An Advanced PC-Cluster Based Real-Time Simulator for Power Electronics and Drives

This paper presents the development of an advanced PC-cluster based parallel and distributed real-time digital simulator. The simulator is very flexible and scalable, and is built entirely from commodity-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software components. A combination of real-time Linux operating system and an ultra-fast network forms the backbone for the internal communication between the powerful processors of the Xeon-Cluster which works in parallel multi-tasking mode. MATLAB/SIMULINK environment has been used as the model development software. External hardware can be connected through FPGA-based multi-channel digital and analog I/O ports. A 3-level 12-pulse AC drive has been simulated using the real-time simulator and the results are validated against an off-line simulation using PSCAD/EMTDC. Real-time simulation of the entire system has been achieved with a maximum computation time of 5.35 mus on a step-size of 10 mus