United States Patent [19]

l l l l l l l li li l l l l l l l l l l l lil l
US005567 4A
[11] Patent Number: 5,567,994
Davis et al. [45] Date of Patent: Oct. 22, 1996

[54] ACTIVE HARMONIC FILTER WITH TIME 5,327,335 7/1994 Maddali et a1. . 363/39
DOMAIN ANALYSIS 5,377,092 12/1994 Rowand . . . .. . . . . . .. 363/41

5,397,927 3/1995 Suelzle .. . .. . . . . . .. 307/105

[75] Inventors: Gerald W. Davis, Franklin, Wis.; 5,508,623

5,513,090
4/1996 Heydt . ... . .. . . . . . . . . . ..

4/1996 Bhattacharya ........................ .. 307/105

307/105

Shiping Huang, Swansea, United

Kingdom; Peter J. Unsworth, Primary Examiner—-William M. Shoop, Jr.
Brighton, England Assistant Examiner—Peter Ganjoo
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Patrick S. Yoder; John M. Miller;
[73] Assignee: Allen-Bradley Company, Inc., John J. Horn
Milwaukee, Wis.
[57] ABSTRACT
[21] Appl. No.: 536,894 A hybrid active ?lter shunts three-phase power with passive
7 [22] Filed: Sep. 29, 1995 elements tuned to have low impedance at a frequency of
harmonic distortion. The passive elements are in series with
[51] Int. Cl.6 .................................................... .. H02M 1/12
controlled voltages sources providing cancelling currents to
[52] US. Cl. ............................ .. 307/105; 363/39; 363/40; the harmonic currents. Rapid determination of the harmonic
363/41; 331/76 currents is provided in real-time through the use of a Park
[53] Field of Search ................................... .. 307/105, 106; transformation reducing the variables which need to be
333/167; 363/39, 40, 41; 318/629; 327/532, manipulated. Measured currents as transformed are used to
552; 331/76; 324/623; 455/114; 364/492 model undistorted current based on an average power con
sumed by the load. When the undistorted current is sub
[56] References Cited tracted from the actual current, a harmonic current signal is
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS produced that may be used to drive the voltage sources. The
time domain method requires rapidly computed running
3,883,792 5/1975 Ellert ....................................... .. 363/39 averages and thus may be performed in-between the acqui
4,862,342 8/1989 Dhyanchand et al. . 363/40 sition of the measured current samples.
5,001,619 3/1991 Nakajirna ........ .. 363/41
5,063,532 11/1991 Takeda .... .. 363/41
5,224,028 6/1993 Lipman ................................... .. 363/41 11 Claims, 3 Drawing Sheets

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US. Patent Oct. 22, 1996 Sheet 2 0f 3 5,567,994

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US. Patent Oct. 22, 1996 Sheet 3 of3 5,567,994
60
FIG 8 O
- ZCD
INTERRUPT

