1. What is the function of freewheeling diodes in controlled rectifier?

It serves two process.

a. It prevents the output voltage from becoming negative.
b. The load current is transferred from the main thyristors to the freewheeling diode,
thereby allowing all of its thyristors to regain their blocking states.
2. What are the advantages of freewheeling diodes in a controlled in a controlled
rectifier?

a. Input power factor is improved.

b. Load current waveform is improved and thus the load performance is better.
3. What is meant by delay angle?
The delay angle is defined as the angle between the zero crossing of the input
voltage and the instant the thyristors is fired.
4. What are the advantages of single phase bridge converter over single phase midpoint
converter?

a. SCRs are subjected to a peak-inverse voltage of 2Vm in a fully controlled bridge

rectifier. Hence for same voltage and current ratings of SCrs, power handled by
mid-point configuration is about
b. In mid-point converter, each secondary winding should be able to supply the load
power. As such, the transformer rating in mid-point converter is double the load
rating.
5. What is commutation angle or overlap angle?
The commutation period when outgoing and incoming thyristors are conducting
isknown as overlap period. The angular period, when both devices share conduction is
known as the commutation angle or overlap angle.
Mention the effect of source inductance in converters The presence of source inductance causes the
outgoing and incoming thyristors to conduct simultaneously. When the source inductance increases, the
overlap angle increases and as a consequence the average output voltage is reduced.

6.Mention the effect of source inductance in converters

The presence of source inductance causes the outgoing and incoming thyristors to conduct
simultaneously. When the source inductance increases, the overlap angle increases and as a
consequence the average output voltage is reduced.

7.Give some industrial applications of phase controlled rectifiers.

DC motor drives used in steel rolling mills, paper mills, and textile mills
Traction systems – locomotive
Electrochemical processes
Portable hand tool drives
High voltage DC transmission
8.What are the advantages of having a circulating current inductor in three phase dual converter
applied to traction applications?
The three phase dual converter can be applied for four quadrant operation and rapid speed reversal is
possible since the converters can switch from rectifier mode to inverter mode in the same cycle. The
circulating current inductor limits the current flow between the converters during this switchover mode.
The dynamic response for the traction drive is improved.

9.What is the difference between rectifier mode and inverter mode in single phase converters?

The converter is said to operate in the rectifier mode if the output voltage and output current are in the
1st quadrant (both positive). The converter is said to operate in the inverter mode if the output voltage
is negative and the output current is positive (2nd quadrant operation). In this mode, power is fed to the
AC system. When a dc source of negative polarity is connected to the output terminals it will feed power
to the AC system. The power electronic circuit is then said to operate in the inverter mode. In this mode,
the firing angle is greater than 90 degrees.

10.Define ripple and distortion factor?

UNIT2

1.What are the different types of resonant converters?

Resonant converters are broadly classified as zero voltage switching (ZVS) converters and zero current
switching (ZCS) converters. The resonant converters switch the transistor or Mosfet at either zero
voltage condition or zero current condition to reduce switching losses. The LC circuits in these
topologies create the zero current or zero voltage conditions.

2.What are the basic types of DC-DC converters?

The basic types of DC-DC converters are Step down converter and step up converter. Most converters
such as Buck, Boost, Buck boost and Cuk fall into the category of the step-up, step-down or a
combination of the two types of converters

3.What is meant by integral cycle control?

Integral cycle control refers to the ON-OFF control method used in AC voltage controllers to connect the
load to the power supply for a few cycles and disconnect the load from the ac power source for a few
cycles. If the AC voltage source is connected for ‘n’ cycles and disconnected for ‘m’ cycles, then the
average voltage at the load is proportional to the factor n/(n+m); n and m are integers.
4.What is meant by time ratio control?
Time ratio control refers to the control of ON Time to (ON-Time+Off-Time) in converters. By varying the
time ratio of controlling a switch the average voltage applied to the load can be controlled.
5.What are the features of a boost converter?

