Simulating Power Electronic Circuits Using Python

Course Overview

For a student of electrical engineering or for a practicing electrical technician, getting started with simulating electrical circuits can be challenging. Even more so in the case of power electronics where circuits are non-linear. This course introduces the process of simulation and also provides basic theory lectures to help you understand how simulations can be used to learn how power converters work.

This course uses only free and open source software. The course will have lectures to show you how to download and install each software. All software are compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac OS and you can follow this course whatever operating system you prefer to use. The course also has a basic tutorial on Python programming to help you with writing control code for electrical circuits. The course uses the free and open source circuit simulator Python Power Electronics. You can use other simulators if you are already using them. However, all examples in this course will use Python Power Electronics as I would like all students registered for the course to be able to access a circuit simulator and not all simulators are free to use.

This course is not a comprehensive course on power electronics. I will not be covering a vast number of power converters. Instead, this course focuses on depth. The lectures will have code along sessions where I will be building simulations from scratch and will be switching back and forth between theory presentations and simulation results to understand how circuits work. The course will not be heavily mathematical but on the contrary will use fundamental concepts of Physics to understand how power converter circuits.

In order to successfully complete this course, a student is required to have some basic electrical knowledge. This implies basic network laws - Kirchoff's Voltage Law, Kirchoff's Current Law, Ohm's Law. These would be taught in first year of electrical engineering. Other than that, you do not need to have prior knowledge of power electronics or analog electronics. A student will also be required to have some basic knowledge of programming. This course uses Python. However, if a student has used any other high level language such as C, C++, Java etc, that would do as well. Expert knowledge of programming is not necessary. This course however, should not be a student's very first time coding.

Projects Involved in this Course

Simulation of a Buck Converter

Project 1
Simulation of an Uncontrolled Rectifier

Project 2

Course notes

Course name	Simulating Power Electronic Circuits Using Python
Start & end date	Open for enrolment anytime
Mode of delivery	Online, recorded video lessons & self paced
Software used	Python, Python for power electronics, excel or any open source alternative to excel
Course pre-requisites	Basic electrical engineering (network laws) & basic programming in any high level language (Python, C, C++)
Applicable for	Students, Faculties or Industry professionals from the background of Electrical & Electronics engineering, who would like to gain the solid fundamentals & explore the approach to use Python to simulate power electronic circuits.
Certification by & Host details	Decibels Lab Pvt Ltd (Recognised as Start-up by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Ministry of Commerce & Industry Government of India) (Certificate Number: DIPP45372)
Course access duration	90 days
Doubt clarification	It's 100% practical & self-paced, provided with a step-by-step guide to achieve the learning. For critical issues or doubts you face, you can fill your doubt in the Discussion box. Our team will clarify your doubts there itself.

Course curriculum

1. Welcome
2. Introduction
3. How to use Discussions option
4. Concept of simulation
5. Open source software in electrical engineering
6. Python Power Electronics - an open source circuit simulator
7. Target audience of the course
8. Course access duration
9. Piracy & infringement warning
1. Overview
2. Introduction to Anaconda Python
3. Windows - installing Anaconda
4. Linux/Mac - installing Anaconda
5. Anaconda setup theory
6. Windows - setting up the Anaconda environment
7. Linux/Mac - setting up the Anaconda environment
8. Setting up an environment for Python Power Electronics
9. Changes to download links
10. Windows - installing and setting up Python Power Electronics
11. Linux/Mac - installing the dependencies for Python Power Electronics
12. Linux/Mac - installing and setting up Python Power Electronics
13. Windows - launching Python Power Electronics
14. Linux/Mac - launching Python Power Electronics
15. Editors for Python programming
16. Conclusions
1. Overview
2. Choosing a circuit to simulate
3. "Drawing " the circuit in a spreadsheet
4. Rules for drawing circuits in spreadsheets
5. Understanding the parameters of a simulation
6. Creating a new simulation
7. Adding a circuit schematic to the simulation
8. Parameters of circuit components
9. Editing the parameters of components in the simulation
10. Running the simulation
11. Backing up the parameters of the circuit
12. Conclusions
1. Introduction
2. Magnetic field basics
3. Electromagnents
4. Inductors
5. Induced EMF produced by inductors
6. Inductors - laws and formulae
7. Capacitors
8. Capacitors - laws and formulae
9. Comparing inductors and capacitors
10. Conclusions
1. Introduction
2. Diodes
3. Test circuit to examine the working of a diode
4. Parameters of a diode
5. When the diode is forward biased
6. When the diode is reverse biased
7. When an AC voltage is applied across the diode
8. Concept of rectification
9. Setting up the rectifier simulation
10. Simulating the basic rectifier
11. Analysis of the basic rectifier and the need for energy storage
12. Adding a capacitor to the output
13. Change in the operation of the rectifier with a capacitor at the output
14. Analyzing the effect of addition of the capacitor
15. Increasing the value of the capacitance and analyzing the result
16. The need for an inductor as a current limiter and energy buffer
17. Adding the inductor and analyzing the results
18. Conclusions
1. Overview
2. Launching the interactive Jupyter notebook
3. Integer data types
4. Float data types
5. String data types
6. List data types
7. Dictionary data types
8. Iterable objects
9. In-built functions available in Python
10. User defined functions
11. Conditionals
12. Programming challenge
1. Introduction
2. How a control function is evaluated by the simulator
3. IO ports of a controller
4. Inputs to a control function
5. Basic computation with inputs
6. Time event variables to achieve digital control
7. Common timing problems
8. Need for internal variables with memory
9. Static variables
10. Controllable voltage source - a component that can be regulated through control
11. Output variables
12. Variable resistors and variable inductors
13. Commonly occurring errors with control code
14. Conclusions
1. Introduction
2. Jumpers or connectors in circuits
3. The ideal switch component
4. Test circuit to examine the ideal switch operation
5. Converter topology
6. Drawing the converter in a spreadsheet
7. Editing the parameters of the converter
8. Generating gate pulses through Pulse Width Modulation
9. Generating the carrier waveform through control code
10. Analyzing and debugging the carrier waveform
11. Programming the Pulse Width Modulation strategy through control code
12. Connecting the gate signal to the switch
13. Analyzing the performance of the converter
14. Getting started with output voltage control
15. Coding the Proportional Integral controller
16. Tuning the controller
17. Tear down approach to studying this circuit
18. Conclusions
1. Conclusion
1. Instructions to generate your certificate
2. Leverage your certificate to get Internship or Job

About this course

₹2,999.00
112 lessons
18.5 hours of video content

Shivkumar Iyer

Instructors profile

I did my Master's and PhD in power electronics after which I spent several years working for both big companies like ABB and GE as well as a number of start-ups. I specialized in the field of power converter control and smart grids and have published prolifically in high impact international journals and conferences besides also being the author of two books. I started programming at the age of 14 and over the past 20 years have programmed in several languages - C, C++, Python, JavaScript. I started taking a keen interest in open source software after I became a Linux user when I was a graduate student. My expertise in electrical engineering and programming therefore resulted in me creating open source software for electrical engineers. I use open source software for teaching electrical engineering to students and practicing engineers with the typical theme of my courses being the application of programming to solve engineering problems.