Fault-Tolerant Model-Free Predictive Controller for Multilevel Cascaded H-Bridge Inverters With Faulty Cells

In this article, a fault-tolerant model-free predictive controller (FT-MFPC) for cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters (CHMLIs) is proposed. FT-MFPC is based on an association of model-free predictive controller (MFPC) and a proportional--integral (PI) like structure known as current variation controller (CVC). As in MFPC, the dynamic structure (DS) that is used for the prediction of the system output is obtained from past measurements of current variations, but CVC modifies the dynamics before they are stored for prediction. As a consequence, even if the converter operates with bypassed modules, FT-MFPC adapts its DS to represent the real dynamics of the system and enables a closed-loop response with balanced load currents in unbalanced CHMLIs. Simulation and experimental results validate the adaptability of the proposed strategy to operate a seven-level inverter under various configurations of bypassed H-bridge modules. The experimental results show that, for different postfault operations, the maximal current total harmonic distortion and imbalance factor at steady state in the worst case scenario are below 5% and 2%, respectively.