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Published in IET Power Electronics

Received on 6th November 2009
Revised on 12th February 2010
doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2009.0306

ISSN 1755-4535

On comparing the symmetrical and

non-symmetrical selective harmonic
elimination pulse-width modulation
technique for two-level three-phase
voltage source converters
M.S.A. Dahidah1 G. Konstantinou2 N. Flourentzou2
V.G. Agelidis2
1
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga,
43500 Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia
2
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
E-mail: mohamed.dahidah@nottingham.edu.my

Abstract: Selective harmonic elimination pulse-width modulation (SHE-PWM) 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. These optimal switching transitions can be calculated through Fourier theory,
and for a number of years quarter-wave and half-wave symmetries have been assumed when formulating the
problem. It is shown recently that symmetry requirements can be relaxed as a constraint. This changes the
way the problem is formulated and different solutions can be found. This study presents different
formulations of the problem, namely quarter-, half-wave symmetry and non-symmetrical waveform. A critical
evaluation and comparison between the three schemes are reported here based on various aspects, such as
number of eliminated harmonics, harmonic spectrum profile, harmonic phasing, converter performance,
computational time and solution space limitations. Selected simulation and experimentally validated results
are presented to confirm the theoretical work of this study. This manuscript is a revised and extended version
of earlier paper that was presented at the IEEE PESC 2008, Rhodes, Greece, 15 – 19 June 2008, and has not
been submitted to any other journal for consideration and possible publication.

1 Introduction ranging within some hundreds of hertz. For instance, the

Selective harmonic elimination pulse-width modulation
(SHE-PWM) methods remain of great interest for the
control of high-voltage high-power voltage-source converters
(VSCs) [1]. These converters are the key technology behind
applications of advanced power electronic apparatus for
electronically controlled modern power systems. In these
applications, gate-turn-off semiconductors and more recently
insulated gate-commutated thyristor and insulated gate
bipolar transistor (IGBT) [2] are typically used as a building
block and the switching frequency is naturally quite low
flexible alternating current transmission system is based not
only on thyristor technology but also on VSCs built with
fully-controlled semiconductors. VSCs are also the backbone
of high-voltage direct current transmission systems [3, 4]
and the modern static voltage/reactive power compensators
for both distribution and transmission systems [5–7]. These
converters are able to improve the stability of the electricity
network and extend the benefits of power electronics into
both the electrical transmission and distribution networks
[8]. These VSCs suffer mainly from higher switching losses,
when compared to utility frequency converters built with

