UNIT II

PHASE-CONTROLLED CONVERTERS

➢ 2-pulse,3-pulse and 6-pulseconverters

➢ Performance parameters

➢ Effect of source inductance

➢ Gate Circuit Schemes for Phase Control

➢ Dual converters.
RECTIFIER

Rectifier are used to convert A.C to D.C supply.

Rectifiers can be classified as single phase rectifier and three phase rectifier. Single phase
rectifier are classified as 1-Փ half wave and 1-Փ full wave rectifier. Three phase rectifier are
classified as 3-Փ half wave rectifier and 3-Փ full wave rectifier. 1-Փ Full wave rectifier are
classified as1-Փ mid point type and 1-Փ bridge type rectifier. 1-Փ bridge type rectifier are classified
as 1-Փ half controlled and 1-Փ full controlled rectifier. 3-Փ full wave rectifier are again classified as
3-Փ mid point type and 3-Փ bridge type rectifier. 3-Փ bridge type rectifier are again divided as 3-Փ
half controlled rectifier and 3-Փ full controlled rectifier.

Single phase half wave circuit with R-L load

Output current io rises gradually. After some time io reaches a maximum value and then begins to
decrease.
At π, vo=0 but io is not zero because of the load inductance L. After π interval SCR is reverse biased
but load current is not less then the holding current.

At β>π, io reduces to zero and SCR is turned off.

At 2π+β SCR triggers again

α is the firing angle.

β is the extinction angle.
v conduction angle v= β-α

Analysis for VT

The transient component can be obtained as

Single phase full converter
T₁,T₂ triggered at α and π radian latter T₃, T₄ are triggered.
Single phase half wave circuit with RLE load

The minimum value of firing angle is

Maximum value of firing angle

The voltage differential equation is

Due to source volt

Due to DC counter emf

Thus the total current is given by

Average voltage across the inductance is zero. Average value of load current is
If load inductance L is zero then

So average current will be

For no inductance rms value of load current

Power delivered to load

Supply power factor

The three phase fully controlled bridge converter

The three phase fully controlled bridge converter has been probably the most widely used
power electronic converter in the medium to high power applications. Three phase circuits are
preferable when large power is involved. The controlled rectifier can provide controllable out put dc
voltage in a single unit instead of a three phase autotransformer and a diode bridge rectifier. The
controlled rectifier is obtained by replacing the diodes of the uncontrolled rectifier with thyristors.
Control over the output dc voltage is obtained by controlling the conduction interval of each
thyristor. This method is known as phase control and converters are also called “phase controlled
converters”. Since thyristors can block voltage in both directions it is possible to reverse the
polarity of the output dc voltage and hence feed power back to the ac supply from the dc side.
Under such condition the converter is said to be operating in the “inverting mode”. The thyristors in
the converter circuit are commutated with the help of the supply voltage in the rectifying mode of
operation and are known as “Line commutated converter”. The same circuit while operating in the
inverter mode requires load side counter emf. for commutation and are referred to as the “Load
commutated inverter”.

In phase controlled rectifiers though the output voltage can be varied continuously the load
harmonic voltage increases considerably as the average value goes down. Of course the magnitude
of harmonic voltage is lower in three phase converter compared to the single phase circuit. Since
the frequency of the harmonic voltage is higher smaller load inductance leads to continuous
th
conduction. Input current wave shape become rectangular and contain 5 and higher order odd
harmonics. The
displacement angle of the input current increases with firing angle. The frequency of the harmonic
voltage and current can be increased by increasing the pulse number of the converter which can be
achieved by series and parallel connection of basic 6 pulse converters. The control circuit become
considerably complicated and the use of coupling transformer and / or interphase reactors become
mandatory.

With the introduction of high power IGBTs the three phase bridge converter has all but been
replaced by dc link voltage source converters in the medium to moderately high power range.
However in very high power application (such as HV dc transmission system, cycloconverter
drives, load commutated inverter synchronous motor drives, static scherbius drives etc.) the basic B
phase bridge converter block is still used. In this lesson the operating principle and characteristic of
this very important converter topology will be discussed in source depth.

Operating Principle of 3 phase fully controlled bridge converter

A three phase fully controlled converter is obtained by replacing all the six diodes of
an uncontrolled converter by six thyristors as shown in Fig. (a)
For any current to flow in the load at least one device from the top group (T , T , T ) and one from
1 3 5
the bottom group (T2, T4, T6) must conduct. It can be argued as in the case of an uncontrolled

converter only one device from these two groups will conduct.

