Induction Motors

AC motors play a major role in modern industrial applications. Squirrel-cage induction motors (SCIMs) are probably the most frequently used when compared to other AC motors because of their low cost, ruggedness, and low maintenance. The material presented in this book is organized into four sections, covering the applications and structural properties of induction motors (IMs), fault detection and diagnostics, control strategies, and the more recently developed topology based on the multiphase (more than three phases) induction motors. This material should be of specific interest to engineers and researchers who are engaged in the modeling, design, and implementation of control algorithms applied to induction motors and, more generally, to readers broadly interested in nonlinear control, health condition monitoring, and fault diagnosis

On the reliability of electrical drives for safety-critical applications

The aim of this work is to present some issues related to fault tolerant electric drives,which are able to overcome different types of faults occurring in the sensors, in thepower converter and in the electrical machine, without compromising the overallfunctionality of the system. These features are of utmost importance in safety-criticalapplications. In this paper, the reliability of both commercial and innovative driveconfigurations, which use redundant hardware and suitable control algorithms, will beinvestigated for the most common types of fault: besides standard three phase motordrives, also multiphase topologies, open-end winding solutions, multi-machineconfigurations will be analyzed, applied to various electric motor technologies. Thecomplexity of hardware and control strategies will also be compared in this paper, sincethis has a tremendous impact on the investment costs

Brushless Three-Phase Synchronous Generator Under Rotating Diode Failure Conditions

International audienceIn brushless excitation systems, the rotating diodes can experience open- or short-circuits. For a three-phase synchronous generator under no-load, we present theoretical development of effects of diode failures on machine output voltage. Thereby, we expect the spectral response faced with each fault condition, and we propose an original algorithm for state monitoring of rotating diodes. Moreover, given experimental observations of the spectral behavior of stray flux, we propose an alternative technique. Laboratory tests have proven the effectiveness of the proposed methods for detection of fault diodes, even when the generator has been fully loaded. However, their ability to distinguish between cases of diodes interrupted and short-circuited, has been limited to the no-load condition, and certain loads of specific natures

Converter fault diagnosis and post-fault operation of a doubly-fed induction generator for a wind turbine

Wind energy has become one of the most important alternative energy resources because of the global warming crisis. Wind turbines are often erected off-shore because of favourable wind conditions, requiring lower towers than on-shore. The doubly-fed induction generator is one of the most widely used generators with wind turbines. In such a wind turbine the power converters are less robust than the generator and other mechanical parts. If any switch failure occurs in the converters, the wind turbine may be seriously damaged and have to stop. Therefore, converter health monitoring and fault diagnosis are important to improve system reliability. Moreover, to avoid shutting down the wind turbine, converter fault diagnosis may permit a change in control strategy and/or reconfigure the power converters to permit post-fault operation. This research focuses on switch fault diagnosis and post-fault operation for the converters of the doubly-fed induction generator. The effects of an open-switch fault and a short-circuit switch fault are analysed. Several existing open-switch fault diagnosis methods are examined but are found to be unsuitable for the doubly-fed induction generator. The causes of false alarms with these methods are investigated. A proposed diagnosis method, with false alarm suppression, has the fault detection capability equivalent to the best of the existing methods, but improves system reliability. After any open-switch fault is detected, reconfiguration to a four-switch topology is activated to avoid shutting down the system. Short-circuit switch faults are also investigated. Possible methods to deal with this fault are discussed and demonstrated in simulation. Operating the doubly-fed induction generator as a squirrel cage generator with aerodynamic power control of turbine blades is suggested if this fault occurs in the machine-side converter, while constant dc voltage control is suitable for a short-circuit switch fault in the grid-side converter.Wind energy has become one of the most important alternative energy resources because of the global warming crisis. Wind turbines are often erected off-shore because of favourable wind conditions, requiring lower towers than on-shore. The doubly-fed induction generator is one of the most widely used generators with wind turbines. In such a wind turbine the power converters are less robust than the generator and other mechanical parts. If any switch failure occurs in the converters, the wind turbine may be seriously damaged and have to stop. Therefore, converter health monitoring and fault diagnosis are important to improve system reliability. Moreover, to avoid shutting down the wind turbine, converter fault diagnosis may permit a change in control strategy and/or reconfigure the power converters to permit post-fault operation. This research focuses on switch fault diagnosis and post-fault operation for the converters of the doubly-fed induction generator. The effects of an open-switch fault and a short-circuit switch fault are analysed. Several existing open-switch fault diagnosis methods are examined but are found to be unsuitable for the doubly-fed induction generator. The causes of false alarms with these methods are investigated. A proposed diagnosis method, with false alarm suppression, has the fault detection capability equivalent to the best of the existing methods, but improves system reliability. After any open-switch fault is detected, reconfiguration to a four-switch topology is activated to avoid shutting down the system. Short-circuit switch faults are also investigated. Possible methods to deal with this fault are discussed and demonstrated in simulation. Operating the doubly-fed induction generator as a squirrel cage generator with aerodynamic power control of turbine blades is suggested if this fault occurs in the machine-side converter, while constant dc voltage control is suitable for a short-circuit switch fault in the grid-side converter

