IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO.

1, JANUARY 2014

43

Medium-Voltage 12-Pulse Converter: Output Voltage

Harmonic Compensation Using a Series APF
Mostafa S. Hamad, Mahmoud I. Masoud, Senior Member, IEEE, and Barry W. Williams
AbstractIn this paper, compensation of the dc-side voltage
harmonics of a medium-voltage (MV) 12-pulse ac/dc converter
is achieved using a series active power filter (APF). The output
voltage harmonics are dependent on the converter firing delay
angles and, consequently, on the specific power locus followed
by the ac/dc converter. This power locus ensures minimum fifth
and seventh harmonics (total rms) in the input current which
provides minimum input current total harmonic distortion when
the reactive power is less than 0.5 p.u. The series APF is connected
between the load and the converter output via a magnetic amplifier
to eliminate the dc current from the APF inverter, thus reducing
inverter losses. Voltage harmonic compensation using a series APF,
with and without a magnetic amplifier, is examined with both resistive and inductive loads. The simulation results for compensating a
3.3-kV MV 12-pulse converter system are experimentally verified
using a scaled prototype 12-pulse converter with a series APF.
Index TermsActive power filters (APFs), dc-side compensation, magnetic amplifiers, medium-voltage (MV) rectifiers, series
APF, 12-pulse converters.

I. I NTRODUCTION

ONTROLLED ac/dc converters provide high reliability, low complexity, and low power loss and minimize
the number of series-connected switches for high-voltage or
medium-voltage (MV) applications [1], [2]. One drawback of
these converters is the generation of voltage harmonics which
affects the power quality on the dc side [3], [4]. Controlling the
converter phase angle impacts on the output voltage harmonics,
which are assessed by using individual harmonic distortion
and the ripple factor (RF) [2]. Methods have been used to
minimize the output voltage waveform distortion, and a multipulse configuration can be used in MV systems to improve
the power quality. Converters utilize a front-end phase-shifting
transformer feeding a number of six-pulse converters connected
in parallel for high-current applications or in series for highvoltage applications [3].

Manuscript received August 9, 2012; revised November 19, 2012 and

January 5, 2013; accepted February 13, 2013. Date of publication February 22,
2013; date of current version July 18, 2013.
M. S. Hamad is with the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime
Transport, Alexandria 21532, Egypt (e-mail: eng_mostafa99@yahoo.com).
M. I. Masoud is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat 123, Oman, and
also with the Electrical Engineering Department, The Faculty of Engineering,
Alexandria University, Alexandria 21544, Egypt (e-mail: m.masoud@ieee.org).
B. W. Williams is with the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G1 1XQ,
U.K. (e-mail: barry.williams@eee.strath.ac.uk).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2013.2248337

The configuration in [5] uses a two-winding nine-phase

front-end transformer feeding an 18-pulse diode rectifier. Conventional passive filters are used to suppress harmonic distortion. However, passive filters have limitations [6].
In [7] and [8], the output voltage RF is improved by using
a pulse multiplication technique, where higher pulse operation
is obtained based on a six-pulse converter, with additional
circuitry. This adds auxiliary thyristors, two transformers, and
passive elements to the main circuit. The addition of a complex
active injection circuit in the converter dc side [8], [9] reduces
the harmonic distortion in both the ac and dc sides. Other
harmonic current injection methods are based on injecting
ripple into the converter dc side [10], [11], but the RF improvement is limited and does not guarantee compensation if used
with controlled rectifiers. For higher voltage applications, the
passive elements of these circuits must be designed to withstand
the maximum voltage. Because of power quality issues, more
importance is now being given to compensation using active
power filters (APFs), made possible because of semiconductor
improvements, such as increased switching frequency, ratings,
and cost, and also the availability of microelectronics and
measurement sensors [12], [13]. The APF overcomes classical
passive filters drawbacks; moreover, it can be durable and
reliable [14]. AC-side compensation using a shunt APF has
been investigated and well documented, with recent publications dealing with performance improvement and control
design [15][22]. However, dc-side compensation has received
less attention even though the output voltage waveform has
a direct impact on the load. A series APF could be a candidate for dc-side compensation. When a series APF is used to
compensate the output voltage harmonics [23], [24], the APF
inverter switches have to conduct the full-load current including
the principal dc component. The shunt APF is used to inject
the compensating current necessary to cancel the output current
harmonics, therefore improving its RF [25][27]. To overcome
the problem of the APF inverter switches conducting the dc
load current, the series APF is connected into the converter dc
side via a magnetic amplifier coupled circuit which also isolates
the series APF from the power circuit. This allows lowering of
the APF switch ratings and voltage matching and minimizes
inverter losses.
The objective of this paper is to compensate the 12-pulse
controlled converter output harmonics using a series APF
connected via a magnetic amplifier. This converter follows
a specific power locus [28][30]. The insertion of the series
APF improves the RF, consequently minimizing the necessary
smoothing inductance.
The remainder of this paper is organized into five sections
and the conclusion. Section II gives a brief introduction to the

