Intelligent Solution for Switching Angles in Multi-Level SHEPWM: An Application of an Enhanced BKA Algorithm

In recent years, industrial systems and power electronic equipment have imposed increasingly stringent requirements on power quality, and therefore, the realization of a high-quality power supply has garnered extensive research attention. Selective harmonic elimination pulse width modulation (SHEPWM) features superior harmonic suppression performance and can effectively attenuate specific sub-harmonics; however, solving the associated system of nonlinear transcendental equations remains a critical challenge, primarily due to its inherent computational complexity and the risk of convergence to local optima. To address these limitations, we propose a multi-strategy enhanced chaotic black-winged kite algorithm (CMBKA). The proposed CMBKA integrates three synergistic optimization strategies: logistic–tent chaotic mapping for uniform population initialization, golden sine strategy to balance global exploration and local exploitation, and Monte Carlo perturbation to avoid convergence to local optima. In contrast to BKA, the proposed CMBKA achieves markedly higher calculation accuracy for switching angles, which is systematically validated on a five-level modified packed U-cell (MPUC) inverter platform. Experimental results verify that the proposed CMBKA achieves a lower total harmonic distortion (THD) than does the BKA, while the targeted specific sub-order harmonics are effectively suppressed to below 0.05%, with a maximum voltage deviation of 2.3% between the simulation results and experimental hardware tests. This work provides a high-precision SHEPWM solution for multilevel inverters, offering significant potential for renewable energy systems requiring minimal harmonic pollution and high power density.