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Power Converters: Modeling, Design and Applications

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "F3: Power Electronics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 14913

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Prof. Dr. Alberto Reatti

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Guest Editor

Department of Information Engineering, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy
Interests: power electronics; DC-DC converters; resonant power converters; renewable power sources; electric machine and drives; smart grids; inverters for renewable power sources; solar hybrid electro-thermal concentrators; electric circuit theory and analysis; switching converter modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Salvatore Musumeci

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Guest Editor

Dipartimento Energia “Galileo Ferraris”, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
Interests: power electronics switching DC-DC converters; advanced power devices characterization, modelling and applications; power converters for electric vehicles and storage systems; LED lamps and driving converters; electrical machine and drives applications; air pollution and EMI; inverters topologies and applicationsair pollution and EMI; inverters topologies and applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Guest Editor is inviting submissions for a Special Issue of Energies on the subject area of “Power Converters: Modeling, Design and Applications”.

Switching power converters are nowadays utilzed in a wide range of applications. The main requirements of modern power converters are high efficiencies, high power densities, fast transient resposnses, and capability to operate in special applications such as fault-tolerant configurations.

Research in this field investigates several topics including, but not limited to, DC–DC converter solutions operating in hard switching and soft-switching conditions, DC-AC inverter operated under several modulation techiniques, resonant DC-DC and DC-AC inverters, and related control strategies. Power converter topologies cover small and large power capacities. The application areas of these power electronics circuits are related to several strategic fields of technological growth such as power supplies, energy storage systems, energy transmission systems, electric vehicles, ship and train traction systems, and renewable energy applications.

This Special Issue will focus on the modeling and design of power converters and their applications. Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:

innovative power converter topologies;
control and optimization of switching converter circuit;
resonant power conveters;
power converters suitable for wireless power tranfer;
switching converter for telecom application;
switching converter in smart grid applications and energy transmission systems;
power converters for energy storage systems;
power converters for e-mobility;
advanced power converters for renewable energy conversion;
power converters for LED driving circuits

Prof. Dr. Alberto Reatti
Dr. Salvatore Musumeci
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Power converters
Switching power converters
PWM converters
Resonant power converters
Wireless power transfer converters
Power converters for renewable power sources
E-mobility
Renewable power sources

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

32 pages, 15060 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analytical Modeling and Control of Dual Active Bridge Converter Considering All Phase-Shifts

by Muhammad Faisal Fiaz, Sandro Calligaro, Mattia Iurich and Roberto Petrella

Energies 2022, 15(8), 2720; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15082720 - 7 Apr 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3394

Abstract

In the field of power electronics-based electrical power conversion, the Dual Active Bridge (DAB) topology has become very popular in recent years due to its characteristics (e.g., bidirectional operation and galvanic isolation), which are particularly suitable to applications such as interface to renewable energy sources, battery storage systems and in smart grids. Although this converter type has been extensively investigated, its analysis and control still pose many challenges, due to the multiple control variables that affect the complex behavior of the converter. This paper presents a theoretical model of the single-phase DAB converter. The proposed model is very general, i.e., it can consider any modulation technique and operating condition. In particular, the converter is seen as composed by four legs, each capable of generating voltage on the inductor, and by the two output legs, which can steer the resulting inductor current to the load. Three variables are considered as the control inputs, i.e., the phase-shifts with respect to one leg. This approach results in a very simple yet accurate closed-form algorithm for obtaining the inductor current waveform. Moreover, a novel analytical model is proposed for calculating the average output current, based on the phase-shift values, independently of the output voltage. It is also shown that average output current can be varied cycle-by-cycle, with no further dynamics. In fact, average output current is not affected by the initial value of inductor current or by DC offset (which may arise during transients). The proposed models can be exploited at several stages of development of a DAB: during the design stage, for fast iteration, when selecting its operating points and when designing the control. In fact, based on the analytical results, a novel control loop is proposed, which adopts a “fictitious” (i.e., open-loop) inner current regulation loop, which can be applied to any modulation scheme (e.g., Single Phase-Shift, Triple Phase-Shift, etc.). The main advantage of this control scheme is that the simple dynamics of the output voltage versus the average output current can be decoupled from the complicated relationship between the phase-shifts and the output current. Moreover, a Finite Control Set (FCS) method is proposed, which selects the optimal operating points for each operating condition and control request, ensuring full Zero-Voltage Switching (ZVS) in all cases. The analytical results obtained and control methods proposed are verified through simulations and extensive experimental tests. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Converters: Modeling, Design and Applications)

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15 pages, 1943 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Improved Charge-Based Method Extended to Estimating Appropriate Dead Time for Zero-Voltage-Switching Analysis in Dual-Active-Bridge Converter

by Haoyu Zhang and Takanori Isobe

Energies 2022, 15(2), 671; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15020671 - 17 Jan 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1686

