Journal of Engineering Science and Technology

Vol. XX, No. Y (Year) PPP - QQQ

© School of Engineering, Taylor’s University

DESIGN OF FILTER FOR PULSE WIDTH MODULATED AC

VOLTAGE CONTROLLER BY OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUE

MURALI.N*, DR.BALAJI.V

Research Scholar, SCSVMV University, Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu, India

Associate Professor, BAHIR DAR University, Ethiopia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected],[email protected]

Abstract
In industries pumps and fans are controlled by Ac voltage controllers. The Ac
voltage controller plays a vital role in many of the industries. In this paper the
multiple pulse width modulated AC voltage controllers is designed for
analyzing the different loads. The performance of AC voltage controller is
analyzed with and without filter. The performance parameters are output
voltage and total harmonic distortion. The performance analysis is done for
pulse width modulated AC voltage controller with resistive load and
combination of resistive and inductive load. The design of passive filter
components is obtained using particle swarm bacterial foraging optimization
technique. The effect of filter requirements were analysed using the Matlab
software.
Keywords: Filter component, optimization technique, total harmonic distortion,
AC Voltage controller.

1. Introduction
The AC Voltage controller plays important role in industries for the application
on controlling high speed fan and pump control systems. M.A.Abdel-halim and
A.F.Almarshoud [8] the cost and economy of the controller is cheap compared to
other different methods of speed control. In the literature different topologies is
described like TRIAC control, phase angle control and single pulse width
modulation techniques. K.Sundareswaran [15] TRIAC control is the simplest and
economic voltage regulators but the harmonic in the output voltage is more. The
phase angle control is best suited for different load conditions for energy saving
mechanisms but the distortion in the waveform is more at larger triggering angle.
Single pulse width modulation is utilized for ac voltage controllers.

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2 N.Murali and Dr.V.Balaji

K.Sundareswaran, N.Rajasekar, V.T.Sreedevi [11] from the literature it is understood

that phase control is better compared to single pulse width modulation for energy
saving strategy. K.Sundareswaran and P.S. Manujith[9] the multiple pulse width
modulation and extinction angle control shows better performance compared to
other conventional controllers. The passive filter and active filters plays vital role
in making the waveform smooth and maintain the total harmonic distortion with
in the limits. The design of passive filter is utmost importance for enhancing the
quality of ac voltage controllers.

Nomenclatures

D Duty ratio
Vo Output voltage in volts
V1 Input voltage in volts
L Filter inductance in Henry
C Filter capacitance in Farad
La Load inductance in Henry
Ra Load Resistance in ohms
Re Reynolds number
Vm Maximum voltage in volts
Iripple Current ripple
Vripple Voltage ripple
T Switching time in seconds
 Angular frequency in radians per second
V Velocity of the particle in equation (9)
C1,C2 Constants in equation (9)
rand1,rand2 random numbers in equation (9)
LP Local position in equation (9)
GP Global position in equation (9)
CP Current position in equation (9)
F Objective function
M1,M2 Points in search space
O Number of variables in equation (11)
R(i) Step length in equation (10)
dattractant, Wattractant, Different coefficients in equation (11)
hrepellant,Wrepellant Different coefficients in equation (11)
 v  Acceleration factorin equation (9)

Greek Symbols
 Vector in random direction from unit value of negative to
positive.
 Angle between input voltage and output voltage in deg.

