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PWM AC chopper control of single-phase

induction motor for variable-speed fan
application

Article November 2008

DOI: 10.1109/IECON.2008.4758148

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 PWM AC Chopper Control of Single-Phase
Induction Motor for Variable-Speed Fan Application
Deniz Yildirim
Istanbul Technical University
Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering
34469 Istanbul, Turkey
Email: deniz@ieee.org
AbstractThis work presents a variable speed control method
for fan applications. A pulse-width-modulated (PWM) AC chop-
per changes the effective value of the supply voltage applied to a
single-phase induction motor. This variable supply voltage gives
the ability to control the speed of the motor. Harmonics generated
by the speed control unit are filtered by an input filter according
to EN 61000-3-2 limits for harmonic current emissions standards.
Experimental results on a 230V, 210W in-line centrifugal fan for
exhaust ventilation application shows that PWM AC chopper
is simple and cost effective control method compared to other
methods in terms of simplicity and input harmonic content.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Fractional horse power permanent-split-capacitor (PSC)
single-phase induction motors are widely used in blower and
fan applications. These motors mostly have external rotor
types resulting in compact structure and installation easiness
of fan propeller to the rotating part of the motor. When rated
voltage is applied, fan motors typically run at a constant
speed determined by the capacitance value that gives optimum
running performance with a proper starting torque.
Depending on the application area, variable air flow rate,
therefore, a variable speed operation may be advantageous
in terms of energy efficiency [1]. In a typical application
where low air flow rate is required, some form of mechanical
flow reducers are employed while motor is running at rated
speed. This type of control is not energy efficient since
motor is consuming rated power even though lower operating
speed may give the same air flow resulting in smaller power
consumption.
Several methods exist for variable speed operation of a
single-phase induction motor. Considering simplicity and low
cost, most common type is the control of applied voltage to
the motor. Typical torque-speed characteristics of an induction
motor with variable voltage along with the fan load curve
are shown in Fig. 1 indicating the adjustable speed operation.
The voltage applied to the motor can be varied by an au-
totransformer or a tapped winding arrangement [2]. Since tap
changing is performed by a mechanical switch and considering
size and weight of the transformer, this type of voltage control
may not be favorable. Another approach is to employ an AC
chopper using triac semiconductor switches.
k,((( 
Murat Bilgic
Istanbul Technical University
Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering
34469 Istanbul, Turkey
Email: bilgicmurat@yahoo.com
torque
V1 operating
point
V1>V2>V3
V2
motor
V3
fan speed
n1 ns
Fig. 1. Torque-speed characteristics of an induction motor and fan load with
variable voltage.
The triac is turned on at a desired phase angle allowing
some portions of the supply voltage be applied to the main and
auxiliary windings of the motor [3], [4]. In another method,
only main winding voltage is varied by a triac AC chop-
per while keeping the auxiliary winding voltage constant at
rated value [5]. Phase control method results in discontinuous
input current waveform which consists of higher order odd
harmonics of supply frequency. Multi-speed operation at two-
thirds and three-thirds of the supply frequency is proposed in
[6] using a triac bridge where the current waveform contains
odd and even harmonics as well as subharmonics of supply
frequency which exceeds the harmonic limit standards. AC
choppers employing integral-cycle control method uses certain
number of complete cycles be applied to load followed by
certain number of zero voltage periods [7]. Subharmonics of
the supply frequency also occur in this type of control which
is very difficult to filter.
Operation of pulse-width-modulated (PWM) AC choppers
at high chopping frequencies will result in harmonics appear-
ing at higher frequencies where small sized filters can easily
eliminate them. A four-quadrant high-frequency AC chopper
operation is given in [8] where chopper feeds an inductor-
capacitor load. In another application, PWM AC chopper is
used to control the speed of a universal motor [9] and a
single-phase induction motor [10] at a switching frequency
of 1.8kHz.