0278-0046/$31.00 2013 IEEE

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014

power locus used. Section III explains the harmonic analysis

of the 12-pulse converter. Section IV shows the effect of
harmonic current injection on the flux distribution. Section V
introduces the series APF, either directly inserted or inserted
via a magnetic amplifier. Section VI shows the output voltage
after compensation using both simulation and experimentation.
Discussion and observations of the systems are introduced in
Section VII, which is followed by the conclusion.
II. P OWER L OCUS
The output voltage of the series 12-pulse converter Vo is the
sum of the output voltages of the two series-connected six-pulse
converters where
3Vmax
Vo =
(cos 1 + cos 2 ).
(1)

By multiplying (1) by the converter output current (Io ), the

active and reactive powers are given by
P = Pmax (cos 1 + cos 2 )
Q = Pmax (sin 1 + sin 2 )

(2)

where
3Io Vmax
.
(3)

If 2Pmax is considered the base power, the active and reactive

powers can be represented in terms of per-unit values as
Pmax =

P = 1/2(cos 1 + cos 2 )
Q = 1/2(sin 1 + sin 2 ).

(4)

Constant-active-power operation can be achieved via different

combinations of the firing angles 1 and 2 , with the converter
absorbing different amounts of reactive power, which affects
the power factor [28][30]. This means that P and Q can
produce a power locus which affects the converter performance.
The specific power locus shown in Fig. 1 achieves a maximum
absorbed reactive power of 0.5 p.u. and compromises between
a symmetrical firing power locus, an asymmetrical firing power
loci, and a constant-VAr power locus [28][30]. Specifically,
this locus ensures minimum fifth and seventh harmonics (total
rms) in the input current which provides minimum input current
total harmonic distortion when the reactive power is less than
0.5 p.u.
III. S ERIES -C ONNECTED 12-P ULSE C ONVERTER
H ARMONIC A NALYSIS
The output voltage of a series-connected 12-pulse converter
is the vectorial sum of the output voltages generated by each

vo1

vo2

3Vmax
=

3Vmax
=

cos 1 +

n=1

cos 2 +

n=1

Fig. 1.

Operating power locus.

six-pulse converter [5]

Vo = Vo1 + Vo2

where Vo1 is the output voltage of the upper six-pulse converter

and Vo2 is the output voltage of the lower converter. Hence, the
output voltage Fourier series is the sum of the Fourier series of
each output, which are given by (6), shown at the bottom of the
page, where
 


cos(6n1)1
1
cos(6n+1)

6n+1
6n1
 

6n(1) = n+tan1 
sin(6n+1)1 sin(6n1)1
6n+1
  6n1 

cos(6n+1)2
2

cos(6n1)
6n+1
6n1
1



 .
6n(2) = n+tan
sin(6n+1)2 sin(6n1)2
6n+1
6n1
(7)
By substituting (6) into (5), the total output voltage can be
expressed in terms of 1 and 2 by
vo =

3Vmax

cos 1 +cos 2

1
1 2 cos 21
sin(6t+6(1) )
+
+ 2
2
5
7
57

1
1 2 cos 22
sin(6t+6(2) )
+
+ 2
2
7
57
5
1
1
2 cos 21
sin(12t+6(1) )
+
+ 2
2
11
13
1113


