A High-Power Medium-Voltage Open-Loop Induction Motor Drive for Industry Applications: Stability Analysis and Implementation

Due to their several advantages, induction motors are widely used for industrial applications today. The present study focuses on developing a robust high-power induction motor variable frequency drive. In order to test the algorithms of the motor control on an actual induction motor, it is important to first carry out simulation tests to verify and troubleshoot the control strategy. One of the most common software used for such a need is MATLAB/Simulink. To run such experiments requires a significant simulation time and at the same time must satisfy a certain level of accuracy. Therefore, one of the objectives of the thesis is to carry out a study on some of the ODE solvers of MATLAB/Simulink to choose the most efficient solver for the simulation tests of the motor control strategy. The fixed step solvers ode1, ode2 and ode4 and the variable step solvers ode45, ode113 and ode23 are studied in terms of the actual time taken to complete the simulations and the relative tolerance of each solver. Comparing the performance of the fixed step and variable step solvers it is evident that the variable step solvers outperformed the fixed step solvers in terms of both speed and accuracy. One of the most famous speed control strategies is the open loop V/Hz control. In this control method two modulation techniques were studied. This was the asynchronous modulation technique and the synchronous modulation technique. With the use of the asynchronous modulation technique subharmonics are introduced. To avoid the introduction of such harmful subharmonics the synchronous modulation technique is proposed. The synchronous modulation technique is implemented with the open loop V/Hz control strategy and simulation tests were carried out to verify the problem of subharmonics being removed. Another problem encountered with the open loop V/Hz control strategy is the presence of large current and torque oscillations of the motor at low to medium frequencies. This is due to the nonlinear interactions between the electrical and mechanical subsystems. To mitigate these unwanted oscillations a stability analysis of the open loop V/Hz control is carried out and a region of instability is determined. Two mitigation techniques are proposed in this thesis namely varying slope V/Hz control strategy and the active damping control strategy. The proposed techniques are verified and validated through simulation tests on a 7 MW medium voltage (MV) induction motor in MATLAB/Simulink and on a low voltage (LV) induction motor in laboratory without a mechanical load. Moreover, in this thesis it has been examined that with the consideration of the magnetic saturation of the motor, more stable operations are achieved. This is firstly verified in simulation where considering the magnetic saturation allowed the use of higher flux values providing more stable machine operations while at the same time allowing for a larger torque. With the experimental test on a 10-kW induction motor it was proved that the results obtained through simulations where more stable operations were seen as the value of the flux were increased were correct. In the power applications such as the ac-dc conversion for the above mentioned 7 MW medium voltage induction motor, a high total harmonic distortion (THD) can be seen in the primary currents with the use of the conventional diode-based ac-dc conversion. In addition, such a conversion does not permit the control of the dc link voltage and has not power factor correction. To overcome these shortcomings the Active Front End rectifier which uses IGBTs that can be electronically controlled is used. In the AFE, the waveform of the input current is monitored and is shaped to be sinusoidal as a result decreasing the THD. Another significant advantage of the AFE rectifier is its capability to handle regenerative power. In this thesis, two configurations of the AFE rectifier are studied. These two configurations include firstly the development of the AFE rectifier using a two-level three-phase inverter and secondly the development of the AFE rectifier with single phase H-bridge cells. From the comparison of the performance of the two configurations of the AFE it is seen that the AFE realised with the H Bridge cells and phase shifted secondary was the best in terms of the THD and the dc link voltage ripple. From these results the AFE realised with H Bridge circuits and phase shifted secondary is chosen for the operation of a real high-power induction motor controlled with the open loop V/Hz control strategy and equipped with the active damping technique for mitigating the current and torque oscillations.