The Method for Designing the Third Order Filter

Xiao Ym
Hubei Electric Power Test & Research Institute
Wuhan, P. R.China

Abstrrct: The relationships among the parameters of the third order Z(@) = r ( a )+ fx(cU)
filter 8n derived in this paper. As a result, a method for determining
parameters of the filter is presented. The characteristics of the filter, - (U + R2 LC2 - ~uL(cuLC - l)] - j- 1
Rf LC)
(1)
such as the frtquency with minimum impedance, etc. arc discussed (u(RC) +(oLC-I)~ d
in detail, and the optimal parameters to avoid the local resonance
where 0 is angular fkequency in radians.
between the filter and the system are recommended. A simply
comparison with the second order filter is also attached on the In the process of conducting the algorithm for the
parameters, one of the frequencies at which the impedance of
Paper.
the filter equals to z t ~ ois referred to as the tuned frequency
Keywords: filter, power filter, power system harmonics of the filter, this can be obtained from equation (I), i.e.
03R2LC2-aL(w2LC-1) --=(la 1
I. INTRODUCTION (2)
o ( R C ) ~+(m2LC-1)
The third order filter (shown as Fig. I ) was first applied
into the France-England cross channel link 1 project with its
capacitances CI=C2, then in the France-England cross
channel link 2 project and the link project between Scorsican
tapping of Lucciana and Sacoi2 (Italy) with its capacitances
C , f C2(21. Its performance is introduced in periodicals and
other concerned publications (31, but the method how to
design it, even the method under the condition of that CI=C2, Fig.1 The configuratioaof the third order film
has not been well mentioned till now and therefore it is not
familiar to many of the engineers dealing with the power Equation (2) can be rewritten as
quality and harmonics. Compared to the second order filter,
its main advantage is the considerable reduction of power
(wLC - 1)[w2( RC) 2wLC - + I] = 0 . (3)
Let
losses at fundamental frequency, because the capacitor C, in
series with R increases the impedance of that branch. 1
@ H =- (4)
Compared to C,, the rating of C, is much lower. So the JZ
investment of the filter increases a little, but the running cost be the tuned frequency in this paper; introduce another
is much lower. This paper mainly presents the method for angular frequency
calculating the parameters according to the known data such 1
as the rated voltage of the system, the capacity and the tuned @o =-
RC
frequency of the filter under the condition of that C,=C2. The and a parameter
characteristics of the filter. such as the frequency at which the
total impedaize is minimum, etc. are discusd in detail. The
optimal parameters to avoid the local resonance between the
filter and the system are also recommended here. then, at a, = CVH , the impedance of the filter becomes pure
resistive and it is
iI. THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE PARAMETERS

Suppose that C, and C, are equal to C in this paper,

therefore the impedance of the filter in frequency domain can The quality factor of the filter is defined as the ratio
be obtained: between the capacitive reactance -
@HC
and the resistance

r ( u ~ ) othe
f filter at the tuned frequency, i.e.
Paper accepted for presentation at the 8u Intemahonal
Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power 1
xC(@H) R nHwIRC (8)
ICHQP 98, jointly organized by ZEEEIPES and NTUA, q H = W = G = WO J;;;
Athens, Greece, October 1416,1998 Substituting equations (4) and (8) into equation (l), the
Q7803-5105-3/981$10.00 0 1998 IEEE impedance at the hndamental frequency col becomes

139
 R -
(1 n3r )(df+ 4f - 2) .(9)
d4)1)=q i n i + ( n $ - 1 ) 2 + j ~ q ~ n ~ + ( n ~ - 1 ) 2 ~ C
When nH 23, the resistance r ( q ) o f the filter in
equation (9) is less than N64,which is considerably small.
For this reason, the impedance at the hdamental fkquency
q c a n also be expressed by the reactive compensation
capacity (Q) of the filter and the rated voltage (U) of the

-
network:

~ ( qj x)( q 1= 1
. (I - njj>(q%+ n$ - 2)
-
[q$& + <n$ 1 ) ~ l c
1 . 5
U

ii
lo.5
It is clearly that capacitance C is decided by the reactive 0
compensation capacity of the filter. 0 0.5 1 1.5 2.. 2.5 3
Accoydingly, the relationships among all parameters are -.AJ
established. (4
The problem of whether the harmonic nHbeing the
optimal filtering order is left for the discussion of next 0
section.
5
CI

-1
111. THE CHARACTERISTICSOF THE FILTER
-2

-
Following the introduction of the relationships among the
parameters above, the characteristics of the filter will be
discussed in this section. With the parameters described by
equations ( 5 ) and (6), the reactances of reactor and capacitors
1 -3
-4

