2012 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC 2012)

A Study on THD Reduction by Active Power Filter Applied Using Closed-loop Current Controlled AC-AC SPMC Topology
Mazratul Firdaus Mohd Zin, Noraliza Hamzah, Mohammad Nawawi Seroji Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
Abstract An active power filter with single phase matrix converter topology is presented to reduce the THD of the input current, output current and output voltage of the system which is the main analysis in this paper. AC-AC converter topology switching strategy is used in the SPMC which is controlled by the current control closed-loop circuit or also known as active current wave-shaping technique. In order the AC-AC SPMC to operate and synthesize as an active power filter, the input supply current is being compensated by current control closed-loop circuit to produce the SPWM signal to be injected to the switches used which are the IGBTs. The work has been done using Matlab/Simulink simulation and the results are being compared to the same simulation done in open-loop method without using the active current wave-shaping technique. Index TermsInsulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), Single Phase Matrix Converter (SPMC),Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM), Active Power Filter.

system, many other problems might occur due to the harmonic distortion. Thus, filtering circuit is required in order to attenuate the total harmonic distortion produced. Filtering is a method to reduce harmonics in an industrial plant when the harmonic distortion has been gradually increased or as a total solution in a new plant. There are two basic ways to achieve harmonics cancellation or reactive power compensation and improve the power quality of a power system. They are passive filtering and active filtering [5]. This paper represents the implementation of current control closed-loop circuit to perform as harmonic filtering method in AC-AC single phase matrix converter by using Matlab/ Simulink in order to improve the total harmonic distortion of the input current, the output voltage and output current. A comparison procedure is carried out between a simulation of SPMC with open loop operation and SPMC with current control closed-loop circuit. II. SINGLE PHASE MATRIX CONVERTER The Single-Phase Matrix Converter consists of a matrix of input and output lines with four bidirectional switches connecting the single-phase input to the single-phase output at the intersections[4]. It comprises of four ideal switches S1, S2, S3 and S4 capable of switching between states without any delays, conducting current in both directions, blocking forward and reverse voltages (symmetrical devices)[2]. Figure 1 shows a single-phase matrix converter.

I. INTRODUCTION The matrix converter has received considerable attention in recent years because of some appealing operational characters. Namely, sinusoidal input and output waveforms, bidirectional power flow, controllable input power factor, absence of energy storage reactive elements, and compact size[1]. Direct acac converters have a number of advantages compared to dc link converters. In such converters, power is converted from ac fixed-frequency fixed-voltage to ac variablefrequency variable-voltage without any intermediate dc link[2]. These converters are becoming popular due to the availability of better switching devices. The matrix converter introduced by Venturini and Alesina in 1979 is the most general converter-type in the family of acac direct converters. Its topology was first proposed by Gyugyi in 1976. The converter offers an all-silicon solution for acac power conversion[3]. The single phase version named single phase matrix converter was first introduced by Zuckerberger[4]. Other SPMC topology was studied by S.H. Hoseini[5] and Abdullah Khoei[6]. However, the application of matrix converter may contribute high harmonic distortion that could affect the utility system and the electricity distribution. It does not only disturb the utility

Figure 1: Representation of a Single-Phase Matrix Converter

978-1-4673-2036-8/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

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2012 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC 2012)

III. SWITCHING STRATEGY The switching strategy used in these studies is based on implementation of SPWM as proposed in[3]. Power switches comprising IGBTs in the SPMC circuit are controlled where the switching angles, of the 4 bi-directional switches uses the form S (i = 1,2,3,4 and j = a,b), where 'a' and 'b' represent drivers one and two respectively. The switching pattern is based on TABLE 1[8]; At any timet, only two switches Sij (i = 1,4 and j =a) will be ON state and conduct the current flow during the positive cycle of input source (state 1), with S2b turn ON for commutation purpose. At any timet only two switches Sij (i = 1,4 and j = b) will be in 'ON' state and conduct the current flow during negative cycle of input source (state 2), with S2a ON for commutation purpose. TABLE 1: SEQUENCE OF SWITCHING CONTROL
Operation
Switches Positive cycle (State 1) Negative cycle (State 2)

Figure 2: SPMC circuit configuration

Nowadays, there is no bidirectional switch semiconductor that has the capability of blocking voltage and conducting current in both directions available in the market that is required for the application of the matrix converter[7]. However, as in Figure 3, in order to fulfill the requirement, two IGBTs are used back to back that functions as bidirectional switch for the matrix converter. It is common emitter anti-parallel IGBTs with diode pair. Diodes are used to provide reverse blocking capability of the switch itself[3]. The IGBT is popularly used since its high speed switching capabilities and high current carrying capacity desirable amongst researchers for high power application. In SPMC, there would be four bidirectional switches required.

S1a S1b S2a S2b Figure 3: IGBT module S3a S3b S4a S4b

ON OFF OFF ON OFF OFF SPWM OFF

OFF ON ON OFF OFF OFF OFF SPWM

In this paper, the analysis on the SPMC would be for ac-ac converter. The frequency been used is 50Hz.

