UNIT III Applications of Thyristors

Industrial and Power Electronics

T.E.(Electronics & telecommunication Engineering)

By Saurabh K.Bhise
Applications of Thyristors :
1. Static circuit breakers
2. Over voltage protectors
3. Zero voltage switch
4. Integral cycle triggering
5. Time delay method
6. Soft start method.

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1.Static Circuit Breaker:
Static circuit breakers are semiconductor based
circuits capable of providing a fast and reliable
interruption to a continuous current.

Static circuit breakers are of two types:

1. Static DC circuit breaker
2. Static AC circuit breaker

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Static DC Circuit Breaker:
This circuit is basically parallel capacitor commutated
power flip flop.

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Static DC Circuit Breaker:
1. START button is pressed, gate pulse will be
provided to SCR1 and it will turn on.
2. Turning on of SCR1 causes major part of supply
voltage to appear across load and hence power is
delivered to the load.
3. C will get charged to load voltage through R4 and
SCR1
4. When STOP button is depressed momentarily to
switch off the load.
5. SCR2 receives gate current through R5 and it is
turned-on

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Static DC Circuit Breaker:
6. Capacitor voltage appears across SCR1 it is turned
off due to reverse bias.
7. Load current is flowing C and SCR2.
8. C gets discharged and then again it starts charging
with reverse polarity.
9. Current at this instant fall to zero.
10. The current through C and SCR2 is below holding
current of SCR2,hence SCR2 is turned-off.
11. Thus manual firing of SCR2 interrupts the load
current through SCR1 and finally opens the circuit.

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Static DC Circuit Breaker:
Overload condition:
12. Under overload condition load current automatically
interrupted.
13. SCR1 is ON carrying full load current, if overload
occurs, voltage drop across R1 exceeds F/W drop of
series connected diodes and gate-cathode junction.
14. Gate current is supplied to SCR2 so turning on of SCR2
results in turning off of SCR1 due to capacitor voltage
and load is switched off from circuit.

15. Circuit can be made to trip by adjustment of the value

of R1 and by selecting proper no. of diodes and
interrupt overload or fault current at any
predetermined level.
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Static AC Circuit Breaker:

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Static AC Circuit Breaker:
1. SCR 1 and 2 are triggered in +ve and ve half cycle
respectively when switch S is closed.
2. During +ve half cycle of the input,SCR1 receives gate
current through (D2 || R2), switch S and R3 and it
conducts. At the end of +ve half cycle SCR1 is turned
off due to natural zero.
3. During -ve half cycle of the input,SCR2 receives gate
current through (D1 || R1), switch S and R3 and it
conducts. At the end of -ve half cycle SCR2 is turned off
due to natural zero.

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Static AC Circuit Breaker:
4. When load current is required to be interrupted switch
S is opened.
5. Opening of S results in blocking of gate currents of both
SCRs and hence maintained-off.
6. When S is opened in a particular half cycle, load current
is continue to flow till end of this half cycle, but in the
next half cycle other SCR is not triggered due to
unavailability of gate current.
7. Maximum time for breaking circuit is half cycle.

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2.Overvoltage protectors:
1.Over-voltage crowbar protection:

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2.Overvoltage protectors:
2.A.C. overvoltage protection:

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3.Zero voltage switch:
In certain AC applications it is necessary to apply the voltage to
the load when instantaneous value of voltage is going through
zero.
If voltage is applied at other than zero value in any half cycle
following effects are observed.
1. Voltage at the instant of application is suddenly applied in step.
2. Due to high rate of rise of current device can be damaged.
3. Current and voltage waveform may differ from sinusoid, hence
harmonics are introduced.
4. They can affect performance of other equipment's connected to the
same source.
5. EMI also generated which can couple to nearby circuits by radiation
or conductions & injects unwanted signals in those circuits so affects
performance of circuits
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3.Zero voltage switch:
When power circuit is switched on and off high frequency
components are generated causes interference
problems.
Thyristor can turn off when on-state current reduces to
zero regardless of power factor.
Interference free turn on require special trigger circuits.
Experimentally it is proved that AC circuits will generate
minimum EMI if energized at zero voltage.
Ideal AC circuit switch is consists of a contact which
closes at the instant when voltage across it is zero and
opens at the instant when current through it is zero.
This switch is known as Zero Voltage Switch.

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3.Zero voltage switch:

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3.Zero voltage switch:
This circuit applies voltage to load at zero crossover
point called Zero Voltage Switch.
ON OFF action of T depends upon state of transistor
Q1.
State of transistor is controlled by switch S.
When Q is OFF (Cut-off)-it acts open ckt, and T is
triggered by gate current flowing through D3 and R4.
When Q is ON (Saturation)- it acts short ckt gate of T is
connected to Cathode and T can not conduct.

