A Predictive Control Technique.

for PWM-Rectifier in Vector, Controlled

Induction Motor Drives

Gianluca BRANDO, Andrea DEL PIZZO

Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Napoli Federico 11, Via Claudio 21, 80125 Napoli-Italy
eniail : brando@mina.it, delpizzo@unina.it

Abstruct - In the paper an optimized control technique of an
active front-end is described with reference to induction mntor
drives with a V.S.lnverter combined to an active VSRectifier.
Both motor-side and line-side PWM converters emplo! IGBTs
as switching devices.
Based on a simplified analytical solution of the system
mathematical model in a discrete digital control, a coupled
control plus modulation technique is pointed out. It is able to
easil? estimate the values of the interesting electrical quantities
in some switching instants within the control sampling period.
This allows us to directl! evaluate the width of the different
m o d u l a t i o n i n t e r v a l s . A verj simple method to quickly
recognize the modulation sector in the complex plane is also
proposed.
A numerical analysis is performed in order to test the reaction
capability of the active front-end to different h e a y variations of
the operating conditions of the drive.
irregularities in line currents during load transient
operations.
With this aim, in the following a coupled control plus.
modulation algorithm is pointed out on the basis of an
approxiiiiated inathematical model.
11. BASICCONSIDERATIONS
In the paper a V.S.1.-PWM vector-controlled induction
motor drive is investigated with reference especially to the
line performances when an active front-end is used and
controlled through optimized algorithms. The reference
circuit configuration is in fig.1, where the presence of a
V.S.Rectifier is evidenced together with a balanced three-
phase input network.

1. ~KTRODUCTIOK
The niodem complexity of electrical distribution networks
iiiakes necessary to constantly ensure high levels of power
quality. In fact, every kind of disturbances can originate
incorrect operations, mainly in electronic-based apparatuses.
The probleiii is continuously increased in the last years,
I I I 1 1 I
owing to the large number of. new sophisticated devices 0
introduced in industry and in our daily life in general. Fig.1: Configuration of an induction motor drive with active fiont-end
Electrical d r i v e s play a primary iniportance role in
producing distortion in line currents and voltages, because By referring to the left-hand part of the diagram in fig. 1,
the need of speed and position controlled drives is very the Kirchoff laws applied to the different time-varying
large; therefore, at the same time, they are also victims of circuits give rise to the well-known electrical inathematical
asynmetrical andlor non sinusoidal feeding network which model:
p r o d u c c s undesired effects. For this reasons. in order to
avoid serious problem for the supplying network and for the
relating loads, passive and/or active filters are used in
conjunction with each electrical drive. Altematively, an
active front-end can be used as first stage of a converter-fed
drive.
where the used symbols are clearly explained in fig.1 and
By means of a proper control strategy, active front-ends
respectively represent the following quantities:
can strongly reduce harmonic content of line currents,
R, L line resistance and inductance
improve the resultant power factor, reduce ripple in dc-link,
vT1 k-th phase supplying voltage
helping the control of the second stage (niotor-side) of the
iyL k-th phase line current
feeding converter. Obviously, active front-ends are more
I>(, dc-link voltage
useful if they are efficacious not only in steady-state
o p e r a t i o n s of the drive, but also in heavy transient C dc-link capacitance
conditions. This can be yield through very efficient control io dc-link output rectifier current
techniques of the active rectifier. In fact, in many cases, iL dc-link input inverter current
simple hysteresis controllers are not able to well compensate sA k-th phase switching fimction of the active front-end

0-7803-7369-3/02/$17.00 0 2002 IEEE 1196

 instantaneous voltage of O' point with,respect to
I>,,.(, o. If a three-phase synmetrical system of sinusoidal voltages
point is considered, the control scheme in fig2 is able to force the
By introducing the complex quantities: line currents to be sinusoidal with an unitary power factor and
to keep constant the dc-link voltage.
For the control technique described in fig.2, the feedback
of the dc-link voltage allows a quick evaluation of the
k=l
reference currents i,:, (l-=1,23) by simply multiplying line
voltages and the output K of the dc-voltage PI-controller.
If a digital control of the active front-end is provided, in
each sampling interval Ts we can try to force the condition:

