Mechanical Department Manual#02 Industrial Electronics Lab

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Experiment No.02
To observe the Characteristics of a Half Wave Rectifier

Apparatus:
 IN4007 Diodes 1
 Resistor 1KΩ
 Bread Board
 A.C Supply
 Oscilloscope
 Connecting leads

Theory

Rectifier
A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC) to direct current
(DC), a process known as rectification.

Rectification:
A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which
periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The
process is known as rectification. Physically, rectifiers take a number of forms,
including vacuum tube diodes, mercury-arc valves, solid-state diodes, silicon -controlled
rectifiers and other silicon-based semiconductor switches.

There are two types of rectifications

 Half wave rectification

 Full wave rectification

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Mechanical Department Manual#02 Industrial Electronics Lab

Half wave rectification:

In half wave rectification, either the positive or negative half of the AC wave is passed, while
the other half is blocked. Because only one half of the input waveform reaches the output, it
is very inefficient if used for power transfer. Half-wave rectification can be achieved with a
single diode in a one-phase supply, or with three diodes in a three-phase supply. The output
DC voltage of a half wave rectifier can be calculated with the following two ideal equations

Working principle of half wave rectifier:

The ac voltage across the secondary winding changes polarities after every half cycle.
During the positive half-cycles of the input ac voltage i.e. when upper end of the secondary
winding is positive w.r.t. its lower end, the diode is forward biased and therefore conducts
current. If the forward resistance of the diode is assumed to be zero (in practice, however, a
small resistance exists) the input voltage during the positive half-cycles is directly applied to
the load resistance RL, making its upper end positive w.r.t. its lower end. The waveforms of
the output current and output voltage are of the same shape as that of the input ac voltage.

During the negative half cycles of the input ac voltage i.e. when the lower end of the
secondary winding is positive w.r.t. its upper end, the diode is reverse biased and so does not
conduct. Thus during the negative half cycles of the input ac voltage the current through and
voltage across the load remains zero if the reverse current, being very small in magnitude, is
neglected. Thus for the negative half cycles no power is delivered to the load.
Thus the output voltage developed across load resistance RL (VL) is a series of positive half
cycles of alternating voltage, with intervening very small constant negative voltage levels, It
is obvious from the figure that the output is not a steady dc, but only a pulsating dc wave.
Since only half-cycles of the input wave are used, it is called a half-wave rectifier.

In-put Out-put

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Mechanical Department Manual#02 Industrial Electronics Lab

Effect of the Barrier Potential on the Half-Wave Rectifier Output:

When the practical diode model is used with the barrier potential of 0.7 V taken into account,
this is what happens. During the positive half-cycle, the input voltage must overcome the
barrier potential before the diode becomes forward-biased. This results in a half-wave output
with a peak value that is 0.7 V less than the peak value of the input. That is

Vp (out) = Vp(in) - 0.7 V

But often we neglect the effect of this potential barrier of 0.7 volts when the applied voltage
is much greater than this potential barrier.

Mathematical Expressions of Half Wave Rectifier:

Vavg = Vp/ π
And
PIV=Vp(IN)

Circuit Diagram

Procedure

 Take a bread board and connect the diode and resistor

 Connect the circuit as shown in fig.
 Turn on the oscilloscope and give the ac supply to the circuit.
 It noted that oscilloscope is connected parallel to diode to get output
 When all the connections are completed check the waveform in oscilloscope. The
output results shows that the wave form is half rectified and the negative part of ac
supply is cut off.

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Mechanical Department Manual#02 Industrial Electronics Lab

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