Guru/PE424UCR/HWRLD 1 April 12, 2006

Half-wave RL circuit with a free-wheeling diode

It was mentioned in the discussion of the magnetic circuit (RL circuit) earlier that it is not a
good practice to keep a device conducting when the condition does not warrant its
conduction. A diode should not be forced to conduct when it is reverse biased. To alleviate
the situation, we freely use another diode, called the freewheeling diode (FWD for short),
and place it across the load as shown in the circuit below. The free-wheeling diodes
provides a path for the current in the inductor and thereby relieves the rectifying diode from
conduction during the reverse-biased mode.
R 10 :=
L 100 mH :=
We will sketch the waveforms for 2 time periods. t 0 0.01 , 4 .. :=
The applied voltage source: v t ( ) 170 sin t ( ) := where V
m
170 V :=
f 60 Hz := 2 f := 376.991 = Rad/s
Sketch of the input (source) voltage:
0 45 90 135 180 225 270 315 360 405 450 495 540 585 630 675 720
200
160
120
80
40
0
40
80
120
160
200
The Applied Voltage
Angle in degrees
I
n
p
u
t

V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
Guru/PE424UCR/HWRLD 2 April 12, 2006
The transfer of current from diode D to the freewheeling diode FWD takes place at t . =
Thus, the diode D conducts from t 0 = to t = . Thereafter, FWD takes over and
conducts until the current is zero again. The output voltage is a half-wave rectified voltage
whose Fourier series can be determined.
To sketch the output voltage, let us define the following voltages.
va t ( ) if 0 t V
m
sin t ( ) , 0 ,
( )
:=
vc t ( ) if 2 t 3 V
m
sin t ( ) , 0 ,
( )
:=
Then the output voltage: v
o
t ( ) va t ( ) vc t ( ) + :=
0 45 90 135 180 225 270 315 360 405 450 495 540 585 630 675 720
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Angle (degrees)
O
u
t
p
u
t

V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(

V

)
The rms values of the input and the output voltage are
V
srms
V
m
2
:= V
srms
120.208V =
V
orms
1
2
0

a v
o
a ( )
2

d =
Upon Integration, we get V
orms
V
m
2
:= V
orms
85V =
Guru/PE424UCR/HWRLD 3 April 12, 2006
The average value of the output voltage is
V
odc
1
2
0

a V
m
sin a ( )

d =
Upon integration, we get V
odc
V
m

:= V
odc
54.113V =
Hence, the dc component of the current through the load is
I
odc
V
odc
R
:= I
odc
5.411A =
The dc power output: P
odc
V
odc
I
odc
:= P
odc
292.818W =
Let us now obtain the first 15 Fourier series of the output voltage: n 1 15 .. :=
a
n
1

a v
o
a ( ) cos n a ( )

d :=
Upon integration, we obtain a
n
0 = For odd values of n
and a
n
2
V
m
n
2
1
( )

=
b
n
1

a v
o
a ( ) sin n a ( )

d :=
Upon integration, we get b
1
V
m
2
= for n = 1
and b
n
0 = For all other values of n.
Guru/PE424UCR/HWRLD 4 April 12, 2006
The Fourier series components in the complex form, using cosine as a reference, are
Cm
n
a
n
j b
n
:=
Load impedance for the nth Harmonic:
Z
n
R j n L + :=
n
arg Z
n
( )
180

:=
Hence, the current due to each harmonic component is
I
n
Cm
n
Z
n
:=
n
arg I
n
( )
180

:=
Tabulated below are the amplitudes of the 15 harmonics the corresponding impedances and
currents in the RL circuit whith a freewheeling diode.
n
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
= a
n
0
-36.075
0
-7.215
0
-3.092
0
-1.718
0
-1.093
0
-0.757
0
-0.555
0
= b
n
85
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
= Z
n
39.003
76.058
113.539
151.128
188.761
226.416
264.083
301.759
339.439
377.124
414.811
452.5
490.19
527.882
565.575
=
n
75.144
82.445
84.947
86.206
86.963
87.469
87.83
88.101
88.312
88.481
88.619
88.734
88.831
88.915
88.987
= I
n
2.179
0.474
0
0.048
0
0.014
0
0.006
0
0.003
0
0.002
0
0.001
0
=
n
-165.144
97.555
77.023
93.794
-84.344
92.531
94.328
91.899
-98.935
91.519
-30.959
91.266
108.675
91.085
88.907
=
There is only fundamental component of the sine term. The fundamental component of the
cosine term is zero. Therefore, in terms of maximum phasor values
Cm
1
85j V = Cm
2
36.075 V = Cm
4
7.215 V = Cm
6
3.092 V =
Cm
8
1.718 V = Cm
10
1.093 V = Cm
12
0.757 V = Cm
14
0.555 V =
Guru/PE424UCR/HWRLD 5 April 12, 2006
The rms current through the load:
I
orms
I
odc
2
1
15
n
0.5 I
n
I
n

( )

=
+ :=
I
orms
5.637A =
The total power supplied to the load is dissipated in the R:
P
oT
I
orms
2
R := P
oT
317.703W =
To determine the apparent power supplied by the source, we have to determine the source
current when the diode D is conducting and the FWD is off. This part of the analysis is already
done in "the half-wave rectifier with RL load". The only difference is that the extinction angle
is now .
At the applied frequency, the impeance of the RL circuit, the time constant, and the current
through it when D is conducting are as follows:
ZL R j L + := ZL 39.003 = :=
arg ZL ( ) := 1.312rad = 75.144deg =
t 0 0.01 , 2 .. := v t ( ) V
m
sin t ( ) :=
L
R
:=
V
rms
V
m
2
:= V
rms
120.208V =
i
s
t ( ) if 0 t
V
m
ZL
sin t ( ) sin ( ) e
t

+
|

\
|
|

, 0 ,

(
(
(

:=
Guru/PE424UCR/HWRLD 6 April 12, 2006
The sketch of the source current or the current through the diode D is shown below.
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
0
2
4
6
8
10
Source Current when D is ON
Angle (degrees)
S
o
u
r
c
e

C
u
r
r
e
n
t

(

A

)
The rms value of the source current is
I
rms
1
2
0

a i
s
a ( ) i
s
a ( )

d := I
rms
3.011A =
Apparent power supplied by the source:
S
input
V
rms
I
rms
:= S
input
361.994VA =
We now compute the Transformer Utilization factor, the power factor, the rectification ratio,
the form factor, the ripple factor, and the percent ripple as follows:
Transformer Utilization factor: TUF
P
odc
S
input
:= TUF 0.809 =
Power factor: pf
P
oT
S
input
:= pf 0.878 =
Rectification ratio:
P
odc
V
orms
I
orms

:= 0.611 =
Guru/PE424UCR/HWRLD 7 April 12, 2006
Form factor: FF
I
orms
I
odc
:= FF 1.042 =
Ripple factor: RF FF
2
1 := RF 0.292 =
Total Harmonic Distortion: THD
I
orms
I
1
2
|

\
|
|
|
|

2
1 := THD 3.518 =
Peak-to-peak ripple voltage: V
omax
V
m
:= V
omin
0 :=
VR V
omax
V
omin
:= VR 170V =
Percent ripple: %VR
VR 100
V
omax
:= %VR 100 =
Units: 1 Hz 1 A 1 W 1 VAR 1 H 1 V 1 VA 1
mH 0.001 kW 1000 kVA 1000