Analysis of Six-Pulse Bridge Circuits Including Zener and Semiconductor Diodes Part One

Abstract

This paper addresses the analysis of   electronic bridge circuits including Zener and/or semiconductor diodes. The analysis is based on recently suggested models for these diodes. A compact Mathematica code written in the Versions 7.0, 11.3 and 12.2 simulating a six-pulse rectifier bridge circuit is then derived and mathematically implemented. It investigates the time-domain transient and steady-state analysis of several representative case studies. In principle, the computer simulation can yield the circuits’ currents and voltages as functions of time resulting from voltage sources of any waveform. Special emphasis is given, however, to power frequency sinusoidal sources. The maximum phase value of the 60-Hz source is assumed 12 Volts. The eventual presence of load at the bridge output terminals as well as the effect of the smoothing filter circuits are taken into consideration. The investigation of the resulting valve stresses can be of crucial importance when discussing the usability of Zener diodes as building elements in bridge circuits. The source currents are relatively smooth curves oscillating between -3.5 and +3.5A and exhibiting small high frequency as well as noticeable DC offset components.  It will be shown that the models dealing with semiconductor diodes can be easily derived from those addressing Zener diodes, through simple modifications.