Efficiency Evaluation of Fully Integrated On-board EV Battery Chargers with Nine-Phase Machines

A fully integrated on-board battery charger for future electric vehicles (EVs) has been recently introduced. It re-utilizes all the propulsion components of an EV in charging/vehicle-to-grid (V2G) modes, it does not require any additional components or hardware reconfiguration, and charging/V2G modes are realized with zero electromagnetic torque production. Both fast (three-phase) and slow (single-phase) charging are possible, with unity power factor operation at the grid side. The solution is based on the use of a triple three-phase machine and a nine-phase inverter/rectifier. This paper reports on the results of efficiency evaluation for the said system. Testing is performed using both a nine-phase induction machine and a nine-phase permanent magnet (PM) machine for a range of operating conditions in charging/V2G modes, with both three-phase and single-phase grid connection. Additionally, the impact of converter interleaving on the losses and efficiency is also studied. Losses are separated for different subsystems, thus providing an insight into the importance of optimization of different EV power train components from the efficiency point of view. Promising efficiencies, in the order of 90%, are achieved although none of the system components have been optimized

Integrated on-board EV battery chargers: New perspectives and challenges for safety improvement

Thanks to the heavy reduction of cost and volume, integrated On-Board Chargers (OBCs) represent an effective solution to provide a versatile and powerful charging system on board of electric and plug-in electric vehicles, combining the charging function with the traction drivetrain. Such integration foresees the use of the traction motor windings as reactive elements and the traction inverter as AC/DC converter. However, this integration brings several challenges on the table. At first, shaft torque production must be avoided to reduce the losses and mechanical stress. A second challenge is to improve the filtering capability of the motor windings in order to meet the grid standards in terms of current distortion and power factor correction. At last, the most critical issue is to meet the safety standards in terms of leakage current, since it represents a risk to human operators and could also hamper the smooth operation of the charger. Therefore, this paper aims at giving a comprehensive review of the challenges in designing integrated chargers. After reviewing the architectures available in literature, an exemplifying structure of integrated OBC will be analysed in terms of leakage current generation and compliance with the relevant standards, along with an introduction to those solutions which use the machine as isolation transformer. Conclusions are given on the prospect for making integrated on-board chargers safer and more reliable

An Integrated On-Board Battery Charger with a Nine-Phase PM Machine

A fully integrated on-board battery charger for electrical vehicles (EVs) has been developed recently using a nine-phase machine. All the components used for propulsion are employed in the charging process, no additional components are required, and there is no need for hardware reconfiguration between charging and propulsion modes of operation. The proposed solution can be connected directly to single-phase or three-phase grid to perform charging, so that the expensive off-board charger infrastructure is not needed. The only requirement is to use a nine-phase machine in combination with a nine-phase inverter in the powertrain of the EV. This however inevitably brings in further advantages in the propulsion mode, such as increased fault tolerance and the current subdivision into more phases. The benefits of the topology, originally developed for an induction machine, make it interesting for further investigation. Therefore, the performance of the charger is examined here using a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM). The results show that the charger topology is applicable to other types of synchronous machines and is, even more importantly, independent of the angular spatial shift between the individual three-phase windings of the nine-phase machine’s stator. The results are comparable with those obtained using an induction machine and confirm the viability of the solution in conjunction with the PMSM as a propulsion motor

Integrated on-board battery chargers for EVs based on multiphase machines and power electronics

