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Due to different solar radiation, temperature, and other reasons of modules in the three-phase cascaded H-bridge (CHB) photovoltaic (PV) inverter, the output power among PV modules will be unequal and lead to unbalanced grid currents, which cannot meet the requirements of grid codes. On the other hand, the second-order voltage ripple is aroused in the dc-link capacitor since each phase-leg of the CHB inverter is made up of a single-phase inverter. Concerning these two issues, this paper proposes an optimized third harmonic injection method based on fundamental frequency zero sequence injection (FFZSI), which is a conventional method to handle the slight power imbalance problem. In this paper, the FFZSI is adopted to redistribute the power among three phases, and then the third harmonic is injected into the three-phase combined reference waveforms according to the two requirements: all modules are free from overmodulation and the dc-link voltage fluctuation is mostly reduced. Therefore, the proposed method can reduce the dc-link voltage fluctuation and extend the power balance range of FFZSI at the same time. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an optimization method for selective harmonic elimination in a cascaded multilevel inverter using teaching–learning-based optimization (TLBO). The main objective in selective harmonic elimination (SHE) strategy is to eliminate low-order harmonics by solving nonlinear equations and reaching optimal solution, while the fundamental component is satisfied. In this paper, in one side, the influence of optimal dc sources is investigated to reach the SHE goal, and in another side, comparing optimization methods is considered. In this paper, the TLBO as a recently emerged nature-inspired algorithm is presented to provide better results for the SHE in comparison with genetic algorithm, artificial bee colony, imperialistic competitive algorithm, harmony search, ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, and differential evolution. For better comparison of those methods and influence of optimal dc sources, 5-, 9-, and 15-level inverters are chosen and MATLAB software is used for optimization. Simulation results show the superiority of TLBO, higher precision and probability of convergence than other mentioned algorithms. Finally, to validate the influence of optimal dc sources and the accuracy of TLBO results, the experimental setup is conducted for a 5-level cascaded H-bridge inverter with optimal dc sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an “isolated soft switching current fed LCC-T resonant dc–dc converter for PV/fuel cell applications.” This converter is able to achieve zero voltage switching for front-end inverter switches and zero-current switching for voltage doubler diodes. The majority of dc–dc converters have compact capacitive (C) filter in output, but high harmonic currents through transformer makes them bulky. The proposed converter attempts to improve harmonic content through a transformer under wide load and input variations as well as it can significantly reduce required turns ratio of transformer to achieve required output voltage. For the above reasons, the proposed converter can offer better footprints and therefore it can be a potential candidate for PV/fuel cell applications. This paper presents basic operating principal, detailed analysis, control, and design of the proposed converter with the help of an example. This converter operates in two modes, i.e., constant duty cycle mode and constant frequency mode, depending on load demand, and is explained through operating curves. Finally, experimental results are included for justifying the proposed theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islanded grids operate isolated from the main grid and they allow the use of ac with a different frequency from the main grid. In this paper, it is proposed to use more than one frequency at the same time in such autonomous systems. The grid voltage amplitude at the fundamental frequency can be increased while the voltage peak is constant by adding odd harmonics to the voltage waveform. The grid currents and the power converter currents are decreased for the same power level, which leads to reduced losses in the system. The currents can be minimized if waveform shaping is additionally applied to the current waveforms. The approach also offers the possibility of mitigating the influence of low power factor in single-phase systems. This paper presents the impact of multifrequency power transfer on single-phase converters and grid components such as power cables and protection, and verifies the results with analysis, simulations, and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second harmonic current compensator (SHCC) can be added into the single-phase converters for compensating the second harmonic current (SHC) and thus removing the undesired electrolytic capacitor. In this paper, a virtual impedance, which is in the form of a capacitor and a resistor connected in parallel, is introduced to be in parallel at the bus-side port of the SHCC for effectively compensating the SHC while guaranteeing the system stability. This virtual parallel impedance is realized by feeding forward the bus-side port voltage of the SHCC, and thus the SHCC can be modular designed. The closed-loop parameter design of the SHCC is also presented. A 3.3-kW prototype of a two-stage single-phase power factor correction converter is built and tested in the laboratory, and the experimental results verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed control method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve light load efficiency, a three-phase photovoltaic (PV)-based microinverter may operate in single-phase, two-phase or three-phase mode depending on the available input power. Therefore, its dc-link capacitor may be subjected to large peak-to-peak voltage ripple when operating in phase skipping mode. This paper determines the minimum value of the dc-link capacitor by allowing the maximum acceptable voltage ripple on the dc link. This allows for the use of film capacitors instead of electrolytic capacitors in order to improve the microinverter reliability. Unfortunately, higher dc-link voltage ripple introduces harmonic distortion on the inverter output current waveform if it is not compensated for by the dc-link voltage controller. This paper proposes a simple synchronous control method to regulate the dc-link voltage with the presence of large voltage ripple. The dc-link voltage controller is synchronized with the phase-locked loop and samples the average value of dc-link voltage without introducing unwanted harmonics into the voltage sense path. Experimental results were obtained from a 300-W three-phase half-bridge microinverter prototype to verify the proposed dc-link voltage control performance. Inverter output current total harmonic distortion of 1.6% was achieved even though the dc-link peak-to-peak voltage ripple reached as high as 87 V with 219-V split dc-link voltage. Dynamic response is fast enough to easily track the most extreme ramp change in input PV power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

