10

Chapter 2 Single Phase Full Wave Diode Rectifier

2.1 Goal
Simulation of single phase full wave diode rectifier with R and R-L load on
MATLAB

2.2 Theory
We can further classify full wave rectifiers into
 Centre-tapped Full Wave Rectifier
 Full Wave Bridge Rectifier

2.3 Centre-tapped Full Wave Rectifier

2.3.1 Construction of Centre-tapped Full Wave Rectifier

A centre-tapped full wave rectifier system consists of:

1. Centre-tapped Transformer
2. Two Diodes
3. Resistive Load
 11

Centre-tapped Transformer: – It is a normal transformer with one slight

modification. It has an addition wire connected to the exact centre of the
secondary winding. This type of construction divides the AC voltage into two
equal and opposite voltages namely +Ve voltage (Va) and -Ve voltage (Vb).
The total output voltage is

The circuit diagram is as follows:

2.3.2 Working of Centre-tapped Full Wave Rectifier

 12

We apply an AC voltage to the input transformer. During the positive half-

cycle of the AC voltage, terminal 1 will be positive, centre-tap will be at zero
potential and terminal 2 will be negative potential. This will lead to forward
bias in diode D1 and cause current to flow through it. During this time, diode
D2 is in reverse bias and will block current through it.

During the negative half-cycle of the input AC voltage, terminal 2 will

become positive with relative to terminal 2 and centre-tap. This will lead to
forward bias in diode D2 and cause current to flow through it. During this
time, diode D1 is in reverse bias and will block current through it.

During the positive cycle, diode D1 conducts and during negative cycle diode
D2 conducts and during positive cycle. As a result, both half-cycles are
allowed to pass through. The average output DC voltage here is almost
twice of the DC output voltage of a half-wave rectifier.
 13

Output Waveforms

Filter Circuit

We get a pulsating DC voltage with a lot of ripples as the output of the

centre-tapped full wave rectifier. We cannot use this pulsating for practical
applications. So, to convert the pulsating DC voltage to pure DC voltage, we
use a filter circuit as shown above. Here we place a capacitor across the load.
The working of the capacitive filter circuit is to short the ripples and block
the DC component so that it flows through another path and is available
across the load. During the positive half-wave, the diode D1 starts conducting.
The capacitor is uncharged, and when we apply an input AC voltage which
happens to be more than the capacitor voltage, it charges the capacitor
immediately to the maximum value of the input voltage. At this point, the
supply voltage is equal to capacitor voltage.
 14

When the applied AC voltage starts decreasing and less than the capacitor,
the capacitor starts discharging slowly but this is slower when compared to
the charging of the capacitor and it does not get enough time to discharge
entirely and the charging starts again. So around half of the charge present
in the capacitor gets discharged. During the negative cycle, the diode D2 starts
conducting, and the above process happens again. This will cause the current
to flow through the same direction across the load.

2.4 Full Wave Bridge Rectifier

2.4.1 Construction of Full Wave Bridge Rectifier

A full wave bridge rectifier is a type of rectifier which will use four diodes or
more than that in a bridge formation. A full wave bridge rectifier system
consists of

1. Four Diodes
2. Resistive Load
We use the diodes namely A, B, C and D which form a bridge circuit. The
circuit diagram is as follows:
 15

2.4.2 Principle of Full Wave Bridge Rectifier

We apply an AC across the bridge. During the positive half-cycle, the

terminal 1 becomes positive, and terminal 2 becomes negative. This will
cause the diodes A and C to become forward-biased, and the current will
flow through it. Meanwhile diodes B and D will become reverse-biased and
block current through them. The current will flow from 1 to 4 to 3 to 2.
 16

During the negative half-cycle, the terminal 1 will become negative, and
terminal 2 will become positive. This will cause the diodes B and D to become
forward-biased and will allow current through them. At the same time, diodes
A and C will be reverse-biased and will block the current through them. The
current will flow from 2 to 4 to 3 to 1.

