Advanced Power Converter Design for Medium-Voltage Cascaded H-bridge Motor Drives

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The medium-voltage (MV) drives have found a wide range of industrial applications such as oil and gas, petrochemicals, transportation, mining, power generation and utilities, and other applications. Due to the rapid industrialization and consumers demand, the use of MV drives and its power capacity is continuously growing globally.The proposed five-year project will focus on developing efficient, low-cost, compact size, and reliable advanced high-power conversion systems for MV motor drives. This research project will develop power cells with an optimum cell voltage of 750-780 V to reduce the converter size and manufacturing cost, and new SiC based power cells with a modular structure to operate at higher switching frequencies without degrading the converter efficiency. At the same time, there is an improvement in the output power quality. Also, advanced control techniques will be developed to minimize the power fluctuations, which help to develop the power cells with a new film capacitor technology. This technology improves the reliability and lifetime of DC capacitors and reduces its size. Finally, new thermal management systems will be developed to improve its reliability and allow the drives to operate continuously for long hours without any disruption in the production. In addition, new electrical and mechanical layout will be developed to integrate the power cells and thermal management systems such that a new compact, efficient, and reliable drive technology will be developed for Rockwell Automation, Canada. This project will yield significant benefit to Rockwell Automation Canada and provide a path forward with a more reliable and cost effective product and help them achieve a higher market share. The project will also foster a talent pool of well-trained and highly-skilled graduates and researchers with hands-on experience.Rockwell Automation Canada is a company that works on a wide range of power system applications. They have products in motor drive systems for low power and high power applications. This company has a medium voltage drive department manufacturing medium-voltage high-power current source converters for drives application. The company is among the top 5 Medium Voltage Drive manufacturers in the world and their products are shipped globally. They have plans to expand their product breadth and access new markets (higher voltage and higher powers).