EE3092 -Laboratory Practice V

Thyristor switch operation

Instructor: -Miss G.N.T. Silva

Name: - V.I.P. Dasanayake Index Number: - 090075M Group: - 3 Submission date: -13/01/2012

Calculations
a) From graph no. 01; Time taken from pressing of S4 to stopping of SR3=0.4ms b) From graph no. 02; Resistance of R5 and R6 = 100 Peak value of voltage waveform=14V/10=14.5V Gate current of the thyristor SR1= 14.5V/100=0.145A Gate current of the thyristor SR2=14.5V/100= 0.145A c) From graph no. 05; Peak value of voltage waveform=145V/10=14.5V Gate current of the thyristor SR1=14.5V/100=0.145A Gate current of the thyristor SR2=14.5V/100=0.145A d) From graph no. 06; Switch on time for mechanical switch=10ms

Discussion
1. The advantages of using a thyristor switch in place of a mechanical switch Thyristor switchis a very efficientelectronic switch use in a wide range of voltage and current values compared to mechanical switches. Thyristor switch can be connected in series or parallel to provide sensitive accurate electronic control at even very high power level or very low power level. Unlike mechanical switches there is no over current or over voltage during switch operation which affect the accuracy of the operation. Additional power is not required for operating the thyristor switch. Since it is very sensitive and it is an electronic circuit unlike a mechanical arrangement, it reacts very fast even in larger switching frequencies. Since it is very fast and smooth compared to the mechanical switch it is widely used in speed controlling of DC motors. Very low maintaining cost for the thyristor switch when compared to a mechanical switch. Operating behavior of thyristor switch can easily be analyzed since all the details are included in the manufactures data sheet of that thyristor. In robust operation of a thyristor has minimum number of errors even for longer time period. This is mainly discussed when comes to the automatic controlling since it is very reliable. Expected life time for a Thyristor switch is very high compare to mechanical switches.(when mechanical switches are used ,it decay with the time when it is switched off/on again and again[life time is usually 100,000 for a mechanical switch]) Thyristor switch has several special advantages over the mechanical switch such as sturdy construction, static operation support, triggering has high sensitivity, durability

2.

Application where the thyristor switch preferred over mechanical switch Because of the unique characteristics of the thyristor switches, it is suitable where the circuits are

involved with alternating high voltage and high currents, because the polarity changes causes for switch off the device automatically, And because of the things that explained in previous questions answers. For Fluorescent lamp ballast designs, when inductive ballast needed to be replaced. For the constructions of three phase inverter-switching circuits, because of the behavior of the thyristor switch under very high switch frequency.

 For Stepper motor control circuits, because of the requirements of high precision movements with the motor. For designs of Electronic fan regulators, because of the economical power saving and the compact size. For designs of Inverters, DC chopper drives, UPS and Pulse Power applications, mainly because of the high reliability For automatic night lamp designs, because it can operate accurately under low voltages and 230 voltage. For power generation, modern automobiles and aircraft power systems, because those can be designed in compact size with using thyristor switches. For power flow control of barrier control of a car park or dam gate operations with motors ,because thyristors can be operated accurately under very high power level. 3. Comparison of dc and ac switch operation When the pulse is give to the gate of thyristor, current is going through the thyristor, and to stop the current flowing through it, the anode current should be reduced to zero. For that the voltage between anode and cathode should be held negative.

DC switch operation:IA IL

Figure 1 When it comes to the DC switching operation, these requirements are achieved by switching a charged capacitor using a commutative circuit across the conducting thyristor. When current is flowing through the thyristor when the gate pulse is given, that conducting anode current makes zero (IA=0) by using the commutative circuit. This commutative circuit is connected to the circuit in parallel like shown in the figure 1.

AC switch operation:-

Load gate circuit

Figure 2 When consider about AC switching operation this voltage reversal can automatically be achieved, because of the nature of the alternative voltage supply.AC switch is consisted with 2 parallel thyristor which is In opposite directions to each other. So that both half cycles of AC sinusoidal waveform can be conduct when required gate pulses are given for gates. When the gate pulse is given to each thyristor separately forward biased thyristor will conduct current in the positive half cycle , while other becomes reversed biased so that path is opened. This happened reversely in other cycle. And this process continuously happens.

4.

How slower the mechanical switch compared to the dc-switch is? When thyristor switches are present in an application it will cause to speed up the operation and

leads for a long life time devices as well. Even under high power applications it gives accurate values because it has no contact bouncing or sticking during the switching operation. And specially it works under very frequencies as well which is very difficult with a mechanical switches. Usually the time delay for a dc switch is 600 s and for a mechanical switch that would be nearly 10ms. So roughly dc-switch is around 16 times faster than a mechanical switch 5. How can the over current opening be used to protect a power electronic circuit? Since power electronics circuits are very sensitive it can be easily damaged due to over currents. So protection of the power electronics gets the priority. To avoid over current in the circuit thyristor switches can be used. It can be done easily by detecting the over current and generate a voltage signal which can give to the gate of the thyristor, so it can be activated. In this way over current going through the power electronics device can be avoided, because of the speed operation of the thyristor, damaged happen to the device can be minimized using thyristor for over current protection. Commonly in these days we can see lots of power electronic devices are used for powr system protection such as fusing IGBT based inverters, high speed fuses..etc.

6. Advantages of light triggering in practical circuits Because of the characteristics of high rate of change of the current, light triggered thyristors can be used (eg:-crowbar applications & In magnetic deformation) To trigger the thyristors expensive pulse transformers are not needed. Little voltage signal would be enough to trigger it. Since light trigger helps the protection side of the circuit as well number of electronic items around the thyristor can be reduced, so reliability of the system is increased. Error percentage is reduced. When light triggering is used to trigger the device in HVDC transmission external parts for the protection of the system and triggering can be omitted. This is because light triggering include high blocking capacity and the protection functions.

References
http://www.pc-control.co.uk/thyristor.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyristor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switch
Muhammed h. Rashid, power electronics circuits, devices and applications, prentice-hall of India private limited, 3rd edition,2006.