Unit 5.

Industrial Control Circuit

In the residential, commercial and industrial areas, the illumination system work with available AC
supply. In the event of AC supply failure, partial illumination can be obtained using emergency lighting
system that works on DC supply. A very simple single source emergency lighting system which is most
suitable for household application is shown in the figure. The input 230v AC supply is stepped down to 6-
0-6V AC supply by centre-tapped transformer. The diodes D1 and D2 form full wave rectifier and
comnvert 6-0-6V AC supply into 6V DC supply for 6V lamp. When AC supply is available, 6V DC
supply appears across lamp & it glows. The pulsating current also flows through D3, R1 to trickle charge
the battery. Thus battery charging is carried out when AC supply is availabl;e. The capacitor C get
charged with upper plate positive to some voltage less than 6V. due to capacitor voltage, gate-cathode
junction of thyristor T get reverse biased. The anode is at battery voltage and cathode is at rectifier output
voltage, which is slightly higher, hence thyristor is reverse biased and can not conduct. The lamp glows
due to rectifier output DC voltage. When AC supply fails, rectifier output DC voltage is reduced to zero.
The capacitor C then discharges through lamp and R2. After discharging, due to battery, it charges
through R3 and lamp with lower plate positive. Due to capacitor voltage, gate-cathode junction get
forward biased and gate current flows. Since the anode is now at higher potential than cathode, thyristor T
is turned-on. The lamp get connected across battery through thyristor and therefore, it glows. In rthis way,
on failure of AC supply, light is obtained from DC supply.
Temperature controller using SCR:

The temperature control circuit is used to regulate the temperature. Figure shows the temperature control
circuit using thermostat as temperature detector and SCR as a switching device. The mercury in glass
thermostat is extremely sensitive temperature measuring instrument which is capable of sensing changes
in temperature of the order of 0.1°C.

Working:

Mode I: When the temperature is less than the desired value, the mercury in the glass thermostat is not
able to short the electrodes A & B. Therefore the SCR receives the gate signal in both the half cycles & it
will be triggered. Hence the heater will be connected to AC source in respective half-cycles. Thus heating
is continued and temperature increases to desired level. Mode II: As the temperature increases, the
mercury level increases and when it reaches the desired value, the electrode A and B are short circuited
through mercury. This will short circuit the gate to cathode, hence no trigger pulse can be received by
SCR. Hence it is not turned-on in the next half-cycle & maintained off. Thus the heater gets disconnected
and will remain disconnected from the circuit. The heating then stops and temperature is not allowed to
rise beyond desired level. After some time when temperature falls to certain level and mercury switch
gets opened, i.e the gate-cathode short-circuit is opened, the pulse is provided to SCR in each half-cycle
and heater gets connected to source to produce heat and raise the temperature
Speed control of the motor using TRIAC:

This basic phase triggering circuit uses the triac in series with the motor across an AC sinusoidal supply.
The variable resistor, VR1 is used to control the amount of phase shift on the gate of the triac, which in
turn controls the amount of voltage applied to the motor by turning it ON at different instants during the
AC cycle. The triac‟s triggering voltage is derived from the VR1 – C1 combination via the Diac (The diac
is a bidirectional semiconductor device that helps to provide a sharp trigger current pulse to fully turn-ON
the triac). At the start of each cycle, C1 charges up via the variable resistor, VR1. This continues until the
voltage across C1 is sufficient to trigger the diac into conduction which in turn allows capacitor, C1 to
discharge into the gate of the triac turning it “ON”. Once the triac is triggered into conduction and
saturates, it effectively shorts out the gate triggering phase control circuit connected in parallel across it.
Therefore, there is no control over the conduction of triac for the remainder of the halfcycle. At the end of
this half-cycle, the triac current falls to zero and triac is commutated naturally. In the next half-cycle, the
VR1 – C1 triggering process starts again. However, because the triac requires different amounts of gate
current in each switching mode of operation, for example Ι+ and ΙΙΙ–, a triac is therefore asymmetrical
meaning that it may not trigger at the exact same point for each positive and negative half cycle.
Battery charger circuit using SCR

The figure shows the battery charger circuit using SCR. A 12V discharged battery is connected in the
circuit and switch SW is closed. The single-phase 230V supply is stepped down to (15-0-15) V by a
centretapped transformer. The diodes D1 and D2 forms full wave rectifier and pulsating DC supply
appears across terminals A and B. When SCR is off, its cathode is held at the potential of discharged
battery. During each positive half-cycle, when the potential of point C rises to sufficient level so as to
forward bias diode D3 and gate-cathode junction of SCR, the gate pulse is provided and SCR is turned
on. When SCR is turned on, the charging current flows through battery. Thus during each positive half-
cycle of pulsating DC supply, voltage across A-B, SCR is fired and charging current is passed till the end
of that half-cycle. Due to Zener diode D4, the maximum voltage at point C is held at 12V. Due to the
charging process, the battery voltage rises and finally attains full value of 12V. When the battery is fully
charged, the cathode of SCR is held at 12V. So the diode D3 and gate-cathode junction of SCR cannot be
forward biased, since the potential of point C can reach up to 12V. Therefore, no gate current is supplied
and SCR is not fired. In this way, after full charging, further charging is automatically stopped.
Circuit breaker

1) AC Circuit breaker

The circuit configuration of static AC circuit breaker using SCR is shown in the figure. When
switch „S‟ is closed, the SCRs T1 and T2 are fired in positive and negative half-cycles respectively.
During positive half-cycle, T1 receives gate current through D2 || R2, switch S and R3 and it conducts. At
the end of positive half-cycle, T1 is turned off due to natural current zero. In the negative half-cycle, T2
receives gate current through D1 || R1, R3andswitch S and it conducts. It is turned off at the end of this
negative half cycle due to natural current zero value. When the load current is required to be interrupted,
the switch S is opened. It results in blocking of gate currents of both SCRs and hence both SCRs are
maintained off. When sitch S is opened at any instant in a particular half-cycle, the load current continue
to flow through conducting SCR till the end of this half-cycle, however in the next halfcycle the other
SCR will not be fired due to non-availability of gate current. Thus the maximum time delay for breaking
the circuit is one half-cycle.

