Asia Pacific Symposium of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics (APSAEM2010) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 28-30th July 2010

Power Quality of Adjustable Speed Drive with Multi-Pulse Rectifier

Makbul ANWARI*1, M. Imran HAMID*1, Ayong HIENDRO*2 and TAUFIK*3
Power quality problems have motivated many efforts to produce better electrical equipments. In electric drives, an adjustable speed drive (ASD) implementation by using multiple phases on its input side is widely developed. In this paper, a model of the ASD using an 18-pulse DC voltage is presented. The multi-phase input is created from secondary side of a three to nine-phase rectifier transformer to form the 18-pulse DC voltage on the DC link of the ASD. The model is then simulated using MATLAB/Simulink to show the power quality performance on line sides of the drive system operation with load and speed variations. Keywords: adjustable speed drive, power quality, 18-pulse rectifier.

1. Introduction New and optimized methods to process and control energy flow by controlling supplied voltages and currents are role of power electronics. An upgraded power electronics circuit raises its performance by reducing power losses, thus increasing the energy efficiency within power conversion processes [1]. One major application of a DC to AC converter with power electronics is Adjustable Speed Drives (ASDs). Their job is to convert the AC fixed rms and frequency input to the AC output with variable rms and frequency values. The ASD is normally used to control the speed of AC induction motors and known as Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) [2]. The proven capabilities of the ASD for supporting energy conservation processes, especially on electromechanical conversion systems and its capability to fulfil loading characteristic of many drive applications stimulate this equipment more and more widely used. It is predicted that applications of the ASD will continue to increase and dominate the whole electric energy utilizations over the world, with trends of the DC to AC motor alteration as an electromechanical converter. An AC-ASD consists of at least one rectifier circuit, one DC-link and one inverter. The rectifier converts the AC power on the DC-link mainly with a six-pulse rectifying system. Then this DC power is converted back to another AC power with different voltages and frequencies. With this configuration it will result in a constant voltage/frequency power from the input side to a variable voltage/frequency power on the output (motor) side. By implementation of a suitable control scheme, a high performance shape for both speed and torque _______________________
Correspondence: M. ANWARI, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai,

characteristic of whole drives system will be obtainable. However there is a draw back resulting in degradation of the power quality in the network where the ASD is connected. Application of the six-pulse rectifier on the input side of the ASD will give high harmonics contents in the network. One among methods to reduce this disadvantageous is by implementing a multi-pulse rectifying system on the input side of the ASD. The multi-pulse rectifying system can be realized by using a set of multi-phase rectifier-transformer systems and rectifier circuitry. By using this system, it will give not only low harmonics content in the input power, but also reduces the DC ripple on the DC-link resulting in relatively small filter required. This paper presents a model of an ASD using multipulse rectifying system to feed the DC-link of the ASD circuit. The multi-pulse is created from a set of three-tonine-phase rectifier-transformer systems and a diode circuitry to obtain an 18-pulse DC voltage. The ninephase rectifier-transformer is created by arranging multi-windings on the secondary side feeding a diode circuit. The 18-pulse is performed by rectifying the nine-phase using full-bridge configuration of diodes, and then converted to the variable frequency/voltage for the induction motor by a sinusoidal pulse-width modulation (SPWM) inverter. The ASD model is then simulated using MATLAB/Simulink to show the power quality performance on the line side when the drive system operates with variations of load and speed. 2. Application of Multi-Pulse Rectifier on Adjustable Speed Drives Figure 1 shows the general configuration of an ASD. The three-phase, 50/60 Hz AC supply is initially converted into the DC by an AC/DC rectifier, then filtered on the DC-link and finally, the DC/AC inverter converts the DC voltage to the variable voltage and frequency output applied to the electric motor. As we know, application a rectifier on an ASD will create harmonics distortion on the input current. This

Johor, Malaysia
email: makbul@ieee.org
*1

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia *2 University of Tanjungpura, Indonesia *3 Cal Poly State University, USA

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current distortion influences the other part of the line and deforms the line voltage.

