Three-level NPC Inverter Research Articles

Research on High-Frequency Isolated NPC Three-Level Inverter for Frequency Conversion and Speed Regulation

Mining frequency converters are the primary means for achieving variable frequency speed regulation of electromechanical equipment in coal mines, offering energy-saving benefits for coal mining enterprises. The common power supply method involves converting high voltage to low voltage using power frequency transformers before supplying equipment. However, this integration of power frequency transformers with supply devices occupies significant space, making it unsuitable for confined underground environments. Additionally, they suffer from poor output waveform quality and high harmonic content. To tackle these challenges, this paper presents a three-stage topology for high-frequency isolated frequency conversion and speed regulation, utilizing three-phase uncontrolled rectification, a single active isolated DC/DC converter, and an NPC three-level inverter. The control strategies for each stage are discussed in detail. Simulations and experimental results confirm the validity and feasibility of the proposed design, demonstrating enhanced stability and dynamic performance of the three-stage high-frequency isolated frequency converter.

Sensorless DTC Based on Artificial Neural Network for Independent Control of Dual 5-Phase Induction Machine Fed by a Three-Level NPC Inverter

Sensorless DTC Based on Artificial Neural Network for Independent Control of Dual 5-Phase Induction Machine Fed by a Three-Level NPC Inverter

A carrier pulse width modulation for asymmetric three-level NPC inverter

A carrier pulse width modulation for asymmetric three-level NPC inverter

Research on a New Inverter Control Strategy of Induction Heating Power Supply

To achieve “high voltage, low current” in the induction heating power circuit, enhance the flexibility of component selection in the circuit, and improve the quality of the inverter’s output waveform, a new control strategy of a single-phase NPC three-level inverter with unipolar frequency-doubling SPWM method is proposed. With the series connection of IGBTs in a single-phase NPC three-level inverter, the voltage withstand requirement of IGBT is reduced by half. The middle four IGBTs are controlled using unipolar frequency-doubling SPWM, while the outer four IGBTs are turned on later and turned off earlier to address the neutral point voltage imbalance issue in the inverter. Simulation results show that, compared with the traditional bipolar SPWM-controlled single-phase full-bridge inverter, the DC-side input voltage of the inverter can be double, and the current flowing through the entire circuit can be halved under the same output power using the proposed method.

Hybridized PWM Strategy for Three- and Multiphase Three-Level NPC Inverters

Hybridized PWM Strategy for Three- and Multiphase Three-Level NPC Inverters

Circulating currents control method for paralleled three-level NPC inverters

Circulating currents control method for paralleled three-level NPC inverters

Non-Weighted Two-Stage Model Predictive Control Strategy Based on Three-Level NPC Inverter

This paper investigates the asynchronous motors driven by a Three-Level Neutral-Point-Clamped Voltage Source Inverter (3L-NPC-VSI) and aims to achieve control without weight factors and reduce torque ripple. It puts forward a non-weighted two-stage Finite-Control-Set Model Predictive Control (FCS-MPC) strategy. First, a hierarchical optimization method is adopted to address the difficulty of setting weight factors in traditional FCS-MPC applications. The method offers stratified designs of three performance indices, voltage jump, common-mode voltage, and current tracking, obviating the need for weight factor setting and reducing the calculation load of predictions. Secondly, to further mitigate torque ripple, an optimal vector or vector combination is implemented at the current control layer by adhering to the principle of minimal current tracking error. During the selection of the optimal vector combination, the first vector of the combination is chosen to be the vector at the end of the present cycle. This ensures that there is at most one switch within each control period, reducing the switching losses of the two-stage FCS-MPC. Lastly, detailed simulation and experimental analyses are conducted to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

On the Design and Analysis of a Weighting Factor Free-Based Predictive Flux Control Strategy for Three-Level NPC Inverter-Fed IM Drives

On the Design and Analysis of a Weighting Factor Free-Based Predictive Flux Control Strategy for Three-Level NPC Inverter-Fed IM Drives

Using Redundant IGBT Device as a Temperature Sensor—Online Monitoring System of Thermal Parameters for NPC Three-Level Inverters

