IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC), September 3-5, 2008, Harbin, China
A NEW STUDY ON HARMONICS AND
INTERHARMONICS REDUCTION WITH
FREQUENCY SELECTIVE CLOSED-LOOP
CONTROL IN VSI INVERTERS
Seyed Reza Hadian Amrei * and Dian Guo Xu **
* Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, 150001. Email: srezahadian@yahoo.com
** Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, 150001. Email: xudiang@hit.edu.cn
Abstract In order to describe the generation of integer and
non-integer harmonics (i.e. interharmonics) in VSI power
converters that are supplied from a DC supply (battery) and
driving an AC load, a new approach is proposed based on
the "Non-Linear Modulator" concept in frequency-domain;
and the analytical model is derived and discussed for
commonly used control scheme of d-q reference frame.
Afterwards, several effects of feedback control and
compensation blocks are explained, analyzed and simulated.
Moreover, experimental results are also provided to
approve the validity of analysis and simulation.
KeywordsInterharmonics, Non-Linear Modulator, PWM,
SVM, VSI
I. INTRODUCTION
The increasing number of solid-state switching
apparatus especially for EV and HEV applications in
recent years intensified the necessity of consideration and
compensation for harmonics pollution. Up to now, several
different standards and procedures were established to
measure and limit the undesired harmonics generation that
dealt with integer harmonics of fundamental or switching
frequencies and also non-integer multiples of fundamental
or carrier frequencies that are so-called Interharmonics
exist in switching power converters[1-3]. Some of the
impacts of interharmonics have been encountered so far,
such as overload of conventional series tuned filters [4],
communications interference, CT (Current Transducer)
saturation etc[4-5]. Moreover, extremely low frequency
interharmonics (less than fundamental) can induce
resonance oscillations in power systems and their filtering
is very difficult.
In the literature, the source of interharmonics
generation is known as Wherever two AC drive systems
running in different frequencies are interconnected via a
common (non-isolated) DC bus", which includes several
power converters such as ASD (Adjustable Speed Drive)
Systems, cycloconverters, LCI (Load Commutated
Inverter) etc. However, hitherto there is no explanation
about existence of interharmonics from independently
running VSI systems that are used for DC to AC
conversion. The Current Modulator model presented in
[2] is also unable to explain interharmonics generation in
independent VSI inverters. Some remedies are also
proposed for interharmonics elimination e.g. DC bus
978-1-4244-1849-7/08/$25.00
C 2008 IEEE.
inductor [4], switching frequency increment [2], DC link
shunt active filters [6-7], which are ineffective for pure
DC supplied converters.
In this paper, a new analysis is proposed to explain the
harmonics and interharmonics generation in power
electronic drive systems, and verified by simulation
results. The most important difference between proposed
model and previous models is the capability of application
to both integer and non-integer harmonics.
II. THEORETICAL ASPECTS AND MATHEMATICAL
MODEL
Schematic block diagram of a DC-to-AC converter is
shown in Fig.1. The system can be considered as each of
per-phase or single-phase circuit. In this paper, however,
the 3-phase electrical system (as used for EV or HEV
propulsion drive system) is discussed for its generality
and inclusion for different DC-AC converters. Fig.2
shows the half of feedback loop from output port to
controller input. The power switch (IGBT or MOSFET,
etc.) and filter are combined together as an AC current
source. During each switching period, a current
discontinuity occurs due to the switching operation,
which can be virtually assumed as Diracs Delta
Function[10]. Thus, the source can be modeled as a
Non-Linear Current Source that theoretically can
generate all harmonics of fundamental and switching
frequencies, and the role of output filter is to mitigate
current discontinuities (i.e. to filter-out the high
frequency portion of the output spectrum). The measuring
circuit (Transducer), on the other hand, measures the
output voltage and transfers it back to the controller
through the feedback filter circuitry. This filter has a non-
linear phase angle characteristic that may be high-pass or
low-pass, which introduces lead/lag components.
Subsequently, the controller adds more delays (e.g. dead
time between upper and lower arms of bridge,
propagation delay, etc.) and other phase non-linearity to
the overall feedback signal, as well. Thus, we can
consider the following signal path:
a) The output signal is firstly affected by the
switching function and changed from the ideal PWM
 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC), September 3-5, 2008, Harbin, China

waveform. f) The controller stage can be a sort of voltage

b) The output filter cuts out the high frequency
portion and makes further deviation from the original
signal.
c) The transducer (CT/PT) has low-pass transfer
function and further attenuates the high frequency
harmonics.
d) A low-pass or high-pass signal filter is often used
to condition the feedback signal. Such blocks can
also be used for modeling the integration or
derivation stages within a closed control loop and
any other effects of feedback transmission line, such
as capacitive/inductive effects of circuit components
or connectors.
controller, which its bandwidth is assumed to be wide
enough to have negligible effect on the overall
system response.
Thus, multiplication of feedback signal to the transfer
function of PWM generator (or in time domain the
convolution) generates new harmonics and
interharmonics. Finally, the complete mathematical
model can be concluded with assuming the switching
device as a dependent current source as illustrated in
Fig.3. Note that usually an external load is connected to
the output port of VSI to consume the power, which
might be the electric motor.

