Pulse Mask Controlled HFAC Resonant Converter for high efficiency Industrial Induction Heating with less harmonic distortion

This paper discusses about the fixed frequency pulse mask control based high frequency AC conversion circuit for industrial induction heating applications. Conventionally, for induction heating load, the output power control is achieved using the pulse with modulation based converters. The conventional converters do not guarantee the zero voltage switching condition required for the minimization of the switching losses. In this paper, pulse mask control scheme for the power control of induction heating load is proposed. This power control strategy allows the inverter to operate closer to the resonant frequency, to obtain zero voltage switching condition. The proposed high frequency AC power conversion circuit has lesser total harmonic distortion in the supply side. Modeling of the IH load, design of conversion circuit and principle of the control scheme and its implementation using low cost PIC controller are briefly discussed. Simulation results obtained using the Matlab environment are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the pulse mask scheme. The obtained results indicate the reduction in losses, improvement in the output power and lesser harmonic distortion in the supply side by the proposed converter. The hardware results are in good agreement with the simulation results.