Stability Improvements of an LCL-filter Based Three-phase Active Rectifier

Marco Liserre, Antonio DellAquila

Politecnico di Ban
Via E. Orabona 4
70125 Bari Italy
email: liserre(dellaqui)@poliba.it
Abstract - Three-phase active rectifiers guarantee sinusoidal
input CI I R~I I ~S and controllable dc voltage at the price of a
high switching frequency ripple that can disturb and reduce
ef!iaency of other EM1 sensitive equipment connected to the
grid. This problem could he solved choosing a high value for
the ac inductors making them expensive and bulky. Moreover
the dynamic of the system becomes poor with so high value of
inductance. On the contrary to adopt an LCL-filter
configuration allows to use reduced values of the induetanees
@reserving dynamic) and to reduce the switching frequency
pollution emitted in the grid. However the stahiUly of the
system should he rigorously studied. A poor analysis made on
qualitative considerations could lead to excessive damping
(unnecessary increase of the losses) or insnffcient damping
(the system seems to he stable hut it isnot). In this paper the
damping, both passive (hased on the use of resistors) and
active (hased on the modification of the control algorithm), is
studied using the %plane root locus approach and looking to
dynamic performances and losses. In fact it is necessary to
verify the dynamic effects by the introduction of damping
resistors or by the modification of the eontrol algorithm to
perform active damping. The analysis is validated both wlth
simulation and experiments.
I. INTRODUCTION
Three-phase active rectifiers guarantee sinusoidal input
currents and constant dc voltage at the price of a high
switching frequency ripple [I]. The use of an LCL-filter on
the ac side reduces this high frequency pollution of the grid
that could disturb other equipment (Fig. 1).
The design of the LCL-filter has already been
investigated [2] and problems related to the control have
been addressed in many publications [3]-[6].
Attention has also been paid to the possible instability of
the system caused by the zero impedance that the LCL-
filter offers at its resonance frequency [2], [7]-[9]. Some
passive damping solutions of the filter have already been
studied, tested and industrially used in the switching
converter field [lo].
However, the active rectifier solution seems very
attractive especially in applications above several kW,
where the use of a damping resistor increases the
encumbrances, the losses could claimfor forced cooling
and the efficiency decrement becomes a key point.
Thus, it seems very amactive to use the active damping
method to avoid the system instability without increasing
the losses, and this solution has already been partially
studied [7]-[8]. In [7] it has been proposed to add a
derivative action based on the line side current in the
current control loop, thus new sensors are needed. Instead
in [ 8] a lead-lag network has been used on the filter
capacitor voltage and it is possible to avoid the use of new
sensors because this voltage is near to the grid one that is
normally sensed. However, it is not explained why to use
such a network and how to choose its time constants.
This paper defines a new and more suitable method to
investigate the use of passive and active damping by the use
Frede Blaabjerg
Aalborg University
Pontoppidanstraede 101
DK-9220 Aalborg Denmark
e-mail: fil@iet.auc.dk
of z-plane root locus design, where the degree of damping
of the system is easily obtainable. Once the closed loop
discrete transfer function of the damped system is found, it
is possible to determine the parameters of the active
damping element, with the goal to have the same stability
obtained with a damping resistor. Furthermore, once
designed the passive and active damping with the same
stability margin it will become easier to see what is most
convenient either to accept a decrease of efficiency due to
passive damping losses or to accept an increase of the
algorithm complexity due to the active damping.
Moreover, in the paper particular attention is devoted to
the dynamic of the system due to the introduction of the
active damping. Also a cost-effective implementation is
studied to avoid the introduction of additional sensors
considering those used for the L-filter based active rectifier.
The analysis is validated both in simulation and on an
experimental set-up.
11.MATHEMATICAL MODEL AND CONTROL
The three-phase active rectifier will be studied using the
space-vector notation and an average model of the
converter. For the measured a.c. quantities the grid voltage
space-vector e(f) and the converter side current space-
vector i(0 are introduced. Moreover the continuous
switching function s(0, whose components are each leg
duty cycles, is used for control purposes.
a.=az
, . . . .. ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
tEEE-....
Fig. 1. Three-phaseactive rectifier with LCL-filter.
This work has been realised with the financial wpporf of the Italian
Ministemdella Ishuziane, Universits e Rkma (CLUSTER 13).
0-7803-7262-X/o2r$10.00 0 2W2 EFE. 1195
The study of the LCLfilter active rectifier will be carried
out considering: a low frequency model, where the
capacitor C, is neglected, to design a Voltage Oriented
Control based on a cascade PI structure (Fig. 1); the
complete model to verify stability and dynamic of the
system.
