Comparison of Two Power Electronic Topologies for Power Hardware in the Loop Machine Emulator

Emulating electrical machines simplifies development and testing inverters and their control systems in different operating conditions. Therefore, two fundamental components are required: a real-time operating machine model and an applicable power electronic device, which adjusts the same currents and voltages as the surveyed machine would. Within this paper, two different power electronic topologies are compared regarding their suitability for hardware in the loop machine emulation. The surveyed topologies are a multibranch interleaved-switched inverter on the one hand and an inverter with output filter on the other hand. Especially their dynamic behavior in emulating the machine currents’ course as precise as possible is investigated. Moreover, additional disturbances caused by the power electronics’ switched-mode operation are analyzed, too. For this purpose, both power electronic devices are set up in hardware, controlled by an exemplary machine model. This paper presents the setup of the two topologies and the dedicated control system as well as the analysis by simulation and measurement.