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PWMDRIVE INDUCTOR

FILTER INFLUENCE
ON TRANSIENT
IMMUNITY
VAN E WAGNER ELIAS STRANGAS
MEMBER, IEEE MEMBER, IEEE
Detroit Edison Michigan State University
2000 Second Ave. Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Detroit, Michigan 48226 East Lansing, Michigan 48824

Abstract - Surges of less than 200% prevention of over voltage darnage to insulation [l].
magnitude caused by utility capacitor However, the disruption and damage thresholds for
switching can disrupt PWM drives. In this power electronic equipment are much lower than
paper, the disruption mechanism is for the electromagnetic and electromechanical
investigated by SPICE simulation of the equipment previously addressed. The first
drive and the results are compared to field discussion of this problem in the literature
tests. An over current surge in the appeared in 1990 by Wagner et al[2] in the form of
rectifierlfilter section and dc over voltage a detailed case study. In 1991 both Hensley et al
are the most common disruption [3] and McGranaghan et al [4] conducted computer
mechanisms. The drive dc filter inductor is simulations of the problem with the
the most important factor in capacitor Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP).
transient sensitivity of the drive. A drive Despite the magnitude of the problem, there has
without the inductor or one in which the been little further analysis.
inductor is saturated by the transient i s
vulnerable to disruption. Because it is a relatively recently discovered
problem, industry standards have not addressed
INTRODUCTION the voltage transient from either the utility or
equipment perspective. A recently published
The proliferation of power electronics has standard [SI does suggest an optional 5 kHz ring
introduced several incompatibilities between wave test for low voltage equipment intended to
electronic equipment and typical variations of simulate a capacitor switching transient. However,
utility electric power. One of the most common is a standardized procedure has not been developed
disruption of operation of pulse-width-modulated to define conformance to the ring wave test.
(PWM) adjustable speed drives due to the transient
caused by closing utility capacitors (see Figure 1). This paper explores the impact on PWM drives
A switching transient magnitude of only 1.10 to of the utility capacitor switching transient. The
1.30 pu can be sufficient to disrupt a drive. As a primary focus is determination of the drive
result, capacitor switching transient disruption of response mechanism by simulation and comparison
PWM drives is the second most common power to actual results. Although only the impact of the
quality complaint received by utilities, after transient on PWM drives is investigated, the results
disruption due to voltage sags. also apply to other types of power electronic
equipment.
Historically the study of capacitor switching I)RIVE SUSCEPTIBILITY
transients on the power system has focused on the
Pulse-width-modulated adjustable speed drives
are the most common equipment to be affected by
the capacitor switching transient and this section
explores the possible reasons for the vulnerability.
First, the PWM drive is described and then the sub-
parts analyzed for vulnerability.

The PWM drive varies motor speed by providing


power of variable frequency and voltage to
induction or synchronous motors. The essential
elements of the drive are shown in Figure 2. The
I I three phase full-wave rectifier section uses
0 20 uncontrolled diodes: hence losses are reduced,
Time (ms)
power factor is increased, and control circuitry is
minimized compared to thyristor drives. The
Fig. 1. Capacitor switching transient at drive inductor-capacitor (LC) filter is the dc link between
terminals the rectifier and inverter that filters the ripple and
0-7803-3008-0195 $4.00 0 1995 IEEE 2199
RECTIFIER I FILTER I INVERTER
attenuate the transient in question. Because of the
harmonic currents generated by the rectifier, lower
cutoff frequencies could cause excessive insertion
loss.

