VARIABLE FREQUENCY DRIVE

(VFD)
Presented by
Shreeyanshmaan
118EE0269

Department of Electrical Engineering

National Institute of Technology, Rourkela
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 INTRODUCTION

• VFD (Variable Frequency Drives) is a type of

motor controller device that is used to drive AC
motors at variable speeds.
• They are also known as adjustable speed drives,
variable speed drive or AC drives.
• They take in AC from mains (Constant voltage
and frequency) and convert them into variable
voltage and variable frequency, based on the
requirement.

Fig 1. Industrial VFD

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STRUCTURE OF VFD
• The VFD is basically divided into three parts

1. Rectifier unit

2. DC link

3. Inverter Unit
• Rectifier converts the input AC waveform to
DC voltage.
• DC link helps in smoothing out the AC
voltage to be fed to the inverter unit. Rectifier unit DC link Inverter unit

• Inverter unit converts the input DC voltage to Fig 2. Circuit diagram of a VFD
the desired simulated AC voltage and
frequency.

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FUNCTIONING OF VFD

• The output of the inverter is not a sinusoidal voltage, but a

simulated sinusoidal volage formed as shown.
• This is obtained by switching the IGBTs on and off using
PWM signals as gate signals.
• The positive half of output is formed by one IGBT while 1
the negative half is formed by the other.
• The RMS output voltage will depend on the duration of the
pulses and the frequency will depend on the timing of the
switches.
2

Fig 3. Switching of IGBTs and corresponding

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output waveform of a phase. 4
PRE-CHARGING OF DC LINK
• The capacitor in DC link needs to be pre-charged slowly to full voltage before operating the load
(AC motor).
• For this, current limiting circuits are introduced either in the DC link or on input side of VFD.

Fig 4. VFD with current-limiting circuit

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APPLICATIONS

Conveyers Pumps Crane and hoists

Industrial fans Mine Winders Compressors

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ADVANTAGES
• Allows prolonged period of operations.

• Contribute to large energy savings with provision for

regenerative braking.

• Provides wide range of speed control with smooth start

and stop.

• Has long life of operation and reduces maintenance costs.

• Reduces high inrush current and increases motor life.

• Inbuilt protection system for motors.

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SPEED CONTROL MEASURES
• V/f control
Scalar control
• V/f with encoders

• Open Loop Vector control

Vector control
• Closed Loop Vector control

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 4-QUADRANT OPERATION OF DRIVE
ω
II QUADRANT I QUADRANT
• Quadrant I -- Forward Motor ω>0 ω>0
𝜏<0 𝜏>0
• Quadrant II -- Forward Braking P<0 P>0

𝜏 𝜏
• Quadrant III -- Reverse Motoring
• Quadrant IV -- Reverse Braking ω
ω

𝜏
• Most of the motors have only single
quadrant(1st) or two quadrant(1st and 3rd)
operation (Pumps, Fans). 𝜏 𝜏
• VFD enables the motor to operate in all 4- Regenerative action ω ω
quadrants and provides the possibility of
III QUADRANT IV QUADRANT
ω<0 ω<0
utilisation of regenerated energy. 𝜏<0 𝜏>0
P>0 P<0

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 BRAKING WITH VFD
• Dynamic braking and Regenerative braking are two options
available with VFD.
• Dynamic Braking:
• Diodes/Thyristors used in rectifier
circuit.
• Power is dissipated as heat in a
Fig 7. Circuit diagram of VFD with dynamic braking system
dynamic brake resistor – chopper
system.
• Regenerative braking:
• IGBTs used in rectifier circuit.
• Power is fed back to the source
through the rectifier circuit. Fig 8. Circuit diagram of Active Front End Drive
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 ACTIVE FRONT END(AFE) DRIVE
• These are VFDs that use IGBTs in the rectifier circuit
compared to the traditional diode/thyristor based
rectifiers, whose switching is controlled electronically.

• AFE allows the regenerated energy to be put back into

the line, reducing the net energy consumption.

• Reduces harmonics to a great extent due to active

Fig 9. Circuit diagram of Active Front End Drive
switching in the rectifier unit, along with the LCL filter.

• Improves operating power factor.

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HARMONICS IN VFD
• Harmonics produced due to VFDs depend on the input
rectifier scheme and the ratio of source to load current.

• Harmonics generated by a VFD is given by the formula:

𝐻 = 𝑘𝑞 ± 1
where q = no of pulses in the output of rectifier unit
k = any integer.
• According to the IEEE 519 standards, THD introduced due
to a load should be <5%.
Fig 10. Input voltage and current waveform of a typical VFD
• Harmonics worsen the operating power factor.

𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃
𝑃𝐹 = 𝑇𝐻𝐷 𝑃𝐹
1 + 𝑇𝐻𝐷2
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MITIGATION OF HARMONICS
• Use of choke in DC link, input to VFD. ≈ 35 − 40% .

• Implementing shunt active filtering in the input line to

VFD.

• Using different rectifiers schemes (12 pulse, 18 Fig. Structure of a 12-pulse rectifier

pulse).(≈ 9 − 14%)

• Active Front End (AFE) drives. (< 5%)

Fig. Circuit diagram of an AFE VFD

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PROTECTION OF VFD
• Most of the protections required to protect the electronic
circuitry within the VFD and motor are provided.
• To protect the semiconductor devices of the drive in the
condition of short circuit, a semi conductor fuse is Fig 13. Input line choke
provided in drive’s input supply.
• Input line chokes are used to protect the AC drive from
transients in the input supply.
• Regular cleaning of vents, keeping the environment dry
and ensuring tight connections will help maintain The
VFD in a healthy state.

Fig 14. Semiconductor fuse

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CONCLUSION
• VFD plays a very important role in the modern industry which operates on precise speed control
and automation in operation of AC motors for a better overall performance.
• They provide a huge advantage in the form of accurate speed control and huge energy savings as
compared to traditional method of speed controls.
• Comparison of dynamic and regenerative braking abilities were discussed to give us an insight
how they are important when the motor is in regenerating mode.
• Harmonics is a critical flaw of VFD and different methods to control and reduce THD were
discussed for smooth operation of motor and maintaining the quality of power supply.

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REFERENCES
• Dubey, Gopal K. ‘Fundamentals of electric drives’, CRC Press, 2002
• P. V. Patil and S. A. Naveed, "Implementation of VFD Application for Speed Control of Induction Motor," 2020
International Conference on Smart Innovations in Design, Environment, Management, Planning and Computing
(ICSIDEMPC), 2020, pp. 168-170, doi: 10.1109/ICSIDEMPC49020.2020.9299636.
• Agrawal, Mr & Nema, Pragya & Lodhi, Rakesh. (2018). Comparison between Scalar & Vector Control Technique for
Induction Motor Drive. 5. 2395-0056.
• Liang, Xiaodong & Luy, Yilmaz & Koval, Don. (2007). Investigation of Input Harmonic Distortions of Variable Frequency
Drives. Proc. IEEE I&CPS Conf.. 6. 1 - 11. 10.1109/ICPS.2007.4292113.
• Chimonyo, K.B., Kumar, K.S., Kumar, B.K. and Ravi, K., 2018, April. Design and analysis of electrical drives using active
front end converter. In 2018 Second International Conference on Inventive Communication and Computational
Technologies (ICICCT) (pp. 115-119). IEEE.
• Collins, Danielle. (2018). ‘What are the benefits of an active front end (AFE) drive?’ {
https://www.motioncontroltips.com/what-are-the-benefits-of-an-active-front-end-afe-drive }

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THANK YOU

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