Virtual resistance principle for the overcurrent protection of PWM voltage source inverter

The aim of this paper is to propose a protection strategy for the voltage generator based inverter against the large load currents. This strategy proposes an algorithm for generators output current limiting. It depends on decreasing the amplitude of the voltage reference in case of over current on generator output current. We aim to give the source a behavior similar to that of a voltage source in series with a virtual resistance. This resistance is activated only above a certain current threshold. Simulation results for the application of this strategy on resistive and resistive-inductive load will be demonstrated, in this paper. The effectiveness of the proposed current limiting method was tested on high load current resulting from the asynchronous motor startup. The last part will discuss the implementation of this current limiting strategy on real time simulation environment RT-LAB. An experimentation using Power Hardware in the Loop and realtime simulation was realized to verify the theoretical analysis.