Effects of flexible power cables on harmonic generation of an arc furnace steel plant

A three-phase dynamic arc furnace model is presented to investigate the effect of flexible power cables oscillations on harmonic generation of an arc-furnace steel plant. In this model, the flexible cables are presented by a varying three-phase inductor bank connected in series to the arc furnace. The self and mutual inductances of the inductors are calculated at each time step, using the shape of the cables. The shape of each cable is, in turn, obtained using the arc-furnace current computed in the preceding time step. The simulation results show that the inclusion of the flexible power cables in the arc furnace model does not have a significant effect on the magnitudes of the plant generated harmonics. However, the cables oscillations can remarkably affect the level of unbalancy in the three-phase system.