National Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology

AC to AC Voltage Controller Using PWM Technique

Without DC Link
Y. B. Shukla1, S. K. Joshi2, R. J. Makwana3, A.A.Daiya4

1
E & C Engineering Department, SVIT, Vasad , e-mail : ybshukla2003@yahoo.com
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, The M.S.University of Baroda, e-mail : skjoshi@ieee.org
3
E & C Engineering Department, SVIT, Vasad , e-mail : renuka88@yahoo.com
4
Associate Prof, Electronics Dept, BVM V.V.Nagar, e-mail: daiyaajay@yahoo.in

Abstract—The power factor can be improved and more number
of harmonics can be reduced using the pulse width modulation
techniques of a voltage waveform. This paper discusses various
PWM techniques on the AC/AC voltage controller without DC
link. The paper also discusses two configurations of PWM
technique for harmonics reduction and improvement of power
factor and output voltage. Fast switching device, PWM
techniques can be applied to AC/AC voltage controllers for
producing variable output voltage with a better input Power
Factor. The theoretical results are validated through simulation
studies using PSIM software package.
Keywords-AC to AC voltage converter; PWM; Harmonic; Pulse
width control; Carrier frequency;
harmonics can be reduced by selecting the number of pulses
per cycle..
II. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION AND PROBLEM FORMULATION
Figure 1 shows the circuit configuration of PWM AC to
AC voltage converter, which is composed of two bidirectional
power switches, one connected in series and the other in
parallel with load, the series connected switches S1 & S2
regulate the power delivered to the load and the parallel S1' &
S2 ' provide a freewheeling path to discharge the stored energy

I. INTRODUCTION
PWM AC to AC voltage controllers are widely used in
UPS and high power flexible AC transmission systems. These
systems need switching elements which can bear high voltage.
[1-3]
AC/AC line-commutated phase angle control or integral
cycle control with thyristors technology have been widely
used; however, this technique has many drawbacks such as, when the series one turned off. The switches are assumed to
reduction of power factor at the input side, plentiful lower have bi-directional voltage blocking ability as well as
order harmonics in supplies, and discontinuity of power flow to bidirectional current conduction and turn off capability. The
the load sides.[4] present paper uses the switch configuration of inverse parallel
connection of two convention IGBT's and two diodes, the two
The pulse width control using variable DC based method
diodes prevent reverse voltage from appearing across switches.
and the frequency control using carrier frequency based
method can theoretically provide high quality output among all Figure 1. Circuit Diagram of AC to AC Voltage Converter
PWM methods with simple design approach.
In PWM control, the converter switches are turned on and
off several times during a half cycle and the output voltage can
be controlled by varying width of pulse. The lower order

13-14 May 2011 B.V.M. Engineering College, V.V.Nagar,Gujarat,India

 National Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology

III. OVERVIEW OF CONTROL STRATEGY

A. The pulse width control using variable DC method:

The gating signals of S1' & S2 ' switches shown in Figure 2
can be controlled by DC reference based or control strategy
and these signals are used to control S1 & S2 switching duration
respectively.
In this technique, as the reference DC signal vary, output
Figure 2. Gate signal of AC to AC Voltage Converter voltage varies proportionally and reduction in harmonics.

B. The frequency control using carrier frequency method:

When a switching function shown in Figure 2 is applied to
AC/AC voltage controller, the output voltage appears in PWM
forms at the load terminals.
Varying the frequency of clock signal can control the no of
pulses in gating signals of S1 & S2 switches shown in Figure 2.
In this technique, when the no of pulses vary then
harmonics are eliminated/reduced and obtained constant
voltage.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

TABLE I. SIMULATED CIRCUIT PARAMETERS

Parameter Symbol Value

Maximum Supply Voltage Vm 110 Volt
Rated power P 1.21 K Watt
Load resistance R 100 ohm
Load inductance L 6.1 mh

Figure 3. Output Voltage Waveform

A. The pulse width control using variable DC method:
Fig. 3shows the idealized output voltage waveform from
the AC/AC voltage controller. Frequency of carrier signal= 250 Hz

