Electrical Engineering in Japan, Vol. 100, No.
4, 1980
Translated from Denki Gakkai Ronbunshi, Vol. 100B, No. 8, August 1980, pp. 477-484
Harmonic Control of PWM Inverter for Traction
SATORU SONE and YOUICHI H O R I
Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo
1. Introduction
A t present, the electric traction is driven
mainly by the dc motor. The dc motor has good
control characteristics realized by the resist-
ance control o r chopper control method. But it
suffers from flashover o r commutator deteriora-
tion. The ac motor has been used for railways
and high-speed traffic systems to decrease the
maintenance cost, to improve the adhesion per-
formance, and to reduce heat and energy losses
[ l ] . However, the ac motor is still expansive
despite the improvement of inverter commuta-
tion techniques.
The largest technical problem encountered in
the ac motor system for the traction is the wave-
form interference. In the ac motor system em-
ploying the inverter, the fundamental frequency
of the current harmonics at the dc source side
varies continuously according to the train speed.
Therefore, in the railway communication cir-
cuit employing the audio-frequency carriers, the
harmonic interference becomes a serious prob-
lem,
The waveform interference problem may be
solved by the following.
(1) New signal system which is free from the
waveform interference is developed.
(2) The source and load a r e separated com-
pletely via cascade connection of the chopper
and inverter or the CVCF inverter and cyclo-
converter.
(3) The noise in the operating frequency band
is suppressed by using the direct-type converter
(the voltage-type P W M inverter, etc.).
In this paper, we consider (3) the noise sup-
pression by the P W M inverter. The PWM in-
verter employing the microprocessor enables
one to perform harmonic suppression [3, 4 ) .
95
The data table of the inverter frequency vs. the
P W M waveform is stored on the ROM. The P W M
inverter is controlled by successively reading
the data table by the CPU according to the control
command and system parameters. Since the de-
sirable waveform data table can be calculated by
computer, this system can be used in many fields
by simply exchanging the R O M or by correcting
the software level.
In this paper, we discuss the PWM inverter
output waveform and present the synthesis method
of the PWM waveform which can suppress the
current harmonic waves a t the source and reduce
the heat and oscillation of the motor. Further-
more, a method of suppressing the transient
noise generated at the PWM mode change is de-
scribed.
2. Comparison of P W M Inverter
Main Circuits [5]
Figure 1 shows the three-terminal switch
which performs turn-on and turn-off by the micro-
processor software. Figure 2 shows the P W M
inverter main circuit for electric traction driven
by the induction motor.
W e consider (1)the number of arms and capac-
ity; and (2) degree of freedom of waveforms. For
(l), simple structure is desirable. For ( Z ) , the
degree of freedom (on-off timing of the three-
terminal switch for one period) is used for har-
monic control.
The three-phase six-terminal structure [Fig.
2(c) ] does not satisfy (1). The three-phase three-
terminal structure [Fig. 2(a) ] takes the sym-
metric line-to-line voltage [see Fig. 3(a) ] only
and loses the degree of freedom waveforms.
This P W M waveform does not contain the 3mth
harmonic and the 3mth harmonic current does
not flow into the three-phase induction motor.
The two-phase four-terminal structure [Fig. 2(b) ]
~SN0424-0076/80/0004-0095$7.50/0
0 1982 Scripta Publishing Co.
 Table 1. Comparison of composition of main circuits
of inverters

Inverter main circuit 3-phase 3-phase

4-terminal 6-terminal

Current harmonics which are suppressed by the wave- 21 21 21

form symmetry 31
Current harmonics which are suppressed by the motor
characteristics 31 21 31
Frequency of c u r x n t harmonics at the source 61F 1 41F I 6fF

k and f are integers

*No. of ignition timings which are independent a t 114 period (0, %/2) of the PWM waveform.
**F is the fundamental frequency of the motor winding voltage (the current). The harmonics
in the signal frequency band must be suppressed (the harmonic control).

