DRPT2008 6-9 April 2008 Nanjing China

Control of Parallel Inverters Based on CAN Bus

in Large-Capacity Motor Drives
Wei Yongqing, Zhang Xiaofeng, Qiao Mingzhong and Kang Jun

frequency component, and carrier frequency component. Thus,

Abstract--Parallel connection of inverters or converters is one a concept to reduce the cross current is that DC and the
useful method for solving the high power requirements. It has fundamental frequency component should be reduced by a
also been used to reduce harmonics and reduce pulse width current control and the carrier frequency component should be
modulation (PWM) switching frequency. The parallel structure
reduced by inter-modular reactors.
of two voltage inverters sharing a single standard three-phase
machine is analyzed in the paper. In AC variable-speed drive A master-slave parallel control scheme based on CAN bus
systems, parallel inverters work under Variable-Voltage- is presented under synchronous reference frame. In section II,
Variable-Frequency (VVVF) conditions. The problems of the main circuit of parallel inverters is characterized and
synchronization and load sharing must be solved. In order to modeled to develop the cause of generating circulating
tackle the problems, a master-slave parallel control three-phase current. In section III, from the two requirements of
inverter system prototype based on CAN bus is constructed. paralleling inverters, a main-slave control algorithm based on
Firstly, the speed regulator of the main inverter controller
generates the reference current of each inverter. By the CAB bus under synchronous reference frame is presented, and
respective current regulator, the slave inverters will follow the how to realize the CAN communication among parallel
reference current without static error. Secondly, the inverters is also experimentally verified. In section IV,
communication among the parallel inverters is achieved by CAN performance of the control scheme is verified by
bus, with less mutual wires. The simulation results confirm the Matlab/Simulink simulations.
feasibility of the proposed control algorithm and show the motor
Both the vector control of AC motor and the master-slave
current can be shared and has good dynamic characteristics,
being superior to single module. control of paralleling inverters based on CAN bus in UPS are
not new. But in this paper, the proposed control algorithm
Index Terms-- AC motor drives; CAN bus; parallel inverter; incorporates the two controls, and put it in the variable-speed
synchronic current control drive system.

I. INTRODUCTION II. EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT MODEL OF PARALLEL INVERTERS

P arallel connection of inverters or converters is one useful

method for solving the high power requirements. It has
also been used to reduce harmonics and reduce pulse width
The type of parallel structure depends on the construction
of the load motor; the most prevalent are dual three-phase
machines, split-phase machines, six-phase machines, and a
modulation switching frequency. Such modular approaches standard three-phase machine with inter-modular reactors.
have been successfully developed and applied in the field of Fig.1 illustrates the proposed realization of a drive system
UPS system [1]. In the AC variable-speed drive systems, based on parallel connection of N three phase voltage source
parallel inverters work under Variable-Voltage-Variable- inverters sharing a load. It is assumed that all the inverters
Frequency (VVVF) conditions. The multi-inverters drive share the same dc bus and the dc bus is powered by an AC/DC
system is not immune to several problems like: control rectifier [4].
methods, selecting of inductors [2], improving efficiency and Inverter1

response [3], and so on.

Reactor
The parallel structure of two voltage inverters sharing a
single standard three-phase machine is analyzed in the paper.
In parallel-set operation, a voltage difference between two IM

inverters, mainly due to differences in device switching time,

causes a cross current flowing between the two inverters. The Reactor

cross current contains direct current component, fundamental Inverter

2#

…
…
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science ...
Foundation of China Under Grant 50421703. Reactor
Wei Yongqing, Zhang Xiaofeng, Qiao Mingzhong and Kang Jun are with
Inverter
the department of electrical engineering, Naval University of engineering, N#
Wuhan 430033, China (e-mail: [email protected]).
Fig. 1. Schematic of multiple VSI inverters in parallel feeding a motor load