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) realization with an improved charge-based method by considering both voltage dependency parasitic capacitance and dead time in dual-active-bridge (DAB) converters, when the voltage ratio between the primary and secondary sides does not match the turn ratio of the transformer. For this purpose, a unified equivalent circuit is proposed to represent the switching motions at all possible switching instances under the condition of one-leg manipulation. The combinations of switching cases can be presented in a table to build the corresponding equivalent circuit for ZVS analysis. Combined with the improved charge-based method, the common solutions of the minimum required switching current and the appropriate dead-time range for each equivalent circuit to realize ZVS are deduced. The allowable range of the dead time for ZVS as a function of the switching current is analyzed to determine the appropriate dead time. Once the switching current and dead-time range are derived, the model-based lowest switching current control method can be used to achieve ZVS by using the appropriate amount of both factors. Experiments using a 4 kW DAB prototype were conducted to verify the theoretical analyses. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Converters: Modeling, Design and Applications)

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16 pages, 8754 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Adaptive Synchronous Rectification Driving Strategy for Bidirectional Full-Bridge LLC Resonant Converter

by Chun-Yu Liu, Yi-Hua Liu, Shun-Chung Wang, Zong-Zhen Yang and Song-Pei Ye

Energies 2021, 14(8), 2298; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14082298 - 19 Apr 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3241

Abstract

In this study, an adaptive driving method for synchronous rectification in bidirectional full-bridge LLC resonant converters used in railway applications is proposed. The drain to source voltage of the synchronous rectifier is utilized to detect the conduction of the body diode, and a suitable driving signal for synchronous rectification is generated accordingly. The proposed driving scheme is simple and can be realized using a low-cost digital signal processor (DSP). According to the experimental results, which averaged 0.4625% and 1.097%, improvement can be observed under charging and discharging mode, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Converters: Modeling, Design and Applications)

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20 pages, 6239 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Input Parallel Output Series Structure of Planar Medium Frequency Transformers for 200 kW Power Converter: Model and Parameters Evaluation

by Alessandro La Ganga, Roberto Re and Paolo Guglielmi

Energies 2021, 14(5), 1450; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14051450 - 7 Mar 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2155

Abstract

Nowadays, the demand for high power converters for DC applications, such as renewable sources or ultra-fast chargers for electric vehicles, is constantly growing. Galvanic isolation is mandatory in most of these applications. In this context, the Solid State Transformer (SST) converter plays a fundamental role. The adoption of the Medium Frequency Transformers (MFT) guarantees galvanic isolation in addition to high performance in reduced size. In the present paper, a multi MFT structure is proposed as a solution to improve the power density and the modularity of the system. Starting from

20 kW

planar transformer model, experimentally validated, a multi-transformer structure is analyzed. After an analytical treatment of the Input Parallel Output Series (IPOS) structure, an equivalent electrical model of a

200 kW

IPOS (made by 10 MFTs) is introduced. The model is validated by experimental measurements and tests. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Converters: Modeling, Design and Applications)

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20 pages, 5393 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Zero Voltage Switching Condition in Class-E Inverter for Capacitive Wireless Power Transfer Applications

by Fabio Corti, Alberto Reatti, Ya-Hui Wu, Dariusz Czarkowski and Salvatore Musumeci

Energies 2021, 14(4), 911; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14040911 - 9 Feb 2021

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3148

Abstract

This paper presents a complete design methodology of a Class-E inverter for capacitive wireless power transfer (CWPT) applications, focusing on the capacitance coupling influence. The CWPT has been investigated in this paper, because most of the literature refers to inductive power transfer (IWPT). However, CWPT in perspective can result in lower cost and higher reliability than IWPT, because it does not need coils and related shields. The Class-E inverter has been selected, because it is a single switch inverter with a grounded MOSFET source terminal, and this leads to low costs and a simple control strategy. The presented design procedure ensures both zero voltage switching (ZVS) and zero derivative switching (ZDS) conditions at an optimum coupling coefficient, thus enabling a high transmission and conversion efficiency. The novelties of the proposed method are that the output power is boosted higher than in previous papers available in the literature, the inverter is operated at a high conversion efficiency, and the equivalent impedance of the capacitive wireless power transfer circuit to operate in resonance is exploited. The power and the efficiency have been increased by operating the inverter at 100 kHz so that turn-off losses, as well as losses in inductor and capacitors, are reduced. The closed-form expressions for all the Class-E inverter voltage and currents waveforms are derived, and this allows for the understanding of the effects of the coupling coefficient variations on ZVS and ZDS conditions. The analytical estimations are validated through several LTSpice simulations and experimental results. The converter circuit, used for the proposed analysis, has been designed and simulated, and a laboratory prototype has been experimentally tested. The experimental prototype can transfer 83.5 W at optimal capacitive coupling with operating at 100 kHz featuring 92.5% of the efficiency, confirming that theoretical and simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental tests. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power Converters: Modeling, Design and Applications)

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