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4, JULY/AUGUST 2012
1203
AbstractThe variable-frequency operation of the coreless induction melting furnace (IMF) has been investigated in detail
both theoretically and experimentally. The time variations of the
operational impedance value of the IMF, owing to the time-varying
resonance frequency and crucible conditions, have been derived
for typical melting cycles by using a variable parallel RLC model
derived from extensive field measurements. The work coil and
its crucible are supplied at variable frequency from a multipulse rectifier and a current-fed load-resonant inverter cascade.
Uncharacteristic current harmonics caused by cross-modulation
phenomenon across the alternating current acdcac link have
been derived theoretically and verified by field tests. These theoretical results and extensive field measurements on a sample IMF
installation have shown the following: 1) The major power quality
problem of an IMF as a load on the power system is the injection
of various characteristic and uncharacteristic current harmonics
to the grid; 2) line currents on the supply side are nearly balanced;
3) flicker contribution is below the limits specified in the standards; 4) reactive power demand is relatively low and the variations in the magnitude and rate of change of active power are not
drastic; and 5) no voltage sag and swell phenomena arising from
furnace operation occur.
Index TermsHarmonic analysis, induction melting furnaces,
power conversion harmonics, power quality.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Manuscript received June 29, 2011; revised October 28, 2011; accepted
February 17, 2012. Date of publication May 30, 2012; date of current version July 13, 2012. Paper 2011-METC-283.R1, presented at the 2011 IEEE
Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, October 913,
and approved for publication in the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRY
A PPLICATIONS by the Metals Industry Committee of the IEEE Industry
Applications Society.
I. Ylmaz is with the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara 06531, Turkey, and
also with the Power Electronics Department, Space Technologies Research
Institute (UZAY), The Scientific and Technological Research Council of
Turkey (TBITAK), Ankara 06531, Turkey (e-mail: ilker.yilmaz@uzay.
tubitak.gov.tr).
M. Ermis is with the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
Middle East Technical University, Ankara 06531, Turkey (e-mail ermis@
metu.edu.tr).
I. adrc was with the Power Electronics Department, Space Technologies
Research Institute (UZAY), The Scientific and Technological Research Council
of Turkey (TBITAK), Ankara 06531, Turkey. She is now with Hacettepe
University, Ankara 06800, Turkey (e-mail: cadirci@ee.hacettepe.edu.tr).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2012.2199457
1204
Fig. 2.
are taken from secondaries of conventional current and voltage transformers. At MP2MP4, voltage signals are taken by
the use of high-voltage active differential probes, and current
signals are taken by the use of Rogowski coils. The mean
value of the dc-link current is calculated from the raw data,
by data processing. All collected data are then postprocessed
using a dedicated power quality software [10], according to IEC
Standard 61000-4-30 [9].
Some sample records of currents and voltages at measurement points MP1MP4 are shown in Figs. 25, respectively.
The active and reactive power variations of IMF at MP1 and
MP4 are also shown for a few typical melting cycles in Fig. 6(a)
and (b), respectively.
YILMAZ et al.: MEDIUM-FREQUENCY INDUCTION MELTING FURNACE AS A LOAD ON THE POWER SYSTEM
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
1205
Fig. 6. Active and reactive power variations of IMF [(MC) melting cycle; 3-s
averaged data]. (a) Active and reactive power variations measured at MP1.
(b) Inverter output active power variations measured at MP4.
(1)
=
fo
where = o r , with r as the relative permeability and o as
the permeability of free space.
During the melting period, frequency fo is varied in order
to maintain maximum power transfer, temperature is changing,
skin depth is varying, and new buckets are charged into the
crucible several times. Since the crucible is partly filled with
molten metal bath and partly with heterogeneous metal scrap
materials, equivalent R and L should be defined for the IMF at
any time instant. Time-varying R and L in Fig. 7 are expected
during the melting process.
Operational inductance L is N 2 Peqv , where N is the number
of series turns of the work coil and Peqv is the equivalent
.
2 LCo
(2)
1206
However, in practice, for a thyristorized load-commutated inverter, in order to be able to turn off the thyristors successfully,
a negative voltage should appear across the anodecathode
terminals, and hence, the inverter circuit should be switched
at a frequency slightly higher than the resonance frequency.
If device-commutated types of power semiconductors such
as insulated-gate bipolar transistors or integrated gatecommutated thyristors were employed in the inverter circuit,
f would be equal to fo .
