Aim:

To study the characteristics of half wave, full wave and bridge rectifier with
and without filter and calculate the ripple factor, rectification efficiency and %
regulation.
Objective:
Rectifier changes ac to dc and it is an essential part of power supply.To study
the the unique property of a diode, permitting the current to flow in one
direction, is utilised in rectifiers.

CLASSIFICATION OF RECTIFIERS

Using one or more diodes in the circuit, following rectifier circuits can be
designed.

1) Half - Wave Rectifier

2) Full – Wave Rectifier

3) Bridge Rectifier

Characteristics of a Rectifier Circuit:

Any electrical device which offers a low resistance to the current in one
direction but a high resistance to the current in the opposite direction is called
rectifier. Such a device is capable of converting a sinusoidal input waveform,
whose average value is zero, into a unidirectional waveform, with a nonzero
average component. A rectifier is a device, which converts a.c. voltage (bi-
directional) to pulsating d.c..Load currents: They are two types of output
current. They are average or d.c. current and RMS currents. Average or DC
current: The average current of a periodic function is defined as the area of one
cycle of the curve divided by the base

It is expressed mathematically as i) Average value/dc value/mean value= Total

time period Area over one period
ii) Effective (or) R.M.S current:

The effective (or) R.M.S. current squared ofa periodic function of time is given
by the area of one cycle of the curve, which represents the square of the function
divided by the base.

iii) Peak factor:

It is the ratio of peak value to Rms value

iv) Form factor:

It is the ratio of Rms value to average value

v) Ripple Factor :

It is defined as ration of R.M.S. value of a.c. component to the d.c. component in

the output is known

as “Ripple Factor”.
vi) Efficiency :

It is the ratio of d.c output power to the a.c. input power. It signifies, how
efficiently the rectifier circuit

converts a.c. power into d.c. power.

vii) Peak Inverse Voltage (PIV):

It is defined as the maximum reverse voltage that a diode can withstand

without destroying the junction.

viii) Transformer Utilization Factor (UTF):

The d.c. power to be delivered to the load in a rectifier circuit decides the rating
of the

Transformer used in the circuit. So, transformer utilization factor is defined as

ix) % Regulation:

The variation of the d.c. output voltage as a function of d.c. load current is called
regulation. The percentage regulation is defined as
For an ideal power supply, % Regulation is zero.

HALF-WAVE RECTIFIER

A Half – wave rectifier is one, which converts a.c. voltage into a pulsating
voltage using only one half cycle of the applied a.c. voltage

The a.c. voltage is applied to the rectifier circuit using step-down transformer-
rectifying element i.e., pn junction diode and the source of a.c. voltage, all
connected is series. The a.c. voltage is applied to the rectifier circuit using step-
down transformer.

V=Vm sin (wt)

The input to the rectifier circuit, Where Vm is the peak value of secondary a.c.
voltage.

Basic structure of Half-Wave Rectifier

 Input Output Wave forms of Half-Wave Rectifier

Typical waveforms of half wave rectifier without filter and with filter are shown
in the figure below
Operation:

For the positive half-cycle of input a.c. voltage, the diode D is forward biased
and hence it conducts. Now a current flows in the circuit and there is a voltage
drop across RL. The waveform of the diode current (or) load current is shown
graph

For the negative half-cycle of input, the diode D is reverse biased and hence it
does not Conduct. Now no current flows in the circuit i.e., i=0 and Vo=0. Thus
for the negative half- cycle no power is delivered to the load.

Analysis:

In the analysis of a HWR, the following parameters are to be analyzed.

Let a sinusoidal voltage Vi be applied to the input of the rectifier.

Then V=Vm sin (wt) Where Vm is the maximum value of the secondary voltage.
Let the diode be idealized to piece-wise linear approximation with resistance
Rf in the forward direction i.e., in the ON state and Rr (=∞) in the reverse
direction i.e., in the OFF state. Now the current ‘i’ in the diode (or) in the load
resistance RL is given by V=Vm sin (wt)

i) AVERAGE VOLTAGE
 ii) AVERAGE CURRENT:

iii) RMS VOLTAGE:

IV) RMS CURRENT

V) PEAK FACTOR

vi) FORM FACTOR

vii) Ripple Factor:

viii) Efficiency

ix) Transformer Utilization Factor (TUF):

The d.c. power to be delivered to the load in a rectifier circuit decides the rating
of the transformer

used in the circuit. Therefore, transformer utilization factor is defined as

The value of TUF is low which shows that in half-wave circuit, the transformer
is not fully utilized.

If the transformer rating is 1 KVA (1000VA) then the half-wave rectifier can
deliver

1000 X 0.287 = 287 watts to resistance load.

x) Peak Inverse Voltage (PIV):

It is defined as the maximum reverse voltage that a diode can withstand

without destroying the junction. The peak inverse voltage across a diode is the
peak of the negative half- cycle. For half-wave rectifier, PIV is Vm.

DISADVANTAGES OF HALF-WAVE RECTIFIER:

1. The ripple factor is high.

2. The efficiency is low.

3. The Transformer Utilization factor is low.

Because of all these disadvantages, the half-wave rectifier circuit is normally

not used as a power rectifier circuit.

Applications
  The requirement of generating dc output voltage paves the way for the
application of the half-wave rectifier circuit with the filter attached
across the load.
 In the power supplies circuitry where the constant DC at the output is not
considered as the major requirement at that case, the half-wave rectifier
can be used.

