PSIM-based modeling of automotive power systems: conventional, electric, and hybrid electric vehicles

Automotive manufacturers have been taking advantage of simulation tools for modeling and analyzing various types of vehicles, such as conventional, electric, and hybrid electric vehicles. These simulation tools are of great assistance to engineers and researchers to reduce product-development cycle time, improve the quality of the design, and simplify the analysis without costly and time-consuming experiments. In this paper, a modeling tool that has been developed to study automotive systems using the power electronics simulator (PSIM) software is presented. PSIM was originally made for simulating power electronic converters and motor drives. This user-friendly simulation package is able to simulate electric/electronic circuits; however, it has no capability for simulating the entire system of an automobile. This paper discusses the PSIM validity as an automotive simulation tool by creating module boxes for not only the electrical systems, but also the mechanical, energy-storage, and thermal systems of the vehicles. These modules include internal combustion engines, fuel converters, transmissions, torque couplers, and batteries. Once these modules are made and stored in the library, the user can make the car model either a conventional, an electric, or a hybrid vehicle at will, just by dragging and dropping onto a schematic blank page.     

Hybrid Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel-Inverter Induction-Motor-Drive Direct Torque Control for Automotive Applications

This paper presents a hybrid cascaded H-bridge multilevel motor drive direct torque control (DTC) scheme for electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrid EVs. The control method is based on DTC operating principles. The stator voltage vector reference is computed from the stator flux and torque errors imposed by the flux and torque controllers. This voltage reference is then generated using a hybrid cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter, where each phase of the inverter can be implemented using a dc source, which would be available from fuel cells, batteries, or ultracapacitors. This inverter provides nearly sinusoidal voltages with very low distortion, even without filtering, using fewer switching devices. In addition, the multilevel inverter can generate a high and fixed switching frequency output voltage with fewer switching losses, since only the small power cells of the inverter operate at a high switching rate. Therefore, a high performance and also efficient torque and flux controllers are obtained, enabling a DTC solution for multilevel-inverter-powered motor drives.      

Hybrids: then and now

Very different from their turn-of-the-century forebears, modern hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) are almost as clean as pure EVs and have the range of conventional cars. The author discusses the advantages of HEV and describes the two basic types of HEV, parallel and serial. The serial type has a downsized engine on board that drives a generator that supplements the batteries and can charge them when they run low. In the parallel type the ICE and the electric motor can both deliver propulsion power to the wheels. The advantages of these two types of HEV are discussed. The parallel HEV is then discussed in more detail     

Investigation of the Energy Regeneration of Active Suspension System in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

This paper investigates the idea of the energy regeneration of active suspension (AS) system in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). For this purpose, extensive simulation and control methods are utilized to develop a simultaneous simulation in which both HEV powertrain and AS systems are simulated in a unified medium. In addition, a hybrid energy storage system (ESS) comprising electrochemical batteries and ultracapacitors (UCs) is proposed for this application. Simulation results reveal that the regeneration of the AS energy results in an improved fuel economy. Moreover, by using the hybrid ESS, AS load fluctuations are transferred from the batteries to the UCs, which, in turn, will improve the efficiency of the batteries and increase their life.      

A virtual prototype for a hybrid electric vehicle

A virtual prototype of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is created within the virtual test bed (VTB) environment, which has been developed for modeling, simulation, analysis and virtual prototyping of large-scale multi-technical dynamic systems. Attention is focused on the electric system, which is composed of (i) a fuel cell system as a prime power source, (ii) battery and super capacitor banks as energy storage devices for high and intense power demands, (iii) DC-to-DC power converters to control the flow of power, (iv) a three-phase inverter-fed permanent magnet synchronous motor as a drive, and (v) a common DC bus. The simulation of the proposed system is conducted using two types of driving cycles. These are: (i) rapid acceleration and deceleration, and (ii) Federal Urban Driving Schedule (FUDS). The parameter values chosen for the components and the numerical results obtained by simulation are consistent with the practical HEV applications.     

