Adaptive internal model control-proportional integral for robust control of three-phase active front-end rectifiers

Abstract

Three-phase active front-end (AFE) rectifiers are widely deployed in motor drives, electric vehicle chargers, and grid-connected renewable energy systems, where precise DC-link voltage regulation is essential for stable converter operation. In practice, DC-link capacitance degrades over time, and load profiles vary dynamically, both degrading the DC-link voltage regulation performance. Conventional proportional-integral (PI) outer voltage controllers are designed based on nominal operating conditions, with limited stability margins resulting in sluggish or oscillatory DC-link voltage responses under significant load and parameter variations. This paper proposes an adaptive internal model control-proportional integral (AIMC-PI) outer voltage loop controller for a three-phase AFE rectifier. It extends the conventional IMC-PI structure by incorporating an active damping term, an internal feedforward gain, a reference filter, and a Lyapunov-based adaptation law that updates the embedded plant model and IMC filter time constant online ensuring closed-loop stability and bounded tracking error. Simulation results show that AIMC-PI achieves a faster dynamic response than PI and performance comparable to IMC-PI and linear active disturbance rejection control (LADRC) under nominal conditions. As DC-link capacitance degrades to 0.5C, AIMC-PI maintains a well-damped DC-link voltage, whereas LADRC exhibits noticeable oscillations. Experimentally, AIMC-PI successfully eliminates the AC-supply current and DC-link voltage ripples present in fixed-λ IMC-PI.