Research on Main Circuit Topology for a Novel DC Solid-state Circuit Breaker

Mu Jian-guo, Wang Li, Hu Jie

Aero-Power Science-Technology Center Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Nanjing 210016, Jiangsu Province, China
AbstractConcerning the problems of topologies in current patents, the improvements to the structure of solid-state circuit breakers are made to enhance the reliability and to broaden the field of application and to reduce the manufacturing costs. A novel circuit breaker topology is proposed in this paper, which is improved by using the current-commutation of hybrid circuit breakers for reference. By making use of soft-switching and current-commutation forced by resonance, the new topology can not only successfully realize the soft turn-on and fast turn-off but also can be applied in the situation of higher voltage level. The topology is presented and mathematical model is built by mode analysis. Finally, the normal turn-on and turn-off experiment was taken on a prototype. The experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed topology and verify the correctness of theoretical derivations. Keywords- Topology structure; Solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB); Power electronics; Thyristor; DC power system

characteristics of AC system, which cannot be used in DC power system. And also its more difficult to cut off DC current than that in AC power system, because there are no zerocrossing points. With the development of the new energy power generation, especially the leaping development of wind and solar power generation in china, the DC SSCB will be used widely. So studies on it are urgently needed [11-13]. According to the characteristics above, a new SSCB showed in Fig.1 (a) was proposed in reference [14], but the SSCB proposed in this patent is suitable for low-voltage systems. When used in higher voltage systems, the capacitor voltage will be too high, and the reliability is greatly reduced. In this paper, on the basis of SSCB proposed in the patent above, a novel resonant DC SSCB based on SCR was proposed in order to solve this problem and reduce the costs of manufacturing, which is showed in Fig.1 (b), it has the basic functions of original circuit breakers, but also has a wider level of voltage application and lower manufacturing cost. II. BASIC PRINCIPLES AND ANALYSIS OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUIT BREAKER

I.

INTRODUCTION

With the growth of the national economy, distribution network capacity and short-circuit capacity are increasing rapidly. So the breaking performance of switchgear equipments should be improved. In order to satisfy the demand of consumers, it is very important to enhance power supply quality by clear short-circuit faults instantly to inhibit grid voltage drop in fault period. But the existing Mechanical circuit breakers are unable to operate fast enough because of their physical structure restriction. Meanwhile their operating capacity cannot be extended greatly. Moreover the arc produced by the dynamic and static electric contacts will prolong the operating time. In recently years, the flexible direct current transmission is proposed. The core equipments of which are the power electronic devices [1-3]. Therefore it is necessary to do research on SSCB which is also based on the power electronic devices. SSCB is a new electric power automation equipment. However, when high power electronic devices are used in solid-state circuit breakers, the conduction loss is so great that a huge heat sinks is needed. The present studies are mainly on fault current limiter which will act with the mechanical circuit breaker to limit the short-circuit current in the power system. Studies of fault current limiting technology at home and aboard are mainly on superconducting [4-6], magnetic [7-8], PTC resistor [9-10], solid-state and so on. But most of these are based on zero-crossing or power frequency resonant

SCR is a half-controlled device which can be closed only when the voltage between anode and cathode decreases to zero or even negative and the anode current is less than the holding current. Unfortunately, there is not any natural zero-crossing point in DC power system. Therefore the SCR will bear high current stress. The paper uses commutation theory of hybrid circuit breakers and resonant theory of double currenttransferring as sources of reference, improved design the DC SSCB based on the SCR on the basis of the patent [15-19], which is applicable to higher voltage levels and has lower manufacturing costs. A. Circuit Structure of DC SSCB Fig.1 (b) shows the Circuit diagram of the main switch circuit of DC SSCB. Block A of Fig.1 is the main switch circuit including T11 which is the main switch SCR and D1 is the freewheeling diode which is the path of feedback current to the power grid; the Block B is the auxiliary switch circuit, including inductor L1 and L2, capacitor C1 and the thyristor T21 T22 T23 and T24.

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D1
T11

C1

T21

di L1 L1 + i L1 RLoad = Vdc + u C1 dt
T23

du C1 + i L1 = 0 dt

(1)

L1
C1
T24

T22

L2

Put UC1(t1)=Vdc, iL1(t1)=0 in Equation (1). The following relationships are obtained.
u C1 = Vdc 1 + RLoad C1 L RLoad e r1 (t t1 ) + 1 R Load C1 + L1 R e r2 (t t1 ) 1

D2

i Load = i L1 = Vdc

3C1 2

3C1 1 1 e r1 (t t1 ) e r2 (t t1 ) 2 RLoad 2 2 RLoad

Where iL1
2 2

iL2 is the current of inductor L1 and L2,

= RLoad C1 4 L1C1 r2 = RLoad 2 L1 2 L1C1 .

r1 =
,

RLoad + 2 L1 2 L1C1

When the resonant current is more than the load current, the one part of the resonant current can feed back to the capacitance through load and the other through D1. The physical circuit can be equivalent to Fig.2 (b), ignored the voltage drop of thyristor T22 and T25, the following mathematical expression can be obtained.
Figure 1. Basic structure of the DC SSCB circuit

