A Simple 36-Pulse Diode Rectifier with Hybrid Pulse Multiplication Interphase Reactor at DC Side

A simple and robust 36-pulse diode rectifier which consists of a conventional 12-pulse rectifier and a hybrid pulse multiplication interphase reactor (HPM-IPR) is proposed in this article. The HPM-IPR includes a modified interphase reactor (M-IPR), an auxiliary single-phase full-bridge rectifier (ASFBR), and an auxiliary single-phase full-wave rectifier (ASFWR). The ASFBR is connected in series with the load to modulate the output current of the rectifier bridges directly. The ASFWR is connected in parallel to shape the output current of the rectifier bridges indirectly. The conjoint modulation of ASFWR and ASFBR significantly increases the number of output current states of the rectifier bridge, which in turn extends the conventional 12-pulse operation to 36-pulse operation. The proposed 36-pulse diode rectifier draws near the sinusoidal input line currents with THD less than 5%. The kVA ratings of ASFBR and ASFWR are only 1.1% and 1.8% of the output power of the proposed rectifier, respectively, which indicates that the proposed method is suitable for high-power industrial applications. Since only one ASFWR and one ASFBR are adequate, the proposed scheme is low cost, highly reliable, and simple. The detailed analysis is presented, and some experimental results are provided to verify the proposed method.