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Power electronics plays a key role in electric vehicle technology in areas such as the battery charging and managing, dc distribution and motor drive systems, among others. There are, however, significant challenges to be addressed in terms of cost, performance, reliability and power density. This paper aims at proposing an improved on-board charger architecture taking advantage of a power pulsating buffer topology. The proposed architecture will enable to significantly reduce the dc-link capacitor size, enabling a change in its technology, and leading to a higher power density and higher reliability implementation. The proposed architecture is analyzed, its main design considerations are discussed and, finally, a 3.6-kW experimental prototype is designed and implemented to prove the feasibility of this proposal. As a conclusion, the proposed topology is recommended as a high-performance high-power-density OBC implementation for future EVs.

In this article, a novel method is proposed to reduce the dc-link capacitance of the brushless dc motor (BLDCM) system. In the proposed strategy, the charging mode of dc-link capacitor is designed to improve the energy stored by dc-link capacitor in the charging process instead of reducing the discharge time of dc-link capacitor used in previous article. The new modulation strategy and controller is designed to pump the dc-link capacitor voltage and ensure that it exceeds the ac voltage peak. The proposed modulation strategy has three vectors. The charging vector is used to improve the dc-link capacitor voltage, and the effective vector and zero vector are used to adjust the motor speed. For practical application, we provide an engineering calculation method to get the dc-link capacitance, and prove that the dc-link voltage can exceed the average voltage of the BLDCM. The experimental results verify the correctness of the theoretical analysis and the feasibility of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter proposes a safe operating area (SOA) concept for film capacitors in dc-link applications. The SOA is presented by capacitor voltage and ripple current, considering the impact of ambient temperature, degradation, and parameter variance. The theoretical derivations and proof-of-concept experimental verifications are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel three-phase resonant dc-link inverter with low energy consumption is presented to achieve efficient operation of the inverter. When the auxiliary resonant circuit is used to make the input voltage across bridge-arms become zero during every switching period, the main switching devices could achieve zero-voltage switching turn-on and zero-current switching turn-off. When the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) or the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is used as the main switching device, the lossless switching could be completed, and the capacitive turn-on loss caused by the internal junction capacitance of MOSFET and the turn-off loss caused by the tail current of IGBT are eliminated. The working process of the circuit and the realization condition of the soft-switching are analyzed. The experimental results on the three-phase prototype of 2.5 kW show that the switching devices achieve the soft-switching and the performance of the inverter is improved. Therefore, the novel topology is of great significance for improving the efficiency of the inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sensorless stand-alone control scheme of a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-DC system is investigated in this paper. In this layout, the stator voltage is rectified by a diode bridge that is directly connected to a dc bus. The rotor-side voltage source inverter is the only controlled converter required in this system and is directly powered by the same dc bus created by the stator-side rectifier. DC voltage and stator frequency are regulated by two independent proportional-integral regulators that give the references for inner current controllers implementing field-oriented control. As it is capable of creating a stable and regulated dc bus, this system can be conveniently adopted to supply dc loads or to form a dc grid. Due to the constraint imposed by the stator diode bridge, the DFIG has to operate under a constant stator voltage, and the conventional stator field-oriented control implemented in stand-alone ac DFIG must be modified. This paper presents the control structure and the theoretical framework for the controller synthesis. Simulation and experimental validations on a small-scale rig are included. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a novel harmonic suppression scheme for two-level inverter fed three-terminal induction motor drives using switched capacitive filter. Capacitor fed H-bridges used as filters are cascaded to conventional two-level inverter to eliminate fifth- and seventh-order harmonics for the full modulation range including a six-step operation. For the first time, two-level dodecagonal voltage space vector is implemented with single dc supply for three-terminal induction motor drive. Enabling the switched capacitive filtering at low-voltage domain and shifting the high frequency switching to the switched capacitive filter is shown. A uniform pulse width modulation technique is shown which charges and maintains the capacitor voltages while eliminating the fifth- and seventh-order harmonics for the full speed range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an alternative to connect power converters to a direct-current network with an inductor circuit. The circuit allows the connection of converters through a coil and avoids short-circuit currents with different instantaneous values of voltage output. A description of the calculation and the choice of components together with a real implemented example in a dc network within Smart City project (Endesa Utility) is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The field-weakening operation of a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) connected to a dc-link is analyzed in this paper, in order to optimize the efficiency. In the considered DFIG-dc system, the stator feeds a constant-voltage dc link by a diode bridge, and the rotor current is controlled using a voltage-source inverter connected to the same dc link. Since the stator voltage amplitude is imposed by the dc-link, a variation in stator flux magnitude results in a frequency change. However, in this system, a stator frequency variation over a wide range can be accepted, if the rated flux is not exceeded. Thus, the stator flux amplitude can be adjusted through the magnetization current component by the voltage-source inverter and according to the load level, in order to reduce losses in the machine and in the inverter. This paper presents an optimization analysis and simplified formulae determining the optimal reference magnetization current in the