The concept of integration of an electric vehicle (EV) drivetrain’s components into the charging process is not novel. It has been considered over the years in both industry and academia, which resulted in a number of published papers and patents in this area. Possibilities of charging from single-phase and three-phase mains were both considered. In the former group the charging power rating cannot exceed the limit set by the single-phase mains. Therefore, the topologies are characterised with low charging powers, leading to a long duration of the charging process. Although the topologies supplied form three-phase mains are capable of achieving fast charging, they were considered to a much lesser extent. The main reason is the undesirable torque production in machines integrated into the charging process during the battery charging, which is unavoidable when a three-phase machine of either synchronous or induction type is used. The thesis investigates integrated on-board battery chargers for electric vehicles (EVs) based on multiphase machines and multiphase power electronics. At present, EVs rely on three-phase systems for machine propulsion. However, recent advances in multiphase drive technology have firmly established their potential advantages over their three-phase counterparts for this application. One of the most notable features of multiphase drive systems is their excellent fault tolerance, which is highly desirable in EVs since it enables realisation of the requirement for “limp-home” operation in the propulsion mode, in case of a fault. The thesis demonstrates that multiphase drives have an additional major advantage over three-phase systems in vehicular applications, which is related to the aspect of battery charging. It shows a clear superiority of multiphase over three-phase systems in designing integrated charging topologies for EVs. In order to support the statement, the thesis provides a multitude of novel charging solutions that incorporate multiphase machines and multiphase power electronics into the charging process. The developed solutions could contribute to achieve significantly faster and cost-free (or at a minimum additional cost) on-board chargers in the near future. The thesis demonstrates how additional degrees of freedom that exist in multiphase systems can be conveniently utilised to achieve torque-free charging operation. Therefore, although three-phase currents flow through machines’ stator windings, they are not capable of producing a torque; thus the machines do not have to be mechanically locked. The principal advantage is that either very few or no new elements are required in order to realise the charging process. Thus savings are made with regard to cost and weight, and available spare space in the vehicle is increased. The novel integrated charging solutions, developed in the thesis, are based on primarily five-phase, asymmetrical and symmetrical six-phase, and asymmetrical and symmetrical nine-phase systems. Solutions with other phase numbers are also considered. Thus, in essence, all the possible phase numbers are encompassed by the research and the solutions are valid for both induction and synchronous machines. A common attribute of all discussed topologies is that they do not require a charger as a separate device since the charging function is performed by the drivetrain elements, predominantly a multiphase machine and an inverter. Further, each topology is capable of operating in both charging and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) mode. Three types of voltage sources are considered as a power supply for the charging process, namely single-phase, three-phase, and multiphase. For each supply type, and each phase number, viability of torque-free charging operation is theoretically assessed. Mathematical models of multiphase rectifiers are developed. For each topology equivalent scheme in the charging/V2G mode of operation is constructed. A control scheme, which aims at achieving unity power factor operation and complete suppression of the low order grid current harmonics, is designed for each solution. Finally, the validity of theoretical considerations and control algorithms for the developed solutions is experimentally assessed in charging, V2G, and propulsion mode of operation. Experimental performances of all discussed topologies are compared, and advantages and shortcomings of each solution are identified and discussed

DESIGNING METHOD FOR INTEGRATED BATTERY CHARGERS IN ELECTRICAL VEHICLES

Electrical vehicles often make use of multi-phase induction motors. At the same time, the vehicles have an on-board charger, the power electronics device that converts the ac power from the mains and charges the traction battery. The traction inverter can be integrated with the charger, reducing in this way the component count, weight and cost, while the windings of the ac motor can be used as the inductors required to complete the charger topology, thus saving on passive components, iron and copper. The integrated charger performances depend on the configuration of the stator windings as well as on the topology of the power converter. The objective in charging mode is reaching a high efficiency while keeping the charging-mode electromagnetic torque at zero. In traction mode, the goals include the efficiency and the torque-per-Amps ratio. In order to compare and distinguish between the available topologies and configurations, the paper starts with the analysis of the magnetic field in the air-gap of the electric machine in both charging and traction modes. Based upon that, a novel algorithm is proposed which determines the space-time distribution of the air-gap field, eventually deriving all the relevant pulsating and revolving component of the magnetic field, thus providing the grounds for studying the losses, efficiency and torque pulsations in both charging and traction modes

