Harmonics Analysis of a Cascaded H-Bridge Inverter

with Variation of Inverter Stages

Prateek Kumar Upadhyay1, Akshay Pratap2, Mohmmad Ahmad3 and Suneel Kumar4
1,2
B.Tech Student, Department of Electrical Engineering, Rajkiya Engineering, College,Bijnor U.P
3,4
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Rajkiya Engineering College, Bijnor U.P
Email ID: upadhyayprateekkumar98@gmail.com1

cascaded H-Bridge inverter is the most essential member in

Abstract— This paper explains the working of a cascaded H-
the family of H-Bridge inverters.
Bridge inverter and then analyzes and compares the
approaches to reduce THD at subsequent stages of a H-Bridge The cascade topology provides the use of many levels
inverter. The simulation is done in SIMULINK/ MATLAB and subsequent stages of H-Bridge inverter to convert AC to
Software. The Total Harmonic Distortion, reactive power and DC. The DC levels are considered to be same since all of them
active power generated by incrementing the stages have been are fuel cells, photovoltaic cells, batteries, etc. H-Bridge
discussed. It is shown that Total Harmonic Distortion reduces Inverter consists of four switches, a dc source and a load
with increase in the stages of H-Bridge inverter. The available across the two arm of H-Bridge. Each switch conducts for a
active and reactive powers also increase with the subsequent
period of 180°. The gate pulses used for diagonal switches are
increase in the stages of inverter. It has also been discussed
that when the L-C filter is connected between the load and H- identical.
Bridge inverter, the THD further reduces with gradual
increase in the stages of H-Bridge inverter and there is an
increase in active and reactive power.

Index Terms—H-Bridge inverter, Power Quality, Total

Harmonic Distortion (THD).

I. INTRODUCTION
II. Cascaded H Bridge Inverter
Elective energy sources are sustainable and are liberated to
be utilized once introduced. They all have lower carbon Figure 1. Single Stage H-Bridge Inverter
outflow contrasted with traditional energy sources. They
incorporate biomass energy ,wind energy ,geothermal
energy, tidal energy and so forth. .One of the major among
them sun based energy. Increment in fuel cost, expanding
worry for worldwide environmental change and a
developing overall interest for power has let to increment in
the utilization of sustainable power sources, if there should
be an occurrence of sunlight based PV we acquire the
energy in dc structure which is changed over in air
conditioning structure and afterward or utilized in secluded
burden. Different technique are accessible for dc to air
conditioning change. Among them H-Bridge inverter have
picked up prominence as of late. The power quality and the
power factor shows signs of improvement and the absolute
consonant bending gets diminished for expanding levels of
H-Bridge inverter.
The methodologies for dc to air conditioning transformation
have been examined and expounded in this paper.
Cascaded H-bridge converter is one of the viable options for
next generation large scale photovoltaic power conversion.
Regarding the incremented number of components
involved, inverter liability and fault tolerant control are
important issues. The cascaded H Bridge converter must
also unequal power generation among the bridges, which
inherent in photovoltaic applications because of unequal
solar irradiance and module temperatures. Conventional Figure 2. Multi stages H-Bridge Inverter
 respectively. While the figure 2 depicts the simulink model
Figure 1 and 2 shows the diagram of single stage and multi
of cascaded inverter with RL load.
staged cascaded H- Bridge inverter with a dc voltage source

