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PEC-Power Electronics Circuit, An Educational Software

Conference Paper · June 2002

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 PEC - Power Electronics Circuits, An Educational Software Program

Hussein A. Kazem Alwaally

Assistance Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
The Faculty of Engineering / Hoon - LIBYA, P.O.Box 61160
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract:
This paper presents the design development and implementation of Power Electronics
Circuits program design to run on PC system under Windows. The software program is
written using Visual Basic. It covers a variety of Power Electronics Circuits suitable for
laboratory and industrial training. PEC program offers a wide range of models to simulate
different circuits. The models solved in this program are; Rectifiers, AC Voltage Controllers,
DC Choppers and Inverters.
The interactive program interface facilities are carefully designed to be attractive and user-
friendly. The features provided suit many examples and studies on different power electronics
circuits. Results achieved for these circuits match published results.

Key Words: Power Electronics, Educational Program.

(1) Introduction:
The demand for control of electric power for electric motor drive systems and industrial
controls existed for many years, and this led to early development of the Ward-Leonard
system to obtain a variable dc voltage for the control of dc motor drives. Power electronics
have revolutionized the concept of power control for power conversion and for control of
electrical motor drives.
Power electronics combine power, electronics, and control. Control deals with the steady state
and dynamic characteristics of closed-loop systems. Power deals with the static and rotating
power equipment for the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power.
Electronics deals with the solid-state devices and circuits for signal processing to meet the
desired control objectives. Power electronics may be defined as the application of solid-state
electronics for the control and conversion of electric power.
For the control of electric power or power conditioning, the conversion of electric power from
one form to another is necessary and the switching characteristics of the power devices permit
these conversions. The static power converters perform these functions of power conversions.

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A converter may be considered as a switching matrix. The power electronics circuits can be
classified into four types: Rectifiers (ac-dc converters), AC Voltage Controllers (ac-ac
converters), DC Choppers (dc-dc converters) and Inverters (dc-ac converters).

Most of power electronics circuits analysis packages are expensive, complicated, and require
dedicated computers workstation. These packages installation and maintenance require a
considerable investment that is not normally affordable for many training centers and college
laboratories. Furthermore, industry-standard productive packages are normally too
sophisticated and usually designed for professional users. This makes them not suitable for
beginners and novice users in educational and training applications.

Most of modern curriculum and training programs on power electronics and design studies
place heavy emphasis on the rule of PC-based modeling and simulation techniques. The new
generations of low price PC’s are powerful enough to handle most of modern standard studies
for power electronics and design. These PC’s are affordable for almost any power electronics
laboratory and training center.
(2) Rectifying Circuits:
Rectifier circuits are one which links ac supply to a dc load, it converts an alternating voltage
supply to a direct voltage. The direct voltage obtained is not normally level, as that which
obtained from a battery, but it contains an alternating ripple component superimposed on the
mean (dc) level.

The various circuit connections of rectifiers all giving a dc output, differ in regard to the ac
ripple in the output; the mean voltage level, efficiency, and their loading effects on the ac
supply system. Rectifier circuits are used extensively in industrial applications, especially in
variable-speed drives, ranging from fractional horsepower to megawatt power level. Figure
(1) shows the arrangement of rectifiers.
(3) AC Voltage Controller Circuits:
If a thyristor switch is connected between an ac supply and any load, then varying the rms
value of the ac voltage applied to the load can control the power flow; this type of power
circuit is known as an ac voltage controller.
The most common applications of ac voltage controllers are: industrial heating,
on-load transformer tap changing, light controls, speed control of polyphase
induction motors, and ac magnet controls. Figure (2) shows the arrangement of
AC voltage controllers.

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 AC Voltage
Rectifier controller
Circuits Circuits

Single Phase Three Phase Single Phase Three Phase

Full wave Half wave Delta Star Bidirectional Unidirectional Delta Star

Uncontrolled
Uncontrolled R Load
R Load
controlled Half wave
controlled RL Load Unidirectional
RL Load
Full wave
Half controlled R Load Bidirectional
R Load R Load RL Load R Load
RL Load RL Load RL Load

Figure (1) Arrangement of rectifier circuits Figure (2) Arrangement of ac voltage

solved in PEC. Controller circuits solved in PEC.

