Search Results (16)

In recent years, the rapid expansion of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and the increasing penetration of renewable energy sources require highly efficient and dynamically robust power electronic interfaces. In photovoltaic (PV)-assisted EV charging stations and DC microgrids, bidirectional DC-DC converters (BDCs) are essential for managing power flow between PV arrays, battery energy storage systems, and the DC bus supplying EV chargers. This paper presents a novel voltage and current control design for a BDC operating in a PV-powered DC microgrid oriented to EV charging applications. Following a detailed mathematical model of the converter, a digital current controller and a predictive voltage regulator were developed using Model-Based Predictive Control (MBPC). The proposed cascade control structure enables accurate DC bus voltage regulation and seamless bidirectional power flow under dynamic load variations representative of EV charging and discharging scenarios. The control scheme was evaluated in MATLAB/SIMULINK^® and experimentally validated through Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based test benches using an OPAL-RT real-time (RT) simulator, integrating the RT-LAB and RT-eFPGAsim environments. The predictive controller achieved precise regulation in both buck and boost modes, reaching efficiencies of 97.07% and 98.57%, respectively. The results demonstrate that integrating MBPC with RT validation provides high performance, fast dynamic response, and computational efficiency, making the proposed approach suitable for renewable-integrated EV charging stations and next-generation DC microgrid-based mobility systems. Full article

The global transportation sector is rapidly shifting towards electrification, aiming to create more sustainable environments. As a result, there is a significant focus on optimizing performance and increasing the lifespan of batteries in electric vehicles (EVs). To achieve this, the battery pack must operate with constant current charging and discharging modes of operation. Further, in an EV powertrain, maintaining a constant DC link voltage at the input stage of the inverter is crucial for driving the motor load. To satisfy these two conditions simultaneously during the energy transfer, a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) consisting of a lithium–ion battery and a supercapacitor (SC) connected to the semi-active topology of the bidirectional DC–DC converter (SAT-BDC) in this research work. However, generating the duty cycle for the switches to regulate the operation of SAT-BDC is complex due to the simultaneous interaction of the two mentioned constraints: regulating the DC link voltage by tracking the reference and maintaining the battery current at a constant value. Therefore, this research aims to efficiently resolve the issue by incorporating a highly flexible nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) to control the switches of SAT-BDC. Furthermore, the converter system design is tested for operational performance using MATLAB 2022B with the battery current and the DC link voltage with different priorities. In the NMPC approach, these constraints are carefully evaluated with varying prioritizations, representing a crucial trade-off in optimizing EV powertrain operation. The results demonstrate that battery current prioritization yields better performance than DC link voltage prioritization, extending the lifespan and efficiency of batteries. Thus, this research work further aligns with the conceptual realization of the sustainability goals by minimizing the environmental impact associated with battery production and disposal. Full article

In this paper, a family of zero-voltage-transition (ZVT) magnetic coupling bidirectional DC/DC converters (BDCs) is proposed. The coupling inductor has two functions: to serve as a filter; and to provide the auxiliary current. In addition, the phase-shifting control method is used to reduce the conduction loss of the auxiliary circuit. The auxiliary switches are all working under zero-current-switching (ZCS) conditions; thus, all the switches have no switching loss. Furthermore, compared with the traditional ZVT implementation method based on the coupled inductor, this topology avoids the input source current notch and has a smaller ripple. Finally, a prototype of 800 W BDC is built to verify the feasibility of the proposed topology. Full article

The bidirectional dc-dc converter is a critical component for extending the use of renewable energy and improving the efficiency of high-power electronic systems. This paper presents the analysis of the stray inductance of a commutation loop and the commutation behavior of IGBT devices in a flying capacitor three-level bidirectional DC-DC converter (FC-3L-BDC) phase-leg power electronic building block (PEBB). An FC-3L-BDC phase-leg PEBB was designed as an example, which can be used to build 400 kW to MW-grade light rail train chargers, battery energy storage interface converters, or metro regenerative braking energy recovery converters with a single PEBB or several PEBBs interleaved parallel. In order to optimize the stray inductance of commutation paths and realize snubberless operation, a five-layer laminated bus bar was carefully designed, and the stray inductance of the bus bar was extracted by three-dimensional finite element analysis simulation. To obtain higher accuracy, the stray inductances of IGBT devices and capacitors were extracted from the test instead of their datasheets. Then, the accuracy of the commutation loop stray inductance analysis method was verified by practical experiments. The impact of the stray inductance of the commutation loop on the commutation behavior of IGBT devices was analyzed, and the switching characteristics of IGBT devices were measured under maximum DC-link voltage and entire current rating range at the temperatures of −40 °C, 25 °C, and 150 °C, respectively, finding that neither the excessive turn-off overvoltage of IGBTs nor the snappy reverse recovery of FWDs was observed. Full article

