Power Electronics

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INTRODUCTION
The power flow into a load can be controlled by
varying the rms value of the load voltage.

This can be accomplished by thyristors, and this type

of power circuit is known as ac voltage controllers.

V 0 (R M S )
AC Vs AC V a ria b le A C
In p u t V o lta g e R M S O /P V o lta g e
V o lta g e fs C o n tro lle r
fs fS

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 TYPE OF AC VOLTAGE CONTROLLERS
Classification based on the type of input ac supply:
Single Phase AC Controllers
Three Phase AC Controllers
Each type of controller may be sub divided into:
Unidirectional or half wave ac controller
Bi-directional or full wave ac controller
In brief different types of ac voltage controllers are:

Single phase half wave ac voltage controller (uni-directional controller)

Single phase full wave ac voltage controller (bi-directional controller)
Three phase half wave ac voltage controller (uni-directional controller)
Three phase full wave ac voltage controller (bi-directional controller)
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 APPLICATIONS OF AC VOLTAGE CONTROLLERS

Lighting / Illumination control in ac power circuits.

Induction heating.
Industrial heating & Domestic heating.
Transformers tap changing (on load transformer tap
changing).
Speed control of induction motors (single phase and
poly phase ac induction motor control).
AC magnet controls.

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 AC VOLTAGE CONTROL TECHNIQUES

two types of control are normally used:

On-off Control
Phase angle control

In on-off control, thyristor switches connect the load to the

ac source for a few cycles of the input voltage and then
disconnected for a few cycles.
In phase control, thyristor switches connect the load to the
ac source for a portion of each cycle.

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 COMMUTATION

Since the input voltage is ac, thyristors are line

commutated.

Typically phase control thyristors which are cheaper are

used.

For applications up to 400 Hz, TRIACs are used.

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 PRINCIPLE OF ON-OFF CONTROL
(INTEGRAL CYCLE CONTROL)

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 This type of control is applied in applications which
have high mechanical inertia and high thermal time
constant.

Typical examples are industrial heating and speed

control of motors.

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 If the input voltage is connected to load for
n cycles and is disconnected for m cycles,
the output load voltage is found from:
1/ 2
 n 2 
  2 V sin  t d ( t )
2 2
Vo  rms s
 2 (n  m) 0 
n
Vo  rms  Vs  Vs k
mn

Note that k is called the duty cycle, and the power

factor and output voltage vary with the square root of
k.
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PRINCIPLE OF PHASE CONTROL
The principle of phase control can be explained with
the following circuit.

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 Due to the presence of diode D1, the control range is
limited.

The rms output voltage can only be varied between

70.7 to 100%.

The output voltage and input current are

asymmetrical and contain a dc component.

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 This circuit is a single-phase half-wave controller and
is suitable only for low power resistive loads, such as
heating and lighting.

Since the power flow is controlled during the positive

half-cycle of input voltage, this type of controller is
also known as unidirectional controller.

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 The rms value of the output voltage is :

1  2
Vo  { [  2 Vs sin  t d ( t )   2 Vs2 sin 2  t d ( t )]}1/ 2
2 2

2  

1 sin 2 1/ 2
Vo  Vs [ (2    )]
2 2

The average value of the output voltage is:

1  2
Vdc  [  2 Vs sin  t d ( t )   2 Vs sin  t d ( t )]
2  

2 Vs
Vo  (cos  1)
2
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SINGLE-PHASE BIDIRECTIONAL CONTROLLERS WITH
RESISTIVE LOADS
The problem of dc input current can be prevented by
using bidirectional or full-wave control.

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 The firing pulse of T1 and T2 are 180 degrees apart.

The rms value of the output voltage is:

1/ 2
 2  
Vo  
 2
 2Vs2 sin 2  t d ( t )

1/ 2
1 sin 2 
Vo  Vs  (   
 2 

By varying α from 0 to π, Vo can be varied from Vs to 0.

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 SINGLE-PHASE CONTROLLERS WITH INDUCTIVE LOAD
In practice, most loads are inductive to a certain extent.

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The gating signals of thyristors could be short pulses for a
controller with a resistive load.