High dc voltage utilization is one of the important requirements in a three-phase inverter. Under some carrier-based pulse width modulations (PWMs), the dc voltage utilization can reach the same maximum as that under the space vector modulation. But the third harmonic component of common-mode voltage (CMV) will be increased markedly while using these carrier-based PWMs in inverters. To improve the situation, this paper proposes that a midpoint-fluctuation carrier (MFC) scheme should be used in the three-phase inverter. The MFC is formed by adding a midpoint-fluctuation signal on the standard symmetrical triangular carrier. By analyzing the linear modulation region of the midpoint-fluctuation signals, a minimum fluctuant signal in the linear modulation region is designed in the paper. Compared with the use of other conventional schemes in the three-phase inverter, the use of minimum MFC scheme has higher fundamental amplitude in the output line voltage and smaller magnitude of the third harmonic in the CMV. The feasibility and validity of the MFC are proved by experiment results in a three-phase inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The traditional evaluation method of vehicle noise can no longer meet the requirements of electric vehicle as the sound character of electric powertrain (E-PT) is totally different from that of internal combustion engine vehicles. This paper presents a complete investigation of the sound quality of an E-PT. An acoustic test is conducted to analyze the sound character of E-PT, based on which the acoustic origins of E-PT including electromagnetic noise, gear whine, and inverter switching noise are studied. After that the sound quality of E-PT is investigated by objective and subjective evaluations. Subsequently, a sound quality model of E-PT based on support vector machine is established. The relative error testifies the effectiveness of the prediction model. The influence of the main noise origins on the sound quality of E-PT is determined. Finally, the structure of gearbox housing is redesigned based on topology optimization to improve the sound quality. The main original contributions of this paper are not only the sound quality method developed for E-PT but also improvement feasibility of sound quality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Compared with the conventional central shunt active power filter (SAPF), modular designed SAPF can track the harmonics more precisely and quickly with a compact and expandable structure, which makes it a better solution for harmonic mitigation. But there are very few paper discussed about the modeling and parallel resonance issues of modular SAPF parallel system. This paper provides a modeling of three-level SAPF, aiming to guide the modular design and research the parallel resonance control method. First, a simplified modular three-level SAPF modeling is proposed based on averaging impedance modeling and small signal linearization techniques. Then, the coupling issues between modules are researched, and a self-adaptive active damping method is proposed to suppress the system resonance. Based on the modeling results, an improved three-level SAPF module topology is proposed to construct the modular system. The theoretical analysis and experimental results verify that the module topology improvement together with the damping strategy can promise the compensating bandwidth, reliability, and fast, precise harmonics tracking ability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Inverter nonlinearity and sampling current dc bias can cause harmonic distortion of estimated back electromotive forces (EMFs), and therefore results in position estimation error and degrades control performance of model-based sensorless techniques of permanent-magnet synchronous motors, especially in low speed region. In this paper, the effects of inverter nonlinearity and sampling current dc bias on back EMF estimation are analyzed. A voltage feedforward compensation method based on an iterative learning control (ILC) algorithm is proposed and it is used to eliminate the harmonics of estimated back EMFs and position estimation error, so as to improve the performance of sensorless control. Compensated voltages at different rotor positions are calculated online by the ILC algorithm and stored in a lookup table. The method does not depend on current polarity and inverter model. And it is simple and easy to implement. The effectiveness of the proposed compensation method is verified by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancement in modulation strategies brings emergent solutions to suppress the leakage current in three-phase two-level transformerless grid-connected voltage source inverters (VSIs). However, most of the techniques are analyzed based on reduced common-mode voltage pulsewidth modulation (PWM) in motor drivers but fail to satisfy the specific requirement of grid-connected applications, such as wider power factor operation and lesser current distortion. To overcome such substantial drawbacks, this paper proposes a novel scalar PWM method for transformerless grid-connected VSIs. First, presented through a generalized scalar approach with unified zero-sequence voltage generation, the method is simple to implement and favored in practice. Besides, systematic and comprehensive mathematical analysis is illustrated to exhibit the validity of implemented method in reducing leakage current and shows its advantages over whole power factor range in terms of dc-link current harmonic, output current quality, and switching losses. Finally, simulations and experimental results are carried out to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multilevel dodecagonal voltage space vector generation scheme for variable-speed drive applications with single-dc-link operation requires a large value of capacitance for cascaded H-bridge (CHB) filters, when operated at lower speeds. In existing schemes, the multilevel dodecagonal structure is obtained by cascading a flying capacitor inverter with a CHB. In this paper, a new scheme has been proposed to minimize the capacitance requirement for full speed operation by creating vector redundancies using modular and equal voltage CHBs. Also, an algorithm has been developed to optimize the selection of vector redundancies among the CHBs in order to minimize the voltage ripple of the floating capacitors. The proposed algorithm considers instantaneous capacitor voltages and phase currents for optimal selection of vector redundancies. A mathematical model for capacitor voltage deviation is presented, and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified in both the simulation and the experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an extended Kalman filter (EKF) based control strategy for fault ride-through operation in two-stage grid-connected photovoltaic (GPV) system. Unlike the conventional controllers for ride-through operation, the proposed strategy does not compromise with power quality improvement features in the system while enabling ride-through operation. The controller accounts for nonlinear loads in the system, grid harmonic-currents elimination, and grid-currents balancing even during the harmonic/distorted grid voltages. The IEEE Standard-1547.4 compels the distributed resource to ride-through during voltage disturbances caused by faults. For the ride-through operation, a limit is imposed on PV active power injection to prevent inverter overcurrents and dc-link energy aggregation, which reduces the lifetime of dc-link capacitor. The reactive power is fed to the grid, as per the depth in voltage-sag. The derated PV array power is supplied in cases where the inverter cannot handle the utmost PV-power. The power quality improvement is ensured using EKF state estimator, which precisely estimates the fundamental load currents. In distribution network with modern nonlinear loads, especially at far radial ends, the grid voltages are prone to huge diversions and the proposed controller provides a possible solution to maintain active/reactive power support and maintain power quality in the network. The effectiveness of the strategy is demonstrated through simulations and experiments. Under all disturbances, the harmonic content in grid currents is observed within limits, in accordance with the IEEE Standard-519. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a two-degrees-of-freedom control algorithm based on uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE), aimed to minimize the total harmonic distortion of inverter output voltage is proposed, possessing enhanced robustness to fundamental frequency variations. A multiple-time-delay action is combined with a commonly utilized low-pass UDE filter to increase the range of output impedance magnitude minimization around odd multiples of fundamental frequency for enhanced rejection of typical single-phase nonlinear loads harmonics. Marginal robustness improvement achieved by increasing the number of time delays is quantified analytically and revealed to be independent of delay order. The performance of the proposed control approach and its superiority over two recently proposed methods is validated successfully by experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For parallel-connected LCL-type inverters in islanded operation, it is difficult to reshape the large harmonic impedance by the conventional capacitor voltage control due to the presence of grid-side inductor, which seriously deteriorates the voltage quality at the point of common coupling (PCC) under nonlinear loads. To address this issue, a harmonic voltage distortion damping method is proposed in this paper, which mainly includes a direct output voltage control and the parallel virtual-admittance control. First, the direct output voltage control converts the grid-side inductor into the equivalent output impedance of the inverter itself by changing the voltage feedback variable from capacitor voltage to output voltage, and then the harmonic impedance is reshaped from a large value to a small value with the P + Repetitive controller. However, it is found that the direct output voltage control fails to damp PCC voltage distortion with droop-frequency offset. That is because its voltage controller cannot guarantee the resonance bandwidth of main harmonic frequency, and then a slight droop-frequency offset can cause a large increase in the harmonic impedance. For this, the parallel virtual-admittance control is further proposed to limit the size of the output impedance to no more than that of the impedance in parallel, which effectively reduces the adverse effect of droop-frequency offset on the quality of the PCC voltage. Further, the parallel virtual-admittance control is simplified with the same harmonic voltage distortion damping consequent. The system stability conditions are analyzed in detail, and its proper control parameters are selected without complicated trial. Finally, the experimental results validate the proposed control method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides robust $\mathcal {H}_{\infty }$ state feedback controllers suitable for implementation in three-phase grid-connected converters. This control strategy is known to provide optimal rejection of disturbances, but usually leads to high control gains, that may be difficult to be implemented in practice. To mitigate this problem, a linear matrix inequality condition based on slack variables is proposed, which allows to impose bounds on the control gains in a less conservative way than conventional quadratic stability. The performance is proven to be superior to similar $\mathcal {H}_{\infty }$ state feedback controllers in the literature, providing an upper bound for the converter output admittance and experimental grid currents complying with the IEEE Standard 1547. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In domestic induction heating applications, the modulation technique applied to the inverter has a high influence on the acoustic noise emissions. These noise emissions must be avoided, since they may be audible and annoying to the final user. This paper analyzes the acoustic noise emissions that appear when a series half-bridge resonant inverter is operated with a phase-accumulator-based modulator. This modulation technique has the advantage of operating in the frequency domain, and it is compared with the classical pulsewidth modulator regarding the audible noise generated. The frequencies of the tones in the acoustic noise spectrum are theoretically calculated from the parameters of the phase-accumulator-based modulator. The spectral flatness measure is used to quantify the number of cases in which tones are generated by the modulation. Two techniques are applied to the phase-accumulator-based modulator, and their effect is tested. Theoretical results are experimentally verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmonic current sharing is an important aspect of islanded microgrid due to the presence of nonlinear loads. The existing harmonic current sharing strategies suggest a tradeoff between voltage quality and harmonic sharing effectiveness. In this paper, a novel control strategy is proposed to achieve current harmonic sharing by directly controlling the inherent impedance of the inverter. The proposed technique achieves harmonic sharing, in a distributed generation (DG)-based islanded microgrid, without using any communication infrastructure. This paper also proposes a droop technique to distribute the harmonics generated by the nonlinear load as per the kVA ratings of different DG units in the system. The proposed concept of variable inverter impedance and its application in an islanded microgrid is validated using experimental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Typical value of rated phase voltage of pole phase modulated multiphase induction motor (PPMMIM) drives with wider speed range is in the order of few hundreds of kilovolts. This high value of phase voltage for high power density applications results in higher dc-link voltage requirement and switch voltage rating of two-level multiphase inverter. Further, using multiphase space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) yields less dc-link utilization. Methods to increase dc-link utilization using SVPWM with offset value of third harmonic order introduces dominant lower order harmonic currents into phase windings. One more major problem in high pole mode of PPMMIMs is higher torque pulsation due to decrease in phase number. To address these problems this paper proposes a dual-inverter-based multilevel voltage excitation scheme for nine-phase PPMMIM with 1:3 speed ratio. In four-pole mode a simple phase grouping technique to eliminate lower order harmonic currents in the phase windings is proposed. In addition each inverter feeding these phase groups is modulated using carrier-based three-phase SVPWM to achieve higher dc-link utilization. This paper also proposes a multilevel voltage generation scheme for 12-pole mode of operation using carrier phase shifted pulse width modulation (PWM) for inherently available equal voltage profile coils with the same dual inverter structure. The torque ripple using phase shifted carriers PWM and single carrier PWM are compared. Finite element method model of nine-phase PPMMIM is developed in Ansys Maxwell two-dimension and is cosimulated with three three-phase dual inverters in Simplorer environment. Experimental validation is done for linear and over modulation case on 9ФIM fed from three three-phase dual inverters controlled using Spartan six field programmable gate array board programmed in VHDL. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A novel centroid-based diagnostic method of the power switches in five-leg voltage source inverter is proposed in this paper. Using a vectorial multimachine description, a five-phase drive presenting an opened switch or an opened phase faults has typical operating characteristics in comparison to classical three-phase drives. Based on such characteristics, this paper aims to provide a simple and robust diagnostic process for switches fault regardless of the shape of the back electromotive forces (harmonic components) and the transient states due to the load variation. Original theoretical developments are presented. Experimental results are shown to validate the proposed strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces a sliding mode control (SMC) strategy for three-phase dynamic voltage restorers (DVRs) with a 12-switch voltage source inverter. The compensating voltage references needed in the SMC strategy are generated by an adaptive notch filter (ANF), which exhibits excellent performance under grid voltage anomalies such as voltage sags, swells, and unbalanced and distorted grid voltage conditions. The consequence of using the ANF eliminates the use of phase-lock loop or frequency-lock loop and low-pass filter, which makes it distinguishable from the existing reference signal generation solutions. In addition, the use of the SMC strategy with its attractive properties makes the control implementation simple. Theoretical results are supported by simulation results as well as real-time laboratory results over a range of grid voltage anomalies. These results show that the proposed control strategy not only offers an excellent dynamic response independent from the parameter variations and disturbances but also compensates the voltage sags, swells, and harmonics on the load terminals under the defined limits of the IEEE-519 standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the pulsating power at the inverter output terminals, the passive storage elements of the boost stage of the current-fed switched inverter (CFSI) contain a power frequency harmonic component (100 Hz), apart from dc and switching frequency components. In prior designs, the second harmonic component is suppressed by increasing the size of the input filter inductor and capacitor or by using additional circuits. This paper presents a complete characterization of a control-based approach to suppress the power frequency harmonic component in the input inductor current of a CFSI. It also presents a comprehensive characterization of the harmonic power redistribution. Using the proposed approach, it is demonstrated that the inductor value of a CFSI is reduced by 61% for the same peak-to-peak ripple. This leads to an improvement in the conversion ratio, efficiency, and power density of the overall converter. A SiC MOSFET-based CFSI with 75-kHz switching frequency is used to verify the proposed design philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variable frequency asymmetrical pulsewidth modulation (VFAPWM) is widely used in wireless power transfer (WPT) systems to control the amount of power transferred. This control scheme is also adopted in Qi, one of the world's most well-known wireless charging standards. Conventionally, the analysis of WPT systems is based on first harmonic approximation, which only considers the fundamental harmonic signals. This could be inaccurate for variable frequency asymmetrical pulsewidth-modulated WPT systems because VFAPWM inherently produces multiple harmonics. In this paper, a new analytical technique, called multiple harmonics analysis (MHA), is developed to analyze series–series-compensated WPT systems. The MHA technique is a comprehensive design foundation and provides a set of closed-form solutions to predict quantities, such as zero-voltage switching (ZVS) and voltage gain. New phenomena in ZVS and voltage gain are discovered. The accuracy of MHA is also confirmed by both simulation and experimental measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the structure, coordinate control method, and parameter design of a hybrid system are proposed for active power injection and nonactive power (reactive, harmonic, and unbalance power) compensation. The proposed hybrid system consists of a static var compensator (SVC) in parallel with a capacitive-coupling grid-connected inverter (CGCI) (SVC//CGCI). In SVC//CGCI, the SVC part is used to dynamic compensate the reactive power and unbalance power, while the low rating CGCI part is used to inject active power, provide harmonic power and a fixed amount of capacitive reactive power. Compared with conventional inductive-coupling grid-connected inverter (IGCI), the CGCI can provide active, reactive and harmonic power with low rating of active inverter part. The cost of the SVC part is much lower than that of active inverter part, thus the reduction of inverter rating can lead to a decrease in the total cost of the SVC//CGCI. Therefore, the SVC//CGCI can be a cost effective solution for active power injection and nonactive power compensation. Finally, simulation and experimental results are provided to show the advantages and validity of the proposed SVC//CGCI in compared with the conventional IGCI and SVC//IGCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional two-level as well as multilevel voltage-source-inverter topologies with a hexagonal voltage-space vector structure generate low-order harmonics in the machine terminal voltages when operated beyond the linear modulation range in variable speed drive application. Progressing from hexagonal to a higher sided polygonal voltage-space-vector structure (VSVS) suppresses significant low-order harmonics throughout the modulation range. In addition, the linear modulation range will also be enhanced very near to the base speed. In this paper, for the first time, the generation of a multilevel 24-sided VSVS using a single dc source for induction-motor drives is proposed. A cascaded topology with a dc-source-fed flying-capacitor inverter and two low-voltage capacitor-fed H-bridge cells forms the power circuit. The features and advantages of the proposed scheme are validated through experimental results and discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a two-degrees-of-freedom control structure is proposed to minimize both total harmonic distortion and tracking error of inverter output voltage, adopting a resonant tracking controller and a modified uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE). Owing to the two-degrees-of-freedom feature of the proposed control strategy, tracking and disturbance rejection tasks are decoupled and treated almost independently. A time-delay action is introduced into a commonly adopted low-pass UDE filter to minimize the output impedance magnitude around