LV Reactor Design and Construction

Sizing a reactor:

The first rule is make sure you have a high enough amp rating. In terms of the impedance value, you will usually find that 3% to 5% is the norm with most falling closer to 3%. A 3% reactor is enough to provide line buffering and a 5% reactor would be a better choice for harmonic mitigation if no link choke is present. Output reactors, when used, are generally around 3%. This % rating is relative to the load or drive where the reactor impedance is a % of the drive impedance at full load.

Thus a 3% reactor will drop 3% of the applied voltage at full rated current. To calculate the actual inductance value we would use the following formula. L =XL/(2¶FL) Where L is inductance in Henrys, XL is inductive reactance or impedance in Ohms and F is the frequency. In general Frequency will be the line frequency for both input and output reactors.

Your drive distributor should be able to help you size a reactor for use with a drive. If you wish to calculate the value yourself, the following example may be helpful. If a 3% reactor was required for a 100 amp 480 volt drive, a 100 amp or larger current rating would be required. The drive impedance would be: Z=V/I or 480/100 = 4.8 ohms. 3% X 4.8 ohms = 0.114 ohms inserting this 0.114 impedance in the equation for inductance we get a value of about 300 Microhenrys.