CHAPTER THREE

Power Conversions

Power Conversions

3.1 AC - DC converter (rectifier)

Some electrical equipment can use a.c. directly, e.g. lamps, space and water heating, cookers, fans,
drills, vacuum cleaners etc. Other applications require that a.c is changed to d.c. These include radio
and TV sets, computers, battery

chargers, TTL and CMOS logic circuits, laboratory power supplies, public transport traction drives,
high voltage d.c. links, etc. The process of changing a.c. into d.c. is called rectification. Where the
application requires fixed voltage d.c., the switching element is a diode (uncontrolled rectifiers).
Where the application requires variable voltage d.c., controlled rectifiers are used.

Many different d.c. levels are required depending on the applications, e.g.:
Uncontrolled Rectifier

Fig. Six-pulse diode rectifier.

Fig.Waveforms of the output voltage and current in a six-pulse diode rectifier

Fig. shows the line-to-line voltages and output voltage of the six-pulse diode rectifier. The output
voltage is not ideally of the dc quality, but it has a high dc component, Vdc (average value of vdc),
given by

Where Vm is line to lime peak voltage

3.1.1 Single phase Controlled converter

In Fig 1 the half-wave controlled rectifier, full use is not being made of the a.c. supply voltage
waveform; only the positive half-cycle is used. With the full-wave controlled rectifier, both positive
and negative half-cycles are used. There are a number of circuit configurations that can be used to
achieve full-wave control. Circuits shown in Fig 2 a-d use one, two and four switching devices.

Fig 1 the half-wave controlled rectifier

Fig 2.1b the half-wave controlled rectifier

Fig. 3.19 Single phase full wave controlled rectifiers schematic circuits
Of the full-wave configurations, the half-controlled is the easiest to implement, since the two
thyristors can be arranged to have a common cathode. The firing circuit can have a common train of
pulses and only the forward-biased device will switch on at the arrival of a pulse on the two gates. It
is still necessary to keep the mains neutral separate from the firing circuit common connection. The
circuit arrangement and voltage waveforms are shown in Fig.

Average output voltage is

Fig 2.20 single phase full -wave half controlled rectifier

FULL-WAVE FULLY CONTROLLED BRIDGE WITH HIGHLY INDUCTIVE LOAD

The bridge thyristors can only conduct in one direction, but without diodes in the bridge the load
voltage can reverse due to the load inductance, the load current continues to circulate, and current
is circulated back to the mains against the direction of the mains voltage. In fact, the stored energy
in the load is regenerating back to the supply. This is two-quadrant operation. The circuit and
waveforms are given in Fig. 2.21. In this circuit, the outgoing thyristors are turned off, or
commutated, by reverse bias from the supply, when the incoming thyristors are switched on, i.e.
there is no load current zero:

Fig 3.21 single phase full -wave controlled rectifier

Example3.1

Fig. 3.22 average load voltage versus firing angle

Example 3.2

A 240V, 50Hz supply feeds a highly inductive load of 50Ω resistance through a thyristor bridge that is
(a) half-controlled, (b) fully-controlled. Calculate load current, power and power factor for each case
when the firing angle delay α = 450
3.1.4 Three phase Controlled converter

When the diodes are replaced with SCRs (silicon controlled rectifiers, also known as thyristors), TA
through TC’ as in Fig.2.23, a phase controlled six-pulse rectifier is obtained. In this circuit, two
thyristors are fired simultaneously. The reference point for successful turn-on is now the cross-over
of the line voltages. Firing pulses are required every 600. The firing sequence of the thyristors is
tabulated below for 600 intervals. Each thyristor is conducting for a 1200 period, and is off for a 2400
period.

Positive cycle TA TA TB TB TC TC

Negative cycle TB’ TC’ TC’ TA’ TA’ TB’

To draw the input and output voltages wave of each SCRs , let see the phase and line voltages
The reference point for successful turn-on each SCR is now at the line voltages cross-over each
other.

Fig 3.24 Waveforms of the output voltage and current in a six-pulse phase controlled rectifier (αf =
450 >=300).

The adjustable dc output voltage, Vav of the rectifier is given by

Where Elm is line to line and Epm phase to phase are peak voltages; α denotes the firing angle, which
determines instants of turning on (firing) the SCRs. Specifically, α = 0 represents the situation when
an SCR is fired at the same instant at which the respective diode in an uncontrolled rectifier.

If, in the ωt domain, the firing is delayed with respect to that instant by αf radians, the average
output voltage is reduced in proportion to cos(αf). Waveforms of the output voltage, vo, and current,
io, with the firing angle of 450 are illustrated in Fig.3.24.

