DC Bus Voltage Clamp Method to Prevent Over-Voltage Failures in Adjustable Speed Drives

The influences of PWM switching and long cable length on motor insulations have been discussed in numerous papers. This paper investigates their effect on the voltage insulation components inside an adjustable speed drive (ASD). This paper shows that high potential voltage insulation issue may exist on various components inside the ASD and cause earlier failures under very long cable or multiple drive conditions. A system model to describe this phenomenon is described in the paper. A dc bus voltage clamp circuit is proposed to reduce these voltage stresses. The effectiveness of this circuit is verified by both simulation and experimental results.