REVIEW PAPER

International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol 2, No. 8, November 2009

A STRATEGY FOR HARMONIC

REDUCTION USING COMPLETE
SOLUTION
P.Gani Raju1, N.Veda Kumar2
1
Associate Professor, Electrical and Electronics Department, PVP Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Vijayawada,
AP. Email: ganiraju.iitm@gmail.com
2
Final Year UG Student, Electrical and Electronics Department, K L College of Engineering, Vaddeswaram, AP.
Email: vedeverywhere@gmail.com

Abstract --- One of the major problems in electric power
quality is the harmonic contents. There are several
methods of indicating the quantity of harmonic contents.
As per IEEE 519 std. these parameters of power quality
measurement, are four in number, of which Total
Harmonic Distortion is most widely used. In electrical
systems, harmonics increase business operating costs by
increasing downtime, placing undue burden on the
electrical infrastructure, making power factor correction
difficult and causing poor total power factor. Harmonics
are a circumstance of progress, and they affect all the
operating systems. Selective harmonic elimination-pulse
width modulation techniques offer a tight control of the
harmonic spectrum of a given voltage waveform
generated by a power electronic converter along with a
low number of switching transitions. Traditional
optimization methods suffer from various drawbacks,
such as prolonged and tedious computational steps and
convergence to local optima, thus, the more the number
of harmonics to be eliminated, the larger the
computational complexity and time. Thus in this paper,
we adopt an approach which is to choose the switching
times (angles) such that a desired fundamental output is
generated and specifically chosen harmonics of the
fundamental are suppressed. This is referred to as
harmonic elimination or programmed harmonic
elimination as the switching angles are chosen
(programmed) to eliminate specific harmonics.
Index Terms --- Total Harmonic Distortion,
Selective Harmonic Elimination, Pulse Width
Modulation.
circuit topology in three phase systems[2]. These key
advantages make SHE a viable alternative to other
methods of modulation in applications such as variable
speed drives, or dual frequency induction heating. This
method is sometimes called a programmed PWM
technique. However, the drawback of these methods is
a heavy computational burden and a complicated
hardware[3]. The main challenge of solving the
associated nonlinear equations, which are
transcendental in nature and therefore have multiple
solutions, is the convergence. It is generally accepted
that the performance of an inverter, with any switching
strategy, can be related to the harmonic contents of its
output voltage. Power electronics researchers have
always studied many novel control techniques to
reduce harmonics in such waveforms.
II. BI POLAR CASE
The harmonic elimination problem was formulated
as a set of transcendental equations that must be solved
to determine the times (angles) in an electrical cycle
for turning the switches on and off in a full bridge
inverter so as to produce a desired fundamental
amplitude while eliminating, for example, the fifth and
seventh harmonics. These transcendental equations are
then solved using iterative numerical techniques to
compute the switching angles.

I. INTRODUCTION
The problem of eliminating harmonics in
switching converters has been the focus of research for
many years[1]. The Selective harmonic elimination
(SHE) PWM based methods can theoretically provide
the highest quality output among all the PWM
methods. SHE offers several advantages compared to
traditional modulation methods including acceptable
performance with low switching frequency to
fundamental frequency ratios, direct control over
output waveform harmonics, and the ability to leave
triplen harmonics uncontrolled to take advantage of Figure 1: Bipolar Switching Scheme

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REVIEW PAPER

International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol 2, No. 8, November 2009

cos(θ1 ) − cos(θ 2 ) + cos(θ 3 ) = m (7)

cos(5θ1 ) − cos(5θ 2 ) + cos(5θ 3 ) = 0 (8)
The Fourier series expansion of this output voltage cos(7θ1 ) − cos(7θ 2 ) + cos(7θ 3 ) = 0 (9)
waveform is :

