ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1

Week 9

Prof. Sarath Perera

Phone: 4221 3405 Room: 35-G33

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 1 / 38

 Topics for Today

• Power Electronics

◦ Introduction

◦ Linear Amplifiers

• The Diode Rectifier (ac to dc).

• The Chopper (dc to dc).

• The Inverter (dc to ac).

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 2 / 38

 Topic 7: Introduction to Power Electronics

• Power conversion: modify electric power at high efficiency.

◦ i.e. change frequency, voltage, waveform, no of phases etc.

• Power electronics: study of electronic switching circuits for power

conversion

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 3 / 38

 Power Electronics

• Applications.

◦ Electronic power supplies (ac → LV dc) in computers, office

equipment, entertainment, communications, broadcasting etc.

◦ AC motor speed control (ac → variable f and V ac) in manufacturing

processes, machine tools, robots, transport

◦ Frequency conversion (ac → another ac) in lighting, induction

furnaces

◦ Renewable power supplies (photovoltaic, wind) where variable LV dc

and variable ac → fixed ac

◦ Battery supplied equipment (laptop computers, mobile phones, etc)

variable dc gives several fixed dc

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 4 / 38

 Power Electronics

• Classification of power conversion by frequency conversion:

TO
AC DC
AC Cycloconverter and Matrix Converter Rectifier
FROM
DC Inverter Chopper

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 5 / 38

 Linear Amplifiers

• Linear amplifiers are not suitable for high power applications.

(1) vT
Is
R
ns that the device T vdc T Vo
e desired voltage

r) is continually
linear power supply
produce constant

• According to KVL,
Vo = Vdc − VT

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 6 / 38

 Linear Amplifiers

• Linear amplifier means that the device T is controlled to give the desired
voltage across R continuously.

• Although Vdc (output from a rectifier) is continually varying, VT tracks it to

produce constant Vo using a complex feedback circuit.

• Hence linear power supply problems arise:

◦ control device dissipates a lot of power and needs large heat sink

◦ circuit is inefficient

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 7 / 38

 Linear Amplifier Example

A linear amplifier with a 20 V supply has a 10 Ω resistor to be supplied at 5 V. What is (i) the
load power, (ii) device loss, (iii) circuit efficiency?

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 8 / 38

 Power Electronic Switches

• Power Diode
A C

◦ anode, cathode

◦ forward and reverse directions

◦ device can conduct in forward direction (s/c) and blocks in reverse

direction

◦ available ratings 5 kV, 5 kA, useful to hundreds of kHz at lower ratings

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 9 / 38

 Power Electronic Switches

• Thyristor or Silicon Controller Rectifier (SCR)

G

A C

ction if triggered at the gate

◦ anode, cathode and gate (control terminal)

◦ forward and reverse directions

◦ device can conduct in forward direction if triggered at the gate

terminal (s/c) and blocks in reverse direction

◦ power gain better than 106

◦ available ratings 5 kV, 3 kA, useful to 500 Hz

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 10 / 38

 Power Electronic Switches

• Power MOSFET - Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor.

oxide semiconductor field- D

◦ source, drain and gate (control terminal)

◦ forward and reverse directions

◦ available ratings 1200 V, 10 A, 50 kHz

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 11 / 38

 Power Electronic Switches

• IGBT - Insulated gate bipolar transistor

C

E
as linear amplifier with v
◦ emitter, collector, gate (control terminal)

◦ forward and reverse directions

◦ device can be operated as linear amplifier with V control at gate

◦ available ratings 2 kV, 500 A, 20 kHz

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 12 / 38

 Power Electronics

• The power system must operate at a constant voltage and frequency.

• There are many devices that require different voltages and frequencies.

• Power electronics provides a way to convert from one voltage to another

at various frequencies.

◦ Modern appliances all demand electronic power supply with a mix of

dc voltages.

◦ Modern drive systems (electric motors) utilise variable speeds.

◦ Renewable energy generation doesn’t always natively provide the

correct voltage level or frequency.

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 13 / 38

 Power Electronic Devices

• A variety of devices used on power electronic applications have been

presented.

◦ Diode

◦ Thyristor or SCR

◦ MOSFET

◦ IGBT

• These devices for the basis of numerous power conversion circuits.

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 14 / 38

 Rectifier Circuit

• Used to convert AC to DC.

• For example, electronic power supply front end, ac motor drive supply
front end.

D1 D2
io
is
vs C vo
Single phase full
wave bridge to dc load eg SMPS,
rectifier circuit ac drive etc

D3 D4

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 15 / 38

 Rectifier Waveforms

• Load voltage vo is not smooth.

• Supply current is is not sinusoidal.

sinusoidal
is (with C)
vs
vo (with C)

vo (without C)
v ripple 'V

• If ripple is not too high,

√
Vo = 2Vs = Vpk

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 16 / 38

 Rectifier Application in an SMPS

• The term ‘Switched Mode Power Supply’ (SMPS) refers to a family of

devices that
are able to convert from one voltage to another using a switching regulator.
voltage sensing

control hf
circuit dc output #1
rectifier

Vo I 0

mains lf hf
supply inverter dc output #2
rectifier rectifier

hf transformers with multiple secondaries

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 17 / 38

 Relationship Between AC and DC

• Many rectifier loads have feedback to ensure constant output dc power

for a wide range of ac input voltages.

• E.g. a switched mode power supply (SMPS) set at 10 V will deliver a

fixed 10 V at a fixed current.

