Two-Quadrant Single-Phase Rectifier DC Drive

Implement two-quadrant single-phase rectifier DC drive

Library

Simscape / Electrical / Specialized Power Systems / Electric Drives / DC Drives

Description

The Two-Quadrant Single-Phase Rectifier DC Drive (DC1) block represents a two-quadrant, single-phase, thyristor-based (or phase-controlled) drive for DC motors. This drive features closed-loop speed control with two-quadrant operation. The speed control loop outputs the reference armature current of the machine. Using a PI current controller, the thyristor firing angle corresponding to the commanded armature current is derived. This firing angle is then used to obtain the required gate signals for the rectifier through a thyristor bridge firing unit.

The main advantage of this drive compared with other DC drives is its implementation simplicity. However, for all two-quadrant DC drives, reversible and regenerative operations (reverse motoring and forward regeneration), which are required in most DC drives, cannot be obtained.

Note

In Simscape™ Electrical™ Specialized Power Systems software, the Two-Quadrant Single-Phase Rectifier DC Drive block is commonly called the DC1 motor drive.

The Two-Quadrant Single Phase Rectifier DC Drive block uses these blocks from the Electric Drives/Fundamental Drive Blocks library:

Speed Controller (DC)
Regulation Switch
Current Controller (DC)
Bridge Firing Unit (DC)

Remarks

The machine is separately excited with a constant DC field voltage source. There is thus no field voltage control. By default, the field current is set to its steady-state value when a simulation is started.

The armature voltage is provided by a single-phase rectifier controlled by two PI regulators. Armature current oscillations are reduced by a smoothing inductance connected in series with the armature circuit.

The average-value converter represents the average behavior of a single-phase rectifier for continuous armature current. This model is thus not suitable for simulating DC drives under discontinuous armature current conditions.The converter outputs a continuous voltage value equal to the average-value of the real-life rectified voltage. The armature voltage, armature current, and electromagnetic torque ripples are thus not represented. The input currents have the frequency and amplitude of the fundamental current component of the real-life input currents.

The model is discrete. Good simulation results have been obtained with a 25-µs time step. The control system (speed and current controllers) samples data following a user-defined sample time in order to simulate a digital controller device. Keep in mind that this sampling time has to be a multiple of the simulation time step.

The average-value converter allows the use of bigger simulation time steps since it does not generate small time constants (due to the RC snubbers) inherent to the detailed converter. For a controller sampling time of 100 µs, good simulation results have been obtained for a simulation time step of 100 µs. This time step cannot be higher than the controller time step.

General

Output bus mode

Select how the output variables are organized. If you select Multiple output buses (default), the block has three separate output buses for motor, converter, and controller variables. If you select Single output bus, all variables output on a single bus.

Model detail level

Select between the detailed and the average-value inverter. Default is Detailed.

Mechanical input

Select between the load torque, the motor speed, and the mechanical rotational port as mechanical input. Default is Torque Tm.

If you select and apply a load torque, the output is the motor speed according to the following differential equation that describes the mechanical system dynamics:

$T_{e} = J \frac{d}{d t} ω_{r} + F ω_{r} + T_{m}$

This mechanical system is included in the motor model.

If you select the motor speed as mechanical input, then you get the electromagnetic torque as output, allowing you to represent externally the mechanical system dynamics. The internal mechanical system is not used with this mechanical input selection and the inertia and viscous friction parameters are not displayed.

For the mechanical rotational port, the connection port S counts for the mechanical input and output. It allows a direct connection to the Simscape environment. The mechanical system of the motor is also included in the drive and is based on the same differential equation.

See Mechanical Coupling of Two Motor Drives.

Use signal names as labels

When you select this check box, the Motor, Conv, and Ctrl measurement outputs use the signal names to identify the bus labels. Select this option for applications that require bus signal labels to have only alphanumeric characters.

When this check box is cleared (default), the measurement output uses the signal definition to identify the bus labels. The labels contain nonalphanumeric characters that are incompatible with some Simulink^® applications.

DC Machine Tab

The DC Machine tab displays the parameters of the DC Machine block of the Fundamental Blocks (powerlib) library.

Converter Tab

Rectifier Section

The Rectifier section of the Converter tab displays the parameters of the Universal Bridge block of the Fundamental Blocks (powerlib) library. For more information on the Universal Bridge block parameters, refer to the Universal Bridge reference page.

DC Bus and Excitation Circuit Section

Smoothing inductance: The smoothing inductance value (H). Default is 150e-3.
Field DC source: The DC motor field voltage value (V). Default is 150.

External Voltage Source Section

RMS voltage: RMS voltage of the single-phase voltage source connected to the A+,A- terminals of the drive (V). This parameter is not used when using the detailed rectifier. Default is 220.
Frequency: Frequency of the single-phase voltage source connected to the A+,A- terminals of the drive (Hz). This parameter is not used when using the detailed rectifier. Default is 50.
Source inductance: Source inductance of the single-phase voltage source connected to the A+,A- terminals of the drive (H). This parameter is not used when using the detailed rectifier. Default is 1e-6.
Phase angle: Phase angle of the single-phase voltage source connected to the A+,A- terminals of the drive (deg.). This parameter is not used when using the detailed rectifier. Default is 0.

Controller Tab

Regulation type: This pop-up menu allows you to choose between speed and torque regulation. Default is Speed regulation.
Sampling time (s): The controller (speed and current) sampling time (s). The sampling time has to be a multiple of the simulation time step. Default is 100e-6.
Schematic: When you click this button, a diagram illustrating the speed and current controllers schematics appears.

Controller — Speed Controller Subtab

Nominal speed: The nominal speed value of the DC motor (rpm). This value is used to convert motor speed from rpm to pu (per unit). Default is 1750.
Initial speed reference: The initial speed reference value (rpm). This value allows the user to start a simulation with a speed reference other than 0 rpm. Default is 0.
Low-pass filter cutoff frequency: Cutoff frequency of the low-pass filter used to filter the motor speed measurement (Hz). Default is 40.
Proportional gain: The proportional gain of the PI speed controller. Default is 80.
Integral gain: The integral gain of the PI speed controller. Default is 200.
Acceleration: The maximum change of speed allowed during motor acceleration (rpm/s). Too great a value can cause armature over-current. Default is 250.
Deceleration: The maximum change of speed allowed during motor deceleration (rpm/s). Too great a value can cause armature over-current. Default is -250.

Controller — Current Controller Subtab

Low-pass filter cutoff frequency ,: Cutoff frequency of the low-pass filter used to filter the armature current measurement (Hz). Default is 50.
Reference limit: Maximum current reference value (pu). 1.5 pu is a common value. Default is 1.5.
Power and Voltage nominal values: The DC motor nominal power (W) and voltage (V) values. These values are used to convert armature current values from amperes to pu (per unit). Default for Power is 5*746. Default for Voltage is 240.
Proportional gain: The proportional gain of the PI current controller. Default is 1.
Integral gain: The integral gain of the PI current controller. Default is 80.

Controller — Bridge Firing Unit Subtab

Alpha min: Minimum firing angle value (deg.). 20 degrees is a common value. Default is 20.
Alpha max: Maximum firing angle value (deg.). 160 degrees is a common value. Default is 160.
Frequency of synchronization voltages: Frequency of the synchronization voltages used by the discrete synchronized pulse generator block (Hz). This frequency is equal to the line frequency of the single-phase power line. This parameter is not used when using the average-value converter. Default is 50.
Pulse width: The width of the pulses applied to the four thyristor gates (deg.). This parameter is not used when using the average-value converter. Default is 10.

Block Inputs and Outputs

SP: The speed or torque set point. The speed set point can be a step function, but the speed change rate will follow the acceleration / deceleration ramps. If the load torque and the speed have opposite signs, the accelerating torque will be the sum of the electromagnetic and load torques.
Tm or Wm: The mechanical input: load torque (Tm) or motor speed (Wm). For the mechanical rotational port (S), this input is deleted.
A+, A-: The single-phase electric connections. The applied voltage must be adequate for the motor size.
Wm, Te or S: The mechanical output: motor speed (Wm), electromagnetic torque (Te) or mechanical rotational port (S).

When the Output bus mode parameter is set to Multiple output buses, the block has the following three output buses:

Motor

The motor measurement vector. This vector is composed of two elements:

The armature voltage
The DC motor measurement vector (containing the speed, armature current, field current, and electromagnetic torque values). Note that the speed signal is converted from rad/s to rpm before output.

Conv

The single-phase converter measurement vector. It includes the converter output voltage. The output current is not included since it is equal to the DC motor armature current.

Note that all current and voltage values of the bridges can be visualized with the Multimeter block.

Ctrl

The controller measurement vector. This vector contains:

The armature current reference
The firing angle computed by the current controller
The speed or torque error (difference between the speed reference ramp and actual speed or between the torque reference and actual torque)
The speed reference ramp or torque reference

When the Output bus mode parameter is set to Single output bus, the block groups the Motor, Conv, and Ctrl outputs into a single bus output.

Model Specifications

The library contains a 5-hp drive parameter set. The specifications of the 5-hp drive are shown in the following table.

5 HP Drive Specifications

Drive Input Voltage
	Amplitude	320 V
	Frequency	50 Hz
Motor Nominal Values
	Power	5 hp
	Speed	1750 rpm
	Voltage	240 V

Examples

The dc1_example illustrates the single-phase rectifier drive used with the 5-hp drive parameter set during speed regulation.

References

[1] Sen, P.C., Thyristor DC Drives, J.Wiley and Sons, 1981.

[2] Nondahl, Thomas A., Microprocessor Control of Motor Drives and Power Converters, tutorial course, IEEE Industry Application Society, October 1993, pp. 7.1-7.26.