A Novel Active Front-End Impedance Source Inverter

Topology for Induction Motor Drives

Abstract: The mark-to-market research says on fast switching

solidstate semiconductor switch based power adjustable speed
drives, induces very high voltage gradient on motor terminals.
This in turn results in travelling wave effects and high ground
currents. In order to tap the advantages of impedance source
inverter in conjunction with Active Front End (AFE) of the input
switching module, a modified topology of the former has been
introduced in this paper. The input AFE output power has been
bifurcated and applied to the impedance network of the Z-
Source inverter. It produced smoother and smaller current or
voltage maintained across the dc input of the inverter hence
eliminated the need of a passive filter and results in lower Total
Harmonic Distortion (THD). The simulation of the proposed
power circuit has been done in MATLAB/Simulink and control
unit was in PROTEUS Software. The design procedure of the proposed
circuit has been elucidated and experimental validation was done.

Index terms Active Front End Inverter, Impedance Source Inverter,

Common Mode Voltage.

I. INTRODUCTION

Among the semiconductor based switching modules, IGBT

based modules gains popularity due the capability of high
switching frequency, less switching losses and ability to cope
with complex switching algorithms. The power connection to
the motor leads to develop transients, dv/dt and it result in
bearing damages, EMI concerns and hike in motor terminal
voltage [1][12]. To reap the benefits of active filters,
alternatively we can make use of active front-end inverter
topology. Impedance source inverters are preferred to voltage
source and current source inverters since it improves the
voltage level of the input voltage of the inverter section. In
addition, it gives lesser amount of output current and voltage
spikes.

REFERENCES

[1] E. Person, Transient effects in application of pwm inverters to induction

motors, IEEE Trans. Appl. Ind., vol. 28, pp. 10951101, Sep./Oct. 1992. [2] A. H.
Bonnett, Analysis of the impact of pulse-width modulated inverter voltage
waveforms on ac induction motors, IEEE Trans. Appl. Ind., vol. 32, pp. 386392,
Apr. 1996. [3] L. Gubbala, A. von Jouanne, P. Enjeti, C. Singh, and H. Toliyat,
Voltage distribution in the windings of an ac motor subjected to high dv/dt pwm
voltages, in Proc. IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference (PESC95),
Atlanta, GA, Jun. 1995, pp. 579585. [4] C. J. Melhorn and L. Tang, Transient
effects of pwm drives on induction motors, IEEE Trans. Appl. Ind., vol. 33, pp.
10651072, Jul./Aug. 2002. [5] G. L. Skibinski, R. J. Kerkman, and D. Schlegel,
Emi emissions of modern pwm ac drives, IEEE Ind. Appl. Mag., vol. 5, pp. 47
80, Nov./Dec. 1999. [6] A. von Jouanne, P. Enjeti, and W. Gray, The effect of long
motor leads on pwm inverter fed ac motor drive systems, in Proc. IEEE Applied
Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC95), Dallas, TX, Mar. 1995,
pp. 592597. [7] P. Alger and H. Samson, Shaft currents in electric machines,
presented at the A.I.R.E. Conf., Jan. 1924, pp. 235245. [8] J. Erdman, R. J.
Kerkman, D. Schlegel, and G. Skibinski, Effect of pwm inverters on ac motor
bearing currents and shaft voltages, in Proc. IEEE Applied Power Electronics
Conference and Exposition (APEC95), Dallas, TX, Mar. 1995, pp. 2433. [9] U. T.
Shami and H. Akagi, Identification and discussion of the origin of a shaft end-to-
end voltage in an inverter-driven motor, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 25, pp.
16151625, Jun. 2010. [10] , Experimental discussions on a shaft end-to-end
voltage appearing in an inverter-driven motor, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol.
24, pp. 15321540, Jun. 2009. [11] S. Chen, A. Lipo, and D. Fitzgerald, Source of
induction motor bearing currents caused by pwm inverters, IEEE Trans. Energy
Convers., vol. 11, pp. 2532, Jun. 1996.