Boost converter has the feature of a step-up DC-DC converter. The output voltage is higher than the
input voltage in this converter. The circuit features a controlled switch, a diode, an inductor and a filter
capacitor connected across the load. These converters are used in switching power supplies.

6.For a step-down converter with 100V input voltage and R = 12 ohms, if the switching frequency is
1.5 KHz, what should be the ON time to get a output voltage of 80V?

7.How is the output voltage of a buck-boost converter dependent on duty ratio?

8.Name two applications for boost converters.

Boost converters are used to charge a battery which is at a higher voltage than the DC output from a
solar panel. Boost converters are used to light up a string of LED lamps from a low voltage battery
source.

9.A step down DC chopper has an input voltage of 220V and duty cycle of 50%. When the chopper
remains on, its voltage drop is 2.5V. Determine average output voltage and RMS output voltage.

10. Differentiate between quasi-resonant and resonant converters.

Quasi-resonant converters have one of the modes of operation as a resonant mode. Moreover this
mode may not necessarily complete a cycle of resonance. In contrast, resonant converters are based on
complete cycle of resonance used to transfer energy from one device to another.

UNIT 3

1.What are the applications of three phase AC voltage controllers?

Three phase AC voltage controllers are used to control illumination lamps, industrial heater control and
three phase induction motors.

2. What are the advantages of multi-stage ac voltage controllers?

Multi-stage sequence control in AC voltage controllers is adopted to improve the output current
waveform and hence improve the power factor in AC regulators.
3.What is meant by extinction angle in ac voltage controllers?
The extinction angle in ac voltage controllers is defined as the instant at which the conducting device
turns OFF when triggered at an angle α. In an AC voltage controller with R load, the extinction angle β
occurs at π. In ac voltage controllers with R-L loads, the angle β is greater than π.
4. What is the difference between ON-OFF control and phase control?

5. What are the advantages of sequence control in ac voltage controllers?

Sequence control in ac voltage control is used to improve the output voltage waveform and make it
appear near to sinusoidal shape while providing control of the RMS output voltage. This method leads to
power factor improvement and to the generation of lower harmonics.
6. What is phase angle control in ac voltage regulators?
Phase angle control refers to the delay in the turn ON time of the semiconductor switch such as the
thyristor from the positive going instant of the sinusoidal voltage applied to the circuit. Changing the
phase angle causes a change in the output RMS voltage applied to the load.
7.What are the advantages and disadvantages of unidirectional ac voltage controllers?
Unidirectional or half wave controllers introduce DC current in the output voltage which is not desirable.
The advantage is the control method is simple since there is only one switch.
8.What are the types of single phase ac voltage controllers?
Unidirectional or half wave controllers
Bidirectional or full wave controllers.
9.. What are the applications where ON-OFF control may be applied?
Systems where the response time is high or those that have a large time constant such as industrial
heaters may take advantage of this method.
10.A single phase voltage controller feeds an induction motor and a heater. Comment on whether the
fundamental and harmonics are useful for the system operation.
Induction motors are designed to produce torque based on the fundamental current and the
application of harmonics may only heat up the motor. The application of fundamental and harmonics to
a heater may produce heating and the heater could use this power for conversion to heat.

UNIT 4
1.Do cycloconverter require force commutation? Which type and why?
Step-up cycloconverter need forced commutation so that they can synthesize a high frequency
waveform from a low frequency waveform. Forced commutation is essential to turn off the devices even
though the applied voltage across the device is positive.
 2 What are the applications of cycloconverter?
Large motor drives in railways run at 16.66Hz using step down cycloconverter. Speed control for
synchronous machines. Cement mill drives Ship propulsion drives Rolling mill drives

3.What is meant by load commutated cycloconverter?

The thyristors in this cycloconverter are commutated (turned OFF) by the reversal of the load voltage.
The load voltage or generated emf from the load is negative. An example of such a load is a
cycloconverter supplying a permanent magnet synchronous machine. The thyristors need to be
commutated based on the speed of the machine and hence a shaft feedback of the motor is required to
control the cycloconverter. The applications of such machines are in aircrafts. The starter- generator
application in aircrafts working at 400Hz uses cycloconverter.

