THREE-WIRE INVESTIGATION OF A HYBRID POWER FILTER WITH FOURSWITCH STRUCTURE APPLIED TO THE ATTENUATION OF 5TH AND 7TH HARMONICS

WITH REDUCED INVERTER POWER RATING

B.M. Laurindo, B.W. Frana, L.G.B. Rolim, M. Aredes
LEMT - Laboratrio de Eletrnica de potncia e Mdia Tenso PEE/COPPE Programa de Engenharia Eltrica UFRJ Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro [brunoml|bruno|Rolim|aredes]@lemt.ufrj.br Abstract This paper studies a hybrid filter formed by a single tuned LC filter per phase and a small-rated three-phase active filter, which are directly connected in series without any matching transformer. The required rating of the active filter is much smaller than that of a conventional standalone active filter would be and it comprises a four-switch H-bridge inverter connected to the three-wire system. The analytical procedure is verified by simulation results to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. Keywords Active power filter, harmonics, hybrid power filter, transformerless. I. INTRODUCTION In recent years, harmonic pollution has become a serious problem in power distribution system. Current and voltage harmonics have negative effects on the operation of the electric power system. Thus, great attention is focused on harmonic generation and control. Several standards have introduced limits on current harmonics injected into the power system and on voltage harmonics at the bus-bars of the system [1]. The harmonic current has a spectrum composed harmonic, sub harmonic and inter harmonic, variables with the output frequency converter. The circulation of these currents by the electric industrial system introduces a distortion, causing a host of related problems power quality. A conventional solution for the compensation of nonsinusoidal currents or lagging power factor of a load is to connected compensating devices, like capacitor banks or tuned passive filters, in parallel to the load. However, their frequency characteristics are unfavorably influenced by a variable grid impedance and here, in reality, the danger of the excitation of resonance exists. In addition, variations of filter parameters occur due to aging, temperature, and other operating conditions to assess such questions. This paper analyzes a transformerless ac/dc power conversion system consisting of a three-phase six-pulse diode rectifier compensated shunt hybrid filter. A single LC passive filter per phase and a small-rated active filter using a three-phase voltage-source PWM inverter are directly connected in series without any matching transformer, thus forming the shunt hybrid filter. The filter absorbs most harmonic currents produced by the rectifier, whereas the active filter improves the filtering characteristics of the filter. The required rating of the inverter for this hybrid filter is

much smaller than that of a conventional standalone active filter. Also, no additional switching-ripple filter is required for the hybrid filter because the LC filter functions not only as a harmonic filter but also as a switching-ripple filter. Hybrid power filters (HPF) consisting of dedicated passive and active filters connected in series or parallel have been reported in the literature. It has been shown that HPF are less sensitive to parameter variations than a passive filter used alone [2]. It is also well known that HPF helps to reduce the active filter rating because it can use lower-voltage inverters and can block undesired currents. Some research efforts have been made to develop new power converters with reduced losses and costs. Among these circuits, the three-phase converters with only two inverter legs are an alternative solution. Only four power switches and four clamping diodes are used in the adopted converter instead of six power switches and six clamping diodes used in a conventional converter. With a reduced number of power switches, the converter can compensate harmonics also in case of unbalanced line voltages. It is possible to obtain near unity power factor and input currents with nearly sinusoidal shape, strongly reducing line current harmonics, not in focus at the moment [1]. II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION Fig. 1 shows the ac/dc power conversion system proposed in this paper. The shunt hybrid filter consists of a 0.4kVA active filter with a switching frequency of 10 kHz, and a passive filter. Both filters are directly connected in series without transformer. The hybrid filter is installed in parallel with a three-phase diode rectifier rated at 4kVA, for testing. A DC capacitor is connected to the DC bus of the power purpose converter to reduce its ripple; therefore, forming a voltage-source power converter. The voltage-source converter is controlled by the pulse width-modulation (PWM) strategy in which a modulation signal is compared with a high-frequency carrier. The voltage-source converter controlled by the PWM strategy can generate a voltage give by (1) [2]:
* V AF

K . VFh

(1)

The frequency spectrum of switching ripple voltages is concentrated around integer multiples of the carrier frequency. Since the switching frequency of the power converter is very high compared with the harmonic

frequencies existing in power system, it can be filtered out effectively by the inductance of the passive filter.[3]

Z ( s)

1 1 RL 1 sLS

(3)

VaS VbS VcS

LS

iaL ibL icL

LAC RL LL

At first, it is necessary to calculate a loop transfer function of the harmonic detection method, but will be calculated only for the method of detection of VF.

rF LF

GVFh ( s)

k.

