Power Electronics for Renewable Energy Systems, Transportation and Industrial Applications

Chapter 18AHardware-in-the-Loop Systems with Power Electronics: A Powerful Simulation Tool

Ralph M. Kennel¹, Till Boller² and Joachim Holtz²

¹Institute for Electrical Drive Systems and Power Electronics, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Munich, Germany

²Institute for Electrical Machines and Drives, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany

18A.1 Background

The basic ideas of hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) systems with power electronics (PHiL systems) are different from the usual HiL systems (HiL systems), because PHiL systems include real energy flow in the simulation. This provides some special features, which are presented in an example of a three-phase electric load for industrial voltage source inverters (VSIs) for AC-drive applications. For this purpose, the inverter under test (IUT) is not connected to a real machine, but to a second inverter or inverters instead, which behaves like an electrical machine. The overall modulation frequency (f_pwm) of the so-called Virtual Machine is increased by sequential switching of parallel-connected standard inverters. The parallel-connected inverters can be of the same type as the IUT; hence, there exists no power limit for the drive inverter testing with respect to the product range of the manufacturer.

18A.1.1 Hardware-in-the-Loop Systems in General

The application of hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) systems has become “hyped” during the last decade. In particular, HiL systems with power electronics (so-called power hardware-in-the-loop ...