Itec 2018

2018 IEEE Transportation and
Electrification Conference and

Expo (ITEC)
Long Beach, California

June 13 – 15, 2018
IEEE Catalog Number: CFP18TEB-ART

ISBN: 978-1-5386-3047-1
i
2018 IEEE Transportation and Electrification
Conference and Expo (ITEC)
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IEEE Catalog Number: CFP18TEB-ART

ISBN: 978-1-5386-3047-1
ii
ITEC 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS
A1P-L Poster Session 1a

Date: Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Location: Poster Area
A New Voltage Doubler Based DC-DC 2LCm-Y Power Converter Topologies for
High-Voltage/Low-Current Renewable Energy Applications ....................................................... 1
Mahajan Sagar Bhaskar2, Sanjeevikumar Padmanaban1, Patrick William Wheeler3,
Frede Blaabjerg1, Pierluigi Siano4
1
Aalborg University, Denmark; 2Qatar University, Qatar; 3University of Nottingham,
United Kingdom; 4University of Salerno, Italy
High-Performance Integrated Modulation Scheme for Modular Multilevel
Converters....................................................................................................................................... 7
Deepak Ronanki, Sheldon S. Williamson
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada
Thermal and Electrical Characteristics of EV Traction Motor Considering AC
Resistance of MSO Coil ................................................................................................................ 13
Eui-Chun Lee2, Soon-O Kwon2, Jung-Pyo Hong1
1
Hanyang.University, Korea; 2Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Korea
Advanced Fault-Tolerant Control Strategy for Switched Reluctance Motor Drives ................. 20
Peter Azer1, Jin Ye2, Ali Emadi1
1
McMaster University, Canada; 2San Francisco State University, United States
Modified Phase-Disposition PWM Technique for Modular Multilevel Converters .................... 26
Topological Overview on Solid-State Transformer Traction Technology in High-
Speed Trains ................................................................................................................................. 32
Electrical Machine Rotor Shielding for Low Cost Electrical Drive ............................................ 38
Mahir Al-Ani, Gaurang Vakil, Christopher Gerada
University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Reactive Power Compensation Scheme for an Imbalanced Three-Phase Series-
Compensated Wireless Power Transfer System with a Star-Connected Load......................... 44
Alireza Safaee1, Konrad Woronowicz1, Ali Maknouninejad2
1
Bombardier Transportation, Canada; 2Schnieder Electric, United States
Comparison of Direct and Axle Drives with Electrically Excited Synchronous
Machines for Traction Applications ............................................................................................ 49
Jonathan Juergens, Juergen Redlich, Bernd Ponick
Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany
Time Efficient Integrated Electro-Thermal Model for Bidirectional Synchronous DC-
DC Converter in Hybrid Electric Vehicles ................................................................................... 55
Peter Azer, Romina Rodriguez, Hao Ge, Jennifer Bauman, P. Sai Ravi, Ali Emadi
McMaster University, Canada
A PV Array Fed BESS Supported Speed Sensor-Less PMSM Driven Water
Pumping System........................................................................................................................... 63
Shadab Murshid, Bhim Singh
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
iii
Super-Twisting Algorithm Based on Fast Terminal Sliding Surface for Buck
Converter in Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle ........................................................................................ 69
Qian Li2, Yigeng Huangfu2, Dongdong Zhao2, Minchi Xie2, Jun Zhao1
1
AVIC Computing Technique Research Institute, China; 2Northwestern Polytechnical
University, China
Urban Grid Monitoring and Distributed Energy Resource Integration – Approach
Using Analytics ............................................................................................................................. 75
Moody Demetry, Krishna Paracharan, Stanley Moses Sathianthan
Eversource Energy Corporation, United States
An Inductive Power Transfer System Design for Rail Applications .......................................... 84
Luocheng Wang2, Tiefu Zhao2, Shen-En Chen2, Dave Cook1
1
Rail Propulsion Systems, United States; 2University of North Carolina at Charlotte,
United States
A1P-M Poster Session 1b

Date: Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
FPGA-Based Real-Time Simulation of Floating Interleaved Boost Converter for
FCEV Powertrain........................................................................................................................... 90
Hao Bai2, Huan Luo1, Chen Liu2, Rui Ma2, Damien Paire2, Fei Gao2
1
FEMTO-ST Institute / Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté / UTBM, France; 2FEMTO-
ST Institute / Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté / UTBM / FCLAB, France
Autonomous Circuit Design of a Resonant Converter (LLC) for on-Board Chargers
Using Genetic Algorithms ............................................................................................................ 96
Andreas Rosskopf, Sophia Volmering, Stefan Ditze, Christopher Joffe, Eberhard Baer
Fraunhofer IISB, Germany
Data-Driven Prognostics for PEM Fuel Cell Degradation by Long Short-Term
Memory Network ......................................................................................................................... 102
Rui Ma1, Elena Breaz2, Chen Liu1, Hao Bai1, Pascal Briois1, Fei Gao1
1
FEMTO-ST Institute / Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté / UTBM / FCLAB, France;
2
FEMTO-ST Institute / Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté / UTBM / FCLAB / UTC-N,
France
A Parallel Solver to the Three-Level VSC Modeling for HIL Application ................................. 108
Chen Liu2, Rui Ma2, Hao Bai2, Franck Gechter1, Fei Gao2
1
Decoupled Modeling of Mutually Coupled SRM Based on Net Flux Method .......................... 114
Siddharth Mehta2, Md Ashfanoor Kabir1, Iqbal Husain2
1
ABB US Corporate Research Center, United States; 2North Carolina State University,
United States
Improved Model Predictive Control Method for Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC)
Based on Insertion Indexes ....................................................................................................... 119
Minh Nguyen1, Sangshin Kwak1, Jeihoon Baek2
1
Chung-ang University, Korea; 2Korea University of Technology and Education, Korea
Nonlinear Modeling Based Harmonic Analysis of the Interior Permanent Magnet
Synchronous Machines .............................................................................................................. 124
Jian Zhang, Xuhui Wen, Zhaopeng Yan
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
iv
Time-Dependent Multi-Physics Analysis of Inductive Power Transfer Systems ................... 130
Masood Moghaddami, Arif Sarwat
Florida International University, United States
Control System to Regenerative and Anti-Lock Braking for Electric Vehicles ...................... 135
Marina Gabriela P. Paredes, José Antenor Pomilio
University of Campinas, Brazil
DM and CM Modeling of Non-Isolated Buck Converters for EMI Filter Design ...................... 140
Aaron Brovont1, Robert Cuzner2
1
University of Alabama, United States; 2University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, United
States
Multi-Physics Modeling for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles with in-Wheel Electric
Motors ......................................................................................................................................... 146
Vandana Rallabandi2, Damien Lawhorn2, Dan Ionel2, Xiao Li1
1
ANSYS Inc., United States; 2University of Kentucky, United States
Electric Vehicle Policy Formulation Framework for SIDS in the Caribbean ........................... 152
Chris Meetoo2, Sanjay Bahadoorsingh2, Dillon Jaglal2, Vickram Balbadar2, Chandrabhan
Sharma2, Kevin Baboolal1, Marlon Williams1
1
Trinidad and Tobago Government Electrical Inspectorate, Trinidad and Tobago;
2
University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago
Determination of Differential Inductances for a Permanent Magnet Assisted
Synchronous Reluctance Machine with a Ribless Rotor ......................................................... 158
Marco Zimmermann, Bernhard Piepenbreier
University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
Modularized High Power Density Bidirectional Buck-Boost DC-DC Converter for
EV Battery Management ............................................................................................................. 164
Zhi Geng2, Dazhong Gu2, Tianqi Hong2, Kedao Qi2, Kuang Zhang1, Joseph Ambrosio2
1
New York University, United States; 2Unique Technical Service, LLC, United States
Design of a 5-Phase IPM Machine for Electric Vehicles ........................................................... 168
Omid Beik2, Rong Yang1, Ali Emadi2
1
BorgWarner, Canada; 2McMaster University, Canada
Dictionary Learning for Bearing Fault Diagnosis ..................................................................... 173
Kudra Baruti, Mehrdad Heydarzadeh, Mehrdad Nourani, Bilal Akin
University of Texas at Dallas, United States
B1P-L Poster Session 2a

Date: Thursday, June 14, 2018
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Chair(s): Woonki Na, California State University, Fresno
Akshay Rathore, Concordia University
Efficient Interfacing Electric Vehicles with Grid Using Bi-Directional Smart Inverter ........... 178
Ashley Kaiser, Andrew Nguyen, Ryan Pham, Michael Granados, Ha Thu Le
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, United States
Making Electric Vehicles Smarter with Grid and Home Friendly Functions ........................... 183
Thang Vo, Jassimran Sokhi, Andrew Kim, Ha Thu Le
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, United States
Multi-Objective Coordinated Charging and Discharging Strategy of Electric Vehicle
Between Different Regions ........................................................................................................ 188
Hui Hou2, Xianbin Ke2, Chengzhi Wang1, Xianqiang Li2, Mengya Xue2, Tao Xu2
1
State Grid Hubei Electric Power Company, China; 2Wuhan University of Technology,
China
v
A Comparison of Electric Vehicle Power Systems to Predict Architectures, Voltage
Levels, Power Requirements, and Load Characteristics of the Future All-Electric
Aircraft ......................................................................................................................................... 194
Richard Alexander, Danielle Meyer, Jiankang Wang
Ohio State University, United States
A Bidirectional NPC-Based Level 3 EV Charging System with Added Active Filter
Functionality in Smart Grid Applications .................................................................................. 201
Ali Mortezaei2, Mohamad Abdul-Hak2, Marcelo Godoy Simoes1
1
Colorado School of Mines, United States; 2Mercedes-Benz Research & Development
North America, United States
Fault Considerations of Non-Isolated Electric Vehicle Chargers with a Mutual DC
Supply ......................................................................................................................................... 207
Kilian Gosses1, Julian Kaiser1, Leopold Ott1, Matthias Schulz1, Fabian Fersterra1, Bernd
Wunder1, Yunchao Han2, Melanie Lavery2, Martin März2
1
Fraunhofer IISB, Germany; 2Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg,
Germany
Smart Grid Distribution Management System (SGDMS) for Optimized Electricity
Bills .............................................................................................................................................. 212
Weixian Li, Chong Hao Ng, Thillainathan Logenthiran, Van-Tung Phan, Wai Lok Woo
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Singapore
Li-Fi Based Smart Traffic Network............................................................................................. 217
Adan Correa, Abdelrahman Hamid, Eric Sparks
University of Houston, United States
A 3.6 kV Full SiC Fuel Cell Boost Converter for High Power Electric Aircraft ........................ 220
Otto Kreutzer, Maximilian Gerner, Markus Billmann, Martin März
Fraunhofer IISB, Germany
Methodology for Utility Incentive Programs to Advance Nonroad Electric Vehicles
and Charging Infrastructure....................................................................................................... 226
Ian Metzger, Brenton Montgomery, Angela Gordon, Robert St. Amand, Scott Steiner
Lockheed Martin Energy, United States
An MPC-Based Power Management of a PV/Battery System in an Islanded DC
Microgrid ..................................................................................................................................... 231
Salem Batiyah1, Nasibeh Zohrabi1, Sherif Abdelwahed2, Roshan Sharma1
1
Mississippi State University, United States; 2Virginia Commonwealth University, United
States
Comprehensive Design and Control of Electric Powertrain Evaluation Platform for
Next Generation EV/HEV Development ..................................................................................... 237
Xiaorui Wang, Deepak Gunasekaran, Allan Taylor, Wei Qian, Fang Z. Peng
Michigan State University, United States
Optimal Charging of Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV) in Residential Area ................................ 243
Harun Turker
Turker Ar-Ge Smart Grid, Turkey
Power Channel Based Power Electronics Transformer (PC-PET) with Reduced
Capacitance for Interfacing AC and DC Grid ............................................................................ 248
Liqun He1, Yong Yang1, Mingdi Fan1, Menxi Xie1, Yinnan Yuan1, Shengfang Fan2
1
Soochow University, China; 2Suzhou Powersite Electric CO. Ltd., China
Decentralized Controller for Energy Storage Management on MVDC Ship Power
System with Pulsed Loads ......................................................................................................... 254
Samy Faddel, Tarek Youssef, Osama Mohammed
vi
B1P-M Poster Session 2b
Date: Thursday, June 14, 2018
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Dynamic Analysis of a Novel Synchronous Reluctance Motor with a Sinusoidal
Anisotropic Rotor ....................................................................................................................... 260
Mbika Muteba, Dan Valentin Nicolae
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Bearingless Motor Technology for Industrial and Transportation Applications .................... 266
Eric Severson
University of Wisconsin Madison, United States
Self-Pumped Air-Cooling Design for a High-Speed High-Specific-Power Motor.................... 274
Xuan Yi2, Reed Sanchez2, Kiruba S. Haran2, Joseph P. Veres1, Aaron T. Perry2, Philip J.
Ansell2
1
NASA Glenn Research Center, United States; 2University of Illinois Urbana -
Champaign, United States
Multistate Markov Analysis in Reliability Evaluation and Life Time Extension of
DC-DC Power Converter for Electric Vehicle Applications ...................................................... 280
Vamsi Mulpuri, Moinul Haque, Mohammad Noor Shaheed, Seungdeog Choi
University of Akron, United States
Multi-Objective System Design Synthesis for Electric Powertrain Development .................. 286
Martin Hofstetter1, Mario Hirz1, Martin Gintzel2, Andreas Schmidhofer2
1
Graz University of Technology, Austria; 2Magna Powertrain GmbH & Co KG, Austria
A Review of Front End AC-DC Topologies in Universal Battery Charger for Electric
Transportation ............................................................................................................................ 293
Jaya Sai Praneeth A.V., Sheldon S. Williamson
Analytical Models of Wireless Power Transfer Systems with a Constant-Power
Load ............................................................................................................................................. 299
Yiming Zhang, Tianze Kan, Zhengchao Yan, Chris Mi
San Diego State University, United States
A Bayesian Framework for EV Battery Capacity Fade Modeling............................................. 304
Mehdi Jafari, Laura E. Brown, Lucia Gauchia
Michigan Technological University, United States
Battery Modeling Using Real Driving Cycle and Big-Bang Big-Crunch Algorithm ................ 309
Loic Vichard4, Simon Morando1, Alexandre Ravey4, Fabien Harel3, Pascal Venet3, Serge
Pelissier5, Daniel Hissel2
1
Faurecia, France; 2FCLAB, Université Bourgogne - Franche-Comté, FEMTO-ST
Institute, France; 3FCLAB, Université Bourgogne - Franche-Comté, Université Claude
Bernard Lyon 1, France; 4FEMTO-ST Institute / Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté /
UTBM / FCLAB, France; 5Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 / IFSTTAR, France
Workplace Charge Management with Aggregated Building Loads ......................................... 315
Myungsoo Jun, Andrew Meintz
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, United States
Integrated Single-Phase Electric Vehicle Charging Using a Dual-Inverter Drive ................... 320
Sepehr Semsar, Theodore Soong, Peter Lehn
University of Toronto, Canada
vii
Ruler-Search Technique (RST) Algorithm to Locate Charging Infrastructure on a
Particular Interstate or US-Highway .......................................................................................... 326
Subhaditya Shom, Arpan Guha, Mahmoud Alahmad
University of Nebraska–Lincoln, United States
A Novel Dependence-Decoupling Method for Battery Cell Balancing .................................... 332
Jiucai Zhang1, Jin Shang1, Yizhen Zhang1, Gang Li2, Hongzhong Qi2, Ao Mei2
1
GAC R&D Center Silicon Valley Inc, United States; 2Guangzhou Automotive
Engineering Institute, China
A Modular Multi-Level Converter for Energy Management of Hybrid Storage
System in Electric Vehicles........................................................................................................ 336
Sharon George, Mohamed Badawy
San Jose State University, United States
State-of-Charge Estimation of the Lithium-Ion Battery Using Neural Network Based
on an Improved Thevenin Circuit Model ................................................................................... 342
Haoliang Zhang1, Woonki Na1, Jonghoon Kim2
1
California State University, Fresno, United States; 2Chungnam National University,
Korea
Performance Analysis of a Single-Stage High-Frequency AC-AC Buck Converter
for a Series-Series Compensated Inductive Power Transfer System ..................................... 347
Phuoc Sang Huynh, Deepa Vincent, Najath Azeez, Lalit Patnaik, Sheldon S. Williamson
C1L-A Power Electronics I

Date: Friday, June 15, 2018
Time: 08:30 - 10:10
Location: 201A
Chair(s): Ye Li, Apple
Jiucai Zhang, GAC R&D Center Silicon Valley
Die Level Sensor Integration in SiC Power Modules ................................................................ 353
Minhao Sheng, Muhammad Alvi, Robert Lorenz
Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronic Consortium / University of Wisconsin-
Madison, United States
Design of a Fast Dynamic on-Resistance Measurement Circuit for GaN Power
HEMTs ......................................................................................................................................... 359
Fei Yang, Chi Xu, Enes Ugur, Shi Pu, Bilal Akin
A Modular Single-Phase Bidirectional EV Charger with Current Sharing
Optimization ................................................................................................................................ 366
Mithat Kisacikoglu
University of Alabama, United States
Input Impedance Modeling of Three-Level Multi-Stage NPC Topology .................................. 372
Markus Makoschitz, Johannes Stoeckl, Wolfgang Hribernik
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Austria
A Three-Phase AC-AC Matrix Converter with Simplified Bidirectional Power
Control for Inductive Power Transfer Systems ........................................................................ 380
Masood Moghaddami, Arif Sarwat
viii
C1L-B Electric Machines I
Time: 08:30 - 10:10
Location: 201B
Chair(s): Hao Ge, Tesla
Christian Dinca, Tesla
Design and Analysis of Line Start Synchronous Reluctance Motor with Dual
Saliency ....................................................................................................................................... 385
Bikrant Poudel, Ebrahim Amiri, Parviz Rastgoufard
University of New Orleans, United States
A High Torque Density Outer Rotor Claw Pole Stator Permanent Magnet
Synchronous Motor .................................................................................................................... 389
Jingchen Liang2, Amir Parsapour2, Eva Cosoroaba2, Minxiang Wu2, Ion Boldea1, Babak
Fahimi2
1
Universitatea Politehnică Timişoara, Romania; 2University of Texas at Dallas, United
States
Performance Validation of a PM Spoke Machine for MotorSport Application
Including 3DLeakage Effects ..................................................................................................... 394
Giuseppe Volpe2, Fabrizio Marignetti2, Sara Roggia1, Mircea Popescu1, James Goss1
1
Motor Design ltd., United Kingdom; 2University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy
High Temperature Operation and Increased Cooling Capabilities of Switched
Reluctance Machines Using 3D Printed Ceramic Insulated Coils ........................................... 400
Fabian Lorenz, Johannes Rudolph, Ralf Werner
Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
Sensitivity Analysis and Design of a High Performance Permanent-Magnet-
Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motor for EV Application ................................................. 406
Pengyu Li, Wen Ding, Guoji Liu
Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
C1L-C Electric Machines II

Time: 08:30 - 10:10
Location: 202A
Chair(s): Paolo Omenetti, Loccioni USA Inc
Babak Nahid-Mobarakeh, University of Lorraine - France
A New Space Harmonics Minimization Strategy for Fractional Slot Concentrated
Windings ..................................................................................................................................... 412
Md Sariful Islam3, Md Ashfanoor Kabir2, Rajib Mikail1, Iqbal Husain3
1
ABB Inc., United States; 2ABB US Corporate Research Center, United States; 3North
Carolina State University, United States
Comparison of the Reluctance and Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine
Operating at High Temperatures ............................................................................................... 418
Marcin Lefik2, Krzysztof Komeza2, Ewa Napieralska Juszczak3, Daniel Roger3, Piotr
Napieralski1
1
Lodz University of Technology, Poland; 2Technical University of Lodz, Poland;
3
Université d'Artois / LSEE, France
A Proposition for Improving the Design of Motor Windings for Low-Pressure
Environment ................................................................................................................................ 424
Daniel Roger2, Sonia Ait-Amar2, Ewa Napieralska Juszczak2, Piotr Napieralski1
1
Lodz University of Technology, Poland; 2Université d'Artois / LSEE, France
ix
Efficiency Optimization Method of an Ultra-High Speed, Low Torque Permanent
Magnet Motor with Multiphase Configuration........................................................................... 430
Md Tawhid Bin Tarek, Seungdeog Choi
Synchronous Space Vector Voltage Modulation of Three-Phase Inverter with Low
Switching Number ...................................................................................................................... 436
Hyeon-Gyu Choi, Jin-Su Hong, Jung-Ik Ha
Seoul National University, Korea
C1L-F Motor Drivers I

Time: 08:30 - 10:10
Location: 202B
Chair(s): Lei Gu, Karma Automotive LLC
Dionne Hernandez Lugo, NASA
Online MTPA Control of IPMSM for Automotive Applications Based on Robust
Numerical Optimization Technique ........................................................................................... 442
Hyeon-Sik Kim2, Younggi Lee2, Seung-Ki Sul2, Jayeong Yu1, Jaeyoon Oh1
1
LG Electronics Inc., Korea; 2Seoul National University, Korea
Nonlinear Kalman Filtering Based Sensorless Direct Torque Control of Surface-
Mounted Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors .................................................................. 448
Joon Bum Park, Xin Wang
Southern Illinois University, United States
Compensation of Nonlinear Effects in Automotive 48V Position Sensorless IPMSM
Drive Systems ............................................................................................................................. 454
Le Sun4, Shamsuddeen Nalakath4, Horacio Beckert Polli2, Daniel Luedtke3, Matthias
Preindl1
1
Columbia University, United States; 2FCA US LLC, United States; 3Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles, United States; 4McMaster University, Canada
Optimization-Based Position Sensorless Control for Induction Machines ............................ 460
Alan Dorneles Callegaro3, Shamsuddeen Nalakath3, Lakshmi Narayanan Srivatchan2,
Daniel Luedtke2, Matthias Preindl1
1
Columbia University, United States; 2Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, United States;
3
C1L-G Thermal Management and Packaging

Time: 08:30 - 10:10
Location: 202C
Chair(s): Yiming Zhang, San Diego State University
Ernesto Inoa, AC Propulsion, Inc.
Thermal Analysis of an Electrical Traction Motor with an Air Cooled Rotor .......................... 467
Markus Jaeger, Andreas Ruf, Kay Hameyer, Thorben Grosse-von Tongeln
RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Thermal Analysis of Lateral GaN HEMT Devices for High Power Density Integrated
Motor Drives Considering the Effect of PCB Layout and Parasitic Parameters ..................... 471
Woongkul Lee, Bulent Sarlioglu
x
Thermal Runaway Prevention of Li-Ion Batteries by Novel Thermal Management
System ......................................................................................................................................... 477
Mark Hartmann, Joe Kelly
Outlast Technologies LLC, United States
Impact of Heat Dissipation Profiles on Power Electronics Packaging Design ....................... 482
Tong Wu1, Burak Ozpineci2
1
University of Tennessee, United States; 2University of Tennessee / Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, United States
Performance Evaluation of Thermal Management for a 3-Phase Interleaved DC-DC
Boost Converter.......................................................................................................................... 488
Romina Rodriguez, Maryam Alizadeh, Jennifer Bauman, P. Sai Ravi, Ali Emadi
C1L-H Electric Vehicle Systems and Components I

Time: 08:30 - 10:10
Location: 203A
Chair(s): Kartik Iyer, University of Minnesota,Twin Cities
Dhafar Al-Ani, FCA Chrysler
Influencing Factors in Low Speed Regenerative Braking Performance of Electric
Vehicles ....................................................................................................................................... 494
Shoeib Heydari3, Poria Fajri3, Nima Lotfi2, Bamdad Falahati1
1
SEL Engineering Services, Inc., United States; 2Southern Illinois University, United
States; 3University of Nevada Reno, United States
Mass Production Costing of Induction Machines for Automotive Applications .................... 500
Vladimir Hundak, Tom Cox, Gaurang Vakil, Christopher Gerada
Design and Optimization of an Electric Vehicle with Two Battery Cell Chemistries .............. 506
Christina Riczu, Saeid Habibi, Jennifer Bauman
Design of a 48V Electric All-Wheel-Drive System for a Hybrid Vehicle................................... 513
Martin Nell2, Daniel Butterweck2, Kay Hameyer2, Orkan Eryilmaz1
1
GKN Driveline, Germany; 2RWTH Aachen University, Germany
C1L-J Smart Grid, Electrical Infrastructure, and V2G Applications I

Time: 08:30 - 10:10
Location: 203B
Chair(s): Liang Du, Temple University
Ha Le, California State Polytechnic University Pomona
A Data-Driven Framework for Residential Electric Vehicle Charging Load Profile
Generation................................................................................................................................... 519
Zonggen Yi, Don Scoffield
Idaho National Laboratory, United States
Estimated Value of Smart / Managed Charging of Electric Vehicles for a Vertically
Integrated Utility ......................................................................................................................... 525
Deepak Aswani, Bill Boyce, David Yomogida
Sacramento Municipal Utility District, United States
An Implementation of Solar PV Array Based Multifunctional EV Charger .............................. 531
Anjeet Verma2, Bhim Singh2, Ambrish Chandra1, Kamal Al-Haddad1
1
École de Technologie Supérieure, Canada; 2Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
xi
C1L-K Aerospace and Marine Applications
Time: 08:30 - 10:10
Location: 203C
Chair(s): Ali Mohammadpour, Honeywell
Jalpa Shah, Eaton
Design of Minimum Fuel Consumption Energy Management Strategy for Hybrid
Marine Vessels with Multiple Diesel Engine Generators and Energy Storage ....................... 537
Olve Mo, Giuseppe Guidi
SINTEF Energy Research, Norway
Wireless Energy Harvesting System Through Metal for Aerospace Sensor .......................... 545
Chi Pham2, Tuan Anh Vu2, William Tran2, Anh Vu Pham2, Christopher Gardner1
1
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, United States; 2University of California, Davis,
United States
Turbo-Electric Distributed Aircraft Propulsion: Microgrid Architecture and
Evaluation for ECO-150 .............................................................................................................. 550
David Loder, Andrew Bollman, Michael Armstrong
Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc., United States
Design and Small Signal Stability Analysis of DC Side Parallel-Connected Power
System for the All-Electric Vessel ............................................................................................. 558
Jian Zhang, Xuhui Wen, Zhaopeng Yan
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
C2L-A Power Electronics II

Time: 10:30 - 12:10
Location: 201A
Chair(s): Wei Liang, Stanford
RUL Estimation of Power Semiconductor Switch Using Evolutionary Time Series
Prediction .................................................................................................................................... 564
Moinul Haque, Mohammad Noor Shaheed, Seungdeog Choi
Design of an Integrated Inductor for 45kW Aerospace Starter-Generator .............................. 570
Muhammad Raza Khowja, Christopher Gerada, Gaurang Vakil, Syed Quadir Quadri,
Patrick William Wheeler, Chintan Patel
Minimum Volume Design of a Forced-Air Cooled Three-Phase Power Factor
Correction Stage for Electric Vehicle Chargers ........................................................................ 576
Friedrich Schultheiß1, Thinh Nguyen-Xuan1, Achim Endruschat2, Martin März2
1
BMW AG, Germany; 2Fraunhofer IISB, Germany
High Power Traction Inverter Design and Comparison for Electric Vehicles ......................... 583
Lihua Chen, Baoming Ge
Ford Motor Company, United States
On the Period-Doubling Bifurcation in PWM-Controlled Buck Converter .............................. 589
Sen Li, Babak Fahimi
xii
C2L-B Electric Machines III
Time: 10:30 - 12:10
Location: 201B
Chair(s): Matthias Preindl, Columbia University
Dhafar Al-Ani, FCA Chrysler
A Comparative Study of Inner Vs Outer Rotor Transverse Flux Machine
Performances Based on Silicon-Steel Stator Structure ........................................................... 595
Adeeb Ahmed, Iqbal Husain
North Carolina State University, United States
Trade Studies for a Manganese Bismuth Based Surface Permanent Magnet
Machine ....................................................................................................................................... 600
Jagadeesh Tangudu2, Gaoyuan Ouyang1, Jun Cui1
1
Iowa State University, United States; 2United Technologies Research Center, United
States
Torque Per Ampere Enhancement of a Three-Phase Induction Motor by Means of a
Capacitive Auxiliary Winding ..................................................................................................... 606
Mbika Muteba, Dan Valentin Nicolae
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Improved Sensorless Direct Torque Control Using Space Vector Modulation and
Fuzzy Logic Controllers ............................................................................................................. 611
Hossein Saberi, Shahab Mehraeen
Louisiana State University, United States
Enhanced Algorithm for Real Time Temperature Rise Prediction of a Traction
Linear Induction Motor ............................................................................................................... 616
Konrad Woronowicz1, Alireza Safaee1, Ali Maknouninejad2
1
Bombardier Transportation, Canada; 2Schnieder Electric, United States
C2L-C Electric Machines IV