VFh V AF

k .Z F ( s) Z F ( s) Z ( s)

(4)

Moreover, the harmonic voltage appearing on the common bus, VPCCh is given by

CF iaF ibF icF

VPCCh
Cdc

VFh V AF

(1 k )VFh

(5)

VCC

Fig. 1. A 220V transformerless ac/dc power conversion system.

A. Control Circuit 1) Considerations of Harmonic Detection Methods Three different harmonic detection methods for the active filter are considered and compared in view of system stability: detecting the harmonic current flowing into the passive filter, IFh; detecting the harmonic voltage appearing across the passive filter, VFh; detecting the harmonic voltage appearing on the common bus voltage, VBUSh. In the following analysis, the harmonic-extracting circuit of the active filter is assumed to be ideal without time delay, so that the transfer function of the control circuit is simplified as the gain k. Figure 2 shows a single-phase equivalent circuit from which the supply harmonic voltage is removed. The total impedance of the passive filter, ZF(s) is given by

Setting the gain to k = -1 yields an ideal condition of VPCCh = 0. So, finding the reference voltage of the hybrid filter, Vabc INV adjusted gain k. The VF detecting method with a gain of k = -1 has the magnitude of 0 dB and the phase angle of 0 in a frequency range of less than 200 Hz and of more than 400 Hz, as shown in Figure 3, so that this system is marginally stable. Therefore, the gain should be set in a range of 0> k >-1, to provide a gain margin. Since it is detecting the 5th-harmonic, 300Hz.

Z F (s)

rF

sL F

1 sC F
rF

(2)

ZF Z(s) LS RL

LF CF

IFh

VFh

VAF
Fig. 2. Single-phase equivalent circuit when no harmonic voltage exists in the supply voltage.

The external impedance seen from the installation point of the hybrid filter the same figure 2, and Z(s) is given by

Fig. 3. Bode Diagram of the Harmonic-Extracting Method Under Full-Load Conditions.

2) Feedback Control Figure 4 shows how the control signals VoutF are obtained in quadrature to source voltage, VS.

For such, are generated by PLL (Phase Locked Loop) sines and cosines of t. The amplitude of RefLinkcc delivered by the PI controller, that acts to control the DC voltage of the capacitor. Thus, by applying the Clarke transform, signals in abc coordinates are generated in quadrature with the source voltages. These VoutF signals make up the reference PWM, controlling the active power injected or drained from the capacitor DC link.

cut-off frequency fc= 16 Hz average d-q5 components of the fifth harmonic load currents are obtained. These components should be delivered by the APF into the point common coupling (PCC) to prevent the system withdrawing them from the grid. The reference voltage for the active filter, which should be generated by the feedforward control loop, is then calculated as follows [7]:

cos VaS VbS VcS sin

wt 5

x
CLARKE TRANSFORM

VoutF a VoutF b VoutF c

Gain K K Gain K

VAFa

Va-INV Vb-INV Vc-INV

PLL

wt

VAFb Gain VAFc

vRe f dq 5

vL5

rF

LF

1 5 CF

.iL dq 5

(6)

X(-5)

Feedback Control P

VRef Vcc pu

erro VCC

RefLinkCC

Link DC Control

The reference d-q5 voltage components vRef d5, vRef q5 are then transformed back into the phase reference quantities. The final reference phase voltages for the active filter are determined by summing the references coming from the feedback and feedforward loops. 5) Gain - Adjusting Control The gain-adjusting circuit calculates a square of the extracted 5th-harmonic voltage for every phase, and then sums all of the three, producing a vF5 as follows [4]:
2 vF 5 2 vout F 5a 2 vout F 5b 2 vout F 5b

IaL IbL IcL

PARKE TRANSFORM

ILd5

LPF

ILd5-barra
Reference Voltage FFW

Vref-d5
INVERSE CLARKE TRANSFORM

Feedforward Control VFW a VFW b VFW c

wt 5

ILq5

LPF

ILq5-barra
w5 wt 5

Vref-q5

Fig. 4. Control system for the hybrid filter.

