Simulating an AC Power Line Disturbance with the 9801

When testing electrical equipment that is powered from the AC line, it is often important to evaluate the equipment when it is exposed to over-voltage, under-voltage, or other network fault conditions such as surges, sags, and dropouts. A designer may also want to test beyond the normal AC line voltage variations for stress testing purposes.

The 9801 programmable AC source can create these types of AC waveforms with its built-in power line disturbance simulator. The following are example list mode setups that can be used as a reference to simulate various power line disturbances.

Note: Step parameters configured in List mode. Initial program delay times not shown. Programmed PLDs generated in intervals of 100 ms. See 9801 User’s manual for additional details on setting up and running List mode programs.

Examples:

Small 2 ms spike on 120 V, 60 Hz AC waveform

Parameter	Input
Step Count	1
List Repeat	1
Step 0 Voltage	120.0 V
Step 0 Frequency	60.0 Hz
Step 0 Slope	0.0 s
Dwell Units	Second
Step 0 Dwell	1
SD State	Enable
SD Continue	Yes
SD Step 0 Voltage	160.0 V
SD Step 0 Site	1.5 ms
SD Step 0 Time	2.0 ms
List Save	Yes
Save Data Bank	1

Voltage surge on 220 V, 50 Hz AC waveform

Parameter	Input
Step Count	1
List Repeat	1
Step 0 Voltage	220.0 V
Step 0 Frequency	50.0 Hz
Step 0 Slope	0.0 s
Dwell Units	Second
Step 0 Dwell	1
SD State	Enable
SD Continue	Yes
SD Step 0 Voltage	270.0 V
SD Step 0 Site	0 ms
SD Step 0 Time	60.0 ms
List Save	Yes
Save Data Bank	2

Dropout at 90⁰ on 100 V, 50 Hz AC waveform

Parameter	Input
Step Count	1
List Repeat	1
Step 0 Voltage	100.0 V
Step 0 Frequency	50.0 Hz
Step 0 Slope	0.0 s
Dwell Units	Second
Step 0 Dwell	1
SD State	Enable
SD Continue	Yes
SD Step 0 Voltage	0.0 V
SD Step 0 Site	5.0 ms
SD Step 0 Time	20.0 ms
List Save	Yes
Save Data Bank	3