7th International Conference on DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION SYSTEMS S u c e a v a, R o m a n i a, M a y 27 29, 2 0 0 4

THREE-PHASE AC CHOPPER WITH IGBTs Ovidiu URSARU 1, Mihai LUCANU, Cristian AGHION, Liviu TIGAERU
Gh. ASACHI Technical University of Iasi Romania, Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications str.Bulevardul Carol I, nr.11, RO-700506 Iasi 1) [email protected] Abstract. This paper describes two circuits three-phase ac chopper realised with IGBTs with high carrier wave frequency (chopper frequency). The first circuit described in this article is a three-phase chopper functioning with inductive load. In both situations the power sources are symmetrically three-phases. Also, the simulation waveforms of the load and input currents for the power circuits are presented.

Introduction A.C. Choppers have been widely used to control average load power from a fixed ac source. The common applications are industrial heating, light dimming, and ac motor speed control. The advantages of the ac choppers are simplicity, ability of controlling large amount of power, and high efficiency. The IGBTs controls for both circuits are made using uniform technique PWM, presented in detail in (e.g. [5] ), where the control signal Vcom1 is obtained by comparing a triangular wave with a reference voltage used for modifying the duty factor D and, implicitly, the load voltage. The control voltages Vcom1 and Vcom2 are opposite signals. In order to obtain identical voltages on the three-phase system, the index of modulation m must be multiple of six The chopper frequency was chosen to be fS = 6kHz. The power circuits with filters are used to obtain the sinewave of the input current. Power circuit Figure 1 shows the power circuit of the threephase ac chopper in the case of resistive load. The circuit contains one ac switch Q with IGBT and six diodes. The IGBT control strategy is presented in Figure 2. Suppose the ac-input voltage is expressed as:
vR vS vT iR iS iT L1 L2 L3 C1 C3 C2 iL RS RS RS vSR vSS vST Vcom1 Q

Figure 1. Power circuit of three-phase ac chopper for resistive loads.

v R = V 2 cos t i R = I 2 cos( t )

, =

2 . T

2 ) 3 (1) 2 i R = I 2 cos( t ) 3 4 vT = V 2 cos( t ) 3 4 iT = I 2 cos( t ) 3 - represent the shift angle between the voltage and the current of the power sources. For a symmetrical three-phase system, we have v S = V 2 cos( t

v R + vS + vT = 0 ; iR + iS + iT = 0
The index of modulation is: f m = s = 6l , l f
159

(2)

(3)

vSR
DTS

vSS

vST

IGBTs Q1, Q2, Q3 regulates the power delivered

25.8A

TS t

D=0.6 20A 12.7A D=0.3

0A

-20A

T Vcom1 Vcom2 t t
-40A 55ms 60ms 70ms 80ms Time 90ms 100ms

Figure 2 The waveforms of the load voltage and the control signal Vcom1

Figure 4. Source current iR waveforms.

Considering the condition (3) the waveforms of the load voltage are presented in Figure 2. The most cases in practice the load has an inductive character. In this case, for a threephase system, the load can be connected in the shape of triangle or of a star. Figure 3 presents the circuit of a three-phase ac chopper in which the load is connected in the shape of a star without a ground wire
vR vS vT i
R

0A

-50A 325V 200V Load voltage v SR D=0.9

L1 C1 L2 C2 L3 C3

Q1 Q2 Q3

Vcom1 Vcom1 Vcom1 C '1 C '3

vLR iL LL LL LL RL vLS RL vLT RL

0V

-200V -325V 60ms 65ms 70ms Time 75ms 80ms

iS iT

C '2

Figure 5. Load current iL and load voltage vSR

Q4 Vcom2

Figure 3. Three-phase ac chopper for an inductive load connected in the shape of a star without ground wire

The chopper in Figure 3 is realised by using nine switching diodes and four IGBTs. The three Q1, Q2, and Q3 IGBTs directly connected to the three-phase system are controlled simultaneously with the control signal Vcom1 and the Q4 IGBT with the control signal Vcom2. The 160

to the load, IGBT Q4 provides the freewheeling path to discharge the stored energy when the series switch is turned off. The capacities C1, C2 and C3 are meant to ensure the freewheeling path to the load currents starting with the moment when the IGBTs Q1, Q2, Q3, are off and the IGBT Q4 is on. For the two circuits presented in Figure 1 and Figure 3, the inductors L1, L2, L3 and the capacities C1, C2, C3 form input filters and are meant to approximate the absorption of the sinusoidal current from the sources vR, vS and vT.