B. Operating Process of DC SSCB The SSCB put forward in this paper is suitable for DC power system. It is a modified circuit breaker which uses current-commutation forced by resonance and combines softswitch technology. As a result it can reduce current or voltage stress on the power switch at the moment of turning on and off and enlarge the overload capacity. Moreover it is cheaper than a full-controlled device. The equivalent circuit structure and the mathematical model of every main working state are analyzed as follow. The current and voltage analytical results are given. 1) Turn-on process: In order to reduce the current stress of power device in the process of opening, LC resonance was used to achieve a soft opening of the main switch, supposed that capacitance has been charged to the supply voltage passing the slip of T21-C1-R-T24, T22 and T25 was turned on first, L1 and C1 begin to resonated, when the resonant current is less than the normal operating current of the load, resonant circuit supplied the load, the load current is equal to the resonant current. The equivalent circuit of this stage is shown in Fig.2 (a), in this figure, E represents the DC power supply, L1 is the resonant inductor, C1 is the resonant capacitor, RLoad is the load resistor. At the beginning, the load current i0- is equal to zero, ignored the voltage drop of the thyristor T25 and T22, the following mathematical expression can be obtained.

C1

du C1 + i L1 = 0 dt di L1 L1 = u C1 dt

(2)

Hence the current for iL1 and voltage for UC1 are given by

i L1 =

Vdc u (t ) cos r1 (t t 2 ) + C1 2 sin r1 (t t 2 ) R Z r1

Z r1 Vdc sin r1 (t t 2 ) + u C (t 2 ) cos r1 (t t 2 ) R

u C1 (t ) =
Where

r1

is

resonance

angular

frequency,

L1C1 Z r1 ; is the resonant resistor of the resonant Z = L1 C1 inductor L1 and resonant capacitor C1, r1
When the resonant current drops to the load current during normal operating, as the current of D1 drops to zero, turn on T11, in this stage, T11 and the spur track T25C1L1T22 supply the load at the same time, as the load terminal voltage is constant, the load current is unchanging, T11 current increases with the decreasing of resonant current, when the resonant current reduced to zero, achieving full turn on, as is shown in Fig.2 (c). Ignored the voltage drop of thyristor, the following mathematical expression can be obtained.

r1 = 1

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L1

di L1 + i L1 RLoad = Vdc + uC1 dt

initial values, the following

V iT 11 + i L1 = dc RLoad du C1 C1 + i L1 = 0 dt

(3)

Substituted into the relationships are obtained.

iT 11 =
u C1 (t ) =

E E i L1 (t ) = D1e r1 (t t3 ) D2 e r2 (t t3 ) RLoad RLoad

R Load R + D1e r1 (t t3 ) + Load D2 e r2 (t t3 ) Vdc 2 2C1 2 2C1

Where

r1 = D2 = D1 =

R Load + 2 L1 2 L1C1

r2 =

RLoad 2 L1 2 L1C1

In order to cut off the circuit, current of the main switch must be zero because semi-controlled device is used in the circuit breaker. However, there is no natural zero-crossing point in the DC power system, and the current is constant. Therefore, we can use the resonant converter to force the current-transferring to close the main switch T11. The control strategy is given as follows: during the turning on of T22 and T25, C1 discharges through L1, LC resonance is occurring at that time. When the resonant current is less than the load current, the load current is supplied by both main circuit T11 and the resonant circuit T25-C1-L1-T22. Because of the constant load voltage, current of T11 decreases with the increase of the resonant current as shown in Fig.3 (a). When the resonant current is more than the load current, the current of T11 reaches zero and T11 switches off naturally for the reverse voltage. Here, the load current is supplied by the resonant circuit and the redundant resonant current can feed back to the capacitor as shown in Fig.3 (b). These two processes can be simplified to Fig.3(c) by mode analysis and the mathematical expressions are given as follow, neglecting of thyristor and diode voltage drop.

Vdc C 1 [Vdc + 2u C1 (t 3 )] 2R 2 Vdc C + 1 [Vdc + 2u C1 (t 3 )] 2 RLoad 2

2 2

C1

duC1 + i L1 = 0 dt di L1 L1 = u C1 dt

(4)

= R Load C1 4 L1C1
It can be seen that the current of main switch T11 increases with the resonant current decreasing. So that zero-voltage turning on is achieved. After the process of turning on, T21 and T24 are turned on. The power supply charged the capacitor to the voltage of power supply by circuit of RC, to prepare for the turn-off process.
L1 T22 D1

Put iL1=iC1=0 UC1=E in Equation (4). The following relationships are obtained.

E sin r1t Z r1 uC1 (t ) = Vdc cos r1t iL1 (t ) =

Where

Z r1 = L1 C1

r1 = 1

L1C1

When the resonant current is less than the load current,

C1 T25 E T22 RLoad T25 L1 C1

iT 11 + i L1 =
Hence iT11 is

E RLoad

(5)

T11 L1 T25 E C1 RLoad T22

iT 11 =

E RLoad

E sin r1t Z r1

We can get the conclusion that current of the main switch declines to zero according to sine rule, thus it achieves zerovoltage soft turn-off. When the resonant current is less than the load current, the current of the diode D1 will decrease to zero. The resonant current through the load forms a discharge circuit. The turn-off process will complete as the voltage of the resonant capacitance drops to zero as shown in Fig.3 (d).

