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This paper presents a sigma-modified adaptive control algorithm to enhance the charging profile in a multi-objective electric vehicle (EV) charging installation. The present algorithm takes care of multiple parametric uncertainties and grid non-idealities to provide an instantaneous control updation in order to achieve well-regulated charging dynamics. With the support of renewable energy and battery energy storage (BES), the present algorithm also ensures an uninterrupted charging profile with controller robustness and stability for bi-directional EV charging. The sigma-mod adaptive controller provides an iterative error convergence at each clock interval of supply voltage dynamics to guarantee improved power quality operation in presence of grid distortions. To further improve the reliability of EV charging opportunities, a solar photovoltaic (PV) array in conjunction with the battery energy storage supports the ancillary services through maximum power point operation. Multivariable sliding mode control and rule-based phase-shift adaptation at different stages of power transformation assure faster convergence, parameter uncertainty and controller stability for the bi-directional EV charging operation. A 3.3 kW PV-integrated off-board charging facility is designed and developed as a laboratory prototype to validate the multi-mode charging architecture with minimal grid dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and evaluates a discrete-event control-based Supervisory Controller (SC) for a grid-connected, battery-enabled, DC Fast-Charging (DCFC) station for Electric Vehicles’ (EVs). The SC enhances operational resiliency of the DCFC station and its host grid by decoupling the dynamics and limiting the steady-state power between the station and its host grid. The charging station includes multiple DCFC units, a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), a solar-PV unit, and a grid-interface Voltage-Sourced Converter (VSC). The SC (i) limits the station-imported power from the grid based on the grid-imposed requirements, (ii) dynamically dispatches power flow among the grid, PV unit, DCFC units, and BESS to meet charging needs of EVs and when applicable charges BESS or exports power to the grid, (iii) protects the BESS by enforcing its state of charge upper and lower limits and the maximum charge/discharge rates, and (iv) enables the VSC to provide grid ancillary services, if required. Simulation results in PLECS software platform are given to assess the dynamic performance of the proposed SC in response to various discrete events/transitions. The SC algorithm is implemented on a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and verified based on real-time Hardware-In-the-Loop approach using an OPAL-RT platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the two-stage converters for electric bike battery charging comprise of a boost converter for power factor correction (PFC) followed by a dc–dc converter with universal input voltage. These two-stage conversions suffer from poor efficiency and increased component count. In this paper, a single-stage switched inductor Cuk converter based PFC converter is proposed, which offers high step-down gain, low current stress, high efficiency, and reduced component count. The operational analysis and design equations for various components of the proposed converter are carried out in continuous current mode. This paper presents mathematical modeling, analysis, simulation, and experimentation on the proposed converter rated for 500 W, 48 V/10.4 A. The performance investigation of the proposed converter with respect to power quality indices like voltage total harmonic distortion (THD), current THD, and total power factor is carried out with various types of loads such as resistive load and battery load in both constant voltage (CV) and constant current (CC) mode. Furthermore, the dynamic performance of the proposed converter with battery charging is investigated in CV mode and CC mode with respect to the wide range of supply variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inductive power transfer (IPT) technology is useful for electric vehicle (EV) charging because of safe, flexible, and convenient features. In this paper, an integrated IPT system design employing variable inductor control is proposed to achieve a target constant current (CC) and constant voltage (CV) battery charging profile with misalignment tolerance. The system is implemented under a fixed switching frequency in both CC and CV modes. Soft switching of the primary inverter can be achieved over the entire charging process and allowed misalignment range without additional switches or dc–dc converters. Theoretical circuit analysis and the system design process are presented. A 3.3-kW prototype is implemented with a 210-mm air gap to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method. Experimental results show that the target CC and CV charging profile can be achieved by adjusting the variable inductor with up to 120 mm of lateral and 300 mm of vertical misalignment. The maximum efficiency of the proposed system is 96.1% at full output power and stays above 95% throughout CC operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient power converter system plays a significant role in the design of battery charging systems