Nonlinear constrained and saturated control of power electronics and electromechanical systems

Power electronic converters are extensively adopted for the solution of timely issues, such as power quality improvement in industrial plants, energy management in hybrid electrical systems, and control of electrical generators for renewables. Beside nonlinearity, this systems are typically characterized by hard constraints on the control inputs, and sometimes the state variables. In this respect, control laws able to handle input saturation are crucial to formally characterize the systems stability and performance properties. From a practical viewpoint, a proper saturation management allows to extend the systems transient and steady-state operating ranges, improving their reliability and availability. The main topic of this thesis concern saturated control methodologies, based on modern approaches, applied to power electronics and electromechanical systems. The pursued objective is to provide formal results under any saturation scenario, overcoming the drawbacks of the classic solution commonly applied to cope with saturation of power converters, and enhancing performance. For this purpose two main approaches are exploited and extended to deal with power electronic applications: modern anti-windup strategies, providing formal results and systematic design rules for the anti-windup compensator, devoted to handle control saturation, and “one step” saturated feedback design techniques, relying on a suitable characterization of the saturation nonlinearity and less conservative extensions of standard absolute stability theory results. The first part of the thesis is devoted to present and develop a novel general anti-windup scheme, which is then specifically applied to a class of power converters adopted for power quality enhancement in industrial plants. In the second part a polytopic differential inclusion representation of saturation nonlinearity is presented and extended to deal with a class of multiple input power converters, used to manage hybrid electrical energy sources. The third part regards adaptive observers design for robust estimation of the parameters required for high performance control of power systems

Control of Systems with Limited Capacity

Virtually all real life systems are such that they present some kind of limitation on one or many of its variables, physical quantities. These systems are designated in this thesis as systems with limited capacity. This work is treating control related problems of a subclass of such systems, where the limitation is a critical factor. The thesis is composed of four parts. The first part is treating the control of tire slip in a braking car. The Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) is an important component of a complex steering system for the modern car. In the latest generation of brake-by-wire systems, the controllers have to maintain a specified tire slip for each wheel during braking. This thesis proposes a design model and based on that a hybrid controller that regulates the tire-slip. Simulation and results from drive tests are presented. In the second part, a design method for robust PID controllers is presented for a class of systems with limited capacity. Robustness is ensured with respect to a cone bounded static nonlinearity acting on the plant. Additional constraints on maximum sensitivity are also considered. The design procedure has been successfully applied in the synthesis of the proposed ABS controller. The third part studies the trajectory convergence for a general class of nonlinear systems. The servo problem for piecewise linear systems is presented. Convex optimization is used to describe the behavior of system trajectories of a piecewise linear system with respect to some input signals. The obtained results are then applied for the study of anti-windup compensators. The last part of the thesis is treating the problem of voltage stability in power systems. Voltage at the load end of a power system has to be controlled within prescribed tolerances. In case of emergencies such as sudden line failures, this task ca n be very challenging. The main contribution of this chapter is a method for improving the stability properties of the power system by dynamic compensation of the reference load voltage. Moreover, a complete compensation scheme is proposed where load shedding is the secondary control variable. This control scheme is shown to stabilize different power system models

Entwurf von modellbasierten Anti-Windup-Methoden für Systeme mit Stellbegrenzungen

Durch die Nichtbeachtung der immer vorhandenen Stellbegrenzungen bei der Auslegung eines Reglers kann es während des Betriebs zu einem unerwünschten Fehlverhalten des Regelkreises - dem sogenannten Windup - kommen. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung und dem systematischen Entwurf von Anti-Windup-Maßnahmen, die in Kombination mit einem zuvor ausgelegten Regler einen sicheren und effizienten Betrieb des Regelkreises trotz vorhandener Stellbegrenzungen gewährleisten. Es werden lineare und nichtlineare modellbasierte Anti-Windup-Methoden behandelt. Neben einer Stabilitätsgarantie für den Regelkreis und einer hohen Regelgüte liegt der Fokus auf einem einfach durchführbaren Entwurf mit möglichst wenigen vom Anwender zu wählenden Parametern. Letzteres wird durch eine auf konvexer Optimierung basierende Parametrierung des Anti-Windup erreicht

Improved Wind Turbine Control Strategies for Maximizing Power Output and Minimizing Power Flicker

