Power Quality Improvement Using DC Injection Circuit Based Multi-Pulse Converter for MEA Applications

In electric aircraft, the power electronics segment plays a very important role in controlling energy and improving energy conversion from both generators and actuators. Using power electronics reduces weight, eases maintenance, and improves controllability and intelligence, such as fault detection and diagnostics. An interphase transformer (IPT) is used on the DC side to reduce total harmonic distortion and achieve three-phase line current balance for a 12-pulse diode bridge rectifier with a zigzag transformer configuration. A balance of three-phase current and high-power quality can be achieved by injecting a compensating current into the secondary winding of the active IPT. Here, a Cockcroft-Walton multiplier is used as an injection circuit to modify the desired circulating current generated by the IPT and shape the input line current to approximately sinusoidal. In order to recycle the harmonic energy and improve the energy conversion efficiency, we connect the proposed injection circuit in parallel with the load. The analysis of the given configuration is done, and the configuration is simulated using MATLAB. The resulting waveforms are presented which shows good performance in terms of power quality metrics.