Analysis of a controllable LC-filter for compensation of specific harmonics

H.W. Klesser, S.W.H. deHaan, J.B. Woudstra Delft University of Technology Power Electronics and Electrical Machines S W.H.deHaan@irs.tudelfi.nl .

Abstract
In this paper a recently proposed circuit to compensate harmonics is analysed. The circuit consists of an LC-filter which is connected in series with an electronic switch, which enables control of the system [I]. The compensator is intended to be connected in parallel to a harmonic-generating appliance, such as line commutated converters. The system is analysed for the third harmonic by applying the principle of superposition. The circuit is considered to be excited by the undistorted grid voltage with the so called switch voltage superimposed on it. After fourier-series expansion of the switch voltage, linear circuit theory is applied. Based on the analysis, a mathematical relation between the harmonic and major control and circuit parameters is derived. The obtained formula's can be used for purpose of control and design for a system with one zero current interval. The model has been verified by comparison with experimentdy obtained results. The analysis led to following conclusions: 1) for control with a single dead time, the current amplitude is roughly proportional to cos(ot,), where t, is the f ~ n instant with respect to g the -/+ zero crossing of the phase voltage. 2) . phase and amplitude cannot be controlled independantly if one zero current interval is applied 3) for a phase angle of 90" the amplitude has a maximum, which is for many applications an acceptable combination.

1.

Introduction

Several types of power electronic converters, such thyristor controlled converters, are characterized by ac currents which contain many low order harmonics with a significant amplitude. Either by their large number, such as in the input stage of electronic power supplies, or by their large power level, such as in HVDC systems, these harmonics can cause harmonics distortion of the grid voltage at the point of common coupling. These harmonics may result in extra losses and in disturbances with other customers. To prevent these compatibility problems the addition of filters is often required to block or reduce the harmonics. Often passive LC filters are used which are connected in parallel to the load. Because of their low impedance for harmonics, these filter have the drawback that they form a sink for harmics being present in the grid, thus causing even larger harmonic current then would be present without filter. With active filters this problem is avoided because the current can be controlled acurately. The drawback of these.systems is that the care complex and contain many components

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W.51
Recently a new filtering system [l] has been proposed that consists of a passive LC-filter with a series connected thyristors as shown in fig. 1.

Nomenclatura
d t,
'

TI
U,

us
w,

wI w, ,

delay time firing instant with respect to zero crossing of grid voltage period of the fundamental gridvoltage voltage accross the switch S resonant frequency of the LC-circuit frequency of the fundamental; frequency of the third harmonic;

Fig. 1 Block diagram of the compensator

system
0-7803-4879-6/98/$10.00 0 1998 IEEE

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3.

Analysis

-20 A 1
0

In the cyclic stable state the the thyristor is fired periodically at times t,+kT, that are synchronized with the period of the fundamental (see fig 3b). As a result of the firing a resonant current (about 150Hz) will start to flow in the circuit. The thyristor switch opens after the next current zero crossing of the resonant harmonic current and the diode will take over the current in opposite direction.
.02 .04
0 '

Fig. 2 Line voltage U, and compensator current i,

The filter system .is connected in parallel to the appliance that is generating the harmonics. The thyristor enables control of the circuit in such a way that the harmonic that is generated by the appliance is absorbed exactly by the filter. The applicability for the compensation of the third harmonics in office buildings has been proved by experiments [1,2]. In this paper an approximating analysis of the system will be presented for one of the modes of operation.

U,

+I$
b

Fig. 3 Model to calculate the current generated by the compensator current

The analysis of the circuit can be split up in three steps. Step 1: The voltage acting on the LCR-circuit is considered as being the superpostion of the grid voltage u,(t) and the voltage accross the switch us(t), where. the following mesh equation applies to the circuit as shown in fig. 3:
ul(t)-us(t)-uJt)-iR-Ldi dt
=

2.

. Principle of operation

The princple of operation for a 3rd harmonic compensator is described extensively in [l] and will be reviewed shortly. The value of L and C are chosen such that the resonant frequency is slightly higher than the frequency of the third harmonic, for instance 160 Hz for a 150Hz compensator. Because' the resonant period is slightly shorter than the the period of the third harmonic, it is possible to inhibit the firing of thyristors after a current zero crossing for a (very) short time without losing synchronism with the fundamental. Within each period of the (50Hz) fundamental six zero crossing of the current can be identified. Experiments have shown that both phase and amplitude of the generated third harmonic can be controlled by inserting two delay times d, and d, (see fig. 2) at two of six properly selected zero crossings. In this paper the charactistics of the circuit with only one dead time d will be analyzed.