978-7-900714-13-8/08/ ©2008DRPT 1375

 DRPT2008 6-9 April 2008 Nanjing China

As shown in Fig.1, to suppress the possible circulating e1a + e2 a = Zl 1i1a + Z l 2i2 a + 2Z m (i1a＋i2 a )
currents, large inductors have been applied between inverter e1a − e2 a = Z l1i1a − Zl 2 i2 a (3)
poles and the point of common coupling. Meanwhile,
Z l1 + Z l 2 Z − Zl 2
application of a large filter inductor will result in loss of = (i1a − i2 a ) + l 1 (i1a + i2 a )
voltage available at the motor terminals, and, the value is 2 2
related to the stability and dynamics of the drive system. So, and
the value of the inductance is an important parameter in the e1β + e2 β = Zl 1i1β + Z l 2i2 β + 2Z m (i1β ＋i2 β )
parallel drive system. Z l1 + Z l 2 Z − Zl 2 (4)
Fig.2 shows a simplified equivalent circuit of the two e1β − e2 β = (i1β − i2 β ) + l1 (i1β + i2 β )
2 2
parallel inverters system illustrated in Fig.1. With a wye-connected load, KCL demands that
Inverter 1 i Reactor 1a (i1a + i2 a ) + (i1b + i2b ) + (i1c + i2c ) = 0 (5)
Ll1 Rl1
e1a
So for γ -phase, i2γ , i1γ and in satisfy the following
i1b
V1n
e1b 1
e1c i1γ = −i2γ = − in
i1c 3
Motor (6)
Lm Rm  i 
Ln e1γ − e2γ = (Z l1 + Z l 2 + 3Z n )  − n 
in Vmn  3
Rn From (3) and (4), we can conclude as follows
i2a
Ll 2 Rl 2 (1) The torque-producing current is fed mainly by the
e2a
average voltage of the two inverters, and is the sum of currents
i2 b of the two inverters.
e2c V2n e2b (2) The cross currents of α and β phases are fed by the
i2 c
voltage source whose output is caused by the difference of
output voltages for the two inverters , and by the voltage
Inverter 2
source whose output is caused by the difference between the
Fig.2. Equivalent circuit for parallel inverters impedance of the reactors.
It is assumed that each inverter develops a balanced three From (6) we can also observe that, the cross current of γ -
phase voltage and its inter-modular reactor consists of phase corresponds to the zero sequence current. The current
identical phase inductors. The motor circuit is simply flows through the reactors, IGBTs, and dc capacitors. It may
represented by the R-L series circuit, and the dc link lines be remarkably amplified by a resonance between the reactors
connecting two inverters are represented by the neutral line and capacitors. But in the case of separating the dc input
connecting two voltage sources [5]. terminals of the two inverters, the cross current does not exit.
The voltage equation of inverter1 is expressed as follows
III. CONTROL SCHEME
 e1a   Z l1 + Z m 0 0  i1a 
e  =  0 Z l1 + Z m 0  i1b  Effective solutions for paralleling inverters have to satisfy
 1b    the following two requirements
 e1c   0 0 Z l 1 + Z m  i1c 
(a) Current balancing
(1)
Zm 0 0  i2 a   vmn − v1n  (b) Synchronization.
+  0 Z m 0  i2b  +  vmn − v1n  So, the following analysis of control algorithm surrounds
     the two sides.
 0 0 Z m  i2 c   vmn − v1n 
(a) Output voltage control system
Where Z l1 = Rl1 + pLl1 , Z l 2 = Rl 2 + pLl1 , Z m = Rm + pLm . (b) Effective current balance and synchronization based on
To separate the neutral components from others, the CAN bus
equation (1) is transformed from abc to αβγ coordinate
A. Output Voltage Control System
 e1α   Z l1 + Z m 0 0  i1α  For parallel inverters of CVCF output, the control object is
    
 e1β  =  0 Z l1 + Z m 0  i1β  output voltage, so the master-slave control scheme with
e   0 0 Zl 1 + Z m  i1γ  common voltage loop is usually used [6]. The global or master
 1γ     control compares the base sine wave with the feedback voltage
(2)
 Zm 0 0  i2α   0  of the inverter, and the output error signal goes through the
   
+  0 Zm 
0  i2 β  +  0 
proportional-and-integral (PI) as the commanded current. The
local or slave control is designed into the current tracking
 0 0 Z m  i2γ   3(vmn − v1n ) 
  controller. For parallel inverters of motor drives, the control
The output voltages of the two unit inverters add and object is speed or torque of the motor, while the realization of
subtract, then the voltage equations may be written speed control is by regulating the output voltage[7].
Vector control is the state-of-the art means of controlling