Time: 10:30 - 12:10
Location: 202A
Chair(s): Rryan Ahmed, General Motors
Evaluating the Feasibility of Single-Rotor Topologies in Hybrid Excitation
Synchronous Machines for Automotive Traction Applications............................................... 621
Mohamad Salameh, Antonio Di Gioia, Ian Brown, Mahesh Krishnamurthy
Illinois Institute of Technology, United States
Comparison of Low-Pole Axial Flux-Switching and Surface Permanent Magnet
Machines ..................................................................................................................................... 627
Ju Hyung Kim1, Mingda Liu2, Bulent Sarlioglu2
1
University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States; 2Wisconsin Electric Machines and
Power Electronic Consortium / University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
Noise and Vibration Performance in Fractional Slot Permanent Magnet
Synchronous Machines Using Stator Bridge............................................................................ 632
Shuvajit Das3, Iftekhar Hasan3, Yilmaz Sozer3, Rakib Islam2, Alejandro Piña Ortega1, Jeff
Klass2
1
Dyson Ltd., United Kingdom; 2Nexteer Automotive, United States; 3University of Akron,
United States
xiii
A Comparative Study of Constant Power Operation Techniques for Low
Inductance Machines.................................................................................................................. 638
Damien Lawhorn, Narges Taran, Vandana Rallabandi, Dan Ionel
University of Kentucky, United States
C2L-F Magnetic Materials and Components

Time: 10:30 - 12:10
Location: 202B
Chair(s): Khurram Afridi, University of Colorado - Boulder
Suman Debnath, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Novel Core Designs to Miniaturise Passive Magnetic Components ....................................... 644
Adam Walker, Gaurang Vakil, Christopher Gerada
Compact Busbar-Integrated Current Sensing Using 2D Magnetoresistive Point
Field Detectors in Power Electronic Systems........................................................................... 650
Muhammad Alvi2, Minhao Sheng2, Robert Lorenz2, Matthias Brusius1
1
Sensitec GmbH, Germany; 2Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronic
Consortium / University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
Design of Wireless Temperature Monitoring System for Measurement of Magnet
Temperature of IPMSM ............................................................................................................... 656
Donghoon Park, Hyun-Sam Jung, Hyung-June Cho, Seung-Ki Sul
Modeling the Degradation of Relative Permeability in Soft Magnetic Materials ..................... 662
Marco Cossale1, Gerd Bramerdorfer1, Gereon Goldbeck1, Martin Kitzberger1, Dietmar
Andessner2, Wolfgang Amrhein1
1
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria; 2Linz Center of Mechatronics GmbH, Austria
Additive Manufacturing of a Soft Magnetic Rotor Active Part and Shaft for a
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine ............................................................................... 668
Stefan Urbanek1, Bernd Ponick1, Alexander Taube2, Kay-Peter Hoyer2, Mirko Schaper2,
Stefan Lammers2, Tobias Lieneke2, Detmar Zimmer2
1
Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany; 2Paderborn University, Germany
C2L-G Battery Charging Applications and Systems I

Time: 10:30 - 12:10
Location: 202C
Chair(s): Ye Li, Apple
Jiucai Zhang, GAC R&D Center Silicon Valley
A Comparison of the Performance and Thermal Management Requirements of
Lithium-Ion Batteries During Ultra-Fast Charging .................................................................... 675
Melissa He, Phillip Kollmeyer, Mike Haußmann, Ali Emadi
Single-Phase Charging Operation of a Three-Phase Integrated Onboard Charger
for Electric Vehicles.................................................................................................................... 681
Jimmy Ye1, Chuan Shi2, Alireza Khaligh2
1
Columbia University, United States; 2University of Maryland, College Park, United
States
xiv
High-Frequency High-Density Bidirectional EV Charger ......................................................... 687
Rimon Gadelrab, Yuchen Yang, Bin Li, Fred Lee, Qiang Li
Center for Power Electronics Systems, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, United States
Challenges and Advancements in Fast Charging Solutions for EVs: a
Technological Review ................................................................................................................ 695
Chengxiu Chen2, Fei Shang1, Mohamad Salameh2, Mahesh Krishnamurthy2
1
Hatco Corporation, United States; 2Illinois Institute of Technology, United States
C2L-H Electric Vehicle Systems and Components II

Time: 10:30 - 12:10
Location: 203A
Chair(s): Veda Galigekere, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Beijing Wang, FCA Group
Impact of Temperature Variation on Fuel Economy of Electric Vehicles and Energy
Saving by Using Compensation Control ................................................................................... 702
Silong Li, Di Han, Bulent Sarlioglu
Experimental Validation of Energy Management Strategy in Hybrid Energy Storage
System for Electric Vehicle ........................................................................................................ 708
Maciej Wieczorek2, Mirosław Lewandowski2, Krzysztof Staroński1, Mikołaj Pierzchała2
1
Electrotechnical Institute, Poland; 2Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Cable Modeling for Accurate Estimation of Current and Voltage Ripple in Electric
Vehicles ....................................................................................................................................... 714
Andreas Henriksson1, John Simonsson3, Urban Lundgren2, Peter Ankarson2
1
Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden; 2RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB,
Sweden; 3Volvo Cars AB, Sweden
Modeling EV Fleet Load in Distribution Grids: a Data-Driven Approach ................................ 720
Qiyun Dang, Yuchong Huo
McGill University, Canada
C2L-J Policy, Economics, and Grid Impact of Transportation Electrification

Time: 10:30 - 12:10
Location: 203B
Chair(s): Liang Du, Temple University
JK Wang, Ohio State University
Methodology for Evaluating Potential Benefits and Economic Value of Residential
Photovoltaic and Battery Energy Storage System ................................................................... 725
Pablo Castro Palavicino, Yujiang Wu, Matthew Smuda, Wooyoung Choi, Woongkul Lee,
Bulent Sarlioglu
Indices to Determine the Environmental and Economic Impact of Using an Electric
Vehicle Over Gasoline or Hybrid Vehicles on a Regional Basis.............................................. 731
Arpan Guha, Subhaditya Shom, Ala'A Rayyan, Mahmoud Alahmad
University of Nebraska–Lincoln, United States
xv
Visualizing the Impact of PEV Charging on the Power Grid .................................................... 737
Ziran Gao, Danielle Meyer, Jiankang Wang
Ohio State University, United States
Electrification of Class 8 Trucking: Economic Analysis of in-Motion Wireless
Power Transfer Compared to Long-Range Batteries ............................................................... 744
Evan Sproul1, David Trinko1, Zachary Asher1, Braden Limb1, Thomas Bradley1, Jason
Quinn1, Regan Zane2
1
Colorado State University, United States; 2Utah State University, United States
C2L-K Modeling, Simulation, and Control I

Time: 10:30 - 12:10
Location: 203C
Phil Kollmeyer, McMaster University
A Current Observer to Reduce the Sensor Count in Three-Phase PM Synchronous
Machine Drives ........................................................................................................................... 749
Michael Eull1, Mustafa Mohamadian2, Daniel Luedtke2, Matthias Preindl1
1
Columbia University, United States; 2Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, United States
Practical Considerations for the Implementation of Dynamic Programming for HEV
Powertrains ................................................................................................................................. 755
Jeremy Lempert2, Brynn Vadala2, Kamran Arshad-Ali1, Joel Roeleveld2, Ali Emadi3
1
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, United States; 2McMaster Institute for Automotive Research
and Technology, McMaster University, Canada; 3McMaster University, Canada
Effects of Current Excitation on Nodal Forces in Switched Reluctance Motors .................... 761
Haoding Li1, Berker Bilgin1, Ali Emadi2
1
McMaster Automotive Resource Centre, McMaster University, Canada; 2McMaster
University, Canada
Sensitivity Analysis of the Vehicle Model Mass for Model Predictive Control Based
Power Management System of a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle ........................................... 767
Nicolas Sockeel4, Jian Shi2, Masood Shahverdi1, Michael Mazzola3
1
California State University, Los Angeles, United States; 2Center for Advanced Vehicular
System, Mississippi State University, United States; 3Energy Production and
Infrastructure Center, United States; 4Mississippi State University, United States
Thermal Modeling and Measurement of a Traction Motor in a Production Pure
Electric Vehicle ........................................................................................................................... 773
Bozhi Yang1, Xiaohui Li1, Yongling Sun1, Jin Shang1, Fei Xiong2, Linpei Zhu2, Xiong Liu2,
Hongzhong Qi2, Gang Li2
1
GAC R&D Center Silicon Valley Inc, United States; 2Guangzhou Automotive
Engineering Institute, China
C3L-A Power Electronics III

Time: 14:00 - 15:40
Location: 201A
Chair(s): Kang Peng, Infineon Technologies
Emre Gurpinar, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Two-and-One Set of Arms MMC-Based Multilevel Converter with Reduced
Submodule Counts ..................................................................................................................... 779
Mahdi Jafarishiadeh, Reza Ahmadi
University of Kansas, United States
xvi
Control-Strategy-Based Reconfiguration to Mitigate Short Circuit Faults in NPC
Inverters ...................................................................................................................................... 783
Ethan Hotchkiss, Weiqiang Chen, Ali Bazzi
University of Connecticut, United States
Comparative Evaluation of Conducted Common-Mode EMI in Voltage-Source and
Current-Source Inverters Using Wide-Bandgap Switches ....................................................... 788
Hang Dai, Thomas M. Jahns, Renato Amorim Torres, Di Han, Bulent Sarlioglu
Experimental Validation of Design Concepts for Future EV-Traction Inverters ..................... 795
Andreas Bubert, Karl Oberdieck, Huihui Xu, Rik W. De Doncker
RWTH Aachen University, China; RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Design and Performance Analysis of an Electric Light Utility Vehicle ................................... 803
Markus Koller1, Bernd Plaßnegger1, Rebin Jaber1, Markus Kocagöz1, Ralf Kobler2,
Dietmar Andessner2
1
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Austria; 2Linz Center of Mechatronics
GmbH, Austria
C3L-B Electric Machines V

Time: 14:00 - 15:40
Location: 201B
Chair(s): Fernando Dias, Idaho National Laboratory
Theodore Bohn, Argonne National Laboratory
Fast Computation Method to Obtain Typical Machine Waveforms Applied to a 6/4
FSPM Machine ............................................................................................................................ 809
Pablo Castro Palavicino, Dheeraj Bobba, Mingda Liu, Bulent Sarlioglu
Performance Analysis of C-Core and E-Core Flux-Switching Permanent Magnet
Machine with Airfoil-Shaped Rotor............................................................................................ 815
Hao Ding, Mingda Liu, William Sixel, Bulent Sarlioglu
Rotor Thermal Design for Electric Machines: Challenges and Opportunities ........................ 821
William Sixel, Mingda Liu, Bulent Sarlioglu
Comparison of Dual-Stator 6/4 FSPM Machine with Overlapping and Non-
Overlapping Winding .................................................................................................................. 827
Mingda Liu, William Sixel, Bulent Sarlioglu
Rotor Resistance for Improved Start-Up Performance of Line-Start Permanent-
Magnet Synchronous Motors..................................................................................................... 832
Arash Hassanpour Isfahani1, Sadegh Vaez-Zadeh2
1
Dynsity Technology Holdings Inc, United States; 2University of Tehran, Iran
xvii
C3L-C Motor Drivers II
Time: 14:00 - 15:40
Location: 202A
Chair(s): Sheldon Williamson, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Hao Ge, Tesla
Practical Implementation of Current Derivative Measurement for Sensorless
Control of Permanent Magnet Machines ................................................................................... 839
Ramakrishnan Raja1, Tomy Sebastian1, Mengqi Wang2
1
Halla Mechatronics, United States; 2University of Michigan, Dearborn, United States
Transient Stability Comparison Between Five-Phase and Three-Phase Permanent
Magnet Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motor ................................................................... 845
Akm Arafat, Md. Zakirul Islam, Md Tawhid Bin Tarek, Seungdeog Choi
Modeling of a Bearingless Flux-Switching Permanent-Magnet Linear Motor ........................ 851
Maksim Sokolov, Seppo Saarakkala, Reza Hosseinzadeh, Marko Hinkkanen
Aalto University, Finland
Non-Invasive Magnet Temperature Estimation in IPMSM by High Frequency
Pulsating Sinusoidal Voltage Injection ..................................................................................... 858
Hyun-Sam Jung2, Donghoon Park2, Hwigon Kim2, Seung-Ki Sul2, Daniel J. Berry1
1
General Motors, United States; 2Seoul National University, Korea
Variable Time Step Control for Six-Step Operation in IPMM ................................................... 863
Jaeyong Park, Jung-Ik Ha
C3L-F Wireless Charging Systems

Time: 14:00 - 15:40
Location: 202B
Chair(s): Yiming Zhang, San Diego State University
Lixin Tang, Dynsity Technology Holding
Small Signal Modeling and Control of Parallel-Series/Series Resonant Converter
for Wireless Inductive Power Transfer ...................................................................................... 868
Suvendu Samanta, Akshay Kumar Rathore
Concordia University, Canada
Modeling, Simulation, and Experimental Verification of a 20-kW Series-Series
Wireless Power Transfer System for a Toyota RAV4 Electric Vehicle .................................... 874
Omer C. Onar, Madhu Chinthavali, Steven Campbell, Larry E. Seiber, Cliff P. White,
Veda Galigekere
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States
Eddy Current Loss Analysis of Underwater Wireless Power Transfer System ...................... 881
Zhengchao Yan2, Yiming Zhang2, Tianze Kan2, Fei Lu2, Kehan Zhang1, Baowei Song1,
Chris Mi2
1
Northwestern Polytechnical University, China; 2San Diego State University, United
States
Sensitivity Analysis of Primary-Side LCC and Secondary-Side Series
Compensated Wireless Charging System ................................................................................ 885
Veda Galigekere, Omer C. Onar, Jason Pries, Shenli Zou, Zhiqiang Wang, Madhu
Chinthavali
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States
xviii
Impact of Foreign Objects on the Performance of Capacitive Wireless Charging
Systems for Electric Vehicles .................................................................................................... 892
Brandon Regensburger, Ashish Kumar, Sreyam Sinha, Khurram Afridi
University of Colorado Boulder, United States
C3L-G Battery Charging Applications and Systems II

Time: 14:00 - 15:40
Location: 202C
Chair(s): Fei Gao, University of Technology of Belfort-Montbeliard
Yang Liang, FCA group LLC
Design and Implementation of a Dual Cell Link for Battery-Balancing Auxiliary
Power Modules ........................................................................................................................... 898
Weizhong Wang, Matthias Preindl
Columbia University, United States
Development of a DC Fast Charging Station Model for Use with EV Infrastructure
Projection Tool............................................................................................................................ 904
Emin Ucer3, Mithat Kisacikoglu3, Fatih Erden1, Andrew Meintz2, Clement Rames2
1
Bilkent University, Turkey; 2National Renewable Energy Laboratory, United States;
3
University of Alabama, United States
Optimal Design of Solar-Wind Hybrid System Using Teaching-Learning Based
Optimization Applied in Charging Station for Electric Vehicles .............................................. 910
Amangaldi Koochaki2, Mohammad Divandari2, Ebrahim Amiri3, Oleksandr Dobzhanskyi1
1
American University of Iraq, Iraq; 2Azad University, Iran; 3University of New Orleans,
United States
Lithium-Ion Battery Management Using Physics-Based Model Predictive Control
and DC-DC Converters ............................................................................................................... 916
Gustavo Florentino, Scott Trimboli
University of Colorado Colorado Springs, United States
C3L-H Connected and Automated Vehicles and Smart Grid

Time: 14:00 - 15:40
Location: 203A
Chair(s): Andrew Rockhill, Eaton
Geng Niu, Karma
A Cognitive Price-Based Approach for Real-Time Management of En-Route
Electric Vehicles ......................................................................................................................... 922
Abla Hariri, Mohammad Esfahani, Osama Mohammed
Optimal Sizing of a Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer System for Highway
Applications ................................................................................................................................ 928
Andrew Foote2, Omer C. Onar1, Suman Debnath1, Madhu Chinthavali1, Burak Ozpineci2,
David Smith2
1
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States; 2University of Tennessee / Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, United States
Cybersecurity for Battery Management Systems in Cyber-Physical Environments .............. 934
Sourabh Kumbhar, Tasnimun Faika, Darshan Makwana, Taesic Kim, Young Lee
Texas A&M University-Kingsville, United States
xix
An Adaptive Green Zone Strategy for Hybrid Electric Vehicle Control ................................... 939
David Trinko, Eric Wendt, Zachary Asher, Marco Peyfuss, John Volckens, Jason Quinn,
Thomas Bradley
Colorado State University, United States
Review of Electrical Architectures and Power Requirements for Automated
Vehicles ....................................................................................................................................... 944
Jared Baxter2, Daniel Merced1, Daniel Costinett2, Leon Tolbert2, Burak Ozpineci2
1
University of Tennessee, United States; 2University of Tennessee / Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, United States
C3L-J Smart Grid, Electrical Infrastructure, and V2G Applications II

Time: 14:00 - 15:40
Location: 203B
Chair(s): Ha Le, California State Polytechnic University Pomona
Abdellah DERGHAL, CReSTIC, IUT de Troyes, FRANCE
Grid Impact Studies from Dynamic Wireless Charging in Smart Automated
Highways ..................................................................................................................................... 950
Suman Debnath1, Andrew Foote2, Omer C. Onar1, Madhu Chinthavali1
1
Building a Path Toward Ubiquitous Plug-in Vehicle Charging Infrastructure ........................ 956
Philip Krein
Zhejiang University / University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute, China
Shunt-Series-Switched Multi-Functional Grid-Connected Inverter for Voltage
Regulation in Vehicleto-Grid Application.................................................................................. 961
Wooyoung Choi, Woongkul Lee, Di Han, Bulent Sarlioglu
New Predictive Control Method for Optimal Minimization of Plug-in Electric Vehicle
(PEV) Charging Cost with Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) Capability .................................................. 966
Harun Turker2, Seddik Bacha1
1
Grenoble Alpes University, France; 2Turker Ar-Ge Smart Grid, Turkey
C3L-K Modeling, Simulation, and Control II

Time: 14:00 - 15:40
Location: 203C
Chair(s): Akshay Rathore, Concordia University
Nicholas Piotrowski, Associated Research
Pareto Front Analysis of the Objective Function in Model Predictive Control Based
Power Management System of a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle ........................................... 971
Nicolas Sockeel4, Jian Shi2, Masood Shahverdi1, Michael Mazzola3
1
California State University, Los Angeles, United States; 2Center for Advanced Vehicular
System, Mississippi State University, United States; 3Energy Production and
Infrastructure Center, United States; 4Mississippi State University, United States
Optimal, Adaptive and Predictive Real-Time Control of Fail-Operational Powertrain
for Automated Electric Vehicles ................................................................................................ 977
Kirill Gorelik1, Ahmet Kilic1, Roman Obermaisser2
1
Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany; 2University of Siegen, Germany
xx
Transmission and Control Strategy Optimization for a Parallel Hybrid Electric
Micro-Utility Vehicle in Urban Drive Cycles .............................................................................. 985
Parth Joshi, V Kartik
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Fault-Tolerant Model Predictive Control of Five-Phase PMa-SynRM Under Single
Phase Open-Circuit Fault Condition .......................................................................................... 991
Shamini Dharmasena, Akm Arafat, Md Tawhid Bin Tarek, Seungdeog Choi
C4L-C Motor Drivers III

Time: 16:00 - 17:40
Location: 202A
Chair(s): Berker Bilgin, McMaster University
Geng Niu, Karma
Zeta-SEPIC Based PFC Converter Fed SRM Drive ................................................................... 996
Aniket Anand, Bhim Singh
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
Current-Source Inverters for Integrated Motor Drives Using Wide-Bandgap Power
Switches .................................................................................................................................... 1002
Renato Amorim Torres, Hang Dai, Woongkul Lee, Thomas M. Jahns, Bulent Sarlioglu
Development of a PMSM Traction Drive System for PHEV, HEV, EV Using Virtual
Prototyping ............................................................................................................................... 1009
Alan Courtay, Bryan Kelly
Synopsys, Inc., United States
A Novel PWM-Control-Based Strategy for Noise Reduction in Switched Reluctance
Motors ....................................................................................................................................... 1017
Zhe Zhang2, Ali Bazzi2, James Monte1
1
Qualtech Systems, Inc, United States; 2University of Connecticut, United States
Surrogate-Based Optimization of Firing Angles for Switched Reluctance Motor ................ 1023
Bahar Anvari2, Mine Kaya1, Steven Englebretson2, Shima Hajimirza1, Hamid A. Toliyat1
1
Texas A&M University, United States; 2US Corporate Research Center ABB, Inc.,
United States
C4L-F Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Applications

Time: 16:00 - 17:40
Location: 202B
Chair(s): Kang Peng, Infineon Technologies
Emre Gurpinar, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
A Bi-Directional and Single Phase AC-DC Converter with Integrated LCL Filter and
GaN E-HEMTs............................................................................................................................ 1029
Wenbin Shu, Siqi Li, Sizhao Lu
Kunming University of Science and Technology, China
Reduction of Power Losses of SiC MOSFET Based Power Modules in Automotive
Traction Inverter Applications ................................................................................................. 1035
Wibawa Chou, Asantha Kempitiya, Oleg Vodyakho
Infineon Technologies America, United States
xxi
Characterization and Comparison of Trench and Planar Silicon Carbide (SiC)
MOSFET at Different Temperatures......................................................................................... 1039
Saeed Anwar2, Zhiqiang Wang1, Madhu Chinthavali1
1
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States; 2University of Tennessee, United States
Loss Analysis and Mapping of a SiC MOSFET Based Segmented Two-Level Three-
Phase Inverter for EV Traction Systems ................................................................................. 1046
Emre Gurpinar1, Burak Ozpineci2
1
Efficiency Improvement of Fault-Tolerant Three-Level Power Converters ........................... 1054
Ramin Katebi, Jiangbiao He, Waqar A. Khan, Nathan Weise
Marquette University, United States
C4L-G Battery Charging Applications and Systems III

Time: 16:00 - 17:40
Location: 202C
Chair(s): Dionne Hernandez Lugo, NASA
Rohit Baranwal, MTS systems
An Internet of Things (IoT)-Based Network for Dispersed and Decentralized
Wireless Battery Management Systems.................................................................................. 1060
Tasnimun Faika, Taesic Kim, Maleq Khan
Texas A&M University-Kingsville, United States
Simultaneous State and Parameter Estimation of Li-Ion Battery with One State
Hysteresis Model Using Augmented Unscented Kalman Filter ............................................. 1065
Atriya Biswas, Ran Gu, Phillip Kollmeyer, Ryan Ahmed, Ali Emadi
A Mesh-Structured Switched-Capacitor Equalizer for Lithium-Ion Battery Strings of
Electric Vehicles ....................................................................................................................... 1071
Yunlong Shang1, Yun Zhang2
1
San Diego State University, United States; 2University of Jinan, China
Hybrid Energy Storage System State-of-Charge Estimation Using Artificial Neural
Network for Micro-Hybrid Applications ................................................................................... 1075
Carlos Vidal, Mike Haußmann, Daniel Barroso, Parisa M. Shamsabadi, Atriya Biswas,
Ephrem Chemali, Ryan Ahmed, Ali Emadi
C4L-H Smart Grid, Electrical Infrastructure, and V2G Applications III

Time: 16:00 - 17:40
Location: 203A
Chair(s): JK Wang, Ohio State University
Sriram Jala, Ford Motor Company
Deep Learning Based Micro-Grid Fault Detection and Classification in Future
Smart Vehicle ............................................................................................................................ 1082
Moinul Haque, Mohammad Noor Shaheed, Seungdeog Choi
Robust Identification of EV Charging Profiles ........................................................................ 1088
Shengyi Wang3, Liang Du3, Jin Ye2, Dongbo Zhao1
1
Argonne National Lab, United States; 2San Francisco State University, United States;
3
Temple University, United States
xxii
Optimal System Design for a Solar Powered EV Charging Station ....................................... 1094
Gautham Ram Chandra Mouli, Pavol Bauer
Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
A Real Time Energy Management for EV Charging Station Integrated with Local
Generations and Energy Storage System ............................................................................... 1100
Yu Wu1, Alexandre Ravey2, Daniela Chrenko1, Abdellatif Miraoui1
1
C4L-J Heavy-Duty, Off-Road, and High-Power Applications

Time: 16:00 - 17:40
Location: 203B
Chair(s): Jalpa Shah, Eaton
Design Considerations of the PM Transverse Flux Linear Motor for an Urban-Type
Electromagnetic Train .............................................................................................................. 1106
Oleksandr Dobzhanskyi1, Rupert Gouws2, Ebrahim Amiri3
1
American University of Iraq, Iraq; 2North-West University, South Africa; 3University of
New Orleans, United States
Electrification System Simulation Study of the Proposed Dar-Moro Standard
Gauge Model in Tanzania ......................................................................................................... 1111
Kenedy Greyson
Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, Thailand
Modeling and Simulation of Regenerative Braking Energy in DC Electric Rail
Systems ..................................................................................................................................... 1117
Mahdiyeh Khodaparastan, Ahmed Mohamed
City College of New York, United States
Three-Phase Medium Voltage DC Fast Charger Based on Single-Stage Soft-
Switching Topology .................................................................................................................. 1123
Soumik Sen2, Liqi Zhang2, Tianxiang Chen2, Jiucai Zhang1, Alex Huang2
1
GAC R&D Center Silicon Valley Inc, United States; 2University of Texas at Austin,
United States
A Compact 250 kW Silicon Carbide MOSFET Based Three-Level Traction Inverter
for Heavy Equipment Applications .......................................................................................... 1129
Zhongjing Wang1, Mohammad Hazzaz Mahmud1, Muhammad Hammad Uddin1, Brice
McPherson2, Brett Sparkman2, Yue Zhao1, Alan Mantooth1, John Fraley2
1
University of Arkansas, United States; 2Wolfspeed, a Cree Company, United States
xxiii
A New Voltage Doubler Based DC-DC 2LCm-Y
Power Converter Topologies for High-Voltage/Low-
Current Renewable Energy Applications
Mahajan Sagar Bhaskar Sanjeevikumar Padmanaban Patrick Wheeler
Dept. of Electrical Engg., Dept. of Energy Technology, Dept. of Electrical & Electronics Engg.,
Qatar University, Doha, Qatar Aalborg University, Denmark Nottingham University, United Kingdom
sagar25.mahajan@gmail.com san@et.aau.dk pat.wheeler@nottingham.ac.uk
Frede Blaabjerg Pierluigi Siano
Center for Reliable Power Electronics (CORPE), Dept. of Industrial Engg.,
Dept. of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark University of Salerno, Campus of Fisciano, Salerno, Italy
fbl@et.aau.dk psiano@unisa.it
Abstract— In this treatise, a new voltage doubler based DC- voltage at each photovoltaic based boards/module is
DC 2LCm-Y power converter topologies are uttered for the high- inadequate for feeding the electric energy directly to inverter
voltage/low-current renewable energy applications. L-Y, 2L-Y, for handy application or to insert it into the electric network or
2LC-Y and 2LCm-Y power converter categories are recently grid. Therefore, series connection of solar panels/module is
proposed in the existing X-Y converter family. To provide an not a suitable and practicable solution to achieve high voltage
effective and viable solution to renewable energy system; four due to requirement of large area and high cost is needed [3].
new voltage doubler based converters (2LCm-LVD, 2LCm-2LVD, Thus, DC-DC converter is requisite to lift the voltage with
2LCm-2LCVD and 2LCm-2LCmVD converters) are proposed in adequate high conversion ratio before feeding it into inverter.
2LCm-Y converter category. The proposed converters are well
Along these lines, DC-DC converter is the most imperative
suited for renewable energy applications which required high
output voltage power converter such as a Photovoltaic Multilevel
constituent in the renewable power conversion stage.
DC-AC converter system, renewable High Voltage Direct Conventional DC-DC converter because of various constrains
Current (HVDC) applications, Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) is not a good technical solution to attain high voltage
etc. The perceptible characteristics of proposed 2LCm-Y power conversion ratio. These constrains includes excess voltage
converter topologies are presented in detail. Working of 2LCm-Y stress across switch, high rating of components and capability
proposed converters with the derivation of VO/Vin is discussed in of conventional boost converter starts deteriorating with
detail. Proposed converter topologies are simulated in the increase in duty cycle [4]-[5]. Major real restriction of
Numerical Computing Matrix Laboratory 9.0 (R2016a) software. traditional Buck-Boost Converter (BBC) is discontinuous
The simulation results are discussed in details and it constantly input current which shows the negligible use of power source.
showed the high-quality agreement with hypothetical analysis Depends on the bountiful novel idea numerous isolated
and validates the functionality and characteristics of the transformer and coupled inductor based power converters are
proposed 2LCm-Y converter topologies of X-Y converter family. proposed in the literature to achieve high Vo/Vin without using
high duty cycle for the power switch [5]-[7]. However,
Keywords— X-Y Converter Family; DC-DC Converter; Voltage magnitude and leakage reactance of converter is increased
Doubler; High-Voltage; Low-Current; Renewable Energy. because of occupancy of transformer and coupled inductor.
I. INTRODUCTION The converter usefulness, functionality and performance
additionally degrade because of making of Electro-Magnetic-
Presently, looking forward for renewable energy it has Interference (EMI) by such magnetic parts. The primary
become more popular day by day and it can be considered as drawbacks of isolated converter topologies are extensive in
prominent solution to fulfill energy demand of community. size, weight and losses of power transformer. Size and leakage
The renewable sources are reliable and plentiful in nature and reactance of converter is increases due to tenancy of
can be harvested and consequently not defenseless against any transformer and coupled inductor. To defeat the disadvantages
sort of dangers. Thus, energy organization concentrates on of isolated DC-DC converter numerous Cascaded Boost
unlimited of renewable power source assets for power era [1]- Converters (CBCs) are proposed in literature for renewable
[2]. Massive energy era through a course of action of various energy applications [8]-[9]. The control circuit of CBCs is
little voltage producing units is getting mainstream like series most complex part for real time application due to several
and parallel association of solar cell or panels. Consequently, controlled switches and reactive components. The major
series and parallel association of solar module is not an drawbacks of cascaded converter is high ripple current, several
appropriate way out for accomplish high voltage and high controlled switches, high energy loss to attain a high voltage
current because of necessity of extensive area and high cost is gain and low efficiency. Quadratic Boost Converter (QBC) is
required. The fine case of such electric power framework is a proposed by utilizing less number of power controlled devices
photovoltaic power plant which contains various photovoltaic to defeat the disadvantage of CBC. But in QBC, the voltage
oriented boards/modules for generation of energy. Produced appeared in OFF state across the power control device is
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 1

family two separate DC-DC converters named as X-converter
and Y-converter are associated in particular way as depicted in
Fig. 1. The contribution for X-converter is directly fed from
the input source voltage (Vin) and for Y-converter contribution
voltage is addition of input source voltage (Vin) and output of
X-converter. The total output voltage of X-Y converter is
easily measured by equation (1) in which VX and VY is the
output of converter X and Y. GX and GY are the voltage
conversion ratio of converter X and Y.
Vo = − (VX + VY )

