School of Engineering

Simulation Lab 1: SINGLE PHASE AC NETWORKS

EEET2304 Electrical Plant

Aim
To examine the measurement of voltages and currents in single-phase AC networks for
various combinations of resistive, inductive and capacitive loads and measurement of single-
phase AC power

1 Physical setup of the simulated lab

Fig. 1 shows the general arrangement of equipment for this experiment in a physical setting.
The AC supply is provided from either a single phase (or one phase of a three phase) variac,
and supplies the load.

Fig 1: General Arrangement of Single Phase AC Network Test Circuit

A power meter is used to measure all real power flows by clamping the V/A/W meter around
the relevant current carrying conductor and using the probes to connect to the related
voltage. Reactive power flows cannot be directly measured, but can be calculated based on
the apparent power and real power measurements according to:

S=V I Q = S 2 − P2 (1)

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2 Simulation Task 1 – Implementing a Basic resistive load
circuit in Simulink
Follow the steps below to develop the circuit shown in Fig. 1. The following steps place individual
components on to the Simulink window in MATLAB in addition to other essential components to
develop a functioning simulation model.

2.1 Opening Simulink:

Simulink can be accessed from RMIT My Desktop (log-in required)

https://rmitmydesktop.cloud.com/Citrix/StoreWeb/#/login

Once logged in, you can search for MATLAB in the search bar and open the software.

Step 1 : Open MATLAB and Click on Simulink from the Home Menu
Step 2 : Open a “Blank Model” in Simulink

2.2 Placing a voltage source

Step 3: Open Library Browser and scroll down to the “Simscape” blockset
Step 4: Open Simscape >> Electrical >> Sources
Step 5: Drag the “Voltage Source” block to the Simulink window
Step 6: Open Simscape >> Electrical >> Connectors and References
Step 7: Drag the “Electrical Reference” to the Simulink window

2.3 Placing a passive element – e.g. resistors

Step 8: Open Simscape >> Electrical >> Passive
Step 9: Drag the “Resistor” block to the Simulink window

NOTE : you can rotate components by pressing CTRL + R together

2.4 Setting up current and voltage measurement in the circuit

Step 10: Open Simscape >> Electrical >> Sensors and Transducers
Step 11: Drag a “Current Sensor” to the Simulink window
Step 12: Drag a “Voltage Sensor” to the Simulink window
Step 13: Open Simscape >> Utilities (Not Simscape >> Electrical>> Utilities)
Step 14: Drag the “PS-Simulink Converter” block to the Simulink window twice.

The “PS-Simulink Converter” block is required to convert the signals to a format that can be viewed
using a Simulink Scope or exported to workspace.

Step 15: Open Simulink >> Sinks

Step 16: Drag a “Scope” block to the Simulink window
Step 17: Drag a “To Workspace” block to the Simulink window and change it’s name to “myresults”

Step 18: Open Simulink >> Signal routing

Step 19: Drag a “Mux” block to the Simulink window

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2.5 Making interconnections
Using the mouse cursor, connect the individual components in the circuit to represent the circuit in
Fig.1. In addition, the voltage and current measurement blocks must be integrated within the circuit
as shown in Fig.2.

2.6 Configuring the simulation setup

Step 20: Open Simscape >> Utilities
Step 21: Drag the “Solver Configuration” block to the Simulink window
Step 22: The “Solver Configuration” block can be connected at the reference point as shown in
Fig.2

Fig.2 shows the resistive load circuit implemented in Simulink. The voltage and current
measurement are converted and fed to a MUX. The MUX block combines these two signals into a
signal array which is then plotted via the scope block. The “To Workspace” block captures the
values to the workspace for further analysis using MATLAB.

Fig 2: Simulation setup of a resistive load

2.7 Configuring parameters

Step 23: Double click on the voltage source and set it’s a”AC voltage peak amplitude” to 339.4 V
(to represent a 240V RMS supply) and its frequency to 50 Hz. Other values remain zero.

Step 24: Double click on the resistor and set its resistance value to 10 ohms

Since we are simulating a system at 50Hz, each cycle will have a period of 20ms. In order to
produce a smooth signal with 20ms time period, we can select a simulation sampling time as:
0.00002s so that for one sinusoidal the simulation will produce 1000 data points.

Step 25: Open the “Solver Configuration” block and select “use local solver” and specify the solver
“sampling time” as 0.00002 (which is 0.02 ms). Keep the other values at their default values.

Step 26: Open the “To Workspace” block and change the variable name to “myresults”. The other
parameters do not need to be changed and can be kept at its default values.

Step 26: Set the “Stop Time” to 10 which will then simulate 500 cycles of the 50 Hz system. Stop
Time can be accessed from the top ribbon Simulink window

Step 27: Run the simulation and once complete, open the “Scope” block by double clicking it and
check if the peak voltage and current values of are the same as that you expect from a 240V RMS
Supply feeding a 10 ohm resistive load.

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3 Simulation Task 2 – Analysis of the resistive load circuit

Once the simulation of the Task-1 is complete, you will see a variable “out” appear in the MATLAB
workspace. The out variable contains the results from the Simulink simulation. You can access the
measurements via the “out.myresults” variable which has two arrays, which the first being the
current waveform and the second array being the voltage waveform.