Inverter
The capacitor switching transient can cause
excessive voltage at the inverter input. Due to cost,
the inverter transistors may have limited over
I I voltage capability. For example, 480 V drives use
1200 V transistors where the rectified dc can be as
Fig. 2. Diagram of PWM drive. much as 690 V. To protect the inverter transistors,
an over voltage trip is provided at approximately
further improves power factor. The inverter 760 V for 400 ms that shuts down the inverter.
section converts the dc to the required ac frequency Consequently, for nominal input voltage conditions,
and voltage by pulse-width-modulation at a the inverter has only a 10% over voltage margin.
switching frequency of 10 to 100 times the base For such an event, the drive controls often provide
frequency. Because of the required switching speed, fault code that will indicate high dc voltage as the
the inverter section most frequently uses bipolar cause. This mechanism is much less likely with 240
transistors, insulated gate bipolar transistors V drives since they use 800 to 1000 V transistors
(IGBT), or field effect transistors (FET). These and have a 40% or greater over voltage margin.
semiconductors have simpler gating requirements
than thyristors and, hence, require less complex Some drive manufacturers have recommended
control circuiay. However, transistors do not have that their dynamic braking option will decrease
the current handling capability of slower susceptibility to the transient. In situations where
semiconductors and, consequently, PWM drives are the mechanical load drives the motor above
only available up to several hundred horsepower. synchronous speed, the motor operates as an
induction generator and increases the drive dc
The three major sub-parts of the PWM drive are voltage. An example would be quickly decreasing
analyzed for their susceptibility to' the capacitor the drive frequency while the motor is operating a
switching transient. They are the rectifier, filter, high inertia load. The frequency corresponding to
and inverter sections. the motor's speed may, momentarily, exceed the
inverter output frequency. The brake is a resistor
Rectifier that is electronically switched across the drive dc
bus to lower the dc voltage. However, in all the
The 60 Hz rectification section consists of a three cases where this was attempted, the brake did not
phase full-wave bridge. The diodes conduct respond sufficiently fast to limit the transient
symmetrically about the peak of the crest of the voltage.
voltage waveform. The width of the conduction
interval depends on the drive load level with Filter
higher load requiring a wider conduction interval.
Since when conducting the diode directly passes the Although other factors contribute toward
voltage waveform, a damped oscillatory transient in susceptibility to the capacitor switching transient,
the range of 300 Hz to 2000 Hz readily passes the dc filter design is the most important. Since the
through the rectification stage. filter components are relatively expensive
compared to other drive components, ffiter
The rectifier section contains devices to protect performance must be balanced against cost. There
the semiconductors from disruptive and damaging are two mechanisms by which the filter can cause
electrical disturbances. Transient voltage surge equipment disruption. The first is the filter
suppressors are connected at the ac incoming presents a low impedance to the transient and
terminals. However, these devices begin operating causes a corresponding current transient that can
at 200% to 300% of rated voltage. Since the either trip over current devices or damage the
capacitor switching transient can be 1 W o to 200% rectifiers. The second is that the filter passes the
greater than rated voltage, the surge suppressors voltage transient and inverter dc over voltage
have no effect. If the surge suppressor is sized to a protection is actuated.
lower voltage, it partially conducts during high
voltage conditions and will over heat. Noise filters The filter normally takes the form of an
are also sometimes added to the incoming power inductor-capacitor (LC) low pass filter (see Figure
lines to protect the drive against conducted noise. 3 ) . Ripple current is shunted through the capacitor
These are ineffective since their cut-off frequencies and ripple voltage is dropped across the inductor.
are generally at a few kilohertz and are too high to The capacitor is sized to shunt most of the ripple
2200
current from the load. If the load is variable, the magnitude is high enough, the drive may be
criterion should be applied at maximum load. If disrupted or damaged. For equipment that
the load is assumed to be purely resistive and operates with variable load, the mechanism is more
represented by RL, the filter capacitor is sized by probable at heavy rather than light load conditions
the criterion since device thermal margins are narrower. The
current surge could cause the over current
protection for the equipment to operate. Or, due to
poor design, the rectifiers may fail before the over
current protection acts. In small motor drives
L without an inductor in the filter, fuse blowing is the
most common response to capacitor switching.

The other mechanism of disruption is that the


voltage transient passes through the filter to the
inverter where over voltage protection operates.
Smaller drives where the filter inductor has been
omitted are very vulnerable to this mechanism.
Those filters that include the inductor would be
expected to attenuate the transient since the
Fig. 3. The LC filter. transient frequency is above the ripple frequency.
where n ~ i the
s ripple frequency. Setting KL to be However, there are cases where an inductor is
10 times the capacitive reactance, Cbecomes present and the transient passes through the filter
with little, if any, attenuation. For this to occur, the
C = - 10 inductor must saturate because of the transient.
n CUR, The inductor flux is determined by both the dc
current and the ripple voltage across the inductor.
The load ripple voltage can be determined by McLayman provides a complete description of
applying the voltage divider rule across the inductor design in [6]. If the transient voltage is
inductor and capacitor. If VINis the rms value of much greater than the ripple voltage, the inductor
the ripple voltage into the filter and VOW is the could be driven into saturation. In saturation, the
ripple voltage out of the filter, inductance is an eighth or tenth of its unsaturated
value and the filter would let pass transients of a
few kHz.
(3) The ripple voltage for a three phase full wave
noC rectifier is only 6% of the phase voltage. If the
capacitor switching transient is 20% or more of the
The inductor is then sized to provide the specified phase voltage and inductor dc current is at its rated
voltage ripple reduction from the expression value, the transient can easily drive the inductor
into saturation. A heavily loaded drive would be
more susceptible to transient saturation.