(7)

3) DC-Bus Voltage Control The DC Bus voltage of the converter must be greater than the peak value of the inductor voltage of the passive filter. This is necessary the compensating current required by active filter is imposed by LF [8]. This paper discusses how this topology may allow the reduction of voltage in the inverter, and thus power rating. In the active filter connected in series with the passive filter, the terminals AC voltage of the active filter is effectively reduced. In fact, for a given maximum harmonic current, a reduction of the inductor voltage is obtained with just a small amount of inductance. The disadvantage is that such solution requires a high capacitance value in order to maintain the same of the passive filter tuning. In the fundamental frequency, the passive filter has a capacitive behavior. This means that it injects reactive power in the grid. A larger capacitance enhances this effect, which can deteriorate the resulting power factor [4]. The active filter can build up and regulate the DC capacitor voltage by itself without any external power supply [6]. When the active filter is controlled to produce a fundamental voltage, being it in phase with the fundamental leading current of the passive filter, an active power, formed by the leading current and the fundamental voltage, is delivered to the DC capacitor. A proportional-plus-integral (PI) controller is used to do it, also seen in Figure 4. 4) Feedforward control Three load phase currents are transformed in two orthogonal components in the synchronous rotating reference frame, by using a unit vector (cos5t, sin5t) with the fifth harmonic angular speed 5. By using a low pass filter (LPF) of the first order with the

As shown Figure 5, the circuit compares v F 5 with a square of a limit value v F 5 . When v F 5 is smaller than the square of v F 5 , the circuit sets the gain in such a way as k = -rF. When v F 5 is larger, an integral feedback controller in the circuit adjusts the gain in such a way as to make
2 * v F 5 equal v F 5 . The purpose of the gain-adjusting circuit is 2 * 2

to prevent the passive filter and the active filter from overheating and overcurrent, and therefore the circuit requires a control response as slow as 14 seconds. This implies that it takes about 2 seconds to adjust the gain k from -2 to 0, when an overcurrent being two times as large as the rated current flows into the passive filter [4].

VoutF a VoutF b VoutF c

X2 X2 X2 X2 VF5 col 1 sT -rF

Gain K

VF5*

Fig. 5. Gain-Adjusting Circuit. B. Filtering Characteristics of Passive Filter

This topology consists of one LC filter per-phase, tuned at 7th-harmonic frequency. The resonant frequency of the LC filter is given as follows:

1 LF C F

(8)

It is a well-known fact that the LC filter presents good filtering characteristics around the resonant frequency. This paper selects not the 5th-harmonic frequency but the 7thharmonic frequency as the resonant frequency for the following reasons: the feedforward control combined with the feedback control makes a significant contribution to improving the filtering performance at the dominant 5thharmonic frequency; the LC filter tuned at the 7th-harmonic frequency is less bulky than that tuned at the 5th-harmonic frequency as long as both filters have almost the same filter inductor LF; the 7th-tuned LC filter makes the 11th- and 13th harmonic impedances lower than the 5th-tuned filter does. 1) Characteristic Impedance of the LC Filter This impedance determines filtering performance at harmonic frequencies except for the resonant frequency. In order to obtain better filtering performance, the characteristic impedance should be as low as possible. This implies that the capacitance value of CF should be as large as possible, whereas the inductance value of LF should be as small as possible [5]. The characteristic impedance of the LC filter, Z is given as follows:

Fig. 6. Frequency Response Impedance of the Passive LC Filter.

