Reliability Assessment of Conventional Three-Level Inverters for Use in Hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

Aerospace Research Institute, Ministry of Science and Research, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

This research has investigated the reliability of conventional three-level inverters. In recent years, many multi-level inverters have been introduced and developed. The most well-known of them are Neural Point Clamped (NPC), Floating Capacitor (FC), and Cascade H-Bridge (CHB). Through these structures, various types of multi-level inverters have been created, which are used to achieve higher efficiency, reduce the number of diodes, switches, and most importantly, increase reliability. Increasing reliability in aerospace systems is very important. In this paper, we will determine the reliability of conventional three-level inverters that used in the Hybrid Drone motor drive system. The result shows that the CHB inverter structure is more reliable than the other two types. On the other hand, in applications like hybrid Drone motor drives that use multiple energy sources, the use of the CHB structure provides greater flexibility in design and increases reliability.

Keywords

Main Subjects


  1. Huang, "Survey on design technology of distributed electric propulsion aircraft," Acta Aeronaut. Astronaut. Sin, vol. 42, no. 1, p. 624037, 2021, doi: https://doi.org/10.7527/S1000-6893.2020.24037
  2. N. Boukoberine, Z. Zhou, and M. Benbouzid, "A critical review on unmanned aerial vehicles power supply and energy management: Solutions, strategies, and prospects," Applied Energy, vol. 255, p. 113823, 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113823   
  3. Cai, J. Dias, and L. Seneviratne, "A survey of small-scale unmanned aerial vehicles: Recent advances and future development trends," Unmanned Systems, vol. 2, no. 02, pp. 175-199, 2014, doi: https://doi.org/10.1142/S2301385014300017
  4. Liu and C. Liu, "Direct harmonic current control scheme for dual three-phase PMSM drive system," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 36, no. 10, pp. 11647-11657, 2021, doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2021.3069862         
  5. Glasgo, I. L. Azevedo, and C. Hendrickson, "How much electricity can we save by using direct current circuits in homes? Understanding the potential for electricity savings and assessing feasibility of a transition towards DC powered buildings," Applied Energy, vol. 180, pp. 66-75, 2016, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.07.036
  6. Yuan and I. Barbi, "Fundamentals of a new diode clamping multilevel inverter," IEEE Transactions on power electronics, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 711-718, 2000, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/63.849041
  7. -K. Lee and D.-S. Hwang, "A study on the techniques of estimating the probability of failure," Journal of the chungcheong mathematical society, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 573-583, 2008, doi: https://doi.org/10.14403/jcms.2008.21.4.573
  8. Song and B. Wang, "Survey on reliability of power electronic systems," IEEE transactions on power electronics, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 591-604, 2012, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2012.2192503
  9. Yang, H. Wang, A. Sangwongwanich, and F. Blaabjerg, "Design for reliability of power electronic systems," in Power electronics handbook: Elsevier, 2018, pp. 1423-1440, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-811407-0.00051-9
  10. E. Giuntini, "Mathematical characterization of human reliability for multi-task system operations," in Smc 2000 conference proceedings. 2000 ieee international conference on systems, man and cybernetics.'cybernetics evolving to systems, humans, organizations, and their complex interactions'(cat. no. 0, 2000, vol. 2: IEEE, pp. 1325-1329 doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSMC.2000.886037
  11. Nadjafi, M. Farsi, E. Zio, and A. K. Mousavi, "Fault trees analysis using expert opinion based on fuzzy‐bathtub failure rates," Quality and Reliability Engineering International, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 1142-1157, 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/qre.2313
  12. -A. Klutke, P. C. Kiessler, and M. A. Wortman, "A critical look at the bathtub curve," IEEE Transactions on reliability, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 125-129, 2003 doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/TR.2002.804492
  13. Hammersley, "Some notes on the terms ‘validity’and ‘reliability’," British educational research journal, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 73-82, 1987, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/0141192870130107
  14. H. Saleh and K. Marais, "Highlights from the early (and pre-) history of reliability engineering," Reliability engineering & system safety, vol. 91, no. 2, pp. 249-256, 2006, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2005.01.003
