Study on Commutation Failure in an HVDC Inverter

Zou Gang Zheng J ianchao Chen Xiangxun

Electric Power Research Institute
Qinghe Beijing 100085 P.R.China
Abstract: Commutation failures(CF) are very frequent dynamic
events in HVDC system. In the paper, a simplified thyristor
lumped-charge model are used to analyzethe change of the stored
charges in the device during turn-off. And the commutation
process in an HVDC inverter is studied theoretically. The
influences of extemal circuit parameters, as well as, thyristor
device parameters on CF, is examined. Based on the removal
process of the stored charges in thyristor devices, the duration of
the phases in tum-off process of the deviceis given, and a novel
criterion of commutation failure is proposed.
Key Words: Commutation failure Thyristor valve Lumped-
charge model Reverse recovq process
I. INTRODUCTION
Commutation failures are very frequent dynamic events in
HVDC system. Most commutation failures are caused by AC bus
voltage disturbances due to AC system faults. However, in
commutation process, the key component of an HVDC inverter is
the thyistor valves. In fact, a current commutation process inan
inverter is at least associated with two thyristor valves. When one
valveis triggered on, the other is going to turn off. For the turning
off valve, the intemal excess charges which are mainly stored in
the base zoneof thyristor devices during forward conduction must
be removed before it can establish a forward voltage blocking
capability. lhis is called reverse recovery effect. If forward
voltage is imposed across the turning-off device before the storage
charges in thedevice have been removed completely, the thyistor
device cannot turn off successhlly. And as a result, CF happens.
Early studies onCF were always based on simplified inverter
circuit without considering the behavior of thyristor valves during
commutation process. And the reverse recovery characteristic of
valves are only assumed as a constant, i.e., margin angle[l]. The
report of GIGRE WG 14.02 provided another method to simulate
CF process in which varying negative voltage-time area
represents the reverse recovery characteristic of valves. However,
the effects of the parameters of thyristor valves during
commutation process are not investigated intensively[2].
In the paper, a simplified thyristor lumped-charge model are
used to study the commutation process of an HVDC mverter. And
the espressions of the stored charges and the reduction rate of the
charges in turning-off thyristor valve during commutation process
are derived. Fromthese espressions, the influences of the circuit
parameters, as well as, thyristor device parameters, is examined.
11.ASSUMPTI ONS
To analyzethe commutation process in an HVDC inverter
theoretically, the following assumptions have to be made.
(a)Commutation circuit is simplified as Fig.1, where ea, C, and e,
represent the AC side phase-voltage respectively. L, is the
commutating inductance of the rk-emal circuit. LI represents the
DC side current. i l , i5 is the commutating current flowing
through valve 1 and valve 5 reqectively. DC current LI nil1 be
commutated fromvalve 5 to valve 1, (b)Thyristors in a valve,
such as VI, V5, V6, have the samecharacteristics, thus the valve
can be regarded as a single thyistor device, (c)Neglect the
voltage drop across the valve. before the valve withstands the
reverse voltage, (d)Neglect the forward tum-on transient process
of valve 1, (e)There is an ideal DC current controller in the DC
side of the HVDC system, i.e. LJ remains.constants d ~ g the
commutation process.
For a 3-phase ground fault in A side, current commutation
starts at mt=a shown in Fig. 2,where a is the triggering angle of
valve 1.
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A
Fig. 1 Shplified commutation circuit
-!: P 4
Fig. 2 Commutation process between valve 1 and valve5
111. SIMPLIFIED MODEL OF THYRISTOR
It is well known that commutation process in an inverter is
directly affected by the reverse recovery process of the thyristor
valves used in the inverter. Generally the reverse recovery of a
thyristor can be simulated accurately by solvtng a set of
semiconductor physical equations using computer. But it is L'ev
hard to get an analytic result. Here some simplifications have
been made to model thyristor by lumped-charge method[3] and
the commutation process is studied theoretically.
As stated above, valve 5 in Fig.2 can beconsidered as a single
device. Its structure and the carrier distribution in on state are
showninFig.3. Theouter region ,PI and NZ are generally heavily
doped. The inner PZ region has a higher doping concentration
than the NI base region.
Assumethat during on state, the total escess charse is stored
in the N-baseand located in the middle of this zone. Because the
lifetune of carrier in N-baseis larger than the lifetime in P-base,
and N-baseis rvider thanP-base, the assumption is valid.
