Electrical Engineering i n Japan, Vol. 96, No.
3, 1976
Translated from Denki Cakkai Ronbunrhi, Vol. %B, No. 5, May 1976, pp. 243-250
Analysis of Turn-Off Overvoltage of Thyristor V a l v e
S U M 1 0 KOBAYASHI
Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co. ,W.
1. Introduction
Thyristors are being used extensively for
power apparatus. In particular, high-voltage
ac/dc thyristor converters are being put to prac-
ticaluse [ 9 ] .
In designing a high-voltage thyristor valve,
an accurate analysis of the transient behavior of
series -connected thyristors is indispensable.
The voltage distribution in turn-off condition and
the turn-off overvoltage play an extremely im-
portant role in determining the number of se-ries-
connected thyristors [ 6 I.
The turn-off overvoltage of a single thyristor
has so far been a n e z e d by many researchers
[l-51 and it h a s been pointed out that the recov-
ery current of the thyristor should be taken into
account carefully. Nevertheless, the effect of
recovery current has been given little considera-
tion when the series-connected thyristors are
analyzed. This is due mdnly to the difficulty of
analysis. In [6, 71, the recovery current is
neglected although the maximum recovery current
is taken into account. A s for the analysis of the
voltage distribution, the unbalance of storage
charge has been taken into account in [lo, 12,
131, but the calculation accuracy is not good
enough to clarify the relation between turn-off
overvoltage and constants of voltage grading cir-
cuit.
In this paper, an accurate method to calculate
the turn-off overvoltage and the voltage distribu-
tion of series-connected thyristors is proposed.
The calculation accuracy is confirmed experi-
mentally and the turn-off behavior of series-con-
nected thyristors is analyzed.
2. Calculation of Turn-Off Overvoltage
2.1 Representation of recovery current
To represent the recovery current of a thyris-
tor in turn-off condition, let us consider a model
50
shown in Fig. 1. Due to the presence of storage
charge in the junction, the thyristor does not
turn-off instantaneously even if the reverse volt-
age is applied. To analyze the behavior of recov-
ery current, let us assume that the forward cur-
rent vanishes at t = 0.
Period 0 S t 5 ti: During this period, a part
of the storage charge recombinesinsidethejunc-
tion and the remaining part flows out to the exter-
nal circuit. Therefore the thyristor is com-
pletely conducting while no storage charge is gen-
erated anew inside the junction.
Time point: t = ti. A t time t = ti, the current
supply capability of storage charge becomes equal
to the current flowing through the external circuit.
Period ti < t: During this period, the storage
charge is not able to supply a sufficient current to
the external circuit and therefore the external
current decays with time at a constant rate. The
junction impedance also increases very rapidly
with time.
The decay time constant 71 of the junction cur-
rent and the value of ti are dependent on the prop-
erties of thyristor, working condition of commu-
tation circuit and junction temperature.
An equivalent circuit of the thyristor in turn-
off condition is given in Fig. 2(b). It consists of
equivalent resistance R , exponentially decaying
current source I, capacitance CG and resistance
RG for voltage grading and parallel resistance r.
Both R and I vary with time t aa shown in Table 1.
For 0 5 t 5 ti, R = RON FJ 0 in Fig. 2(b) and re-
covery current ir flows through R. During this
period, we also set I = 0. The quantity of storage
charge which flows out to the external circuit dur-
ing this period is given by
QS=i:i,-di (1)
At time t = t l , we Set R = ROFF = r a n d I = irp in
Fig. 2(b), irp being the peak value of recovery

Fig. 1. Recovery current of thyristor.
(a)
Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit for thyristor turn-off.
First, let us calculate the turn-off overvoltages
of valve o when the thyristor current is being com-
mutated from valve 3 to valve 3 and valve @ is
conducting. A l l the nonconducting valves are
represented by CG' (= CG/n), RG' (= n*RG), C D
and RD and the anode reactors connected to non-
conducting valves are neglected. The commutat-
ing reactance, the capacitance to ground of trans-
former per phase and the capacitance to ground
of dc reactor DCL are denoted by Lt, C t and COO,
respectively. The equivalent circuit used for the
analysis is shown in Fig. 5, where E, 0 , U and
w denote the peak value of line voltage on the sec-
ondary side of transformer T r , control angle,
commutation overlap angle and angular frequency,
respectively. The equivalent circuit of valve 9 is
enclosed with a dot-dashed line and (Rl, 111, (R2,
121,... , (Rn, In) represent the series-connected
(b) thyristors. Denoting the decay time constants of
recovery currents of thyristors 1to n by l / n ,
1/72, ... , 1/7n, we obtain the following circuit
equations :

Table 1. Formulation of thyristor turn-off

I I
I 1
I
Recovery current
of thyristor
O$t<tI I R=RoN I I=O I i.

td,

current. F o r t > t i , the magnitude of current

source I is expressed as
Z =ir,exp ( ( tI - t ) .rI] (2)

The terminal voltage of the thyristor is given by

R*ip

2.2 Turn-off overvoltage of three-phase

thyristor bridge
Consider a thyristor valve consisting of n
series -connected thyristors. We analyze the
turn-off behavior of the three-phase thyristor
bridge shown in Fig. 4 under the following as-
sumptions.