CT/ VSI/CSI Output

PT Filter

DC VSI output
Supply Filter
1 (k10 + h2 S )
RL l1

PWM/
PWM Sig.

SVM
1 (k0 + hS )
SVM Controller Filter

Fig.1 General VSI/CSI schematic diagram

Feedb.C Vref/
Inv.+Out. ont.
Iref
Filter
LPF
CT/ HPTF
PT Comp.
lf CT/PT

RL Sig. HPF l 2
Filter LPTF

Comp.
hf

Fig.3 Mathematical model for harmonics and interharmonics

Controller generation

Because the PWM modulating input signal basically

Fig.2 Output-to-feedback path consists of both desired fundamental frequency
harmonics and switching frequency harmonics [17-18];
the modulated output signal also has both harmonics as
e) The compensation stage is normally placed after
follows:
the feedback filter, but it also can be inserted within

any other stages in order to simplify of design i S (t ) = I 0 + I h sin( h n t + h )
without losing the generality. The compensator must h =1
be adjusted according to the overall response of
previous stages. This would be easier if there is a + I m sin(mC t + m ) (1)
dominant pole-zero transfer function among the m =1
previous stages, which is further explained in details
+ I kl sin[( k n + l C )t + kl ]
in the next section.
k = 1 l = 1
 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC), September 3-5, 2008, Harbin, China

Where i S ( t ) is source current; I 0 is dc component; domain or adding some lead/lag in time domain. Each
transducer can also add low pass pole-zero effect that can
I h , I m , I kl are amplitudes of fundamental, switching be modeled similarly and is neglected if the pole-zero
(carrier) and cross-modulated waves harmonics, n effect of filter is predominant. In general, the pole-zero
effects of filter/transducer makes the phase shift to have a
and C are fundamental and carrier wave angular non-linear relationship with the angular frequency
frequencies, h , m , k , l are harmonic orders, (although the gain relationship is linear), which reduces
respectively. The role of multiplication of subsequent the separation between d-q components due to its lead/lag
transfer functions in feedback path (especially the signal function.
filter and PWM/SVM modulator) is to make Assuming the predominant pole-zero effect of filter, a
combinations of different harmonics as multiplicands. lead/lag compensator is placed within voltage controller
block to mitigate the effects of poles/zeros. The main
Actually, the output voltage or current has many
concept is to add inverse pole-zero transfer function to
attenuated harmonics of both fundamental and switching
cancel out the feedback pole-zero effect. For predominant
frequencies, which after passing through the feedback low-pass transfer function, this can be done by a high-
loop and applying to controlled source are combined pass function below
together. Thus, these terms can generate the Cross-
Modulation harmonics when a fundamental harmonic is
Fclp ( s ) = ( s + l ) ( s + g ) (3)
combined with a switching harmonic, or Where l is the high-pass feedback zero that equals to
Interharmonics when two fundamental harmonics (or
switching harmonics) are combined together; which can pole of low-pass filter, and g is an extremely large
be modeled as parallel current (or serial voltage) source frequency compared to highest permissible frequency of
from the superposition point of view, and with some low-pass filter.
manipulations one can get
TF32(s) TFc (s) TFpz (s)
(h h)
iSi (t) = ( 1 )I h I h{ cos [ nt] abc/ (s p j ) CT/PT + Vo* (s)
2 2 (2)
h = 1 h = 1 dq dq LPF/HPF
Vref (s z k )
(h + h)
cos [ nt]}
2
i
Where i S (t) is interharmonics equivalent current source. k
(k p + i ) TF23 (s)
Equation (2) shows the possibility of a wide range of s
*
harmonics and interharmonics generation. However, due dq/ Vabc PWM
u(s)
to the attenuation of such frequencies during pathway PI abc
through different stages of feedback signal route, it is
obvious that their magnitudes are considerably smaller m
than integer multiplies of fundamental frequency.
Moreover, this Back-Propagation of harmonics and Fig.4 A typical d-q reference frame controller
interharmonics can cause secondly generated harmonics
as a consequence, although their magnitudes become For the high-pass case, the compensation function can
further attenuated. be derived as
III. ANALYSIS METHOD AND NUMERICAL Fchp ( s ) = 1 ( s + h ) (4)
CALCULATION
Where h is the pole of high-pass feedback loop filter.
Without losing generality, suppose a certain widely
Therefore, the overall transfer function can be derived as
used regulation subsystem, say d-q reference regulator *
to be employed within the control block in conjunction Vabc k
= TFpz ( s ) TFc ( s ) TF32 ( s ) k p + i TF23( s ) (5)
with a PWM generator as illustrated in Fig.4. For such a VO ( s ) s
control scheme, the effect of afore-mentioned blocks is
evident from the auto-tuned modulation index (m) Where TF pz ,TFc ,TF32 ,TF23 are transfer functions
parameter.
of feedback filter and transducer, compensator and
A. Effect of Poles/Zeros of Feedback Path Filter/ consequent coordinating transformation from abc to
Transducer
dq reference frame and vice-versa; k p , k i are PI
Usually a low-pass or high-pass type filter is utilized
to condition the measured signal of transducer (CT/PT), *
controller gains; V abc ,Vo ( s ) are voltage command
and its corner frequency depends on the sensor and
control circuit requirements. The effect of filter is to add and output voltage Laplace transformation, respectively.
poles and/or zeros to the transfer function in frequency
 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC), September 3-5, 2008, Harbin, China