(1)
QE =@(PE - P,e)
O B =&''(PB - P j O )
where, QE is the storage charge at the border of N-basezone, QB
is the storage charge in N-basezone, q is the unit electron charge,
A is the junction area, pl and p2 are the average hole
concentrations in the region corresponding to QE and QB
respectively, p is the equilibrium hole concentration, 6 and d are
the width of the two charge storage regions respectively(&<d).
K
S - H - - - - - - d d l ,
Fig. 3 Structure and carrier distribution of thyristor(on state)
According to the ambipolar diffision equation (ADE), the
anodecurrent i A which flows in NI can beexpressed as,
a.here, D., is the ambipolar diffusion constant,
0, E qp,rL4, T =d' / ( 4Do)
s Q,, = T - K - I ~ + Q ~ (4
The charge control continuity equation for QB is
Clt t -
AI =K . i.,
whereAI is thenet partlcle current floning into the region times
the'electromc charge q, 7 IS the lifetime of minority carrier in N
base. R is the gain ofn-pn setion ofthe device.
Dung the reverse recovery, Qo and QB decrease. OnceQa
reduces to qAdp,o, the space charge region (SCR) appertrs at the
left side of the N base zone. With the increase of the width of
SCR, the de\<ce will withstand the reverse voltage and the
reverse current will decrease (as shown in Fig. 4).
In general, SCR at the n&t side of N base is always
developed later and slower than SCR at the left side. This means
that almost all the voltagedrops on the left SCR ( V A E ~) during
reverse recoveq process. Refer to the work of Benda[4], the
voltage drop on the left SCR can be given by the following
equations.,
c h u , = L . - . t Eli, (7)
dt /l" -+pp 411
where wsc,is the width of the left SCR., p,,, pp are the drift rate of
electron and hole respectively in N-base, n =-
- I,.?
4
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I V. ANALYSIS OF COMMUTATION PROCESS
According to the waveformof reverse recovery current of
thyistor device shown in Fig.4, commutation in an HVDC
inverter can bedivided into three phases.
Phase 1: a / U <t S t o. In this phase, the anodecurrent of
valve5 reduces fromLJ to zero. The following equations can be
gotten fromthe commutation circuit shown in Fig. 1.
where, E is the RMS value of AC line voltage.
i, =I ,--E(cosa-cosmt)
=wLr .
(1 1)
Jz
2-E;
To thyristor valve5, following equation can be derived from
(j )and(l l ).
dQB O B - f i
-+--K[ I ,--E(cosa-coswf)](12)
dt z 2X"
In addition, before current commutation, i.e. wf I a ,
Q, 3 K51d , this is the initial condition of QB.
Assume that the value of E keeps constant during
commutation process, the storage charge in the base zone of
valve5 can be solved as,
45
I - -
-_
0, =C. e +K( I d --Ecosa)r
2- Y"
(13)
J z 1 1
2x7 T
+K- E(-cos wf +w sinwt) .~
1
(-y +U2
5
1
-cos a i w si na
where C =K-E(rcosa - '
1 .
,+CO-
5-
1
43
2 .\;
Generally, x 2 >>w' , then (1 3) can besimplified as ,
Jz
2x7
Q, =Kr[I, --E(cosa-cosai)]
(14)
J z - . t-'
2Xr 5
+K- ET',ZU[SIII~ - Sha .eSp(-L)]
And the reduction rate of QB can be given as,
Jz t-'
2x, 5
- K - Erw[sin wt - si na . e.\p( -2)]
Fig.4 Waveformof the reverse recovery current of valve5
Becauseinthisphase 7~/ 2<a<wt <l r , cosot<@and
s i nwt - s i na- e~~( - ~) >O . From (l j ), it is shown
dQ,/dt <0 . This means that the chargein the base zoneof
valve5 is reducing. And its reduction rate is proportional to E.
Therefore the edema1 AC side voltage directly afFects the
reduction of the storagecharge in base zoneof thyristor valves.
On the other hand, the lifetime of the minority carriers in base
zone determines thequantity of the storage charge.
For ij(fO)=O. the interval of the first phaseof commutation, Ato
becomes:
t - "
r
JZI s
Afo =[cos-'(cosa - 2) - a] / w (16)
E
Phase 2: To <t I t, . This phase is fromis=O to 0~0. In this
phase the voltagedrop of thyristor valve5 can also beneglected,
thus the expressions of (20 and 0s is the sameas thosein phase 1.
For i,,,.,, =0.
(17)
f i
2x7
I , - - E(cos a - coswt, ) =0
For Q,,,;,,, =0 '
(19) And i j ( t l ) = I , --E(cosa-coswt,) 2Xr
where I , =t o +At, . From( 17), ( 18) and ( 19), the following
J2
equation can bederived.
