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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO. 3, JULY 2000

Evaluation of Current Interharmonics from AC Drives

Mohammed Bashir Rifai, Thomas H. Ortmeyer, Senior Member, IEEE, and William J. McQuillan

AbstractDistortion levels on power systems have been continuously increasing due to the increasing presence of power converters. The distortion currents injected by some converters can
include interharmonics as well as harmonics. The generation of
interharmonics in acdcac power converters is discussed, and a
method to predict levels of current interharmonics is developed.
The results show that very low interharmonic levels can be expected for a well designed PWM inverter operating with linear
modulation and balanced load. Interharmonics can be expected
in cases when the inverter is in overmodulation or when the inverter load is unbalanced. The paper also discusses the relative effects of dc link inductance and source inductance on interharmonic
propagation.

TABLE I
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERHARMONIC CURRENT LEVEL AND LOAD
CURRENT IMBALANCE MEASURED IN A TYPICAL SMALL AC DRIVE

Index TermsPower converter harmonics, power quality, pulse

width modulated inverter.

I. INTRODUCTION

PPLICATIONS of solid-state converters for adjustable

speed drives are becoming more popular in industrial systems due to the improvements in power transistor technology.
These advances allow improved efficiency and flexibility. The
current distortion generated by adjustable speed drives has been
a matter of concern for many years. Over this time, methods
have been developed for dealing with these harmonics [1], so
that well designed drive systems have a limited impact on the
source.
Recently, however, the presence of interharmonic currents
in the input to these drives has come under discussion [2], [3].
Interharmonics are defined as steady state currents or voltages
which are not an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency.
In many adjustable speed drives, the input power conversion is
with a diode bridge rectifier to a dc link. The dc link voltage is
inverted with a PWM inverter to supply a variable frequency,
variable voltage ac load. Harmonic currents of the inverter
create interharmonics in the power system when they propagate
through the dc link. In this work, the relationships between the
inverter load system, the dc link, and the ac source were investigated. Conditions that lead to interharmonics in the supply were
identified. For balanced cases with linear modulation of the
inverter, the dc link harmonics were found to be of high order
harmonics which can be blocked by dc link inductance. The
source current harmonics were evaluated for different values of
the inverter operating frequencies and no interharmonics were
Manuscript received January 5, 1998; revised June 5, 1999 and November 17,
2000.
M. B. Rifai is with the Department of Electrical Machines & Drives, University of Aleppo, P. O. Box 7680, Aleppo, Syria.
T. H. Ortmeyer is with the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY 13699-5720.
W. J. McQuillan is with the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Clarkson University, Postdam, NY 13699-5720.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8977(00)07224-1.

found. With unbalanced loads or overmodulation, however,

significant levels of interharmonic currents were found to exist.
Table I shows the relationship between interharmonic current in
the source and load unbalance measured in a small adjustable
speed drive currently on the market. While these levels are not
particularly high relative to the harmonic currents drawn by the
source, their presence at nonharmonic frequencies is a cause of
concern.
This paper provides an evaluation of the mechanism involved
in the generation of interharmonics by load imbalance and
overmodulation. It presents a study of the effect of variation of
source inductance and dc link inductance, and shows that these
inductances can have similar effects on interharmonic levels.
In addition, a simplified model is presented which can be used
to predict interharmonic levels for a wide range of dc link and
source situations.
II. EVALUATION OF CURRENT INTERHARMONICS
The purpose of this work is to evaluate the level of current
interharmonics imposed onto the power supply by a typical adjustable speed drive (ASD) system and to examine the effects of
varying certain parameters on these interharmonics. The variable speed drive system is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of a threephase diode rectifier, a DC link, a three-phase pulse-width-modulated (pwm) inverter feeding a three-phase motor. Note that the
source neutral is node n, the dc link negative bus is node N,
and the load neutral is node o. Source phases are denoted a,
b, and c, while load phases are A, B, and C. Matlab
algorithms were written to evaluate the inverter current harmonics and to determine the interharmonics during unbalanced
cases and overmodulation cases. These analytical methods were
confirmed through simulation and laboratory measurement.
In this study, it is assumed that the motor is running at its full
load torque and that the load torque is held constant throughout

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RIFAI et al.: EVALUATION OF CURRENT INTERHARMONICS FROM AC DRIVES

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Fig. 1. The AC drive system.

the speed range. The power source is assumed to be balanced

with sinusoidal voltages behind the short circuit impedance. The
simple motor model shown in Fig. 1 is used throughout the
study. The volts per hertz ratio of the inverter is held constant
and the fundamental frequency equation is:
(1)
is the motor internal voltage and
is the funWhere
damental motor impedance. The motor current harmonics are
found from the voltage harmonics of the pwm inverter output
and the motor impedance.
In calculating the levels of the inverter output voltage and
input current at low frequencies, the ripple on the inverter input
voltage is neglected. This assumption has been tested and found
to be reasonable for ripple levels up to 10% of the dc level of
the inverter input voltage.
The three-phase inverter is feeding the motor using sinusoidal
pulse width modulation [4], which is briefly described in the
appendix. Two distinctive regions are present in the process of
converting a dc voltage into three-phase sinusoidal pwm volt, where the
ages. The first one is the linear region
fundamental-frequency component in the output voltage varies
. The peak value
linearly with the amplitude modulation ratio
of the fundamental-frequency component of the phase A to negative bus voltage is [4]:
(2)
, however, the inWith amplitude modulation ratio
verter enters the overmodulation region. The linear relationship
and fundamental voltage is lost, and low order harbetween
monics are introduced as switching pulses are eliminated. As
approaches 3.24, the output waveform approaches square
wave operation, with odd nontriplen harmonic components
equal to the fundamental magnitude divided by the harmonic
number.
Based on the switching logic for a particular operating condition, a switching function can be defined which relates phase
to negative voltage to input voltage:
(3)
represents the phase switching function and the subscript
A, B or C for the three phases of the motor circuit.
notation
is the negative bus of the dc link. The
functions will
include a dc component as well as ac common mode voltages,
and the negawhich in turn appear between load neutral
. which include
tive pole . After defining a new functions
, a rethe positive and negative sequence components Of
lationship between the input and output of the inverter can be

derived. Using the fact that the inverter neither absorbs, produces nor stores power, instantaneous input power must equal
instantaneous output power:
(4)
Combining Equations (3) and (4), the inverter input current
is approximately:
(5)
The motor phase currents can be found at each harmonic from
the phase to neutral voltage and the motor characteristics. With
the motor phase currents known, the inverter input current can
be found from Equation (5).
and for each phase can
In evaluating Equation (5), both
be defined as double sided infinite sums with fundamental frequency of the inverter operating frequency. The infinite series
can be cut down to a reasonable number of terms for both the
switching function and the current function. Equation (6) illustrates the multiplication for one of the terms on the right hand
is the peak motor th harside of Eq. (5). In the equation,
is the peak value of the th inverter PWM
monic current,
harmonic, and is the inverter operating frequency.
(6)
Significant components of inverter input current will exist at
and
, for with a significant
frequencies
switching frequency component and with a significant motor
harmonic current component.
The inverter input current is reflected into the input of the
dc link based on the relationship between dc link capacitor and
inductance. With no source impedance, the equivalent circuit
shown in Fig. 2 is valid for the harmonics of the inverter operating frequency, excepting the cases where the inverter harmonic frequencies match one of the rectifier output harmonic
frequencies. The effect of source impedance is considered in
Section IV.
Under these conditions, the circuit of Fig. 2 can be used to
at the inverter harmonic
predict the rectifier output current
frequencies: the capacitor will conduct high frequency currents,
the inductor (and rectifier) will conduct low frequency currents,
and current multiplication can be expected near the dc link resonant frequency.
Once the output current harmonics of the rectifier are found,
of the rectifier can be called to find
the switching function
the ac side current harmonics:
(7)

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TABLE II
THE PARAMETER VALUES OF THE BASE CASE DRIVE SYSTEM

Fig. 2. DC link equivalent circuit at the inverter harmonics.

where the switching function of the rectifier

is defined as:
(8)

is the source frequency and the terms are derived through

fourier analysis for continuous conduction of the diode bridge.
While similar functions will exist for b and c phases, they do
not need to be calculated when the source is balanced. Note
is the sum of odd nontriplen harmonics of the source
that
frequency, and is the sum of the dc current and harmonics of
the inverter frequency. The source phase current will contain
frequencies which are the sum and the difference of the source
and inverter harmonic frequencies. The resulting components
are called interharmonic currents as their frequencies are not
integer multiples of the source frequency. Interharmonic levels
will depend on inverter harmonics reflected into the dc link and
on the ability of the dc link to block the propagation of these
inverter currents.
III. HARMONICS RESULTS
In this work the dc side and ac side current distortion was
investigated using the converter topology of Fig. 1 and specific
values of the adjustable-speed drive system parameters as given
was chosen so
in Table II. The frequency modulation ratio
that the switching frequency is in the range of 1800 Hz2 kHz.
Three sets of cases were considered: balanced loading with
linear modulation, unbalanced loading with linear modulation,
and balanced loading with overmodulation.
a) In the case of linear modulation and balanced loading, the
motor harmonics begin at the switching frequency. As this
is well above the dc link resonant frequency of 92 Hz, no
significant levels of inverter harmonics are present in the
source power system.
b) With unbalanced inverter load in the linear modulation
cases, current interharmonics were found in the ac source
currents. The unbalanced load causes the presence of low
order current harmonics, particularly the second and the
twelfth, in the dc link going into the inverter. For frequencies below the dc link resonance, these currents will be
drawn from the rectifier. Near the resonance, current multiplication will occur, and high levels are possible.