Yu Hongxiang, Li Min and Ji Yanchao [1] performed novel method of

harmonic elimination method compared to fixed duty cycle method for removing
lower order harmonics. This result gives good indication of using new technique
for eliminating lower order harmonics. This requires further investigation of
eliminating other harmonics. Khamsen. W,Aurasopon.A, Sa-ngiamvibool and

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Kaittisin.S [2] this paper gives insight view of using optimal capacitor for AC
chopper was done through simulations. This can be done by hardware for further
enhancement in studies.
Chein-Ming Wang, Ching-Hung Su, Chang-Hua Lin and Chia-Hua Liu [3] this
paper gives new concept of series resonant conversion for AC chopper. Finally a
simple passive filter is used to filter the harmonics. The total harmonic distortion is
less that 5% from hardware realization. Hashem. G.M and Darwish. M.K [4] this
paper analyses conventional method of ac voltage controller and this paper uses
symmetrically controlled technique to reduce the harmonics. The main drawback
is use of force commutation which causes major effect on output voltage. Apian
Aurasopon and Wanchai Khamsen [5] this paper focuses on design of input and
output filters of ac voltage controllers. The major drawback of this method is duty
cycle affects the power factor and hence optimal capacitor design is required.
The main objective of this paper is to analyse the steady state equivalent circuit
pulse width modulation of ac voltage controller for resistive and resistive-inductive
load. Initially the performance is analysed without passive filter components for
multiple pulse width modulation of ac voltage controller for both resistive and
resistive-inductive load. The transfer function for ac voltage controller with resistive
and resistive-inductive load is derived. From this the power factor is calculated and
taken as objective function for the optimization algorithm. The optimization is
performed for suitable values of filter inductance and capacitance to minimize the
objective function. The performance parameters for the ac chopper are total
harmonic distortion and pure sinusoidal of ac output voltage.

2. Modelling and analysis of PWM AC voltage controller

Ahmed, N.A., Amei, K. & Sakui, M [6] the pulse width modulation of AC
voltage controller plays vital role in industries. The power circuit consists of main
IGBT with four diodes and for freewheeling action has supplementary IGBT with
four diodes are formulated as power circuit and the diagram is shown in figure1.
During positive half cycle the main IGBT will conduct through diodes D1 and D2
and pass through load and return back to supply. The freewheeling action takes
place when main device is off and supplementary device is on. During negative
half cycle current passes through load, diodes D3 , main device and diode D4 and
return back to supply. From this operation it is implied that pulse generation is
designed such that main and supplementary IGBT will not conduct
simultaneously.

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4 N.Murali and Dr.V.Balaji

(a) With Resistive Load

(b) With Resistive and Inductive Load

Fig. 1. PWM AC Voltage controller power circuit diagram

2.1. Analysis of PWM AC voltage controller

Under steady state conditions the output voltage of AC voltage controller is given
by

VO  D *V1 (1)

The steady state equivalent circuit is given by

Fig. 2. Steady state equivalent circuit

The filter inductance design can be obtained by the formula

Vm T (1  D )
L (2)
I ripple

The capacitance value should be greater than the designed value.

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VmT 2 (1  D)
C (3)
8 * L * Vripple

The main purpose of passive filter in AC voltage controller gives distortion free
output. The filter inductor should be optimum value such that the harmonics in
the output voltage is less and the larger value of inductance causes power
dissipation in the filter circuit is more. The value of capacitance decreases the
angle between the voltage and current gives near unity power factor. In the
equivalent circuit the impedance is taken as resistive load R. The transfer function
for the above equivalent circuit with resistive load is a second order function.

D V1 ( s)
VO ( s)  (4)
L
s 2 LC  s 1
Ra
The final transfer function is given as

VO ( s) D * Ra
 2 (5)
V1 ( s) s LCR a  sL  Ra
The angle θ is obtained from the equation (5) shown below

  2 LCRa   2 L 
  tan 
1
 (6)
 R a 
The transfer function for the above equivalent circuit with resistive and inductive
load is obtained as

VO ( s) D( Ra  sL a )
 2 (7)
V1 ( s) s LC ( Ra  sL )  sL  Ra  sL
The angle θ is obtained from the equation (8) shown below