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thyristor technology and such switching losses represent a
major cost as increased heat needs to be removed from the
converter and this also reduces reliability.
The reduction of switching losses in VSCs is of prime
importance in industrial applications. Exact switching
transitions (or else known as switching angles) being able
to increase the converter bandwidth and reduce or
eliminate maximum number of harmonics represent a key
development step for these converters. Specifically, these
solid-state circuits are employed mainly to control the
amplitude of the fundamental component of the output
voltage. A selection of the converter switching angles gives
some degree of freedom in minimising certain harmonics
as well as reducing the total harmonic distortion (THD),
which directly affects the size and cost of filter elements
between the converter and the AC grid.
The main challenge associated with SHE-PWM
techniques is to obtain the analytical solution of the resultant
system of the non-linear transcendental equations that
contain trigonometric terms, which in turn provide multiple
sets of solutions. This has been reported in numerous
technical articles [9–12]. Several algorithms have been
reported in the technical literature concerning methods of
solving the resultant non-linear transcendental equations,
which describe the SHE-PWM problem. These algorithms
include the well-known iterative approach [13–15],
elimination theory [11], Walsh functions [16], optimisation
techniques [9, 10, 17], genetic algorithms [18–21] and
neural networks [22]. A technique based on combination of
an interval-search procedure and Newton’s method is also
proposed to find all solutions to the problem [23] and
another one recently reported is harmonic elimination
through modulation [24]. Even more recently, the problem
was reformulated so that low-order harmonics were
minimised to the maximum level allowed by the grid codes,
rather than completely eliminated, in order to maintain the
power and harmonic quality of the grid [25].
However, in all previously mentioned approaches thus far,
the problem of SHE-PWM was formulated with quarter-
wave symmetry constraints where the solutions to the
switching transitions are sought in the region between 0
and p/2. This restriction effectively limits the available
solution space and the number of solutions which
potentially leads to sub-optimal solutions with regards to
the distribution of the uncontrolled harmonic energy. The
phasing of the harmonics is also limited to either 0 or p.
References [26 – 28] suggested that the constraint of
quarter-wave symmetry can be relaxed to half-wave
symmetry where all the even harmonics are zero but the
harmonic phasing is free to vary. The advantages of
generalising the problem definition so that quarter-wave
symmetry is not required include finding several solutions
not obtainable using the classic symmetrical approach and
the flexibility to select uncontrolled harmonic content. This
may in return result in further overall improvements
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associated with the PWM method in question. References
[26, 27] also presented solutions for both single- and
three-phase cases (i.e. triplen harmonics are controlled and
uncontrolled, respectively) and studied the effect of varying
the phase angle of the fundamental to the harmonic profile.
In [28], several multilevel waveforms are published
demonstrating the generalisation of [26, 27] in the m-level
n-harmonic case. However, in [28] a continuum of
solutions across a variety of modulation indices is not
provided and furthermore, the multiple solutions have not
been investigated. On the other hand, abolishing the
symmetry requirements in the formulation of bipolar SHE-
PWM waveform [29], three-level SHE-PWM [30] and
five-level SHE-PWM converters [31] was reported by the
authors where the switching angles are relaxed between 0
and 2p. However, a comparison between the different
formulations has not been documented. More recently, a
theoretical consideration for the selective harmonic control
was reported in [26]. In this paper, two important aspects
related to the recently expanded selective harmonic control
problem were examined. First, the understanding of the
solution space through examining various reasons that
multiple solutions arise in the generalised selective
harmonic control problem presented in [27]. Second, the
sensitivity to edge placement errors which was examined
with the gradient of the equations describing the Fourier
content.
The objective of this paper is to update and advance the
work presented in [29] and to report a comparative
evaluation between symmetrical and non-symmetrical SHE-
PWM techniques for a bipolar waveform and also to
highlight the advantages and the disadvantages of abolishing
the symmetry requirement in the formulation of SHE-PWM
waveform. The work is aimed at high-power VSCs-based
power electronic systems suitable for utility applications.
Therefore the converter output frequency is fixed to the
utility’s grid frequency. Moreover, the modulation index
range does not change significantly and remains within a
region between 0.7 and 1 pu. The evaluation is based on a
number of factors, including number of eliminated
harmonics, harmonic spectrum profile, harmonic phasing,
THD and harmonic distortion factor (HDF), computational
time and solution space limitations. Although only the
bipolar case is presented here, the proposed study can be
equally applied to three-level and other multilevel waveforms.
Selected simulation and experimentally validated results are
provided to support the theoretical considerations.
The paper is organised in the following way. Section 2
presents the analysis and the switching angles solution of the
bipolar SHE-PWM waveform with different formulations,
namely quarter-, half-wave and non-symmetrical waveform
formulations. The simulation results are discussed in
Section 3. Experimental verification of selected results is
documented in Section 4. A comparative evaluation study is
reported in Section 5. Finally, some conclusions and a
summary are drawn in Section 6.
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2 Bipolar SHE-PWM waveform where


Bipolar SHE-PWM is one of the switching schemes involving cn = an2 + b2n (2)
harmonic elimination that has been widely applied for many
and
years to conventional two-level converters, both single- and  
three-phase systems. In this scheme, the output voltage of b
fn = arctan n (3)
the converter shown in Fig. 1 is either +Vdc or −Vdc . an

Fig. 2 illustrates a generalised bipolar SHE-PWM switching 2.1 Case I: quarter- and half-wave
scheme with 1 pu input DC source (Vdc ). Let N be the number symmetry
switching angles per quarter waveform. Let K be the number of
switching angles between 0 and p. Let M be the number of Assuming that the PWM waveform presented in Fig. 2a has
switching angles within a complete cycle. Fourier series can quarter- and half-wave symmetry properties. Therefore the
represent the line-to-neutral output voltage waveform shown Fourier series of the output voltage (i.e. for single-phase)
in Fig. 2 in a generalised formula as follows can be reduced to

1
vout = bn sin nu (4)

1
n=1,3,...
vout = a0 + cn cos(nu + fn ) (1)
n=1
In order to eliminate n harmonics, N + 1 angles need to be
found and the following system of equations must be solved


N
b1 = 1 + 2 (−1)i cos ai − A0
i=1


N
b3 = 1 + 2 (−1)i cos 3ai
i=1 (5)
..
.

