CHAPTER 5 IMPLEMENTATION OF FIVE LEVEL CASCADED MULTILEVEL INVERTER AND HARDWARE RESULTS

102 CHAPTER 5 IMPLEMENTATION OF FIVE LEVEL CASCADED MULTILEVEL INVERTER AND HARDWARE RESULTS 5.1 INTRODUCTION In the last decade the study on the multilevel inverters has becoming the emerging research topic at simulation level using various simulation tools for various topologies and levels. Thanks to the recent advancement on digital processors and power semiconductor devices the hardware realization is possible for the verification of the performance of the simulated systems. This section presents the hardware implementation of the three phase five level cascaded multilevel inverter fed induction motor drive test setup for experimentations. With the development of power electronic devices like the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), the power MOSFET and the advances in processors, the AC induction motor is becoming popular in variable speed drives with different modulation drive circuits. Since the rise time and fall time of the IGBT s are less than 200ns, the dissipation loss across the device becomes very less, which improves the performance of the power electronic converter system. However due to the fast switching action of the device the dv/dt of the inverter output becomes large and this can be reduced with the increased power levels discussed in Renge et al (2008) and Leppanen et al (2006). There are several steps involved in implementing the hardware. Basically any power electronic system is divided into two of which one is the

103 control unit and the other is the power unit. The control unit consists of pulse generation circuit, driver circuit and isolation circuit. The power unit consists of input supply unit and the power processing unit. In order to verify the performance of the simulated system The proposed five level cascaded multilevel inverter fed induction motor drive is implemented with IGBTs as switching elements and is tested with the three phase 440 Volts squirrel cage induction motor coupled loading arrangements. In modern electric drives high performance control is needed which can be easily achieved using advanced digital processors. The open loop V/f control based on multilevel proposed Space Vector PWM is implemented on Xilinx Spartan XC3S400 FPGA processor. Gating signals are generated for the fundamental output frequency of 50Hz and side bands of 40Hz and 45Hz. 5.2 HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS follows The complete hardware specification of the proposed system is as Multilevel Inverter Input and Output Supply: Storage Batteries with the combination of producing 72V output DC. Isolated photovoltaic panels with 72V (3x24V) output DC. The input DC is 432V (6x72V) Desired output 5kVA,output voltage 415V,output current (Max)10A, Output frequency 40-50Hz, Three Phase AC supply confined to IEEE standards.

104 5.3 HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION The proposed control algorithm is generated in front end with the aid of system generator editor, the SVPWM blocks with necessary transformation equations and the associated blocks for individual phases are interconnected and the sampling frequency is set to 5kHz. The entire control algorithm with sampling rate of 5kHz which is based on proposed SVPWM algorithm is implemented in the system generator environment and corresponding code for FPGA processor is generated. The generated code is downloaded into the digital processor Xilinx Spartan 3A XC3S400 and hardware settings are enabled such that the output SVPWM pulses are available at the output ports. 5.3.1 Protection Circuit for Integration for FPGA Integration The voltage levels of any CMOS based digital processors are in the order of 3.3V to 3.5V DC. This voltage levels are sufficient to turn ON the modern smart Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBTs). The smart power modules has inbuilt driver circuit. Here the power switches used are Fair Child make smart power module FCAS50SN60 which is rated for 600V, 50A, though it is rated for higher ratings it is operated for nominal three phase voltage range and with a load of less than 5A, it is an advanced smart power module for motor drives that has newly developed and designed to provide very compact and high performance motor drives. Switching frequency of power switch is in between 2.2 and 8 khz. It combines optimized circuit protection and drive matched to low loss IGBTs. System reliability is further enhanced by the integrated under voltage lock out and short circuit protection. In addition the incorporated HVIC facilitates, the use of single supply drive topology enabling FCAS50SN60 to be driven by only one drive supply voltage without negative bias. Each phase current of inverter can be monitored separately due to the divided negative DC terminals. The entire

105 circuit is based on the operational amplifiers and their associated components are as shown in Figure 5.1. Provisions are also made by using potentiometers such that if the output pulses are insufficient then the potentiometers are adjusted and output is verified by using Cathode Ray Oscilloscope for proper triggering of all power switches. Figure 5.1 Protection circuit for FPGA integration 5.3.2 Current Sensing Circuit This circuit is meant for sensing the current I res and provides a driving output com1 to the flip flop based control logic, which in turn produces a shutdown signal to the pulse generation. The current sensing circuit is constructed with opamp IC, TL084 which has four separate operational amplifiers namely A, B, C and D as shown in Figure 5.2.The technical specifications of Op Amp IC TL084 are listed in Table 5.1.