Multiphase Machines and Drives-Revisited

Although the concept of a multiphase drive system dates back to the middle of the 20th century, the initial pace of development was rather slow, as witnessed by the first two surveys of the area published in the beginning of this century. However, considerably new developments have resulted in the last decade of the 20th century and the beginning of this century, leading to an authoritative survey of the asymmetrical six-phase drive control and subsequently of the review of the complete area. This also initiated the organization and subsequent publication of the first IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics "Special Section on Multiphase Machines and Drives" in May 2008, which commenced with another survey paper, and that contained 12 original research papers. Since the publication of this Special Section in May 2008, the level of interest and pace of developments in the area have further accelerated and substantial new knowledge has been generatedwith an ever-increasing number of published research papers and reported new industrial applications. Such a trend has been emphasized in a recent paper. It therefore seemed appropriate to revisit the area and organize this Special Section as a sequel to the first one. The call for the Special Section papers resulted in 51 submissions, almost twice as many as the total back in 2008, thus confirming a substantial growth of the area. Indeed, the amount of new knowledge acquired since the publication of the first Special Section in 2008 has meant that it was not possible to provide a complete and thorough survey of the field in a single review paper

Control Strategies for Open-End Winding Drives Operating in the Flux-Weakening Region

This paper presents and compares control strategies for three-phase open-end winding drives operating in the flux-weakening region. A six-leg inverter with a single dc-link is associated with the machine in order to use a single energy source. With this topology, the zero-sequence circuit has to be considered since the zero-sequence current can circulate in the windings. Therefore, conventional over-modulation strategies are not appropriate when the machine enters in the flux-weakening region. A few solutions dealing with the zero-sequence circuit have been proposed in literature. They use a modified space vector modulation or a conventional modulation with additional voltage limitations. The paper describes the aforementioned strategies and then a new strategy is proposed. This new strategy takes into account the magnitudes and phase angles of the voltage harmonic components. This yields better voltage utilization in the dq frame. Furthermore, inverter saturation is avoided in the zero-sequence frame and therefore zero-sequence current control is maintained. Three methods are implemented on a test bed composed of a three-phase permanent-magnet synchronous machine, a six-leg inverter and a hybrid DSP/FPGA controller. Experimental results are presented and compared for all strategies. A performance analysis is conducted as regards the region of operation and the machine parameters.Projet SOFRACI/FU

Diagnostic Applications for Micro-Synchrophasor Measurements

This report articulates and justifies the preliminary selection of diagnostic applications for data from micro-synchrophasors (µPMUs) in electric power distribution systems that will be further studied and developed within the scope of the three-year ARPA-e award titled Micro-synchrophasors for Distribution Systems

A Multi-Model Approach to Design a Robust Fixed-Order Controller to Improve Power System Stability