(1) Each thyristor is completely conducting

until the storage charge of quantity QS flows out.
(2) The recovery current decays with time
constant pl after the storage charge of quantity
QS flows out.
il+irf.....-+i,
(3) Assumptions (I) and (2) hold even i f the
thyristors are connected in series.
+--CG (n. RG +R L )
(10)

51
 the initial conditions such that

lC0
Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of typical thyristor valve.
To integrate current il, for instance, we set R1
=~

tively.
F = rFand 11 = il(exp (ti-t) 7-1) when the
integral of il has reached QSl at t = ti. A simi-
lar procedure is applied to currents 12 to in and
we continue this process until all the thyristors
turn off. The terminal voltages of thyristors 1t o
...,
n a r e g i v e n b y r - i r , roi2, r * i n , respec-

3. Comparison Between Measured and

Calculated Results
To test the calculation accuracy, we measure
the voltage distribution and turn-off overvoltages
of model valve M.V. as shown in Fig. 6. The
model valve consists of three-thyristors; its cir-
cuit constants are given in Fig. 15. Storage
charges of the three thyristors are QSl = 369 pC,
QS2 = 420 pC and QS3 = 488 pC. Decay time con-
stants are l/q = 1/72 = 1/73 = 13 ps. Calculated
Fig. 4. Bridge connection. turn-off avervoltages are compared i n Fig. 7 with
the measured ones. The calculated peak value of
turn-off overvoltage is always larger than the mea-
_.-.__
sured one and the difference between them is less
than several percent.
From the curves in Fig. 7, we can make the
following conclusions.

(1) The recovery current of the series-con-

nected thyristor is not the same as that of the
isolated thyristor. More precisely, the recovery
current of the thyristor with large storage charge
QS tends to approach that of the thyristor with
small storage charge. Therefore, the unbalance
of QS is compensated to some extent by connecting
multiple thyristors in series. This effect is called
the balancing effect of storage charges. Measured
recovery currents in Fig. 8 (a) a r e measured in
Fig. 5. Equivalent circuit for valve @ turn-off. isolated condition. More precisely, the three
thyristors are not connected in series but are
separated from each other in measuring the wave-
forms in Fig. 8(a). On the other hand, the three
thyristors are connected in series in measuring
(11) waveforms in Fig. 8(b). Comparing the wave-
forms in Fig. 8(a) with those in Fig. 8(b), we can
!3--RG d-i L ~diR1 clearly recognize the balancing effect of storage
dt RI+RG( d t +x) charges.
- i LI+ i RI- i'+ RC. C G.rl -1
:. - (12) Calculated recovery currents of individual
: CG(Rl+RG) CG(R'+RG) ' I ' thyristors are given in Fig. 9(a) and those of
series-connected thyristors are given in Fig.
9(b). Good agreement between the calculated and
the measured waveforms indicates that the as-
+
-i L I i RI-in RG. C Car, - 1 .In
- +

(13) sumptions stated in section 2.2 are reasonable

CC(Rn+RG) CG(Rn+RG)
from practical viewpoints.
We solve the above simultaneous linear differen- To analyze the balancing mechanism of storage
tial equations by the Runge-Kutta method under charges, let us consider the two series-connected

52
 L

- ..
s
Fig. 6 . Test circuit for commutation.
-30
Meamred EIPV~

Fig. 8. Recovery current of series-connected

thyristors, measured value.

Calculated awe

Fig. 9. Recovery current of series-connected

thyristors, calculated value.
Fig. 7. Distribution of turn-off overvoltage of
series-connected thyristors.

thyristors whose individual recovery currents in

isolated condition are represented by the solid
curves in Fig. 10. Storage charges QSl and
QS1' of thyristor 1 in isolated condition are
given by

Fig. 10. Recovery current of series-connected

(15) thy* tors.