Figure 4: Sinusoidal input and synthesized output

Figure 5: State 1 (positive cycle)

The input and output voltage is given by (1) and (2) respectively while loads represented in (3).

Figure 6: State 2 (negative cycle)

Subscript i denote input, whilst o denotes output. For the SPMC switching algorithm in this paper, the input

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2012 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC 2012)

frequency is 50Hz and the output frequency will also be 50Hz. So that, state 1(for positive cycle) and state 2 (for negative cycle) are used for the switching strategy in this paper. During positive cycle of the input source, S1a and S2b is maintained in ON state. Here, S4a is the controlling switch to synthesize the SPWM pattern. S1a acts to complete the loop for the SPWM return and acts in conjunction with S2b to provide freewheeling operation whenever S4a is turned OFF. Due to the turn-off IGBT characteristic, where the tailing-off of the collector current will create a short circuit with the next switch turned on, this is impossible for the SPMC switching sequence to be instantaneous and simultaneous. As a solution, the nature of operation of the commutation period has to be extended over the dead time period to allow for the energy to dissipate and hence the current reversals due the inductive loads are eliminated[2]. During negative cycle of the input source, S1b and S2a are maintained at continuously ON state while S1b to complete the loop for the SPWM return and act in conjunction with S2a to provide freewheel operation whenever S4b in turned OFF. Here, S4b is the controlling switch to synthesize the SPWM pattern. IV. HARMONIC ATTENUATION Conventionally, passive filter is used widely in the industry application in solving the harmonics pollution problem due to its low cost and high efficiency[9]. However, there are also disadvantages of using a passive filter. The resonance may occur between power impedances and passive filter. Moreover, the effect of harmonics suppression is highly influenced by impedance and its own parameters[10]. Then, the solution of the harmonics suppression has been discovered by developing an active filter[10]. Active filter is another effective way of providing harmonic attenuation and reactive power compensation. High power active components are becoming cheaper and offering improved performance as the power electronics technology has been developing and expanding power electronics industry. These filters can be applied as a controller for harmonic current or voltage elimination, terminal voltage regulation, neutral current compensation, reactive power compensation, voltage balance improvement and voltage flicker suppression. On the other hand, it still has the drawbacks. As in series connected active filter, it only compensate voltage harmonics and also for the short circuit at the load end due the short circuit current pass through the series transformer winding thus may overload the transformer[11]. As in previous studies,[9] shunt hybrid active power filter was used to attenuate different order harmonic components applied in three phase system that is connected to non-linear loads. Same goes with [10], three phase system with shunt hybrid active filter was studied to prove that it could improve the performance of the passive filter. Differently with [12], the analysis of classification and characteristics of active filter has been done. The review has contributes loads of aid in analyzing

and evaluating the various technique in a subjective fashion of the active filters. A study on single switch parallel active filter in a single phase hybrid active filter has been done in [13] that focusing on the application of shunt active power filter in conjunction with a passive filter. In this paper, passive filter and series active power filter are used in the simulation in order to compare the results obtained from each type of filter application. The active power filter operation that is applied to the project is based on the studies in [14-16]. However, the application of those previous papers was done to a rectifier single phase matrix converter topology in order to compensate the supply current. Meanwhile, in this paper AC-AC single phase matrix converter topology is utilized for the current control closed-loop circuit operation to reduce the ripple current on the other hand improving the THD and the output voltage of the system. V. SIMULATION AND PROPOSED CURRENT CONTROL CLOSED-LOOP CIRCUIT As in previous study, a controlled rectifier using SPMC topology incorporating active power filter was done to ensure that the supply current is continuous, sinusoidal and in phase with the voltage[14-16]. In classical rectifier with DC capacitor filter, a discontinuous supply current is drawn which contained high harmonic distortion level affecting the quality of the power supply system. However, by applying direct AC-AC converter using SPMC topology, different switching strategy is used as mentioned above in chapter 3. The supply current produced contains ripple current that contributes to high total harmonic distortion level. Other than that, the output voltage of the ACAC SPMC is a bit lower than the supply voltage 150V (peak). In order to solve the problems occurred; a supply current control closed-loop circuit is implemented to the AC-AC SPMC to produce the sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) to control the operation of the SPMC switches. In the proposed technique, low pass RL filter (R=10ohm, L= 0.1mH) is used in conjunction with the current control closed-loop circuit in order to mitigate the ripple of the supply current. High frequency harmonic content is being rejected and passes through the lower frequency. As for the current control closed loop circuit, the supply current is being tapped from input supply before the low pass filter using a current sensor and being compared to the reference signal. The compared signal then is corrected using peripheral integral controller. The corrected signal is compared with the triangular repeating sequence to produce the SPWM. The SPWM signal is then injected to the IGBTs gate to control the switching sequence. A switching frequency of 6 kHz is proposed in this paper in order to generate instantaneous switching that is required for the SPMC.