106 Figure 5.2 Current sensing circuits Table 5.1 Technical parameters of TL084 JFET quad OpAmp Sl.No. Parameters Range 1 Supply Voltage, V ±15 2 Differential Input Voltage, V ±30 3 Total Power Dissipation, mw 680 4 Slew Rate, V/µS 64 5 Common Mode Rejection Ratio @25 0 C, db 86 In the opamp A the sensed current I res is converted in to an equivalent voltage signal by the feedback resistor. The operational amplifier A, has an closed loop, inverting configuration with unity gain and it acts as a current to voltage converter. An output can be added to the converted voltage by applying a constant voltage from the potentiometer fed to the non inverting terminal of the operational amplifier A. The operational amplifier B acts as an inverting amplifier with the maximum gain of 100. This gain value can be

107 adjusted by a variable feedback resistor. This stage take cares the correction of 180 0 inversion produced by the previous stage. The operational amplifier C is in non inverting, unity gain configuration. The amplified output voltage from stage B is normalized using a potential divider at the input to the non inverting terminal. The inverting terminal houses an additional adjustment with a negative voltage fed through a potentiometer. The operational amplifier D is in open loop configuration and acts as a comparator. The output signal COM1 is fired whenever the sensed current I res exceeds a limiting value. This limiting value can be adjusted, by the available trim potentiometer arrangement providing input to the non inverting terminal of this opamp D. The diode at the output D avails protection to the next stage circuit. 5.3.3 Isolation Circuit In any power electronics system the main problem is isolating the power circuit from the control circuit. There are many situations where signals and data need to be transferred from one subsystem to another within a piece of electronics equipment, or from one piece of equipment to another, without making a direct Ohmic electrical connection. Often this is because the source and destination are (or may be at times) at very different voltage levels, like a microprocessor which is operating from 5V DC but being used to control any power switches which is switching 240V AC. In such situations the link between the two must be an isolated one, to protect the microprocessor from overvoltage damage. Relays can of course provide this kind of isolation, but even small relays tend to be fairly bulky compared with ICs and many of today s other miniature circuit components. Because they are electro-mechanical, it is not reliable and suitable for relatively low speed operation. Where small size, higher speed and greater reliability are required,

108 a much better alternative is to use opto isolator. It uses a beam of light to transmit the signals or data across an electrical barrier, and achieve excellent isolation. In case of power circuit the operating voltage is in the order of hundreds of Volts to several kv, due to any short circuits on the power circuit there may be a chance of feeding the high voltages to the low power control circuitry which usually operates in the order of 5V or so. The commonly used isolation circuits are isolation transformers and opto isolators. A common implementation of an opto isolation circuit is a LED and a phototransistor in a light tight housing to exclude ambient light and without common electrical connection, positioned so that light from the LED will impinge on the photo detector. When an electrical signal is applied to the input of the opto isolator, its LED lights and illuminates the photo detector, producing a corresponding electrical signal in the output circuit. With a photodiode as the detector, the output current is proportional to the intensity of incident light supplied by the emitter. Here the single channel, high speed opto isolator 6N137 is employed which is capable of operating at10mbits/s and it is named as U1 to U7 as shown in Figure 5.3. The technical specifications of the opto isolator 6N137 are listed in Table 5.2. Table 5.2 Technical parameters of FAIRCHILD 6N137 single channel opto isolator Sl.No. Parameters Range 1 Average forward current-emitter, ma 50 2 Enable input voltage-emitter, V 5.5 3 Power dissipation-emitter, mw 100 4 Supply voltage-detector, V 7 5 Output current emitter, ma 50 6 Propagation delay @25 0 C, ns 45

109 The diode can be used in a photovoltaic mode or a photoconductive mode. In photovoltaic mode, the diode acts as a current source in parallel with a forward biased diode. The output current and voltage are dependent on the load impedance and light intensity. In photoconductive mode, the diode is connected to a supply voltage, and the magnitude of the current conducted is directly proportional to the intensity of light. The complete component configuration of the isolation circuit used for the hardware implementation is as shown in Figure 5.3. Figure 5.3 Isolation of control and power circuit A circuit is realized with a dual JK flipflop IC 4027 as shown in Figure 5.4. The technical specifications of IC4027 are as listed in Table 5.3. Anyway only one JK inputs and outputs set is used. The set input S is used to provide the signal F to the processor, whenever the COM1 signal is fired from the current sensing unit. This signal F is fed to the V FO input of the IGBT IC.