A. Lowfrequency model: design of the controllers
In [8] the control of the LCGfilter active rectifier has
been developed considering only the model of the active
rectifier with the converter side reactor L; then the L C,part
of the filter is considered having influence only on &e high
frequency components. This approach leads to neglect the
LgC, part in the calculation of the parameters of the
controllers.
On the contrary in [2] it has been demonstrated that in the
low frequency range the L gC, filter behaves like an Lr
filter where Lr =L+Le
Thus the low frequency model (frequencies
approximately lower than one half of the resonance
frequency), used to set the controllers, should be written
neglecting only the filter capacitor C, :
e( t ) =R&)+L,di(t).,(t) dr (1)
where Lr =L+Lg and Rr =R+R,.
Moreover also for the load side, once deiined the dc load
current iL , the dc load voltage v, and the converter side
current io, the following equation can be written:
(2)
i , ( t ) = io(t)-C-vo(t)
The Voltage Oriented Control of the active rectifier is
based on the use of a dq-frame rotating at o speed and
oriented such as the d-axis is aligned on the grid voltage
vector. The space-vector of the fundamental harmonic has
constant components in the dq-frame while the other
harmonics space-vectors have pulsating components.
The main purpose of the active rectifier is to generate or
to absorb sinusoidal currents; thus the reference current
components in the dq-frame are dc quantities.
is controlled to
perform the dc voltage regulation while the reference
current q-component i , is controlled to obtain a unity
power factor. To have t$e grid current vector in phase with
the grid voltage vector, i I should be zero (Fig. 1).
In the active rectifier system both change of the load
current and of the load voltage reference cause transient-
operating conditions. More in detail, positive or negative
variations of the voltage reference result in charge or
discharge processes of the output capacitor. So, from the
point of view of the output voltage control, load current
changes result in voltage variations that should be
compensated by charge or discharge processes.
The dc voltage control is achieved through the control of
the power exchanged by the converter. The increase or
decrease of the dc voltage level is obtained draining more
or less power from the grid respect to that one required by
the dc load, thus changing thevalue of thereference for the
ac current cone01 loops.
Thus the voltage loop is the outer loop and the current
Inops are inner loops. These internal loops are designed to
achieve short settlig times. On the other hand, the outer
loops main goals are optimum regulation and stability thus
the voltage loop could be designed to be some what slower.
Therefore, the internal and the extemal loops can be
considered decoupled, and thereby, they can be linearised.
d
dt
The reference current d-component i
The linearisation is achieved considering the dc voltage
equal to its steady-state value v,(t)=V,, the act@ grid
curren; components equal to their references i&=i d(t) and
iq(t)=i ,(r)=O and the switching components equal to their
steady-state value sAt)=S,+ and s,(i)=S,. This considerations
result in:
L J
where the dc vpltage v,(t) is controlled through the d
reference current i dt) and the dq currents id(f) and i,(i) are
controlled by means of the right choice of the dq switching
function components sdt) and s,(t).
Both for the dc voltage and for the ac current controllers,
PI regulators are used.
First the current loops are designed. As shown in Fig. 1
the grid voltage and dq cross-coupling compensations are
adopted such as both the d-axis or q-axis have the following
plant that can be used to tune the PI-controllers (the
considered quantities like, v, v,, e, i and ig could be d or q
auantities):
1/R
G(s) =--
I +T..s
(4)
~ -m-
where the time constant is Tm=L&. The design is done
using the zero/pole placement in the z-plane and as criterion
the technical optimum. All the processing and
modulation delays have been taken into account:
L
k, =-,c =T,
3T
( 5)
wber; T, is the sampling time.
The dc voltage is controlled by means of the converter
side dc current and considering the following plant:
3s, 1
G, (s) =--
4 c, s
-
The design of the PI-controller is done using the
zeroipole placement in z-plane, considering the current loop
transfer function, and as criterion the symmetrical
optimum:
(7)
An antiwind-up compensation is adopted for the PI dc
voltage controller.
B. Complete model: veri@ systemS stability and dynamic
The filter capacitor C,, previously neglected, influences
only the current loops. In fact the capacitor introduces zero
and poles around the resonance frequency that do not
modify the slow dc voltage loop. The d and q loops are
equivalent in the stability and dynamic analysis because
once done the grid voltage and the cross-coupling
compensations they have the same plant.
