See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/236029178

A review of mitigation methods for overvoltage in long-cable-fed PWM AC

drives

Conference Paper · September 2011

CITATIONS READS

0 818

1 author:

Jiangbiao He
GE Global Research
33 PUBLICATIONS   214 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Jiangbiao He on 04 June 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

A Review of Mitigation Methods for Overvoltage in
Long-Cable-Fed PWM AC Drives
Jiangbiao He Gennadi Y. Sizov
Student Member, IEEE Student Member, IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI 53233, USA
jiangbiao@ieee.org
Abstract—The phenomenon of overvoltage at motor terminals
in long-cable-fed PWM AC drives poses a severe stress on
motor insulation systems. The overvoltage is typically caused
by the high change rate of the inverter output voltage ( / )
and the surge impedance mismatch between the inverter,
connecting power cable and the motor. This paper presents a
comparative survey of the existing methods of overvoltage
suppression, which includes passive filters at both motor
terminals and inverter terminals. The design methodologies,
effectiveness, and practical applicability of these passive filters
are discussed through computer simulations based on
Ansys/Simplorer 9.0, and the promising approaches are
recommended for researchers and industrial users.
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the remarkable advancements in power switching
devices has been the increasing speeds of switching and
related switching frequencies, in addition to the associated
high-frequency operation of PWM AC drives. This results in
a more sinusoidal motor current waveform with less ripple,
less copper losses, and less switching losses. However, the
consequent high rate of voltage rise, / , has adverse
effects on motor insulation systems and contributes to
bearing current problems [1]-[4]. Moreover, in some
industrial applications, constraints are such that the motor
and the PWM inverter have to be placed at separate locations,
thus long interconnecting cables are often required between
them. As presented in [1], narrow PWM pulses traveling on
long cables from the inverter to the motor behave like
traveling waves on transmission lines, in which a
phenomenon of voltage reflection and possibly successive
voltage reflection leading to overvoltage at the motor
terminals will occur. Actually, the associated voltage
reflection is a function of the inverter output pulse rise time,
and the length of the motor cables as well as the surge
impedances of the motor and cable systems [3], [4]. If the
pulses take longer than one-third the rise time to travel from
the inverter to the motor, then a full reflection will occur at
the motor terminals and the pulse amplitude will
approximately double [5]. In this case, if no mitigation
measures are implemented, the motor would likely suffer
The work was partially supported by NSF under grant No. 1028348.
978-1-4577-0541-0/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE
Peng Zhang Nabeel A.O. Demerdash
Student Member, IEEE Life Fellow, IEEE
from serious insulation damage leading ultimately to failure.
Additionally, NEMA has suggested that / be limited
to less than 500 / for general-purpose motors in the
460V class [6].
Accordingly, this paper presents a survey of the state-of-
the-art methods for overvoltage suppression caused by such
high / and surge impedance mismatch in PWM AC
drives. The paper aims at providing an encompassing
reference for industrial users to select the most appropriate
mitigation technique.
Section II analyzes the cause of overvoltage at motor
terminals. Section III gives the detailed review of passive
filters at motor terminals and inverter terminals. Simulation
results of these passive filters are discussed and compared in
Section IV. Finally, conclusions are presented in Section V.
II. ANALYSIS OF OVERVOLTAGE AT MOTOR TERMINALS
Overvoltages at motor terminals are determined by three
main aspects, namely, the rise time of the PWM pulses, the
cable length, and the impedance mismatch between the
inverter, power cable, and the motor. Most often, the cable
length interconnecting the power converter and the motor is
dictated by the specific layout of an industry installation and
therefore we may have no choice in this matter, thus, what
we can mitigate or compensate for is the impedance
mismatch and the rise time of the inverter output pulses,
which determine two categories of mitigation methods for
overvoltage in long-cable-fed PWM AC drives.
A. Impedance mismatch
Surge impedance mismatch between the inverter, power
cable, and the motor is the most direct reason leading to
voltage reflection at the motor terminals. The reflected
voltage that is superposed on the motor terminal is the
incident dc-link voltage multiplied by the reflection
coefficients at the motor terminal, Γ , and at the inverter
terminal, Γ , respectively, which can be defined as [3]:
Z Z
ΓM = (1)
Z Z
2160
 Z Z VLL,
ΓS = (2) = M
+1 (8)
Z Z V