A Matlab-based modeling and simulation package for electric andhybrid electric vehicle design

This paper discusses a simulation and modeling package developed at Texas A&M University, V-Elph 2.01. V-Elph facilitates in-depth studies of electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid EV (HEV) configurations or energy management strategies through visual programming by creating components as hierarchical subsystems that can be used interchangeably as embedded systems. V-Elph is composed of detailed models of four major types of components: electric motors, internal combustion engines, batteries, and support components that can be integrated to model and simulate drive trains having all electric, series hybrid, and parallel hybrid configurations. V-Elph was written in the Matlab/Simulink graphical simulation language and is portable to most computer platforms. This paper also discusses the methodology for designing vehicle drive trains using the V-Elph package. An EV, a series HEV, a parallel HEV, and a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) driven drive train have been designed using the simulation package. Simulation results such as fuel consumption, vehicle emissions, and complexity are compared and discussed for each vehicle     

Failure modes on low voltage power MOSFETs under high temperature application

HEV (hybrid electrical vehicle) is one of the harshest applications for standard technology of power devices and converters. High temperature capability and passive/active thermal cycle ageing must be evaluated. The authors present first results on ageing and failure modes for a 75 V/350 A MOSFET module from a low voltage/cycled DC current test bench. The module is without base plate and bond wires are used for electrical connections. For this kind of low voltage and high current module, paper shows that the principal modes of failure relate to the environment close to the chip (connections and passivations).     

Advanced Integrated Bidirectional AC/DC and DC/DC Converter for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) technology provides an effective solution for achieving higher fuel economy, better performance, and lower emissions, compared with conventional vehicles. Plug-in HEVs (PHEVs) are HEVs with plug-in capabilities and provide a more all-electric range; hence, PHEVs improve fuel economy and reduce emissions even more. PHEVs have a battery pack of high energy density and can run solely on electric power for a given range. The battery pack can be recharged by a neighborhood outlet. In this paper, a novel integrated bidirectional AC/DC charger and DC/DC converter (henceforth, the integrated converter) for PHEVs and hybrid/plug-in-hybrid conversions is proposed. The integrated converter is able to function as an AC/DC battery charger and to transfer electrical energy between the battery pack and the high-voltage bus of the electric traction system. It is shown that the integrated converter has a reduced number of high-current inductors and current transducers and has provided fault-current tolerance in PHEV conversion.     

Development of a Hybrid Electric Vehicle With a Hydrogen-Fueled IC Engine

The motivation for the use of hydrogen as fuel is that it can be renewable and can reduce emissions. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are still likely to be more of a far-term reality because of their high manufacturing cost. A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) with a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion (IC) engine has the potential of becoming a low-emission low-cost practical solution in the near future. This paper describes a standard sport utility vehicle (SUV) that has been converted into a hydrogen-powered HEV. The powertrain utilizes compressed gaseous hydrogen as fuel, a boosted hydrogen IC engine, an induction motor, a hydraulic transmission, regenerative braking, advanced nickel-metal hybrid batteries, and a real-time control system. Tests show that the vehicle can deliver higher fuel economy and much lower emissions than those of a traditional SUV without compromises in performance. This paper presents an overview of the prototype vehicle and emphasizes some of the unique features of this energy-saving clean environment solution     

Dynamic simulation for analysis of hybrid electric vehicle system and subsystem interactions, including power electronics

Simulation tools for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) can be classified into steady-state and dynamic models, according to their purpose. Tools with steady-state models are useful for system-level analysis. The information gained is helpful for assessing long-term behavior of the vehicle. Tools that utilize dynamic models give in-depth information about the short-term behavior of sublevel components. In this paper, a dynamic model of a hybrid electric vehicle that includes fuel cells, batteries, ultracapacitors, and induction machine drives is presented. Simulation results of vehicle configurations with a battery, a fuel cell-battery combination and a fuel cell-ultracapacitor combination are discussed. The focus of the model is a detailed assessment of different subsystem components, particularly component losses.     

A Modularized Charge Equalizer for an HEV Lithium-Ion Battery String

Based on the fact that a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) connects a high number of batteries in series to obtain more than approximately 300 V, this paper proposes a modularized charge equalizer for an HEV battery pack. In this paper, the overall battery string is modularized into M*N cells, where M is the number of modules in the string and N is the number of cells in each module. With this modularization, low voltage stress on the electronic devices can be achieved, which means that there is less chance of a failure on the charge equalizer. The power rating selection is one of the most important design issues for a charge equalizer because it is very closely related to equalization time. To solve this problem optimally, this paper presents a power rating design guide. In addition, this paper considers system-level design issues, such as cell voltage acquisition, equalizer control logic, and system-level grounding. The simulation and experimental results are presented to show the usefulness of the optimal power rating selection guide and the low voltage stressed charge equalization process.     

