Merits and Dmerits of bridge rectifier over a centre tapped FWR.

MERITS
 The current in both the primary and secondary of the power transformer flows for the entire cycle and hence for
a given power output, power transformer of a small size and less cost may be used
 No center tap is required in the transformer secondary
 The currents in the secondary of the transformer are in opposite directions in two half cycles. Hence net d.c.
component flowing is zero which reduces the losses and danger of saturation.
 As two diodes conduct in series in each half cycle, inverse voltage appearing across diodes get shared. Hencethe
circuit can be used for high voltage applications.
 The transformer gets utilized effectively.
DEMERITS
 It needs four diodes.
 The bridge circuit is not efficient for low voltages because the current flow in the two diodes connected in series
result in a large power dissipation.
 Bridge circuits are not convenient with vaccum diodes of directly heated cathode since they don't have same
potential.

PARAMETERS OF HALF WAVE RECTIFIER:

The peak value of the load current is given by, ; Where Rs= Resistance of secondary
winding of transformer, Rf= Forward resistance of diode
The average or d.c. value of the load current (IDC):

IL = Im sinωt 0 ≤ ωt ≤ π and

IL=0 π ≤ ωt ≤ 2π

Where Im = peak value of load current

Iavg = IDC is given by

= d(ωt)

As no current flows during negative half cycle of a.c. input voltage, i.e. between ωt=π to ωt=2π, we
change the limits of integration.
 =Average value

The average d.c. load voltage (EDC) : It is the product of average d.c. load current and the load
resistance RL.

EDC = IDCRL = RL = RL

The winding resistance Rs and forward diode resistance Rf are practically very small compared to RL
hence neglecting them, (RS & Rf < < RL, So Rf + Rs = RL )

The RMS value of the load current (IRMS):

The RMS means squaring, finding mean and then square root. Mathematically it is obtained as,

While the RMS value of the load voltage is,

EL(RMS)=IRMSRL= RL

By using the expression of Im and neglecting Rs and Rf we get,

EL(RMS)=
(Since )

The d.c. power output is, PDC = EDCIDC = IDC (IDC RL)

D.C. power output = IDC IDC RL = RL = RL

PDC =

The a.c. power input taken from the secondary of transformer is the power supplied to three resistances
namely load resistance RL, the diode resistance Rf and winding resistance RS.

The a.c. power is, PAC = I2RMS[ 2

But IRMS = for half wave,

PAC =

Rectifier efficiency: The rectifier effieciency is defines as the ratio of output d.c. power to input a.c. power.

η=

Dividing by RL to numerator and denominator, η =

If ( )<< as mentioned earlier, we get the maximum theoretical efficiency of half wave rectifier
as

% Ŋmax = 0.406x100 = 40.6%

Ripple Factor: It is seen that the output of half wave rectifier is not pure d.c. but a pulsating d.c. the
output contains pulsating components called ripples. Ideally there should not be any ripples in the rectifier
output. The measure of ripples present in the output is with the help of a factor called ripple factor
denoted by γ. It tells how smooth is the output. Smaller the ripple factor closer is the output to a pure d.c.
mathematically ripple factor is defined as the ratio of R.M.S value of the a.c. component in the output to
the average or d.c. component present in the output.

Ripple factor γ= (R.M.S value of a.c. component of output) / (Average or d.c. component of output)

The output current is composed of a.c.component as well as d.c.component.

Let Iac = R.M.S value of a.c. component present in output

 IDC = D.C. component present in output

IRMS = R.M.S value of total output current =

Iac =

Ripple factor = =

This is the general expression for ripple factor and can be used for any rectifier circuit. For a half wave
circuit,

IRMS = While IDC =

γ=

This indicates that the ripple contents in theoutput are 1.21 times the d.c. component i.e. 121.1% of d.c.
components. The ripple factor for half wave is very high which indicates that the half wave circuit is a poor
converter of a.c. to d.c.

PARAMETERS OF FULL WAVE RECTIFIER:

Maximum load current: Let Rf = Forward resistance of diodes and RL = Load resistance
Rs = Maximum value of a.c. input voltage across each half of
secondary winding. Hence we can write the expression for the maximum value of the load current as

Where Im = Maximum value of load current iL

Consider one cycle of the load current iL from 0 to π to obtain the
average value which is d.c. value of load current.
IL = Imsinωt 0≤ωt≤π

Iavg = IDC =
AVEARAGE D.C. LOAD VOLTAGE (EDC):

The d.c. load voltage is, EDC=IDCRL=

Substituting value of Im

EDC= =

But as Rf and Rs << RL hence <<1

RMS LOAD CURRENT (IRMS):

Mathematically it can be obtained as,

The circuit has two half wave rectifiers similar in operation operating in two half cycles hence integration
term is splitted as above.

Hence the RMS value of the load voltage is

EL(RMS)=IRMSRL= RL
D.C. POWER OUTPUT (PDC):

D.C.power output = EDCIDC – I2DCRL

PDC =
Instead of remembering this formula, students can use the expression EDCIDC or I2DCRL to calculate PDC
while solving the problems.

A.C. POWER INPUT (PAC):

PAC=I2RMS( )=
Substituting value of Im we get,

RECTIFIER EFFICIENCY(η):

η=

But if Rf + RS << RL, neglecting it from denominator

η= =

%η= x100=81.2%

RIPPLE FACTOR (γ):

The ripple factor is given by a general expression,

Ripple factor = =

For full wave IRMS= and IDC= so substituting above,

Ripple factor γ =

This indicates that the ripple contents in the output are 48% of the d.c. component which is much less
than the half wave circuit.