Designing and simulation of an active filter using

MATLAB / SIMULINK
Ileana - Diana Nicolae Petre - Marian Nicolae
Software Engineering Department Dinut-Lucian Popa
University of Craiova Electrical Engineering Dept.
Craiova, Romania University of Craiova
nicolae_ileana@software.ucv.ro Craiova, Romania
pnicolae@elth.ucv.ro

Abstract- The paper deals with a solution for the compensation
of a distorting regime from a distribution station for urban
transport using a power active filter. Firstly the distorting
regime is analyzed with a data acquisition system that provides
the input data for the MATLAB/SIMULINK program used to
size the active filter. The calculated parameters are afterward
validated in MATLAB/SIMULINK. Experimental data obtained
on stand validate the proposed solution.
I. INTRODUCTION
task is to attenuate the harmonics produced by the network
nonlinear loads [7], [10]. It might also provide a compensation
of the reactive power [8], [13].
One selected the solution with parallel active filter because
in this topology it should not be overloaded (the harmonic
currents overcoming its filtering capacity remain in network,
but this does not prevent the filter to eliminate all the
harmonic currents that do not exceed its limits) [9], [11]. Fig.l
depicts the principle schema of the studied system.

Due to the continuously growing number of nonlinear
loads, the harmonic distortion created by them may affect the
voltage source from the distribution network and consequently
other loads supplied from the network [1], [2].
In most of the practical applications that use power
electronics, the static converters induce significant distorting
regimes. Therefore supplementary circuits are required,
(eventually using power semiconductors), to reduce the
harmonic influences of the currents over the sources that
supply the static converters [8], [12].
To get an improved efficiency of the compensation, a
performing data acquisition system should be used in order to
evaluate quantities related to the operating regimes like:
harmonic distortions, power flows along the fundamental and
To evaluate the distorting regime one used a data
acquisition system (manufactured for this application) that
provides the data required by the analysis and filter's design.
The supplying phase-voltages and the loads currents registered
are depicted by Fig. 2. The gathered data revealed significant
current harmonics of orders 5, 7,11, 13, 17, I9, as depicted by
Fig. 3 (therefore the passive filtering cannot be used, as it
should involve too many filtering cells and generate reactive
power, undesired when the loads to be compensated have
already a proper power factor). Moreover, Fig. 3 reveals that
the generated current harmonics produce voltage harmonics at
the source [3].
Distribution line
=�E== lllkV

superior harmonic etc. Advanced designing techniques can be

applied based on preliminary evaluations to yield accurate
technical solutions.
Information on the behavior in transient regimes and
improvements of the active filters control can be obtained by a
proper design and an accurate simulation of filter's operation
[2], [14]. The simulations can be used to anticipate the

�
Figure I. Principle schema of the system
behavior of the proposed solutions and/or to improve them.

�
Experiments must be done to validate the adopted solutions. Measured voltage Measured currents
" i " - "l llX1l " "; : "' : " '+ "
, ...... . . : ... .. "' ;" " '" -u2 : : : : : : - i2
II. STUDIED C ASE t··· i.,... . . � ... ., I.. . ' + . : 1
:<: 0
!
03 5: 0
: :- : : .. ' : , "
For the studied case the distorted regime is caused by the .. ... �
... ... TO. "' ! . .. 1" . � . . .
.. . .11JX)

uncontrolled rectifiers that supply the trams d.c. line. 1 'A' 102 '03 101 105 lIE 107 lOB
Time(s)
More solutions were considered for correction. The most
efficient proved to be the use of an active filter, whose main Figure 2. Supplying voltages and loads currents before compensation.

978-1-61284-857-0/11/$26.00 (92011 IEEE

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 Spectrum of harmonic cunents submitted to compensation
As digital control is to be used, the supplying voltages (Fig.
2) will be provided with an advance equivalent to 1.5 sampling
steps. One step is required for the control's execution and one
half is required by the delay introduced by sampling [4], [6].
The delays compensation is very important, mainly in highly
distorted networks, where the active filter must compensate all
the harmonics up to one half of the switching frequency.