N
bn = 1 + 2 (−1)i cos nai
i=1
Figure 1 Schematic diagram of a two-level three-phase the
converter topology where n = 1, 5, 7, . . . , 3N − 2 when N is odd for three-
phase systems, and n = 1, 5, 7, . . . , 3N − 1 when N is
even for three-phase systems.

N is the number of switching angles per quarter period of

the waveform, ai is the ith switching angle
4mi
A0 = (6)
p
and mi is the modulation index, typically 0 ≤ mi ≤ 1.

An objective function describing the elimination/control

of selected harmonics while controlling the fundamental
component is defined by (7) and the optimum switching
angles are obtained by minimising (7) with the constraint
of (8).

F (a1 , . . . , aN ) = b1 2 + b2 2 + · · · + bn 2 (7)
p
0 , a1 , a2 , · · · , aN , (8)
2

Figure 2 Bipolar SHE-PWM switching scheme

2.2 Case II: half-wave symmetry
a Symmetrical waveform In this case, the waveform of Fig. 2 is assumed to be a
b Non-symmetrical waveform half-wave symmetry, which guarantees the DC component

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and all even harmonics are zero. Let K be the number of angles 2.3 Case III: non-symmetrical bipolar
between 0 and p (i.e. a1 , a2 , . . . , aK ). The waveform
generalised Fourier expansion of the output voltage is
therefore reduced to Unlike the previous two cases, the constraints of quarter- and
half-wave symmetry are totally abolished and the switching
angles solution is searched within the entire period (i.e.

K −1
from 0 to 2p). It should be noted that the DC component
vout = cn cos(nu + fn ) (9)
n=1,3,5,...
and even harmonics are no longer zeros and need to be
controlled. Let M be the number of switching angles
between 0 and 2p (i.e. a1 , a2 , . . . , aM ) and with a
where n = 1, 3, 5 , . . . , K − 1 for single-phase systems DC input voltage of 1 pu, the generalised expressions of
and K is the number of switching angles within the Fourier series coefficients, an , bn and a0 are given by
half cycle.
 
1 M
It should be noted here that each harmonic requires two- a0 = p+ i+1
(−1) ai (12)
p
angles (i.e. to control both the real and the imaginary i=1
component of each odd harmonic) to be controlled/  
eliminated; therefore to eliminate K harmonics, 2K angles 2 M
an = (−1)i+1 sin nai (13)
need to be calculated and (10) must be minimised with the np i=1
constraint of (11).
 
2 M
bn = i
(−1) cos nai (14)
F ( a1 , . . . , aK ) = (c1 − A0 )2 + c32 + c52 + · · · + cn2 (10) np i=1

where n = 1, 2, . . . , (M/2) − 1 (for single-phase systems)

0 , a1 , a2 , · · · , aK , p (11) and M is the number of switching angles within a

Figure 3 Switching angles solution against modulation index mi for bipolar SHE-PWM with quarter-wave formulation
a Set 1 for 0.01 , mi , 1.17
b Set 2 for 0.03 , mi , 1.17
c Set 3 for –1.17 , mi , –0.03
d Set 4 for – 1.17 , mi , – 0.01

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Figure 4 Switching angles solution against modulation index mi for bipolar SHE-PWM with half-wave formulation
a Set 1 for 0.03 , mi , 1.17
b Set 2 for 0.03 , mi , 1.17
c Set 3 for 0.04 , mi , 1.17
d Set 4 for 0.04 , mi , 1.17
e Set 5 for 0.03 , mi , 1.17
f Set 6 for – 1.17 , mi , – 0.02
g Set 7 for – 1.17 , mi , – 0.01
h Set 8 for –0.5 , mi , –0.01

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complete cycle. Once again, an objective function is defined The switching angles are obtained by minimising (15) when
as follows it is subjected to the constraint of (16).

