ABSTRACT

The sending regenerative energy from 3 phase AC load to the mains, driven by a voltage source

inverter is a well-established concept. To enhance the efficiency of the system the concept of feedback

inverter was applied in the project, executed through MATLAB simulation and designing functioning the

converter. The feedback inverter configuration with only 1- (415 V) of the 3-phase SCR Bridge is taken.

The purpose is to send a regenerated sinusoidal current into the mains instead of square wave pulses of

current which in turn minimizes the undesired harmonics in the system and hence efficiency of the system is

enhanced minimizing the losses and making the system stable. This concept is put forward and analysed by

the results obtained after performing the simulation.

1
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

i. Abstract : 1
ii. Table of Contents : 2
iii. List of Figures : 3

1. CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION : 4-6

1.1. Introduction : 4
1.2. Literature Survey : 5
1.3. Motivation : 6

2. CHAPTER II: BACKGROUND : 7-12

2.1. Objective : 7
2.2. Description : 8-11
2.2.1. What are Harmonics : 8
2.2.2. AC Drives : 9-11
2.2.2.1. Operation of AC Drive Systems : 9
2.2.2.2. Harmonics and Problems by harmonics in AC Drives Systems : 10
2.3. The Proposed Scheme : 11
2.4. Problem Formulation : 12

3. CHAPTER III: IMPLEMENTATION : 13-19

3.1. Solution Methodology : 13-16
3.2. Working Model : 17
3.3. Simulation : 18-19

4. CHAPTER IV: RESULT AND DISCUSSION : 20-26

4.1. Result and Discussion : 20-25
4.2. Simulation Result : 26

5. CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION & SCOPE FOR FURTHER WORK : 27-29

5.1. Conclusion : 27
5.2. Advantages of this approach : 28
5.3. Disadvantages of this approach : 28
5.4. Future Scope : 29

REFERENCES : 30

LIST OF FIGURES

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 Circuit Diagram of an AC Drive System. : 8
Circuit Diagram of the Proposed Scheme. : 11
Circuit Diagram with Tr ON. All other OFF. : 14
Circuit Diagram with Th ON, T2 and T3 are ON. All other are OFF. : 15
Circuit Diagram with Th ON, T1 and T4 are ON. All other are OFF. : 16
Circuit Diagram of Working Model. : 17

3
INTRODUCTION

The concept of sending regenerative energy from a 3 - phase ac load to source , using a voltage

source inverter is an very much accepted concept, especially in applications like rail- way tractions, lifts,

CNC machines, etc. All the above said applications have frequent starts and stops, so a substantial amount of

energy can be regenerated to the supply during the braking operation so a lot of energy can be saved. Many

ac drive systems with regenerative braking facility have been reported in the past few years. Although there

is a major drawback in most of the ac drive system is that a square wave regenerated current is sent into the

mains so undesired harmonics are introduced which reduces the stability of the system. So a modified

technique and control strategy is proposed in order to send a sinusoidal regenerated current to the mains and

reduce the harmonics and improve the stability.

4
LITERATURE SURVEY

In majority of the drives especially in the AC drives there is a problem associated with harmonics

when it comes to regeneration of the energy back to the supply. The generated waveform are Square in shape

and has harmonic content. Here we made an modified approach by using a feedback inverter configuration

so as to reduce the harmonics in the regenerated current by making the output waves Sinusoidal or close to

it. For this we have consulted some journals on Regenerative Braking and Feedback Inverter:-

A Modified Approach of Feeding Regenerative Energy to the Mains by Subrata Saha, Aditi

Vasant Dandekar, and Victor Prince Sunder Singh.

Regenerative converter for PWM AC drives by D.H.Braun, T.P.Gilmore and W.A.Maslowski.

Regenerative controller for a voltage source inverter drive by J.M.Liptak, F.C.Joyner and

J.C.Guyesha.

These were the main journals which were referred to for the initial survey and implementation of the

project. Along with these papers certain books were also consulted which are mentioned below.

Power Electronics by P.S. Bimbhra

Introduction to Electrical Drives by B.R.Gupta.

MOTIVATION

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In practical life there is always a need for conserving energy. But in several practical applications there is

considerable amount of energy loss which is not desirable. So the concept of regeneration comes into

picture, where the part of energy is taken from the load and fed back to source. Now in case of AC Drive

systems the regenerated current is mainly square wave with considerable amount harmonics which

ultimately results in loses and instability of the system. This inspired us to implement a modified approach

where we can send a sinusoidal wave and reduce the harmonic components.

OBJECTIVE

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The objective of the project is to send a sinusoidal current in the mains instead of a square wave so that the

amount of harmonics are reduced and we get a sinusoidal current with less amount of harmonics.

