Three-Phase PWM Rectifier With Constant Switching Frequency: Abstract - in This Paper, A Novel Adaptive

Journal of electrical systems
Special Issue N 01 : November 2009
pp: 7-12
Three-Phase PWM Rectifier with Constant

Switching Frequency
S. Begag, N. Belhaouchet and L. Rahmani
Abstract - In this paper, a novel adaptive hysteresis

on predictive
reasoning for three-phase PWM rectifier is presented. A
simple and quick prediction of the hysteresis band is
added to a phase-locked-loop control to ensure constant
switching frequency and synchronization of modulation
pulses independently on the system parameters. The
proposed technique allows the advantages of quick
response, robustness, good current tracking accuracy
and minimal supply current ripples. The three-phase
PWM rectifier has the characteristic of drawing nearly
sinusoidal current with stable switching frequency and
tight control of the position of modulation pulses. The
simulation results show that the designed technique can
improve three-phase PWM rectifier performance
noticeably.
band current control technique based
Index Terms three-phase PWM rectifier, adaptive HBCC,

switching frequency, unity power factor, interaction between
the phases.
I. INTRODUCTION
IODE rectifiers are widely employed in industrial fields

and consumer products thanks to advantages of low
cost, simple structure, robustness and absence of control.
However, this type of converters results in only
unidirectional power flow, low input power factor, high
level of harmonic input currents, malfunction of sensitive
electronic equipment, increased losses and also contributing
to inefficient use of electric energy. To maintain supply
quality at acceptable levels, various standards and guidelines
(i.e. IEEE 519 and IEC 61000-3) specify limits of current
harmonic content for certain types of applications. Recently,
many promising power factor correction (PFC) techniques
[1-5] have been proposed for rectifiers. Apart from
application of active and passive filters, the best solution is
in using pulse width modulated (PWM) rectifiers. Research
interest in three-phase PWM rectifiers has grown rapidly
over the last few years due to some of their important
advantages, such as power regeneration capabilities, control
of dc-bus voltage over a wide range, and low harmonic
distortion of input currents. Since the converter has abilities
to control the input currents in sinusoidal waveforms, unity
power factor operation can be easily performed by
regulating the currents in phase with the power-source
voltages.
Various control techniques have been proposed in recent
works on this type of PWM rectifier [2-4]. It is well known
that in order to obtain better ac supply power quality and
S. Begag, Department of Electrotechnic, laboratory of Automatic, Ferhat

Abbas University-Setif, Algeria (e-mail: begag_bs@yahoo.fr).
N. Belhaouchet, Department of Electrotechnic, laboratory of Automatic,
Ferhat Abbas University-Setif, Algeria (nouri_belhaouchet@yahoo.fr).
L. Rahmani, Department of Electrotechnic, laboratory of Automatic,
Ferhat Abbas University-Setif, Algeria.
high performance of these converters, it is preferable to

directly control the magnitude and phase angle of threephase supply currents. Among the current control
techniques, hysteresis band current control (HBCC) is
probably the simplest technique used to forcing the supply
current to follow the reference current, because of its ease of
implementation, fast current control response, and inherent
peak current limiting capability [6,7]. However, the basic
conventional HBCC with fixed bandwidth is affected by the
drawbacks of a variable switching frequency, a heavy
interaction between the phases when the ground is insulated
to the capacitors midpoint and an irregularity of the
modulation pulses position. These drawbacks provide high
current ripples, acoustic noise and difficulty in designing of
input filter [5-7].
To overcome these undesirable drawbacks, this paper
presents a novel adaptive HBCC technique based on
predictive reasoning which demonstrates a viable solution to
obtain high performance control of three-phase PWM
rectifier in case of the insulating of ground to capacitors
midpoint. The analysis of the conventional fixed HBCC
technique for three-phase PWM rectifier is described. Next,
the novel adaptive HBCC is developed. Then, simulation
results obtained by MATLAB/SIMULINK are presented
followed by the conclusion.
II. OPERATION PRINCIPLE OF CONVENTIONAL HBCC FOR
THREE-PHASE PWM RECTIFIER
Fig 1 shows the circuit configuration of three-phase PWM
rectifier. This latter is composed of a three-phase converter
with six IGBT or Mosfet elements, three inductors
connected between the ac source and the ac side of converter
and two identical series-connected capacitors are used on the
dc side.
Fig.1.Three-phase PWM rectifier configuration.
The control block diagram of the three-phase PWM

rectifier is shown in Fig 2 and it employs a very simple
control structure, where a proportional-integral PI controller
is used to regulate the dc output voltage and provide the
----------------------------------------------------------------------Paper presented at the Third International Conference on Electrical Engineering-ICEE'09

