Assessment of Harmful Health Effects of AC Rectifier Converters Harmonic Components

The article examines the main sources of EMF harmful effects affecting the electrical personnel. Harmonic composition of the rectified voltage at traction substations is analyzed. The article presents rectified voltage timing diagrams. Canonical and harmonic components of rectified voltage at the output of 6-pulse rectifier are shown. The article shows that a rectifier converter is a source of AC harmonic components and has a variety of electric and magnetic forces, the harmful effects of which on the staff have not yet been studied. It is shown that particularly in the railway transport traction networks during the use of 6-pulse VP (Kubler circuit), the operating voltages and the electric traction currents result in the creation of electric field forces caused by harmonic components, which in some cases significantly exceed the maximum permissible forces regulated in foreign practice.