Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel

Converter for Low Voltage Applications

Rodrigo Aguilar1, Luca Tarisciotti2, Javier Pereda3

1 Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile
2 Universidad Andrés Bello

3 Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

I. INTRODUCTION - MOTIVATION

• Text text text text …

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 2/XX
II. ARM LINK ENHANCED MODULAR MULTILEVEL
CONVERTER - TOPOLOGY

• Maintains series connected SMs from classical MMC.

• Operated with Phase Shifted Carrier PWM (PSC-PWM), a

quasi-opposite voltage is generated between upper and lower
capacitors.

• The main feature is the addition of DABs to transfer the

excess of charge from an upper capacitor to a lower one,
considerably reducing the required SM capacitance.

• Each upper SM is coupled with a lower one via a DAB.

• The DAB has the required isolation between ports.

Additionally, it has Zero Voltage Switching capability, and
reduced size with HF transformers.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 3/XX
II. ARM LINK ENHANCED MODULAR MULTILEVEL
CONVERTER - OPERATION

• The MMC part is operated with conventional PSC-PWM,

producing equal power distribution and voltage ripple among
the SMs of a stack.
𝑉𝐷𝐶 𝑉𝐷𝐶
𝑣𝑢,𝑥 = + 𝑚 𝑚𝑢,𝑥 = −𝑚𝑥 − 𝑚𝑧,𝑥
2 2 𝑢,𝑥 𝑖𝑥 1 −1 𝑖𝑢,𝑥
𝑖𝑧,𝑥 =
𝑉𝐷𝐶 𝑉𝐷𝐶 1Τ2 1Τ2 𝑖𝑙,𝑥
𝑣𝑙,𝑥 = + 𝑚 𝑚𝑙,𝑥 = 𝑚𝑥 − 𝑚𝑧,𝑥
2 2 𝑙,𝑥

• DABs are operated with Single Phase Shift (SPS)

modulation, where the power transfer is given by:
𝑛𝑉1 𝑉2
𝑃𝐷𝐴𝐵 = 𝐷(1 − |𝐷|)
𝑓𝑠,𝐷𝐴𝐵 𝐿𝑠

• Phase Shift D is manipulated in order to transfer the excess

of charge from one capacitor to another.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 4/XX
III. DUAL ACTIVE BRIDGE CONTROL - CONTROLLER

• The voltage difference between an upper and lower SM will

determine the DAB power transfer, and thus the phase shift D.

• With PS-PWM, the SMs voltage ripple contains mainly

fundamental and second harmonic components.

• Due to the AC nature, three parallel Proportional Resonant

(PR) Controllers are proposed, for the fundamental, second
and third harmonic.

• The objective of the controller is then equal the voltage of the

coupled SMs, thus its reference is always 0.

• Digital implementation allows to online change the resonant

frequency of each PR controller.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 5/XX
III. DUAL ACTIVE BRIDGE CONTROL - CONTROLLER

• Due to the PSC-PWM, the SMs inside the same stack

have virtually the same voltage behavior.

• Thus, for purposes of the DABs control, the voltage of

only a single pair of coupled SMs can be measured
per phase, and then the output D is replicated for all
the other DABs in the same leg.

• The above greatly reduce the measurement system of the

converter, using two SMs voltage measurement per
phase.

• Moreover, the DABs main function is the balancing the

capacitors, so neither of the voltage and energy balancing
algorithms are necessary, greatly reducing the overall
control complexity.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 6/XX
III. DUAL ACTIVE BRIDGE CONTROL - CURRENT

• An estimation of the current handled by the DABs can be

obtained. Minimizing the voltage ripple with PSC-PWM 1 1
𝑖𝑎𝑏𝑠,𝑢 = 𝑚 + 1 𝑖𝑢,𝑥 𝑖𝑎𝑏𝑠,𝑙 = 𝑚 + 1 𝑖𝑙,𝑥
can be done approximately by making the coupled 2 𝑢,𝑥 2 𝑙,𝑥
capacitors absorb the same current.

• The current absorbed by the capacitors depends on the

arm current and their respective modulation index, 𝑖𝑎𝑏𝑠,𝑢 – 𝑖𝑎𝑏𝑠,𝑙
𝑖𝐷𝐴𝐵 =
assuming a high enough switching frequency. 2
1
= 𝑖𝑢,𝑥 − 𝑖𝑙,𝑥 + 𝑖𝑢,𝑥 𝑚𝑢,𝑥 − 𝑖𝑙,𝑥 𝑚𝑙,𝑥
• Then, the DAB must transfer half the difference of the 4
absorbed currents to achieve the above.

