A High Gain DC-DC Converter with Grey Wolf Optimizer Based MPPT Algorithm for PV Fed BLDC Motor Drive

A Darcy Gnana Jegha,Umashankar Subramaniam,Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar,M S P Subathra,Sanjeevikumar Padmanaban

doi:10.3390/app10082797

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) water pumping systems are becoming popular these days. In PV water pumping, the role of the converter is most important, especially in the renewable energy-based PV systems case. This study focuses on one such application. In this proposed work, direct current (DC) based intermediate DC-DC power converter, i.e., a modified LUO (M-LUO) converter is used to extricate the availability of power in the high range from the PV array. The M-LUO converter is controlled efficiently by utilizing the Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO)-based maximum power point tracking algorithm, which aids the smooth starting of a brushless DC (BLDC) motor. The voltage source inverter’s (VSI) fundamental switching frequency is achieved in the BLDC motor by electronic commutation. Hence, the occurrence of VSI losses due to a high switching frequency is eliminated. The GWO optimized algorithm is compared with the perturb and observe (P&O) and fuzzy logic based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms. However, by sensing the position of the rotor and comparing the reference speed with the actual speed, the speed of the BLDC motor is controlled by the proportional-integral (PI) controller. The recent advancement in motor drives based on distributed sources generates more demand for highly efficient permanent magnet (PM) motor drives, and this was the beginning of interest in BLDC motors. Thus, in this paper, the design of a high-gain boost converter optimized by a GWO algorithm is proposed to drive the BLDC-based pumping motor. The proposed work is simulated in MATLAB-SIMULINK, and the experimental results are verified using the dsPIC30F2010 controller.

Highlights

The brushless direct current (DC) (BLDC) motor is commonly used for low and medium power applications because of its high torque/inertia ratio, high efficiency, low electromagnetic interference and lower maintenance
The brushless DC (BLDC) motor is widely used in aerospace, medical, servo appliances, electric vehicles and robotic applications [1,2]
Owing to the unbalance in the charging and discharging of the DC link capacitor, a higher peak current compared to the fundamental input current occurs, distorting the input alternating current (AC) current

Summary

Introduction

The brushless DC (BLDC) motor is commonly used for low and medium power applications because of its high torque/inertia ratio, high efficiency, low electromagnetic interference and lower maintenance. The BLDC motor is widely used in aerospace, medical, servo appliances, electric vehicles and robotic applications [1,2]. These motors need electronic commutators, which require information about the rotor position to achieve commutation using a voltage source inverter. Owing to the unbalance in the charging and discharging of the DC link capacitor, a higher peak current compared to the fundamental input current occurs, distorting the input alternating current (AC) current. Due to this very high current, the total harmonic distortion (THD) increases in the range of 65%–70%. Power quality problems occur, in addition to the notching effect and crest factor [5,6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion