Direct Power Electronic Conversion

Description: This project investigates possible converter topologies suitable for the next generation of integrated motor drives. This application requires the minimization of the passive components in order to reduce the volume of the converter enclosure that has to be attached to the motor. Therefore quasi and direct power conversion seem to be the research direction to be followed. Efficiency of the converter is also important, because better efficiency means lower power dissipation and smaller size of the converter enclosure surface (heatsink). Friendly interface with the power grid is also an important issue for the next generation of frequency converters, because controlled input currents will not only decrease the harmonic content of the input currents, but will provide also more robustness to unbalanced voltage supply. There are two ways to achieve this requirement: rectangular input currents and sinusoidal input currents. The cost is different for the two solutions and this factor will be analyzed in order to conclude if an intermediary development stage consisting of rectangular input currents drives is necessary. Because it is not possible to develop a universal solution that will provide low cost and best performance for any kind of applications, the most important factor, the need for bi-directional power flow will be taken into account in order to classify and analyze the converter topologies. Finally, at least two converter topologies will be prototyped and experimentally evaluated into the lab. The project is funded by the Danish Research Councils through the Innovation Post. Doc. Programme and Danfoss Drives A/S. (Christian Klumpner; Frede Blaabjerg; Paul Thøgersen, Danfoss Drives A/S