  15. Yang, A. Bryant, P. Mawby, D. Xiang, L. Ran, and P. Tavner, "An industry-based survey of reliability in power electronic converters," IEEE transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 1441-1451, 2011, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2011.2124436
  16. Yang, D. Xiang, A. Bryant, P. Mawby, L. Ran, and P. Tavner, "Condition monitoring for device reliability in power electronic converters: A review," IEEE transactions on power electronics, vol. 25, no. 11, pp. 2734-2752, 2010, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2010.2049377
  17. Khosroshahi, M. Abapour, and M. Sabahi, "Reliability evaluation of conventional and interleaved DC–DC boost converters," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 30, no. 10, pp. 5821-5828, 2014, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2014.2380829
  18. Rashidirad, A. Rahmati, and A. Abrishamifar, "Comparison of reliability in modular multilevel inverters," Przeglad elektrotechniczny (electrical review), vol. 88, no. 1, pp. 268-272, 2012, doi: http://pe.org.pl/articles/2012/1b/59.pdf
  19. Anurag, Y. Yang, and F. Blaabjerg, "Thermal performance and reliability analysis of single-phase PV inverters with reactive power injection outside feed-in operating hours," IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 870-880, 2015, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/JESTPE.2015.2428432
  20. Isidori, F. M. Rossi, F. Blaabjerg, and K. Ma, "Thermal loading and reliability of 10-MW multilevel wind power converter at different wind roughness classes," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 484-494, 2013, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2013.2269311
  21. Wang and F. Blaabjerg, "Reliability of capacitors for DC-link applications in power electronic converters—An overview," IEEE Transactions on industry Applications, vol. 50, no. 5, pp. 3569-3578, 2014, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2014.2308357
  22. Lu, C. Bailey, and C. Yin, "Design for reliability of power electronics modules," Microelectronics reliability, vol. 49, no. 9-11, pp. 1250-1255, 2009, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microrel.2009.07.055
  23. Mitic, R. Beinert, P. Klofac, H. Schultz, and G. Lefranc, "Reliability of AlN substrates and their solder joints in IGBT power modules," Microelectronics reliability, vol. 39, no. 6-7, pp. 1159-1164, 1999, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0026-2714(99)00165-1
  24. Birolini, Reliability engineering. Springer, 2007, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-49390-7
  25. R. Lyu, Handbook of software reliability engineering. IEEE computer society press Los Alamitos, 1996, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39535-2
  26. F. Stapelberg, Availability and maintainability in engineering design. Springer, 2009, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84800-175-6
  27. Rausand and A. Hoyland, System reliability theory: models, statistical methods, and applications. John Wiley & Sons, 2003, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470316900
  28. Yang and B. Dhillon, "Availability analysis of a repairable standby human-machine system," Microelectronics Reliability, vol. 35, no. 11, pp. 1401-1413, 1995, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/0026-2714(95)00038-4
  29. Goel, A new approach to electronic systems reliability assessment. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2007, doi: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13015/3868
  30. Drenick, "The failure law of complex equipment," Journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 680-690, 1960, doi: https://doi.org/10.1137/0108051
  31. Abdi, A. H. Ranjbar, G. B. Gharehpetian, and J. Milimonfared, "Reliability considerations for parallel performance of semiconductor switches in high-power switching power supplies," IEEE transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 2133-2139, 2009, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2009.2014306
  32. H. Ranjbar, B. Abdi, G. B. Gharehpetian, and B. Fahimi, "Reliability assessment of single-stage/two-stage PFC converters," in 2009 Compatibility and Power Electronics, 2009: IEEE, pp. 253-257, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/CPE.2009.5156043
  33. N. Allan, Reliability evaluation of power systems. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1860-4
  34. M. Shalev and J. Tiran, "Condition-based fault tree analysis (CBFTA): A new method for improved fault tree analysis (FTA), reliability and safety calculations," Reliability Engineering & System Safety, vol. 92, no. 9, pp. 1231-1241, 2007, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2006.05.015
  35. Sun and J. J. Han, "The failure of MTTF in availability evaluation," in Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium. 2002 Proceedings (Cat. No. 02CH37318), 2002: IEEE, pp. 279-284, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/RAMS.2002.981655
