DETERMINATION OF EFFECTIVE SCREEN DESIGN FOR VARIABLE SPEED DRIVE CABLES Xiaoming Li, Leighton Brown, Paul Barcham

Technical Department General Cable New Zealand Limited Christchurch, New Zealand Email: xiaoming.li@generalcable.co.nz, leighton.brown@generalcable.co.nz, paul.barcham@generalcable.co.nz Abstract This paper focuses on an alternative screen solution for cables with variable speed drives. The higher switching speeds of the modern AC variable speed motor drives generate more EMI. The EMI emitted from the power cable can induce voltages, current or crosstalk on adjacent cables and radiated EMI can interfere with radio equipment and smart card technology. To reduce the coupling between the circuits and radiated noise, screening techniques are introduced. A cable with a screen provides an excellent shield for the high frequency pulses being transmitted to the motor. On this basis, the different screening techniques are investigated for cable design issues.

1.

INTRODUCTION

AC variable speed drives (VSD) have become widely used throughout industry over the past decade, because of their benefits in energy efficiency and controllability. Newer technology semi-conducting power switching devices known as IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) that are capable of faster switching speeds are employed in the application of PWM inverters. IGBT switching devices offer fast switching at the high levels of voltage and current required. It provides more precise speed control, and reduces the power device losses resulting in smaller size of the device and heat sink assemblies. However, the higher switching speeds of the IGBTs creates a higher, capacitively coupled, transient noise current to ground that does not return on the output phase leads. This ground noise current pollutes the ground grid and is called Common Mode (CM) or zero sequence current [1, 2]. The Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) emitted from the power cable also can induce voltages, currents or crosstalk on adjacent cables, which is potentially dangerous to equipment and personnel. The VSD cable screen operates by creating an opposing magnetic field produced by the current flowing in the screen so that the field influencing the elements of the cable is reduced. It reduces radiated cable emissions. In addition, reduction of noise on signaling circuits may also be achieved by using screened cable. The effective screen design of VSD cables is one viable alternative solution to control the drive's high frequency noise current path

and divert it from conducting into the plant system ground. As shown in Figure1, the screened VSD cable acts like capacitors with one leg connected to the phase line and the other to the Protective Earthing Ground (PE) wire. The mutual capacitance between conductor wire and screen collects the radiated disturbance as a noise current to the PWM inverter s casing. In this case the radiated emission is converted to conducted emission from the screened VSD cable to the PE- wire. The VSD cable must minimize the effect of high frequency noise induced into the plant ground system as a result of faster switching speeds of the new IGBT [3].

PWM

Cable Capacitance PE
Ground plane

Figure1. Simplified Cable Screen and Ground Current Paths In this paper, seven different cable constructions were set up to run the same motor from the same VSD. The cable transfer impedance, which is regarded as a measure of the cable screens shielding effectiveness, was investigated and analyzed by modeling the magnetic coupling and electric coupling characteristics of the cables with different screening

methods. The tests have been carried out to evaluate the performance of the screened VSD cables. 2. SCREENED CABLES COMPARED

There are many cables that have been found as a recommended cable type for VSD applications. Seven different screened cable constructions compared in this paper are those that have had some history in VSD applications and have been developed as a recommended cable type for VSD applications. What may have good electrical characteristics may also be very structurally weak and vice versa. All cable consists of 2.5mm2 plain annealed copper cores. 1) Neutral Screen1 (NS1) Cable: 3 cores, symmetrical, and copper wire screen. Neutral can be connected as an earth and screen. 2) Neutral Screen1 (NS2) Cable: 4 cores, and copper wire screen. Neutral can be connected as an earth and screen. 3) Copper Tape Screen (CTS) Cable: three earth cores are placed in the three interstices under tight

4)

5)

6) 7)

manufacturing tolerances, and in combination with the copper tape screen. Because of the 2.5 mm2 small size cable used, it is not physically possible to incorporate interstitial earth into the cable design and so a three cores and one earth cable was used. KleenScreen1 (KS1) Cable: 3 cores, symmetrical, heavy-duty copper tape screen combined with the earth wire screen are applied over the laid up cores. KleenScreen1 (KS2) Cable: The same as the cable #4 KS1, and the size of their earth wire screen is different from cable #4. Copper Braid Screen (CBS) Cable: 4 cores, consists of 3 phases and earth, copper braid screened. Steel Wire Armoured (SWA) Cable: 4 cores, consists of 3 phases and earth, steel wire armoured.