where, Z is the motor surge impedance, Z , is the surge
impedance of the voltage source inverter (typically Z 0),
and Z is the cable surge impedance given by [3]:
L =0.2
Z =
C
where, L , is the cable inductance per unit length, and C , is
the cable capacitance per unit length. Generally, if Z
0, it follows that, ΓS 1, and the overvoltage magnitude is
primarily determined by ΓM .
B. Rise time of PWM pulses
According to wave propagation theory and voltage
reflection analysis, a propagation delay for the inverter
output PWM pulses to travel from the inverter terminals to
the motor terminals can be expressed as
= (4)
where is the cable length, and is the pulse propagation
velocity in the motor cable and is given by [2]:
= (5)
As stated in [7], the forward-travelling inverter output
pulses will be reflected at the motor terminals after
propagation delay, t , and then the resulting backward-
traveling wave, which is a function of ΓM , moving toward
the inverter, will also be reflected at the inverter terminals in
the same manner. Hence, after the PWM pulses has travelled
the cable length three times, the peak voltage, VLL, , can be
shown to be [7]:
V M
VLL, = +V , for
VLL, = V ΓM +V , for
where, V and t represent the dc-bus voltage and rise
time of PWM pulses respectively.
Then, for a longer rise time of PWM pulses, (i.e., t
the normalized peak voltage can be expressed as
Thus, if 20% overshoot is the maximum overvoltage allowed
at the motor terminals, it follows that, the critical rise time of
the PWM pulses can be calculated as
M
(9)
(3)
M
t = (10)
To verify this conclusion, a simulation of a 5-hp 460-V
induction motor drive system based on Simplorer 9.0 was
conducted here, and the simulation schematic was shown in
Fig.1. Assuming the cable length is =50m feeding an
induction motor with ΓM 0.9 (typical value for motors of
less than 20 hp). The parameters of the cable are shown in
Table I, hence can be computed as follows:
1 1
= =
√0.34 10 181 10
= 1.27 10 / (11)
Accordingly,
M
t =
.
= .
= 5.31 µs (12)
Fig.2 shows the normalized line voltages at the inverter
terminals and motor terminals with different rise time of
PWM pulses. It demonstrates that the voltage amplitude at
the motor terminals sensitively changes with the rise time of
PWM pulses. At rise time, t = 0.1µs, the voltage overshoot
of the motor terminal reaches as high as 85% of the inverter
(6) terminal voltage. However, at a critical time, t = 5.31µs,
the voltage overshoot of the motor terminal is close to 20%
(7) of the inverter terminal voltage. At rise time, t = 6µs, the
motor terminal voltage is almost equal to the inverter
terminal voltage. These simulation results indicate that the
overvoltage at the motor terminals can be mitigated by
increasing the rise time of the inverter output pulses, such as
), through the use of / flattening filters.

Figure 1. Simulation schematic of a 5-hp 460-V induction motor drives with 50m cable interconnecting the inverter and the motor.

2161
 TABLE I. CABLE PER-METER PARAMETERS

Rs（line resistance） Ls (self-inductance) Lm (mutual inductance) Cg (line-to-ground capacitance) Cm (line-to-line capacitance)

12.96 mΩ/m 18.69 µH/m 18.35 µH/m 181 pF/m 32.5 pF/m

the inverter cabinet, because of the lack of accessibility for

installing such devices at the motor terminals. The following
subsections will elaborate the common passive filters both at
the motor terminals and at inverter terminals.
A. RC filter at the motor terminal
To match the surge impedance of the cable and provide
proper level of damping to control the voltage overshoot, an
RC filter, as shown in Fig.3, has been proposed in [9], [10].

(a)

Figure 3. RC filter at the motor terminal.