On the other hand, the variation in operational resistance R
will not be as marked as that of L, because it is affected mainly
by . The operational impedance values R and L of the IMF are
calculated from field measurements for various melting cycles.
Active power input Pw to IMF at MP4 is calculated from
1
Pw =
T
T
v(t)i(t) dt
(3)
Vn In cos(n ).
(4)
Fig. 9. R and L variations versus time of IMF over three different melting
cycles (1-s averaged data). (a) Resistance variation of IMF over three different
melting cycles. (b) Inductance variation of IMF over three different melting
cycles.
Pw =
N
n=1
(5)
Vw1
2f IL1
(6)
YILMAZ et al.: MEDIUM-FREQUENCY INDUCTION MELTING FURNACE AS A LOAD ON THE POWER SYSTEM
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TABLE II
I NTERHARMONICS OF A P RACTICAL IMF S YSTEM A RISING F ROM C ROSS M ODULATION
(7)
N
n=1
K
sin [2k(2f0 t) + 2k ]
4 3
sin [(12n1)(2fs t)]
(12n1)
n=1
N
4 3
sin [(12n+1)(2fs t)]
+
(12n1)
n=1
N
(11)
(12)
k=1
N
4
sin [(2n 1)(2f0 t)] .
(2n 1)
n=1
(9)
(10)
N
Fsw(rec) (t)
n=1
K
Fsw(rec) (t)
k=1
(13)
YILMAZ et al.: MEDIUM-FREQUENCY INDUCTION MELTING FURNACE AS A LOAD ON THE POWER SYSTEM
1209
K
(14)
k=1
4 3
sin(2fs t)I2 sin [2(2f0 t) + 2 ] .
(15)
ifcr (t) =
ifcr (t) can be decomposed into the sum of ifcr1 (t) and ifcr2 (t)
at frequencies 2f0 fs , as given in
ifcr = ifcr1 (t) + ifcr2 (t)
2 3
I2 cos [2(2f0 fs )t + 2 ]
=
2 3
I2 cos [2(2f0 + fs )t + 2 ] .
Fig. 12. Flicker measurements and the contribution of the IMF to flicker [17].
A. Flicker
The light flicker is measured at 31.5-kV bus to which the IMF
system is connected, by an IEC flickermeter [14], as shown in
Fig. 12. Since the short-term and long-term flicker values (P st
and P lt) frequently do not comply with IEEE Standard 610003-7 [15], the contribution of the IMF installation to the flicker
is measured by using the method described in [16]. The contribution of IMF to the flicker is found to be negligibly small, and
the origin of the flicker is identified as the background flicker
in the power system, as shown in Fig. 12. The origin of the
background flicker is the neighboring large iron and steel plants
employing ac and dc arc furnaces [17].
B. Voltage Sags and Swells
(16)
Voltage sags and swells are not the characteristics of ironmaking and steelmaking process by medium-frequency coreless IMF installations. The origin of the voltage sags and swells
is mainly the faults in the outside or inside of the small steel
melt shop under investigation.
C. Imbalance
Unbalanced bus voltages and line currents are not the
characteristics of iron-making and steelmaking process by
medium-frequency coreless IMF installations, because the IMF
is supplied from the power system via a 12-pulse controlled rectifier. Nonidealities in the power semiconductor characteristics
and in their firing angles introduce small amount of imbalance
in line currents and, hence, in bus voltages. The recorded
practical values according to [9] have shown that negligible
amount of imbalance exists in the supply line currents.
D. Active and Reactive Power Demands
As can be understood from Fig. 2, reactive power demand
of a medium-frequency coreless IMF installation is relatively
low, and hence, its input power factor is around 0.96 lagging.
These values comply with the penalty limits specified by most
of the distribution or transmission system operators. On the
1210
Fig. 15. Harmonic spectra of dc-link quantities. (a) DC-link current idc (t).
(b) DC-link voltage vdc1 (t).
YILMAZ et al.: MEDIUM-FREQUENCY INDUCTION MELTING FURNACE AS A LOAD ON THE POWER SYSTEM
1211
Fig. 16. Variations in the supply-side line current harmonics for a typical melting cycle. (a) Isometric view. (b) Front view. (Type A) Interharmonics due to the
cross modulation of fundamental supply frequency fs and the inverter output fundamental frequency referred to the dc link 2fo , where fcr = 2fo fs . (Type
B) Cross modulation of fs with current harmonic frequencies at the dc link at 2kfo , with k = 2, 3, . . ., where fcr = 2kfo fs . (Type C) Cross modulation of
supply harmonic current frequencies at (12n 1)fs , for n = 1, 2, 3, . . ., and the dc-link current harmonic frequency at 2fo , where fcr = (12n 1)fs 2fo .
