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Harmonics effect on rectifier current imbalance

Conference Paper October 2004
DOI: 10.1109/ICHQP.2004.1409453 Source: IEEE Xplore

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Vitaly Gelman
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Harmonics effect on rectifier current imbalance

V. Gelman, Member, IEEE,

Abstract-- Analyzed data collected during the field test of close

coupled 12 pulse rectifier-transformer with Wye and Delta
bridges connected in parallel. Observed the Wye Delta current
imbalance higher then expected based on transformer data.
Found the substantial presence of 5th harmonic in the incoming
line voltage. Provided explanation of measured difference
between the Wye Delta voltages due to harmonics presence.
Presented the effect of harmonics on the rectifier current
imbalance. Calculated current imbalance based on the observed
harmonic content and transformer during the tests.

During the test we also measured the rectifier transformer

secondary voltages at no load and observed about 0.9%
difference between Wye (higher) and Delta. It was an
indication of harmonics effects. Oscillograms of incoming line

Index Terms-- Harmonic distortion, Rectifiers

I. INTRODUCTION

Wye and Delta voltages

200.00

150.00

100.00

50.00

3301

3151

3001

2851

2701

2551

2401

2251

2101

1801

1651

1501

1351

1201

901

1051

751

601

451

1951

delta

0.00
301

In modern power systems there might be a substantial

harmonics presence due to proliferation of nonlinear loads
such as power supplies for consumer electronics, computers,
office equipment, etc. and also to the power electronic
converters. Allowable harmonics content is govern by
IEEE519 standard which establishes that no single harmonics
should exceed 3% and total harmonic distortion (THD) should
be below 5%
Adhering to the IEEE519 standard assures reliable operation
of power grid with no noticeable effects. However, there is one
area where harmonics can provide measurable effect even if
they remain below IEEE519 specified level it is current
unbalance in 12 pulse diode rectifiers.

voltage showed significant distortion (see Fig. 1). Two other

traces are secondary voltages for Delta (R1-R3) and Wye (R2R4). The secondary voltages for Delta and Wye show different
amplitudes because there were different measurement circuits.
There were problems getting the digitized waveforms for
secondary voltages from the equipment, so we used
mathematical conversion of line voltage to get the secondary
voltages (namely, took the digitized line voltage, shifted it by
1/3 of its period, then subtracted the original and shifted

II. HARMONICS EFFECT

Fig. 1 Primary and secondary voltages

151

The transformer-rectifier unit consists of a transformer with

dual secondary windings (Wye and Delta), bus duct and 12pulse rectifier. There is a published theory of such rectifier
operating from a power supply with sinusoidal voltage (see ref
1). The reference 1 deals with series connection of the rectifier
bridges where the same current flows through both of them
and there is no current unbalance. However, modern rectifiers
have normally Wye and Delta bridges connected in parallel to
reduce semiconductor losses and improve overall efficiency.
In such case we have two voltage sources with different
impedances operating in parallel. Any difference in the
voltages and impedances will create current imbalance.

wye

-50.00

-100.00

A. Field observation
We observed the current unbalance higher than calculated
values during full voltage load tests at the traction substation.
V. Gelman is with VG Controls, Inc, Vernon, NJ 07462 USA (e-mail:
vgelman@vgcontrols.com).

-150.00

-200.00

Fig. 2 Reconstructed secondary voltages

curves and finally divided result by current transfer ratio,

19/11). Figure 2 shows the reconstructed secondary voltages

for Delta and Wye windings, the reconstructed shape is very

close to the original oscillograms.
B. Waveform analysis
The Fourier transform was performed on the digitized line
voltage waveform, the resulting harmonics are shown in the
Table 1.
TABLE I
HARMONIC CONTENT OF RECONSTRUCTED Y/DELTA SECONDARY

difference, which is very close to the calculated.