Filter Circuit

We get a pulsating DC voltage with a lot of ripples as the output of the full
wave bridge rectifier. We can not use this voltage for practical applications.
So, to convert the pulsating DC voltage to pure DC voltage, we use a filter
circuit as shown above. Here we place a capacitor across the load. The working
 17

of the capacitive filter circuit is to short the ripples and block the DC
component so that it flows through another path and that is through the load.
During the half-wave, the diodes A and C conduct. It charges the capacitor
immediately to the maximum value of the input voltage. When the rectified
pulsating voltage starts decreasing and less than the capacitor voltage, the
capacitor starts discharging and supplies current to the load. This discharging
is slower when compared to the charging of the capacitor, and it does not get
enough time to discharge entirely and the charging starts again in next pulse
of the rectified voltage waveform. So around half of the charge present in the
capacitor gets discharged. During the negative cycle, the diodes B and D start
conducting, and the above process happens again. This causes, the current
continues to flow through the same direction across the load.

2.4.3 Characteristics of a Full-wave Rectifier

Ripple Factor (γ)

The output we will get from the rectifier will consist of both AC and DC
components. The AC components are undesirable to us and will cause
pulsations in the output. This unwanted AC components are called Ripple.
The expression ripple factor is given above where Vrms is the RMS value of
the AC component and Vdc is the DC component in the rectifier.
For centre-tapped full-wave rectifier, we obtain γ = 0.48
Note: For us to construct a good rectifier, we need to keep the ripple factor
as minimum as possible. We can use capacitors or inductors to reduce the
ripples in the circuit.
 18

Rectifier efficiency is the ratio between the output DC power and the input
AC power.

For centre-tapped full-wave rectifier, ηmax = 81.2%

The form factor is the ratio between RMS value and average value.

For centre-tapped full wave rectifier, FF = 1.11

2.5 Advantages of Full Wave Rectifiers

 Full wave rectifiers have higher rectifying efficiency than half-wave

rectifiers. This means that they convert AC to DC more efficiently.
 They have low power loss because no voltage signal is wasted in the
rectification process.
 The output voltage of centre-tapped full wave rectifier has lower
ripples than a halfwave rectifiers.
2.6 Disadvantages of Full Wave Rectifiers

 The centre-tapped rectifier is more expensive than half-wave rectifier

and tends to occupy a lot of space.

2.7 Procedure
1. Start the Matlab software.
2. Find “new” and click “Simulink Model”
3. Click “blank model” to create a model
4. Find powergui and make a model becomes “discrete” with time step =
50e-6
5. Create a single-phase full-wave circuit as given in the Fig. below
6. Change the “stop time” from 10 s to 0.5 s
7. Run the simulation.
8. Fill in the experimental data in Table 1.1
 19

Figure 2.1 The circuit model in Matlab

Load Theory Experiment Theory Experiment Theory Exp

VRMS VDC VRMS VDC IRMS IDC IRMS IDC FFV FFI
R = 10
R=5
R = 15
R=1
R = 10, L = 1 mH
R = 10, L = 5 mH
R = 10, Cout = 10 uF
Note: L series with load, Cout paralel with load.

2.8 Report
a. Tampilkan bentuk gelombangnya
b. Hitunglah tegangan DC dan RMS dari rangkaian diatas untuk
beberapa nilai beban
c. Bandingkan hasil perhitungan dengan ekpserimen
d. Jelaskan pengaruh perubahan nilai beban terhadap fill factor dan
ripple factor tegangan dan arus!
e. Jelaskan pengaruh penambahan filter kapasitor terhadap fill factor dan
ripple factor tegangan dan arus!
f. Bandingkan THD arus untuk beberapa skema beban!
g. Bandingkan kinerjanya dengan half-wave rectifier!
 20

2.9 Conclusion
Based on the results of calculations and experiments above, what conclusions
are obtained?