Electric Vehicle Powertrain Integrated Charging

Batterieelektrische Fahrzeuge benötigen ein im Fahrzeug eingebautes Ladegerät, um die Energie aus dem Wechselstromnetz für die Gleichstrom- Batterie aufzubereiten. Integriertes Laden ist eine Methode der Integration von Ladefunktionalität in die Antriebsstrangkomponenten, welche während des Parkens außer Betrieb sind, mit dem Ziel, Kosten, Gewicht und Volumen des Ladegerät zu sparen. Das Laden ohne die Sicherheitsmaßnahme einer galvanischen Trennung im Ladegerät ist möglich mit zusätzlichen Maßnahmen gegen elektrischen Schlag, z.B. mit einer Fehlerstromerkennung und entsprechenden Trenneinrichtung. Im Stand der Technik wurden 33 integrierte Ladekonzepte gefunden und bezüglich Antriebsstrangnutzung, benötigte Komponenten, Drehmoment der elektrischen Maschine und Wirkungsgrad verglichen. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wird ein neues galvanisch getrenntes integriertes Ladekonzept beschrieben, mit dem Ziel, die Effizienz zu verbessern und gleichzeitig auftretendes Drehmoment in der Maschine zu vermeiden. Der Antriebsstrang wird als DC/DC-Wandler mit der elektrischen Maschine als Transformator im Stillstand genutzt. Berechnungen zeigen eine maximale Effizienz von 88%. Ansätze zur Verbesserung des Wirkungsgrads und zur Integration des Energieflusses im Bordnetz werden in dieser Arbeit vorgeschlagen und diskutiert. Allerdings muss der Rotorkäfig geöffnet werden, um ein Drehmoment während des Laden zu vermeiden. Dies stellt einen ähnlichen Aufwand dar wie die Darstellung eines separaten Ladegeräts. Somit ist dieses Konzept aus heutiger Sicht wegen niedriger Effizienz und hoher Kosten gegenüber einem separaten Ladegerät nicht konkurrenzfähig. Zwei Ladekonzepte ohne galvanische Trennung, die eine sechsphasige elektrische Maschine als in Serie geschaltete Hoch- und Tiefsetzsteller nutzen, werden im Rahmen der Arbeit vorgestellt und bezüglich der benötigten Komponenten, der Effizienz und des Drehmoments des Maschine ausgearbeitet. Die Antriebsstrangverluste werden für die Ladebedingungen mit Gleichströmen analysiert, basierend auf neuen Materialcharakterisierungen für die angewendete Belastung. Es wurden Wirkungsgrade bis zu 93% demonstriert und auch in theoretischen Berechnungen mit einer maximalen Abweichung von ±1% zum experimentellen Befund bestätigt. Zum Schutz gegen elektrischen Schlag bei nicht isolierten Ladekonzepten werden drei Konzepte für eine Fehlerstrommessung präsentiert und anhand von Messergebnissen analysiert. Siliziumkarbid-Inverter-Technologien zeigen in Kombination mit diesen Ladekonzepten Wirkungsgrade, die vergleichbar zu herkömmlichen separaten Ladegeräten sind, und weisen dabei deutlich geringere Kosten auf

A review on integrated battery chargers for electric vehicles

Electric vehicles (EVs) contain two main power electronics systems, namely, the traction system and the battery charging system, which are not used simultaneously since traction occurs when the EV is travelling and battery charging when the EV is parked. By taking advantage of this interchangeability, a single set of power converters that can perform the functions of both traction and battery charging can be assembled, classified in the literature as integrated battery chargers (IBCs). Several IBC topologies have been proposed in the literature, and the aim of this paper is to present a literature review of IBCs for EVs. In order to better organize the information presented in this paper, the analyzed topologies are divided into classical IBCs, IBCs for switched reluctance machines (SRMs), IBCs with galvanic isolation, IBCs based on multiple traction converters and IBCs based on multiphase machines. A comparison between all these IBCs is subsequently presented, based on both requirements and possible functionalities.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. T.J.C.S. is supported by the FCT scholarships SFRH/BD/134353/2017 and COVID/BD/151993/2021

Single-Phase On-Board Integrated Battery Chargers for EVs Based on Multiphase Machines

The paper considers integration of multiphase (more than three phases) machines and converters into a single-phase charging process of electric vehicles (EVs) and, thus, complements recently introduced fast charging solutions for the studied phase numbers. One entirely novel topology, employing a five-phase machine, is introduced and assessed jointly with three other topologies that use an asymmetrical nine-phase machine, an asymmetrical six-phase machine, and a symmetrical six-phase machine. In all topologies, both charging and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) mode are viable. Moreover, all are capable of unity power factor operation. A torque is not produced in machines during charging/V2G process so that mechanical locking is not required. Hardware reconfiguration between propulsion and charging/V2G mode is either not required or minimized by using a single switch. Theoretical analysis of operating principles is given, and a control scheme, applicable to all topologies and which includes current balancing and interleaving strategy, is developed. Finally, operation of all topologies is compared by means of experiments in both charging and V2G mode, with a discussion of influence of current balancing and interleaving strategy on the overall performance

Onboard Integrated Battery Charger for EVs Using an Asymmetrical Nine-Phase Machine

This paper considers an integrated onboard charger for electric vehicles that incorporates an asymmetrical nine-phase machine and an inverter into the charging process. The charging is from three-phase mains, and it employs exclusively the power electronic components that already exist on board the vehicle and that are mandatory for the propulsion. No new elements are introduced. Moreover, the charging is achieved without any hardware reconfiguration since the existing elements and their connections are not altered during the transfer from propulsion to the charging mode. Instead, the operating principle is based on additional degrees of freedom that exist in nine-phase machines. These degrees of freedom are employed to avoid electromagnetic torque production in the machine during the charging process, although currents flow through its stator windings. The configuration operates with a unity power factor and is capable of vehicle to grid (V2G) operation as well. A detailed theoretical analysis is given, and the control for the charging/V2G and propulsion modes is discussed. Theoretical analysis is validated by experiments for charging, V2G, and propulsion operating regimes