1
1
2 cos 22
sin(12t+6(2) )+ .
+
+

112 132
1113
(8)


1
1
2 cos 21
sin(6nt + 6n(1) )
+

(6n 1)2
(6n + 1)2
(6n 1)(6n + 1)


(5)




1
1
2 cos 22
.
sin 6(nt /6) + 6n(2)
+

(6n 1)2
(6n + 1)2
(6n 1)(6n + 1)

(6)

HAMAD et al.: MV 12-PULSE CONVERTER: OUTPUT VOLTAGE HARMONIC COMPENSATION USING A SERIES APF

45

Fig. 3. Basic control technique used with the series APF.

V. S ERIES APF C ONNECTION

Series compensation is classified according to how the series
APF is coupled into the converter dc side. The series APF
can be connected into the converter dc side either directly or
transformer coupled via a magnetic amplifier.
Fig. 2.

Harmonic factors and RF of the 12-pulse converter output voltage.

In the case of 1 = 2 (symmetrical firing), the 6th, 18th,

. . ., harmonic voltages generated by each six-pulse converter
are 180 out of phase and therefore are canceled. The dcside harmonics of the 12-pulse converter are generated at 12p
times the fundamental line frequency, where p = 1, 2, 3, . . ..
This means that the ripple, and hence the RF, of the combined
output voltage is reduced. When the 12-pulse converter follows
the operating power locus introduced in [28] and [29], as shown
in Fig. 1, the 12-pulse converter is asymmetrically controlled
(1 = 2 ), and the dc-side harmonics are generated at 6p
times the fundamental line frequency. The variation of the four
dominant voltage harmonic factors and the RF, for the perunit active power range, is shown in Fig. 2, for the converter
following the proposed power locus.
IV. E FFECT OF H ARMONIC C URRENT I NJECTION
ON F LUX D ISTRIBUTION
The APF is inserted in series into the converter dc side and
acts as a voltage source that injects voltages equal but opposite
in polarity to the harmonic vectors generated by the converter.
The objective is to make the dc-side output voltage harmonic
free [23]. The basic control algorithm concept is shown in
Fig. 3. The harmonic voltage Vo is extracted from the converter
output voltage using a low-pass filter (LPF) and scaled to
form the filter reference voltage. The APF inverter produces
a modulated output voltage with contents proportional to the
reference voltage. A passive filter (Lf and Cf ) is connected
to the output of the series APF inverter, as shown in Fig. 3,
to eliminate the switching harmonics due to the pulsewidth
modulation (PWM). The filter output is connected into the
converter dc side between its output and the load and injects
the compensation voltage that cancels the harmonic voltage Vo
produced by the converter. The voltage across the load terminal
VL becomes purely a dc voltage Vo .

A. Configuration #1: Series APF Directly Inserted Into

the Converter DC Side
In configuration #1, the series APF (an H-bridge inverter) is
inserted directly into the dc side, as illustrated in Fig. 3. The
load current Idc is blocked by the filter capacitor and thus flows
through the APF inverter switches and the passive filter inductor. This inverter dc current is the major disadvantage of this
configuration, particularly in high-power applications, as the
APF requires high-current inverter switches which introduce
high power losses. Moreover, the APF inverter is not isolated
from the ac/dc converter.
B. Configuration #2: Series APF Inserted Into the Converter
DC Side via a Magnetic Amplifier
The APF can be coupled into the converter dc side using
a single-phase high-bandwidth transformer used in a manner
similar to that employed in dc current measurement transducers
[31], which isolates the inverter from the power system and
matches the voltage and current ratings of the H-bridge inverter
to those of the power system [23]. Since the load current
consists mainly of a dc component, a transformer core saturates
[32]. Configuration #2 is proposed to solve this saturation
problem, where the series APF is coupled into the converter
dc side using the magnetic amplifier circuit shown in Fig. 4.
The magnetic amplifier has a tightly coupled three-winding
single-phase transformer with turns Nm1 : Nm2 : Nm3 , as
shown in Fig. 5(a). The converter-side winding of Nm1 turns
is inserted into the converter dc side, which is designed
according to
vcs = Nm1

d
dt

(9)

where vcs is the instantaneous voltage and is the magnetic

flux linking each turn of the coil. The APF-side winding of

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014

Fig. 6.

