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The High Voltage Rectifier Based on Star-Point Regulation

Conference Paper · October 2005

DOI: 10.1109/ICEMS.2005.202785 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 The High Voltage Rectifier Based on Star-Point Regulation

Yu Zhang, Fei Liu, Yong Kang, Jian Chen

Department of Electrical Engineering, Huazhong University of science and technology, Wuhan 430074, China

Abstract—The star-point structure of three-phase trans- step-up transformer. So the voltage rate required of the
former can be applied in the high voltage rectifier, and it thyristors and the insulation level of the inductance are
will bring great conveniences to the control and design of lower, this lead to the smaller size and the more economi-
rectifiers for its lower voltage rating requirement to thyris- cal cost. More over, because the filter inductor operates in
tors and the lower insulation requirement to inductors, the low voltage side, the output DC voltage can be less
which lead to the smaller size and more economic cost. More
affected by it when the load is switched in and out from
over, the operation of the inductor in the lower voltage side
of the transformer will hardly affect the output DC voltage the power system.
while the load is switched in and out from the power, which These kinds of circuits have been utilized successfully
then can realize the high steep edge of output voltage and for the TOKMAK thermonuclear reactors like the 80kV
high repetitive pulsed power supplies. The theoretical analy-
sis is presented in this paper. A high voltage DC power sup-
pulsed power system to power the klystrons in the JET
ply prototype based on star-point structure is built. The (Joint European Torus) project in Europe [2]. But their
simulations and experiments validate the analysis and show theoretical analysis is limited till now.
that the star-point structure is simple and takes great advan-
We had used this technology to realize a high voltage
tages to the high voltage rectifiers.
DC power supplies. And the control scheme of the star-
point regulation is introduced in this paper, and the de-
I. INTRODUCTION
tailed theoretical analyses are presented. A 1kW prototype
The traditional high voltage DC power supplies, such is built for experiments. The simulations and experiments
as the HVDC (High Voltage DC Supply) [5][6], normally validated the above analysis and proven that the star-point
make the phase-control rectifiers to work in the high volt- regulation take great advantages of to the high DC voltage
age side of the step-up transformer to output high DC rectifiers.
voltage. However, the problems are that the high voltage
rating required to the power switches need the thyristors II. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF STAR-POINT CONTROLLER
to link in series, and this makes the driving of the
The main circuit of the Star-Point Control Structure is
switches very difficult and their surrounding circuits are
shown in the Fig.1. The star-point on the primary side of
also very complex. Nevertheless, the requirement of insu-
the star-point transformer Tr (we call it star-point trans-
lation to the ground of the filter inductors is too high that
former) is left open, and an ordinary six-pulse thyristor-
it makes the cubage of the inductor very immense [7]. All
bridge is connected to this point, on the DC side of which
of the above make the cost of the high voltage DC power
an inductance (Ld) is connected. A diode rectifier bridge
supplies considerable high.
rectifies the ac voltage that output from the secondary
The star-point structure of three-phase transformers side of the star-point transformer. Any current passing
that are shown in Fig.1 can bring great conveniences to through the primary of the star-point transformer also
the high voltage rectifiers. The three-phase rectifier bridge flows through the inductor on the dc side of the thyristor-
and the inductor operate in the lower voltage side of the bridge. Therefore, this inductor behaves in the same way