QS1'=QS1 + Q
i r l e x p [ ( t l - t ) . ~d ]t

(16)
When the two thyristors are connected in
=QSl+'"
TI series, the storage charge of thyristor 1 reaches
QSl at t = ti and immediately its recovery cur-
Sirnilarb, for thyristor 2, we have rent begim to decay. Thus it operates as a
series impedance for thyristor 2 and therefore
the recovery current of thyristor 2 is limited aa
QSZ'=QSZ+'r (17)
rZ shown by the dotted curve in Fig. 16. The

53

I
I *.._ __..
Fig. 11. Distribution of turn-off avervoltage of
series-connected thyristors.
Fig. 12. Unbalance of storage charge on series-
connected thyristors.
storage charge of thyristor 2 reaches QS2 and
the recovery current reaches id1at t = t2'. The
storage charge of series-connected thyristor 2
becomes equal to
which is smaller than that of thyristor 2 itself by
The storage charge of this quantity vanishes due
to the recombination inside the junction, The
value of ielvaries with the properties of series-
connected thyristors and constants of voltage
grading circuit. To study these effects, let us
consider the following example:
54
Valve capacity: 2000 k W (2000-1000 A), con&
nection: three-phase bridge, frequency: 50 Hz,
secondary line voltage of transformer: 2000 V
transformer impedance: 15%, number of series-
connected thyristors of each valve: 3 (QS1 = 250
pC, QS) = 500 pC, QS3 = 750 pC, 1/71 = 1/72
= 1/13 = 30 pa).
The calculated turn-off overvoltage for a = 90"
is shown in Fig. 11. The effect of voltage grading
circuit on the storage charge unbalance is also
shown in Fig. 12. The balancing effect of storage
charge becomes remarkable as RG increases but
it depends little on CG.
Unbalance Av(t) of voltage distribution is the
largest just after turn-off and it approaches
steadv-state value Avl with the same time con-
stantlas the recovery current. Steady-state un-
balance A v l of storage charge is given by
A QS"
Avl=--
(20)
CG
which depends on the unbalance of storage charge.
The calculated unbalance of storage charge is
compared with the measured one in Fig. 13.
Generally speaking, the voltage across thyris-
tor n is given by
where vdt) is the instantaneous value of total volt-
age impressed to n series-connected thyristors
and Avn(t) is the voltage unbalance of thyristor n.
Now let tm denote a quarter of the natural
oscillation period of turn-off overvoltage which is
dependent on the commutation circuit constants.
If tm S 1/% then Avn(b) fi: Avn' and the maxi-
mum value of Vn(t) is given approximately by
The model valve satisfies this condition. The cal-
culated voltage distribution for t = tm is com-
pared with the measured one in Fig. 14. Curves
in this figure indicate that the voltage distribution
of series-connected thyristors becomes very uni-
form due to the balancing effect of storage charge.
Effects of CG and RG on Avn(t) and Avn' are
illustrated in Fig. 15. The initial jump of AVn(t)
increases as RG increases. While Avn' satisfies
Eq. (20) and is inversely proportional to CG,
A Q S ' decreases as RG increases as shown in
Fig. 12. On the basis of the above discussion,
we can make the following conclusions.
*
(1) If tm 1/71, Eq. (22)holds and, them-
fore, we should let RG be large in order to utilize
the balancing effect of storage charge AQW most
effectively.
 E l

Fig. 13. Voltage distribution on series-onnected

thyristors.
a2 e6 #.a
04
& LO

Fig. 16. Relation between valve turn-off over-

voltage and unbalance of storage charge on series
connected thyristors.

(ii) If t m >> l/q, we should let RG be small

\.'
\ (iii) If tm % 1/71, we should carefully deter-
Fig. 14. Relation between unbalance of storage
charge on series-connected thyristors and volt-
age distribution.
and determine CG properly in order to suppress
the initial jump of Av(t).
mine the optimal values of circuit constants by
the method proposed in this paper. We should
also consider the turn-off stress i n determining
CG and RG. In this paper, we do not discuss the
effect of turn-off stress 1111.
(3) The maximum value of the valve turn-off
overvoltage depends greatly on the recovery char-
acteristics of individual thyristors but depends
little on the unbalance AQS of storage charge as
shown in Fig. 16. In Fig. 16, QS denotes the
average of storage charges QS of series-connected
thyristors and AQS denotes the maximum unbal-
ance of storage charge QS. As indicated in this
figure, the valve turn-off overvoltage is the larg-
est when A Q S = 0 o r equivalently when all the
thyristors turn off simultaneously. It decreases
very little (less than lO?h even if AQS/QS = 1) as
the maximum unbalance AQS increases. This
means that we can set AQS = 0 in practice in cal-
culating the valve turn-off overvoltage. The valve
turn-off overvoltage calculated with QS set equal
to zero is 30% smaller than the measured one.

