Performance evaluation for the five-level unidirectional T-rectifier in high-speed electric generating units

This paper deals with the performance assessment of different power electronics configurations for the AC-DC converter based on the five-level unidirectional T-rectifier (5L T-RECT) to be used in gen-set applications. The comparison focuses on power electronics arrangements obtained with different switches and diodes technologies. At first, simulations are performed with Matlab/Simulink and Plexim/Plecs to highlight some relevant key points such as efficiency, losses distribution and finally converter sizing. A 5L T-RECT prototype has been built having a rate power equal to 17 kW to be used for validating the depicted results.