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Table of Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
Rectifier Circuit Experiments ............................................................................................................................. 4
1.0 Uncontrolled Rectifier – Resistive Load....................................................................................................... 4
2.0 Uncontrolled Half wave rectifier – RL load.................................................................................................. 6
3.0 Controlled Rectifier – Resistive load............................................................................................................ 7
4.0 Controlled half wave rectifier with RL load. .............................................................................................. 13
5.0 Half Controlled – Full Wave Rectifier with Resistive Load ........................................................................ 16
6.0 Half Controlled – Full wave rectifier with Resistive and Inductive Load ................................................... 24
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 30
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
Introduction
In today’s modern and continuously growing Electrical industry rectifiers play an important role, they are
the fundamental block of a DC power supply; rectifiers convert AC waveform to constant current
waveform. To convert AC sinusoidal waveforms to DC, first step is to invert the negative half of the AC cycle
to positive and that be accomplished by help of either a diode of a thyristor. Figure 1 shows how a diode
and a thyristor look like.
A Diode is an uncontrolled two terminal device, which permits the current to flow in only one direction,
depending on how its terminals are biased. Thyristor on the other hand is a controlled device with three
terminals. Thyristor is derived from diode with the ability to turn on when desired but cannot be turned off
unless the current through it is reduced to some finite value. Turn on time of the thyristor is controlled by
its gate terminal, where a voltage pulse can be applied to send a forward biased thyristor into conduction
mode.
Half wave rectifier is the simplest and most basic rectifier it consists of a single switch either diode or a
thyristor and permits only half cycle of the input AC signal while blocking the other half. Figure 2.0 shows a
typical half wave rectifier that has an AC source connected at its input terminals.
As can be seen in the figure 1, the output is only half that of the input signal and this result in very low
efficiency since half cycle of the input source is wasted and the average value of the output voltage is small
as compared a full wave rectifier to be discussed later. According to the Equation 1.0 used for calculating
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
the average voltage this statement can be proven to be true. The integral is performed over the area under
the curve and divided by the total period, the total period is longer as compared to the actual area covered
by the curve so the average value is small.
Full wave rectifier as compared to a half wave rectifier is more efficient since the output average value is
greater according to Equation 1.0. Full wave rectified output can be achieved by using a bridge rectifier that
consist of four switches either diodes or thyristors. Figure 3.0 shows a typical full wave bridge rectifier. In
this configuration only two diodes conduct for half cycle of the input voltage and the other two conduct for
the other half, resulting in a full wave rectified output.
As compared to a half wave rectifier the average output voltage for full wave rectifier is greater due to the
reduced period of the output voltage; the integration will therefore result in a greater average value.
However there is a slight disadvantage to using this method; that is the voltage drop, which is higher due to
conduction of two diodes operating in series.
Behaviour of a rectifier circuit changes significantly if the load is highly inductive, the change in behaviour is
such that the diode cannot immediately block once its reverse biased. The highly inductive load forces
current to flow through the diode as the experiments shall prove.
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
1.1Waveforms
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
1.2Results
1.3 Analysis
Vo Avg= ∫ = ∫ =10.784V
Io avg= ∫ = = 0.49 A
Comment: Simulated and Practical values are a little different due to considering an ideal diode in
simulation.
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
2.1 Waveforms
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
3.1 Waveforms
Firing angle 30
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
Firing Angle 90
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
Comment: Average Value Drops as the firing angle is increased, that is because the period of the waveform
remains the same but when finding the average value, area under the curve reduces which results in a
smaller average value.
3.2 Results
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
3.3 Calculations
Vs 33 88
Vo avg = ∫α ω ω = [− co ω ]α = [ + co α]
𝛂 = 𝟑𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 0] = 10.062 V
𝛂 = 𝟔𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 60] = 8.0 V
54
Io avg = [ + co 60]= 0.3677 A
𝛂 = 𝟗𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 90] = 5.39 V
54
Io avg = [ + co 90]= 0.2451 A
𝛂 = 𝟏𝟐𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 0] = 2.7 V
54
Io avg = [ + co 0]= 0.1225 A
𝛂 = 𝟏𝟓𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 0] = 0.7154 V
54
Io avg = [ + co 90]= 0.033 A
𝛂 = 𝟏𝟖𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 0] = 0 V
54
Io avg = [ + co 90]= 0 A
10
9
8
7
6
Vo (avg)
5
4 Vo (avg)
3
2
1
0
0 50 100 150 200
Delay angle -Alpha
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
Firing angle 30
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
Firing angle 90
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
Comment: A thyristor controlled half wave rectifier is faced with same situation as a diode when it has an
inductive load. When the load consists of an inductor it builds up magnetic field, this built magnetic field is
collapsed when the current through the inductor starts to decrease. As a result of this collapsing magnetic
field inductor tries to maintain its current and the thyristor continues to conduct even though the source
voltage has reverse biased the thyristor.
This Rectifier configuration consists of 4 switches, two diodes and two thyristors. On each half cycle on two
corresponding switches conduct depending on the firing angle of the thyristor. Firing angle of thyristor
limits the conduction of the rectifier output.
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
5.1 Waveforms
Firing Angle 30
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
Vs/Vo
Firing Angle 90
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
Figure 51 Vs, Is
5.2 Results
5.3 Calculations
𝛂 = 𝟑𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 0] = 20.12 V
𝛂 = 𝟔𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 60] = 16.18 V
54
Io avg = [ + co 60]= 0.735 A
𝛂 = 𝟗𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 90] = 10.78 V
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
54
Io avg = [ + co 90]= 0.49 A
𝛂 = 𝟏𝟐𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 0] = 5.39 V
54
Io avg = [ + co 0]= 0.245 A
𝛂 = 𝟏𝟓𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 0] = 1.44 V
54
Io avg = [ + co 90]= 0.066 A
𝛂 = 𝟏𝟖𝟎𝐨
33 88
Vo avg = [ + co 0] = 0 V
54
Io avg = [ + co 90]= 0 A
20
18
16
14
12
Vo,avg
10
8 Vo, Avg
6
4
2
0
0 50 100 150 200
Firing angle - alpha
Comment: By comparing results obtained from half wave and full wave rectifier it can be seen that the
average value of the output voltage is doubled that of half wave, which is due to the reduced period of
the output voltage. When firing angle of the thyristor is increased so that the output voltage turns on
for some fraction of the input voltage, it is noticeable once again that the average value reduces due to
the area of integration being reduced.
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
6.0 Half Controlled – Full wave rectifier with Resistive and Inductive Load
6.1 Waveforms
Firing angle 30
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
Firing Angle 90
Figure 59 V s, Vo α=90
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
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Power Electronics Laboratory 2 – Single Phase Rectifiers
Comment: Visual inspection of the images recorded from the lab and simulation show that the output
current is highly affected by the large inductance. It is noticeable that initially the current is taking some
finite time to rise to its peak value and lags the voltage by quite a large amount of time.
Conclusion
Overall this laboratory was successful; values from the laboratory closely match with those obtained from
simulations and equations. It was learnt that average value of the rectifier is higher if both sides of the AC
source voltage are rectified. Moreover, insertion of an inductive load greatly changed the performance of
the rectifier; the inductive load caused the rectifier to conduct even when the diode or thyristor were
reverse biased. Inductive loads can cause higher voltages and currents than nominal.
References
Ned Mohan Power electronics converters and applications Mc Graw Hill 3rd edition
Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org
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