TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MOMBASA

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING
UNIT NAME: POWER ELECTRONICS 1
UNIT CODE: EEE4325
LAB REPORT 1
TITLE OF THE LAB: ELECTRONIC CONTROL OF POWER
MEMBER REGISTRATION NO: SIGN
1. MAUREEN MAKENA BSEE/312J/2019
2. BARASA PHILIP BSEE/286J/2019
3. SEBASTIAN MUTHUSI BSEE/267/2019
4. VAATI MWENDE BSEE/266J/2019
5. FRANCIS NGIGI BSEE/253J/2019
INTRODUCTION

Electronic control of power is the limiting or controlling of steady state currents to a

programmable limit, for example controlling the speed of a motor and dimming of lights. The
devices used to perform this task are thyristors and triacs. A triac will be used in this lab
experiment to control the speed of a motor and adjusting the brightness of a bulb(dimming). A
cathode ray oscilloscope will be used to observe the waveform of the controlled power fed to the
load.

OBJECTIVES

1. To use a triac to control dc power to a load.

2. To observe the output waveforms fed to the load.

APPARATUS

1. Triac power control board

2. 240V 1 lamp and socket
3. Variac
4. Mains supply from isolating transformer
5. 3-Phase AC motor
6. Oscilloscope

BASIC THEORY

Thyristor.
The thyristor or silicon-controlled rectifier SCR is a device that is widely used for controlling or
switching power and often high voltage AC or DC circuits. Thyristors are able to switch large
levels of power, they are used in a wide variety of different applications. Thyristors even finds
uses in low power electronics where they are used in many circuits from light dimmers to power
supply over voltage protection.
Thyristor applications:
1. AC power control (including lights, motors, etc).
2. Overvoltage protection for power supplies.
3. AC power switching.
4. Control elements in phase angle triggered controllers.
Thyristor symbol:
Thyristor Operation:
The thyristor or SCR will not conduct initially. It requires a certain level of current to flow in the
gate to "fire" it. Once fired, the thyristor will remain in conduction until the voltage across the
anode and cathode is removed (this obviously happens at the end of the half cycle over which the
thyristor conducts). The next half cycle will be blocked as a result of the rectifier action. It will
then require current in the gate circuit to fire the SCR again.
Basic thyristor structure:
The thyristor consists of a four-layer p-n-p-n or n-p-n-p structure with the outer layers are
referred to as the anode (p-type) and cathode (n-type). The control terminal of the thyristor is
named the gate and it is connected to the p-type layer located next to the cathode.

Figure 1 structure of a silicon-controlled rectifier.

As a result, the thyristor has three junctions rather than the one junction of
a diode, and two within transistors.

Thyristor operation modes:

The thyristor has three basic states:
 Reverse Blocking: In this mode the thyristor blocks the current in the same way as that of a
reverse biased diode.
 Forward Blocking: In this mode the thyristor operation is such that it blocks forward current
connection that would normally be carried by a forward biased diode.
 Forward Conducting: In this mode the thyristor has been triggered into conduction. It will
remain conducting until the forward current drops below a threshold value known as the
"holding current" IH.
Figure 2 modes of operations of silicon-controlled rectifier.
For the thyristor operation, and looking at the simplified block structure it can be seen that the
device may be considered as two back to back transistors. The transistor with its emitter
connected to the cathode of the thyristor is a n-p-n device whereas the transistor with its emitter
connected to the anode of the SCR is a p-n-p variety. The gate is connected to the base of the n-
p-n transistor.

Characteristics of Thyristor:
The characteristics of a thyristor is shown below:
Principles of phase-controlled converter operation:
Half wave-controlled rectifier.

Full wave-controlled rectification with load.

TRIAC
The TRIAC is a three terminal semiconductor device for controlling current. It gains its name
from the term TRIode for Alternating Current. It is effectively a development of the SCR or
thyristor, but unlike the thyristor which is only able to conduct in one direction, the TRIAC is a
bidirectional device.
TRIAC / thyristor comparison:
The TRIAC is an ideal device to use for AC switching applications because it can control the
current flow over both halves of an alternating cycle. A thyristor is only able to control them
over one half of a cycle.
During the remaining half no conduction occurs and accordingly only half the waveform can be
utilised.

Figure 3Typical / idealised TRIAC & thyristor switching waveforms.

The fact that the TRIAC can be used to control current switching on both halves of an alternating
waveform allows much better power utilisation. However the TRIAC is not always as convenient
for some high power applications where its switching is more difficult.
The TRIAC provides AC switching for electrical systems. Like the thyristor, the TRIACs are
used in many electrical switching applications. They find particular use for circuits in light
dimmers, etc., where they
enable both halves of the AC cycle to be used. This makes them more efficient in terms of the
usage of the power available. It is possible to view the operation of a TRIAC in terms of two
thyristors placed back to back.