Using Redundant IGBT Device as a Temperature Sensor—Online Monitoring System of Thermal Parameters for NPC Three-Level Inverters

A Fault-Tolerant Control Strategy for Three-Level Grid-Connected NPC Inverters after Single-Arm Failure with Optimized SVPWM

Three-level NPC inverters have been widely used in grid-connected systems due to their superior performance compared with two-level inverters, but more switches lead to high fault probability. Meanwhile, the neutral point potential (NPP) fluctuation of the DC link is an inherent problem of three-level NPC inverters. To keep the three-level NPC inverter running stably after single-arm failure, a fault-tolerant control strategy based on an optimised space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the common-mode voltage (CMV) of the postfault three-level NPC inverter is analysed and then the preliminary synthesis principles of the reference voltage vector are determined. Then, in order to ensure the NPP balance and the quality of the grid-connected currents, the reference voltage vector synthesis rules are optimised, a low-pass filter (LPF) and a hysteresis comparator are designed, respectively, to ensure the quality of grid-connected currents and effectively decrease the DC link NPP deviation. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed fault-tolerant control strategy can realize the stable and reliable operation of the grid-connected three-level NPC inverter after single-arm failure, and the CMV can be reduced significantly, the quality of grid-connected currents is also improved. The proposed fault-tolerant strategy also shows good performance when the grid-connected currents change.

Improved the two DC capacitors’ voltage balancing of three-level NPC inverters applied in electric vehicles

Excessive unbalance of the DC capacitor voltages of the inverter can cause overvoltages on power components and capacitors, causing unintended low-order harmonics on the load side such as second harmonics, 3rd, 4th, 5th, ..., causing direct harm to the motor load, reducing the controllability of the reverse voltage and filter compensating current for the active filter circuit, affect to the performance of electric vehicles (EVs). Therefore, maintaining the DC capacitors' voltage balance will control the multi-level inverter's input quality and ensure the output quality in terms of Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). The paper proposes a method to control the two DC capacitors’ voltage balance of the 3-level inverter, using the principle of offset function separation. The analysis results suggest that the NPC three-level modulation technique should be implemented to satisfactorily achieve the neutral line current (iNP). Compared with recent international publications, the proposed new algorithm can save and reduce switching loss; the transient dynamic response can be adjusted easily. Maintaining the capacitor voltage balance allows the design with the smallest capacity to reduce voltage stress on components. The proposed results are partially verified through simulation and experiment.

Improved virtual SVPWM algorithm for CMV reduction and NPV oscillation elimination in Three-Level NPC inverter

An improved virtual space vector pulse-width modulation (IVSVPWM) strategy is presented to address simultaneously the problem of common mode voltage (CMV) with neutral point voltage (NPV) fluctuations in wind power converters. The proposed IVSVPWM method suppresses the amplitude of the common mode voltage to Udc/6 by discarding the positive small vector. Meanwhile, the new virtual vector is synthesized by selecting a vector whose neutral point current sums to zero among the retained voltage vectors. In addition, a feedback mechanism is established in the proposed strategy. According to the feedback result, the distribution coefficients of each basic vector in the virtual vector are recalculated to suppress the NPV fluctuation. Through the above control strategy, the dual effect of suppressing the CMV and balancing the NPV is achieved in the full modulation. The feasibility and effectiveness of the strategy are verified by simulation and experiment.© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fault diagnosis of three-level inverter based on convolutional neural network and support vector machine

ABSTRACT Due to the strong nonlinearity and high complexity of NPC three-level inverter system, the model-based method is difficult to be used for open-circuit fault diagnosis of power switches. A fault diagnosis method (CNN-SVM) based on the combination of convolutional neural network (CNN) and support vector machine (SVM) is proposed. The data fusion method is used to integrate the output voltage characteristics of the inverter. The connection between data before and after is increased by it into a grayscale map. CNN is used to obtain the integrated voltage-related features, and SVM is used to classify the obtained features and then judge whether the fault occurs and the location of the fault. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the CNN-SVM model for inverter fault diagnosis is more than 96%, and it has high processing speed and strong generalization ability.