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AC machines. It essentially gives the AC machine the torque B. Effective Current Balance and Synchronization Based on
characteristics of a DC machine. The rotor field orientation CAN Bus
control is based on the d-q synchronous coordinate, where the Synchronization is to tackle the frequency and phase
reference frame rotates synchronously with respect to the rotor consistency of output voltage, and current balancing is to
flux. Combining the vector control with the master-slave tackle the balance of the load power. In the above proposed
control, the following control schematic is presented in Fig.3. control algorithm, the two key techniques are both realized by
As shown in Fig.3, the outer speed control loop is similar to communication [8-9], with less mutual wires among parallel
vector control of the single inverter drive system. It generates inverters. Thus, the software and hardware designs of CAN
the desired motor currents (torque current id* and magnetizing communication are necessary in the parallel set.
current iq* ), and the torque and magnetizing currents are The function of CAN communication is to send data of this
node to others and receive data from other nodes in the
divided by module number n as the given current of the network. The synchronization among all inverters is
individual inverter. The quantity ωe is the commanded implemented as follows. To the master module, as shown in
electrical radian frequency which could be a constant or a Fig.2, there are three common commands to be transferred:
variable in a variable-speed drive, and, the synchronization reference currents idj* , iqj* and synchronization angle θ e .The
angle θ e is achieved through the integral of ωe . The global
reference currents idj* and iqj* , for being under the synchronous
part of the proposed control algorithm is realized by the
master module. coordinate, can be transferred on CAN bus conveniently and
The current control of the individual inverter is designed as realize the current balancing among inverters, and, share of θ e
the current tracer. It works like this, the actual inverter output with the slave inverters will guarantee the synchronization of
currents iaj , ibj and icj are transformed into the dq0 synchronous output voltage.
According to the above analysis, CAN communication
reference frame, and then idj and iqj are fed back to the local
effects among inverters are verified by experiments. Fig.4
current control. By compared with the desired current values, shows the synchronization angle θ e waveform of the master
the actual inverter current will vary with the commanded
and slave inverters, 5ms every a grid on the horizontal time
currents idj* and iqj* through the PI regulation. Meanwhile in axis. It shows that the frequency of the output voltage is 50Hz.
Fig.3, to reduce the zero-sequence current, the proportional (P) The upper is the sending reference θ e of the master inverter
controller is used. and the under is the receiving signal of the slave inverter. It
The dq0-controllers produce the reference output voltage. indicates that the sending and the receiving signal are
Which can be inverse transformed back into abc variables and consistent, and parallel inverters can communicate better on
be used in a standard Sine-Triangle PWM (SPWM). Other CAN bus.
approaches including Space Vector Modulation are easily
substituted into the block diagram.

ϕ r* id*

+
idj*
iaj ibj icj
θe −
ω* Te* *
i qj idj Vdj Vaj
iq* iaj Vbj
ωr ibj iqj Vqj
ϕr icj i0 j V0 j Vcj #
θe
# #
# iaj ibj icj
idj* * θe
θe iqj
idj Vdj Vaj
iaj Vbj
iqj Vqj
ia ibj
Vcj
ib icj i0 j V0 j
ic

ωr

Fig.3. Control scheme of parallel inverters for motor drive system

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different, L1 = 2mH and L2 = 5mH . The currents simulation

results of the two inverters and the motor are shown in Fig.5-
Fig.7.

Fig.4. Synchronization angle of the master and slave inverters

Incorporating both the vector control with the master-slave Fig.5. Single phase current for two parallel inverters without balancing
control
control based on CAN bus, the proposed approach will result
in excellent performance of the AC drive system with
parallel–connected inverters.
C. Design Considerations
(1) Choice of Inductance
From the proposed control algorithm, it may be deserved
that the motor current and the cross current are controlled by
Fig.6. Single phase current for two parallel inverters with proposed control
the same regulator. However, the two kinds of currents flow scheme
the different path. That is, the cut-off frequency of the motor
current control system is different from the cross current
control system. The cut-off frequency is related to the control
stability. So, the choice of inductance should be from the view
of system stability.
(2) Parameter Design of Controller
From the view of controller design convenience, consider
converting the two separate inverters into a single equivalent.
As discussed in Fig.2, the per-phase steady-state equivalent
circuit is helpful. Looking from the load, the Thevenin
Fig.7. Single phase output current of the motor stator
Equivalent circuit is achieved.
For example, the q-axis current regulation of single inverter In Fig.5, the simulation result indicates that, inverters in
is designed as parallel running from the same DC bus and driven with the
t
same PWM signals generate noticeable circulating currents,
Vq mod = Kiq ∫ (iq* − iq )dt + K pq (iq* − iq ) (7)
0
due to the deviation in the output inductors.
For one of the two parallel inverters, the controller is given Fig.6 shows the output current waveforms after the
by implementation of the proposed algorithms. The result
indicates that the approach has the ability to compensate for
t
iq*
iq iq* iq
Vq mod,1 = Kiq1 ∫ ( − )dt + K pq1 ( − ) the deviation in the output impedance.
0
2 2 2 2 Fig.7 shows the one phase waveform of the motor output
(8)
Kiq1 t
K pq1 currents. It is the summary of the output current of two
∫ (i
* *
= q − iq )dt + (i − iq )
q paralleling inverters. In particular, the motor current ripple is
2 2
0
greatly reduced.
Therefore, upon finding the gains for a single inverter Secondly, besides the good current balance between two
controller, the gains for each of the two separate inverters inverters, the objectives of the proposed algorithm are to
controller are found by doubling those values [7]. achieve quick responses in the dynamics That is, Given the
speed command, the induction motor should accelerate and
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS decelerate smoothly and quickly. The simulation results of
In order to verify the operation of the proposed algorithm, motor current and speed response are shown in Fig.8.
computer simulations of a system with two inverters are Fig.8 shows the step responses of motor speed and torque,
developed in Matlab/Simulink platform. The drive system respectively. The speed response time is 40ms Quick
under simulation has power rating of 40kW, the rated line responses are obtained.
voltage of 460V, and the intermodular inductance of 2mH.
Firstly, to verify the current balancing ability of the control
algorithm to the deviation in the output inductors, the values
of the intermodular inductance of the two inverters are set