VX = GX × Vin  (1)
VY = GY × Vin 
Fig.1. X-Y converter family generalized structure and hierarchy of L-Y, 2L-Y, 
2LC-Y, 2LCm-Y, 2LCm-L, 2LCm-2L, 2LCm-2LC and 2LCm-2LCm power
The various combination of Single Inductor (L), Switch-
converters.
Inductor (SI or 2L), Voltage-Lift-Switched-Inductor (VLSI or
complete output voltage (VO) and that is very high. Thus, high 2LC) and modified-Voltage-Lift-Switched-Inductor (mVLSI
rated capacitors and power controlled devices are required [9]. or 2LCm) reactive network are employed to designed X-Y
Nowadays, DC-DC Multilevel Boost Converters (MBC) is converter family. Depending on X converter entire X-Y
addressed in literature to overcome the drawback of above converter family (sixteen topologies) are categorized into four
discussed converter using diode and capacitor networks [10]- sub categories; L-Y, 2L-Y, 2LC-Y and 2LCm-Y converter.
[14]. In [11], inverted high voltage with conversion ratio 20 The entire categorization is shown in Fig. 1. 2LCm-L, 2LCm-
and 40 at duty cycle 75% is accomplished using Nx and 2Nx 2L, 2LCm-2LC and 2LCm-2LCm power converter topologies
MBC. Reduce current/voltage ripple with high non-inverting are existing four member of 2LCm-Y power converter
voltage is attained by using Nx, 2Nx IMBC [12]-[13]. The category of X-Y converter family. The power circuits of
multilevel DC-DC converter topology discussed above gives a existing 2LCm-Y converter are shown in Fig. 2(a)-(d). X-
suitable way to accomplish high voltage however, required converter is 2LCm (modified Voltage-Lift-Switched-Inductor
substantial number of diode and capacitor. In [14], X-Y BBC or mVLSI-BBC) in 2LCm-Y power converter category of
converter family is proposed to attain high voltage conversion X-Y converter family. The supply for 2LCm converter is
ratio by utilizing least number of components. In view of the directly fed from the input source voltage (Vin) and for Y
arrangement of inductor, total sixteen converter topologies are converter supply voltage is addition of input source voltage
proposed in X-Y family. In [15], to achieve high conversion (Vin) and output voltage of 2LCm converter (X converter,
ratio (VO/Vin) novel four L-Y converter topologies using VX2LCm). As a result, the output voltage of 2LCm-Y power
voltage doubler (L-LVD, L-2LVD, L-2LCVD and L- converter is inverting summation of output voltage of 2LCm
2LCmVD) are articulated. converter (X converter) and Y converter as shown in equation
(2).
A new voltage doubler based DC-DC 2LCm-Y power
converter topologies (2LCm-LVD, 2LCm-2LVD, 2LCm- Vo = V2 LCm-Y = − (VX 2 LCm + VY ) 
2LCVD and 2LCm-2LCmVD converters) are proposed in this 
treatise to provide an effective and viable solution to
Vo = V2 LCm-Y = −(GX 2 LCm + GY ) × Vin or  (2)
renewable energy system such as a Photovoltaic Multilevel Vo = V2 LCm-Y = −(GX + GY ) × Vin 
DC-AC converter system, renewable High Voltage Direct 
Current (HVDC) applications, Hybrid Electric Vehicles III. VOLTAGE DOUBLER BASED 2LCm-Y DC-DC CONVERTER
(HEV) etc. The perceptible characteristics of proposed 2LCm- TOPOLOGIES (PROPOSED TOPOLOGIES)
Y power converter topologies are i) Single input source ii)
Single controlled semiconductor device iii) High inverting Four voltage doubler based 2LCm-Y power converter
VO/Vin at average duty cycle iv) High-voltage and low-current topologies in 2LCm-Y category of X-Y family are proposed to
at the output side of converter v) Minimum internal resistance accomplish higher (Vo/Vin) voltage conversion ratio compared
vi) Transformer-less and coupled inductor-less power to conventional 2LCm-Y converter configurations. Y-converter
converter topologies. The concept of proposed converter is of conventional 2LCm-Y converter category is modified by
verified through Numerical Computing Matrix Laboratory 9.0 employing voltage doubler stage to design proposed converter
(R2016a) software. topologies. Four proposed voltage doubler based power
converter topologies are i) 2LCm-LVD power converter
II. REVIEW OF EXISTING 2LCm-Y DC-DC CONVERTERS: A (where Y-converter is LVD converter which combines the
MEMBERS OF X-Y CONVERTER FAMILY features of L converter (conventional Buck Boost) and voltage
Fig. 1 depicts the X-Y power converter family generalized doubler (VD) and X converter is 2LCm converter) ii) 2LCm-
structure and hierarchy of L-Y, 2L-Y, 2LC-Y, 2LCm-Y, 2LCm- 2LVD (where Y-converter is 2LVD converter which combines
L, 2LCm-2L, 2LCm-2LC and 2LCm-2LCm converters. In X-Y the features of 2L converter (Switched Inductor Buck Boost)
and voltage doubler (VD) and X converter is 2LCm converter)
2
iii) 2LCm-2LCVD (where Y-converter is 2LCVD converter way of uncontrolled devices DX1, DX3 and controlled device S
which combines the features of 2LC converter (Voltage Lift (charging path is Vin-S-DX1-DX3-LX2-Vin). By way of
Switched Inductor Buck Boost) and voltage doubler (VD) and uncontrolled devices DX1, DX3, DX2 and controlled device S;
X converter is 2LCm converter) iv) 2LCm-2LCmVD (where Y- capacitor C1 is get charged by input voltage (Vin) (charging
converter is 2LCmVD converter which combines the features path is Vin-S-DX1-DX3-C1-DX2-Vin). The slope of current
of 2LCm converter (modified Voltage Lift Switched Inductor flowing through LY1 and LY2 inductor is positive at the same
Buck Boost) and voltage doubler (VD) and X converter is time. Hence inductor LY1 and LY2 are magnetized. Thus, LY1
2LCm converter). The main power circuit of proposed four inductor is magnetized by capacitor CX voltage and input
voltage doubler based converters is depicted in Fig. 3(a)-(d). supply (Vin) by way of uncontrolled devices DY1 and controlled
The detail information of requirement of number component device S (charging path Vin-S-LY1-DY1-CX-Vin) whereas
to design 2LCm-Y converter is tabulated in table-I. The inductor LY2 are charged by capacitor CX voltage and input
switching states of all 2LCm-Y converter topologies are supply (Vin) by way of uncontrolled devices DY2 and controlled
divided into two states- one when the control semiconductor device S (charging path Vin-S-DY2-LY2-CX-Vin). By way of
device is in ON-state (short circuit) and second when the uncontrolled devices DY1, DY2 and controlled device S;
control semiconductor device is in OFF-state (open circuit). capacitor C2 is get charged by capacitor CX voltage and input
Among the four proposed voltage doubler based converter voltage (Vin) (charging path is Vin-S-DY2-C1-DY1-CX-Vin). By
topologies; 2LCm-2LCmVD is considered to explain the way of uncontrolled devices DY4 and controlled device S,
switching states of proposed converters. capacitor CY2 is charged by input voltage (Vin), capacitor CY1
and CX voltage (charging path is Vin-S-CY2-DY4-CY1-CX-Vin).
A. Voltage Doubler Based 2LCm-2LCmVD Power Converter Thus, inverting addition of capacitor CX and CY (CY=CY1+CY3)
2LCm-Y category of X-Y converter family is extended and voltages is output voltage of 2LCm-2LCmVD power converter.
2LCm-2LCmVD power converter is one new proposed member
in 2LCm-Y category. Modified VLSI BBC converter (2LCm) is Main input supply is isolated from the power circuit of
considering as an X-converter, whereas Y-converter is 2LCm converter when semiconductor control device S is in
combination of 2LCm and voltage doubler (2LCmVD or OFF-state (open circuit). The slope of current flowing through
modified VLSI BBC with voltage doubler). Fig. 3(d) depicts inductor LX1, LX2 is negative. Hence LX1, LX2 inductors
the power circuit of voltage doubler based 2LCm-2LCmVD demagnetized in series with capacitor C1 by way of
converter. Two capacitors (C1 and CX), two inductors (LX1 and uncontrolled device DX4 to transfer the stored energy to
LX2) which are indistinguishable and equal in rating, four capacitor CX (charging path is LX1-C1-LX2-CX-DX4). The slope
uncontrolled semiconductor devices (diodes DX1 to DX4) are of current flowing through inductor LY1, LY2 is negative.
compulsory needed to design 2LCm converter which is X Hence, at the same time LY1, LY2 inductor demagnetized in
converter of 2LCm-2LCmVD power converter. Four capacitors series with capacitor C2 by way of uncontrolled device DY3 to
(C2 and CY1 to CY3), two inductors (LY1 and LY2) which are transfer the stored energy to charge the capacitor CY1 (charging
indistinguishable and equal in rating, five uncontrolled path is LY1-C2-LY2-CY1-DY3). CY2 capacitor transferred its
semiconductor devices (diodes DY1 to DY5) are compulsory energy to charge CY3 capacitor by way of uncontrolled device
needed to design 2LCmVD converter which is Y-converter of DY5. Thus, inverting addition of capacitor CX and CY
2LCm-2LCmVD power converter. Therefore, overall to design (CY=CY1+CY3) voltages is output voltage of 2LCm-2LCmVD
2LCm-2LCmVD converter, four indistinguishable inductors power converter. Inductor current slope is analyzed for the
which are equal in rating, nine uncontrolled semiconductor 2LCm-2LCmVD power converter and the nature of inductor
device (diodes) and six capacitors besides one semiconductor current is shown in Fig. 4. It is observed that that all the
controlled device (Switch) are compulsory required. inductors available in proposed 2LCm-2LCmVD converter are
magnetized when the semiconductor controlled device is in
When semiconductor controlled device S is in ON-state ON-state and demagnetized when semiconductor controlled
(short circuit), the slope of current flowing through inductors device is in OFF-state.
LX1 and LX2 are positive. Hence, LX1 inductor is magnetized by
input supply (Vin) by way of uncontrolled devices DX1, DX2 and IV. DERIVATION OF VOLTAGE CONVERSION RATIO FOR
controlled device S (charging path is Vin-S-DX1-LX1-DX2-Vin) PROPOSED 2LCm-Y CONVERTER
whereas LX2 inductor is magnetized by input supply (Vin) by
(a) (b) (c) (d)

Fig.2. Existing 2LCm-Y converters of X-Y family (a) 2LCm-L (b) 2LCm-2L (c) 2LCm-2LC (d) 2LCm-2LCm.
3
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig.3. Voltage Doubler (VD) based proposed converters power circuit (a) 2LCm-LVD (b) 2LCm-2LVD (c) Fig.4. Waveform of inductor current of 2LCm-
2LCm-2LCVD (d) 2LCm-2LCmVD. 2LCmVD converters
TABLE-I. NUMBER OF COMPONENTS DETAILS

No. of 2LCm-Y Converter
Component 2LCm-L 2LCm-2L 2LCm-2LC 2LCm-2LCm 2LCm-LVD 2LCm-2LVD 2LCm-2LCVD 2LCm-2LCmVD
switches 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
inductors 3 4 4 4 3 4 4 4
capacitors 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6
diodes 5 8 9 7 7 10 11 9
Proposed voltage doubler based 2LCm-Y converter voltage

conversion ratio is derived by considering following
G2 LCm − LVD = G XY = 

assumption i) Constant ripple free pure DC input supply (Vin) VO  (8)
= − (G X 2 LCm + GYLVD ) = − (G X + GY )
ii) Voltage Vd is the ON-state voltage drop of all
Vin 
semiconductor devices, hence if Vd = 0 all the semiconductor 
devices are ideal (100% efficient) iii) for simplicity assume
B. Voltage Doubler Based 2LCm-2LVD Converter
drop at inductor due to internal resistance of inductor is Vd iv)
assume very small ripple at capacitors. Consider K is the duty Fig. 3(b) depicts the power circuit of voltage doubler based
cycle. 2LCm-2LVD Converter.
A. Voltage Doubler Based 2LCm-LVD Converter G X 2 LCm = G X = 


Fig. 3(a) depicts the power circuit of voltage doubler based VCX 1+ K 7Vd KVd  (9)
=( −( + ))
(1 − K )Vin (1 − K )Vin 
2LCm-LVD Converter.
Vin 1− K 
G X 2 LCm = G X = 
 VCY 1 2 K (G X 2 LCm + 1) 2( K + 2)Vd
GY 1 = =( − ) (10)
VCX 1+ K 7Vd KVd  (3)
1− K (1 − K )Vin
=( −( + ))  Vin
Vin 1− K (1 − K )Vin (1 − K )Vin 
VCY 2 2Vd 
VCY 1 K (G X 2 LCm + 1) 2Vd GY 2 = = ( PY 2 L − )
GY 1 = =( − ) (4) Vin Vin  (11)
Vin 1− K (1 − K )Vin 
PY 2 L = 1 + G X 2 LCm + GY 1 
VCY 2  2Vd
GY 2 = = ( PYL − ) VCY 3 6Vd
Vin Vin  (5) GY 3 = = ( PY 2 L − ) (12)
Vin Vin
PYL = 1 + G X 2 LCm + GY 1   GY 2 LVD = GY = GY 1 + GY 3 (13)
VCY 3 4Vd
GY 3 = = ( PYL − ) (6) Thus, overall voltage conversion ratio of 2LCm-2LVD
Vin Vin converter is G2LCm-2LVD or GXY and provided in equation (14).
GYLVD = GY = GY 1 + GY 3 (7)
Thus, overall voltage conversion ratio of 2LCm-LVD
G2 LCm − 2 LVD = G XY = 

converter is G2LCm-LVD or GXY and provided in equation (8). VO  (14)
= − (G X 2 LCm + GY 2 LVD ) = −(G X + GY )
Vin 

4
C. Voltage Doubler Based 2LCm-2LCVD Converter operate 2LCm-Y converter is 0 to 75% duty cycle. The effect
Fig. 3(c) depicts the power circuit of voltage doubler based of internal resistance of proposed 2LCm-Y power converter
2LCm-2LCVD Converter. topologies of X-Y family is minimal as compared to 2LC-Y
member of X-Y family.
G X 2 LCm = G X = 
 V. NUMERICAL COMPUTING MATRIX LABORATORY 9.0
VCX 1+ K 7Vd KVd  (15)
(R2016A) SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
=( −( + )) 
Vin 1− K (1 − K )Vin (1 − K )Vin  The simulation of proposed 2LCm-Y converter is workout
VCY 1 (1 + K )(G X 2 LCm + 1) ( K - 7)Vd in Numerical Computing Matrix Laboratory 9.0 (R2016a)
GY 1 = =( + ) (16) software with the parameters: 10V input voltage, 240W power
Vin 1− K (1 − K )Vin and 60% duty cycle. The Pulse Modulation technique with
50kHz switching frequency is employed to control the switch.
VCY 2 2Vd  Fig. 6 depicts the Vo (output voltage) and Io (output current)
GY 2 = = ( PY 2 LC − )
Vin Vin  (17) waveform of voltage doubler based 2LCm-LVD converter. It is
 investigated that the achieve voltage and current is -239.6V
PY 2 LC = 1 + G X 2 LC + GY 1  and -0.997A respectively. Thus, -24 voltage conversion ratio
VCY 3 6Vd (VO/Vin) is noticed at 60% duty cycle. Fig. 7(a) depicts the Vo
GY 3 = = ( PY 2 LC − ) (18) (output voltage) and Io (output current) waveform of voltage
Vin Vin doubler based 2LCm-2LVD converter. It is investigated that
GY 2 LCVD = GY = GY 1 + GY 3 (19) the achieve voltage and current is -389.4V and -0.63A
respectively. Thus, -39 voltage conversion ratio (VO/Vin) is
Thus, overall voltage conversion ratio of 2LCm-2LCVD noticed at 60% duty cycle. Fig. 7(b) depicts the Vo (output
converter is G2LCm-2LCVD or GXY and provided in equation (20). voltage) and Io (output current) waveform of voltage doubler
VO  based 2LCm-2LCVD converter. It is investigated that the
G2 LCm − 2 LCVD = G XY =  achieve voltage and current is -489.3V and -0.48A
Vin  (20) respectively. Thus, -49 voltage conversion ratio (VO/Vin) is
= −(G X 2 LCm + GY 2 LCVD ) = −(G X + GY ) 
 noticed at 60% duty cycle. Fig. 7(c) depicts the Vo (output
voltage) and Io (output current) waveform of voltage doubler
D. Voltage Doubler Based 2LCm-2LCmVD Converter based 2LCm-2LCmVD converter. It is investigated that the
Fig. 3(d) depicts the power circuit of voltage doubler based achieve voltage and current is -489.5V and -0.495A
2LCm-2LCmVD Converter. respectively. Thus, -49 voltage conversion ratio (VO/Vin) is
noticed at 60% duty cycle. From the discussion done up till
G X 2 LCm = G X =  now, first it is clear that 2LCm-Y converter topologies have
 high inverting output voltage. Second, it is investigated that
VCX 1+ K 7Vd KVd  (21)
=( −( + ))  the voltage conversion ratio of 2LCm-2LVD converter is
Vin 1− K (1 − K )Vin (1 − K )Vin  greater than voltage conversion ratio of 2LCm-LVD converter
(G2LCm-LVD < G2LCm-2LVD). Third, it is investigated that the
VYC1 (1 + K )(G X 2 LCm + 1) 6Vd
GY 1 = =( − ) (22) voltage conversion ratio of converter 2LCm-2LCVD and
Vin 1− K (1 − K )Vin 2LCm-2LCmVD converters is greater than the voltage
conversion ratio of 2LCm-2LVD converter (G2LCm-2LCVD or
VCY 2 2Vd  G2LCm-2LCmVD > G2LCm-2LVD). Fourth it is investigated that the
GY 2 = = ( P2 LCm − )
proposed voltage doubler based 2LCm-Y converter topologies
Vin Vin  (23)
have greater voltage conversion ratio compared to existing
P2 LCm = 1 + G X 2 LCm + GY 1 
 2LCm-Y (without doubler) category of X-Y converter family.
VCY 3 5Vd Fifth, among the four voltage doubler based 2LCm-Y power
GY 3 = = ( P2 LCm − ) (24) converters topologies, 2LCm-2LCmVD provides a maximum
Vin Vin conversion ratio with minimal internal resistance effect.
GY 2 LCmVD = GY = GY 1 + GY 3 (25) VI. CONCLUSION
Thus, overall gain of 2LCm-2LCmVD converter is G2LCm- Four new voltage doubler based 2LCm-Y (2LCm-LVD,
2LCmVD or GXY and provided in equation (26). 2LCm-2LVD, 2LCm-2LCVD and 2LCm-2LCmVD) power
VO  converter topologies are proposed which provides a acceptable
G2 LCm − 2 LCmVD = G XY =  and effective solution for renewable energy applications which
Vin  (26) required high-voltage/low-current power converter such as a
= −(G X 2 LCm + GY 2 LCmVD ) = −(G X + GY ) 

Photovoltaic Multilevel DC-AC converter system (PV-MLI
system), renewable High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC)
The relation between voltage conversion ratio versus duty
applications, Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) etc. The
for proposed voltage doubler 2LCm-Y converters with
perceptible characteristics of proposed 2LCm-Y converters are
considering maximum Vd=1 is shown graphically in Fig. 5. It
i) Single input source ii) Single controlled semiconductor
is investigated that all the slope of voltage conversion plot is
device iii) High inverting Vo/Vin at moderate duty cycle v)
very high after 75% duty cycle. Hence quasi linear region to
5
Fig.5. Voltage conversion ratio versus duty cycle plot of 2LCm-Y converter Fig.6. Numerical Computing Matrix Laboratory 9.0 (R2016a) Simulation
Result, 2LCm-LVD converter output current and voltage.
(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 7. Numerical Computing Matrix Laboratory 9.0 (R2016a) Simulation Result of proposed 2LCm-Y converter with 10V, 240W, 0.60 duty cycle with 50kHz
switching Frequency (a) 2LCm-2LVD converter output current and voltage (b) 2LCm-2LCVD converter output current and voltage (c) 2LCm-2LCmVD
converter output current and voltage.
High-voltage and low-current at the output side of converter v) [8] A. I. Bratcu, I. Munteanu, S. Bacha, D. Picault, and B. Raison,
Minimum internal resistance vi) Transformer-less and coupled “Cascaded DC-DC Converter Photovoltaic Systems: Power
Optimization Issues,” IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics, vol. 58, no.
inductor-less converter topologies. Numerical software 2, pp. 403–411, Feb. 2011.
simulation results of proposed converters constantly shows [9] F. L. Tofoli, D. d C. Pereira, W. J. de Paula, and D. d S. O. Júnior,
high-quality agreement with hypothetical analysis. “Survey on non-isolated high-voltage step-up dc-dc topologies based on
the boost converter,” IET Power Electronics, vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 2044–
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voltage-clamped coupled-inductor boost converter,” Conf. Proc., 39th and A. Hajizadeh, “Novel LY converter topologies for high gain transfer
Annual Conf. of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, IEEE- ratio: A new breed of XY family,” Conf. Proc., 4th IET Clean Energy
IECON’13, pp. 828–833, Vienna (Austria), 10-13 Nov. 2013. and Technology Conference , IET-CEAT’16, pp. 1–8, Kuala Lumpur
(Malayisa), 14-15 Nov. 2016.
6
1
High-performance Integrated Modulation Scheme

for Modular Multilevel Converters
Deepak Ronanki, Student Member, IEEE and Sheldon S. Williamson, Senior Member, IEEE
Smart Transportation Electrification and Energy Research (STEER) Group
Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering
University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), Canada
2000 Simcoe Street North Oshawa ON L1H 7K4, Canada
Email: dronanki@ieee.org and sheldon.williamson@uoit.ca
Abstract—In this paper, a virtual bus-clamping technique The most popular solution to minimize the capacitor volt-
(VBC) is introduced for a modular multilevel converter (MMC) age ripple is adopting either proper control algorithm or
in which submodules (SMs) in each arm are virtually clamped modulation scheme. The control schemes can be designed
to either positive or negative dc-bus voltage. The effectiveness
of the proposed technique is verified through the simulations using two additional degrees of freedom, i.e CMV and CC.
in PLECS platform for five-level MMC, and its performance Typically, it can be achieved by either an injection of specific
is compared with the carrier-based space-vector pulse width harmonics within CC or high-frequency CMV injection to
modulation (SVPWM) under various operating conditions. The the modulation signals [10]. The different control schemes
VBC technique helps in the reduction of voltage harmonic include the injection of second harmonic zero-sequence volt-
distortion, capacitor voltage ripple, circulating current (CC), and
converter switching losses at high modulation indices. However, age, double-frequency harmonic components in CC [11], a
the conventional SVPWM technique displays a better perfor- combination of high-frequency CMV and, CC [10], [12] and
mance compared to VBC in terms of efficiency, SM capacitor model predictive control methods [13]. Alternatively, various
voltage ripple, CC and common-mode voltage (CMV) commuta- CMV injection methods with different wave shapes (square,
tions at the lower modulation indices. Therefore, an integrated third-order harmonic and sinusoidal) are studied and among
modulation scheme with superior performance characteristics
over a wide operating range of modulation for MMC is proposed. them square wave injection provides an optimal solution
This scheme employs the SVPWM method in the low modulation [14]. Later one utilize the proper pulse width modulation
range and VBC method in the high modulation range including (PWM) scheme or by adding zero-sequence signal (ZSS) to the
field weakening region of the motor. The combined modulation original modulation signals. An improved phase-shifted PWM
scheme performs satisfactorily throughout the MMC operating is presented in [15] for minimizing SM capacitor voltage
range and the seamless transition from SVPWM to VBC and
vice versa is established. ripple. A carrier-based space-vector PWM (SVPWM) is one
type of zero-sequence signal (ZSS) injection method into the
modulation signal which can satisfactorily suppresses the SM
I. I NTRODUCTION capacitor voltage fluctuations [16].
The modular multilevel converters (MMCs) have emerged In this paper, an attempt has been made to minimize the
as a promising multi-level converter topology for high-voltage switching losses and capacitor voltage fluctuations through a
direct current (HVDC) transmission, grid-connected systems, bus-clamping technique which was inspired from the three-
battery storage systems, medium-voltage motor drives and phase inverters [17]. The concept of bus-clamping is quite
electric transportation applications [1]–[4]. Over the past years, different in the MMC as the phase is not directly clamped
a significant effort has been made by researchers to im- to dc-bus at any instant due to the presence of arm inductor.
prove and develop the performance of MMC-based systems Hence, it is called a virtual dc-bus clamping (VBC) method
especially in modulation techniques and control schemes to for MMC. This can be achieved in the MMC by the adding
resolve the operational issues in the MMC [2], [4], [5]. The the zero-sequence component to original modulation signal
submodule (SM) capacitor voltage ripple is one of the major so that SMs in each arm of MMC are either all activated or
operational issues in the MMC fed motor drives especially by-passed. The proposed approach has similar features to the
under constant torque and low-speed operation [6]. This volt- discontinuous PWM (DPWM). However, its implementation
age ripple across the SM capacitor mainly contains second procedure is quite different in the MMC from the conventional
and fourth-order harmonic components [7]. The circulating discontinuous PWM techniques [18], [19]. The effectiveness
current (CC) originates due to this harmonic components of proposed zero-sequence method is validated for 5-level
in voltage ripple, which consequently increase the device MMC (4 SMs per arm) and compared with SVPWM tech-
stress and losses, and capacitor voltage ripple. This further nique over a wide modulation range. The DPWM technique
affects the converter efficiency as well as reliability [8]. The exhibits better performance in the reduction of total harmonic
selection and appropriate sizing of SM capacitor (higher value distortion (THD) in voltage and current waveforms, capacitors
of capacitance) can reduce the SM capacitor voltage ripple but voltage ripple, CC, and converter switching losses at high
increases the size, weight and cost of the system [9]. modulation indices. However, SVPWM technique displays a
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 7

