Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T.

Lazim Alzuhairi

6. Controlled Rectifications
In this type, the generated DC power is controllable and variable. They usually
use SCRs as their power switches. For fast switching operation, MOSFETs and
IGBTs are used. The following subsections deal with the basic operation of
some examples of controlled rectifiers single-phase half-wave controlled
rectifier loaded with resistive load.
1. Single-phase, half-wave, controlled rectifier loaded with a resistive load
Fig. 6.1(a) shows the basic circuit for a single-phase, half-wave, controlled
rectifier loaded with a resistive load. For this configuration, the thyristor will
conducts when triggered using gate pulses provided that the supply voltage (v S )
is positive.The thyristor is fired at t  and the input voltage appears across
the load. At t   , T1 is reverse-biased by the negative supply voltage and is
turned off. ‘  ’ is termed as the delay or firing angle. The converter is said to
operate in the first quadrant. This converter is not normally used in the
industrial application because of its high ripple current and low ripple
frequency. The waveforms for one total period of operation of this circuit are
shown in Fig. 6.1(b).

(a) Circuit

Fig.6.1 Single-phase half-wave controlled rectifier.

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Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T. Lazim Alzuhairi

The average value of the load voltage Vdc can be calculated as follows

Vm
Vdc  (1  cos  )
2

The average value of the load current Idc is

Therefore, the average output voltage can vary from 0 to Vm /π and the average
load current will vary from 0 to Vm /πR when varying α from π to 0,
respectively.

The rms value of the load voltage Vrms can be calculated as follows,

Therefore the rms value of the load current Irms is

The PRV of the thyristor for this configuration is Vm .

Example -1 : A single- phase half - wave controlled rectifier shown in Fig.1,

operates from an ideal sinusoidal source with vs = 325 sinωt, at 50 Hz . If the
load is purely resistive, and at a certain triggering α , the output d.c. voltage is
Vdc = 95V, and the average value of the load current is 2.2 A. It is required to
calculate the following:

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Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T. Lazim Alzuhairi

(a) The triggering angle α

(b) Load resistance
(c) R.m.s load voltage
(d) R.m.s load current
(e) DC power
(f) The ripple factor

Solution

(a) For single-phase half-wave controlled rectifier with resistive load;

Hence α = 33.31˚ .

(b)

(c) r.m.s load voltage

(d) R.m.s load current

(e) The output DC power is given by:

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Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T. Lazim Alzuhairi

(f)

2. The Freewheeling Diode

The freewheeling diode is connected in the circuit in such away as to provide an
alternative path for the decaying load current so that the thyriator current is
al1owed to become zero and the thyristor is allowed to switch off.
Consider the half—wave rectifier of Fig 6.2 where FD is the freewheeling:
diode. Then the supply voltage is positive, from α to π, FD is in reverse and
passes no current,, so that source end load current are equal (is = i). During the
negative helf—cycle, the load current i flows through the low resistance path
provided by FD rather than against the negative supply voltage, so that i FD = i ,
and is= 0. Hence the thyristor.
This allowed to switch off. In this part of the half— cycle, the current is driven
by the energy stored in L; it decays according to the time constant of the circuit
(R, L, and FD); v is very small and negative, being equal to the voltage drop
across FD.

Fig.6.2

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Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T. Lazim Alzuhairi

3. Single-phase controlled converter circuits

3.1 Single-phase, fully-controlled bridge rectifier (p = 2)

Single-phase, fully-controlled full- wave rectifier bridge is shown in Fig.6.3.In
this this circuit, two thyristors must triggered simultaneously to permit current
to flow. For example, with the instantaneous polarity indicated in Fig.6.3, T1
and T4 must be triggered, while in reverse, T3 and T2 must triggered at the
same time. The output voltage waveform is shown in Fig.6.4 for the case of
resistive load.