Electric vehicles (EV) are promising alternate fuel technologies to curtail vehicular emissions. A modeling framework in a hybrid electric vehicle system with a joint analysis of EV in powering and regenerative braking mode is introduced. Bidirectional DC–DC converters (BDC) are important for widespread voltage matching and effective for recovery of feedback energy. BDC connects the first voltage source (FVS) and second voltage source (SVS), and a DC-bus voltage at various levels is implemented. The main objectives of this work are coordinated control of the DC energy sources of various voltage levels, independent power flow between both the energy sources, and regulation of current flow from the DC-bus to the voltage sources. Optimization of the feedback control in the converter circuit of HEV is designed using an artificial neural network (ANN). Applicability of the EV in bidirectional power flow management is demonstrated. Furthermore, the dual-source low-voltage buck/boost mode enables independent power flow management between the two sources—FVS and SVS. In both modes of operation of the converter, drive performance with an ANN is compared with a conventional proportional–integral control. Simulations executed in MATLAB/Simulink demonstrate low steady-state error, peak overshoot, and settling time with the ANN controller. Full article

For dual active bridge (DAB) converters, integrating the phase-shifting inductance (PSI) in the medium-frequency transformer (MFT) is an effective way to improve the overall power density. Different from the existing leakage-inductance-integrated (LII) structure, a concentric-winding (CW) enhanced leakage-inductance-integrated (ELII) structure, which includes an additional core, is proposed in this paper. In order to explain the operating mode of CW ELII MFT, a magnetic circuit model is established, and the analysis is carried out under the typical DAB excitation. The total leakage inductance of CW ELII MFT is divided into the winding leakage inductance and the additional leakage inductance for calculation. The integrated structure makes the heat dissipation of the MFT challenging. Therefore, the air–water combined cooling method is adopted in the design. A thermal resistance model is built for the winding air channel under forced convection. On this basis, MFT designs with different integration structures for different leakage inductance requirements are compared. Finally, a 200 kW/4 kHz/200 μH MFT prototype was designed and manufactured, which achieved the power density of 5.16 kW/dm³ and the efficiency of 99.30%. The prototype was tested in a DAB converter, which is a module of a 2 MW modular multilevel converter-bidirectional DC–DC converter (MMC-BDC). Full article

Large electrolytic capacitors used in grid-connected and stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) applications for power decoupling purposes are unreliable because of their short lifetime. Film capacitors can be used instead of electrolytic capacitors if the energy storage requirement of the power conditioning units (PCUs) is reduced, since they offer better reliability and have a longer lifetime. Film capacitors have a lower capacitance than electrolytic capacitors, causing enormous frequency ripples on the DC-link voltage and affecting the standalone photovoltaic system’s dynamic performance. This research provided novel direct sliding mode controllers (DSMCs) for minimizing DC-link capacitor, regulating various components of the PV/BES system that assists to manage the DC-link voltage with a small capacitor. DSMCs were combined with the perturb and observe (P&O) method for DC boost converters to increase the photovoltaic system’s dynamic performance, and regulate the battery’s bidirectional converter (BDC) to overcome the DC-link voltage instabilities caused via a lower DC-link capacitor. The system is intended to power both AC and DC loads in places without grid connection. The system’s functions are divided into four modes, dependent on energy supply and demand, and the battery’s state of charge. The findings illustrate the controllers’ durability and the system’s outstanding performance. The testing was carried out on the MT real-time control platform NI PXIE-1071 utilizing Hardware-In-The-Loop experiments and MATLAB/Simulink. Full article