The rapid increase in power system grid has resulted in additional challenges to reliable power transfer between interconnected systems of a large power network. Large-scale penetration of intermittent renewable energy increases uncertainty and variability in power systems operation. For secure operation of power systems under conditions of variability, it is imperative that power system damping controllers are robust. Electromechanical oscillations in the range of 0.2 Hz to 1 Hz are categorized as inter-area modes. These modes arise due primarily to the weak interconnections characterized by long transmission lines between different operating areas of an interconnected power system. One of the main challenges to secure operation of interconnected power systems is the damping of these inter-area modes. This dissertation introduces two multi-model approaches (loop shaping and H∞) to designing a fixed-order robust supplementary damping controller to damp inter-area oscillations. The designed fixed-order supplementary damping controller adjusts the voltage reference set point of the Static Var Compensator (SVC). The two main objectives of the controller design are damping low-frequency oscillations and enhancing power system stability. The proposed approaches are based on the shaping of the open-loop transfer function in the Nyquist diagram through minimizing the quadratic error between the actual and the desired open-loop transfer functions in the frequency domain. The H∞ constraints are linearized with the help of a desired open-loop transfer function. This condition can be achieved by using convex optimization methods. Convexity of the problem formulation ensures global optimality. One of the advantages of the proposed approach is the consideration of multi-model uncertainty. Also, in contrast to the methods that have been studied in literature, the proposed approach deals with full-order model (i.e., model reduction is not required) with lower controller order. In addition, most of the current robust methods are heavily dependent on selecting some weighting filters: such filters are not required in the loop-shaping approach. The proposed approaches are compared with different existing techniques in order to design a robust controller based on H∞ and H2 under pole placement. With large-scale power systems, it is difficult to handle large number of states to obtain the system model. Thus, it becomes necessary to use only input/output data measured from the system, and this data can be utilized to construct the mathematical model of the plant. In this research, the mentioned approaches are offered in order to design a robust controller based only on data by using system identification techniques. The mentioned techniques are applied to the two-area four-machines system and 68 bus system. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method in damping inter-area oscillations are validated using case studies

Modeling and dynamic stability of distributed generations

The objective of this dissertation is to develop dynamic models for distributed generations (DG), to investigate their impacts on dynamic stability of power distribution systems, and to design controllers for DGs to improve the dynamic stability of the integrated power distribution system.;A two-year distributed generation (DG) project at West Virginia University (WVU) evaluated the impact of various DG sources on actual distribution systems by performing computer simulations. The data is supplied by two regional electric utilities of two actual distribution systems each. In this project several important issues were investigated, including the availability of simulation tools and impacts of DGs connected to a distribution line under a variety of line operating conditions. Based on this preliminary research the further most interesting topics for continued research were raised.;The continued research has focused on deeper investigation, such as, modeling DG sources, evaluating their interaction and impacts, and improving the dynamic stability of the integrated power distribution system. Four specific DGs are studied in this dissertation: fuel cell power plant, wind turbine induction generator, gas turbine synchronous generator and diesel engine synchronous generator.;A full-order synchronous generator model represents the generator models of gas turbine generator and diesel engine generator. A simplified gas turbine model has been chosen to be implemented. A practical diesel engine for emergency use is modeled. The generator model of wind turbine induction generator is represented by a full-order induction generator. The rated power operating regime is considered for impacts evaluations and controller design. Two types of fuel cell models are developed. The first one is a model of already operational phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) obtained through data fitting and the second one is dynamic model of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). Since fuel cells are connected to the electric power network via inverters, an inverter model has been developed.;Multi-DG controls are investigated in this dissertation. One DG control is fuel cell control, the other one is wind-turbine control. The control of fuel cell (SOFC) plant is through the inverter to adjust active power injection to the network during the transient time. The control of wind turbine generator is through the parallel connected SVC by adjusting reactive power injection to the system. Both control schemes are centralized.;Linear analysis methodologies are utilized in designing the controller. In the fuel cell control design, two pairs of critical modes are screened out using eigenvalue analysis. The participation factors of DGs with respect to the modes are calculated. Two specific lead-lag compensation units are designed to damp each mode separately. The gains of the two compensation units were then obtained via optimal control methodology. In wind turbine DG control design procedure, three rotor speed deviations are used as input signals while the controller outputs are the firing angle for the SVC and the pitch angle for the wind-turbine DG. An output feedback controller is designed. The dynamic load characteristic is also considered by modeling it as a structured uncertainty. mu-analysis is used to evaluate the robust stability of the controllers with respect to the uncertain parameters in the dynamic loads. The IEEE-13 node radial feeder with existing gas turbine and diesel engine DGs is used as a test system to evaluate the multi-DG control. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the control strategies.;Coordinated operation of all the DGs is investigated. Simulation results show that good configurations within DGs along the system can improve the system stability. Furthermore, the fast acting SVC is very effective in improving damping. Among the DGs investigated in this research, the fuel cell plant control is the best choice for the coordinated operation.;Finally, the approach to model a complete three-phase power distribution system is implemented. The impact of the developed DGs models is evaluated on a three-phase unbalanced distribution system. The three-phase 13-node IEEE system with gas turbine and diesel engine DGs is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink\u27s Power System Blockset (PSB). In the simulation, a three-phase thyristor controlled braking resistor (TCBR) is connected to absorb the surplus energy when the system is subjected to a disturbance. The three-phase dynamic simulation demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed strategy