Methodology for Cable Modeling and Simulation for High-Frequency Phenomena Studies in PWM Motor Drives

The analysis of the transient overvoltages in a pulsewidth modulation (PWM) motor drive system comprises a wide frequency range, which starts with the low values corresponding to the motor speed, includes the switching harmonics, which can reach up to few hundreds of kHz, and also the cable resonance frequency, which value can be in the MHz range, depending on the cable length. In this context, this work presents a time domain methodology for cable modeling able to represent the cable parameters variation due to skin effect in this broad range of frequencies. The proposed technique reproduces accurately the wave propagation and reflection phenomena, thus showing to be very appropriate to transient overvoltage studies in PWM motor drives. A new alternative to represent the frequency-dependent cable earth-return path is also included, allowing the computation of the zero-sequence currents generated by the common-mode voltage produced by the inverter. Simulations using the proposed methodology are conducted and the obtained results are compared with measurements, showing good agreement.