However, they are not suitable for inductive loads.

When thyristor T2 is fired, thyristor T1 is still conducting due

to the inductive load.

By the time the current of T1 falls to zero and T1 is turned off,
the gate current of T2 has already ceased.

Consequently, T2 will not be turned on.

This difficulty can be resolved by using a continuous gate

signal with a duration of π - α.
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 However a continuous gate pulse increases the
switching loss of thyristors.

In practice a train of pulses with short duration are

used to overcome the loss problem.

The rms value of the output load voltage is found

from:
1/ 2
 2  
Vo    s  
2 2
2 V sin t d ( t ) 
 2
1/ 2
1 sin 2 sin 2  
Vo  Vs  (     
 2 2 

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V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC
 THREE-PHASE FULL-WAVE CONTROLLERS

The unidirectional controllers, which contain dc input

current and higher harmonic content due to the
asymmetrical nature of the output voltage waveform,
are not normally used in ac motor drives.

A three-phase bidirectional control is commonly used.

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 30
o

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 For 0 < α < 60o:
1/ 2
 1   sin 2 
Vo  6 Vs  (   )
 6 4 8 

For 60o < α < 90o:

1/ 2
 1  3 sin 2 3 cos 2 
Vo  6 Vs  (   )
  12 16 16 
For 90o < α < 150o:
1/ 2
 1 5  sin 2 3 cos 2 
Vo  6 Vs  (    )
  24 4 16 16 

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THREE-PHASE BIDIRECTIONAL DELTA-CONNECTED
CONTROLLERS
If the terminals of a three-phase system are accessible, the
control elements (SCRs) and load may be connected in delta.

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Since the phase current in a normal three-phase delta
system is only 1/√3 of the line current, the current ratings
of the thyristors are less.

The following figure shows the waveforms for a delay angle

of 120 degrees.

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 60
o

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 For resistive loads:

1/ 2
1 sin 2 
Vo  Vs  (   
 2 

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 CYCLOCONVERTERS

The ac voltage controllers provide a variable output

voltage, but the frequency of the output voltage is
fixed.

In addition the harmonic content is high at low ac

voltages (high α).

A variable output voltage at variable frequency can be

obtained from a two stage conversion.

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First the fixed ac is converted to a variable dc
(controlled rectifier), and then the variable dc is
converted to a variable ac at variable frequency
(inverter).

However, the cycloconverter can eliminate the need of

one or more intermediate converters.

A cycloconverter is a direct frequency changer that

converts ac power at one frequency to ac power at
another frequency by ac-ac conversion.

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 Cycloconverters are naturally commutated and the
maximum output frequency is a fraction of the source
frequency.

Therefore, cycloconverters are low speed ac motor

drives in ranges up to 15 MW with frequencies from 0 to
20 Hz.

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 SINGLE-PHASE CYCLOCONVERTERS
The principle of operation of single-phase cycloconverters
can be explained with the following figure.

First, two single-phase controlled converters are operated

as bridge rectifiers.

Their delay angles are such that the output voltage of one
converter is equal and opposite to that of the other
converter.

If αp is the delay angle of positive converter, the delay angle

of the negative converter is: αn = π – αp
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 THREE-PHASE CYCLOCONVERTER

The circuit diagram of a three-phase/single phase

cycloconverter is shown next.

The synthesis of output waveform for an output

frequency of 12 Hz is also in this figure.

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 The cycloconverter of previous figure can be extended
to feed a three-phase load, by having six three-phase
converters.

If six full-wave three-phase converters are used, 36

thyristors would be required.

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 REDUCTION OF OUTPUT HARMONICS
 The output voltage of cycloconverters is basically made up of segments
of input voltages.

 The average value of a segment depends on the delay angle for that
segment.

 If the delay angles of segments were varied in such a way that the
average values of segments corresponds as closely as possible to the
variations of desired sinusoidal output voltage, the harmonics on the
output voltage can be minimized.

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 The delay angles for segments can be generated by
comparing a cosine signal at the source frequency with an
ideal sinusoidal reference voltage at the output frequency.

The following figure shows generation of the gating signals

for the cycloconverter.

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