110 Figure 5.4 Flip flop based control circuit Table 5.3 Technical parameters of 4027 dual JK flip-flop Sl.No. Parameters Range 1 Supply voltage, V 18 2 Input current DC, ma ±15 3 Total Power Dissipation, mw 200 4 Input capacitance, pf 7.5 The reset input R is used to provide a SHUT DOWN signal to the main FPGA processor (as an interrupt). This signal output is initiated by a reset push to ON switch (SW2). This signal is of a hardwired type. The COM1 signal is provided at the set (S) input through a pull down resistor parallel with a high frequency capacitor. This pair provides the safety against the high frequency and static electricity since the IC4027 is a

111 CMOS IC. The COM1 signal which is produced whenever I s exceeds a limit, is used to produce signal F 1. Direct switch reset by SW 2, produces the shutdown signal. The COM OUT and SHUTDOWN signals are fed to another set input of IC 4027 through wired AND gate which produces F 2. The reset R input of IC4027 produces signal C 1, by the input RST 3. 5.3.4 Over Load Protection In order to protect the power circuit components from the over loading and short circuit, current sensors are used to continuously monitor the load current supplied by the CMLI. Here four numbers of current transducers are employed to monitor the line and neutral currents. Table 5.4 Technical parameters of LEM LTS-25NP current transducer Sl.No. Parameters Range 1 Primary Nominal RMS current,a 25 2 Supply Voltage (±5%),V 5 3 Accuracy @IPN,T A =25 0 C ±0.2 4 di/dt Accuracy followed >,A/µS 100 5 Internal Measuring Resistance (±0.5%),Ω 50 6 Current consumption @ V C = 5V, ma 20 The current transducers are numbered as CT1, CT2, CT3 and CT4 as shown in Figure 5.5. The transducer LTS 25NP is used as CT1 to CT4 whose technical specifications are as listed in Table 5.4. This transducer is capable of operating in three different ranges from 8A to 25A depending on the pin connections. It operates on 5V DC supply and gives the maximum output voltage of 2.5V depending on the current flowing through the transducer. Here it is used to measure the current from 0 to 8A and the pins

112 are connected accordingly. Pin 1 is used as input and the pin 4 is used as output. For 8A measurement pin 3 and 5, 2 and 6 are short circuited. This gives the complete protection for power circuit and protects the power devices against overload. The complete overload protection circuit arrangement is as shown in Figure 5.4 Figure 5.5 LEM current sensors for overload/over current protection Table 5.5 Technical parameters of FAIRCHILD FCAS50SN60 IGBT bridge Sl.No. Parameters Range 1 Each IGBT collector current @25 0 C,A 50 2 Each IGBT collector current @25 0 C,A 100 3 Collector emitter voltage, V 600 4 Control supply voltage, V 20 5 Collector emitter leakage current, ma 250

113 Figure 5.6 Connection circuit for FCAS50SN60 IGBT smart power module 5.3.5 Photographs of Integrated Hardware Unit After the modular design of various units, each module was tested individually and the pulse patterns are verified with the digital storage oscilloscopes and integrated to achieve the stated performance on the output of the system. Figure 5.7 shows the photograph of the complete hardware setup after the integration of amplification circuit, isolation circuit and power circuit for the three phase five level cascaded multilevel inverter. Since the inverter system is to operate the induction motor drive at the current rating less than 5A hence the natural cooling of power device is employed with heat sinks. Figure 5.8 shows the photograph of an FPGA processor which is used for pulse generations.