Fig.1 The rectifier with Star-Point structure

1432
as a filtering inductor on the primary side of the star-point equivalent resistance of the inductor. Ld is the induc-
transformer.
As a result of the large inductive impedance on the tance of the filter inductor. R2 is the damping resistor.
primary side, the transformer Tr behaves more as a current The L1 is the leakage inductance of the transformer.
transformer. Due to this current transformer action, the When the φ is greater than 20 degree, we can draw
primary-side inductor of the rectifier transformer can be
transformed to the DC side after the diode bridge with the out the phasor diagram as Fig. 2.
square value of the transformer ratio.
The required insulation level of the inductor to local V3
earth is much lower than if it was on the secondary side of VS
the transformer. Therefore, normal air-insulated inductor α
can be used.
The variables of the system are defined as following,
and all are average square root values. φ jX 1 I 1
Vs - The output voltage of transformer T1.
V1 - The primary phase voltage of star-point trans- I1 V1
former Tr. Fig. 3. The phasor diagram of rectifier
V2 - The secondary phase voltage of star-point trans- Taking into account the equivalent resistant produced
former Tr. by the commutation of the thyristors [1], we can derive
V3 - The fundamental component of three-phase recti- the equation (1) from the phase diagram of the circuit
fier input voltage. shown in Fig. 2.
Vd - The output voltage from the three-phase thyristor V L = π3 6 ⋅ V 2 − π3 k 2ωL1 I L = I L R L (1)
bridge.
VL - The DC load voltage. Then, we can get equation (2) from (1):
I1 - The primary phase current of star-point trans- R L + π3 k 2ωL1
former Tr. V2 = IL (2)
3
I2 - The secondary phase current of star-point trans- π
6
former Tr. The ratio of the transformer can be calculated by (3)
Id - The current of inductor Ld. V I
IL - The DC load current. k= 2 = 1 (3)
V1 I 2
L1 -The leakage reactor of star-point transformer Tr.
The equivalent circuit of star-point rectifier is shown Considering the phase control rectifier with a large in-
as Fig.2. ductive load, we found that the V1 , V2 , I 1 , I 2 has the
Vd same phasor-angle, shown in Fig. 2. Then we can further
+ express the equation (4) as follow.
N1
Vsa V1 VT1 VT3 VT5  VS cos φ = V3 cos α + V1
I1 V3a V sin φ = V sin α + X I
Vsb Ld  S 3 1 1
 R + 3 2
k ωL
 V = L π 1
IL
(4)
Vsc Rd  1 k π3 6

 I 1 = π6 I d = π6 kI L
VT4 VT6 VT2 From the equation (4), we can get (5).
-
(a) Primary side of transformer R L + π3 k 2ωL1 1 1
VL V1 = * * * VL (5)
3
R2 + π
6 k RL
N2
VD1 VD3 VD5 Considering the filter inductor Ld, we can get (6) and
V2
I2 (7).

C RL 3 3
Vd = 6V3 cos α − ωL1 I d = Rd I d (6)
π π
k
VD4 VD6 VD2
I d = kI L = VL (7)
RL
-
(b) Secondary side of transformer Combined (6) with (7), we can get (8).
Rd + π3 ωL1 k
Fig. 2. The equivalent circuit of star-point rectifier V3 cos α = * * VL (8)
3
π
6 RL
In the Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, k is the ratio of transformer,
With the equation (5), (8) and the first part of the
R L is the DC load, C is the filtering capacitor. Rd is the
equations (3), we obtain (9) and (10).

1433
 k 2 Rd + R L + π6 k 2ϖL1 the inductor is not active during this switching on of the
V S cos φ = VL = M ⋅ VL load, but it comes into full operation once the current is
3
π
6 ⋅ k ⋅ RL transferred from the freewheeling thyristor to the main
(9) bridge.
1 The freewheeling thyristor is switched into the circuit
VL = ⋅ V S ⋅ cos φ (10)
M at the end of the pulse or during interruption of the load.
Generally, the Rd and L1 can be neglected because of During this time, the current in the inductor and in the
freewheeling path decays with its own time constant. And
R L >> Rd and R L >> L1 , then the equation (9) becomes: also the load can be protected quickly.
3
VL = 6 ⋅ k ⋅ VS cos φ (11) By the application of the pre-charging circuit, the high
π steep, high repetitive pulsed power supply can be realized.
The equation (11) shows that the relationship between
the trigger angle φ and the DC output voltage V L is the
same as those of the traditional phase control rectifier, and IV. THE SIMULATION AND EXPRIMENTS
then we can regulate the DC output voltage continuously
by easily controlling the trigger angle φ . A 20 kV system is simulated in this paper. The system
parameters are listed in table I.
The harmonics of the DC output voltage is also same
as when the inductor works at the high voltage side. TABLE I
SYSTEM PARAMETERS
III. THE PRECHARGING CIRCUIT VS 220 V
As with all large filtering inductors, the main disad- L1 0.04 mH
vantage is that when the load is switched in or off, a large k 15000/380=39.47
voltage drops or overshoots will occur if no other meas-
Ld 1.6 mH
ures are taken. The freewheeling thyristor K and the pre-
charging circuit can limit these voltage-drops and over- Rd 0.003 Ω
shoots during load switching. RL 500 Ω
The precharging circuit is shown as Fig. 3 and is used R2 5Ω
prior to switching in the load. The inductor is precharged
C 2 µF
with a current equal to the instant current required when
the load is switched on. Therefore, the filtering action of
The result waveforms of the simulation is shown as