1196
If the transfer function of the LCGfilter is considered
where z t c =[ LgC, p and of, =L&/ L. Thus the LCL-
filter has two zeroes and two poles more, in the open loop
transfer function, compared considering only a L-filter.
Then the transfer function G(s) expressed by (8) can be
discretized with the Zero Order Hold (ZOH) method G(z).
The current loop is shown in Fig. 2 where D(z) is the
transfer fimction of the PI-controller.
The undamped closed loop transfer function Hd z ) is:
(9)
I n. DESIGN OFTHE DAMPWG SYSTEM
In the following the stability and dynamic of the overall
system are analysed with the root locus of the closed loop
system in the z-plane. Moreover the frequency analysis of
the discrete open loop system, i.e. of the transfer function:
is performed considering the bilinear transformation
(Tush method) with pre-warping around the resonance
frequency in order to have the lower distortion of the
frequency magnitude and phase plots in the range in which
the system can be unstable [ll]. In fact around the
resonance frequency the phase is bigger than 180" thus one
should verify that the resonant peak is below 0 dFi
The system under investigation has L,=5mH, L=3mH
and C!2.2@ with the resonance frequency around 2.5
kHz and the samplinglswitching frequency equal to 8 WIZ.
These values are calculated for an LCL-filter designed to
reduce drastically the switching current ripple to less than
1% of the rated current, in a 380 V rated voltage and 4.1
kW rated power application (assuming these voltage and
power as base values the overall inductance is less than 8%
and the reactive power is less than 5%) [2].
A. Passive damping
The introduction of a resistor in series with the filter
capacitor (Fig. 3) introduces one zero and one pole more in
the plant transfer fimction of the system:
The zero and pole adact the Go other &stable poles in the
stability region. It is worth noting that the damping term
(and the zero and pole) disappears for & + 0.
The consequent extra losses can be calculated as:
where I@) and ipF) are the order h harmonics of the
converter side and grid side currents.
Fig. 2. Undamped c m t contml loop for a LCLactive rectifier
. - I ' 4
Fig. 3 Single phase equivalent of thedamped mput filter.
The main terms of the sum in (12) are for the index h
near to the multiples of the switching frequency order. In
fact the damping absorbs a part of the switching frequency
ripple to avoid the resonance.
As the damping resistor increases, both stability is
enforced and the losses grow hut at the same time the LCL-
filter effectiveness is reduced. In fact without the damping
the switching ripple injected in the grid is almost zero
because the filter capacitor short-circuits the switching
frequency harmonics. On the contrary if a resistor is putted
in series with the capacitor, the ripple injected in the grid is
not zero but it depends on the ratio of the damping resistor
on the grid reactance.
In Fig. 4 it is reported the root locus increasing the
damping, with a step of 5 R, from 0 to the value of the grid
reactance at the resonance frequency that is approximately
50 R. It is clear as, even with a value of 10 R the system is
stable, however a value of 16 12 seems a good trade-off
between stability and low switching ripple injected in the
grid. Fig. 5 shows the open loop bode plot of the undamped
and damped system (16 R) giving a further proof of the
obtained stabilisation. The bandwidth is 350 Hz.
-1 -0.5 0 05 1
Fig. 4. Closed loop's mat locus for LCL-filter active rectifier varying &
1197
B. Reducedpassive damping with addition of delays
The presence of delays in the current loop plays a
positive role. If an additional delay is considered, there is
one pole more in the root locus that attracts the unstable
pole versus the unity circle.
Thus the current closed loop can be made as stable as that
one of the Fig. 5 introducing only half damping resistor
(thus 8 Q instead of 16 Q) and consequently half losses
(Fig. 6). However to still have the two complex poles on the
right side of the Z-plane critically damped, thus a current
overshoot limited to 5%, the PIS proportional gain should
be modified. As a consequence the system is stable with
half losses and same stability margin, the current overshoot
is limited but the bandwidth is reduced from 350 Hz to 200
Hz.
C. Active damping
The current controlled system can be made stable also
changing the control algorithm, thus using the so called
active damping.
A lead compensator is generally used whenever a
substautial improvement in damping of the system is
required. In the s-domain it has the form:
T,s +1
L(s) =k, - with a 4
aT,s +1
The maximum phase lead @- is provided around the
f i frequency [ 1 11:
1 -a
@- =arcsin-
f =-
- T,& l+a
1
Theincrease of the lead ratio I/a increases the phase
lead but it produces higher amplifications at bigber
frequencies. However, if the lead network multiplies a low-
pass filter (in the following a way to realise this condition
will be shown), it is possible to select a high phase margin
(80) clearly around the resonance frequency (2.5 kHz): T,
=5.6*104anda= 1.2*102.