◦ Hence it will supply constant output power although ac voltage

changes.

◦ Assuming its efficiency is roughly constant, it will accept constant

power input.
Po = Pload /η
where η is 75-99%.

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 18 / 38

 Relationship Between AC and DC

• If supply rectifier output Vo reduces, Io will increase to maintain constant

power into SMPS.

• Hence the line current increases as the supply voltage reduces.

Io = Po /Vo

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 19 / 38

 SMPS Example

A rectifier is the front end of a SMPS with an output of 15 V, 5 A and an efficiency of 75%.
Determine Io if Vo is 319 V.

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 20 / 38

 Capacitor Selection

• The capacitor at the output of rectifier should be chosen based on

acceptable current and ripple voltage.

• Assume dc load is drawing an approximate constant current Io

• T = 1/f where f is the supply frequency

dv
i=C
dt
• Take worse case of decay over half period 1/2f

∆V
Io = C
1/2f
giving
Io
∆V =
2f C

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 21 / 38

 Capacitor Selection

• Alternatively
Io
C=
2f ∆V

• Also if the maximum dc voltage is the supply voltage peak

Vo = Vpk − ∆V /2

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 22 / 38

 Capacitor Choice Example

In the previous example, what should be the value of C to keep Vo at 319 V?

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 23 / 38

 Hold-up Time

• This is the time in cycles that the circuit can continue to operate if the
supply fails.

• It gives an idea of how long a power system fault has to be before a dc

power supply will fail.

• Increasing C gives better smoothing and increases hold-up time.

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 24 / 38

 Hold-up Time

• Suppose the rectifier output is normally Vo and the dc load can operate
successfully with voltage as low as Vo1 .

• Let THU be the hold-up time.

• As C discharges and Vo falls, Io increases so difficult to use

i = Cdv/dt. Can use an energy approach instead:
• E = Pt

• Which leads to:

0.5C(Vo2 − Vo12 ) = Po THU

• Or
C(Vo2 − Vo12 )
THU =
2Po
ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 25 / 38
 Hold-up Time Example

If the previous rectifier uses C =250 µF, Vs =230 V, and Vo1 = 230 V. For a load of 100 W,
what is the hold-up time?

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 26 / 38

 The Chopper

• Convert DC to DC, especially where the DC needs to be controlled.

• E.g. Battery operated vehicles, trains etc.

The
DC Input Chopper
From rectifer, Chopper DC Output Load
battery etc

Control and Feedback

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 27 / 38

 Chopper With Resistive Load

• Vo can only take values of 0 or Vdc .

vo
+ Vs
Vdc vo (1) on-time Ton
+ - (2) off-time Toff
- (3) period T = Ton + Toff
S (1) (2) t
(3)

Ton
• Duty Cycle, D =
T

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 28 / 38

 Chopper Average Voltage

• Let Vo = avg(vo ), then Vo = DVdc

Vo/Vdc
1

D
1

• Problem: if load is inductive, S will be destroyed when it opens.

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 29 / 38

 Chopper With Inductive Load

io

• Need to modify circuit so that: L

Df vo
◦ vo goes to zero when S turns off
Vdc R
◦ io is not suddenly interrupted +
-
• The solution is a freewheel diode Df . S

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 30 / 38

 Freewheel Diode Operation

• io is almost constant because of L

• S on: io flows through S, Vo = Vdc

• S off: io flows through Df , Vo = 0

• Hence, the relationship Vo = DVdc still holds.

io

t
S on S off S on S off
Df reversed-biased

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 31 / 38

 Freewheel Diode Operation

• Voltage seen by RL has a dc component.

• By Superposition, Io = Vo /R

• Since the average voltage across RL is the same as across just R, the
average voltage across L is zero.

• This also follows from L being a short circuit under dc conditions.

• If S switches at a high enough frequency then io ≈ constant

• This is usually assumed in the analysis of chopper circuits.

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 32 / 38

 Inverter

• Convert DC to AC with control over voltage and frequency.

• e.g.: ac motor drives, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).

vo

S1 S2
Vdc
vo
+ io
-
S3 S4
left S1 S3
right S4 S2

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 33 / 38

 Inverter With RL Load

• The freewheeling diode is utilised once again.

S1, S4 on vo

io

S1 D1 D2 S2
Vdc vo
+ io

- S2, S3 on

S3 D3 D4 S4 left D1 S1 D3 S3
right D4 S4 D2 S2

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 34 / 38

 Inverter Current Paths

+ +
- -

D1, D4 on S1, S4 on
Power fed back to supply Power taken from supply

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 35 / 38

 Control of Voltage-Sinusoidal PWM (SPWM)

• The sinusoidal reference waveform is divided into several sections.

• Each section is approximated by a pulse having the same area.

reference sinewave

identical areas
inverter output

one switching
period of inverter

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 36 / 38

 SPWM - Spectrum
ectrum
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 2mf 4mf 6mf 8mf 10mf

ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 37 / 38

 Inverter Filtering

SPWM
inverter XL1

dc load
supply XC XL2
connection

• High quality outputs can be obtained from fixed frequency inverters (e.g.
UPS, remote PV generators) by addition of filter at output.

• Series inductor L1 to decouple HF harmonics in inverter from load.

• Shunt capacitor C to bypass harmonic current around load. C and L1

act as a low pass 2nd order filter using voltage divider action.
ECTE324/8324 Power Engineering 1 Week 9 – 38 / 38