This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been
fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2017.2734892, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications
Improvement in Harmonic Reduction of Zigzag Autoconnected Transformer
Based 12-Pulse Diode Bridge Rectifier by Current Injection at DC Side
Vidyasagar V S R Kalpana, MIEEE
Department of Electrical Department of Electrical
and Electronics Engineering and Electronics Engineering
NITK Surathkal, India NITK Surathkal, India
vidyasagarsheelvant@gmail dr.kalpana.nitk@gmail.com
.com
Abstract – In this paper, to improve the harmonic reduction
ability in the input line current of a 12-pulse diode bridge
rectifier using zigzag autoconnected transformer with a dc
side current injection technique is presented. Conventional
12-pulse rectifier does not meet the IEEE-519 standard and
therefore current injection technique at dc side is used to
shape the converter current to minimize the harmonic
distortion in the input line current. The proposed
configuration uses zigzag autoconnected transformer with
inherent ability of blocking zero-sequence components which
eliminates the requirement of zero sequence blocking
transformer, thereby reducing the overall magnetic rating.
The current injection technique at dc side enables to alter dc
current which further shapes the input line currents to near
sinewave with total harmonic distortion of less than 1% and
power factor close to unity. The proposed converter
configuration is simulated and analyzed in
MATLAB/Simulink. The effects of variation in the magnitude
of injected current on the input line current harmonics in
terms of power quality indices are analyzed. A prototype of
the proposed converter configuration is developed and
experimental results are presented to validate the theoretical
design, analysis and simulation results.
Keywords: Active harmonic power, current injection
technique, diode bridge rectifier, harmonic suppressing
resistor, interphase reactor, multipulse converter.
І. INTRODUCTION
With the advancement in power electronics, dc power
application has gained more importance. In most of the dc
power applications, three-phase diode bridge rectifiers
(DBRs) are extensively used as front-end power converters
which are interfaced to the electric utility. Due to the
nonlinear characteristics of three-phase DBRs, significant
harmonics are injected into the utility and thereby increases
the harmonic distortion at the point of common coupling
[1]. Therefore, reducing the harmonic distortion at the input
ac mains is the main research goal in ac-dc converters.
High harmonic distortion and poor power factor (PF) are
the primitive issues with nonlinear loads such as adjustable
speed drives, electro-chemical processes, induction heating
system, UPS system and aircraft converters where rectifiers
are used as front-end converters [2]. These converters
behave as a nonlinear load on the utility supply and hence
improving the power quality of ac-dc converters is most
prominent.
Multipulse converter (MPC) is one of the popular,
simple and cost effective method for the harmonic
mitigation in both ac and dc side of ac-dc converters [3].
MPCs are extensively used for high power ac-dc
conversion because of its lower harmonic distortion, low
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Bhim Singh, FIEEE Saravana Prakash P, SIEEE
Department of Electrical Department of Electrical
Engineering and Electronics Engineering
IIT Delhi, India NITK Surathkal, India
bsingh@ee.iitd.ac.in saravanaprakashpv@ieee.org
output ripple voltage, simple configuration, high robustness
and inherent power factor correction (PFC) [4]. Typical
total harmonic distortion (THD) of input line current for
12, 18, 24, 30 pulse MPCs are 15.2%, 10.1%, 7.5%, 6.1%
respectively [5]. Most of the MPCs use autotransformer for
phase staggering due to the advantages of reduced
magnetic rating of about 82% compared to two winding
transformer, thereby reduction in weight and losses of the
converter [6]. Increasing the pulse number is main
objective in the design of MPCs for power quality
improvement. However, it leads to increase in the
components number and the design complexity of
autotransformer [7], [8].
Among all MPCs, 12-pulse ac-dc converter is most
widely employed in practical applications due to simple
autotransformer design, effective harmonic reduction
capability and high power density [9]. It can eliminate 5th
and 7th harmonics from the input line current and the THD
value is about 15% theoretically and contain only 12n±1
harmonics, where (n=1,2,3…) [10]. However, the THD of
input line current of the conventional 12-pulse rectifier
without any filter does not meet the IEEE-519 and IEC
1000-3 standards.
To improve the harmonic reduction capability and to
meet the standards, the concept of 3rd harmonic injection
technique has been initially proposed and which has been
later modified to reduce the line current harmonics [11]. In
general it is also known as pulse multiplication and pulse
doubling or dc side ripple re-injection in MPCs. The pulse
multiplication technique improves power quality at both
input ac and output dc side of ac-dc converters with
reduced cost, complexity and magnetic rating [12].
However, limitations like double increase of amplitude in
high order harmonics and difficulty to determine turns ratio
for multi-tapped interphase reactor (IPR) which affects the
harmonic suppression remarkably [13]. Current injection
technique at the dc side has gained more attention in the
recent years for effective harmonic reduction in the input
line currents. This technique employs current injection
circuit at dc side to modify dc currents which effectively
shapes the input line current to near sinewave with almost
unity PF [14]. IPR with secondary winding enables to
interphase an auxiliary circuit at the dc side for current
injection technique.
In an autoconnected transformer based MPC, an
electrical isolation between the parallel three-phase DBRs
is necessary for normal operation of rectifier. The triplen
harmonics generated by the DBRs are referred to as zero
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Transactions on Industry Applications

