Operation Method for AC Motor Control during Power Interruption in Direct AC/AC Converter System

Abstract

Direct AC/AC converters have been studied due to their potential use in power converters with no DC-link capacitor, which can contribute to the miniaturization of power converters. However, the absence of a DC-link capacitor makes it difficult to control the AC motor during power interruption.
First, this paper proposes a system that realizes AC motor control during power interruption by utilizing a clamp capacitor. In general, direct AC/AC converters have a clamp circuit consisting of a rectifier diode(s) and a clamp capacitor in order to avoid over-voltages. In the proposed system, there is an additional semiconductor switch reverse-parallel to the rectifier diode(s), and the clamp capacitor voltage can be utilized for AC motor control by turning on the additional switch.
Second, this paper discusses an operation method for AC motor control and clamp capacitor voltage control during power interruption. In the proposed method “DC-link voltage control”, the kinetic energy in the AC motor is transformed into electrical energy and stored in the clamp capacitor; the clamp capacitor is therefore charged and the capacitor voltage is controlled to remain constant at an instruction value.
Third, this paper discusses a switching operation during power interruption. A dead-time is introduced between the operation of turning off all switches on the rectifier side and the operation of turning on the additional switch, which prevents the occurrence of a short circuit between the interrupted power source and the clamp capacitor.
Finally, experimental results are presented. During power interruptions, an output current was continuously obtained and the clamp capacitor voltage was maintained to be equal to the instruction value of the capacitor voltage. These results indicate that both AC motor control and capacitor voltage control were successfully achieved by using the proposed system.