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Uncontrolled rectifiers are featured heavily in aircraft electrical power systems performing a number of the power conversion and conditioning functions. Detailed modeling and simulation of these and other converters as part of a wider aircraft power system, whilst accurate, can be very computationally intensive, resulting in impractically slow simulation speed. One potential solution to this issue is the use of average-value converter models, which offer a much lower computational requirement and can utilize larger time steps. Of the average-value diode rectifier modeling methods presented in the research literature the parametric method is particularly well suited to system-level simulation because it can be readily derived to represent all modes of rectifier operation. To date however, published results utilizing this methodology have been limited to simpler power system architectures.

Modern aerospace power systems commonly make use of uncontrolled rectifiers to satisfy many power conversion needs on board the aircraft. Whilst being highly accurate, an analytically detailed simulation of the aircraft power system, which includes all electric machine dynamics, semiconductor switching states, and power system dynamics, is often very computationally demanding. Average-value models of power electronic converters, with their reduced computational requirement, offer one potential solution to this issue. However, of the many converter topologies presented in the literature, average-value models of uncontrolled diode rectifiers are perhaps the most challenging to develop. The dependence of the rectifier's operating state on its loading conditions and the surrounding network topology complicates the derivation of average-value models.