Fig. 4.

Configuration #2: Coupling of the series APF via a magnetic amplifier.

Current-controlled dc chopper circuit.

measured load current average Idc is used to control the auxiliary current source which produces the control winding current
Ich required to achieve a dc ampere-turn balance between the
converter-side winding and the control winding
Nm3 Ich = Nm1 Idc .

Fig. 5. (a) Series APF transformer and (b) BH curve and effect of the
control winding current.

Nm2 turns is connected to the APF, where each injected series

voltage harmonic contributes
En = 4.44fn Nm2 AB

(10)

where En is the nth rms voltage of the winding, fn is the

injected harmonic frequency, A is the core cross-sectional area,
and B is the flux density. The harmonic components accumulate, adding to the flux. The dc control winding of Nm3 turns
is connected to an auxiliary controlled dc current source. The

(11)

Therefore, the current Ich cancels the effect of the dc current

Idc , preventing the APF transformer from saturating [33], [34].
With this arrangement, the load current Idc tends to saturate
the core material where no further magnetization is induced by
increasing the field intensity (H). However, the control winding
current Ich counters the load current effect by demagnetizing
the core and forces the operating point away from the saturation
region, as illustrated in the BH curve in Fig. 5(b). The series
APF is now isolated from the power system, and no dc current is induced across the transformer APF-side winding from
the other two windings. An auxiliary dc source is necessary
in the APF inverter dc side. According to the given voltage
reference, the APF produces the required harmonic voltage,
which is transferred to the transformer converter-side winding,
and cancels the converter voltage harmonics. The number of
turns Nm3 is low in the low-voltage (LV) prototype; however,
a high number of turns can be used in an MV system to lower
the control winding current Ich . The transformer turn ratio is
chosen so that the inverter dc-side voltage source can match
the dc-side voltage of the shunt APF connected to the input
side. A common dc link can be used for both a three-phase
shunt APF and the series APF (and the source for the dc
compensating winding). That is, the proposed series APF can
be designed to be back-to-back coupled to the controlled dc
bus of a shunt APF connected to the converter ac side. This
saves cost and reduces complexity. This coupling technique to
form a unified power flow controller is the subject of subsequent
publications.
Different controlled current sources can be used to generate
the control winding current Ich . For simplicity, a currentcontrolled class A chopper, shown in Fig. 6, is used. A
bidirectional dc chopper is needed for fast dc current reduction
(determined by the time constant Lch /Rch ) and bidirectional
power flow in systems that reverse the current direction as
opposed to reversing the voltage.
According to the closed control loop, variation of the chop
changes the reference voltage
per reference current level Ich

level vr . Consequently, the duty cycle changes so as to

HAMAD et al.: MV 12-PULSE CONVERTER: OUTPUT VOLTAGE HARMONIC COMPENSATION USING A SERIES APF

Fig. 7.

47

Twelve-pulse converter follows the proposed power locus with the series APF inserted into the dc side via a magnetic amplifier.

guarantee that the control winding current Ich tracks the reference current. Based on the transformer configuration and
winding arrangement for the converter-side winding and the
control winding (11), this current prevents the magnetic amplifier from saturating. Since power flow in this application is
unidirectional, a single-quadrant dc chopper is used with the
magnetic amplifier as an LV high-current controlled current
source which circulates the chopper output current in the lowresistance control winding. This load resistance determines
the maximum steady-state chopper current when 1. The
switching frequency fch is 10 kHz, and a smoothing inductance
Lch of 10 mH is used to ensure continuous Ich with low ripple
current [35]. Also, this inductance presents high impedance
(required of a current source) to current changes in the other
two windings. The current source response, determined by the
dc source and inductance and time constant Lch /Rch , should be
better than the dc current response required of the main ac/dc
converter.
VI. O UTPUT VOLTAGE C OMPENSATION OF A 12-P ULSE
C ONVERTER U SING A S ERIES APF W ITH
A M AGNETIC A MPLIFIER
The series APF with a magnetic amplifier is used to compensate the 12-pulse converter output voltage harmonics. The
steady-state performance of the dc-side-compensated converter
is investigated while the converter tracks the power locus in
Fig. 1. This power locus is based on a constant and ripplefree load current for the required active power range. The
load may be either static or dynamic. A dynamic load may
draw either constant or variable dc current. As an example,