[w cos ot, - (1 +T) -sin wfo]Att,
T 1 .
b5 T
(20)
At + At
+sin ut, - sin a . e xp( - -) =0
T
where sin(wAt, ) 2 W. At, , cos(o&, ) 1 are assumed. It is
shown fromcalculation that when At, <5 OOj a , the relative
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error of this assumption is below 0.4 1%. Because the lifetime of
the minority carriers in the base zone are very small (about
severaldecade microseconds), and Ato +At, is about several
milliseconds which is several decades of 7, the third part of the
left side in (20) can be neglected. Thus the duration of the second
phase, Atl, can be derived.
b (21)
sin mt ,
(1+-)sinwt, -rwcoswt,
T
Kr
At, =
Phase 3: tl<t<tz. It can befound fromFig.4 that 00 =U when
-1. After this, thyristor valve 5 begins to withstand reverse
voltage and its anode current is starts to decrease. Once is reaches
b FF, the forward blocking capacity of the device will be recovered.
In this phase the anode-cathode voltage vx of valve 5 cannot be
neglected. And the equations of the extemal circuit are modified
as,
di, dii
dt dt
L. - - L. --I- vAK =euc
It is obvious that QB can be solved by digital simulation
methods such as Ronga-Kutta method, kom(j), (8) and (9).
However the analytical result cannot be gotten from these
equations. In fact, it is found that in this phase the current of
valve 5 decreases exponentially[5] i.e.,
1 4 ,
__
i = - I J e 2 (23)
where I , <<I , , . Imif is the peak value of the reverse
recovery current. IOFF is the current value below which the
thyistor device turnof successfully.
Because O,( tl ) =0 , the following equation can begotten
from(4),
QB( rl ) =- T- i 5( t , ) z T-I,,, (25)
Theabove equation shows that at the moment tl the storage
charges left in the base zone of valve 5 is T . I , .
Once is reduces to bm, the excessive charges in the base zone are
removed completely. The transmission time T can be derived
fiom(24) and (25).
T = A ( I - L ) I (26)
I ,
The duration of the third phase At2which is the decrease time
of i5 fromI mf to IOFF i s shown as,
At2 =/Z.I nLzT.lnL (27)
I*,,
Thus from the moment &=a at which valve 1 is
triggered on and the commutation begins, to the moment at
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which valve 5 tums off completely, the duration of the whole
process At is the sumof the duration of the three phases.
So the criterion of commutation failure is : At 2 p/ w . It can be
Ar =Ato -k At, +Atl
(28)
known form(16), (21) and (27) that Ab arerelated with the
parameters of the extemal circuit. And AtI, At2 arenot only
affected by the parameters of the extemal circuit but also
associated with the micro parameters of thyristor devices.
Therefor the criterion of CF should be considered both the
.external circuit and the micro process of thyistor device.
V. CONCLUSION
Using a simplified lumped-charge model of thyristor,
commutation process of an HVDC inverter is investigated. It was
found that not on!y the AC commutation voltage disturbance but
also the parameters of the thyristor valves affect the commutation
process. The lifetlme of the mlnority camers in the thyristor is a
very influencing factor to the stored charges in the device. Based
on the removal process of the stored charges in thyristor devices,
the duration of the phases in the turn-off process of the device is
given, and a novel criterion of commutation failure is proposed
which may be used in EMTF. Because the criterion is derived
with considering of both the extemal circuit conditions and the
inner charge removal process in thyristor device, it is more
accurate than the conventional one.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGES
The authors would like to thank Chinese National Nature
Science Foundation(NNSF), Technology Department of Electric
Power Ministry and Northeast China Electric Power Group Inc.
for the financial support ofthis work.
VII. REFERENCES
[ 11 Zhejiang University, DC Transmission System (Chinese),
Hydraulic and Electric Power Press, 1985.6.
[2] WG 14.02 Commutation Failures in HVDC Transmission
Systems Due to AC SystemFaults, Electra. No.169, Dec.
1996
[3] C.L.Ma et al., A physically-based lumped charge SCR
model, IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Cod., Seattle,
1993
[4] H.Benda, E.Spenke, Reverse recovery processes in Silicon
power rectifiers , Proc. IEEE, Vo1.55, No.8, pp.1331-1354,
1967
[S]C.W.LEE,S.B.Park, %sign of a thyristor snubber circuit by
considering the reverse recovery process IEEE Trans. Power
Electron. Vo1.3, No.4, pp.440446, 1988