The equivalent impedance of the first-order RC filter

should be closely matched with the cable surge impedance as
(b) given in (13):

Z =Z = + = (13)

where and are the filter resistance and capacitance,

respectively.
Moreover, should be designed to provide an
overdamped circuit to ensure the minimization of the
(c) overvoltage at the motor terminals, as given in (14):
Figure 2. Normalized line-to-line voltages at the inverter terminals and
the motor terminals with (a) t = 0.1µs, (b) t = 5.31µs, (c) t = 6µs. 2 (14)

III. PASSIVE FILTERS TOPOLOGIES where is the “lumped parameter” cable inductance.
From the point of view of flattening / of the PWM The parameters of the LC filter can be determined from
pulses, there are mainly two mitigation methods: one is using the solution of (13) and (14).
active filters, but this method is seldom employed in
industrial motor drives since additional switches and B. RLC filter at the motor terminal
complex algorithms are required. In the other approach, one Similarly, a second-order RLC filter, as shown in Fig.4,
uses passive filters based on resistors, inductors and has also been proposed to suppress the overvoltage at the
capacitors. The latter one is much more popular because of motor terminals [5], [10], [11]. The filter parameters are
its simplicity and availability. selected such that the equivalent impedance of the filter
Passive filters, such as RC and RLC filters, have been closely matches the surge impedance of the cable. Therefore,
proposed to be installed at the motor terminals to match the one can write:
surge impedance of the cable, which could significantly 1
attenuate the overvoltage at the motor terminals. On the other = +
+
hand, for some special applications, such as submarine
situations or deep well pumps, filters have to be installed at
= + (15)

2162
 Here, the magnitude of should be equal to the cable reason, these filters are often designed with a resonant
surge impedance, Z , accordingly, from (15), one can write: frequency significantly below the switching frequency, and
above the output fundamental frequency to avoid resonance
with the load, as expressed in (18):
Z = + + (16)
= (18)
Again, the resistor R is designed to result in an over where,
damped circuit, thus:
(19)
LC
R (17)
C Here, , , and , are the filter resonance frequency,
Since a cable’s surge impedance (characteristic switching frequency, and fundamental frequency of the
impedance), Z , is independent of the cable length, it follows drive’s output voltage, respectively.
that, the filter design should be the same for a given cable
regardless of the cable length.
In addition, according to [5], it is recommended that, the
resonant frequency of the filter be selected to be five times
the switching frequency of the PWM inverter. Moreover, the
operating frequency of the RLC filter should be chosen to be
near the resonant frequency to minimize the voltage
overshoot. Figure 6. LC filter at the inverter terminal.

E. LC clamp filterat the inverter terminal

Figure 4. RLC filter at the motor terminal.
As discussed above, the resonance of an LC filter makes
the design of such a filter difficult, since carrier frequencies
of general-purpose drives often vary between 5 kHz and 20
kHz. Thus, resistors are proposed to be added to the filter to
dampen the resonance, and first-order filters of the RL or RC
type have also been suggested [15]-[17] to eliminate the
resonance altogether, as shown in Fig.7.

C. Output reactor at the inverter

An output reactor at the inverter, as shown in Fig.5, may
be the simplest method of conditioning the motor terminal
voltage. The output reactor reduces the ⁄ of the inverter
output voltage, which in turn reduces the ⁄ at the motor
terminals. However, the overvoltage suppression is almost
proportional to the reactor impedance, and a high value of
impedance will cause an increase in cost and weight, and it (a)
will also deteriorate the drive systems’ power factor. Besides,
adding a series reactor can introduce a voltage drop at the
fundamental output frequency, which reduces the ability of
the motor to produce rated torque [12].

(b)

Figure 5. Output reactor at the inverter terminal.

D. LC filter at the inverter terminal

As a very cost-efficient type, LC filters are suggested to
mitigate the overvoltage at the motor terminals [13] [14], and
the corresponding topology is shown in Fig.6. However, the
design of this kind of filter is complicated by the fact that (c)
overvoltage can occur due to the filter resonance. For this Figure 7. Conventional RLC filters at the inverter terminal.