The second and the twelfth inverter current harmonics

in the dc link cause interharmonics when reflected to the
ac side of the rectifier. The frequency of these current
interharmonics obeys the equation:
(9)
where
is the frequency of the interharmonic,
is the order of the current harmonic in (typically 2
or 12),
is the inverter operating frequency,
,
and
is the source frequency.
The most significant values of the current interharand
.
monics would generally occur with
Other interharmonics of significant values will appear as
the load imbalance increases. Table III gives the values
of the inverter operating frequencies investigated, the
and the corresponding
amplitude modulation ratio
.
values of the frequency modulation ratio
Fig. 3 shows the interharmonic levels for the with
and
case. Interharmonic level as a percent
of power system fundamental current is plotted versus
the percent ratio of negative to positive sequence inverter
output current. Note that the dc link frequency in the
48 Hz case is near the dc link resonant frequency, reand
sulting in high levels of interharmonics. With
for inverter frequencies of 25, 37.5, and 48 Hz and
with the source frequency at 60 hertz, the interharmonic
sidebands pairs are 10 & 110 Hz, 15 & 135 Hz, and 36 &
156 Hz, respectively. On a 60 hertz base these represent
harmonic orders of 0.1667 & 1.8333, 0.25 & 2.25, and
0.6 & 2.6 respectively.
, lower order harmonics
c) With overmodulation
appear on the dc link in the balanced load case. The most
dominant current harmonic in the dc side confirmed to be

RIFAI et al.: EVALUATION OF CURRENT INTERHARMONICS FROM AC DRIVES

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TABLE III
INVERTER OPERATING FREQUENCIES AND MODULATION RATIOS

Fig. 4. Varying L for a balanced case with L

= 0 0.
:

Fig. 3. Current interharmonics as function of unbalance ratio.

the sixth order harmonic. Other harmonics present have

relatively smaller values.
When the inverter sixth harmonic current in the dc link
is reflected to the ac side of the rectifier, interharmonics at
228 Hz and 348 Hz occur with the inverter operating frequency
of 48 Hz. With an inverter operating frequency of 37.5 hertz,
the dominant interharmonic frequencies are at 165 Hz and
. The
285 Hz. These frequencies obey Equation (9) for
interharmonics field measurements found in [2] would appear
to result from the inverter operating with overmodulation.
IV. INDUCTANCE INVESTIGATION
The results in the previous section assume that the dc link inductance is substantial and that the source impedance is negligible. In certain practical cases, one or both of these assumptions
may not be valid. For this reason, the effects of both the dc link
inductance and the source inductance on the contents of the current harmonics were investigated. These investigations involved
pspice simulations of rectifier-inverter operation. In these simulations, the apparent impedance of the source at an inverter harmonic was calculated from the ratio of the effective values of
capacitor voltage to rectifier current at that frequency.
a) With zero source impedance, the dc link inductance
was reduced. Fig. 4 shows the results of a balanced case
hz and
, resulting in a 2016 hertz
with
is reduced, the reccurrent injected into the dc link. As
tifier current harmonic levels will rise until, at some point,
the rectifier output current becomes discontinuous. The

Fig. 5.

Varying L for an unbalanced Case with L = 0:0.

apparent impedance of the inductor/rectifier combination

at 2016 hertz is shown in Fig. 4. This relationship is essentially linear to nearly 0.5 mH, slightly beyond the point
where the current becomes discontinuous at 0.75 mH.
hz and
With the inverter load unbalanced with
, a 96 hertz current was injected onto the dc link.
on the apparent impedance at
Fig. 5 shows the effect of
this frequency. Again, linearity is seen over a wide range
of values of the dc link inductance. The system impedance
seen by these 96 hertz currents is essentially the coil reactance at that frequency throughout the continuous current
range and some way into discontinuous current operation.
Therefore, link resonant frequency and current division
can be estimated without fully knowing the conduction
state of the rectifier.
is not negligible.
b) In many cases the source inductance
The primary effect of this ac side inductance will be to
change the apparent dc link inductance and therefore the
tuning of the dc link components. Pspice simulations were
mH and 96 hertz excitation. From these
run with
simulations, the apparent value of dc link inductance can
be calculated. The difference between the apparent and
actual values of dc link inductance (referred to here as

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inverter harmonics are present due to either load imbalance or

overmodulation.
APPENDIX

Fig. 6.