sequence components under balanced condition and causes

interbridge currents that leads to unwanted conduction of
diodes in DBRs [15]. But for normal operation of rectifier
there should not be any flow of interbridge currents i.e. two
DBRs has to operate independently. Independent operation
of DBRs enables to freely circulate injected current and
thereby modify the DBR output currents. Therefore, zero
sequence blocking transformer (ZSBT) is widely used to
ensure independent operation of DBRs. The ZSBT blocks Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the proposed 12-pulse diode bridge rectifier
with current injection circuit at dc side.
zero-sequence components by offering high impedance
path and prevent the interbridge currents with kVA rating
about 8% of load power [16]. A novel configuration of
ZSBT using three single-phase transformers has been
reported [17] for higher power application and the
combination of IPR and ZSBT configuration are also used
for parallelization and serialization of converters. In
nonisolated MPC, double-active IPRs are employed for
independent operation of DBRs in place of ZSBT and the
kVA rating is about 15% of load power [18]. Fig. 2. Winding configuration of zigzag autoconnected transformer.
The input line current harmonic distortion is minimized circuit is connected. Current injection circuit enables to
by modifying the currents at the dc side thereby shaping the modify the current characteristics of the rectifier to shape
input line currents to near sinewave. The converters current line current to near sinewave.
are modified by injection triangular current through current
injection circuit which is interphased at secondary of IPR. ІІІ. THEORETICAL DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF PROPOSED
Therefore, current injection circuit behaves as a sink for the CONVERTER CONFIGURATION
input line current harmonics. The reduction in the input line For theoretical design and analysis of the proposed
harmonics is due to the harmonic power consumption at configuration the following assumptions are considered.
secondary of IPR [19]-[21]. Many authors have exploited
the dc side injection technique and also proposed suitable 1) Source is balanced and source inductance is neglected.
auxiliary circuit for shaping the input line current. 2) The leakage inductance and resistance of transformer
However, not much focus has been given on magnetics windings are neglected.
which is the major part of MPCs. 3) The diodes are ideal.
4) Load current is ripple free.
In this paper, harmonic reduction in the input line
current with reduced magnetic configuration is presented. A. Design and Analysis of Zigzag Autoconnected
A 12-pulse zigzag autoconnected transformer based diode Transformer
bridge rectifier with current injection technique at dc side is
proposed to shape line current to near sinewave. The Fig. 3 shows the phasor and winding configuartion of
current injection circuit is modelled as equivalent resistive zigzag autoconnected transformer for 12-pulse rectifier.
circuit and realized by a boost PFC circuit. The simulation The design procedure for zigzag autoconnected transformer
results obtained from the MATLAB/Simulink model of the is followed as in [23]. Zigzag autoconnected transformer
proposed converter configuration are presented for both produces two set of three-phase voltages which are phase
equivalent resistive circuit and the boost PFC circuit. A shifted by -15º and +15º with respect to the input voltages
prototype of proposed configuration has been developed as shown in Fig. 3(a). The phase shift between the two set
and the experimental results are also presented. of three-phase voltages is 30º which is required for 12-
ІІ. PROPOSED CONVERTER CONFIGURATION pulse operation.

Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of the proposed 12-
pulse diode bridge rectifier with current injection circuit at
the dc side. The proposed converter configuration uses
zigzag autoconnected transformer for phase staggering
from three-phase source to feed two three-phase DBR I and
DBR II. Zigzag autoconnected transformer has inherent
zero sequence blocking capability which eliminates the
requirement of ZSBT [22]. The zigzag autoconnected
transformer is realized by three single-phase transformers
as shown in Fig. 2. The output of DBRs is interfaced
through IPR which ensures equal current sharing between
the two DBRs. The load is connected between center
tapped IPR and the negative bus N, as shown in Fig. 1. The
IPR has secondary winding across which current injection
From Fig. 3(a), the phasor equations of phase shifted
voltages for phase a are written as,
va1  k1  vab  vca   k2 vbc (1)
va 2  k1  vab  vca   k2 vbc (2)
Similarly, other phase voltage equations can be expressed.
From (1) and (2), the constants k1 and k2 are determined to
achieve required phase shift between va1 and va2 with
respect to input voltage va. The values of k1 and k2 are
found to be 0.5573 and 0.2679, respectively for 12-pulse
operation. These values are used to calculate number of
turns for each winding for the design of zigzag
autoconnected transformer.

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Transactions on Industry Applications

(a) (b)
Fig. 3. Zigzag autoconnected transformer (a) Phasor diagram (b) Winding
configuration.

Under balanced condition, the following equations can

be derived by applying the balance law of magneto motive
force (MMF) and Kirchhoff’s current law for the zigzag
autoconnected transformer as shown in Fig. 3(b).
k1  i1  i2   k2 ic 2  ic1   0 (3)
k1  i2  i3   k2  ia 2  ia1   0 (4) Fig. 4. Theoretical waveforms of (a) DBRs input line voltages vab1, vab2.
(b) DBRs output voltages Vd1, Vd2. (c) Voltage vp across primary winding
k1  i3  i1   k2 ib 2  ib1   0 (5) of IPR. (d) Load voltage Vd.
i1  i2  i3  0 (6) 6 6   
2 n   
Vd 2  V ' 1  
sin cos cos n  t    (12)
ia  ia1  ia 2  i1 (7)   n  6,12,18..
6 n 2
 1 6  12 
where i1, i2 and i3 are winding currents of zigzag 6 6      4 n n 
autoconnected transformer as shown in Fig. 3(b). The vp  sin V '   cos sin nt sin  (13)
 6  n  6,12,18.. n 2  1 6 12 
currents ia1, ib1, ic1 and ia2, ib2, ic2 are three-phase input
currents of the DBR I and DBR II, respectively. From (13) the rms value of vp is computed as,
From (3) - (6), the expressions for currents i1, i2, and i3 are v p _ rms  0.1092V ' (14)
evaluated as follows,
Average load voltage Vd is calculated as,
k
i1  2  ib 2 – ib1  ic1 – ic 2  (8) 12
 /12
3k1 Vd 
2 
 /12
6V 'cos  d  2.4216V ' (15)
k
i2  2  ic 2 – ic1  ia1 – ia 2  (9) 1
3k1     
2 2

V '  1   tan    1.0350V (16)

k   12  
i3  2  ia 2 – ia1  ib1 – ib 2  (10)  
3k1
where voltages V and V ' are rms value of voltage va and
From the above expressions, it is observed that the net phase shifted voltage va1, respectively.
MMF due to the zero sequence components present in the
input currents of DBRs get cancelled out under balanced C. Analysis of Interphase Reactor
condition. Therefore, the zigzag autoconnected transformer
blocks the zero sequence components within the windings From the Fig. 5(a), MMF balance equation is written as,
thereby eliminates the requirement of ZSBT. N p  id1  id 2   N s ih (17)

B. Analysis of dc Side Voltage Waveforms Applying Kirchhoff’s current law at the load terminal in
Fig. 5(a), load current Id can be written as,
The theoretical voltage waveforms of the proposed I d  id 1  id 2 (18)
converter configuration are shown in Fig. 4. The input line
voltages vab1, vab2 for two DBRs which are phase shifted by Solving (17) and (18), currents id1 and id2 are written as,
30º as shown in Fig. 4(a) and corresponding output
1 N 
voltages Vd1 and Vd2 are shown in Fig. 4(b). The phase shift id 1   I d  s ih  (19)
between Vd1 and Vd2, results in symmetrical triangular 
2 N p 
voltage vp across the primary winding of IPR and the
1 N 
output load voltage Vd contains 12-pulses in one cycle of id 2   I d  s ih  (20)
input voltage, as shown in Fig. 4(c) and Fig. 4(d), 
2 N p 
respectively. The dc side voltages expressions in Fourier
where ih is current flowing through secondary winding of
series are derived [16] as follows,
IPR due to current injection circuit. Theoretically, current ip
6 6   
2 n    flows through primary winding of IPR and does not flow
Vd 1  sin V ' 1   cos cos n  t    (11) through the load, it circulates in closed path within the
 6  n  6,12,18.. n 2  1 6  12  
primary winding of IPR as shown in the Fig. 5(a) and
hence referred to as circulating current.