(4) DC Chopper Circuits:

In much of industrial applications, it is required to convert a fixed-voltage dc source into a
variable-voltage dc source. A dc chopper converts directly from dc to dc and is also known as
a dc-to-dc converter. The chopper can be considered as dc equivalent to an ac transformer
with a continuously variable turn ratio. Like a transformer, the can be used to step-down or
step-up a dc voltage source.
Choppers are widely used for traction motor control in electric automobiles, trolley cars,
marine hoists, forklift trucks, and mine haulers. Choppers provide smooth acceleration
control, high efficiency, and fast dynamic response. Choppers can be used in regenerative
braking of dc motors to return energy back into the supply, and this feature result as will in
energy savings for transportation systems with frequent stops. Choppers are used in dc
voltage regulators, and in conjunction with an inductor to generate a dc current source
especially for the current source inverter. Figure (3) shows the arrangement of DC Choppers.
(5) Inverter Circuits:
DC-to-ac converters are known as inverters. The function of an inverter is to change a dc
input voltage to a symmetrical ac output voltage of desired magnitude and frequency. The
output voltage could be fixed or variable at a fixed or variable frequency. Varying the input dc
voltage and maintaining the gain of the inverter constant can obtain a variable output voltage.
On the other hand, if the dc input voltage is fixed and it is not controllable, a variable output
voltage can be obtained by varying the gain of the inverter, which is normally accomplished
by pulse-width-modulation (PWM) control within the inverter. The inverter gain may be
defined as the ratio of the ac output voltage to dc input voltage. The most common

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applications of inverters are: variable-speed ac motor drives, induction heating, standby
power supplies, uninterruptible power supplies. Figure (4) shows the arrangement of
Inverters.
(6) Performance Parameters:

As mentioned above there are different types of power electronics circuits and the
performance parameters of these circuits are normally evaluated in terms of some of the
following parameters:
1-The average value of the output (load) voltage, Vav.
2-The average value of the output (load) current, Iav.
3-The output dc power,
Pdc = Vav .I av (1)

4-The rms value of the output voltage, Vrms.

5-The rms value of the output current, Irms.
6-The output ac power,
Pac = Vrms .I rms (2)

7-The efficiency of a circuit, which is a figure of merit and permits us to compare the
effectiveness, and is defined as
η = Pav / Pac (3)

8-The effective (rms) value of the ac component of output voltage is

Vac = Vrms
2
− Vav2 (4)

9-The form factor, which is a measure of the output voltage, which is defined as
FF = Vrms / Vav (5)

10-The ripple factor, which is a measure of the ripple content, is defined as

RF = Vac / Vav = FF 2 − 1 (6)

11-The transformer utilization factor is defined as

TUF = Pav /(VS .I S ) (7)

Where VS and IS are the rms voltage and rms current of the transformer secondary,
respectively.
12-The input power factor is defined as
V .I
PF = S S1 cos ϕ (8)
VS .I S

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Where IS1 is the fundamental component of the input current IS.
13-Harmonic factor of nth harmonic, HFn. The harmonic factor (of the nth harmonic), which is
a measure of individual harmonic contributions, is defined as
HFn = Vn /V1 (9)
Where V1 is the rms value of the fundamental component and Vn is the rms value of the nth
harmonic component.
14-Total harmonic distortion THD. The total harmonic distortion, which is a measure of
closeness in shape between a waveform and its fundamental component, is defined as
∞
1 (10)
THD = .( ∑ V n2 ) 1 / 2
V 1 n = 2 , 3 ,..