Fig. 4. The pre-charge circuit

1434
follow: V L (φ ) = V L 0 ⋅ cos φ (12)
TABLE II
SYSTEM PARAMETERS
φ I 1 (A) V1 (v) I d (A) V L (v)
o 3.28 39.7 4.32 427
20
o 2.95 33.7 3.78 380.3
30
o 2.41 27.29 3.06 307.8
45
o 1.81 21.15 2.27 230.2
60
o 0.77 9.01 0.9 130.4
80
o 0.06 0.9 0.1 12
89

Fig. 5. Simulated waveform of V L and I L Another fact is found that the commutation current be-
tween thyristors caused by the leakage inductance of the
transformer is very large esp. when φ < 20 and it will
larger than 1000A. This will increase the calculation error
at smaller trigger angle.
To compare with the experiment, a lower rated
simulation is also performed, that the V S =40V, the ratio
of the transformer is k=200V/40V=5. The result is the
same as the experiment result.
Based on the above analysis and simulation a 1kVA
prototype is built. The result is shown as follow.

Fig. 6. Simulated waveform of I L and I d

1↓ 1) Ref A: 50 Volt 2.5 ms

Fig. 9. Experiment waveform of VL

Fig. 7. Simulated waveform of V S , I 1 and V1 (50 V/div, 25 ms/div)

1>

Fig. 8. Simulated waveform of V2 , I 2 and V S

1) Ref B: 50 Volt 5 ms
The data of the simulation shown in the table.II and
proved that the relationship between output DC voltage Fig. 10. Experiment waveform of I2
(50 V/div, 5 ms/div)
and the trigger angle φ is

1435
 IV. CONCLUSION
Even at lower nominal voltage (22 kV), the star-point
controller is still a more economical circuit than a single
transformer with a rectifier bridge in the secondary. This
is even more advantageous because of the required low
ripple, the small voltage dip or overshoot allowed for
1>
when the load is switched, but mainly due to the nature of
the transmitter load. For a constant output power and con-
stant load impedance, a transmitter provides a virtually
constant current drain independent of the voltage, so an
inductance can be used in the filtering circuit.
By the application of the pre-charging circuit, the high
1) Ref B: 10 Volt 2.5 ms steep, high repetitive pulsed power supply can be realized.
Fig. 11. Experiment Waveform of Vd
(50 V/div, 25 ms/div)

REFERENCES
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[2] R. Claesen, P. L. Mondino, “Neutral beam injection and radio-
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of the 1997, Volume: 3, 12-16 May 1997. Page(s): 3482 -3484
[4] Xu, WeiHua, et al. “Ultra long pulse microwave negative high
voltage power supply with fast protection”. Nuclear fusion and
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[6] N. G. Hingorani, L. Gyugyi, “Understanding FACTS – Concept and
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Fig. 12. Experiment Waveform VL 2000
(50 V/div, 5 ms/div) [7] H. Peter Lips, “Technology Trends for HVDC Thyrister Valves”,
Proceedings of Power System Technology, POWERCON '98. Inter-
The experiments show the good performance of the
national Conference on, Volume 1, Page(s):451- 455
star-point regulation.

1436

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