the odd harmonics, which is typical to nonlinear loads. Once the disturbance is properly rejected, a tracking resonant controller is designed to force the output of the nominal system to follow a sinusoidal reference with near-zero amplitude and phase error. The performance of the proposed control structure is fully verified by the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, performances on two kinds of aggregated flyback microinverters are compared in aspect of harmonic resonances, which are controlled by current feedback control and peak current control. Based on the Norton models of flyback microinverters obtained by a small-signal modeling approach, potential harmonic resonances with the grid are analyzed. Following that, an impedance-based stability criterion is proposed, where the resonance frequency can be calculated and predicted based on the derived Norton models and the system admittance matrix of aggregated microinverters. After comprehensive analysis and comparisons, it is found that the peak-current-control-based flyback microinverters has better performance on damping the harmonic resonances than the current feedback controlled one. Simulations and experiments are carried out for verifying the effectiveness of the presented models and the correctness of the analysis results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Without prior knowledge of the geometric and design data of the employed asymmetrical dual three-phase interior permanent magnet synchronous machine (ADT-IPMSM), this paper proposes effective fundamental and enhanced harmonic models along with parameter identification for the different subspaces and with different neutral point configurations. The cross coupling between the coordinates of the different subspaces is also taken into account. The proposed method is based on simple experimental tests that can be applied to any ADT-IPMSMs. The performed computer simulations coincide to a high extent with experimental validations on a 2.5-kW ADT-IPMSM prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microinverters operating into the single-phase grid from new energy source with low-voltage output face the challenges of efficiency bottleneck and twice-line-frequency variation. This paper proposed a multilevel inverter based on bridge modular switched-capacitor (BMSC) circuits with its superiority in conversion efficiency and power density. The topology is composed of dc–dc and dc–ac stages with independent control for each stage, aiming to improve system stability and simplify the control method. The BMSC dc–dc stage, which can be expanded to synthesize more levels, not only features multilevel voltage gain but also partially replaces the original bulk input capacitor and functions as an active energy buffer to enhance power-decoupling ability between dc and ac sides. In dc–ac stage, the control strategy of optimized unipolar frequency doubling sine-wave pulse width modulation is proposed to improve the quality of output waveform. Meanwhile, the multilevel voltage phase has been optimized to further reduce the power loss. Finally, a prototype has been built and tested. Associated with the simulation, the experimental results validate the practicability of these analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Pole-phase modulation (PPM) is one of the effective speed and torque control techniques for multiphase induction motor (MIM) drives. Performance of the drive in low-pole high-speed mode for steady run is good even with two-level voltage excitation due to the inherent advantages of high phase number. The drive operation under high-pole high-torque starting mode suffers degradation in performance due to reduction in phase number in a way to increase number of poles. Extending conventional multilevel converter topologies for performance improvement of MIMs increases the device count and control complexity considerably. In this paper, a simple technique to generate multilevel voltage across the phase of a pole-phase-modulated induction motor (PPM IM), for improving the performance of the drive under high-pole operation is presented. The technique requires least changes in the control scheme and no additional switches for the power circuit. Exploiting the advantages of equal voltage profile coils (EVPCs) for carrier phase-shifted PWM control is the main focus of this paper. In addition, generalization of PPM is revisited in this paper to add a small constraint on the pole ratio to avoid unequal pole width for some pole-phase combinations. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is shown through simulation with finite-element method (FEM) model of nine-phase squirrel cage induction motor and two-level nine-phase inverter cosimulated in Ansys Maxwell two-dimensional (2-D) and Simplorer environment. Experimental validation is also done on 5 hp nine-phase two-level induction motor drive controlled using Spartan6 FPGA board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents real-time diagnosis for open-circuited (O-C) and unbalance faults in power electronic converters (PECs) connected to residential small wind systems grid-tied. The spectrum analysis along with the dc components of the voltage and current measurements available in the converter is utilized for the O-C fault detection, classification and localization of the power switching devices in the PEC, as well as the identification of the unbalance input voltage to the converter. The proposed methodologies in this paper require much fewer inputs compared to the previous researches; therefore, they avoid any additional sensors or hardware which include further costs and expenses on such systems. The experimental evaluations for the proposed algorithms are provided and demonstrate the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed diagnostic algorithms in this paper. The PEC under study consists of three main subsystems: uncontrolled three-phase rectifier, boost chopper, and single-phase inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multilevel inverters with dodecagonal (12-sided polygon) voltage space vector (SV) structures have advantages like extension of linear modulation range, elimination of fifth and seventh harmonics in phase voltages and currents for the full modulation range including extreme 12-step operation, reduced device voltage ratings, lesser dv/dt stresses on devices and motor phase windings resulting in lower EMI/EMC problems, and lower switching frequency—making it more suitable for high-power drive applications. This paper proposes a simple method to obtain pulsewidth modulation (PWM) timings for a dodecagonal voltage SV structure using only sampled reference voltages. In addition to this, a carrier-based method for obtaining the PWM timings for a general N-level dodecagonal structure is proposed in this paper for the first time. The algorithm outputs the triangle information and the PWM timing values which can be set as the compare values for any carrier-based hardware PWM module to obtain SV PWM like switching sequences. The proposed method eliminates the need for angle estimation, computation of modulation indices, and iterative search algorithms that are typical in multilevel dodecagonal SV systems. The proposed PWM scheme was implemented on a five-level dodecagonal SV structure. Exhaustive simulation and experimental results for steady-state and transient conditions are presented to