As shown in the Appendix, we can expect the same
difference (1%) between no-load voltages of Wye and Delta
bridges.
Wye harmonics
200

150

VOLTAGES
100

Average

first harm
5th harm

Delta harmonics
200.00

150.00

100.00
Line V
first harm

3251

3126

3001

2876

2751

2626

2501

2376

2251

2126

2001

1876

1751

1626

1501

1376

1251

1126

876

751

1001

626

501

376

99.63%

251

The 5th harmonics has a very high value, about 2.5% of

fundamental. As shown in the Appendix it can create
substantial voltage difference between Wye and Delta rectifier
groups.
Figure 3 shows the original digitized incoming voltage trace
together with its 1st and 5th harmonic. There is also 5th
harmonic expanded 10 times for clarity.
Since transformer has Delta primary, the Delta secondary
voltage has the same shape as incoming voltage.
From fig. 3 we can see that 5th harmonic is almost out of
phase with the incoming voltage, actually the phase shift is
180-34=146 deg.
Figure 4 shows the same harmonics for Wye secondary
voltages
From fig. 4 we can see that 5th harmonic is in phase with the
first harmonic. As shown in the Appendix, this phase
relationship increases the output of Wye bridge by 0.41% and
at the same time decreases the output of Delta bridge by the
same number.
Since the transformer has current transfer ratio of 19/11
which is by 0.28% lower then ideal 3 , without voltage

50.00

Line V

50

108.84
126

Harmonic#
1
5
7
11
13
RMS
Harmonic
109.25 2.76
0.34
0.34
0.21
109.29
voltages (V)
Harmonic
100 % 2.52% 0.31% 0.31% 0.19% 100.03%
voltages (%)

5th mult 10x

-50

-100

-150

-200

Fig.4 Wye secondary voltage harmonics

III. UNBALANCE IN 12 PULSE RECTIFIER WITH PARALLEL

CONNECTION WYE/DELTA GROUPS
The 12 pulse rectifier consists of two diode bridges
connected in parallel. Each bridge is connected to its
secondary transformer winding through the bus. Any
unbalance between the transformer windings will cause
unbalance between the rectifier sections.
A transformer has two sources of current unbalance:
difference between Wye and Delta winding voltages and
difference in their impedances. Additional source of the
current unbalance is the voltage distortion.
The voltage difference between the winding is due to the
fact that their ratio is determined by the number of turns, in our
case 11 and 19. The ratio is 1.7272, it is by 0.28% smaller then
3.
As shown above, the voltage distortion increases the noload voltage difference between Wye and Delta rectifiers from
0.28% to 1%.
We can use the following formula for calculating current
unbalance for the rectifier operating in linear Mode1 [see ref
2] where indices 1 and 2 correspond to Wye and Delta.

5th harm
3305

3187

3069

2951

2833

2715

2597

2479

2361

2243

2125

2007

1889

1771

1653

1535

1417

1299

1181

945

827

1063

709

591

473

355

237

119

0.00

5th mult 10x

-50.00

-100.00

-150.00

-200.00

Fig. 3 Incoming line voltage harmonics

distortion we would have seen the Wye voltage higher than

Delta by 0.28%. Because of the 5th harmonic the difference
measured by average AC voltmeter increases to
0.28+2*0.41=1.1%. Computer calculations for all harmonics
gave slightly lower number of 1% or 5.4 VAC at 540 VAC
secondary voltage. We actually measured 5 to 6 VAC

Id%

( x 2 x1 )

(1)
Vline
1
Id% +
x 2 + x1
2 Ed% Vline

2 x com +
+ 2R
2

Id1 Id2 - difference between Delta and Wye DC

=
Idrated

Id% =

current relative to the rectifier rated current

x com - common part of transformer (and system)

impedance,

x1 and x 2 - secondary part of the impedance,

including the buswork and rectifier itself. For our transformer,

Xcom is 5.32%, X1 and X2 are 1.5% and 0.8% (assuming
0.5% for buswork impedance)
R - resistive part of the secondary impedance and buswork,

transformer itself is about 0.3%

Ed% - voltage regulation of the rectifier, about 4% in our
case
Substituting the numbers in the equations gives

