• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.685-694
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• 2016

This paper presents a reliability assessment model for the power semiconductors used in wind turbine power converters. In this study, the thermal loadings at different timescales of wind speed are considered. First, in order to address the influence of long-term thermal cycling caused by variations in wind speed, the power converter operation state is partitioned into different phases in terms of average wind speed and wind turbulence. Therefore, the contributions can be considered separately. Then, in regards to the reliability assessment caused by short-term thermal cycling, the wind profile is converted to a wind speed distribution, and the contribution of different wind speeds to the final failure rate is accumulated. Finally, the reliability of an actual power converter semiconductor for a 2.5 MW wind turbine is assessed, and the failure rates induced by different timescale thermal behavior patterns are compared. The effects of various parameters such as cut-in, rated, cut-out wind speed on the failure rate of power devices are also analyzed based on the proposed model.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.717-730
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• 2016

The harmonic components of grid voltage result in oscillations of the calculated phase obtained via phase synchronization. This affects the security and stability of grid-connected converters. Moving average filter, delayed signal cancellation and their related harmonic elimination algorithms are major methods for such issues. However, all of the existing methods have their limitations in dealing with multiple harmonics issues. Furthermore, few studies have focused on a comparison and evaluation of these algorithms to achieve optimal algorithm selections in specific applications. In this paper, these algorithms are quantitatively analyzed based on the derived mathematical models. Moreover, an enhanced moving average filter and enhanced delayed signal cancellation algorithms, which are applicable for eliminating a group of selective harmonics with only one calculation block, are proposed. On this basis, both a comprehensive comparison and a quantitative evaluation of all of the aforementioned algorithms are made from several aspects, including response speed, required data storage size, sensitivity to sampling frequency, and elimination of random noise and harmonics. With the conclusions derived in this paper, better overall performance in terms of harmonic elimination can be achieved. In addition, experimental results under different conditions demonstrate the validity of this study.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1884-1893
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• 2016

The ride-through control of a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) for the voltage sags on wind farms utilizing crowbar circuits by which the rotor side converter (RSC) is disabled has being reported in many literatures. An analysis and calculation of the transient current when the RSC is switched off are of significance for carrying out the low voltage ride through (LVRT) of a DFIG. The mathematical derivation is highlighted in this paper. The zero-state and zero-input responses of the transient current in the frequency domain through a Laplace transformation are investigated, and the transient components in the time domain are achieved. With the characteristics worked out from the linear resolving without modeling simplification, the selection of the resistance in the linear crowbar circuit and the value conversion from a linear circuit to a nonlinear one is proposed to setup the attenuation rate. In terms of grid code requirements, the theoretical analysis for the time constant of the transient components attenuation insures the controllability when the excitation of the RSC is resumed and it guarantees the reserved time for the response of the reactive power compensation. Simulations are executed in MATLAB/SIMPOWER and experiments are carried out to validate the theoretical analysis. They indicate that the calculation method is effective for selection of the resistance in a crowbar circuit for LVRT operations.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.464-472
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• 2016

This study applies the selective harmonic elimination (SHE) technique to design and operate a regulated AC/DC/AC power supply suitable for maritime military applications and underground trains. The input is a single 50/60 Hz AC voltage, and the output is a 400 Hz regulated voltage. The switching angles for a multi-level inverter and transformer turns ratio are determined to operate with special connected transformers with equal power ratings and produce an almost sinusoidal current. As a result of its capability of directly controlling harmonics, the SHE technique is applicable to apparatus with congenital immunity to specific harmonics, such as series-connected transformers, which are specially designed to equally share the total load power. In the present work, a single-phase 50/60 Hz input source is rectified via a semi-controlled bridge rectifier to control DC voltage levels and thereby regulate the output load voltage at a constant level. The DC-rectified voltage then supplies six single-phase quazi-square H-bridge inverters, each of which supplies the primary of a single-phase transformer. The secondaries of the six transformers are connected in series. Through off-line calculation, the switching angles of the six inverters and the turns ratios of the six transformers are designed to ensure equal power distribution for the transformers. The SHE technique is also employed to eliminate the higher-order harmonics of the output voltage. A digital implementation is carried out to determine the switching angles. Theoretical results are demonstrated, and a scaled-down experimental 600 VA prototype is built to verify the validity of the proposed system.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1950-1963
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• 2016

A novel open-circuit fault diagnosis method for 3-phase 4-wire 3-level active power filters based on voltage error correlation is proposed in this paper. This method is based on observing the output pole voltage error of the active power filter through two kinds of algorithms. One algorithm is a voltage error analytical algorithm, which derives four output voltage error analytic expressions through the pulse state, current value and dc bus voltage, respectively, assuming that all of the IGBTs of a certain phase come to an OC fault. The other algorithm is a current circuit equation algorithm, which calculates the real-time output voltage error through basic circuit theory. A correlation is introduced to measure the similarity of the output voltage errors between the two algorithms, and OC faults are located by the maximum of the correlations. A FPGA has been chosen to implement the proposed method due to its fast prototyping. Simulation and experimental results are presented to show the performance of the proposed OC fault diagnosis method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.631-642
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• 2016

