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

Design and Control of Power Converters for High Power-Quality Interface with Utility and Aviation Grids

Power electronics as a subject integrating power devices, electric and electronic circuits, control, and thermal and mechanic design, requires not only knowledge and engineering insight for each subarea, but also understanding of interface issues when incorporating these different areas into high performance converter design.Addressing these fundamental questions, the dissertation studies design and control issues in three types of power converters applied in low-frequency high-power transmission, medium-frequency converter emulated grid, and high-frequency high-density aviation grid, respectively, with the focus on discovering, understanding, and mitigating interface issues to improve power quality and converter performance, and to reduce the noise emission.For hybrid ac/dc power transmission,• Analyze the interface transformer saturation issue between ac and dc power flow under line unbalances.• Proposed both passive transformer design and active hybrid-line-impedance-conditioner to suppress this issue.For transmission line emulator,• Propose general transmission line emulation schemes with extension capability.• Analyze and actively suppress the effects of sensing/sampling bias and PWM ripple on emulation considering interfaced grid impedance.• Analyze the stability issue caused by interaction of the emulator and its interfaced impedance. A criterion that determines the stability and impedance boundary of the emulator is proposed.For aircraft battery charger,• Investigate architectures for dual-input and dual-output battery charger, and a three-level integrated topology using GaN devices is proposed to achieve high density.• Identify and analyze the mechanisms and impacts of high switching frequency, di/dt, dv/dt on sensing and power quality control; mitigate solutions are proposed.• Model and compensate the distortion due to charging transition of device junction capacitances in three-level converters.• Find the previously overlooked device junction capacitance of the nonactive devices in three-level converters, and analyze the impacts on switching loss, device stress, and current distortion. A loss calculation method is proposed using the data from the conventional double pulse tester.• Establish fundamental knowledge on performance degradation of EMI filters. The impacts and mechanisms of both inductive and capacitive coupling on different filter structures are understood. Characterization methodology including measuring, modeling, and prediction of filter insertion loss is proposed. Mitigation solutions are proposed to reduce inter-component coupling and self-parasitics

Improving fault tolerant drives for aerospace applications

D EngThe aerospace industry is moving towards the more electric aeroplane where traditional hydraulic systems are being replaced with electrical systems. Electrical technology offers some strong advantages compared to hydraulic technology including; cost, efficiency, power on demand and relative ease of maintenance. As with most new technologies, a major disadvantage is its limited reliability history. A lot of research in the aerospace field therefore focuses on improving fault tolerant electrical systems. Work done in this thesis builds on an existing fault tolerant drive, developed by Newcastle University and Goodrich Actuation Systems as part of the ELGEAR (Electrical Landing Gear) project. The purpose of this work is to continue improving the drive’s fault tolerant features; especially in areas where the drive is most vulnerable. The first part of this thesis focuses on improving the overall system reliability by monitoring the health of the dc-link capacitors in the fault tolerant drive. The implemented estimation technique makes use of voltage and current sensors which are already in place for protection and control purposes. The novel aspect of the proposed technique relates to monitoring capacitors in real time whilst the motor is operational. No external interferences, such as injected signals or special operation of the drive, are required. The condition monitoring system is independent of torque and speed, and hence independent of a variation in load. The work was validated using analytical methods, simulation, low voltage experimentation and high voltage implementation on the ELGEAR drive. The second part of this thesis focuses on single shorted turn faults, in fault tolerant permanent magnet (PM) motors. Despite the motor being able to withstand a wide range of faults, the single shorted turn fault remains a difficult fault to detect and handle. The problem arises from the magnets on the spinning rotor that cannot be ‘turned off’ at will. This thesis investigates the severity of the faulted current in a shorted turn and how it varies depending on the turn’s location in the stator slot. The severity of the fault is studied using 2D finite element analysis and practical implementation on the ELGEAR rig. Finally, recommendations are proposed for improving the ELGEAR motor for future fault tolerant designs.EPRSC and Goodrich Aerospace (now United Technologies

On-line Condition Monitoring, Fault Detection and Diagnosis in Electrical Machines and Power Electronic Converters