19-21 May 2009, USTHB, Algiers, Algeria and selected for publication in "JES" by the ICEE 2009 Editorial Board
magnitude value of the sinusoidal reference currents. The

input of this controller is the error between the square of the
* 2
reference dc voltage (vdc ) and the dc bus capacitors voltage
2
vdc to have a linear adjustment of the output dc average

power, the output is considered as the magnitude of the
desired supply currents I sm and the reference currents are
estimated by multiplying this magnitude with the unit sine
vectors in phase with the ac main source voltages provided
by the phase-locked-loop (PLL). After having found the
reference currents, the supply current is sensed and
compared with the sinusoidal reference current for each
phase. The comparison result is introduced in hysteresis
comparator to generate the PWM signal of the rectifier.
pp: 7-12
Subtracting (1) from (2) and substituting from (3),

gives:
d
*
(4)
L a + r a = va va
dt
For a reasonably high switching frequency, the effect of
the input inductor resistance r can be neglected, so that (4)
becomes:
L
d a
dt
= va va
(5)
The operation of HBCC technique over one switching

cycle is shown in Fig. 3.
Fig.3. Hysteresis-band current and phase leg voltage waveforms.
From (5), this can be expressed mathematically as:

For the interval 0 < t < t1
Fig.2. Control block diagram of three-phase PWM rectifier.
The basic structure of three-phase PWM rectifier is shown

in Fig. 1. The main objective of this structure is to generate
three-phase sinusoidal input currents in phase with the input
phase voltages. The analysis of HBCC technique will be
considered for the case of midpoint O of dc bus capacitors
connected to ground as well as when that point is floating.
II.1. Capacitors midpoint connected to ground
When the midpoint O of dc capacitors is connected to
ground, the PWM rectifier is symmetrical, and each phase
can be regarded as independent. Referring to the topology,
the relationship for phase a voltage and current can be
formulated as:
di
(1)
va + L sa + risa = vsa
dt
Where va is the voltage of point a referred to the ground.
In practice, it can only take the values of Vdc / 2 depending
v dc
2
rectifier, then a fictitious reference voltage va would exist,

given by:
= L .(
a (t1 ) a (0)
t1 0
a / 2 + a / 2
)
(6)
t1
For the interval t1 < t < T
v dc
2
v a = L
a
t
= L(
= L .(
a (T ) a (t 1 )
T t1
a / 2 a / 2
T t1
(7)
From (6) and (7), the switching period expression is given

by:
T=
= L(
on the state of the phase leg switches. However, if the ideal

reference current isa is assumed to flow through phase a of
v a = L
T=
LVdc a
v
( dc )2 (va* )2
2
4 L a
2
)
vdc (1 vna
(8)
(9)
Where: vna = va /(vdc / 2) is the normalized voltage.

*
va + L
disa
dt
+ risa = vsa
(2)
From (9), we note that if the bandwidth a is constant,

then the switching period T is variable.
Now, for HBCC, the difference between the reference and

the actual current can be defined as:
a = isa isa
*
(3)

II.2. Capacitors midpoint without connection to the ground

Since the dc bus capacitors midpoint O is normally
floating to avoid the third current harmonic in the neutral
point, the previous analysis now will be extended to allow
for floating point O.
pp: 7-12
adaptive bandwidth digital control is added which ensures

constant switching frequency. Fig. 4 shows the adaptation of
the hysteresis band for two consecutive modulation periods
[5, 8, 9].
When point O is floating, the relationship for phase a

voltage and current can be reformulated as:
disa
+ risa = vsa
(10)
dt
Where vo is the voltage of point O referred to the
va + vo + L
ground; its expression is given as:

(v a + v b + v c )
vo =
(11)
3
Subtracting (10) from (2) gives:
d a
+ r a = va va + vo
*
(12)
dt
(12) Shows that, due to the action of voltage vo , each
phase current error is affected by the commutations in the
other phases. This interference causes severe irregularities in
the ordinary hysteresis operation.
L
From (3), the current error isa isa can be decoupled into
two parts as:
*
'
''
(13)
where: a : non interacting error and a : interacting error

The equation of interacting error is:
'
''
d a''
''
(14)
+ r a = v o
dt
An interference-free modulation can be obtained if the
hysteresis control is performed on the non interacting error
as:
L
da
'
dt
+ r a = v v
'
(15)
(15) shows that a only depends on the corresponding

'
voltage va , similar to (5) if the effect of the input inductor

resistance r is neglected. Hence error a can be treated in
'
the same way as the error a in the case of capacitive

midpoint O connected to ground. We can see that the
three-phase interacting errors are same ( a = b = c ).
''
''
''
III. DEVELOPMENT OF PREDICTIVE ADAPTIVE HBCC
To obtain a constant switching frequency (1/T d ) , the

hysteresis band
has to be dynamically modified
according to this equation:

vdc Td
4.L
2
(1 vna
)
the non interacting error a in modulation period.