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D. Modelling of Current Injection Circuit

The current injection circuit is modelled based on the
requirement of circulating current to shape the input line
current near sinewave. Since the turns ratio of IPR is
assumed to be one i.e (Np/Ns=1), the injected current ih at
secondary of IPR must satisfy the characteristics of
applicable circulating current. Therefore, the peak of
injected current ih should be half of the average load
current Id i.e. 0.5Id and the rms value of injected current is
 I  (a) (b)
ih _ rms  0.5  d  (21) Fig. 5. (a) Equivalent circuit of IPR with current injection circuit.
 3 (b) Schematic diagram of boost PFC circuit and its control strategy.
The equivalent impedance at the input terminal of
current injection circuit is calculated as the ratio of voltage of IPR which is responsible for shaping the converter
and current. Since, the current ih has to be in phase with vh, currents. Therefore, circulating current ip determines the
the circuit behaves like pure resistive in nature. Therefore, harmonics suppression ability in the input line currents.
the equivalent resistance at input terminal is calculated as The circulating current ip has been theoretically analyzed
follows, for accurate shaping of the input line current to ideal
vh _ rms sinewave and an approximate applicable circulating current
rh  (22)
ih _ rms waveform has been derived [18]. The characteristics of
From (14) and (21), (22) can be rewritten as, applicable circulating current ip are symmetrical triangular
V of six times the source frequency and in phase with voltage
rh  0.2720 d (23) across secondary of IPR with the peak magnitude equal to
Id half of the average load current.
An equivalent resistive circuit of value determined from The theoretical construction of input line current ia is
(23) can be connected at secondary winding of IPR which depicted in Fig. 6. Fig. 6(a) shows the waveform of
emulate the behavior of current injection circuit. The triangular circulating current ip. The circulating current ip is
equivalent resistance which is responsible for suppression superimposed on the DBRs output current id1 and id2 to
of harmonics in the input line current hence, it is referred to shape them to unipolar triangular waveform in nature as
as harmonic suppression resistance rh. Due to the resistive shown in Fig. 6(b). The modified DBRs output current id1
nature of current injection circuit, it absorbs active power and id2 results in double humped shape of DBRs input
which comes from the harmonics of input line current currents ia1 and ia2 as shown in Fig. 6(c). The DBRs input
hence referred to as active harmonic power [18]. The currents ia1 and ia2 shapes the input line current ia to
current injection circuit can be realized by an active current approximate sinewave resulting in THD of less than 1%
injection circuit that emulates the behavior of a resistive [16] as shown Fig. 6(d). If circulating current does not
circuit. In the proposed method, the current injection circuit satisfy the characteristics of applicable circulating current,
is realized by a boost PFC circuit. The boost PFC circuit is the harmonics are not suppressed effectively from the input
a popular and basic topology which emulates an equivalent line current and rectifier may operate in discontinuous
resistive circuit and used as a PFC in single-phase ac-dc mode resulting in high harmonic distortion. The current
converters. The schematic diagram of boost PFC circuit injection technique only modifies current characteristics of
the converter but does not alter the voltage characteristics
and the control strategy are shown in Fig. 5(b). The boost
[10].
PFC circuit injects the current ih in phase with the voltage
vh of required magnitude. To inject the required current ih,
the inductor current ilh and output voltage of boost
converter Vo are controlled by a simple PI controller. The
boost PFC circuit enables to inject required current ih and
also harmonic power can be harnessed as dc power at the
output of boost converter. This paper mainly focuses on
reduction in magnetic rating and the effectiveness of the dc
side current injection technique for power quality
improvement of 12-pulse rectifier. Therefore, the current
injection circuit is realized by a simple boost PFC to
validate the harmonic suppression ability of the proposed
converter configuration. For accurate and fast control, the
current injection circuit can be realized by an advanced and
efficient PFC circuits.

E. Analysis of Circulating Current on Converter Currents

Circulating current ip flows through the primary winding Fig. 6. Theoretical waveforms for the construction of input line current ia.
(a) Circulating current ip. (b) DBRs output currents id1, id2. (c) DBRs input
currents ia1, ia2 (d) Input line current ia.

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F. Magnetic Rating
The equivalent kVA rating of zigzag autoconnected
transformer can be calculated by mathematical expression
as follows,
VA rating = 0.5  vn in  (24)
where, vn is the rms voltage across the nth winding and in is
the rms current through the nth winding of zigzag
autoconnected transformer. Fig. 7 shows the currents i1 and
ib1 through the windings of zigzag autoconnected
transformer. The waveforms of winding currents i1 and ib1
are analyzed to evaluate the rms value in terms of load
current as follows,
1
 1 4  36 I d 2     
2 2
2 (25)
ib1     4         Id Fig. 7. Zigzag autoconnected transformer. (a) Winding current ib1. (b)
    