DESCRIPTION

What are Harmonics?

Generally, the alternating current and voltages are assumed to have sinusoidal wave form or shape.

This type of waveform is considered to be an ideal waveform. But in practical application it is impossible to

realize such a waveform. In practical all the waveforms deviate to a greater or lesser degree from its ideal

sinusoidal shape, such waveforms are generally termed as distorted or complex waveforms

A complex waveform consists of:-

A fundamental wave which has the lowest frequency f, and is called the first harmonic.

A number of other sinusoids whose frequencies are an integral multiple of the fundamental

frequency like 2f, 3f, 4f, 5fetc. The second harmonic (2f) has twice the frequency of the

fundamental and so on.

This fundamental wave along with its higher integral multiples form the harmonic series.

AC DRIVE SYSTEM

Circuit Diagram:-

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An ac drive system consists of three different stages:-

Converter Stage- The first stage is the converter stage where a single phase is shown out of the 3 phase

SCR Bridge. In this stage the 3 phase AC is converted to DC as the inverter section needs a stable DC source

to operate.

Filtering Stage- This is the second stage in which the filter which can be a capacitor bank (C 1) is used in

order to filter out the ripples on the DC bus to run the IGBT inverter.

Inverter Operation-In this stage the inverter uses IGBT which supplies PWM waveform to the three phase

load which is of inductive nature. As the current in an inductor does not change very fast therefore the DC

voltage can be applied in pulses which gives an approximate sinusoid current wave form.

Operation of AC Drive Systems:-

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 When power is applied the capacitor will get charged to the peak of the applied line voltage through

the SCR Bridge. In this two SCR work in conducting mode while the remaining two SCR work in blocking

mode enabling the current to flow in one direction. When the polarity of the AC input reverses the

conducting and blocking pairs of the SCR's also change.

With application of load to the DC bus the capacitor discharges. When next input is passed the

capacitor draws current from the SCR's when DC bus voltage is less than the line voltage. This occurs at or

near the peak of the applied sine wave which generates a pulse of current which occurs every input cycle

near the +ve or -ve peak of the sine wave. When load is applied to the DC bus, the capacitor bank will

discharge and the DC voltage level will drop.

A low DC voltage means the peak of the applied sine wave is higher than the capacitor voltage for a

longer time duration. So the width of the pulse of current is determined in part by the load on the DC bus.

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Harmonics and the Problems Caused by harmonics in AC Drive systems:-

Harmonics are present in distorted waveforms, where the distorted waveforms are represented as a

series of sine waves with each as an integer number multiple of the fundamental frequency and each has a

specific magnitude. The ac drive systems do not produce even harmonics nor they produce 3 rd order

harmonics, the 11th order harmonic is at a higher point, so it is the 5 th and 7th order harmonics that must be

dealt with.

Problems caused are:-

Harmonics can cause heating of different AC Drives.

Harmonics produce leakage magnetic flux which in turn produce stray frequency eddy

current dependent losses.

Harmonics cause bearings current which cause excessive heating and damage the bearings.
Harmonics cause distortion in supply voltage and in turn disturbs the system operation.
The negative sequence harmonics (5th, 11th, 17th ) cause torque pulsation as they act in

opposite direction of rotor.

The Proposed Scheme:-

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 The above circuit diagram is of a modified approach of feeding Regenerative energy to the mains

with the help of a 3 phase AC load which is inductive in nature driven by a voltage source Inverter. Here the

source voltage is 3 phase AC supply. This voltage is converted to DC by the SCR Bridge. This DC voltage is

fed to the Inverter where the DC voltage is converted to AC voltage. This AC voltage is fed to the load.

This is achieved by charging the capacitor to the DC link voltage by external means and then turning

on the IGBT (Tr), and during the positive cycle of the applied voltage the thyristors are made to conduct for

180O and the inductor L1 stores finite amount of energy.

Then Tr is turned off and Thyristor (Th) is immediately fired, there is a reversal of voltage in the

inductor (L1) and the current flows following the path JKABCDLJ to charge the capacitor (C0). Meanwhile,

the loop JIHRYGFEDLJ which regenerates current to the mains will work only when

(Vc E1) VmSint, which is the source voltage.

PROBLEM FORMULATION

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 Majority of the ac drive systems suffer from a single major drawback of sending a square-wave

regenerated current into the mains, thereby injecting undesired harmonics into the supply thereby increasing

the loses and reducing efficiency

In our project, a modified approach has been made by using the feedback inverter, to send a

sinusoidal regenerated current to the mains.

