Three-phase PFC Control Strategy Based on Fractional-

order PID Controller

R Guo，P Qian

Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai 201499, China

E-mail:[email protected]

Abstract:With the development of power electronics, more and more power electronic devices are
being put into use in the power grid, causing serious harmonic current pollution to the power
grid.Active power factor correction (APFC) technology is an important technology for solving
harmonic current pollution and has been widely studied and developed.Three-phase PFC based on
PWM technology can eliminate harmonic pollution on the grid side and improve power factor and
work efficiency.Traditional three-phase PFC generally adopts double PI control strategy of voltage
outer loop and current inner loop. However, this traditional control strategy has been unable to
adapt to the increasingly complex grid situation.This paper proposes a control strategy that adopts
PI controller for voltage outer loop and fractional-order PID controller for current inner loop.And
through the matlab simulation experiment, the result proves that the improved three-phase PFC
control strategy presented in this paper has a more stable output voltage and less ripple compared
with the traditional dual PI control strategy.

1. Introduction
This year, power electronic equipment has become more and more popular. It has
been widely used in the fields of UPS uninterrupted power supply, electrified railway
traction and HVDC transmission[1].At the same time, as more and more power
equipment is used, the situation of the load becomes more and more complex, and the
harmonic pollution brought to the power grid becomes more and more difficult to
control.Therefore, people have come up with various ways to deal with harmonic
pollution in the power grid.The first appeared is passive PFC technology. It is a
passive harmonic cancellation method that eliminates higher harmonics through the
use of an LC filter network of inductors and capacitors.Although the circuit is simple,
low cost, and high reliability, it is bulky and heavy, it is difficult to obtain high power
factor, etc., and it cannot meet the requirements of PFC in many
occasions[2].Subsequently, active PFC technology emerged. Its basic principle is:Place
the inductor between the AC input rectification circuit and the APFC output filter
capacitor. High-frequency switch controls the power frequency current to track the
input voltage, that is, the input current is sinusoidal, reducing the generation of
harmonics. Its working condition is not affected by grid impedance and load
impedance[3]. Applying the APFC technology to a three-phase power supply forms a
three-phase active PFC circuit.With the advancement of control theory and the
emergence of a variety of control strategies, such as PID controllers, many active
PFCs use advanced control methods in response to increasingly complex grid
conditions to improve the stability of the system output, reduce the harmonic
components and enhance the ability to resist interference.For example, reference [4]
proposed a dual-loop PI control technology that can obtain good voltage output;
People later realized that many things in nature are fractional systems, so people put
forwardFractional-order PID Controller. Compared with the traditional PID controller,
it has higher control accuracy and stronger anti-interference ability.Therefore, this
paper replaces the current inner-loop PI controller in traditional three-loop active PFC
control strategy with a fractional-order PID controller, and obtains better results than
traditional dual-loop PI control.

2. The Establishment of Three-phase Active PFC Simulation Model

2.1 Mathematical model establishment

This article uses a three-phase full-bridge PFC circuit, the topology shown in
Figure 2.1

Figure 2.1 Topology of a three-phase full-bridge PFC circuit

According to the basic principle of circuit science, the current and voltage of
each node and network of the three-phase full-bridge PFC circuit are analyzed and
calculated, and the mathematical model of the three-phase PFC main circuit structure
is established. First, the symbols in the above figure 2.1 are explained.
ea、、
� eb ec - Three-phase AC phase voltage
�
ib ic - Three-phase AC input current
ia、、
�

�L - Input side filter inductor

�
�R - Input side equivalent resistance

� (k -= a,
S K' c)
�S K、b, Power Switch Devices
�
�Dk、DK (k = a, b, c) - Freewheeling diode
'

�Co - DC side output capacitor

�
�RL - The equivalent load of the system
iL - System load current
�
�
Vdc - System-side output voltage
�
Assume that in the ideal state, the circuit meets the following conditions:
(1) AC input voltage and current are ideal input signals, there is a fundamental
wave component, and they are balanced, they are:

ea + eb + ec = �e
k = a ,b , c
k =0 (2-1)

ia + ib + ic = �i
k = a ,b , c
k =0 (2-2)

(2) The switching frequency of the three-phase PFC circuit system is large
enough and it is an ideal device with no dead time delay.
(3) During the operation of the switching device, the influence of harmonics
caused by switching operations is ignored.
(4) The inductor on the input side is linear, and each inductor has the same value
and no saturation occurs.
Because the switching device on each leg of the rectifier side of the three-phase
PFC circuit cannot be turned on, at most one of the two switching devices on each leg
is at the ON state.At the same time, the switching devices on the bridge arm are also
not allowed to be in the OFF state. Therefore, set the switch function of the system as
follows:

S k + S k' = 1(k = a, b, c) (2-3)

The switching function for setting the three-phase PFC circuit switching device
is as follows:
0，Upper arm off
�
Sk = � (k = a, b, c) (2-4)
1，Upper arm on
�
Its input voltage on the grid side can be expressed as:
�
ea = Em sin wt
�
�
� 2
eb = Em sin(wt + p )
� (2-5)
� 3
� 2
e
�c = Em sin(w t - p)
� 3
�Em - The peak value of the phase voltage at the input side
where：
�
�w - Net-side input voltage fundamental frequency
Under the above premise, after appropriate analysis, the mathematical model of
three-phase PFC in three-phase stationary (abc) coordinate system, two-phase
stationary ( ab ) coordinate system and two-phase rotation (dq) coordinate system can
be deduced.No longer described in detail here, just list the mathematical model under
various coordinate systems.
(1) Mathematical model in three-phase stationary (abc) coordinate system:
�
�k =�
ek = � ik = 0
a ,b , c k =a ,b ,c
�
� dik 1
�L = ek - ik R - ( S k - � S k )Vdc (2-6)
� dt 3 k = a ,b , c
� dVdc V
�C = � ik S k - dc
� dt k = a ,b , c RL

(2) Mathematical model in two-phase stationary ( ab ) coordinate system:

p
� 2 3 j (q - )
�E = ea + jeb = (ea + d eb + d 2ec ) = Em e 2
� 3 2
�
� 2 3 p
j (q - +d )
�I = ia + jib = (ia + d ib + d 2ic ) = I me 2 (2-7)
� 3 2
� 2 p
j (q - + g )
�V = va + jvb = (va + d vb + d 2vc ) = Vme 2
� 3

2
where: d = e j 3 p ，q = wt
(3) Mathematical model in the two-phase rotation (dq) coordinate system:
� 2 3
�E = ed + jeq = (ea + s eb + s 2ec )e - jq = Em
� 3 2
�
� 2 3
�I = id + jiq = (ia + s ib + s 2ic )e - jq = I m e js (2-8)
� 3 2
� 2
�V = vd + jvq = (van + s vbn + s 2vcn )e - jq = Vme jl
� 3

2
where: s = e j 3 p

2.2 Model of three-phase active PFC with fractional-order PID controller

Based on the mathematical models listed in the previous section, we built a
model of three-phase active PFC with fractional-order PID controller on similink
platform, as shown in Figure 2.2.
 Figure 2.2 Similink model of three-phase active PFC with fractional-order PID
controller

As can be seen from Figure 2.2, the model sets the load to a continuously
changing resistance load.This is to simulate the load of the real-life equipment when
the work is often not fixed, on the contrary, the load in real life is often constantly
changing.The main function of the decouple module in the figure is to remove the
harmonic pollution from the three-phase power input. Its working principle is:The
module receives the feedback signal of the output, and then adjusts the duty cycle of
the corresponding power switch tube in the PFC circuit according to the difference
between the feedback signal and the reference value, thereby suppressing the
harmonic pollution. Decouple's internal structure is shown in Figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3 decouple's internal structure

From decouple's internal structure, it can be seen that the controller is
controlled by the voltage outer loop and the current inner loop.The voltage outer
loop is used to stabilize the output voltage, while the inner current loop is
complementary to the outer voltage loop. The output of the current inner loop serves
as an input reference for the voltage outer loop, thereby suppressing sudden changes
in the input.However, problems such as the distortion of the input current in the
current loop and the inability to fully sinusoidize the current, and have a great impact
on the output of the system.Therefore, the voltage outer loop is adopted PI control
and the current inner loop is controlled by a fractional-order PID controller (npid
module in Figure 2.3) to improve the control accuracy and stability of the current
inner loop, thereby improving the overall stability of the system in this paper.

3. Fractional-order PID controller

Fractional calculus allows differential orders and integral orders to be arbitrary,

as a natural extension of traditional calculus, and it has its own unique logic and
language regulations.The basic operation operator of fractional calculusis t0 Dta as
follows,
�d a
� a ，R(a ) > 0
�dt
a �
t0 Dt = �1，R(a ) = 0 (3-1)
�t0
� (dt ) ( -a )，R (a ) < 0
��
�t
where, t0 and tare the upper and lower bounds of calculus; a is any plural
number.
In the definition of fractional calculus, the most widely used is Grünwald-
Letnikov (GL).The GL definition is expressed as follows,
x -b
1 - n h G( n + k ) (3-2)
b Dt f ( x ) = lim
n
h � f ( x - kh)
h �0 G ( n)
k = 0 G( k + 1)

where,h is the calculation step; G(g) is the famous Euler Gamma function.
Laplace transform of fractional calculus defined by GL, the fractional-order
PID controller's transfer function is
U (s)
Gc ( s ) = = k p + ki s - l + kd s m (3-3)
E ( s)
In the time domain, the control signal of the fractional-order PID controller
u (t ) is,

u (t ) = k p e(t ) + ki D - l + kd D m e(t ) (3-4)

Where, l is the integral order, m is a differential order; k p , ki and kd are

proportional, integral and differential parameters respectively; e(t ) is error input for
 the controller.When l = m = 1 , (3-4) is a conventional PID controller; When l = 0 ,

m = 1 , (3-4) is the PI controller; When l = 0 , m = 1 , (3-4) is the PD controller.It can

be seen that the PID controller is only a special case of fractional-order PID.By
reasonable selection of parameters, the stability of the control process of the system
can be improved.Obviously, this controller has more flexibility.

4. Simulation results

After repeated optimization and debugging, the fractional-order PID parameters

finally obtained are: k p =2.1994, ki =1.3881 ， kd =1.4682 ， l =0.9619, m =1.9550.
Substituting this parameter into a fractional-order PID controller to simulate the three-
phase active PFC of Similink, there is basically no phase difference between the
single-phase voltage and its corresponding current.Simulation results shown in Figure
4.1.

Figure 4.1 Single-phase voltage and current waveforms

The three-phase active PFC of the PI voltage outer loop and fractional-order PID
current inner loop designed in this paper has less ripple and smoother waveform
compared with the traditional dual-PI loop active PFC.The comparison waveforms are
shown in Figure 4.2 and Figure 4.3.

Figure 4.2 Three-phase active PFC output waveform with PI voltage outer loop
and fractional-order PID current inner loop
 Figure 4.3 Traditional PI Dual-Loop Active PFC Output Waveform

As can be seen from the above comparison chart, the three-phase active PFC
output waveforms of the PI voltage outer loop and fractional-order PID current inner
loop designed in this paper are smoother and have less ripple.According to the
collected ripple rate, the ripple rate of the three-phase active PFC with PI voltage
outer loop and fractional-order PID current inner loop designed in this paper is
0.01986, which is lower than the traditional PI double loop active three-phase PFC
simulation model,0.02725.

5. Conclusion

This article realizes the simulation of three-phase active PFC with fractional-
order PID current inner loop and PI voltage outer loop through matlab.Simulation
results show, the three-phase active PFC of PI voltage outer loop and fractional-order
PID current inner loop designed in this paper can well eliminate the phase difference
between current and voltage, and the output waveform is smooth, with less ripple, and
the ripple rate is low. The performance is superior to the traditional PI double loop
active three phase PFC.
The control strategy of three-phase PFC with PI control voltage outer loop and
fractional-order PID control current inner loophave a positive effect on the use of the
new control method in the power industry.

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