The input power factor of the controlled rectifier is lower than that of the diode rectifier. The power
factor, which similarly to the dc output voltage is proportional to the cosine of the firing angle,
decreases with the increase of this angle. The poor quality of currents drawn from the power system
is a major disadvantage of uncontrolled and phase-controlled rectifiers.

Example 3.3
Fig.2.25 three phase half wave Rectifier

FIG. 2.26 for Instantaneous dc voltage VD , average dc voltage VD and firing angle α. Of three phase
half wave controlled rectifier

Fig2.27 output voltage

and current wave
diagrams for 3 phase half
controlled converter
 Example 3.4

The three-phase half-controlled converter of Example 2.3 is replaced by a three-phase fully

controlled thyristor converter. Load and supply remain unchanged, i.e. highly inductive load of 10Ω
and a three-phase supply of 240V at 50Hz. Determine the values of average load voltage and
current, rms phase current, load power and converter power factor for a firing angle delay of (a) α =
300 = (b) α = 750

(c) What are the maximum values of load power and converter power factor obtainable from the
circuit? Compare the solutions with those of Example 2.3.
The problem of harmonic pollution of the power system caused by power electronic converters,
often called nonlinear loads, is very serious, and significant efforts to combat the system harmonics
are being made.

The most common solution is to install appropriate filters, either between the power system and the
offending converter (series filters) or in parallel with the converter (parallel filters). Filters can be
passive or active. Passive filters are simple LC (inductive-capacitive) circuits designed to block and
shunt current harmonics so that they are drawn from filter capacitors rather than from the power
system. With respect to diode rectifiers, the so-called harmonic traps are often used.

They are series-resonant LC circuits, tuned to frequencies of the lowest harmonics of the input
current, for instance the 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th. The harmonic traps shunt the respective harmonic
currents from the power system. The remaining, unfiltered harmonics usually have such low
amplitudes that waveforms of currents drawn from the system are close to ideal sinusoids.

The resonant frequencies of harmonic traps are relatively low, because even the 13th harmonic has
a frequency well below 1 kHz. Therefore, the inductors and capacitors used in the traps are large and
expensive. To significantly reduce the size of passive filters, pulse width modulated (PWM) rectifiers
must be used. There are two types of these converters, the voltage source and current source PWM
rectifiers.

The voltage source PWM rectifier, based on IGBTs, the most popular semiconductor power switch
now adays (the so-called non-punch-through IGBTs must be used because of the ac input voltages),
is shown in Fig2.28. The three-phase line with input filters based on inductors L i and capacitors Ci
constitutes the voltage source for the rectifier.

The input inductors do not have to be physical components, because the supplying power system
itself may possess sufficient inductance, but the capacitors are necessary. The output inductance, L o,
which can be provided by the load, smooths the output current. Switches, SA through SC, of the
rectifier are turned on and off many times per cycle of the input voltage in such a way that the
fundamental input currents follow desired reference values.
The dc output voltage of the voltage source rectifier cannot be adjusted to a value greater than the
peak value of line-to-line supply voltage. In contrast, the current source PWM rectifier shown in Fig.
allows the boosting of the output voltage. The current source properties of the rectifier result from
the input inductors, Li. Because the rectifier switches provide direct connection between the input
and output of the converter, the output capacitor, Co, is necessary to prevent connecting the input
inductance, carrying certain current, with the load inductance, which may conduct a different
current. The same capacitor smooths the output voltage vo.
Fig.Waveforms of currents supplied by the power system to the voltage source PWM rectifier.

3.2 Chopper (DC-DC converters)

SIMPLE CHOPPER CIRCUIT

Example 3.5
3.3 DC – AC CONVERSION (INVERTERS)

The inverter provides a.c. load voltage from a d.c. voltage source. The semiconductor switches can
be BJTs, thyristors, MOSFETs, IGBTs etc. The choice of power switch will depend on rating
requirements and ease with which the device can be turned on and off.

Modern inverter power switch types for using SCR-silicon controlled rectifier; IGBT- isulated gate
bipolar transistor; MOSFET-metal-silicon-dioxide field-effect transistor.

Thyristors would only be used in very high power inverters, since on the source side there is no
voltage zero, and a forced commutation circuit would be required to turn the thyristor off.
The a.c. load voltage of the inverter is essentially a square wave, but pulse width- modulation
methods can be used to reduce the harmonics and produce a quasi-sine wave. If higher a.c. voltages
than the d.c. source voltage are required, then the inverter will require a step-up transformer.

