• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.2317-2323
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• 2017

Recently, linear compressors of cooling systems such as refrigerators, which have a free piston driven by a linear motor, have attracted much attention because of their high efficiency. For structural reasons, linear compressors applied in refrigerators should use an AC capacitor to ensure stable control. However, AC capacitors are expensive and bulky. In this paper, we propose a new method to realize stable control without a real AC capacitor by implementing a virtual AC capacitor with software. To realize a virtual AC capacitor, a pure integral is calculated. Nonetheless, if an offset current exists, the calculation may diverge to infinity. To solve this problem, a high-pass filter is applied and the compensation for the phase angle and magnitude are realized with a new method. Finally, a virtual AC capacitor enables variable frequency operations. Hence, in case of a lack of voltage, we can compensate by running the linear compressor in high-frequency operations. To improve efficiency, we may optimize the operation frequency. The validity of a virtual AC capacitor has been verified through simulations and experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.994-1005
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• 2015

This paper presents a novel power control strategy for PWM current-source rectifiers (CSRs) in the stationary frame based on the instantaneous power theory. In the proposed control strategy, a virtual resistance based on the capacitor voltage feedback is used to realize the active damping. In addition, the proportional resonant (PR) controller under the two-phase stationary coordinate is designed to track the ac reference current and to avoid the strong coupling brought about by the coordinate transformation. The limitations on improving steady-state performance of the PR controller is investigated and mitigated using a cascaded lead-lag compensator. In the z-domain, a straightforward procedure is developed to analyze and design the control-loop with the help of MATLAB/SISO software tools. In addition, robustness against parameter variations is analyzed. Finally, simulation and experimental results verify the proposed control scheme and design method.