How to regulate variable DC output by Chopper circuit or other ways?

I'm going to do my thesis titled "Regulation of Electric Power for a Unique Riverine Hydrokinetic Energy System." I'm now looking for a SIMULINK model for regulating variable DC output (comes from a converter/rectifier) in terms of voltage and frequency using a chopper circuit or any other ways. Then this regulated DC voltage will be sent to a inverter to be converted into 3-phase AC voltage. Please help me with this if there is alredy any Simulink model for this problem. Also, please share if you have any idea to resolve this problem. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

[Vishwa]

Hi Kawsar,

You can find several power electronic converter models at the following link: Power Converters — Examples (mathworks.com).

I suggest you to carry out short converter selection study to choose the best DC-DC converter based on your application and requirements. Before selecting a converter you must think through following points:

1. What should be the regulated output DC voltage?
2. What is the DC input voltage to the converter. How much this voltage will be varying?
3. Does the application requires stepping up or stepping down voltage level.
4. Does this application requires galvanic isolation?
5. Do I ever need to feed the power back to the source?

For regulating the output voltage, a closed loop voltage control is necessary. To state a few scenarios:

1. For step-down application one can consider buck or synchronous-buck converter. It allows for a simple control strategy and synchronous buck converter is also benifitted by soft-switching leading to higher efficiency.
2. For applications requiring galvanic isolation or bi-directional power flow support, Dual-Active Bridge could be considered. It is an emerging choice for power dense applications. However, the control strategy can become a little bit complicated.

Powertrain blockset library provides a simulink block for 3-phase voltage source inverter ready for use. Three-phase voltage source inverter - Simulink (mathworks.com)

Few resources that might be helpful to you:

How to Develop DC-DC Converter Control in Simulink - MATLAB & Simulink (mathworks.com)

Buck Converter Voltage Control - MATLAB & Simulink (mathworks.com)

Hope this will help!

Good luck with your thesis.

Thanks,

Vishwa