Then from symmetry consideration it can be argued that each thyristor conducts for 120° of the
input cycle. Now the thyristors are fired in the sequence T → T → T → T → T → T → T
1 2 3 4 5 6 1
with 60° interval between each firing. Therefore thyristors on the same phase leg are fired at an
interval of 180° and hence can not conduct simultaneously. This leaves only six possible conduction
mode for the converter in the continuous conduction mode of operation. These are T 1T2, T2T3,

T T T T , T T , T T . Each conduction mode is of 60° duration and appears in the sequence

3 4, 4 5 5 6 6 1
mentioned.

The conduction table of Fig. (b) shows voltage across different devices and the dc output voltage
for each conduction interval. The phasor diagram of the line voltages appear in Fig.(c). Each of
these line voltages can be associated with the firing of a thyristor with the help of the conduction
table-1. For example the thyristor T 1 is fired at the end of T5T6 conduction interval. During this

period the voltage across T was v .

1 ac

Therefore T1 is fired α angle after the positive going zero crossing of v ac. Similar observation can

be made about other thyristors. The phasor diagram of Fig. (c) also confirms that all the thyristors
are fired in the correct sequence with 60° interval between each firing.

Fig. shows the waveforms of different variables (shown in Fig. (a)). To arrive at the waveforms it is
necessary to draw the conduction diagram which shows the interval of conduction for each thyristor
and can be drawn with the help of the phasor diagram of fig. (c). If the converter firing angle is α
each thyristor is fired “α” angle after the positive going zero crossing of the line voltage with which
it’s firing is associated. Once the conduction diagram is drawn all other voltage waveforms can be
drawn from the line voltage waveforms and from the conduction table of fig.(b).

Similarly line currents can be drawn from the output current and the conduction diagram. It is clear
from the waveforms that output voltage and current waveforms are periodic over one sixth of the
input cycle. Therefore this converter is also called the “six pulse” converter. The input current on
rd th
the other hand contains only odds harmonics of the input frequency other than the triplex (3 , 9
etc.) harmonics. The next section will analyze the operation of this converter in more details.
Analysis of the converter in the rectifier mode

The output voltage waveform can be written as

( 4)

The input phase current ia is expressed as

From Fig. it can be observed that i 0 itself has a ripple at a frequency six times the input
frequency. The closed from expression of i0, as will be seen later is some what complicated.
However, considerable simplification in the expression of ia can be obtained if i0 is replaced
by its average value I0. This approximation will be valid provided the ripple on i 0 is small,
i.e, the load is highly inductive. The modified input current waveform will then be i a which
can be expressed in terms of a fourier series as

I = 0 otherwise.
An
The closed form expression for i in the interval
0
Exercise

1. A three phase fully controlled bridge converter operating from a 3 phase 220 V, 50 Hz supply
is used to charge a battery bank with nominal voltage of 240 V. The battery bank has an
internal resistance of 0.01 Ω and the battery bank voltage varies by ± 10% around its
nominal value between fully charged and uncharged condition. Assuming continuous
conduction find out.
(i) The range of firing angle of the converter.
(ii) The range of ac input power factor.
(iii) The range of charging efficiency.

When the battery bank is charged with a constant average charging current of 100 Amps through a
250 mH lossless inductor.

Answer: The maximum and minimum battery voltages are,

VB Min = 0.9 × VB Nom = 216 volts and

VB Max = 1.1 × VB Nom = 264 volts respectively.

Since the average charging current is constant at 100 A.

V =V + 100 × R = 264 + 100 × 0.01 = 265 volts
0 Max B Max B
V0 Min = VB Min + 100 × RB = 216 + 100 × 0.01 = 217 volts.

(i) But V0 MaxLMin32V=V cos απ ∴α = 26.88º

Min
V0 MinLMax32V=V cos απ ∴α Max = 43.08º

(ii) Input power factor is maximum at minimum α and vice versa

2. A three phase fully controlled converter operates from a 3 phase 230 V, 50 Hz supply through
a Y/Δ transformer to supply a 220 V, 600 rpm, 500 A separately excited dc motor. The motor
has an armature resistance of 0.02 Ω. What should be the transformer turns ratio such that
the converter produces rated motor terminal voltage at 0º firing angle. Assume continuous
conduction. The same converter is now used to brake the motor regeneratively in the reverse
direction. If the thyristors are to be provided with a minimum turn off time of 100 μs, what
is the maximum reverse speed at which rated braking torque can be produced.
Answer: From the given question
L32V=220π ∴VL = 162.9 V

Where V is the secondary side line and also the phase voltage since the secondary side is Δ
L
connected.
Higher pulse number converters and dual converter:

