Development of a smart thyristor valve for HVDC transmission

In HVDC transmission schemes, two converters are needed: a rectifier at the sending point and an inverter at the receiving point. Depending on voltage and current ratings, many types of converters can be chosen. For voltages of hundreds of kV and currents of a few kA, thyristor converters are one of...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gianluca, De Bonis
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/56395/
_version_ 1848799323168440320
author Gianluca, De Bonis
author_facet Gianluca, De Bonis
author_sort Gianluca, De Bonis
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description In HVDC transmission schemes, two converters are needed: a rectifier at the sending point and an inverter at the receiving point. Depending on voltage and current ratings, many types of converters can be chosen. For voltages of hundreds of kV and currents of a few kA, thyristor converters are one of the best solutions, because they have the highest voltage withstanding capability and the highest efficiency, compared to other power semiconductor devices. A thyristor converter is realized by many valve sections, whose volume is approximately occupied for only the 10% by thyristors and for the 10% by the gate drivers. The remaining 80% is taken by passive auxiliary circuits, needed to protect thyristors during turn-on and turn-off commutations. Aim of this project is the reduction of the auxiliary circuit size, to reduce costs, volume and weight of the overall valve, through the investigation of active, instead of passive solutions. The project starts from a theoretical investigation, including literature review, and proceeds with simulations of the proposed control methods. The last step is an experimental work, using a reduced scale test circuit. The proposed active control circuits are successfully validated. Experimental results match simulation results, therefore, the investigated active configurations can be used for improving the actual thyristor valves. Future directions are high voltage experimental tests and the realisation of a real scale prototype, to verify the effective costs, volume and weight reduction of the updated valve, compared to the current state of the art.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:33:50Z
format Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
id nottingham-56395
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:33:50Z
publishDate 2019
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-563952025-02-28T14:27:45Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/56395/ Development of a smart thyristor valve for HVDC transmission Gianluca, De Bonis In HVDC transmission schemes, two converters are needed: a rectifier at the sending point and an inverter at the receiving point. Depending on voltage and current ratings, many types of converters can be chosen. For voltages of hundreds of kV and currents of a few kA, thyristor converters are one of the best solutions, because they have the highest voltage withstanding capability and the highest efficiency, compared to other power semiconductor devices. A thyristor converter is realized by many valve sections, whose volume is approximately occupied for only the 10% by thyristors and for the 10% by the gate drivers. The remaining 80% is taken by passive auxiliary circuits, needed to protect thyristors during turn-on and turn-off commutations. Aim of this project is the reduction of the auxiliary circuit size, to reduce costs, volume and weight of the overall valve, through the investigation of active, instead of passive solutions. The project starts from a theoretical investigation, including literature review, and proceeds with simulations of the proposed control methods. The last step is an experimental work, using a reduced scale test circuit. The proposed active control circuits are successfully validated. Experimental results match simulation results, therefore, the investigated active configurations can be used for improving the actual thyristor valves. Future directions are high voltage experimental tests and the realisation of a real scale prototype, to verify the effective costs, volume and weight reduction of the updated valve, compared to the current state of the art. 2019-07-18 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/56395/1/Thesis_Gianluca_De_Bonis.pdf Gianluca, De Bonis (2019) Development of a smart thyristor valve for HVDC transmission. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. HVDC Thyristor Valves Power Converters Line Commutated Converters Power transmission Electrical Energy Semiconductors.
spellingShingle HVDC
Thyristor Valves
Power Converters
Line Commutated Converters
Power transmission
Electrical Energy
Semiconductors.
Gianluca, De Bonis
Development of a smart thyristor valve for HVDC transmission
title Development of a smart thyristor valve for HVDC transmission
title_full Development of a smart thyristor valve for HVDC transmission
title_fullStr Development of a smart thyristor valve for HVDC transmission
title_full_unstemmed Development of a smart thyristor valve for HVDC transmission
title_short Development of a smart thyristor valve for HVDC transmission
title_sort development of a smart thyristor valve for hvdc transmission
topic HVDC
Thyristor Valves
Power Converters
Line Commutated Converters
Power transmission
Electrical Energy
Semiconductors.
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/56395/