2163
 However, the physical size and power losses of the can be seen, there is almost no voltage overshoot because of
traditional filters shown in Fig.7 are considerable because of the clamping effect of diode bridges.
the introduction of resistors. A low-loss LC filter clamped by
Table II summarizes the quantities and qualities of the
diode bridges, as shown in Fig.8, has been put forward in
components parameters, voltage overshoots, and power
[18]-[20]. For this filter, the LC resonating voltage is
losses of the filters discusses above. These results are briefly
clamped to the dc-bus voltage by virtue of the fast recovery
discussed in the conclusions.
diodes, and the rising time of inverter output voltage can be
controlled by the values of L and C of the filter. Compared
with the traditional LC filters the physical dimensions of
diode clamping filters are smaller. Moreover, the power
losses in the clamping circuit are decreased in comparison to
the losses in the damping resistors of Fig.7.

Figure 9. Distributed parameter model of the cable (one section shown).

Figure 8. LC clamp filter with diode bridge at the inverter terminal.

IV. SIMULATION AND COMPARISON OF VARIOUS FILTERS

A simulation model is developed in ANSYS/Simplorer
9.0 to simulate the effect of the high voltage gradient and
impedance mismatch at the motor terminals fed by a long
cable. The long line cable whose length is 90m feeding the
AC motor is modeled by the 10 sections L-R-C network
which is shown in Fig.9. The parameters of the cable are
shown in Table I. In the simulation, a 460-V 5-hp induction
motor, with the surge impedance of 800Ω (according to the Figure 10. Line voltages at inverter and motor terminals with RC filter at
curve of surge impedance vs. horse power size, presented in the motor for a 460-V 5-hp 5-kHz induction motor drive fed by 90m-cable.
[21]), was used in the PWM inverter fed motor drive system.
Here, Fig.10 through Fig.15 show the normalized line-to-
line voltage at the inverter terminals and motor terminals
with the various passive filters discussed in Section III. Fig.
10 shows that the voltage at the motor terminals was
suppressed with a maximum overshoot of 13.12% which was
achieved by employing an RC filter at the motor end. Fig.11
shows the effect of overvoltage elimination after using an
RLC filter at the motor terminals, for which case the voltage
overshoot is 35.02%, which is somewhat larger than that of
an RC filter. Fig.12 shows the simulation results of an RLC
filter installed at the inverter terminals. For this filter, the line Figure 11. Line voltages at inverter and motor terminals with RLC filter at
voltage at the motor terminals was effectively suppressed the motor for a 460-V 5-hp 5-kHz induction motor drive fed by 90m-cable.
with an overshoot of 11.83%. In Fig. 13, the effect of an
output reactor at the inverter side was demonstrated. As can
be seen, although the line voltage at the motor terminals was
suppressed and filtered to be sinusoidal, the switching
harmonics are considerable. Moreover, there is still 19.50%
overshoot in the line voltage at the motor terminals. Fig.14
shows the normalized line voltages at the inverter terminals
and motor terminals with the application of an LC filter at
the inverter output. Comparing these simulation results with
those of the case in Fig.13, there are less switching
harmonics in the voltage at motor terminals when using an
LC filter, and the reason is that switching harmonics are
eliminated by the filter capacitors. Fig. 15 shows the Figure 12. Line voltages at inverter and motor terminals with RLC filter at
simulation results of the case utilizing an LC clamp filter. As the inverter for 460-V 5-hp 5-kHz induction motor drive fed by 90m-cable.

2164
Figure 13. Line voltages at inverter and motor terminals with reactor at the Figure 14. Line voltages at inverter and motor terminals with LC filter at
inverter for a 460-V 5-hp 5-kHz induction motor drive fed by 90m-cable. the inverter for 460-V 5-hp 5-kHz induction motor drive fed by 90m-cable.

Figure 15. Line voltages at the inverter and motor terminals with LC clamp filters at the inverter output
for a 460-V 5-hp 5-kHz induction motor drive fed by 90m-cable.

