Abstract
This thesis investigates the design and analysis of modular medium-voltage dc/dc converter based systems. An emerging converter application is feeding offshore oil and gas production systems located in deep waters, on the sea bed, distant from the onshore terminal. The phase-controlled series-parallel resonant converter (SPRC) is selected as the dc/dc converter unit, for a 10kV dc transmission system. The converter has a high efficiency in addition to favourable soft switching characteristics offered by resonant converters which enable high frequency operation, hence designs with reduced footprints. The phase-controlled SPRC is studied in the steady-state and a new analysis is presented for the converter operational modes, voltage gain sensitivity, and analytically derived operational efficiency. The maximum efficiency criterion is used as the basis for selection of converter full load operational conditions. The detailed design of the output LC filter involves new mathem atical expressions for interleaved multi-module operation. A novel large signal dynamic model is proposed for the phase-controlled SPRC with state feedback linearization. The model preserves converter large signal characteristics while providing a tool for faster simulation and simplified closed loop design and stability analysis. Using this model, a Kalman filter based estimator is proposed and applied for sensorless multi-loop output voltage control. The objective is to enhance the single-loop PI control dynamic response and closed loop stability with no additional sensors required for the inner loop state variables. Dynamic performance and robustness of the converter to operational circuit parameter variations are achieved with three new robust controllers; namely, Lyapunov, sliding mode, and predictive controllers. Finally, converter multi-module operation is studied, catering for voltage and current sharing of the subsea load-side step-down converter. To achieve a step- down voltage, the phase-controlled SPRC modules are connected in an input-series connection to share the medium level transmission voltage. Output-series and output-parallel connections are used to reach higher power levels. A new sensorless load voltage estimator is developed for converters remotely controlled. Matlab/Simulink simulations and experimental prototype results are used to substantiate all the proposed analysis techniques and control algorithms.
Original language | English |
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Qualification | Ph.D. |
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Publication status | Published - 2012 |