for electric vehicles (EVs). In this paper, a new zero-voltage and zero-current switching (ZVZCS) full-bridge dc–dc converter is proposed to reduce the power conversion losses. The proposed converter incorporates a new asymmetrical pulse width modulation (APWM) gating technique for the dc–dc conversion stage in the battery charging system. The proposed dc–dc converter topology achieves zero-voltage switching (ZVS) for all the active switches and near zero-current switching (ZCS) for low-side active switches throughout the charging range of the battery. The proposed APWM technique can reduce the switching and conduction losses compared to the conventional phase-shift modulation (PSM) gating technique. The auxiliary inductance required to ensure ZVS with APWM can also be reduced compared to PSM. Analysis, design, and implementation of the proposed APWM ZVZCS full-bridge dc-dc converter are discussed in this paper. A 100-kHz 1.2-kW laboratory prototype is developed and the experimental results are presented. The results validate the analysis and performance of the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On account of complementary control, reduced size, and energy saving, the switched-capacitor (SC) based equalizer becomes promising for the energy management of energy storage system. Traditionally, the number of the bypass capacitor in the SC based equalizer equals to the number of the battery module in series or parallel connections. The amount of bypass capacitors is enormous, thus costly and bulky for electric vehicles (EVs). In this paper, the integrated energy storage is proposed to reduce cost and save space, meanwhile, the equalizations between the batteries and the ultracapacitors (UCs) are achieved by the reutilization of SC network. UCs not only perform as energy storage units, but also work as energy exchange units. Thus, the number of balanced elements can be reduced significantly. The operational principles of the storage system and the analyses of the balancing process are examined in detail. The system simulation is performed for functionality evaluations. Meanwhile, an experimental prototype is also implemented for six cells to demonstrate the balancing process. The accordance of experiment and simulation can further testify the feasibility and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an electric vehicle (EV) battery charger with interleaved Landsman converter (ILC) followed by a flyback converter, is designed and evaluated for improved power quality (PQ) charging of battery. A built-in wave-shaping is obtained at the charger front-end due to improved PQ characteristics of ILC. This PFC converter consists of two Landsman converter cells, which are designed in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) to share the input and output currents. The current sharing at input results into lower input current ripple as well as peak current stress through the switch, is reduced. This, further improves the input current harmonics profile. Moreover, the reduced output voltage ripple gives reduced rms current in the output capacitor. A phase shift PWM scheme (PSPWM) is used for ILC and the duty cycle for the switches is selected below 50%. This allows the ripple cancellation at line and load sides. The interleaving at PFC stage as well as DCM based design ensures a low cost charging solution as compared to the conventional Landsman converter (CLC) based chargers in this power range. However, the flyback converter provides the current control during the charging of the battery in constant current (CC) and constant voltage (CV) regions. The harmonics spectrum of mains current follows the recommended PQ regulations over a range of varying line voltages and loadings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multilevel drive can be realized by using an open-ended machine, fed from dual two-level inverters. The topology supplied from isolated dc sources is suitable for transportation electrification. In vehicular systems, it is essential that the isolated dc sources, comprising of battery packs, should discharge uniformly and maintain balanced dc voltage at the dc-link terminal. A simple carrier-based pulsewidth modulation (PWM) technique is presented in this paper, which can effectively regulate the power drawn between the two two-level inverters while maintaining the multilevel operation of the drive. The modulation technique can balance the instantaneous state of charge of independent battery packs and dynamically equalize the power flow from the two inverters, based on drive requirement. This will enhance the reliability of the propulsion system in electric vehicles. The operation of the proposed PWM technique has been validated through detailed simulation and experimental tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A modular quasi-resonant bidirectional dc–dc converter composed of half-bridge gallium nitride modules (HBGM) with reduced switch voltage stress is proposed in this paper. By using an auxiliary capacitor, a resonant circuit is formed to shape the current and voltage so that zero-voltage switching at turn-on instant is achieved. Since the switching loss dominates the power losses in a high-frequency dc–dc converter, the soft-switching performance leads to a noticeable reduction in the total loss; so, the operating temperature will decrease, and consequently, size