The (1) and (2) can be used only if absolute value of current
unbalance Id% is lower than the total rectifier current Id% . If it
becomes higher, then we should use Id% or Id% as a value for
current unbalance.
We can use this formula to calculate the unbalance with and
without voltage distortion caused by harmonics. In the first
case we have voltage differences to be 1%, in the second case
it is 0.28%.
We did not have instrumentation to measure DC currents in
Wye and Delta groups directly, instead we used the secondary
phase currents to estimate the DC currents. For the rectangular
AC current waveshape with 120 deg conduction angle the
relationship between DC and AC current is
3
IAC = KF IAC = 1.225 IAC
2

IDC =

(3)

However, under real life condition the coefficient will differ

from 1.225 due to commutation angle and DC current ripples.
If we assume that all phase currents have similar shape (i.e.
similar ripples and commutation angles) then they have the
same KF and we can estimate the DC currents as
IR1 + IR3 + IR5
3
I +I +I
= K F R2 R4 R6
3

IDCDelta = K F
IDCWye

IDCDelta IDC W ye
IDCDelta + IDCWye

(5)

IR1 + IR3 + IR5

I I I
K F R2 R4 R6
I +I +I I I I
3
3
= R1 R3 R5 R2 R4 R6
I +I +I
I I I
K F R1 R3 R5 + K F R2 R4 R6 IR1 + IR3 + IR5 + IR2 + IR4 + IR6
3
3

For the many aspects of the rectifier operation such as interphase transformer (IPT) condition or additional harmonics
generation, it is important to know the difference between Wye
and Delta currents

(6)

It is convenient to present it as a percentage of rated DC

current.
I % =

IDCDelta IDC W ye
Idrated

67

117

718

849

873

1764

1771

R5 (A AC)

66

117

722

854

875

1772

1780

R2 (A AC)

238

603

1248

1369

1372

2173

2199

R4 (A AC)

237

609

1260

1382

1386

2196

2221

R6 (A AC)

240

612

1265

1388

1393

2204

2231

IDC (A DC)

306

806

2322

2630

2666

4726

4774

14

41

46

47

82

83

Mesrd I - IY

-3.0

-9.5

-11.0

-10.9

-10.5

-8.9

-9.3

Calctd I - IY
Calctd I - IY
wo distortion

-5.3

-12.2

-10.8

-10.5

-10.5

-8.5

-8.5 -4.9

-3.4

-3.0

-1.6

-1.3

-1.2

0.7

0.7

IDC%

150

4.3

The chart on Figure 5 shows the results of these calculations.

We can see that calculated current unbalance is close to the
measured value if we take harmonic distortion into account.
The lower unbalance at 14% load and below is due to the
discontinuous operation of Delta group.
Wye-Delta Current imbalance
15.0%

(0.2)

10.0%

KF

I = IDCDelta IDC W ye

R3 (A AC)

(4)

To get relative current unbalance

DC =

TABLE 2 MEASURED AND CALCULATED CURRENT UNBALANCE

TS00 TS037 TS037 TS003 TS003 TS003 TS003 150
Test#
1
008
006
005
004
001
000 %
R1 (A AC)
67
117
717
848
871 1760 1766

IDCDelta IDC W ye IDCDelta + IDC W ye

Id

= DC
= DCId %
IDCDelta + IDC W ye
Idrated
Id rated

(7)
Where: Id is total DC current, the sum of Wye and Delta
currents, Idrated is rectifier rated current and Id% is rectifier
loading.
To measure AC currents we used Rogowski coil probes
(AEMC Flexible current probe DK22935E-45-36 with dual
range 300/3000A and corresponding scales of 10 mV/A and 1
mV/A). The oscillograms were taken with Yokogawa DL716
data acquisition system.
We measured AC currents in all 6 secondary phases and also
measured total rectifier combined current Id. The results are
present in the Table 1. To calculate DC current unbalance we
took the reading of all 6 phase currents (lines R1, R3, R5
Delta; R2, R4,R6 Wye) and them calculated DC unbalance

Delt-Wye imbalnce, % of rated

Id% = 0.05 Id%

(2)

Vline
+ 12.5
Vline

using an equations (5) and (7). Table 2 shows the measured

data along with the calculated value from the equations both
with and without the effect of harmonic voltages.