For a switching period corresponding to k , we have:
S p ( k ) + Sn ( k )
(18)
T (k ) = a (k ).
S p ( k ).Sn ( k )
For a switching period corresponding to k + 1 , the
equation (18) is written:
S p (k + 1) + Sn ( k + 1)
(19)
T (k + 1) = a (k + 1).
S p (k + 1).Sn ( k + 1)
For two consecutive switching periods, we have the

following simplifying:
S p ( k ) = S p (k + 1)
(20)
Sn (k ) = Sn (k + 1)
From (18), (19) and (20), we can derive the control
equation:
T (k + 1)
a (k + 1) = a (k ).
(21)
T (k )
The principle of control given by equation (21) is to keep
the switching period constant, where T ( k + 1) is the desired
switching period which we want to impose and T ( k ) is the
measured one, i.e. to define the switching period T ( k + 1) we
predict at time k the bandwidth a ( k + 1) and hence this
III.1. Constant switching frequency control
a =
From Fig.4, we deduce the following equations:

a = S p .Ton = Sn .Toff
(17)
T = T +T
on
off
Where s p and sn are the positive and negative slopes of
'
a = i sa i sa = a + a
Fig.4. Bandwidth control algorithm.
(16)
The controller maintains its analog structure, but an
reasoning is intended to evaluate the proper bandwidth to

achieve the error between the real switching period and the
desired switching period equal to zero. This reasoning leads
to an algorithm which is equivalent to a first order dead-beat
control of the switching period.
The control algorithm is very simple and it is able to
ensure a good switching frequency regulation with any
knowledge on the system parameters, but it cannot control

pp: 7-12
the position of modulation pulses. This means that the

distribution of the modulation pulses inside the modulation
period is random.
III.2. Switching pulses regulation
Now we make an additional improvement by introducing
a synchronization of modulation pulses. This is based on
adding a modification to equation (21), where the phase
error between an external clock and the control signal
contributes to ensure a good regulation of modulation pulses
position. The solution is to implement the PLL, generally,
this is the effective solution to synchronize two signals if the
stability conditions are respected [10, 11].
The PLL is a device which causes one signal to track
another one, it keeps the output signal synchronized with a
reference input signal in frequency as well as in phase. More
precisely. The PLL is simply a servo system, which controls
the phase of its output signal in such a way that the phase
error between output phase and reference phase reduces to a
minimum. The basic fundamental block diagram of PLL
consists of a phase detector, a loop filter and a voltage
controlled oscillator (VCO). In this case, the PLL block
scheme used to modify the equation (21) is shown in Fig. 5
and it is composed of a phase detector to detect the phase
error between the reference clock with frequency f d and the
output switching signal with frequency f , a proportionalintegral (PI) filter and employs the hysteresis comparator
(HC) as VCO.
When locked to a suitable clock signal, the PLL not only
ensures constant modulation frequency, but also minimizes
the phase displacement between the output voltage
pulses and the external clock. In three-phase insulated
ground systems, the optimal reduction of the current ripple
corresponds to center of the modulation pulses [12, 13]. In
this case, the phase error is defined as the time between
the center of pulse modulation and the reference clock.
The PLL loop gives the phase error and hence gives the
necessary compensating bandwidth to ensure a constant
switching frequency and effective lock of modulation pulses
to clock as it is well presented in Fig. 5.
Finally, from Fig. 5, it can be derived:
(22)
a = Pa + dba
Pa = (
K i + sK p
).
(23)
s
K i + sK p
) is the transfer function of PI filter.

s
Now, the control equation (21) becomes:
K i + sK p Td
(24)
dba ( k + 1) = (1 +
. ). . a ( k )
Td T
s
(24) shows the modified dead-beat control law with Pa is
Where (
the compensating bandwidth given by PLL loop, dba is the

bandwidth given by dead-beat control and a is the total
bandwidth obtained after correction. Similar expressions of
hysteresis bands can be written for the other phases b and c.
Fig. 5. Block scheme of the predictive adaptive HBCC for phase a.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

