Exceeding the Physical Limits of Power Electronics by Inverter Cumulation

硬件在环（HIL）仿真通过在测试过程中包括真实的硬件，提供了一种访问技术系统的自然行为和物理特性的有效方法。结果，仿真的真实性显著增加。与传统的仿真方法相比，半实物仿真的这一优势使其成为近年来电力电子领域的一个热点。然而，在某些仿真环境中，如电网仿真器，所涉及的功率水平和所需的动态特性对基于功率半导体的实时硬件仿真系统提出了过高的要求。不幸的是，在电力电子中，从制造的角度来看，功率和动态往往是相互排斥的物理特性。因此，实现一个硬件仿真系统与一个单一类型的标准电力电子器件是特别具有挑战性的。该项目旨在研究一种新的逆变器拓扑结构的基础上累积的逆变器具有不同的电气特性（开关频率，直流环节）。此外，将研究基于这种拓扑结构的硬件在环仿真系统的实现，并同时表现出高功率和高动态。在这种情况下，由于大多数组件都是市场上的标准设备，因此该系统还有望实现经济高效的电网仿真器。因此，该项目除了从科学的角度提供一个有前途的HIL仿真研究课题外，还可能为行业带来显著的成果。

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) emulation provides an effective means of accessing the natural behavior as well as the physical features of technical systems by including real hardware in the testing process. As a result, the realism of the emulation is significantly increased. Owing to this advantage compared to conventional simulation approaches, HIL emulation has also become a highlight in the field of power electronics for several years.However, in certain emulation environments like power grid emulators, the power levels involved and the dynamics needed result in excessive requirements for real-time hardware emulation systems based on power semiconductors. Unfortunately, in power electronics, power and dynamics tend to be mutually exclusive physical properties from a manufacturing point of view. For this reason, realizing a hardware emulation system with a single type of standard power electronic devices is particularly challenging.The intended project aims at investigating a novel inverter topology based on the cumulation of inverters with different electrical characteristics (switching frequency, DC link). Furthermore, the realization of a hardware-in-the-loop emulation system based on this topology and exhibiting high power and high dynamics simultaneously will be examined. As most components are standard market-available devices in this case, the proposed system is also expected to allow the realization of a cost-effective power grid emulator.Therefore, besides offering a promising research topic on HIL emulation from a scientific point of view, the project is likely to have a notable outcome for the industry.