Characteristics of Common-Mode Voltage Offset in Small Sectors and OC Fault Diagnosis Method for Three-Level Inverter.

T-type three-level inverters (T23LIs) are widely used in the electric drive system of new energy vehicles. However, the open-circuit (OC) faults of their switching devices will cause serious damage to the entire system operation. To mitigate the impact of switching faults, this paper proposes an OC fault diagnosis method based on the variations of common-mode voltage in small sectors of T23LI. Firstly, the normal characteristics of T23LI under SVPWM control algorithm are analyzed, and the correspondence between the space voltage vectors and the values of common-mode voltage is established. Then, the common-mode voltage variations under fault conditions are analyzed, and a fault diagnosis method based on these variations is proposed. The faults of the four switching devices in one phase is divided into two groups through the qualitative analysis of common-mode voltage variations, and the specific location of the faulty switch is located by further quantitative analysis. Finally, by analyzing the changes in the three-phase bridge output voltages after faults, the accurate location of the faults in the 12 switches of the three phases is located. Simulation and experimental results verify that the proposed method can accurately and quickly diagnose the single-switch OC faults of all switches, and it effectively accelerates the diagnosis speed and reduces costs by only requiring the collection of a single voltage signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]