2016 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD)

Selective Harmonics Elimination Technique in

Single Phase Unipolar H-Bridge Inverter
Ezzidin Hassan Elmabrouk Aboadla1, Sheroz Khan2, Mohamed Hadi Habaebi, Teddy Gunawan,
Belal Ahmed Hamidah, Majdee Tohtayong
International Islamic University Malaysia, Kulliyyah of Engineering,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
1
aboadlla@yahoo.com, 2 cnar32.sheroz@gmail.com.

Abstract— specific odd harmonics can be mitigated by operating
the semiconductor switches in H-bridge inverters at optimized
switching angles of the PWM signals. These switching angles can
be achieved by deriving a number of nonlinear equations using
Selective Harmonic Elimination Pulse Width Modulation (SHE-
PWM) method. Modulation index (m) is a significant parameter
used to control the amplitude of the fundamental output voltage
of DC-AC inverter. By changing the value of modulation index
the Total Harmonics Distortion (THD) also will change. In this
paper, the performance of single phase full-bridge inverter using
SHE-PWM scheme with varying the modulation index is
evaluated. In order to achieve a minimum THD, a different
number of nonlinear equations are used to calculate the switching
angles. The performance of a single phase unipolar inverter is
simulated in Matlab.
completely by solving nonlinear equations and eliminated high
order harmonics by utilizing a low pass filter (LPF) in the
output of the inverters. In this paper, the impact of modulation
index on the performance of the full-bridge inverter using
SHE-PWM method is investigated.
II. H-BRIDGE INVERTER
DC/AC inverter has been a more important device used to
get an AC power signal from renewable energy sources
(Battery or Solar panel). DC/AC inverters can be set based on
the shape of the power electronic switches and could be half or
full H-bridge topology. A full bridge inverter is as shown in
Fig. 1.

Keywords: Selective Harmonic Elimination, H-bridge Inverter,

THD.

I. INTRODUCTION
Recently, Voltage Source Inverters (VSIs) have become of
more research interest in high power applications due to
several features such as their power to get high quality of
output voltage signal with reduced switching losses by
semiconductor devices [1]. The output signal of an ideal
inverter is a sinusoidal waveform, however, the output for
practical inverter is discontinuous and contains undesirable
harmonics. The character of the output signal is normally
evaluated in conditions of total harmonic distortion (THD) [2-
4]. There are different modulation techniques utilized in
inverters to generate the desired output voltage. Such inverters
are classified according to switching frequency [5], [6]. A
popular method that works with high switching frequencies is Fig. 1. Single phase H-bridge inverter.
the Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM). Another
technique which works with low switching frequencies is A full H-bridge topology contains of two legs, each branch
Selective Harmonic Elimination Pulse Width Modulation takes in two power semiconductor switches (MOSFET or
technique (SHE-PWM) [7]. In high-power applications, the IGBT). The center stage of these legs is connected across the
switching losses by using high switching frequency leads to a load [8], [9]. The H-bridge inverter can work with bipolar or
major concern when viewed from total inverter losses. Hence, unipolar scheme. The output voltage waveform of the bipolar
it is important to minimize switching frequency of the device. inverter between an output connection of DC voltages (+Vdc, -
However, minimizing the switching frequency contributes to Vdc), while the output voltage signal of the unipolar system is
more harmonic distortion. Therefore, the choice between between (+Vdc, 0, - Vdc) which named three level inverter. In
switching and output waveform with better quality is a big the unipolar inverter topology, the Total Harmonic Distortion
challenge from research viewpoint. SHE-PWM scheme is of the output waveforms is optimum and minimum compared
generally utilized to obtain an optimal PWM method. This to similar results in the case of bipolar inverter switching [10]-
technique is used to mitigate specific low order odd harmonics [11].

978-1-61284-437-4/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

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 A low-pass filter has been widely used with a DC/AC Vdc is the amplitude of DC source.
inverter to mitigate the harmonics which caused by n is the odd harmonic order.
semiconductor switching. In this paper, LCL filter as shown in
fig. 2 is used to reduce high order harmonics. It can be applied is switching angles, conditioned by equation (3)
at a lower switching frequency for the PWM inverter because
< <⋯< < (3)
its attenuation is 60 dB/decade for frequencies above the
resonant frequency [12]. The switching angles will be adapted to create the optimum
output signal with reduced THD, mathematically given by:
∑∞ , , ,...( )
= (4)

Where: V1 is the amplitudes of the fundamental component.

