WHITE PAPER:
STEADY-STATE VS. TRANSIENT HARMONICS
Contributed by Chris Mullins, December 2015
ABSTRACT
A harmonic analysis is a powerful method for
analyzing waveform distortion, given the period-
ic nature of most nonlinear loads. Steady-state
harmonic tools are sometimes extended for use
with waveform events such as oscillatory tran-
sients, where the underlying assumptions behind
the analysis are no longer true. Although a useful
technique, it’s important to understand the differ-
ences between true steady-state harmonics, and
the “harmonic” values generated from a transient
waveform analysis to avoid drawing false conclu-
sions.
HARMONIC BASICS
A harmonic analysis provides a similar tool for
complex waveforms. In a harmonic decomposi-
tion, a non-sinusoidal periodic voltage or current
waveform is broken down into a summation of
pure sine waves, each with a frequency that is a
whole multiple of the line frequency. In many
cases it’s simpler to then analyze the harmonics
rather than the original complex waveform. For
example, consider the voltage and current wave-
forms in Figure 1. The blue trace is a typical
phase current waveform from a 6-pulse Variable
Frequency Drive (VFD). The current waveform
is definitely not a pure 60 Hz sine wave, but it is
periodic - the distorted shape repeats essentially
unchanged in every 60 Hz cycle. For a VFD, the
current pulses are produced in this consistent fash-
ion due to diode conduction in the 3-phase bridge
rectifier block - each branch of diodes conducts for
a portion of the waveform as the phase-to-phase
voltage changes in each branch. The underly-
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ing AC voltage sine wave drives this conduction
pattern, and thus it repeats as the voltage itself
repeats at the line frequency. The current wave-
forms of many nonlinear loads are driven by the
AC voltage waveform, and thus are also periodic
- the waveform distortion is the same with each
driving AC voltage cycle. This property is why a
harmonic analysis is useful for a wide variety of
nonlinear loads. Loads where the nonlinearity is
not periodic, such as arc welders, rock crushers,
etc. are not amenable to a harmonic analysis.
With a consistent, periodic distortion, the Fourier
theorem states there is a unique combination of
sine waves that add up on a point-by-point basis
to equal the original waveform, and that only sine
waves at multiples of the line frequency are needed
to do this. The advantage of using a harmonic de-
composition is that many complex waveforms seen
in the field can be represented by just a handful of
harmonic values, reducing a complex shape into
just a few quantities. This reduction in complex-
ity is similar to how the RMS value can be used
to simplify some calculations instead of using the
entire waveform.
STEADY-STATE EXAMPLE
The particular wave shape from a VFD in Figure
1 produces harmonics of order n according to n =
6k ± 1, where k = 1,2,3, ... and n is the harmonic
number. This gives the fundamental (1st harmon-
ic), then pairs of significant harmonics - 5th and
7th, 11th and 13th, 17th and 19th, etc. with the
rest mostly zero. In practice, the first two pairs,
5th/7th and 11th/13th are the most important. A Figure 1. Voltage and current
harmonic analysis was performed on a typical cy- waveform, with repetitive
cle from Figure 1, and as expected, these pairs are distortion on current from
the largest. The decomposition gives amplitudes 6-pulse VFD
WHITE PAPER:
STEADY-STATE VS. TRANSIENT HARMONICS
Figure 2. Harmonic reconstruction of VFD waveform with
just the fundamental (top plot), 1st and 5th (2nd plot), 1st,
5th, and 7th (third plot), and 1st, 5th, 7th, 11th and 13th
(bottom plot). The third plot is already close to the original,
with just three sine waves (1st, 5th, 7th)
for each harmonic needed to reconstruct the wave-
form, and only a handful are needed. In Figure 2,
a reconstructed waveform is shown as more har-
monics from the decomposition are added togeth-
er. The top plot shows just the fundamental, which
of course appears as a pure sine wave. The second
plot shows just the 1st and 5th harmonics, and the
rough pulse shape of the original in Figure 1 can
already be discerned. In the third plot, the 7th
harmonic is added (1st, 5th, and 7th together), and
here the reconstructed waveform already looks
very similar to the original, with just three sine
waves - the fundamental, and the first VFD pair.
Finally, the bottom plot shows the waveform with
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the additional 11th/13th pair of harmonics includ-
ed, showing that the point of diminishing returns
has already been reached in terms of adding more
harmonics to the reconstruction to reproduce the
original waveform.
The 1st, 5th, and 7th harmonics are plotted indi-
vidually in Figure 3, with their correct scale as per
the harmonic analysis of Figure 1. These three
sine waves, added together point-by-point, give the
third waveform in Figure 2- a very close match to
the original in Figure 1. Thus, three sine magni-
tudes capture the essence of the complex wavesh-
ape from this VFD. Instead of further analyzing a
complex shape, these three harmonic components
may be analyzed further.
The current distortion here is a steady-state
phenomenon - the VFD current is driven by the
repetitive voltage sine wave. This characteristic is
essential to the entire harmonic analysis con-
cept, and is what guarantees a unique and com-
plete harmonic breakdown of a waveform. This
steady state nature is one reason for the IEEE
519 recommendation of at least 3 second averages
for harmonic studies, and also longer 10 minute
averages. Stripchart logging of average harmonic
readings provide the raw data needed for steady-
state analysis as per IEEE 519.
Figure 3. Fundamental, plus
OSCILLATORY TRANSIENT EXAMPLE 5th and 7th harmonics used
in Figure 2, plotted individu-
However, ProVision and other tools also provide a ally instead of added together
harmonic analysis of captured waveform data. In
WHITE PAPER:
STEADY-STATE VS. TRANSIENT HARMONICS
Figure 4, the VFD current waveform from Figure
1 is plotted in ProVision in the harmonic analysis
window (Graph, Harmonic Analysis, Magnitudes),
with voltages and the other phase currents re-
moved for clarity. At the top, the entire waveform
capture is graphed, with a gray analysis rectangle
available. ProVision computes the harmonics of
the cycle data inside this gray rectangle; this rect-
angle may be moved by the user. The dominant
harmonics are the 1st, then 5th and 7th, and then
the smaller pairs of 11th/13th, 17th/19th, as ex-
pected for the VFD waveshape. Since each cycle
is very similar to the others, moving the gray data
rectangle within this waveform capture doesn’t
change the result much.
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Figure 4. ProVision har-
monic bar chart showing the
characteristic VFD harmonic
pattern with steady state
distortion
But what happens for a waveform where the
distortion is not periodic? A harmonic analysis
can still be useful, and ProVision can be used to
compute the harmonic levels, but how are they
meaningful if the assumption of periodicity is
not met? In Figure 5, an oscillatory transient is
graphed in the ProVision harmonic analysis tool.
The gray selection rectangle is moved to cover a
“normal” cycle, before the disturbance. This cycle
looks much like all the others, so the traditional
harmonic technique is valid. The overall distor-
tion is low at 1.7%, and the harmonics themselves
are very low compared to the fundamental, with
the 7th and 11th being most dominant.
In Figure 6, the analysis rectangle has been
Figure 5. Harmonic analysis
of a relatively clean voltage
waveform, avoiding the
transient in the captured
waveform
WHITE PAPER:
STEADY-STATE VS. TRANSIENT HARMONICS
moved to cover the oscillatory transient (circled in
orange). The harmonic picture is much different
now, with a lump of “harmonics” clustered around
the 11th. The 10th and 12th harmonics are also
elevated. But are these really valid, since the as-
sumption of a periodic distortion is not met?
Strictly speaking, if no line frequency period is
assumed for the distortion, the Fourier analysis
doesn’t yield harmonics, but gives a spectral ener-
gy breakdown of the signal. Instead of referring
to the fundamental, 5th harmonic, etc. the output
of the algorithm should be interpreted as a set of
frequency “bins” that cover the spectrum from DC
to the half the sampling frequency. The x-axis for
the bar chart shown in Figure 6 can be interpreted
as frequency instead of harmonic number, where
the 1st harmonic is 60 Hz, the 5th is 60x5 = 300
Hz, etc. The bars represent the amount of signal
energy contained in each frequency bin, which in
this analysis method is 60 Hz wide. For example,
the 11th harmonic shown in the graph represents
the energy in the signal centered around 660 Hz,
i.e. 630 Hz to 690 Hz.
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Here the concept of a fundamental, or multiples Figure 6. Spectral analysis
of that frequency (harmonics), even/odd harmonic of the oscillatory transient in
patterns etc. do not apply. The plot in Figure 6 is the waveform, with a peak at
interpreted purely as spectral display with 60 Hz 660 Hz
resolution, plotted from 60 Hz to 3060 Hz (51x60).
The readings cannot be considered harmonics
since the waveform distortion does not repeat with
each power line cycle. The THD reading is not
really meaningful here either.
There is still a physical meaning to the spectral
plot though, and useful information in it. A dis-
turbance like the oscillatory transient in Figure 6
is very common, often caused by capacitor bank
switching. The initial switch impulse excites a
resonance formed by the cap bank and load induc-
tance. This resonance produces a ringing wave-
form superimposed on the base 60 Hz sine wave,
as seen in Figure 6, whose frequency depends on
the capacitance and inductance. The distortion is
sinusoidal, so a frequency-based spectral analysis
still paints a useful picture. Here the dominant
frequency is roughly 660 Hz (11x60), easily seen in
Figure 6. The spectral analysis again allows for a
simple representation of a complex waveform - 60
WHITE PAPER:
STEADY-STATE VS. TRANSIENT HARMONICS