2
12   3
 12  Winding currents i1.
 2
12  0.2942 I   (26)
  d  0.0024 I d 2 From equations (14) & (21), (36) is rewritten as,
i1_1    
d

 VA rating of current injection circuit= 0.0227Vd I d (37)

0
 12 

 0.9066I d     0.2595 2   
2 2
4
The zigzag autoconnected transformer and IPR are the
i1_ 2      4    0.1431I d    I d    4  d
2
  magnetic components of proposed 12-pulse rectifier. The
      
12 kVA rating of zigzag autoconnected transformer and IPR
 0.0038 I d 2 (27) are about 25.5% and 3.4% of load power, respectively. A
5 delta connected autotransformer has the kVA rating about
 
2 2
12
 0.0966 I d    0.0273  2 
i1_ 3       4    0.1431I d      I d     d
2
 24.7% and the magnetic rating including ZSBT and IPR
         4
4 results in total magnetic rating of 35.3% of load power as
 0.0037 I d 2 (28) reported in [18]. However, the proposed configuration
7 eliminates the requirement of ZSBT and hence, the total
12

  0.1592I  d  0.0042 I
i1_ 4 
2 2 (29) magnetic or kVA rating of proposed converter
d d
5  configuration is theoretically about only 28.9% of load
12
1
which leads to reduction in magnetic rating by 6.4%. The
1
  2
i1_ rms   2  i1_1  i1_ 2  i1_ 3   i1_ 4   0.1549 I d 
current injection circuit for the proposed configuration is an
(30) auxiliary circuit which has superior characteristics to
  suppress the input line current harmonics with kVA rating
where currents i1_1, i1_2, i1_3 & i1_4 are the rms value of the of 2.27% of load power when compared to conventional
corresponding segment 1, 2, 3 & 4 of current i1 filters for 12-pulse rectifier as reported in [24]. Moreover,
respectively, as shown in Fig.7(b) . the current injection circuit consumes active harmonic
From Fig. 3(b), the input line current ia is written as, power which can be harnessed at dc side to improve the
overall efficiency of the converter.
ia  ia1  ia 2  i1 (31)
ІV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
and its rms value is found to be
The proposed converter configuration has been
ia _ rms   ia1_ rms 2  ia 2 _ rms 2  i1_ rms 2 
1
2
 0.6844 I d (32) simulated in MATLAB/Simulink for the rated parameters
The kVA rating of zigzag autoconnected transformer is and values are given in Appendix. The current injection
evaluated by (33) circuit has been modelled as an effective harmonic
suppression resistance rh at secondary terminal of IPR. The
VA rating  3  0.5   v1i1  v1i3  v2ib 2  v2ib1 
rated value of rh is evaluated from (23) and it is used for
 3  0.5  2  v1i1  v2ib1  the simulation. Fig. 8 shows the simulated waveform for

the construction of input line current ia under rated load.
 2 
 3   0.5573 0.1549    0.2679    VI d Fig. 8(a) shows the injected current ih which is symmetrical

  3  triangular of frequency 300Hz. The injection of current ih
 0.6378VI d  0.2554Vd I d (33) results in flow of circulating current ip in the primary
winding of IPR which modifies the DBRs output currents
where v1 and v2 are rms voltages expressed as a fraction of
id1 and id2 to triangular nature as shown in Fig. 8(b).
magnitude of input phase voltage V. However, the average value of currents remains the same
Similarly, the kVA rating of IPR and current injection and only the nature of waveform is modified. The
circuit is calculated in terms of load parameters as follows, corresponding DBR input current ia1, ia2 waveforms and the
VA rating of IPR  0.5 v p _ rms  id 1  id 2   vh _ rms ih _ rms (34) winding current i1 are modified, as shown in Fig. 8(c) and
Expressing (34) in terms of load parameters we get Fig. 8(d), respectively. From (31), the input line current ia
VA rating of IPR  0.0340Vd I d (35) is summation of currents ia1, ia2 and i1 and hence it is
shaped to near sinewave as shown in Fig. 8(e). Due the
VA rating of current injection circuit = vh _ rms ih _ rms (36)
leakage reactance of the transformer windings, the