15A (50.000Hz,12.784A) Harmonic content of (6.010kHz,10.986A) load current i L D = 0,3

100V

50.000Hz,89.485V) (6.1000kHz,76.644V) Harmonic content of load voltage v L D = 0,3

10A
50V

5A

0A 0Hz 30A (50.000Hz,25.354A) Harmonic content of load current i L D = 0,6 (6.001kHz,12.789A) 10A 5KHz 10KHz 15KHz 20KHz 25KHz

0V 200V

0Hz

5KHz

10KHz

15KHz

20KHz

25KHz

(50.000Hz,177.478V) Harmonic content of load voltage v L D = 0,6

150V

20A

100V

(6.01000kHz,89.796V)

50V

0A

0V

0Hz

5KHz

10KHz

15KHz

20KHz

25KHz
300V

0Hz

5KHz

10KHz

15KHz

20KHz

25KHz

40A (50.000Hz,38.142A) 30A Harmonic content of load current i L D = 0,9

(50.000Hz,266.991V) Harmonic content of load voltage v L D = 0,9

200V

20A
100V

10A (6.1999kHz,4.1723A) 0A
0V (6.1997kHz,28.571V)

0Hz

5KHz

10KHz 15KHz Frequency

20KHz

25KHz

0Hz

5KHz

10KHz

15KHz

20KHz

25KHz

Frequency

Figure 6. Harmonic contents of load current iL

Figure 7. Harmonic contents of load voltage vL

Simulation results

The presented power circuits of the three-phase ac choppers were tested by simulation. A strong inductive load was considered with RL = 7 ohms, LL = 32 mH, and amplitude of mains phase voltage V 2 =310V Carrier frequency was fs = 1/TS = 6 kHz and m = fS/f = 120. Figure 4 shows the waveforms of the source current iR for three values of the duty factor D. Figure 5 presents the waveforms of the voltage vSR and of the current iL for D = 0,9. Figure 6 shows the harmonic contents of the load current iL for three values of the duty factor D. Figure 7 shows the harmonic contents of the load voltage vL for three values of the duty factor D. 161

1.8A 0A

-20A 60.0ms 70.0ms 80.0ms

90.0ms

99.2ms

Figure 8. Source current iR waveforms.

In order to approximate the sinusoidal currents absorbed iR, iS, iT, we have consider that L1 =L2=L3=2mH, and the capacities C1= C2 = C3 =16uF. Figure 10 represent the waveforms obtained by

simulation of the absorbed currents iR ,iS ,iT, sum of these currents iR + iS + iT, and sum of the voltages vR + vS + vT. Obtained results confirm theoretical affirmation presented in relation (2).
20.9A 20A 14.5A Load current iR with C 1 =15uF, L 1 =5mH D=0.9 D=0.6 D=0.3 7.4A

1.0V vR+v S+v T=0 0V

-1.0V 1A iR+i S+i T=0 0A

20A
0A

iR

iS

iT

0A

154.7ms 160.0ms

170.0ms

180.0ms Time

190.0ms

200.0ms

-20A 60.0ms 70.0ms 80.0ms Time 90.0ms 97.6ms

Figure 10. Source currents iR , iS , iT waveforms, sum of the currents iR+ iS + iT and sum of the voltages vR + vS + vT

Figure 9. Load current iL

Figure 11 shows the harmonic contents of the

(50.000Hz,1.9047A)