A unified duty-cycle modulation algorithm for a three-level NPC inverter

In this paper, it is a kind of challenge to simplify the conventional pulse width modulation (PWM) algorithms for a three-level neutral-point-clamped inverter. Thus, the unified duty-cycle modulation (UDM) algorithm is presented. It is more attractive than the carrier-based PWM (CBPWM), space-vector PWM (SVPWM), and unified PWM algorithms with a simpler calculation by utilizing the usefulness of the SVPWM algorithm to synthesize the duty cycles in time-domain and the CBPWM algorithm to synthesize the duty cycles in frequency-domain with the lesser conditions and the blankness of the lookup tables, switching sequence design, and zero-sequence component finding. Besides, it is outstanding with three outcomes: (1) comprehensive mathematical models of the dwell times, (2) permanent mathematical models of the duty cycles in time-domain, and (3) simplified PWM algorithm, which has a better workflow with the reduction of the computation burden. As it is very easy to implement as the sinusoidal PWM technique while its performance is equivalent to the SVPWM algorithm, this makes the proposed UDM algorithm a good candidate to optimize between the performance and the cost. Both the simulation and experimental results can confirm the feasible practicability and performance. The comparison with the conventional algorithms can evidently emphasize the superiority.

Modeling and Performance Analysis of a Grid-Connected Photovoltaic System with Advanced Controller considering Varying Environmental Conditions

This paper presents a mathematical model of 255 kW grid-connected solar photovoltaic (SPV) system. To study the performance characteristics of the grid-connected SPV system, a new hybrid adaptive grasshopper optimization algorithm with the recurrent neural network (AGO-RNN) control technique was implemented. Furthermore, the power quality at the point of common coupling (PCC) has been studied using the conventional (PSO) and proposed AGO-RNN controllers. The characteristics of the PV system were analyzed under varying environmental (variable irradiance and temperature) conditions considering 3 different cases such as (i) standard test conditions (STC), (ii) variable radiation with constant temperature, and (iii) variable radiation with variable temperature. For each case, the total harmonic distortion (THD) has been calculated using the proposed AGO-RNN control technique, and the results were compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. The 255 kW PV model is initially developed and connected to a three-level NPC inverter, an MPPT-based perturbation and observation algorithm. Later, the PV model is controlled by an AGO-RNN pulse width modulation (PWM) controller and is then integrated to the main grid at PCC. The main advantage of this technique is exploiting the separate DC-DC converter between the SPV module and the inverter. Finally, the proposed grid-connected SPV system was simulated on MATLAB for analyzing the performance of the system based on its I-V and P-V characteristics, inverter voltage, grid power, gird voltage, grid current, power factor, and THD under different environmental conditions. The simulation results demonstrate that the current magnitude and THD of the SPVGC system are improved with the cutting-edge AGO-RNN controller compared to PSO in all three different scenarios, and this value is less than 1.6%, which is within the permitted limits of IEC 61727 standards.

Dead-Time Compensation in Active NPC Three-Level Inverters Considering Current Ripple

Existence of dead time that makes the ultimate terminal voltage being inconsistent with the modulation voltage, is recognized as the main reason for leading output voltage distortion, as well as the corresponding low-frequency current harmonics through the filter inductance in inverters. The distortion becomes particularly severe in high power-density high efficiency applications where the wide bandgap semiconductors are gradually being adopted, providing higher switching frequency with small junction capacitance. In order to explain this phenomenon, the mechanism of three-phase current distortion in the vicinity of phase current zero-crossing point is thoroughly studied by vector analysis in the space-vector (SV) plane. The relevant factors that lead to the degradation of current quality are also summarized. Improved compensation strategy has been proposed to ameliorate the current distortion. Compared with the conventional method, an additional item for current ripple compensation is introduced, the value of which is obtained by the deadbeat predictive method. This simple scheme avoids the compensation error caused by current ripple and significantly reduces the current total harmonic distortion (THD) value under the case of small inductance. Furthermore, neutral-point (NP) potential balance control is also considered in conjunction with the scheme. Simulations and experiments are carried out in an active NP clamped (ANPC) inverter platform, which demonstrates the validity of theoretical analysis and the proposed method.

