TRIGONOMETRIC FOURIER SERIES

EXPERIMENT NO. ____

I. OBJECTIVES
To illustrate the trigonometric Fourier series with varying values of n.

II. EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS

(1) PC with MATLAB

III. INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS

The French mathematician Fourier found that any periodic waveform, that is, a waveform that repeats itself
after some time, can be expressed as a series of harmonically related sinusoids, whose frequencies are multiples of a
fundamental frequency (or first harmonic). For example, a series of sinusoids with frequencies 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 3
MHz, and so on, contains the fundamental frequency of 1 MHz, a second harmonic of 2 MHz, a third harmonic of 3
MHz, and so on. In general, any periodic waveform can be expressed as
∞
1
f ( t )= a o +∑ ( a n cos nω t+b n sin nωt )
2 n=1
ao
where the first term is a constant, and represents the (average) component of the signal, a1 and b1 represent the
2
amplitude at the fundamental frequency, a2 and b2 represent the amplitudes at the second harmonics of the the cosine
and sine function respectively. Plotting this Fourier series and choose the value of n (the number of harmonics) gives
the equivalent summation of sine and cosine function approximating the original signal.

III. PROCEDURE
1. Half – wave Rectified Signal. The derived Fourier series of half – wave rectified signal given in figure 1 is
equal to:
Vm Vm 2V cos 2 ωt cos 4 ωt cos 6 ωt
v ( t )=
π
+
2
sin ωt− m
π 3 (+
15
+
35
+… )
or
n
Vm Vm 2V cos nωt
v ( t )= + sin ωt− m ∑
π 2 π 1 , even n 2−1
and the MATLAB script file is given as follows:
figure('Units', 'normalized',...
'Color', [1 1 1],...
'Position', [0.09 0.0595 0.8 0.8],...
'Name', 'Half-wave Rectified Signal using Fourier Series',...
'Numbertitle', 'off')

T = 2*pi;
t = 0.05:0.01:3*T;
omega = 2*pi/T;
k = 2;
Vm = 1;
V1_t = Vm/pi + Vm/2*sin(omega.*t);
V2_t = zeros(size(t));
V2_true = zeros(size(t));
j = 100;
for n = 2:2:k
V2_t = 2*Vm/pi*(1/(1-(n^2))*cos(n*omega.*t))+ V2_t;
end

for n = 2:2:j
V2_true = 2*Vm/pi*1/(1-n.^2)*cos(n*omega.*t)+ V2_true;
end

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 V_ttest = V1_t + V2_t;
V_ttrue = V1_t + V2_true;

plot(t, V_ttest,'r',t, V_ttrue,'b','linewidth',3), grid on

legend(‘experimental’,’actual’)

1.2
experimental
actual

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

-0.2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

2. Copy the MATLAB script and run it. Observe that graph consists of two waves – the blue one represents
the actual half – wave rectified signal and the red one represents the experimental half – wave signal. In the
given sample program, what consists the rectified half – wave signal?
a. Average value, odd and even harmonics of sine and cosine waves
b. Average value, odd harmonics of sine waves only
c. DC value, even harmonics of cosine waves only
d. DC value, a fundamental wave of sine, and even harmonics of cosine waves

3. Increase the value of k (the number of harmonics in the sample program) to 4, 6, 8, and 20. Re-run each
value of k and observe the waveform. Record your observation.
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4. Full – wave Rectified Signal. The given Fourier series of a full – wave rectified signal is given as follows:
2V m 4 V m −1 1 1
v ( t )=
π
+
π 3 [
cos 2 ωt− cos 4 ωt − cos 6 ωt−...
5 35 ]
5. State the standard (abbreviated) equation of the Fourier series based on the general equation given in Step
4.

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 6. Identify the following component of the full – wave rectified signal in Step 4.
a. DC value:

b. Odd harmonics of cosine waves:

c. even harmonics of cosine waves:

d. harmonics of sine waves:

7. Make a similar program as in Step 1 illustrating the Fourier series of the full – wave rectified signal. Write
your program at the back of this paper.

8. Run your program, and see if it gives a closer approach to the actual rectified signal. After getting the right
program, test the Fourier series by increasing the value of k ( the number of harmonics). Write your
observation.
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9. Make a sketch of the full – wave rectified signal both of experimental and actual waveforms on the space
provided for.

10. Turn off the PC properly.

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