Investigations on Open-Circuit Faults of Zigzag Autoconfigured Transformer-Based 12-Pulse Rectifier

High power industrial loads are often fed from front-end multipulse rectifier as its ability to effectively and inexpensively mitigate the harmonics on the input ac side, which is achieved by the multipulse autoconfigured transformer. This article analyzes and investigates the operability of the zigzag autoconfigured transformer-based 12-pulse rectifier under open-circuit faults at input ac terminals. Contrary to the prior art 12-pulse rectifiers, the availability of neutral point in zigzag autoconfigured transformer results in different modes of operation under open-circuit faults at input terminals. A detailed theoretical analysis is carried out to understand the operation of the zigzag autoconfigured transformer-based 12-pulse rectifier under open-circuit fault conditions. Further, the experimental results are presented from the laboratory prototype to validate the theoretical analysis.