For reducing the cost of energy (COE) for wind power, controls techniques are important for enhancing energy yield, reducing structural load and improving power quality. This thesis presents the control strategies studies for wind turbine both from the perspectives of both maximizing power output and reducing power flicker and structural load, First, a self-optimizing robust control scheme is developed with the objective of maximizing the power output of a variable speed wind turbine with doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) operated in Region 2. Wind power generation can be divided into two stages: conversion from aerodynamic power to rotor (mechanical) power and conversion from rotor power to the electrical (grid) power. In this work, the maximization of power generation is achieved by a two-loop control structure in which the power control for each stage has intrinsic synergy. The outer loop is an Extremum Seeking Control (ESC) based generator torque regulation via the rotor power feedback. The ESC can search for the optimal torque constant to maximize the rotor power without wind measurement or accurate knowledge of power map. The inner loop is a vector-control based scheme that can both regulate the generator torque requested by the ESC and also maximize the conversion from the rotor power to grid power. In particular, an ∞ controller is synthesized for maximizing, with performance specifications defined based upon the spectrum of the rotor power obtained by the ESC. Also, the controller is designed to be robust against the variations of some generator parameters. The proposed control strategy is validated via simulation study based on the synergy of several software packages including the TurbSim and FAST developed by NREL, Simulink and SimPowerSystems. Then, a bumpless transfer scheme is proposed for inter-region controller switching scheme in order to reduce the power fluctuation and structural load under fluctuating wind conditions. This study considers the division of Region 2, Region 2.5 and Region 3 in the neighborhood of the rated wind speed. When wind, varies around the rated wind speed, the switching of control can lead to significant fluctuation in power and voltage supply, as well as structural loading. To smooth the switch and improve the tracking, two different bumpless transfer methods, Conditioning and Linear Quadratic techniques, are employed for different inter-region switching situations. The conditioning bumpless transfer approach adopted for switching between Region 2 maximum power capture controls to Region 2.5 rotor speed regulation via generator torque. For the switch between Region 2.5 and Region 3, the generator torque windup at rated value and pitch controller become online to limit the load of wind turbine. LQ technique is posed to reduce the discontinuity at the switch between torque controller and pitch controller by using an extra compensator. The flicker emission of the turbine during the switching is calculated to evaluate power fluctuation. The simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed scheme of inter-region switching, with significant reduction of power flicker as well as the damage equivalent load

Adaptive control of plants with input saturation: an approach for performance improvement

In this work, a new method for adaptive control of plants with input saturation is presented. The new anti-windup scheme can be shown to result in bounded closed-loop states under certain conditions on the plant and the initial closed-loop states. As an improvement in comparison to existing methods in adaptive control, a new degree of freedom is introduced in the control scheme. It allows to improve the closed-loop response when actually encountering input saturation without changing the closed-loop performance for unconstrained inputs.Diese Arbeit präsentiert eine neue Methode für die adaptive Regelung von Strecken mit Stellgrößenbegrenzung. Für das neue anti-windup Verfahren wird gezeigt, dass die Zustände des Regelkreises begrenzt bleiben, wenn dessen initiale Werte und die Regelstrecke bestimmte Bedingungen erfüllen. Eine Verbesserung im Vergleich zu existierenden Methoden wird durch die Einführung eines zusätzlichen Freiheitsgrades erzielt. Dieser erlaubt die Verbesserung der Regelgüte des geschlossenen Regelkreises, wenn das Eingangssignal sich in der Limitierung befindet, ohne diese sonst zu verändern

Cavity Field Control for Linear Particle Accelerators

High-energy linear particle accelerators enable exploration of the microscopic structure of pharmaceuticals, solar cells, fuel cells, high-temperature superconductors, and the universe itself. These accelerators accelerate charged particles using oscillating magnetic fields that are confined in metal cavities. The amplitudes and phases of the electromagnetic fields need to be accurately controlled by fast feedback loops for proper accelerator operation.This thesis is based on the author's work on performance analysis and control design for the field control loops of the linear accelerator at the European Spallation Source (ESS), a neutron microscope that is under construction in Lund, Sweden. The main contribution of the thesis is a comprehensive treatment of the field control problem during flat-top, which gives more insight into the control aspects than previous work. The thesis demonstrates that a key to understand the dynamics of the field control loop is to represent it as a single-input single-output system with complex coefficients. This representation is not new itself but has seen limited use for field control analysis.The thesis starts by developing practical and theoretical tools for analysis and control design for complex-coefficients systems. This is followed by two main parts on cavity field control. The first part introduces parametrizations that enable a better understanding of the cavity dynamics and discusses the most essential aspects of cavity field control. The second part builds on the first one and treats a selection of more advanced topics that all benefit from the complex-coefficient representation: analysis of a polar controller structure, field control design in the presence of parasitic cavity resonances, digital downconversion for low-latency feedback, energy-optimal excitation of accelerating cavities, and an intuitive design method for narrowband disturbance rejection. The results of the investigations in this thesis provide a better understanding of the field control problem and have influenced the design of the field controllers at ESS