With the inductor in saturation, the filter


behaves like an RC network where K is the
In effect, the load impedance determines equivalent resistance of the filter. The transient
capacitance and the desired voltage ripple voltage integrates across the capacitor until the
determines the inductance. Although the amount of over voltage limit is exceeded for the inverter.
ripple depends on the application, 1%or less is
considered typical. The resonant frequency of the SIMULATION
LC network should be chosen between the possible
harmonic current frequencies of the drive to To evaluate the effect of the capacitor switching
prevent resonance. The inductor also affects power transient on PWM drives, a drive was modeled with
factor and the current range over which the the SPICE electronic simulation program. The
rectifiers continuously conduct. On low power simulation provides a flexible means of exploring
equipment (for example drives under 5 hp), the circuit behavior without the cost and time required
inductor is frequently omitted to reduce cost. for the equivalent hardware tests.

Since the filter capacitor can be considered a Drive Model


short circuit at the transient frequencies under
discussion, the inductor determines transient SPICE was originally developed as simulation
current response. If the transient current program for low power analog circuits. For power
2201
RL XL RL

LLOAD
Fig. 4. SPICE circuit diagram. 13

electronic applications, two problems arise. First,


the program must readily handle three phase
sources with the flexibility and accuracy of single
phase sources. Second, device models must be
available in the current and voltage ratings
common for power electronic applications.

The SPICE program selected for the drive 0.01 0.615 0.02 0.025 0 03
modelling is a comercial version compatible with 400
Berkeley SPICE 2G.6. A three phase voltage source,
GEN3, is provided that allows control of frequency, 200
phase, amplitude, and balance. However, the U
number of high voltage and current semiconductor 9
device models is limited. Consequently, the !io
simulations were scaled for 240 V from the actual 9
-200
supply voltage of the field tests of 480 V.
-400
The circuit modelled for the simulation is based 0.01 0 015 0.02 0 025 0.03
on an actual 10 hp PWM 480 V induction motor TIME (SEC)
drive available in the authors' laboratory. Drive
component information was not available for the Fig. 5 . Drive ac input voltage.
field tested drives. To scale the drive for 240 V
operation without adjusting the component current transient performance of the field tested drive.
ratings, the motor size was reduced to 5 hp. The Therefore, the simulation circuit includes a
modelled drive has no field history or laboratory saturable inductor model for the filter inductor
test evidence of capacitor switching transient developed by Rumsey [ 7 ] .
susceptibility. The challenge of the simulation is to
Since voltage out of the LC filter is of primary
perturb a well performing drive so that it behave
like a highly susceptible drive. interest, the drive inverter and motor were not
directly modelled. Instead, a series resistor and
inductor provides an equivalent load representing
The circuit modelled in SPICE is shown in Figure the 5 hp motor's mechanical output and leakage
4 and includes the electrical source, the drive and inductance. Two of the quantities of interest from
the motor. GEN3 creates a balanced three phase
240 V rms source for the circuit with the neutral the simulation results are input and output voltages
for the LC fdter (V1 and V2 in Figure 4) to evaluate
resistor added to terminate the neutral node from
the source. The source impedance is represented the effectiveness of the filter and whether the
inverter dc over voltage limit is exceeded. The
by the RS and LS phase elements and is identical to
other quantity of interest is the inductor current (I
the source impedance for field tested drives. The in Figure 4)during the transient to determine if the
capacitor switching transient is created by three
voltage sources in series with GEN3. Seventeen diodes are damaged or over current protection
milliseconds into the simulation, the transient operates.
voltage sources add a damped 24% transient at 450
Simulation Results
Hz (see Figure 5 ) . The transient duplicates the
transient measured in the field at the drive ac
The results of three cases are presented with
terminals. The 17 ms delay allows the circuit to different LC inductor operating modes: linear
settle into steady state operation. operation, saturation, and no inductor.
The LC filter uses a series inductor shunted by a
capacitor with actual inductor and estimated Linear operation: The results of the first case to
capacitor losses included as equivalent resistances. be considered with the drive fully loaded and a
Inductor saturation appears to be a factor in the linear inductor in the LC filter are shown in Figure
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400

350
Lu
25 300

-25 2000.01 0.015 0.02

TIME (SEC)
FILTER
INPUT

FILTER
OUTPUT
0 025

Fig. 6. Filter transient voltage response with linear


200
0.01 0.015 0.02
TIME (SEC)
.........

