Inverters have taken a prominent role in the modern technological world due to the sudden rise of electric cars and renewable energy technologies
inverters convert DC power to AC power they are also used in uninterruptible power supplies
control of electrical machines and active power filtering this video will explain how to get a pure sinusoidal
electric power output from DC power input in a step-by-step
logical manner an
alternating current periodically reverses its direction
For this reason the average value of an alternating current over a cycle will be zero
Before proceeding to sine-wave production
Let's see how a square wave alternating current is produced in fact the old type inverters used to produce simple square. Wave as their output
Let's build an interesting circuit as shown with four switches and one input voltage
This circuit is known as full bridge inverter the output is drawn between points a and B
To make this circuit analysis easier let's replace this actual load with a hypothetical load
Just note the current flow when switches s 1 and s 4 are on and s 2 and s 3 are off
Now just do the reverse and observe the current flow
It is clear that the current flow is the opposite in this case as is the output voltage across the load
This is the basic technique that produces a square wave alternating current
We all know that the frequency of the AC supply available in our homes is 60 Hertz
This means that we need to turn the switch on and off
120 times in a second, which is not possible whether manually or by using mechanical switches
We introduce semiconductor switches such as MOSFET for this purpose they can turn on and turn off
Thousands of times per second with the help of control signals we can turn transistors on or off very easily
The square wave output is a high approximation of sine wave output old inverters used to produce them
That's why you hear a humming noise when you run your electric fan or other appliances using square wave power
They also heat up electric equipment
modern inverters produce pure sinusoidal output, let's see how they achieve it a
Technique called pulse width modulation is used for this purpose the logic of pulse width modulation is simple
Generate the DC voltage in the form of pulses of different widths in regions where you need higher amplitudes
It will generate pulses of larger, width
The pulses for the sine wave look like this
Now here is the tricky part. What will happen if you average these pulses in a small time interval
You will be surprised to see that the shape of the averaged pulses looks very similar to the sine curve
The finer the pulse is used the better shape the sine curve will be
Now the real question is how to make these pulses and how do we average them in a practical way?
Let's see how they are implemented in an actual inverter
Comparators are used for this purpose
Comparators compare a sine wave with triangular waves one comparator uses a normal sine wave and the other
comparator uses an inverted sine wave the first comparator controls s1 and s2
switches and the second comparator controls s3 and s4
s 1 and s 2
switches determine voltage level at Point a and the other two switches determine voltage level at point B
You can see that the one branch of comparator output is fitted with a logic not gate
This will make sure that when s1 is on
s2 will be off and vice versa
This also means that we can never turn on s1 and s2 at the same time
Which will cause the DC circuit to short-circuit?
Turning s1 gives cell voltage at Point a and turning on s2 gives zero voltage at the same point
Same is the case for point B
The switching logic of PWM is simple when the sine wave value is more than the triangular wave
comparator produces one signal, otherwise zero signal
Now observe voltage variation at first comparator according to this logic
control signal of one turns on the MOSFET
The voltage pulses produced at Point a are shown
Apply the same switching logic and observe the voltage pulses generated at point B
Since we are drawing output voltage between point A and B the net voltage will be the difference between a and B
This is the exact pulse train we need to create this sine wave
the finer the triangular wave the more accurate the pulse train will be
Now the next question is how do we practically implement the averaging?
To make it exactly sinusoidal energy storage elements such as inductors and capacitors
Are used to smooth the power flow they are called passive filters
Inductors are used to smoothen the current and capacitors are used to smoothen the voltage
With an inverter bridge a good pwm technique and a passive filter
You can generate sinusoidal voltage and operate all of your appliances without any fuss
The inverter technology we have explained so far has only two levels of voltage
What if we introduce one more voltage level this will give better approximation of the sine wave and can reduce?
Instantaneous error such multi-level inverter technology is used in high precision applications like wind turbines and electric cars
Inverters used in the electric cars have intelligent frequency and amplitude control in fact
Frequency controls the speed of an electric car and amplitude controls the power of it this way
inverters act as the brain of electric cars by producing electric power ideal for driving conditions
We hope this video provided you with a good introduction to the workings of inverters we request your support at patreon.com
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