Fault tolerant-topology and controls for a three-level hybrid neutral point clamped-flying capacitor converter

Hafedh Ben Abdelghani (1, 2, 3) , Afef Bennani Ben Abdelghani (1, 4) , Frédéric Richardeau (5) , Jean-Marc Blaquière (5, 6, 2) , Franck Mosser (3, 6, 2) , Ilhem Slama-Belkhodja (1)

1 Laboratoire des Systèmes Electriques - LSE (Tunis, Tunisie)
2 UT - Université de Toulouse
3 LAPLACE - LAboratoire PLasma et Conversion d'Energie
4 INSAT - Institut National des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie [Tunis]
5 LAPLACE-CS - Convertisseurs Statiques
6 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

This paper details a three level hybrid fault-tolerant converter. The definition of an original decoupling solution between the fourth flying capacitor (FC) leg and the three neutral point clamped (NPC) based phases overcomes topology hybridisation issues. Under normal conditions, a control strategy of the FC-based leg leads to a converter neutral point voltage balance, and decreases the DC side capacitors’ volume and cost. Under fault conditions, the presented fault isolation and converter reconfiguration strategies generate a post-fault converter, which is able to operate safely with the added FC-based leg. The proposed topology is an interesting trade-off between converter fault-tolerant capability and its complexity and offers the ability to be simply reconfigured and controlled in the case of switch fault occurrence. Post-fault operation mode is presented and discussed through the simulation results and first experimental tests.

Mots clés: FC-based leg; Converter fault-tolerant capability; Converter NP voltage balance; Fault diagnosis; Fault isolation; Fault tolerance; Fault tolerant-topology; Flying capacitor leg; Neutral point clamped-based phases; Post-fault converter; Power convertors; Switch fault occurrence; three-level hybrid fault-tolerant converter; Three-level hybrid neutral point clamped-flying capacitor converter

Domaines: Energie électrique

Hafedh Ben Abdelghani, Afef Bennani Ben Abdelghani, Frédéric Richardeau, Jean-Marc Blaquière, Franck Mosser, et al.. Fault tolerant-topology and controls for a three-level hybrid neutral point clamped-flying capacitor converter. IET Power Electronics, 2016, 9 (12), pp.2350-2359. ⟨10.1049/iet-pel.2015.0785⟩. ⟨hal-02920304⟩