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3.Zero voltage switch:

MODE I-During positive half cycle ,S is CLOSED

MODE II- During Negative half cycle, S is OPEN

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3.Zero voltage switch:

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4.Integral cycle triggering:
Integral cycle control means where full cycles of the supply
voltage are applied to the load.
Control is affected by changing the number of full cycles
applied compared to the number of cycles when supply is not
connected to the load at all.
Control condition result in number of full on cycles followed
by a number of full off cycles.
T cycles is split up into N ON cycles and (T-N) OFF cycles.

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4.Integral cycle triggering:
N and T may vary over control range, both N and (T-N) may
vary zero to T cycles.
In this way effective voltage, current and power applied to the
load can be controlled.
Principle advantage on-off method of control is sinusoidal
currents will flow during on periods so avoiding HF harmonics.
In practical systems of integral cycle control, Thyristor are
switched on and off at or very near to voltage zero points
Load power passed to resistance load with integral cycle
control given by

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4.Integral cycle triggering:

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 4.Integral cycle triggering:
SCR T1 conducts,C2 charges through path L-R6-C2+-C2SCR T1 (A-K)-N.
At end of positive half cycle, capacitor c2 will discharge through C2+-R7-
SCR T2(G2K2)-C-.
Hence T2 becomes on. Therefore negative half cycle of applied voltage will
appear across the load.
If T1 is not turned on C2 will not be charged and SCR2 will not be
triggered.
Thus negative half cycle follows positive half cycle of applied voltage only if
T1 is turned on or if switch s is opened.
Load will carry integral number of full cycles of applied voltage.
If S is closed load current will stop at the end of present or following
negative half cycle.
Maximum interrupting time is one cycle. Heating loads are suitable for
integral cycle control.
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5.Time Delay Method:

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5.Time Delay Method:
Accurate and versatile time delay circuit using SCR and UJT is
shown.
When S1 is closed UJT relaxation oscillator gets energized and
capacitor C starts charging through R1 and R2.
During charging current is small, voltage drop across r5 is small,
negligible voltage appears across external load.
When C charges to peak point voltage of UJT it turns on and pulses
appears across R4 will turn on SCR1.
Once SCR1 is on supply voltage appears across R5 assuming
negligible voltage drop across D1 and SCR1.
Voltage and supply of power to external load.
Voltage is applied to the load after time delay after switch S closed.
Time delay depends upon time constant (R1+R2).C.
Circuit can be reset by opening switch S.
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6.Soft Start Method:
Soft start method describes any electrical circuit which
reduces or limits excess current taken by electric device
at the time of start.

With respect to electric motor soft start describes any

circuit or device (starter) that reduces or limits the
starting torque by virtue of reduced voltage so that
mechanical load is coupled to motor experience slowly
increasing torque.

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6.Soft Start Method:
Need for Soft-Start:
Many Electrical devices take large initial current called
Inrush Current when turned on.
It is observed at the time of switching on capacitor bank ,
large inductive load such as motor.
It causes voltage fluctuations and affects performance of
other circuits connected to same power supply.
It also damages semiconductor devices carrying this load
current if not rated for such inrush current of loads.
To avoid these effects soft start is needed.

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6.Soft Start Method:
Why to use soft-starter for motor:
1. Power distribution network may not be able to handle the
inrush current of motor.
o Large motor is on small power distribution network, inrush
current can cause system voltage to dip. Such dip affects
other devices connected to same source.
2. The mechanical load on motor may not be able to handle
starting torque.
o Mechanical load such as conveyors, gears ,belts , chains
when came across sudden jerk of torque there may be
wear and tear on belts chains etc.
In order to avoid electrical and mechanical
effects soft starter in needed.
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Soft Starter
Soft starter is solid state motor starter used to start a
motor by notching the voltage waveform, thereby
reducing each phase voltage of motor and gradually
increase voltage until motor gets full speed at fixed
frequency.
Principle is by adjusting voltage at starting current and
torque characteristics can be controlled.
For induction motors torque is directly proportional to
square of applied voltage and current is proportional to
applied voltage, so by adjusting voltage during starting
current drawn by motor can be controlled.

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Soft Starter
Soft starter is constructed
using 3 pairs of SCRs, each
pair having antiparallel
connected SCRs to allow to
flow to or from motor.

Such configuration is
referred as six SCR in back
to back configuration.

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Control:
Soft starter reduces voltage by notching the applied
voltage. Notch refers zero voltage area.

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Speed-torque characteristics:

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