An improved 24‐pulse rectifier for harmonic mitigation in more electric aircraft

Abstract To increase the power rating and reduce the cost and complexity of a multi‐pulse rectifier (MPR), it is well known that the pulse number must be increased. In some practical cases, a 12‐pulse rectifier (12PR) is suggested as a good solution considering its relatively simple structure and low weight. However, 12‐pulse rectifiers cannot technically meet the standards of harmonic distortion requirements for some industrial applications, and therefore they must be used along with output filters. Two cost‐effective 24‐pulse rectifiers (24PRs) are suggested in the article, which consist of a polygon autotransformer 12PR and two pulse doubling circuits (PDCs) at dc link. The first PDC (PDC1) is based on an inter‐phase transformer (IPT) with a step‐up secondary winding, and the second one (PDC2) is based on an IPT with a step‐down secondary winding. To show the advantages of the proposed combinations compared with other solutions, simulation results are used, and also a prototype is implemented to evaluate and verify the simulation results. The simulation and experimental test results show that the total harmonic distortion (%THD) of the input current for the 12PR with PDC1 is less than 3.67%, and the 12PR with PDC2 is less than 1.45%, which meets the IEEE 519 and DO‐160G requirements. Also, it is shown that in comparison with other solutions, the proposed two configurations are cost‐effective, power factor is near unity, rating is almost 29% of the load rating, and the efficiency is almost 97.5%, which makes them a practical solution for more electric aircraft.