TABLE II. COMPARISON OF VARIOUS PASSIVE FILTERS

Comparative Various types of passive filters for 3-phase 460-V 5-hp induction motor fed by 90m cable (assuming = . )
factors RC filter @ motor RLC filter @ motor Reactor @ inverter LC filter @ inverter RLC filter @ inverter Clamp filter @ inverter
Resistors 43Ω 125 Ω ---- ---- 43Ω ----

Inductors ---- 78.48 µH 66 mH 1 mH 33.28 µH 1.65 mH

Capacitors 0.22µF 20 nF ---- 2.81 µF 1 µF 28.36 µF
6 FRDs needed
Power diodes ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
(fast recovery diodes)
Voltage
13.12% 35.02% 19.50% 0 11.83% 0
overshoot
Power losses High High High Low High Low

V. CONCLUSIONS simplicity, a reactor at the inverter output is the best; In

In this paper, an overall literature review on the existing
methods of overvoltage mitigation in long-cable-fed PWM
AC drives has been presented. The main factors contributing
to the overvoltage at the motor terminals have been analyzed.
Topologies of typical passive filters and their corresponding
design methodologies were elaborated. Simulation results
and the comparative analysis demonstrate that each filter has
its advantages and drawbacks. Whether a filter is good or
bad depends on the specific industry application. In terms of
2165
terms of reliability and power losses, the LC clamp filter at
the inverter terminals may be the most appropriate. In terms
of suppression of voltage overshoot, the RC filter at the
motor terminals may be the most recommendable. Therefore,
how to select the best filters for overvoltage suppression
should be decided by users based on the specific industrial
layout and requirements.
Furthermore, the effectiveness of some active /
filters, presented in [22] cannot be ignored if the use of
 complex algorithms is acceptable for the given application.
Moreover, innovative inverters, such as resonant inverters
(presented in [23]) and multilevel inverters (presented in
[24]-[26]) are also significant in reducing high / and
common mode voltage stress on the motor bearing, but they
can be adopted only if the system’s cost and hardware
complexity can be justified.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to express thanks to the US
National Science Foundation (NSF) for the partial financial
support for the work in this paper (grant NSF-GOALI No.
1028348). Also, the access to Simplorer 9.0 and its related
application assistance from ANSYS Corporation are greatly
appreciated.
REFERENCES
[1] E. Persson, “Transient effects in application of PWM inverters to
induction motors,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Applications, vol.
28, no. 5, pp. 1095-1110, Sep./Oct. 1992.
[2] Van Poucke, P., Belmans, R., Geysen, W., and Ternier, E.,
“Overvoltages in inverter fed induction machines using high
frequency power electronic components,” in IEEE APEC Conference,
1994, pp. 536-541.
[3] A. von Jouanne, P. Enjeti, and W. Gray, “The effects of long motor
leads on PWM inverter fed AC motor drive systems,” in IEEE APEC
Conference, 1995, pp. 592-597.
[4] Saunders, L.A., Skibinski, G.L., Evon, S.T., and Kempkes, D.L.,
“Riding the reflected wave-IGBT drive technology demands new
motor and cable considerations,” in IEEE PCI Conference, 1996, pp.
75-84.
[5] von Jouanne, A., Rendusara, D. A., and Enjeti, P. N., “Filtering
techniques to minimize of effect of long motor leads on PWM
inverter-fed AC motor drive systems,” IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Applications, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 919-926, Jun./Aug. 1996.
[6] NEMA MG 1, NEMA Motors and Generators Standards, available at
http://www.nema.org/stds/mg1.cfm, 2009.
[7] A. von Jouanne, and P. Enjeti, “Design considerations for an inverter
output filter to mitigate the effects of long motor leads in ASD
applications,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Applications, vol. 33,