Fig. 1. Basic configuration of ASD. The unhandled line distortion may be in high level and excesses the line harmonics standard permitted in IEEE Std. 519-1992. Many harmonic impacts have been reported such as conductor overheating, resonance, miss-operation of control and protective devices, derating and equipment loss of life. The IEEE Std. 519-1992 proposed three methods in overcoming harmonics problem, i.e. application of the shunt filter, the harmonics compensation or injection and the phase multiplication. The phase multiplication can be carried out using a special design transformers or autotransformers if a galvanic isolation is not needed. In the ASD application, this method has been widely known and usually implemented on the system employing a relatively large load with high level of power quality. The most advantageous of applying the multi-phase transformer is because it does not introduce resonance in the power system, reliable and relatively cost effective. 3. Multi-pulse Rectifying System There are two main rectifying systems, i.e. halfwave and full-wave rectifying systems. The full-wave rectifier needs more semiconductor devices i.e. diode or other controlled semiconductor devices but gives a lower ripple on the DC voltage. Moreover, the DC voltage output from the full-wave rectifier is twice of the half-wave rectifier.
Y n2T3 X n2T1 P n2R2 X n2R2 Y n2S3

For these reasons, the full-wave rectifier is preferred in power applications. Basically, a full-wave rectifier is built up from one or a group of common anode halfwave rectifier in serial with one or a group of common cathode half-wave rectifier. Each group is responsible to rectify half-cycle of the input signal. Each half-cycle of the input signal is rectified and the frequency of output signal is twice of the input signal as on the single-phase rectifier. In a multi-phase rectifying system, the number of pulses is not only dependent upon the number of phases, but also upon whether the phases are odd or even. If the number of rectified phases are even, then the DC pulse created on each common anode and common cathode half-wave rectifier are in phase so that the number of pulses created are the same as the number of phases. In contrary, if the number of rectified phases are odd, then the DC pulses created are inserted each other and the number of pulses created are twice of the number of phases. If q is the phase number and Q is the rectifying pulse, then Q = q for q even, and Q = 2q for q odd. The odd phase number of multi-phase rectifying system is more advantageous. Electricity is generally generated in a three-phase system and in order to get a multi-phase system, a rectifier-transformer is used. Besides adapting the desired voltage level, the transformer-rectifier is a phase multiplier. Figure 2 shows winding connection of a three to nine-phase rectifier-transformer in an 18-pulse rectifying system. The transformer is a three-leg core type. The three windings are connected in delta configurations in the centre of the figure representing the primary windings n1R, n1S, n1T for primary phase voltages VpR, VpS, VpT shifted 120o each other. The outer windings of a hexagonal configuration represent the secondary side of the transformer. Each phase winding on secondary side consists of five turns sub winding. Phase-R contains one n2R1 turns sub winding, two n2R2 turns sub winding and two n2R3 turns sub winding. These windings are in a hexagonal connection and the nine secondary phase voltages in the same magnitude with 40o shifted each other are taken on X1 X9 nodes.

p X P n2S1 X n2S3 Y P p n1 ,
R

P n1R P X X Y X X Y n2T2 Y X X Y n2R1 n2R2 n2R2 n2R3 n2R3 X X Y X X Y Y X X Y n2S1

S2

P n1R p X X Y X X Y Y X X Y

n1T, VPT

n1S, VPS

n2

VS3

n2S2 n2S3 n2S3

VPR

40

X VS9 n2S2 Y X VS1 X

X VS2 n2T2 Y
R3

Fig. 2. Three to nine-phase rectifier-transformer.

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X2
20o

(2)

so, n2R1: n2R2: n2R3 = 1: 0.742:0.395

(3)

VS n2
2

R1

n2T2 X1
40o 120o

n2R3

Y1

Fig. 3 Turn ratio calculation using sine rule.

