A 24-Pulse AC-DC Converter Power Supply for More Electric Aircraft Application

The anticipated growth of the aerospace industry in the coming years has raised concerns among regulatory agencies and airlines regarding the environment and the economy. Extensive efforts have been dedicated to explore more electric aircraft (MEA) to reduce emissions and maintain profitability. In the aerospace industry, multi-pulse rectifiers (MPRs) are commonly employed for their reliability, durability, cost-effectiveness, efficient operation, and maintenance-free nature. This research introduces a circuit configuration designed to mitigate harmonics in the AC side of an extended-delta configured auto-transformer. The proposed design incorporates a 12-pulse extended-delta configured auto-transformer and a pulse multiplication circuit on the DC side of the 12-pulse diode bridge rectifier (DBR) to enhance the output of a standard 12-pulse DBR to 24-pulse DBR. The pulse multiplication circuit, comprising a tapped inter-phase reactor (IPR) and two diodes, offers lower conduction losses and an easier design than traditional pulse multiplication circuits. Moreover, the proposed configuration ensures that the source current closely resembles a sinusoidal wave. The study employs MATLAB/Simulink for circuit configuration simulation and investigation. Hardware-in-loop results are subsequently presented to validate the findings, demonstrating a noteworthy enhancement in power quality, aligning with DO-160G aircraft standards.