EE 442

POWER ELECTRONICS I
DIODE RECTIFIERS
(UNCONTROLLED RECTIFIERS)
Dr. Said A. Deraz
Assistant Professor
Electrical Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University
sderaz@kau.edu.sa
saidderaz@yahoo.com
Rectifier is a circuit that converts an AC signal to a DC signal

Rectifier

AC supply Transformer

Block diagram of an uncontrolled diode rectifier circuit

Note: In a diode rectifiers, the power flows only from the AC source to the DC side.

Applications of Uncontrolled Rectifiers

• DC power supply for consumer electronic products such as radios, TVs, DVD players,
mobile phone chargers, computers, laptops and so on (low power).
• DC motor drives (high power).

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Depending on the type of input source, rectifiers are classified into two main groups:

Half-wave
Single phase
Full-wave
Uncontrolled
rectifier
Half-wave
Three phase
Full-wave

Important equations

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Single-phase half-wave rectifier (R load)

Circuit diagram

Waveforms

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The average value of output voltage

The average value of load current

The rms value of output voltage

The rms value of load current

Peak inverse voltage across the diode

The efficiency of rectification

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The effective (rms) value of the ac component of output voltage

The form factor (a measure for the shape of output voltage)

The ripple factor (a measure for the ripple content)

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The harmonic factor or total harmonic distortion (a measure for distortion of a
waveform] of the input current.

Where Is1 is the rms value of the fundamental component of the input current. And Is is the rms value of
the input current.

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If Φ is the angle between the fundamental component of the input current and the
voltage, the displacement factor

The input power factor

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Single-phase half-wave rectifier (RL load) without freewheeling diode
Due to inductive load, the conduction period of the diode D1 will extend beyond 180
degree until the current becomes zero.

Circuit diagram

Waveforms

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The average value of the output voltage

Where the angle θ can be calculated as:

The average value of the load current

The average value of the output voltage (and hence the current) can be increased by
making θ=0, which is possible by adding a freewheeling diode Dm across the load.

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Single-phase half-wave rectifier (RL load) with freewheeling diode

Circuit diagram

Waveforms

The effect of the freewheeling diode Dm is to prevent the negative voltage appearing
across the load, and as a result, the magnetic stored energy is increased. At t=π/ω, the
current from D1 is transferred to Dm and this process is called commutation of diodes.
Depending on the load time constant, the load current may be discontinuous.

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Single-phase center-tap full-wave rectifier (R load)

Circuit diagram

Waveforms
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The average value of output voltage

The average value of load current

The rms value of output voltage

The rms value of load current

Peak inverse voltage across each diode

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Single-phase bridge full-wave rectifier (R load)

Circuit diagram

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The average value of output voltage

The average value of load current

The rms value of output voltage

The rms value of load current

Peak inverse voltage across each diode

Waveforms

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Single-phase bridge full-wave rectifier (RL load)

With a resistive load, the load current

is identical in shape to the load
voltage.
In practical applications, most loads
are inductive. The load current shape
and magnitude depend on both the
load resistance R and inductance L.

Circuit diagram

Waveforms
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Single-phase bridge rectifier with very large inductive load

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E#1 If a single-phase bridge rectifier supplies a very high inductive load such as a dc
motor. the turns ratio of the transformer is unity. Determine a) the HF of the input
current, and b) the input PF of the rectifier.

Note the output (load) current is constant and ripple free due to the highly inductive load.

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Using Fourier series, the input current is can be analyzed as

Therefore, the rms value of the input current is

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Therefore, the rms value of the fundamental component of the input current is

Therefore, the harmonic factor is

Since Φ=0, the displacement factor is

Therefore, the input power factor

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Multiphase rectifier

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Three phase bridge rectifier

Circuit diagram

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Waveforms
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The average value of output voltage

The rms value of output voltage

Peak inverse voltage across each diode

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E#2 A three-phase bridge rectifier supplies a high inductive load such that the average
load current Idc= 60 A and the ripple content is negligible. Determine the ratings of the
diodes if the line-to-neutral voltage of the supply is 120V, 60Hz.

As shown, the average value of the diode

current

The rms value of the diode current

The peak inverse voltage across the

diode
Currents through diodes

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E#3 For the following current waveform, determine the average, rms, peak value of
the current.

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