SAMPLES
> 256

DECREASE At

6%
LOAD I AND E
DATA
FIG. 9
T
PARK TRANSFORM N72
E AND I

CALCULATE AVERAGE
POWER
T
DERIVE EFFECTIVE
SINE WAVE CURRENT
T
SUBTRACT SINE WAVE CURRENT /\/77
FROM ACTUAL CURRENT

REVERSE PARK N78

TRANSFORM I

OUTPUT TO N80
PWM SUPPLY
—|
 5,567,994
1 2
ACTIVE HARMONIC FILTER WITH TllVIE harmonic components in real-time so as to produce a can
DOMAIN ANALYSIS celing harmonic current. Generally the ?lter analyzes the
FIELD OF THE INVENTION waveform of the power mains in the time-domain to com
pute the average power being delivered to the load. An
The present invention concerns electrical ?lters for elimi “ideal” sine wave current producing an identical power is
nating transients and distortion in alternating current (AC) then synthesized in phase with the power main current and
power mains, and in particular, to active ?lters for such use. deviations from this ideal are assumed to be harmonics.
These harmonics are used to drive a compensating power
BACKGROUND ART source which is connected to the power mains through a
Ideally, three-phase AC power, as is used in most indus passive network.
trial environments, employs three conductors of electrical Speci?cally, the hybrid ?lter includes a current transducer
power each providing a pure sine wave of current and connected to at least one line of the power main providing
voltage, the sine waves having equal and constant amplitude a current signal indicating the actual current waveform in the
and frequency, and each separated from the others by 120° line. An electronic computer operating according to a stored
of phase angle. 15 program and receiving the current signal determines a
With the increased use of the solid-state power electronic harmonic-less current waveform matching the power char
devices, having non-linear load characteristics, such as acteristics of the actual current waveform. A controllable
motor controllers having switched triacs which connect and voltage source, producing a voltage proportional to the
disconnect large loads rapidly, the three-phase power at a difference between the harmonic-less current waveform and
given facility may become distorted. Such distortion is 20 the actual current waveform, is connected to one end of a
characterized by the introduction of harmonics into the passive resonant circuit having an impedance minimum at a
fundamental frequency of the AC power. Harmonics cause frequency near the harmonic frequency component. The
loss of energy in motors and may eifect the efficiency and remaining end of the passive resonant circuit is attached at
stability of power supplies for sensitive electronic equip a second end to the power line.
ment. For this reason limitations on harmonic levels in AC 25 Accordingly, it is one object of the invention to provide a
power have been established in many countries. computer-controlled hybrid ?lter determining the necessary
The harmonic distortion in an AC power main may be canceling currents on a real-time basis. Comparison of the
reduced by the use of passive ?lters incorporating inductors current of the AC power main to a comparable “perfect”
and capacitors that have a series resonance at the harmonic current signal provides near instantaneous detection of har
frequencies. These passive ?lters are placed across the monics with a simple subtraction operation.
power mains to shunt the damaging harmonics. The electronic computer may compute the harmonic-less
Such passive ?lters have a simple structure but a number current waveform by determining an average load on the
of disadvantages: they are bulky and expensive, they do not main and setting the harmonic-less current waveform equal
adapt to changes in harmonic frequencies caused by shifts in to the current through the average load in the presence of a
the fundamental AC frequency, and they do not account for sine wave voltage of predetermined amplitude equal in
variations in the series impedance of the power mains. frequency to the fundamental frequency component of the
actual current waveform.
These disadvantages may be overcome by the use of
active ?lters in which a power ampli?er (such as a pulse Thus, it is another object of the invention to provide a
width modulated (PWM) power supply) is connected simple method of estimating a fundamental frequency sine
40
directly to the power main to provide a countervailing wave current equivalent to that provided by the distorted
harmonic current cancelling the distortion. Such active ?l waveform of the AC power main. Computation of the
ters may be used with passive ?lters in a hybrid arrangement average power of the load may be determined at high speed
in which the PWM power supply is connected to the power on a real-time basis as each new sample of the AC power
mains through a series resonant circuit to block the AC 45 main current is received.
fundamental and hence to decrease loading on the PWM The current signal may be a series of discrete samples and
power supply. the average load may be determined on a sample-by-sample
In order to cancel the harmonic currents, the currents basis by adding a new sample to a running total for one cycle
provided by the active or hybrid ?lter must be equal and of the fundamental frequency of the AC main, subtracting
opposite to the undesired harmonic currents. Accordingly, the oldest sample from the total and dividing the resulting
both the phase and amplitude of the harmonic component of total by the number of samples. The number of samples in
the power main must be accurately known. There are a the total may be an integer multiple of two so that the
number of methods of extracting harmonic components division of the total may be done by shifting a binary version
from a waveform including the use of analog ?lter circuits of the total left by the integer number of places.
and digital signal processing. Analog ?lters have the disad~ 55 Thus, it is yet another object of the invention to provide
vantages of being extremely sensitive to the values of their a rapid method of performing the computations required of
components and thus being subject to drift in ?lter frequency the present invention on a conventional digital electronic
and degradation in performance. Frequency domain digital computer.
signal analysis techniques, such as the Fast Fourier Trans The foregoing in other objects and advantages of the
form, can be extremely stable but are not presently fast invention will appear from the following description. In the
enough to provide accurate real time control necessary for description, reference is made to the accompanying draw