Vn is the amplitudes of the nth harmonics.
Fig. 2. LCL filter circuit diagram.
From (2), the amplitudes of V1 and Vn of the quarter-wave
III. SELECTIVE HARMONIC ELIMINATION PWM symmetric SHE-PWM unipolar inverter is given as:
Selective Harmonic Elimination PWM modulation = ∑ (−1) ( ) , = 1,3,5. . (5)
technique is an important method employed to mitigate the
harmonics of multilevel inverters. The SHE-PWM is applied By substituting equation (5) in (4):
to reduce current ripple and to rule out low-order odd
harmonics. It is likewise applied to decrease the inverter ∑ ∑ ( )
switching losses and produce an improved quality voltage at = ∑
(6)
( )
the inverter output. The SHE-PWM based techniques can
mathematically obtain the highest quality output waveform
among all the so far PWM techniques [13-17]. This method is IV. OPTIMIZATION SHE-PWM TECHNIQUE.
used by solving nonlinear equations. These equations are
formed to solve the values of unknown switching angles of the Due to the quarter wave symmetry of the output voltage
inverter. To obtain these values of switching angles, namely waveform, the even harmonics are absent [18-20]. In order to
( , , … . . , ) in order to eliminate specific (N-1) odd mitigate the specific low order odd harmonics and to control
harmonics, such as 3th, 5th, 7th, and 9th,...harmonics. The output the fundamental amplitude, the n-th odd harmonics are
voltage signal of unipolar H-bridge is assumed to be a quarter expressed with the first quadrant switching angles that can be
wave symmetric as shown in Fig. 3. expanded to any order of odd harmonic corresponding to
switching angles through of the first quadrant. For
example, the seven unknown switching angles,
, , , , , (N=7) need to be calculated from
seven nonlinear equations using equation (2) to mitigate N-1
odd harmonics such as which 3th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th & 13th
harmonics. In three phase inverter can select only (5th, 7th, 11th,
13th, 17th & 19th) harmonics because triplen harmonics such as
(3th, 9th, 15th, …) are eliminated automatically in the three
phase inverter topology by line to line voltage. The seven
nonlinear equations for the fundamental output voltage and
odd harmonic components are given by:
( )− ( )+ ( )− ( )+ ( )=
Fig. 3. Output voltage waveform of unipolar H-bridge inverter.

To set the N nonlinear equations The Fourier series (3 )− (3 )+ (3 )− (3 ) (3 )=0

expansion for the output voltage waveform is as follows:
(5 )− (5 )+ (5 )− (5 ) (5 )=0
( )=∑ ( ) (1)
(9 )− (9 )+ (9 )− (9 )+ (9 )=0
.
.
= ∑ (−1) ( ) , = 1,3,5 … . (2)
(13 )− (13 )+ (13 )− (13 )+ (13 )=0

Where: Where:
N is the number of the switching angles per quarter. m is the modulation index, = .

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 By varying the value of m can control the amplitude of the switching angles at modulation index (m=0. 95) with
fundamental component. The other N-1 nonlinear equations minimum THD of 57.47% is illustrated in table II. Fig. 6
representing unwanted harmonic components can be mitigated shows the output voltage of unipolar H-bridge inverter for at
by making the amplitude of these harmonics equal zero. To m=0.95.
calculate these unknown switching angles, the Newton-
Raphson (NR) method is used or any other numerical method
[7]. The main aim of this study is to investigate the influence
of the optimized modulation index on THD of a single-phase
unipolar full-bridge inverter using SHE-PWM technique. A
flowchart of the proposed technique is as shown in Fig. 4. This
scheme uses to calculate the unknown switching angles by
changing the value of modulation index, (0 < m < 1) to
obtain a minimum THD based SHE-PWM technique and to
generate optimal PWM for single phase unipolar inverter.

Fig. 5. Output voltage of signal phase unipolar H-bridge inverter.

Fig. 6. Modulation index versus switching angles.

TABLE I. THD Results

m THD [%], calculation THD [%], simulation
0.95 51.46259 57.47

TABLE II. The optimum switching angles (degree) at ma=0.95

α1 α2 α3 α4 α5 α6 α7
17.249 24.023 34.995 48.227 53.933 73.777 75.989

Fig. 4. Flow chart of the proposed scheme.

The harmonic spectra of the output voltage waveform are
V. SIMULATION & RESULTS illustrated in Figure 7. It can be seen that the complete
elimination of the 3th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th & 13th harmonics are
The performance of unipolar H-bridge inverter based almost obliterated and the THD value without using a filter
SHW- PWM method has been evaluated through simulation in circuit is 57.47%.
Matlab-Simulink. The first step of using SHE-PWM scheme is
solving nonlinear equations obtained from the Fourier series
expansion (2) to calculate seven unknown switching angles.
The switching angles are calculated under various condition of
modulation index. The different condition of modulation index
and switching angles ( , , , , , ) are
presented in Fig. 5. These angles have been employed to
control ON/OFF switches of the H - bridge inverter. The total
harmonic distortion (THD) obtained by mathematical and
simulation methods at modulation index 0.95 as presented in
Table I. It can be clearly noted that the theoretical value and
simulation result almost closed. The optimal solution of Fig. 7. FFT analysis of the output voltage at (m=0.95).

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 The performance of PWM inverter after using LCL filter
on the THD and the output voltage signal are presented in
Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 respectively.
Fig. 8. FFT analysis of the output voltage after LCL filter at (m=0.95).
Fig. 9. Output voltage waveform after using LCL filter.
It can be clearly seen that the THD after LCL filter
decreased from 57.46% to 2.04% and the output voltage signal
almost closed to sinusoidal.
CONCLUSION
Matlab-Simulink is used to evaluate the proposed
technique in order to mitigate 3th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th & 13th
harmonics and to verify the influence of various condition of
modulation index on THD in single-phase full-bridge H-
inverter. Low order odd harmonics can be mitigated
successfully by using SHE-PWM also, by adjusting the
switching angles the Total Harmonic Distortion is decreased to
a minimum of 57.47%. These switching angles are applied to
generate control signals of full-bridge H-inverter. By
increasing the modulation index the THD decreased. Also, the
fundamental voltage of the inverter is maximized by variation
of modulation index with switching angles optimized.
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