Browsing by Author "Zhang, Di"
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- Analysis and Design of Paralleled Three-Phase Voltage Source Converters with InterleavingZhang, Di (Virginia Tech, 2010-04-26)Three-phase voltage source converters(VSCs) have become the converter of choice in many ac medium and high power applications due to their many advantages, including low harmonics, high power factor, and high efficiency. Modular VSCs have also been a popular choice as building blocks to achieve even higher power, primarily through converter paralleling. In addition to high power ratings, paralleling converters can also provide system redundancy through the so-called (N+1) configuration for improved availability, as well as allow easy implementation of converter power management. Interleaving can further improve the benefit of paralleling VSCs by reducing system harmonic currents, which potentially can increase system power density. There are many challenges to implement interleaving in paralleled VSCs system due to the complicated relationships in a three-phase power converter system. In addition, to maximize the benefit of interleaving, current knowledge of symmetric interleaving is not enough. More insightful understanding of this PWM technology is necessary before implement interleaving in a real paralleled VSCs system. In this dissertation, a systematic methodology to analyze and design a paralleled three-phase voltage source converters with interleaving is developed. All the analysis and proposed control methods are investigated with the goal of maximizing the benefit of interleaving based on system requirement. The dissertation is divided into five sections. Firstly, a complete analysis studying the impact of interleaving on harmonic currents in ac and dc side passive components for paralleled VSCs is presented. The analysis performed considers the effects of modulation index, pulse-width-modulation (PWM) schemes, interleaving angle and displacement angle. Based on the analysis the method to optimize interleaving angle is proposed. Secondly, the control methods for the common mode (CM) circulating current of paralleled three-phase VSCs with discontinuous space-vector modulation (DPWM) and interleaving are proposed. With the control methods, DPWM and interleaving, which is a desirable combination, but not considered possible, can be implemented together. In addition, the total flux of integrated inter-phase inductor to limit circulating current can be minimized. Thirdly, a 15 kW three phase ac-dc rectifier is built with SiC devices. With the technologies presented in this dissertation, the specific power density can be pushed more than 2kW/lb. Fourthly, the converter system with low switching frequency is studied. Special issues such as beat phenomenon and system unbalance due to non-triplen carrier ratio is explained and solved by control methods. Other than that, an improved asymmetric space vector modulation is proposed, which can significantly reduce output current total harmonic distortion (THD) for single and interleaved VSCs system. Finally, the method to protect a system with paralleled VSCs under the occurrence of internal faults is studied. After the internal fault is detected and isolated, the paralleled VSCs system can continue work. So system reliability can be increased.
- Hybrid Modular Multilevel Converter Family and Modular DC Circuit Breaker for Medium-voltage DC (MVDC) ApplicationsLiu, Jian (Virginia Tech, 2023-09-12)With the increasing maturity and flexibility of power electronics-based voltage conversion techniques, DC grids, and distribution systems have gained significant interest. These systems offer advantages such as improved power quality, efficiency, and flexibility. Medium-voltage DC (MVDC) applications, including shipboard, railway systems, distribution networks, and microgrids, are emerging as critical areas of interest. To integrate MVDC systems with existing power grids, MV AC/DC conversion techniques are crucial. Moreover, the lack of mature protection strategies and equipment, particularly DC circuit breakers (DCCB), poses a significant challenge to the development of MVDC systems. Therefore, this thesis aims to address two primary challenges in the field: the improved topologies of MV AC/DC conversion techniques for interfacing MVDC systems with power grids and the development of high power density DCCB for MVDC systems. The traditional modular multilevel converter (MMC) is widely used for medium voltage (MV) AC/DC conversion due to its modularity, scalability, and reliability. However, the presence of numerous semiconductor devices and capacitors in MMCs results in challenges such as low power efficiency and density. To enhance the performance of MMCs, this thesis proposes several novel hybrid MMC (HMMC) topologies, including the three-level HMMC, flying capacitor HMMC, and hybrid-leg MMC. These topologies aim to leverage the advantages of both conventional multilevel converters and MMCs. By replacing the low-voltage (LV) submodule (SM) in MMCs with a simple high-voltage (HV) switch, higher efficiency, a smaller footprint, and lower cost can be achieved. The HV switch operates at line frequency, simplifying device-switching and addressing the challenges of series-connected devices. The introduction of additional