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SOLUTION METHODOLOGY

This circuit shows the configuration of a voltage source inverter connected to a 3 phase load. Here an

AC voltage source is used, which is connected to a three phase thyristor bridge whose only one phase is

shown in the diagram. The IGBT, (Tr) and Thyristor, (Th) are used as switching devices. Capacitor, (C1) is

used as DC link capacitor. Capacitor, (C 0) is used to reverse bias the diode so as to prevent the reversal of

current so that it doesnt enter the Inductor, (L2).

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This circuit shows the working when the IGBT (Tr) is on and the other switches are off. Here as the current

in the Capacitor (C1) becomes zero and the Capacitor (C0) is charged by the voltage of the Capacitor (C1) by

some external means, this process in turn activates the feedback inverter configuration.

Then during the positive half cycle where the R phase becomes positive with respect to the Y phase, the

SCR's T2 and T3 are turned on and both of them conduct for 180. Now the IGBT (Tr) is turned on and finite

amount of energy is stored in the Inductor (L1). The current flows through the enclosed path ABCLJKA.

And its equation is given by\

diL 1
L1 = E
dt 1

diL 1
Neglecting the (Tr) drop. Where dt is the rate of change of current through the inductor (L1).

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Now the IGBT (Tr) is turned off and the SCR (T h) is fired, the SCR's T 2 and T3 are also on .Reversal of

voltage takes place in the inductor (L1), and so the current now flows though the enclosed JKABCDLJ. So

the capacitor (C0) gets charged. The equation of the loop is given by

diL 1
L1 E + V = 0
dt 1 c

Where Vc is the voltage measured across the capacitor (C0 ).

Now the path JIHRYGFEDLJ regenerates current to the mains will only work when the following

condition is satisfied, (Vc E1) Vm sin t , which is the source voltage.

The equation neglecting the T2 and T3 drop is

diL 2 diL 1
L2 +L1
dt dt + VmSint = 0

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 diL 2
dt Is the rate of change of current flowing through the inductor L 2. The change in the capacitor voltage

is given by

ic
dt
Vc = C 0

Now the polarity of the supply is reversed and T 2 and T3 are switched of and T1 and T4 are switched on. SCR

(Th ) is on current flows through the path shown above.

Now the current in the Inductor (L1) starts to decrease and the energy which was stored in it is used to feed

power to the mains and also used to charge the capacitor (C0) and also the inductor (L2).

After a certain period of time, the current flowing through the inductor (L 2) will be greater than in (L1) .and

the capacitor current ic, will be negative. The path JMGYRHFEDLJ, along with the path

FEDCBAKJIHRYGF functions and the capacitor (C0) starts to discharge.

The corresponding equation is given by

diL 2
L2 + E -V + V Sin t = 0
dt 1 c m

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The ON and OFF duration of the IGBT (Tr) should be designed in a such a way so that maximum energy

may be stored in the inductor (L 1) during the ON period and may be utilised fully during the OFF period. At

that instant, the enclosed path JIHRYGFEDLJ would not conduct any current and only the path

FEDCBAKJIHRYGF will be there for sending regenerated current to the mains.

WORKING MODEL

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SIMULATION

The step width chosen for performing the simulation is 1s. The starting DC link voltage is 600 V. And the

supply voltage is 415 V.

The two main conditions for carrying out the whole process are:-

The energy which the Inductor (L1) will store when the IGBT (T r) will be ON should be dissipated

fully, during the off period of the IGBT (Tr).

The flow of current through the Inductor(L2) when the IGBT(Tr) is in OFF mode should reach a

maximum value which satisfies a sine wave i.e. I1 = Im1Sin t , and when the IGBT(Tr)is in ON

mode the current should decrease to value which must satisfy another sine wave I 2 = Im2Sin t,

where
Im1 > Im2.

The other values taken are as follows:-

L1=9mH
L2=50mH
C0=2F

The ON and OFF modes of the IGBT (Tr).is determined by 10 ms of half cycle.

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SWITCHING PERIODS OF THE TRANSISTOR Tr:-

No. Of the switching cycle ON duration(ms) OFF duration(ms)

in a half cycle
1 0.000 0.200
2 0.072 0.475
3 0.096 0.299
4 0.132 0.302
5 0.168 0.294
6 0.201 0.283
7 0.229 0.270
8 0.251 0.283
9 0.267 0.282
10 0.275 0.287
11 0.275 0.281
12 0.267 0.302
13 0.251 0.332
14 0.227 0.373
15 0.195 0.418
16 0.157 0.460
17 0.111 0.585
18 0.060 1.100

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The ON and OFF modes of the IGBT (Tr) are shown in the above table. It is noted that the switching scheme

of (Tr). Gives are generated current waveform which is almost similar to sinusoidal waveform.RESULT

AND DISCUSSION

When a normal AC drive system is used and if regenerated energy is fed from the load to the source then the

waveform of such regenerative current which is fed to the mains, are square in shape as shown in the figure

below.

