Power electronics for a 1-kilowatt arc jet thruster

After more than two decades, new space mission requirements have revived interest in arcjet systems. The preliminary development and demonstration of new, high efficiency, power electronic concepts for start up and steady state control of dc arcjets is reported. The design comprises a pulse width modulated power converter which is closed loop configured to give fast current control. An inductor, in series with the arcjet, serves the dual role of providing instantaneous current control, as well as a high voltage arc ignition pulse. Benchmark efficiency, transient response, regulation, and ripple data are presented. Tests with arcjets demonstrate that the power electronics breadboard can start thrusters consistently with no apparent damage and transfer reliably to the nondestructive high voltage arc mode in less than a second

A flexible infrastructure for dynamic power control of electric vehicle battery chargers

This paper proposes a Flexible Infrastructure for Dynamic Power Control (FIDPC) of Electric Vehicle (EV) Battery Chargers. This infrastructure dynamically adjusts the EV battery charger current, according to the power demand of the home wherein the vehicle is plugged. An infrastructure was implemented to validate this proposal. Such infrastructure is composed by an EV battery charger and a communication system based on a Radio Frequency interface. The battery charger has nominal power of 3.6 kVA and operates with sinusoidal current and unitary total power factor, while the RF interface provides continuous data flow to the battery charger with information about the home total current consumption (rms value). Experimental tests were performed under realistic conditions to validate the concept behind the proposed FIDPC. These tests served to assess the behavior of the EV battery charger with dynamic power control on a single-phase, 230 V, 16 A, 50 Hz residential electrical installation. The experimental results confirm the quick time response of the FIDPC even when working under heavy home load variations.This work was supported by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) through Project PEst-UID/CEC/00319/2013. The work of V. Monteiro was supported by the FCT agency through a doctoral scholarship under Grant SFRH/BD/80155/2011. The review of this paper was coordinated by Dr. D. Cao

Electrical performance characteristics of high power converters for space power applications

The first goal of this project was to investigate various converters that would be suitable for processing electric power derived from a nuclear reactor. The implementation is indicated of a 20 kHz system that includes a source converter, a ballast converter, and a fixed frequency converter for generating the 20 kHz output. This system can be converted to dc simply by removing the fixed frequency converter. This present study emphasized the design and testing of the source and ballast converters. A push-pull current-fed (PPCF) design was selected for the source converter, and a 2.7 kW version of this was implemented using three 900 watt modules in parallel. The characteristic equation for two converters in parallel was derived, but this analysis did not yield any experimental methods for measuring relative stability. The three source modules were first tested individually and then in parallel as a 2.7 kW system. All tests proved to be satisfactory; the system was stable; efficiency and regulation were acceptable; and the system was fault tolerant. The design of a ballast-load converter, which was operated as a shunt regulator, was investigated. The proposed power circuit is suitable for use with BJTs because proportional base drive is easily implemented. A control circuit which minimizes switching frequency ripple and automatically bypasses a faulty shunt section was developed. A nonlinear state-space-averaged model of the shunt regulator was developed and shown to produce an accurate incremental (small-signal) dynamic model, even though the usual state-space-averaging assumptions were not met. The nonlinear model was also shown to be useful for large-signal dynamic simulation using PSpice

Local control of multiple module converters with ratings-based load sharing

Multiple module dc-dc converters show promise in meeting the increasing demands on ef- ficiency and performance of energy conversion systems. In order to increase reliability, maintainability, and expandability, a modular approach in converter design is often desired. This thesis proposes local control of multiple module converters as an alternative to using a central controller or master controller. A power ratings-based load sharing scheme that allows for uniform and non-uniform sharing is introduced. Focus is given to an input series, output parallel (ISOP) configuration and modules with a push-pull topology. Sensorless current mode (SCM) control is digitally implemented on separate controllers for each of the modules. The benefits of interleaving the switching signals of the distributed modules is presented. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate stable, ratings-based sharing in an ISOP converter with a high conversion ratio for both uniform and non-uniform load sharing cases

