16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition

Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

Harmonics Issues of Three-Phase Diode Rectifiers

with a Small DC Link Capacitor
Firuz Zare
Research and Development Centre
Danfoss Power Electronics A/S
Grsten, 6300, Denmark
fza@danfoss.com

Abstract- This paper presents effects of DC link capacitor

sizes in a three phase diode rectifier on input current
harmonics at a system level. A small DC link capacitor
generates a resonant frequency with a line inductor which
can affect and increase the input current harmonics.
According to IEC 61000-3-2 and IEC 61000-3-12 standards,
low order current harmonics of a power electronic system
should be controlled below a certain limits but at a power
system level, voltage harmonics are important and should
be reduced. SABER simulations have been carried out for a
three phase motor drive system with different DC link
capacitors and at different power levels in order to analyze
the input current harmonics and the power quality of the
power network.
Keywords- harmonics, power quality, DC link capacitor

I.

INTRODUCTION

generate significant input current harmonics and

distortion. Therefore passive or active harmonic
mitigation techniques are required to reduce line current
harmonics in order to fulfill regulations such as the IEC
61000 standards.
Fig.2 shows the DC link voltage of a three phase diode
rectifiers with a resistive load and without any DC link
capacitor [13]. It can be seen that the DC link voltage
ripple of the three phase diode rectifier is much lower
than a single phase diode rectifier due to the fact that
always two phase voltages turn on the diodes before the
voltage level reaches to zero. Therefore a smaller DC link
capacitor can regulate the DC link voltage of a three
phase diode rectifier while in a single phase rectifier a
bigger DC link capacitor is required.

Three phase power converters with a diode rectifier are

widely used in different applications to generate variable
and adjustable frequency and voltage. These converters
operate as motor drive systems to regulate motor speed in
different residential,
commercial or industrial
applications. A circuit diagram of a three phase motor
drive system is shown in Fig.1 where a diode rectifier
changes a grid voltage to a DC voltage and then the DC
voltage is converted to a regulated or adjustable voltage
and frequency through a voltage source inverter. The DC
or the AC inductor is used as a passive filter to reduce
DC link voltage ripple. Several design aspects such as
compactness, cost effectiveness, low harmonic distortion,
better performance and long lifetime are considered to
design modern motor drive systems.

Fig.1: A circuit diagram of a three phase motor drive

Normally in a conventional frequency converter, a large

electrolytic DC-link capacitor is used to regulate the DC
link voltage and protect a power module but it is an
expensive component with a limited lifetime and they

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Fig.2: DC link voltage waveform for a three phase rectifier with a

resistive load

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16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition

A three phase diode rectifier with a small DC link

capacitor was proposed by several researchers [1-3, 5].
As the small capacitor cannot store high energy, therefore
the DC voltage fluctuation is one of the drawbacks of this
topology [4, 6]. The DC link voltage variation can affect
motor drive system performance and it should be
compensated in a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
algorithm in order to improve the performance of the
overall converter. In [7, 8] new PWM techniques have
been proposed for a motor drive system with a small DC
link capacitor in order to produce a high quality output
voltage, regardless of the DC link voltage fluctuations. A
15 kW permanent magnet motor drive with 10uF
polypropylene capacitor was simulated and tested with
significant reduction in cost and size of the system [4].
Different active damping methods are proposed in [9-11]
to improve system stability by reducing the line harmonic
magnitudes. It has been addressed in so many literatures
that the line harmonic magnitude can be reduced when
the DC link capacitor is reduced in size [1-6]. In fact in
these papers the effects of converter topology has not
been taken into account at a system level while it has
been considered at a device level.

Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

(1)

Where x can be either current or voltage.

As shown in Fig.3, if there is a line inductance (L)
between a generator and a nonlinear load, the voltage
drop across the inductor equals to ( ) and the THDv
can be extracted based on the input current harmonics. In
(2) a relation between THDv and the input current
harmonics is presented.