Discrete time current regulation of grid connected converters with LCL filters

Two important components of a grid connected power electronic converter are the line filter and the closed loop current regulator. Together they are largely responsible for system stability, power flow and power quality into the grid. The LCL filter is a smaller and cheaper line filter alternative because of its third order filtering capability. However the LCL filter has a resonance that must be appropriately damped using either passive or active techniques, generating more losses or adding complexity to the controller respectively. It is now generally accepted that the PWM transport delay due to discrete/digital implementations is the main limiting factor for controller bandwidth in L filtered systems. However, despite the large body of literature for the LCL filter, there is still only limited consensus regarding the implications of PWM transport delay on the current regulator and active damping controller for this type of filter. This thesis applies discrete time models to these systems to overcome these perceived limitations and hence develop the optimal controllers. This knowledge is then used to enhance the current regulator to overcome further practical problems. The first part of this thesis focuses on the development of discrete time current regulation for a grid connected inverter. The benefits of discrete time modelling and control for current regulation are demonstrated by using a discrete state feedback controller for an L filter system. A precise discrete time model of the LCL filter system is then developed to exactly identify the frequency region where active damping is mandatory, and the high frequency region where active damping is not required. The critical frequency, which separates these two regions, is identified as a fraction of the sampling frequency, demonstrating the controller's dependence on PWM transport delay. Controllers and gain selection methods are developed and verified for each region. A generalised approach for analysis of the LCL filtered system is then developed so that all forms can be evaluated on a precisely comparable basis. Using this generalised approach the particular advantages and disadvantages of each control method are readily identified. The second part of this thesis looks at the impact of two practical issues for current regulation of LCL filtered grid connected converters. It firstly identifies that practical converters generally do not match their ideal output current quality expectations. The reasons for this distortion are explained and harmonic compensators are then proposed as an effective solution to overcome it. Secondly the implications of a virtual neutral common mode EMI filter on the current regulator are investigated. A virtual neutral filter design is proposed that utilises the primary LCL filter components. The active damping current regulator is then enhanced to avoid interference from the additional current path and to actively damp the common mode resonance. All theoretical work is validated by extensive simulation and experimental results

Modeling and Control of the Falling Film Evaporator Process

Wegen ihres energieeffizienten Betriebs und flexiblen Designs haben Fallfilmverdampfer (FFV) eine breite Anwendung in der Industrie. Neben Fragen zur Konstruktion sind dominante Totzeiten herausfordernd bzgl. Prozessmodellierung und -regelung. Insbesondere erfordert die Automatisierung von Produktionssystemen digitale Zwillinge, d.h. Anlagenmodelle, um Betreiber zu schulen oder den Designprozess zu beschleunigen. Das Herz eines FFV besteht aus Rohren, an deren Innenseiten verdampfender Flüssigkeitsfilm hinabläuft. Daher sind die Rohre primäre Quelle für Totzeiten, welche sich vornehmlich auf den Transport wichtiger Prozessgrößen wie Liquidkonzentration und Massenstrom beziehen. Allerdings ist die Modellierung des entsprechenden dynamischen Verhaltens schwierig. Aus Sicht der Regelung erzeugen Totzeiten Schwingungen der Ausgangskonzentration - im Speziellen während der Anfahrprozesse. Zusätzlich verkomplizieren starke Kopplungen zwischen Ausgangsmassenstrom und -konzentration die in modernen Produktionen erforderliche Mehrgrößenregelung. Die vorliegende Arbeit präsentiert Lösungen für alle genannten Herausforderungen. Durch Gliederung des FFV-Prozesses in Teilsysteme sind verschiedene Designs in einfacher Weise simulierbar. In diesem Kontext erfolgt die Validierung eines bestimmtes Anlagenmodell auf Basis von Realdaten, was zum digitalen Zwilling führt. Zur Entwicklung neuer Transportmodelle verdampfender Flüssigkeitsfilme werden Bilanzgleichungen ausgewertet, sodass Systeme hyperbolischer partieller Differentialgleichungen entstehen. Mittels des Charakteristikenverfahrens gelingt eine Transformation in Totzeitgleichungen; letztere sind für Simulation und Reglerentwurf vorteilhaft. Pilotanlagenexperimente zur Identifikation und Validierung eines ausgewählten Modells unterstreichen die Eignung des Ansatzes, das gemessene Ein-/Ausgangsverhalten abzubilden. Zur Beantwortung regelungstechnischer Fragen wird ein einfaches Prozessmodell entwickelt, das Zuordnungsproblem gelöst und ein Mehrgrößenregelungskonzept entworfen