Analysis and Design of Variable Frequency and Phase-Shift Controlled Series Reso-

nant Converter Applied for Electric Arc Welding Machines

T.-F. Wu, H.-P. Yang and C.-M. Pan

Power Electronics Applied Research Laboratory

Department of Electrical Engineering
National Chung Clieng University
Ming-Hsiung, Cha-Yi, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Te1:886-5-2720411 Ext. 6346: Fax:886-5-2720862

Abstract - This paper presents the analysis and design of
a variable frequency and phase-shift controlled series-
resonant converter applied as a power source for an
electric arc welding machine with output ratings of 30 V
and 130A. The main switches of this converter always
hold zero-voltage switching (ZVS) from very light to full
load. The conventional filter inductor is removed so as
the assumption of a constant current sink is no longer
valid, thus complicating the analyses dramatically. The
operational principles of the converter applied in a weld-
ing machine design are described in detail from which
the voltage and current stresses imposed on the, main
components can be, therefore, derived and the design
procedure can be outlined as well. Computer simulations
and experimental results obtained from a laboratorical
prototype are illustrated to confirm the analytical works.
I. Introduction
Numerous applications of arc welding equipment em-
ploying power electronics techniques have appeared re-
cently. hi general, there are two methods of establishing ai
arcing process. one is touch arcing, the other is non-touch
arcing. The arcing process of the former is that the electrode
touches the base metal workpiece first and, then. keeps a
short distance apart, while the latter is (also named high-
voltage arcing) that a high pulse voltage source is applied
between tlie electrode and the workpiece to force arcing. It
is usually necessary to equip with arc ignition devices to
produce the source with thousands of volts in non-touch arc
welding machines. Two types of arc welding power sources
are essentially used, constant-current sources and constant-
voltage sources [l] The fonner regulate load currents.
while the latter regulate load voltages.
Usually, the performance considerations of the ma-
chine consist of output current response, current regulation
current ripple, fault tolerance, efficiency, weight and cost. It
has been shown that though switch mode PWM controlled
welding machines yield better performance over that of
traditional electro-magnetic ones, they still suffer from high
switching losses a i d prohibit them from high-frequency
applications To release this limitation and unexpected
shortcoming, soft-switching converters are employed in de-
signing the power sources of tlie welding machines. In the
literature, a parallel resonant converter (PRC) with capaci-
tive filter has been used in this sort of application, which
yields high performance [2]. As yet, the output filter capaci-
tor increases cost significantly for the applications of high-
voltage arcing machines, thus, somewhat limiting it from
high voltage applications. In this paper, an alternative, a
variable frequency and phase-shift controlled series
resonant converter (SRC), is presented and its schematic is
shown in Fig. 1. In the figure, a conventional heavy weight
filter inductor acting as a constant current sink source is re-
placed with a small filter inductor Lop which is equivalent
to the lumped inductance (several pH) of the welding ca-
ble. The analysis of this converter is essentially different
from that in the literature [3-91 where output filter inductors
are much larger than their resonant ones. It should be
pointed out that the converter with such a small inductor fil-
ter and loaded with an arcing device complicates the system
analyses dramatically.
The converter proposed in this paper possesses the at-
tributes of fast response, and high efficiency because the
main switches always hold zero-voltage switching (ZVS)
from light to full load. The operational principles and
analyses of the converter system exploiting stateplane dia-
gram are first presented in section 11, and the design curves
as well as the design procedure for the converter are shown
and outlined in section 111. Section IV presents the computer
simulation and experiment results of a laboratorial pro-
totype with output ratings of 30V and 130A which are used
to verify the theoretical discussions.
11. Operational principles
The circuit depicted in Fig. 1 is a variable frequency
and phase-shift controlled SRC applied as a power source
for an electric arc welding machine. Figure. 2 shows its
equivalent circuit in which the arcing load is simplified to
be a constant voltage in series with a resistor [lo].

0-7803-3026-9195 $4.00 0 1995 IEEE 656

 ILOrepresents the initial tank current iL(t=O), j , is the
load current, y1 is the transformer turn ratio, and z ~ ~ o a n d
r/cr\io denote the initial values of h ( t o ) and V C N ( ~ O )re-
,
spectively.
Fig. 1 Variable frequency Phase-shift controlled series
resonant converter applied for ii non-touch arcing I&
, I
i ;
i i
1 r
I
welding machine

Fig. 2 Equivalent circuit of the welding machine

According to the proposed control strategy, the

switches Ql-Q4 are gated by the signal shown in upper half
of Fig.3, on which six topological circuit modes and inipor-
tant waveforms are derived and illustrated in Fig.4 and 1
lower half of Fig.3, respectively. Figure 5 illustrates the
normalized stateplane diagram of vCwversus iLm.It is
worth pointing out that althoug~iadjusting phase angle 4 ILP

can regulate tlie output power of the converter, ZVS does

not hold for increasing the value of 4 at a fixed switching
frequency because the inductor current 11becomes positive
before Q4 is turned on 161. Tlius, varying the switching fre-
quency is necessary.
io ;I ;2 13 14 13 16 1
1 1 1 1

For the six topological circuit modes, only niode 2 and iA40de11Mode2 Mode3 Mode4 Mode3 Mode6

mode 5 deliver power to the load, while the rest of modes

are in free wheeling status. Since mode 4, 5 and 6 are in Fig. 3 Gating signals and waveforms of the circuit shown
symmetry to mode 1, 2 and 3, the first three modes are in Pig. 2
analyzed exclusively. In the following, several iniportant Lr Cr
equations are summarized.

