Elimination of input harmonic currents in 3 phase AC to DC converters: a practical approach

Following an introductory assessment of today´s market requirements for medium size power converters, this paper illustrates many technical issues relative to three-phase controlled rectification. The various modulation schemes are briefly described and compared in terms of their performance and implementation. The discussion extends to the main power circuits with more focus on the three-phase buck topology. Considerable attention is given to the actual power handling by the rectifier section including the often overseen topics of input filter behaviour and lightning related line surge protection. The main objective of this paper is to address the subject of controlled rectification from a practical standpoint, exposing, whenever possible, the experimental evidence generated by the recent development of a 380 VAC/12 kW three phase-power factor corrected AC/DC converter