of the heatsink will be reduced. The proposed circuit takes advantage of enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) switches regarding their small on-resistance RDS(on), low gate charge, and fast switching speed to improve both efficiency and power density. The main performance issue of adopting GaN switches in a bidirectional dc–dc converter is the high voltage stress of GaN devices, which is handled by connecting the HBGM in the active-clamped stacked configuration, as well as optimizing printed circuit board layout design. Finally, a 1 kW, 600 V laboratory prototype operating at 100 kHz is implemented to validate the proposed concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved bridgeless (BL) Cuk converter-based electric vehicle (EV) battery charger with high power factor and increased efficiency is designed and developed in this paper. It provides low cost and high-power-density-based charging solution for the EV. This charger incorporates less number of devices operating over one switching cycle, which reduces the additional conduction loss incurred by a diode bridge rectifier of the conventional charger. Hence, it improves the charger's efficiency. The added advantage of the proposed topology is that the unwanted capacitive coupling loop is removed, as well as the unwanted conduction through the body diode of the inactive switch in the previously developed BL Cuk converter is avoided. This significantly improves the charger's efficiency. For the constant current and constant voltage charging, the commands are synchronized by a flyback converter. The proposed charger draws a sinusoidal current from ac mains and the total harmonic distortion in the supply current is reduced to the limits specified by the IEC 61000-3-2 guidelines. The improved efficiency and power quality indices of the proposed charger are investigated to demonstrate its satisfactory charging operation at all operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the Z-source converter is introduced to power factor correction (PFC) applications. The concept is demonstrated through a wireless power transfer (WPT) system for electric vehicle battery charging, namely Z-source resonant converter (ZSRC). Due to the Z-source network (ZSN), the ZSRC inherently performs PFC and regulate the system output voltage simultaneously, without adding extra semiconductor devices and control circuitry to the conventional WPT system such as conventional PFC converters do. In other words, the ZSN can be categorized as a family of the single-stage PFC converters. In addition, the ZSN is suitable for high-power applications since it is immune to shoot-through states, which increases reliability and adds a boost feature to the system. The ZSRC-based WPT system operating principle is described and analyzed in this paper. Simulations and experimental results based on a 1-kW prototype with 20-cm air gap between the system primary and secondary sides are presented to validate the analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness of the ZSN in the PFC of the WPT system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper deals with the control and implementation of solar photovoltaic (PV) array-based multi-objective bi-directional charger beneficial for electric vehicle (EV), household load, and utility. For EV, the charger provides the charging facility. For household load, the charger acts as a standalone inverter, and for utility the charger acts as an active power filter. However, for providing the multi-functionality and the multi-mode operation capability of the charger, a reconfigurable control strategy is proposed. Moreover, an adaptive dc-link voltage strategy is proposed for achieving the optimum voltage at dc link under all voltage conditions for achieving minimum ripple in grid currents. The charger also uses a voltage synchronization strategy for achieving the seamless mode transition between the grid-connected and standalone modes. In grid-connected mode, the charger uses a double second-order generalized integrator-based positive sequence estimator along with the improved linear sinusoidal tracer-based algorithm for generating the balanced and sinusoidal reference grid currents, under the unbalanced and distorted grid voltages. The charger is implemented in the laboratory, and the performance is presented under various steady-state and dynamic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a hybrid switched-capacitor/switched-quasi-Z-source bidirectional dc–dc converter is proposed for electric vehicles (EVs) with hybrid energy sources, which has a wide voltage gain range in the bidirectional energy flows. Compared with the traditional quasi-Z-source bidirectional dc–dc converter, the proposed converter only changes the position of the main power switch and employs a switched-capacitor cell at the output of the high-voltage side. Therefore, the advantages of the wide voltage gain range and the lower voltage stresses across the power switches can be achieved. The operating principle, the voltage and current stresses across the power switches, and the comparisons with other converters are analyzed in detail. Furthermore, the parameter design of the main components, the dynamic modeling analysis, and the voltage control scheme are also presented. Finally, the experimental results obtained from a 400 W prototype validate