II. S YSTEM D ESCRIPTION

Typical application for a variable speed fan operation em-
ploying PWM AC chopper is illustrated in Fig. 2 where closed
loop operation permits to keep the temperature of a process
at desired level by adjusting the rate of air flow. The input
filter removes high frequency switching present in the input
line current. (a)
BDTX200B
120

PWM 100
input
AC
filter A
chopper
80

supply motor and fan

input power (W)

voltage control
signal 60
sensor
gating
circuit sensor 40
gain
A: mechanical control
B
20 B: variable speed control
controller
-
+
0
reference 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
air flow rate (m3 /h)

Fig. 2. Typical schematic of a variable-speed fan application. (b)

An experimental test is performed to compare the consumed
power by a fan motor operating at various air flow rates
with mechanical louver and variable speed controls. An in-
line centrifugal fan operated at rated speed is connected to
Fig. 3. (a) Experimental test setup and (b) power consumption of fan motor
at various air flow rates obtained by a mechanical louver and variable speed
control.
Vm

one end of a long pipe as shown in Fig. 3a and air flow is

varied by an adjustable diameter opening located at the other
end. While power consumption is approximately same for all 2
t
air flow rates with mechanical control, considerable energy
savings occur for variable speed operation where reduction of
1
input electrical power especially at low air flow rates is larger d(t) detailed
DTs fs=
Ts
view
as is evident from Fig. 3b. Ts

III. PWM AC C HOPPER motor

vs(t) and fan
PWM control technique simply chops the supply voltage
at high frequencies as shown Fig. 4 where duty cycle D is t

defined as the ratio of on-time to total switching period. The DTs Ts

line voltage is chopped by bidirectional switches. The change
in the duty cycle of the switch changes the effective value of Fig. 4. PWM chopping of an AC sinusoidal voltage.
the load voltage and load current. The increase in duty cycle
will allow the load current and load voltage to increase while frequency. a0 , an and bn can be calculated using (2) to (4).
decreasing the duty cycle will do the opposite. ton ton
The chopped voltage can be expressed by multiplying the a0 = = =D (2)
T ton + tof f
sinusoidal supply voltage with the switching signal d(t) as 1
depicted in Fig. 4. Switching function d(t) can be expressed an = sin(n2D) (3)
n
by opening the Fourier series of the pulse for one switching 1
period as in (1) bn = [1 + cos(n2D)] (4)
p n

X cn = a2n + b2n (5)
d(t) = a0 + (an cos ns t + bn sin ns t) (1)
n=1 The load voltage can then be calculated by multiplication of
supply voltage and switching function.
where a0 is the DC component, an and bn are the Fourier
coefficients, n is the harmonic order and s is the switching vs (t) = Vm sin t

k,((( 
 vL (t) = vs (t) d(t) = Vm sin t d(t) A. Realization of AC Chopper
vL (t) = a0 Vm sin t Fig. 6 shows the realized PWM AC Chopper with opto-
X
couplers where UC3525 is employed as a PWM generator
+ [an Vm (cos ns t sin t)
n=1 M1 M2
Lf
+ bn Vm (sin ns t sin t)] (6)
induction
motor
The terms in square brackets of (6) are the high frequency vs
M3 auxiliary
winding
terms. When these are filtered, the load voltage can be Cd

expressed according to the fundamental component of supply Cf

main
frequency. Rd
winding
M4

vL (t) = a0 Vm sin t = D Vm sin t (7) C

The effective value of load voltage can now be calculated as isolated

TLP250
Va2
auxiliary

TLP250
in (8) power

LED
supply Va3

LED
D Vm
vLrms = (8) Va1
2 Va1=+15V

The PWM AC Chopper is actually a Buck converter operating

in AC mode. It consists of two bidirectional switches with
complementary switching patterns. The upper switch (SW1) is
employed for voltage chopping (Fig. 5a) and the lower switch TSC428

(SW2) is used to provide an alternative path for the current UC3525

of the motor when SW1 is turned off (Fig. 5b). Mechanical

auxiliary
SW1 winding Fig. 6. Realized PWM AC Chopper with optocouplers.

