A Sliding Mode Controller in Single Phase Voltage

Source Inverters
H. Pmheiro, A.S. Martins, J.R. plnheiro
Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, CT-DELC-NUPEDEE-DESP, 97119-900, Santa Maria, RS, Brazil
Fax:O5 5 226 1 975, e-mail : renes@brufsm.bitnet.
Abstract- This paper deals with a sliding mode controller
for single phase inverter used in UPS applications. The
proposed system provides overload and short Circuit
protection. It can operate in constant or variable
frequency. The useof a reduced order observer elhinates
the requirement of the load current measurement and
improves the noise immunity. Experimental results
obtained in laboratory are presented and they confirm the
simulation and theoretical analysis.
JNTRODUCIION
Static converters are intrinsically variable structure
systems, so the slidmg mode control (SMC) approach is a
strong candidate method for the inverter controller design.
Many papers have been published in the field of
slidmg mode control[2]-[10]. It is claimed that the useof the
sliding mode control result in order reduction, disturbance
rejection, insensitivity to parameter variations ancl simple
implementation.
Implementation of sliding mode control implies hgh
frequency discontinuous signals. This is not a problemstatic
converters, because d~scontinuous signals is always present.
Furthermore, SMC can provide a possibility to solve the
closed loop systemdesign and to create the switching signals
(PWM pattem) in the same framework.
Some paper have been published about shdmg mode
control applied to DC/AC inverters. In [8] a three level PWM
inverter with fixed frequency is presented, the proposed
method is complex, because it needs two frequency closed
loops and a midpoint control. The proposed current limiter
degrades thetransients response during large perhx-bations. In
[9] is presented a two level PWM inverter with fixed
switching frequency and current limiter. The overall
perFormanceis good, but it needs two current measurement,
namely, the load and filter indqctor current. In [lo] is
presented a comparison of three and two levels PWM mverter.
In the above mentioned works the output voltage posses
steady-state error.
l b s paper is concemed on a slidmg mode controller
implementation for UPS inverters. The suggested system
posses the following features: first, it does not need
measurement of the load current; second, it is possible to
obtain zero steady state error to step input; thnd, it can operate
with constant frequency; fourth, it provides overload protection
for the power semiconductors.
SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
Figure 1 shows the basic circuit of single phase
inverter with a LC output filter whch is often used in single
phase UPS.
I T 1
,L
T
L L
P P
Fig.1: Single phase voltage source inverter.
The control goal is to make the output voltage v, be
equal to a reference input v4 (sinusoidal) while theinductor
current absolute value I ir I is kept lower than a maximum
value ik.
SLIDING MODE CROLLER
T&ng into account that the output voltage v, must
track the reference voltage vmf and the inductor current must
belimited, the sliding modecontrol in the voltage and current
error coordinates is formulated. The dynamic behaviour of the
inverter, shown in Fig.1, is govemed by the state space
equation (1).
h 2 =- X I + - +ref
-
dt L L L d t
Where x, is the voltage error ( vref-vc ), x, is the current
error (i&) and L and C are inductance and capacitance of
0-7803-1328-3/94$03.000 1994 IEEE 394
the output filter respectively.
defined as:
The sliding surface and the control action U are
s= Cgx, +czx, =o
and
U=E .sign(s)
Average Model
The equation of the motion along thesurface s=O is
given by
In order to achieve the invariance property in slidmg
mode the inductor reference current is made to be:
Substituting (3) into (2) yelds:
(3)
(4)
So, once the systemis in slidmg mode it behaves as
a stable first order system and the voltage error decays
exponentially to zero (C,IC,>O).
Existence Condition
The state space equation (l), when the iM is given by
(3), is:
U
dt L L
- ---+g(t)
or
Where and g(t) is given by:
g(t ) =v4 lL +diJdt +C&vJ&.
If s and its time denvatwe have opposite signs the
state trajectory reaches the slidmg surface s=O after finite time
interval. This constraint can be achieved if the following
inequality is true:
possible to construct a reduced dimension observer to obtain
io. The state space equation of a Luenberger reduced-order
observer, which has been implemented, is:
lC =c z +Ck0vc
, where w,, is the natural frequency of the output filter and z is
an auxiliary variable.
The observed load current is given by:
Q ? .
1 =1 + I
o c l
(9)
By proper choice of the gain k, the desired
convergence rate of I: to ic and, consequently, $ to &may be
provided.
Current Limiter
A mod~fied reference current may be obtained by
rearranging the sliding surface equation as shown in(l0).
L
s =c, x, +c, x, =C,(' r ,+x,)
C,
P
L
s =c,('X, +irt, - il) =C,(i Lf - i t )
C"
L
It is possible to limit the inverter output current
through the limitation i', assuring, in this way, overload and
short-circuit protection, as shown in Fig.2.
0 a, bi 8.h B*B3 t(s)
-Me,
Fig.2 : Output voltage and inductor current when a
temporary short-circuit in the load occurs.
Elimination of the Steady State Error
This inequality also detennines the minimum inverter DC
voltage needed for enforcing thesliding mode.
The Use of a Reduced-Order Observer
As the state variables v, and il are available, it is
Whenever the steady-state specification is not
satisfied, due to theuse of hysteresis comparator leadmg to
finite switching frequency, it is possible to use extra state
variables in order to cancel the voltage errors. For instance,
the steady-state error to a constant reference input is
395
eliminated by introducing an extra state variable, as shown
below.
=x,
dr,
-
dt
5 =----+g(t) XI U
dt L L
t B i -
The slidmg surface is gven by: Fig.4: State trajectories in the vicinity of slidmg surface
when the hysteresis comparator is used.
s =CdE, +c, x, +Q2 =o (12) ~=f(x8,g(t>);f=f(x,-E,g(t)).