Also the constant kd plays an important role and it
should be selected looking at the open loop Bode plot and
at the closed loop root locus, in fact:
1
f <- + L(s)= k,
T d
1
f <- + L(s)= IOk,
c(T,
1
05
0
-0 5
-1
-1 -0.5 0 0 5 1
Fig. 6. Passive damped (8 C2) current conml closed loops mot locus for
an LCGfilter active rectifier with an additional delay.
The lead network in the discrete formis:
Z+Z0
L(z) =k, -
z+ P.
.
withp. =-2, =0.8 to respect the value of Td and a.
Instead of multiplying the lead network for a low-pass
filter one can select carefully the lead networks position in
order to indirectly realise this condition.
Instead of putting the lead network in the open current
loop to introduce directly the phase lead, the network will
be inserted on the input filter capacitor voltage v,. such as
the situation is as reported in Fig. 7.
Then the configuration in Fig. I is equivalent to
introduce the following transfer function in the open loop:
where E@) is the ZOH of the transfer function that
expresses the relation between the converter voltage v and
the voltage across the capacitor v,:
1 1
E(s)=-
. Le, 7zm
I \ _ I
Thus the lead network is indirectly introduced with the
consequence that with the chosen parameters D,(z) =1 for
f<,%8=1.8kHz and forfi4kHz. In fact forf4.8kHz the
lead network L(z) introduces the attenuation driving
YL(z)E(z) to 0, for j%kHz E(z) introduces the
attenuation driving z-L(z)E(z) to 0. Thus the active
damping does not influence both the low frequency
dynamic both it does not introduce amplification around the
switching frequency. It acts sharply in a little range around
the resonance frequency.
The closed loop transfer fimction with the active
damping included is:
Fig. 8 shows the lead network bode plot varying the
parameter km from 0 to 1.
I
,..........................,
I
Fig. 7. Current control loop with the lead netwok active damping.
, , , . . .
102 10
1198
Fig. 9 shows how for kh >0.6 the system starts to change
both its dynamic (see the poles of the right half of the
plane) and tends to be again unstahle. Thus the maximum
damping will coincide with the optimum dynamic transient
(i.e. an overshoot still below the 5%): k& =0.6. This value
implies a 5 dB attenuation around the resonance frequency
(as shown in Fig. 8). Then Fig. 10 shows the undamped
open loop transfer function D(z)G(z) and the action of Dd. )
in the Bode plot of the open loop. The active damping
reduces the resonant peak below 0 dB, ensuring the
system's stability. The bandwidth is still 350 Hz.
w. SIMULATION OF THE SYSTEM
A simulation model has been built using Matlab" and
Simulink". The rated nns line to line voltage is 380 V and
the rated power of the systemis 4.1 kW, the modulation
strategy adopted is the double edge symmetrical PWM. The
dc-voltage reference is 700 V and the rated load current is
5.5 A.
Two factors will he used to verify the efficiency of the
system at low frequency (first 50 harmonics) and at high
frequency (around the switching frequency):
Total Harmonic Distortion of the current:
(20)
-0 5
O : , -1 ~
-1 -05 0 0 5 1
Fig. 9. Lead netwoh open loop's Bode plot (a) and closed loop root locus
@) varying the Lead network's gain kb.
10' 10'
I , , , , , , , ,
I . , . . , , .
10' 10,
FlEqUenCy R Z l
Fig. 10. Acti ve damped current conhot open loop's Bode plot for k 4 . b .
Total High Frequency Harmonic Distoaion, i.e. the rms
value of the high frequency (2.5 kHz to 20 kHz)
harmonic content of the current:
T m m =mk(i) (21)
where I(h) is the n n s value of the h harmonic.
A. Passive damping
An interesting test on the passive damped system is to
vary the damping resistor value from 0 to 50 0. The results
reported in Fig. 11 for the ac currents (d-converter current
and grid phase current) validate the analysis of the root
locus of Fig. 4. Moreover the Fig. 11 shows that the system
at first becomes more stable, but then it suffers a growing
ripple. In fact the grid current THD increases from 2.3%
(RFI ~Q) to 4% (RF~O~), the grid current high frequency
harmonic content THFHD increases from 0.8% (Rp16R)
to 1.9% (RF~OR), the losses increases from 29W
( Rp16Q) to 67W (R&OR). Thus increasing too much the
damping the filter effectiveness and system's efficiency are
reduced. In conclusion choosing a 16R damping resistor the
losses in the rated conditions are less than 1% of the rated
power. However at 1/3 rated load the losses remain
unchanged leading to a 3% decrement in the system's
efficiency.
