The rapid development of electric vehicle ultra-fast battery chargers is increasingly demanding higher efficiency and power density. In particular, a proper control of the grid-connected active front–end can ensure minimum passive component size (i.e., limiting design oversizing) and reduce the overall converter losses. Moreover, fast control dynamics and strong disturbance rejection capability are often required by the subsequent DC/DC stage, which may act as a fast-varying and/or unbalanced load. Therefore, this paper proposes the design, tuning and implementation of a complete digital multi-loop control strategy for a three-level unidirectional T-type rectifier, intended for EV ultra-fast battery charging. First, an overview of the operational basics of three-level rectifiers is presented and the state-space model of the considered system is derived. A detailed analysis of the mid-point current generation process is also provided, as this aspect is widely overlooked in the literature. In particular, the converter operation under unbalanced split DC-link loads is analyzed and the converter mid-point current limits are analytically identified. Four controllers (i.e., dq-currents, DC-link voltage and DC-link mid-point voltage balancing loops) are designed and their tuning is described step-by-step, taking into account the delays and the discretization introduced by the digital control implementation. Finally, the proposed multi-loop controller design procedure is validated on a 30 kW, 20 kHz T-type rectifier prototype. The control strategy is implemented on a single general purpose microcontroller unit and the performances of all control loops are successfully verified experimentally, simultaneously achieving low input current zero-crossing distortion, high step response and disturbance rejection dynamics, and stable steady-state operation under unbalanced split DC-link loading.
Three-phase three-level unidirectional rectifiers are among the most adopted topologies for general active rectification, achieving an excellent compromise between cost, complexity and overall performance. The unidirectional nature of these rectifiers negatively affects their operation, e.g., distorting the input currents around the zero-crossings, limiting the maximum converter-side displacement power factor, reducing the split DC-link mid-point current capability and limiting the converter ability to compensate the low-frequency DC-link mid-point voltage oscillation. In particular, the rectifier operation under non-unity power factor and/or under constant zero-sequence voltage injection (i.e., when unbalanced split DC-link loading occurs) typically yields large and uncontrolled input current distortion, effectively limiting the acceptable operating region of the converter. Although high bandwidth current control loops and enhanced phase current sampling strategies may improve the rectifier input current distortion, especially at light load, these approaches lose effectiveness when significant phase-shift between voltage and current is required and/or a constant zero-sequence voltage must be injected. Therefore, this paper proposes a complete analysis and performance assessment of three-level unidirectional rectifiers under non-unity power factor operation and unbalanced split DC-link loading. First, the theoretical operating limits of the converter in terms of zero-sequence voltage, modulation index, power factor angle, maximum DC-link mid-point current and minimum DC-link mid-point charge ripple are derived. Leveraging the derived zero-sequence voltage limits, a unified carrier-based pulse-width modulation (PWM) approach enabling the undistorted operation of the rectifier in all feasible operating conditions is thus proposed. Moreover, novel analytical expressions defining the maximum rectifier mid-point current capability and the minimum peak-to-peak DC-link mid-point charge ripple as functions of both modulation index and power factor angle are derived, the latter enabling a straightforward sizing of the split DC-link capacitors. The theoretical analysis is verified on a 30kW, 20kHz T-type rectifier prototype, designed for electric vehicle ultra-fast battery charging. The input phase current distortion, the maximum mid-point current capability and the minimum mid-point charge ripple are experimentally assessed across all rectifier operating points, showing excellent performance and accurate agreement with the analytical predictions.
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