The three phase fully controlled converter is widely used in the medium to moderately high power
applications. However in very large power applications (such as HV DC transmission systems) the
th th
device ratings become impractically large. Also the relatively low frequency (6 in the dc side, 5

and 7th in the ac side) harmonic voltages and currents produced by this converter become
unacceptable. Therefore several such converters are connected in series parallel combination in
order to increase the voltage / current rating of the resulting converter. Furthermore if the
component converters are controlled properly some lower order harmonics can be eliminated both
from the input and output resulting in a higher pulse converter.
Fig. (a) schematically represents series connection of two six pulse converters where as Fig. (b) can
be considered to be a parallel connection. The inductance in between the converters has been
included to limit circulating harmonic current. In both these figures CONV – I and CONV – II have
identical construction and are also fired at the same firing angle α. Their input supplies also have
same magnitude but displaced in phase by an angle φ. Then one can write

Now if cos 3Kφ = 0 for some K then the corresponding harmonic disappear from the fourier series
expression of v0.

In particular if φ = 30° then cos 3Kφ = 0 for K = 1, 2, 3, 5…….

This phase difference can be obtained by the arrangement shown in Fig. (c).

Then

It can be seen that the frequency of the harmonics present in the output voltage has the form
12ω, 24ω, 36ω ………..
Similarly it can be shown that the input side line current iABC have harmonic

frequency of the form

11ω, 13ω, 23ω, 25ω, 35ω, 37ω, ………….
Which is the characteristic of a 12 pulse converter.

In a similar manner more number of 3 phase 6 pulse converters can be connected in series / parallel
and the φ angle can be adjusted to obtain 18 and 24 pulse converters.
One of the shortcomings of a three phase fully controlled converter is that although it can produce
both positive and negative voltage it can not supply current in both directions. However, some
applications such as a four quadrant dc motor drive require this capability from the dc source. This
problem is easily mitigated by connecting another three phase fully controlled converter in anti
parallel as shown in Fig. 13.5 (a). In this figure converter-I supplies positive load current while
converter-II supplies negative load current. In other words converter-I operates in the first and
fourth quadrant of the output v – i plane whereas converter-II operates in the third and fourth
quadrant. Thus the two converters taken together can operate in all four quadrants and is capable of
supplying a four quadrant dc motor drive. The combined converter is called the Dual converter.
Obviously since converter-I and converter-II are connected in antiparallel they must produce the
same dc voltage. This requires that the firing angles of these two converters be related as
α = π – α (13.30)
2 1

Although Equations 13.30 ensures that the dc voltages produced by these converters are equal the
output voltages do not match on an instantaneous basis. Therefore to avoid a direct short circuit
between two different supply lines the two converters must never be gated simultaneously.
Converter-I receives gate pulses when the load current is positive. Gate pulses to converter-II are
blocked at that time. For negative load current converter-II thyristors are fired while converter-I
gate pulses are blocked. Thus there is no circulating current flowing through the converters and
therefore it is called the non-circulating current type dual converter. It requires precise sensing of
the zero crossing of the output current which may pose a problem particularly at light load due to
possible discontinuous conduction. To overcome this problem an interphase reactor may be
incorporated between the two converters. With the interphase reactor in place both the converters
can be gated simultaneously with α2 = π – α1. The resulting converter is called the circulating

current type dual converter.

Gate Drive circuit for three phase fully controlled converter
Several schemes exist to generate gate drive pulses for single phase or three phase converters. In
many application it is required that the output of the converter be proportional to a control voltage.
This can be achieved as follows.
In either single or three phase converters

The following circuit can be used to generate “α” according to equation

In the circuit of Fig. (a) a phase shift network is used to obtain a waveform leading v by 90º. The
i
phasor diagram of the phase shift circuit is shown in Fig. (b). The output of the phase shift
waveform (and its inverse) is compared with vc. The firing pulse is generated at the point when

these two waveforms are equal. Obviously at-this instant

Therefore this method of generation of converter firing pulses is called “inverse cosine” control.
The output of the phase shift network is called carrier waveform.
Similar technique can be used for three phase converters. However the phase shift network here
consists of a three phase signal transformer with special connections as shown in Fig.
The signal transformer uses three single phase transformer each of which has two secondary
windings. The primary windings are connected in delta while the secondary windings are connected
in zigzag. From Fig. (c) T2 is fired α angle after the positive going zero crossing of v bc. Therefore,

to implement inverse cosine the carrier wave for T must lead v by 90º. This waveform is
2 bc
obtained from zigzag connection of the winding segments a 1a2 and c1c2 as shown in Fig. (a). The

same figure also shows the zigzag connection for other phase. The voltage across each zigzag phase
can be used to fire two thyristors belonging to the same phase leg using a circuit similar to Fig. (a).
The phase shift network will not be required in this case.