the suppression of harmonics with the current generation of ings which form a part hereof and in which there is shown
industrial computers. by way of illustration, a preferred embodiment of the
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION invention. Such embodiment does not necessarily represent
65 the full scope of the invention, however, and reference must
The present invention provides a hybrid ?lter for AC be made therefore to the claims herein for interpreting the
power mains that may rapidly and accurately determine scope of the invention.
 5,567,994
3 4
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Generally, the current signals 20 are received by a data
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a hybrid active ?lter per the acquisition system (DAS) 22 which samples the current
signals 20 at discreet intervals in time and digitizes those
present invention connected to a three-phase AC main
showing a computer, a data acquisition system for acquiring
sample values into digitized data points 56 which may be
current information for the three-phases for the computer,
communicated to a computer 26 for processing. The binary
words are then processed by computer 26 to control a pulse
and a pulse width modulated supply controlled by the
computer and connected to the phases through passive width modulated (PWM) power supply 30. The computer 26
band-pass ?lters to provide compensating current to the provides digital words 28 to the PWM power supply 30
three-phases; indicating a desired output currents to be conducted through
conductors 32 to the primary windings of transformers 34.
FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of an equivalent The currents in conductors 32 induce through the transform
circuit to the ?lter and AC main of FIG. 1 for one phase and ers 34 three corrective voltages 36, one associated with each
one harmonic frequency; conductor 14 at the secondary windings of the transformers
FIGS. 3(a) through (c) are three representations of the 34. The secondary windings of the transformers 34 are
same three-phase current: platted as a graph against time, connected at one side to a common neutral and the other side
represented as three vectors in a rotating coordinate system, through passive ?lters 38 to the conductors 14.
and represented as two perpendicular vectors after a Park Thus, generally, based on the information about current
transformation; ?ow received by the hybrid active ?lter 10 through the
FIG. 4 is a three dimensional vector representation of four current transducers 18, corrective currents are caused to ?ow
power quantities calculated from the Park transformation of 20 through the passive ?lters 38 to reduce the harmonic dis
the three phase current per FIG. 3(0); tortion of the three-phase main 12 as is present on the
FIG. 5 is a detailed schematic representation of one conductors 14.
passive band pass ?lter of FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the general procedure 25
of the present invention for receiving a harmonically dis Zero Crossing Detector
torted AC waveform and determining the harmonic compo The current signals 20 are also received by a zero crossing
nents of that waveform in the time-domain; detector 58 which, as is understood in the art, may be simply
FIG. 7 is a plot of current samples acquired by the digital a comparator comparing the value of the current signal 20 to
acquisition system of FIG. 1 plotted against time showing 30 zero to produce a signal when the current signal 20 passes
the sampling rate of the digital acquisition system; through zero. The zero crossing detector 58 is attached to an
FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing an interrupt routine interrupt input of the computer 26 causing a shift in the
performed by the computer of FIG. 1 for adjusting the program processed by the computer, as will be described
sampling rate of the digital acquisition system of FIG. 1; and further below.
FIG. 9 is a ?ow chart of a program executed on the 35
computer of FIG. 1 for performing the steps of FIG. 6.
Passive Filters
Referring now to FIG. 5, each passive ?lter 38 is com
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
posed of two or more series resonant circuits 40 and a high
PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 40 pass circuit 41 all connected in parallel. Each series resonant
Referring now to FIG. 1, the hybrid active ?lter 10 of the circuit 40 is tuned to a different harmonic frequency of a
present invention is used in conjunction with a three-phase standard 60 hertz AC power main to have a low impedance
AC main 12 having three conductors 14 carrying sinusoidal only at that harmonic. In a preferred embodiment, the series
currents and voltages in approximately 120° phase relation resonant circuits 40 are tuned to the ?fth and seventh
ship to each other. A load 16, such as may include high harmonics respectively. As indicated by the dotted lines,
current switching devices, such as triacs, receives power additional series resonant circuits 40 may be added, if
from the three conductors 14. desired, to cover additional harmonics. The high pass circuit
The three-phase main 12 has a source impedance that is 41 is tuned to have a frequency breakpoint to provide
largely inductive but that may vary for different locations passage of both the eleventh and thirteenth harmonics of a
50 60 hertz fundamental.
and at different times. The electrical power consumed by the
load 16 changes over time, and in particular, may vary The series resonant circuits are composed each of a series
connected capacitor and inductor to provide a band pass
substantially within a single cycle of the AC current of the
three-phase main 12. The varying load acting against the ?lter, where a small series resistor in such circuits controls
source impedance of the main 12 introduces harmonic 55 the width of the pass band or Q of the resonance as is
distortion to the AC waveforms on the conductors 14. understood in the art. The high pass circuit 41 is a series
capacitor and resistor.
OVERVIEW OF THE ACTIVE FILTER
HARDWARE GENERAL OPERATION OF THE HYBRID
60
The hybrid active ?lter 10 receives three independent FILTER
current signals 20 proportional to the amount of current Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, a single phase of the AC
?owing through the conductors 14 at any instant by means power main 12 for a single harmonic frequency may be
of three current transducers 18 communicating with the modeled as a AC voltage source 43 producing a sine wave