FULL WAVE RECTIFIER

A full-wave rectifier converts an ac voltage into a pulsating dc voltage using

both half cycles of the applied ac voltage. In order to rectify both the half cycles
of ac input, two diodes are used in this circuit. The diodes feed a common load
RL with the help of a center-tap transformer. A center-tap transformer is the
one, which produces two sinusoidal waveforms of same magnitude and
frequency but out of phase with respect to the ground in the secondary winding
of the transformer

Working Principle

Terminal A is positive for O during the first half cycle of the input voltage,
whereas terminal B is negative for O. The current flows through RL from D to O
because the first diode is forward biassed and conducts, while the second diode
is reverse biassed and does not conduct.

A is negative and B is positive for O during the second half cycle, therefore diode
one is reverse biassed and diode two is forward biassed. The current flowing
through RL is the same as it was throughout the first half of the cycle. A
continuous series is produced.

The rectifier is called a full-wave rectifier because it produces output in both

the positive and negative halves of the AC input cycle. This is a more efficient
circuit than a half-wave rectifier for obtaining rectified voltage or current.
 Basic structure of Full Wave Rectifier

The input and output wave forms of the Full Wave Rectifier
During the positive half cycle of the transformer secondary voltage, diode is
forward biased and is reverse biased. So a current flows through the diode, load
resistor and upper half of the transformer winding. During the negative half
cycle, diode becomes forward biased and becomes reverse biased. The current
then flows through the diode, load resistor and lower half of the transformer
winding. Current flows through the load resistor in the same direction during
both the half cycles. Peak value of the output voltage is less than the peak value
of the input voltage by 0.6V because of the voltage drop across the diode.

The power supply circuit of the previous article using a half-wave rectifier is used
here to compare the results. The voltage source of 220VRMS with 100:1 transformer
was used to supply a load of 1 kΩ Using bridge full-wave rectifier:

An approximate 20 VDC appears across (forward diode voltage drops are ignored
to keep things simple) the load and the current flow through 1 kΩ load is:
The power delivered to the load using a full-wave bridge rectifier:

The full-wave rectifier delivers twice the voltage and quadruple power to the load
as compared to the half-wave rectifier. It makes the full-wave rectifier more
efficient and for the same voltage power supply a smaller transformer can be
utilized compared to using a half-wave rectifier. For example, using a half-wave
rectifier, a 10:1 ratio transformer is used to supply approx. 10 VDC to the load when
input is 220VRMS. However, a 5:1 ratio transformer can be utilized to deliver the
same load voltage using a full-wave bridge rectifier.

Characteristics of Full Wave Rectifier

The characteristics of a full-wave rectifier are discussed below.

 Ripple Factor
 Form Factor
 DC Output Current
 Peak Inverse Voltage
 Root Mean Square Value of Load Current IRMS
 Rectifier Efficiency

Advantages

 The full-wave rectifier has more efficiency compared to that of a half-

wave rectifier.
  There is the utilization of both the cycles. Hence there is no loss in the
output power.
 As both the cycles used in rectification. There will be no loss in the input
voltage signal.
 Ripple factor is less compared to that of the half-wave rectifier.
 Greater mean in DC value is achieved.
 Compare to the center-tapped full-wave rectifier bridge rectifier is cost-
effective because the center-tapped is more costly.

Applications

 The amplitude for the modulating radio signal is detected using the full-
wave bridge rectifier circuit.
 In electric wielding to supply steady DC voltage in a polarized way, this
circuit is preferred.
 As the efficiency of rectification is high in this rectifier circuit, it is used in
various appliances as a part of the power supply unit.
 It has the capability of converting high AC voltage to low DC value.
 In case of powering up of the devices like motors and LED devices these
are used.

Bridge Rectifier

During the positive half cycle of the secondary voltage, diodes D1 and D2 are
forward biased and diodes D3 and D4 are reverse biased. Therefore, current
flows through the secondary winding, diode, load resistor and diode. During the
negative half cycle, and are forward biased and diodes and are reverse biased.
Therefore, current flows through the secondary winding, diode. Load resistor
and. During both the half cycles, the current flows through the load resistor in
the same direction. Peak value of the output voltage is less than the peak value
of the input voltage by 1.2V due to the voltage drop across two diodes. The
ripple factor of the bridge rectifier is the same as that of full wave rectifier.
 FILTERS

The output of a rectifier contains dc component as well as ac component. Filters

are used to minimize the undesirable ac i.e., ripple leaving only the dc
component to appear at the output.

Some important filters are:

1. Inductor filter

2. Capacitor filter

3. LC or L section filter

4. CLC or Π-type filter

Rectifiers with Filter

All rectifier outputs contain considerable amount of ripple in addition to the DC

component. In order to avoid AC components, a filter is connected at the output
of the rectifier.

Capacitor input filter, choke input filter, RC, CRC, LC, and CLC filters are the
usually used filters. Capacitor input filter is the simplest and cheapest. A high
value capacitor C is connected in shunt with the load resistor RL.

Capacitor charges to peak voltage Vm when the half cycle appears at the
output. After the peak value is passed, the capacitor discharges through the load
resistor slowly since the diode is reverse biased by the capacitor voltage. Before
the capacitor voltage drops substantially, next output cycle arrives and the
capacitor recharges to peak.

Rectifier without filter

CONCLUSION:

As conclusion, we can conclude that half-wave and full-wave rectifier circuits

can be built. It can measure and record their output voltages and
curves systematically. Next, the influences of load resistor and
capacitor on DC output voltage is investigate. Half- and full-wave rectifiers
are used to convert AC into DC voltage. This is the primary function of the
rectifier in industrial applications. For example, AC is used across the power
grid, but to use electricity for welding, electroplating and as a DC source
for motors with special speed controls, the AC must be changed to DC.
Therefore, it is importance to carried out this experiment to increase the
understanding on rectifier in industries.