4. What is the difference between line commutated and force commutated cycloconverter?
In the line commutated or natural commutated cycloconverter, the thyristor turns OFF when the voltage
across the device becomes negative. In the force commutated cycloconverter, the device is made to
turn OFF even when the voltage across the device is positive. This is usually accomplished by switches
that can be turned OFF by gate control such as IGBTs or GTOs.

5.What is the difference between a cycloconverter and a dc link converter?

A DC link converter may convert the AC voltage to a DC voltage and then convert the DC voltage to an
AC voltage at a different frequency than the frequency of the input voltage. A cycloconverter will
convert the AC voltage at one frequency to AC voltage at another frequency without an intermediary DC
stage.

6.What is the effect of harmonics in cycloconverter?

The cycloconverter cause significant harmonics in the input current causing heating of the input
transformer components and also the large drives that are controlled by the converters. The motor
drives need to be derated to take into account the effect of temperature rise.
7.How power factor control is employed in cycloconverter?
Force commutated cycloconverter using GTOs are becoming popular since they have the ability to
perform extinction angle control thereby shaping the current waveform to improve the power factor.
8.Why an intergroup reactor is required for 3-phase cycloconverter?
An intergroup reactor is required between the positive group and the negative groups so that the ac bus
voltage is not short-circuited by the thyristors causing device damage. The inter-group reactor limits the
instantaneous current through the thyristors to a safe level.
9.Draw the circuit diagram of a converter used to generate a 20Hz power source from a 60Hz power
source.

10.What are the effects of load inductance on the performance of cycloconverter?

Load inductance cause the output current to be continuous and hence the waveform of the output
current is improved. There is a significant improvement in power factor and reduction in harmonics.

UNIT 5

1.What is meant by electrical drives?

Systems employed for motion control are called drives and they employ any of the prime movers such
as diesel or petrol engines, gas or steam turbines, hydraulic motors and electric motors for supplying
mathematical energy for motion control. Drives employing electric motion are called electric drives.
2.What is the advantage of using a three phase converter over a single phase converter for a large DC
drive application?

The ripple in the DC voltage output is reduced in a three phase converter. Also the ratings for individual
components are reduced since the rms current through each device will be lesser in a three phase
converter compared to a single phase converter to power a DC drive of a given rating.
3.Which DC-DC converter topology is suitable for electric vehicle drives?

A four quadrant topology is best suited for electric vehicles and the full bridge DC-DC converter may be
used for the same

4.Give the advantage of DC drives. DC drives:

a. The power circuit and control circuit is simple and in expensive b. It require frequent maintenance c.
Power/weight ratio is small

5.Write the best choice of electric motors for the following application: a)Pump load, b)Elevator

a) Pump load- single phase or three phase cage induction motor

b) Elevator –DC series motor, Slip ring induction motor.

6.How is chopper used in speed control of dc motor?

DC chopper converts fixed DC voltage in to variable DC output voltage. The variable output voltage can
be obtained by varying the duty cycle of the chopper. This variable voltage is fed to the motor. Due to
this, DC motor speed can be changed.

7.What are the four quadrants of dc drives?

Quadrant I : Rectifier Quadrant II : Inverter Quadrant III : Rectifier Quadrant IV : Inverter

8.What causes poor input power factor in phase controlled dc drives?

Phase controlled converter requires power for control and commutation. The harmonics do not
contribute to the active power loading but they contribute to the reactive loading of the line. So that the
line power factor becomes poor.

9. What are the applications of AC drives?

AC drives are used in the number of applications such as fans, blowers, mill run out tables, cranes,
conveyors, traction etc.

10.Give the applications of induction motors drives.

Although variable speed induction motor drives are generally expensive than D.C. drives, they are used
in a number of applications such as fans, blowers, mill run-out tables, cranes, conveyors, traction etc.,
because of the advantages of induction motors. Other applications involved are underground and
underwater installations, and explosive and dirty environments.