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2012 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC 2012)

VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The single-phase matrix converter has been simulated using SimPower system block in Matlab/Simulink software program. The operation of ac-ac converter is applied according to the switching strategy as mentioned above. The SPMC is modeled with 50Hz frequency AC single phase supplies at 150V (rms) and was loaded by passive R-L load. At the first stage, the simulation has been done using open loop method with a constant of 0.7 modulation index without using the PI controller to produce the SPWM signal to be injected into the switches involved. With the passive filter attached in between the input supply and the switches, the input current ripples is being reduced with 13.35% THD. The input current amplitude is 18.15A (peak) or 12.83A (rms). The output current measured is 2.847A (peak) or 2.013A (rms) with 3.21% THD. The output voltage recorded as 142.4V (peak) or 100.7V (rms). All the waveforms obtained also have been captured and recorded. Then, the next similar simulation using the same SPMC topology with a passive RL filter insertion in conjunction with current control closed-loop circuit is done as shown in figure 8. PI controller is used to do the correction for the error compared between the input current tapped from the input supply with the reference current signal. With that, the input current is corrected by reducing the ripples. The input current measured is 24.41A

(peak), 17.26A (rms) with 3.86% THD while the output current measured is 5.088A (peak), 3.598A (rms) with 3.24% THD and the output voltage is 179.9V (rms) or 254.4 V (peak). From the simulation result recorded, it is shown that the output voltage has been stepped up from 142.4V (peak) to 254.4V (peak) which contribute to 78.65% of percentage increase. Meanwhile, the input current is 34.49% increased and the output current has 78.71% of percentage increase. On the other hand, the input current THD has been reduced from 13.35% to 3.86% makes it 9.49% of reduction.

Figure 7: Single Phase Matrix Converter with Current Control Closed-loop circuit

Figure 8: Current Control Closed-loop Circuit

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2012 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC 2012)
Input voltage Vs Time Output voltage Vs Time Input voltage(V) 100 Output voltage(V) 100 0 -100 4.905 4.91 4.915 4.92 4.925 Time(s) 4.93 4.935 4.94 0 -100 4.90 4.905 4.91 4.92 4.925 Time(s) Figure 9: Supply voltage Input current Vs Time Input current(A) 20 10 0 -10 -20 4.90 4.905 4.91 4.92 4.925 Time(s) a) Input current Vs Time 4.915 4.93 4.935 4.94 Output voltage (V) 200 0 -200 4.905 4.91 4.915 4.915 4.93 4.935 4.94

a)
Output voltage Vs Time

Input current(A)

20 10 0

4.92 4.925 4.93 4.935 4.94 Time(s) b) Figure 12: Output voltage; a) Before compensation b) After compensation

Output current Vs Time Output current(A) 2 0 -2 4.905 4.91 4.915 4.92 4.925 Time(s) 4.93 4.935 4.94

-10 -20 4.905 4.91 4.915 4.92 4.925 Time(s) 4.93 4.935

b) Figure 10: Supply current; a)Before compensation b) After compensation

150 100 Input signal 50 -50 -100 -150 4.90 4.905 4.91 4.915
Input current

Input signal Vs Time

Input voltage

a) Output current Vs Time

Output current(A) 5

4.92 4.925 Time(s)

4.93

4.935

4.94

Input signal Vs Time 100 Input signal 0 -100 4.90 4.905 4.91 4.915
Input current Input voltage

a)

-5 4.905 4.91 4.915

4.92 4.925 4.93 4.935 4.94 Time(s) b) Figure 13: Output current; a) Before compensation b) After compensation

4.92 4.925 Time(s)

4.93

4.935

b) Figure 11: Input signal; a) before compensation b) after compensation

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2012 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC 2012)
Output signal Vs Time Output signal 100 0 -100 4.905 4.91 4.915
Output current(A) Output voltage(V)

[3]

[4]
4.935 4.94

4.92 4.925 Time(s)

4.93

[5] [6] [7]

a) Output signal Vs Time

Output signal 200 0
Output current Output voltage

-200 4.905 4.91 4.915

4.92 4.925 4.93 4.935 4.94 Time(s) b) Figure 14: Output signal; a) Before compensation b) After compensation

[8]

[9]

TABLE 2: COMPILATION OF RESULT Before compensation After compensation [10] [11] Fund. component Input current THD Output current Fund. component THD 13.35% 2.847(peak) 3.21% 3.86% 5.088(peak) 3.24% [14] 18.15(peak) 24.41(peak) [12] [13]

Signal

Analysis

VII. CONCLUSION In this paper, a study on the simulation of a direct AC-AC converter using single phase matrix converter topology in conjunction with the application of the active power filter operation has been implemented. It is proven from the result obtained that by using the current control closed-loop circuit, the AC-AC SPMC operation itself could be improved in terms of the THD reduction of supply current and also the output voltage of the system. REFERENCE
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