1 =I

i.e. the actual currents at the end of the generic sampling

the first of eq.s( 1 ) can be easily transformed as:
interval have to assume the values of the corresponding
reference currents at the beginning of Ts.
d . R The condition ( 5 ) can be obtained by properly driving the
-I =--i; +\I,, -sv0 (3)
d t '' L '
active rectifier within each Ts interval on the basis also of the
A very simplei analytical solution of eq.(3) is found if v,?and actual values of line currents isL(0)and voltages v,r(O) directly
i'o voltages can be assumed constant within an assigned detected from the circuit.
interval (ti,, , tfi,,) together with the conduction-state s of the If a classical &branches bridge is used as V.S.Rcctifier, we
active front-end. Under these hypotheses, for the current can divide the saiiipling interval 7', into four different-length
space-vector we obtain: sub-intervals, as schematically represented in fig.3.
Modulation Inreiuls T m e ( a )
100 110
(4) OlOk 000 010 011 1 1 1
001 I O 1
I 1,112 I .I1 I t2 I to:? I
where the subscript 717'' refers to the value in the initial
instant t,,, 01 I
Modulation Inreiwls Type (h)
110 100
I l l 011 010 000
111. PREDlCTlVE CONTROL AND MODULATION
ood L l O l
101 001
TECHNIQUE Itd' I t," 1 " t3- I1,,/2 I
Active front-ends are mainly used to reduce undesired
influences of an electric drive on the feeding network. This Fig.3: Inverter states and modulatioii inteiwls in a sampling period
aim is yield by properly modulating the PWM rectifier in
order eithcr to avoid distortion and asynuiietries in the line In each of them, the conduction state of the bridge is
currents or to miniinize the reactive power drew from the unmodified, so every phase conmutates always one time in
elcctrical network. each T,. Among the possible states of the active front-end,
two adjacent non-zero voltages are applied for tI and f 2 time
intervals, while the O-voltage is applied for a to time. This
last interval lo is splitted into two equal parts in order to
better distribute the coiimiutations of the electronic devices.
The possible eoiiiiiiutations are shown in fig.3, where two
strings of subsequent intervals (type (a) and type (b)) are
detailed.
Predictive Control
sild Modulation
Obviously, in order to yield the condition (5), the problem
is the correct definition of the two non-zero voltage space-
vectors and the respective application time intervals tl and /?.
This can be achieved by applying eq.(4) to the different
conmutation intervals, where the complex switching function
s is constant.
Let's define:

Fig.?: Block diagram of the control scheme

1197
 Tab. I: Definition of the modulation sector if the evaluation .
By assuming the line voltages and the dc-link voltage
of t l and 12 is made in a genenc sector
constants in the sainpling interval, we obtain:
1 Modulation sector ns I

. ... .. .