E~ 2 E= for the terminal voltages

Fig. 1. Three-terminal switch and its circuit,

has slightly larger number of arms but has high

degree of freedom of waveforms. If a sinusoidal
current flows in the induction motor, there is no
large difference in the current waveform of con-
verter elements and motor windings for two-
phase and three-phase structures. If the motor (a) 3-phase 3-term., (b) 2-phase 5-term., (c) 3-phase 6-term.
output is identical, there is not much difference
between two-phase and three-phase structures
from viewpoints of overall capacity of windings Fig. 2. Composition of main circuits of inverters.
and elements.

Table 1 shows the comparison of the inverter
main circuits of Fig. Z(a)-(c). The two-phase
induction motor with four terminals is advan-
tageous from the viewpoint of degree of freedom
for control.
3. Analysis and Synthesis of P W M Waveforms
for Harmonic Control
Figure 4 shows the structure of the P W M in-
verter. There a r e two problems relating to the

96
 v u ~ .Partial sym- VUu*
1 , metric point 1
E : Source voltage 3jiLp
I :c(t\: Line current
Is@): Source voltage
( a ) e3=+,, a , 26 lbl Ic) O<ai<u,<o><fr r r t
VL (t): Load voltage
I L ( ~ ) Load
: current
The symmetry for n/z, and I? and 3-phase
balance in (a) for K = 3 are shown

Fig. 4. Composition of PWM inverter f o r elec-

Fig. 3. Examples of PWM waveforms obtain- tric traction.
able by the circuits shown in Fig. 2.

waveform interference caused by the traction

current It(0 ; the harmonic wave elimination in
the steady PWM waveform, and the transient
noise suppression a t PWM mode change.

The harmonic components of the steady PWM

waveform must satisfy the following require-
ments :
Fig. 5. Waveform of load voltage and load cur-
(1) The lower harmonics of the load (motor) rent.
voltage waveform must be sufficiently suppressed
to reduce the heat loss,

(2) The higher harmonics of the traction cur-

rent in the protective frequency bandwidth must
be eliminated completely.

3.1 Harmonics of load voltage waveform

16, 71

Figure 5 shows the waveforms of the load

1
voltage VL(t) and load current It(t); VL(O de-
notes rectangular PWM waves with T/4 and T/2. Fig. 6. Waveform of source current.
The commutation timing t i , ...
, tK takes any
value which is prescribed by the two-phase four-
terminal structure (the degree of freedom of the
waveform K). Such PWM waveforms can be real- Substituting Eq. (3) into
ized readily by the digital control system; VL(t)
is expressed in terms of Fourier series L * iL(t)+R I,@)= VL(t)

we obtain

E 1
B,=- R {(2n- 1)OOZja+ 1 "j
where W o = 2 n F = 2 s T . T is the period of the
load voltage fundamental wave, K is the number
of half-period pulses (the degree of freedom of where
the waveform), E is the source voltage, and an
is the (2n-1) th harmonic of the load voltage. z = L/R= V(l/pf)*-ll/oo

3.2 Harmonic components of source current which corresponds to the load power factor pf.
waveform (0 [ 31
The source current Is(t) in the inverter per
Assume that the motor winding consists of the phase is given as a product of VL(t) and I L ( ~[see
resistance R and inductance L. Then the load Fig. 61. When the load voltage VL(O is zero,
current I L ( ~ )is the load current circulates in the main circuit
m via the feedback diode and the source current is
I L ( ~ )C
= iBnsin(2 n-1)oot zero. The identical waveform repeats a t the
"=l
period of T/2. The fundamental-wave angular
+c.cos(2 n-1)oo t)
( 3) frequency of is 2wo

97
Is(t) contains the dc component, 2w0, 4w0, 6 w 0 ,
... . The two-phase inverter structure can eli-
minate harmonics other than 4 w 0 , 8w0, 1 2 ~ 0 ,
. .. . The three-phase structure can suppress
the harmonics other than 6 w 0 , 1 2 ~ 0 18w0,
,
... . Next, the 2 w ocomponent Dm of Is(t)
is obtained by the expansion of Eq. (7). Setting
Fig. 7. Another expression of current waveform.

we obtain

where

e = E ...( b ) , e=O ...( c ) (15)

