AC-AC Converters

I. Voltage Regulators
II. Cycloconverters.

1
 Introduction
• A power electronic ac/ac converter, in generic form,
accepts electric power from one ac system and converts
it for delivery to another ac system with waveforms of
different amplitude, frequency, and phase.
• The ac/ac converters employed to vary the rms voltage
across the load at constant frequency are known as ac
voltage controllers or ac regulators.
• The ac/ac power converters in which ac power at one
frequency is directly converted to ac power at another
frequency are known as Cycloconverters,

2
Basic Power circuit of single phase
AC/AC Converter.

3
Full wave Single-Phase AC/AC Voltage
Controller with R-load

Waveforms for single-phase ac full-wave 4

voltage controller with R-load.
 Cnd…
• For a full-wave, symmetrical phase control, the SCRs T1
and T2 in the above Fig. are gated at α and π + α ,
respectively, from the zero crossing of the input voltage
• By varying α, the power flow to the load is controlled
through voltage control in alternate half-cycles.
• As long as one SCR is carrying current, the other SCR
remains reverse-biased by the voltage drop across the
conducting SCR.
• The principle of operation in each half-cycle is similar to
that of the controlled half-wave rectifier (L3) and one can
use the same approach for analysis of the circuit.

5
 Analysis with R-Load
Vm α sin(2α )
Vo ,rms = 1− +
2 π 2π
α sin(2α )
= Vs 1 − +
π 2π
Vo ,rms
V
I rms =
I rms = rms
R
R

NB: Vo can be varied from Vs to 0 by varying α from 0 to π.

6
 Example-1
A Triac controller provides variable power
to a 200Ω resistive load from a 240V,
50Hz supply.
Determine the values of rms load current,
power and converter power factor for firing
angle delays of
(a) α = 30°
(b) α = 150°
7
 Cnd..
rms current in the load and the source is
Vo,rms
I 0,rms =
R
The power Factor of the load
p p Vo2,rms / R V
pf = = = = o ,rms
s Vs ,rms * I s ,rms Vs ,rms (Vo ,rms / R) Vs ,rms
Vm α (sin 2α )
1− +
= 2
π 2π
Vm / 2
α (sin 2α )
= 1− +
π 2π
the average source current is zero because of symmetry. the average SCR current is
π
1 Vm sin(ωt ) Vm
I SCR ,avg = ∫
2π α R
d (ωt ) =
2πR
(1 + cos α )

sin ce each SCR carries one − half of the line current , the rms current in each SCR is
I
I SCR ,rms = o ,rms 8
2
 Example-2
• The single-phase ac voltage controller below
has a 120 Vrms 60Hz source. The load
resistance is 100 ohm, determine
a) The delay angle required to deliver 500w to the
load,
b) the rms source current
c) the rms and average current in the SCRs
d) the power factor

9
Operation with RL Load.
• Due to the inductance, the
current carried by the SCR T1
may not fall to zero at ωt = π
• when the input voltage goes
negative and may continue
until ωt = β, the extinction
angle, As shown.
• The conduction angle of the SCR
depends on the firing delay angle α
and the load impedance angle
• θ=β-α

10
The KVL for series Re sitive inductive load when T1 conducts give
dio
Vs = v m sin ωt = Rio + L α < ωt < β
dt
the solution of this equation is of the form
Vm
i0 = = sin(ωt − φ ) + Ae −( R / L ) t
Z
Z = [ R 2 + (ωL) 2 ]1 / 2
φ = tan −1 (ωL / R)
cons tan t A can be obtained from the initial condition according to which
io = 0 at ωt = α i.e. at t = α / ω Therfore
Vm
0= sin(α − φ ) + Ae − Rα / Lω
Z
V
A = − m sin(α − φ ) + e Rα / Lω
Z
substitutioin of this value in the above equation gives io as

V     −t  
 R α  

i0 = m sin(ωt − φ ) − sin(α − φ )e  L  ω   
Z  
Vm
=
Z
[ ]
sin(ωt − φ ) − sin(α − φ )e (α −ωt ) / ωτ for α ≤ ωt ≤ β

= 0 otherwise
It is seen from the above wave diagram io = 0 again at ωt = β or t = ω / β
 R  (α − β 
  
 L ω 
sin( β − φ ) = sin(α − φ )e
Extinction angle β can be obtained numerically from the above equation. 11
 Example-3
For the single-phase voltage controller, the source is
120v rms at 60Hz, and the load is a serious
combination with R=20Ω and L=50mH. The delay
angle α is 90°.

