Fault diagnosis technique of electrical drives is becoming more and more important, since voltage fed converter system has become industrial standard in many applications. Many studies have been conducted an inverter fault diagnosis for induction motors. However, there are few researches about fault diagnosis of 3-phase ac/dc PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) converter compared to the dc/ ac inverter. The ac/dc converter is the opposite of dc/ac inverter at current flow. Also, inverter and converter have different current patterns under the same condition of IGBT (Insulated gate bipolar transistor) open switch fault. Therefore, it is difficult to apply intact diagnosis methods of inverter to the converter. This paper proposes modified fault detection methods for IGBT open switch fault in 3-phase ac/dc PWM converter by modifying established fault diagnostic methods for dc/ac inverters.

A capacitor deterioration of LCL-filter grid-connected PWM converters is progressed by the self-healing mechanism. It leads to the degradation of the filter performance and drop of power factor. Thus, it is required to diagnose fault-point of capacitors and determine the replacement time. Typically, the fault of capacitors is determined when the capacitance is reduced up to 80% from initial value. This paper proposes algorithm to the determine capacitor replacement time of an LCL filter. The algorithm takes the advantage of change of the response on the injected resonant frequency corresponding to 80% value from the initial capacitance. The results of the algorithm are demonstrated through simulations and experiments.