⎛ ∞ sin(nwt) ⎞
⎜ ∑ ⎟ IV. OBJECTIVE & WORKING PRINCIPLE
⎜ n=1,3,5... n ⎟
4Vdc ⎜
V(wt) = − ×(1− 2cos(nθ1) + 2cos(nθ2 ) −⎟ (1) In this paper we provide with the three firing
π ⎜ ⎟ angles for different modulation indices. The main
⎜2cos(nθ3)) ⎟ objective of this paper is to provide the consumer with
⎜ ⎟ very low harmonics, maintaining the limits of
⎝ ⎠ distortion values as mentioned by IEEE 519 Voltage
Given a desired fundamental voltage , the problem here and Current Limits. Thus avoiding the problems of
is to find the unknown switching angles. equipment malfunctioning, communication
interferences, equipment over-heating. This paper
1 − 2cos(θ1 ) + 2cos(θ2 ) − 2cos(θ3 ) = −m (2) adopts the procedure of Selective Harmonic
Elimination Method. Selective Harmonic Elimination
1 − 2 cos(5θ1 ) + 2 cos(5θ2 ) − 2 cos(5θ3 ) = 0 (3) mean, we choose to eliminate any particular harmonic
1 − 2 cos(7θ1 ) + 2 cos(7θ2 ) − 2 cos(7θ3 ) = 0 (4) component which is considered to be predominant
from its output[5]. For the calculation of Total
V1 Harmonic Distortion, we adopt an efficient algorithm
m≈
(4Vdc / π ) (5) called Fast Fourier Transform. The firing angles in the
case of both Bi-Polar Switching and Uni-Polar
Switching for varying modulation indices is obtained
This is a system of three transcedental equations in and the graphs of plotted. The other advantage of
three unknowns. decreased harmonic distortion is attributed to the fact
This is the case which is used to eliminate 5th and that, the distortion power factor of the equipment
th
7 harmonics. In this paper, we adopt a strategy for decreases, thus improving the power quality.
calculating these unknown angles for different values
of Modulation Indices (m). Let us consider the following example of a inverter
with a universal bridge as follows. It is connected with
III. UNIPOLAR SWITCHING an RL Load as shown
The Fourier expansion of the uni-polar waveform
is as follows :

∞
4Vdc ⎛cos(nθ1 ) −cos(nθ2 )⎞
V(wt) = ∑ ⎜⎜
n=1,3,5.. nπ ⎝+ cos(nθ3 )
⎟⎟sin(wt) (6)
⎠

Figure 3: Simulation Diagram using Pulse Generator with period

0.02 Sec

The Harmonic Distortion obtained by using Fast

Fourier Transforms is found to be 145% which is very
much undesirable.

Figure 2: Unipolar Switching

The problem is to determine the unknown angles with

transcendental equations as follows :

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International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol 2, No. 8, November 2009

-6 Selected signal: 2 cycles
x 10
5
V. CONCLUSION
0

The paper has successfully worked out well in

-5
selective harmonic elimination. The similar work can
-10 be carried out for still further cases and best results can
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035
Time (s) be obtained. The paper has shown the simulation
DC component = 2.062e-007 , THD= 145.88% results in unipolar and bipolar cases. Thus Selective
200
Harmonic Reduction Method, is always superior, when
M ag (% of DC com ponent)

150
compared to all other Harmonic Reduction Techniques.

100 REFERENCES
50
[1] P.W. Hammond, A harmonic filter installation to reduce
0
voltage distortion from static power converters, IEEE Trans.
0 5 10 15 20 on Ind. Appl.,
Harmonic order

Figure 4 : FFT before application [2] N. Mohan, T. M. Undeland, and W. P. Robbins, Power
Electronics: Converters, Applications, and Design, 2nd ed.
So there is a definite need for elimination of harmonics New York: Wiley, 1995.
in such a case.
[3] M.Izhar, C.M.Hadzer,S.Masri and S.Idris, A Study of the
Now when the firing angle is set to pre-calculated Fundamental Principles to Power System Harmonic,
values of harmonic elimination, the inverting circuit National Power and Energy Conference 2003 Proceedings,
modifies as follows: Bangi Malaysia. (Page no: 225-231).

From2
[4] Interpreting IEEE std 519, Paper No: PCIC-2003-15
g
+ [SI]
A [5] John N. Chiasson, Leon M. Tolbert, Keith J. McKenzie,
DC Voltage Source -
B Zhong Du, A Complete Solution to the Harmonic Elimination
+
-
v
Problem, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 19,
Voltage Measurement
Scope1
no. 2, march 2004 (491-499).

[S]
[SI]
From [6] P. N. Enjeti, P. D. Ziogas, and J. F. Lindsay, Programmed
Goto

[S1]
Discrete,
Ts = 5.144e-006 s
PWM techniques to eliminate harmonics: a critical
From1
evaluation, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 26, pp. 302–316,
Mar./Apr. 1990.
Subsystem1

[7] H. S. Patel and R. G. Hoft, Generalized harmonic

Figure 5: Simulation Diagram for elimination of Selected elimination and voltage control in thryristor inverters: part
Harmonics I—harmonic elimination, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 9,
pp. 310–317, May/June 1973.
Here the harmonic distortion is down to almost half to
73 % as shown: [8] Generalized harmonic elimination and voltage control in
Selected signal: 2 cycles thryristor inverters: part II—voltage control technique, IEEE
400 Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 10, pp. 666–673, Sept./Oct. 1974.
200

-200

-400
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035
Time (s)
Fundamental (50Hz) = 239.6 , THD= 73.35%

50
M ag (% of Fundam ental)

40

30

20

10

0
0 5 10 15 20
Harmonic order

Figure 6: FFT after application of Complete Solution

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