fan
operating at operating frequency of 25kHz. In open-loop con-
SW2 figuration the saw tooth waveform is compared to a reference
vs DC voltage derived by a variable resistor. The output signal
main
winding induction motor
is then applied to a MOSFET driver which generates two
complementary PWM signals. These signals are applied to
the gates of the MOSFETs by two separate optocouplers.
C
(a) B. Input Filter Design
auxiliary
SW1 winding The input filter stage filters the high frequency switching
fan harmonics from entering the utility. It is nearly always required
that a filter must be added at the power input of a switching
SW2 converter for improving power quality and interface issues.
vs By attenuating the switching harmonics that are present in the
main
winding induction motor converter input waveform, the input filter allows compliance
with regulations that limit conducted electromagnetic interfer-
ence (EMI) and harmonic issues.
C
The PWM AC Chopper injects the pulsating current into
(b) the power source at harmonics multiples of the switching fre-
Fig. 5. A simple Single-Phase AC Chopper showing current flow path (a) quency fs and duty cycle (D) affects the magnitudes of these
when SW1 switch is ON and (b) when SW2 switch is ON. harmonics. Equations (3) and (4) show that the harmonics are
a function of duty cycle (D). The input current is (t) and input
switches in Fig. 5 can be realized by MOSFETs. Shorted gate voltage vs (t) have similar degrees of harmonics as it is in load
and source terminals of two MOSFETS allows bidirectional voltage.
controlled switch operation. Both MOSFETs in the switching Fig. 7 shows the experimental results of input voltage and
network are floating devices, i.e., the converter stage and input current waveforms when no input filter is employed.
the control network must be isolated to drive these switches. Corresponding FFT results are illustrated in Fig. 8a along with
This isolation can be obtained by either implementing a pulse the computed ones using (5) in Fig. 8b. It is seen that the first
transformer or an optocoupler. harmonic starts at 25kHz which is the switching frequency

k,((( 
 The addition of an input filter affects the dynamics of the
power electronic converters, often in a manner that degrades
the regulator performance. The input filter affects all transfer
functions of converter. Moreover, the influence of this input
filter on these transfer functions can be quite severe [5].
The Bode diagram shows an asymptotic peak occurring near
the corner frequency causing the gain of the filter to go to
infinity. This rise would cause extreme current peaks which
would make the system worse than it was before. The output
impedance of the LC filter tends to infinity at frequencies near
corner frequency f0 [12].
1
(a) f0 = p (9)
2 Lf Cf
Therefore, low pass input LC filter needs to be damped at
the corner frequency. The damping is obtained by placing a
series connected capacitor and resistor in parallel with original
capacitor. Fig. 9 shows the structure of a undamped and
damped LC filter and corresponding magnitude plots. The

Lf PWM Lf PWM
AC Cd AC
Cf chopper chopper
vs and vs Cf
and
Rd
induction induction
motor motor
undamped input filter damped input filter

(b) (a)
Undamped Input Filter
Fig. 7. Input waveforms at 110V, 50Hz, D = 75%; (a) input voltage 60
(100V/div, 2.5ms/div), (b) input current (0.75A/div, 2.5ms/div).
Magnitude (dB)

40
20
compared with the 50Hz fundamental component. Magnitudes 0
of multiples of this harmonic content change depending on 20

the duty cycle (D). The fundamental component is at 50Hz 40

10
2 3
10 10
4
10
5
10
6

Damped Input Filter

60
Magnitude (dB)

40
20
0
20
40
2 3 4 5 6
10 10 10 10 10
Frequency (rad/sec)

(b)
(a) (b) Fig. 9. (a) Damped LC input filter and (b) frequency response.

Fig. 8. FFT of input voltage in Fig. 7a (110V, 50Hz, D = 75%); (a)

experimental (25 kHz/div), (b) calculated using cn computed from (5), n = 1 optimum value of damping resistor Rd is calculated based
is the fundamental component at 25 kHz. on the value of Cd using a procedure given in [12].

which is the supply voltage frequency. These high switching
harmonics cause two main problems. The first one is that
high frequency switching causes electromagnetic disturbances
affecting nearby electronic equipment and the second one
is that it draws harmonic currents form the power supply
decreasing the power quality. International standards have been
developed in order to bring some limits to electromagnetic
compatibility (EMC) and power quality issues [11].
C. Experimental Results of the PWM AC Chopper with
Damped Input Filter
PWM AC chopper is operated at various duty cycle values
with damped input filter. The effect of the filter can easily
be seen in the input current and voltage at the supply side
as shown in Fig. 10 for a duty ratio of D = 75%. FFT
spectrum of these waveforms in Fig. 11 indicate that higher
order harmonics are completely eliminated from the supply

k,((( 
 (a) (b)

(a)

(c) (d)
Fig. 11. FFT of unfiltered (a) input current and (b) voltage of Fig. 10
(25kHz/div, supply voltage 110V, 50Hz) and FFT of (c) input current and (d)
voltage with damped input filter (25Hz/div, supply voltage 220V, 50Hz).