F (a1 , . . . , aM ) = a02 + (c1 − A0 )2 + c22 + · · · + cn2 (15) (0 , a1 , a2 , · · · , aM , 2p) (16)

Figure 5 Switching angles solution against modulation index mi for bipolar SHE-PWM with non-symmetrical formulation
a Set 1 for 0.15 , mi , 1.15
b Set 2 for 0.15 , mi , 1.15
c Set 3 for 0.15 , mi , 1.15
d Set 4 for 0.15 , mi , 1.15
e Set 5 for 0.15 , mi , 1.15
f Set 6 for 0.24 , mi , 1.14
g Set 7 for 0.15 , mi , 1.15
h Set 8 for 0.15 , mi , 1.14
i Set 9 for 0.15 , mi , 1.00
j Set 10 for – 0.99 , mi , – 0.27
k Set for 11 –1.16 , mi , –0.2
l Set 12 for – 1.16 , mi , – 0.23
m Set 13 for – 1.08 , mi , – 0.22
n Set 14 for – 1.15 , mi , – 0.2

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Figure 5 Continued

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Figure 6 Implementation of the bipolar SHE-PWM with quarter-wave formulation, N ¼ 5
a Line-to-neutral output voltage waveform
b Spectrum of the line-to-neutral output voltage
c Line-to-line output voltage waveform
d Spectrum of the line-to-line output voltage
In this work, the optimisation technique implemented using
Mathematica software package [32] proposed in [9, 10, 12]
is employed to investigate the different formulations.
Furthermore, the switching frequency of the converter was
chosen to be 11 pu which gives 5 angles per quarter-wave,
10 angles per half-wave and 22 angles with the entire cycle.
Therefore with five angles per quarter-wave, that is, N = 5,
four non-triplen harmonics can be eliminated including
5th, 7th, 11th and 13th. Furthermore, the next significant
harmonic appears in the output voltage waveform would be
the 17th since the 15th is a triplen harmonic and will be
cancelled from line-to-line waveform. The switching angles
solutions across the entire range of the modulation index
are obtained using the proposed minimisation technique
and depicted in Fig. 3 where it can be clearly seen there are
two sets of solutions for each positive and negative range of
the modulation index.
In the half-wave symmetry formulation, where the quarter-
wave symmetry constraint is relaxed to a half-wave symmetry
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constraint and for the same switching frequency, there will be
10 switching angles (i.e. K ¼10) positioned between 0 and p.
With this formulation, although both the DC component
and even harmonics are zeros, however, both real and
imaginary components of odd harmonics need to be
controlled. Therefore each harmonic requires two degrees
of freedom; hence, once again only four low-order non-
triplen harmonics can be eliminated for a given value of the
fundamental. Fig. 4 shows the variation of the switching
angles against the modulation index where again multiple
solution sets (i.e. eight unique sets) were found for both
positive (i.e. five sets) and negative (i.e. three sets)
modulation index range.
Finally, when both constraints of quarter- and half-wave
symmetries are totally abolished and the switching angles
are freely located at any instant between 0 and 2p, then
there will be 22-angle (i.e. M ¼ 22) that need to be
obtained. In this case, as the theory of SHE suggests, there
is a possibility to control the fundamental component in
IET Power Electron., 2010, Vol. 3, Iss. 6, pp. 829– 842
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addition to eliminate/control another nine non-triplen
harmonics. Interestingly, the proposed optimisation
technique was able to find the solution of the switching
angles for the entire range of the modulation index. More
than 30 different sets of solutions have been found for the
positive and negative modulation index ranges and to avoid
over lengthening of the paper, only selected sets of
solutions are presented in Fig. 5. Furthermore, it is also
noted that some of those solutions have some discontinuity
for a certain range of the modulation index, where the
solution could not be found and some others have a lower
modulation index range.
3 Simulation results
For the purpose of a sensible discussion and comparison,
selected operating points with the same modulation index
value for the three different formulations were chosen and
simulated using PSIM software package [33]. The
discussion on the results is presented in the following
sections.
Figure 7 Implementation of the bipolar SHE-PWM with half-wave formulation, K ¼ 10
a Line-to-neutral output voltage waveform
b Spectrum of the line-to-neutral output voltage
c Line-to-line output voltage waveform
d Spectrum of the line-to-line output voltage
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An operating point for the quarter-wave formulation case
when mi = 0.85 is randomly chosen from solution set 2 of
Fig. 3 as an example and implemented in Fig. 6. It can be
seen from Fig. 6b that all intended harmonics, which were
meant to be eliminated are absent. As expected, the next
significant harmonic is the 17th as the line-to-line voltage
guarantees that all triplen harmonics are cancelled out.
The same operating point (i.e. mi ¼ 0.85) for the half-wave
symmetry formulation is also selected from the solution pool
(i.e. set 1) of Fig. 4 and illustrated in Fig. 7. The spectrum
of the output voltage waveform clearly shows that the