control of the system. Conversely to field weakening in conventional drives, in this case, the enabling of field weakening control is not dependent on rotor speed, but depends on the reference torque. The proposed optimal control is validated through simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes a single-phase full-bridge inverter that possesses limited current ripple at the dc link while providing a sinusoidal square power at the ac output. This is achieved through the addition of an extra pair of switches and complementary control for the full-bridge inverter. The extra switches operate to prevent the double-line frequency ripple current from flowing into the input of the inverter. In doing so, the pulsation component of the sinusoidal square output power is confined to flow between the output capacitors and the load. Thus, the dc link input only supplies the dc component of the output power. Simulation and experimental results validating the proposed solution are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a self-sensing technique for the field-oriented control and frequency regulation of a doubly fed induction generator connected to a dc-link. In this system, the stator circuits are connected to a dc-link through a diode bridge and the rotor circuits are controlled by a voltage source inverter connected to the same dc-link. As the diode bridge maintains the fundamental harmonics of the stator current and voltage approximately in phase, an almost zero average d\mbox-axis stator current results in the stator flux reference frame. This property is used to estimate the slip angle, required to implement the field orientation in the self-sensing technique in loaded conditions. At no load the system is controlled using a different methodology. The analysis and synthesis of the control chains are presented by analytic relations. The sensitivity study shows that the method exhibits reduced sensitivity to the parameter mismatch, resulting in a small orientation error. Experimental results confirm the good performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a technique to suppress low-order harmonics for an open-end winding induction motor drive for a full modulation range. One side of the machine is connected to a main inverter with a dc power supply, whereas the other inverter is connected to a capacitor from the other side. Harmonic suppression (with complete elimination of fifth- and seventh-order harmonics) is achieved by realizing dodecagonal space vectors using a combined pulsewidth modulation (PWM) control for the two inverters. The floating capacitor voltage is inherently controlled during the PWM operation. The proposed PWM technique is shown to be valid for the entire modulation range, including overmodulation and six-step mode of operation of the main inverter. Experimental results have been presented to validate the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper deals with a new conversion topology for doubly-fed induction generators (DFIGs) suitable for wind energy conversion systems integrated in microgrids. It consists of a DFIG which is fed by a pulse width modulation converter on the rotor and with the stator connected to a dc grid through a diode rectifier. In this configuration, the stator diode rectifier and the rotor-side inverter share the same dc bus, so that the conventional grid-side inverter is avoided. Since only a diode rectifier designed for the full power and a reduced power inverter are required, this layout allows a cheap and effective integration of the DFIG with other generating and storage systems connected to the same dc bus. A simple control technique suitable to regulate the power delivered to the dc grid is proposed. The scheme is based on the regulation of the amplitude of a suited fraction of the rotor flux linkage: the optimal value of this fraction is theoretically deduced in order to minimize the DFIG derating due to the current harmonics. The effectiveness of the proposed control is proven by simulations and experimental tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For reliability reasons, the employment of small film capacitors instead of electrolytic ones is an interesting alternative for the dc-link in single-phase inverters for fuel cell applications. Due to the low capacitance that can be accomplished at an acceptable cost using this technology, there are large low-frequency voltage fluctuations (100/120 Hz and harmonics) in the dc-link caused by the double-frequency power transfer. By allowing these variations in the bus, the capacitor bank absorbs the current ripple from the inverter to avoid detrimental oscillations in the fuel cell. Traditional control strategies for inverters are usually designed to operate with nearly constant input voltage and are not able to effectively handle large (e.g., ) low-frequency input voltage fluctuations. This paper introduces the analysis of a swinging bus in the context of fuel cell standalone applications (i.e., voltage-source inverters) and proposes a nonlinear control approach to operate inverters with very large input voltage swing: the natural switching surface (NSS). Under the proposed scheme, the inverter presents excellent dynamic and steady-state characteristics, even at moderate switching frequency (e.g., 3.6 kHz). In order to illustrate the superior performance of the NSS, a comparison to a proportional-resonant (PR) controller is performed. Unlike the linear compensator, the NSS is able to reject the large bus voltage oscillations and achieve high-quality output voltage with low total harmonic distortion (THD). Simulation and experimental results are provided to illustrate the behavior of the swinging bus and to validate the NSS control scheme under the proposed demanding operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-phase active rectifiers exhibit an inherent strong second-order current harmonic on their dc-link. The latter is often undesirable from a load point of view and is therefore chosen to be eliminated. A common method is the use of a resonant passive LC filter tuned at the frequency, which increases the order of the system, posing certain difficulties for the voltage control design. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the dc-link dynamics. The equations are linearized by means of small variations, and a respective closed-loop regulator is formed utilizing the partial state feedback control theory for pseudocontinuous systems. The control output is fed to an inner current regulator, following the well-known cascaded loop method. The stability of the proposed controller is validated throughout the whole operating point regime and its robustness against system parameter variations is evaluated. A comparison with a conventional controller proves the advantages of the utilized method. The theoretical analysis is verified by means of simulations as well as real-time implementation on an experimental laboratory setup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]