conductors 14 but electrically insulated therefrom. The 65 voltage at the harmonic frequency Esh in series with a source
current transducers 18 may be Hall-effect devices such as are impedance ZS. When connected to a load 16, drawing a
well known in the art. current I,,,, a harmonic circuit Ish ?ows from the main 12.
 5,567,994
5 6
For a single phase (one conductor 14) a single passive Conversely, if the number of samples is less than 256, then
?lter 38 will be connected shunting the load 16. The passive at process block 66, the computer 26 reprograms timer 52 to
?lter provides an impedance Z,, in series with a variable decrease the At value. In either case, at the next step, the
voltage source 42, the latter realized by the PWM power interrupt routine is concluded at exit block 66 and the
supply 30 and transformer 34. The purpose of the voltage computer 26 returns to its normal processing.
source 42 is to augment the action of the passive ?lter and
to cancel the harmonic currents Ish. Therefore the voltage Eh It will be understood that the effect of the interrupt routine
of the voltage source 42 will ideally equal a constant K times of FIG. 8 will be to adjust the value of At so that 256 samples
the harmonic current Ish. are obtained during a typical cycle of the three-phase main
Applying well known circuit analysis laws to the sche 12. For a 60 hertz signal, therefore At will be approximately
matic FIG. 12 provides the following relationship control 25 microseconds. As will be described further below, by
ling the harmonic current. ensuring that there are 256 samples in each cycle of the
fundamental frequency of the power on the main 12, the
(1) speed with which the necessary calculations, to be described
15
below, can be performed, is increased signi?cantly.
As will be apparent from equation 1, when K is much When the computer 26 is not executing the interrupt
greater than Zp, Z, then the harmonic current Ish will routine of FIG. 8, or the interrupt driven sampling of the
approach zero. current signals 20, the computer 26 executes a main program
which calculates the harmonics on the AC main 12.
Operating Software Referring to FIGS. 1 and 9, at process block 70 the latest
Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 6, it will be understood that next current data points 56 (shown in FIG. 7 and designated
in order to generate the voltage E, with the voltage source I) is received by the computer 26. A voltage signal E is also
42, it will be necessary to know accurately the harmonic received by the computer 26 but from an internal lookup
circuit Ish. Further, Ish must be known in a near instantaneous 25 table of a sine values stored in memory. The sine values are
manner so that a real-time correction current —Ish may be of arbitrary phase and amplitude with respect to the current
generated through the passive ?lter 38. signals 20 and hence data point 56 but have the same
This rapid determination of the harmonic components Ish frequency as the current signals 20 of the three-phase main
is performed by processing with the computer 26 the current 12. This matching of frequencies is ensured by having the
signals 20 for each conductor 14 to extract an pure sine wave lookup table include 256 entries for 360° of a sine function.
current 50 that would deliver an equivalent average power to Because the number of data points of the current signal 20
load 16. This sine wave current 50 is then subtracted from is constantly adjusted by the interrupt program of FIG. 8 to
the actual current signals 20 to produce the harmonic current be exactly 256 samples, frequency equivalence between the
Ish. Note that the harmonic current Ish will in fact be a sum I and E data is naturally obtained.
of all harmonic currents. Thus, as a ?rst step of the process
At the conclusion of process block 70, six samples are
ing by computer 26 the sine wave current 50 must be
obtained, three values of current I and three values of
computed from the current signals 20 received by the digital
acquisition system 22. voltage E.
Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 7 this ?rst step requires that Referring now to FIG. 3(a), each of three phases of a
40 typical three-phase main labelled A, B, and C are shown
data points 56 be collected at regular intervals of time At
from the current transducers 18 by the digital acquisition plotted against time. As can be seen, the phase di?ference
system 22. The timing of the acquisition of these data points between the phases A, B, and C is approximately one-third
56 is controlled by an internal timer 52 within the computer of a cycle or 120°. As shown in FIG. 3(b), these phases may
26 which signals the digital acquisition system 22 to acquire be represented by a vector diagram showing three vectors
each data point 56 of the current signals 20 and to convert ~ EA, EB, and EC extending at 120° separations from a
that sample into a data point 56. The timer 52 is program common vertex. In this representation, the length of the
mable so that the time value At may be changed by the vector represents the amplitude of the phase and the angle of
computer running its operating program as will be the vector with respect to other vectors represents the phase
described. difference between the phases. Generally, if the vector
The values of the data points 56 are stored in computer diagram of FIG. 3 were rotated about the vertex, the pro
memory (not shown) within computer 26 in a “rolling” jection of each vector or dot product of the vector with an
buffer, i.e., the most recently sampled data point 56 is axis, would produce the waveforms of the FIG. 3(a). A
inserted at the front of the buffer and the oldest data points similar set of waveforms and vector diagrams can be gen
56 is removed from the back of the buffer so that always the 55 erated for the current on a three-phase main 12.
most recent 256 data points are present in the buffer in The representation of FIG. 3(b) includes redundant infor
numeric order from front to back.
mation and may be reduced to a two vector representation of
Referring now to FIG. 8, at process block 60 representing FIG. 3(a) without loss of information by a Park transform
a ?rst program step in an interrupt routine operating on provided generally in matrix equation (2) for voltage and (3)
computer 26, a zero crossing of one current signal 20 is 60 for currents below:
detected by a zero crossing detector 58, which causes the
computer 26 to suspend its main program (to be described (2)
below) and to begin executing this interrupt routine of FIG. 1 — 8110)

