Towards a high performance motor drive for aerospace applications: Topology evaluation, converter optimization and hardware verification

This paper presents a complete design procedure for a motor drive aiming at maximizing nominal power within loss (30 W) and form factor (60 inch3) constraints. Particularly, this motor drive system has EMI requirement on both input and output sides and it should be free convection cooled. Loss-size Pareto fronts of multiple three-phase topologies including two-level voltage source converter (VSC), three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) converter, T-type converter and three-phase capacitor-decoupled triangular conduction mode (TCM) converter are explored in order to find the optimized design. Pareto fronts under different power level shows a maximum of 5 kVA power could be achieved by T-type converter within given limits and requirements. T-type converter is accordingly selected and constructed. A power density of 80 W/inch3 is achieved by the prototype. Finally, experimental results obtained with the free convection cooled converter prototype are presented for validating purposes, demonstrating the 99.2% efficiency (42.3 W loss) at nominal load.

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