494 Send Orders for Reprints to reprints@benthamscience.

net

Recent Advances in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, 2019, 12, 494-499

RESEARCH ARTICLE
ISSN: 2352-0965
eISSN: 2352-0973

A Novel Transmitting System for Electromagnetic Sounding Based on

Tri-state Boost Converter

Gang Li1,* and Binren Zhang1

Recent Advances in Electrical & Electronic Engineering

1
College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, China

Abstract: Background: Electromagnetic detection is an important method of geophysical explora-

ARTICLE HISTORY
Received: March 14, 2018
Revised: July 05, 2018
Accepted: July 11, 2018
DOI:
10.2174/2352096511666180718153944
Keywords: Tri-state boost converter, electromagnetic sounding, transmitting system, simulation, geothermal resources, trans-
former.
tion. The transmitting system is an important part of the electromagnetic detection equipment.
Methods: The general topologies of a transmitting system for EM instrument are analyzed. The
basic principle of EM detection is interpreted. In order to improve the output power and give consid-
eration to the dynamic performance, an electromagnetic transmitting system based on the tri-state
boost converter is proposed in this paper.
Results: The principle of the proposed transmitting system is analyzed. The topology of the pro-
posed transmitting system is illustrated and the working modes of tri-state boost converter are given.
Conclusion: The simulation model is established and the simulation experiment is carried out to
verify the feasibility of the new electromagnetic transmitting system.

1. INTRODUCTION
Electromagnetic (EM) detection method is one of the
most important ways of geophysical exploration. The EM
method has some advantages, such as high precision, good
stability and suitable for field use. The EM instruments can
effectively obtain the underground resistivity structure and
are popular in the exploration of the mineral resources, ener-
gy resources and geothermal resources [1-5].
The electromagnetic method is based on the principle of
electromagnetic induction. The EM instrument mainly in-
cludes the hardware and the software. The hardware includes
a transmitting system and receiving sensor system. Accord-
ing to the requirement of EM, the transmitting system sup-
plies a certain current to the earth load or inductor coil to
form a stable or transient electromagnetic field. The trans-
mitting system is the source of the instrument and has an
important influence on the detection results.
The development of electromagnetic instrument is a
hotspot in the field of geophysical exploration. The most
commercial instrument is the V8 multi-function EM instru-
ment from Canada Phoenix Geophysics Corporation. The
transmitting system is TXU-22, which is composed of a
220V three-phase generator, DC power supply, H-bridge
inverter, transmitting antenna. The topology is shown in
Fig. (1). The electrical source transmitter DEM-T70, which is
developed by the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences,
*Address correspondence to this author at the College of Instrumentation
and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, China;
Tel/Fax: 008643188502382; E-mail: ligang2013@jlu.edu.cn
has been developed and its power achieves 70 kW [6-8]. The
GDC-1 transmitter, which is proposed by Central South
University in China, is equipped with 200 kW power [9, 10].
Beijing University of Technology in China developed an
electromagnetic transmitter and proposed precise control
method for output voltage [11, 12]. The HPT45-I, II and III
type electromagnetic transmitting systems have been devel-
oped by Jilin University [6]. The transmission voltage is
raised to 1000V (current 40A) by cascading the output H
inverter bridge. In order to improve the transmitting voltage
and power, a high-power transmitting system JDD-100 based
on rectifier power supply cascade and single H bridge inverter is
developed. The transmitting voltage is 1500V, and the maxi-
mum power is 100kW [13]. The topology is shown in Fig. (2).
Generally, inverters drive the ac motors [14-16]. In the
transmitting system, the output of the inverter is square wave
current, shown in Fig. (3). By analyzing the topologies of the
EM transmitting system, they can be divided into two main
categories: output of the transmitter is regulated by special
generators with auto-transformer or adjustable switching
power supply. The second mode has higher accuracy and
efficiency. But in the high power applications, the topology
is complex. Considering the requirements of high power and
high stability of transmitting system, a novel topology is
proposed in this paper. The novel transmitting system is
composed of an AC/DC power supply with isolated full
bridge converter, a tri-state boost converter and an H-bridge
inverter. The working modes of the proposed transmitter are
analyzed. The simulation results verify the feasibility of the
scheme.