Determine
a) An expression for load current for the first half-period.
b) the rms load current
c) the rms SCR current,
d) The average SCR current
e) The power delivered to the load
f) The power factor

12
 TRIAC BURST-FIRING
CONTROLLER
• Burst-firing is also known as 'on-off control', 'integral-
cycle control' and 'cycle syncopation'.
• The method allows a number of complete supply voltage
cycles (or half-cycles) through to the load and then
blanks out other cycles.
• The power switch is turned on at mains voltage zero.
• The gate pulse burst firing circuit in its simplest form
consists of a zero voltage detector, a pulse width
modulator and logic circuitry.
• some application includes: domestic & industrial
heating, transformer tap changing, lighting control, speed
control of motors etc.

13
 Cont…
• In industry, there are several application in which mechanical time
constant or thermal time constant is of the order of several seconds.
– For example, mechanical time constant for many of the speed-
control drives, or thermal time constant for most of heating loads is
usually quite high.
– For such applications, almost no variation in speed or temperature
will be noticed if control is achieved by connecting the load to
source for some on-cycles and then disconnecting the load for
some off-cycles.
• This form of power control is called integral cycle control.
• So integral cycle control consists of switching on the supply to load for
an integral number of cycles and then switching off the supply for a
further number of integral cycles.

14
Cont…

15
 Analysis
• Analysis of the basic controller n 2π
performance is simple, since
V rms = (1 / 2πm ) ∫ V m2 sin 2 ω td ω t
switching is at voltage zero
0
and rms values are readily
obtained, without the need for n 2π
V m2
numerical methods. =
2πm ∫ 0.5(1 − cos( 2ωt ) dωt
0
• Root-mean-square load
voltage and current: n 2π
V m2
∫
n 2π
tn tm =
2πm
0 . 5[ω t − (sin 2ω t ) / 2 ] 0
0

V m2
= ( 0.5n 2π )
2πm
Vm n
=
2 m
= V s t n (t n + t m )
16
 Example-4
• A burst-firing a.c. to a.c. power controller
is connected between a 250V, 50Hz
supply and a 100Ω resistive load.
• Determine the values of load voltage,
current and power when
(a) tn = 40 ms and tf = 120 ms,
(b) tn = 120 ms and tf = 40 ms.
• Sketch load voltage waveforms for each
case.
17
Solution for Example-4

18
 Cycloconverters (Introduction)
• Converts input power at one frequency to
output power at a different frequency with
one-stage conversion.
• It is thus a one stage frequency changer.
• Basically they are two types
- step-down, fo < fs
- step-up, fo > fs .
Where fo - output frequency
fs - input frequency.
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 Application
• Speed control of high-power ac drives
• Induction heating.
• Static VAR generation.
• For converting variable-speed alternator
voltage to constant frequency output
voltage for use as power supply in aircraft
or shipboards.

20
 Principle of operation
Principles of CC ( Frequency changer)

P Group

Fixed Load i
frequency
supply N Group

21
1) mid-point cycloconverters

22
22
cnd

23
 cnd
• As it can be seen from above slides(#21),
terminal ‘a’ is positive with respect to terminal ‘b’
• Thus in this positive half cycle, both SCRs P1 &
N2 are forward biased ωt = 0 to ωt=π.
• So by sequential switching of the positive and
negative devices, a waveforms like that of step-
up can be generated (slide#22) generated.
• In this particular example fo = 6fs is generated.
NB! i) Thyristors require forced commutation for
their switching off.
ii)1-phase seldom used in practice. 24
-24
 2) Bridge type Cycloconverters

Input and output waveforms of a 50 to 162 3-Hz cyclo-converter with RL load.

25
 Operation with R-Load
• The above figure shows the input and output voltage
waveforms with a pure R-load for a 50 to 16 2/3 Hz
cycloconverter.
• The P- and N-converters operate for all alternate To/2
periods.
• The output frequency (1/To) can be varied by varying To
and the voltage magnitude by varying the firing angle α
of the SCRs.
• As shown in the figure, three cycles of the ac input wave
are combined to produce one cycle of the output
frequency to reduce the supply frequency to one-third
across the load.
26
 Bridge type Cyclo-converters with
Integral voltage control

27
NB:If αp is the delay angle for the positive cycle then αn is equal to π- αp.