For the investigation, analysis of the screening effectiveness of the cables, and modelling of them, the relative cable conductor and screen parameters were measured. They are shown in table 1 to table 7. Table1: 3 C Neutral Screen Cable (NS1) Capacitance Screen/Cores Core/Core 3.0 nF 1899 pF

Resistance Screen 83 m.ohm

Inductance Screen/Cores Core/Core 4.9 H 20 H

Resistance Screen 70 m.ohm

Inductance Screen/Cores Core/Core 3.9 H 22 H

Table2: 4 C Neutral Screen Cable (NS2) Capacitance Screen/Cores Core/Core 5.2 nF 3200 pF

Resistance Screen 252 m.ohm

Screen/Cores (earth floating) 7.2 H

Inductance Screen/Cores (earth tied to cores) 6.4 H

Table3: 3 C + 1 Earth CTS Cable (CTS) Capacitance Core/Core Screen/Cores Core/Core 20 H 3.6 nF 2.2 nF

Resistance Wire Tape Screen Screen 227 m.ohm 240 m.ohm

Wire Screen /Cores 5.8 H

Tape Screen /Cores 8.0 H

Inductance Wire Screen, Tape Screen /Cores 5.9 H

Table4: KleenScreen Cable (KS1) Capacitance Wire Screen/ Wire Core Tape Screen Screen /Core /Cores 4.2 H 2.1 nF 3.5 nF Table5: KleenScreen Cable (KS2) Capacitance Wire Screen/ Wire Core Tape Screen Screen /Core /Cores 4.4 H 2.1 nF 3.5 nF

Resistance Wire Tape Screen Screen 205 m.ohm 238 m.ohm

Wire Screen /Cores 6.0 H

Inductance Tape Wire Screen, Screen Tape Screen /Cores /Cores 7.9 H 5.9 H

Resistance Screen 204 m.ohm

Inductance Screen/Cores Core/Core 5.7 H 20 H

Table6: Copper Braid Screen Cable (CBS) Capacitance Screen/Cores Core/Core 9.05 nF 5.5 nF

Armour Resistance 135 m.ohm

Table7: Steel Wire Armoured Cable (SWA) Cores/Armour Inductance Cores/Armour Capacitance 1200 H 3.55 nF

3.

EFFECTIVENESS CABLES

OF

SCREENED

The design of cables to provide effective screening over a broad frequency spectrum is complex and cables must be tailored to specific electromagnetic environments. The unit of measure that best describes how well a screen performs or how energy transfers through the screen is its transfer impedance. Transfer impedance is the ratio of the voltage in the disturbed circuit to the current in the interfering circuit along an elementary length of the screen. The lower the transfer impedance, the better the isolation. A low transfer impedance allows less energy to pass through the screen than a high transfer impedance. For modeling of the effect electrical and magnetic fields, we have to distinguish between low and high frequencies. The transfer impedance at low frequency (below 100kHz), is constant because the current density through the thickness of the screen is nearly uniform. This asymptotic value is approximately equal to the screen DC resistance. The transfer impedance is a way to describe the high frequency characteristics of an electromagnetic screen in term of lumped or distributed circuit elements. At high frequencies the skin effect plays an important role for the screening. The calculations of transfer impedance of homogenous tubular screen and braided screen were introduced by the literature [4]. Simulations and modeling have been carried out to investigate the performance of the VSD cables screens. Properties influencing the performance of an electromagnetic screen are the skin depth, geometrical shape among others. By determination of the transfer impedance, these properties were modeled by a circuit element giving the corresponding electric field on the secondary screen for a certain current on the primary screen surface.

