como resultados obtidos em bancada de ensaios experimentais são apresentados para avaliação e comprovação das propostas. / Ripples in the stator current and the strong impact of errors in parameters are pointed as disadvantages of the predictive control when applied in the control of three-phase electric machines. In this context, the objective of this work is to propose methods to improve both the steady-state performance and the robustness against parametric errors of the current predictive control, known as MPCC. In the present work the MPCC approaches are proposed based on the application of two and three voltage vectors during the same control period in order to improve the performance of the current predictive control, without the need to raise the sampling frequency of the system. The principles for choosing the optimal vectors and their respective duration are based on the expressions for FOC method and on the concept of deadbeat operation. In addition, the impact of errors on parameters is minimized by means of a discrete disturbance observer embedded in the MPCC control method. With the estimation of the impacts caused by changes of parameters and not modeled dynamics it is possible to correct the errors of the control system, but keeping their transient and steady state characteristics. Results of computational simulation as well as results obtained in experimental tests are presented for evaluation and proof of the proposals.

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.

Recent advances in power electronics have lead to the wide spread adoption of advanced power supplies and energy efficient devices. This has lead to increased levels of harmonic currents in power systems, degrading the performance of electrical machinery and interfering with telecommunication services. Active filters provide a solution to these problems by compensating for the distorted currents drawn by non-linear loads. Optimal methods for controlling these active filters have been determined by computer simulation and experimental implementation. Methods used for isolating the harmonic content of an unbalanced three phase load current were compared by computer simulations. A technique based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) was developed as part of this work and shown to perform favourably. Notch Filtering, Sinusoidal Subtraction, Instantaneous Reactive Power Theory, Synchronous Reference Frame and Fast Fourier Transform methods were simulated. The methods shown to be suitable for compensation of three phase unbalanced loads were implemented in a Digital Signal Processor to evaluate true performance. These methods were Notch Filtering, Sinusoidal Subtraction, Fast Fourier Transform, and a High Pass Filter based method. A completely digital hysteresis current controller for a three phase active filter inverter has been developed and implemented with a Field Programmable Gate Array. This controller interfaces directly to a digital signal processor and is resistant to electromagnetic interference. Results from the experimental hardware verified that the active filter model used for simulation is accurate, and may be used for further development of harmonic isolation methods. A technique using notch filtering gives the best performance for steady loads, with the FFT based technique giving the most flexible operation for a range of load current characteristics. Novel use of the FFT based harmonic isolation technique allows selective cancellation of individual harmonics, with particular application to multiple shunt filters connected in parallel.

The permanent magnet switched reluctance motor (PMSRM) is hybrid dc motor which has the potential to be more effect than the switched reluctance (SRM) and permanent magnet (PM) motors. The PMSRM has a both a salient rotor and stator with permanent magnets placed directly onto the face of common pole stators. The PMSRM is wound like the SRM and can be controlled by the same family of converters. The addition of permanent magnets creates nonlinearities in both the governing electrical and mechanical equations which differentiate the PMSRM from all other classes of electric motors. The primary goal of this thesis is to develop a cohesive and comprehensive control strategy for the PMSRM so as to demonstrate its operation and highlight its efficiency. The control of the PMSRM starts with understanding its region of operation and the underlying torque production of the motor. The selection of operating region is followed by a both linear and nonlinear electrical modeling of the motor and the design of current controllers for the PMSRM. The electromechanical model of the motor is dynamically simulated with the addition of a closed loop speed controller. The speed controller is extended to add an efficiency searching algorithm which finds the operating condition with the highest efficiency online. / Master of Science

Within the past decade, talk has arisen of shifting the utility grid from centralized, radial sources to a distributed network of sources, also known as distributed generation (DG); in the wake of deregulation, the California energy crisis, and northeastern blackouts. Existing control techniques for DG systems are designed to operate a system either in the connected or disconnected (islanding) mode to the utility; thus not allowing for both modes to be implemented and transitioned between. Existing detection and re-closure algorithms can also be improved upon. Dependent upon the method implemented, detection algorithms can either cause distortions in the output or completely miss a disturbance. The present re-closure process to reconnect to the utility is to completely shutdown and wait five minutes. The proposed methods of this study improve upon existing methods, via simulation and hardware experimentation, for DG systems that can intentionally islanding themselves. The proposed, "switched-mode", control allows for continuous operation of the system during disturbances by transitioning the mode of control to reflect the change in the system mode (grid-connected or islanding). This allows for zero downtimes without detrimental transients. The proposed detection method can sense disturbances that other methods cannot; and within 25 ms (approximately 1.5 line-cycles at 60 Hz). This method is an improvement over other methods because it eliminates the need to purposely distort the outputs to sense a disturbance. The proposed re-closure method is an improvement over the existing method due to the fact that it does not require the system to de-energize before re-synchronizing and reconnecting to the utility. This allows for DGs to continuously supply power to the system without having to shut down. Results show that the system is generally ready to reconnect after 2 to 5 line cycles. / Master of Science

Current control is an important topic in modern power electronics system. For voltage source inverters, current control loop ensures the waveform quality at steady state and the fast response at transient state. To improve the current control performance, quite a few nonlinear control strategies have been presented and one well-known strategy is the hysteresis current control. It achieves fast response without stability issue and it has high control precision. However, for voltage source inverter applications, hysteresis current control has a wide switching frequency range, which introduces additional switching loss and impacts the design of harmonic filter. Other nonlinear current control strategies include one-cycle control, non-linear carrier control, peak current control, charge control, and so on. However, these control strategies are just suitable for specific topologies and it cannot be directly used by voltage source inverters. The recently proposed parabolic current control solves the frequency variation problem of hysteresis current control by employing a pair of parabolic carriers as the control band. By the use of parabolic current control, approximate-constant switching frequency can be achieved. Due to the cycle-by-cycle control structure, it inherently has fast response speed and high precision. These advantages make it suitable for voltage source inverters, including stand-alone inverters, grid connected inverters, active power filters, and power factor correction applications. However, parabolic current control has some limitations, such as dead-time effects, only working as bipolar PWM, complex hardware implementation, non-ideal converging speed. These problems are respectively solved in this dissertation and solutions include dead-time compensation, the implementation on dual-carrier unipolar PWM, sensorless parabolic current control, single-step current control. With the proposed dead-time compensation strategy, current control precision is improved and stable duty-cycle range are extended. Dual-carrier PWM implementation of parabolic current control has smaller harmonic filter size and lower power loss. Sensorless parabolic current control decreases the cost of system and enhances the noise immunity capability. Single-step current control pushes the convergence speed to one switching operation with simple implementation. High switching frequency is allowed and power density can be improved. Detailed analysis, motivation and experimental verification of all these innovations are covered in this dissertation. In addition, the duality phenomenon exists in electrical circuits, such as Thevenin's theorem and Norton's theorem, capacitance and inductance. These associated pairs are called duals. The dual of parabolic current control is derived and named parabolic voltage control. Parabolic voltage control solves the audible noise problem of burst mode power converters and maintains high efficiency in the designed boost converter. / Ph. D.