1

Reg. #
Marks
EXPERIMENT # 2

Harmonics and Fourier Series

Objective:
The objective may be to have a hands-on experience of harmonic analysis.
Equipment

Lucas Nulle Interface and Experimenters connected to a PC with Labsoft

Lucas Nulle Power Electronics 1 (SO4203-4D , RLC load Card)
Digital Oscilloscope with probe
Connecting wires for Lucas Nulle Equipment

Fourier Series of Input Current of a Full Wave Rectifier with Inductive Load
Set up the circuit of a single phase diode based rectifier on Lucas Nulle equipment. A schematic
diagram of the rectifier system is shown in Fig. 1. R M1, RM2 and RM3 are 1 resistances for
observation of current waveform. The Lucas Nulle equipment picture for such a system is presented
in Fig. 2.

---Figure. 1

Figure. 2
Select the Timing Diagram Tool from Labsoft. Go to Settings Parameters and adjust according
to Fig. 3.

Figure. 3
Double click on the Timing Diagram and select the signals to be viewed as well as their colors.
Select input voltage (Red), input current (Blue) and output voltage (Green). Then start the
measurement by pressing
in the tool bar. Sketch your results on the graph portion in Fig. 4.

U [V]

3
40

35

30

25

20

15

10

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900 1000
f [Hz]

Figure. 4
View the output voltage waveform on a standard lab oscilloscope and show this to the instructor.
Now proceed towards Fourier Analysis. Select FFT in Labsoft. Again go to Settings Parameters
and select input voltage in the Spectrum Menu as shown in Fig. 5.

Figure. 5
View the spectrum of the input voltage. This should mainly consist of a single bar at 50Hz. Then
select the output voltage as the signal and again view the Fourier spectrum. Sketch the output
voltage and its spectrum (with proper Y-axis values) on Fig. 6.

U [V]

4
40

35

30

25

20

15

10

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900 1000
f [Hz]

1.00

U [V]

I [A]

0.75

40
35
30
25

0.50

20
15

0.25

10
5

0.00

0
-5

-0.25

-10
-15

-0.50

-20
-25

-0.75

-30
-35

-1.00

-40

0 45 90 135180225270315360405450495540585630675720
Degrees

Figure. 6
Calculation
DC
Component
Second
Harmonic

Observed Values

0
18
50

Fourth
Harmonic
150
Sixth
Harmonic

.5

350
.2

Use the Digital oscilloscope for the following. Use Measure function to measure the average and
rms values of full wave rectified output voltage.
Peak Value
Average
Value
Rms

Calculation
-------------NA------------------------------------

Observed Values

Value

Now change the load to purely inductive load. Use the 200mH inductor available on Lucas Nulle
load card. In Labsoft, go to Settings Parameters and adjust the output voltage to 75%. Double
click on the Timing Diagram and select the signals to be viewed as well as their colors. Select input
voltage (Red), input current (Blue) and output current (Green). Observe these waveforms and
sketch in Fig. 7.

Figure. 7
Perform Fourier Analysis of the input current signal and sketch the current and its spectrum (with
proper Y-axis values) on Fig. 8.

1.00

0.75

U [V ]

I [A ]

7
40
35
30
25
0.50

20
15

0.25

10
5

0.00

0
-5

-0.25

-10
-15

-0.50

-20
-25

-0.75

-30
-35

I [A]

-1.00

-40

45 90 135180225270315360405450495540585630675720
Degrees

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900 1000
f [Hz]

Figure. 8
Calculation

Observed Values

DC
Component
Fundamenta
l

50 Hz

0.925 harmonics

Third
Harmonic

150 Hz

0.296 harmonics

Fifth
Harmonic

250 Hz

0.163 harmonics

Seventh
Harmonic

350 Hz

0.1021 harmonics

Write a detailed note on what you have learnt from this lab exercise.
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_1) We learned that with the increment of frequency the harmonics decreases.
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_2)
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