In Fig. "(a), given 10 ( < 0) , the current in (n

..
= 1, 2, , , 2K + 1) is calculated from Eq. (14)
for sections corresponding to (b) and (c) of IL(t)
to obtain 11 (z i 2 ~ + 1 after
) half period. From the
zS=-
l C
m( - a , C,+t sin 2 m oat symmetry of the PWM waveform a t T/2, we have
2 ,=1 11 = 10 and perform the convergence calculation
+a, Bm+,cos2moot) (10) by Newton's method

For m = 0, we have ZoZ(Z0- 11)/2 (16)

which yields the convergence solution for 10 < 0.
The load current in(t) for the sections (b) and (c)
m
is expressed in terms of in (n = 1, 2 , , 2 K + 1) ...
i,(t)= e / R + ( i , - e / R ) e x p {- (t-tn)/r) (17)
where

t n < t < t t l + l , e = E ...( b), e=O ...( c ) (18)

The source current waveform In(t) can be obtained
by setting in(t) to zero for the section of Fig. 7(c)
The harmonics (the dc and 2 mug components) and by using Eq. (17) for the section of Fig. 7(b).
are Therefore the 2 I'WOcomponent Dm of Is(t) can
be obtained by sampling a t proper interval and
1 " performing the FFT on k(t) thus obtained, How-
Do=- a , Bi
2 i=l ever, in performing sampling for the FFT at the
same accuracy (about 1 1s) as the P W M inverter
output, the memory capacity of about several ten
kW is needed for the waveform analysis of the in-
verter output ( F = 50 and K = 6).

3.4 Waveform synthesis for higher harmonic

control in P W M waveform [ 3 ]

3.3 Harmonics of source current waveform
(ID
The 2 mu0 component Dm of the source cur-
rent Is(t) can be calculated by the fast Fourier
transform (FFT). First, we obtain Is(t). The
load current waveform IL(t) shown in Fig. 5 can
be expressed in a series of waveform shown in
Fig. 7(b) and (c). The currents in and i n + l at
times t = tn and h + lare related as
Figure 8 shows the P W M waveform obtained
by the triangular method for w t = 1 4 wo. The
PWM waveform can be generated readily from an
intersection between the triangular waveform (the
amplitude et, frequency 03 and the sinusoidal
waveform (eo, wg). The Fourier expansion of
this P W M waveform is given as follows [8].
The fundamental component
Ai=&

98
 Inverter output

U/F=const ( O S F 130)
zoo U'/F=const
U=cOnSt l30hF
1 6 0 s F5J6 0 )

O 30 60 100

Inverter output freq. F(Hz)

Ignition timing initial value
Fig. 10. Example of inverter output frequency-
Fig. 8. PWM waveform obtained by triangular output voltage curve.
me tho d .
purpose, the PWM waveform with high lower-
harmonic suppression effect is used as an initial
Harmonics
["rms'
value. If the solution of Eq. (21) i s in the vicinity
of the initial value, it is possible to synthesize the
PWM waveform with high lower-harmonic sup-
pression effect.

To solve Eq. (21), the objective function of g ( t i ,

t2, ..., t ~ )i s defined as
100 -

J2.l
L

0 500 1000
Frequency (Hz)
E=750V, r i / e o = 2 , fundamental freq. 50H1,m t = 1 4 % and the nonlinear planning problem

Fig. 9 . Harmonic distribution of the P W M wave-

f o r m of Fig. 8.
is considered. Equation (23) can be solved by the
steepest gradient method. In Eq. (22) the f i r s t
t e r m gives the fundamental wave effective value
The mwt k e w o component of V L ( ~ )to a fixed value U which is obtained from
the inverter output frequency vs. output voltage
curve (see Fig. 10). The succeeding M terms can
(2 0) eliminate Dm of M kinds in Is(t).