Figure 4 TRIAC equivalence to two thyristors

options that are normally considered. One is to use a TRIAC, and the
other is to use two thyristors connected back to back - one thyristor is
used to switch one half of the cycle and the second connected in the
reverse direction operates on the other half cycle.
Applications:
TRIACs are still used for many electrical switching applications:
 Domestic light dimmers
 Electric fan speed controls
 Small motor controls
 Control of small AC powered domestic appliances
The TRIAC is easy to use and provides cost advantages over the use
of two thyristors for many low power applications. Where higher powers
are needed, two thyristors placed in "anti-parallel" are almost always
used.

TRIAC CHARACTERISTICS.
Figure 5 Triac characteristic curve
PROCEDURE
Connect the circuit as shown below.

set variac to 10% (approximately 20V rms)

set CRO to 2mS/cm, Y1, 10V/cm, Y2 20V/cm uncalibrated

Connect the isolating transformer to power supply and switch it on.

Set the source to 110V ac and connect it to the triac power control

Connect the output of the triac to single phase asynchronous motor and to the CRO.
set the triac control to zero and adjust the control until the motor starts to rotate and observe the effect
on the waveform of the output voltage on the CRO. Take the reading and record.

Now disconnect the motor and connect a bulb to the output of the triac.

Adjust the control and observe the effect on the brightness of the bulb.

OBSERVATIONS

The motor starts to rotate as the adjusting control is increased towards maximum(as the

firing angle is reduced)at point 3 of the control knob. At this point the waveform display on CRO is not
smooth and has some disturbances.

At point 3 of the adjusting control

As the adjusting control is increased further towards the maximum the waveform assumes a
smooth curve as shown.
 At point 4 of the adjusting control

When the CRO is replaced with a bulb,it lights dimly at point 3 and brightens up as the firing angle is
reduced as seen on attached photo of point 4.

At point 3 of the adjusting control

 At point 4 of the adjusting control

ANALYSIS

Triac, is a member of the Thyristor family which can be used as a solid-state power switching
device. But the biggest advantage that a Triac has over a silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR), is
that it is a “bidirectional” switching device. In other words, a Triac can be triggered into
conduction by both positive and negative voltages applied to its anode and with both positive and
negative trigger pulses applied to its Gate terminal making it a two-quadrant switching Gate
controlled device. A Triac behaves just like two conventional Thyristor connected together in
inverse parallel (back-to-back) with respect to each other. The Triac circuit uses phase control to
vary the amount of voltage, and therefore power applied to a load, in this case a motor, for both
the positive and negative halves of the input waveform.

A potentiometer was used to control the amount of phase shift on the gate of the Triac which in
turn controls the amount of voltage applied to the motor by turning it ON at different times
during the AC cycle. As the gate trigger pulse increases along the half cycle (i.e. from point o to
5), the lamp is illuminated for less time and the average voltage delivered to the lamp will also
be proportionally less thus reducing its brightness. When motor was used as load the speed of
motor decreased gate trigger pulses increased from point 0(0 degrees) to 5 (90 degrees).the speed
decreases because the output voltage is more chopped compared to input, and therefore the
mean output voltage decreases consequently ,the firing angle determines the amount of power
the Triac passes to load.
 WAVEFORMS

a) Input waveform (ac input)

b) TRIAC waveforms

Circuit diagram for controlling speed of motor and brightness of lamp

point1=less brightness.

Point 5=maximum brightness.

For motor;

Point 1=less speed.

Point 5=maximum speed.

 A GRAPH OF VOLTAGE AGAINST FIRING
POINTS
120

100

80
voltage in volts

60

40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5

FIRING POINTS

From the graph above, as the application of the gate trigger pulse increases along the half cycle
(point o to 5), the voltage decreased from 109 volts to 8 volts. The speed decreases because the
output voltage is more chopped compared to input, and therefore the mean output voltage
decreases consequently, the firing angle determines the amount of power Triac passes to load.

CONCLUSION

The experiment was deemed a success after achieving the set objective. After using controlled
current to control the speed of a dc motor, the goal of using a triac to control dc power to a load
was achieved. A bulb was also used as a load by varying its brightness (dimming).

An oscilloscope was also used to observe the output waveform fed to the load. The waveform
displayed the controlled power caused by the triac effect.

CHALLENGES

The majority of the oscilloscopes were inoperable. As a result, only working oscilloscopes were
used, which were few and thus insufficient.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It was suggested that the lab be adequately equipped so that experiments could be carried out
with minimal sharing, saving time.
REFERENCE

links

1) Triac switching circuit https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/power/triac.html

2) Power control https://erg.abdn.ac.uk/users/gorry/eg3576/power-control.html
3) Load current with triac https://eepower.com/technical-articles/alternating-current-ac-
load-control-with-triacs/
4) Lab manual