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Transactions on Industry Applications

simulated waveform of the input line current ia is smoother
compared to theoretical sine waveform shown in Fig. 6(d).
The simulated harmonic spectrum of input line current ia is
shown in Fig. 9(a) with THD of less than 1%. The
simulated waveform and harmonic spectrum of voltage va1
which contains predominant triplen harmonic are shown in
Fig. 9(b). However, the triplen harmonics present in
voltage va1 get cancelled out in the line voltage.
A. Effect of dc side Current Injection Technique on Input
Line Current
The proposed converter configuration is simulated and
analyzed for variation in magnitude of injected current on
the input line current harmonics under rated load condition.
The variation in magnitude of circulating current ip which is
equal to the injected current ih (Np/Ns=1) is achieved by
varying harmonic suppression resistance rh. The input line
current THD, displacement power factor (DPF), distortion
factor (DF) and PF are presented for the rated load
condition in Table І. It is observed from the Table І, that
the peak of circulating current is about 5.5A
which corresponds to the value of rh about 14Ω under rated
load condition and the THD is 0.9% with almost unity PF.
The value of resistance rh can be obtained from (23) which
is approximately equal to simulated values under rated
load. Consider a case when the peak of circulating current
ip is 8.19A, corresponding to rh value of 5Ω has input line
THD and PF of 8.9% and 0.9943 respectively under rated
load. Under this condition, the circulating current ip has not
appropriately shaped the input line current due to which the
input line harmonics are not suppressed effectively.
Therefore, the circulating current ip should meet the
conditions of applicable circulating current for the effective
harmonic suppression in the input line currents. Under the
absence of circulating current (ip=0), the proposed
converter operates as a conventional 12-pulse rectifier by
eliminating 5th and 7th harmonics from the input line
current.
The current injection circuit behaves as a passive
resistive circuit and it is realized by boost PFC circuit in
the MATLAB/Simulink. The boost PFC circuit is used to
inject the required triangular current at the secondary of
IPR. The proposed converter configuration is simulated
with boost PFC for the parameters given in the Appendix
and the results are presented. The simulated waveform of
injected current ih is in phase with voltage vh as shown in
Fig. 10(a). The waveform of injected current ih which is
symmetrical triangular of frequency 300Hz is shown in
Fig. 10(b). The input line current ia and the harmonic
spectrum corresponding to ih are shown in Fig. 10(c) and
Fig. 10(d), respectively.
A prototype of the proposed converter configuration is
developed in the laboratory and tests are conducted at
reduced voltage for the resistive load. Test results are
recorded from the power quality analyzer FLUKE 434-II
series. For an input phase voltage of 85V, 50Hz, the output
load voltage Vd and current Id are maintained at 200V and
about 19.5A respectively. The experimental results of the
proposed converter configuration with equivalent resistive
current injection circuit are shown in Fig. 11, Fig. 12 and
Fig. 13. The input phase voltage va and phase shifted
voltages va1, va2 are shown in Fig. 11(a). Fig. 11(b) shows
the voltage vh at the secondary of IPR has frequency six
times the input line current frequency. The load voltage Vd
and input line current ia are shown in Fig. 11(c).

TABLE І
SIMULATION RESULTS ON VARIATION IN MAGNITUDE OF CURRENT
INJECTION IN TERMS OF INPUT POWER QUALITY INDICES
Fig. 8. Simulated waveforms of construction of input line current ia.
(a) Voltage vh and current ih. (b) DBRs output currents id1, id2. (c) DBRs ip (Peak) THDi
input currents ia1, ia2. (d) Winding current i1. (e) Input line current ia. rh (Ω) DPF DF PF
(A) (%)
0 9.1037 11.74 0.9945 0.9932 0.9877
5 8.1909 8.95 0.9983 0.9960 0.9943
7 7.6886 7.31 0.9989 0.9974 0.9962
13 5.8734 1.69 0.9996 0.9998 0.9994
14 5.5131 0.90 0.9996 1.0000 0.9996
15 5.1719 0.84 0.9997 0.9999 0.9996
19 4.1188 3.12 0.9997 0.9995 0.9992
21 3.7378 4.09 0.9997 0.9991 0.9988
(a) (b)
25 3.1541 5.57 0.9998 0.9984 0.9982
Fig. 9. Simulated waveforms and harmonic spectra. (a) Line current ia. (b)
Phase shifted voltage va1.

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Fig. 10. Simulated waveforms with boost PFC circuit. (a) Voltage vh and
current ih. (b) Injected current ih. (c) Current ia. (d) Harmonic spectrum of
ia.