no. 5, pp. 1138-1145, Sep./Oct. 1997.
[8] Skibinski, G., “Design methodology of a cable terminator to reduce
reflected voltage on AC motors,” in IEEE Industrial Applications
conference. 1996, pp. 153-161.
[9] Sangcheol Lee, and Kwanghee Nam, “Overvoltage suppression filter
design methods based on voltage reflection theory,” IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 19, no. 2, pp.264-271, Mar.
2004.
[10] A. Moreira, P. Santos, T. Lipo, and G. Venkataramanan, “Filter
networks for long cable drives and their influence on motor voltage
distribution and common mode currents,” IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Electronics, vol. 52, no.2, pp. 515-522, Apr. 2005.
2166
View publication stats
[11] Kuen-Faat Yuen, and Chung H.S.-H, “A low-loss motor terminal
filter for overvoltage suppression,” in IEEE ECCE Conference, 2010,
pp. 853-861.
[12] Han-Jong Kim, Geun-Ho Lee, Cheol-Ho Jang, and Jea-Pil Lee,
“Cost-effective design of an nverter output reactor in ASD
applications,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 48,
no. 6, pp. 1128-1135, Dec. 2001.
[13] Steinke, J. K., “Use of an LC Filter to achieve a motor-friendly
performance of the PWM voltage source inverter,” IEEE
Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 649-654, Sep.
1999.
[14] Sozer, Y., Torrey D. A., and Reva S., “New inverter output filter
topology for PWM motor drives,” IEEE Transactions on Power
Electronics, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 1007-1017, Nov. 2000.
[15] L. Palma, and P. Enjeti, “An inverter output filter to mitigate /
effects in PWM drive system,” in 2002 IEEE APEC Conference,
2002, pp. 550-556.
[16] Jiang, D. Xu, and X. Chen, “A novel inverter output /
suppression filter,” in 29th annual conference of the IEEE Industrial
Electronics Society,” 2003, pp. 2901-2905.
[17] de Lima, A.C.S., and Stephan R.M., “Comparison of overvoltage
mitigation methods in industrial drives with long cables,” in 2003
IEEE ISIE Conference, 2003, pp. 252-257.
[18] Sung-Jun Kim, and Seung-Ki Sul, “A novel filter design for
Suppression of high voltage gradient in voltage-fed PWM inverter,”
in IEEE APEC Conference, 1997, pp. 122-127.
[19] Habetler, T. G., Naik, R. E., and Nondahl, T. A., “Design and
implementation of an inverter output LC filter used for /
reduction,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 17, no. 3,
pp.327-331, May 2002.
[20] Hanigovszki, N., Poulsen, J., and Blaabjerg, F., “A novel output filter
topology to reduce motor overvoltage,” IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Applications, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 845-852, May./Jun. 2004.
[21] Skibinski, G., Kerkman, R., Leggate, D., Pankau, J., and Schlegel, D.,
“Reflected wave modeling techniques for PWM AC motor drives” in
IEEE APEC Conference, 1998, pp. 1021-1029.
[22] Korhonen, J., Strom, J.-P., and Tyster, J., “Control of an inverter
output active dv/dt filtering method,” in IEEE 2009 Industrial
Electronics Conference, 2009, pp. 316-321.
[23] A. Cheriti, K. Al-Haddad, L. A. Dessaint, T. A. Meynard, and D.
Mukhedkar, “Rugged soft commutated PWM inverter for AC drives,”
IEEE Transactions Power Electron., vol. 7, pp. 385–392, Mar. 1992.
[24] Sangcheol Lee, and Kwanghee Nam, “An overvoltage suppression
scheme for AC motor drives using a half dc-link voltage level at each
PWM transition,” IEEE Transactions on IE, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 549-
557, Jun. 2002.
[25] Naumanen, V., Korhonen, J., Silventoinen, P., and Pyrhonen, J.,
“Mitigation of high du/dt-originated motor overvoltages in multilevel
inverter drives,” IET Power Electronics, vol. 3, iss. 5, pp. 681-689,
2010.
[26] Tolbert, L. M., Peng F.Z., Habetler, T.G., “Multilevel converters for
large electric drives,” IEEE Transactions On IA, vol. 35, no.1, pp. 36-
44, Jan./Feb., 1999.