HV switches enables alternative connections compared to traditional MMCs, reducing the number of required SMs. Consequently, there is a significant reduction in the number of semiconductor devices, capacitor energy storage, and power losses. Furthermore, an average model is developed for the three-level HMMC to illustrate the additional power flow path between the AC and DC sides, as well as the reduced SM capacitor energy storage requirement. As a result, the proposed HMMCs exhibit substantial potential to replace traditional MMCs, offering higher efficiency and power density. Unidirectional high-voltage (HV) and medium-voltage (MV) rectifiers are essential for applications where power flows exclusively from the AC to the DC side. Examples of such applications include HVDC transmission, front-end converters for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, and data centers. Therefore, hybrid modular multilevel rectifiers (HMMRs) are proposed for these unidirectional AC/DC applications. Instead of utilizing active devices for HV switches, the HMMR employs HV diode to achieve step-up HMMR, step-down HMMR, and flying capacitor HMMR configurations. As diodes are passive devices that do not require gate driver units, the HMMR design becomes simpler, resulting in cost and volume savings. Additionally, voltage sharing among the HV diode stack becomes more manageable as concerns regarding gate signal mismatch are eliminated. However, it is important to note that diodes lack current interruption capability. This limitation requires further investigation, particularly in non-unity power factor (PF) operations, which may impose restrictions on the operational range of the rectifiers. In terms of medium voltage (MV) DC circuit breakers (DCCB), this paper introduces the concept and design procedure of a high-power-density, modular, and scalable power electronic interrupter (PEI) for MV hybrid circuit breakers (HCB). The analysis includes trade-offs and limiting factors of various components within a single PEI module. A prototype of a 12 kV, 1 kA breaking-capable PEI is constructed, and new staged turn-off strategies are proposed to ensure the balanced distribution of metal-oxide varistor (MOV) energy. The developed PEI achieves a peak power density of 7.4 kW/cm$^3$, much higher than the solution based on the IGBT modules. After integrating the developed PEI into a full-scale HCB, the breaking capability of the developed PEI and the effectiveness of the staged turn-off strategy are validated. Furthermore, the scalability of the HCB is evaluated, which can simplify the design process from a low-voltage HCB to a higher-voltage version. For series-connected devices in SSCB or HCB configurations, the conventional gate driver structure necessitates an individual gate driver unit, fiber-optic, and isolated power supplies for each device. This design increases cost and volume, particularly for this single-pulse application. To address this issue, two new single gate driver structures are proposed to reduce component count and system complexity. The first solution, namely the MOV-coupled structure, employs a metal-oxide varistor (MOV) for the turn-off path. On the other hand, the transformer-coupled structure combines the auxiliary power and gate signal, enabling both simultaneous and staged turn-off schemes. Moreover, the cascaded high- and lower-voltage transformer structure simplifies insulation design and demonstrates improved scalability. These proposed gate driver structures aim to streamline the system, reduce component numbers, and simplify control for series-connected devices, leading to cost savings and improved overall performance.
- Hybrid RANS/LES Turbulence Model Applied to a Transitional Unsteady Boundary Layer on Wind Turbine AirfoilZhang, Di; Cadel, Daniel R.; Paterson, Eric G.; Lowe, K. Todd (MDPI, 2019-07-11)A hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes/large-eddy simulation (RANS/LES) turbulence model integrated with a transition formulation is developed and tested on a surrogate model problem through a joint experimental and computational fluid dynamic approach. The model problem consists of a circular cylinder for generating coherent unsteadiness and a downstream airfoil in the cylinder wake. The cylinder flow is subcritical, with a Reynolds number of 64,000 based upon the cylinder diameter. The quantitative dynamics of vortex shedding and Reynolds stresses in the cylinder near wake are well captured, owing to the turbulence-resolving large eddy simulation mode that was activated in the wake. The hybrid model switched between RANS and LES modes outside the boundary layers, as expected. According to the experimental and simulation results, the airfoil encountered local flow angle variations up to ±50°. Further analysis through a phase-averaging technique found phase lags in the airfoil boundary layer along the chordwise locations, and both the phase-averaged and mean velocity profiles collapsed into the Law-of-the-wall in the range of 0 < y + < 50 . The features of high blade-loading fluctuations due to unsteadiness and transitional boundary layers are of interest in the aerodynamic studies of full-scale wind turbine blades, making the current model problem a comprehensive benchmark case for future model development and validation.