200
For the delays' compensation one used:

= us(n+2)+us(n+l) (1)
us(n)
Harmonic order 2
Only the real part of the fundamental is required for the
Figure 3. Spectrum of harmonic currents submitted to compensation
load currents' processing. The imaginary part and the other
harmonics are set to 0 and the FFT inverse is calculated to get
III. DESIGNING LI MITATIONS
the time-variation of the load active current's fundamental.
High frequency operation imposes limits to the injection
coil induction. For too large values the current's maximum The calculations yielded: total RMS of compensation
exchange rate should be too small to trigger the step changes currents 202.5 [A] and the peak current without the
=

occurring at high frequencies, whilst for too small values the switching ripple 469.53. [A].
=

current's maximum exchange rate should be too high,

resulting into high switching frequencies that cause high
losses in semi-conducting devices [4], [7].
Application-specific restrictions are also imposed (mainly
for inverter's designing, e.g. motor's angular velocity control).
An active filter should be able to inject at least frequencies
with harmonic orders up to 19 and in an ideal case it should
compensate the harmonics with orders up to 50. The switching Integral of the instantaneous value of the current through capacitor [A]

frequency is selected by considering the maximum order of the 1.5 ,--'--"---r-'--''--'--.--,

harmonic to be compensated. Theoretically the compensation
is possible up to one half of the switching frequency [5].

IV. ACTIVE FILTER DESIGN

In practice, when selecting the switching frequency one

must also consider other factors, such as: cut-off frequency of
the switching ripple filter, losses, semiconductor types, etc. sample order

One intended to obtain a total compensation of the load Figure 6. Waveform of the current through the d.c. side (top) and integral of
currents harmonics up to the 19th harmonic order. Therefore, the instantaneous current through capacitor (down)
even though the calculated minimum switching frequency is
3,000 Hz, a value of 10 kHz will be considered [10], [12]. The currents ids, its, itj and idj [A]

i �01 bJ D I I I I I I
The active current fundamental value (Fig. 4 depicts the load
current for the 1st phase) is calculated and subtracted from the
load current. The resulting current is submitted to a sign reverser
to obtain the current reference for the active filter (Fig. 5). o � � � � 1� 1� 1� 1� 1� �

FFT was used to calculate the load current fundamental

value as well as the harmonic spectrum to be compensated.
1:1 [111:9 11+ I IVj
HJ
200J
Load current fundamental [A]
o � � � � 1� 1� 1� 1� 1� �

]� a D O � � 1� lD
Sample order
10 1� 1� 200J i i lllidtkl J2il l
o � � � � 1� 1� 1� 1� 1� �
o
Figure 4. Load current for the 1st phase
Filter's compensation current [A]

01f±19EHill a 200 0 � � 1� 1200 10 1� 1� �

Figure 7. up: ids= current through the upper diode; its=current through IGBT
up; down: idj=current through the lower diode; iy=current through IGBT

Figure 5. Filter's compensation current

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 Nonlinear
Ls Load
ilo.d

f Pll

iref
Active
Filter

Figure 8. Active filter's power schema Figure 9. Control schema

The calculation method covers most of the aspects that

must be considered while designing an active filter.

In the studied application the voltage inverter is made with

IGBT transistors. The main criterion considered for the
filtering coil designing is the maximum value of the current
ripple. The current ripple is calculated assuming the "no load"
case and neglecting the coil resistance.

One calculated the modulation factor, the inductance, the

voltage required by filter, the maximum d.c. voltage, the RMS
value of the current ripple through the filtering coil (no-load
case), the current ripple through the coil, the total RMS
current including the ripple, the d.c. current (Fig. 6). The
calculated d.c. current is integrated in the domain of time in
order to evaluate the ripple. The integration results are
Figure 10. Currents through source,load and filter
depicted by Fig. 6 (down). The compensation current per each
phase is divided sample by sample in the currents flowing
through each power semi-conducting device, using the
reference signal sign, as depicted by Fig. 7.

The active filter's power schema is depicted by Fig. 8.