The modular multilevel converter–bidirectional DC–DC converter (MMC–BDC) has been proposed to be utilized in the vessel integrated power system to interconnect the medium voltage bus and the distributed energy storage elements. In the shipboard applications, MMC–BDC faces unbalanced sub-module power operation because of the inconsistent state-of-charge (SOC) of the energy storage elements. Researchers have investigated into the unbalanced operation principle of MMC–BDC and proposed some unbalanced operation control strategies, but these traditional strategies do not perform well in both aspects of operating range and efficiency. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel Lyapunov-function-based feedback linearization control strategy for the independent sub-module voltage control of MMC–BDC, which not only shows wide unbalanced operation range and high efficiency, but also realizes the decoupling and symmetrical control of the sub-module capacitor voltages. Full article

The new type of L-LLC resonant bidirectional DC-DC converter (L-LLC-BDC) has merits of high efficiency, high-power density and wide gain and power ranges, and it is suitable for energy interface between energy storage systems and DC micro grid. However, the resonances are sensitive to the parasitic parameters, which will deteriorate the efficiency. This paper investigates the intrinsic mechanism of parasitic parameters on the L-LLC-BDC operating principle and working characteristics based on the analysis of working modes and resonance tank. By taking the oscillation of parasitic parameters produced in the stage for the freewheeling stage into consideration, a parameter optimization method is proposed to reduce the resonant current oscillation while maintaining the characteristic of the natural soft switching. The experiment results not only validated the proposed parameter optimization design method, but also testified to the improvement of the efficiency through the minimization of the conduction and switching loss. Full article

The conventional bidirectional DC-DC converter (BDC), which employs a half-bridge configuration, has some major disadvantages, including a controller designed for one direction with poor performance in the other direction, a bidirectional operation which does not have symmetrical voltage gain resulting in asymmetrical operation, and step-up and step-down switches that are simultaneously modulated, thereby increasing switching losses. To overcome these drawbacks, this paper proposes a new, nonisolated, DC-DC converter for the bidirectional power flow of battery energy storage applications in DC and hybrid microgrids (HMGs). The proposed converter uses two back-to-back Boost converters with two battery voltage levels, which eliminates step-down operation to obtain symmetric gains and dynamics in both directions. In discharge mode, two battery sections are in parallel connection at a voltage level lower than the grid voltage. In charge mode, two battery sections are in series connection at a voltage level higher than the grid voltage. Simulations demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed converter in the MATALB\Simulink environment. The results show that the proposed converter has promising performance compared to that of the conventional type. Moreover, the novel converter adds no complexity to the control system and does not incur considerable power loss or capital cost. Full article

In DC microgrid (DC-MG), the loads connected with converters under strict control are considered as CPLs (constant power loads). When the voltage of CPLs decreases, the current increases and the negative impedance characteristic of CPLs cause instability easily. Fortunately, appropriate control for energy storage units could improve the system stability. However, most traditional control methods for bidirectional DC-DC power converters (BDC) connected with battery storage units do not quantitatively consider the stability influences of control parameters. This paper quantitatively analyzes the stability influence of the BDC current-mode control parameters and the negative impact of CPLs and derives the control parameter determination method for BDC interfaced storage systems. Large signal stability constraints are obtained in terms of mixed potential function. According to the constraints, the large signal stability is improved when the BDC control parameter k_p increases, while the stability is degraded when the power of CPLs increases. The control parameter determination method is very effective and convenient to apply, and the appropriate parameter k_p for BDC is determined. The regions of asymptotic stability (RAS) identify that the proposed control parameter determination method could improve the system stability effectively. The determination method is fully verified by the simulation and experimental results. Full article