3.1 Assign variables

Assign variables to results by running the following commands in the MATLAB command window:

voltage = out.myresults.data(:,1);

current = out.myresults.data(:,2);

time = out.myresults.time;

the instantaneous power can be calculated by:

instantaneous _power = voltage.*current;

3.2 Plotting variables

current and voltage can be plotted via workspace using the following commands:

plot(time,current);

hold on;

plot(time,voltage);

grid on;

the instantaneous power waveform can also be plotted by the command:

plot(time,power);

3.3 Analysis

• The average power consumed is the real power consumtion which can be calculated by
averaging the instantaneous power waveform by the command:”

real_power = mean(instantaneous_real_power)

• The RMS value of the voltage and current can be found by taking the mean value of the
square of the instantaneous voltage and finding the square-root of that value:

voltage_RMS = sqrt(mean(voltage.^2));

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current_RMS = sqrt(mean(current.^2));

• The apparent power can then be calculated using:

apparent_power = voltage_RMS*current_RMS

• Using the time interval between zero crossings (ore the peak points) of the load voltage and
the load current as plotted using MATLAB, calculate the load phase angle . Note that 20
ms = 360° on the X axis. What is the power factor of this load?

• Compare the result obtained using simulations for apparent power, real power, reactive
power and power factor with that calculated using theory for a 10 ohm resistor being fed
from a 240V RMS supply.

4 Simulation Task 3 – Analysis of an inductive load circuit

• Replace the resistor in the circuit developed earlier with an inductor.

(can be found in the blockset: “Simscape >> Electrical >> Passive >> inductor”)

• Change the inductor value to 80 mH.

• Run the simulation and obtain the waveforms of load voltage and load current. Measure
the time interval between zero crossings of the load voltage and the load current using
MATLAB plots.

• Compare the result obtained using steps mentioned in section 3.1 to 3.3 for apparent
power, real power, reactive power and power factor with that calculated using theory for
an 80 mH inductor being fed from a 240V RMS supply.

5 Simulation Task 4 – Analysis of a capacitive load circuit

• Replace the resistor in the circuit developed earlier with a capacitor.

(can be found in blockset: “Simscape >> Electrical >> Passive>> capacitor”)

• Change the capacitor value to 40 F

• Run the simulation and obtain the waveforms of load voltage and load current. Measure
the time interval between zero crossings of the load voltage and the load current using
MATLAB plots.

• Compare the result calculated using steps mentioned in section 3.1 to 3.3 for apparent
power, real power, reactive power and power factor with that calculated using theory for a
40 F capacitor being fed from a 240V RMS supply.

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6 Simulation Task 5 – Series Resistive-Inductive Load
• Connect a resistor of 10 ohm in series with the 80 mH inductor to make the test load
element for this task.

• Run the simulation and obtain the waveforms of load voltage and load current. Measure
the time interval between zero crossings of the load voltage and the load current using
MATLAB plots.

• Compare the result obtained using simulations for apparent power, real power, reactive
power and power factor with that calculated using theory for RL series circuit of 10 ohm
and 80 mH being fed from a 240V RMS supply.

• Check the instantaneous waveforms and discuss possible reasons for any deviation
between the calculated results and the simulated results.

• Draw an appropriate phasor diagram for this load situation.

7 Simulation Task 6 – Use of Capacitor to Improve the Power

Factor of an Inductive Circuit
Connect a 40 µF capacitor in parallel with the RL load circuit simulation used in Task-5 as
shown in Fig. 3.

Fig 3: Series-Parallel load arrangement for Power Factor Correction

• Run the simulation and obtain the waveforms of load voltage and load current. Measure
the time interval between zero crossings of the load voltage and the load current using
MATLAB plots.

• Compare the result obtained using simulations for apparent power, real power, reactive
power and power factor with that calculated using theory for RL series load of 10 ohm and
80 mH and a parallel capacitor of 40 µF being fed from a 240V RMS supply

• Check the instantaneous waveforms and discuss possible reasons for any deviation
between the calculated results and the simulated results.

• Draw an appropriate phasor diagram for this load situation.

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8 ASSESSMENT.
The report should be in a short concise form with a maximum of 6 pages.

The report must include:

• Aim (short 1 paragraph statement in your own words. Do not repeat these lab instructions).
• Methodology (short ½ page description – do not replicate these instructions).
• Results with embedded discussion (The bulk of the report. Not more than one page for
each of sections A1 – B2, with detailed analysis reflecting the points raised in the
instructions).
• Conclusion (Short paragraph – your key outcomes related to the laboratory aims and your
results).

8.1 Report Submission

Report is submitted ONLY over Canvas. You do not need to submit a paper version. The Lab
report will be marked on-line by the tutors and you are requested to upload a PDF version of the
Lab report through “Turnitin”. Please visit the “Canvas>> Assignments>>” to see the submission
links.

8.2 Lab Assessment Rubric

Very good /
Rating Excellent Good Fair Poor
10 to 7 marks 7 to 4 marks 4 to 2 mark below 2 marks 0
Have presented all
Have clearly Have clearly the experimental Some of the Have
documented all documented all the results are experimental not
the results in the experimental results presented in the results are submitt
report. All the in the report. Few of report. Some of presented in the ed a
tasks have been the tasks have been the results are report. However, report /
Criteria completed and completed and wrong / and are the results are no
addressed in the addressed in the lab presented in a wrong / and are results
lab report. report. Technical disorganized presented in a in lab
Correct technical discussion is manner. Incorrect disorganized report
discussion is provided however or inaccurate manner. No present
provided. not accurate analysis presented. analysis presented. ed

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