1000
Voltage (V)

The three-phase input and nine-phase output voltage of the rectifier-transformer and the 18- pulse DC voltage rectifying using a nine-leg bridge diode rectifier are shown in Fig. 4. It shows a small ripple on the DC voltage output which is one among advantageous of application of this multi-pulse method.

500 0 -500 -1000 0.2 400 0.202 0.204 0.206 0.208 0.21 0.212 0.214 0.216 0.218 0.22

4. Simulation Results and Discussion In order to evaluate the multi-pulse input ASD performance, a simulation scheme is built in MATLAB/Simulink, as shown in Fig. 5. The ASDmotor system is supplied from a three-phase source through a rectifier-transformer in which the three-phase input is converted into the nine-phase. A nine-leg diode bridge rectifies the output power of the rectifiertransformer to an 18-pulse voltage on the DC link. A SPWM inverter converts the DC power back to the AC power with different voltage and frequency before feeding it to drive the electric motor. The ASD-motor is then operated to drive a pump-type load in several load and speed levels. During operation, the power quality on the input line side is observed and analysed. Figure 6 shows the line voltage and current waveforms when the ASD operates on driving a load at the speed of 1440.5 rpm and the torque of 1 Nm. The waveforms generated by the 6-pulse ASD are shown in Fig. 6a, in which the 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 17th and 19th harmonics order are appeared on both its voltage and current spectra. The 18-pulse rectifier eliminates the 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th harmonics completely in the voltage and gives the voltage THD of 1.35%.

Volatge (V)

200 0 -200 -400 0.2 1100 0.202 0.204 0.206 0.208 0.21 0.212 0.214 0.216 0.218 0.22

Voltage (V)

1000 900 800 0.2

0.202

0.204

0.206

0.208

0.21 Time (s)

0.212

0.214

0.216

0.218

0.22

Fig. 4 Three to nine-phase multiplication on rectifiertransformer and 18-pulse output DC voltage Turn ratio between winding in each secondary phase can be calculated by identifying the X1-Y1-X2 triangle in Fig. 3. We know that,

and and using trigonometric relationship:

(1)

Control

Load From [Speed]

L1

Gate

1 5 9

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 C C g 10 + A A m B B Tm

Goto [Speed]

7 2 6 4 3

C1

[Torque] Goto1

Three-Phase Source

Multi winding rect-transformer

9 Phase full bridge rectifier

DC Link

SPWM Inverter

Fig. 5. Simulation circuit.

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Further, the 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th and 19th harmonics are eliminated in the current waveform. Nevertheless, the triplen harmonics of the 3rd and 15th orders are propagated and give the current THD of 13.85 % (Fig. 6b). Figure 7 shows the line harmonics of the multi-pulse rectifier ASD operating with various motor load and speed levels. For the various level of the motor load, the line distortion tends to decrease relatively to the lower level of the load as shown in Fig. 7a.

(a)

(b) 5. Conclusion (a) A MATLAB/Simulink simulation of an adjustable speed drive which employing a multi-phase method to improve the power quality aspects of the input line voltage and current has been done. The method to create the multi-phase voltage using a three to nine-phase rectifier-transformer and its advantageous in reducing the ripple on output DC voltage is also presented. The simulation shows that using the multi-phase method for supplying the ASD gives a significant reduction in both input line voltage and current. The line distortions do not exceed the limited value which is recommended by accepted standard and without addition any harmonics compensation equipments. Acknowledgment The authors thank the Malaysian Government, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for the ScienceFund Grant, Project No. 01-01-06-SF0205. References
[1] N. MOHAN, T. UNDELAND and W. ROBBINS, Power Electronics: Converters, Applications and Design, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2003, p.3. C. MITSUI, S. TU, TAUFIK, and M. ANWARI, Efficiency Study of Adjustable Speed Drive with Dual

(b) Fig. 6 Voltage and current waveforms of ASD using (a) 6-pulse rectifier (b) 18-pulse rectifier

[2]

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[3] [4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8] [9]

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