114 Figure 5.7 Photograph of complete hardware of three phase five level CMLI Figure 5.8 Photograph of FPGA processor used for proposed SVPWM pulse generation

115 Figure 5.9 Photograph of the complete experimental hardware setup with loading and measuring equipment Figure 5.9 shows the photograph of the complete configuration with the pulse generation digital processor, associated modules, and indicating lamps, input supply arrangements, loading arrangements and measuring instruments. The provisions such as to feed the input from AC supply mains, storage batteries and also from the solar panels are made on the input side. Necessary arrangements like isolated supply, PC and power harmonics analyzer interfacing for online monitoring and measurements are available. The provisions for varying the load on the induction motor coupled with dc shunt generator were made and the photograph shown above depicts the same. In order to have smooth variations on the load current, the developed system drives the three phase induction motor load coupled with a DC shunt generator.

116 5.4 SPECIFICATIONS OF THE ELECTRICAL MACHINES USED FOR TESTING OF HARDWARE For the testing and experimentation of the proposed scheme, a 1.5kW squirrel cage induction motor is fed from the inverter with a constant V/f ratio in open loop. The motor operates under no load, and with the parameters given in Table 5.2. V dc is taken as 0.432kV (6x72V). The steady state phase voltages, phase currents and symmetry of phase voltages along with their harmonic spectrum are analyzed for the output frequency from 40 to 50 Hz and motor is accelerated to the rated speed using an open-loop V/f operation. For all the frequency of operation, the output voltage in each phase varies from zero to rated voltage, and switching happens with the proposed SVPWM technique implemented in FPGA processor. The specifications of the AC motor and the DC machine used for testing of the hardware setup are as shown in the Table 5.6 and 5.7 respectively. Table 5.6 Technical parameters of the AC motor used as load for the developed multilevel inverter S.No. Parameters Values 1 Motor Type Induction Motor 2 No. of phases Three Phase 3 Connection Star 4 Rated Power 1.5kW 5 Rated Voltage 415V 6 Rated Current 3.35A 7 Rated Frequency 50Hz 8 Duty Cycle S1 9 Rated Speed 1400RPM 10 No. of Poles 4 11 Rs, Ls 3.69Ω, 0.26H 12 Make Kirlosakar

117 Table 5.7 Technical parameters of DC machine used as a varying load for AC machine S.No Parameters Values 1 Rated Power 1.0kW 2 Rated Voltage 220Volts 3 Rated Current 4.6A 4 Rated Speed 1500 RPM 5 Duty Cycle CMR 6 Connection SHUNT 7 Make Benn Figure 5.10 Developed hardware prototype with complete measuring setup during laboratory testing

118 5.5 TESTING OF THE MULTILEVEL INVERTER UNIT WITH FLUKE 434 PQ ANALYZER After testing and commissioning of the hardware unit, it is subjected to the various experimentations under different loading conditions on its output with the power harmonic analyzer. In order to load the three phase induction motor in a uniform manner a DC machine is operated as a self excited shunt generator and it is mechanically coupled to it. The DC generator is loaded with the resistive load and this setup constitutes the loading arrangements. This setup provides a linear load variation on the inverter side and the performance parameters such as terminal voltage, voltage and current harmonics levels and symmetry of three phase voltages for frequencies 40Hz, 45Hz and 50Hz are obtained with the Fluke make three phase power quality analyzer. Here the Fluke 434 model is used, it is a three phase power quality analyzer, and it complies with the following international standards, ANSI/ISA S82.01-1994, EN/IEC61010-1 2nd edition 1000V measurement category III, 600V Measurement Cat IV, Pollution degree 2, CAN/CSA- C22.2 No.61010-1-04. The power quality analyzer configuration used for the testing the developed system is as shown in Figure 5.11. Figure 5.11 Fluke make 434 three phase power quality analyzer setup

119 Figure 5.12 Calibration and version setup of Fluke 434 power quality analyzer Since the three phase motor stator windings are star connected and hence the three phase four wire system is selected, a lamp load is also used in parallel with the motor load. The nominal voltage is 400V, the voltage and current probes are set with the limits as shown in Figure 5.11. Figure 5.13 Power quality analyzer setup limits page for EN50160 standard