the characteristics and the theoretical analysis of the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If the batteries are charged by clean renewable energy sources, electric vehicles (EVs) can have zero gas emission, contributing greatly toward the preservation of the green environment. In a smart micro-grid, EVs together with other distributed energy storage units can be used to supply electricity to the loads during the peak hours so as to minimize the effects of the load shedding and improve the quality of electricity. To achieve these goals, an isolated hybrid multi-port converter is required to control the power flows and balance the energy among renewable energy sources, EVs, and the grid. In this paper, a new isolated multi-port converter is proposed, which can control the power flow in multiple directions. The converter is modeled in the matlab/Simulink software environment and this validates the technology with a laboratory prototype test platform. The modeling, implementation, and results are discussed comprehensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High cost, no-ideal driving range, and charge time limit electric vehicle market share. Facing these challenges, an integrated motor drive/battery charger system has been proposed by Valeo. A further advancement, based on this system, is present in this paper; for the first time, the integration of traction, charging, and air-compressor supply modes is proposed and tested by real-time experimentation. This integrated system is expected to increase the vehicle component compactness and power, therefore potentially reducing the cost and battery charging time. An overall and unique control scheme is detailed to achieve the three main operating modes: traction, charging, and air-compressor supply modes. The real-time experimentation results show the system feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inductive power transfer (IPT) is widely discussed as an alternative to contact charger for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. This paper analyzes a contactless battery charger back-end power factor correction (PFC) concept, reducing the primary-side circuit complexity and physical size. For that purpose, the main volume and loss factors of a contactless battery charger are identified, discussing the partitioning of tasks to perform a unity power factor operation. An analysis of the most commonly used front-end PFC and the proposed back-end PFC configuration is performed, with the aim of highlighting benefits and limitations of each variant. Moreover, performance of silicon (Si) and gallium nitride (GaN) devices has also been evaluated, defining the main advantages and drawbacks of both semiconductor technologies in different IPT scenarios. The study is verified experimentally on a 3.2 kW contactless battery charger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, angular modulation index (AMI) implemented through a modified space vector modulation for the dual voltage source inverters (VSI) is proposed with the primarily aiming to reduce switching losses. The desired voltage across the load is synthesized by applying appropriate phase-angle displacement between space vector references. The proposed approach avoids the use of a dc/dc boost converter (which imposes loss and weight/price penalty to duplicate the dc-link voltage) and results to be particularly suitable for electrical/hybrid vehicle applications. Namely, the application of saving energy to keep driving has been identified as major concern. Hence, this work focuses on the strategy to enhance efficiency. The principles of the proposed controlling method and switching loss, which is reduced at least by 50%, are theoretically evaluated. This paper proposes a pioneering mathematical approach to correctly determine total harmonic distortion (THD) value of the voltage/current for the dual-VSI structure. Furthermore, simulation and experimental results prove that the proposed method insures benefits in terms of common-mode voltage, THD of the voltage, and switching loss reduction. The dual-VSI prototype supplying 1.5-kW induction motor is assembled in the laboratory to experimentally evaluate performance of the proposed method. Also, the simulation results carried out through MATLAB/Simulink environment are given to confirm performance of this easy-to-implement and high-efficient method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A new zero-voltage switching full-bridge dc–dc converter for battery charging is proposed in this paper. The proposed isolated dc–dc converter is used for the dc–dc conversion stage of the electric vehicle charger. The primary switches in dc–dc converter turn-on at zero voltage over the battery-charging range with the help of passive auxiliary circuit. The diode clamping circuit on the primary side minimizes the severity of voltage spikes across the secondary rectifier diodes, which are commonly present in conventional full-bridge dc–dc converters. The main switches are controlled with an asymmetrical pulse-width modulation (APWM) technique resulting in higher efficiency. APWM reduces the current stress of the main switches and the circulating losses compared with the conventional phase-shift modulation method by controlling the auxiliary inductor current over the entire operating range of the proposed converter. The steady-state analysis