Figure2 displays the high frequency transfer impedance of several types of screened cable. It shows that the magnitude of the transfer impedance of the copper tape screen cable (CTS) decreases very rapidly as frequency increases above 100KHz. The steel wire armoured cable (SWA) has a highest transfer impedance value over others.

Figure2. Transfer impedance of screened cables The cables #4, and 5 (KS1 and KS2) with more than one screen can be modeled and analyzed by applying transmission-line solutions to each screen to obtain the current in the next screen until all screens have accounted for. An equivalent transfer impedance can be obtained so that the copper tape screen and the earth wire screen can be treated as a single screen. The elements of transfer impedance were calculated initially with the first screen in place and subsequently with the addition the second screen around the first. A plot of the magnitude of the transfer impedance of the cable#4 (KS1) is calculated and is shown in Figure3. The improvement at higher frequency is much more significant.

no Screen CTS

SWA NS2 CBS 20dBuV

Figure5 The disturbance currents of 4 core cables (10kHz to 1MHz) Figure3. Transfer impedance of KleenScreen cable (Cable#4, KS1) 4. MEASUREMENTS The noise levels of the screened cables with frequency band of 1MHz to 30MHz were shown in Figures 6 and 7.

Experimental tests were carried out to evaluate the screening effectiveness of the cables. The 30 metre lengths of screened cables were used to connect a Eurotherm 605 VSD, which was operated at 50% setpoint, to an ABB M2000 motor. The AC motor was mechanically connected to a Baldor CD6202 DC motor, and Eurotherm 590 DC drive unit to provide an electronic load. Rohde & Schwarz ESH3 EMI measuring receiver was used to measure the disturbance currents on the cable from 9kHz to 30MHz. Figures 4. and 5 show the noise levels of the screened cables with frequency band of 10kHz to 1MHz. The cable screens were connected to both motor and VSD ends. For these frequency ranges, it can be seen that a relative 30 dB and 20 dB attenuation of noise between screened and unscreened for 3 and 4 core cables, and the cables KS1 and KS2 have a relative lower noise level.

no screen
NS1 KS1 KS2 20dBuV

Figure6 The disturbance currents of 3 core cables (1MHz to 30MHz)

no Screen SWA NS2 CBS CTS CTS 20dBuV

no screen
NS1 KS1 KS2 30dBuV

Figure7 The disturbance currents of 4 core cables (1MHz to 30MHz) For the frequency band of 1MHz to 30MHz, Figures 6 and 7 show the noise levels of the cables for different screen techniques range around 20 dB among the seven screened cables, and cables #3 and #4 show the best effective screening performance.

Figure4 The disturbance currents of 3 core cables (10kHz to 1MHz)

5.

CONCLUSION

This paper proposed an effective screen design for VSD cables. The transfer impedance of the VSD cables with the different screening techniques was investigated. Tests were carried out to evaluate the screening effectiveness of the cables. There is a good agreement between calculation and modelling results and measured results. For the cable with symmetrical 3 cores, heavy-duty copper tape screen combined with the earth wire screen, the improvement of screening effectiveness is much more significant. 6. [1] REFERENCES G. Skibinski, J . Pankau, R. Sladky, J. Campbell, "Generation, control and regulation of EMI from AC drives", IEEE Industry Application Conf., Oct 1997 Gary L. Skibinski, Russel J. Kerkman, Dave Schlegel, "EMI Emissions of Modern PWM AC Drives," IEEE Industry Applications Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 6 November/December 1999, pp 47-81. John M. Bentley, Patrick J. Link, "Evaluation of Motor Power Cables for PWM AC Drives", IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 33, No. 2 March/April 1997, pp 342-358. E.F. Vance, Coupling to Shielded Cables, Robert E Krieger, Malabar, FL, 1987

[2]

[3]

[4]