A New Fault-Tolerant Control Method for Cascaded

Multilevel Inverter
Baocheng Wang, Xiaoling Guo, Liqiao Wang, Xin Li, Xiaofeng Sun
Electrical Engineering Institute, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China

Abstract-To increase the cascaded multilevel inverter’s fault and take fault-tolerant scheme.
dependability, a new control method is presented. This method
utilizes the specialties of cascaded multilevel inverter, and needn’t
change the topology of the system. The only thing to do is
changing the drive wave of the inverter. So the reliability of the
system is improved.

Index Terms-Cascaded multilevel inverter, Fault tolerance,

Asynchronous machine.

I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, as engine systems call for higher and higher
qualities to the converter, people pay more attention to the
multilevel inverters’ application. Cascaded multilevel inverter
Fig.1. A n-unit cascaded multilevel inverter.
is widely used as its structure is easily to expand, and it is also
famous for ideal output voltage waveform, low stress to the
switches, big capacity, etc. For these reasons, it is widely used
in engine and other powerful systems[1-2].
Systems adopting cascaded multilevel converters mostly
work in important field, and there are more and more demands
on the dependability of the systems. However, there is still
little research in this field at present[3]. The dependability of
single unit can be raised by rational design before the system is
produced, but it is very difficult to improve the dependability
of the total system only by earlier stage designing[4]. Cascaded
multilevel inverters have a character that each unit can work
independently. After a unit stops working because of fault, if
we can make the other units continue working with the output
of the system unchanged, the reliability of the system will be Fig. 2. Five-level output voltages of phase A.
improved greatly. A new fault-tolerant method is presented in A multilevel inverter with each phase cascaded by two units
this paper with the assuming that a switch in phase A is broken. can output a phase voltage of five levels while working
To prove the feasibility of the fault-tolerant method, the regularly. Fig. 2 shows the waveform of output voltage of
systematic simulation studies were conducted respectively on phase A. The shortcoming of cascaded multilevel inverter is
an inverter cascaded by two units and another by three. too much shielded DC sources are needed. This becomes the
A cascaded multilevel inverter is shown in Fig. 1. The phase reason preventing its widespread application.
voltage is the sum of each unit’s output of each phase, as (1)
shows, where X can be A, B and C. II. FAULTS AND TRADITIONAL FAULT-TOLERANT METHOD
It can be seen from Fig. 1 that the current in each phase flows
U XN = U X 1 + U X 2 + ! + U Xn (1) through n bridges. As there are many switches passed through,
the probability of fault is increased[3-5]. Take the instance that
We can conclude from (1) that the inverter cascaded by n switch a11 is broken down and can not work more, then the unit
units can output a voltage with 2n+1 levels. Compared with a11 belongs to can not output positive voltage, but the negative
the general inverters, power taken by each unit is much part can be output as before. Then when a14 is on, the current
decreased when output voltages are the same. So for cascaded that output by other units in phase A circuit through the diode
inverter, it is much easier to output a high power. Cascaded parallel with a12 instead. In addition, phase B and C also
inverter needs less switches, which makes it easy to diagnose