2352-0973/19 $58.00+.00 © 2019 Bentham Science Publishers

A Novel Transmitting System Recent Advances in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, 2019, Vol. 12, No. 6 495

Fig. (1). Topology of the electromagnetic transmitting system.


VT VD VT VD VT VD

C
R

VT VD VT VD R

Fig. (2). Topology of high power electromagnetic transmitting system JDD-100.

2
i 1 Ex
, ρs = (1)
ωμ H y

 ϕz = ϕx − ϕ y
7 7 7 7 W
,

Fig. (3). Output current waveforms of the transmitting system.
The general EM instrument system is explained in sec-
tion 2. The principle of the EM method is also discussed.
The topology of the proposed transmitter is present in section
3. The work modes are analyzed in details. The simulation
results are given in section 4. With different duty cycles of
the free-wheeling switch, the output performance of the tri-
state boost converter is changed. Lastly, the conclusions are
given in section 5.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1. Electromagnetic Instrument System
In the electromagnetic soundings, the ground source
transmitting system is used. The load includes a long wire,
two grounding electrodes (A, B) and geodetic impedance
between electrodes. The EM instrument system is shown in
Fig. (4). The polar distance AB is generally 1~3 km. The
receiver sensors are 6~10 km far away. In order to improve
the efficacy of detection operation, tens of receiving sensors
are placed on the measuring line.
The apparent resistivity ρs and impedance phase φz can be
calculated, Eqs. (1, 2):
(2)
Where, |Ex| is the amplitude of Ex, |Hy| is the amplitude of
H y.
Theoretically, Ex and Hy Eqs. (3, 4) are,
PE ρ
Ex = −
2r 3
(3cos 2 θ − 2 ) (3)
PE ρ
Hy = −
2r 3k1
(
3cos 2 θ − 2 ) (4)
Where, k1 = −iωμσ = −2i δ , σ = 1/ρ, PE = I×AB,
The received signal of the electric field and magnetic
field is proportional to the transmitting current and the polar-
ity distance. Amplitude improvement of the transmitting
current is beneficial to the enhancement of the receiving sig-
nal and the expansion of the detection area.
3. TOPOLOGY-BASED ON A TRI-STATE BOOST
CONVERTER
This paper presents a novel topology of an
electromagnetic transmitter, including an AC/DC power
supply with isolated full bridge converter, a non-isolated tri-
state boost converter and an H bridge inverter. Its topology is
shown in Fig. (5). The switch S1 can implement the third
state of the boost converter. In the applications, the tri-state
boost converter is used in the distributed generation system,
such as solar photovoltaic or microgrid [17-19].
496 Recent Advances in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, 2019, Vol. 12, No. 6 Li and Zhang

aNP
r
Fig. (4). Instrument system of electromagnetic sounding.

Fig. (5). Proposed topology of the electromagnetic transmitting system

In the proposed transmitting system, the AC/DC power sup-
ply is a general isolated full-bridge converter. In order to
achieve high voltage output, the tri-state boost converter is
used because of its simple topology and few controller com-
ponents. The tri-state boost converter has the ability to im-
prove the dynamic response of the system and meets the re-
quirements. And it solves the problem of non-minimum
phase characteristics in traditional boost converter [20, 21].
The working modes of the tri-state boost converter con-
sist of the following four stages:
This mode is shown in Fig. (6d). The switch S1 is on and
S2 is off. The inductor L1 is free-wheeling. The H-bridge
inverter is supplied by the capacitor C1.
4. SIMULATION RESULTS
In order to verify the proposed electromagnetic transmit-
ting system, a simulation model is built in matlab/Simulink.
The parameters are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Simulation parameters.

