Youngjong Ko, Hae-Gwang Jeong, Kyo-Beum Lee, Dong-Choon Lee, and Jang-Mok Kim, "Diagnosis of the Open-Circuit Fault in Three-Parallel Voltage-Source Converter for a High-Power Wind Turbine," in Proc. ECCE Conf., Sep. 2011, pp. 877–882. > Paper

  A fault detection method for the switch devices of three-parallel power converters in a wind turbine system is presented. The

  proposed method utilizes the measured 3-phase currents which were already used for controlling the converters. Additional current

  and voltage sensors are thus not necessary. Consequently, this particular feature potentially cuts costs to apply the detection

  algorithm. The 3-phase currents are transformed to a stationary reference frame. This reference frame possesses specific patterns in

  accordance to the conditions of the switch devices in the converter. Open faulty switches can be detected by analyzing the obtained

  pattern. The reliability of the proposed fault detection method was proven by simulation results.