Stabilized voltage source inverter for sensitive loads in nuclear installations

Abstract

Abstract The present paper proposes a novel design of a stabilized single-phase voltage-source inverter with pure sinusoidal output voltage for photovoltaic systems employed for feeding sensitive loads in nuclear installations. Such types of loads require a voltage source with quite stabilized magnitude and frequency and pure sinusoidal shape that is free from higher-order harmonics. The inverter is based on an H-bridge four insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) with gate drivers and optocoupler isolators. A control system based on a fast DSP unit and a microcontroller is designed for cancelation of the higher-order harmonics to produce a pure sinusoidal output with almost zero total harmonic distortion (THD). The sinusoidal purity, frequency and magnitude stabilization are achieved through pulse width modulation (PWM) controlled by a fast-response feedback system that measures the time wave form of the output voltage applied to the load and then calculates the THD, frequency and amplitude. The sinusoidal shaping is performed with aid of a sinusoidal shaping filter (SSF) to fasten the operation of higher-order harmonic cancellation. The frequency measurement is achieved through a frequency counter whereas the amplitude measurement is carried out through a differential amplifier that amplifies the difference between the output voltage of the inverter (while being applied to the load) and reference voltage that determines the desired amplitude. A prototype of the entire system of the proposed voltage-source inverter is fabricated for experimental evaluation of its performance. It is shown through simulation and experimental work that the proposed control system of the inverter output voltage is able to stabilize both the amplitude and frequency of the voltage applied to the load irrespective of the load impedance. Also, it is shown that the THD of the output voltage is $$-57 \text{ dB}$$ - 57 dB ( $$0.00025 \%$$ 0.00025 % ), which is almost zero. Moreover, the switching losses are considerably reduced and can be negligible owing to the use of the appropriate IGBTs. The efficiency of the proposed inverter is obtained by simulation taking into account all types of losses. Also, the dependence of the inverter efficiency on the load current is investigated. The average efficiency of the proposed voltage-source inverter is shown to be higher than $$97\%$$ 97 % .