How Freewheeling Diode Improves Power Factor?

A free wheeling diode is used in converter circuits . It is connected across the load. ... Hence average power delivered to the load increases. This will improve the power factor and also make the output current more continuous.

What is the advantage of freewheeling diode?

It reduces the harmonics and it also reduces sparking and arching across the mechanical switch so that it reduces the voltage spike seen in a inductive load. Another advantage in case of RL load is that the freewheeling diode cuts out negative part of the AC voltage not to appear across the load terminals.

What are the effects of using freewheeling diode?

The terminal voltage of the motor may become negative due to the energy stored in the inductance of the armature winding. A freewheeling diode can be used to dissipate this energy in the load itself, thus preventing the terminal voltage from becoming negative.