TABLE III
C OMPARISON OF T HEORETICAL AND F IELD T EST R ESULTS FOR M AJOR
I NTERHARMONIC C URRENT M AGNITUDES AND F REQUENCIES D URING
A T YPICAL M ELTING C YCLE W ITH 1-Hz R ESOLUTION
time instants, at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the
melting cycle. The comparison results reported in Table III
show a very good correlation between the theoretical and
the experimental results, in terms of both magnitudes and
frequencies of the major interharmonic current components
due the cross modulation in the acdcac link.
F. Evaluation of Supply-Side Harmonic
Current Measurements
1212
nected to the same bus is also investigated in this paper. For this
purpose, three different passive shunt harmonic filters (HFs) are
considered as defined in the following:
1) fifth HF only;
2) 11th HF + 13th HF;
3) 5th HF + 7th HF + 11th HF + 13th HF.
Their characteristics are obtained by assuming that the quality factor is 80 and the total installed capacity is 2 Mvar and are
then plotted in Fig. 19.
On the other hand, as can be understood from Fig. 16,
frequency of the interharmonic components migrates on the frequency axis, as resonance frequency is increased during melting
period. As a consequence of this phenomenon, a considerable
portion of the frequency range will be swept, as shown in
Fig. 19, throughout the melting cycle. As can be understood
from Fig. 19, at any time in a typical melting cycle, at least
one of the interharmonics will be amplified particularly by the
filters previously defined as 1) and 3). These HF combinations
do not make any contribution to filtering action to comply with
TDD limits given in IEEE Standard 519-1992 but lead to the
amplification of interharmonics on the supply side. The HF
topology containing only the fifth HF will improve only the
input power factor of the steel melt shop to unity. Therefore, to
mitigate the interharmonic problem, new technologies should
be exercised, such as active power filters and/or pulsewidth
modulation rectifiers.
VI. C ONCLUSION
Fig. 18. TDD of supply line currents versus time over a melting cycle.
The medium-frequency coreless IMF supplied from a multipulse rectifier and a single-phase load-resonant current-fed
inverter cascade has been investigated as a load on the power
system. The variable-frequency operation of the IMF has been
represented by a variable RLC model, derived from extensive
field measurements carried out for typical melting cycles. All
power quality parameters of the IMF system have been investigated according to the related standards, and it has been shown
that the major power quality problem for the utility grid is due
to the injection of time-varying interharmonic currents to the
supply.
The harmonic and interharmonic currents caused by the IMF
system have been investigated in detail for both the ideal and
the practical systems, both theoretically and experimentally via
field tests. The frequencies and magnitudes of the uncharacteristic harmonics and interharmonics caused by the cross modulation across the acdcac link have been derived theoretically
for a practical IMF operation. Different cross-modulation types
have been shown to occur between harmonic frequencies of
the supply current and those of inverter output current referred
to the dc link, in practice. The theoretical findings have then
been verified by field tests, and it has been shown that the timevarying nature of the uncharacteristic harmonics and interharmonics can be estimated quite accurately from the theoretical
derivations. The time-varying nature of the IMF resonance
frequency and, hence, the interharmonic currents caused by
the cross modulations have been illustrated by 3-D frequency
spectra in this paper. It has been shown that magnitudes and
frequencies of the supply current harmonics and interharmonics
YILMAZ et al.: MEDIUM-FREQUENCY INDUCTION MELTING FURNACE AS A LOAD ON THE POWER SYSTEM
1213
Fig. 19. Illustration of the interaction between interharmonic current components of variable-frequency IMF installation and some typical passive shunt filter
combinations.
(17)
(18)
Vw1
j2f C0
Vw1
R
IL1 |L = Iw1 |w IC1 |C IR1
IR1 =
(19)
(20)
(21)
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Ilker
Ylmaz received the B.Sc. degree in electrical
and electronics engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 2008, where he
is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree.
He is working on power quality improvement
of induction melting furnaces. He is also currently
a Senior Researcher with the Power Electronics
Department, Space Technologies Research Institute
(UZAY), The Scientific and Technological Research
Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), Ankara. His areas
of research include active power filters and Voltage
Source Converter-type static synchronous compensators.