Fig. 7. Filter transient voltage response with


0.025
FILTER
INPUT

FILTER

inductor. inductor saturation.


6. The input voltage to the LC filter exceeds 400 V saturated, the filter acts as a RC integrating
yet the output shows little effect of the transient. network. The peak dc voltage is still less than the
Scaling down from 480 V drives, the typical dc trip peak three phase transient voltage of 420 V (see
level to protect the inverter would be 380 V. Over Figure 5 ) .
voltage protection would not be actuated in this
case. There is a low frequency oscillation apparent The corresponding inductor current peaks at 148
in both the filter output voltage and the inductor A as a result of the transient. With the inductance
current. This oscillation is due to the interaction of reduced to almost a tenth of its non-saturated
the filter capacitor and inductor which have a value, a very low impedance is presented to the
combined resonant frequency of 70 Hz. The 70 Hz voltage transient. The magnitude of the current
voltage component does not appear at the ac source transient is sufficient to operate over current
but does appear at the motor. protection or damage diodes.
The inductor current due to the transient caused a At light load the inductor current is reduced and
corresponding 8 A transient. Since ac input current the capability to operate with transient voltages
for the drive is about 14 A at full load, the peak without saturating is improved. Shown in Figure 8
would not cause over current protective devices to are the LC filter input and output voltages with the
trip the drive. same applied capacitor voltage transient except the
drive is operating at 1Wo load. There is a slight
Saturation: The next case examines the
consequence of designing the filter inductor to
operate just below saturation at full load. A
transient voltage applied to the inductor could
readily force the core into saturation. The inductor
core is assumed to be M19 transformer iron with a
saturation flux density of 1.0 T. The actual inductor
has 20 cm2 core area and 64 turns. The saturation
level of the inductor was adjusted by varying the
number of turns.
The simulation result for the LC filter input and
output voltages are shown in Figure 7. In this case 250 - INPUT
the peak filter output voltage is 385 V and the over FILTER
voltage protection limit of 380 V is exceeded for -, OUTPUT
500 ms. The drive will trip because the voltage 200:. . . . f . * . . 1 * .I. . i I I I ,I
applied to the inverter section exceeds the over 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025
voltage protection limits for magnitude and TIME (SEC)
duration. Furthermore, since the capacitor voltage
exceeds the peak LC filter input voltage, the
transient voltage integrated across the filter Fig. 8. Filter transient voltage response with
capacitor. As described earlier, with the inductor saturable inductor at light load.
2203
300

0
I Drive dc

ac Input

0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025


TIME (SEC) -700

0 20 40
Fig. 9. Filter transient voltage response without an
inductor. Time (ms)

increase in filter output voltage as the capacitor is Fig. 10. Gantry drive transient waveforms.
charged to a greater voltage but not suffkient to
interfere with drive operation. The 70 Hz In the field tests, the ac input and drive dc
oscillation is absent is this case because the diodes voltage on two drives in an automobile engine
are not conducting continuously at light load. manufacturing plant are monitored. A utility 40 kV
station capacitor bank was closed in a series of tests
No Inductor: The last case to be considered is a and the drive responses recorded. The electrical
drive with no filter inductor. The inductor is data for the electrical network ahead of the drives,
sometimes omitted in s m a l l drives to decrease cost. including the transient at the drive terminals, were
Although none of the field tests involved such a modelled in the simulation. However, the drive was
drive, they are sufficiently common to merit modelled from a unit that was available in the
examination. Here, the filter input and output laboratory that was not involved in the field tests.
voltages are identical since there is only a shunt
filter capacitor. Figure 9 shows the capacitor One of the two drives tested, the grinder drive,
voltage as a result of the transient with other consistently tripped as a result of the capacitor
conditions identical to the previous cases. As in transient although it was equipped with a dc filter
previous cases, the filter capacitor and parasitic inductor. The other unit tested, the gantry drive,
resistances behave like an RC integrating network was also equipped with a filter inductor but did not
for the transient voltage. The dc voltage peaks at
420 V which is the magnitude of the three phase
transient peak and more than enough to operate KD
the inverter over voltage protection.
Drive dc
The resulting dc current is 188 A which is over
ten times full load. Since the filter capacitor
presents a very low impedance to the transient
frequency, the source impedance determines the
resulting transient current. In this case it is very ac Input
high and could operate over current protection or
damage diodes. A drive without the filter inductor 300
is very vulnerable to over voltage and over current
problems due to capacitor switching transient. -700