Three phase bridge current controller with single sensor

Control of phase currents in a three-phase voltage source inverter bridge is important for electric drives and unity power factor converters. To reduce equipment costs and overcome unequal sensor errors, the use of a single DC link current sensor is important. A new technique is described which uses redundant bridge switching states to allow current control with a DC link current sensor     

一种宽输入电压范围软开关电流型DC/DC转换器

针对太阳能光伏及燃料电池等领域电源需要较宽输入电压范围的需求,提出一种通用的具有较宽输入电压范围的软开关电流型DC/DC转换器。该转换器采用了固定频率混合调制设计,可以在所有工作条件下实现半导体器件的软开关工作,并采用电流馈电技术以便适用于低电压高电流的电源。相较于传统转换器,该转换器更为通用,能够实现零电压开关和零电流开关,并且能够在输入电压和负载变化出现较大变化时控制输出电压。实验结果显示,在20-60V输入电压范围内且负载出现变化时,该转换器均表现出良好的性能。     

Modellierung der parallelen Antriebsstränge für ein Hybrid-Elektrofahrzeug vom Typ „Hybrid Through The Road“

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) are equipped with an internal combustion engine (ICE) and an electric drive (ED). They are devided into serial and parallel HEVs, depending on the power flow. The ED needs to be controlled. This allows reduction of emissions and the amount of gas. In regenerative braking, the braking energy is converted into electrical energy and fed into a battery. The fuel efficiency of the ICE in the driving state is increased by loading or uploading through ED. Cut off the ICE while standstill reduces the waste of gas. A simulation tool in MATLAB/SIMULINK calculates the amount of gas for an HEV of parallel type for a given driving cycle. The drives are considered as efficiency maps from measured data. The fuel economy of the HEV depends on the driving cycle, the vehicle mass and the engine speed while shift of gears. For a vehicle of Minivan class, the saving is between 17% up to 25% compared to a vehicle driven by an ICE only.     

Power-Electronics-Based Solutions for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Energy Storage and Management Systems

Batteries, ultracapacitors (UCs), and fuel cells are widely being proposed for electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) as an electric power source or an energy storage unit. In general, the design of an intelligent control strategy for coordinated power distribution is a critical issue for UC-supported PHEV power systems. Implementation of several control methods has been presented in the past, with the goal of improving battery life and overall vehicle efficiency. It is clear that the control objectives vary with respect to vehicle velocity, power demand, and state of charge of both the batteries and UCs. Hence, an optimal control strategy design is the most critical aspect of an all-electric/plug-in hybrid electric vehicle operational characteristic. Although much effort has been made to improve the life of PHEV energy storage systems (ESSs), including research on energy storage device chemistries, this paper, on the contrary, highlights the fact that the fundamental problem lies within the design of power-electronics-based energy-management converters and the development of smarter control algorithms. This paper initially discusses battery and UC characteristics and then goes on to provide a detailed comparison of various proposed control strategies and proposes the use of precise power electronic converter topologies. Finally, this paper summarizes the benefits of the various techniques and suggests the most viable solutions for on-board power management, more specific to PHEVs with multiple/hybrid ESSs.      

A Compact Digitally Controlled Fuel Cell/Battery Hybrid Power Source

A compact digitally controlled fuel cell/battery hybrid power source is presented in this paper. The hybrid power source composed of fuel cells and batteries provides a much higher peak power than each component alone while preserving high energy density, which is important and desirable for many modern electronic devices, through an appropriately controlled dc/dc power converter that handles the power flow shared by the fuel cell and the battery. Rather than being controlled to serve only as a voltage or current regulator, the power converter is regulated to balance the power flow to satisfy the load requirements while ensuring the various limitations of electrochemical components such as battery overcharge, fuel cell current limit (FCCL), etc. Digital technology is applied in the control of power electronics due to many advantages over analog technology such as programmability, less susceptibility to environmental variations, and low parts count. The user can set the FCCL, battery current limit, and battery voltage limit in the digital controller. A control algorithm that is suitable for regulating the multiple variables in the hybrid system is described by using a state-machine-based model; the issues about embedded control implementation are addressed; and the large-signal behavior of the hybrid system is analyzed on a voltage–current plane. The hybrid power source is then tested through simulation and validated on real hardware. This paper also discusses some important issues of the hybrid power source, such as operation under complex load profiles, power enhancement, and optimization of the hybrid system. The design presented here can not only be scaled to larger or smaller power capacities for a variety of applications but also be used for many other hybrid power sources.     