2
better response in terms of efficiency, CC and CMV com- component (vf xy ) whose values are equal to the half of the dc-
mutations at the lower modulation indices when compared link voltage and an ac terminal voltage respectively. Therefore,
to DPWM. Having each zero-sequence injection method to each arm voltage in any phase (vxy ) can be represented by
perform satisfactorily in its intended modulation range, the Vdc
integrated modulation scheme for MMC is proposed. The vxy = − m × vbx × sin(ωt) (2)
2
overall performance of the integrated modulation scheme is
confirmed by the numerical results. where 0<m<1 is the modulation index of the output voltage.
Thus, the relation between the peak value of rated ac output
voltage (vbx ) and rated dc-link voltage is given by
II. O PERATION OF MMC IN M OTOR D RIVES
The configuration of a three-phase MMC is shown in Vdc(rated) = 2 × vbx (3)
Fig. 1(a) which has two arms per phase. Each arm (up- The normalized voltage references for upper (vxU 0
) and lower
per/lower arm) can be realized by several modules (N ) con- 0
arm (vxL ) with dc-link voltage factor k (= Vdc /Vdc(rated) ) are
nected in cascade through an arm inductor. The structure of
the HB-SM is shown in Fig. 1(b). The upper (S1 ) and lower 0 1
vxU = [k − m × sin(ωt)] (4)
2
0 1
vxL = [k + m × sin(ωt)] (5)
2
The peak-peak SM capacitor voltage ripple (∆Vc ) and RMS
value of ripple current (Ic(RM S) ) can be calculated with the
variable dc-link voltage as [20]:
" 2 # 32
2 × KT k m × cosφ
∆Vc = × 1− (6)
cosφ m 2×k
v !
u
Ic
ac t
u m2 × cos2 φ
Ic(RM S) = k 1− (7)
4 2 × k2
Here, KT represents output torque which is constant at differ-

ent speeds. The variable dc-link voltage can be achieved in the
MMC using thyristorized bridge rectifier or thyristorized tap-
Fig. 1. (a) The configuration of three-phase MMC (b) Half-bridge submodule
(c) Single-phase equivalent of three-phase MMC. changing transformer or an intermediate buck converter stage
[20]. Usually, RC filter with a small capacitor is connected to
the dc-link [21].
switches (S2 ) in the SM are complementary. The maximum
value of an ac output voltage that can be achieved with this
configuration is half of the dc-link voltage (Vdc ). The output III. C ONTROL AND M ODULATION S CHEMES OF MMC
voltage and the capacitors voltage variations in HB-SM for A. Virtual Bus-clamping Scheme
different switching states are given in Table I. The single-phase The linear mode operation of the converter can be increased
i.e maximum achievable modulation index m = 1.15 with the
TABLE I injection zero-sequence signals. An SVPWM is one type of
S WITCHING STATES OF HB-SM
zero-sequence signal (ZSS) injection method into the modu-
State S1 S2 D1 D2 ixy Vc Vxyj
lation signal [m×vbx ×sin(ωt)] which can be implemented as
1 1 0 1 0 > 0 vc ↑ Vc
follows [22]:
2 1 0 0 0 < 0 vc ↓ Vc Vzs = −0.5 × (V1min + V1max ) (8)
3 0 1 0 0 > 0 vc ≈ 0
4 0 1 0 1 < 0 vc ≈ 0 Here, the V1max and V1min are the maximum and minimum
voltages among the phase reference voltages (Van , Vbn , Vcn ).
equivalent of three-phase MMC is shown in Fig. 1(c). The sum This approach can suppress the SM capacitor voltage fluctua-
of all output voltages of SM in each arm is represented by an tions to a certain extent [23].
equivalent voltage source and arm voltage in any phase can An attempt has been made to minimize the switching losses
be represented as: and capacitor voltage fluctuations in this paper through an
injection of the zero-sequence signal. This is achieved in a
N
X such way that one of the arms in the phase leg of MMC
vxy = vxyj = vxy + vf
xy (1) is virtually clamped to either positive or negative dc-bus for
j=1
some intervals. For multilevel converters, the load is directly
where j = SM number, x {a, b, c} and y {U, L}. The clamped to dc-bus voltage. In the MMC, due to the presence
arm voltage contains a dc component (vxy ) as well as an ac of the arm inductor between dc-bus and load, it is named
8
3
Fig. 2. Illustration of VBC technique in terms of the modulation signal and

a number of submodules to be ON (Non ) when compared to SVPWM.
as virtual dc-bus clamping. Since there is always one arm

is not switching during clamping interval, thus the switching
losses of the MMC is reduced as shown in Fig. 2. Moreover,
another benefit is achieved in MMC is a reduction in SM
capacitor voltage ripple as well as in circulating currents. The
generated zero-sequence signal in the virtual clamping method
(equivalent to DPWM) is given by [18], [19]: Fig. 3. Simulation results of DPWM (VBC) (N = 4) at 60 Hz (a) modulation
signal (b) three-phase line voltages (c) three-phase line currents (d) voltage
1 − V1max , |V1max | > |V1min | across the capacitor in one SM in the upper arm and lower arm of the MMC.
Vzs = (9)
−1 − V1min , |V1max | < |V1min |
B. Implementation
The modulating signal generator based on ZSS injection
(DPWM or SVPWM) produces the normalized reference
modulating signals (4) and (5) to the upper and lower arm
control systems. These signals in upper arm control system
(lower arm) are compared with corresponding triangular car-
rier signals [phase-shifted pulse width modulation (PS-PWM)]
and each output is added together to obtain a normalized
PWM. This pattern is fed to a voltage balancing algorithm
to determine gate signals to power switching devices. The
normalized PWM (Non ) represents the number of SMs to
be activated at switching instant. The normalized PWM does
not guarantee the voltage balancing among SM capacitors.
Therefore, it is imperative to alter the gating pattern based
on SM capacitor voltage, voltage level and arm current. The
normalized PWM is passed to SM capacitor voltage balancing
algorithm to generate the gate signals to HB-SM topology.
This paper employs the voltage balancing approach presented
in [23] as it is the simple and computationally efficient
approach.
Fig. 4. Simulation results of SVPWM (N = 4) at 60 Hz (a) modulation signal
(b) three-phase line voltages (c) three-phase line currents (d) voltage across
IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION the capacitor in one SM in the upper arm and lower arm of the MMC.
The performance of the proposed virtual-bus clamping
approach based on ZSS injection, is verified on the HB-
SM based MMC (N = 4) by using PLECS software with with SVPWM technique at the rated frequency (motor speed)
the system parameters [dc-link voltage (Vdc ) = 600 V, SM are shown in Figs. 3-4 respectively. Similarly, the simulation
capacitor (CSM ) = 4.7 mF and arm inductance (Larm = 1 mH, results of the VBC and SVPWM at half the rated frequency
Rarm = 0.05 Ω)]. The modulation index (m) for the motor (motor speed) are shown in Figs. 5-6 respectively. The field
is varied linearly to emulate v/f control of the motor with weakening region of the motor is assumed to two-time the
constant torque characteristics with the passive RL load (20 rated frequency. In this region, the passive load is fed with
mH, 10 Ω). The simulation results of VBC technique at rated dc-voltage with varied frequency from 60 Hz to 120 Hz.
converter switching frequency of 2 kHz and its comparison The simulation results of both the techniques at the maximum
9
4
Fig. 5. Simulation results of DPWM (VBC) (N = 4) at 30 Hz (a) modulation Fig. 7. Simulation results of DPWM (VBC) (N = 4) at 120 Hz (a) modulation
signal (b) three-phase line voltages (c) three-phase line currents (d) voltage signal (b) three-phase line voltages (c) three-phase line currents (d) voltage
across the capacitor in one SM in the upper arm and lower arm of the MMC. across the capacitor in one SM in the upper arm and lower arm of the MMC.
Fig. 6. Simulation results of SVPWM (N = 4) at 30 Hz (a) modulation signal Fig. 8. Simulation results of SVPWM (N = 4) at 120 Hz (a) modulation
(b) three-phase line voltages (c) three-phase line currents (d) voltage across signal (b) three-phase line voltages (c) three-phase line currents (d) voltage
the capacitor in one SM in the upper arm and lower arm of the MMC. across the capacitor in one SM in the upper arm and lower arm of the MMC.
operating frequency (maximum motor speed) are shown in becomes lesser with the increase in the modulation index. To
Figs. 7-8 respectively. It is observed that the VBC scheme evaluate the harmonic performance of both techniques more
exhibits superior performance in terms of the capacitor voltage intuitively, the THD of the output line-line voltages under
ripple, thereby lesser circulating current at higher modulation wide operation range of frequency is depicted in Fig. 9. As
indices (f > 30 Hz), whereas SVPWM technique presents a seen, the VBC scheme displays an improved performance
better performance at lower indices as shown in the Figs. 3- compared to SVPWM in waveform quality. Moreover, it is
8. In addition, it is noticed that SM capacitor voltage ripple observed that the output voltage quality becomes better with
is higher at lower modulation indices (f < 30 Hz) and the increase of frequency operation (modulation index). The
10
5
Fig. 9. Performance comparison of DPWM (VBC) and SVPWM in terms of

voltage THD (per-unit). Fig. 11. Performance comparison of DPWM (VBC) and SVPWM in terms
of CMV (RMS).
Fig. 10. Performance comparison of DPWM (VBC) and SVPWM in terms

of dc-current (fundamental).
Fig. 12. Performance comparison of DPWM (VBC) and SVPWM in terms
of a number of CMV commutations.
important performance consideration is converter efficiency.

It is evaluated by measuring dc-current on the source-side as
it the current drawn from the source depicts the power loss
assuming stiff dc-voltage source. The performance comparison
of dc-current between two techniques under wide operating
frequency (speed) range is presented in Fig. 10. The VBC
scheme draws lesser source current at higher modulation in-
dices (f > 30 Hz), whereas SVPWM displays better efficiency
in low-frequency operation. The other important factor to be
considered in motor drives is the magnitude and the frequency
of the CMV as it has an impact on bearing currents and
shaft voltage of the motor [22]. The performance comparison
of both the techniques in terms of CMV (RMS) value and
number of occurrences over each switching cycle over a wide Fig. 13. Proposed integrated modulation scheme for MMC-fed motor drives
under wide frequency operating range.
modulation index range are shown in Figs. 11-12 respectively.
It is observed that VBC technique displays a higher RMS value
of CMV and the number commutations per cycle when com-
pared to SVPWM technique. This factor is further dominant, especially at the lower modulation indices.
11
6
V. I NTEGRATED M ODULATION T ECHNIQUE [6] A. Antonopoulos, L. Ängquist, S. Norrga, K. Ilves, L. Harnefors, and
H.-P. Nee, “Modular multilevel converter ac motor drives with constant
The comparison analysis of proposed VBC technique with torque from zero to nominal speed,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 50,
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analysis of interaction between harmonic components of arm and
istics of both (VBC and SVPWM) techniques, the DPWM line quantities of modular multilevel converters,” IEEE Trans. Power.
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especially in capacitor voltage ripple, circulating current, effi- Modular Multilevel Converter for drive applications,” in Proc. IEEE Int.
Power Electron. and Motion Control Conf. (EPE/PEMC), Sep. 2012,
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This analysis suggests a single control scheme does not satisfy [10] M. Hagiwara, I. Hasegawa, and H. Akagi, “Start-up and low-speed
the performance requirements in the MMC fed motor drive operation of an electric motor driven by a modular multilevel cascade
inverter,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 1556-1565, Jul
applications. Therefore, a combination of both the techniques 2013.
(SVPWM < 30 Hz and VBC (above 30 Hz to 120 Hz)) is [11] J. Pou, S. Ceballos, G. Konstantinou, V. Agelidis, R. Picas, and J.
proposed in this paper based on the performance parameters Zaragoza, “CC injection methods based on instantaneous information
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is shown in Fig. 13. Control With Common-Mode Voltage Injection for Modular Multilevel
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Mar. 2017.
VI. C ONCLUSION [14] K. Wang, Y. Li, Z. Zheng, and L. Xu, “Voltage balancing and fluctuation
This paper presents a virtual bus-clamping modulation suppression methods of floating capacitors in a new modular multilevel
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of Fluctuation of Capacitor Voltage,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol.
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comparing performance characteristics of both techniques, the and Semiconductor Requirements of Modular Multilevel Converters,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 57, no. 8, pp. 2633-2642, Aug. 2010.
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[18] O. Ojo, “The generalized discontinuous PWM scheme for three-phase
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pecially in circulating current, switching losses and common 1280-1289, Dec. 2004.
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[20] S. Sau, S. Karmakar and B. G. Fernandes, “Reduction of capacitor ripple
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[21] H. Peng, M. Hagiwara and H. Akagi, “Modeling and Analysis of
[1] A. Nami, J. Liang, F. Dijkhuizen and G. D. Demetriades, “Modular Switching-Ripple Voltage on the DC Link Between a Diode Rectifier and
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[3] D. Ronanki and S. S. Williamson, “Evolution of Power Converter “Hybrid Multi-carrier PWM Technique with Computationally Efficient
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12
Thermal and Electrical Characteristics of EV
Traction Motor Considering AC Resistance of
MSO Coil
Lee Eui-Chun1, Soon-O Kwon1 Hong Jung Pyo 2
Mechatronics Convergence Technology Group Automotive Engineering
Korea Institute of Industrial Tecnology1 (KITECH) Hanyang University2
Daegu, S. Korea Seoul, S. Korea
2chun@kitech.re.kr hongjp@hanyang.ac.kr
Abstract-This paper reports the variation in the parameters id and iq d- and q-axis current
of PMSM(Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor) according to
the fill factor (i.e., ratio of slot area to conductor area) for a Pn Number of pole pairs
traction motor of EV(Electric Vehicle) and HEV(Hybrid
Electric Vehicles). Specifically, we compared fill factors
(Concuctor area / Slot area) of 54% from a typical rectangular I. INTRODUCTION
coil and 86.7% from a MSO (maximum slot occupation,
patented design) coil considering a 16-pole 24-slot surface PMSM (Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor) type for
permanent-magnet motor. In addition, we evaluated the current EV (Electic Vehicle) and HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicles)
density distribution and thermal characteristics of the conductor traction motor are being actively studied given their
(i.e., copper) by 2-D time harmonic and 2-D transient thermal advantages [1]-[6]. In particular, long distance travels with
analyses. Moreover, we characterized the copper loss at the d-q
the limited battery capacity of electrically driven vehicles
axis equivalent circuit of motor and determined the motor
characteristics under load operation. The results show that the demand efficiency improvements. In recent years, many
MSO coil performs higher effeciency of motor at low speed, also automakers have worked to develop motors with high
lower thermal generation under the same operational conditions. performance and productivity [7]-[11]. Designing motors
Index Terms—AC resistace, AC Loss, efficiency, thermal, with high fill factor (ratio of core slot area to conductor cross-
skin effect, proximity effect, EV / HEV, traction motor. sectional area) could lead to achieve this goal, and reduce
heat production and motor size [12], [13]. Likewise,
technologies that enable high fill factors, including either the
NOMENCLATURE conventional permanent-magnet or nonpermanent-magnet
 Electrical resistivity motors, were issued [13]. Because, rectangular windings with
J Current density approximately 60 % fill factor are widely commercialized,
T0 Nominal temperature 20 °C and their heat loss is reduced by 35 % when compared with
 Electric conductivity conventional winding [14], [15]. Therefore, securing motor
f Frequency
manufacturing technology with high fill factor winding is
 Skin depth
essential for high performance motor production.
 Permeability
Manufactures commonly rely on high-speed winding robots
Lu , Lv , Lw
with 10 axes or more and capable of delivering a high level of
Inductance at corresponding phase
winding tension control for a high fill factor winings [16].
Ia Phase leakage inductance
Moreover, chemical and material engineering are also
La Average effective inductance required for the copper coating to guarantee the thickness that
Las Amplitude of phase effective inductance maximizes insulation while keeping a high performance [8],
M uv , M vu , M wu Mutual inductance among phases [14]. Overall, maximizing the performance and efficiency
 fu , fv , fw Flux linkage at corresponding phase during motor manufacturing depends on mechanical and
material research, precise control systems, and developments
 ( t ) u-phase of d-axis lead angle control
from the chemical industry. However, benchmark
 Angular velocity
technologies such as hairpin of General Motors Company
Rc Iron loss resistance (Detroit, MI, USA) and stepwise of Toyota Motor Co.
a Magnetic flux at interlinkage (Toyota, Japan) cannot surpass the typical winding technique
icd and icq d- and q-axis iron loss current of approximately 60% fill factor, because increasing it
Ra Resistance of armature winding imposes a limitation on the dimension of the stator teeth.
Ld and Lq
Therefore, novel winding techniques that overcome this limit
d- and q-axis inductance
are required [11]- [22], [26].
vd and vq d- and q-axis terminal voltage
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 13

Although it is effective to increase the fill factor of the 1   2  
conductor within a slot to increase motor efficiency, a high  P  I 2R  [( H a  H b ) F ()  2 H a H b G()]  
h
value implies a large conductor cross-sectional area [23]-[26].
As motors are driven by an AC power source at a certain
frequency, determining the AC resistance of the conductor 2 2
according to the operating frequency allows to accurately   Rac  [F ()  (n d  1)G()]  Rdc  
3
estimate the efficiency of the motor subject to a load. Hence,
thorough studies on reducing copper loss and analyzing the Where,
AC resistance considering the skin and proximity effects of
the conductor are required for improving motor design [26].
sinh 2  sin 2
In this paper, magnetic field distribution were fully  F ()  
modeled include core saturation with 2-D design of I-PMSM cosh 2  cos 
(Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor). Then, heat
generation analysis were evaluated according to the Joule loss
from the conductor AC loss, which is calculated from a sinh   sin 
 G()  
86.7% (MSO coil) and a 54% (general rectangular coil) fill cosh   cos 
factor winding technique for 32 kW EV / HEV traction motor.
For the analysis, we considered a 16-pole 24-slot permanent-
magnet motor, obtained the d-q axis equivalent circuit by h
  (9)
reflecting AC looss of the motor, and evaluated its efficiency. 
II. AC RESISTANCE: SKIN AND PROXIMITY EFFECTS

2
The skin effect of conductor can be expressed as  
w
(1)
Fig. 1 illustrates 2-D harmonic electromagnetic analysis
which depends on frequency and represents the magnetic condition of FEM(Finite Element Method). The difference
flux concentrating at the center of the conductor by magnetic between frequency and skin depth were reported in [27]
field H rotating by the Ampere’s circuital law, and current Considering the above relations and approximate
density rushing to the surface of the conductor. Also, the computation time, the maximum length of the mesh of
proximity effect is the variation in the current density conductor can be determined as listed in Table I.
distribution of a conductor due to a rotating field generated by Fig. 2 show the skin and proximity effects as well as the
a nearby conductor. Phenomenon of both skin effect and magnetic core saturation. However, the AC loss of the
proximity effect is represents as shown in Fig. 2 [16]. harmonic due to the pulse-width modulation chopping
Diffusion can be derived from the force of the frequency is not reflected in the analysis results.
electromagnetic magnetic fields as follows:
  TABLE I. SKIN DEPTH AND MINIMAL MESH SIZE

1 2 H  H
  ldx   f (Hz) 1 10 100 1,000 10,000
 X 2 t δ (µm) 2,075 656 207 65.6 20.7
1% error mesh
691 18 69 21 6.9
size (µm)
   *Conductor at 25 °C
  H  J  
Next, the current density can be calculated by applying (3) TABLE II. AC LOSS ANALYSIS OF CORE AND RECTANGULAR COIL
to the solution of diffusion, which is substituted into (4),
which is expanded as (5), considering AC resistance Rac is Analysis Condition Current source(AC, 50 A / 1 mm2), Time Harmonic
(6)
Fields to display Current Density (Shaded), Flux function (Contour)

1 h Analysis software MagNet (Infolytica Co., Montreal, Canada)

  P  J ( x) J * ( x)dx  
o
14
200
Coil_1, 3
180
Coil_2
Temp. (C)
160
Coil_4, 5, 6
140
Coil_7, 8, 9
120
100
200 220 240 260 280 300
Time (s)
Fig. 1 2-D Electromagnetic/thermal analysis condition of C core and coils.
Fig. 3 Coil temperature according to time (s) using 2-D transient
2.52002e  07
electromagnetic/thermal finite element method.
1.74491e  07
8.85851e  06
Particularly, the first and third conductor portions in the left
599752
and right sides of the C-core upper end have a large magnetic
8.36209e  06 leakage and temperature up to 185 °C, which is higher than
1.64319e  07 that of conductors 7, 8, and 9 of 172.1 °C. This result is
consistent with the current density saturation trend by AC
Current Density [ A / m 2 ]
resistance depicted in Fig. 2
IV. ELECTROMAGNETIC ANALYSIS OF PMSM

A. 2-D Electromagnetic Analysis of PMSM
In this paragraph, presents the analysis of previous theory
Fig. 2 Current density distribution of C core and rectangular coil (solid).
of the corresponding to the AC loss and characteristic
In addition, the current density irregularities of coils 1, 2, analysis of PMSM. The target motor is a 16-pole, 24-slot type
and 3 are more severe than those of conductors 7, 8, and 9. I-PMSM with concentrated windings. Fig. 4 is the shape of
Furthermore, the flux leakage in the upper protrusion of the C motor and analysis conditions. Table. III is parameter of the
core increases the skin and proximity effects (1). motor respectively. In the case of the analytical following
model below, induced voltage is higher than that of general
III. THERMAL ANALYSIS OF CONDUCTOR mild-type hybrid electric vehicle interter specification. Table.
As proposed in [28], the copper loss can determined from 3 is a parameter for the case where the motor has saturation
the Joule loss as characteristics lower than the normal design level in the
process of reflecting the characteristics of the vehicle. This
    assumption is a hypothesis that minimizes changes in motor
 PCopperloss   E J dv    J 2 dv  l   J 2 dS 11) parameter variations due to weak field control.
v v s
 Periodic Boundary
Condition
which provides a relation between copper resistivity and
temperature. To apply the finite element method, we
corrected (11) by defining electrical resistivity as
   0 (1   (T  T0 ))  + Coil
where 0 is the copper conductivity at a room temperature - Coil
of 20 °C. The outcomes from the Joule loss in (5) and the
analysis condition of the graph in Fig. 3 is linearly according Core:
27PNX1350
to the loss for the current analysis and disregarding heat
transfer and cooling. PM (Nd Magnet)
Fig 4. Analysis of 16-pole 24-slot permanent-magnet motor.
15
(a) (b)
Fig. 5 2-DAnalysis of 32kW EV/HEV Traction Motor

(a) Flux Density and Eq-Potential, (b)Flux Vector
The AC resistance of each coil reflects the AC loss in the d-q
axis, as detailed in the equivalent circuit analysis below.
TABLE III. MOTOR PARAMETERS Comparison analysis of each motors with different fill-factor
ratios, all the parameters except for AC resistance should be
32 kW I-PMSM Traction Motor
fixed. Therefore, the back electromagnetic result
Parameter MSO coil Rectangular coil corresponding to each control group of motor, of each phase
Power 32 kW turns (72 turns) and the motor speed should be the same and
fixed among the evaluated windings. Specifically, the MSO
Max. speed 6,000 rpm
coil requires 8 turns of 8 series number of coil to equate 72
Max. torque 170 Nm turns in each phase of winding. For the rectangular coil, there
Voltage 360 V are 72 turns per slot, and 8 turns in parallel, the number of
phase turn is 72.
Magnet type, no. of poles per slot Interior permanent magnet, 16 / 24
Winding Type, no of phases Concentrate, 3
a
No. of turns per slot 9 72
Fill factor 86.7 % 54 %
Induced currenta (thermal analysis) 170 A 21.25 A
No. of phase turns 72
Stator outer diameter 280 mm
Rotor outer diameter 200 mm
Stack length 36 mm
Core material, thickness 27PNX1350, 0.27 mm (a) (b)
a.
Eight MSO coils with nine turns per slot were connected in series Fig. 6 Current density distribution of (a) rectangular coil and (b) MSO coil.
B. AC Resistance of MSO and Rectanguler Coil

0.16
Fig. 6 (a) shows the 2D harmonic current density
Rec. Coil (Fill. 54 %)
distribution of a typical rectangular coil with fill factor of 0.14
MSO Coil (Fill. 86.7 %)
54% and an MSO coil with fill factor of 86.7%. Fig. 7 shows 0.12
the AC resistance according to the motor speed, where the
Resistance [Ohm]
0.10
MSO coil exhibits a high efficiency up to 1,750 rpm, and the
AC loss dramatically increases onwards. In contrast, the AC 0.08
resistance of the rectangular coil remains higher. On the other 0.06

hand, the number of MSO Coil (9 turn per slot) conductors 0.04
per slot is smaller than rectangular coil model (72 turn per
0.02
slot). Hence, the MSO Coil proximity effect is smaller
thantypical rectangular coil. In fact, as frequency increases 0.00
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
with a large number of conductors, the proximity effect Motor Speed (rpm)
dominates the skin effect [29].
Fig. 7 AC resistance of MSO and rectangular coil
16
C. Motor Equivalent Circuit q  axis
The equivalent circuit of the surface permanent-magnet
synchronous motor can be obtained by separating the three-  Ld id
phase coordinate system on the d-q axis [30]. The voltage of va
the three-phase coordinate system can be converted into the d-  a
q axis equivalent model using a transformation matrix. Fig. 8  Ld id
is three-phase voltage equation diagram of the permanent- Raio ia
magnet synchronous motor. Also (13) is voltage equation iq Ld id
matrix of Fig. 8. io 
o
 
  f sin  
 Vu   Ra  pLu pM uv pM wu   iu    Ld iq
 V    pM 2
 v  Ra  pLv pM vw   iv    f sin(   ) 
uv
 3 
Ww   pM wu pM vw Ra  pLw  iw    id a d  axis
 f sin(  4  ) 
 3 

 Fig. 9 d-q Equivalent Circuit of PMSM
The transformation matrix that converts from the three-phase 
coordinate system to the d, q coordinate system is as follows.  Ld ioq   a  Ld iod 

icd   , icd   
 2 4  Rc Rc
cos  cos(   ) cos(   ) 
C  2 3 3
  
3 2 4  T  Pn { a ioq  ( Ld  Lq )iod i}    
 sin  cos(   )  sin(   )
 3 3 
Wc  Ra I a 2  Ra (id 2  iq 2 )     
vd  iod  R vod  Ld 0  iod 
 Ra    (1  a )[ ]  p 
  vq   ioq  Rc voq 0 Lq   ioq   
Vo 2 vod  voq
2 2 w L i d od  a 2   ( Lq ioq )
Wi     
Rc Rc Rc
vod   0  Lq  iod   0 
v      
 oq   Ld 0  ioq   a  Wloss  Wc  Wi      

In a permanent-magnet synchronous motor, the inductance of

the d-q axis is the same, i.e., Ld = Lq, and the characteristic
equations can be solved. The equivalent circuit considering the
iron loss is illustrated in Fig. 9, and the voltage is expressed by
(15). In addition, iron loss resistance Rc is modeled as a
parallel connection to the induced voltage.
180 35000
160 30000
140 25000
Torque [Nm]
20000
Power [W]
120
15000
100
10000
80 Torque
Power
5000
60
Fig. 8 Diagram of three-phase permanent-magnet synchronous motor. 0
40
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Motor Speed [rpm]
Fig. 10 Torque and power of 32 kW traction motor according to speed.
17
Current [ARMS]
Current Angle [
180 70 250
Voltage [VRMS] 100 180
60 95
160 200 160
90
50 140
Current Angle [°]

Current [A]
140 150 85
Voltage [V]
Efficiency [%]
Efficiency
Torque [Nm]
40 120
80
120 100 Intersection Point
30 75 100
100 50 70 MSO
20 80
(Eff. 68.89 %)
65
80 10 0 +13.85 % 60
60 Torque
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 Rec. MSO Coil (Fill. 86.7 %) 40
55
Motor Speed [rpm] (Eff. 55.04 %) Rec. Coil (Fill. 54 %)
50 20
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Fig. 11 Current, current angle, and induced voltage of 32 kW traction motor
according to speed. Motor Speed [rpm]
Fig. 14 Efficiency of 32 kW traction motor according to speed.

