Simplified half wave rectifier model for improved laboratory simulation using PSpice

With the increasing complexity of the circuits it is essential that students work on the experiments which enhance their circuit analysis and design skills. Circuit simulation tools like PSpice and Multisim are extremely useful tools in understanding the operation of the circuits. However undergraduate level simulation experiments are limited to very simple experiments and mostly concentrate upon the steady state behavior of the circuit and student does not get the exposure to more important circuit behavior like transient and non-repetitive behavior. Including the experiments which require detailed analysis of the circuits with the help of PSpice type tools may add to analytical abilities of the student. Most of the aspects of engineering design may be touched upon during the experiment and student can get acquainted with the complete design process and parameters which are normally not covered in the engineering students course work. In this paper a simple model of half wave rectifier circuit is taken as an example which can be easily obtained and used by the students for improved analysis of the rectifier circuit. Variation in the circuit behavior due to non-ideal components can be studied and accuracy of the simulation results can be increased with the suggested model. More important the parameters and behavior which are normally ignored in the undergraduate laboratory work can be easily studied and students can gain insight into the circuit operation. In this paper determination of the model parameters is explained and results of the experiments conducted in the laboratory are included. The paper emphasizes the use of simplified models based on circuit theory for extracting the details of the circuit operation. The waveforms obtained by simulation and experiments are provided and improvement in simulation results are discussed.