Modular and scalable control and data acquisition system for power hardware in the loop (PHIL) amplifiers

Abstract

This study presents a newly developed modular system for control of power electronic amplifiers in high-power, high-frequency power hardware in the loop experiments. The proposed design comprises computational nodes connected via multi-gigabit fibre-optic links. Nodes are modular and reconfigurable, allowing interfacing with a range of sensors and actuators, typically voltage and current sensors, and switching converters. The system has been designed for scalability to permit arbitrarily high power ratings and fidelity to be achieved through paralleling and interleaving of multiple power converter modules, targeting an ultimate sample and control rate of 1 MHz. Experimental validation is presented using a two-node configuration to facilitate a power electronic experiment operating at 120 V(rms) and 10 A(rms), with a fundamental frequency of 50 Hz and frequency content up to the 11th harmonic.

Keywords

• switching convertors
• power electronics
• optical fibre networks
• data acquisition
• power convertors
• frequency 50.0 Hz
• frequency 1.0 MHz
• multiple power converter modules
• fidelity
• high-power ratings
• scalability
• switching converters
• current sensors
• actuators
• multigigabit fibre-optic links
• computational nodes
• loop experiments
• high-frequency power hardware
• power electronic amplifiers
• newly developed modular system
• PHIL
• loop amplifiers
• data acquisition system
• scalable control
• frequency content
• fundamental frequency
• power electronic experiment
• two-node configuration