Effect of Modulation Index of Pulse Width

Modulation Inverter on Total Harmonic Distortion

for Sinusoidal
Ezzidin Hassan Elmabrouk Aboadla, Sheroz Khan, Mohamed Hadi Habaebi, Teddy Gunawan,
Belal Ahmed Hamidah, Mashkuri Bin Yaacob
1
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kulliyyah of Engineering,
International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)

Abstract— Knowing Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) content

of voltage source inverter (VSI) is important and must be II. SINUSOIDAL PULSE WIDTH MODULATION
within the allowable range. Several schemes are suggested to PWM is applied to variable speed drives which are used in
mitigate THD and to produce as much a sinusoidal output signal
many increasingly in new industrial applications. The most
as would be possible. One of such schemes is using a Sinusoidal
Pulse Width Modulation SPWM-based inverter. SPWM is widely used for voltage source inverters is Sinusoidal Pulse
usually used in inverters for industrial applications. In this Width Modulation (SPWM). In this method the width pulses is
paper, a study of the performance of the SPWM technique is changed in ratio to the amplitude of a reference signal
presented for a single phase H-bridge inverter. The SPWM
scheme is modeled in MATLAB – Simulink. A bipolar and estimated at the center of the same pulse. The switching
unipolar PWM technique are compared in this project as such signals are created by comparing a sinusoidal waveform fr
techniques offer the features of effectively doubling with a triangular carrier waveform fc as shown in Figure 2 [2].
the switching frequency of the output voltage. Under different
conditions of modulation index, the pattern is utilized to estimate
Reference frequency signal fr defines the inverter output
the harmonics. Simulation results for a full bridge single phase frequency, with its peak amplitude and control the modulation
inverter using bipolar and unipolar SPWM schemes are ratio ma. The carrier frequency determines the number of
presented. pulses per half-cycle. SPWM inverter has a constant DC input
Keywords: Inverter, SPWM, Unipolar, Bipolar, Moduation index. for generating sinusoidal shape at a certain frequency. There
are two SPWM techniques for H-bridge inverters: SPWM with
I. INTRODUCTION
unipolar switching and SPWM with bipolar switching. The
Semiconductor technology has made tremendous
modulation index, ma, also known as the amplitude-
developments in power electronics. Several circuits of PWM-
modulation ratio, is defined as in (1) [3-5].
based schemes have become popular and are becoming of
interest for more attention of researchers. PWM-based
= (1)
techniques are utilized to create variable frequency and
voltage source. An inverter is electronic device utilized to
produce AC signal from DC input source (battery or solar
panel). Inverters can be arranged based on the configuration
of the power electronic switches, and could be half bridge and
full bridge topology. Figure 1 shows a full bridge scheme,
consisting of two legs, each leg is fitted with two
semiconductor switches. The middle point of the legs are
connected across the load [1-2]. Several modulating methods
have been evolving over the last decade for oeperating the H-
bridge inverters, for example, the PWM bipolar and unipolar
method. In this paper, a Unipolar and Bipolar SPWM
switching schemes are shown through simulations as applied
to a single phase H-bridge inverter using MATLAB-Simulink. Figure 1: Single phase H-bridge inverter.
The effects of variable modulation index on the THD content
of the resulting inverter output are studied.

978-1-4673-8753-8/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

 compared with two sinusoidal reference signals that are
positive and negative signals. The output voltage of the
inverter transforms between zero and positive voltage or
between zero and negative voltage of the fundamental
frequency. In the unipolar voltage switching scheme the
harmonic content of the output voltage signal is reduced
compared to the result obtained in the case of bipolar
switching.

Figure 2: Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation

A - Bipolar Switching SPWM

In this technique, the basic idea by comparing reference
frequency signal with the triangular carrier to produce the
bipolar PWM switching signal [6-7]. When this signal is used,
the upper switch and the lower switches operate in
complementary manner, and so are switches of the two legs
[2], [4]. The terminal voltage of the inverter is obtained
denoted by VAN and VBN, and the inverter output voltage, VAB,
is given by:

= − 
Figure 4: Unipolar SPWM voltage (a) comparison between reference signal
The waveform of VAB switches between positive and negative and triangular signal (b) switching pulses (d) output voltage.