Figure 2. Equivalent model of the turn-on process

2) The normal turn-off process:

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T11 T22 L1 C1 RLoad E

D1 T22 L1 C1 RLoad

T25 E

T25

2) The normal turn-off process: Fig.5 (a) shows the waveforms of turn-off process with these parameters of the improved topology shown in Fig.1 (b). Fig.5 (b) shows that of the previous topology shown in Fig.1 (a). As can be seen from Fig.5, the capacitor voltage equals 2E (1000V) in the previous topology. But in the improved topology, it is only E (500V). So if the topology is improved, the capacitor voltage can be halved.
U/V U/V

D1

L1

T22

I/A

C1 T25 L1 C1 RLoad T25 E

U/V

Figure 5. Turn-off simulation waveforms Figure 3. The normal turn-off equivalent circuit

B. Experiental Results and Analysis 1) Turn-on process: The experiment is conducted with a load (100 ohm) and DC power supply (500V). The thyristor and diode used in the experiment are both home-made conventional products. By substituting values into formal equations, we conclude: L1=4mH L2=150uH C1=200uF, R2=10 . Fig.6 (a) shows the waveforms of turn-on process with these parameters, in which channels 1, 2, 3 and 4 present the current through T11, the trigger signal of T11, the voltage on the load and the capacitance respectively. The turn-on process experimental waveform of the circuit in Fig.1 (a) is showed in Fig.6 (b). The experiment is conducted under the condition of 100V input voltage and 12 ohm load resistance, in which channels 1, 2, 3 and 4 present the trigger signal of T21 and T11, the voltage on the load and the capacitance respectively. As can be seen from the experimental waveforms of turn-on process in Fig.6, ZVS turn-on of the main switch T11 can be realized under the condition of previous circuit and the improved counterpart.

III.

SIMULATION AND EXPERIENTAL RESULTS

Based on the analysis of DC SSCB, both simulations and experiments have been done. And the performance of turn-on and turn-off was tested. All the results validate the correctness, reliability and feasibility of the designed DC SSCB topology. A. Simulation Results and Analysis First the performance of the Solid-state Circuit Breaker as shown topological structures in Fig.1 was simulated by the power electronic simulation soft SABER. And the improved effectiveness has been demonstrated 1) Turn-on process: The simulation is conducted with a load (100 ohm) and DC power supply (500V). Fig.4 (a) shows the waveforms of turnon process of the improved topology as shown in Fig.1 (b). And Fig.4 (b) shows that in the Fig.1 (a). As can be seen in Fig.4, the simulation waveforms of turnon process, ZVS turn-on of the main switch T11 can be realized under the condition of previous circuit and the improved counterpart. However, the charging voltage of capacitor equals E (500V) for the improved topology while in the previous topology, the charging voltage equals 2E (1000V).
U/V U/V

I/A

U/V

U/V

I/A

U/V

U/V

Figure 6. Experimental waveforms of turn-on process

2) The normal turn-off process:

Figure 4. Simulation waveforms of turn-on process

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U/V

U/V

I/A

T22

I/A

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Fig.7 (a) shows the waveforms in the normal turn-off process. And also channels 1, 2, 3 and 4 present the current through T11 and L1, the voltage on the load and capacitance. Fig.7 (b) shows the experimental waveforms of the normal turn-off process in the previous topology, in which channels 1, 2, 3 and 4 represent the current through T11 and T22, the voltage on the load and the capacitance respectively. As can be seen from Fig.7, the capacitor voltage equals 2E and E in the previous topology and the improved topology respectively. When the topology is improved, the capacitor voltage can be halved, the cost is reduced and the reality is increased.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

Figure 7. Turn-off experimental waveforms

[9]

IV.

CONCLUSION

[10]

A novel topological structure of the DC SSCB is proposed in this paper. The working principle, control strategy and working modes have been analyzed. Furthermore, an experimental prototype is implemented, with which the normal turn-on and turn-off experiments have been conducted. It can be confirmed that all the theory analysis confirms to reality. Under the comparison of the previous and improved topology, the DC SSCB proposed in this paper has the same advantages as the previous topology such as soft switching. The halfcontrolled device with the largest single tube capacity and the least on-state voltage drop can replace the full-controlled device. The capacitor voltage equals supply voltage, which is half of the previous capacitor voltage. Hence, the discharging of the capacitor caused by the leakage impedance of thyristor can be avoided. So the cost of the capacitor and the whole production cost of SSCB will be reduced. In a word, the SSCB in this paper has advantages of low manufacturing cost, low on-state loss and high reliability. It is a novel DC SSCB that can be widely used in the grid-connected and non-grid-connected DC transmission and distribution systems. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2007CB210303) REFERENCES

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