Harmonic compensator using low leakage reactance transformer

• US 5,341,281 A
• Filed: 05/14/1993
• Issued: 08/23/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Allen-Bradley Company (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Allen-Bradley Company (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Skibinski, Gary
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel T.
• Application Number:
  US08/062,376
• Time in Patent Office: 466 Days
• Field of Search: 363/39, 363/40, 363/42, 363/45, 363/46, 307/105, 336/211, 336/212, 336/220, 336/232
• US Class Current: 363/39
• CPC Class Codes: H01F 27/34 Special means for preventing or reducing unwanted electric or magnetic effects, e.g. no-load losses, reactive currents, harmonics, oscillations, leakage fields
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/01 Arrangements for reducing harmonics or ripples
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/12 Arrangements for reducing harmonics from ac input or output
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/4266 using passive elements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 40/40 Arrangements for reducing harmonics
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 174/17 in an electric power conversion, regulation, or protection system

Abstract

A harmonic compensator comprises a transformer having low leakage reactance connected between a utility and a load and a signal generator which injects into the transformer a signal having a frequency which cancels undesirable higher order harmonics induced by the load. The low leakage reactance nature of the transformer permits injection of high frequency signals which restore the fundamental sine wave of the signal from the utility and thereby eliminates undesirable nonlinear harmonics which cause up-line disruptions. The low leakage reactance transformers may comprise a coaxial structure having a thin hollow tube as the primary coil, a coaxial structure having a single main coaxial cable distributed into several paralleled coaxial cables of smaller diameter, or a co-planar transformer structure having flat strip line conductors wrapped around a conventional core as the primary and secondary coils. Injection of a high frequency signal from the signal generator into the low leakage reactance transformer does not generate unacceptably large voltage drops as in conventional transformers because leakage reactance is low. Thus, the signal compensator is able to produce a signal of sufficiently high dynamic response to match that of even the fastest changing portions of the undesired harmonic signal travelling toward the utility from the load.

Claims

1. A device for compensating for undesirable higher order harmonics induced by a load, said device comprising:

transformer means having low leakage reactance connected between a utility and said load on a line having a line frequency;

a compensator connected to said transformer means, said compensator comprising a signal generator which injects into said transformer means a signal having a frequency which cancels said undesirable higher order harmonics induced by said load.

2. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said signal injected into said transformer means has a frequency approximately twelve times greater than the product of the line frequency and the frequency of the highest undesirable harmonic.

3. The invention as defined in claim 2 wherein said signal injected into said transformer means corresponds to a frequency association with at least the thirteenth harmonic.

4. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said transformer means comprises a core, a first tube passing through said core and having a longitudinal axis, a second tube passing through said core, said second tube having a longitudinal axis and positioned around and spaced from said first tube, and said longitudinal axes being aligned with one another.

5. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said transformer means comprises a core and a plurality of parallel coaxial cables passing through said core, the inner conductor of each of said coaxial cables comprising a primary conductor and the outer conductor of each of said coaxial cables comprising a secondary conductor.

6. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said transformer means comprises a core, a first flat plate having two sides and wound around said core in a winding direction, and second and third plates wound around said core and on either side of said first plate in said winding direction.

7. The invention as defined in claim 6 wherein said plates have a dimension in a direction perpendicular to said winding direction and said dimension of said first plate in said direction perpendicular to said winding direction is less than said dimension of said second and third plates in said direction perpendicular to said winding direction.