M1 M2
Lf

induction
motor
M3 auxiliary
vs winding
Cd

Cf
Rd main
winding
(b) Rg1 Rg2 M4

Fig. 10. Input current, input voltage and converter input current for a duty C
ratio of (a) D = 75% and (b) D = 50%, 5ms/div, 400V/div, 1.5A/div.

auxiliary
side. Only 50Hz fundamental component is present in the power supply
+15V
supply voltage and current. As explained earlier, power circuit Cs
of AC Chopper must be isolated from driving network and this
isolation was realized using optocouplers shown in Fig. 6. The
optocouplers work both well in isolation and signal transfer
but these isolated drivers need two isolated DC power supplies
which increases complexity of the total circuit structure. TSC428

A secondary PWM AC chopper circuit was also developed UC3525

using a pulse transformer to isolate the two stages instead of

optocouplers as illustrated in Fig 12. The advantage of a pulse
transformer is that there is no need for two extra isolated power
supplies. The pulse transformer has an important disadvantage
in which the designer must keep in mind. A transformer is not
capable of transferring DC signals, therefore the drive network
must be designed to work in the duty cycle range between
0.1 and 0.9. In any case of a duty cycle of 0 or 1 would
force to open both of the bidirectional switches at the same
time. The input filter for this new circuit has the same filter
designed for the chopper shown in Fig. 6 and PWM generating
section is also the same. Fig. 13 shows the output voltage and
output current for the PWM AC Chopper shown in Fig. 12 at
two different duty cycle values. The chopper shows the same
Fig. 12. Realized PWM AC chopper with pulse transformer isolation.
performance with the initial circuit given in Fig. 6.
Even though a pulse transformer is employed for gate drive
isolation in Fig. 12, there is still need for a DC voltage source
used in the PWM generating circuitry. The DC voltage(s)
can be obtained from the supply voltage by a low power
(about 2W) isolated flyback converter. These power supplies
are implemented into the circuits given in Figs. 6 and 12 such
that both choppers work independently without the need for
external DC power supplies.

k,((( 
 (a)
(b)
Fig. 13. Output voltage and output current (a) D = 1 and (b) D = 0.5,
5ms/div, 200V/div, 0.75A/div
IV. M OTOR P ERFORMANCE T ESTS
Final performance tests are performed on the external-rotor
single-phase induction motor to determine how the torque-
speed curves vary when motor is fed from a PWM AC chopper.
Two reduced voltage values are used in the test. Induction
motor is first tested with pure sinusoidal voltage obtained
from a well regulated AC power source and then same voltage
values are applied through PWM AC chopper. The resulting
torque-speed curves shown in Fig. 14 are obtained along with
the fan characteristic curve. Although the curves are close to
each other, PWM AC fed curves are somewhat lower than
the sinusoidal voltage case for speeds up to maximum torque
speed.
V. C ONCLUSION
A 25kHz PWM AC Chopper used in a single-phase in-
duction motor drive was designed and realized in this study
for both domestic and industrial fan applications. This circuit
can be used to control the motor speed according to the
temperature reference. Due to high frequency switching, the
PWM AC chopper does not generate low frequency harmonics
which are multiples of the 50Hz component. The harmonic
distortions appear at higher frequencies that are actually
multiples of the switching frequency and very easy to filter.
Experimental results of the damped input filter have shown that
the input voltage and input current harmonic distortions have
k,(((
Fig. 14. Comparison of measured torque-speed characteristics for two
different voltages obtained by PWM chopper and regulated sinusoidal voltage
source.
been eliminated. It can be concluded that PWM AC chopper
is simple and cost effective control method compared to other
methods in terms of simplicity and input harmonic content.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Mr. Omer Faruk Bahcivan
from Bahcivan Electric Motor Company for his kind support
in performing this study.
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