The objective of this PhD research is to develop robust, and non-intrusive condition monitoring methods for induction motors fed by closed-loop inverters. The flexible energy forms synthesized by these connected power electronic converters greatly enhance the performance and expand the operating region of induction motors. They also significantly alter the fault behavior of these electric machines and complicate the fault detection and protection. The current state of the art in condition monitoring of power-converter-fed electric machines is underdeveloped as compared to the maturing condition monitoring techniques for grid-connected electric machines. This dissertation first investigates the stator turn-to-turn fault modelling for induction motors (IM) fed by a grid directly. A novel and more meaningful model of the motor itself was developed and a comprehensive study of the closed-loop inverter drives was conducted. A direct torque control (DTC) method was selected for controlling IM’s electromagnetic torque and stator flux-linkage amplitude in industrial applications. Additionally, a new driver based on DTC rules, predictive control theory and fuzzy logic inference system for the IM was developed. This novel controller improves the performance of the torque control on the IM as it reduces most of the disadvantages of the classical and predictive DTC drivers. An analytical investigation of the impacts of the stator inter-turn short-circuit of the machine in the controller and its reaction was performed. This research sets a based knowledge and clear foundations of the events happening inside the IM and internally in the DTC when the machine is damaged by a turn fault in the stator. This dissertation also develops a technique for the health monitoring of the induction machine under stator turn failure. The developed technique was based on the monitoring of the off-diagonal term of the sequence component impedance matrix. Its advantages are that it is independent of the IM parameters, it is immune to the sensors’ errors, it requires a small learning stage, compared with NN, and it is not intrusive, robust and online. The research developed in this dissertation represents a significant advance that can be utilized in fault detection and condition monitoring in industrial applications, transportation electrification as well as the utilization of renewable energy microgrids. To conclude, this PhD research focuses on the development of condition monitoring techniques, modelling, and insightful analyses of a specific type of electric machine system. The fundamental ideas behind the proposed condition monitoring technique, model and analysis are quite universal and appeals to a much wider variety of electric machines connected to power electronic converters or drivers. To sum up, this PhD research has a broad beneficial impact on a wide spectrum of power-converter-fed electric machines and is thus of practical importance

Uninterruptible power supply system using a dual converter in quasi-resonant mode

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems have become a standard to protect electronic devices such as servers and host computers. Also, the energy supply of whole buildings is linked with large UPS systems to ensure a steady power flow. Two system configurations are widely used which differ in price and their ability to protect very sensitive load. This thesis illustrates an analytical examination of all existing systems and concludes with the finding of new configurations with increased efficiency and reduced costs. A dual converter is proposed as the heart of the new UPS system. This converter links the necessary two sources of the UPS through a common transformer. The transformer operates at a high frequency which is enabled due to the resonant switching technique used. The results of this paper were achieved using mathematical analysis, electrical and electro-magnetic simulation as well as by experiments carried out on the self designed circuit boards in the laboratory. These boards were built in a modular way to enable series testing and thereby optimise the dimensioning of the system.This work is the result of a collaborative project between the BRUNEL UNIVERSITY WEST LONDON,U.K. and the FACHHOCHSCHULE FUR TECHNIK ESSLINGEN, GERMANY

Multiport Bidirectional SRM Drives for Solar-Assisted Hybrid Electric Bus Powertrain With Flexible Driving and Self-Charging Functions

The hybrid electric bus (HEB) presents an emerging solution to exhaust gas emissions in urban transport. This paper proposes a multiport bidirectional switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive for solar-assisted HEB (SHEB) powertrain, which not only improves the motoring performance, but also achieves flexible charging functions. To extend the driving miles and achieve self-charging ability, photovoltaic (PV) panels are installed on the bus to decrease the reliance on fuelsbatteries and charging stations. A bidirectional front-end circuit with a PV-fed circuit is designed to integrate electrical components into one converter. Six driving and five charging modes are achieved. The dc voltage is boosted by the battery in generator control unit (GCU) driving mode and by the charge capacitor in battery driving mode, where the torque capability is improved. Usually, an extra converter is needed to achieve battery charging. In this paper, the battery can be directly charged by the demagnetization current in GCU or PV driving mode, and can be quickly charged by the PV panels and GCUAC grids at SHEB standstill conditions, by utilizing the traction motor windings and integrated converter circuit, without external charging converters. Experiments on a three-phase 128 SRM confirm the effectiveness of the proposed drive and control scheme

Battery Fault Detection with Saturating Transformers

A battery monitoring system utilizes a plurality of transformers interconnected with a battery having a plurality of battery cells. Windings of the transformers are driven with an excitation waveform whereupon signals are responsively detected, which indicate a health of the battery. In one embodiment, excitation windings and sense windings are separately provided for the plurality of transformers such that the excitation waveform is applied to the excitation windings and the signals are detected on the sense windings. In one embodiment, the number of sense windings and/or excitation windings is varied to permit location of underperforming battery cells utilizing a peak voltage detector