Fig. 6.3 Single-phase fully-controlled full- wave Rectifier Bridge

Fig.6.4 Output voltage waveform

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Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T. Lazim Alzuhairi

 Operation of the converter with Resistive load

The dc output voltage of the converter with resistive load is given by

1
Vdc 
  Vm sin t dt

Vm
 (1  cos  )


1
RMS output vol tage  Vrms   (Vm sin t ) dt
2

1
    sin 2
 Vm 2
2
 Operation of the converter with R – L load

(i) Case of R - L load with small L / R ratio : Discontinuous load current .

In this case the current will be discontinuous as shown in Fig.6.5.

Fig.6.5 Discontinuous current operation.

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Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T. Lazim Alzuhairi

For   t  , the circuit equation is given by :-

1
Average output vol tage  Vdc   Vm sin t dt

V
 m (cos   cos )


(ii) Case of R - L load with large L / R ratio: Continuous load current .

Under these conditions, a thyristor is still conducting when another is
forward-biased and is turned on. The first device is instantaneously reverse-
biased by the second device which has been turned on. The first device is
commutated and load current is instantaneously transferred on the incoming
device . In this case the current is continuous as shown in Fig.6.6.

Fig. 6.6

2 Vm
Vdc  cos 

Under all delay angle condition, the average current is given by:

Vdc
I dc 
R
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Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T. Lazim Alzuhairi

From the above voltage equation, if the firing angle is greater than 90⁰, the
average voltage can be negative .Thus if the firing angle is suddenly increased
to 170⁰ , a large negative voltage will be applied to the load and the power is
fed back to the supply. This process is known as ‘INVERSION’.
The graph shown in Fig. 6.7 gives the relation between the firing angle and the
output voltage in p.u. for the two modes of operation (continuous and
discontinuous) for full-wave single- phase rectifier.

Rule – of- thumb: To find roughly the current is continuous or discontinuous:

If π+α < β The current is continuous

If π+α >β The current is discontinuous

Fig. 6.7

Example: A single-phase fully controlled full-wave rectifier shown in Fig.8 has

a source of 220 V r.m.s at 50 Hz, and is feeding a load R = 15 Ω and L = 20
mH. The firing angle α = 30⁰ and the current extinction angle β =225.

(a) Specify whether the current is continuous or discontinuous.

(b) Sketch the appropriate load voltage and load current waveforms
(c) Determine the average load voltage and current.
(d) Determine the r.m.s load voltage and current.
(e) Determine the a.c and d.c powers absorbed by the load.
(f) If thyristor T3 fails to open circuit, what will be the average output voltage?

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Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T. Lazim Alzuhairi

Fig.8

Solution

(a) Since

(b) The load voltage vo and load current i waveforms are as in figure 6.9

Fig.6.9 Same as Fig.6.6.

(c)

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Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T. Lazim Alzuhairi

(e) The rms values of the output voltage and current:

(f) The dc and ac powers are,

(g) If thyristor T3 fails to open circuit, then the cct will act as half-wave
controlled rectifier

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(iii) Case of highly inductive load. (L > > R)
Fig. 6.8 (a) shows the circuit connection for a single-phase, full-wave,
controlled rectifier loaded with a highly inductive load. For one total period of
operation of this circuit, the corresponding waveforms are shown in Fig. 6,8(c) .
The average value of the load voltage Vdc can be calculated as follows,

Since the load is a highly inductive load. Then, the load current is considered
constant (ripple free current) and equal to the average value of the load current
Idc as follows,

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Power Electronics Lecture No.6 Dr.Pof. Mohammed T. Lazim Alzuhairi

(a)

(c)
(b)
Fig. 6.8 Single phase full-wave rectifier loaded with highly inductive load

Therefore, the average output voltage can vary from +2V m /π to -2Vm /π when
varying α from π to 0, respectively. Moreover, since the load voltage for this
configuration can be positive or negative while the load current is always
positive because the thyristors prevents a reverse current flow. Therefore, this
converter operates in the first and the fourth quadrants as shown in Fig. 6.8(b).
The rms value of the load voltage Vrms can be calculated as follows,

Since the load current is constant over the studied period, therefore the rms
value of the load current Irms is :
Irms = Idc = Ia

The PRV for any thyristor in this configuration is (Vm).

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