The average dynamic behaviour is govemed by:
The maximumswitchmg frequency is obtained setting
v , ~ ~ to zero, which results in the following equation:
(13)
d'x, C, dx, CO
-+--+rl=O
dt 2 C2C dt C,C
Freq- =- CP (15)
4AL
Figure 3 shows the output voltage error for a step
Constant Frequency Operation
input.
It is easily seen fromthe equation (14), that the
switchmg frequency depends on the reference and DC input
voltages. It can result in a very wide switching frequency
range. This is a disadvantage fromthe point of view of the
output filter design and implementation There are basically
two methods to achieve constant frequency operation:
a) Variable Hysteresis Band with feed fomad or feed
back techmque. In t h ~ s case some points must becarefully
investigatedsuch as: stability problems, transient performance
limitations, complexity of implementation[ 121 [ 131.
b) Disturbance Method: it is possible to obtain
1.t-3 2.t-3 3,t-3 4.1-3 constant frequency operation adding an adequateconstant
Fig.3: Output voltage error for a step input.
SWITCHING FREQUENCY
Variable Frequency Operation
The hysteresis is responsible for the fact that once the
state trajectories hit the dscontinuity surface s=U, the
describing points do not move exactly along the surface but
will oscillate in its vicinity with width equal to 2A (Fig.4).
Under theassumption that the states trajectories are constant
near the surface s=U the switchmg frequency is given by:
frequency signal to s variable, whch is comparable to the
approach proposed in [9].
Figure 5 shows a three level disturbance signal, whch
with an apropriate design provides constant switching
frequency operation. 6t determines the maximumduty-cycle
at steady state. The amplitude D must be greater than
maximums value. Disturbance signal frequency Fd must obey
the folowing inequality:
d t
Fi g5 Three level dlsturbance signal.
396
THREE LEVEL PWM
The three level P W M method proposed in [8]
presents a good performance, but it is complex. A simpler way
to implement a three level PWM is presented in [lo]. The later
treats the three level P W M as a double two level PWM, one
of themis active when ueq is positive and the other when ueq
is negative (ueq is defined in [l]). However, it was used vref
instead of ueq. This practice resulted in degradation of the
transient response and &stortion around the zero (ueq may have
opposite sign of vref ), as illustrated in Fig.6.
Fig.6: Three Level PWM inverter with 0.7 inductive load.
INSULATING TRANSFORMER
Usually it is required galvanic insulation of the load.
There are basically two ways of implementing the galvanic
insulation: the first one is by using a low frequency
transformer and the second one by using hgh frequency
transformer.
Low Frequency Insulating Tramformer
To improve the performance of the systemin low
frequency it is possible to substitute the derivative of the
reference voltage by the integral of the output voltage in the
equation (3) [81, it because the reference signal is sinusoidal
in UP S applications.
High Frequency Insulating Transformer
Several works have been published on inverters using
hgh frequency transformer link [11,14,15]. The DC/AC
converter proposed in [l l ] is shown in Fig.7. The phase
control used there can be repalced by the sliding mode
controller previously presented here.
Fig.7: DC/AC converter with high frequency transformer.
The switches S1 and S2 are commanded with fixed
frequency and duty-cycle equal to 0.5, so producing a high
frequency square wavev,, at the input of the cycleconverter.
On the other hand, the switches S3 and S4 are commanded by
the following law:
S4= sign(s) . sign@,)
S3= -sign(s) . sign(v,)
, where -1 is for switch opened and 1 for switch closed. The
inverter and the clycleconverter topology can be implemented
using other configurations, for instance, half and full-bridge
respectively.
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
It has been implemented a prototype of the single
phase inverter shown in Fig.1. The implemented inverter
controller block &gram with reduced order observer and
current limiter is shown in Fig.8.
%-
Fig.8: Block diagramof the implemented controller.
The controller and output filter parameters have been
derived fromthe following input datas:
Rated output power Po=600VA
DC input voltage E =lOOV
Maximumswitchmg frequency F,,,,,=15KHz
Current Ripple(limiting current mode) AM.4 & , ,
Current transducer gain k,,,=. 1 V/A
2=1/1oooo s.
RMS fundamental output voltage v0=55v
Output voltage Ripple v0,=4v
Desired time constant of system
The calculated parameter values are:
Hysteresis width AS.65
Output filter inductance M. 25 mH
Output filter capacitance C=85.5 J J F
Gain C, C,=0.0855
Mmimumswitchmg frequency Fm,,=2.85KHZ
Gain c, c;=o. 1
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The experimental results shown in Figures 9,lO and
11 validate previous analysis and simulation.
Fig.9: Output voltage v, withvariable frequency operation
for step input.Voltage Scale: 20 V/div.
Time scale:0.2ms/dlv.
Fig.10: Output voltage v, and inductor current il ( variable
frequency operation mode) with sinusoidal input and when a
temporary output short-circuit occurs.Voltage Scale: 20
V/div. Current Scale:lONdw. Time scale: Sms/dv.
Fig. 11: Output voltage v, and PWM signal U with constant
switching frequency operation (15 Khz) .Voltage Scales:
upper 50 V/dlv,lower 100 V/div. Time scale:0.2ms/&v.
CONCLUSIONS
The sl i m mode control techmque is a powerfull tool
for the controller design of static converters. The resulting
system is robust, simple and posses hgh perfomance.
Furthermore, it can create the switching signals in same
framework.
The suggested controller has an observer, whch
becomes the systemless sensitive to noise when compared
with the one that use hfferentiator and avoids the
measurment of the load current. The use of the observer does
not increase significantly the circuitry implementation.
The prototype has been sucessfully implemented with
both variable and constant frequency operation. The power
semiconductor currents are limited during overload and short-
circuit on the load.
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