Novel method to operation conditions identification of high-order power converters

Intermittent solar energy causes different operational modes of power converters including continuous current modes (CCMs) and discontinuous current modes (DCMs), which need appropriate control strategies and parameters assignment to ensure the functionality of the overall solar energy power generation system. Hence, it is important to identify suitable operation modes for a high-order converter system. However, for a high-order power converter (HOPC), traditional time-domain analysis method and bifurcation analysis are inapplicable, since this requires comprehensive analysis and sophisticated control design.

To improve reliability and reduce mathematical complexity, this paper focuses on the operation mode derivation of HOPCs to well identify its boundary conditions and provide industry standards for converter applications.

With complex operation modes, 3-Z-network converter is analysed as a typical example and its derivations of boundary conditions are elaborated. In detail, the equilibrium points and boundary conditions of each operation modes are first derived; then with the guidance of boundary conditions, unexpected operation modes can be avoided by parameters reassignment.

Simulations and experimentation on the newly established system prototype are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. It demonstrates that the theoretical and experimental boundary conditions are in good agreement.

This paper provides equilibrium points and boundary conditions, and obtains deeper insights into the behaviors of the 3-Z-network converter. The derivations of four operation modes and the boundary condition of each mode has been conducted and provided for the large-signal averaged model of the converter, which provides guidance for engineers to adjust the system parameters so as to realize required operation modes. Simulation and experimentation have verified the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed identified operation boundaries.