High-feedback Operation of Power Electronic Converters

electronic

Switched Reluctance Motor Topologies: A Comprehensive Review

Switched reluctance motor (SRM) is gaining much interest in industrial applications such as wind energy systems and electric vehicles due to its simple and rugged construction, high‐speed operation ability, insensitivity to high temperature, and its features of fault tolerance. With continued research, different topologies have emerged presenting less torque ripple, high efficiency, high power factor, and high power density. However, there has always been a trade‐off between gaining some of the advantageous and losing some with each new technology. In this chapter, various SRM topologies, design, principle of operation, and respective phase switching schemes are extensively reviewed, and their advantages and drawbacks are discussed. On the other hand, some of SRM limitations (such as excitation penalty, control complexity, noise, and vibration) have prompted research into the incorporation of permanent magnets into the basic SRM structure, and therefore, the chapter also includes discussion on a new class of SRM with permanent magnet assist (PM‐assist) called doubly salient permanent magnet (DSPMM). The DSPM motor incorporates the merits of both the PM brushless motor and the SRM

A New ZCS-PWM Full-Bridge Boost Converter

The objective of this thesis is to propose, analyze, design, implement, and experimentally confirm the operation of a new Zero-Current-Switching PWM dc-dc full- bridge boost converter that does not have the drawbacks ofpreviously proposed circuits of the same type. In this thesis, the general operating principles of the converter are reviewed, and the converter’s operation is discussed in detail and analyzed mathematically. As a result of the mathematical analysis, key voltage and current equations that describes the operation of the auxiliary circuit and other converter devices have been derived. The steady state equations of each mode of operation are used as the basis of a MATLAB program that is used to generate steady-state characteristic curves that shows the effect that individual circuit parameters have on the operation of the auxiliary circuit and the boost converter. Observations as to their steady-state characteristics are made and the curves are used as part of a design procedure to select the components of the converter, especially those of the auxiliary circuit. An experimental full-bridge PWM dc-dc boost converter prototype is built based on the converter design and typical waveforms are presented. The efficiency of the proposed converter operating with the auxiliary circuit is compared to that of a standard PWM dc-dc full-bridge boost converter and the increased efficiency o f the proposed converter is confirme

A Three-Phase Single-Stage AC-DC ZVZCS PWM Full-Bridge Converter

It is standard practice to use two separate power converters to convert an ac input voltage to a desired and isolated dc output voltage. A front-end ac-dc converter is used to convert the input ac voltage into an intermediate dc voltage which is then fed into a dc-dc converter with transformer isolation. The front-end converter also performs input power factor correction (PFC) to shape the input currents to be sinusoidal and in phase with the input voltages to maximize the use of the available source power. Conventional two-stage power conversion, however, requires two power con­ verters and there has been considerable interest to try to integrate the PFC and dc-dc conversion functions in a single power converter to reduce cost and complexity. Although many of these single-stage converters have been proposed for low power, single-phase applications, there have been relatively few higher power three-phase converters that have been proposed. This is due to the challenges faced when trying to perform PFC and dc-dc conversion for a wider load range. A new three-phase, single-stage ac-dc full-bridge converter is proposed in this thesis. The outstanding features of the new converter are that it is relatively simple and it can perform PFC using standard phase-shift pulse width modulation (PWM). In the thesis, derivation of the converter is discussed and its general operation is re­ viewed. The modes of operation of the converter are explained in detail and analyzed and the results of the analysis are used to develop guidelines for its design. The feasibility of the proposed converter is confirmed with experimental results that were obtained from a prototype and are presented in this thesis

ANALYZING EFFICIENCY OF SWITCH-MODE WELDING POWER SUPPLY

esearches and studies have indicated that many of the welding quality issues are related to the weld schedule or power supply. During a weld, a certain amount of energy is lost which can be reduced to improve the efficiency of the power supply. This thesis presents a DC/DC buck converter power supply for small scale resistance spot welding (SSRSW), which can provide a testing platform for studies of different control modes, and at the end implement the results of the experiments and research done with this power supply. In this thesis, a model of the small scale resistance spot welding power supply has been implemented. The power supply uses pulse width modulation technique with MOSFETs to convert the power of a 12V battery to the weld current up to 1000A. Various measurements of voltage and current were taken at the respective terminals to calculate the energy losses. Capacitances were added with gradually increased values and again measurements were taken to calculate and analyze the energy losses in presence of the capacitances based on their numerical values. It was noted that the energy losses were reduced appreciably by this technique. So, the efficiency of the converters can be improved