Field Test Comparison 0 20 40

The simulation results are now compared to the Time (ms)


field test results described in [2]. Since there were
no tests of drives without a LC filter inductor, this Fig. 11. Grinder drive ac and dc transient
simulation case is not compared. waveforms.
2204
trip as a result of the transient.

If the linear inductor drive simulation results [I] IEEE Committee Report, "Bibliography on
are compared with gantry drive results Figure 10, Switching of Capacitor Circuits Exclusive of
the dc transient voltage at the LC filter output is Series Capacitors,"IEEE Transactions, PAS, Vol.
similar except for the 70 Hz oscillation. The 89, NO. 6, pp 1203-1207,JUl/AUg 1970.
similarity is more apparent if the gantry drive
results are compared to Figure 8 where the [2] V. E Wagner, J. P. S t a n i a k , and T. L. Orloff,
oscillation is absent. The 70 Hz voltage oscillation "Utility Capacitor Switching and Adjustable
present in the simulation output is absent from the Speed Drives," IEEE Transaction on Industry
field results. The gantry drive was tested at light Applications, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 645-651,
load and the simulation showed that the 70 Hz Jul/Aug 1991.
oscillation is absent when the diodes are not
continuously conducting at light load. [3] G. T. Hensley, T. Singh, M. Samotyj, M.
McGranaghan, and R. Zavadil, "Impact of
The simulation of a drive with a saturating filter Utility Switched Capacitors on Customer
inductor tested the hypothesis that saturation was Systems, Part I - Magnification at Low
responsible for the observed response of the Voltage Capacitors," IEEE Transactions on
grinder drive. The LC filter output dc voltages for Power Delivery, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 862-868,
the grinder drive are shown in Figure 11. The Apr 1992.
simulation verified that when the voltage transient
forces the filter inductor into saturation, the LC [4] M. McGranaghan, T. E. Grebe, G. T. Hensley, T.
filter effectively passes the transient to the inverter Singh, and M. Samotyj, "Impact of Utility
section. After the dc peak voltage was reached in Switched Capacitors on Customer Systems,
the simulation, the voltage quickly decayed to Part I1 - Adjustable Speed Drive Concerns,"
normal. For the actual drive, the over voltage IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 6,
protection immediately trips the inverter and the NO. 4, pp. 1623-1628,Oct 1991.
peak dc voltage decays over a much longer time.
[SI ANSIAEEE Standard C62.41, IEEE
CONCLUSIONS Recommended Practice on Surge Voltages in
Low-voltage AC Power Circuits, 1991.
The preceding simulation explored how ac drives
with uncontrolled rectifiers respond to the capacitor [6] W. T. McLayman, Transformer and Inductor
switching transient. The results may be Design Handbook, Marcel Dekker, 1988.
summarized by the following:
[A D. L. Rumsey, "A Saturing Transformer Model
PWM drives can be disrupted by the transient for SPICE," Proc 15th Intersoc Energy Convers
either by dc over voltage at the inverter input or Eng Conf, Vol 1, Seattle WA, pp. 95-99, 1980.
by a current surge through the drive filter
capacitor. The over voltage triggers an over
voltage trip to protect the inverter transistors.
The current surge can operate over current
devices or damage diodes.

Without a filter inductor or with an inductor that


is saturated by the transient, the filter acts to
integrate the voltage transient which can elevate
the voltage into the inverter section to very high
levels.
A properly designed filter inductor that does not
saturate during the transient minimizes
susceptibility of the drive.
If the filter inductor has been omitted from the
drive, the drive is susceptible to both filter
capacitor over current and dc over voltage.

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