Study of Harmonic Suppression of Ship Electric Propulsion Systems

This paper studies the harmonic characteristics of ship electric propulsion systems and their treatment methods. It also adopts effective measures to suppress and prevent ship power systems from affecting ship operation due to the serious damage caused by harmonics. Firstly, the harmonic characteristics of a ship electric propulsion system are reviewed and discussed. Secondly, aiming at problems such as resonant frequency and filter characteristics variations, resonance point migration, and unstable filtering performances in conventional passive filters, a method for fully tuning of a passive dynamic tunable filter (PDTF) is proposed to realize harmonic suppression. Thirdly, to address the problems of the uncontrollable inductance L of traditional air gap iron core reactors and the harmonics of power electronic impedance converters (PEICs), this paper proposes an electromagnetic coupling reactor with impedance transformation and harmonic suppression characteristics (ECRITHS), with the internal filter (IF) designed to suppress the harmonics generated by PEICs. The ECRITHS is characterized by both harmonic suppression and impedance change. Fourthly, the ECRITHS is investigated. This investigation includes the harmonic suppression characteristics and impedance transformation characteristics of the ECRITHS at the fundamental frequency, which shows the good performance of the ECRITHS. Simulation and experimental evaluations of the PDTF are carried out. Multiple PDTFs can be configured to realize multi-order simultaneous dynamic filtering, and can effectively eliminate the current harmonics of ship electric propulsion systems. This is done to reduce the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the supply currents to well below the 5% limit imposed by the IEEE-519 standard. The PDTF also can eliminate harmonic currents in different geographic places by using a low voltage distribution system. Finally, a detailed discussion is presented, with challenges and future implications discussed. The research results are intended to effectively eliminate the harmonics of ship electric power propulsion systems and to improve the power quality of ship power systems. This is of theoretical and practical significance for improving the power quality and power savings of ship power systems.