1. None boost state

Item Value
This mode is shown in Fig. (6a). The switches S1 and S2
keep the off state. DC power supply delivers the power to the E1 100 V
H-bridge inverter after an LC filter. The output current con-
trol is realized by the power supply controller. R 10 Ω

2. Boost state-stage 1 L 2 mH

This mode is shown in Fig. (6b). The switch S1 is off and L1 0.1 mH
S2 is on. The inductor L1 is charged by DC power supply. C1 1000 μF
3. Boost state-stage 2
In the simulations, the duty cycle of the switch S2 in the
This mode is shown in Fig. (6c). The switch S1 and S2 are
tri-state boost converter is fixed at 30%. And the duty cycles
off. The capacitor C1 is charged by the inductor L1.
of the free-wheeling switch S1 are 0, 10% and 20% respec-
4. Boost state-stage 3 tively. The output frequency is 100 Hz. The output current of
A Novel Transmitting System Recent Advances in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, 2019, Vol. 12, No. 6 497

25
data1
data2
data3
20

15

10

0

˄D˅
-5
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

Fig. (7). Simulated output current waveforms of tri-state boost con-

verter.

FRQYHUWHU
45
data1
40 data2
data3

35

30

 25
˄E˅
 20

15

10

0
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

Fig. (8). Simulated current waveforms of inductor L1.

25


data1

data2
20
˄F˅ 
data3

15
7UDQVPLWWLQJFXUUHQW$

10

-5

-10

-15

-20
 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05
˄G˅ 6LPXODWLRQWLPHVHFRQG

Fig. (6). Working modes of the tri-state boost converter. Fig. (9). Simulated electromagnetic transmitting current wave-
forms.
498 Recent Advances in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, 2019, Vol. 12, No. 6 Li and Zhang