An Improved Carrier-Based PWM Strategy with Reduced Common-Mode Voltage for a Three-Level NPC Inverter

Double modulation wave carrier-based pulse width modulation (CBPWM) is a solution for eliminating the deviations of the neutral-point voltage (NPV) in three-level neutral-point clamped inverters. In this paper, a new hybrid CBPWM strategy is proposed that not only eliminates the neutral-point voltage oscillations but also reduces the common-mode voltage (CMV) by half. Furthermore, the harmonic content is also reduced compared with the available reduced CMV modulation by adjusting the modulation waves based on the location of the reference vector in the space vector diagram. An active neutral-point voltage controller is also realized in order to maintain the performance of the modulation strategy under the NPV perturbations. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared to the available CBPWM-based techniques in the literature. The effectiveness of the proposed method is also verified by experimental results.

Real-Time Switching Number Reduction SVM for a Two-Phase Motor Powered by Three-Level NPC Inverter

A three-level neutral point clamped inverter with three phase legs is often used to power three-phase electrical motors. This type of multilevel inverter has its advantages over two-level inverters. The main advantages are lower harmonic distortion and less stress on motor windings. This three-level inverter can be also used as a power source for a two-phase induction motor. A one-phase induction motor with a starting capacitor and auxiliary windings is in fact a two-phase induction motor. In this article, we show that the switching number reduction method, previously presented for use with three-phase induction motors, can be used with two-phase motors as well, after some crucial modifications. The reduction of switching decreases the switching losses. The switching number reduction is obtained with modified space vector modulation using redundant voltage vectors. The method was simulated and then implemented on a prototype 3L-NPC inverter powering a one-phase induction motor with auxiliary windings. A switching number reduction of about 19% to 29% was obtained, depending on modulation parameters.

Unidirectional Finite Control Set-Predictive Torque Control of IPMSM Fed by Three-Level NPC Inverter with Simplified Voltage-Vector Lookup Table

This paper proposes a unidirectional finite control set-predictive toque control (UFCS-PTC) method for a three-level neutral-point-clamped (3L-NPC) inverter fed interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM). The proposed algorithm can lower the complexity of PTC fed by 3L-NPC by reducing the number of admissible voltage vectors (VVs) effectively. The candidate VVs are restricted within 60° of the voltage space voltage diagram (VSVD), which is the nearest to the flux trajectory for each 60° flux sector. After the segmentation of the VSVD and flux trajectory, the proposed method can keep VVs in one direction during the prediction process, which can result in significant torque/flux reduction. Therefore, the UFCS-PTC can reduce the number of admissible VVs from twenty-seven to six while achieving excellent steady-state performance in terms of reduced flux and torque ripples. Additionally, the proposed method eliminates the need for weighting factor calculation for neutral point voltage associated with a 3L-NPC inverter. The UFCS-PTC of IPMSM also has other features, such as improved balancing capability of the DC-link capacitors’ voltage, small computation time due to the reduced number of admissible voltage vectors considered in the cost function, and easy implementation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through experimental results.

A novel neutral-point potential balance control method based on voltage feedback for neutral-point clamped three-level inverter

Neutral-point potential imbalance is not only an inherent problem of neutral-point clamped three-level converters, but also the key factor affecting their performance. The traditional capacitor neutral-point potential balance control methods based on space vector modulation, such as VSVPWM, have several shortcomings including the uncompensated region of neutral-point voltage and the slow dynamic response. A novel voltage feedback control method on neutral-point potential balance is proposed in this paper. A coefficient is introduced to define the degree of neutral-point potential imbalance. The composite signal composed of this coefficient and neutral point current is designed. Based on the improved reasonable sectors’ division, the suitable small vectors are selected by this composite signal to obtain the switching sequence of power devices. The voltage feedback control method is employed to realize accurate neutral-point potential balance of NPC three-level inverter. The experimental results show that this method can quickly balance the neutral-point potential fluctuation caused by disturbance. It has the advantages of low switching loss, stable output voltage and current waveform, and good dynamic performance.