2) DC Circuit Breaker
 The figure shows circuit configuration of DC static circuit breaker using SCR. When the „Start‟
button is momentarily pressed, the SCR T1 receives gate current through R3 and starts to conduct. The
turning on of T1 causes major part of DC supply voltage to appear across the load and power is delivered
to load. The capacitor C charges to load voltage with polarity as shown in the figure, through R4. If we
attempt to break the DC load current i.e switch off the load, using mechanical contact type switch, since
current is DC, heavy arcing may damage the switch. Instead, if we use this circuit configuration, the load
current can be interrupted by turning off the SCR T1. When „Stop‟ button is pressed momentarily, SCR
T2 receives gate current through R5 and it is turned on. The turning on of T2 causes the charged capacitor
C to place across conducting SCR T1. The capacitor provides reverse bias across T1 and discharges
quickly through T2, resistance and T1. The discharge current is reverse current for T1 and it is turned off.
The load current is then continued through C and T2. The capacitor C first discharges and then charges
with reverse polarity to supply DC voltage. At this instant, the load current falls to zero, and further since
current falls below holding current level, T2 is turned off naturally. Thus manual firing of T2 by pressing
„Stop‟ button interrupts load current through T1. The load current can be automatically interrupted under
overload condition. With T1 on and carrying load current, if overload occurs, the voltage drop across R1
exceeds the forward voltage drop of string of diodes D1, D2, D3 and gate-cathode junction of T2.
Therefore, gate current is provided to T2 and it is turned on. Turning on of T2 immediately causes turning
off of T1 as mentioned above. The load current is interrupted and thus over-load protection is provided.
Since no moving contact type mechanism is used for interruption of load current, this circuit configuration
is called DC static circuit breaker. By proper selection of R1 and number of diodes in string and replacing
„Stop‟ button by NO relay contact in fault sensing circuit, the circuit can be made to trip and interrupt the
overload and fault current.

SMPS:

SMPS converts unregulated AC or DC voltage into a regulated voltage.In case of AC it first converted
into unregulated DC. This is fed to a high frequency switching element. The switch is operating at the
high frequencies of 20 kHz to 1 MHz, chopping the d.c voltage into a high frequency square wave. This
square wave is fed into power isolation transformer ,stepped down to a predetermined value and then
rectified and filtered to produce the required d.c output.

 A portion of this output is monitored and compared against the fixed reference voltage and the error
signal is used to control the on-off times of the swich, thus regulating the output.

UPS

1) Offline UPS

A block diagram of UPS system is shown in figure. It essentially consists of four major components:
i)Rectifier (or battery charger) ii) Battery bank iii) Inverter vi) Transfer switch
i) Rectifier (or battery charger): Its function is to convert available AC supply at input line
into DC supply and then to feed DC power to inverter and also to battery bank to keep it
charged. It is designed to handle the total current supplied to inverter and battery bank.

ii)Battery bank: It consists of number of batteries in series. The rating and number of units in the
bank depends upon the following factors: Input voltage required by inverter, Back-up time
requirement of UPS, Efficiency of inverter and load power. When the line voltage is present, the
battery trickle charged to compensate for the slight self-discharge. The battery continuously
draws a small amount of current to maintain itself in a fully charged state. When AC input fails,
battery supplies DC power to inveter, wherein it is converted into AC and then fed to load.
During this period, the battery discharges. On recovery of AC mains supply, the battery charging
starts.

iii) Inverter: It is used to convert DC supply available at its input terminals into AC supply.
The filter is normally used at the output of inverter to minimize the harmonic distortion.
Most of the loads are highly non-linear and inject large harmonic currents into the UPS.
 iv) Transfer switch: It is a change over switch. When AC supply is available, the transfer
switch connects load to AC supply directly. However, when AC supply from line is not
available and load demands for AC supply, the transfer switch can be placed to connect
inverter output AC supply to the load. Due to fast action requirement, transfer switch can
be implemented by fast acting semiconductor devices.

2) OnlineUPS:

The block diagram of the on line UPS systems is as shown, where the load is connected to the invertor
through the UPS static switch. The UPS static switch is normally ON switch. It turns off only when the
UPS system fails. In that case the mains static off switch is used only when UPS is to be bypassed. The
various operating modes are

Mode 1:-When the AC mains is on, the inverter circuit will supply the power to the inverter as well as to
the battery. Therefore it acts as a rectifier cum charger .Hence its ratings are usually higher. The inverter
o/p is connected to the load via UPS static switch. Battery will be charged in this mode.

Mode 2:-If the supply fails suddenly, the rectifier o/p will be zero and hence the battery bank now
supplies power to the inverter without any interruption and delay. There will not be any inverter as well as
the load. After restoration of the line supply,the charger supplies the inverter and recharges the battery
automatically first in constant current mode and then in constant potential mode.

Mode 3:-In case if the inverter /UPS fails, then the normally OFF mains static switch is turned on which
automatically transfers the ac line to the load in less than ¼ th of the cycle period with no phase
discontinuity.

Applications of UPS: 1) Data Centers 2) Banks and insurance 3) Industrials 4) Healthcare: hospitals,
clinics and retirement homes 5) Telecommunications 6) Special projects (events)