TABLE I Harmonic Content of Load Current and Supply Current from Simulation Results
Results in percent of fundamental current 5th 22,6 0,3 7th 10,9 0,02 11th 8,5 0,2 13th 5,6 0,1 17th 4,7 0,1 19th 3,4 0,07 23th 2,9 0,04 THD 27,9 0,6

iL iS

LF CF

(9)

Table I summarizes the supply current THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) and the ratio of each harmonic current with respect to the fundamental current. The THD value is calculated for harmonics until the 31st order. The THD of iL reached 27,9 % because it contains a large amount of the 5thharmonic current, replaying the entire contents to the source. On the other hand, when the hybrid filter is integrated, the THD of iS decrease to 0,6 %, as expected from Figure 7.

A lower characteristic impedance reflects a lower dc capacitor voltage as well as lower electromagnetic interference emissions on the hybrid filter. On the other hand, a low characteristic impedance has the following disadvantages: a large capacitance value of CF makes it bulky and expensive; a large amount of leading reactive current flows into the hybrid filter [5], [9]. In order to obtain good filtering characteristics, element values has set LF = 1mH and CF = 143.59 F have been choosen. Thus, a low impedance path for the 5th and 7thharmonic is given by the LC filter. The quality factor Q is set to 22. In Figure 6 the frequency response of impedance around the 7th-harmonic can be observed.

(a)

III. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS Computer simulations were carried out to verify the viability and effectiveness of the proposed hybrid filter. The dc load is an RL load of S3 = 4 kVA and PWM inverter rating is S3 = 0.4 kVA. The feedback gain of the active filter is k = -1,95 , and the dc-bus voltage is 30V. The DC link capacitance was set to 4700F.
(b) Fig. 7. FFT Analysis of the Harmonic Spectra: (a) Load, (b) Source.

When the feedback plus feddforward control are applied to the active filter, the hybrid filter can reduce the supply

current total harmonic distortion (THD) to 0,6% as figures (a) and (b) above suggest in the analysis the spectra harmonic. The harmonic content is examined more clearly in Figure 8. The harmonics are expressed as percentage of the fundamental component. The amplitude of the fundamental is seen on the left axis limited at 1,0 and on the right axis is observed the amplitude of order harmonics limited at 0,004.

achieve satisfactory performance. Since the required dc voltage is 100 V, no matching transformer is used to connect the active filter with the LC filter, which means that this hybrid filter can still be practical and viable.

Fig. 10. DC Voltage of the Inverter.

From Figure 11, it is clearly seen that almost no switching- ripple voltage appears at VabcS. This implies that the LC filter has an additional function of a switching-ripple filter as expected.

Fig. 8. Comparison of the Amplitude of the Hamonics Relation With Fundamental.

The load current contains a large amount of the fifth and seventh harmonic current, so that its current THD reaches 27,9%. The supply current has the current THD reduced to 0,6%, and it becomes an almost sinusoidal waveform with a leading power factor as good as 0,96. Where the Figures 9 (a) and (b) may be to observe the waveforms of the load and source.

Fig. 11. Waveforms of the Source of Voltage.

(a)

Fig. 12. Waveforms of the Currents of Active Filter.

IV. CONCLUSION This paper has proposed ac/dc power conversion system without any matching transformer consisting of a three-phase six-pulse diode rectifier and a shunt hybrid filter for the 220V line-to-line voltage system. The passive filter used here consists of only a single tuned LC filter, and no switchingripple filter is installed in the system, thus making the system compact and viable. Moreover, a feedback control scheme is also proposed to improve the performance of the active filter. Simulation results show that the hybrid filter, in which the dc voltage of the active filter is 30V, can compensate for current harmonics generated from the diode rectifier, thus using an

(b) Fig. 9. Waveforms of the Currents: (a) Load, (b) Source.

These results also verify that the dc voltage of 30V, through of the Figure 10, is sufficient for the active filter to

inverter with reduced power effectively. This means that no matching transformer is required to connect the active filter in series with the LC filter. The hybrid filter results in a satisfactory supply current waveform. This allows us to put it into practical use for low voltage systems, as there are commercially available IGBTs compatible.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by encouragement of sources, during the development of this project.

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