(2)

By defining a new factor ( ), the THDv can be

defined as follows:

(3)

Where

In [12], a comprehensive analysis has been performed for

a multi drive system with small DC link capacitors at a
system level. It was shown that Total Harmonic
Distortion of Voltage (THDv) at a Point of Common
Coupling (PCC) is affected by a resonance frequency of
multi drive system and the line impedance.
In this paper, a three phase motor drive system with a
small DC link capacitor is analyzed with a line inductor
at different power levels. A multi drive system with a
small DC link capacitor is modelled as a single motor
drive system with a large DC link capacitor and at a
higher power level. A resonant frequency generated by
the DC link capacitor and the line inductor has different
damping ratio at different power levels. Simulations are
carried out for different DC link capacitors at different
operating points in order to evaluate performance of a
single and multi-motor drive systems with a small DC
link capacitor.
II.

A New Factor to Estimate Total Harmonic

Distortion

One of the power quality measurement factors is Total

Harmonic Distortion (THD) used for either voltage
(THDv) or current (THDi). A general equation to present
this factor is given in (1).

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Fig.3: A nonlinear load connected to a generator through a line

impedance

Lets consider two converters with different input current

waveforms. Low order current harmonics of these two
cases, THDi and [based on (1) and (3)] are given in
Table I. The result shows that these two converters have
the same THDi but of the case 2 is much higher
that the case 1. This shows how a converter with high
order current harmonics can significantly affect THDv
while it may have a same THDi as other converters.
Table I
I1

(A)

Case 1
Case 2

50
50

I5
(A)
10
3

I7
(A)
5
10

I11
(A)
3
5

I13
(A)
1
1

THDi

0.23
0.23

70.59
91.21

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16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition

III.

Small DC Link Capacitors

Although a motor drive system with a small DC link

capacitor has some advantages compare to a large DC
link capacitor but a comprehensive analysis is required to
investigate power quality issues of a power system with
different power electronic topologies. A main problem of
a motor drive system with a small DC link capacitor is its
resonance frequency created by a line inductor. When the
DC link capacitor size is decreased, the resonant
frequency is increased. In this case, the input current
quality fed by a grid voltage can be affected at the
resonant frequency and high order harmonics may be
generated. As the resonant phenomena strongly depend
on a damping ratio of the resonant circuit, thus a rectifier
with a small DC link capacitor may have different
performance at different load conditions.
Fig.4 shows SABER simulation results for a power
converter with four different DC link capacitors. The
simulations have been carried out for two different power
levels. According to Fig.1, the load consists of an
inverter with an AC motor which has been model as a
resistor (Rload) and different power levels have been
considered as different resistances (Rload = 20 - 500
Ohms).
It can be seen that when the DC link capacitor is
increased in size, its frequency response at the resonant
frequency gets narrow compare to the smaller DC link
capacitors. For example, a motor drive with a big DC
link capacitor (Cdc=460 uF) has almost same frequency
response at low and high power levels except around the
resonance frequency. On the other hand, a motor drive
with a small DC link capacitor (Cdc=10 uF) has different
frequency responses at low and high power levels. It is
also important to consider that there is a big difference
between frequency responses of a converter with
different DC link capacitors and at different power levels.
This means that the input current harmonic levels of a
converter with a small DC link are very sensitive to the
load power levels. Thus, when the DC link capacitor is
getting smaller in size:
x The higher order current harmonics are
affected which can increase THDv
x The frequency response is getting wider
around the resonant frequency
x The frequency response are changed at low
and high load power levels
Fig.5 shows simulation results for another case study in
which two DC link capacitors Cdc=10uF & Cdc=500uF
and a line inductor, L=1.5mH are used in a three phase

PEMC 2014

Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

diode rectifier. The resonant frequencies generated by

these two converters are: 870Hz and 130Hz, respectively.

