Control architecture for Spar Engineering's next generation Variable Frequency Drives

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There has been widespread use of Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) devices in recent years due to the economic advantages they offer in achieving energy-efficient operation. As a result, VFDs are indispensable components of many industry applications such as pumps, compressors, chillers, fans, blowers, crushers, and conveyors. The supporting organization, SPAR Engineering provides consulting and design engineering services in the areas of electrical, control, and automation, in various industries such as mining, utilities, oil and gas, pulp and paper, energy, and water/waste management. With the advent of new microcontrollers and emerging methods for controlling VFDs, the company is in the process of refining the previous designs and offering its next generation of VFDs. The requested funding is to enable the SFU researchers to work closely with the company to develop its next generation VFD unit. The present drive can operate in both six and twelve pulse non-regenerative modes but is using a relatively old embedded control technology. Furthermore, to have a competitive edge, the company wants to implement recent advances in control algorithms into the new product. This needs new breeds of microprocessors with much higher density and completely different architectures than what is currently being used.