Dynamic Addition of Common Mode Voltage in Post Fault Operation of Cascaded H-Bridge Converter Fed Induction Motor Drive

In this article, a postfault control technique is proposed for a rotor field-oriented induction motor (RFO-IM) drive fed from a cascaded H-bridge multilevel (CHB-ML) converter. The control strategy is to vary the magnitude and phase shift of the injected fundamental common mode voltage (FCMV) according to the motor’s operating condition. The addition of the proposed FCMV with the reference phase voltages, not only ensures maximum line voltage in the postfault operating condition but also shares equal power among the remaining healthy cells of the converter. Moreover, in the postfault operation, a detailed analysis is performed on both motor and converter, and an integrated control is presented to maintain the command speed and load torque of the RFO-IM. This includes the mathematical equation explaining the new operating point of the motor for different fault configurations, traversal of operating point, and the variation in power factor of each leg of the converter in postfault conditions. From the above analysis, the dynamic FCMV is calculated from the new operating point of the stator current components in the current dq-plane and the fault configuration of the CHB-ML converter. The proposed control technique is validated using simulation and experimental results conducted on a 3-hp IM.