  36. Vander Meulen and J. Maurin, "The reliability of neutral point clamped vs. cascaded H-bridge inverters," Eaton White Paper TD02000001E, Arden, NC, 2009. [Online]. Available: https://www.eaton.com/content/dam/eaton/products/medium-voltage-power-distribution-control-systems/motor-control/literature/other-docs/sc9000-npc-vs-hbridge-topology-reliability-white-paper-td02000001e.pdf
  37. Krug, S. Bernet, S. S. Fazel, K. Jalili, and M. Malinowski, "Comparison of 2.3-kV medium-voltage multilevel converters for industrial medium-voltage drives," IEEE Transactions on industrial electronics, vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 2979-2992, 2007, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2007.906997
  38. Tarzamni, F. P. Esmaeelnia, M. Fotuhi-Firuzabad, F. Tahami, S. Tohidi, and P. Dehghanian, "Comprehensive analytics for reliability evaluation of conventional isolated multiswitch PWM DC–DC converters," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 5254-5266, 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2019.2944924
  39. Billinton and R. N. Allan, "Reliability evaluation of engineering systems- Concepts and techniques(Book)," New York: Plenum Press, 1992., 1992, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7728-7
  40. Wu, F. Blaabjerg, H. Wang, M. Liserre, and F. Iannuzzo, "Catastrophic failure and fault-tolerant design of IGBT power electronic converters-an overview," in IECON 2013-39th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, 2013: IEEE, pp. 507-513, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/IECON.2013.6699187
  41. MIL-HDK, "217F-2 Military Handbook," Reliability Prediction of Electronic Equipment, 1995, [Online]. Available: https://www.quanterion.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/MIL-HDBK-217F.pdf
  42. P. Models, "Reliability Information Analysis Center, 6000 Flanagan Rd, Suite 3, Utica, NY 13502-1348," RIAC-MIL-HDBK-217Plus, 2006, [Online]. Available: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/tr/ADA462925
  43. K. Kazimierczuk, Pulse-width modulated DC-DC power converters. John Wiley & Sons, 2015. doi: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470694640#:~:text=10.1002/9780470694640
  44. Richardeau and T. T. L. Pham, "Reliability calculation of multilevel converters: Theory and applications," IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 60, no. 10, pp. 4225-4233, 2012, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2012.2211315
  45. Chiodo and D. Lauria, "Some basic properties of the failure rate of redundant reliability systems in industrial electronics applications," IEEE transactions on industrial electronics, vol. 62, no. 8, pp. 5055-5062, 2015, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2015.2404306
  46. Graovac and M. Pürschel, "IGBT power losses calculation using the data-sheet parameters," Infineon application note, vol. 1, no. 1, 2009, , [Online]. Available: https://community.element14.com/products/manufacturers/infineon/w/documents/6572/igbt-power-losses-calculation-using-the-data-sheet-parameters
  47. Handbook, "217FN2, Reliability Prediction of Electronic Equipment," Department of Defense, 1995.
  48. Ceballos et al., "Efficient modulation technique for a four-leg fault-tolerant neutral-point-clamped inverter," IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 1067-1074, 2008, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2008.917098
  49. Li and L. Xu, "Strategies of fault tolerant operation for three-level PWM inverters," IEEE transactions on power electronics, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 933-940, 2006, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2006.876867
  50. Nguyen-Duy, T.-H. Liu, D.-F. Chen, and J. Y. Hung, "Improvement of matrix converter drive reliability by online fault detection and a fault-tolerant switching strategy," IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 244-256, 2011, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2011.2151818
  51. Barriuso, J. Dixon, P. Flores, and L. Morán, "Fault-tolerant reconfiguration system for asymmetric multilevel converters using bidirectional power switches," IEEE transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 1300-1306, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2008.2005680
  52. Ambusaidi, V. Pickert, and B. Zahawi, "New circuit topology for fault tolerant H-bridge DC–DC converter," IEEE transactions on power electronics, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 1509-1516, 2009, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2009.2038217
  53. T. T. L. Pham, F. Richardeau, and G. Gateau, "Diagnosis strategies and reconfiguration of a 5-level double-boost PFC with fault-tolerant capability," in 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics, 2011: IEEE, pp. 1857-1862, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ISIE.2011.5984440