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Forced Commutated Controlled Series Capacitor Rectifier for More Electric Aircraft

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Volker Pickert, Dr Dave Atkinson, Dr Bashar Zahawi

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by IEEE, 2019.

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Abstract

Rising power demands in More Electrical Aircraft (MEA) put power converters for commercial airplanes under increasing pressure to fulfill current harmonic distortion regulations as specified, for example, in DO-160G. Today, the implementation of filters is seen as an effective tool for dealing with harmonics, however, their increased weight and volume is not welcomed in the aerospace industry. This paper proposes a circuit, named Forced Commutation Series Capacitor rectifier (FCSC-rectifier), which is able to maintain low individual harmonic current levels without the need for filter components. The FCSC-rectifier includes a variable capacitive line reactance that interacts in a controlled manner with the inductive line impedance. The result is that the converter input current is nearly purely sinusoidal with a power factor of almost unity. The FCSC-rectifier is to be used for stand-alone variable-voltage, variable-frequency generation systems (VFG) and can therefore power the Full Authority Digital Electronic Control System (FADEC) in an MEA. This paper shows that the FCSC-rectifier can maintain a high power factor and acceptable current harmonic levels without the use of filters, despite large voltage and frequency variations. A full description of the circuit modes of operation is presented in this paper together with simulation results showing circuit performance characteristics over a range of voltages and frequencies. Results are experimentally verified using a 1kW test circuit.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Al-Mhana T, Pickert V, Atkinson DJ, Zahawi B

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

Year: 2019

Volume: 34

Issue: 1

Pages: 225-235

Print publication date: 01/01/2019

Online publication date: 15/03/2018

Acceptance date: 01/03/2018

Date deposited: 02/03/2018

ISSN (print): 0885-8993

ISSN (electronic): 1941-0107

Publisher: IEEE

URL: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2018.2816305

DOI: 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2816305

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