validate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although the concept of a multiphase drive system dates back to the middle of the 20th century, the initial pace of development was rather slow, as witnessed by the first two surveys of the area published in the beginning of this century. However, considerably new developments have resulted in the last decade of the 20th century and the beginning of this century, leading to an authoritative survey of the asymmetrical six-phase drive control and subsequently of the review of the complete area. This also initiated the organization and subsequent publication of the first IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics "Special Section on Multiphase Machines and Drives" in May 2008, which commenced with another survey paper, and that contained 12 original research papers. Since the publication of this Special Section in May 2008, the level of interest and pace of developments in the area have further accelerated and substantial new knowledge has been generatedwith an ever-increasing number of published research papers and reported new industrial applications. Such a trend has been emphasized in a recent paper. It therefore seemed appropriate to revisit the area and organize this Special Section as a sequel to the first one. The call for the Special Section papers resulted in 51 submissions, almost twice as many as the total back in 2008, thus confirming a substantial growth of the area. Indeed, the amount of new knowledge acquired since the publication of the first Special Section in 2008 has meant that it was not possible to provide a complete and thorough survey of the field in a single review paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a novel multiphase permanent-magnet (PM) machine drive to enhance drivetrain availability in electric traction applications. It describes the development of new winding configurations for six-phase PM brushless machines with 18 slots and eight poles, which eliminate and/or reduce undesirable space harmonics in the stator magnetomotive force. In addition to improved power/torque density and efficiency with a reduction in eddy current loss in rotor PMs and copper loss in end-windings, the developed winding configuration also enhances availability of drivetrain, in a variety of applications requiring a degree of fault tolerance, by employing it as two independent three-phase windings in a six-phase interior-PM machine, which is designed and optimized for a given set of specifications for an electric vehicle, under thermal, electrical, and volumetric constraints. This paper also describes the design and development of a six-phase inverter with independent control for both sets of three-phase windings. The designs of the motor and the inverter are validated by a series of preliminary tests on the prototype machine drive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A merit of the interleaving reducing the switching harmonics allows for the reduction of the filter inductance. However, in the case of direct parallel voltage source inverters (VSIs), a severe circulating current occurs. To suppress the high frequency circulating current, coupled inductors (CIs) for the high impedance is inserted. However, the employed CIs induce a positive- or negative-sequence circulating current (i.e., a cross current) besides the zero-sequence circulating current already mentioned in the other papers. Due to different impedances developed by the current characteristics and the cross current in the CIs, VSIs becomes unstable when the resonant controllers are applied for the harmonic compensation such as 5, and 7th harmonics. In this paper, the cross currents and the impedances of CIs varying with the current characteristics are mathematically analyzed, and a novel current controller is proposed to solve this stability problem. The experimental results validate the proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An active method for double-frequency power ripple decoupling in single-phase inverters is presented in this paper, exhibiting the main advantage of not using additional power semiconductors besides the H-bridge. The proposed method requires only two capacitors placed between the midpoint and one end of each inverter leg. An original control solution of the inverter ensures the power ripple transfer toward the two decoupling capacitors without affecting the inverter output voltage. The simple design makes the proposed solution easy to adapt for single-phase inverters in H-bridge configuration. This paper focuses on the autonomous operation mode of the inverter, detailing its operating principle and the control analysis. The system performances, including the impact of the decoupling circuit on the inverter efficiency, are assessed by means of experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a novel control strategy to naturally balance a hybrid converter is presented for medium-voltage induction motor drive applications. Fundamental current of the motor is produced by a three-level quasi-square-wave converter. Several single-phase full-bridge converters are connected in series with this quasi-square-wave converter to eliminate harmonic voltages from the net output voltage of this hybrid converter. Various novel modulation strategies for these series cells are proposed. These lead to a naturally regulated dc-bus voltage of series cells. These also optimize the number of series cells required. Variable fundamental voltage and frequency control of induction motor is adopted with a constant dc-bus voltage of the three-level quasi-square-wave converter. Experimental results are also produced here to validate the proposed modulation strategies for induction motor drives using low-voltage protomodel. Based on the aforementioned, a 2.2-kV induction motor drive has been built, and results are also produced in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes an analytical procedure for computation of all pairs of valid switching angles used in pattern generation in five-level H-bridge cascaded inverters. The proposed procedure eliminates harmonic components from inverter output voltage and, for each harmonic, returns the exact boundaries of all valid modulation index intervals. Due to its simple mathematical formulation, it can be easily implemented in real time using a digital signal processor or a field-programmable gate array. In this paper, after a detailed description of the method, simulation and experimental results demonstrate the high quality of achievable results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a real-time implementation of selective harmonic elimination pulsewidth modulation (SHEPWM) using generalized Hopfield neural network (GHNN) as applied to the single-phase inverter is designed and discussed. Finding the location of the switching instants in the case of SHEPWM involves the solution of a set of nonlinear algebraic transcendental equations. The problem is redrafted as an optimization problem, and it is solved by using GHNN. Though, in principle, the $n$ number of harmonics can be eliminated using the presented methodology, this paper tries for the case of the elimination of the 5th-, 7th-, 11th-, and 13th-order harmonics while retaining the desired fundamental. An energy function is formulated for this problem and the set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) describing the behavior of GHNN is obtained. A program in KEIL C was developed to solve these systems of ODEs by the Runge–Kutta fourth-order method to give the switching instants for continuously varying modulation indexes $(M)$. A MATLAB simulation was carried out, and an experimental setup was also constructed in order to validate the simulated results. The fast Fourier transform analysis of the simulated output voltage waveform and the experimental output voltage waveform confirms the effectiveness of the proposed method. Hence, the proposed method proves that it is much applicable in the industrial applications by virtue of its suitability in real-time applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