0.40
Ld [mH]
Lq [mH]
0.35
Using the model from the preceding section, we compared
the efficiency of the MSO and rectangular coils, the AC
Inducatnce [mH]
0.30
resistance of each coil based on the 2D time harmonic
analysis considering skin depth.
0.25
Moreover, we decide the shape of the MSO and typical
0.20 rectangular for upcoming fabrication and actual test to
evaluate the of AC resistance analysis and motor
0.15 characteristic analysis results. In the Table. III represents
same number of turns and motor design with the same
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 counter electromotive force. Fig. 5 show the magnetic
Motor Speed [rpm] saturation of the core when using the MSO and rectangular
coils, respectively. The copper loss curve in the Fig. 13
Fig. 12 Inductance, Ld and Lq of 32 kW traction motor according to speed. considers the AC resistance that reflects the skin and
proximity effects. The loss of the motor with MSO coil is
relatively small at the maximum rated speed, which delivers
Therefore, the d-q axis current considering this loss in the the maximum torque. But, 2,000 rpm to 5,200 rpm copper
equivalent circuit can be obtained from copper loss (19) and loss value of MSO coil becomes larger. Contrary, rpm at
iron loss (20) as loss of PMSM (18). The generated torque 5,200 to 6,000 rpm section, copper loss of MSO Coil is lower
from iod and ioq calculated by (17) is given by (18), the than rectangular coil. It is expected that when the heat
generation at the maximum load (current), lower the joule
copper loss by (19), the iron loss by (20), the loss of PMSM
loss resistance and heat generation of the conductor can be
by (21) Respectively. Iron resistance Rc can be estimated
expected. On the other hand, iron loss is dominant in the
considering iron under rated speed, current, and current phase.
high-speed operation region of PMSM compared to copper
loss. Therefore, the efficiency of the motor that reflects the
iron loss and iron loss according to the d-q analysis of PMSM.
D. Efficiency of MSO and Rectangular Coil
Fig. 14 shows the motor efficiency for the two coils that
5000
MSO Coil (86.7%)
intersects at the maximum rated speed of 1,750 rpm.
Rec Coil (54%) Efficiency of MSO Coil starts at 68.89% which is higher than
4000 efficiency of rectangular coil (55.04%). This result expresses
common sense that a motor using a conductor with a large
Cpper Loss (W)
3000 cross section and a high fill factor gives high performance at
low speed.
2000
E. 2-D Transient Thermal Analysis of Parmanent-Magnet

1000
Synchronous Motor
Fig. 15 shows the thermal behavior of the motor when
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
applying the maximal current and speed. The above result is a
Motor Speed (rpm)
linearly generated heat distribution over time, omitting
reflection of the heat transfer coefficient.
Fig. 13 Copper loss of MSO and rectangular coils according to motor speed.
18
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MSO Coil
on Industrial Electronics ( Volume: 64, Issue: 3, March 2017 )
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Advanced Fault-Tolerant Control Strategy for
Switched Reluctance Motor Drives
Peter Azer, Student Member, IEEE, Jin Ye*, Senior Member, IEEE, and Ali Emadi, Fellow member, IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster University, Canada

*San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
Email: eliap@mcmaster.ca, jinye@sfsu.edu, emadi@mcmaster.ca
Abstract—This paper introduces a new fault-tolerant strategy for SRM are introduced in [7], [8], which based on measuring the
the asymmetrical half-bridge converter used in switched reluc- phases current, thus, no need to use additional components.
tance machine drives. The proposed method can work under
multiple open-switch faults by bypassing the faulty part with the Fault-tolerant techniques have been widely studied in AC
minimum number of switches. Matlab/Simulink package is used drives [9]; however, fault-tolerant techniques are limited in
to verify the proposed method. Simulation results for 3-phase SRM drives. Firstly due to the independent control of phases
12/8 SRM under multiple open-switch faults are provided at low as there is no physical connection between phases, unlike AC
and high speeds when current chopping control (CCC) and volt- drives in which the 3-phase currents are connected and linked
age modulation control is used, respectively. The proposed meth- by the fact that current summation is equal to zero and con-
od also characterizes by providing a complete tolerance at low trolling two phases affects the third one [10]. Thus, if there is
speeds up to four open-switch faults, so that system dynamics is an open-switch fault in one phase, the current passing through
similar to healthy conditions.
this phase can be partially controlled by the other two healthy
Index Terms: Asymmetrical half-bridge converter, fault-tolerant phases [11]. Secondly, SRM is characterized as a fault-tolerant
control, open-switch fault, switched reluctance motor drives. machine, especially when the number of phases is equal to or
greater than four. In other words, the 4-phase SRM can run as
I. INTRODUCTION a 3-phase machine and provide a starting torque on the ex-
Switched reluctance machines (SRMs) are gaining more pense of torque quality. While the 3-phase SRM during one
interest in electrified transportation and aerospace phase failure can continue operation but cannot provide a
applications. SRMs are characterized by design simplicity and starting torque. Thus, some fault-tolerant methods are intro-
easy maintenance due to the absence of windings and magnets duced based on increasing the number of phases in order to
from the rotor. However, the non-linear inductance profile increase machine reliability under multiple phase failures like
makes difficulty in control besides the high torque ripples [1]. the 5-phase SRM in [12], [13]. In [12], a 5-phase 20/16 outer
Converters used in SRMs should provide unidirectional rotor SRM with distributed inverter is introduced, so that each
current flow with at least two phase voltage levels. Several coil has a separate inverter leg and placed around stator stack
converters for SRM drives are introduced in [2]. The most end.
common topology is the asymmetrical half-bridge converter A fault-tolerant method for open-switch faults is introduced
[2]. in [14] based on using an asymmetrical converter for each
Generally, about 38% of the faults occur in variable-speed phase coil. Thus, for the 6-phase 12/8 SRM, in which each
AC drives are due to failures of switching devices [3]. For any phase winding consists of two coils, requires twelve convert-
power converter, there are two types of switch faults; open- ers. The main disadvantage of this method is although a high
switch fault and the short-switch fault [4]. Short-switch fault number of switches are used, system performance at fault-
means that the switch is turned on unexpectedly due to the tolerant is not the same as healthy conditions. In [15], the con-
wrong gate voltage, overvoltage and/or high temperatures. duction time of the two phases which should be excited before
Protection system must detect and isolate the faulty switch or and after the faulty phase is increased to cover the faulty phase
shut down the system as fast as possible. Most of the detection conduction period for 4-phase SRM. However, this method is
and tolerant techniques are hardware based. Open-switch fault not valid for 3-phase SRM to provide a starting torque. An-
happens when the switch is open circuited due to driver failure other fault-tolerant method is introduced in [16] which de-
or lifting bonding wires caused by thermal cycling [3], [5]. pends on using a healthy leg to control two phases not in se-
Similarly, phase coils or part of its inner turns can be open- quence like phases ‘a’ and ‘c’ or phases ‘b’ and ‘d’ in the 4-
circuited or short-circuited. Aging and failure of insulation can phase SRM. In this case, the asymmetrical half-bridge con-
result in a short circuit of the stator winding [6]. Open-switch verter is converted into a common topology introduced before
fault and open-coil fault lead to zero phase current; while in [2], but it is infeasible for SRMs with an odd number of
short-switch fault leads to overcurrent. Both faults have a neg- phases. In addition, method [16] is only valid when there is a
ative impact on system performance. A Fault diagnostic tech- thyristor connected in series with each phase winding. Based
niques to detect and localize the faulty switch for 4-phase on the concept of increasing the number of inverter legs per
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 20

phase, authors in [17] uses two inverter legs for each phase for
12/8 SRM to increase drive system reliability, so that each two SA+ DA+ SB+ DB+ SC+ DC+
coils share one inverter leg.
A Fault-tolerant technique is introduced in [18] uses addi- La Lb Lc
tional four transistors, four diodes and six mechanical relays
for 3-phase SRM. This method can handle multiple open- Vs
switch faults and open circuit faults of phase coils. However, DA- SA- DB- SB- DC- SC-
the main disadvantage of this method is system performance
at fault-tolerant is not similar to healthy conditions even for
Fig. 1. Asymmetrical half bridge converter topology of 3-phase SRM.
single switch fault. As it loses a part of phase coils to handle
switch faults. Besides, using the same leg to control two phas-
es in 3-phase SRM leads to dependent control of phases rather
than independent, forcing one phase to have positive or zero SA+ DA+ SA+ DA+ SA+ DA+
voltage during the excitation of the other phase which is dis-
La La La
cussed in section III. There are some fault-tolerant techniques
depend on machine design including modular stator structure Vs Vs Vs
to bypass the faulty winding [19], [20] and double-layer-per- DA- SA- DA- SA- DA- SA-
phase method [21].
This paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the (a) (b) (c)
Fig. 2. Operation modes of asymmetrical converter. (a) Excitation mode.
converter operation and control strategy used in this paper. (b) Free-wheeling mode. (c) Demagnetizing mode.
The proposed fault-tolerant strategy is discussed in section III.
Section IV shows the simulation results to verify the proposed ωref iref Power
method. Finally, section V concludes the paper. _ PI
Converter
SRM
_
II. SRM DRIVE CONVERTER AND CONTROL STRATEGY ω i
Fig. 1 represents the asymmetrical half-bridge converter
used in most of SRM drive systems. There are three modes of
operations: excitation mode, free-wheeling mode, and demag- Fig. 3. Control strategy used to regulate motor speed.
netization mode. In excitation mode, phase voltage is equal to
Vs by switching on SA+ and SA- as shown in Fig. 2(a). The free- SR+ SA+ DA+ SB+ DB+ SC+ DC+
wheeling mode is used at current chopping control (CCC) by
switching only one of the two switches SA+ and SA- as shown TA+
TB+
in Fig. 2(b) so that phase voltage is zero. Demagnetization TC+
mode is used to provide negative phase voltage by switching
Vs
off both switches SA+ and SA- allowing energy to return back La Lb Lc
from phase winding to the supply as shown in Fig. 2(c) [2]. TA-
TB-
The speed is controlled by a proportional integral (PI) con- TC-
troller, in addition to a saturator to limit the output current SR- DA- SA- DB- SB- DC- SC-
within a maximum value, as shown in Fig. 3. At low speeds,
CCC is used to derive phase currents to a reference value re- Fig. 4. Fault-tolerant topology of 3-phase SRM
sulted from the speed controller. Phase currents are kept with-
in a hysteresis band using hysteresis comparators, by applying III. THE PROPOSED FAULT-TOLERANT METHOD
positive and negative voltages on phase windings. Zero volt- In the proposed fault-tolerant topology, an additional two
age can be used instead of negative to provide longer decaying controlled switches and six thyristors are used, as shown in
time during chopping, therefore reducing switching loss, Fig. 4. The upper switch SR+ and the three thyristors TA+, TB+
which is known by soft chopping. At the end of conduction and TC+ tolerate the upper switch faults, while the lower
period, a negative voltage is applied to have faster current switch SR- and the three thyristors TA-, TB- and TC- tolerate the
decaying time. At high speeds, the induced back e.m.f is high lower switch faults. The proposed fault-tolerant strategy is
enough to limit the current without the need of using current based on switching the additional switches to bypass the faulty
control [2]. Turn on and turn off angles are fired during the part. If the switch SR+ or SR- is shared by one phase only,
positive slope of inductance to provide positive torque. Values therefore the phase current at fault-tolerant is the same as
of turn on and off angles are chosen in order to have minimum healthy conditions like single switch faults elaborated below.
torque ripples. While converter performance is different from healthy condi-
tions, if more than one phase share SR+ or SR-, like two upper
switch faults explained in double switch faults case.
21
SR+ Open DA+ SB+ DB+ SC+ DC+ SR+ Open DA+ Open DB+ SC+ DC+
Circuit Circuit Circuit
TA+ TA+
TB+ TB+
TC+ TC+
Vs La Lb Lc Vs Lb Lc
La
TA- TA-
TB- TB-
TC- TC-
SR- DA- SA- DB- SB- DC- SC- Open Open
SR- DA- DB- DC- SC-
Circuit Circuit
Fig. 5. Excitation state of phase a with fault-tolerant during SA+ open Fig. 7. Excitation state of phases a and b with fault-tolerant during SA+,
switch fault. SB+, SA- and SB- open switch fault.
SR+ Open DA+ Open DB+ SC+ DC+ SR+ Open DA+ Open DB+ Open DC+
Circuit Circuit Circuit Circuit Circuit
TA+ TA+
TB+ TB+
TC+ TC+
Vs Vs Lb Lc
La Lb Lc La
TA- TA-
TB-
TB- TC-
TC-
Open Open Open
SR- DA- DB- DC-
SR- DA- SA- DB- SB- DC- SC- Circuit Circuit Circuit
Fig. 8. Excitation state of phases a, b and c with fault-tolerant during SA+,

Fig. 6. Excitation state of phases a and b with fault-tolerant during SA+ SB+, SC+, SA-, SB- and SC- open switch fault.
and SB+ open switch fault.
a) Single switch fault: be zero, thus, phase ‘a’ control is changed from hard chopping
In case of single switch fault at upper or lower side, the to soft chopping keeping phase ‘a’ current almost the same as
controlled switch SR+ or SR- and the thyristor of the faulty healthy conditions.
phase are activated to bypass the faulty switch. Fig. 5 shows c) Quadruple switch faults:
the operating switches of phase ‘a’ at fault-tolerant due to Fig. 7 shows the operating switches of phase ‘a’ and ‘b’ at
upper switch fault of phase ‘a’. The additional upper switches fault-tolerant due to double switch fault at the two phases.
SR+ and TA+ take place during fault-tolerant. Torque and speed Both phases share the additional switches SR+ and SR- at fault-
dynamics at fault-tolerant are the same as the healthy state. As
tolerant. At high speeds, excitation of phase ‘b’ is done by
mentioned before, the motor cannot provide a starting torque
activating SR+, SR-, TB+ and TB- during phase ‘a’ commutation
under switch failure without fault-tolerant. while TA+ and TA- are on for same reasons explained in section
b) Double switch faults: III-b. Therefore, phase ‘a’ voltage is changed from negative to
Fig. 6 shows operating switches of phases ‘a’ and ‘b’ at positive as SR+, SR-, TA+ and TA- are on, resulting in significant
fault-tolerant due to SA+ and SB+ open-switch faults. Both increase in current. Similarly, at low speeds, but excitation of
phases share the additional switch SR+ at fault-tolerant. At high phase ‘b’ starts during chopping of phase ‘a’. Appling positive
speeds when voltage modulation control is used, phase ‘b’ voltage instead of zero or negative at chopping increases the
voltage is turned positive for excitation (SR+ and TB+ are phase current far away from the hysteresis band. As a result,
switched on) during the demagnitization of phase ‘a’. As a conduction periods of phases ‘a’ and ‘b’ must be reduced to
result, phase ‘a’ voltage is turned zero instead of negative, avoid the overlapping between them and the significant in-
because thyristor TA+ is a semi-controlled switch and does not crease in current at high and low speeds.
switch off until both phases ‘a’ and ‘b’ have negative voltage d) Sextuple switch faults:
simultaneously. So, by conducting SR+, to apply positive volt- If all the six switches of the converter are open circuited,
age on phase ‘b’, and TA+ is still conducting from the last time Fig. 8 shows operating switches of the three phases during
it was on. Therefore phase ‘a’ voltage is turned zero as SA- is
fault-tolerant. The three phases suffer from positive voltage
off. When phase ‘b’ reaches commutation and a negative volt-
instead of negative during chopping at low speeds and during
age is applied to it, phase ‘a’ voltage is turned negative and commutation at high speeds which results in high currents.
TA+ is switched off. The conduction periods of the three phases are reduced to
At low speeds when CCC is used, phase ‘b’ is excited, dur- avoid the current increase.
ing chopping of phase ‘a’ current, forcing phase ‘a’ voltage to
22
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS b) SA+ and SB+ open-switch fault:
In case of two upper switch fault, Fig. 11 shows system dy-
The proposed fault-tolerant strategy for three-phase 12/8 namics at fault-tolerant control at high speed due to open
SRM is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink software pack- switch fault at SA+ and SB+. It is obvious that phase ‘a’ current
age. The parameters of the SRM system under study are given has different waveform than other phases because phase volt-
in Table. I. Different case studies are carried out to evaluate age is turned zero during commutation. Fig. 12 shows voltage
the performance of the proposed system. applied to phase ‘a’. At the instant of excitation of phase ‘b’,
a) Healthy conditions and Sa1 open-switch fault: phase ‘a’ voltage changes from negative to zero as the upper
switch is on and lower switch is off enabling free-wheeling
Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 show currents waveform, torque and
mode to phase ‘a’. Phase ‘a’ voltage returns negative again
speed profiles during healthy conditions at high and low
when phase ‘b’ voltage is negative. Mean and ripple values of
speeds, respectively. For any single switch fault, fault-tolerant torque in addition to speed average value are calculated in
system dynamics is same as healthy conditions. Mean values Table III.
of torque and speed, besides torque ripples are calculated in
Table. II. c) SA+, SB+, SA- and SB- open-switch fault:
Conduction periods of the faulty phases are reduced to
TABLE I. MOTOR SPECIFICATIONS
avoid overlapping between the faulty phases at high speed
operation as shown in Fig. 13. At low speed operation, con-
Parameter Value Parameter Value
duction periods of the faulty phases are also reduced with a
Phase number 3 Rated power (kW) 2.3 very short overlapping period to avoid the current rise, as
Number of stator poles 12 Rated voltage (V) 300 shown in Fig. 14. Table. IV shows system performance at
Number of rotor poles 8 Shaft diameter (mm) 12.5 fault-tolerant.
Rotor inner diameter
Number of winding /phase 4 30.5 TABLE II
(mm)
Rotor outer diameter SYSTEM PARAMETERS AND PERFORMANCE AT HEALTHY CONDITIONS
Number of turns per coil 112 41.5 High Low
(mm)
Stator inner diameter Speed Speed
Phase resistance (Ω) 0.2983 56.7
(mm) Turn on angle 27 24
Minimum phase inductance Stator outer diameter Turn off angle 42 44
1.34 68
(mH) (mm)
Maximum phase inductance Average torque 5 4.974
10.19 Stack length (mm) 70
(mH) Torque ripples (%) 44 40
Rated speed (rpm) 6000 Gap length (mm) 0.3
Reference speed (rpm) 4100 600
Actual speed 4070 597.5
Three Phase Current References (A)
Phase A Phase B Phase C
20
15
10 Three Phase Current References (A)
5 Phase A Phase B Phase C
0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504 20
15
Torque (N.m) 10
5
7
5 0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504
3
8
Torque (N.m)
0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504 6
4
Speed (rpm) 2
4075 0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504
4070 Speed (rpm)
4065 3785
3775
0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504 3765
t(s) 3755
Fig. 9. System dynamics at high speed during healthy conditions. 0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504
t(s)
Fig. 11. Fault-tolerant system dynamics at high speed during SA+ and SB+
Three Phase Current References (A) open switch fault.
20
15 Phase A Voltage (V)
10
5 300
0.55 0.552 0.554 0.556 0.558 0.56 0.562 0.564 0.566 0.568 0.5 100
Torque (N.m) -100
-300
6
5 0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504
4
Phase B Voltage (V)
0.55 0.552 0.554 0.556 0.558 0.56 0.562 0.564 0.566 0.568 0.5
300
Speed (rpm) 100
600.5 -100
599.5 -300
598.5 0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504
0.55 0.552 0.554 0.556 0.558 0.56 0.562 0.564 0.566 0.568 0.5
t(s)
t(s) Fig. 12. Phase a and b voltages at fault-tolerant during SA+ and SB+ open
Fig. 10. System dynamics at low speed during healthy conditions. switch fault.
23
d) Sextuple open-switch fault: CONCLUSION
Fault-tolerant dynamics at high and low speeds, when all A fault-tolerant control strategy for 3-phase 12/8 SRM
phases have double switch faults, are presented in Fig. 15 and drives is introduced in this paper, which can work at high and
Fig. 16, respectively. The conduction period of all phases is low speeds. The proposed technique characterizes by a simple
reduced to avoid overlapping between phases and the high structure and low cost compared to other techniques. The pro-
current rise Table. V describes mean values of torque and posed method can work even if all phases suffer from double
speed besides torque ripples percent. switch faults. At low speeds, fault-tolerant system dynamics
are similar to healthy conditions up to four open-switch faults.
Three Phase Current References (A) The proposed strategy is simulated on MATLAB/Simulink
20
15 software package. Simulation results reveal that the proposed
10
5
0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.50
fault-tolerant strategy succeeds to reduce fault effect signifi-
Torque (N.m) cantly. Therefore, the proposed method improves the reliabil-
9
5 ity of drive systems for SRM used in safety-critical applica-
1
0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.50
tions.
Speed (rpm)
3480
3460
3440
3420
0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.50 TABLE III
t(s) SYSTEM PARAMETERS AND PERFORMANCE AT FAULT-TOLERANT DURING SA+
Fig. 13. Fault-tolerant system dynamics at high speed during SA+, SB+, and SB+ OPEN SWITCH FAULT
SA- and SB- open switch fault. High Low
Speed Speed
Phase A Phase B Phase C Turn on angle 27 24
20
15
10 Turn off angle phase a & b 37 44
5
0.55 0.552 0.554 0.556 0.558 0.56 0.562 0.564 0.566 0.568 0.57 Turn off angle phase c 42 44
Torque (N.m) Average torque 4.98 4.97
8
6
4 Torque ripples (%) 138 40
2
0.55 0.552 0.554 0.556 0.558 0.56 0.562 0.564 0.566 0.568 0.57
Speed (rpm)
600
595
Actual speed 3754 597.5
590
585
0.55 0.555 0.56 0.565 0.57 0.575 0.58 0.585 0.59
t(s) TABLE IV
Fig. 14. Fault-tolerant system dynamics at low speed during SA+, SB+, SA- SYSTEM PARAMETERS AND PERFORMANCE AT FAULT-TOLERANT DURING
and SB- open switch fault. SA+, SB+, SA- and SB- OPEN SWITCH FAULT
High Low
Speed Speed
Phase A Phase B Phase C Turn on angle phase a & c 27 24
20
15
10
5
Turn on angle phase b 27 27.5
0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504
Turn off angle phase a 34.5 42
Torque (N.m)
10 Turn off angle phase b 34.5 44
6
2
0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504
Turn off angle phase c 42 44
Speed (rpm) Average torque 4.97 4.973
3115
3095
3075
Torque ripples (%) 180 100
0.5 0.5005 0.501 0.5015 0.502 0.5025 0.503 0.5035 0.504
t(s)
Fig. 15. Fault-tolerant system dynamics at high speed during all switch- Actual speed 3430 597.5
es open switch fault.
TABLE V
SYSTEM PARAMETERS AND PERFORMANCE AT FAULT-TOLERANT DURING
20
15 ALL SWITCHES ARE OPEN SWITCH FAULT
10
5 High Low
0.55 0.555 0.56 0.565 0.57 0.575 0.58 0.585 0.59
Speed Speed
Torque (N.m)
8 Turn on angle phase a, b & c 27 27.5
6
4
2 Turn off angle phase a, b & c 34.5 42
0.55 0.555 0.56 0.565 0.57 0.575 0.58 0.585 0.59
Speed (rpm) Average torque 4.956 4.95
600
595
590
585
Torque ripples (%) 220 110
0.55 0.555 0.56 0.565 0.57 0.575 0.58 0.585 0.59
t(s) Reference speed (rpm) 4100 600
Fig. 16. Fault-tolerant system dynamics at low speed during all switches Actual speed 3080 597.5
open switch fault.
24
Acknowledgment [14] M. Ruba, C. Oprea, and L. Szabó, “Comparative study on switched
reluctance machine based fault-tolerant electrical Drive systems,” IEEE
This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding
International Electric Machines and Drives Conference, pp. 987–992,
from the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program.
2009.
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25
Modified Phase-disposition PWM Technique for
Modular Multilevel Converters
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Abstract—Modular multilevel converters (MMCs) are consid- [12], phase opposite disposition PWM (POD-PWM) [13] and,
ered to be a suitable candidate to improve the energy conversion alternative phase opposite disposition PWM (APOD-PWM)
efficiency and fault tolerant ability of electric propulsion systems. [14] and phase-shifted PWM (PS-PWM) [11], [12], [15]. The
These converters offer advantages such as modularity, low
harmonic contents, high availability, lower electro-magnetic in- comparison between different PWM methods were carried out
terface and no bulk dc-link capacitors. Phase-shifted pulse width in [11], [12], [16] through simulation and/or experiments.
modulation (PS-PWM) is a natural PWM method for MMCs as Among all above PWM techniques, the carrier PWM tech-
it ensures even power distribution and equal switching frequency niques are widely used and preferred for MMCs due to less
on submodules (SM). However, this technique suffers from lack
computational burden and easier implementation in FPGA
of waveform quality and optimal switching. In contrast, phase-
disposition PWM (PD-PWM) technique ensures better voltage and/or DSP. The PS-PWM technique is usually preferred for
profile and lack of even power distribution. A modified rotative cascaded H-bridges and MMCs [15] as it offers even power
PD-PWM (MPD-PWM) technique is proposed in this paper, to distribution and uniform switch utilization among the SMs.
overcome the problem of uneven power distribution. Moreover, On the other hand, PD-PWM offers lesser harmonic distortion
a common mode voltage is injected to PWM modulator, which
but unequal power distribution. A new modified PD-PWM
decreases the switching transitions and increases the fundamental
voltage. The key performance of each PWM scheme for half (MPD-PWM) is proposed in this paper with characteristics
bridge submodule (HB-SM) based three-phase MMC (4 SMs per of better waveform quality and uniform power distribution.
arm) are holistically evaluated by simulations in PLECS software. Moreover, triplen harmonics are injected to PWM modulator
Index Terms—Modular multilevel converters, motor drives, which increases the dc-bus utilization rate and decreases the
power electronics, pulse width modulation, rail transportation. switching transitions. The proposed PWM technique with and
without common mode voltage (CMV) injection is validated
for half-bridge (HB-SM) based three-phase MMC (4 SMs per
I. I NTRODUCTION
arm) using simulation results. The performance of proposed
The modular multilevel converters (MMCs) have shown PWM is compared with all other carrier PWM techniques
great potential as motor drive systems in the field of railway especially in terms of waveform quality, CMVs, circulating
traction [1], electric vehicles [2] and electric ships [3]. The current and capacitor voltage ripple.
output voltage distortion in MMCs is very low, and so these
offer negligible torque ripple and higher motor efficiency, II. O PERATION PRINCIPLES OF MMC
higher than the three-level inverters [4], [5]. These con-
verters offer advantages such as modularity, low harmonic A. Circuit topology
contents, lower electro-magnetic interface and no bulk dc-link The MMC can be realized by several modules connected in
capacitors. However, a SM capacitor voltage balancing is a cascade fashion and the three-phase MMC structure is shown
major challenge and has to be incorporated along with the in Fig. 1(a). Each phase consists of positive arm and negative
modulation techniques for the proper operation of MMCs [6]. arm which are connected through arm inductors (Larm ). Arm
Modulation method will be crucial for MMCs as it has inductors are used to suppress high frequency components
impact on harmonics, switching losses, filter size, circulating and its selection depends on SM voltage, switching frequency
current and the control dynamics. The modulation methods and the modulation technique. The structure of the HB-SM is
can be classified into three major categories and applied to shown in Fig. 1(b). The upper (S1 ) and lower switches (S2 )
MMCs. They are i) staircase modulation such as selective har- in the SM are complementary. The MMC operation depends
monic elimination (SHE) [7], nearest level modulation (NLM) on the charging and the discharging of the capacitor voltages
[8], and, submodule-unified PWM (SUPWM) [9], ii) space which rely on the direction of the current flowing in or out
vector PWM (SVPWM) [10], iii) carrier-based modulation of SM as shown in Fig. 1(b). The output voltage and the
which can be further classified as carrier disposition (CD- capacitors voltage variations in HB-SM for different switching
PWM) including phase-disposition PWM (PD-PWM) [11], states is given in Table I.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 26

where varm is voltage across the arm inductors due to the
circulating current and dc-link current. The modulating signal
can be represented by
Vdc
Vxo = m × × sin(ωt + ϕ) (5)
2
where 0<m<1 is the modulation index, ϕ is the initial phase
angle and ω is the supply frequency in rad/s. The normalized
0ref
reference modulating signals for positive (vxp ) and negative
0ref
arm (vxn ) are described as follows [12]:

