Syllabus Information

5.1. Methodological overview

This Power Electronics course is designed as a set of contents, but distributed in four blocks. The first block, brings together concepts the power components performance and their protection elements. The second and third blocks make up the core that the subject must provide to the student's training: Static switches, converters and regulators, rectifiers and power inverters. The final block deals with some of the major applications of Power Electronics, without meaning to cover all the fields of application of this discipline.

The first three blocks will be dealt with under three fundamental and complementary ways: the theoretical concepts of each didactic unit, the resolution of problems or questions and practices, supported in turn by another series of activities such as tutorials and seminars and will be tested individually, regardless of the blocks.

The fourth block will have a different treatment, because the students will work in groups only previously assigned sections, they will be able to express their preferences but all the subjects will have to be assigned to some group. They will prepare presentation materials and defend their work with a public presentation, which will be valued by the rest of the students and the teacher.

The teacher / student interaction is carried out in this way, through a distribution of work and responsibilities between students and teachers. However, it must be taken into account that, to a certain extent, students can set the pace of learning according to their needs and availability, following the guidelines set by the teacher.

The organization of teaching, involves the active participation of the student, and will be carried out following the following guidelines:

- Lectures: Theoretical activities imparted in a fundamentally expositive way by the teacher, in such a way as to expose the theoretical supports of the subject, highlighting the fundamental, structuring the concepts and relating them to each other.

- Practical lessons: The teacher solves problems or practical cases for illustrative purposes. This type of teaching complements the theory explained in the lectures with practical aspects.

- Seminars: The total group of lectures or practical lessons may or may not be divided into smaller groups, as appropriate. They will be used to analyze cases, solve problems, etc. Unlike what happens with the practical lessons, the teacher is not a protagonist, simply listening, counselling, clarifying, evaluating, assessing. It seeks to encourage student participation, as well as making the continuous assessment of students possible and to learn about the performance of learning.  

- Lab Practice: The total group of lectures will be divided into several shifts, according to the number of students enrolled, but never with more than 20 students per shift, so that smaller groups can be formed. Students will do assemblies, measurements, simulations, etc., in the laboratories in the presence of the trainee teacher.

  Practical activities are carried out in groups of two students (or at the most three students) per shift, although for the reports students of two or more shifts can be grouped. For each subject block, guidelines for practical tasks will be given (compulsory and optional); In addition, the reporting rules will be specified in a guidance document, which will be handed out at the beginning of the practical activities.-

Group tutorials: Programmed activities of learning follow-up in which the teacher meets with a group of students to guide their work of autonomous learning and supervision of works directed or requiring a high degree of advice by the teacher.

- Individual tutorials: These are the ones made through the individual attention of the teacher in the department. They aim to help solve the doubts that students come across, particularly those who for various reasons cannot attend group tutorials or need more personalized attention. These tutorials can be classroom or virtual.

5.2. Learning tasks

Generic on-site activities:

● Lectures: The theoretical concepts of the subject will be explained and illustrative practical examples will be developed as support for the theory when it is deemed necessary.

● Practical lessons: Problems and practical cases will be made as a complement to the theoretical concepts studied.

● Practical tasks: Students will be divided into several groups of no more than 20 students, being guided by the tutorial action of the teacher.

● Defense and presentation of topics: on the particular contents that are assigned to each group of students, corresponding to Block 4

Generic off-site activities:

● Study and assimilation of the theory explained in the lectures.

● Understanding and assimilation of solved cases in practical lessons.

● Preparation of seminars, solving suggested problems, etc.

• Participation in Forums of the subject via Moodle, to provide links of information on the 

    Internet.

● Preparation and development of scripts and corresponding reports.

● Preparation of written continuous assessment tests, and global assessment tests.

Autonomous tutored activities:

Although they will be done on-site, they have been taken into account separately because of their particular features, they will be focused mainly on seminars and tutorials under the supervision of the teacher.

Reinforcement activities: Off-site activities preferably, via the virtual portal of teaching (Moodle), will be designed to reinforce the basic contents of the subject. These activities can be personalized or not.