• The estimated current depends on the arm modulation

indexes and the arms currents, which can be expressed in 𝑖𝑥 𝑖𝑥 𝑚𝑧,𝑥 𝑖𝑧,𝑥 𝑚𝑥
𝑖𝐷𝐴𝐵 = − −
terms of output and circulating currents, and the 4 4 2
modulation indexes.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 7/XX
III. DUAL ACTIVE BRIDGE CONTROL – HARMONIC
RESPONSE

• DAB is a high-performance DC-DC converter, but in this

work is used to transfer an AC current while maintaining a 𝑖𝑥 𝑖𝑥 𝑚𝑧,𝑥 𝑖𝑧,𝑥 𝑚𝑥
𝑖𝐷𝐴𝐵 = − −
DC voltage at its terminals. 4 4 2

• It has been demonstrated that the DAB behaves as a low-

pass filter considering its control-to-output transfer
functions.

• Thus, the higher the frequency of the input D, the lower

the DAB performance. Considering the variable frequency
operation intended for the ALE-MMC, this must be taken
into account.

• If the capacitance is too large, then the cut-off frequency is

lower and increase the low-performance range.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 8/XX
III. DUAL ACTIVE BRIDGE CONTROL – VOLTAGE
SWITCHING HARMONICS

• The DABs avoid the capacitors from being charged or

discharged excessively, and thus reducing the required
SM capacitance.

• However, the DAB is not an ideal DC-DC transformer, and

its switching nature produces variations on the current,
which can be reflected on the capacitors as a high
frequency ripple.

• The combined effects of switching behavior and dead-

times implementation from both SM Half-Bridge and DAB
H-Bridges produce a high frequency voltage ripple, which
can be significant if the capacitance is too low.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 9/XX
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS - PARAMETERS

• Simulations of a 5.6 kW three-phase ALE-MMC Variable Symbol Value

were performed.
DC-link Voltage VDC 500 [V]
• A single pair of coupled SM capacitors voltage Number of SMs per stack NSM 10 [-]
were measured per phase, and the output D of Sub-Module Capacitance CSM 220 [mF]
the controller was replicated for the other DABs
DAB Total Inductance Ls 6.8 [mH]
in the leg.
Arm Inductance Larm 200 [mH]
Load Resistance RLoad 6 [W]
Load Inductance LLoad 900 [mH]
SM Switching frequency fs,SM 10 [kHz]
DAB Switching frequency fs,DAB 50 [kHz]

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 10/XX
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS – DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES

10 Hz 50 Hz 500 Hz
ALE-MMC simulation with current step from 20 to 30 A at different fundamental frequencies.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 11/XX
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS – DIFFERENT SM CAPACITANCE

2200 μF 220 μF 22 μF

ALE-MMC simulation with different SM capacitance with 25 A of output current.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 12/XX
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS – ZERO FREQUENCY

• In practice, the resonant controller tuned at zero

frequency is equivalent to a PI control, and thus the
DAB control is capable to maintain the capacitors at
their DC level at zero frequency.

• It must be highlighted that no additional control or

current injection was performed at zero or low
frequencies, as most conventional methods do.

• Thus, the converter can properly operate with full

power at zero or low fundamental frequencies.

ALE-MMC simulation at zero fundamental

frequency, 25 A output current.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 13/XX
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS – PARAMETERS

• A single-phase low-scale prototype was used

for experimental results, with 270 μF SM
capacitance. Variable Symbol Value
DC-link Voltage VDC 200 [V]
Number of SMs per stack NSM 4 [-]
Sub-Module Capacitance CSM 270 [mF]
DAB Total Inductance Ls 1.6 [mH]
Arm Inductance Larm 204 [mH]
Load Resistance RLoad 10 [W]
Load Inductance LLoad 2 [mH]
SM Switching frequency fs,SM 10 [kHz]
DAB Switching frequency fs,DAB 100 [kHz]

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 14/XX
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

• Experimental result with current step from 4 to 8 A of output

current at 50 Hz.

• Offsets are used to highlight the coupled SMs, and a single

pair of coupled SM capacitors were measured to perform
the DAB control.

• As can be seen, the voltage ripple barely increases after

the output current step, maintaining the SMs at a proper
voltage level.

• The remaining SMs voltages are not included since their

behaviors are the same as the shown in the figure.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 15/XX
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS – DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES

50 Hz 200 Hz 500 Hz

ALE-MMC experiments at different frequencies, 7.5 A of output current

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 16/XX
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS – CIRCULATING CURRENT
SUPPRESSION

Suppression Disabled Suppression Enabled

• Comparison between circulating current
suppression disabled and enabled at 500
Hz and 7.5 A of output current.

• At higher frequencies, the suppression of

the circulating current decreases to some
extent the harmonics present on the DABs
phase shift D.

• This can be used to increase the

performance of the DABs and ALE-MMC
in the high frequency range.

Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 17/XX
VI. CONCLUSIONS

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Sub-Module Voltage Control in DAB Assisted Modular Multilevel Converter for Low Voltage
Applications - Luca Tarisciotti 18/XX