During this simulation, we used the parameters which are
indicated in table 1.
TABLE I
Design specifications and circuit parameters
Desired switching frequency
5 KHz
Source voltage frequency
50 Hz
ac supply voltage peak
120 V
dc-bus voltage
300V
Input resistance r
0.2
Input inductance L
11.5 mH
Load resistance RL
100
2000 F
dc-bus capacitor C dc
To verify the performances of the proposed predictive

adaptive HBCC compared to the conventional fixed HBCC,
the simulation results are shown in fig. 6 through fig. 13.
Fig. 6 shows the supply current and current error
waveforms of a-phase for conventional fixed HBCC, where
the fixed band was set to achieve a maximum switching
frequency of 5 KHz when there is no interaction between the
phases. Due to the interaction of three-phase current
controllers, the supply current instantaneous error can go
beyond hysteresis band a and reach up to 2 a , this shows
that the supply current has high ripples. The supply current
and current error waveforms for adaptive HBCC are shown
in Fig. 7. In this case the supply current ripples are
minimized. The interacting error and non-interacting error
waveforms for adaptive HBCC are shown in Fig. 8.
The supply current FFT for conventional HBCC and
adaptive HBCC are shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 respectively.
In conventional HBCC, the supply current harmonics are
widely distributed from hundreds of Hertzs to several
kiloHertz frequency and the THD (total harmonic distortion)
is higher (10.52%). However, for adaptive HBCC, a
switching frequency is held in 5 kHz, thus the supply current
harmonics are concentrated around 5 kHz frequency and the
THD is reduced to 3.78%. This provides predictability of the
converter input current harmonics, avoids resonance
problem and makes the filter design task easier.

pp: 7-12
Fig. 9. Supply current FFT for conventional HBCC.
Fig.6. Supply current and current error for conventional HBCC.

Fig. 10. Supply current FFT for adaptive HBCC.
The instantaneous switching frequencies for

conventional HBCC and adaptive HBCC are shown in Fig.
11 and Fig. 12 respectively. In conventional fixed HBCC,
the switching frequency varies widely from hundreds of
Hertz to several KiloHertz frequency. In adaptive HBCC,
the instantaneous switching frequency is stable with little
deviation around 5 KHz.
Fig. 13 shows the phase error waveform for the
proposed dead-beat algorithm, the phase error is well
controlled around zero and it is kept within 50 with a
symmetrical waveform. So, we can see that the modulation
pulses are well synchronized.
Fig.7. Supply current and current error for proposed adaptive HBCC.
Fig. 11. PWM switching frequency for conventional HBCC.
Fig. 8. Interacting error and non-interacting error for adaptive HBCC.
Fig.12. PWM switching frequency for adaptive HBCC.

pp: 7-12
[10] L. Malesani, P. Mattavelli, P. Tomasin "High-Performance

Hysteresis Modulation Technique for Active Filters", IEEE,
APEC, San Jose, CA USA. Vol. 2, 3-7 March 1996, pp. 939-945.
[11]. L. Malesani, P. Mattavelli, P. Tomasin "Improved Constant
Frequency Hysteresis Current Control of VSI Inverters with
Simple Feedforward Band with Prediction", IEEE Trans Ind
Applicat. Vol.33, n5, Septemer/October 1997, pp. 1194-1202.
[12]. D. Wuest, F. Jenni "Space vector based current control schemes
for voltage source inverters", IEEE, PESC93, Conf. Rec, Seattle,
1993, pp. 986-992.
[13]. H.W. Van der Broeck et al "Analysis and realization of a pulse
width modulator based on voltage space vectors", IEEE Trans.
Ind. Appl, Vol. 24, n1, 1988, pp. 142-150.
Fig. 13. Phase error waveform for adaptive HBCC.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented a considerable improvement
which offers all the advantages of the hysteresis technique
for three-phase PWM rectifier, where a novel adaptive
HBCC based on predictive reasoning has been developed
which ensures a good regulation of switching frequency and
a tight control of the position of modulation pulses.The
technique performs by creating an adaptive hysteresis band
envelope, and then compensating for the interaction between
the phases that occurs when the midpoint of dc bus
capacitors is floating. The three-phase PWM rectifier shows
excellent features such as unity power factor, high reliability
and simple robust control.
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Journal of electrical systems

Special Issue N 01 : November 2009