8. At decision block 62, the number of data points 56

acquired since the last interrupt is examined. If the number 65
890)
0 la
.. ~t~
l3 EN)

of samples is greater than 256, then at process block 64, the

computer reprograms the timer 52 to increase the At value.
 5,567,994
8
equations 11 and 12 respectively using the same procedure
described above of modifying a running total by the newest
and oldest points and dividing by the total number of points
256 through a leftward shift.

In equations (2) and (3), the multiplication implicit in the 1 T (12)

matrix is one of a vector times a scalar and the addition Vol2 : T J. vu2(r)dz
follows normal vector addition rules. The Park transforma— O
tion of equations (2) and (3) is done on a sample-by-sample
basis as indicated by process block 72 and reduces the 1 T (13)
number of calculations to be performed later. V32 : T I 0 v52(t)dt
At process block 74, four different instantaneous power
quantities are determined: real powers represented by equa As indicated by process block 76, an effective sine wave
tions 4 and 5 and “imaginary” powers given by equations (6) current is now deduced by computing an effective average
and (7). value of the effective load 16 (assuming the voltage were
constant) and based on the average powers and voltages
previously determined in equations (8) through (13). This
average load has a conductance and susceptance component,
20 the conductance being computed according to equation (14)
and (15) and the susceptance being determined according to
equations (16) and (17).
P (14)
The imaginary powers are cross products of the two 25 Ga: “
Va2
vector quantities shown and generally re?ect reactive com
ponents in the load 16. A vector representation of these PB (15)
diiferent powers is shown in FIG. 4 in which the reactive G5:
V52
powers qa and q5 are perpendicular to the plane of pan and
pl3 according to the right-hand rule and the convention for _ Q1 (16)
30
cross products. E_ (17)
Next, still at process block 74, average values of real and
imaginary power are computed as indicated by equations (8) BB: QB
V112
through (11) where T is one cycle of the waveforms of the
main 12. From these determinations of an average load, values of
an e?'ective sine wave current (assuming constant AC volt
1 T (8) age) are determined by equations (18) through (21).
PET I opumdr
1 T (9) 40
PB : T J- 0 pu(t)dl

Qt, = % I Tqumd: (1O)