The first term of Eq. (21)can be calculated in-

Fig. 15. Relation between voltage distribution on
series -connected thyristors and their voltage
grading circult.
dependently of storage charge unbalance and the
second term can be regulated by choosing suitable
values of RG and CG. m r t h e r , as will be dis-
cussed later, the first t e r m can be regulated via
oscillation suppression circuits RD, CD and anode
reactor independently of the RG-CG circuit.

55

Fig. 17. Relation between valve turn-off over-
voltage and storage charge,
Fig. 18. Relation between valve turn-off over-
voltage and rate of decay of recovery current.
3.2 Relation between valve turn-off overvolt-
age, recovery current and circuit con-
Stants
As pointed out in the previous section, we can
replace the series-connected thyristors by a
single equivalent thyristor in calculating the valve
turn-off overvoltage. Therefore, we can use the
analytical results of a valve consisting of a single
thyristor [l-51. The relation between valve turn-
off overvoltage and storage charge, which is cal-
culated by representing the valve by a single
thyristor, is illustrated in Fig. 17. The effect
of recovery current decay constant on the valve
turn-off overvoltage is also illustrated in Fig.
18. All the curves in Figs. 17 and 18 indicate
that the valve turn-off overvoltage can be sup-
pressed very effectively by designing the RD-CD
56
Fig. 19. Relation between valve turn-off overvolt-
age and anode reactance.
circuit properly. The effect of the anode reactor
on the valve turn-off overvoltage is also shown in
Fig. 19. Generally speaking, storage charge QS
of the thyristor is expressed as
QS=k.(S)"
where k is constant and m = 0.5-0.8. Since
dir/dt can be suppressed by using anode reactor
L4, it is possible to suppress the turn-off over-
voltage via anode reactor LA.
4. Conclusions
In this paper, we have proposed a method t o
analyze the turn-off overvoltage by simulating the
recovery currents of series-connected thyristors
accurately. We have also confirmed experiment-
ally that the proposed calculation method is SUM-
ciently accurate, and made the following conclu-
sions:
(1) The unbalance effect of storage charges of
individual thyristors is equalized by connecting
the thyristors in series. The equalizing effect
depends greatly on the constants of the voltage
grading circuit.
(2) The unbalance of turn-off overvoltage
among series-connected thyristors is the largest
just after the turn-off and it approaches the
steady-state unbalance value with the same time
constant as the recovery current.
(3) The valve turn-off overvoltage is greatly
dependent on the recovery currents of ssries-
connected thyristors. The effect of recovery cur-
rent unbalance among series-connected thyristors
is negligible.
(4) The valve turn-off overvoltage can be regu-
lated effectively by choosing RD, CD and anode
.
r e actor properly
(5) Both the voltage distribution and the turn-
off overvoltage are greatly dependent on the re-
covery current characteristics of each thyristor.
Therefore, we should test the recovery charac-
teristics of each thyristor before assigning the
voltage grading circuit constants.
 Acknowledgement
The author thanks Mr. Tsukiji, director, and
Mr. Yamamoto, acting director, both of heavy
current laboratory of Tokyo Shibaura Electric
Co. for their constant guidance. He also thanks
Mr. Yamaguchi, Mr. Takahashi, Mr. Tanabe,
Mr. 1ma.i and Mr. Matsushita for their valuable
comments on this work.
RE FE RENCES
1. K. Samberger. ETZ-A, Vol. 86, No. 24,
p. 781, 1965.
2. G. Thile. ETZ-A, Vol. 90, No. 14, p. 347,
1969.
3. GUnter GLllz, Lampertheim. BBC Nachrich-
tenMflrtz, p. 129, 1968.
4. Hano Christoph Skudelny, Mannheim. BBC-
Nachrichten, Januar, p. 21, 1968.
5. William McMurray. IEEE Trans. Paper
TOD-72-21, 1971.
6. Sawada, Matsushita and Fujiwara. Trans.
I.E.E., Japan, Vol. 92-B, p. 119, Feb.
1972.
57
7. B.J. Cory. HVDC Converter and Systems,
p. 137.
8. G. Karady and T. Gilsig. IEEE Tr. paper
71, Tp642-PWR, 1971.
9. Imai et al. Toshiba Review, Vol. 28, p.
873, Aug. 1973.
10. Kobayashi and Takahashi. 1972 Nat'l Conv.
Inst. Elec. Engrs., Japan, No. 552.
11. Yamaguchi et al. 1974 Nat'l Conv. Inst.
.
Elec. E n g r s , Japan, No. 792.
12. Ammo and Koshiba. Jour. I.E. E., Japan,
Vol. 84, p. 125, Oct. 1964.
13. Yamaguchi, Kobayashi and Takahashi. 1971
Tokyo Branch Conv. Inst. Elec. Engrs.,
Japan, No. 275.
Submitted March 10, 1975;
resubmitted November 25, 1975