The output frequency of the inverter is controlled by the rate at which the switches are turned on
and off, in other words by the pulse repetition frequency of the base, or gate, driver circuit.

3.3.1 Single-phase DC-AC inverter

Fig.3.37 Transistorized single phase inverter

3.3. 2.three-phase DC-AC inverters

The three-phase inverters are classified as

1. voltage source inverter (VSI) is shown in Fig.3.38 bellow and

2. current source inverter (CSI) is shown in Fig. 3.39 which, in the square-wave mode, produces
rectangular waveforms of the output current.

For consistency, IGBTs are shown here as the inverter switches, but practical current source
inverters are often of such a high power that they must be based on GTOs or SCRs with commutating
circuits (to turn the SCRs off).

Fig.3.38 Voltage source inverter.

Fig.2.39 Crurent source inverter.

 Analysis of VSI 1200

Two switches conducting at a time, the conducting sequence is as follows (each device
conducts for a 1200 period):

Sw SA SA SB SB SC SC

Sw SB’ SC’ SC’ SA’ SA’ SB’

Θ 0-600 600 -1200 1200 -1800 1800 -2400 2400 -3000 3000 -3600

Two conducting devices- line voltage and current

Values of line voltage and line (also phase) current for 600 intervals are shown in Fig.2.40,
from which the waveforms are constructed. The other two lines have identical values,
displaced mutually by 1200

SA and SB’ SA and SC’ SC’ and SB

SB and SA’ SA’ and SC SC and SB’

Fig.3.40 voltage and current waveforms are obtained of three phase inverter obtained from
Im = Vdc/2 RL

EXAMPLE 3.6

3.4 AC- AC Converter

Variable a.c. voltage can be obtained using Triacs and inverse-parallel connected thyristors.
One method is to use phase control, where part of the sinusoidal voltage waveform is blanked
out each half or full cycle. Another method is to use burst-firing control, where complete half
or full cycles are

blanked out. Burst-firing generates less in the way of harmonics since it switches at mains
voltage zero, but it is not suitable for some loads.
 Step-up or step-down of the mains input voltage is achieved using transformers, and then
precise control of the rms load voltage requires an a.c. to a.c. regulator.

Triacs are used for lamp dimming, heater control and series universal motor speed control.
Phase control can be used for any of these applications, but burst firing is not suitable for
mains frequency filament lamps due to lamp flicker, or for motor control due to fluctuating
torque.

Heater control is suited to burst firing due to the long thermal time constant of the heating
element. Other applications of Triacs are in spot welding and as solid-state contactors.

Applications requiring more than about 1000V, and 200A or so, would exceed the upper
rating of Triacs, and then inverse-parallel SCRs would be used.

The Triac is turned on by the application of a low voltage short-duration pulse to the gate.
Once on, the gate loses control and the Triac remains on until the load current falls to
virtually zero, or at mains voltage zero.

In the on state there is a voltage drop of about 1V across the Triac. As in a.c. to d.c. power control,
the rms load voltage is varied using firing angle delay on mains voltage zero - the smaller the delay,
the greater the rms load voltage.

Fig2. 42 AC VOLTAGE CONTROL FOR RESISTIVE LOAD

Example 3.7

A triac controller (2.41)provides variable power to a 200 ohm resistive load from a 240v, 50 Hz
supply. Determine the value of rms load current, power and converter power factor for fring angle
delays of firing angle 30 deg and 150 deg

TYPICAL POWER ELECTRONIC APPLICATONS

1. HVDC POWER TRANSMISSION

 A.DETAILED CIRCUIT B. UNLINEAR DIAGRAM

dc transmission can substantially increase the power transfer capability on the existing right-of-
way.The use of HVDC systems for interconnections of asynchronous systems is an interesting
application. Nearly all HVDC power converters with thyristor valves are assembled in a converter
bridge of 12-pulse configuration, as shown in Fig. 3.43. Consequently, the ac voltages applied to each
six-pulse valve group which makes up the 12-pulse valve group have a phase difference of 300 which
is utilized to cancel the ac side, 5th and 7th harmonic currents and dc side, 6th harmonic voltage,
thus resulting in a significant saving in harmonic filters.

Fig 3.44 Induction heat for metal treat power supply basic diagram. ac, alternating current; dc, direct
current
 2. DRIVE SYSTEM

Fig 3.45 Synchronous machine drive with a cycloconverter.

3. Fig 3.46 Application of AC motor control Main circuit diagram in 300 series locomotives

4.

Fig. 3.47 PMW generation for gate or base triggering of switches with fixed switching frequency.