In this type of regenerative current waveform the amount of harmonics is generally very high, as shown in

the next diagram.

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Here it can be seen that the regenerative current whose waveform is square in shape has THD=122.33%,

which makes the system unstable.

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Now with the help of a modified approach of feeding the regenerative current to the mains we see that the

waveform of the regenerative current is nearly a sinusoid which is shown in the figure below.

This is the wave form of the regenerative current when the modified approach was made

The above diagram shows that current in the inductor (iL2), after the ON mode operation of the IGBT (Tr),

reaches below the minimum reference value Im2Sin t. The explanation for this is given as according to

the second condition, when inductor current (iL2) reaches below Im2Sin t, IGBT (Tr), goes in the OFF

mode and then the thyristor (Th) is fired. Although, the current which flows in the inductor (L1) do not flow

immediately into the mains, because the difference between the voltage across the capacitor (C0) and the DC

link voltage E1 at that instant may be much lesser than the value of the mains voltage VmSint. Therefore

at the beginning , the current flowing through (L1) is used for charging the capacitor (C0) and when the

potential across it is quite high , the current through the inductor (iL1) flows into the mains and (iL2) starts

to increase. Upon reaching this condition the current (iL2) will decrease, which results in it to fall below the

reference value. It was also noted that very fine adjustments in the ON-OFF period transition were essential

to prevent (ih2) from going below the reference value Im2Sin t.

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In the next diagram the current through the inductor (L 1) is shown, the charging and discharging of the

inductor is shown:-

The diagram shows that the current which flow through the inductor (L1) for a half cycle. It shows that the

current iL1 reaches zero after each switching cycle according to the first condition. The simulated figure is

shown in the above diagram.

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The diagram above shows the grid voltage which is 600 V.

The diagram above shows the DC link voltage which is between 500 V to 600 V.

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25
The above diagram shows that when the modified approach is made the regenerative current which is sent to

the mains is almost close to a sinusoidal wave compared to the square waves with the normal conventional

approach. The amount of harmonics also drastically decreases from 122.33% to 17.21%, which is the main

objective of this modified approach.

SIMULATION RESULT

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27
CONCLUSION

The modified approach is justified experimentally by simulation by sending the regenerative current

from the 3 phase ac load to one phase of the three phase supply. For this a feedback inverter configuration is

used. The main idea of sending an regenerative current which is close to sinusoid instead of square wave

pulses is validated by the above experiment and the difference in the harmonic contents of both the schemes

were noted and this further justifies the idea of using a feedback inverter which drastically decreases the

harmonic content from 122.33% to 17.21%, thereby stabilising the system. For this approach the switching

of the Thyristor Bridge must be adjusted in such a way that it sends back a regenerative sinusoid current

back to the mains. From the above generated result we can conclude that our aim to reduce the harmonics is

successful and that the drive functions better now with less harmonic content.

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 ADVANTAGES OF THIS APPROACH

As the regenerated current is almost close to a sinusoid so it has less harmonic content.

Less harmonic content decreases the losses of the system and makes system stable.

This approach increases the longevity of the equipments.

This scheme can be used regenerate the current efficiently and conserve power.

DISADVANTAGES OF THIS APPROACH

The regenerative current obtained is still not a perfect sinusoid, there is still some harmonic content.

The DC link voltage obtained from simulation is less than 600v so there is still some loses, which

should be taken care of.

The circuitry used in the feedback inverter configuration is complex in nature.

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FUTURE SCOPE

The suggested scope can find application in various AC drive systems but the future scope for this modified

approach is that:-

Though the amount of harmonics are considerably reduced, yet there are some left for which a better

controller with better switching scheme can be designed so that the system becomes more efficient.

The circuitry can be designed in such a way that the complexity of the working circuit may be

reduced.

The loss in the DC link voltage can be minimised by better design of circuitry.

30
 REFERENCES

The following journals were consulted during the making of the project:-

A Modified Approach of Feeding Regenerative Energy to the Mains by Subrata Saha, Aditi Vasant

Dandekar, and Victor Prince Sundersingh.

Regenerative converter for PWM AC drives by D. H. Braun, T. P. Gilmore and W. A. Maslowski.

Regenerative controller for a voltage source inverter drive by J.M.Liptak, F.C.Joyner and

J.C.Guyesha.

The following books were consulted for the making of the project:-

Power Electronics by P.S.Bimbhra.

Introduction to Electrical Machines by Murugesh Kumar.

Introduction to Electrical Drives by B.R.Gupta.

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