-5
at n-th harmonic frequency are:
x L ( n )= n q L = n q
L R2C = -mR
- n
, (1 1)
R2C 0 .,

where ~,=a,/ri~,,Therefore the impedance of the filter can be

:I
expressed as the function of harmonic n:
+ j(m---n
f :,
2m-(-) 0 2 no)
n
z( n) = r(nj + j x ( n) = no R,
1+ j ( m - n- - no)
0 n
c

+ j ( m z - 3 ) [ 1 - 2m + 1
- 0 no n R. (13) 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
l+(m- n --n0)Z frequency f,

no n
With this equation, the impedances at some specified (c 1
harmonic orders are listed in Table 1 . Fig.2 m c h c curve of the film(a) mistwcc.
*

8 )ructancc; ( c) impedance
The curves of r ( a ) and x ( a ) versus fresuency are
shown in Fig. 2 (a) and (b) respectively. Fig. 2 (c) is the filter takes R as asymptotic line, so the filter belongs to the high
impedance z(0) versus 0 . It can be seen that the impedance
pass type.

140
 The curve of the impedance decides the effect of
suppressing the harmonics. For a given capacitance the
parameters m, in fhct the quatity Edctor (qd of the filter, is
decided to achieve an appropriately the low impedance over
the required fkquency range.
From Fig. 2(b), whether the reactance of the filter is
inductive or capacitive is decided by the parameter m and the
range of harmonic da Table 2 lists the property of the
impedance relative to both m and dn, .

Table 2. The propcrty of the total nac~ancenlative to m and dm 0.7 1 ' ' ' ' . ' . ' ' ' ... ' ' .. . ' ' . ' ' .J
m p of m I dn~ (with inductive x )I dm (with capacitive 4 0 0.5
bIIIIIIMtET. m
1.6 2 2.5

Fig. 3 The cwcof n ~ / *nH vcrsu m

0.8 1
nF1
m> 1
.
+".'
;r;;
ZIa-t<n,
O < n / b <Q,
n15<ilJZZ
nl~>llJ;;;
h
eo. I
L.

2 . 6
so.5
to. 4
NO. 3
IO.2
30. 1
0
0 0.5 1 1. 5 2 2.5
Fig. 4 minimum impedancevaries with m

The harmonic nmin,the capacity Q, and the quality

factorqH(or m) of the filter should be determined prior
to the calculation of R, L and C;
Determine the tuned harmonic nH according to Fig. 3;
By equation (IO), determine the capacitance C from the
h O W n data and q H , etc.;
Determine the inductance L by equation (4) and
resistance R by equation (8);
Calculate the synthetical effects of suppressing
harmonics with the consideration of system harmonic
impedance and other hannonic filters to be installed,
then modi@ the parameter m, and go back to the
procedure (ii). to calculate the R L, C again, until the
best performance is achieved.

IV. COMPARING WITH THE SECOND ORDER FILTER

The third order filter and the second order filter have the
similar characteristics. For comparison, assuming that their
parameters R L and C are the same, and therefore m, nH, no
are equal in both case.
The harmonic nmidZd)at which the impedance of the
second order filter is minimum can be expressed'by a formula
of
nmin(&f) = nH I JEZiEZi- (14)

141
 The impedance of the second order filter is inductive
above the harmonic n = nt, / 4 s only when m 4 . If
m 2 1, the impedance is capacitive over the whole frequency.
The impedance of the second order filter is more flat
above the tuned frequency when m is a big figure.
Finally, the power losses of the third order filter at
fundamental frequency is
and that of the second order filter is
so the relative reduction of power losses when the second
order filter is replaced by the third order filter
which is greater than '0' because of n,, 2 2 in general.
.V. CONCLUSION
The relationships among all parameters of the third
order filter are obtained. On the basis of analyzing the
characteristics of it, the curve to describe the harmonic order
142
with minimum impedance of the filter is shown, which is very
practical in designing process. And the optimal parameters to
prevent the resonance W e e n the filter and the system are
analyzed. In next program, the relationships among the
parameters of the filter under the condition when C,is not
equal to C2should studied.
VI. REFERENCE
CIGRE, "AC harmonic filtea and reactive compensation for HVDC",
Electra, no.63, 1979
CIGRE WG 14.03, AC harmonicjilters and nactivr compensation
for HVW with particuhr reference to non-charackrlslic harmonics,
Complement to fhe paper published in Electra no.63 (1979), CIGRE
npoq June. 1990.
J. Arrillaga, D.A. Bradley and P.S.Bodger, Power system harmonics,
Jhon Wiley & Sons,. 1986.
VII. BIOGRAPHY
Xiao Yao, was born on March,28.1960 in Hubei Pmvinct. China
He received his B.E. and M.E. d e g m in Electrical Engineering
from Tsinghua University, China in 1983 and 1986 nspcaively. He
jointed Hubti Electric P o w Test & Research Institute in china in
1986. and has bcen working in the field of power systcm harmonics
and quality ever since. He has a lot of articles published in various
Chinese periodicals.