120 The limits for the various power quality issues are set in accordance with the standard EN50160 and range of values are as shown in Figure 5.13. The developed system is connected to the ac motor i.e. loading arrangements and the readings are obtained by using power quality analyzer in the scope mode and the three phase output voltage waveform is as shown in Figure 5.14 for the set frequency of 50Hz on the digital processor. The output voltages in all the phases i.e. RYB are 396V and the phases are 120 0 apart from each other. The neutral potential is within the prescribed limits. The output voltage and the current harmonics are also listed in the harmonics table of the PQ analyzer as shown in Figure 5.15. The table shows that the harmonics are very well within the limits of the power quality standards and hence the developed system performance is at par with the standards prescribed for power quality issues. Figure 5.14 Three phase output voltage waveforms for 50Hz output

121 Figure 5.15 Output current and voltage harmonics of the developed system for 50Hz output at loading condition The percentage THD profile of power and voltage at the inverter output frequency of 50Hz are shown in Figure 5.16 and 5.17 respectively, it also shows that the system is conforming to the standards. Figure 5.16 Percentage THD profile of the output power at rated condition

122 Figure 5.17 Percentage THD profile of the output voltage at rated condition The output current of the experimental system with the load of 1.1A and the associated waveforms of the individual phase for the set frequency of 45Hz are measured and captured for analysis purpose. Figure 5.18 shows the output voltage waveforms for the set output frequency of 45Hz, and the waveforms are captured. Figure 5.18 Three phase output voltage at 45Hz

123 Figure 5.19 shows the readings for the set output frequency of 40Hz, similarly phase voltages are captured and for R, Y and B phases and the waveforms are shown in Figure 5.20, Figure 5.21 and Figure 5.22 respectively. Figure 5.19 Three phase output voltage waveforms at 40Hz Figure 5.20 Output voltage for R phase at 40Hz Figure 5.21 Output voltage for Y phase at 40Hz

124 Figure 5.22 Output voltage for B phase at 40Hz Fig 5.23 Phase Displacements for three phase voltages at 45Hz Figure 5.24 shows the waveform for R phase at the output frequency of 50Hz and 400V, the waveform is obtained by using the Digital Storage Oscilloscope (DSO) with appropriate attenuation probes in order to check the level of the output voltages besides the power quality issues using power quality analyzer. The line voltage across RY and YB lines are captured for 50Hz and is shown in Figure 5.25 and 5.26 respectively. As the levels on the inverter side increases, it can reduce the dv/dt stress on the semiconductor power switches and hence the Electro Magnetic Interferences (EMI) with the nearby systems. The waveform exhibits the five levels on output voltage using the integrated experimental setup, similarly the triggering pulses from

125 the FPGA for the power switches are captured using the DSO is shown in Figure 5.27. Figure 5.24 Output Voltage Waveform for R Phase at Rated Condition Captured Using Tektronics DSO TDS2002 Figure 5.25 Line voltage across RY for 50 Hz output Figure 5.26 Line voltage across YB for 50 Hz output

126 Figure 5.27 Output pulses from FPGA From the observations on the output of the developed hardware system, the total harmonic distortion of the system is always less than the five percent, which is the main objective and the system is free from voltage swell and sag for continuous operations. Figure 5.28 Load current Vs %THD for 40Hz output

127 Figure 5.29 Load current Vs %THD for 45Hz output Figure 5.30 Load current Vs %THD for 50Hz output

128 During experimentation the neutral potential, THD on the output voltage and current are obtained continuously for different loadings and the values are tabulated. From the obtained values the graphs were plotted for different output frequency of 40Hz, 45Hz and 50Hz and shown in Figure 5.28, 5.29 and 5.30 respectively. 5.6 CONCLUSION The implementation and testing of a low cost FPGA based cascaded multilevel inverter for induction motor drive was carried out. The main advantage of this is the ability to generate SVPWM waveform in real time using control algorithm in the Xilinx processor. This reduces the computational time required to determine the switching times for inverter legs, making the system more suitable for real time implementation for larger drives. This FPGA based cascaded multilevel inverter finds wide application where power quality issues are the major considerations. Furthermore during the testing of the output of the developed experimental setup with the Fluke 434 model, the three phase power quality analyzer shows that the results exhibit the good quality of output waveforms with higher fundamental frequency component. Also the power quality issues are very well within the prescribed limits. The results from the experimental setup show the output waveforms with reduced percentage THD. The higher fundamental frequency component on output results in reduced switching losses in semiconductor switches as well as power loss on the motor drive. With these results it can be concluded that the conventional drives with two level inverters can be replaced by multilevel inverter where ever it is possible in order to maintain the good quality of the power.