B. Active damping
Fig. 12 shows how as the lead network gain k& increases
the systembecome more stable but contrary to the passive
damped system there is no increasing ripple. Particularly
the grid current THD is 1.6% and the grid current high
frequency harmonic content THFHD is 0.6%.
300 I
200
3
100
5
0
.o
-100 1 I
0 IO 20 30 40 50
damping resistor value [n]
(a)
I I
4 5 6 7 8
damping resirtar value [n]
@)
Fig. 1 1 . Simulation results: effect of the increase of the passive damping
on the converter side c-t's d-component (a) and on the ~d phase
current@).
1199
4001 I
C. Dynamicperfmances
The dynamic performances of different damping solutions
are shown in Fig. 13: a step change in the reference dc
voltage results in a step change of the reference d-converter
current. In all the situations the dynamic is good hut with
the passive damping the overshoot is less than 5%.
Particularly in the active damping case if, to reduce the
number of sensors, the capacitor voltage is used also for dq-
frame orientation, the dynamic of the system does not
change. It is worth noting that the system becomes unstahle
if the capacitor voltage is not filtered before using it for
calculation of the angle yr. used for abc-dq coordinate
transformation.
v. EXFERIMENTAL RESULTS
The experimental set-up consists of a three-phase 30
kVA programmable power supply, a commercial Danfoss
inverter VLT@ 3008 (3x380/400/415 V, 13 A, 9.3 kVA,
Cdc=500 pF) where the control card bas been removed. The
control has instead been implemented on an Analog
Devices ADSP-21062 SHARC floating-point Digital Signal
Processor; the timing of the system and the PWM
generation is performed by a Siemens microconlmller
SABSOC167 as shown in Fig. 14.
Then Fig. 15 and Fig. 16 show the sampled (T,) converter
side current's d component and the sampled ( TJ converter
side phase currents with a proper damping or with a
reduced damping. More in detail the insufficient damping is
40 plus a delay more in the loop, while the proper damping
is obtained increasing the damping resistor value to 80.
This solution has been proved to be effective via
theroretical analysis, simulations and experiments and it is
very attractive. In fact with this reduced value the damping
losses are only 15 W. However the bandwidth of the current
controlled system is reduced from 350 Hz to 200 Hz.
The analysis of the performances of the passive damped
system on the grid side, shows that the low frequency
distortion is well below the 5% at rated load and the high
frequency ripple is properly reduced (Fig. 17). The dynamic
of the system is good (Fig. 18). The oscillation presented in
the system can be explained analysing all the non-linear
phenomena present in the system [12].
VI. CONCLUSION
In the paper the correct design of the damping is
addressed in order to improve the stability of an LCL-filter
based active rectifier. The proposed analysis offers a guide
to easily choose the value of the damping resistor or of the
three parameters of a lead network used to perform active
damping.
COiiKi0ILF.R
.__________________________
.300 ' I
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
(4
lead network gain k,
0.3 0.32 0.34 0.36 0.38 0.4
lead network gain k,
@)
phase Cur r e" t @)
Fig. 12. Simulation results: effect of t he increase of the active damping
varying k on the wnverter side a m a t ' s d component (a) and on the grid
25
: 5
-5 -5
25
20
15
-5
i:
25
20
15
-10
-
<
E 5
0
-5
"
-10 - -10 -
0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18
t i me (S) time (s)
(C) (4
Fig. 13. Differmt solutions: e16n (a), Rp8R +one delay @), active
damping b e . 6 with dq-frame oriented on the gi d voltage (c) or on the
capacitor C,voltage (d).
Fig. 14. Canmller set-up for an LCL-filler active rectifier.
6
number of samples
(b)
Fig. 15. Measwed convem sided currents sampled at T, with a passive
damping (a) and a low damping (b).
number of samples
(b)
Fig. 16. Measured phase cumnt s sampled at T, with a passivedamping (a)
and a low damping (b).
Fig. 17. Measured grid voltage (86 Vidiv), grid, convener and input filter
capacitor currents (5 Mdiv) of the damped system at rated conditions.
Fig. 18. Me-d grid currents (5 nldiv) and dc voltage(28 V/div only BC
component) ofthe damped systemfor a step changefrom33% to 100%
rated load
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[2]
[3]
1201