4.0A

1.0A 0A 0Hz 5KHz 10KHz 15KHz 20KHz 25KHz

15A (50.000Hz,14.616A) 0A 0Hz 10A (50.000Hz,8.0517A) Harmonic content of source current i D = 0,6 0A 5A 30A 50.000Hz,20.946A) 20A 0A 0Hz 20A Harmonic content of source current i R D = 0,9 0A 0Hz 5KHz 10KHz 15KHz 20KHz 25KHz 5KHz 10KHz 15KHz 20KHz 25KHz 10A Harmonic content of load current i L D = 0,9 0Hz 5KHz 10KHz 15KHz 20KHz 25KHz 5A R 5KHz 10KHz 15KHz 20KHz 25KHz 10A Harmonic content of load current i L D = 0,6

(50.000Hz,18.117A)

Frequency

10A

0A 0Hz 5KHz 10KHz Frequency 15KHz 20KHz 25KHz

Figure 11. Harmonic contents of source current iR

source current iR, Figure 12 presents the harmonic contents of the load current iL and Figure13 presents the harmonic contents of the load voltage vL for three value of duty factor D. Figure 8 shows the input currents iR, and figure 9 presents the wave forms of the load current iL for three value of duty factor D , when the 162

Figure 12. Harmonic contents of the load current i

400V

power circuit in Figure 3 is used, with C1 = C2 = C3 = 15F, L1 = L2 = L3 = 5mH, C1 = C 2 = C 3 = 1F. Sinusoidal waveforms for iS have been obtained.
100V (50.000Hz,91.718V) Harmonic content of (6.1999kHz,78.706V) load voltage v LR D = 0,3
0V

load voltage D=0.9

VLR

VLS

VLT

50V

0V 200V

0Hz

5KHz

10KHz

15KHz

20KHz

(50.000Hz,178.978V) 150V 100V 50V 0V 0Hz 300V 5KHz 10KHz (6.2001kHz,86.430V)

Harmonic content of load voltage D = 0,6 v

LR
Vcom1 15V 10V
+

15KHz

20KHz

25KHz
5V

50.000Hz,256.825V)

Harmonic content of

200V

load voltage D = 0,9

v LR
Vcom2

100V (6.1997kHz,25.052V) 0V 0Hz 5KHz 10KHz 15KHz 20KHz 25KHz

15V 10V 5V 0V
+

Frequency

Figure 13. Harmonic contents of the load voltage

80ms

85ms

90ms Time

95ms

100ms

Figure 14 represent the waveforms obtained by simulation of the load voltage vLR ,vLS ,vLT, and the control signal Vcom1 , Vcom2 .
Conclusion

Figure 14. Load voltage vLR ,vLS ,vLT, and the control signal Vcom1 , Vcom2 for the duty factor D=0.9

The simulation results proved good performance of the three-phase ac chopper with IGBTs on high chopper frequency. A sinusoidal input current was obtained by using the power circuit with filter. In the case of a symmetrical three-phase system, the ground wire is unusable. For this reason, the ground wire was not necessary in the power circuit.
References

[1] Revankar, G.N, Trasi, D.S., (1977) Symmetrical Puls Width Modulated A.C.Chopper I.E.E.E. Trans on Electron Contr. Instrum. Vol .IECI-24, pp 41-45 163

[2] Jang, D., Choe, G.,(1991) Asymmetrical PWM Method for A.C. Chopper with Improved Input Power Factor , I.E.E.E.- PESC Conf. Rec., pp 838-845 [3] Jang, D.H., Choe, G.H., Ehsani, M., (1995), Asymmetrical PWM Technique with Harmonic Elimination and Power Factor Control in A. C. Chopper,I.E.E.E. Trans. on Power Electronics, Vol. 10, Nr. 2, pp 175-184. [4] Choe, G., Park M. (1998), An Improved PWM Technique for A.C. Chopper IEEE Trans. on Power Electronics, Vol.4, pp.496-505 [5] Lucanu, M., Ursaru, O., Aghion, C., (2003), Single Phase AC Chopper with IGBTs, I.E.E.E.- Proc. of SCS, IASI , Vol. 1, pp 217220.