MODELING OF SWITCH-MODE CONVERTERS IN ELECTRIC DRIVES

Introduction
Modeling is a simplified representation of a physical system. In electrical
engineering, physical systems are normally modeled using mathematical equations.

The complexity of the developed model of power electronic converters will depend on
the applications of the model. For instance, a model for a switching device used to
analyze its switching characteristic or switching losses is different from a model
develop used to study the fundamental behavior of a converter containing that
particular switching device.

Here we will look on how switch-mode converters used in DC drives are modeled. The
application of our model is in the designing of linear controllers for drive systems
using linear control system theory. We therefore need to obtain the linear models of
the converters, i.e. we need to establish a linear relation between the control
signal and the average output voltage.

Two typical switch-mode converters used in DC drives are the 2-quadrant and 4-
quadrant converters shown below. We will assume that the converters obtained the
switching signals from a comparison between control signal vc and a triangular
waveforms.

Two-quadrant
Q2 Q1
+
Q3 Q4
Va

+ va
Q2 Q1 Four-quadrant

Q3 Q4 T

Figure 1

Two-quadrant converter
As in all other converters, the status of the upper and lower switches in a leg, must
always complement, i.e. if the upper switch is on, the lower switch must be off or
vice versa- thus only one control signal is required to control a leg of a two-
quadrant converter.
If the upper switch is ON, the output voltage, vo equals Vdc and if the lower switch
is ON vo = 0. The instantaneous output voltage will swing between Vdc and 0, however
its average value depends on how long the switch upper (or lower) switch is ON.

1
We will assume the control signals for the switches are obtained as a result of
comparison between the control signal and a triangular

+
Vdc

Vdc

vtri

q
vc
Figure 2

The output of the comparator is obtained as follows:

1 when vc > vtri, upper switch ON

q= (1)
0 when vc < vtri, lower switch ON

Obviously, the waveform of va will follow that of q. The instantaneous value of va is

given by: va = q(Vdc) The average value of va will depend on the duty ratio of q and
the duty ratio of q in turn depends on the control signal vc. We can obtain the
relation between the average voltage Va and the duty ratio d by calculating the
average value of va in terms of d.

dTs

V dt = dV
1
Va = dc dc
Where d = ton/T (2)
T 0

d is in fact an average value of q over a cycle and therefore have a range of between
0 and 1, thus,

t + Ttri

q
1
d= dt (3)
Ttri t

2
 Ttri

vc

q
d

Figure 3

If the triangular frequency is high and therefore is much larger than the control
signal, d can be assumed continuous. However when selecting the bandwidth of the
closed-loop system, the discrete values of d must be taken into account, i.e. the
bandwidth must be limited to one or two order lower than the triangular frequency.

The relation between d and vc is obtained as follows:

When vc = Vtri,p , d = 1, when vc = -Vtri,p, d = 0.

1
Figure 4
0.5

0
vc
Vtri,p Vtri,p

Assuming d is continuous, the relation between d and vc is obtained as:

vc
d = 0 .5 + (4)
2 Vtri, p

The relation between vc and Va can be obtained by substituting (4) into (2),

Vdc (5)
Va = 0.5Vdc + vc
2 Vtri , p

If we want to include the converter into our closed-loop model of a DC drive system,
we need to obtain the small signal transfer function between vc and Va. This is done
by introducing small signal perturbation in Va and vc.

Vdc
(Va + ~v a ) = 0.5Vdc + (v c + ~v c ) (6)
2 Vtri , p

3
Separating the dc and ac components,

DC : Vdc (7)
Va = 0.5Vdc + vc
2 Vtri , p

~ Vdc ~
AC : va = vc (8)
2 Vtri, p

By taking Laplace transform of equation (8), the small signal transfer function
between vc and VA can be obtained.

vc(s) va(s)
Vdc
2 Vtri, p

Figure 5

Four-quadrant converter
The model developed for the two-quadrant converter can be used as a building block in
developing the model for the four-quadrant converter. As illustrated in the figure
below, the 4-quadrant converter is composed of two legs, with each leg similar to
that of the 2-quadrant converter. We will consider two switching schemes normally
employed: (1) Bipolar switching scheme (2) unipolar switching scheme.
leg A leg B

D1 D3
Q1 Q3
+ va
Figure 6

D4 D2
Q4 Q2

The instantaneous voltage va can be made either equals Vdc , -Vdc or 0.

Va = Vdc when Q1 and Q2 are ON

va = -Vdc when Q3 and Q4 are ON
va = 0 when current freewheels through Q and D

Therefore the output voltage va can swing between Vdc and Vdc, Vdc and 0 or 0 and Vdc,
which is determined by the switching scheme chosen:

4
Bipolar switching

Leg A and Leg B obtained the switching signals from the same control signal. This
implies that switching of Leg A and Leg B are always complements.

Vdc

-Vdc

vtri
Vdc

q
vc

Figure 7

In a forward breaking mode where the average voltage Va is positive and smaller than
the back emf of the armature, current will flow through D1 and D2 when va = Vdc and
will flow through Q3 and Q4 when va = -Vdc

+ Va
A B
ia

Figure 8

Using the comparison between the control signal and triangular waveform as shown in
Figure 7, the resultant q and q is as below:

5
 vc
2vtri

q average value, d

q average value, 1-d

Figure 9

From previous analysis, the average voltage for Leg A and Leg B is given by:

VAO = dA(Vdc) and VBO = dB(Vdc)=(1-dA)(Vdc) (9)

Similarly relation between vc and dA and dB can be written as:

vc
For Leg A d A = 0.5 + (10)
2 Vtri , p

vc
For Leg B d B = 0 .5 (11)
2 Vtri, p

We are interested in the voltage across the armature circuit, VAB

VAB = VAO VBO = (dA (1-dA))Vdc = (2dA -1)Vdc (12)

Substituting dA from (10) into (12) gives,

Vdc
VAB = vc (14)
Vtri , p

By taking the Laplace transform of the ac components in (14), the transfer function
between the vAB(s) and vc(s) is obtained:

Vdc (15)
v AB (s ) = v c (s )
Vtri , p

6
 vc(s) va(s)
Vdc
Vtri , p

Figure 9
Unipolar switching

The switching signals for Leg B is obtained from the inverse of control signal for
Leg A. This is illustrated in Figure 10. According to our previous analysis, the
continuous duty ratio for Leg A, dA, is given by:

vc
d A = 0.5 + (16)
2 Vtri , p

Since Leg B uses the inverse control signal , accordingly the continuous duty ratio
for Leg B is given by:

vc
d B = 0.5 (17)
2 Vtri , p
This gives and average armature voltage as,

Vdc
VAB = (dA dB)Vdc = vc (18)
Vtri , p

The transfer function obtained for unipolar switching scheme is therefore similar to
the bipolar switching scheme.

Vdc

Leg b

vtri
Vdc

qa
vc

Leg a

vtri

-vc qb

Figure 10

7
 vc

2vtri

-vc

Figure 11