DC voltages, and hence this scheme is called bipolar PWM as

shown in Figure 3. III. SIMULATION RESULTS
The performance of the bipolar and unipolar PWM-based
modulation inverters has been verified by using MATLAB-
SIMULINK. Figure 5 shows the Simulink model of a single
phase bipolar H-bridge inverter. In this circuit a sine wave
generator and a triangular wave generator are used to operate
switches. Figure 6 shows the simulation result of the
comparison between the reference and triangular waves,
gating switch pulses, and the output inverter waveform. the
variation in the modulation ratio ma can be produced by
changing in the sinusoidal modulation signal. The effect of ma
on the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the bipolar
inverter is as illustrated in Table 1.

Figure 3: Bipolar SPWM voltage: (a) comparison between reference sigal and
triangular signal (b) switching pulses (c) output voltage.

B- Unipolar Switching SPWM

A unipolar SPWM switching signal is as shown in Figure 4.
The PWM unipolar scheme generally requires two sinusoidal
reference waveform that have the same frequency and
magnitude but with 180o phase shift. The triangular signal is Figure 5: Single phase Bipolar inverter Simulink model
 Figure 8: FFT result of Bipolar inverter (ma =1.0)
without Low Pass filter.

Figure 6: Simulated performance of Bipolar PWM inverter( fs=1kHz).

Table 1: Effect of modulation index on THD

of the Bipolar PWM inverter without the filter circuit.
ma THD % ma THD %
0.3 32.28% 0.75 10.71%
0.4 28.40% 0.8 10.52%
0.5 18.17% 0.85 8.14%
0.55 16.32% 0.9 7.69%
0.6 16.21% 0.95 7.31%
0.65 12.36% 1.0 6.86%
0.7 11.43%

It can be observed that the best value of THD is at 6.86% for

modulation index of ma =1.0 . The output current and the FFT
result of the Bipolar inverter for ma =1.0 before using a filter Figure 9: FFT result of Bipolar inverter after using Low Pass Filter.

circuit is shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8 respectively. Figure 9

shows the FFT analysis of the Bipolar inverter after using an
LC low pass filter. Here, the THD is reduced to 3.23%. The
output voltage signal of the Bipolar inverter is shown in Fig.
10. After using a low pass filter, the output waveform is in a
proper sinusoidal shape.

Figure 10: Output voltage waveform of the Bipolar inverter.

In addition, The performance of the Simulink model and

Figure 7: Output current of Bipolar PWM inverter.
results of a single phase unipolar PWM inverter is illustrated
in Figure 11 and Figure 12 respectively. The effect of
modulation index on THD of the Unipolar inverter before
using a low pass filter is given in Table 2. It can be seen that
the least value of THD=2.08% is at modulation index ma =0.9.
Figure 13 and Figure 14 show the output current and FFT
analysis before using Low Pass Filter of the Unipolar inverter
for ma =0.9 respectively.
 Figure 13: Output current waveform of the Unipolar inverter before the LC
filter.

Figure 11: Simulink model of the Unipolar PWM inverter.

Figure 14: FFT result of Unipolar PWM Inverter with (ma =0.9)
without using low pass filter.

Figure 12: Unipolar PWM inverter waveforms output voltage and switching
signals ( fs=1kHz).

Table 2: Effect of modulation index on THD

of the Unipolar PWM inverter before using a low pass filter.
ma THD % ma THD %
0.3 7.45% 0.75 3.12%
0.4 9.74% 0.8 3.42%
0.5 5.13% 0.85 2.58% Figure 15: FFT result of Unipolar PWM inverter with (ma =0.9)
0.55 5.24% 0.9 2.08% after low pass filter.
0.6 6.03% 0.95 2.20%
0.65 3.74% 1.0 2.81%
0.7 3.37%

It can be noted that the waveform of the Unipolar inverter

output current is a better sinusoid compared to the Bipolar
output current waveform. The outcome of a low pass filter on
the THD and the output voltage waveform is presented in
Figure 16: Output voltage waveform of the Unipolar inverter after the LC
Figure 15 and Figure 16 respectively. filter.
 IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper a single phase Unipolar and Bipolar SPWM-
based H-bridge inverter are explored using MATLAB-Simulik
to testify the result of different values of modulation index on
the total THD. The best performance in the Bipolar inverter is
given at ma =1.0 while that for Unipolar inverter is at ma =0.9.
The output current of the unipolar inverter is exhibiting a more
refined sinusoidal waveform and at same instance with less
THD compared to the Bipolar inverter. By comparing the
results between a Unipolar and bipolar PWM inverter, the best
sinusoidal output signal is produced by a unipolar PWM-
triggered inverter.

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