JIAN SUN, Member, IEEE
MIN CHEN
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
KAMIAR J. KARIMI
The Boeing Company
Ac-dc converters with active power factor correction (PFC) are replacing uncontrolled diode rectification circuits on commercial jet airplanes in order to meet harmonic distortion limits imposed by new airborne electrical system power quality standards. The high line frequency of airborne ac power systems presents a major challenge for the design of PFC converters capable of meeting these standards. This paper investigates a new source of harmonic current distortion and the resulting system power quality problems related to dynamic interactions between PFC converters and the ac source. Experimental results are first presented to demonstrate the existence of such interactions and their effects on system power quality. Analytical and numerical simulation results are then presented to explain why such dynamic interactions can lead to significantly increased harmonic current distortion in steady state operation. Elimination of undesirable system interactions through proper damping of the PFC converter input filter is also presented and its effectiveness experimentally validated.
Manuscript received December 31, 2005; revised July 24, 2006;
released for publication December 23, 2006.
IEEE Log No. T-AES/44/1/920398
Refereeing of this contribution was handled by W. M. Polivka.
Authors' current addresses: J. Sun, Dept. of Electrical, Computer,
and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy,
NY 12180-3590, E-mail: (jsun@rpi.edu); M. Chen, Sensitron
Semiconductor, Long Island, NY; K. J. Karimi, The Boeing
Company, Seattle, WA.
0018-9251/08/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE