Didactical concepts and tools for explaining power electronics applications

Abstract

Modern power electronics applications are complex microprocessor controlled systems which are very expensive to develop. Assessing and analysing an application before it is built reduces costs and saves development time. Analysing the whole system requires flexible and powerful software tools. In order to analyse applications, a solid education of students is mandatory. For educational purposes especially suited are simulation systems which give students a feeling for power electronics systems and later on are capable of growing and adapting to the gained knowledge of the user. The department of Power Electronics and Electrical Drives at the University of Siegen has developed a software package which is capable of simulating power electronic applications, e.g. electrical drive systems. The simulation system employs modern top-down-design strategies and object-oriented methods to model the application on screen. The application can be simulated in order to gain important data such as dynamic behaviour, load currents, switching frequencies of semiconductors and many more. The system is very useful for teaching the basic concepts of power electronics systems to students or electrical engineers interested in power electronics concepts.