0 45

(11> Four such current values must be deduced because of the

possibility of a reactive component in the load 16. The
currents of equations (18) through (21) describe a current
Computer 26 computes equations (8) through (11) by that would provide similar power to the load 16 as the load
adding the new values of instantaneous real power and
instantaneous imaginary power, computed from the latest 16 is actually receiving but if the current were to be a pure
values of I and E, to running totals for the last 256 such sine wave.
calculations while subtracting instantaneous real power and This effective sine wave current is then subtracted from
instantaneous imaginary power computed from the values of 55 the actual measured current to produce the harmonic current
I and E taken 257 samples ago. This new total is then divided as shown in FIG. 6 according to equations (22) and (23), and
by 256. per process block 77.
Thus, the average power is recomputed at the acquisition
of each new data point 56 but requires only three simple
operations. A division by 256 may be performed rapidly on 60
the computer 26 by simply a shifting of the binary number
representing the totals leftward by eight places—-a basic
computer instruction. Thus, the calculations of (8) through
(1 1) can be performed rapidly in between the acquisitions of As indicated by process block 78, this computed effective
samples. 65 sine wave current is then reverse Park transformed to
In addition, mean values of the Park transform of the produce harmonic current values I”, for each of the three
voltages in the lookup table in computer 26 is undertaken per phases per equation (24):
 5,567,994
9 10
4. The hybrid ?lter of claim 1 wherein the line is one of
1 0 (24) three lines carrying three-phase power; and
wherein the current transducer provides three current
1711(1)
the) 2 __L2' E
=\ T 2 [1.001(2)
. ] signals indicating the actual current waveforms in the
mm ' ‘W
three lines; and
L2 __\|:_
2 wherein the electronic computer operates according to the
At process block 80, the harmonic currents for each of the stored program and receiving the three current signals
phases is output to the PWM power supply 30 to provide the to ?rst converts the three current signals into two
necessary harmonic currents Ish via the transformers 34. orthogonal composite signals, and wherein the har
A complete analysis of the equations above establishes monic-less current waveform is determined from the
that the amplitude and phase of the voltage values V two composite signals.
obtained from the lookup table drops out of the resulting 5. The hybrid ?lter of claim 2 wherein the current signal
equation de?ning the harmonic currents. Thus, no actual is a series of discrete samples and wherein the electronic
voltage measurement need be made above the conductor 14 computer determines the average load from a mean value of
of the power main 12 reducing the hardware costs of the a plurality functions of consecutive discrete samples
?lter. employing the steps of:
Many other modi?cations and variations of the preferred (i) dividing a function of a new sample by the number of
embodiment'which will still be within the spirit and scope of the plurality of consecutive discrete samples;
the invention will be apparent to those with ordinary skill in 20 (ii) adding the divided function of step (i) to the mean
the art. In order to apprise the public of the various embodi value;
ments that may fall within the scope of the invention, the (iii) dividing a function of an earlier sample by the
following claims are made. number of the plurality of consecutive discrete
We claim: samples; and
1. A hybrid ?lter removing harmonic components from an 25
(iv) subtracting the divided function of step (iii) from the
AC power source, the AC power source providing an actual
current waveform including a fundamental and harmonic mean value;
frequency component ?owing through a line connected to a whereby a rolling mean is obtained as each new sample is
load, the ?lter comprising: obtained.
6. The hybrid ?lter of claim 2 where the plurality of
a current transducer connected to the line to provide a 30
samples is a 2" where n is an integer.
current signal indicating the actual current waveform in
7. The hybrid ?lter of claim 6, whereby the dividing of
the line; steps (i) and (iv), is performed by shifting left the binary
an electronic computer operating according to a stored representation of the function n places.
program and receiving the current signal to determine 8. The hybrid ?lter of claim 2, wherein the amplitude and
a harmonic-less current waveform matching the power 35
phase of the sine wave voltage are an arbitrary constant
characteristics of the actual current waveform; value not dependant on the actual voltage.
a controllable voltage source producing a voltage propor 9. The hybrid ?lter of claim 8, wherein the value of the
tional to the difference between the harmonic-less sine wave voltage is obtained from a stored look-up table in
current waveform and the actual current waveform; computer memory.
40
a passive resonant circuit attached at a ?rst end to the line 10. The hybrid ?lter of claim 1 wherein the current
and having a impedance minima at a frequency near the transducer acquires discrete samples at regular intervals
harmonic frequency component and attached at a sec based on a timer, and wherein the hybrid ?lter includes
ond end to the controllable voltage source. further an fundamental frequency detector for detecting the
2. The hybrid ?lter of claim 1, wherein the electronic 45
fundamental frequency of the actual current waveform and
computer operates according to the stored program, to wherein the timer is adjusted based on the fundamental
compute the harmonic-less current waveform by determin frequency detector so as to obtain the plurality of samples
ing an average load and setting the harmonic-less current during a single cycle of the fundamental frequency.
waveform equal to the current through the average load in 11. The hybrid ?lter of claim 10 wherein the fundamental
the presence of sine wave voltage equal in frequency to the 50
frequency detector is a zero crossing detector detecting
fundamental frequency component of the actual current times when the actual current waveform passes through
waveform. zero.
3. The hybrid ?lter of claim 2 wherein the average load
includes resistive and reactive components.