Power Electronics

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 1

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.

V0(RMS)
AC Vs AC Variable AC
Input Voltage RMSO/P Voltage
Voltage fs Controller
fs fS

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 2

 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)
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 3
 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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 4

 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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 5

 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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 6

 PRINCIPLE OF ON-OFF CONTROL
(INTEGRAL CYCLE CONTROL)

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 7

  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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 8

 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 
Vo  rms   
 2 (n  m) 0
2 Vs2 sin 2  t d ( t )

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.
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 9
PRINCIPLE OF PHASE CONTROL
 The principle of phase control can be explained with
the following circuit.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 10

  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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 11

  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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 12

  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
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 13
SINGLE-PHASE BIDIRECTIONAL CONTROLLERS WITH
RESISTIVE LOADS
 The problem of dc input current can be prevented by
using bidirectional or full-wave control.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 14

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

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

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 15

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

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

16
 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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

17
  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
sin 2 sin 2 
1/ 2
1
Vo  Vs  (     
 2 2 

6/20/2019 18
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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

19
 30o

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

20
  For 0 < α < 60o:
 1   sin 2 
1/ 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 

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

21
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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

22
 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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

23
 60o

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

24
  For resistive loads:

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

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

25
 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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

26
 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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

27
  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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

28
 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
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC
29
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC
30
 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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

31
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC
32
  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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

33
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC
34
 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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

35
  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.

6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC

36
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC
37
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 38
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 39
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 40
6/20/2019 V.Mohan, Prof./EEE, EGSPEC 41