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Working Principle of Variable Frequency Drive (VFD)

Variable frequency drives (VFDs) control AC motor speed through adjustable voltage and frequency output. A VFD consists of four main sections - a rectifier converts AC power to DC, a DC link filters the output, an inverter converts DC back to AC at a variable frequency to control motor speed, and a control circuit regulates the output. VFDs offer benefits over conventional motor drives like energy savings, closed-loop motor control, smooth starts and stops, and reduced motor current during starts.

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Thandayudhapani Veeraputhiran
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3K views4 pages

Working Principle of Variable Frequency Drive (VFD)

Variable frequency drives (VFDs) control AC motor speed through adjustable voltage and frequency output. A VFD consists of four main sections - a rectifier converts AC power to DC, a DC link filters the output, an inverter converts DC back to AC at a variable frequency to control motor speed, and a control circuit regulates the output. VFDs offer benefits over conventional motor drives like energy savings, closed-loop motor control, smooth starts and stops, and reduced motor current during starts.

Uploaded by

Thandayudhapani Veeraputhiran
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Working Principle of Variable Frequency Drive (VFD)

It is important to know the working of VFDs or Variable frequency drive (VFDs), as they are extensively used in the
AC motor-driven applications, like variable frequency drive for motor control, owing to their wide variety
characteristics. Compared to conventional motor drives, VFD has greater functionality and operation capabilities. In
addition to adjustable speed control, variable frequency drives offer protections like phase, under, and over-voltage
protection. Software and interfacing options of the VFD’s allow the user to control the motors at desired levels.

Working:
The two main features of variable frequency drive are adjustable speeds and soft start/stop capabilities. These two
features make VFD’s a powerful controller to control the AC motors. VFD consists of mainly four sections; those are
rectifier, intermediate DC link, inverter, and controlling circuit.

Rectifier: It is the first stage of a variable frequency drive. It converts AC power fed from mains to DC power.
This section can be unidirectional or bidirectional based on the application used like the four-quadrant operation of
the motor. It utilizes diodes, SCR’s, transistors, and other electronic switching devices. If it uses diodes, converted
DC power is uncontrolled output while using SCR, DC output power is varied by gate control. A minimum of six
diodes are required for the three-phase conversion, so the rectifier unit is considered as six pulse converter.

DC bus: DC power from the rectifier section is fed to the DC link. This section consists of capacitors and
inductors to smooth against ripples and store the DC power. The main function of the DC link is to receive, store and
deliver DC power.
Inverter: This section comprises of electronic switches like transistors, thyristors, IGBT, etc. It receives DC
power from DC link and converts into AC which is delivered to the motor. It uses modulation techniques like pulse
width modulation to vary output frequency for controlling the speed of induction motor.

Control circuit: It consists of a microprocessor unit and performs various functions like controlling,
configuring drive settings, fault conditions, and interfacing communication protocols. It receives a feedback signal
from the motor as current speed reference and accordingly regulates the ratio of voltage to frequency to control
motor speed.

Implementation application: VFD can also be implemented by the microcontroller circuit


which is given below. Similar to VFD it also consists of rectifier section, filtering, and then inverter section. Here
inverter section gets the firing pulses from the programmed microcontroller to give variable voltage and frequency to
the load. This project is called a single-phase to three-phase converter using SVPWM to control AC voltage and
frequency across the load.

Application of VFD: The application of VFD is ac motor speed control by cyclo converters.
Power from mains is fed to the rectifier circuit which converts fixed AC to fixed DC. Three leg converters consist of
two diodes connected in parallel for each phase, such that one of the diodes conducts when the particular phase is
comparatively more positive or negative.
Pulsed DC voltage generated from the rectifier is applied to the DC link circuit. This intermediate circuit comprises
inductors and capacitors. It filters the pulsed DC by reducing ripple content and gives DC power a constant level.

To provide variable voltage and variable frequency to the motor, DC power from the DC link should be converted to
variable AC by inverter.  The inverter consists of IGBTs as switching devices that are controlled by the PWM
technique.

Similar to the rectifier circuit, inverter switches also belong to two groups as positive and negative. Positive side IGBT
is responsible for the positive pulse and negative side IGBT for a negative pulse at the output of the inverter. So the
obtained output is an alternating current which is applied to the motor.

Varying the switching period regulates voltage and frequency simultaneously in the inverter. Modern VFD uses the
latest control techniques like a scalar, vector, and direct torque controls, to control the inverter switches in achieving
the variable power.

The above figure shows how the voltage and frequency are varied by a variable frequency drive. As an example, AC
480V, 60Hz supply is applied to the VFD which varies the signal voltage and frequency to have control of the speed.
As the frequency is decreased, the speed of the motor also decreases. In the above figure, the average power
applied to the motor is decreasing while decreasing both voltage and frequency, provided the ratio of these two
parameters is constant.

Benefits: Variable frequency drives not only offer adjustable speeds for accurate and precise control
applications but also have more benefits in terms of process control and conservation of energy. Some of these are
given below.
Energy saving: More than 65% of the power is consumed by electric motors in industries. Both
magnitude and frequency control technique to vary the speed consumes less power when variable speed is required
by the motor. So a great amount of energy is conserved by these VFDs.

Closed-loop controlling: VFD allows accurate positioning of the motor speed by continuously
comparing with reference speed even at changes in the loading conditions and input disturbances like voltage
fluctuations.

Limits starting current: Induction motor draws current which is 6 to 8 times the nominal current at
starting. Compared to conventional starters, VFD’s gives better results because it delivers low frequency at the time
of starting. Due to low frequency, the motor draws less current and this current never exceeds its nominal rating at
starting as well as operating.

Smooth operation: It offers smooth operations at starting and stopping and also reduces thermal and
mechanical stress on motors and belt drives.

High power factor: The inbuilt power factor correction circuit in the DC link of VFD reduces the need
for additional power factor correction devices. The power factor for the induction motor is very low for particularly no-
load application, while at full load, it is 0.88 to 0.9. Low power factor results in poor utilization of power due to high
reactive losses.

Easy installation
Pre-programmed and factory wired VFDs offer an easy way for connection and maintenance.

Regards: ISRAR AHMAD

Email: [email protected] , Contact: +00923022300316

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