Power Electronics and Motor Drive Systems

4.1. Single-Phase Full-Wave Diode Rectifier With Center–Tapped Transformer

Fig. 4.1(a) shows one of the simplest single-phase full-wave diode rectifiers. During the first half-cycle the input voltage has positive values forcing diode D₁ to be forward biased and diode D₂ reverse biased, and thus D₁ is conducting, connecting the power supply to the load terminals. The equivalent circuit of the rectifier during this mode of operation is shown in Fig. 4.1(b). During the second half-cycle, the input voltage has negative values forcing diode D₂ to be forward biased and diode D₁ reverse biased and thus D₂ is conducting, connecting the input voltage across the load. The equivalent circuit of the rectifier during this mode is shown in Fig. 4.1(c). As can ...