Hz sine wave plus 660 Hz ringing, with the caveat

that this doesn’t imply a steady-state condition..

The peak at 660 Hz, and the lower, but still high
region around that frequency don’t represent
steady state harmonic levels. The peak is the
ringing frequency, and the region around the peak
represents windowing effects from the analysis
technique, along with the fact that the ringing
itself is damped and doesn’t persist throughout the
analysis window. Knowing the resonance fre-
quency allows for mitigation with a tuned filter, or
further capacitance/inductances work to possibly
detune the network.

The same analysis tool is used in Figures 5 and

6, but the interpretation is much different. With
repetitive waveform disturbances, true harmonics
are present, and the bar chart represents these
harmonics. These harmonics can compactly
describe typical patterns of distortion such as the
one shown here for the 6-pulse VFD. With one-
shot disturbances, the graph represents a generic
frequency spectrum with 60 Hz resolution. Areas
of high magnitude in the spectrum don’t repre-
sent steady state harmonics, but instead describe
transient phenomena that typically persist for less
than one 60 Hz cycle. Due to the reactive nature
of the power line, and abrupt switching excitation,
ringing transients are very common and are well
suited for display with a spectral graph.

CONCLUSION

A spectral analysis is useful for both steady-state

and transient waveforms. Although the mechanics
for data analysis and presentation are the same,
the interpretation and conclusions that can be
made are much different. The background behind
both types are given here, along with examples
of each. A good understanding of the principles
behind the method is important for extracting as
much information as possible from the data while
not drawing false conclusions.

Chris Mullins
VP of Engineering and Operations
cmullins@powermonitors.com
http://www.powermonitors.com
(800) 296-4120

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