The design and implementation of a three-phase active power filter based on sliding mode control

This paper presents an active power filter for three-phase systems. The work is motivated by the need for active filtration in a current-source excitation system for a variable-reluctance generator. The active filter is comprised of a six switch three-phase inverter, a DC bus capacitor, and an isolation transformer. The isolation transformer is required by the application. The leakage inductance associated with each phase of the isolation transformer is used as the series impedance with each phase, by which the inverter is able to actively shape the phase currents in order to compensate for the nonlinearities of all loads within the point of common coupling. The active filter is controlled through two control loops. The inner current regulation loop uses sliding-mode control by virtue of its ease of implementation. The outer voltage loop regulates the average voltage on the DC bus capacitor. The outer voltage loop is responsible for correctly setting the commanded magnitude of the phase currents. This paper presents the analysis, design and operation of the active filter. Experimental results are provided for the active filter compensating a phase-controlled rectifier which is drawing 10.4 kW