Real-Time MPSoC-Based Electrothermal Transient Simulation of Fault Tolerant MMC Topology

Abstract

Among different modular multilevel converter (MMC) submodule (SM) topologies, the clamp double submodule (CDSM) has the capability of dc fault current limiting and utilizes a relatively small number of switching devices. Since CDSM has a more complex circuit structure than half-bridge or full-bridge SM, it is a significant challenge for the real-time electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation for a multiterminal dc (MTDC) system containing CDSM MMC. This paper proposes the device-level electrothermal model of CDSM for real-time EMT simulation, which can accurately present the power losses, the junction temperatures, and the switching transient waveforms of individual switches consuming more computation resources. The individual insulated-gate bipolar transistors of the CDSM MMC during fault clearance transient are evaluated from both electromagnetic and thermal perspectives, which interact with each other dynamically. To ensure the real-time performance of the proposed model, the equivalent circuit model is combined with the device-level model. The system-level and device-level waveforms during normal operation and dc fault transient for a three-terminal dc system are both presented and compared with PSCAD/EMTDC and SaberRD. The simulation system was implemented on the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZCU102 multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) platform, and the results were captured by the oscilloscope in real-time.