Model Predictive Sliding Control for Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Converters With Dynamic Current Reference Tracking

This article presents a model predictive sliding control (MPSC) strategy with the dynamic reference tracking for cascaded H-bridge (CHB) multilevel converters. The nonlinear predicted sliding mode control (PSMC) and linear model predictive control (MPC) are combined as a two-level cascaded control structure. The proposed approach aims to get rid of time-consuming tuning to reach the good performance in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances, such as proportional–integral (PI). The MPC scheme is designed to predict the future optimal current and voltage vectors with a designed cost function. The high-level PSMC algorithm is proposed for the dynamic current reference with less chattering problems. The stability of the proposed strategy is analyzed with the Lyapunov direct method. The design principle of the system parameters is introduced with a step-by-step tuning procedure. With the proposed method, the response time can be reduced from 60 to 30 ms during the start-up conditions in the simulation tests. The overshoot of the cell voltages can be eliminated with low-harmonics current and dc-link voltage targets tracking. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed method are implemented by the experimental tests on a laboratory two-cell CHB converter. Compared with the PI-based MPC approach, the current total harmonic distortion (THD) can be reduced and the dc-side performance, including overshoot/undershoot and response speed, can be improved.