The integration of a bi-directional rectifier and a voltage fed inverter in an optimised high performance variable speed AC motor drive system

This paper describes the design, construction and operation of a novel bi-directional rectifier for use with inverter circuits in variable speed AC drives. The circuit consists of a controllable three phase thyristor bridge and a reconfigurable DC to DC converter, operating under average current mode control. The rectifier is used with a vector controlled inverter drive to demonstrate the capabilities of the system. The advantages and implementation of a power feedforward control scheme is considered. Simulation and practical results are presented and compared.