18EE602- Electrical Drives and Control

UNIT 1
Chopper Fed DC Drives
Dr.P.Karpagavalli
Professor(CAS)/EEE
Government college of Engineering, Salem-11
 Chopper fed DC drives
 A chopper is a static device that converts fixed DC input voltage to a variable dc
output voltage directly

Fixed DC voltage 𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒓 Variable dc voltage

 A chopper is a high speed on/off semiconductor switch which connects source to

load and disconnects the load from source at a fast speed.

𝒔𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉

𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒂𝒅

 Choppers are used to get variable dc voltage from a dc source of fixed voltage.
Self commutated devices such as MOSFET’s, Power
transistors, IGBT’s, GTO’s and IGCT’s are used for building
choppers because they can be commutated by a low power
control signal and do not need communication circuit and
can be operated at a higher frequency for the same rating.

Chopper circuits are used to control both separately excited

and Series motors
 Advantages of Chopper Circuits
Chopper circuits have several advantages over phase
controlled converters

1. Ripple content in the output is small. Peak/average and

rms/average current ratios are small. This improves the
commutation and decreases the harmonic heating of the
motor.
2. The chopper is supplied from a constant dc voltage
using batteries. The problem of power factor does not
occur at all. The conventional phase control method
suffers from a poor power factor as the angle is delayed.
3. Current drawn by the chopper is smaller than in phase
controlled converters.

4. Chopper circuit is simple and can be modified to provide

regeneration and the control is also simple.
Chopper Controlled Separately Excited DC motor
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION ANO CONTROL TECHNIQUES
 Source Current Waveforms

The average load Voltage is 𝑣𝑎

𝑇 𝛿𝑇
1 1
𝑉𝑎 = 𝑉𝑑𝑡 𝑉𝑎 = 𝑉𝑑𝑡
𝑇 𝑇
𝑜 𝑜
1 1
𝑉𝑎 = 𝑉𝑡 = 𝑉𝛿𝑇 = Vδ
𝑇 𝑇
Step up chopper
Step up chopper
• By controlling 𝛿 between 0 and 1, the load voltage can be
varied from O to V.
• Thus a chopper allows a variable dc voltage to be obtained
from a fixed voltage DC source.
• The switch S can be controlled in various ways for varying
the duty ratio 𝛿 ( = ton/T).
• The control techniques can be divided into the following
categories:
l. Time Ratio Control (TRC).
2. Current Limit Control (CLC).
 Control Strategies
Time Ration Control(TRC)
1.Constant frequency TRC:
The chopping period T is kept fixed and the on period of the
switch(𝑇𝑂𝑁 0r 𝛿𝑇)is varied to control the duty ratio, 𝛿 .
2. Variable Frequency TRC:
Here 𝛿 is varied either by keeping ton constant and varying T
or by varying both ton and T.
• In variable frequency control with constant on time, low-
output voltages are obtained at very low values of chopper
frequencies.

• The operation of a chopper at low frequencies adversely

affects the motor performance.

• Furthermore, the operation of a chopper with variable

frequency makes the design of an input filter very difficult.

• In view of this, variable frequency control is rarely used.

 Current Limit Control
• In current limit control, also known as point-by-point control, 𝛿
is controlled indirectly by controlling the load current between
certain specified maximum and minimum values.
• When the load current reaches a specified maximum value, the
switch disconnects the load from the source and reconnects it
when the current reaches a specified minimum value.
• For a de motor load, this type of control, in effect, is a variable
frequency variable on-time control.
• The source current is not continuous but flows in pulses.
The pulsed current makes the peak input power demand
high and may cause fluctuation in the source voltage.

• The source current waveform can be resolved into dc and

ac harmonics. The fundamental ac harmonic frequency is
the same as the chopper frequency.

• The ac harmonics are undesirable because they interfere

with other loads connected to the dc source and cause
radio frequency interference through conduction and
electromagnetic radiation
Therefore, an L-C filter is usually incorporated between the
chopper and the dc source.

The filter keeps the harmonic content in the source current

due to the chopper within permissible limits. At higher
chopper frequencies, harmonics can be reduced to a tolerable
level by a cheaper filter. From this aspect, a chopper should
be operated at the highest possible frequency
2. The load terminal voltage is not a perfect direct voltage. In
addition to a direct component, it has harmonics of the
chopping frequency and its multiples.
• The load current also has an ac ripple; its adverse effects on
the dc motor performance were described in section
3.6.1.For a given duty ratio, the harmonics in the load
voltage have fixed magnitudes.
• The harmonic current in the load, and therefore, the ripple
in the load current depend on the chopper frequency and
the load inductance. The ripple in the load current
decreases as the chopping frequency is increased or the
load inductance
• For a given duty ratio, the harmonics in the load voltage have
fixed magnitudes.
• The harmonic current in the load, and therefore, the ripple in
the load current depend on the chopper frequency and the
load inductance.
• The ripple in the load current decreases as the chopping
frequency is increased or the load inductance is increased. A
chopper is, therefore, operated at the highest possible
frequency.
• Ir the load current ripple is still more than the permissible
value, it is reduced by introducing a filter inductor between
the chopper and the load.