Comparison of 2L + 2M and 6L SVPWM for Five-Phase Inverter to Reduce Common Mode Voltage

Abstract

Multiphase drives have received a lot of interest because of their several features over traditional three-phase systems for high-power applications. Pulse-width modulation (PWM) approaches are necessary to regulate the supply for multiphase ac drives. As a result, it is vital to continually improve the modulation and control approaches used to upgrade output power converters’ quality. This paper offers a comparative analysis of the 2L + 2M and 6L space vector pulse-width modulation (SVPWM) techniques applied to a five-phase two-level voltage source inverter (VSI) fed an inductive (R-L) load. The comparative evaluation is based on measuring the inverter switching losses, the total harmonic distortion (THD) values, and the common mode voltage (CMV) under different operation scenarios. A system model is carried out by MATLAB/Simulink. An experimental prototype is constructed in the lab to validate the theoretical analysis. Simulation results for the system based on the two SVPWM techniques are obtained at different modulation indices and different output frequencies and are confirmed by the experimental results. It has been found that the peak-to-peak CMV of the 6L method is 80% lower than that of the 2L + 2M method. Moreover, 6L SVPWM offers better DC-link utilization compared to 2L + 2M SVPWM.