Improving reliability in electric drive systems during IGBT short‐circuit fault

Abstract

Abstract To improve the reliability of electric drive systems during the insulated‐gate bipolar transistor short‐circuit fault, a control method is proposed for Y‐connected 3‐phase induction motors. This method allows the operation of 3‐phase induction motor drives under the insulated‐gate bipolar transistor short‐circuit fault without the requirement of a specific inverter topology and control strategy. At first, a modified inverter topology that can rectify the problem produced by an insulated‐gate bipolar transistor short‐circuit fault is presented. Then, based on the introduced inverter topology, a developed model for Y‐connected 3‐phase induction motors is presented. According to this model, an indirect vector control system for the faulted drive system based on the calculation of forward and backward magneto‐motive force of the motor is proposed. The performance of the control system is validated using experimental tests for a 1HP Y‐connected 3‐phase induction motor drive system. This research also compares the performance of the proposed indirect vector control technique with conventional indirect vector control techniques during the insulated‐gate bipolar transistor short‐circuit fault.

Keywords

• Power electronics, supply and supervisory circuits
• Bipolar transistors
• Insulated gate field effect transistors
• Asynchronous machines
• Control of electric power systems
• DC‐AC power convertors (invertors)