the converter load current may represent the dc-link current of

an invertermotor set. The power given to the motor can be
controlled by controlling the inverter modulation index while
maintaining a constant dc-link current or by controlling the dclink current while the inverter operates at a constant modulation
index. Both possibilities are catered for with the system block
diagram shown in Fig. 7. The average load current is used in the
two controlling loops, namely, a control winding current loop
and a constant-load-current control loop. In the load current
control loop, irrespective of the load type, the actual load
current should track a given reference, and the proposed power
locus algorithm is applied to generate the required firing angles
to change the converter output voltage and keep the load current
constant. Hence, varying the reference load current changes
the converter firing angles, in compliance with the proposed
power locus, and proportionally changes the control winding
current.
DC-side compensation of the 12-pulse converter using the
series APF with a magnetic amplifier is initially investigated
using MATLAB. The system has a static inductive load of
100 mH and a variable resistance. The reference load current

is 100 A. The turn ratio of the series APF transformer Nm1 :

Idc
Nm2 : Nm3 is 2 : 1 : 2. The chopper (< 5% of the 12-pulse
converter voltampere rating) is controlled to achieve a control winding current Ich of 100 A. For a supply voltage of
3.3 kV, the dc-bus voltage of the series APF inverter Vdc(s)
is 1000 V (half the maximum peak of the converter harmonic
voltage). The magnetic amplifier reduces the series APF inverter current by eliminating the dc component. This allows
an increased switching frequency fsw(s) limit for the same
inverter dc-side voltage and consequently improves the filtering

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014

TABLE I
O UTPUT VOLTAGE AND L OAD VOLTAGE H ARMONIC P ROFILE

In this study, the passive filter elements Lf and Cf are

15 mH and 0.3 F, respectively, to give a break frequency ff of
2.37 kHz.

voltage (VL ) are shown in Fig. 8(a)(c), respectively. The

frequency spectra of Vo and VL are shown in Fig. 8(d) and
(e), respectively. After the compensation, the load voltage RF
improves from 41.5% to 3.6%. The individual harmonic factors
for the four dominant harmonic components are improved, as
illustrated in Table I. The actual load current Idc waveform
after activating the series APF is shown in Fig. 8(f). The
control winding current is controlled at 100 A, as shown in
Fig. 8(g). This configuration requires a low APF current, as
shown in Fig. 8(h). The series APF with the magnetic amplifier
achieves the compensation objectives by mitigating the output voltage harmonic, improving the RF with minimum APF
current.
Fig. 9 shows some simulation results for a step change in
the operating point (Pp.u. , Qp.u. ) from (0.866 p.u., 0.5 p.u.) to
(0.5 p.u., 0.5 p.u.) without a smoothing inductance. The firing
angles (1 and 2 ), in accordance with the proposed power
locus, change from (30 and 30 ) to (90 and 0 ), respectively.
Fig. 9(a) shows the converter output voltage (Vo ), Fig. 9(b)
shows the load voltage, and Fig. 9(c) illustrates the load current.
The converter output voltage and load voltage harmonic profile
for a load step change are given in Table II.
Fig. 9 shows that the series APF can follow the load variation
and improves the RF of both the load voltage and load current.
Also, the results confirm that the series APF minimizes the
required smoothing inductance. However, as the firing angle
increases to 90 , the voltage harmonic factors and RF progressively increase, as indicated in Table II [37]. The series
compensation effects on the harmonic factors and RF of the
12-pulse converter dc side, operating in the rectification mode,
are shown in Fig. 10(a) and (b). The load is modeled as a current
source controlled at 100 A, and the firing angles are generated
according to the proposed power locus. The improvement of
the four dominant individual harmonic factors is shown in
Fig. 10(a). The series APF improves the load voltage RF as
shown in Fig. 10(b).

