Quality assessment of electrical drives with strongly deformed supply waveform

In the characterization of electrical drives it is necessary to carry out p ower measurement on highly distorted signals with low uncertainty and in so me cases on-line; this involves the adoption of suitable Lest station and a dequate measurement techniques. In addition, EMI sources not only produce e lectrical network pollution but also involve a reduction of motor performan ce and require special instrumentation and appropriate investigation method s. This paper reports three different approaches to variable speed drive ch aracterization: performance testing in static and dynamic working condition s and EMI analysis. It then proposes a measurement station which is VXI-bas ed both for VSD static performance testing and EMI analysis and uses a real -time special purpose instrument for dynamic testing. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. All rights reserved.