tri-state boost converter is shown in Fig. (7). The output cur-
rent increases with the duty cycles of S1. The current of L1 is
shown in Fig. (8). The electromagnetic transmitting current
is shown Fig. (9). The waveforms quality in Figs. (8 and 9)
is similar but the amplitudes are different.
From the simulation results, the tri-state boost converter
realizes step-up voltage. By controlling the free-wheeling
switch S1, the current of inductance L1 can be increased, and
the output voltage can be increased, so as to enhance the
electromagnetic transmitting current.
AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIALS
The data supporting the findings of the article is available
in the IEEE DataPort at: [http://dx.doi.org/10.21227/e96e-
7n57].
FUNDING
The authors would like to thank the National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China (No. 51507073) for their support
in our work.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
CONCLUSION
The authors declare no conflict of interest, financial or
In this paper, a novel topology of a transmitting system
otherwise.
for electromagnetic sounding instrument based on tri-state
boost converter is proposed. On the basis of analysis of other
topologies, requirements of the transmitting system are de- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
duced. The tri-state boost converter is combined with LC Declared none.
filters of AC/DC switching power supply. The structure of
the transmitting system is simplified. The output voltage can REFERENCES
be raised and the dynamic performance can be improved.
[1] L. Guangding
“Promote the innovation of geophysical methods
The simulation model is built and the simulation results veri-
and lead the future of detecting instrument technology,” Chinese J.
fy the feasibility of the scheme. The control strategy with Geophysics, vol. 60, no. 11, pp. 4145-4148, 2017.
experiments on the prototype will be given in the future. [2] Y.-J. Ji, Y. Wang, J. Xu and F.-D. Zhou, “Development and appli-
cation of the grounded long wire source airborne electromagnetic
NOMENCLATURE AND LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS exploration system based on an unmanned airship,” Chin. J. Geo-
physics, vol. 56, no. 11, pp. 3640-3650, 2013.
Ex = The electric field in the direction x [3] K. Xue, F. Zhou, S. Wang and J. Lin, “Constant-current control
method of the multi-function electromagnetic transmitter”, Rev.
Hy = The magnetic field in the direction y Scient. Instrum., vol. 86, no. 2, pp. 024501, 2015.
[4] Y. Ji, Shangyu Du, Lijun Xie, K. Chang, Y. Liu, Y. Zhang, X. Xie,
ω = Angular frequency
Y. Wang, J. Lin and L. Rong, “TEM measurement in a low resis-
ρs The apparent resistivity tivity overburden performed by using low-temperature SQUID,” J.
=
Appl. Geophys., vol. 135, no. 12, pp. 243-248, 2016.
φz = Impedance phase [5] P.T. Simard, R. Chesnaux, A. Rouleau, R. Daigneault, P.A. Cousi-
neau, D.W. Roy, M. Lambert, B. Poirier and L. P.-Molina, “Imag-
μ = Magnetic permeability ing quaternary glacial deposits and basement topography using the
transient electromagnetic method for modeling aquifer environ-
φx = The phase angle of Ex ments”, J. Appl. Geophy., vol. 119, pp. 36-50, 2015.
[6] L. Pinrong, Z. Caijun and S. Fusheng, “The research of integrated
φy = The phase angle of Hy electromagnetic method system,” Acta. Geo. Lo. Gica. Sin. Ica.,
σ = Earth conductivity vol. 86, no. 2, pp. 1539-1548, 2006.
[7] S. Fusheng, “A study on high-power multi-function transmitting
I = The transmitting current system,” Progress in geophysics, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 1109-1114,
1109-1114, 2009.
AB = Polarity distance [8] L. Pinrong, G. Peng, S. Fusheng, “A study of the techniques for
large-depth and multi-functional electromagnetic survey,” Acta
PE = Electric dipole moment. Geoscientica Sinica, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 149-154, 2010.
E1 Input voltage of tri-state boost converter [9] H. Jishan, “Wide-field electromagnetic sounding methods”, J.
=
Central South Univers. vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 1065-1072, 2010.
L1 = Boost inductor [10] D. Qingyun, F. Guangyou and Z. Yiming, “Research of the surface
electromagnetic prospecting (SEP) system”, Chin. J. Geophys., vol.
C1 = Filter capacitor in boost converter 56, no. 11, pp. 3629-3639, 2013.
[11] F. Yu and Y.M. Zhang, “Modeling and control method for high-
L = Load inductor of the transmitting system power electromagnetic transmitter power supplies”, J. Power Elec-
tron., vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 579-691, 2013.
R = Load resistor of the transmitting system
[12] Y. Shengbao, J. Shaohua and L. Gang, “Implementation of high
S1 = Free-wheeling switch in boost converter power transmitting system for the grounded source time-domain
electromagnetic method”, Foreign electronic measurement tech-
S2 = Main switch in boost converter nology, vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 49-52, 2014.
[13] H. Torkaman, H. Amiri and N. Ghadimi “Comparison of two novel
CONSENT FOR PUBLICATION sensorless methods for indirect rotor position estimation in a field
assisted switched reluctance motor”, Inter. Rev. Electric. Eng., vol.
Not applicable. 6, no. 7, pp. 2939-2946, 2011.
A Novel Transmitting System Recent Advances in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, 2019, Vol. 12, No. 6
[14] H. Torkaman, E. Afjei, N. Ghadimi, “Comparative electromagnetic
evaluation of different structures of switched reluctance motors”,
Inter. Rev. Electric. Eng., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 3885-3890, 2012.
[15] N. Ghadimi, "Genetically tuning of lead-lag controller in order to
control of fuel cell voltage", Scien. Res. Essays vol. 7, no. 43, pp.
3695-3701, 2012.
[16] A.S. Oshaba, E.S. Ali and S.M.A. Elazim “ACO based speed con-
trol of SRM fed by a photovoltaic system”, Inter. J. Electric. Pow-
er Energ. Syst., vol. 67, pp. 529-536, 2015.
[17] A.S. Oshaba and E.S. Ali “Bacteria foraging: A new technique for
speed control of DC series motor supplied by the photovoltaic sys-
tem”, WSEAS Transact. Power Syst., vol. 9, pp. 185-195, 2014.
499
[18] A.S. Oshaba, E.S. Ali and S.M.A. Elazim, “MPPT control design
of PV system supplied SRM using BAT search algorithm”, Sustain.
Energ. Grids Net., vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 51-60, 2015.
[19] K. Viswanathan, R. Oruganti and D. Srinivasan, “A novel tri-state
boost converter with fast dynamics”, IEEE Transact. Power Elec-
tron., vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 677-683, 2002.
[20] H. Han, R. Tan and J. Yang, “A novel efficient tri-state boost con-
verter”, IEEE Electric. Power Energy Conf., pp. 1-6, 2017.
[21] T. Cao, F. You and F. Zhang, “DSP-based control of tri-state boost
PFC converter with high input power factor for wide range of load
variations,” J. Circ. Syst. Comput., vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 1550072,
2015.