0ref
vxp = 21 [1 − m × sin(ωt + ϕ)] 
(6)
v 0ref = 1 [1 + m × sin(ωt + ϕ)] 
xn 2
The modulating signal generator produces the normalized

reference modulating signals to the positive and negative
arm control system as shown in Fig. 2. Each HB-SM can
Fig. 1. (a) Three-phase structure of MMC (b) Half-bridge submodule (HB-
SM) (c) Single-phase equivalent circuit of MMC generate two voltage levels as given in Table I. In PWM
modulator, the reference modulating signal in positive arm
control (negative arm control) is compared with corresponding
TABLE I
S WITCHING STATES OF 2L-HB SUBMODULE triangular carrier signals and each output is added together
to obtain a normalized PWM. The normalized PWM output
M ode S1 S2 D1 D2 ixy Vc VSM depends on the type of PWM technique and determines the
1 1 0 1 0 > 0 vc ↑ Vc number of SMs to be turned on (Non ) at each switching instant
2 1 0 0 0 < 0 vc ↓ Vc in the positive arm (negative arm). This pattern is fed to a
3 0 1 0 0 > 0 vc ≈ 0 voltage balancing algorithm to determine gate signals to power
4 0 1 0 1 < 0 vc ≈ 0 switching devices. The major task in controlling the MMC is
B. Control of MMC
The sum of output voltages of SMs in the phase leg is not
equal to Vdc and the difference voltage will appear across the
arm inductors. This voltage causes circulating current to flow
within the arms which is the second-order harmonic dominant.
These currents increase the converter power losses and the
capacitor voltage ripple. Arm voltage is represented by one
equivalent voltage source whose magnitude is equal to sum
of all voltages of SMs in the arm [6]. From the equivalent
circuit shown in Fig. 1(c), the positive (ixp ) and negative arm
currents (ixn ) [current direction] can be expressed as:
      
1 1
ixp 1 i
  = 2   x  +  3  idc (1)
1 1 Fig. 2. PWM modulator with voltage balancing algorithm for MMC
ixn 2 −1 icir 3
where x {a, b, c} and y {p, n}. From above equations, the to keep the SM capacitor voltages at their nominal values as
output current and circulating current can be calculated as: the PWM modulator does not guarantee the voltage balancing
among SM capacitors. Therefore, it is mandatory to modify
ix = ixp + ixn (2)
the gating pattern based on capacitor voltage, voltage level and
ixp − ixn idc arm current. The voltage balancing algorithm presented in this
icir = − (3) paper, is done by measuring the capacitor voltages and these
2 3
are sorted either in descending or ascending order by insertion
The reference voltages for positive and negative arm are [12]:
 sorting technique. This technique generates a capacitor index
ref
vxp = V2dc − vxo − varm  number from n = 0 to N -1 based on the direction of arm
(4) current either in descending or ascending order as shown in
v ref = Vdc + vxo − varm 
xn 2 Fig. 2. The switching state either “1” or “0” for each SM
27
Fig. 3. Normalized modulation signal for (a) PS-PWM (b) PD-PWM (c) POD-PWM (d) APOD-PWM (e) MPD-PWM technique.
is generated by comparing the normalized voltage level Non MMC are found in [11]. All the carriers are shifted vertically
with the capacitor voltage index number (CIn ). If there is with fixed offset and will be in the same phase as shown in
any change in (Non ), new switching states are generated by Fig. 3(b). The interleaving in PD-PWM can be achieved by
comparing the Non and Non−old , otherwise, passes previous phase disposition of 180o between the positive and the negative
state. This approach does not require any modifications in the arms.
voltage balancing algorithm and only changes in triangular 2) POD-PWM: In this technique, the upper N /2 half sig-
carrier waves are required as per the type of the PWM scheme nals are phase disposed from each other by 180o to lower N /2
used. signals [4]. For example, in the case of a 5-level MMC, the
two upper signals are in the same phase and the two lower
III. M ODULATION TECHNIQUES signals will be 180o out of phase with the upper two signals
A. PS-PWM as shown in Fig. 3(c). The POD-PWM technique has been be
The basic principles of PS-PWM and mathematical rep- applied to MMCs and the basic principles are found in [13].
resentation in the form of fourier series are explained in 3) APOD-PWM: In this technique, the carrier waveforms
[15]. To control MMC using PS-PWM, require 2N triangular are phase disposed from each other by 180o alternatively as
carrier signals for 2N SMs per phase. Out of 2N triangular shown in Fig. 3(d). The APOD-PWM technique has been be
signals, N carriers belong to the positive arm and the rest applied to MMCs and the basic principles are found in [14].
belong to the negative arm. The carrier signals in each arm It is proven mathematically as well as experimentally that
o
are shifted by a phase angle 360 to get N +1 level output, APOD-PWM will generate similar results to PS-PWM [15].
N
where N is the number of SMs per arm. For instance, an The simulation results presented in the paper also justifies that
arm contains 4 SMs, the phase-shift between the SMs is 90o APOD-PWM is equivalent to PS-PWM as shown in Table II.
and the normalized modulation signal along with the carriers C. Modified PD-PWM (MPD-PWM)
is shown in Fig. 3(a). The number of SMs to be inserted or
The limitations exist in the multi-carrier PWM techniques
bypassed will be determined by the comparison of the number
such as PS-PWM and PD-PWM which can be resolved by
of the carrier signals with the normalized modulation signals.
the alteration of level shifts between the carrier signals so as
The switching frequency of each SM is equal to the carrier
to cover the total amplitude range. The PD-PWM technique
frequency irrespective of circuit parameters, and operating
is able to achieve the optimal switching but fails to get even
conditions is given by [16]:
power distribution. In contrast, PS-PWM maintains uniform
fc(P D−P W M ) switch utilization, yet is not able to acquire optimal switching.
fc(P S−P W M ) = (7)
N To achieve the best features of PS-PWM and PD-PWM, a
In order to get 2N +1 level output, the carrier signals for MPD-PWM is proposed in which the carrier signal arrange-
o
positive arm and negative arms are disposed by angle 360 ment is changed by rotation to cover the amplitude range. The
N
which is called interleaving technique. necessary offset can be achieved by adding a square wave
signal with half the carrier frequency to the original carrier
B. Carrier-disposition PWM wave signal. In other words, MPD-PWM consists of horizontal
The multi-carrier disposition PWM techniques are widely shift as in PD-PWM and vertical shift as in PS-PWM as shown
used for multilevel converters and can be categorized as in Fig. 3(e). Due to rotation of carriers, this brings even power
phase disposition (PD), phase opposite disposition (POD), and distribution and uniform switch utilization. A common mode
alternative phase disposition (APOD) [4]. voltage (CMV) is injected to the PWM modulator by adding
1) PD-PWM: PD-PWM is the most commonly used car- the offset (Vof f set ) to the normalized modulation signal and
rier disposition technique in multilevel inverters as it offers is given by [4]:
better output voltage and current waveform quality. The basic max(Va , Vb , Vc ) + min(Va , Vb , Vc )
principles and mathematical analysis of PD-PWM applied to Vof f set = − (8)
2
28
TABLE II
P ERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF DIFFERENT CARRIER PWM TECHNIQUES FOR MMC S
Comparison Index PS-PWM PD-PWM POD-PWM APOD-PWM MPD-PWM

Line voltage THD [per-unit] 0.277 0.118 0.289 0.277 0.118
Output current THD [per-unit] 0.012 0.003 0.013 0.012 0.003
CMV (peak-peak) [V] 200-400 250-350 250-350 200-400 250-350
CMV (RMS) [V] 302.14 301.74 301.15 301.88 300.79
Circulating current (RMS) [A] 6.09 7.32 6.27 6.17 6.29
Circulating current (f2 ) [A] 6.65 7.84 7.05 6.80 6.76
Capacitor voltage ripple [V] 8.54 10.30 7.99 8.53 7.22
Here, the max and min are the maximum and minimum
voltages among the phase reference voltages (Va , Vb , Vc ).
Fig. 5. Simulation results of POD-PWM (a) Output line-line voltages (b)

Output currents (c) Circulating current (d) CMVs
Fig. 4. Simulation results of PS-PWM (a) Output line-line voltages (b)

Output currents (c) Circulating current (d) CMVs
the line-line voltages, output currents, circulating current and
CMVs are shown in Figs. 4-6. The performance analysis show
TABLE III
that PS-PWM is the preferred solution for MMC as it offers
T HE SYSTEM PARAMETERS USED FOR THE SIMULATION the highest fundamental voltage and lesser circulating current.
Moreover, it provides even power distribution and uniform
Parameter Value switch utilization among the SMs. On the other hand, PD-
DC link voltage (Vdc ) 600 V PWM provides better waveform quality among all level shifted
SM capacitor (CSM ) 4.7 mF PWM techniques. However, it causes larger circulating current
Arm inductance (Larm , Rarm ) 1 mH, 0.05 Ω and capacitor voltage ripple. In order to get the best features
Switching frequency (fc ) 2 kHz
of both the techniques, a MPD-PWM is proposed in this paper
Load inductor (LL , RL ) 20 mH, 10 Ω
and the simulation results are shown in Fig. 7.
The MPD-PWM technique offers better waveform quality
similar to PD-PWM and equal switch utilization similar to
IV. S IMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION PS-PWM. The comparative assessment of different PWM
To find the performance of the different PWM techniques techniques for MMCs are holistically evaluated and are listed
for MMC, simulation studies have been carried out using in Table II. The parameters used for the simulation are
Plexim/PLECS software. The simulation results for different given in Table III. The MPD-PWM technique presents better
PWM techniques at modulation index (m = 0.9) in terms of performance in terms of waveform quality, lesser CMVs and
29
Fig. 6. Simulation results of APOD-PWM (a) Output line-line voltages (b) Fig. 8. Simulation results of PD-PWM with CMV injection (a) Output line-
Output currents (c) Circulating current (d) CMVs line voltages (b)Output currents (c) Circulating current (d) CMVs
Fig. 7. Simulation results of MPD-PWM (a) Output line-line voltages (b) Fig. 9. Simulation results of MPD-PWM with CMV injection (a) Output
Output currents (c) Circulating current (d) CMVs line-line voltages (b) Output currents (c) Circulating current (d) CMVs
capacitor voltage ripple. Moreover, MPD-PWM performance terms of circulating current in the fourier spectrum is shown
is the best among all level shifted PWM techniques. The in Fig. 10. The Fig. 10(a) shows existence of harmonics in the
CMVs are injected to the PWM modulator which essentially circulating current of the PD-PWM around the side-band of
increases the dc-bus utilization. The simulation studies with the switching frequency. However, the harmonics are almost
CMV injection were carried out for all the PWM techniques eliminated around the side band of switching frequency in
and results for PD-PWM and MPD-PWM were shown in the MPD-PWM circulating current frequency spectrum. The
Figs. 8-9. The comparison of PD-PWM and MPD-PWM in Figs. 11 and 12 shows that the total amount of energy and
30
characteristics of PD-PWM, a modified PD-PWM is proposed
in this paper with results compared to all the other PWM
techniques. This PWM method achieved the favorable points
of PD-PWM and PS-PWM in terms of high-quality output
waveforms and lower submodule capacitor voltage ripple. The
modified PD-PWM technique mitigates the unequal power
distribution limitation and harmonics around the switching
frequency in the circulating current spectrum.
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[1] D. Ronanki and S. S. Williamson, “Evolution of Power Converter
Fig. 10. Circulating current spectrum (a) PD-PWM (b) MPD-PWM Topologies and Technical Considerations of Power Electronic Trans-
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[2] D. Ronanki and S. S. Williamson, “Modular Multilevel Con-
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[3] M. Spichartz, V. Staudt and A. Steimel, “Modular Multilevel Converter
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Tech. Sym., Arlington, VA, 2013, pp. 237-242.
[4] D. Ronanki and P. Parthiban, “A SVPWM for reduction in common
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[5] A. Choudhury, P. Pillay and S. S. Williamson, “Performance Comparison
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[6] A. Dekka, B. Wu, R. L. Fuentes, M. Perez and N. R. Zargari, “Evolution
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5, no. 4, pp. 1631-1656, Dec. 2017.
Fig. 11. Comparison of energy per arm between PD-PWM and MPD-PWM. [7] G. Konstantinou, M. Ciobotaru and V. Agelidis, “Selective harmonic
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[8] P. M. Meshram and V. B. Borghate, “A Simplified Nearest Level Control
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[10] A. Dekka, B. Wu, N. R. Zargari and R. L. Fuentes, “A Space-
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[11] R. Darus, G. Konstantinou, J. Pou, S. Ceballos and V. G. Agelidis,
“Comparison of phase-shifted and level-shifted PWM in the modular
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Hiroshima, 2014, pp. 3764-3770.
[12] A. Dekka, B. Wu, N. R. Zargari and R. L. Fuentes, “Dynamic Voltage
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Feb. 2016.
[13] J. R. Lebre, R. F. Dias and E. H. Watanabe, “POD-PWM applied to
Fig. 12. Comparison of energy per leg between PD-PWM and MPD-PWM. circulating current control in HVDC-MMC based system,” in Proc. Int.
Brazilian Power Electron. Conf., Fortaleza, 2015, pp. 1-5.
[14] S. Madichetty, A. Dasgupta, S. Mishra, C. K. Panigrahi and G. Basha,
“Application of an Advanced Repetitive Controller to Mitigate Harmon-
their fluctuations in the phase-arm /phase-leg is comparatively ics in MMC With APOD Scheme,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol.
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less in MPD-PWM than PD-PWM. [15] Y. Li, Y. Wang and B. Q. Li, “Generalized Theory of Phase-Shifted
Carrier PWM for Cascaded H-Bridge Converters and Modular Multilevel
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31
Topological Overview on Solid-state Transformer
Traction Technology in High-speed Trains
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
2000 Simcoe Street North Oshawa ON L1H 7K4, Canada
Tel. +1/(905) 721-8668, ext. 5744
TABLE I
Abstract—The modern trend towards high-speed trains (HST) C OMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE HIGH SPEED TRAINS
with distributed propulsion systems, demands high efficiency and
high-power density traction systems. Line frequency transform- Country Train name Max operating Record speed
ers (LFTs) in railway traction systems are heavy and bulky, quite speed (kmph) (kmph)
often necessitating power density to be compromised to achieve
Japan SCMaglev 320 603
maximum efficiency of typically 90-92%. The advancements
France TGV (Alstom) 320 575
in power converter topologies, power switching devices and
magnetic materials makes it possible to substitute massive LFTs China Shanghai Maglev 350 501
with a new technology called solid-state transformers (SST) (also Japan E6 Shinkansen 320 500
known as power electronic transformers (PET) or medium fre- South korea KTX 300 421
quency transformers (MFT)) traction technology. This technology Spain AVE 320 404
enables high power density systems with comparatively lower Germany ICE 320 368
noise emissions which provide essential functionality without Italy TALGO 350 300 350
compromising efficiency. However, there are still major challenges
to overcome associated with power converter connection on
the high-voltage (HV) side, architecture modification and the
compactness of the transformer design. This paper reviews
the existing architectures and also introduces the new research
Hz and around 94% for 25-kV/50-Hz [3]. Increase in demand
possibilities especially in the power conversion stages, and the for HST impose constraints on weight, size and efficiency
power switching devices. Finally, the design guide lines for high- of the equipment. Use of improved new insulation materials,
power converters are presented. synthetic ester oil as dielectric, design of windings and cooling
Index Terms—AC/AC converters, power electronics, power systems may not help to full extent [4].
semiconductor devices, rail transportation, transformers.
An alternative solution to reduce the weight and size of
the traction system can be done by utilizing SST technology
I. I NTRODUCTION which was inspired from switching power supplies utilizing the
The railways are considered to be one of the mass public high frequency concept [5]. The SST concept was developed
transportation which produce less CO2 per passenger-km. many years ago [6], [7] and with continual improvements in
High-Speed Rails (HSR) will be a significant movement to power switching devices and soft magnetic materials, which
expand the capacity of railway transport around the world. helped to offer a new solution in railway traction to achieve
HSR is a type of rail transport which operates faster than better performance as well as higher power density [2], [8].
250-kmph with specialized integrated systems and dedicated However, the main challenging task is the connection of the
tracks as per the International Union of Railways (UIC) and
European Union Directive (EUD) 96/48/EC. The commer-
cially available HST around the world are shown in Table I.
HST employs distributed propulsion using Electric Multiple
Units (EMU) due to improved adhesion effort and transport
capacity [1]. Alstom AGV uses distributed power concept
along with articulated architecture train set to travel at 360-
km/h, which increased on-board capacity by 20% and 15% less
energy consumption [2]. The LFTs in conventional traction
systems as shown in Fig. 1 are used for voltage reduction and
isolation, which are usually optimized for minimum weight Fig. 1. LFT traction technology conversion scheme.
(2-4 kg/kVA) and efficiency around 89-92% for 15-kV/16.7-
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 32

power converter at HV side and optimum selection of switch- contrast, with advancements in power switching devices and
ing frequency for a considerable design of the transformer. soft magnetic materials, SST based traction systems will be an
Moreover, the use of MFT (>400 Hz) requires a complex alternative solution for HST to achieve higher efficiency and
modification in the main traction converter. The SST-based power density. The basic structure of a solid state transformer
traction systems will be the future of railway systems and traction (SSTT) technology is shown in Fig. 2. This essentially
thus it is necessary to carry a comprehensive review on power covers the functionality of LFT and AC/DC conversion system
converter architectures, requirements and medium frequency providing greatly reduced weight and volume. Moreover, it
transformers. This paper presents the design challenges in high provides better power quality and additional functionality
power converters and some insights of design guidelines in such as bi-directional power flow, fault current limitation and
terms of cooling systems and busbar designs. fault isolation [8], [9]. The power converters are need to
II. LFT AND SST TRACTION TECHNOLOGY

In modern AC powered railway vehicles, traction conversion
chain usually fed with induction motors and permanent magnet
synchronous motors (PMSM) is illustrated in Fig. 1. The
HV catenary voltage is stepped down in range of 1/1.6-kV
by LFT and each output is connected to a four-quadrant
converters (FQC) which are in parallel. At the output of
FQC, a resonant filter is placed to filter the twice line fre-
Fig. 3. Single-stage AC/HFAC conversion scheme for SSTT technology.
quency harmonic components. The DC output will be from
2.4 to 2.8-kV in which inverters and traction motors are
fed. However, minor alterations can be observed in traction be connected to the HV side (15-kV, 25-kV) and also the
components and configurations which depends on the vehicle maximum blocking capability of power semiconductor devices
configuration (Bo-Bo/Co-Co) type, its power rating, the degree is limited to 6.5-kV, a series connection of these structures are
of redundancy, motor configuration, and the type of power needed at input and parallel connection at the output [10]. A
semiconductors used [1]. In order to meet the requirements list of key characteristics for comparison between LFT and
imposed by HST, LFT-based traction systems are heavily SST-based traction systems is shown in Table II [11], [12].
loaded and their efficiency is comprised to 90%-92% [3]. In III. P OWER C ONVERTER T OPOLOGIES FOR SST
T RACTION T ECHNOLOGY
The first SST-based traction system was developed in 1985,
which comprises of an input diode rectifier as 1st stage, a
matrix converter employing thyristors as 2nd stage, a 400-Hz
MFT, a diode rectifier and a DC/DC boost converter as 3rd
stage. A thyristor-based SST traction system was developed in
[7], which comprises of a matrix converter as an active front-
Fig. 2. Two-stage AC/HFAC conversion scheme for SSTT technology. end converter (AFE), an MFT and a 4-quadrant converter.
The maximum three total conversion stages are required from
single-phase to (high frequency square wave) HFAC (assuming
the common configuration from MFT to HFAC/DC stage) as
TABLE II
C OMPARISON BETWEEN LFTT AND SSTT TECHNOLOGY
shown in Fig. 2 and 3. They can be classified as single-stage
(Fig. 3) and two-stage conversion systems (Fig. 2) [12]. ABB
Performance index LFTT technology SSTT technology developed 1.2-MVA rated two-stage power conversion SST
Power density Low High based traction drive and was tested on Swiss Federal Rail-
Efficiency Low High ways SBB shunting locomotive at Geneva, Switzerland. This
Transformer design complexity Low High architecture uses 9-cell (150-kVA) cascaded full-bridge with a
Operating switching frequency Low High start-up circuit on the AC side and half-bridge resonant DC/DC
Power quality Low High converters on the output side as shown in Fig. 4 with one cell
Technical maturity High Low redundancy [9]. This shows a better harmonic performance,
Fault current limitation Low High better power quality and additional functionalities compared
Fault isolation capability Low High to LFTT technology due to the multilevel output waveform of
Control complexity Low High AFE converter.
Switch and drivers count Low High The AFE control consists of an outer DC-link voltage con-
Flexibility and availability Low High trol loop (slow) using proportional-integrator (PI) controllers
Cost Low High while considering inherent 2nd harmonic ripple in the single-
phase systems and an inner line-current control loop (fast)
33
using proportional-resonant (PR) controllers in the stationary single-phase matrix converters with power factor control [16].
reference frame. Alstom have developed a 2-MVA 8-cell full This architecture consists of an input medium-voltage con-
H-bridges on the AC side and resonant half-bridge at 5-kHz verter that is composed of single-phase matrix converter based
multi-winding MFT employing a 6.5-kV and 3.3-kV IGBTs cascaded cells and supplies power to the primary winding of
[13]. Similar concepts were developed by Bombardier which the MFT as shown in Fig. 6 [17]. The C-filter is placed at
consists of 5-MW SST based traction drive [Fig. 5] with 8- the input of the matrix converter due to a condition that it
cell full-bridges on AC side and full-bridge series resonant cannot disconnect the output terminals and short-circuit the
DC/DC converter at 8-kHz switching frequency [14]. Similar input terminals at the same time [18]. Siemens investigated 5-
to ABB control system, this system comprises of PI controller
for DC-link voltage control of the primary active rectifier
and PR controller to control the fundamental line current.
An active damping method is proposed using harmonic PR
controllers to suppress the low-frequency disturbances (3rd ,
5th , and 7th ) at the input AC side. This controller enhances the
harmonic performance in line current from 6.97% to 1.92%
total harmonic distortion (THD) and verified the effectiveness
of the controller under strongly distorted input AC voltage
[15].
Fig. 6. Single-stage AC/HFAC conversion scheme using matrix converters

developed by University of West Bohemia.
MW SST traction technology employing the AC/AC modular

multilevel converter (MMC) with concentrated MFT with
multi windings [19] as shown in Fig. 7. and 2-MW 17-level
(two converters each of 12 arms) using MMC (1.2-kV/400-A
IGBTs) with predicted efficiency of nearly 98% at nominal
power and switching frequency at 10-kHz [20], [21].
Fig. 4. Two-stage AC/HFAC conversion scheme using SSTT technology

developed by ABB.
Fig. 7. Single-stage AC/HFAC conversion scheme using AC/AC MMC

developed by Siemens.
Fig. 5. Two-stage AC/HFAC conversion scheme using SSTT technology IV. P OWER SWITCHING DEVICES
developed by Bombardier.
As active front end converter are directly connected to
the HV catenary, high-power devices or low-voltage (LV)
ABB developed the first 1.2-MVA 16-cell prototype with devices with large number of cascaded modules should be
cyclo-converters based SSTT for AC/HFAC conversion for 15- used. However, the use of high power devices offers lower
kV/16.7-Hz EMU application with 1.8-kV DC-link voltage efficiency, switching frequency limitation and are much more
and 1-kg/kVA power density. University of West Bohemia expensive than LV devices. Si-IGBTs based on field stop
proposed and developed a SST based traction system using and injection enhancement range from 1.2-kV to 6.5-kV are
34
widely used in traction applications. Despite its improvements, comparative evaluation of HV Si-IGBT and SiC-MOSFET
their performance levels are limited to maximum blocking for SST in railway traction [25] and size comparison of 6.5-
voltage 6.5-kV and operating temperature of 150o C [22]. In kV/25-A Si IGBT and 15-kV/10-A SiC MOSFET is shown
addition, due to the bipolar current conduction mechanism in in Fig. 9 [26]. The comparative evaluation of HV Si-IGBT
IGBTs, their operation is limited to lower switching frequency and SiC-MOSFET were carried out for 1.7-kV and 3.3-kV
applications. SiC-MOSFETs and their laboratory prototypes were realized
in [27], [28]. However, the commercial SiC-MOSFETs are
currently limited to 1.7-kV and some of them with their
characteristics are listed in Table III [29], [30]. The faster
operation of SiC devices (10-kV/µs) demands faster short
circuit protection, proper dv/dt and di/dt control. In addition,
it is more sensitive to timing mismatch when the devices are
connected either in series or parallel. Therefore, SiC devices
inhibit challenges in terms of manufacturing process, gate
driver design, electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter, busbar
layout, thermal management and reliability [31].
Fig. 8. Material properties between Si, SiC and GaN TABLE III
C HARACTERISTICS COMPARISON OF COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE
S I C-MOSFET DEVICE WITH S I -IGBT
Parameter Wolfspeed (SiC) Infineon (Si-IGBT)