of auxiliary circuit and its design considerations are discussed in detail. A 100-kHz 1.2-kW full-bridge dc–dc converter prototype is developed. The experimental results are presented to validate the analysis and efficiency of the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the pursuit of fuel economy improvement and emission reduction, a trajectory optimization-based engine multioperating-point control strategy is proposed in this paper for the auxiliary power unit (APU) in an extended range electric vehicle. This strategy design deeply considers the transient process of the operating point switching that somehow influences the engine fuel economy and emission, and was often ignored. First, a combined cost MAP fully integrating several indices, including fuel consumption rate, CO, HC, and NOx emissions, is presented to synthetically evaluate the effect of the operation trajectory. Then an improved genetic algorithm, in terms of computational load reduction and convergence improvement, is employed to optimize the engine trajectory in the transient operating point switching process of the APU system, so that it is able to perform with the best fuel consumption and emissions. Finally, simulated and experimental results indicate that the proposed control strategy has obvious improvements in fuel economy and emissions, compared with conventional ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cascaded H-bridge converter has been widely used in industry. The ability of dealing with unequal power generation among dc links is necessarily required in many applications, such as large-scale photovoltaic power plants and electric vehicles. In this paper, a novel dc-power control method (PCM) is proposed to keep the ac-current balance and maintain power generation ratios of each dc source at their expected values. A simplified modulation strategy is introduced to implement the proposed method, in which the duration times are modified directly by the correction value derived from the PCM method. To calculate and adjust the power generation ratios, a method based on first-in first-out (FIFO) data queue is utilized. The limitation and ranges of power generation ratio are analyzed in detail. DC power per phase can be controlled accurately by the proposed method in variable-frequency condition, even under larger power generation ratios. Results obtained from simulations and experiments are presented to verify the feasibilities and superiorities of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Existing integrated chargers are configured to charge from single- or three-phase ac networks. With the rapid emergence of dc grids, there is growing interest in the development of high-efficiency low-cost integrated chargers interfaced with dc power outlets. This paper introduces a new integrated charger offering electric vehicle fast charging from emerging dc distribution networks. In absence of a dc grid, the charger can alternatively be fed from a simple uncontrolled rectifier. The proposed charger leverages the dual-inverter topology previously developed for high-speed drive applications. By connecting the charger inlet to the differential ends of the traction inverters, charging is enabled for a wide battery voltage range previously unattainable using an integrated charger based on the single traction drive. An 11-kW experimental setup demonstrates rapid charging using constant current control and energy balancing of dual storage media. To minimize the harmonic impact of the charger on the dc distribution network, a combination of complementary and interleaved switching methods is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Due to an increasing in-vehicle electric load demand, a new 48-V electric system architecture proposed by German premier car manufacturers has been gaining increasing attention recently for electrified vehicles. In this paper, a multiple-voltage bus converter for the 48-V and existing 12-V dual supply system, providing additional flexible dc bus voltages, is proposed. The proposed converter can provide a dual flexible dc voltage bus and an additional dependent voltage bus while simultaneously managing the 12-V supply net using only one single-leg switch pole and a diode. The additional dc voltage buses will provide more options to accommodate variable electric load components in a vehicle, improving their power density. Due to the multiple control objectives, the single-leg pole requires a multimode switching strategy to regulate the additional bus voltages. To improve the onboard vehicle system reliability and performance, an impedance network structure is implemented in the converter to obtain a dead-time-free pulsewidth modulation (PWM). Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed structure and control method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In conventional parallel hybrid energy storage systems (HESSs), there are usually two cascaded converters active when transferring energy between its energy storage systems (ESSs) that result in the overall efficiency drop. Moreover, the dc-link capacitor has to be oversized to limit the voltage ripple during simultaneous energy exchange between the ESSs and load feeding. The integrated reconfigurable configuration for HESSs proposed in this paper allows direct energy transfer between the ESSs by using only a single converter and bypassing the dc link. This reduces the stress on the dc link, reduces the dc-link capacitor size, and improves the efficiency. The proposed configuration can be reconfigured to operate in different operating modes: “feeding a load” mode, “regenerative” mode, “energy exchange” mode, “energy exchange and feeding a load” mode, “balancing” mode, “charging” mode, and “backup” mode. To control the proposed HESS, a battery peak power limiting method is used to allocate the power components between the ESSs. The operating principle of the proposed configuration and its different modes are explained and experimentally verified. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To process the power in hybrid energy systems using a reduced part count, researchers have proposed several multiinput dc–dc power converter topologies to transfer power from different input voltage sources to the output. This paper proposes a novel bidirectional nonisolated multi-input converter (MIC) topology for hybrid systems to be used in electric vehicles composed of energy storage systems (ESSs) with different electrical characteristics. The proposed converter has the ability to control the power of ESSs by allowing active power sharing. The voltage levels of utilized ESSs can be higher or lower than the output voltage. The inductors of the converter are connected to a single switch; therefore, the converter requires only one extra active switch for each input, unlike its counterparts, hence resulting in reduced element count. The proposed MIC topology is compared with its counterparts concerning various parameters. It is analyzed in detail, and then, this analysis is validated by simulation and through a 1-kW prototype based on a battery/ultracapacitor hybrid ESS. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a robust sliding-mode observer (RSMO) for state-of-charge (SOC) estimation of a lithium-polymer battery (LiPB) in electric vehicles (EVs). A radial basis function (RBF) neural network (NN) is employed to adaptively learn an upper bound of system uncertainty. The switching gain of the RSMO is adjusted based on the learned upper bound to achieve asymptotic error convergence of the SOC estimation. A battery equivalent circuit model (BECM) is constructed for battery modeling, and its BECM is identified in real time by using a forgetting-factor recursive least squares (FFRLS) algorithm. The experiments under the discharge current profiles based on EV driving cycles are conducted on the LiPB to validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed framework for the SOC estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the establishment and operation control of a dc microgrid incorporating with electric vehicle (EV) as movable energy storage. The developed microgrid consists of a wind permanent-magnet synchronous generator ac source and a dc source, a battery/supercapacitor (SC)/flywheel hybrid energy storage system, and a grid-connected bidirectional single-phase three-wire (1P3W) load inverter. Various harvested ac and dc sources can be plugged into the microgrid via the developed interfaced power converters. In addition to good microgrid operation performance, the microgrid-to-grid and grid-to-microgrid operations can be successfully conducted with good power quality. As to the developed EV interior permanent-magnet synchronous motor drive, the SC auxiliary storage is equipped to assist the main battery source in intermittent energy conversion. Satisfactory acceleration/deceleration/reversible and regenerative braking operation characteristics are obtained via the developed power stages and control schemes. Moreover, the successful microgrid-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-microgrid interconnected operations of EV and microgrid are achieved. In addition, the vehicle-to-grid/grid-to-vehicle operations can be also performed via the developed 1P3W inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing popularity of electric vehicles, there is an urgent demand to shorten the charging time, so the development of high-power charging stations with fast chargers is necessary to alleviate range anxiety for drivers. The charging station based on the neutral-point-clamped (NPC) converter can bring many merits, but it has unbalanced power problems in the bipolar dc bus. To solve this issue, comprehensive dc power balance management (PBM) in conjunction with high-power three-level dc–dc converter based fast charger is proposed in this paper. The active dc power balance management (APBM) is proposed to assist the central NPC converter in balancing power so that the additional balancing circuit is eliminated; while the passive dc power balance management (PPBM) is proposed to eliminate the fluctuating neutral-point currents and to ensure the balanced operation of fast chargers. The principles of APBM and PPBM are researched, the efficient integration between them is studied, and the overall control scheme for the fast charger is proposed. The power balance limits of APBM are explored, while the circulating currents of PPBM are analyzed. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed fast charger with PBM functions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the performance analysis and comparison of two types of bidirectional dc–dc converters—cascaded buck–boost capacitor in the middle and cascaded buck–boost inductor in the middle for use in plug-in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The comparison of the two converters is based on device requirements, rating of switches and components, control strategy, and performance. Each of the converter topologies has some advantages over the other in certain aspects. Efficiency analysis has been carried out for specific scenarios in vehicle applications. The simulation and experimental results are provided for both converter types. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a novel multiple-input bidirectional dc–dc power converter to interface more than two dc sources of different voltage levels. This finds applications in hybrid electric/fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), where different dc sources of unequal voltage levels need to be connected with bidirectional power flow capability. The converter can be used to operate in both the buck and boost modes with bidirectional power control. It is also possible to independently control power flow between any two sources when more than two sources are actively transferring power in either directions. The operation, analysis, and design of the converter are presented with different modes of power transfer. The proposed converter is demonstrated for FCV application using real-time hardware-in-the-loop system. Experimental results for a 5-kW system are presented, validating the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In battery/ultracapacitor electric vehicles, a bidirectional dc/dc converter is employed to process the power according to the power references obtained from the energy management controller. The selection of this converter is of critical importance for the overall system efficiency and size. This study proposes using a three-level dc/dc converter and provides a comprehensive comparison with the conventional two-level and interleaved bidirectional buck/boost converters in terms of magnetic component size/weight and overall efficiency. Unlike the comparative studies presented in the literature, where the efficiency comparison of converters is conducted based on given fixed input and output parameters, power references obtained from a wavelet-transform-based energy management strategy with varying energy source voltages and traction power are considered in this paper. The results of the analyses show that a three-level converter exhibits higher overall efficiency and has smaller size inductor. A 1-kW bidirectional three-level dc/dc converter is designed as a proof of concept, which exhibits 93.2% peak efficiency at 200-kHz switching frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Today's life and industry are intimately dependent on the electric energy. This dependence in future will be still intensified, especially due to the appearance of electric-dependent vehicles overriding conventional fossil-fuel-based vehicles in the societies. Electric and hybrid electric vehicles (EVs) carry battery storages to store the electrical energy they need. The batteries have recharging and discharging capabilities. A parking lot hosting multiple EVs could be considered as important aggregators for them. In this paper, a novel dc-dc multiport (MP) bidirectional converter (MPBC) is suggested to function in a parking lot integrating EVs as either electric load or source of energy. The switching strategies of MPBC and power sharing flowchart are presented and then its operation in the presence of three plug-in EV batteries is studied through simulation and verified through experimental testbench. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an effective output voltage control method using adjustable frequency–duty-cycle hybrid control is presented. By using the proposed method, the operating performance of the full-bridge series resonant dc–dc converter applied to the onboard charger in electric vehicles under the constant-voltage charge mode is improved. The proposed control method improves the system efficiency of the charger up to 4% for light load conditions compared with the conventional control method without any extra hardware. A theoretical analysis is described along with a loss analysis in detail, and the validity of the proposed method is verified by experiment with a 3.3-kW prototype onboard charger. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a high-frequency-link soft-switching pulse-width modulated dc-dc converter for electric vehicle (EV) on-board battery chargers. Zero-voltage switching of power switches is achieved from light load to full load. Reverse-recovery losses can be reduced in the secondary side output diodes without using any additional circuit components. Zero-current switching of output diodes is achieved by using the series-resonant circuit in the secondary side. The circulating current in the primary side full-bridge circuit can be changed by the operation modes of the output diode current. As a result, a high efficiency can be achieved for EV on-board battery chargers. The performance of the proposed converter is evaluated throughout experimental results for a 2.0-kW prototype circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In electric vehicle (EV) energy storage systems, a large number of battery cells are usually connected in series to enhance the output voltage for motor driving. The difference in electrochemical characters