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VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Wei Yongqing was born in Shandong province,
China, in 1979. She received the B.S. degree in
automatic control from Navy Submarine Academy
in 2001 and received the M.S. degree in power
electronics and drives from Naval University of
Engineering (NUE) in 2004.
Since 2004, she has been with the Department of
Electrical Engineering at NUE. Now, she is working
for her Ph.D. degree in NUE. Her areas of research
include power electronics and electrical propulsion.

Zhang Xiaofeng was born in Jiangsu province,

China, in 1963. He received the B.S and M.S
Fig. 8 Step responses of motor speed and torque
degrees in electrical engineering from Naval
University of Engineering (NUE) in 1982 and 1985
V. CONCLUSION respectively, and received the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from Tsinghua University,
In this paper, parallel inverters have been developed for an Beijing, China, in 1996.
application to large-capacity AC variable-speed drive system. He is currently a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor.
A master-slave parallel control based on CAN bus is He specializes in isolated electrical power systems,
power electronics, and electrical propulsion.
presented. The speed loop in the master control generates the
reference currents and synchronization angle, and these data Qiao Mingzhong was born in Jiangsu province,
are transferred to the slave inverters on CAN bus. The slave China, in 1971. He received the B.S, M.S and Ph.D.
control is set forth in a synchronous reference frame. The degrees in electrical engineering from Naval
University of Engineering (NUE) in 1996, 1999 and
master-slave control scheme for a drive system was 2003 respectively.
established which could keep a good current balance between He is currently a vice Professor and Master
two unit inverters and have quick step responses of motor Supervisor. He specializes in isolated electrical
power systems, power electronics, and electrical
currents and speed. propulsion.
Ultimately, the above approach could be extended to a
propulsion-type application of a high-bandwidth low-power
inverter module operating in parallel with a low-width high- Kang Jun was born in Jiangsu, China, in 1979. He
power inverter module. The efficacy of using the high- received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the
Electrical Engineering Department, Naval University
bandwidth unit to improve the fidelity of output waveforms of Engineering, Wuhan, China, in 2001 and 2004,
could be evaluated. respectively, where he is currently pursuing the
Ph.D. degree.
His current interests are in numerical computation
VI. REFERENCES and stability analysis in power systems.
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of parallel connected inverters in stand alone AC supply systems," IEEE
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[2] Bin. Shi, G. Venkataramanan, "Parallel operation of voltage source
inverters with minimal intermodule reactors," in Proc. 2004 IEEE IAS
Conf., pp. 156-162.
[3] N. Kawakami, M. Hombu, "Quick response and low distortion current
control for multiple inverter-fed induction motor drives," IEEE Trans.
power electronics, vol. 9, pp. 240-247, March. 1994.
[4] Shengxin Su, Jinbang Xu, Jin Zhao, Dingxin He, and Shuyun Wan,
"New control strategy of unity power factor AC/DC rectifier," in Proc.
2006 IEEE Advances in System Science and Applications Conf., pp. 82-
88.
[5] T. Yoshikawa, H. Inaba, and T. shiisuke Mine, "Analysis of parallel
operation methods of PWM inverter sets for an ultra-high speed
elevator," in Proc. 2000 IEEE Applied Power Elec Conf., pp. 944-950.
[6] Chen.J.F, Ching. Lung Chuetc, "Combination voltage controlled and
current controlled PWM inverters for UPS parallel operation," IEEE
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[7] John G. Ciezki, Robert W.Ashton, "The control of parallel-connected
inverters for U.S. navy shipboard applications," Ph.D dissertation, Naval
postgraduate school, 2001.
[8] Guo jing, "Research on the master-slave parallel control technology of
three-phase inverter based on CAN bus," Ph.D dissertation, Yanshan
University, 2006.
[9] Y. B. Byun, T. G. Koo, K. Y. Joe, etc, "Parallel operation of three-phase
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