  La  1   LCL a   LCR a   ( L  La ) 
3 2

  tan 1

  tan    (8)
 a 
R  Ra 
3. Particle swarm-bacterial foraging optimization technique
The conventional algorithm like dynamic programming, ziegler-nichlos method
and genetic algorithm solves the non-linear mathematical problems. The dynamic
programming method has tedious steps and time consuming. The output
converges at longer time. In Ziegler-nichlos is the basic method of obtaining the
proportional integral and derivative gains of a particular control system. This
method has larger settling time and peak overshoot, hence unsuitable for accurate
control system problems. This paved the way for optimization of solving non-
linear equations. The first and foremost is the concept of genetic algorithm.
Panithi sanjit and Apinan Aurasopon [7] from this many new concepts have

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6 N.Murali and Dr.V.Balaji

arrived like swarm intelligence, ant colony and many other new concepts for
solving the non-linear problems.
The particle swarm optimization is the behaviour of colony of swarm of ants and
flock of birds. The main objective of this optimization is finding the food in least
possible time and path taken to reach the final point. Each particle is assumed to
have position and velocity. In the search space the swarm of birds will move in
random direction. When it finds the best position it will remember and
communicate to other birds for the food. The position and velocities are adjusted
depending on the food locations.

V1m 1  wv * V1m  C1 * rand 1( LP1  CP1m )  C 2 * rand 2(GP1  CP1m ) (9)

If the position of all the particles are obtained then it is converged. Otherwise the
second iteration will start by starting from local best position and global best
position.
The bacteria foraging optimization basically evolves the concept of E.coli
bacterium. Vladimir Sousa Santos,Percy Viego Felipe, Julio Gomez Sarduy[14] the
concept of E.coli is it searches for food and the bacteria grows, while when it is
near with noxious substances it will retard. There are three basic operations in
bacterial foraging optimization method they are chemotaxis, reproduction and
elimination and dispersal. The chemotatic step play important role for improving
or retarding the strength of bacteria. When the environment is good and all the
nutrients will be adding for bacteria and the size will improve. When the
environment is not suitable for growth then it will retard and disappear.
The swimming operation allows in moving with other bacteria possibly in
clockwise direction. The tumbling operation will be used when there is any
change in operation. Normally it rotates in anti clockwise direction especially
when the noxious environment occurs. The second step of reproduction operation
the bacteria with good nutrients will increase in size and asexually split into two
parts.
The chemotatic step is given below.
(i)
M (i, j, k , l )  M (i, j, k , l )  R(i) (10)
T (i) (i)
F(M,O(j, k, l) is the objective function need to be minimized, are the different
coefficients are chosen properly for the optimized value of the passive filter
design.
S
F ( M , O( j, k , l ))   F ( M , M i ( j, k , l ))
i 1
S P
   d attrac tan t exp( Wattrac tan t ) ( M m  M mi ) 2
i 1 m 1
S P
  hrepellant exp( Wrepellant ) ( M m  M mi ) 2 (11)
i 1 m 1
In the final step is the elimination and dispersal in this the good healthy bacteria
will survive for the next iteration and unhealthy bacteria will be eliminated. The

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good food source location will be remembered and for the next iteration this
process will continue till the convergence result is obtained. In this paper the
objective function is given as
1
Objective function F =
power factor
Subjected to
FMin <= F <= FMax
Where F (L,C) and the corresponding range of values indicate the minimum and
maximum value of passive filter components.
4. Results and Discussion
4.1 Resistive Load
The variation of duty cycle with fundamental AC voltage is tabulated for resistive
load of multiple pulse width modulated AC voltage controller. The tabulated values
are shown from without filter. The load resistance used is 50 ohms.