B. Modulation Index only the lower order harmonics are shown for emphasis
Modulation index or m can be calculated from and visibility.
comparison of command voltage/current with modulating
carrier wave of PWM modulator as follows

* *
Vabc Vabc Vo
m= = (6)
VTC Vo VTC

Where VTC is triangular carrier voltage. Thus, when the

d-q components separation is decreased due to the pole-
zero effect, the modulation index increased beyond unity
and the system enters to Over-modulation region
If the feedback loop is disabled and modulation index is
adjusted independently, it is expected according to the
discussion that the THD must be decreased due to less
harmonics reached to the switching source from the
modulating input, respectively.
IV. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE
In order to investigate the validity of theory and
analysis, the VSI system shown in Fig.1 with the
feedback loop compensator and PWM generator blocks
illustrated in Fig.3 were employed, and the d-q reference
frame voltage controller is adopted as in Fig.4. The
parameters for this numeric example system are shown in
Table I. The q-component is primarily set to zero and d-
component is set to unity, as it is popular in most of
applications with unity power-factor. As prescribed from
theory and analysis, the performance of feedback
controller depends on both circuit components values and
control system designation and parameters. The lead/lag
compensators were adjusted according to the
predominant pole-zero effects of feedback loop.
The simulation model is created by Matlab-Simulink
and discretized in order to simulate the real-time-digital
processing (RLT_DSP) controller. Results for d-q
components trajectories are shown in Fig.5 for
compensated and uncompensated cases. The system
responses are generated with two different feedback loop Fig.5 Trajectories of d-q components from the top: uncompensated
pole-zero transfer function types (low pass/high pass) LPF; compensated LPF; uncompensated HPF; compensated HPF.
along with their corresponding compensator blocks, and TABLE I
predominant angular frequencies were set to boundary NUMERICAL EXAMPLE SYSTEM PARAMETERS
limits (300 rad/S for low-pass and 1000 rad/S for high- DC-Supply 13 V Out. capacitor 68 F
pass functions, respectively). Max. Power 10kW Out. type 380V/3 / 50Hz
The effectiveness of compensation functions for LPF
(that is more general in actual applications) can be Appl. Power 2.5kW Switching Freq. 12kHz
concluded from the simulation and experimental results Inv. Side 0.4mH Out. side 0.2mH
illustrated in Fig.6 for lower order harmonics, which Inductor inductor
shows a significant reduction in THD with a little
increase in interharmonics. However, interharmonics
spectrum is still below the limitations defined in existing
standards [2], [12], [16]. The higher order harmonics
havent been significantly affected by the modification
made on the feedback path, but this is worth nothing
because these harmonics are too far from dominant pole-
zero characteristic of overall transfer function. Therefore,
 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC), September 3-5, 2008, Harbin, China
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig.6 Harmonics and interharmonics LPF spectrum: Simulation results
for (a) uncompensated and (b) compensated LPF; (c) Experimental
results for (c) uncompensated and (d) compensated LPF.
V. CONCLUSION
In the paper, a generalized model for VSI system is
proposed, analyzed and formulated by a non-linear phase
modulation in order to precisely describe the harmonics
and interharmonics generation phenomenon. The analysis
is applied to a typical general-purpose d-q reference
frame feedback controller and effects of different
necessary and optional parts of system were analyzed and
explained respectively. The harmonics and
interharmonics generation are well described by the
model and the model superiority over the previous similar
investigations is proved, respectively. The validity of
model is further investigated through a discretized
numerical example by simulation results, which show
good agreement with theoretical analysis. Future works
could be done to apply the analysis on experimental data,
and various control strategies and PWM configurations.
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