15-Distortion factor DF. THD gives the total harmonic content, but it does not indicate the
level of each harmonic component. The distortion factor indicates the amount of harmonic
distortion that remains in a particular waveform after the harmonics of that waveform have
been subjected to a second order attenuation (i.e., divided by n2).
∞
DF =
1
.[ ∑
V
( n ) 2 ]1 / 2 (11)
V 1 n = 2 , 3 ,.. n 2

16-Lowest order harmonic LOH. The lower order harmonic is that harmonic component
whose frequency is the closest to the fundamental one, and its amplitude is greater than or
equal to 3% of the fundamental component.
(7) Software Objectives and Outline:
The author developed PEC shell and, designed the analysis modules development at the
Electrical Engineering Department of the Faculty of Engineering at Hoon-Libya on late 90’s
to fulfill the following objectives:
1–To stimulate student’s interests in computer applications on power electronics.
2–To enhance technical instruction visual facilities on power electronics analysis.
3–To encourage students to work on advanced computer aided problem solving.
4–To establish a foundation tool for future projects and laboratory assignments.

The modular design used in developing the program, permits its integration with other
additional program modules in future. The analytical part of this first program version is
developed using QBasic. PEC has been successfully implemented in PC’s based on Intel
Pentium processors using Visual Basic 6. The basic requirements of the current version do not
exceed 0.5 MB RAM, a VGA graphic adapter, color display, and few Megabyte of hard disk
storage.

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(8) The Man-Machine Interface:
Early works in educational software emphasis the importance of man-machine interface. A
compromise should be sought between simplicity and comprehension. User interface for
educational software should be simple, user-friendly and interactive. Pull-down windowed
menu structure is well preferred over the classical question and answer, or the item-number
selection type of interactivity.
In order to simplify software usage for inexperienced users special care is given for input data
handling and output results interpretation. This is essential to attract novice students and
trainees. The main goal in developing this software is to ease man-machine interface by
increasing the bandwidth of communication between the user and the software. The shell of
PEC and its other modules have been designed to fulfill the following requirements:
1–To provide the user with an easy access to program facilities.
2–To present the input data and output results in a clearly tabulated format.
3–To provide the user with simple means to modify input data.
4–To enhance the effectiveness of detecting erroneous and incorrect data.
5–To ease output information interpretation, display, and printing.
(9) PEC Environment Structure:
The driver shell of PEC has been designed to resemble a tree structure with modular structure
concept. The structure adopted and facilitates direct accessibility of all tasks related to
analysis and input/output modules as illustrated in Figure (5). The tree structure concept is
implemented in the form of colorful pull-down and push-up dynamic menu bases. The
opening screen of PEC, which continually displays the main menu bar to give access to
command menus, is shown in Figure (6).
PEC
DATA RUN RESULT PRI NT EXIT
MAIN MENU OF PEC

DATA RUN RESULT PRINT EXIT

Input Circuit1 Data Out Quit
Choose Circuit2 Plot Close
View Circuit3
Circuit4 Power Electronics Circuits (PEC), Ass. Prof. Hussein A. Kazem, 2001, Faculty of Engineering at Hoon

Figure (5) PEC environment tree structure. Figure (6) PEC opening screen.

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Initially, any menu from the main menu bar can be selected either by hitting the highlighted
letter of the menu title or by using the mouse. The title of the selected menu will be
highlighted and hitting the Enter key can open that menu. The opened menu can be closed by
hitting the Esc key to go back to menu bar, or by using arrow keys to move sideways to open
the next or previous menu instead.

Opening a menu displays a small window containing a list of commands for the user to select
from. A command is selected by going up or down the list using arrow keys or by hitting
command highlighted-letter or by using the mouse. The title of the selected command will be
highlighted, and its related command can be executed simply by hitting the Enter key. Some
commands when executed open a submenu with items to select and execute in the same way.
This dynamic menu structure concept enables easier maneuver between menus and helps
novice users to move easily between commands and tasks.