The capacitor is also sized, a value of 18.58 rnF being used

in simulation.

v. ACTIVE FILTER SI MULATION

Using the calculated data, based on experimental tests, a

simulation was performed. The system's general schematic
includes the power schema, the filter's control schema (Fig.
9), the three-phase supplying sources and the load represented
by the rectifier with diodes and the RL groups (used to
determine the load current).
The filter uses a PLL control. The control circuit uses a
hysteretic technique and calculates the ideal compensation
current [4].
Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 reveals the filter efficiency. To
estimate the current distortion level one used the FFT Analysis
tool from PowerGUI.
One can see that the load current decomposition in
harmonics is very similar to the real case, as the orders of
significant harmonics are 5, 7, 11 and 13.
Figure I I. Current through source and reference current (left) and their
difference (right)
At a higher load current the harmonic distortion decreases,
as obtained in the measurements accomplished in the
supplying station (Fig. 12 and Fig. 13).
The filter's efficiency is proved (it reduced the ITHD for
the current through the source from 30.23 % to 3.2% for a
load of 646 A, respectively from 29.86% to 2.09 % for a load
of 1059 A). One can conclude that the filter's design is
correct.
Based on the designing using MATLAB/SIMULINK, an
active-filtering solution as that from Fig. 8 was tested on
stand. The following conclusions were drawn:

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-Signal 10 analyze Signal 10 analyze
after simulation, the efficiency of the proposed solution for

)NVwVIA,M� .:�WWWVV\fJ
00isp110y selecledSV'fll OOisplloyFFTwrvJt:/W 0Disp11oy sel!lcledsllJ'llll ODisplloyFFTwrvJt:/W
Selecled signal" 125 cycles FFTwrndow(In red) 1 cyetes Selected signal' 125 cycles FFTwrndow (In red) 1 cycles
compensation is proved.

The processing of the recorded data and the determination

of the spectral components of the (re)active powers proved
Oil) oee D.' 0 120 14 0 16 0 18. 0 2 0 220 24 Oil) oee 01 0 120
. 1 4 0 16. 0 18 0 2 0 .220 24
lime(s) lime(s) different flowing senses with respect to the load. This comes
to demonstrate once again that, in order to get complete load
-FFTanalysls FFTanalysis

Fundamenlal (5OHz) = 6A6 4 ,THO::D 23% Fundamental (5OHz) = 6B7 1 . THO: 3 20%
02
compensation, the following of sequence of actions must be
�20 considered:
� 015
� 15 E .
- the filtering of the currents for superior harmonics;
� j.. 01
- the compensation of reactive power along the fundamental

111 1. .111.1,
'010

JI IJ !IUu
� �
> 5
�0 05 harmonic (either capacitive or inductive, depending on the
III
�

0
0
1 15 20 � :D � �
0
0
1
J.
5
1
Ih
20 � :D
II. I!
� �
load' specificity).
HarmoniC order HarmoniC order

Figure 12. FFT analysis using PowerGUI - 646 A. ACKNOWLEDG MENT

r Signal to analyze
0�_sipI ODosplooym...--
.r Srgnallo analyze
0Dlspi1oy_SV'I'I O�m_
The work was supported by CNCSIS-UEFISCDI, project
number PNII-IDEI code 536/2008 (contract no. 695/2009).

JiWNvIAMI JlvvvvWVViJ
Selected signal. 125 cycles FFTWltldow(ln red) 1 cycles Seleded srgnal. 12.5 cycles FFTwrndow(In red): 1 cycles

Olli 000 01 0.12014016 018 02 022024
i s
l me( )
FFTanalysI ' ----------
!
Fundamental [SOHz): 1059. THO: 29116%
Harmomcorder
Figure 13. FFT analysis using PowerGUI - 1059 A.
- the total harmonic distortion for the phase currents were
reduced from 30.23% (corresponding to the most affected
phase) to 7.36% after the filtering of the harmonics 5, 7, 11,
13, 17, 19, 23, 25, 35 and 37, being smaller then the value of
8% imposed by the IEEE 519/1992 standard for consumers of
this type. The current measured through filter had a RMS
value of 73.58 A (for the most distorted phase). A more
comprehensive currents filtering (diminishing the effects of
the remaining harmonics up to the 50-th order) would have
defmitively diminished the total harmonic distortion;
- the accomplished power factor obtained through active
filtering was equal to 0.94 (corresponding to an inductive
load);
- the global consumption reducing was of 17.8% for the same
useful active power consumption
VI.
The MATLAB/SIMULINK simulation of the real system,
consisting in the supplying system, three-phase load and
active filter, allowed the designed active filter testing and
proved its efficiency in various situations (e.g. load current
change due to successive trams' connection to the distribution
network).
Based on registered data and on the obtained waveforms
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Olli 003
. 01 012014016 018 02 022024
Tme(s)
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!
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