Power Electronics and Drives

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Investigate the characteristics and performance of a power converter or electric drive
• Analyse a specific application and produce the drive requirements that will result in the selection of sizing of a suitable drive system.
• Demonstrate the basic skills required to operate a power converter and electric drive

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Understand the operation of modern drive systems applied to industrial applications including robotics and advanced machine tools
• Understand the dynamics of mechanical systems found in industrial applications
• Apply your knowledge of the electrical characteristics of power semiconductor devices, to select power semiconductor devices for a range of applications
• Understand the basic topology of converters, inverters and power supplies
• Characterise the operation of motors, drives, sensors and the mechanical power train within the drive system.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Perform design calculations for drive and power converter applications, and understand the approximations used
• Understand the advantages and disadvantages that different motors drives will bring to an application

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Transfer understanding and theories from one discipline to another, in particular from the mechanical design to the electrical power and control domains
• Understand the wide range of issues that impact on the use of drive system in the industrial context, including safety, efficiency and costs (procurement, running and disposal)

The Drive Environment:

• Robotic and machine tool applications
• Introduction to position and speed control systems, dynamics and load characteristics, power transmission, environmental factors
• Determination of speed and torque requirements, motion profiles, installation considerations.

Devices:

• Review of diodes, thyristors, bipolar junction transistors, MOSFETs, IGBTs
• Basic characteristics of all devices, drive requirements
• Thermal management, protection.

Converters:

• Two and six pulse circuits
• Derivation of operating equations
• Overlap and its effect on output waveforms.

Inverters:

• Three-phase inverters, dc link inverter
• Forced-commutation thyristor circuits.

Specification of Drive Systems:

• Mechanical transmission elements, gears, leadscrews, belts etc.
• Sizing algorithms.

Position and Velocity Transducers:

• Specifications, analogue versus digital, review of available linear and rotary systems.

Servo Drive Systems:

• Consideration of specific drives and their operating characteristics including brushed d.c. series motor drives, brushless d.c. motor drives, and vector-controlled a.c. motor drives.

Controllers:

• Integration into the drive package, networking.

Power Supplies:

• Linear and switched mode power supplies
• Practical characteristics and analysis of step-up and step-down switched mode power supplies.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.