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change their circuit during this time. As a result, a positive part
of phase A’s current is missing, causing that the positive part is
not balanced with the negative part. For this reason the
inductance can not charge and discharge normally. This will
bring much harmony to phase A, and with the increase of
inductance’s value, the harmonies will increase quickly[6].
Fig.3. Output voltages before and after the fault.
Fig. 4. Locus of the MMF.
Fig. 2 shows the three-phase output voltage UAN, UBN,
UCN as mentioned above, trouble happened at 0.5s. While
working regularly, UAN is a five-level voltage, which turns
into four-level after the trouble takes place. Because the
machine system is great inductive and the resistance in the
system is very small, after the trouble appears, the harmony in
the current wave is particularly serious, and the machine can't
continue working yet at that moment[7-8]. When using
simulation software to make emulation to the system, the work
can't continue when the trouble appears. In order to study the
property of the system under this situation, a tinny load and a
big induce are used instead of the machine.
As Fig. 3 shows, phase voltage of two-unit cascaded inverter
is disorderly after fault. Using the data get from the current
wave we drew the locus of the revolving magnetic field, which
is shown in Fig. 4. The circle is locus before the trouble, and
the irregular part is the one after the trouble. It is obviously that
when trouble appears, the revolving magnetic field deviates
from the perfect circle. This will cause great harm to engine.
To solve the problem ironed above, there are two types of
fault-tolerant method, one is hardware redundant, and another
is to cut the fault unit away[5].
The hardware redundant is to design surplus unit in the
systematic design. When the trouble appears, replace the
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trouble unit with the surplus unit, in order to make the system
continue working. Dependability of this method is relatively
high, but it needs at least one unit unused as redundant, which
causes the ratio of the systematic utilization low.
Cutting the failure unit away takes the advantage of the
cascaded inverter’s property that is each unit of the inverter can
work independently, so after cutting the fault unit away, the
rest can continue to work. If taking this method, to make the
output of the three phases balance, each healthy phase should
cut one unit, too. As the result, the value of output voltage is
reduced and the machine system must run at a lower speed at
this moment[9].
To overcome the shortcoming of the traditional fault-tolerant
method, a new fault-tolerant method is brought up, which
makes use of the property that output of one cascaded inverter
unit has nothing to do with the rest.
III. A NEW FAULT-TOLERANT METHOD
To make the motor work normally, a revolving magnetic
field produced by the current through the armatures is needed.
On common conditions, the current through the armatures is
three-phase-balanced sine wave, which can be expressed as
follows,
­ I sa = n × I cos( ω t )
° (2)
® I sb = n × I cos( ω t − 2π / 3)
° I = n × I cos( ω t + 2π / 3)
¯ sc
Where I is the voltage’s amplitude,  is the angular-frequency
of it.
The total magnetic field MMF is the sum of each field
produced by each unit independently. The MMF can be
expressed[10 ] as (3).
MMF = m× nIa + αm× nIb + α 2 m× nIc (3)
Where, α = 1∠120o , m is the number of the stator coil’s turned
in each phase, and Ia, Ib, Ic are the output current of each single
unit. From (2)-(3), it is evident that the MMF under good
condition can be given as (4).
3
MMF = Fϕ (cos θ + j sin θ ) (4)
2
Where, F=m×nI, =t, and it can be written as (5).
­ 3n
°° F d = 2 ⋅ mI ⋅ cos θ (5)
®
° F = 3 n ⋅ mI ⋅ sin θ
°¯ q 2
Where Fd and Fq are the real part and imaginary part of F,
respectively. Suppose that the switch a11 breaks down and stop
working. Keep a13 off, a12 and a14 on, then a new way for the
three line currents is given, which is shown in Fig. 5.
It is clearly that the unit can not output current with fault any
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more. So the current of phase A becomes the sum of n-1 units. IV. SIMULATION AND DISCUSS OF THE FAULT-TOLERANT
The MMF produced by the three phases under this situation METHOD
can be given as To test the fault-tolerant control method, a systematic
simulation was conducted on a typical machine system. To
­ n n
°° F ' d = (n − 1)I a − 2 ⋅ I b − 2 ⋅ I c show the quality more directly, assume the machine with no
®
(6)
load. We can conclude that if motor can runs and meets the
°F ' = 3 ⋅ n ⋅ I − 3 ⋅ n ⋅ I
¯°
q
2
b
2
c following three points, the system is normal. The first one is
the locus of MMF. The machine can work smoothly only if the
locus of MMF keeps round after the fault. The second one is
the wave of torque. To continue working, the system requests
the torque with little fluctuation. The third one is the wave of
the machine speed, the system can continue working only if the
speed unchanged.
Here are respectively the simulations under the condition of
n=2 and n=3.
A. n =2
When the system works normally, the output phase voltages
are five-level in two-unit cascaded inverter. Assuming that the
accident happens at 1s, and at the same time ignoring the
Fig.5 New current circuit after the trouble. location time on the switches, we control the inverter according
It is obvious that the MMF is not round at this moment, so to formulation (9) when the accident appears.
the machine system can not work any more, and will cause the We can calculate the data needed when take the
machine shaking, generate heat and cause the machine a great fault-tolerant method (angle is made for the radian), and
danger. It is evident that MMF is decided by three-phase control the system in a new operation point. Fig. 6 shows the
current of the stators, so it can be changed by changing the output voltages before and after the fault. Fig. 7 shows the
three-phase current of the stator. If we change the amplitude wave of the machine speed, and the one of the torque, and Fig.
and the angle of the current, make the MMF the same as it is 8 shows the wave of the machine speed, and the one of the
before the accident, the system can continue to work. The goal torque.
of fault-tolerant is achieved.
Change the current according to (7) when the fault occurs,
where I' is the amplitude of the changed current, ' is the angle
of it.

­I ' a = I ' cos(ωt )

°
®I 'b = I ' cos(ωt + ϕ ' ) (7)
°I ' = I ' cos(ωt − ϕ ' )
¯ c

Substituting (6)-(7), the equations can be written in the form

Set F'd =Fd, F'q =Fq, then (8) can be written as follow,

­°F ' d = (n − 1)I ' cosθ − nI ' cosθ cosϕ '

® (8) Fig. 6. Waveform of output voltages before and after the fault.
°̄F ' q = 3 ⋅ n ⋅ I ' sinθ sinϕ '

­ 2
°K = n 9n + 6n − 3 − 3n(n −1)
° 4n − 2
® (9)
° 4I ' −3I 2
2
°cosϕ' = −
¯ 2I '

Where, K = I ' I . So if we make the output of the three-phase

current as (9), and trigger the switch a12, a13, a14 as shown in
Fig.5, the MMF will keep unchanged after a11 breaks down.
We can make similar analysis if the accident happened on the
other switches. Fig.7. Waveform of the machine speed and torque.

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 Fig. 8. Waveform of the machine speed and torque.
It can be seen from the simulation that after the trouble
appears, the output of phase A turns into three level. The MMF
returns to its original locus quickly after the trouble, and the
fluctuation of the torque is very small too, so the system can
continue to work at last.
B. n =3
When working normally, the output of the inverter are seven
level voltages. Assuming the fault appears at 1s, we can get the
data needed according to (9).
­ K = 1 .139
® (10)
¯ϕ ' = 4 .011
Similar as n=2, we can get the wave of output phase voltage
shown in Fig. 9. Fig. 10 shows the wave of the machine speed
and the one of the torque, and Fig. 11 shows the locus of MMF.
Fig.9. Waveform of output voltages before and after the fault.
Fig. 10. Waveform of the machine speed and torque.
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Fig.11. Waveform of the machine speed and torque.
It is obviously that after the system adopting fault-tolerant
method, the fluctuation of the torque is very small, the speed
hardly changes, the phase voltage of phase A turns into five
level, and the MMF resumes as a round quickly. So the system
can continue working smoothly under the fault-tolerant state.
V. CONCLUSIONS
A new fault-tolerant method is given in this paper. This
new-type fault-tolerant method makes the system continue to
work during the fault period, and it has also overcome the
shortcoming of inefficiency caused by hardware redundant.
While adopting this method, there is no need to change
topology of the system, and quality of the output value is
hardly decreased, so the dependability of system is improved
greatly.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation
of China under Award 50837003.
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