Lecture-5

Turning off SCR

Nadim Chowdhury
Department of EEE
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

nadim@eee.buet.ac.bd
Commutation
To turn On a Thyristor, there are various triggering methods in which a trigger pulse is applied at its Gate
terminal. Similarly, there are various techniques to turn Off a Thyristor, these techniques are
called Thyristor Commutation Techniques. It can be done by bringing the Thyristor back into the forward
blocking state from the forward conduction state. To bring the Thyristor into forward blocking state,
forward current is reduced below the holding current level.

There are mainly two techniques for Thyristor Commutation: Natural and Forced.

The Forced commutation technique is further divided into five categories which are Class A, B, C, D, and E.
Below is the Classification:
•Natural Commutation
•Forced Commutation
• Class A: Self or Load Commutation
• Class B: Resonant-Pulse Commutation
• Class C: Complementary Commutation
• Class D: Impulse Commutation
• Class E: External Pulse Commutation

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Natural Commutation

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Class A: Self Commutation by resonating the load

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RLC Underdamped Circuit

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RLC Underdamped Circuit

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Diode Switched LC Load
A diode circuit with an LC load is shown in Figure. The source
voltage Vs is a dc constant voltage. When switch S1 is closed at
t = 0, the charging current i of the capacitor is expressed as

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Diode Switched LC Load
The initial rate of rise of the current (at t = 0) as

The voltage vc across the capacitor can be derived as

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Class A : Load in parallel with the capacitor

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Class A

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Class B: Self Commutation by an LC Circuit

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Class B: Self Commutation by an LC Circuit

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Class B: Self Commutation by an LC Circuit

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Class C: Complementary Commutation

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Class C: Complementary Commutation

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Class C: Waveforms

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Thank you for your attention

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