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Tech Note 5

This technical note discusses reducing harmonics in facilities with DC power systems. It describes how a common 3-phase bridge rectifier or 6-pulse rectifier introduces harmonics. While higher pulse rectifiers like 12-pulse or 24-pulse rectifiers reduce harmonics, they are more complex and expensive. As an alternative, the note recommends using multiple 6-pulse rectifiers with their inputs phase shifted to together have lower overall harmonics similar to higher pulse rectifiers but at lower cost.

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Rakesh Gudala
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40 views

Tech Note 5

This technical note discusses reducing harmonics in facilities with DC power systems. It describes how a common 3-phase bridge rectifier or 6-pulse rectifier introduces harmonics. While higher pulse rectifiers like 12-pulse or 24-pulse rectifiers reduce harmonics, they are more complex and expensive. As an alternative, the note recommends using multiple 6-pulse rectifiers with their inputs phase shifted to together have lower overall harmonics similar to higher pulse rectifiers but at lower cost.

Uploaded by

Rakesh Gudala
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Technical Note #5

Simple Yet Effective Method for Reducing Harmonics


in a Facility

The common three-phase bridge rectifier or 6-pulse rectifier is the workhorse of many
large facilities requiring DC power. Rectifiers and Thyristor-Controlled Power Supplies
are almost always the most electrically efficient, cost effective, reliable source of DC
power available. This basic circuit is shown below.

Iac

Iac

Iac

Idc

Input and Output Characteristics

During one complete line cycle, the DC output current is produced by the sequential
conduction of each rectifier. Each rectifier conducts for one third of the line cycle or
120°. Therefore, during each line cycle the top "positive" rectifiers will each take their
turn providing the output current, 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3. The bottom "negative" rectifiers
likewise conduct 120° each, yet their conduction is skewed 60° ahead of the positive
rectifiers. The net effect is that the output current is sequenced though 6 conducting pairs
of rectifiers during each line cycle. The effects of these 6 "pulses" can be seen in both the
input and the output waveforms, shown below. Notice that the ideal waveshape, in each
case is shown as a dotted line.
Input Waveform Output Waveform

Depending upon the situation, the pulse, or ripple effect on the output waveform may
have little consequence. In other cases, the ripple can be filtered to lower levels using
passive or active components. Because the desired output is DC and the ripple frequency
is 6 times the line frequency, (the 6th harmonic), a low-pass filter has the proper
characteristics. Actually by using combinations of both passive and active filters, ripple
amplitudes can be reduced to very, very, low levels.

The 6-pulse conduction of the rectifiers is also apparent in the input waveform. An ideal
input wave would like to be completely sinusoidal. The waveform of the rectifiers
however, contains many harmonics. Analysis of the input, however show that the lowest
harmonics is not the 6th. Even number harmonics, such as the 6th cannot exist in any
waveform that is symmetrical in its positive and negative half cycles. The predominant
harmonic is the 5th and the 7th. Following is a table showing the theoretical amplitudes
of various harmonics.

Harmonic 6-pulse 12-pulse 18-pulse 24-pulse


5 .200
7 .143
11 .091 .091
13 .077 .077
17 .059 .059
19 .053 .053
23 .043 .043 .043
25 .040 .040 .040
from IEEE C57.18.10 - Table 11
These input harmonics are much more difficult to filter than output harmonics. Although
a low pass filter might be used, it becomes difficult to design a filter that attenuates the
harmonics, while still passing the fundamental line frequency. The better method is to
use a notch filter, rather than a low-pass filter. Yet, even notch filters when used in
rectifier applications, are sometime difficult to implement. The filter relies on resonating
components such as inductors and capacitors to perform its function. In a facility wide
installation, there are many unknowns (system impedances, resonances, etc.) that affect
the proper tuning of these filters.

Mitigating the Harmonics

In any rectifier, it always produces better input and output characteristics by increasing
the pulse number. A facility full of 12, 18 or 24-pulse rectifiers will have lower
harmonics than one full of 6-pulse units. Referring to the above table, it is apparent that
higher pulse numbers directly translates in to elimination of lower order harmonics.

When looking at 12,18,or 24 pulse rectifiers, schematically, it becomes readily apparent


that the higher pulse numbers are achieved by combining 6 pulse rectifiers so that their
inputs are skewed from each other. By skewing multiple 6-pulse rectifiers, relative to one
another, the 6 pulses become intertwined. This is most commonly done using phase
shifting transformers. Two transformers, identical in all other regards, yet with delta
windings or wye windings, exhibit a 30° phase shift. Be means of even more winding
configurations, almost ant phase shift can be achieved. A 24 -pulse rectifier, for example,
uses 4 transformers, evenly shifted. Compared with a 6 -pulse converter, there is a multi-
fold improvement of the input and output waveforms. The units become more like an
ideal AC-DC converter!

While the input and the output characteristics improve with increasing pulse numbers, so
does the circuit complexity. The component count goes up. Any statistical analysis of
system reliability dictates that increased component count translates to lower overall
reliability.

Again, in many applications the output characteristic of a 6-pulse rectifier is adequate.


The improvement gained by higher pulse numbers while good, is not the driving force
behind desiring this increase, it is because of the beneficial input characteristics.
Knowing this, many facilities can use multiple 6-pulse units, each with its input phase
angle offset from neighboring units. By dividing the total rectifier load into 4 different
types, a simulated 24-pulse load can be achieved. Obviously, for complete simulation of
24 pulses, the input currents in each "phase offset" section must be equal. This will
probably never be truly achieved. However, the important point to consider is:

Using phase shifted power supplies, the combined total input harmonics will ALWAYS
be lower than with the same number of power supplies, all phased the same.
The combined higher pulse number will result in lower harmonics in the power line. It is
understood that the individual power supplies will each exhibit 6-pulse input
performance, the resulting lower order harmonics (5th, 7th ) will circulate between it and
its phase-offset neighbors. Careful design of the AC feeder layouts will try to group the
appropriately offset units in the same electrical "vicinity". Further "upstream",
electrically, in the facility there is an overall reduction in harmonics.

Conclusion

In many applications, 6-pulse rectifiers are adequate for their output characteristics.
Specifying higher pulse number power supplies does improve the input characteristics,
but at the cost of added circuit complexity. In facilities the use many similarly rated
units, the combined facility power system can see the same beneficial effects by
specifying 6 pulse units with their input's phase shifted from one another. This combines
the advantages of lower cost, 6-pulse units with the advantages of lower harmonics in the
facility's AC power system.

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