A Hundred Solved Problems in Power Electronics

Book excerpt: A Hundred Solved Problems in Power Electronics presents a large collection of questions and their answers for someone who is interested in understanding the operation principle of power electronics converters. By creating a real engineering environment around the question, the goal of this book is to contribute on the development of a qualified electrical engineering workforce. By using engineering language and technical terminology (jargon), this book deals primarily with the challenge of designing power converters for specific applications. This includes, but is not limited to, personal computer power supply, regulated voltage source, and interconnection of renewable energy sources. Since engineering is the application of science to practical use, the link with a real world activity fills the gap between theory and practical application and increases the curiosity of the students. Before each question there is a short text explaining the purpose of that specific problem and how it is associated with real world conditions. The majority of the questions in this book follow a logical sequence, which is an attempt to demonstrate the step-by-step process of a power electronics converter design. Indeed, the purpose of this book is to present a more exciting type of question and show how the theory in power electronics is related to real world problems. Rather than just plugging in numbers for a given equation, this book shows practical examples on how to use scientific and technical knowledge to make, operate, and maintain complex systems. Although engineering is one of the professions that actually allows someone to build and create something that could eventually change the life of people (e.g., personal computer or satellite), there is sometimes a lack of motivation from the students in the classroom. It is quite clear that the students are comfortable with math, especially at the senior level. Therefore, the lack of motivation is not due to background deficiency. Instead, the discouragement increases when students do not correlate the subject taught with their future professional activities. Also, the way traditional lectures are set up--with theory presentation followed by examples where students just need to plug in the given data into specific equations--does not keep students' interest and attention. In fact, the moment of solving a specific problem, in a traditional way to teach, comes down to this question: what's the equation that I need to use to plug these given numbers? This is stimulated by the way the problems are designed. We hope that this book offers an alternative on how the students view and address the problems in power electronics. This book is a desirable didactic material to be employed as a reference book instead of a text book (from which the instructor prepares his/her lecture). Notice that the terminology used in A Hundred Solved Problems in Power Electronics is not necessarily the same as the one seen in either the text book or from the instructor lectures. This is actually a benefit for the students in electrical engineering since they will learn different terms for the same component or electrical element. Certainly this difference in nomenclature will be seen by the students as an advantage when they are reading technical datasheets and realize that manufacturers often use different terms for the same information. By dividing this book into five parts, the authors compile the solved problems into the following categories: 1) Converters with power diodes 2) SCR converters 3) Dc-dc converters 4) Dc-ac converters 5) Isolated dc-ac converters Such a book structure follows the same sequence of topics as most power electronics books in the technical literature, which simplifies the use of A Hundred Solved Questions in Power Electronics as a recommended book in parallel with other references.