Part no CAS300M17BM2 FF300R17KE4
VCES /VDSmax 1700 V 1700 V
ID /Ic (nominal) 325 A 440 A
RDS(on) /VCE(sat) 10 mΩ 1.95 V
Eon @ (600 V, 300A) 8.67 mJ 42 mJ
Eof f @ (600 V, 300A) 6.67 mJ 37 mJ
Internal gate resistance (Rg ) 3.7 Ω 2.5 Ω
Total gate charge (QG ) 1.076 µC 3.05 µC
Rth (j-c)(IGBT/MOSFET) 0.067 K/W 0.083 K/W
Rth (j-c)(Diode) 0.060 K/W 0.013 K/W
Junction temperature (max) -40 to 150o C -40 to 150o C
Fig. 9. Size comparison between Si and SiC devices [26]
Stray inductance 15 nH 20 nH
Weight (grams) 300 g 340 g
Price* (US$ /unit) $858 $146
The better option is to use wide bandgap devices such as
Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) and their
comparison with Si is shown in Fig. 8 [22]. However, GaN
devices are not matured enough for high power applications. V. P OWER C ONVERTER D ESIGN C ONSTRAINTS
The comparison of these devices is shown in Fig. 8 indicates
that SiC devices tolerate HV operation, have comparatively A. Thermal Design
lower thermal energy generation during operation, allow high For traction applications, space and weight of the traction
speed switching, have a LV drop and better switching char- systems (an electric machine + power converter) are very
acteristics as well as lower switching losses, which help in important considerations, requires an effective thermal man-
efficiency improvement and reduced cooling requirements. agement. So it is mandatory to do thermal analysis during the
Japanese railways have used compact SiC hybrid modules design process to fulfil the requirements. The technical consid-
(SBD+IGBT) in traction converters in commuter train that erations while selecting a cooling system are the operating and
reduces the mass and the volume by 60% [23]. Due to the junction temperatures of power semiconductor devices, contact
capability of SiC devices to operate at a higher switching resistance between the layers of power module, low thermal
frequency, it has much more influence on volume, weight, conductivity of thermal paste, heat flux limitations, limitations
size of heat sink and reduction in component size such as on inlet and outlet of fluid flow corresponding to type of
the filter and HF transformer. Mitsubishi Electric Corp has cooling system. One of the most important consideration is
launched all-SiC based traction inverters for 1.5-kV DC Japan- design of an effective cooling system to achieve higher power
Tokyo metro rail at Shinkansen HSR. This system reduces total density. Usually active cooling methods such as forced air
energy consumption by about 30% along with regenerated cooled and liquid cooled (water + glycol) based heat sinks are
energy in all speed ranges [24]. A 1-MVA SST using 15- employed for the traction applications. The design principles
kV/120-A SiC-MOSFET modules was built in [25] which of these cooling methods are well established and trade-
allowed a 70% reduction in weight with 98% efficiency. The off between these methods are discussed in [32], [33], [34].
35
TABLE IV
I NSULATION MATERIAL FOR L AMINATED BUSBARS
Material Characteristics Continuous Dielectric strength Dielectric Thermal conduc-

temperature constant tivity (W/mK)
(o C)
Mylar Cost effective, tear, chemical, and 105 10.0 kVAC (3 mil) 3.30 0.37 @ 50o C
moisture resistant
Tedlar Chemical/solvent resistant; good me- 107 4.2 kVAC (2 mil) 11.0 0.35 @ 50o C
chanical properties
Nomex Flame resistant, durable 220 1.6 kVAC (3 mil) 1.6 0.11 @ 50o C
Kapton High temperature rating and range 400 13.8 kVAC (3 mil) 3.70 0.18 @ 50o C
stability
Epoxy Powder Coating Flame, moisture resistant; ideal for 130 10.0 kVAC (10 mil) 4.00 0.60 @ 50o C
multiple shapes
However, these approaches require complex piping networks The typical requirements for the DC-busbar should be light
including external fans, pumps, liquid materials and heavy weight, flexibility in structural integrity, and easier assembly to
heat exchangers which resulted in acoustic noise generation achieve high power density. Along with these considerations,
and increase the system cost. To overcome the above issues most prominent approach is to use the laminated bus-bar for
and trend towards the higher dissipation with smaller size led high-power converters. The laminated busbar consists of a
the researchers to investigate the advanced passive cooling layer of fabricated segmentated copper by a thin layer of
methods [34]. With the significant improvements in thermal dielectric materials, laminated into a unified structure. This so-
analysis (modeling and simulation), procedures and manufac- lution improves reliability, increases capacitance and becomes
turing process would be make dominant in the near future. easier for assembling [37]. Laminated busbars are designed to
achieve low resistance (R) and stray inductance (Lstray ) with
B. EMI issues
help of numerical simulations and appropriate electromag-
The operation of the traction drive system is at HV and high- netic models when characterizing electromagnetic behavior of
current level, the sources of the EMI should be analyzed and busbars. This can be done by finite element analysis, partial
the methods to reduce these problems must be considered at inductance calculation method and partial element equivalent
the beginning of the design stage of the high power converters circuit (PEEC) methods [38]. After designing the shape and
to ensure proper safety as well as system functionality. The geometry of the busbar, materials (conductors, dielectric) are
two major sources which contribute EMI are dv di
dt and dt . The to be selected based on requirements, cost and availability.
power devices will chopped at high DC voltage in fraction of The characteristics of some dielectric insulations are listed in
µs. The conducted emission is a major issue in most power Table IV. The other important aspects are the geometric edges
electronic systems due to significant over voltage and leakage (open edge, pinch seal and epoxy edge fill) and type of plating
current generating by fast switching and stray components of (Tin, Lead, Silver or Tin/Lead) [37].
the system. The most important technical considerations for power
di
• High dt may create significant over voltage in power converter design are summarized as:
converters due to stray inductance of current loops • Minimizing the distance between conductors using thin
dv
• High dt may create significant leakage current in mag- isolation
netic elements and electric motors due to stray capacitive • Insulating material should be high dielectric constant,
coupling between windings and a frame high thermal conductivity and high breakdown strength
In addition to voltage spike, high frequency oscillations and • Thin flat conductors with larger surface area and fewer
ringing may occur if the circuit loop inductance between DC- holes can provide low impedance
link capacitor, bus bars and power devices are high [35]. • Selection of DC-link capacitor with low ESL, ESR and
To minimize over voltage and conducted noise due to the fewer terminal connections and their mechanical design.
stray inductance of the busbar can be achieved by (i) snubber • Location, shapes and routing of conducting points to
circuits (ii) active gate control, and (iii) low-inductance bus ensure that multi layered current can flow in opposite
bar design. The use of snubber circuits increase additional directions and have equal strength
components, adding cost and complexity of the system. Active The design considerations for DC-busbar using SiC power
gate control minimizes the device dv di
dt and dt which improves devices for high-switching operation are presented in [38].
transient performance of the device and reduces EMI. How-
ever, it increases the switching losses. The possible solution is VI. C ONCLUSION
to select each component with low stray inductance including This paper reviews the power converter topologies for
the selection of IGBT with low stray inductance and DC-link solid state transformer (SST) based traction technology. More-
capacitor with low equivalent series inductance (ESL) [36]. over, the requirements, challenges and power converter design
36
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37
Electrical Machine Rotor Shielding for Low Cost
Electrical Drive
M.M.J. Al-Ani, G. Vakil and C. Gerada
Power Electronics, Machines and Control (PEMC) Group
University of Nottingham
Nottingham, UK
Abstract—Electrical machine rotor shielding has been depth of the unsynchronized harmonics in the current waveform.
proposed for high-speed electrical machines, i.e. ≥50krpm, where Additionally, the work presents a steady-state thermal analysis
a smooth current waveform becomes difficult and costly to of the rotor with copper shield. MMF harmonic analysis of
generate due to the required high switching frequency. The rotor different SPM machine combinations has been conducted to
shielding is used to suppress the unsynchronized low order high select the thickness of the copper shield and have been reported
amplitude current harmonics and consequently reduces the in [7-8]. Similar work has been conducted on solid rotor
induced eddy-current losses in rotor. For moderate speed machines reported in [9]. Copper shield for BLDC generator was
machines, 10-40krpm, generally suited for automotive proposed by [10], an E-core equivalent model was tested for
applications, a smooth current waveform is possible to generate,
validation. The torque production of the SPM machine with
however, fast switching devices are required that increases the
copper shield was investigated in [11] emphasizing on the torque
overall drive cost. In the paper, a feasibility study of low cost
electrical drive is presented. The electrical drive consists of low produced by the copper shield. Finally, a preliminary
cost, low switching frequency modules to generate a pulse width mechanical analysis as well as feasibility study of the copper
modulation (PWM) current waveform with a few switching pulses, shield taking in consideration the copper shield location, current
and a rotor with electromagnetic shield to reduce the losses to an harmonic, sleeve material and rotor speed was reported in [12].
acceptable level. The feasibility study includes two permanent From the literature review, the following can be concluded:
magnet machines (PMMs) with different rotors. Multi-physics
results are obtained and compared to illustrate the feasibility of • Copper shield is preferred for machines fed with highly
the proposed drive. distorted current waveform generated by low switching
modules,
Keywords—Shielding, harmonics, low cost, surface-mounted • Copper shield was proposed for high-speed machines, their
permant magnet machine, SPM, soild rotor, low siwtching frequancy possibility for moderate speed machines was not addressed,
• The possibility of using copper shield for moderate speed
I. INTRODUCTION machine with low switching modules that can reduce the
For high-speed machines, the influence of the current drive cost and maintain the same drive efficiency has not
waveform shape on the electrical machine has been addressed in been explored,
[1] and [2]. The work concluded that, high switching frequency • Thorough mechanical and thermal analysis of the electrical
generated current waveform can move the losses from the rotor machine rotor with copper shield has not been conducted,
to the inverter at the expense of decreasing the overall efficiency • Copper shield manufacturability has not been addressed,
of the drive. Whereas low frequency generated current
This paper presents a feasibility study for a low cost
waveform such as pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) can
electrical machine drive, where a low switching frequency
increase the drive efficiency by decreasing the inverter losses,
converter can be used to reduce the converter cost and losses at
despite the need for extra DC to DC converter, but potentially
the expense of a highly distorted current waveform. The effect
would increases rotor losses due to increased harmonics.
of highly distorted current waveform can be remedied by copper
Copper shielding for high-speed rotors was firstly proposed shielding the rotor, in order to reduce the eddy-current losses to
by van der Veen in 1997 [3]. The copper shield was proposed an acceptable level. To explore the possibility of such drive a
alongside rectifier load to reduce the rotor eddy-current losses. feasibility study has been conducted. Two permanent magnet
The work conduced that both, winding sub-division and copper machines (PMMs) with different rotor topologies has been
shielding, can reduce the rotor loss to an acceptable level, i.e. investigated. The electromagnetic losses of both rotors with
0.1-0.2% of the rated power. Further work on this topic was different copper shield thicknesses and location has been
reported in [4-5], where copper shielding and magnet studied. A mechanical analysis to investigate the mechanical
segmentation have been investigated for rotor loss reduction, stability of the rotors with and without copper shield has been
and to validate the concept a locked rotor measurement together conducted. Finally, steady-state thermal analysis of both rotors
with measuring current and voltage waveforms have been with and without with copper shield has been carried on to
performed. In [6], copper shield for high-speed surface-mounted compare the maximum rotor temperature and the location of the
permanent magnet (SPM) machine was selected based on skin hot spots.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 38

(a) Convectional drive, high switching frequency devices and conventional electrical machine
(b) Low cost drive, low switching frequency devices and electrical machine with copper shielded rotor
Fig. 1. Conventional and low cost drives layout highlighting the diffrent converter switching and electrical machine stracture
(a) Soild rotor topology (b) Halbach rotor topology

Fig. 2. Permanent magnet machines with different rotor topologies
Fig. 1 presents the layout of the conventional and low cost is generated by high switching inverter. This current waveform
drives highlighting the different switching patterns used for named fast switching waveform (FSW). The second waveform
conventional drive and low cost drive. Also, for the low cost is generated by low switching inverter, low switching waveform
drive a shielded rotor in considered for the PPM, in order to (LSW). The copper shield is placed around the rotor in the solid
achieve a comparable performance to the conventional SPM. To rotor IPM topology, whereas the in Halbach rotor SPM topology
illustrate the effect of the copper shield on the electrical two copper shield locations where investigated, around the rotor
machine, two PM machine topologies, solid rotor Fig. 2 (a) and (outer) and between the sleeve and magnets (inner).
Halbach rotor Fig. 2 (b), are used in this investigation. Solid
rotor topology consists of solid electrical steel structure with Fig. 3 presents the total rotor losses at different copper shield
interior permanent magnets (IPMs), whereas the Halbach thickness, 0mm thickness presents the normal machine without
topology consists of traditional SPM rotor structure with PMs in the copper shield, and a rotor speed of 20krpm is used. By
Halbach array and retaining sleeve to ensure the mechanical observing the changes in the rotor loss with copper shield
safety of the magnets. thickness in the solid rotor, it can be seen that although the FSW
has slightly lower total rotor loss when the copper shield is not
used, the FSW exhibits significantly higher loss with copper
II. ELECTROMAGNETIC LOSSES shield in comparison with the LSW. This is since the FSW has
Using 2D-FEA, two different current waveforms are used to the high order, low amplitude harmonics which penetrate
evaluate the effectiveness of copper shield for two different PM through the surface of the rotor. As a result, when high
rotor topologies. The first current waveform, shown in Fig. 1 (a), conductive copper shield placed around the rotor, these
39
harmonics increase the total loss. However, with LSW, the low
order, high amplitude harmonics penetrate deep through the
rotor and the magnets and therefore, the copper shield is more
effective in suppressing these harmonics and reducing the total
rotor losses. Fig. 4 (a) shows the induced eddy current in the
solid rotor due to the harmonics.
Conventional LSW Conventional FSW
On the other hand, the Halbach machine with inner shield (a) Solid rotor machine without shield
exhibits a good reduction in the losses due to the carbon fiber
sleeve situated between the airgap and the shield resulting in
seeing the harmonics influence on the magnets, as shown in
Fig.4 (c). However, with outer shield, Fig. 3 (c), similar effect to
that of the solid rotor is found. The low order harmonics
generated by the FSW waveform produce losses in the copper
Copper shield LSW Copper shield FSW
leading to an increase the total loss. Fig. 4 (d) and (e) presents (b) Solid rotor machine with shield
the eddy current induced in the rotor due to the harmonics.
Conventional LSW Conventional FSW

(c) Halbach machine without shield

(d) Halbach machine with inner shield
(a) Solid rotor machine

(e) Halbach machine with outer shield
(b) Halbach machine with inner shield
Scale
Fig. 4. Eddy current indced in the rotor due to unsycronused harmonics in the
soild and halbach rotors with and without copper shield.
For the solid rotor, when LSW is used, i.e. low cost drive, a
copper shield with a thickness of 0.4mm can bring the total rotor
losses to the same level, i.e. 750W, of a conventional rotor
(without shield) supplied by a smoother current waveform, i.e.
FSW waveform. However, for the Halbach machine with inner
shield, a shield thickness of 0.8mm is needed to bring the losses
to the same level, i.e. 100W, of the conventional rotor (without
(c) Halbach machine with outer shield
shield) supplied by a smoother current waveform, FSW. Finally,
Fig. 3. Rotor losses versues copper shield thickness in the soild and halbach with outer shield in the Halbach rotor, the thickness of the shield
(inner and outer) machines at 20krpm rotor speed. need to be significantly large to bring the losses to an acceptable
level, i.e. same level as the conventional rotor with FSW
waveform.
40
III. STRACTURAL ANALYSIS It can be seen that when the copper shield is added, the
The mechanical strength of the copper is relatively low in equivalent stress in the solid rotor frame and Halbach sleeve
comparison with the other materials used in the rotors. In have increased slightly and therefore, adding the copper shield
addition, the copper shield thickness reduces either the sleeve in have a negligible effect on the mechanical integrity of the rotors.
the Halbach rotor or the rotor outer frame in the solid rotor. However, with outer copper shield in both rotors the equivalent
Therefore, mechanical analysis is needed to ensure the stress in the copper has exceeded the yield strength of the copper
mechanical safety of the rotors. 2D-FEA structural analysis is and therefore, the subsequent maximum plastic strain needs to
conducted on the two rotors with and without copper shield. The be examined. The maximum equivalent plastic strain in the
mechanical properties of the rotor components are listed in Table copper for both solid and Halbach machines are 0.14 and 0.11,
II. The conditions for the analysis of the solid rotor are 1) respectively. These values are lower than the copper strain at
rotational speed of 32krpm, 2) fixed support at the inner radius, rupture which is 0.33. Therefore, the first failure mode is
and 3) frictional contact between the magnet and core with examined and the rotor will operate safely at 32krpm. On the
friction coefficient of 0.3 and interference fit of 0.005mm. The other hand, the radial stress in the outer copper shield in solid
analysis of Halbach rotor consist of the following conditions 1) and Halbach rotors are 3.8MPa and 3.2MPa, respectively. This
rotational speed of 32krpm, 2) interference fit between the failure condition can only be verified if the cohesive strengths
sleeve and magnet/inner copper shield of 0.05mm, and 3) between the copper and - the core and the sleeve material are
bonded contact between the other rotor components. It is worth known. This needs experimental measurement to be obtain
noting that a copper shield of 0.8mm was used since it is the which would be an interesting future work.
largest investigated thickness which results in the largest
reduction of the rotor structure integrity.
TABLE I
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE ROTOR COMPONENTS MATERIALS
Young’s Mass Yield
Poisson's
modulus density strength
ratio
(GPA) (Kg/m3) (MPa)
SS146 137 0.3 7650 1500
Carbon fiber 250 0.3 1600 2000
SmCo 100 0.27 8300 40 (a) Solid rotor without copper shield
304SS 200 0.29 8000 215
Copper 128 0.36 8900 100
In the conventional solid rotor machine without copper

shield, the maximum equivalent stress (von-Mises) in the core
and magnets should not exceed the yield of their respective
materials. On the other hand, in the Halbach rotor the modes of
mechanical safety that need to be ensured are 1) the
circumferential stress in magnet inner radius should not exceeds
the compressive strength of the magnet when the rotor in
(b) Solid rotor with copper shield
standstill, 2) the maximum equivalent stress (von-Mises) in the
sleeve inner radius should not exceeds the yield of the sleeve
material at the maximum operating speed, and 3) the
circumferential stress in magnet inner radius should not exceeds
the yield strength of the magnet.
When inner copper shield is used in the Halbach rotor, the
copper shield can withstand much larger yield circumferential
stresses due to increased centripetal loading than the magnet, as
a result, the stiffer sleeve will carry the stresses due to
interference. However, when outer copper shield is used in the
solid and Halbach rotors, the modes of mechanical failure that (c) Halbach rotor without shield
need to be taken in consideration are: 1) the equivalent stress
(von-Mises) in the copper should not exceeds the yield stress of
the copper, if exceeded the subsequent plastic stain should not
exceeds the strain at rupture and 2) the radial stress of the contact
between the copper and sleeve in the Halbach rotor or contact
between the copper and core material in the solid rotor should
not exceeds the cohesive strength of the contact.
Fig. 5 presents the mechanical equivalent stress (von-Mises)
in the solid and Halbach rotors with and without copper shield.
(d) Halbach rotor with inner shield
41
unsynchronized current harmonics. The feasibility study
included electromagnetic losses in the rotor, mechanical
integrity of the rotors with and without the copper shield and
thermal comparison of the rotors with and without copper shield.
Two different PM machines were investigated, a solid rotor IPM
and a conventional SPM machine with Halbach array magnets.
(e) Halbach rotor with outer shield

Fig. 5. Mechancial equivlent (von-Mises) stress (MPa) in the soild and
halbach rotors with and without copper shield.
IV. THERMAL ANALYSIS

Thermal evaluation of the machines with copper shield has
been conducted using steady-state 2D-FEA. The thermal (a) Conventional FSW
properties of the different materials are shown in Table II. The
equivalent winding properties and the airgap thermal convection
has been calculated using the methods reported in [13] and [14],
respectively. The analysis conditions are fixed temperature of
60°C at the outer cooling channels and the airgap cooling sleeve,
whereas a fixed temperature of 100°C in the shaft is set to
simulate the axial heat dissipation from the shaft assuming the
shaft will maintain a temperature of 100°C. Similar to the
mechanical analysis a copper shield of 0.8mm is used in this
analysis.
(b) Conventional LSW
TABLE II
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE ROTOR COMPONENTS MATERIALS
Thermal conductivity (W/m °C)
SS146 25
Carbon fiber 50
SmCo 9.6
304SS 125
Copper 401
Equivlent winding 0.5
JNX900 25
Air 0.026
(c) Copper shield FSW
Figs. 6 and 7 present the temperature distribution in the solid
and Halbach machine, respectively. It can be seen that when
copper shield is used in the solid rotor machine with LSW, the
maximum temperature in the rotor reduces to 153°C compared
to the solid rotor without copper shield and with FSW where the
maximum temperature in the rotor is 183°C. Additionally, the
maximum temperature, i.e. hot spot, moves from concentrated
above the magnet to around the outer frame of the rotor. On the
other hand, using outer copper shield in the Halbach rotor leads
to an increase in the maximum temperature and a concentration (d) Copper shield LSW
of the heat near the airgap. Although the total rotor losses
Fig. 6. Temprautre distibution in the soild rotor with and without copper
reduces when inner copper shield is used, the maximum shield.
temperature reducers slightly with FSW and increases by 10°C
with LSW due to the location of the shield between the magnet
and the sleeve. From the study it can be concluded that, the copper shield in
solid rotor machine with highly distorted current waveform can
V. CONCLUSION reduces the rotor loss to the same level of a conventional
electrical machine fed by a smooth current waveform. In
This paper propose a feasibility study of low cost drive Halbach rotor, inner copper shield, i.e. between sleeve and
consists of an inverter with low switching frequency modules magnet, can reduce the total rotor losses. Mechanically, both
which generates a highly distorted current waveform and an rotors can operate safely at the maximum speed with a small
electrical machine with copper shield to mitigate the
42
degradation of their mechanical integrity when a copper shield
is included. Moreover, the copper shield can withstand the forces
generated by the high rotation. Finally, thermal analysis shown
that in the solid rotor machine the temperature reduces when
copper shield is used with distorted current waveform, whereas
small increase in the temperature is found in the Halbach rotor
with inner shield.
(f) Outer copper shield LSW

Fig. 7. Temprautre distibution in the Halbach rotor with and without copper.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the Ningbo Science &
Technology Bureau under Grant 2013A31012 and Grant
2014A35007.
(a) Conventional FSW
REFERENCES
[1] L. Schwager, A. Tüysüz, C. Zwyssig and J. W. Kolar, "Modeling and Comparison
of Machine and Converter Losses for PWM and PAM in High-Speed Drives,"
in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 995-1006, March-
April 2014.
[2] M. M. J. Al-Ani, J. Carter and M. L. Jupp, "Comparison of electromagnetic
performance and power losses of a high-speed machine fed by PWM and PAM
inverter strategies," 8th IET International Conference on Power Electronics,
Machines and Drives (PEMD 2016), Glasgow, 2016, pp. 1-6.
[3] J. L. F. Van der Veen, L. J. J. Offringa and A. J. A. Vandenput, "Minimising rotor
losses in high-speed high-power permanent magnet synchronous generators with
rectifier load," in IEE Proceedings - Electric Power Applications, vol. 144, no. 5,
(b) Conventional LSW pp. 331-337, Sep 1997.
[4] H. Polinder and M. J. Hoeijmakers, "Modelling a PM machine with shielding
cylinder," 1999. Ninth International Conference on Electrical Machines and Drives
(Conf. Publ. No. 468), Canterbury, 1999, pp. 16-20.
[5] H. Polinder and M. J. Hoeijmakers, "Effect of a shielding cylinder an the rotor losses
in a rectifier-loaded PM machine," Conference Record of the 2000 IEEE Industry
Applications Conference. Thirty-Fifth IAS Annual Meeting and World Conference
on Industrial Applications of Electrical Energy (Cat. No.00CH37129), Rome, 2000,
pp. 163-170 vol.1.
[6] F. Zhou, J. Shen, W. Fei and R. Lin, "Study of Retaining Sleeve and Conductive
Shield and Their Influence on Rotor Loss in High-Speed PM BLDC Motors,"
in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 42, no. 10, pp. 3398-3400, Oct. 2006.
[7] M. R. Shah and A. M. EL-Refaie, "Eddy-Current Loss Minimization in Conducting
Sleeves of Surface PM Machine Rotors With Fractional-Slot Concentrated Armature
(c) Inner copper shield FSW Windings by Optimal Axial Segmentation and Copper Cladding," in IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 720-728, March-april
2009.
[8] M. R. Shah and A. M. EL-Refaie, "Eddy Current Loss Minimization in Conducting
Sleeves of High Speed Machine Rotors by Optimal Axial Segmentation and Copper
Cladding," 2007 IEEE Industry Applications Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA,
2007, pp. 544-551.
[9] M. R. Shah and Sang Bin Lee, "Rapid analytical optimization of eddy-current shield
thickness for associated loss minimization in electrical Machines," in IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 642-649, May-June 2006.
[10] N. Burany, D. Herceg, and N. Pekaric-Nad, "Influence of a thin copper shield on a
BLDC motor parameters," in Electronics, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 37-41, June 2012.
[11] B. Hannon, P. Sergeant and L. Dupré, "Study of the Effect of a Shielding Cylinder
on the Torque in a Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Machine Considering Two
(d) Inner copper shield LSW Torque-Producing Mechanisms," in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 53, no.
10, pp. 1-8, Oct. 2017.
[12] M. M. J. Al-ani, S. M. Barrans and J. Carter, "Electromagnetic and mechanical
analysis of high speed SPM rotor with copper shield," 2017 IEEE International
Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC), Miami, FL, 2017, pp. 1-8.
[13] G. Li, J. Ojeda, E. Hoang, M. Gabsi, and M. Lecivian, "Thermal-electroamgetic
analysis for driving cyces of embedded flux-switching permanet magnet motors,"
in IEEE Transactions on vehicular technology, vol. 61, no. 11, pp. 140-151, 2012.
[14] M. Galea, "High perforemcne, direct drive machines for aerospace applications,"
PhD thesis.
[15] G. Li, J. Ojeda, E. Hoang, M. Gabsi, and M. Lecivian, "Thermal-electroamgetic
analysis for driving cyces of embedded flux-switching permanet magnet motors,"
in IEEE Transactions on vehicular technology, vol. 61, no. 11, pp. 140-151, 2012.
(e) Outer copper shield FSW
43
Reactive Power Compensation Scheme for an
Imbalanced Three-Phase Series-Compensated
Wireless Power Transfer System with a Star-
Connected Load
Alireza Safaee and Konrad Woronowicz Ali Maknouninejad
Bombardier Transportation Schnieder Electric
Kingston, Ontario, Canada Huntington Beach, California, USA
az_safaee@ieee.org, konrad.woronowicz.2013@ieee.org alimaknouni@gmail.com
Abstract— Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) systems have Theoretical predictions will be verified by feeding the
recently become a subject of considerable attention among inductance matrix results, derived by solving a three-phase,
academic and industrial community. An attractive application of
WPT is the dynamic energy transfer to vehicles in motion, also three coils per phase transformer model in Maxwell3D FEA
known as dynamic charging, which can result in optimized software, into a circuit simulator and ultimately on a bench test
battery capacity and weight and promises continuous vehicle model.
operation with an almost unlimited travel distance and reduced
battery conditioning. This paper presents the necessary condition
for tuning an imbalanced three phase series compensated WPT
system for high power application.
Keywords— Wireless Power Transfer; WPT; Three Phase;

Imbalanced Mutual Inductances; Series-Compensation; Star-
Connected Load: First Harmonic Approximation; FHA.
I. INTRODUCTION
Static charging of vehicles in their respective parking
places with an arbitrary relative position of transmitting and Fig. 1: Diagram of primary side of a three-phase WPT
receiving coils is an intermediate, although still challenging, system with series tuning capacitors.
step towards achieving the goals of dynamic charging. There
are, however, a few well-known constraints that limit the I. REACTIVE POWER CONSIDERATION FOR IMBALANCED
amount of power, which can be practically transferred over a SYSTEM
large air gap such as the limits of human exposure to the The purpose of the paper is to calculate capacitive
magnetic fields [1-2], the EMC limits or the practical overall compensation in the receiver of the three phase WPT System
efficiency requirements [3-5]. It is well understood that the as in Fig. 1 (C1, C2, C3), with a varying symmetrical star
efficient power transfer requires a well-tuned topology and connected load (R1=R2=R3) and establish necessary
operation especially when the levels of power reach 50 kW and requirements for the successful elimination of the input
at powers in excess of 200 kW. Many techniques and source reactive power, leading to a zero-current switching
topologies have been developed to tune the reactive power out operation. For the initial analysis it is assumed that the
of an IPT system, which necessarily operates at high voltages are sinusoidal, the loads represented by resistances
frequencies in order of 20 to 150 kHz; almost all techniques R1, R2, R3 are symmetrical and that the sum of three phase
related to a single phase WPT transformer. A three phase IPT currents is bound to zero (no neutral connection). It is further
system is an optional solution to a single-phase transformer assumed that the self-inductances L11, L22, L33 and mutual
design [6]. However, due to the nature of the three-phase inductances M11, M22, M33 are of the arbitrary values; US
mutual coupling, special conditions must be met for the three is a star point voltage. Capacitors C1, C2, C3 are selected to
phase IPT system successful tuning. This paper derives and compensate the reactive power from the system supply
describes the necessary requirements, and presents a method, source.
for tuning of a coupled three phase power transformer for IPT.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 44