The general Fourier series expression expressed in terms Simulation summaries of the output voltage and harmonic
of n with DC reference are given in Table II. Figure 4, Figure 6 and
Figure 5 shows output voltage with DC reference 1V, 10V and
switching
FFT of output voltage, respectively.
points
variables
for the TABLE II. VARIATIONS OF OUTPUT VOLTAGE AND HARMONIC WITH DC
REFERENCE
voltage is
Where Sr. DC Reference Output Harmonic Voltage (Volts)
No. (Volts) voltage
Bn = 0 for n = 1, 2, 3 ….... I ST III RD V TH
(Volts)
Due to half wave symmetry of waveform 1 1 2.08 28.3 6.6 22.4
2 4 2.08 28.3 6.6 22.4
3 6 2.08 28.3 6.6 22.4
4 8 1.8 25.5 2.9 21.3
5 10 1 15.3 3.53 9.75

13-14 May 2011 B.V.M. Engineering College, V.V.Nagar,Gujarat,India

 National Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology

Simulation summaries of the output voltage and harmonic

with DC reference are given in Table III . Fig. \ref{fig.7},
Fig.\ref{fig.9}, Fig.\ref{fig.8}and Fig. \ref{fig10}shows output
voltage for carrier frequency 150Hz, 450Hz and FFT of output
voltage, respectively.

TABLE III. VARIATIONS OF OUTPUT VOLTAGE AND HARMONIC WITH

CARRIER FREQUENCY

Sr. Variable Output Harmonic Voltage (Volts)

No. Carrier Freq. voltage
I ST III RD V TH
(Hz) (Volts)
Figure 4. Output voltage for input DC reference=1 volt
1 150 2.08 33.5 21.2 7.6
2 250 2.08 28.4 6.6 22.4
3 350 2.08 27.8 1.19 6.55

Figure 5. FFT of output voltage with DC reference =1 volt 4 450 2.08 27.6 0.46 1.16
5 550 2.08 27.1 0.68 0.56

Figure 6. Output voltage for input DC reference =10 volts

B. The frequency control using carrier frequency method :

Figure 7. Output voltage for carrier frequency= 150Hz
Input DC reference = 1 volt
Figure 8. FFT of output voltage with carrier frequency =150 Hz

13-14 May 2011 B.V.M. Engineering College, V.V.Nagar,Gujarat,India

 National Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology

V. CONCLUSION
The theoretical PWM pattern is found by solving the non
linear harmonic equation which described suggested PWM
method. The new pattern proposed in this paper has the
features of harmonic reduction up to the specified order as well
as linear voltage control and requires low orders pulse number.
With the proposed pulse width control using DC ref. method,
reduction of desired harmonics are attainable and output
voltage can be controllable. While with Frequency control
using carrier frequency method, reduction of harmonics are
attainable and output voltage can be constant. In this method
harmonics reduction are more compare to the pulse width
control using DC ref. method.
Figure 9. Output voltage for carrier frequency= 450Hz
The Feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm
is evaluated with intensive simulation studies. Further work
should focus on practical real-time implementation of the
PWM AC/AC voltage controller.

REFERENCES
[1] M. Marzzuccheli, “ Multilevel Converter for high power AC Drives: A
Review”, Presented at IEEE International Symposium on Industrial
Electronics, ISIE'93, 1993.
[2] J. S. Lai and F. Z. Peng, “ Multilevel Converter -- A new Breed of
Power Converters”, IEEE Trans. Ind Appl., Vol.32,pp. 509-517, 1996
[3] H. Akagi, “The state-of-the Art of Power Electronics in Japan”, IEEE
Trans. Power Electron, Vol. 13, pp 345-356, 1998
[4] Y. Xiao, B. Wu, F. Dewinter, R. Sotudeh, “A Dual GTO Current Source
Figure 10. FFT of output voltage with carrier frequency =450 Hz Converter Topology with Sinusoidal inputs for high Power
Applications”, Presented at Applied Power Electronics Conference and
Exposition, 1997.
[5] M. H. Rashid, “Power Electronics: Circuits, Devices and Applications”,
3rd Ed., Upper Saddle River, New Jersy, Prentice- Hall,2005

13-14 May 2011 B.V.M. Engineering College, V.V.Nagar,Gujarat,India