A GUI-Based Education Toolbox for Power Electronics Converters Using MATLAB/Simulink and SimPowerSystems

Abstract

A power electronics course is essential for electrical engineers and is typically included in the undergraduate-level syllabus. Power electronics converters (PECs) are widely used to provide power processing for applications ranging from communications and medical electronics to motor drives, power conversion and high-power transmission, making them one of the most important topics for power electronics engineering. This paper presents an educational graphical user interface (GUI) for simulation of various topologies of PECs which students can use to explore the behaviour of PECs. The GUI is developed by using Matlab/Simulink, SimPowerSystems and the GUIDE tool of MATLAB, which acts as a front-end interface that can be used for teaching as well as learning. The positive response from students indicates that the comprehensive GUI package is extremely useful for power electronics courses. The package can be considered as a virtual laboratory or as a useful learning tool for the power community.

Keywords

power electronics converters power electronics education SimPowerSystems Simulink

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