MITIGATION OF HARMONICS USING THYRISTOR BASED 12 PULSE VOLTAGE SOURCE PWM RECTIFIER

Abstract

Three-phase thyristor rectifiers have been used in industries for obtaining a variable dc voltage, but they have a problem of including large lower-order harmonics in the input currents. For high-power applications, a 12-pulse configuration is useful for reducing the harmonics, but it still includes the (12m ± 1) th (m: integer) harmonics. In order to further reduce the harmonics, this paper proposes to supply a ramp wave voltage at the input of a 12-pulse phase-controlled rectifier. Theoretical investigation to reduce harmonics is presented, and a strategy to control the regulated voltage and unity power factor at input side based on 12 pulse modulation technique. This paper discuss the impact of using 3-phase and 12-pulse rectifier circuit commonly found in unity power factor at input ac mains and regulate output voltage. The 12-pulse topology is known to be more expensive, but produce the least input current harmonics. However, the latter statement is completely true under balanced line conditions. In practice, the lines are inherently unbalanced. Hence, the question of whether the 12-pulse rectifier will indeed perform better in terms of the harmonics injected to the line is still under on-going discussions. This presents the modelling and simulation of both rectifier topologies to compare their input current and regulated output voltage harmonics. The rectifiers are modelled using the MATLAB/SIMULINK simulation model and several common cases conditions will be simulated to compare their harmonic levels.