5.0%

(0.3)

0.0%
0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

140%

Measured
Calculated w. harm.
Calc. wo harm

-5.0%

-10.0%

-15.0%
Rectifier Current Id (%)

(0.4)
Fig 5. Measured and calculated unbalance
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The current unbalance between parallel Wye and Delta groups
depends on both the harmonic voltages (both their amplitude
and phase) and a mismatch between transformer current
transfer ratios and impedances for the respective groups. The
transformer parameters stay the same while voltage harmonics
might change depending on other loads and changes in the
external feeders connections. Harmonic voltage changes,
either amplitude or phase, will change the current unbalance.
Measured values are close to calculated current unbalance;
calculations were based on the harmonics content extracted
from the digitized incoming line voltage.

V. APPENDIX
A. Effect of voltage harmonics on the measured value of the
voltage.
There are two types of AC voltmeters used presently: so
called true RMS and average value.
The true RMS voltmeter measures the value of
(8)
1
2
VRMS =

V
T

In case of periodic signal it the same as

VRMS =

(9)

A k2
2

where Ak is the amplitude of kth harmonic.

Under normal condition (IEEE-519 standard) the maximum
value of each individual harmonics is below 3% of
fundamental while their cumulative effect or total harmonic
distortion (THD) is below 5%. Then measured value is
2

2
2
A
(10)
A
A
A k A ( THD )
VRMS =

1
1 + k >1 2 = 1 1 +

2 A1
2
2

2 2T

Lets estimate the effect of high order harmonic on the meter

readings. Since the amplitude of high order harmonics are
small, we can consider them individually. If more then one
harmonics is present, combined effect will be equal the sum of
effects from each harmonic. Lets assume that the voltage is
(12)
A1 sin t + A N sin (N t + )
st

th

where A1 and AN are the amplitudes of the 1 and N

harmonics and is the phase of Nth harmonics. In order to
calculate average rectified value of this voltage we assume that
AN is a small portion of A1 and therefore the voltage sign is
determined by the first harmonic. The average rectified value
then becomes

( A sin + A sin( N +) ) d ( A sin +A sin( N +) ) d =

1

= 4A1 +

2AN

( cos cos( N +) )

(13)

If we have even harmonic, then the

cos (N + ) = cos

N A1

If for example, we have the 5th harmonic with an amplitude

of 5% of fundamental, we might get the reading change up to
1%.
B. Wye Delta transformers and harmonics.
Lets analyze the harmonics propagation through WyeDelta
transformer
If we have primary Delta voltages V1, V2 and V3 and a
transformer with current transfer ratio of 3 then the output
Wye voltage will be
V V3
(17)
V = 1
2

Lets assume that there is only a single Nth harmonic is

present and that
(18)
V = A sin + A sin (N + )
1

2
2
2
2 N

+ A N sin N
+ = A 1 sin
+ A N sin N +
V3 = A 1 sin
3
3
3
3

Since THD is below 5% the difference between Vrms and

the fundamental harmonic A1 is below 0.125% in the worst
case. If the THD is below 3% (practical case), the difference is
below 0.05%. So we can state that true RMS meter shows the
RMS value of the fundamental harmonic.
The average value meter rectifies the voltage and then
measures its average value. The meter is calibrated to show
correct RMS value for the sinusoidal signal.
1
(11)
V =
V
avg

and the relative change in average rectified meter reading is

1 AN
(16)
cos

(14)

and the effect of the harmonic on the meter reading is zero.