where a = eo/et m is integer, 1 is an odd number Let the initial value of Eq. (23) be (t10, t2O,
and JJ i s the Ith Bessel function. ..., tK0) which is determined by the triangular
method. In the following we correct these terms
Figure 9 shows the harmonic distribution of the successively
P W M waveform of Fig. 8. Relatively large
peaks at both sides of the triangular wave fre- t h t t h + d t h ( h = l , 2, "., K ) (24)
quency can be eliminated readily by the filter.
These peaks also can be shifted to the high-fre- 2e
dth=-er(g(tl, "', t h + E , "', t K )
quency region by increasing the number of the
half-period pulses K. Figure 9 also shows suffi- -g(tl, '", t h - e , "', t K ) ] (25)
cient suppression of lower harmonics.
Equation (24) indicates the direction of the
Let the fundamental component of the PWM steepest gradient in which g ( t i , , t ~ )is mini- ...
output waveform be U and the source current mized to zero, w is an empirical parameter de-
harmonics in the protective frequency band be termined by the f o r m of the function.
zero:
In general, (K-1) harmonics can be eliminated,
where K is the degree of freedom of the wave-
(21) form. One degree of freedom is used f o r deter-
mination of the fundamental wave component.
This simultaneous equation can be solved Therefore, in the convergence calculation of Eq.
numerically . (23), g - 0 yields when

mere a r e a large number of ( t i , , tK) ... M+lSK (26)

which satisfies Eq. (21). F r o m the viewpoint
of overall harmonic suppression, it is important The remaining degree of freedom K ( M + 1) is -
to suppress the lower harmonics. For this used for lower-harmonic suppression. A s