Fig.4: Resonant frequencies of a power converter with four different

DC link capacitors and at two power levels

The motor drive with Cdc=500 uF has the resonante

frequency at 130 Hz and its frequency response above
the resonante frequency is almost same at different power
levels (Rload = 20 - 500 Ohms); While the motor drive
with Cdc=10 uF has the resonante frequency at 870 Hz
and its frequency responses at different power levels are
different. These simulation results show that the low
order harmonics (below 550 Hz affecting the 5th
harmonic) of the motor drive with Cdc=500Hz are higher
than the motor drive with Cdc=10uF. For the frequency
range above 550 Hz (affecting the 11th and higher order
harmonics) the results are different. According to (3) the
impact of the high order harmonics on THDv and power
quality of a power system is significant compare to low
order harmonics. Different simulations have been carried
out using SABER in order to analyze the performance of
a converter with two DC link capacitors (10uF and
500uF) and three power levels (Fig.6). In Fig.6.a&b,
when the load power is high (Rload=20 Ohms), the
damping ratio is high and there is no big difference
(except at the 5th harmonic) between harmonic contents
of a converter with 10uF and 500 uF DC link capacitors.
In fact the converter with a small DC link capacitor has a
better performance at a system level compare to a
converter with a big DC link capacitor.
In Fig.6.c&d, when the load power is decreased
(Rload=200 Ohms), the damping ratio is also decreased
and the low order harmonics (around the resonant
frequency) have been affected significantly by the
converter with the small DC link capacitor (10 uF). In
Fig.5, the frequency response of this power level shows
that the high order harmonics (from 550 Hz up to 1050
Hz) are increased for the converter with Cdc=10 uF
compare to the converter with Cdc=500 uF. The results

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16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition

also show that the converter with Cdc=500 uF has the

same harmonic contents at the previous power level
(Rload=20 Ohms).
In Fig.6.e&f, when the load power is decreased more
(Rload=500 Ohms), the damping ratio is also decreased
and the low order harmonics (around the resonant
frequency) have been affected significantly for the small
DC link capacitor (10 uF). Similar to the above
discussion, the frequency responses of converter with
Cdc=10uF is very similar to Rload=200 Ohms and the high
order harmonics (from 550 Hz up to 1050 Hz) are
increased more due to lower damping ratio. The results
show that for a certain level of power, a converter with a
small DC link capacitor topology has higher THDv than a
converter with a large DC capacitor.
IV.

DISCUSSION

Regardless of some advantages of a small DC link

capacitor used in a converter, it has a damping problem at
low power levels compare to a conventional converter

Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

with a large DC link capacitor. In both cases (with

Cdc=10 uF and Cdc=500 uF) THDis can be almost the
same but the magnitude of the harmonics for these two
cases may not be the same. This can affect THD v of a
power system where motor drive systems with a small
DC link capacitor are connected to a power network.
From a power system point of view, if majority of motor
drive systems connected to a grid are based on a small
DC link capacitor, then a resonant frequency and
frequency response of a multi system are important
issues and can affect power quality of the whole power
system. When a DC link capacitor gets smaller in size, a
converter performance around its resonant frequency gets
worse at low or medium power level. This means that
higher order harmonics will be affected and consequently
THDv at a point of common coupling will be increased.
Converters with a small DC link capacitor make the
system more sensitive to a line impedance value and load
profiles.

130 Hz

Cdc=500 uF

550 Hz

870 Hz

Cdc=10 uF

550 Hz

Fig.5: Input current and resonant frequencies of a power converter with two different capacitors and at three load levels

V.

CONCLUSIONS

In this paper a three phase converter with different DC

link capacitors has been analyzed at different power

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levels. For a same size of the line inductor, a converter

with a smaller DC link capacitor has a higher resonant
frequency which affects higher order harmonics and
consequently partial weighted harmonic distortions.

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16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition

Different simulations have been carried out for a three

phase motor drive system with different DC link
capacitors and operating modes. The results show that a
three phase converter with a small DC link capacitor has
a damping problem at partial power levels and can affect
THDv of a power system. The analysis and simulation
results show that the power quality of a network depends
on number of grid connected converters with small DC

Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

link capacitors, the DC link capacitor size, their power

levels and line impedance value. It is also important to
consider that motor drives with small DC link capacitor
operating at full power have less impact on the power
quality of network due to their better damping ratio to
suppress resonances.

Cdc=500 uF

Cdc=500 uF
Cdc=10 uF

250 Hz

Cdc=10 uF

(a)

(b)
Cdc=500 uF

250 Hz

Cdc=10 uF

350 Hz

550 Hz & 650 Hz

850 Hz

(c)

(d)
Cdc=500 uF

250 Hz & 350 Hz

Cdc=10 uF
550 Hz & 650 Hz
850 Hz &950 Hz

(e)

(f)

Fig.6: Input current waveforms of converters with Cdc=500 uF and Cdc=10uF at different power levels
( a) & (b) Rload=20 Ohms; (c) & (d) Rload =200 Ohms and (e) & (f) Rload =500 Ohms

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VI.

Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

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