END-OF-SEMESTER EXAMINATION

SEMESTER I, 2015/2016 SESSION

POWER ELECTRONICS
Noted: allowed use a cheat sheet, with classification:
1. Double side page in a paper with size: A4/Letter/F4; 2. Handwriting.
Q1. [25 marks]
(a) State four power electronic circuits widely used in Mechatronics system, and
mention their purposes with example applications.

(4 marks)

(b) Explain the reverse recovery characteristics of a diode, and impact of reverse
recovery time in their applications.

(6 marks)

(c) It is necessary to control the speed of a separately excited dc motor. The require
dc voltage is 300 V to 500 V. The available input supply is 220V, 50Hz. Sketch a
simple block of the required power electronic drives, and justify your selection
of converters.

(10 marks)

(d) Compare BJT and MOSFET as a switch in power electronics

Q2. [25 marks]
(a) (i) What are the differences between a current source inverter and a voltage
source inverter?
(ii) State two advantages of sinusoidal PWM inverters?

(5 marks)

(5 marks)

(b) Draw a three phase voltage source inverter circuit and explain its operation with
120O conduction. Sketch the necessary gating signal waveforms and the output
line to neutral voltages for a star connected load.
(8 marks)
(c) A single-phase auxiliary-impulse inverter is driven from a 96V centre-tapped
battery. The load current is 20 A, constant over the commutation interval. The
maximum capacitor current is to be 30A. Thyristors have a turn-off time of
50us. Derive suitable values for commutating capacitor and inductor.
Q3. [25 marks]
(a) Consider a 500V, 10kW, 20A rated- DC motor with armature resistance of 1 ohm.
When supplied at 500V, the motor runs at 1040 RPM with no load, drawing a
current of 0.8A.
Estimate the full load speed at rated values.
Estimate the no-load speed at 250V
(b)

Why is it necessary to keep the ratio of voltage to frequency constant in variable

speed operation of an induction motor?

(12 marks)

(4 marks)
(4 marks)
(5 marks)

(c)

A dc-dc converter is used in regenerative braking of a dc series motor as shown in

Fig. 1. The dc supply voltage is 600 V. The armature resistance is Ra = 0.02 and
the field resistance is Rf = 0.03 . The back emf constant is Kv = 15.27 mV/A
rad/s. The average armature current is maintained constant at Ia = 250 A. The
armature current is continuous and has negligible ripple. If the duty cycle of the
dc-dc converter is 60%, determine
the average voltage across the dc-dc converter Vch;
the power regenerated to the dc supply Pg;
the motor speed.

(4 marks)
(4 marks)
(4 marks)

Fig. 1

Q4. [25 marks]

(a) (i) What are the force commutation and natural commutation of a thyristor.
(ii) What are the applications of AC-AC voltage controllers?

(5 marks)
(4 marks)

(b) State and explain different protection schemes for an SCR.

(8 marks)

(c) Draw a simple Boost Converter circuit and explain, with proper derivation,
how the output voltage at the load is maintained at higher level than the input
voltage. Is the output power higher than input power?

(8 marks)