=L

Inductance Ratio as L Varies L

= 3 mHenry.

Sinusoidal pulse width modulation of a converter leg is

performed through the comparison of a sinusoidal command
signal and a triangular modulating signal. The command signal
is the desired fundamental frequency of the
frequency
is the
inverter output. The modulating signal frequency
desired switching frequency. Switch logic is implemented so
that the output leg is connected to the positive bus when the
command signal is greater than the modulating signal, and
the output phase is connected to the negative bus when the
command signal is less than the modulating signal.
is called the frequency modulation ratio of
The ratio
. The ratio of the amplitude of the command
the inverter
signal to the modulating signal is the amplitude modulation ratio
. In the linear region,
is less than 1, the fundamental
. When
is greater than
output voltage is proportional to
1, switching pulses are eliminated for the portion of time when
the sine wave is greater than the triangle wave. As a result, the
, and low order
fundamental level is no longer proportional to
harmonics are introduced into the output wave.
REFERENCES

Fig. 7.

=L

Inductance Ratio as L Varies L = 0:1 mHenry.

) is the equivalent or effective level of the source inas a

ductance. Fig. 6 shows the inductance ratio
function of . Fig. 6 shows that source inductance behaves similarly to a dc link inductance 1.6 times greater
when
is greater than 0.5 mH. The low level
than
nonlinearity is again due to discontinuous operation of the
reduced to
rectifier. Fig. 7 shows similar results with
0.1 mH. This suggests that from a design standpoint, dc
link performance can be estimated by modeling source
as an equivalent dc link inductance
.
inductance
These results extend the analysis of Section III to include
cases with low dc link inductance and cases with significant
source inductance. Using these combined results, the frequencies and levels of interharmonics can be predicted for a wide
range of installations.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper analyzes the generation of current interharmonics
by ac variable speed drives. The presence of inverter harmonic
currents on the dc link was considered, and models were developed for the propagation of these currents through the link
and onto the source system. It was shown that little if any interharmonics will be generated by well designed drives operating with linear modulation and balanced loading. Significant
levels of interharmonics can be expected when low frequency

[1] IEEE recommended practices and requirements for harmonic control in

electric power systems, IEEE Std. 519-1992.
[2] D. E. Rice, A detailed analysis of six-pulse converter harmonic currents, EEEE Trans. Industry Applic., vol. IA-30, no. 2, pp. 294304,
March/April 1994.
[3] Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)Part 2: Environment,, IEC
61 000-2.
[4] N. Mohan, T. M. Undeland, and W. P. Robbins, Power Electronics:
Converters, Applications and Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1989.
[5] B. Pilvelait, T. H. Ortmeyer, and M. Grizer, Harmonic evaluation of
inductor location in a variable speed drive, in IEEE 1992 International
Conference on Harmonics in Power Systems, Atlanta, GA, pp. 267271.

Mohammed Bashir Rifai received his B.S.E.E. in 1977 from the University of
Aleppo, Syria, the M.E.E.E. in 1981 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and
the Ph.D. in 1986 from Clarkson University. Since January 1986, he has been
at the University of Aleppo, where he is an Associate Professor of Electrical
Machines & Drives. During the 19911992 year, he was a Visiting Associate
Professor at Yarmouk University, Jordan. He was at Clarkson University for six
months in 1997 as an Associate Researcher. His current interests include power
system harmonics, power electronics, motor control and electrical machinery
stability analysis.

Thomas H. Ortmeyer received his B.S.E.E in 1972, the M.S.E.E. in 1977 and
the Ph.D. in 1980, all from Iowa State University. From 1972 through 1976, he
worked in the Operational Analysis Department, Commonwealth Edison Company, Chicago, Illinois. Since 1979, he has been at Clarkson University, where
he is Professor of electrical engineering. During the 19931994 year, he was
Guest Professor of the Advanced Technology of Electrical Engineering Chair,
Kumamoto University. His current interests include power system harmonics,
power electronics, machine control, and power system protection. He is a Senior
Member of IEEE, and a member of Eta Kappa Nu, Phi Kappa Phi, and Sigma
Xi.

William J. McQuillan received his B.S.E.E. in 1994 and the M.S.E.E. in 1995
from Clarkson University. He is currently with R. G. Vanderweil, Boston, MA.