An energy-efficient testing scheme for AC rotating machines and power converters including field weakening mode of operation

An energy-efficient testing scheme for rotating ac machines and power converters is presented in this paper that can be used to study the performance of both machines and converters. The study is performed under different operating conditions of machines such as below and above base speed with different load torques. The main advantage of the test-setup is that energy input is required only to meet the losses in the total system. The test rig includes two Squirrel Cage Induction Machines (SCIM) mechanically coupled to each other, and three converters. The two ac machines are converter-fed with dc/ac converters. An ac/dc converter is connected to grid side and all the converters have common dc bus rail. The control strategy used for electrical machines is Field Oriented Control (FOC). The Grid Side Converter (GSC) is vector controlled to provide different power factor and to regulate dc-link voltage. Simulation of this entire test rig is performed on MATLAB/Simulink and the results for various cases are provided in this paper.