High frequency isolated dc–ac converters are becoming popular in on-board auxiliary inverters for railway applications. Compared to conventional fixed dc-link inverter (FDCLI), pulse dc-link inverter (PDCLI) has simpler circuit topology and higher power density, but greatly different control algorithm. This paper is going to study the application possibility of PDCLI for railway auxiliary inverter, and will be concerned with algorithm and their performance comparison between approximately independent hybrid modulation (AI-HM) and six-pulse demodulation hybrid modulation for PDCLIs, including fundamental principle and harmonic performance of output voltage under zero portion effect. Then a piecewise compensation of modulation wave and a carrier phase-shift strategy are proposed to improve the output voltage quality of AI-HM under zero portion effect. The simulation and experimental results, as well as the output filter parameter comparison are provided to verify the theoretical analysis and the feasibility of the proposed strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In constant-voltage constant-frequency (CVCF) pulsewidth modulation (PWM) dc–ac inverters, the lumped disturbance, including the parameter uncertainties, unmodeled dynamics, and nonlinear loads, will deteriorate the performance and cause high harmonic distortions, or even result in instability. Conventional disturbance observer (CDOB), in which a low-pass $Q$ filter is adopted to estimate the lumped disturbance, cannot completely eliminate the harmonics. While the conventional repetitive control (CRC) can attenuate the harmonics by using the error signal of previous period(s), that may result in slow transient response due to nonperiodic components in the tracking error during the transient state. In this paper, an internal model-based disturbance observer (IM-DOB) is proposed and has been applied in a CVCF PWM inverter to improve the control performance. In IM-DOB, a novel IM-based disturbance estimation observer is proposed to estimate the disturbance both in the low-frequency region and at harmonic frequencies, while compensation filters are introduced to enhance the robustness and stability. The IM-DOB scheme, which fuses the merit of CDOB and CRC, is actually a two-degree-of-freedom scheme. The stability analysis and a design case are also given. Comparative experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Impedance network inverters are the best alternatives for voltage-source and current-source inverters. The boosting capability and the shoot-through solution of such converters make them excellent solutions for various applications. Nevertheless, hard switching forces the converter to operate in low switching frequency, which results in a bulky impedance network. Moreover, the coupling between the shoot-through duty cycle and the inverter modulation index makes a tradeoff between the voltage gain and the modulation index (output voltage harmonics). This paper presents a novel dual switching frequency modulation to mitigate the switching losses of the converter, which results in a more compact impedance network. The proposed method combines a high-frequency pulse width modulation with a low-frequency sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM). Therefore, the switching losses decrease considerably with respect to the conventional simple boost modulation. In addition, the impedance network design frequency remains high, and the network size decreases obviously. The proposed approach removes the interdependence between the shoot-through duty cycle and the inverter modulation index. A comparison between the proposed method and the conventional simple boost method is performed to show its advantages over the conventional method. Finally, experimental results are presented to validate the performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, the structure, modeling, parameter design, and control method are proposed for a new hybrid structure of a static var compensator in parallel with a hybrid active power filter (SVC//HAPF). The SVC part of the SVC//HAPF is used to dynamically compensate the reactive power. And, the HAPF part is used to provide harmonic power and small amount of reactive power compensation. Due to the large fundamental voltage drop on coupling the LC part, the active inverter part of the SVC//HAPF has low voltage rating. Meanwhile, the parallel-connected SVC acts as a current divider to reduce the active inverter current. Therefore, the proposed SVC//HAPF shows the great promise in compensating harmonic current and wide-range reactive power with a low (both) voltage and current rating active inverter part. To show the advantages of the proposed SVC//HAPF, simulation comparisons among the active power filter (APF), HAPF, SVC in series with HAPF (SVC−HAPF), and the proposed SVC//HAPF are provided. Finally, experimental results based on the laboratory-scaled hardware prototype are given to show the validity of the SVC//HAPF. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Voltage source inverter based active power filters are widely used for the compensation of harmonic currents, especially in industrial environments. Loads such as three-phase diode rectifiers, thyristor-based rectifiers or variable-speed drives can cause relevant harmonics up to the 50th order or even higher, depending on the line filter. Usually, the control of the harmonics is either done in multiple rotating frames, where the harmonics appear as dc values, or by resonant controllers in a stationary frame. At this, the calculation effort is rising with the number of harmonics to compensate.

In this paper, a predictive current control scheme is presented. It is implemented in addition to common PI current control and used for a three-phase four-wire LCL-filter-based active power filter. Inaccuracies in the model caused by parameter variations are compensated by an additional control structure. Both structures are related only with low computational effort and are not depending on the desired number of the harmonics to compensate. Experimental tests are demonstrating, that both structures individually, and especially the combination of both, are offering a very good behavior in the steady state and in the case of load changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to reduce the cost and the size of a single-phase to three-phase power converter, an electrolytic capacitor-less single-phase to three-phase inverter is proposed. As the system does not have energy storage, such as an electrolytic capacitor, it results in source current harmonics due to the spatial harmonics of the motor. Adding an inductor for filtering the source current harmonics increases the cost and size of the system. In order to improve the source current waveform without adding passive components, it is necessary to reduce the source current harmonics via inverter control. However, when the inverter control reduces the source current harmonics, voltage saturation of the inverter causes source current distortion. At the rated speed and load, the voltage saturation region amounts to 40–50% of the source period, and the source current harmonics do not meet the guideline of IEC 61000-3-2. This paper proposes a direct dc-link current control (DDCCC) considering voltage saturation and the dq -axis current reference calculation for applying the DDCCC, which reduces the source current harmonics below the guideline. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a dc-link voltage protection (DCVP) control method is proposed to address the dc-link overvoltage issue due to power backfeeding in a parallel uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system. The proposed control method is able to protect the inverter against the excessive dc-link voltage, which increases the system reliability and robustness. Moreover, a current sharing control strategy is proposed by online regulating the virtual resistance of each UPS module. The proposed current sharing control strategy is able to address the circulating fundamental and harmonic currents caused by the line impedance mismatching or power backfeeding issue in the UPS system. In addition, an improved consensus-based distributed controller is proposed to alleviate the overshoot issue during the transient process in voltage amplitude and frequency restoration. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed methods is verified by experimental results from the parallel UPS prototypes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a multilevel inverter (MLI) configuration for open-end-winding pole-phase-modulated-multiphase induction motor (PPMMIM) drives. The proposed MLI configuration consists of one nine-phase two-level inverter and three 3-Φ two-level inverters. In pole–phase modulation, increasing the number of poles decreases the number of phases that increases the space harmonics in air gap flux. Moreover, in high-pole mode of PPMMIM drives, two-level voltage supply causes the high torque ripple that degrades the performance of the drive. Usually, conventional MLIs are not preferred for reducing torque ripple, due to the capacitor-balancing issues and more number of semiconductor devices. To address these issues, the proposed MLI configuration effectively utilized the inherent availability of the three identical voltage coils in the high-pole mode for reducing the torque ripple. The 3-Φ carrier phase-shifted space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) is used for generating the multistep voltage across the effective phase in high-pole mode as well as for shifting the lower order harmonics to higher order frequencies. Moreover, in low-pole mode, the dc-link voltage utilization of the proposed MLI configuration is improved by 13.8% with third harmonic injected SVPWM as compared to conventional 9-Φ SVPWM. Another important feature of the proposed MLI configuration is its ability to supply the two-level voltage under fault conditions. This feature notably improves the reliability of the PPMMIM drive. The finite-element method model of 5-hp nine-phase PPMMIM is designed in ANSYS Maxwell 2-D and is cosimulated with the proposed MLI configuration in Simplorer environment. The effectiveness of the proposed MLI-fed 5-hp MIM drive is experimentally verified for the entire modulation range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional model predictive control cost functions, when utilizing long prediction horizons ( $N\geq 10$) in power inverter applications, have demonstrated harmonic performances approaching that of schemes based on offline-generated optimal pulse patterns. However, long prediction horizons often prohibitively increase computational load. A different approach to maximizing harmonic performance is taken in this paper. It is shown that shaping the output voltage spectra using a simple feedback mechanism can significantly reduce the length of the required prediction horizon, facilitating a feasible computational load. When a short-horizon cost function is augmented by the feedback mechanism an excellent tradeoff between harmonic performance and switching loss is achieved, even with a prediction horizon of one. It is also shown that the feedback mechanism can be used to improve input reference tracking. Experimental verification of the proposed modulator is performed on a two-level three-phase inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the design, analytical estimation of power losses, and experimental measurement of choke inductors for switched-mode power inverters. The described approach is applicable to a wide variety of circuits such as Class-E inverters and converters. The expressions required to design the magnetic core in the choke inductor using the area–product ($A_p$) method are given. The equations for the dc resistance, ac resistance at high frequencies, and dc and ac power losses are provided for the solid round winding wire. To validate the presented approach, an example class-E zero-voltage switching power inverter with practical specifications is considered. A core with air gap is selected to avoid core saturation in the choke inductor, which conducts dc current and a small ac current. The gapped core power loss density and power loss are estimated using Steinmetz empirical equation. It is shown that the winding power loss due to the dc current is dominant for the given design. A comparison between the area–product $A_p$ method and the preexisting core geometry coefficient $K_g$ method is presented. The measured magnitude of the inductor impedance has shown that the designed choke is useful up to ten times the switching frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a fault-tolerant multiphase multilevel inverter (MPMLI) configuration is proposed based on the dual inverter concept. This configuration helps to improve the performance of pole–phase modulated multiphase induction motor (PPMMIM) drive in both normal and switch failure conditions. Comparing to the existing multilevel inverter topologies for multiphase induction motor (MIM) drives, the proposed MPMLI configuration requires less number of dc sources and power electronic devices. The proposed MPMLI configuration is able to sustain under various faulty conditions, which can improve the reliability of the system. In addition, dc-link utilization (DLU) in low-pole mode is improved by using space vector pulsewidth modulation (SVPWM). In high-pole mode, carrier-phase-shifted 3-Φ SVPWM is used for reducing the torque ripple. This MPMLI configuration produces a multilevel voltage profile across the effective phase in 3-phase 12-pole mode. By maintaining the V/f ratio constant, the proposed MPMLI-fed MIM drive facilitates a wide range of load torque with half of the rated speed in faulty condition. This advantage makes it suitable for traction and electric vehicle applications where reliability and wide range of torque–speed are the major concerns. The performance of proposed MPMLI-fed 5 hp, 9-φ PPMMIM drive is simulated by finite-element method (FEM) in ANSYS Maxwell 2-D and experimentally verified by laboratory prototype under normal and faulty conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]