If it is assumed that the time interval of the open interval d is short in comparison to the fundamental period, than the switch voltage can be considered constant during the open interval. To have a zero current during the open interval the inductor voltage should be zero during this interval. This means that the switch voltage u,(t) during the open interval is equal to:
U&)

= -uc(t,-d) +u,(t)

=o

when S open when S closed

Because the grid voltage u,(t) is a continuous sinoid, the response of the circuit is easy to calculate. For the response we can write in the

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time domain: i,(t) = ~,(~(ino,)~sin(no,(t) (1) +argF(ino,)) Here F(jo) is the frequency response of the filter: F(jwj=i(jo)/u(joj. To calculate its response to u,(t), it is written as a series of rectangular pulses with width d
u,(t)

determinded by its -I+ zero crossing at:

=E=.--4 - O, sino,(t, -d/2,) .(2) (uc(tl

' p ( t - t , +d2-kT1)

with p(t) = 1 for ltl<d/2 = O for ltl>d/2. The series of pulses can be expanded in a fourier series:
U&)

= a , + x ; , a"COS(nol(r-t,+d2))

Step 3: Evaluation The following remarks can be made conceming this formula: the first three factors are constants the SIN factor shows that the amplitude is roughly proportional to cos(t,), as argF(jo,)=d2 ; this means that the amplitude can directly be controlled by proper timing of the thyristor firing signals; because IF(ino,) I has a peak for n=3, the summation is dominated by the third

For the filter current, being the response to U&), we can write:

term.
by using one dead time, the amplitude and phase are controlled dependently, as can be shown from a formula for the phase To calculate other harmonics the same Drocedure can be used. The proposed method can be extended to the operation mode with two dead times.

(3) For the ratio of the harmonics of the series of pulses we can write:
a,, _ a3

3sinnqdI2
n sin 3o,d/2
(4)

4.

Experimental verification

Step 2: During the zero-current interval the sum of the response to us and p is zero:

is@)

+ i,(t) =

for kT, +il-d<t<kT, +rl (5)

With application of (4), for the speciaJ case t = t,-d/2, eq. (3) can be written as: 3sinno,d2 is($ 4 2 ) Re F(ino,) , nsm3o1d/2

=,E=,

By substitution of (1) and (6) in (5) for t=t,-d/2, we find after some manipulation that the amplitude of the third harmonic current can be approximated by the following expression:

(6)

Experiments have been carried out with the circuit described in fig.1 with C=20 pF, M 6 . 2 mH and R=2 Ohm, which leads to f,,=166 kHz. The circuit was connected to a grid with U,= lOOn and U, = 220V. Experiments with two zero-current-intervals led to the diagram shown in fig. 4. The figure gives the current amplitude as a function of d, and 4 (with 4 +B ~ 1 . 4 ms) and the phase (c$~=qt,) parameter. The as operation mode with one zero current interval is a special case with d, =0, and d2=1.4 ms. For the given parameters eq. (7) results in:

ls,,3~ . I c o s ( ~ ~-11.8')l 7.60 f,

(8)

(F(i301).
To compare the results from (8) with fig. 4 it should be noted that the following relation exists between t, in eq. (8) and 4 in fig. 4:
4=o,t, The comparison of calculated and measured current amplitudes shows that the model is a fair representation of reality. The mathematical

(7) The phase or position of the third harmonic is

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model predicts slightly lower values than the measurements. This is probably rooted in the the fact that the summation in eq. (7) is carried out over 5 terms. Further a difference in damping may ne a cause. This shows that the presented model and method of calculation can be used for design and form the base for control of the circuit.

with one zero current interval d. The compensator circuit with one zero-currentinterval can be used in applications where phase and amplitude need not be controlled independently. This is amongst other the case with harmonic producing loads like diode rectifiers with capacitive output filter. The method of analysis can be extended to operation modes with more zero-currentintervals.

References
J.B. Woudstra, S.W.H. de H a ,P.C. van an der Sluijs Third harmonic compensator applicable for large office buildings, Eur. Power Electronics Conf. EPE 1997, Trondheim, pp. 4.917-4.922 J.B. Woudstra, S.W.H. Haan de Active filter for compensation of specific harmonics; experimental results, submitted PEDES98 G. Kamth, N. Mohan, V. Albertson Hardware implementation of a Novel Reduced VA Rating filter for Nonlinear loads in 3-phase, 4-wire Systems, IEEEApEC'95, pp. 984-989. H. Akagi New trends in Active Filters, Proc. European Power Elctronics Conf., EPE'95, Sevilla, pp. 0.017-0.026. R.M. Duke, S.D. Round The Steady State Performance of a controlled current active filter, IEEE Trans. Power Electronics,. Vo1.8, "3, Apr. 1996, pp140-146,

2 W

IC0

WO

8W

l W O ( t ~ r )d ,

d l < d2

d,=d,

dpdZ

Fig. 4 Amplitude of the third harmonic current as a function of dl and d? The markers give the theoretical amplitude for dl =O and d2 = 1.4 ms

5.

Conclusion

The analysis method leads to approximate, explicit expressions for all low order harmonics as a function of the circuit parameters L, C and R (as reflected inF(io)) and the control parameter d. The expression can be used for design and control of the compensator-circuit

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