Fast open-transistor fault diagnosis based on calculated bridge arm pole-to-pole voltages in voltage-source inverters

A novel fast open-transistor diagnosis approach for voltage-source inverters (VSI) based on calculated bridge arm pole-to-pole (PTP) voltages is proposed in this paper. The theoretical PTP voltages can be calculated with duty cycle ratio and DC input, and the real PTP voltages can be calculated with output voltages and currents. When no fault occurs, there should be no difference between the theoretical and the real PTP voltages. Once fault happens, great deviations between these two calculated voltages will be incurred and can be utilized to detect and localize the fault. This method is able to achieve fast diagnosing speed, while no extra hardware circuits and complex calculation are needed, thus it can be embedded in the existing control system with little effort. Furthermore, strong robustness against operation variation makes this method feasible in diversified applications. Simulations and experiments have been carried out to validate the correctness and effectiveness of this method.