Flying-capacitor multiplexed modulation technology is suitable for bipolar DC microgrids with higher voltage levels and higher current levels. The module combination and corresponding modulation method can be flexibly selected according to the voltage level and capacity level. This paper proposes a bipolar bidirectional DC/DC converter and its interleaved-complementary modulation strategy that is suitable for bipolar DC microgrids. The converter consists of two flying-capacitor three-level bidirectional DC/DC converters that are interleaved in parallel 90°, and then cascaded with another module to form a symmetrical structure of the upper and lower arms; the complementary modulation of the upper and lower half bridges constitutes an interleaved complementary multilevel bidirectional DC/DC converter. If the bidirectional converter needs to provide a stronger overcurrent capability, more bridge arms can be interleaved in parallel. Once n bridge arms are connected in parallel, the bridge arms should be interleaved 180°/n in parallel. In bipolar DC microgrids, the upper and lower arms should be complementarily modulated, and the input and output are isolated by the inductance. To solve the current difference, caused by the inconsistent parasitic, the voltage-current double closed-loop-control is used, and the dynamic response is faster during bidirectional operation. This paper proposes theoretical analysis and experiments that verify bipolar bidirectional DC/DC converter for high-power energy storage. Full article

Recently direct current (DC) microgrids have drawn more consideration because of the expanding use of direct current (DC) energy sources, energy storages, and loads in power systems. Design and analysis of a standalone solar photovoltaic (PV) system with DC microgrid has been proposed to supply power for both DC and alternating current (AC) loads. The proposed system comprises of a solar PV system with boost DC/DC converter, Incremental conductance (IncCond) maximum power point tracking (MPPT), bi-directional DC/DC converter (BDC), DC-AC inverter and batteries. The proposed bi-directional DC/DC converter (BDC) lessens the component losses and upsurges the efficiency of the complete system after many trials for its components’ selection. Additionally, the IncCond MPPT is replaced by Perturb & Observe (P&O) MPPT, and a particle swarm optimization (PSO) one. The three proposed techniques’ comparison shows the ranking of the best choice in terms of the achieved maximum power and fast—dynamic response. Furthermore, a stability analysis of the DC microgrid system is investigated with a boost converter and a bidirectional DC-DC converter with the Lyapunov function for the system has been proposed. The complete system is designed and executed in a MATLAB/SIMULINK environment and validated utilizing an OPAL real-time simulator. Full article

This study proposes a high-gain reflex-charging-based bidirectional DC charger (RC-BDC) to enhance the battery charging efficiency of light electric vehicles (LEV) in a DC-microgrid. The proposed charger topology consists of an unregulated level converter (ULC) and a two-phase interleaved buck-boost charge-pump converter (IBCPC), which together provide low ripple and high voltage conversion ratio. As the high-gain RC-BDC charges, the LEV’s battery with reflex charging currents, high battery charging efficiency, and prolonged battery life cycles are achieved. This is possible due to the recovering of negative pulse energy of reflex charging currents to reduce charge dissipations within LEV’s batteries. Derivations of the operating principles of the high-gain RC-BDC, analyses of its topology, and the closed-loop control designs were presented. Simulations and experiments were implemented with battery voltage of 48 V and DC-bus voltage of 400 V for a 500 W prototype. The results verify the feasibility of the proposed concept and were compared with the typical constant-current/constant-voltage (CC/CV) charger. The comparison shows that the proposed high gain RC-BDC improves battery charging speed and reduces the battery thermal deterioration effect by about 12.7% and 25%, respectively. Full article

In this paper, a two-stage three-port isolated bidirectional DC-DC converter (BDC) for hybrid energy storage system (HESS) applications in DC microgrids is proposed. It has an enlarged zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) region and reduced power circulation loss. A front-end three-phase interleaved BDC is introduced to the supercapacitor (SC) channel to compensate voltage variations of SC. Consequently, wide ZVS range and reduced circulation power loss for SC and DC bus ports are achieved under large-scale fluctuating SC voltage. Furthermore, a novel modified pulse-width-modulation (PWM) and phase-shift (PHS) hybrid control method with two phase-shift angles is proposed for BA port. And it contributes to an increasing number of switches operating in ZVS mode with varying battery (BA) voltage. Phase shift control with fixed driving frequency is applied to manage power flow. The ZVS range as well as the current stress of resonant tanks under varying port voltages is analyzed in detail. Finally, a 1 kW prototype with peak efficiency of 94.9% is built, and the theoretical analysis and control method are verified by experiments. Full article