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

中压(MV)驱动在石油天然气、石化、交通、采矿、发电和公用事业等领域有着广泛的工业应用。由于快速的工业化和消费者需求，中压电机的使用量和功率容量在全球范围内不断增长。拟议的五年计划将专注于开发高效、低成本、紧凑、可靠的先进中压电机驱动大功率转换系统。该研究项目将开发最佳单元电压为750-780V的功率单元，以减小转换器的尺寸和制造成本，并开发新型的基于碳化硅的功率单元，采用模块化结构，在不降低转换器效率的情况下工作在更高的开关频率。同时，输出电能质量也得到了改善。此外，还将开发先进的控制技术来最小化功率波动，这将有助于开发采用新的薄膜电容器技术的动力电池。这项技术提高了直流电容器的可靠性和寿命，并缩小了其尺寸。最后，将开发新的热管理系统，以提高其可靠性，并使驱动器能够在不中断生产的情况下长时间连续运行。此外，还将开发新的电气和机械布局，以集成动力电池和热管理系统，从而为加拿大罗克韦尔自动化开发一种新的紧凑、高效和可靠的驱动技术。该项目将为罗克韦尔自动化加拿大公司带来巨大的好处，并为他们提供一条更可靠、更具成本效益的产品前进道路，并帮助他们获得更高的市场份额。该项目还将培养一批训练有素的高技能毕业生和具有实践经验的研究人员。罗克韦尔自动化加拿大公司是一家致力于广泛电力系统应用的公司。他们的产品包括适用于低功率和高功率应用的电机驱动系统。本公司设有中压驱动部门，生产驱动用中压大功率电流型变流器。该公司是世界前五大中压驱动器制造商之一，其产品发货全球。他们计划扩大产品范围并进入新的市场(更高的电压和更高的功率)。

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).