A modelica based rapid prototyping scheme for power electronic circuits

Abstract

<p>Power electronic systems (PES) are widely used in a number of industrial applications. Computers, digital products, most modern industrial systems, automobiles, home appliances, motor controllers, and any other application that uses electrical energy involves some form of energy processing using a PES. In the past few years integrated real-time control has been gaining importance in power electronic applications. To achieve real-time control most modern power electronic systems are employing new techniques such as digital signal processing. Simulation has become an important tool in understanding any engineering system in general and power electronic systems in particular. In educational institutions, simulation is used as a tool for effective teaching and research. Rapid prototyping tools aim to bridge the gap between simulation and implementation and make the power electronic circuit design a one step process. A rapid prototyping scheme for power electronic circuits integrating the Modelica modeling platform with a C243 fixed-point processor is presented in this thesis. The scheme consists of a library of DSP peripherals DSPLib and a fixed-point code generator FixedCodeGen. It enables the uses to conceptualize the circuit using high level modeling tools and implement them using DSP based controllers and power electronic building blocks. This scheme provides the user with a flexible platform for rapidly implementing various converter topologies. Various classical topologies such as DC-DC buck chopper, DC-AC square-wave inverters and AC-DC phase controlled converters have been implemented using this approach. The embedded real-time link inserted by FixedCodeGen allows the user to vary control parameters on the fly and fine tune the trigger signal generation or controller. FixedCodeGen targets the C243 DSP from Texas Instruments' (TI) which is a popular cost effective target for implementing controllers in power electronic systems. However the scheme can target any processor in the C2000 family of TI as they are upward source compatible. Due to the open sourced nature of the modeling platform the functionality of the existing models can be easily extended to incorporate new algorithms and peripherals.</p>