Table 1. PWM AC Voltage controller Resistive load without filter

S.No Duty Cycle Fundamental output voltage
in volts
1 0.1 5.68
2 0.2 34.27
3 0.3 48.76
4 0.4 64.81
5 0.5 84.77
6 0.6 93.01
7 0.7 128.2
8 0.8 140.4
9 0.9 167.6

Table 2. PWM AC Voltage controller Resistive load with filter

S.No Duty Cycle Fundamental output voltage
in volts
1 0.1 27.7
2 0.2 57
3 0.3 86.7
4 0.4 116.3
5 0.5 150.9

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8 N.Murali and Dr.V.Balaji

6 0.6 181
7 0.7 212
8 0.8 242
9 0.9 250

Fig 3 output Voltage waveform for Fig 4 Total Harmonic distortion for resistive
resistive load without filter load without filter

Fig 5 output Voltage waveform for Fig 6Total Harmonic distortion for resistive
resistive load with filter load with filter

4.1. Resistive and Inductive load

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The variation of duty cycle with fundamental AC voltage is tabulated for resistive-
inductive load of multiple pulse width modulated AC voltage controller. The
tabulated values are shown from without filter. The load resistance used is 50 ohms
and load inductance used is 10 milli Henry.
Table 3. PWM AC Voltage controller Resistive-Inductive load without
filter
S.No Duty Cycle Fundamental output voltage
in volts
1 0.1 7.92
2 0.2 19.26
3 0.3 54.21
4 0.4 73.01
5 0.5 91.76
6 0.6 110.5
7 0.7 129.3
8 0.8 148
9 0.9 166.6

Table 4. PWM AC Voltage controller Resistive-Inductive load with filter

S.No Duty Cycle Fundamental output voltage
in volts
1 0.1 29
2 0.2 72
3 0.3 110
4 0.4 147
5 0.5 185.6
6 0.6 223
7 0.7 261
8 0.8 298
9 0.9 335

A computer code has been done using Matlab m file programming. The design data are
fed in to the program along with the subject to constraints is mentioned. The objective
function is calculated for different iterations and it should have minimum value. The
corresponding values of passive filter components are obtained from the program. The
estimated values are simulated using MATLAB simulink environment to get the
necessary sinusoidal output voltage and permissible limits of total harmonic distortion.

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10 N.Murali and Dr.V.Balaji

Fig 7 Output Voltage waveform for Fig 8 Total Harmonic distortion for resistive
resistive and inductive load without and inductive load without filter.
filter

Fig 9 Output Voltage waveform for Fig 10 Total Harmonic distortion for
resistive-inductive load with filter resistive inductive load with filter

It is understood that by the application of filter the output voltage waveform

becomes pure sinusoidal. The total harmonic distortion is high value without filter
and it is with in permissible limits of 5percentage for the resistive load. The passive
filter components are obtained from the optimization algorithm as L = 19 milli
Henry and capacitor value is 203 microfarad. The passive filter is also applied for
resistive and inductive load. The output voltage is not purely sinusoidal because of
multiple pulse width modulation. The percentage of harmonics is of high value. By
using the filters the value of total harmonic distortion is reduced. The values of filter
components are L = 50 milli Henry ; and C = 300 microfarad.

