Capacitor aging detection for the DC filters in the power electronic converters using ANFIS algorithm

DC filters are responsible for more than half of the failures in the power electronic converters. One approach to improving the reliability and maintainability of the converters is to include failure diagnosis for the DC filters within the power converter. DC filters failures may be classified as sudden faults which may take the form of breakdown faults resulting from a blown capacitor fuse and gradual faults caused by capacitor aging. This paper presents a fault detection and location for the capacitor aging faults in the DC filters of the power converters. The proposed fault diagnosis is based on the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) algorithm. The inputs to the ANFIS unit are only the input voltage of the converter as well as the voltages across the DC filters. The output of the ANFIS unit is utilized as an index in order to identify the capacitor aging fault in the power converter. Then, it locates the fault within the two DC filters installed in the power converter.