The magnitude of input line current ia drawn for the above 11(a)
loading condition is about 15.5A which is approximately
equal to value obtained from (32). The zigzag
autoconnected transformer winding voltages v1 and the
corresponding winding current i1 are shown in Fig. 11(d).
The injected current ih and the corresponding input current
ia1 of DBR I are shown in Fig. 12(a). From the Fig. 12(a), it
is observed that the magnitude of current ih is 4.4A for the
resistance rh value of 2.1Ω which is near to the theoretical
value derived from (23) for the load voltage and current of
200V and 19.5A respectively. Due to the transformation
ratio of IPR (Np/Ns=1:1.14) the peak of the circulating
current ip flowing through the primary of IPR is about 8.7A
which is nearly equal to half of load current Id. The
circulating current ip modifies the DBRs input currents ia1 11(b)
and ia2 thereby shapes the line current ia to near sinewave
as shown in Fig. 12(b). The input phase voltage va and
corresponding current ia are shown in Fig. 12(c). Fig. 12(d)
shows the tabulation of input kW, kVA, kVAR and PF for
above loading condition. The measured input PF is 0.99
which is close to unity and therefore results in the
improved power quality at the input ac mains. The kVA
rating of the zigzag autoconnected transformer is calculated
from the experimental results as
VA  3  56.9  2.6  26.4  8.4   1109.1VA  27.1% (38)
The overall efficiency of the proposed configuration is
calculated from the experimental results and it is found to
be 93.7%.
11(c)
For the above loading condition, the harmonic spectra of
voltages and currents are shown in Fig. 13. Fig. 13(a)
shows the harmonic spectrum of input phase voltage va.
The harmonic spectrum of winding voltage v1 and voltage
va1 is shown in Fig. 13(b) and Fig. 13(c), respectively. The
harmonic spectrum of voltage v1 which clearly shows the
predominance of triplen harmonics which are referred to as
zero sequence components hence these zero sequence
components are trapped within the transformer windings.
Therefore, zigzag autoconnected transformer inherently
blocks the zero sequence components and eliminates the
requirement of ZSBT. The triplen harmonics present in the
voltage va1 cancel out in the line voltages and hence voltage
characteristics of converter is not altered. The THD of 11(d)
input line current ia is about 3.1% as shown in Fig. 13(d). Fig. 11. Experimental results. (a) Voltages va, va1 and va2. (b) Voltage vh.
(c) Load voltage Vd. (d) Winding voltage v1 and current i1.

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Transactions on Industry Applications

13(a)
12(a)

13(b)
12(b)

13(c)
12(c)

12(d)
Fig. 12. Experimental results. (a) Injected current ih and winding current 13(d)
ia1. (b) Current ia1, ia2 and ia. (c) Input phase current ia and voltage va. Fig. 13. Experimental harmonic spectra. (a) Input phase voltage va. (b)
(d) Input kW, kVA, kVAR and PF. Winding voltgae v1. (c) Phase shifted voltage va1. (d) Input line current ia.

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2017.2734892, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications
The above THD value of the input line current ia
corresponds to the circulating current ip with peak
magnitude of 8.7A which is less than the half of the load
current Id. Due to the passive nature of the current injection
circuit, it is unable to inject the required magnitude of
current ih. Therefore, for accurate shaping of input line
current ia, an active circuit can be interphased which can
precisely control the magnitude of circulating current ip and
also feeds the active harmonic power back to the system.
VІ. CONCLUSION
A 12-pulse diode bridge rectifier with dc side current
injection technique to reduce the input line current
harmonics has been presented. The proposed configuration
uses zigzag autoconnected transformer which has inherent
ability of blocking zero sequence components and hence,
eliminates the requirement of ZSBT. Therefore, the overall
magnetic rating of the proposed configuration reduces by
6.4% of the load power. The overall magnetic rating of the
proposed converter configuration is theoretically about
28.9% of the load power. The input line current harmonics
can be effectively suppressed by injecting symmetrical
triangular current of required magnitude at the dc side
which shapes input line currents to near sinewave. The
equivalent current injection circuit is realized by an active
boost PFC circuit and simulation results are presented. The
variations in the magnitude of injected current on the input
line current harmonics are also analyzed in the simulation.
A prototype of the proposed converter configuration is
developed in the laboratory and extensive tests have been
conducted. Test results are presented to validate the
theoretical and simulation results. From the experimental
results, the kVA rating of zigzag autoconnected
transformer is calculated to be 27.1% of load rating and the
overall efficiency of the converter is 93.7%. The proposed
zigzag autoconnected transformer results in reduced
magnetic rating and also it is able to achieve the input line
current THD of less than 5% with PF close to unity which
is well within the IEEE-519 standards.
APPENDIX
SIMULATION PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED CONFIGURATION
Three-phase source voltage 400V(line-line), 50Hz
Transformer winding resistance (r) 0.002p.u.
Transformer winding leakage
0.02p.u.
inductance (Le)
Transformer core magnetizing
500p.u., 500p.u.
inductance (Lm) and resistance (Rm)
Transformer winding turns (N1, N2) 134, 62 turns
IPR winding turns (Np, Ns ) 50, 50 turns
Inductor (Lh) & capacitor (Ch) 1mH & 440μF
Resistance (Ro) 50Ω
Kp, Ki 0.0001, 0.1
Average load voltage (Vd) 559V
Load power (Po) 6.25kW
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Transactions on Industry Applications