Figure 3. MATLAB Model for Multilevel Inverter Circuit

Figure 4: Waveforms obtained for single stage of H-Bridge inverter

Figure 5: Waveforms obtained for four stage of H-Bridge inverter
 III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The THD, reactive power and active power are calculated
for single stage as well as multiple stage H-Bridge inverter.
SIMULINK / MATLAB software is utilized for simulation
of the circuit. The change of the delay angles α result in
variation of THD in load voltage. For a particular delay
angle THD is found to be minimum. Further THD
decrement is achieved by incrementing the stages of the
converter. For single stage, minimum THD of 48.37% is
found for α=30° & 50.22% for α=45°. The obtained output
voltage and current waveform is shown in figure 4. If the
number of stages are increased and same circuit is again
simulated that it is concluded that for fourth stage minimum
THD is obtained as 47.78% for α1=30°,α2=45°, α3=60° &
α4=90° & 40.50% for α1=45°,α2=60°, α3=90° & α4=120°.
The waveform is shown in figure 5.
On the off chance that the no. of phases of the inverter is
augmented, the degree of the yield wave likewise
increments. For this situation, the no. of levels is one higher
than the no. of stages included. For single stage ,the yield
has two levels and for four phase yield has five levels. Let
the input voltage for single stage V=12 Volt, for two phase
V=24 Volt, etc. The re-enactment is done upto 4 phases and
the THD acquired in voltage is constantly diminishing with
the quantity of stages. The reenactment is accomplished for
a fixed RL burden having R=10ohm and L=5mH.
For a specific stage number, the variety in postpone edges
brings about variety of THD, active power and Reactive
power. For a specific postpone point blend THD is seen as
least while P and Q are most extreme at a portion of
different mixes of defer edges. Consequently just and just
one of the three yields might be streamlined at once. Table I
shows the variety of THD in voltage, P and Q with defer
points, α1 is the postpone plot for one arrange, α2 for second
organize, α3 for third organize, etc.
For one stage inverter THD of 48.37% is minimum for
α=30°. For four Stage inverter THD of 39.97% is minimum
for α1=45°, α2=60°, α3=90°, α4=120°.
Analysis with LC Filter
With L-C filter, one stage H-Bridge inverter with delay
angle of 300 gives active power of 12.48W, reactive power
of 2.023VAr, THD of 24.75% and RMS voltage of 12.04V.
Two stage H-Bridge inverter with delay angle of 450 and 600
gives active power of 44.76 W, reactive power of 7.015VAr,
THD of 22.85% and RMS voltage of 24.27V. Three stage
H-Bridge inverter with delay angle of 30 0, 450 and 900gives
active power of 84.97W, reactive power of 7.150 VAr, THD
of 19.89% and RMS voltage of 36.78V.
Four stage H-Bridge inverter with delay angle of 450, 600,
900 and 1200 gives active power of 99.87W, reactive power
of 17.87VAr, THD of 18.01% and RMS voltage of 47.78V.
IV. COMPARISION
The simulation results of both the cases i.e. with and without
filter is compared .The THD ,active and reactive power and
for single stage H-Bridge Inverter for delay angle of 30 0 is
11.39 W, 1.785 VAr, and 48.37% respectively for a 12 V
DC supply input.
The active power, reactive power and THD for two stage H-
Bridge Inverter for delay angle of 30o& 450 are 44.76 W,
7.015 VAr, and 43.71%.
The active power, reactive power and THD for three stage
H-Bridge Inverter for delay angle of 30o, 450& 90O are
67.69 W, 10.62 VAr & 43.01% respectively.
The active power, reactive power and THD for four stage H-
Bridge Inverter for delay angle of 30o, 450, 60o, 90o are
98.06 W, 17.26 VAr, 39.97% respectively
Hence, from the comparison we can deduce that as the
number of stages of H-Bridge inverter is incremented, the
total harmonic distortion decreases along with increment in
active and reactive power with subsequent increase in the
stages of H-Bridge inverter. Table 1 shows the variation of
different parameters with the change in number of stages
for the inverter circuit without filter.
Also if the L-C filter is used, it further leads to decrease in
total harmonic distortion with usual increase in the
subsequent stages of H-Bridge inverters. For single stage
H-Bridge inverter, the minimum THD obtained is 24.75%,
for two stage H-Bridge inverter, the minimum THD
obtained is 22.85%, for three stage 19.89% and for four
stage 18.01% and the same results can be seen from the
Table 2, while this THD was 48.37%, 43.71 %, 43.01% and
39.97 % respectively for the inverter circuit having no filter
connected.
Active power and reactive power of four stage H-Bridge
inverter is greatest and as the stages of H-Bridge inverter
decrease it leads to decrease in active as well as reactive
power. The use of L-C filter leads to increased active and
reactive power at every stage of inverter.
It is also seen that the RMS value of output voltage is
approximately the same as that of the total voltage applied at
dc side. For example, for single stage, it is same as 12 V,
while for four stage (total input dc voltage of 48 V), the
RMS voltage is obtained as 47.78 V which is approximately
the same as the total dc input.
TABLE 1 : Variation of different parameters of inverter circuit without LC Filter with varying the number of stages

α1 α2 α3 α4
S. No. (°) (°) (°) (°) P (W) Q (VAr) THD (%) RMS (V)
1 30 11.39 1.785 48.37 12
1 Stage (12V) 2 45 11.39 1.785 50.22 12
1 30 45 44.76 7.015 43.71 23.99
2 Stage (24V) 2 45 60 44.76 7.015 47.48 23.99
1 30 45 90 83.59 13.1 32.21 35.98
3 Stage (36 V) 2 45 60 120 67.69 10.62 43.01 35.92
1 30 45 60 90 98.06 17.25 39.97 47.96
4 Stage (48 V) 2 45 60 90 120 98.08 18.2 40.5 47.78

TABLE 2: Variation of different parameters of inverter circuit with LC Filter with varying the number of stages

α1 α2 α3 α4
S. No. (°) (°) (°) (°) P (W) Q (VAr) THD (%) RMS (V)
1 30 12.48 2.023 24.75 12.04
1 Stage (12V) 2 45 12.57 2.25 25.21 12.05
1 30 45 47.77 6.97 23.79 24.15
2 Stage (24V) 2 45 60 44.76 7.015 22.85 24.27
1 30 45 90 84.97 7.15 19.89 36.78
3 Stage (36 V) 2 45 60 120 71.25 14.01 22.01 36.24
1 30 45 60 90 99.67 11.05 18.75 48.85
4 Stage (48 V) 2 45 60 90 120 99.87 17.87 18.01 47.78

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