targeted harmonics are absent and the next harmonic
appeared in the output voltage is the 17th, which confirms
the theory. It is worth noting that the 17th harmonic is
relatively larger compared to the quarter-wave case.
Similarly, the non-symmetrical case is also simulated to
show the feasibility of the harmonic elimination for the
same operating point of mi ¼ 0.85 and the results for both
line-to-neutral and line-to-line waveforms as well as their
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spectral are presented in Fig. 8. It can be seen from the
spectrum of the output voltage waveform of Fig. 8b that
the selected harmonics (2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th,
13th and 14th) are eliminated for the given value of the
fundamental and the next significant harmonic is the 16th
since the 15th is a triplen one, which is also confirmed by
Fig. 8d. It should be also noted that even harmonics also
exist in the output waveform as predicted.
4 Experimental verification
(selected results)
A two-level three-phase converter laboratory prototype based
on the circuit topology shown in Fig. 1 has been developed
using the 2MBI100TA-060 IGBT modules from Fuji
Electric to carry out the experimental work and verify the
feasibility and validity of the theoretical and the simulation
findings. A programmable DC power supply from
California Instruments was used to feed the converter
with 100 Vdc. The pre-calculated PWM signals are
Figure 8 Implementation of the bipolar SHE-PWM with non-symmetrical formulation, M ¼ 22
a Line-to-neutral output voltage waveform
b Spectrum of the line-to-neutral output voltage
c Line-to-line output voltage waveform
d Spectrum of the line-to-line output voltage
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implemented using DS1104 R&D controller board from
dSPACE with an accuracy of 40 ms. A digital real-time
oscilloscope (Tektronix TDS-3014) was used to display
and capture the output waveforms and with the feature of
the fast Fourier transformer, the waveforms and spectral of
the output voltage waveforms were obtained.
The experimental output voltage waveform for the quarter-
wave case based on both line-to-neutral and line-to-line
output voltages are illustrated in Fig. 9 along with the
associated spectrums. It is clear that the intended
harmonics (i.e. 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th), which were
meant to be eliminated, are absent and the next harmonic
appears in the line-to-line spectrum of Fig. 9b is the 17th
since the 15th is triplen and being cancelled out from line-
to-line voltage. Furthermore, this is in good agreement
with the predicted and simulated results presented in Fig. 6.
The simulation results of the half-wave formulation were also
experimentally verified and the results are presented in Fig. 10.
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Once again, as expected, the most significant harmonic is the
17th. Similarly, the non-symmetrical waveform with 22
switching instants freely positioned between 0 and 2p is also
experimentally confirmed. Fig. 11 depicts the experimental
three-phase waveforms based on the line-to-neutral and line-
to-line waveforms of the said case with a certain operating
point (i.e. mi = 0.85). The associated spectra of the output
voltages shown in Fig. 11 are in very good match with the
simulation ones presented in Fig. 8.
5 Comparative evaluation
Obviously, quarter- and half-wave symmetries are greatly
simplifying the analytical solution of the associated
Figure 9 Experimental implementation of the bipolar SHE-PWM with quarter-wave formulation, N ¼ 5
a Line-to-neutral output voltage waveform and its spectrum
b Line-to-line output voltage waveform and its spectrum
Figure 10 Experimental implementation of the bipolar SHE-PWM with half-wave formulation, K ¼ 10
a Line-to-neutral output voltage waveform and its spectrum
b Line-to-line output voltage waveform and its spectrum
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non-linear equations system. However, one can easily see
that the solution space is restricted between 0 and p/2
which could possibly result in reducing solution sets
and/or introducing suboptimal solutions. For comparison
purposes, the number of switching angles is chosen in
such a way that the converter would have the same
operating switching frequency (i.e. N ¼ 5, K ¼ 10 and
M ¼ 22).
Referring to the selected solution sets presented in
Figs. 3 – 5, it can be observed that each formulation has its
unique solutions which are totally different from those that
could be easily obtained by the normal reflection if the
ordinary symmetries are respected. This strongly supports
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Figure 11 Experimental implementation of the bipolar SHE-PWM with non-symmetrical formulation, M ¼ 22
a Line-to-neutral output voltage waveform and its spectrum
b Line-to-line output voltage waveform and its spectrum
the claim that different solutions are obtainable when the
symmetry requirements are abolished. It is found in this
study that non-symmetrical formulation possesses
considerably more ‘continuous’ solution sets than quarter-
and half-wave symmetry formulations albeit only selected