RESULTS
1 v . NUMERICAL
where i&t) is thc instantaneous value of the current space The proposed predictive control algorithm of active front-
vector in the coinmutation interval j ; v,,(,, is,(,and \j(,,n are the ends has been applied to the circuit of fig. 1 with reference to
values of the line voltage and current space vectors and of the an electrical drive whose main data and characteristics are in
dc-link voltage at the beginning of the sainpling period; s I and tab. 11.
s2 are the complex switching functions in the intervals t , and The considered induction inotor is controlled by means of
12. an indirect field-oriented technique. A sampling interval of 50
By expressing i3(T3) as a function of is,(,,the condition (5) ps is assumed for simulating investigations.
The values of the inductance L , dc-link capacitance C and
becomes:
dc-link voltage \Jo are properly sized in order to minimize
both the line current distortion and the variations in
magnitude of the dc-link voltage during transient operations.
As above mentioned, the control of the active rectifier
This is a complex equation whose unknowns are the
needs the presence of a PI controller for the DC-link voltage
application times /I and /? of the non-zero voltage vectors and
regulation. Its proportional constant is tuned on the basis of
the corresponding switching functions sI and s2. These last
the inaxiiiiuiii diidt that can bc obtained in the
two quantities refer to two adjacent voltage space-vectors
V.S.R. in correspondence of assigned voltage variations. The
which individuate one of the six modulation sectors of the
integral constant of the PI controller is linked to the
complex plane.
bandwidth of the voltage loop.
It is easy to verify that only a pair of sI and s2 values allows
In order to test the effectiveness of the proposed control
an acceptable solution of the eq.(8). That is, there is only a
technique, soiiie heavy transient operations are considered.
pair of sI and s2 for which both the times t l and t2 have
Numerical results are synthesized in the figures (4): ( 5 ) and
positive values. This last condition can be exploited in order
(6).
to rapidly solve the eq.( 8) in two steps.
First we can try to find the solution starting from a generic
assigncd sector 111 with I I ~ (1,6).
E Different cases can occur Tab. 11: Electrical parameters of the simulated circuit
depending on tl and t2 signs; these arc listed in tab. I, where
the corresponding sectors 17, are listed. Here v I and
output vector voltages of V.S.R. in f I and I?:
are the
tine to line RMS voltage I 400 V
line frequency I 50Hz I
line resistance I 0.1 R I
Froin the last two coluinns in tab. I we can note that the line inductance I 4.3 iilH I
dc-link reference voltage I 1
inodulation sector depends also on the sequence we apply the
650 V
two active vector voltages. This sequence depends on the
sector where we coinpute tl, t2 and on the inodulation interval dc-link capacitance
type (a) or (b) according to fig.3. rated motor power 7.5 kW
In all the examined cases, t1 and t2 are evaluated on the
rated inotor voltage
basis of very simple computations, that is, no divisions or
trigonometric functions are required. motor pole number I 4 I

1198
 80
i I
i I
640
Fig.4: Time behavior of some motor. dc-link and line quantities
The three upper diagrains of fig4 show the time behavior
of electromagnetic torque, rotation speed and phase-current
of the motor. In all of them the load-torque is assumed
proportional to the motor speed.
Starting from stand-still, the motor is driven to the rated
speed with the rated load-torque curve; the maximum
allowable torque is limited to 1.5 times its nominal value.
1199
25 _ _ -I-
. . . . .
. . . . . .
665
I I
6 4 0 6-.
I...-. .. - __ -_I--
I ~~ ..
n 47 0 51 0 55 0 59 n 63 0 67
IBr k c
Time I [.SI
Fig.5: Line current and dc-link voltage i n an enlarged scale
Rated steady-state condition is reached in about 0.5s. From
the last two diagrams of fig.4 it is possible to recognize that
during motor starting the voltage on dc-link capacitor reiliains
practically unchanged, while the current drew froni the
network is not affected by appreciable level of distortion.
Moreover, the current magnitude increases with regularity
following thc inotor speed profile during the interval where
the torque is limited. In the interval (0.25.7, 0.5s) the line
current is practically sinusoidal and in phase with the line
voltage and its magnitude is constant because the power
required by the drive is substantially constant (see torque and
speed diagrams in fig. 4).
At about the time of 0.5s reference speed is changed to a
lower value enough to generate a situation for which the
negative limitation of the reference torque occurs (see 1"
diagram of fig.4 just after ~ 0 . 5 ~In) this
. braking condition,
the motor speed decreases while the annature current varies
quickly and its magnitude increases. The correspondent
increase and inversion of the motor-side dc-link current
produces a fast variation of the voltage 110 on the capacitor
(=2.5%). The inability to keep constant 1)n is not due to the
used control technique of the active front-end, but can be
ascribed to the limitations of the niaxiinum derivatives of
reference currents (di'idt) compatible with physical circuit
parameters. In order to better understand the behavior of the
control system during this hard braking condition, capacitor
voltage and line current are more detailed in fig.5. The line
current, which is in phase with the line voltage during the
steady state before braking, after the instant tu, becomes in
opposition (coscp= -1). In a very short time the control system
of V.S.R. is able to lead the voltage 1)" to its reference value
vi. Obviously the new steady-statc condition is reached in a
longer time (about 5 current periods) because of the time
required by the mechanical transient of the motor.
 I

. . . . . . . . . . l l - . .. . . - T.H.D. = 2.7% . . . .

