MATLAB modeling of arc furnace for flicker study

Voltage flicker and harmonics are the power quality problems which are introduced to the power system as a result of nonlinear and stochastic behavior of the arc furnace operation. In the first part of the paper, different arc furnace models with different level of complexity, for flicker study are reviewed. Simulation results are also provided. In the second part of the paper, a new developed time domain model for an arc furnace using MATLAB (Simulink) is presented. The novelty of this simulation technique lies in the fact that the variation of power transmitted to the load by the arc furnace during the cycle of operation is considered, so more flicker is expected, specially during the melting period, thus making the proposed model more accurate and dependent on the operating conditions of the load. Finally recommendations are made for the application of some of these models and the accuracy of the presented model to other models from the practical point of view by using MATLAB is shown.