5.3. Syllabus

The theoretical contents are divided into four blocks (numbers 1 to 4) preceded by a block 0 of introduction to Maintenance. The choice of the content of the blocks has been made looking for the express clarification of the final objective, so that with the union of incidental knowledge, the student obtains a structured knowledge, easily assimilated for the Mechatronics Engineers.

Each of the blocks is composed of subjects, with a temporary assignment of one or two weeks of the course, these topics collect the contents necessary for the acquisition of predetermined learning outcomes.

Theoretical contents:

Block 0: INTRODUCTION

• Overview of Power Electronics

• Conceptual maps

Block 1: POWER SEMICONDUCTORS

1.- Power Diodes and Transistors

• Types of power diodes. Reverse Recovery

• Power bipolar transistors. Safe Operating Area

• Power unipolar transistors. FET, MOS, IGBT

2.- Thyristor, Triac and other active components

• Thyristor (SCR). Building. Lock and Drive States

• Thyristor. Shooting and blocking times and forms

• Triac. Building. Driving and triggering modes

• Other components: Diac, GTO, SCS, ...

3.- Protection, Association and Refrigeration

• Protection against overvoltages and overcurrents

• Serial and parallel connections

• Thermal protection. Calculation of radiators

• Passive power components

Block 2: STATIC SWITCHES, CONVERTERS, REGULATORS

4.- A.C. and D.C. static switches.

• D.C. switches with thyristors and transistors

• A.C. switches with thyristors, triacs and transistors

• Single and three phase A.C. switches

5.-Power Converters

• All-nothing controls. Synchronous control. Proportional variation

• Phase control. Shooting and driving angles. Electrical noise

• Open and closed chain control

6.- A.C. Regulators.

• With power dissipation, by ferro-resonance and by slicing

• With Thyristors in natural block. Integral and phase control

• With switching loads with triac

7.- D.C. Regulators.

• Reducing regulators with thyristors

• Reducing regulators with transistors. Buck and Forward

• Lift controllers with transistors. Boost, Forward and Flyback

Block 3: RECTIFIERS, POWER INVERTERS, AND MOTOR CONTROL

8.-Uncontrolled and controlled rectifiers

• Half wave three-phase Assemblies

• Full-wave with star secondary Assemblies

• Half-wave with polygon secondary Assemblies

9.- Topologies and Inverter and Converter circuits

• Configuration of inverter power circuit

• Regulation of the output voltage in an inverter

• Four-quadrant converter.

• Cycle-converters

• Inverters with self-excited transistors

• Inverters with transistors and independent excitation

• Inverters with natural and forced blocking thyristors

10.- Speed drives for electric motors

• Static starters for AC motors

• Frequency inverters for A.C. asynchronous motors

• DC motor Control. Bruhsless

Block 4: APPLICATIONS OF POWER ELECTRONICS

 11.- Temperature controls and heating

• Temperature control methods

• Power regulation in industrial ovens

• Resistance welding

• Ultrasound Welding

• Inductive heating

12.- Interrupted power supply systems (S.A.I.)

• A.C. and D.C. output Systems

• Line conditioners and active filters

• Storage and by-pass devices

• Battery chargers

13.- Control Systems in Alternative Energies

• Inverters for autonomous photovoltaic power plant in A.C.

• Inverters for network injection photovoltaic power plant

• Photovoltaic solar power plant for power supply in D.C.

• Electronic controls in wind farms

14.- Other fields of application of Power Electronics

• Railway Electronic controls

• Automobile Electronic controls

• Electroplating and Electro-Filters Rectifiers

• Synchronous and timed lighting controls

• Dimmer and sensor lighting controls

Practical contents:

Each block exposed in the previous section has associated practices in this regard, either through practical assumptions and / or physical or simulated assembly work leading to obtaining results and their analysis and interpretation. As the topics are developed, these Practices will be proposed, preferably in the classroom and also through the Moodle platform.

Practices to be developed in the Laboratory are given below. They will be carried out by the students in one-hour sessions, except in the final practice, in which the three hours corresponding to block 4 are accumulated.

PRACTICE 1: ASSOCIATED WITH BLOCK 1

Exercise 1: Power Diodes and Transistors

Power diode recovery time Analysis

Switching of resistive loads using transistors

Inductive load switching using transistors

Manufacturer and wave data Queries

Exercise 2: Thyristor, Triac and others...

