A design optimisation tool to minimise volume and failure rate of the modular multilevel converter and the thyristor-controlled rectifier

Abstract

The unfolding of MVDC (Medium Voltage DC) systems has the prospects to enable the incorporation of power electronic converters with higher power density and reliability. A tool with an integrated design approach is required to minimise the overall system volume by identifying optimal components. In this paper, a component-level early-stage design tool has been developed to attain the minimum achievable volume and failure rate for MVDC power converters. The developed tool optimises the choice of semiconductor switching devices, required heatsink, and other passive components (including dc-link filters and inductors) to minimise failure rate and overall converter volume. The optimisation algorithm employs the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to evaluate designs based on developed fitness functions. The design tool demonstrates the trade-off when evaluating multiple converter topologies and helps make an informed decision. A comparative study between two converter topologies shows the outcomes in terms of targeted metrics (volume and failure rate). This tool is expected to benefit early-stage design to perform trade-off studies among power electronic converter topologies based on key metrics like volume and failure rate.