Power Electronics Design: A Practitioner's Guide
by Keith H. Sueker, Published by Newnes
ISBN 0-7506-7927-1, hardback, 272 pp, $59.95
EN-Genius Reviewer: Dennis L. Feucht

The author, from Pittsburgh, PA, has been in the power electronics industry a very long time. This book reflects his varied experience and is oriented around large, industrial applications of electric power such as glass manufacture. The circuit diagrams have an industrial style more so than an electronics laboratory look. They are drawn with those boxy European circuit symbols.

The first two chapters present electric power distribution systems and components, as would be typical of large industrial plants. Chapter 3 goes into three-phase sequencing and circuit simulation with a program example in QuickBASIC. Chapter 4 is a light exposure to feedback control, then on to power-line transients and traveling waves, transformers and reactors, insulation, and in Chapter 8, the most common electric machines, whizzing by very quickly. Succeeding chapters offer rectifiers, SCR phase control and gate drive, motor drives and cycloconverters. These topics are given two to three pages each. Series and parallel power switches are followed by pulsed converters and then (Chapter 13) switching converters: PWM, choppers (buck), boost, H-bridge, and three-phase motor drivers.

All this precedes section 13.6, "Harmonic Injection." In a fast book like this, sometimes a gem of an idea stands out. This one is to add some in-phase third-harmonic sine-wave to a fundamental, resulting in a reduced peak/avg ratio. For three-phase systems, "the third harmonic component vanishes in the line-to-line voltages." This is significant in that power components can deliver a given rms value while not having to handle a larger peak power value.

For a sinusoid, the value is 2. That means power components deliver only half the power that they must be able to handle. When 13.4% of the third harmonic is added, the top flattens and it becomes a much-improved 1.5 instead. The amount of third harmonic added as given by Sueker is 15%. The 13.4% value results in a peak of about 0.866 that of the peak of the fundamental.

In the power factor and harmonics chapter appears the most math: the standard-issue Fourier transform equations for symmetrical waveforms. Waveshape concepts, such as how to calculate the rms value for various waveshapes is covered lightly, including calculation of total harmonic distortion (THD). Interactions with the utility, distortion limits, and "telephone influence factor" are sections of Chapter 14. Thermal management is given a quick breeze-through and finally, Chapter 16: "Power Electronics Applications" - all very quick.

Appendices A through I had some interesting entries - like E on Rogowski coils, F on foreign technical words (Resistor is wiederstand in German, résistance in French, and resistancia in Spanish but transistor is the same in those languages), and properties of ethylene and propylene glycol (also useful for mixing your own windshield wiper fluid or radiator coolant).

This book has no glaring faux pas that I noticed, but it covers many topics without much detail. It is, I think, best for those interested in a quick introduction to large industrial power control. Each topic is not treated in enough detail to inform design activity but is enough to provide basic orientation. For that, I give it a thumbs up. The author has certainly worked on some interesting projects, including Tokamak fusion equipment. (But the Tokamak section is only about a page long!)