Mode 1: Mode 1 o e

1 ZLNO , Lr Cr Lo Lr Cr Lo
tl=to+-tm-'-
WO VCNO-1
I/, +-
vo
o e

Fig. 4 Topological circuit modes

where

657
Mode 2:
Ts
t3=to+--$7
2

where
(b)
Fig. 6 (a) Simplified equivalent circuit of Fig. 1.
(b) Redrawing circuit of Fig. 6(a).

In order to get the necessary curves of switching fre-

quency cp) and phase angle q5 versus voltage gain M, a
fundamental frequency approximation is used in the
following analyses because the quality factor Q of this
converter is high enough and the tank voltage and current
waveforms are closely sinusoidal.

The fundamental components of the positive and

negative square-wave tank voltage source vAAl shown in
Fig. 2 are designated in Fig. 6, and can be respectively de-
scribed as follows:

Using the principle of sliperposition, one can obtain

the output voltages Yo,and V,, driven by the voltages V1
and V2 as

and

vme-j(Y2)
Resonant capacitor voltage v02 =
Fig. 5 State-plane diagrams of the converter
1+ jQ(on - 1/on>'

658
where M

Q=ZorR,
(1 8) 0.8

The output voltage can be derived from ( 5 ) and (6) and ex- Q 9
0.6 /
pressed as

2Vmcos(4, / 2)
vo =Vo1+Vo2=
1+ j Q ( W n - 1/ 0 n )

4
= -Vgcos(4, / 2 )
n:
r 1
1+ ,jQ(ColZ - -)

The voltage gain is derived as

1'
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

M=- vorms -
-
Ivol/JZ Q 9
0 .4
vg vg
0.2

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Wn

(4
Based on the above analyses, several important infor-
mation can be extracted and illustrated bj7 Figs. 7 and 8 Fig. 7 Continued (c) 4 = E/.2 (d) 4 = 3X/
The characteristics of M as a function of on and Q which 4
varies from 1 to 9 for various 4 angles are shown in Fig. 7
M
In addition, tlie characteristics of M as a function of 4, and Q
which varies from 1 to 9 for various mn are shown in Fig. 8
Froin this investigation, design and control curves can be
figured out.
M
1 , I I I I 1

Phase Angle

Wn 1

0.8

0.6

0.8
0.4

0.6
0.2

0.4
0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
0.2
Phase Angle

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

w 11
(b) Fig. 8 Charactcristics of M as a function of 4 for Q= 1-
9 at (a) ce),=1.25 (b) ce).=1.5.
Fig. 7 Characteristics of M ;IS ;I function of o n for Q= 1-

9 at (a) 4 = 0 " .(h) 4 = E/ 4'

659
 M
ductor is formed by the transformer leakage inductor
and an additional inductor.

(4)Select the ratings of tlie main switches

The maximum current flowing through the
switches is ilmlax, The maximum voltage across the
switches is the input voltage source Vg. In general, the
voltage stress is selected in an one and half time of Vg
because extra voltage stress is induced by parasitic in-
Phase Angle
ductance.
M
(4
JY.Computer simulation and Experiment
0.Si I I 1 I I
Results

