25-08-2017, 09:32 PM
Single Phase Half Controlled Bridge Converter
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Introduction
Single phase fully controlled bridge converters are widely used in many industrial applications. They can supply unidirectional current with both positive and negative voltage polarity. Thus they can operate either as a controlled rectifier or an inverter. However, many of the industrial application do not utilize the inverter mode operation capability of the fully controlled converter. In such situations a fully controlled converter with four thyristors and their associated control and gate drive circuit is definitely a more complex and expensive proposition. Single phase fully controlled converters have other disadvantages as well such as relatively poor output voltage (and current for lightly inductive load) form factor and input power factor.
The inverter mode of operation of a single phase fully controlled converter is made possible by the forward voltage blocking capability of the thyristors which allows the output voltage to go negative. The disadvantages of the single phase fully controlled converter are also related to the same capability. In order to improve the output voltage and current form factor the negative excursion of the output voltage may be prevented by connecting a diode across the output as shown in Fig 11.1(a). Here as the output voltage tries to go negative the diode across the load becomes forward bias and clamp the load voltage to zero. Of course this circuit will not be able to operate in the inverter mode. The complexity of the circuit is not reduced, however. For that, two of the thyristors of a single phase fully controlled converter has to be replaced by two diodes as shown in Fig 11.1 (b) and ©. The resulting converters are called single phase half controlled converters. As in the case of fully controlled converters, the devices T1 and D2 conducts in the positive input voltage half cycle after T1 is turned on. As the input voltage passes through negative going zero crossing D4 comes into conduction commutating D2 in Fig 11.1 (b) or T1 in Fig 11.1 ©. The load voltage is thus clamped to zero until T3 is fired in the negative half cycle. As far as the input and output behavior of the circuit is concerned the circuits in Fig 11.1 (b) and © are identical although the device designs differs. In Fig 11.1 © the diodes carry current for a considerably longer duration than the thyristors. However, in Fig 11.1 (b) both the thyristors and the diodes carry current for half the input cycle. In this lesson the operating principle and characteristics of a single phase half controlled converter will be presented with reference to the circuit in Fig 11.1 (b).
Operating principle of a single phase half controlled bridge converter
With reference of Fig 11.1 (b), it can be stated that for any load current to flow one device from the top group (T1 or T3) and one device from the bottom group must conduct. However, T1 T3 or D2 D4 cannot conduct simultaneously. On the other hand T1 D4 and T3 D2 conducts simultaneously whenever T1 or T3 are on and the output voltage tends to go negative. Therefore, there are four operating modes of this converter when current flows through the load. Of course it is always possible that none of the four devices conduct. The load current during such periods will be zero. The operating modes of this converter and the voltage across different devices during these operating modes are shown in the conduction table of Fig 11.2. This table has been prepared with reference to Fig 11.1 (b).
Single phase half controlled converter in the continuous conduction mode
From the conduction table and the discussion in the previous section it can be concluded that the diode D2 and D4 conducts for the positive and negative half cycle of the input voltage waveform respectively. On the other hand T1 starts conduction when it is fired in the positive half cycle of the input voltage waveform and continuous conduction till T3 is fired in the negative half cycle. Fig. 11.3 shows the circuit diagram and the waveforms of a single phase half controlled converter supplying an R – L – E load.
Lesson Summary
• Single phase half controlled converters are obtained from fully controlled converters by replacing two thyristors by two diodes.
• Two thyristors of one phase leg or one group (top or bottom) can be replaced resulting in two different topologies of the half controlled converter. From the operational point of view these two topologies are identical.
• In a half controlled converter the output voltage does not become negative and hence the converter cannot operate in the inverter mode.
• For the same firing angle and input voltage the half controlled converter in the continuous conduction mode gives higher output voltage compared to a fully controlled converter.
• For the same input voltage, firing angle and load parameters the half controlled converter has better output voltage and current form factor compared to a fully controlled converter.
• For the same firing angle and load current the half controlled converter in the continuous conduction mode has better input power factor compared to a fully controlled converter.
• Half controlled converters are most favored in applications requiring unidirectional output voltage and current.