Usually, the output characteristics of a photovoltaic (PV) array are significantly affected by non-uniform irradiance which is caused by ambient obstacles, clouds, orientations, tilts, etc. Some local maximum power points (LMPP) in the current-voltage (I-V) curves of a PV array can result in power losses of the array. However, the output power at the global maximum power point (GMPP) is different in different interconnection schemes in a PV array. Therefore, based on the theoretical analysis and mathematical derivation of different topological structures of a PV array, this paper investigated the output characteristics of dual series PV arrays with different interconnections. The proposed mathematical models were also validated by experimental results. Finally, this paper also concluded that in terms of performance, the total cross tied (TCT) interconnection was not always the optimal structure, especially in a dual series PV array. When one of the PV modules was severely mismatched, the TCT worked worse than the series parallel (SP) structure. This research can provide guidance for switching the interconnection to gain the greatest energy yield in a changeable- structure PV system.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1869-1883
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• 2016

In recent years, some converter structures and analyzing methods for the voltage regulation of stand-alone self-excited induction generators (SEIGs) have been introduced. However, all of them are concerned with the three-phase voltage control of three-phase SEIGs or the single-phase voltage control of single-phase SEIGs for the operation of these machines under balanced load conditions. In this paper, each phase voltage is controlled separately through separated converters, which consist of a full-bridge diode rectifier and one-IGBT. For this purpose, the principle of the electronic load controllers supported by fuzzy logic is employed in the two-different proposed converter structures. While changing single phase consumer loads that are independent from each other, the output voltages of the generator are controlled independently by three-number of separated electronic load controllers (SELCs) in two different mode operations. The aim is to obtain a rated power from the SEIG via the switching of the dump loads to be the complement of consumer load variations. The transient and steady state behaviors of the whole system are investigated by simulation studies from the point of getting the design parameters, and experiments are carried out for validation of the results. The results illustrate that the proposed SELC system is capable of coping with independent consumer load variations to keep output voltage at a desired value for each phase. It is also available for unbalanced consumer load conditions. In addition, it is concluded that the proposed converter without a filter capacitor has less harmonics on the currents.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.516-527
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• 2013

This paper presents a new overall system for state-of-available-power (SoAP) prediction for a lithium-ion battery pack. The essential part of this method is based on an adaptive network architecture which utilizes both fuzzy model (FIS) and artificial neural network (ANN) into the framework of adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). While battery aging proceeds, the system is capable of delivering accurate power prediction not only for room temperature, but also at lower temperatures at which power prediction is most challenging. Due to design property of ANN, the network parameters are adapted on-line to the current battery states (state-of-charge (SoC), state-of-health (SoH), temperature). SoC is required as an input parameter to SoAP module and high accuracy is crucial for a reliable on-line adaptation. Therefore, a reasonable way to determine the battery state variables is proposed applying a combination of several partly different algorithms. Among other SoC boundary estimation methods, robust extended Kalman filter (REKF) for recalibration of amp hour counters was implemented. ANFIS then achieves the SoAP estimation by means of time forward voltage prognosis (TFVP) before a power pulse occurs. The trade-off between computational cost of batch-learning and accuracy during on-line adaptation was optimized resulting in a real-time system with TFVP absolute error less than 1%. The verification was performed on a software-in-the-loop test bench setup using a 53 Ah lithium-ion cell.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.679-691
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• 2013

High-power electromagnetic transmitter power supplies are an important part of deep geophysical exploration equipment. This is especially true in complex environments, where the ability to produce a highly accurate and stable output and safety through redundancy have become the key issues in the design of high-power electromagnetic transmitter power supplies. To solve these issues, a high-frequency switching power cascade based emission power supply is designed. By combining the circuit averaged model and the equivalent controlled source method, a modular mathematical model is established with the on-state loss and transformer induction loss being taken into account. A triple-loop control including an inner current loop, an outer voltage loop and a load current forward feedback, and a digitalized voltage/current sharing control method are proposed for the realization of the rapid, stable and highly accurate output of the system. By using a new algorithm referred to as GAPSO, which integrates a genetic algorithm and a particle swarm algorithm, the parameters of the controller are tuned. A multi-module cascade helps to achieve system redundancy. A simulation analysis of the open-loop system proves the accuracy of the established system and provides a better reflection of the characteristics of the power supply. A parameter tuning simulation proves the effectiveness of the GAPSO algorithm. A closed-loop simulation of the system and field geological exploration experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the control method. This ensures both the system's excellent stability and the output's accuracy. It also ensures the accuracy of the established mathematical model as well as its ability to meet the requirements of practical field deep exploration.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.626-635
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• 2013

An analysis of the junction capacitance in resonant rectifiers which has a significant impact on the operating point of resonance circuits is studied in this paper, where the junction capacitance of the rectifier diode is to decrease the resonant current and output voltage in the circuit when compared with that in an ideal rectifier diode. This can be represented by a simplified series resonant equivalent circuit and a voltage transfer function versus the normalized operating frequency at varied values of the resonant capacitor. A low voltage to high voltage push-pull DC/DC resonant converter was used as a design example. The design procedure is based on the principle of the half bridge class-DE resonant rectifier, which ensures more accurate results. The proposed scheme provides a more systematic and feasible solution than the conventional resonant push-pull DC/DC converter analysis methodology. To increase circuit efficiency, the main switches and the rectifier diodes can be operated under the zero-voltage and zero-current switching conditions, respectively. In order to achieve this objective, the parameters of the DC/DC converter need to be designed properly. The details of the analysis and design of this DC/DC converter's components are described. A prototype was constructed with a 62-88 kHz variable switching frequency, a 12 $V_{DC}$ input voltage, a 380 $V_{DC}$ output voltage, and a rated output power of 150 W. The validity of this approach was confirmed by simulation and experimental results.