99
 g (t, ...t,) Initial value
Final solu.
mensional solu. ang.
ti..,
Fig. 11. Configuration of object function g ( t i ,
...
1 tk).
Harmonic
'"ml
Frequency (Hz)
Fig. 12. Harmonic distribution of V L ( ~[final
solution].
K - ( M t I) increases, the lower-harmonic sup-
pression effect also increases. However, the
number of the half-period pulses also increases.
Figure 11 shows the configuration of the ob-
jective function g ( t i , ...
, tk>, There a r e a
number of groups of the K - ( M + l)-dimensional
solution spaces which perturbate continuously.
In the present algorithm, the solution converges
to the boundary surface of the solution space
which is located close to the initial value.
Let the signal frequency band be 2700-3050 Hz
(the center frequency 2900 Hz) and eliminate three
components ( F = 50, single phase) 2.28 w o , 2.39
w o , and 2.30 wo in the protective frequency band.
The upper limit of Z in Eq. (13) i s s e t to 400.
Figures 12 and 13 show the harmonic distribu-
tions of VL(t) and Is(t) obtained by generating
the PWM waveforms using the waveform anal-
yzer.
In Fig. 1 2 , the load! voltage lower harmonics
are sufficiently suppressed. In Fig. 13 the
higher harmonics in the protective frequency
range a r e completely eliminated. F o r the power
factor other than 0.8, D28, D29, and D30 can be
sufficiently eliminated. Therefore, the PWM
100
... a-/
2.5 3.0
(.I Pl 0 . 7
Fig. 15. Harmonic distribution of Is(t) [final
solution].
waveform obtained by the present synthesis
method can withstand a wide load-power-factor
variation .
3.5 Pulse rise and fall characteristics
In the three-terminal switch main circuit
shown in Fig. 1, the terminals a and b are sym-
metric with respect to the terminal c. If there
is no unbalance in the thyristor elements, the
rise and fall characteristics of the voltage a t the
terminal c are identical. Therefore the disturb-
ance of the P W M waveform due to the delay of
the thyristor turn-on and turn-off may be anal-
yzed by using the trapezoidal PWM waveform
with good symmetry shown in Fig. 14.
In the Fourier expansion of the rectangular
PWM waveform, the (an-1)th harmonic an is
given by Eq. (2). In the Fourier expansion of
the trapezoidal PWM waveform with the rise and
fall time t r , the (2n-l)th harmonic an' i s given by
If an = 0 in Eq. (27), then = 0. Therefore the
components which are not involved in the rec-
tangular PWM waveform are also not involved in
the trapezoidal PWM waveform. For n = 1 (the
fundamental wave) , the correction coefficient S
is almost 1 if F < Z O O Hz and t r < 100 p .
4. Suppression of Transient Noise in PWM
Waveform Mode
4 . 1 Generation of transient noise
The PWM waveform mode changes discon-
tinuously along with the continuous control of the
inverter frequency. A t the PWM mode ju ction
points, the transient noise is generated in the f r e -
quency range where the harmonics are elimi-
nated in the steady P W M waveform. This noise
enters the signal circuit and other systems via
the noise filter.
F o r simplicity, the analysis is made for the
s a m e voltage waveform of the s ingle-phase in-
verter with load power factor 1. The P W M pulse
train containing the mode change a t t = 0 [see
 VLltl
Fig. 14. Trapezoidal PWM waveform.
Fig. 15. Outbreak of transient noise.
Fig. 15(a)J can be arranged as the finite o r infi-
nite pulse trains shown in Fig. 15(b), (c) and (d).
If the steady P W M current waveform does not
contain harmonics in the passband of the noise
filter, then the transient noise generated a t (c)
a t t = 0 is a sum of the transient noises generated
a t (c) and (d). Therefore the frequency spectra
N(t) if the transient noise observed through the
noise filter a r e
N ( f ) = F ( f )(-WA(f)@(TA/2rf ) r ( T A ,
+ w ~ )@n(T&,
( f f ) I ( T E , f 1)
where F(f) is the frequency response of the noise
filter and w ~ ( f is
) the frequency spectra of the
mode-A one-period waveform
m waveform mode connection point.
wr(f)=S__w,:l)exp(-j2n f t)d t
Similarly, WB(D can be obtained; $(T, 0 is the
phase rotation t e r m due to shift of the time origin
by T
f )=~xP(-j 2 7~ f T )
@(T,
I(T, fJ is the semiinfinite pulse train with period
T The traction driving system consisting of the
I(T,f ) = l / ( l - e x p ( - j 2 n f 2'))
4.2 Mode connection after transient noise
suppression
The noise spectra IN(fg)l a t given frequency f o
can be minimized with the proper mode waveforms
A and €3. Consider the signal system with c a r -
r i e r frequency fo and assume the narrow-band
noise filter with the central frequency fo. When
IN(fdl is minimum, the noise amplitude i s also
minimum.
(1) When TA = To, then the A and B mode
waveforms are selected such that WA(fO) = Wg(f0).
F r o m Eq. (28), we have Nfg) = 0.
(2) When TA # T3, W i t h h k g e r n, the periods
of two PWM wave m d e s are se1sct.d such that
T~-Tn=2n/fo (32)
Then the noise generated a t the end of the mode
A cancelled with the noise generated a t the be-
ginning of the mode B and the noise amplitude and
energy can be minimized. In general, the noise
output power can be minimized by delaying the
ginning of the waveform B by the time width T~ at
the mode connection; TP can be calculated such
that Np(to) of Eq. (33) i s minimized:
I N d f o )I = I F ( f 0) I I
-WA(f O)@(TA/B, f O ) I ( T A , f0)
+ W E ( f D ) @ ( T B / 2 f r pf0)
,
( 33)
. I ( T s , fo)I
5. Conclusions
The two-phase four-terminal structure driven
by the two-phase induction motor has a small num-
b e r of thyristor a r m s and large degree of freedom
of the waveforms. It i s suitable for the PWM in-
v e r t e r main circuit.
F o r precise waveform control by the digital
control using the microprocessor, ideal PWM
waveforms were synthesized by suppressing the
load voltage lower harmonics and by eliminating
f) higher harmonics in the signal frequency band-
( 2 8) width. The simultaneous equations for the source
current harmonics t o be zero were solved with the
solution of the triangular wave method a s the ini-
tial value. Then the final solution converged to the
vicinity of the initial value. A method of sup-
pressing the transient noise generated a t the P W M
(29)
The microprocessor which has been developed
recently is considered suitable for the control of
the traction inverter system from the viewpoints
of the performance, cost and reliability. The
high-precision waveform control including the
(30) higher harmonic suppression can be realized by
the microprocessor.
inverter and the induction motor has many fea-
(31) tures: it i s small in size, light in weight and has
high output power. However, there remain many
problems to be solved. These include the load un-
balance, adhesive characteristics, compatibility
among various units, controllability and safety.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Mr. T. Ame-
miya of Toshiba Electric Co.
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101
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