Design and New Control of DC/DC Converters to Share Energy Between Supercapacitors and Batteries in Hybrid Vehicles

In this paper, the authors propose the supercapacitor integration strategy in a hybrid series vehicle. The designed vehicle is an experimental test bench developed at the Laboratory of Electrical Engineering and Systems (L2ES) in collaboration with the Research in Electrical Engineering and Electronics Center of Belfort (CREEBEL). This test bench currently has two diesel motors (each connected to one alternator) and lead-acid batteries with a voltage rating of 540 V and a fluctuation margin between $+$12% and $-$20% of the rated voltage. The alternators are connected to the dc link by rectifiers. An original strategy of the supercapacitor integration in this vehicle with their control is presented to find a better compromise between the dimensions of the embarked devices, the share energy efficiency, the dynamics of the supply, and the electric power storage. The supercapacitor packs are made up of two modules of 108 cells each and present a maximum voltage of 270 V. The main objective is to provide a peak power of 216 kW over 20 s from supercapacitors to the dc link. Various topologies of dc/dc converters are presented with effective methodologies of electric power management in the hybrid vehicle.      

Hybrid Electric Vehicles: Architecture and Motor Drives

Electric traction is one of the most promising technologies that can lead to significant improvements in vehicle performance, energy utilization efficiency, and polluting emissions. Among several technologies, hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) traction is the most promising technology that has the advantages of high performance, high fuel efficiency, low emissions, and long operating range. Moreover, the technologies of all the component hardware are technically and markedly available. At present, almost all the major automotive manufacturers are developing hybrid electric vehicles, and some of them have marketed their productions, such as Toyota and Honda. This paper reviews the present technologies of HEVs in the range of drivetrain configuration, electric motor drives, and energy storages     

Recent progress in the development in solid-state AC motor drives

The author summarizes important developments in AC drive design that have occurred in the past several years. He discusses: converter technology, covering the matrix converter, PWM voltage and current link converters; and resonant link converters; AC motor technology, covering stepping motor drives, DC brushless motor drives, and synchronous reluctance motors; and control technology for AC drives, covering online and offline parameter identification and efficiency-maximizing control     

Switched-Capacitor/Switched-Inductor Structures for Getting Transformerless Hybrid DC–DC PWM Converters

A few simple switching structures, formed by either two capacitors and two-three diodes (C-switching), or two inductors and two-three diodes (L-switching) are proposed. These structures can be of two types: ldquostep-downrdquo and ldquostep-up.rdquo These blocks are inserted in classical converters: buck, boost, buck-boost, Cuk, Zeta, Sepic. The ldquostep-downrdquo C- or L-switching structures can be combined with the buck, buck-boost, Cuk, Zeta, Sepic converters in order to get a step-down function. When the active switch of the converter is on, the inductors in the L-switching blocks are charged in series or the capacitors in the C-switching blocks are discharged in parallel. When the active switch is off, the inductors in the L-switching blocks are discharged in parallel or the capacitors in the C-switching blocks are charged in series. The ldquostep-uprdquo C- or L-switching structures are combined with the boost, buck-boost, Cuk, Zeta, Sepic converters, to get a step-up function. The steady-state analysis of the new hybrid converters allows for determing their DC line-to-output voltage ratio. The gain formula shows that the hybrid converters are able to reduce/increase the line voltage more times than the original, classical converters. The proposed hybrid converters contain the same number of elements as the quadratic converters. Their performances (DC gain, voltage and current stresses on the active switch and diodes, currents through the inductors) are compared to those of the available quadratic converters. The superiority of the new, hybrid converters is mainly based on less energy in the magnetic field, leading to saving in the size and cost of the inductors, and less current stresses in the switching elements, leading to smaller conduction losses. Experimental results confirm the theoretical analysis.