A. Simulation Results

B. Experimental Results

The load resistance is adjusted to 22.3 while the reference

load current is set at 100 A. From the load current loop, the
generated firing angles (1 and 2 ), according to the proposed power locus, are 90 and 0 , respectively. This loading
condition represents the operating point of (Pp.u. , Qp.u. ) =
(0.5 p.u., 0.5 p.u.) on the power locus. The simulation results
are shown in Fig. 8(a)(h). The converter output voltage (Vo ),
the compensation voltage (vcs ), and the compensated load

A 2-kVA 415-V three-winding

star/star/delta transformer,

with a turn ratio of 2:1: 3, functions as the front-end transformer of the 12-pulse system which is implemented to
emulate the simulated MV system. The supply voltage vs
is 170 V, and the converter with the series magnetic amplifier APF feeds an inductive dc load of Idc = 1 A. The
auxiliary dc-source voltage Vdc(s) is 110 V. The test-rig picture
appears in the Appendix. The experimental results when the

Fig. 8. DC-side compensation of a 12-pulse converter using a series APF.

(a) Converter output voltage Vo , (b) compensation voltage vcs , (c) compensated
load voltage VL , [(d) and (e)] load voltage spectra before and after compensation, (f) load current Idc after activating the series APF, (g) control winding
current Ich , and (h) APF current ics .

efficiency [14], [35]. The switching frequency fsw(s) of the

APF H-bridge inverter is 5 kHz. The required passive filter at
the APF inverter output to filter the switching harmonics and to
pass the compensating dominant harmonic orders is designed
using
ff =

1

.
Lf C f

(12)

HAMAD et al.: MV 12-PULSE CONVERTER: OUTPUT VOLTAGE HARMONIC COMPENSATION USING A SERIES APF

49

Fig. 9. DC-side compensation of a 12-pulse converter using a series APF with a unit step load change. (a) Converter output voltage Vo , (b) compensated load
voltage VL , and (c) load current.
TABLE II
O UTPUT VOLTAGE AND L OAD VOLTAGE H ARMONIC
P ROFILE FOR A L OAD S TEP C HANGE

converter operates at 1 = 90 , 2 = 0 , and (Pp.u. , Qp.u. ) =

(0.5 p.u., 0.5 p.u.) are shown in Fig. 11(a)(d). Fig. 11(a) shows
the converter output voltage Vo , the injected compensation
voltage vcs , and the compensated load voltage VL . Fig. 11(b)
shows the load current Idc , the control winding current Ich ,
and the APF current ics . The frequency spectra of the load
voltage before and after compensation are shown in Fig. 11(c)
and (d), respectively. After compensation, the load voltage
RF improves from 41% to 10%. The practical results tend
to verify the simulation results, but harmonic miscancellation
is introduced due to signal processing delays. The individual
harmonic factors indicated in Fig. 11(d) illustrate the effects
of the delay sources on the compensation quality, particularly
for higher harmonic orders, where a fixed delay represents an
increasing phase angle error.

dependent on the load type. When feeding an invertermotor

set, it is mandatory to have Ldc large enough to minimize
the ripple in the dc-link current and to decouple the two
converter systems. The series APF can minimize the dc-link
current ripple without a smoothing inductance, as shown in
Figs. 8 and 11, where the load voltage ripple is minimized as
indicated in Table I, which reflects on the load current ripple;
hence, compensation minimizes the inductance necessary to
decouple the two systems. The converter-side winding leakage
inductance can be designed to be the required decoupling
inductance (at the expense of converter underlap increase).
In this case, the transformer parameters may affect (delay
and/or attenuate) the compensation voltage to be injected;
consequently, voltage harmonic miscancellation takes place and
deteriorates the compensation quality. This can be avoided
if another control loop is added, as shown in Fig. 12. The
actual compensation voltage measured across the converterside winding is compared with the compensation reference
voltage, and the error is used to produce the PWM modulating
signal.
An open-loop control technique can be used to control the
series APF. The system can be offline trained under all loading conditions to determine the harmonic modulating signal
information, i.e., magnitudes and phase angles, required to
achieve proper voltage harmonic compensation. Moreover, the
signal information can account for all delay source effects in
the compensation system. The determined modulating signal
information can be used for lookup tables to an artificial neural
network control system.
VIII. C ONCLUSION