. . . . . .

.-

. . . . . . .

. . .
.-E i o

30 - II

530 ~ ~
.___
0.47 0 51 0 55 0 59 0.63 0 67

Time I [SI

Fig.6: Line current and dc-link voltage when a 6-diode bridge is used

At the instant i,,< a new variation of the reference speed is

V.SHORT CONCLUSIVE REMARKS
iniposed to the control circuit; CO: value is set equal to the
A coupled control plus modulation algorithm of an active
rated motor speed. Also this acceleration phase is
VXRectifier has been presented. It is based on very simple
characterized by a limitation in the reference electroiiiagnetic
recursive equations suitable for a quick evaluation of the
torque. From fig.5 we can deduce a behavior similar to the
voltage vectors to be used for the modulation and for their
previously described one, but globally less onerous. In fact
application times. The nunierical results have verified the
the variation of the dc-link voltage is less than 1%. This is
validity of the control technique, in order to keep constant the
due to a lower amplitude of the step variation of the electric
dc-link voltage and to liniit distortion in the line currents. In
power required by the drive in comparison with the one in
the analyzed case-study, the maximum deviation of dc-link
braking operation.
voltage has been of about 2.5% during heavy braking
With the aim to show the main benefits of the presence of
operations of the drive, while the T.H.D. of the line current in
an active front-end with respect to the traditional drive with a
steady-state has been always less than 3%.
6-diodc bridge, in fig.6 line current and dc-link voltage are
plotted in correspondence of the same operating conditions of
fig. 5. Due to the impossibility to recover energy on the
VI. REFERENCES
network, a braking resistance is used in parallel with the
capacitor and impulsed in a traditional way. With a diode A.W.Green and J.T.Boys, "Hysteresis current-forced three-phase
voltage-sourced reversible rectifier". Electric Poii,er ,4p/diCUti<JJJS,
bridge, the dc voltage ripple is much higher during steady- IEE P ~ ~ ~ c ~ c l i iMayi g . ~1989.
- , vol. 136, no. 3. pages 1 13-120.
state operations and suffers very large variations during R.Wu, S.B.Dewan and G.R.Slemon, "A PWM AC-to-DC converter
braking. Correspondently the line current is impulsive and with fixed switching frequency". / ~ I L I Z I S IAp/~/icatior?s.
JI IEEE
0 1 7 . Sept.-Oct. 1990. Vol. 26, no. 5. pages 880-885.
TJ'<7l?.SUct/OJ7S'
rich of hamionic content, which cannot be easily
N.R.Zargari and GJoos, "Perfoniiance investigation of a cuuent-
compensated by parallel active filters. controlled voltage-regulated PWM rectifier in rotating and stationary
Finally, fig.7 shows a period of the steady-state line current frames". Iiitlitstriul Elrct,oi7ics, IEEE Tra~i,sactio~is 0 1 ) . Aug. 1995,
and its frequency spectrum in presence of an active front-end vol. 42, no. 4. pages 396401.
working at full load. As expected, the PW-modulation of S.Fukuda. .'LQ control of sinusoidal cument PWM rectifiers", Electric
P o w r Applicatioii.~,IEE Proceedir7g.s-, March 1991. vol. 144. no. 2.
VSR is able to cancel all the low-frequency harmonics and pages 95-1 00.
spectrum is composed only by components at frequencies T.Kataoka, Y.Fuse, DNakajiiiia and S.Nishikatn. "A three-phase
multiple of the switching one. In the examined case the line voltage-type PWM rectifier with the function of an active power filter
current is quite sinusoidal and compatible with the actual ". in P o u w Electi~oiiicsarid I'aa,~inhlcSpeed Drives, 2000. Eighth
Iiireriiutiorial C U J ~ / ~ W 0I1 1W . 2000.
C E E Conf. Publ. No. 475. pages
limitations imposed by electrical energy suppliers. The total 386391.
hamionic distortion factor is, in fact, less than 3%.

1200