The prediction of supply current waveforms and harmonics for rectifier circuits with capacitive smoothing

Most equipment using capacitatively smoothed rectification will shortly be subject to regulations limiting the allowable amplitudes of supply current harmonics. A method for rapidly computing the harmonic amplitudes based on an analytical function for the current waveform is presented. The analysis includes supply inductance and resistance and the effects of noninfinite DC side smoothing capacitance. The use of supply side impedance to control harmonic content is discussed and quantitative results for a range of load powers are given