solution sets from the positive range of the modulation
index are presented in this work to avoid over lengthening
of the paper.
Another advantage of not considering the quarter-wave
symmetry is the control of the harmonic phasing. In
quarter-wave symmetry formulation, the harmonics can
only be in phase or out of phase while with the half- and
full-wave formulations, it can be flexibly varied between 0
and 3608. This has been intensively reported in [28] where
the effect of varying the phase angle of the fundamental to
the harmonic profile is studied.
Another observation is the number of eliminated/
controlled harmonics. As the theory of SHE suggests, each
degree of freedom (angle) can eliminate/control one
harmonic component, and therefore the quarter-wave and
the half-wave formulations are capable of eliminating/
controlling one more low-order harmonic compared to
non-symmetrical formulations. Furthermore, the DC
component of the waveform needs to be controlled in the
non-symmetrical formulation (i.e. requires one degree of
freedom) whereas for the quarter- and half-wave
symmetries, it is zero by the nature of the waveform.
An equally important factor to compare is the
computational time. Apparently, the quarter-wave requires
lesser time than non-symmetrical formulation as the
number of unknowns is reduced by two and almost by four
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as opposed to half-wave and non-symmetrical formulations,
respectively.
Another point to note from this study is the maximum
attainable modulation index. It is found that with quarter-
wave formulation, the optimal switching angles can be easily
obtained for overmodulation region for all different sets of
solution and that is obviously because its system to be solved
is simpler. However, for half-wave and non-symmetrical
formulation, it was not possible for some of the solution sets
where the technique could not find the solution.
For justifiable comparison, another two quality indices,
namely the THD and HDF were chosen to evaluate the
three different formulations. The THD of the line-to-line
voltage is calculated using (17) and up to 69th order of
harmonics is taken into account for the same selected sets
of solutions previously considered in the simulation study
(i.e. set 2 for quarter-wave, set 1 for half-wave and set 9 for
non-symmetrical case). Interestingly, as shown in Fig. 12,
it is found that the non-symmetrical formulation offers
lower THD compared to the other two formulations,
especially for the region of mi , 0.9 which is the desired
region for the high-voltage converters to be operated in
most of the time. This therefore justifies the extra efforts
put to calculate the more complicated non-linear system.
A simple HDF is another performance factor considered
in this investigation and is plotted in Fig. 13 using (18).
The same solution sets were chosen and the graphs were
drawn based on the consideration of the two most
significant harmonics appearing in the output voltage
waveform, which are the 17th and 19th for the quarter-
and half-wave formulations and the 16th and 17th for the
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Figure 12 THD against modulation index
non-symmetrical one. It can be noted that the non-
symmetrical formulation still offers a better harmonic
profile compared to the other two and also quarter-wave
has a lower HDF against the half-wave formulation for
high-modulation index range (i.e. mi , 0.55).
 capacitor multilevel converters and hybrid PWM control’,
69 2 IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2007, 22, (1), pp. 693 – 702
n=2 V n
THD = × 100 (17)
V1

Vx 2 + Vy 2
HDF = × 100 (18)
V1
where x ¼ 17th and y ¼ 16th for non-symmetrical formulation
and 19th for both quarter- and half-wave formulations.
On the other hand, the existence of the even harmonics in
the non-symmetrical formulation is a vital limitation which
has a noticeable effect (i.e. in form of heating) on the
induction motors especially with low switching frequencies
[34]. It was reported that the appearance of even harmonics
in particular the fourth one have caused malfunctions of
protective digital relays because the relays used fourth
harmonics at the input filter as the automatic supervisory
signal [35].
Figure 13 HDF against modulation index
IET Power Electron., 2010, Vol. 3, Iss. 6, pp. 829– 842
doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2009.0306
www.ietdl.org
6 Conclusion
A comparative evaluation study between the different
formulations of the two-level SHE-PWM waveform
(bipolar technique) suitable for high-power voltage-source
converters is presented in this paper. The analytical models
have been first developed and the simulation results have
been documented to support the theoretical findings.
Selected experimental results based on a low-power
laboratory two-level three-phase converter prototype have
been reported validating the simulation ones. Finally, a
comparative evaluation based on different aspects and
performance indices has been reported in order to indicate
the advantages and disadvantages of each of those
formulations.
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