A novel, empirical equation — Based shunt active filter for harmonic elimination and power factor correction, using a modified PSO algorithm

This paper presents a novel approach for harmonic elimination and power factor correction (PFC) in a single phase AC-DC rectifier system using a shunt Active Power Filter (APF). The DC output of the rectifier is further regulated using a Buck Converter. The active filter topology is based on a single-phase voltage source inverter with four IGBT switches. The proposed approach includes the usage of a modified Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to arrive at optimal values of control parameters for a given load. The parameters thus obtained at different load conditions are used to develop Empirical Equations for the system at hand using MINITAB Quality Tool. These empirical equations can further be used to determine the control parameters suitable for other load conditions also. The control scheme employs a simple strategy which uses a dual-mode methodology which consists of PI controller along with Hysteresis Control technique for power quality improvement. The entire system was simulated using MATLAB software and the corresponding results are discussed in this paper. This approach not only determines the optimal values of control parameters resulting in an improvement over existing techniques in power quality, but also is a simpler control in terms of both firmware algorithm and hardware requirements. Much of the extended calculations that are normally used for the control can be avoided. This makes the design attractive for commercial manufacturers.