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5. Conclusions
The performance analysis of multiple pulse width modulation fed ac voltage
controller feeding resistive and resistive-inductive load is obtained with and without
filter. This is done using analytical methods combined with optimization algorithm
and simulation using MATLAB simulink. Some concluding interpretations from the
exploration are given below.
 The output voltage has improved significantly by using passive filter for both
loads at any duty ratio of the ac voltage controller. In resistive load the output
voltage is more than input voltage at duty ratio of 0.9 is due to the effect of
capacitance value.
 The total harmonic distortion for the resistive load without filter is 113%
while by incorporating the filter in the circuit the total harmonic distortion
is 4.99% within the permissible limit of International electrical and
electronics engineering standard.
 The output voltage waveform of pulse width modulation is not proper sine
wave. After filtering operations the waveform is considered to purely
sinusoidal.
 For resistive inductive load the waveform is sinusoidal. The waveform of
current wave form is shifted by some angle due to the fact that load is
inductive nature. This can averted by closed control of current makes the
waveform sinusoidal.
References
1. Yu Hongxiang, Li Min and Ji Yanchao (2004). “An advanced harmonic
elimination PWM technique of AC choppers” IEEE power electronics
specialists conference pp 161-165.
2. Khamsen. W,Aurasopon.A, Sa-ngiamvibool and Kaittisin.S (2011).
“Designing parameters in PWM buck AC chopper for unity power factor”,
IEEE conference on electrical engineering computer information technology
pp 731–734.
3. Chein-Ming Wang, Ching-Hung Su, Chang-Hua Lin and Chia-Hua Liu
(2009). “A series resonant single phase AC chopper”, IEEE international
symposium on industrial electronics pp1240-1244.
4. Hashem. G.M and Darwish. M.K (2004). “Generalized symmetrical angle
PWM technique for ac voltage controller”, IEEE conference University
power engineering conference pp 898-901.
5. Apian Aurasopon and Wanchai Khamsen (2013). “Improvement of input
power factor in PWM AC chopper by selecting the optimal parameters”
Przeglad elektrotechniczny pp 210-216.
6. Ahmed, N.A., Amei, K. & Sakui, M (1999). “A New Configuration of
SinglePhase Symmetrical PWM AC Chopper Voltage Controller”, IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Applications pp 942-952.
7. Panithi sanjit and Apinan Aurasopon (2015).” Asymmetrical PWM for
Harmonics Reduction and Power Factor Improvement in PWM AC Choppers
Using Bee Colony Optimization” , Journal of power electronics pp 227-234.

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8. M.A.Abdel-halim and A.F.Almarshoud (2008). “Electronic control of single

phase induction motor using AC chopper”, Journal of engineering and
computer science pp 83-94.
9. K.Sundareswaran and P.S. Manujith (2001). “Steady state analysis and simulation
of AC chopper fed capacitor run induction motors” IETE journal of research pp
311-314.
10. Ju-sung kang, Nabil A Ahmed, Kwang-joo Choi, Hyun Woo Lee and Mutsuo
Nakaoka (2005). “Pulse modulated AC voltage regulator using bidirectional active
switches with different control strategies” IEEE conferencepp 1107-1111.
11. K.Sundareswaran, N.Rajasekar, V.T.Sreedevi (2006). “Performance comparison of
capacitor run induction motor supplied from AC voltage regulator and SPWM
chopper”, IEEE transactions on industrial electronics pp 990-993.
12. Deniz Yildirim,Murat Bilgic ( 2008). “ PWM AC chopper control of single phase
induction motor for variable speed fan application”, in IEEE conference pp 1337-
1342.
13. Nabil A Ahmed, Kenji Amei, Masaaki Sakui (1999). “AC chopper voltage
controller fed single phase induction motor employing symmetrical PWM
technique”, Electric power systems research, Elsevier pp15-25.
14. Vladimir Sousa Santos,Percy Viego Felipe, Julio Gomez Sarduy (2013). “Bacteria
foraging algorithm application for induction motor field efficiency estimation under
unbalanced voltages”, in Science direct Measurement Elsevier pp 2232-2237.
15. K.Sundareswaran (2001). “A improved energy saving scheme for capacitor run
induction motor”, in IEEE transactions on industrial electronics pp 238-240.

N.Murali has 10 years of teaching experience. Now he is working as a Consultant.

His current areas of research are Optimization techniques,
power electronics and drives, electrical machines and power
electronics application in power system. He has published 6
research papers in international journals and 6 papers in
national conferences. He is a Life member of System society
of India.

Dr.V.BALAJI has 14 years of teaching experience. Now he is working as a

Associate Professor in the school of Electrical Engineering, Bahir Dar University
Ethiopia. His current areas of research are model predictive control, process
control, and Fuzzy and Neural Networks. He has received
world greatest teacher award from VPGR institute of
Technology and also has published 41 research papers in
national and international journals and conferences. He is a
member of ISTE, IEEE, IAENG, IAOE and IACSIT. He is
also serving as a Chief Editor, Associate editor, editorial
board member and reviewer in the reputed national and
international journals and conferences.

Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Month Year, Vol. XX(Y)