By following the design procedure, a laboratorical pro-

totype of a welding machine rated with the output of 30V
and 130A is implemented. In the implementation, MOS-
FETs are selected to be the main switches. The operating
frequencies are between 100 kHz and 200 kHz.The mini-
mum switching frequency ( w 11) is about 1.25 times of
Phase Angle
resonant frequency ( 6)o). In order to reduce tlie equivalent
series resistence, four capacitors are connected in parallel to
form the resonant capacitor (SS nF). From Eq. 5 , tlie reso-
Pig. 8 Continued (c) (e) .=1.75. (d) (e) ,=2.0 nant inductor is determined as 45 ,L! H. According to the
load range, the quality factor Q (0.31-3.2) and the voltage
111. Design Procedure gain M (0.4-0.5) are acquired from Eq. 18 and Eq. 20, re-
spectively. From Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, we can obtain the phase-
The design procedure is described as follows: s l a angle @ which is about 0.8 when the operating fre-
quency w is about 1.25 time of w at full load. The
(1)Determine tlie resonant tank component values maximum voltage V, is about 0.9 Vbase and the maxi-
Generally, the output current rating of a welding mum current ilmax is about 0 9 Ibase, where Vbase=Vg
machine is in hundreds of amperes. Thus, tlie resonant
Ibase'Vbase/ZO. Thus, we choose the current rating of the
tank current rating is in tens of amperes, and then one
should select resonant capacitor with several hundred nF MOSFETs being 25 A aid voltage rating being 450 V.
For using MOSFETs or BJTs or IGBTs, one can choose
the appropriate miniii1um switching frequency which is The waveforms of the tank voltage VAAIand the
one and several tenth of times of resonant frequencv. resonant inductor current IL yielded from the simulated and
The resonant inductor is then can be decided from Eq. 5. experimental results are shown in Fig. 9 They are similar in
shape and magnitude, and are highly consistent with the
(2)Clioosethe operating frequency and phase-shift angle analytic predictions. Figure 10 illustrates the voltage VDs
According to tlie desired load range, one can de- and current I,, waveforms of the MOSFET switch, from
termine tlie range of the quality factor Q and voltage which it c m be observed that the switch posses zero voltage
gain M tllrougli Eqs. 18 and 20, respectively, and switching behavior.
descide the operating frequency w and phase-slSt
angle $ from Figs 7 and S
V. Conclusion
(?)Determine the stresses of the resonant tank components
State plane and frequency-domain analyses are
Aparently, from Fig. 5- one can observe that the
adopted to derive the desired information for designing the
maxinium voltage (V,,,) across the resonant
series resonant converter applied for electric arc welding
capacitor occurs at t l and t5, while tlie maximmi cur- machines. The fomier can yield more accurate results than
rent (illllllax) flowing through resonant inductor occurs those of tlie latter, while its manipulation becomes more
at t3 and t7 In practical consideration, the resonant in- cumbersome. In tlie paper, a design example based on fre-

660
quency-domain analysis is presented to illustrate the pro-
posed design procedure. It has been shown that for high Q
system, the experimental reults are highly consistent with
the experimental ones.
The series resonant electric arc welding machine
with the variable frequency and phase-shift control has the
merit of low switching loss over a wide load rmgc although
the control is fairly sophisticated. It has been verified that if
the system is with oiily the phase-shift coiitrol, the ZVS
does not exist at light load. T~LIS,it is controlled by
associating with a variable frequency tecluiique
I
I
s \ I '
! cz--
Fig. Y(h) Experimental results of Fig. 1: 141 OA / DIV),
/ DIV)
VAA~(~OOV
Reference:
[I]"EW-l Electric Arc Welding Power Sources, "ANSI
C87. I , National Electrical Manufactures Association,
Washinton, D.C., 1991.
[21L. Malesaii, P. Mattavelli, et. al., "Electronic welder
with high-frequency resonant inverter, " Proceedings of
IAS'93, v01.2, pp. 1073-1080, Mar. 1993.
[3]V. Vlatkovic, R. B. Ridley, et. al., "Design considera-
lions for high-voltage high-power fslll-bridge zero-volt-
age-switched PWM converter," I'i*oceediiTgs of APEC
'90, Los Angeles, CA, pp. 275-284, March 1990.
141s. Sooksatra and C. Q. Lee, "PWM-controlled SRC with
inductive output filter at constant switching frequency,"
IEEE Tix"ctions on Power. Electronics, Vol. 7, ISS. 2,
pp. 289-295, April 1992.
[5]V. Vlatkovic, J. A. Sabate, et. al., "Small-signal analysis
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tions O M Power Electi*onics, Vol. 7, Iss. 1, pp. 128-135,
I
I Jan. 1992.
I
[6]L. Gra,jalcs,J. A. Sabate, et. al., "Design of a 10 kW, 500
kHz phase-shift controlled series-resonant inverter for
induction heating," Proceedings of IAS'93, Toronto,
~ 0 1 . 2, ~ 0 1 . 2 , p p843-849,
. Mar. 1993.
[7]E. J. Dede, J. Jordan, et. al., "Design considerations for
induction heating current-fed inverters with IGBT's
working at 100 kHz,"Proceedings of APEC'93, San Di-
ego, CA., pp. 679-685, March 1993.
IS]F.-S. Tsai, "Small-signal and transient analysis of a zero-
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[9]M. K. Kazmierczuk, D. Czarkowski and N. Thirunarayan,
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[10]"Power sources for maiual metal arc welding with cov-
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standard, I S 0 700-1982, Iiiteniattional Organization for
Standardization, Switzerland, 1982.

_._.___..; j ......... j .,......;

.........;,..._..._ ....1...; .........i .........j .........i .........
2 1 ; ;
I I .

Fig.10 Experimental results of Fig. 1: ITIS(]OA / DIV),

vDS(lO0v / DIV)

661