will cause state-of-charge (SOC) and terminal voltage imbalance between different cells. In this paper, a hybrid cascaded multilevel converter which involves both battery energy management and motor drives is proposed for EV. In the proposed topology, each battery cell can be controlled to be connected into the circuit or to be bypassed by a half-bridge converter. All half-bridges are cascaded to output a staircase shape dc voltage. Then, an H-bridge converter is used to change the direction of the dc bus voltages to make up ac voltages. The outputs of the converter are multilevel voltages with less harmonics and lower dv/dt, which is helpful to improve the performance of the motor drives. By separate control according to the SOC of each cell, the energy utilization ratio of the batteries can be improved. The imbalance of terminal voltage and SOC can also be avoided, fault-tolerant can be easily realized by modular cascaded circuit, so the life of the battery stack will be extended. Simulation and experiments are implemented to verify the performance of the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an isolated on-board vehicular battery charger that utilizes silicon carbide (SiC) power devices to achieve high density and high efficiency for application in electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs). The proposed level 2 charger has a two-stage architecture where the first stage is a bridgeless boost ac-dc converter and the second stage is a phase-shifted full-bridge isolated dc-dc converter. The operation of both topologies is presented and the specific advantages gained through the use of SiC power devices are discussed. The design of power stage components, the packaging of the multichip power module, and the system-level packaging is presented with a primary focus on system density and a secondary focus on system efficiency. In this work, a hardware prototype is developed and a peak system efficiency of 95% is measured while operating both power stages with a switching frequency of 200 kHz. A maximum output power of 6.1 kW results in a volumetric power density of 5.0 kW/L and a gravimetric power density of 3.8 kW/kg when considering the volume and mass of the system including a case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a control strategy is presented for a high-performance capacitively loaded loop (LLC) multiresonant dc–dc converter in a two-stage smart charger for neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) applications. It addresses several aspects and limitations of LLC resonant dc–dc converters in battery charging applications, such as very wide output voltage range while keeping the efficiency maximized, implementation of the current mode control at the secondary side, and optimization of burst mode operation for current regulation at very low output voltage. The proposed control scheme minimizes both low- and high-frequency current ripples on the battery while maintaining stability of the dc–dc converter, thus maximizing battery life without penalizing the volume of the charger. Experimental results are presented for a prototype unit converting 390 V from the input dc link to an output voltage range of 3–72 V dc at 650 W. The prototype achieves a peak efficiency value of 96%. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the functionality of a commercialized fast charger for a lithium-ion electric vehicle propulsion battery. The device is intended to operate in a battery switch station, allowing an up-to 1-h recharge of a 25-kWh depleted battery, removed from a vehicle. The charger is designed as a dual-stage-controlled ac/dc converter. The input stage consists of a three-phase full-bridge diode rectifier combined with a reduced rating shunt active power filter. The input stage creates an uncontrolled pulsating dc bus while complying with the grid codes by regulating the total harmonic distortion and power factor according to the predetermined permissible limits. The output stage is formed by six interleaved groups of two parallel dc–dc converters, fed by the uncontrolled dc bus and performing the battery charging process. The charger is capable of operating in any of the three typical charging modes: constant current, constant voltage, and constant power. Extended simulation and experimental results are shown to demonstrate the functionality of the device. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a novel power conversion topology for systems, which include a boost and bidirectional converters to control the power flows between sources, batteries, and ultracapacitors. The proposed system (multimode single-leg power converter) substitutes the boost converter and bidirectional converter with a multifunctional bidirectional converter and has cost effectiveness and fault tolerance, preserving the same energy conversion functionalities of the conventional energy conversion system. To verify the performance of the proposed system, its operations are categorized and explained to four different modes. Then, each mode of the proposed system is simulated and implemented experimentally using a prototype test bed. The results present that the proposed conversion system is feasible and applicable for a wide range of applications including alternative/renewable power systems and electric vehicles (EVs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]