- System-Level Simulation of Floating Platform and Wind Turbine Using High-Fidelity and Engineering ModelsZhang, Di; Paterson, Eric G. (Virginia Tech, 2015-06-11)Compared with inland wind farm, the offshore sites has higher energy density, and less environmental and visual impact. It's an attractive energy source for populous coastal cities. However, the marine environment adds more uncertainties in the system, especially for floating wind turbines. Due to physical conditions, full-scale testing is usually unpractical, thus system-level simulation is essential in design stage. Cyber Wind Facility (CWF) project aims to provide highly resolved 4D cyber data to answer the key performance questions: structure and turbine loading, shaft torque, platform motion. In this study, a full-scale NREL 5MW wind turbine and OC3 spar buoy with mooring lines (figure 1) are simulated in open-source code OpenFOAM. The whole system is calculated by three different models: actuator-line model (ALM), which calculates aerodynamic force from turbine blades; quasi-static model, which estimates the restoring mooring force in each time-step, and high-fidelity model for the floating platform in waves. The ALM model is less computationally expensive than resolving full turbine geometry, it represents the blades as a set of actuator elements and the loading is distributed along the lines (figure 2). Sectional force at each blade element is computed according to local flow conditions and airfoil lookup table, the lift and drag forces are projected onto the flow as body forces in the momentum equation. The original ALM was developed for xed-bottom turbines (Jha et al., 2014), modifications are needed to incorporate 6DOF motions from the turbine tower. The floating platform, i.e. OC3 spar buoy, measures 130m in length with 120m of total draft (Jonkman, 2010). Single harmony linear waves are generated by wave2Foam library (Jacobsen et al., 2012), numerical beach is included for absorbing waves. The quasi-static mooring-line model is developed from catenary-line equations (Faltinsen, 1990) and it is also implemented in engineering tool hydrogen (Jonkman, 2007). By calculating the anchor and fairlead position, together with known physical properties of the cable, we can solve both the mooring-line configuration and restoring force. In general, it 1) models individual taut or slack mooring lines; 2) accounts for weight and buoyancy, axial its ness, and friction from seabed; 3) ignores bending and torsional sti nesses, cable inertia and hydrodynamic forces, and 4) Solves for cable positions and tensions under static equilibrium given the instantaneous fairlead location. Due to the numerical instability in standard dynamic meshing multiphase solve in OpenFOAM, especially in the presence of large displacement, a modified tightly-couple RANS solver (Dunbar, 2013) is used for the high-fidelity simulation. It features sub-iteration in each time-step to ensure simulation is converged with respect to mesh motion and dynamic relaxation is introduced for faster convergence. Furthermore, it is validated by experimental data of simple 2D cylinder and OC4 semisubmersible platform (Robertson et al., 2014). In summary, this study integrates ALM and the quasi-static mooring-line model. By using wave generating tool and tightly-coupled solver we can study the 6DOF motion of floating platform in waves with less computational resource than fully-resolved high-fidelity model.
- Turbulence Modeling and Simulation of Unsteady Transitional Boundary Layers and Wakes with Application to Wind Turbine AerodynamicsZhang, Di (Virginia Tech, 2017-12-11)Wind energy industry thrived in the last three decades, environmental concerns and government regulations stimulate studies on wind farm location selection and wind turbine design. Full-scale experiments and high-fidelity simulations are restrictive due to the prohibitively high cost, while the model-scale experiments and low-fidelity calculations miss key flow physics of unsteady high Reynolds number flows. A hybrid RANS/LES turbulence model integrated with transition formulation is developed and tested by a surrogate model problem through joint experimental and computational fluid dynamics approaches. The model problem consists of a circular cylinder for generating coherent unsteadiness and a downstream airfoil in the cylinder wake. The cylinder flow is subcritical, with a Reynolds number of 64,000 based upon the cylinder diameter. The quantitative dynamics of vortex shedding and Reynolds stresses in the cylinder near wake were well captured, owing to the turbulence-resolving large eddy simulation method that was invoked in the wake. The power spectrum density of velocity components showed that the flow fluctuations were well-maintained in cylinder wake towards airfoil and the hybrid model switched between RANS/LES mode outside boundary layer as expected. According to the experimental and simulation results, the airfoil encountered local flow angle variations up to ±50 degrees, and the turbulent airfoil boundary layer remained attached. Inspecting the boundary layer profiles over one shedding cycle, the oscillation about mean profile resembled the Stokes layer with zero mean. Further processing the data through phase-averaging technique found phase lags along the chordwise locations and both the phase-averaged and mean profiles collapsed into the Law of Wall in the range of 0 < y+ < 50. The features of high blade loading fluctuations due to unsteadiness and transitional boundary layers are of interest in the aerodynamic studies of full-scale wind turbine blades, making the model problem a comprehensive benchmark case for future model development and validation.