Active Injection," IEEE Trans. on Ind. Appl., vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 185- Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (FIETE) and
198, Jan.-Feb. 2011. a Life Member of the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE),
[20] S. Bai, S. M. Lukic, “New Method to Achieve AC Harmonic System Society of India (SSI), and National Institution of Quality and
Elimination and Energy Storage Integration for 12-Pulse Diode Reliability (NIQR).
Rectifiers,” IEEE Trans. on Indus. Electron., vol. 60, no. 7, pp. His areas of interest include solar PV grid interface systems, microgrids,
2547-2554, July 2013.
power quality monitoring and mitigation, solar PV water pumping
[21] M. S. Hamad, M. I. Masoud and B. W. Williams, "Medium-Voltage systems, improved power quality AC-DC converters, power electronics,
12-Pulse Converter: Output Voltage Harmonic Compensation Using electrical machines, drives, FACTS, and high voltage direct current
a Series APF," IEEE Trans. on Indus. Electron., vol. 61, no. 1, pp.
(HVDC) systems.
43-52, Jan. 2014.
[22] Vidyasagar V S, R. Kalpana and B. Singh, "Improvement in
harmonic reduction of zigzag autoconnected transformer based 12-
pulse diode bridge rectifier by current injection at DC side," in IEEE Saravana Prakash P (S’14) received the
Int. Conf. on Power Electronics, Drives and Energy Systems B.Tech. degree in electrical and electronics
(PEDES), Trivandrum, 2016, pp. 1-6. engineering from the Pondicherry University,
[23] B. Singh, S. Gairola, A. Chandra and K. Al-Haddad, "Zigzag Puducherry, India, in 2007, and the M.Tech.
Connected Autotransformer Based Controlled AC-DC Converter for degree in electrical drives and control from the
Pulse Multiplication," in IEEE International Symposium on Pondicherry Engineering College (PEC),
Industrial Electronics, Vigo, pp. 889-894, 2007. Puducherry, India, in 2013. He is currently
[24] Vipin Kumar, “Power Quality Improvements at AC mains in working towards the Ph.D. degree in the
Variable Frequency Induction Motor Drives,” Ph.D. Thesis, Dept. department of electrical and electronics
Electrical Eng., Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, 2006. engineering, National Institute of Technology
Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, Karnataka, India. His research interests
include power electronics, power quality improvement, and SMPS.
Vidyasagar V S received the B.Tech. degree in
electrical and electronics engineering from
National Institute of Technology Karnataka
(NITK), Surathkal, India in 2015. He is currently
working towards the M.Tech. (Research) degree in
the department of electrical and electronics
engineering, National Institute of Technology
Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, India. His research
focuses on power quality improvement in
multipulse AC-DC converters.

R. Kalpana (M’17) received her Bachelor degree

in electrical and electronics engineering from
Madras University, Chennai, India, in 1998,
Master degree in power systems form Anna
University, Chennai, in 2000, and Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi (IITD), New Delhi, India, in
2012. She is currently working as Assistant
Professor in the department of electrical and
electronics engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka
(NITK), Surathkal, India. Her research interests include power
conditioning, photovoltaic (PV) grid interface systems and application of
power electronics to power systems.

Bhim Singh (SM’99, F’10) was born in

Rahamapur, Bijnor (UP), India, in 1956. He
received his B.E. (Electrical) from the University
of Roorkee, India, in 1977 and his M.Tech. (Power
Apparatus & Systems) and Ph.D. from the Indian
Institute of Technology Delhi, India, in 1979 and
1983, respectively. In 1983, he joined the
Department of Electrical Engineering, University
of Roorkee (Now IIT Roorkee), as a Lecturer. He
became a Reader there in 1988. In December 1990,
he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi, India, as an
Assistant Professor, where he has become an Associate Professor in 1994
and a Professor in 1997. He has been ABB Chair Professor from
September 2007 to September 2012. Since October 2012, he is CEA Chair
Professor. He has been Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering
at IIT Delhi from July 2014 to August 2016. Since, August 2016, he is the
Dean, Academics at IIT Delhi. He is JC Bose Fellow of DST, Government
of India since December 2015.
Prof. Singh is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering
(FNAE), The Indian National Science Academy (FNA), The National
Academy of Science, India (FNASc), The Indian Academy of Sciences,
India (FASc), The World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS), Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (FIEEE), the Institute of Engineering
and Technology (FIET), Institution of Engineers (India) (FIE), and

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