Execution of a menu command opens a dialogue bar at the bottom of the screen prompting the
user for the proper circuit. When the user works on the program, a small side window will
show the specified operation.
(10) Interactive Data Editing:
The DATA menu includes three commands that are the Input, Choose, and View commands.
When the user selects the Choose command he will be prompted to choose a circuit to be
studied. The Input commands used to enter circuit data, the command opens a massage box
contains hint about the parameter to be entered. The View command reads the circuit data that
were previously created. The command then arranges data in a set and displays them in
sequence on the right hand side of the screen. Figure (7) shows PEC screen when Choose
command is selected.
Special care is given to check the validity of all input data during the interactive data entering
session to avoid possible time wasting, miss leading results and/or program failure. This
feature is particularly essential for any educational software where many novice and
inexperienced users are expected to use the program. All the input data are automatically
checked for errors as they are typed.
(11) Results Computation and Output:
RUN menu is used to perform the computation for the specified circuit. The RESULT menu
contains two commands namely; Data out and Plot, which are used to access previously
calculated performance parameters of the specified circuits. The Plot command starts to plot

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the output current and voltage, and displays them on screen. The Print command performs a
similar task but sends its output to the printer instead.

Figure (7) Sample of PEC input data screen.

EXIT menu is used to exit from the program. It contains two commands, the Quit and Close
commands. The Quit command when executed ends the program execution, remove it from
memory and return control to the window. The Close command when executed temporarily
deletes the last case studied.
(12) Sample Case Study:
The program PEC can be used in a vast range of power electronics circuit’s studies aiming at
the determination of the effects of certain operational variables and/or circuit elements on the
performance parameters and shape of current and voltage waveforms. The user cans freely
experiments any change in circuit parameters in a trail and error type of study.
PEC has been applied in many case studies involving industrial circuits and examples in
different references. Graphical representation of the results as displayed by the program is
shown in figures (8) to (11) for various circuits (as appear on PEC screen). The case study
results agree favorably with what are expected compared to results published for similar
cases.
(13) Conclusions:
The need for an advanced user-friendly educational software program on power electronics
was the prime motion behind the development of the program. PEC present in this paper to
model various circuits. The program PEC is primarily aimed at students and trainees in
colleges and training centers. It offers the user with an opportunity to freely experiment and

٨
compares power electronics circuit’s performance parameters and output waveforms. This
will stimulate student interest in and strengthen his knowledge in the subject.
PEC has been successfully implemented in various circuits with results that compares well
with results obtained using other packages.

Figure (8): Output data for single-phase rectifier half wave with RL load.

Figure (9): Single-phase rectifier full wave with R load.

Figure (10): Single-phase rectifier full wave with RL load.

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 Figure (11): AC voltage controller, single phase, unidirectional, with R load.

Figure (12): AC voltage controller, single phase, bi-directional, with R load.

References:
[1]. Kasakian, John G., Schlecht, Martin F. & Verghese, George C. " Principles of power
Electronics ", Addison – Wesley, 1991.
[2]. Rashid, M.H., " power Electronics, circuits, devices and applications ", Prentice – Hall,
1990.
[3]. Lander, Cyril W., " Power Electronics ", McGraw – Hall, 1993.
[4]. Bradley, D.A., " Power Electronics ", Chapman & Hall, 1995.
[5]. Barton, Thomas H., " Rectifiers cycloconverters and AC controllers ", Clavendon Press.
OXFORD, 1994.
[6]. Dewan, S.B., Straughan, A. " Power Semiconductor Circuits ". Wiley & Sons Inc, New
York, USA, 1975.
[7]. Hussein A. Kazem, " Principals of Power Electronics ", [accepted for publication], Sabha,
Great Jamahiriya, 2001.
[8]. Bedford, B.D. and Hoft, R.G., " Principals of Inverter Circuits ", John Wiley & Sons,
New York, USA, 1964.

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 Hussein A. Kazem (B.Sc., M.Sc. E.P.E.):
Has received his B.Sc. in Electrical Power Engineering from University Of
Technology (UOT) - Iraq in 1991. He received his M.Sc in Electrical Power
Engineering from (UOT) in 1994. His thesis discussed " Sample data AGC
analysis of interconnected reheat thermal - hydro system " . He is presently
Ass. Prof. in Al-Tahady University, Faculty of Engineering / Hoon, and has
been working in this fields:
1.Power System Operation and Control since 1993.
2.Power Electronics since 1997.
3.Electrical Machines since 1997.

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