POWER ELECTRONICS
Diode Rectifiers
Or
Uncontrolled Rectifiers
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• Diodes are extensively used in rectifiers.
• A rectifier is a circuit that converts an ac signal into a unidirectional
signal.
• A rectifier is a type of ac–dc converter.
• If vs is an ac input voltage, the waveform of the output voltage vo
would have the same shape, but the negative part will appear as a
positive value.
vo = |vs|
• Depending on the type of input supply, the rectifiers are classified
into two types: (1) single phase and (2) three phase. A single-phase
rectifier can be either a half wave or a full wave.
• A single-phase half-wave rectifier is the simplest type, but it is not
normally used in industrial applications.
• By “ideal” we mean that the reverse recovery time trr and the
forward voltage drop VD are negligible. That is, trr = 0 and VD = 0.
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• Block diagram of an uncontrolled diode rectifier circuit
• Depending on the type of input source, rectifiers are classified
into two main groups:
Half-wave
Single phase
Full-wave
Uncontrolled
rectifier
Half-wave
Three phase
Full-wave
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Important equations
Where,
Vdc=average output dc voltage
VL=load voltage
Vrms=RMS voltage
T=time period
VL=Vm sin (wt)
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Single-phase half-wave rectifier ( with R load)
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Single-phase half-wave rectifier (RL load) with freewheeling
diode
Circuit diagram
Waveforms
The effect of the freewheeling diode Dm is to prevent the negative
voltage appearing across the load, and as a result, the magnetic stored
energy is increased. At t=π/ω, the current from D1 is transferred to Dm
and this process is called commutation of diodes. Depending on the
load time constant, the load current may be discontinuous.
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Performance Parameters
• Output of a practical rectifier contains harmonics or ripples but a
rectifier is a power processor that should give a dc output voltage
with a minimum amount of harmonic contents and also it should
maintain the input current as sinusoidal as possible and in phase
with the input voltage so that the power factor is near unity.
• The performances of a rectifier are normally evaluated in terms of
the following parameters: The average value of the output (load)
voltage, Vdc
The average value of the output (load) current, Idc
The output dc power, Pdc = VdcIdc
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Key points:
The performance of a rectifier that is measured by certain parameters
is poor. The load current can be made continuous by adding an
inductor and a freewheeling diode. The output voltage is
discontinuous and contains harmonics at multiples of the supply
frequency.
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Single-phase full-wave rectifiers
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• During the positive half-cycle of the input voltage, diode D1 conducts
and diode D2 is in a blocking condition. The input voltage appears
across the load.
• During the negative half-cycle of the input voltage, diode D2
conducts while diode D1 is in a blocking condition. The negative
portion of the input voltage appears across the load as a positive
voltage.
• The average output voltage is:
• Bridge Rectifier:
Instead of using a center-tapped transformer, we could use four diodes,
During the positive half-cycle of the input voltage, the power is
supplied to the load through diodes D1 and D2. During the negative
cycle, diodes D3 and D4 conduct.
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