However, for odd harmonics
(15)
cos (N + ) = cos

V2 =

V1 V3
3

A1
2 AN
2N

sin sin
+
sin ( N + ) sin N +

3 N 3
3
3

(19)

The first term is

2A1 sin + sin

6
3

= A1 sin
3

where

= +

6.

(20)

It shows that fundamental harmonic of Wye

voltage has the same amplitude as Delta and it is leading the

Delta voltage by 30 degrees.
The second term is
N
N
N
N

2AN cos N +
2A N sin N + +
sin
sin
3
3
2
3
3

=
3
3

or if we use = + 6 the term becomes

N
N

2AN sin N + +
sin
2 2
3

(21)

(22)

In a real system we normally do not have even harmonics.

For harmonics multiples of 3 (3, 9, 15, ) the term is zero
these harmonics will be cancelled by the Wye-Delta
conversion. The remaining harmonics can be described by the
formulae
(23)
N = 6k 1
They are 5, 7, 11, 13, etc. These harmonics are generated
by all sorts of power conversion equipment, including
rectifiers. For harmonics with N = 12k + 6 1 such as 5, 7,
17, 19, etc the term becomes:

A N sin (N + + ) = A N sin (N + )

(24)

In other words, these harmonics have opposite effect on

Wye and Delta voltages.
For harmonics with N = 12k 1 such as 11, 13, 23, 25, etc
the term is
(25)
A N sin N +

or those harmonics have the same effect on Wye and Delta

voltages.

C. Harmonics effect on rectifier no-load voltage

We can estimate effect of harmonic voltages on the rectifier
using the same method as for the effect on the average AC
meter reading. We will assume that we have only one
harmonic present and that is small, so it does not affect diode
commutations.
To calculate no-load voltage of 6-pulse rectifier we need to
integrate the line voltage from to 2 . Assuming that line
3

voltage is
V1 = A1 sin + A N sin (N + )

(26)

we get
Ed0

3
=

2
3

(A

sin + A N sin (N + ) ) d

(27)

the first terms integrates as 3 A

1

while the second term is

3 AN

+
cos N + cos N
N
3

(28)

As explained above, we are interested only in harmonics

with orders N = 6k 1. For these, the expression above evaluates
to
3 AN
(29)
cos
N

In other words, relative effect of harmonics on the 6-pulse

rectifier no-load voltage is
Ed0 1 A N
(30)
=
cos
Ed0

N A1

the same formulae as for the measured average type AC

voltmeter (16).
The effect of harmonic voltages on the rectifier at different
current levels depends on the commutation angle and delay
angle (if the rectifier operates as part of 12 pulse system.
Generally it will be less then is
E 1 A N
(31)
=
Ed0

N A1

D. Harmonics effect on rectifier voltage at arbitrary load

The effect of harmonics on the rectifier voltage will vary
with the rectifier current due to:
1. more complex waveform due to commutation
interval in mode 1, and
2. changing phase shift of the harmonic voltage with
respect of rectifier conduction interval due to
commutation delay in mode 2 (see ref 2)
The resulting formula are more complex and will be
published later
E. Effect of transformer coupling on the voltage unbalance
due to harmonics
In the appendix we did not use transformer coupling data. The
results are applicable to both loose and closely coupled
transformers operating in mode 1 and 2 as defined in [ref 2].

These modes cover the load range from 0% to over 500% for
typical case.
VI. REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]

R. L. Witzke, J. V. Kresser, J. K. Dillard Influence of A-C Reactance

on Voltage Regulation of 6 phase Rectifiers, AIEE Transaction, vol 72
Jul 1953, pp 244-253
R. L. Witzke, J. V. Kresser, J. K. Dillard Voltage regulation of 12Phase Double-Way Rectifiers, AIEE Transaction, vol 72 Nov 1953, pp
689-697
C. Desoer, E. Kuh Basic Circuit Theory McGraw Hill, 1969