Switching of resistive and inductive loads with thyristors

Switching of resistive and inductive loads with triac (optocoupled control)

Wave Analysis and Capture

Exercise 3: Protection, Semiconductor Association, Refrigeration

Protective elements. Data manufacturer query

Radiator calculation and assembly of in power components

PRACTICE 2: ASSOCIATED WITH BLOCK 2

Exercise 1: Static switches

Connection of switches with thyristors and transistors in D.C.

Switching on A.C. Single phase with thyristors and triac

Three-phase A.C. Switching switches with thyristors and Triac

Multisim Simulation, controls using Digilent Basys-2

Exercise 2: Power shifters

Phase control connection with triac and diac. Wave Analysis

Control connection per cycle packet. Synchronous control.

Wave Analysis. Measurements with network quality analyzer.

Exercise 3: A.C. Regulators

Simulation of ferro-resonant regulators

Regulation Simulation / assembly using transformer socket change

Manufacturer data Query

Exercise 4: D.C. Regulators

Simulation of Buck and Forward reducers

Boost, Forward and Flayback elevator Simulation

PWM controller Asembly and analysis. Wave Capturing

PRACTICE 3: ASSOCIATED WITH BLOCK 3

Exercise 1: non-controlled Rectifiers

Half-wave three-phase rectifier assembly

Full wave three-phase rectifier assembly.

Wave capture and analysis.

Exercise 2: Controlled rectifiers

Total Control half wave three-phase rectifier Assembly.

Semi-controlled full-wave three-phase rectifier Assembly.

Waves capture and analysis.

Network quality analyzer measurements.

Exercise 3: Inverters and Power Converters

Simulation and Analysis of Output Topologies

Simulation and Analysis of Cycle-Converters

Exercise 4: Variable speed drives in electric motors

DC motor control, independent excitation using rectifiers.

Connection of the IR frequency variable drive.

Waves Capture and analysis.

Network quality analyzer measurements.

PRACTICE 4: ASSOCIATED WITH BLOCK 4

Assembly, adjustment and documentation of one of the applications related to topics 10 to 12, depending on what is assigned for theoretical defense and the availability of suitable components.

5.4. Course planning and calendar

Temporary distribution of a teaching week:

The subject is defined in the Verification Report of the Degree with a low experimental grade, so that the 10 hours a week are distributed as follows:

• Theory-practical classes: 3 hours a week (blocks 1, 2 and 3)   /      5 hours per week (block 4)

 • Practice tasks: 1 hour per week

• Other activities: 6 hours per week (blocks 1, 2 and 3)  /    4 hours per week (block 4)

Test schedule:

For the assessment tests, described in the continuous assessment process, the following schedule is suggested:

• Week 3: Test 1 (Topics 1, 2 and 3)

• Week 7: Test 2 (Topics 4, 5, 6 And 7)

• Week 12: Test 3 (Topics 8, 9 and 10)

Presentation-Defense of Works:

The ones belonging to Block 4 (Digital devices of high scale of integration), will be tested orally during the three final week of the course, depending on the number of students and the specific development of the preparatory tasks.

5.5. Bibliography and recommended resources

Basic bibliography:

MARTINEZ S., GUALDA J.A., / Power Electronics. Components, topologies and equipment / Thomson 2006 ISBN-84-9732-397-1

Further Reading:

 "THE UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE SUBJECT IS CONSULTED THROUGH THE LIBRARY'S WEB PAGE http://psfunizar7.unizar.es/br13/ eBuscar.php? Tipo=a

Resources:

Theory Notes, PWP presentations, typical problems and Web links, all related to the syllabus, will be provided through the Moodle page of the subject.

Electronic circuit simulation software (Multisim) and manuals for their use, will be installed in computer room or Laboratory PCs. Download and installation in the personal computers of students will be allowed.

PCs, Multimeters, 2 and 4 channel Oscilloscopes, Network Quality Meters, Tachometers, Function Generators, Power Supplies, discrete and integrated electronic components, must be part of the Electronics Lab equipment.