VII. R ESULTS , D ISCUSSION , AND O BSERVATIONS

The existence and the size of the dc-link smoothing inductor
Ldc in the ac/dc converter output and the load current are both

Thyristor ac/dc converters generate output voltage harmonics

inversely dependent on the firing delay angle. Compensation of
the output voltage harmonics of a 12-pulse converter following

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014

Fig. 10. Performance parameters before and after compensation using a series APF: (a) Four dominant harmonic factors and (b) voltage RF. (----) Before
compensation and () after compensation.

the proposed power locus has been investigated with a series

APF inserted into the converter dc side. The series APF is
controlled to inject a compensation voltage that cancels the
voltage harmonics in the converter dc side, thereby indirectly
compensating load current harmonics. This improves the load

RFs, allowing the use of a smaller converter dc-link inductance.

The series APF can be connected either directly or through a
transformer. In the case of APF direct connection, the full-load
current flows in the APF inverter switches, which increases the
power losses and requires switches of high current rating. The

HAMAD et al.: MV 12-PULSE CONVERTER: OUTPUT VOLTAGE HARMONIC COMPENSATION USING A SERIES APF

51

Fig. 12. Configuration #2: Coupling the series APF with a magnetic amplifier.

Fig. 13. Test rig photograph.

A PPENDIX
See Fig. 13.
R EFERENCES

Fig. 11. Practical results of series APF compensation: (a) Voltage waveforms,
(b) current waveforms, (c) spectrum of the converter output voltage Vo , and
(d) spectrum of the load voltage VL after compensation.

APF can be inserted via a three-winding magnetic amplifier

transformer which does not saturate, which minimizes the
APF inverter current and power loss. The filter-side voltage
can be reduced according to the step-down ratio of the APF
isolating transformer. With this configuration, an auxiliary dc
voltage source is required in the APF inverter dc side, and an
auxiliary controlled dc current source is required to inject an
antisaturation current into the control winding of the magnetic
amplifier.

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Mostafa S. Hamad received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from The Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria
University, Alexandria, Egypt, in 1999 and 2003,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, University
of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K., in 2009.
Since January 2010, he has been an Assistant
Professor with the Arab Academy for Science,
Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria.
His research interests include motor drives, power
quality, flexible ac transmission systems, and
renewable energy systems.

Mahmoud I. Masoud (SM12) was born in

Alexandria, Egypt, in 1974. He received the B.Sc.
(top of class with honors) and M.Sc. degrees from
The Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, in 1996 and 1999, respectively,
and the Ph.D. degree from HeriotWatt University,
Edinburgh, U.K., in 2003.
From 2003 to 2007, he was a Lecturer with the
Electrical Engineering Department, The Faculty of
Engineering, Alexandria University. From February
2007 to August 2009, he was a Research Fellow
with the Power Electronics and Energy Conversion Group, Department of
Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow,
U.K. Since June 2009, he has been an Associate Professor with the Electrical
Engineering Department, The Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University.
From 2009 to 2011, he was with Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon.
He is currently with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
College of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. His research
interests include renewable energy systems, power electronics applications, and
electrical machine drives.

Barry W. Williams received the M.Eng.Sc. degree from The University of Adelaide, Adelaide,
Australia, in 1978 and the Ph.D. degree from the
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K., in 1980.
After seven years as a Lecturer with Imperial College London, University of London, London, U.K.,
he was appointed Chair of Electrical Engineering
with HeriotWatt University, Edinburgh, U.K., in
1986. He is currently a Professor with the University
of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K., where he is also the
Head of the Power Electronics and Energy Conversion Group, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. His teaching
covers power electronics (on which topic he has authored a textbook) and
drive systems. His research activities include power semiconductor modeling
and protection, converter topologies, soft-switching techniques, and application
of application-specified integrated circuits and microprocessors to industrial
electronics.