Boost converter fed high performance BLDC drive for solar PV array powered air cooling system

Abstract

This paper proposes the utilization of a DC-DC boost converter as a mediator between a Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) array and the Voltage Source Inverters (VSI) in an SPV array powered air cooling system to attain maximum efficiency. The boost converter, over the various common DC-DC converters, offers many advantages in SPV based applications. Further, two Brushless DC (BLDC) motors are employed in the proposed air cooling system: one to run the centrifugal water pump and the other to run a fan-blower. Employing a BLDC motor is found to be the best option because of its top efficiency, supreme reliability and better performance over a wide range of speeds. The air cooling system is developed and simulated using the MATLAB/Simulink environment considering the steady state variation in the solar irradiance. Further, the efficiency of BLDC drive system is compared with a conventional Permanent Magnet DC (PMDC) motor drive system and from the simulated results it is found that the proposed system performs better.