The following three equations describe voltage 1= 1∙ + , 2= 2∙ + , 3 (14)
dependences of the resulting three phase circuit in frequency = 3∙ +
domain: Where U is an arbitrary voltage and in a specific case can
be equal U . To achieve perfect per-phase compensation with
1= 1∙ + 11 ∙ + 12 ∙ + 13 ∙ the capacitors which values are given by (8) to (10), the
(1)
+ + following must be fulfilled:
1
2= 2∙ + 22 ∙ + 23 ∙ + 21 ∙ ( 1∙ ∗) ( 2∙ ∗) ( 3∙ ∗)
= 0, = 0, =0 (15)
(2)
+ + Where ∗ , ∗ , and ∗ are conjugate values of the respective
2
phase currents. This also means that:
3= 3∙ + 33 ∙ + 31 ∙ + 32 ∙
( 1∙ )∙ ∗ ( ∗)
(3) + = ∙ =0 (16)
+ +
3 ( 2∙ + )∙ ∗
= ( ∙ ∗)
=0 (17)
The following is obtained by subtracting the first two ( 3∙ + )∙ ∗
= ( ∙ ∗)
=0 (18)
equations:
This is because for each phase, like for the first one, the
1− 2= 1∙ − 2∙ +
expression R ∙ I ∙ I ∗ = R1|I | is real.
( 11 − 21) ∙ + ( 12 − 22) ∙ +
(4)
( 13 − 23) ∙ + − So long as U is not equal zero, in an arbitrary three phase
1 2 system, at least one of the products: U ∙ I or U ∙ I or U ∙ I
Based on the assumptions made earlier that the sum of will have a non-zero imaginary part meaning that at least one
phase currents is zero, I can be calculated as: I = −I − I . phase will have to supply the reactive power and eventually be
Substituting for I to (4) the following is obtained: subjected to non-zero current switching. Thus, it is concluded
1− 2= 1∙ − 2∙ + that the insertion of the capacitive components given by (10-
( 11 − 21 − 13 + 23) ∙ 12), in series with the phase source voltages is not a sufficient
− ( 22 − 12 − 23 + 13) ∙ (5) condition for the three phase WPT system reactive power
+ − compensation.
1 2
It is now assumed that the sum of the inductive component To inspect the dependence of phase reactive power upon
voltages is compensated by the respective capacitors, which U , and in particular the U , the U voltage is calculated from
leads, based on (5) to the following two equations: (1-3) and (8-10). Substituting (8-10) into (1-3):
1
0= ( 11 − 21 − 13 + 23) ∙ + (6) = 1∙ + 11 ∙ + 12 ∙ + 13 ∙
1
(19)
0=− ( 22 − 12 − 23 + 13) ∙ − (7) + +
1
2
( 11 − 21 − 13 + 23) ∙
In consequence: 2
= 2∙ + 22 ∙ + 23 ∙ + 21 ∙
1
1= (8) (20)
( 11 − 21 − 13 + 23) ∙ + +
1
1
2= (9) ( 22 − 12 − 23 + 13) ∙
( 22 − 12 − 23 + 13) ∙ 3
1 = 3∙ + 33 ∙ + 31 ∙ + 32 ∙
3= (10)
( 33 − 31 − 12 + 21) ∙ (21)
+ +
1
Leading to: ( 33 − 31 − 12 + 21) ∙
which reduces to:
1 − 2 = 12 = 1 ∙ − 2∙ (11)
2 − 3 = 23 = 2 ∙ − 3∙ (12) 1= 1∙ + 11 ∙ + 12 ∙ + 13 ∙ (22)
3 − 1 = 31 = 3 ∙ − 1∙ (13) − ( 11 − 12 − 13 + 23)
The system of voltage equations shown in (11-13) is +
equivalent to or can be obtained from the following:
45
2= 2∙ + 22 ∙ + 23 ∙ + 21 ∙ (23) 1
1 − ( 1 + 2 + 3) = ∙ (31)
− ( 22 − 12 − 23 + 31) 3
1
+ 2 − ( 1 + 2 + 3) = ∙ (32)
3
3= 3∙ + 33 ∙ + 31 ∙ + 32 ∙ (24) 1
3 − ( 1 + 2 + 3) = ∙ (33)
− ( 33 − 31 − 12 + 12) 3
+ or:
1 (34)
Since 1 + 2 + 3 = 0, then (22-24) can be rewritten as: 1 = ∙ , 1 = 1 − ( 1 + 2 + 3)
3
1 (35)
1= 1∙ + 12 ∙ + 13 ∙ (25) 2 = ∙ , 2 = 2 − ( 1 + 2 + 3)
3
+ ( + )(− 12 − 31)
1 (36)
− 23 ∙ + 3 = ∙ , 3 = 3 − ( 1 + 2 + 3)
3
2= 2∙ + 23 ∙ + 12 ∙ + ( (26) Multiplying both sides of equations (34-36) by respective
+ )(− 12 − 23) − 31 ∙ conjugate values of phase currents I ∗ , I ∗ , I ∗ we can see that
the imaginary part on the right-hand side is zero and there is no
+ reactive power in the system of a star connected three-phase
3= 3∙ + 31 ∙ + 32 ∙ + ( (27) voltage generator of U1 , U2 , U3 . The tuning is now perfect
+ )(− 31 − 12) − 12 ∙ but for a voltage generator with the zero-voltage component
equal zero (removed).
+
∗ ∗ ∗
1 ∙I = | | ; 2 ∙I = | | ; 3 ∙ I | | (37)
Assuming that R1 = R2 = R3 = R then adding (25-27)
and calculating for U the following is obtained:
II. EXTRACTION OF
= 23 ∙ + 31 ∙ + 12 ∙ (28)
1 It is now clear that reactive power in each phase is zero
+ ( 1 + 2 + 3) when the zero-component voltage is subtracted from the source
3
The last component of the right-hand side of equation (28), voltages in system. To develop a practical approach to
(U1 + U2 + U3) is but a zero-component voltage of a star- calculating the real value U (t) out of the star voltage U (t)
and the phase currents, equation (30) is re-written:
connected three phase voltage generator or the voltage induced
in the primary of the transformer. = − 23 ∙ − 31 ∙ − 12 ∙ = (38)
1 (29)
= ( 1 + 2 + 3)
3 + + +
Thus, the zero component of the three-phase voltage can be 1 1 1
easily calculated if the U voltage and the phase currents can 23 31 12
be measured. Rearranging (28) we get:
And with its real part considered:
= − 23 ∙ − 31 ∙ − 12 ∙ (30)
Substituting (29) back into (25-27), the following system of
( )= ( )+ +
equations, similar to (14), is obtained: 1 1
23 31
1
1= ∙ + ( 1 + 2 + 3)
3 (39)
1 +
2= ∙ + ( 1 + 2 + 3) 1
3 12
1
3= ∙ + ( 1 + 2 + 3) = ( )+ + +
3
Now, the zero-sequence component voltage is removed
The three components in a square bracket of the right-
from the right-hand side of each equation. This can be done by
hand side of equation (39) are voltages generated by the
subtracting (U1 + U2 + U3) from both sides of equations respective phase currents across imaginary capacitors C ,
above:
46
C , C whose respective values equal , , .
Although these capacitors do not exist physically, the phase
currents flow through their respective compensating capacitors
C1, C2, C3, across which the voltages can be measured. If, for
example, the voltage across the imaginary capacitor C =
equals U and the voltage measured across C1 equals
U then the measured voltage U must be rescaled by a
factor of before it can be used in the control algorithm
which calculates the U . Fig. 2: Diagram of primary side using three-phase three-level
topology, capable of generating three phase waveforms with
Expanding this analysis onto the two remaining phases, desirable zero sequence.
the following is obtained:
1
= = 1∙ ∙ (40)
2
= = 2∙ ∙ (41)
3
= = 3∙ ∙ (42)
Ultimately, the zero-component voltage can be practically

calculated from measurements by measuring the star voltage
and the capacitor voltages and rescaling them as per the
following equation:
( )= ( )+ 1∙ ∙ ( )+ 2∙ (43)
∙ ( )+ 3∙ ∙ ( )
or:
∙ ( ) (44)
( )= ( )+
( 11 − 21 − 13 + 23)
∙ ( )
+
( 22 − 12 − 23 + 13)
∙ ( )
+
( 33 − 31 − 12 + 21)
Equation (44) allows finding U (t) from sampling U (t),

U (t) and U (t) which is valid for any type of load that may
not provide access to the star point of the load.
III. REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION
Fig. 2 depicts the structure of the primary side power

topology which is capable of generating three phase voltages
with a desirable level of zero sequence voltage added to the
positive sequence. An enhanced phase locked loop is used to
extract the amplitude and phase of U (t) [7].
Fig. 3: Induced voltages and currents before (above) and after (below) zero
component voltage injection (under FHA).
47
REFERENCES
[1]. ICNIRP, “Guidelines for limiting exposure to time-varying electric,
Fig. 3 shows the effect of injecting the calculated zero magnetic and electromagnetic fields (up to 300 GHz),” 1998.
[2]. ICNIRP, “Guidelines for limiting exposure to time-varying electric and
component voltage into all three phases (under First Harmonic magnetic fields (1 Hz to 100 kHz),” 2010.
Approximation, FHA). The inductance matrix values were [3]. M. Budhia, G. A. Covic, and J. T. Boys, “Design and optimization of
obtained from Maxwell3D software for a practical 200 kW circular magnetic structures for lumped inductive power transfer
systems,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron, vol. 26, no. 11, pp. 3096–3108,
three phase WPT transformer. It also shows that after the zero- 2011.
component voltage injection the current and voltage for any [4]. J.M. Miller, C.P. White, O.C. Onar, and P.M. Ryan, “Grid side
regulation of wireless power charging of plug-in electric vehicles,”
phase are in phase and the reactive powers are compensated. ECCE 2012, pp.261–268, Sept. 2012.
[5]. J. Huh, S. W. Lee, W. Y. Lee, G. H. Cho, and C. T. Rim, “Narrow-width
inductive power transfer system for online electrical vehicles,” IEEE
Trans. Power Electron,, vol. 26, no. 12, pp. 3666–3679, 2011.
[6]. A. Safaee, K. Woronowicz and T. Dickson, “Reactive power
IV. CONCLUSION compensation in three phase high output inductive power transfer”,
EPEC2015, pp.375–380, 2015.
[7]. M. Karimi-Ghartemani, M. Mojiri, A. Safaee, J.A. Walseth, S.A.
For high power WPT systems it is very important to have Khajehoddin, P. Jain, and A. Bakhshai, "A New Phase-Locked Loop
switching actions at zero current (ZCS) to minimize the System for Three-Phase Applications," IEEE Transactions on Power
Electronics, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 1208-1218, March 2013.
switching losses. It has been shown that in a general
imbalanced source three phase WPT systems ZCS can be
achieved by fulfilling two conditions: First, the reactance of
the compensating capacitive components should be selected
considering the mutual inductances. Second, the zero
component of voltage (resulted from imbalance) should be
eliminated to achieve the resistive character of the three-phase
system. The simulation results confirm theoretical predictions,
which will next be confirmed in a practical laboratory model.
48
Comparison of Direct and Axle Drives with
electrically excited Synchronous Machines for
Traction Applications
Jonathan Juergens Juergen Redlich Bernd Ponick
Leibniz-Universität Hannover Leibniz-Universität Hannover Leibniz-Universität Hannover
Germany, Hanover Germany, Hanover Germany, Hanover
Email: juergen.redlich@ial.uni-hannover.de
Abstract—While permanent magnet synchronous machines Subscripts

(PSM) dominate the market of electrical machines for traction
application, electrically excited synchronous machines (ESM) 1 Stator
are still underrepresentated, although they can be designed to 2 Rotor
feature the highest mechanical output power to total inverter CC Cross-coupling
output power ratio. This paper addresses the advantages of ESM d Direct axis
especially for axle drives and evaluates if they are also valid EM Eletrical machine
for ESM designs for wheel hub drives. The main characteristics
of three optimized ESM drive concepts for the use in a full- fd Field winding
size car with 220 kW peak output power and almost identical harm Harmonic
acceleration characteristics are presented and compared. Based mech Mechanical
on the available installation space, the influence of the required PM Permanent magnets
torque density and of the total leakage factor on the machines q Quadrature axis
performance is identified and important design rules are derived.
I. I NTRODUCTION
N OMENCLATURE The advantages of PSM for traction applications have been
widely published, predominantly consisting of a very high
Symbols
torque density and high efficiency, especially at full load [1]-
B Flux density [2]. Besides the typical disadvantages of the undesired perma-
C Esson coefficient nent magnetic field in case of faults [3]-[4], an uncertainty with
D Bore diameter regards to the permanent magnet price development as well as
FEM Finite-Element-Method the economic dependence on China, an additional drawback
I Current is the lower power factor in a wide operating range compared
L Inductance to optimized ESM due to the adjustable field excitation. This
l Length additional degree of freedom to set the magnetic flux can also
m Mass lead to better partial load efficiencies, especially in the field
N Number of slots weakening region, compared to PSM. In order to ensure a high
n Speed maximum power and a high peak torque in the base speed
P Power region, it is necessary to design PSM with high magnetic flux
p Number of pole pairs provided by the permanent magnets. In case of such PSM,
q Number of slots per pole and phase a high field weakening d-current in the partial load range
R Resistance with increasing rotational speed is required which results in
S Current density high losses and therefore a decreased continuous power in
S Apparent power the field weakening range. For a reasonable trade-off between
U Voltage a high maximum power and a high continuous power, it is
T Torque recommended to design PSM for which the steady short-circuit
σ Leakage factor current Isc is lower than the maximum permissible stator phase
Ψ Flux linkage current I1,max (see Fig. 1). This restriction does not apply to
ξ Winding factor ESM. The adjustable field excitation allows for both, high peak
ζ Ratio of mech. power to total inverter output torque in the base speed region and high continuous power in
power the field weakening region if an active rotor cooling concept
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 49

Iq
I1,max
U1,max
Id
Lhd Ifd0 ,max
− Ld Iˆsc,PSM = − ΨLPM
d
Fig. 1. Comparison of ESM design with a very high maximum magnetic

flux compared to a PSM design with limited magnetic flux with regards to Fig. 2. E-machine efficiency map of an ESM designed for an axle drive
the stator phase current limit and limited maximum phase-to-ground voltages; application
in red: design recommendation for increased continuous power capability of
PSM, in green: illustration of adjustable field excitation of ESM to allow for Two-stage gear
high peak torque and high continuous power
DG
can be provided. Furthermore, given sufficient maximum field EM
GT
excitation, it is possible to provide a power factor equal to INV
one not only in the majority of the operating points but
especially on the limiting torque curve in the field weakening One-stage gear
region at maximum phase-to-ground voltage and maximum
DG
phase current. The field excitation demand can be decreased
with designs featuring a low total leakage factor and limited EM
torque density as shown in sections II and III. This allows INV
for maximum utilization of the output power, i.e. the sum of
the inverters apparent power and the power demand of the EM EM
field winding. In combination with efficiencies around 95 % + Wheel hub +
INV INV
and more on the limiting torque curve, almost all the inverter
output power can be converted into mechanical output power
Fig. 3. Overview of three different drivetrain concepts; two axle drive
which can be expressed by the factor ζ (see Fig. 2) concepts including either a differential gear (DG) and a second single gear
train (GT) (two-stage gear train) or only a differential gear as well as a direct
Pmech,max Pmech,max drive concept consisting only of two integrated inverters (INV) and two e-
ζmax = = machines (EM) without any gear reducer
Smax 3 · I1,max · U1,max + Ifd,max · Ufd,max
(1)
The following sections show how the constraints regarding
the Essons coefficient, with
the available installation space as well as the resulting winding
layout and torque and power density for a given peak perfor- Pmech,max
Cmech,max = , (2)
mance demand influence the factor ζmax . The comparison is D2 · lm · nPP
carried out for two axle drive concepts and one direct drive where Pmech,max is the maximum output power, D the bore
wheel hub concept (see Fig. 3). Of the two axle drive concepts, diameter, lm the active machine length and nPP the speed at
one is considered to provide a typical two-stage gear train which the maximum output power is reached. Typical values
consisting of a single stage gear followed by the differential for e-machines for automotive application vary between 5 and
gear, resulting in a total transmission gear ratio of 1:9. The 10 kW/min/m3 . Since this value is directly proportional to the
other one provides only the differential gear and therefore product of the electric loading and the flux density in the air
results in a gear ratio of 1:4. gap
II. ESM FOR A XLE D RIVE C ONCEPT Cmech ∼ Â1 · B̂p , (3)
A. Design guidelines the realization of the desired performance depends mainly on
The design of an ESM for an axle drive with a single-speed the current densities in the stator and the rotor winding as
transmission usually consists of an inner rotor and outer stator well as on the dimensioning of the magnetic cross sections
concept. With additional information regarding the available at a given air gap width and limited installation space. The
installation space and the desired peak performance, a first drawback of an increased current density is the reduced
assessment of the desired e-machine can be carried out by the efficiency because of the increased losses. Hence, a trade-off
calculation of the characteristic factor Cmech , also known as has to be made between efficiency, cooling effort and peak
50
power density. One advantage of axle drives compared to utilization of the inverter output power, can be accomplished
direct drives is that the desired peak power can be realized with ESM specifically designed for axle drives with a single-
with high rotational speeds resulting in a limited torque speed transmission (see Fig. 1 with ζmax = 95 %). In order to
density. Therefore, the maximum required electric loading is attain the maximum efficiency in the entire operating range,
feasible with a reasonable number of turns in the stator which the choice of suitable current combinations Id -Iq -Ifd must be
leads to low ohmic phase resistances and thus lower I 2 R- made. However, in order to achieve a high continuous power,
losses compared to machine designs that feature higher torque the current density in the rotor must be kept low to dissipate
densities with an identical inverter. As a consequence, the the losses through an active rotor cooling. Therefore, a low
maximum current density in the stator winding can be kept at a number of poles, e. g. p = 2 to p = 4, should be chosen
reduced level. Examinations show that the selected distribution to provide sufficient cross-section area for the field winding.
of stator and field currents strongly affects the resulting losses Designing highly utilized e-machines especially for traction
at a given load point [7]. To ensure minimum losses in the applications requires a high bore diameter to reach the desired
operating range, the current densities in the stator and the rotor peak torque in the basic speed range. The choice of a lower
should ideally be equal number of poles leads to large yoke heights. Both aspects, a
high bore diameter and a large yoke height due to the low
S1 ≈ S2 . (4)
number of poles, lead to high current densities in the stator at
If the maximum electric loading is set due to the chosen a fixed outer diameter. Therefore, a trade-off has to be made to
number of turns in the stator winding and the maximum stator obtain the desired characteristics of the ESM. For this reason,
phase current supplied by the inverter, the realization of a the axle drive concept with a single-speed transmission of
desired Cmech,max depends on the fundamental flux density 1:9 is designed with 54 stator slots and six poles. This slot-
in the airgap that is predominantly influenced by the field to-pole-combination results in a high fundamental winding
excitation and usually doesn’t exceed values of 1 to 1.2 T. factor of ξp = 0.9452, a small harmonic leakage factor of
A recommendation for the maximum field excitation can be σharm = 0.0141 and provides enough space for the field
derived from the design target of a constant peak power in winding to keep the current density low.
the field weakening region. As shown in [5], the maximum
B. Influence of the torque density on the machine performance
field current should be chosen in a way that the steady short-
circuit stator current due to the maximum field current is at For the axle drive concept, the selection of a gear ratio can
least equivalent to the maximum stator phase current: affect the machine performance in the operating range if the
!
installation space is limited and cannot be scaled according
0 to the gear ratio. As a consequence, different designs with
Ψd = Lhd · Ifd,max − Ld Id,max ≥ 0 ,
!
(5) varying torque and power densities are widely used. One of the
0
Ψd = Lhd · Ifd,max − (Lhd + Lσd )Id,max ≥ 0 . targets of this paper is to examine the influence of the torque
0
Solving for the maximum transposed field current Ifd,max density on the machine performance, especially with regards to
shows the dependency of the leakage factor of the stator the efficiency map. For this purpose, two ESM are designed,
winding σ1 and the maximum stator phase current: each with a typical single-speed transmission. As shown in
Fig. 3, one ESM is designed for the use with a typical two-
0 Lhd + Lσd stage gear train resulting in a total gear ratio of 1:9. A second
Ifd,max ≥ Id,max ,
Lhd one is assumed to be connected to the wheels only through a
(6)
0 Lhd · (1 + σ1 ) differential gear with a gear ratio of 1:4. Considering the same
Ifd,max ≥ Id,max .
Lhd output power, the ESM with the gear ratio of 1:4 is designed
Ld is the total d-axis inductance that is composed of the with a higher torque density. Due to this fact, the Essons
main d-axis inductance Lhd and the leakage inductance Lσd . coefficient is more than twice as high which leads to higher
Therefore, a stator winding layout with minimal leakage is current densities. Table 1 shows the characteristic machine
essential for designing ESM for traction drives in order to data of both ESM based on the cross section displayed in
reach a constant peak power behaviour in the field weakening Figs. 4 and 5. For the ESM with a transmission of 1:4, 72
range with limited excitation power. This can be combined stator slots are chosen to increase the number of slots per pole
with the design rule according to Eq. (4) if the number of and phase q. Increasing the number q results in a decreased
turns per pole of the field winding is chosen accordingly, harmonic leakage factor of σharm = 0.0089.
thus maximizing the efficiency for a wide operating range. Regarding the resulting efficieny maps of both ESM (Figs.
In addition to the resulting high efficiencies and the constant 2 and 6), it becomes obvious that the design change towards
peak power, following the Eq. (6) can lead to a power factor higher torque densities leads to lower efficiencies due to the
equal to one at the limiting curve and allows for keeping increased Cmech,max and increased current densities as well
the maximum stator phase current constant for the operation as a lower factor ζmax . As a consequence, it can be stated
at maximum voltage up to maximum speed [5]. All three that a higher total apparent power of the inverter is necessary
criteria, high efficiency, high power factor and maximum to provide the same output power, hence, higher cost of the
inverter.
51
Fig. 4. 2D FEM-model of an ESM with 54 stator slots and 6 rotor poles
for the axle drive with a gear ratio of 1:9
Fig. 6. Efficiency map of an ESM designed for an axle drive application
with a gear ratio of 1:4
identifications that use the method of frozen permeabilities to

determine all inductances [6].
TABLE II
E- MACHINE TORQUE AND SPEED OF THE DIFFERENT ESM DESIGNS FOR
IDENTICAL VEHICLE ACCELERATION AND SPEED :
nWheel = 400 1/ MIN , TWheel = 3348 N M
Axle drive Direct drive

Fig. 5. 2D FEM-model of an ESM with 72 stator slots and 6 rotor poles Gear ratio 1:9 1:4 1:1
for the axle drive with a gear ratio of 1:4
No. of machines 1 1 4
nEM in min−1 3600 1600 400
TABLE I
M AIN MACHINE DATA OF ESM DESIGNED FOR AXLE DRIVES WITH A TEM in Nm 372 837 837
GEAR RATIO OF 1:4 AND A GEAR RATIO OF 1:9
nWheel : nEM 1:9 1:4 The steady state d-axis voltage is defined by the induced
D / lm 175.5 mm / 205 mm 235 mm / 140 mm voltage based on the q-flux and the voltage drop across the
lm /τp 2.23 1.14 phase resistance
Cmech,max 5.5 kW/min/m3 12 kW/min/m3
U 1d = R1 I 1d + jωΨ 1q . (7)
N1 / p / σharm 54 / 3 / 0.0141 72 / 3 / 0.0089
Pmech,max 220 kW 220 kW Here, the q-flux consists of the main flux Ψ1hq , the leakage
S1,max 228 kVA 230 kVA flux Ψ1σq and a cross-coupling part Ψ1q,CC :
Pfd,max 2.4 kW 8 kW
Ψq = Lhq I1q + Lσq I1q + Lqd I1d + Lqfd Ifd . (8)
ζmax 95.5 % 92 % | {z } | {z } | {z }
Tmax 372 Nm 900 Nm Ψhq Ψσq Ψq,CC
m 53.4 kg 68.8 kg
Tmax /m 6.97 Nm/kg 13.1 Nm/kg In the phasor diagram in Fig. 7, these parts are written as the
Pmech,max /m 4.12 kW/kg 3.2 kW/kg voltage phasors:
S1,max 14 A/mm2 21 A/mm2 U 1d = U 1Rd + U 1hd + U 1σd + U 1d,CC . (9)
S2,max 13.7 A/mm2 18 A/mm2
Similarly, the steady state voltage in the q-axis can be written

as
In addition to the efficiency maps, a phasor diagram in
the complex plane is a suitable tool to illustrate the impact U 1q = R1 I 1q + jωΨ 1d , (10)
of dimensioning ESM with high torque densities and high
leakage factors which is the case for tooth-coil windings that with the d-axis flux being equal to
are used for the direct drive concept. Based on the same 0
Ψd = Lhd (I1d + Ifd ) + Lσd I1d + Ldq I1q . (11)
vehicle acceleration and speed (see Tab. 2) the phasor diagrams | {z } | {z } | {z }
Ψ1hd Ψ1σd Ψ1d,CC
can be developed from the following equations. It should be
noted that the equations take cross-coupling effects between The influence of the field current on the q-axis voltage is
0
the d- and the q-axis into account which are based on FEM expressed by the synchronous generated voltage UP = Lhd Ifd .
52
As a result, the main q-axis voltage can be calculated as electric loadings are higher. With such a limited axial length
of the machine, it is common to use tooth-coil windings in
U 1hq = U P + jX1hd I 1d , (12)
the stator. Studies have shown that a suitable fractional slot
showing a decreasing q-axis voltage with increasing armature winding layout for three-phase machines that features
reaction, i.e. if negative d-axis currents are applied for field • a high fundamental winding factor ξp ,
weakening purposes. Including the voltage drops across the • a comparatively low harmonic leakage factor σharm ,
ohmic phase resistance and due to the cross-coupling induc- • and the avoidance of radial vibrations modes of order
tance Ldq , the q-axis voltage can be described as r = 1 and r = 2,
U 1q = U 1Rq + U 1hq + U 1σq + U 1q,CC . (13) is a layout with q = 2/5, such as N1 = 24 and 2p = 20
or N1 = 36 and 2p = 30. Here, a design with N1 = 36
For the operating point shown in Fig. 7 it can be observed that and 2p = 30 provides the best characteristics in terms of the
machine performance and efficiency and is therefore chosen
for the comparison with the axle drive concepts (see Fig. 8).
Fig. 8. 2D FEM-model of an ESM with 36 stator slots and 30 rotor poles

for a direct drive application
While the benefits of tooth-coil windings are short axial

end winding lengths, especially in combination with high pole
numbers, a disadvantage is the negative impact on the power
factor due to the high harmonic leakage factor if the field
current density is limited due to thermal constraints and limited
installation space. Both, the high harmonic leakage factor and
the highly saturated magnetic circuit due to the required torque
Fig. 7. Phasor diagram in the complex plane for the axle drive with a gear
ratio of 1:9 and an operating point with TEM = 372 Nm, nEM = 3600 min−1
density to ensure the targeted power lead to a high armature
, I1d = -126 A, I1q = 670 A and Ifd 0 = 704 A reaction. As expressed in Eq. 6, the high harmonic leakage
factor of σharm = 0.97 results in a field current demand
the air gap flux density is not only influenced by the negative for constant peak power that is nearly twice as high as with
d-axis current but also by the cross-coupling effect due to the distributed winding layouts considering an identical Id,max
negative inductances Ldq and Lqfd . This additional armature value. This is also visualized in the phasor diagram (see Fig.
reaction increases with higher utilization which is the case 9). The increased reactance Xq enhances the effect of the
for ESM designed with higher torque densities, as shown in armature reaction, as evidenced by the increase of the phasor
Fig. 9 for the ESM for a direct drive application. The design of length of U 1d in Fig. 9 compared to U 1d in Fig. 7. For the
such e-machines and the effects on the maximum utilization of desired operating point, the phasor length of the synchronous
the total inverter output power are described in the following generated voltage U P increases due to a higher field current
section. demand Ifd . It is obvious that the stator currents influence the
air-gap field to a greater extent by dimensioning ESM with a
III. D ESIGN OF AN ESM FOR A D IRECT D RIVE C ONCEPT high harmonic leakage factor and a high torque density due
For applications with direct drives, e.g. a wheel hub motor to cross-coupling effects.
for an electric vehicle, the bore diameter to active length ratio Regarding the percentage of maximum inverter output
is generally much higher than one. One resulting disadvantage power that can be converted to mechanical output power,
is that the e-machine must be designed to provide the required both, the lower power factor and higher I 2 R-losses, result
mechanical output power at low speeds, thus featuring high in a significantly lower factor ζmax . In Table 2, the resulting
torque density, but low power density [7]-[8]. Since the machine data for an optimized outer rotor ESM concept for a
diameters of typical wheel hubs for passenger cars vary in the wheel hub drive application is shown and it can be seen that
range of 16 to 21 inches and since the overall machine length is only 65 % of the maximum provided output power can be
typically limited to less than 100 mm, the utilization factor and converted into mechanical output power (see Fig. 10).
53
TABLE III
M AIN MACHINE DATA OF ESM DESIGNED FOR A DIRECT DRIVE
Direct drive
nWheel : nEM 1:1
D / lm 362 mm / 70 mm
lm /τp 1.85
Cmech,max 5.9 kW/min/m3
N1 / p / σharm 36 / 30 / 0.97
Imax 165 A
Ustr,max 158.5 V
Pmech,max 55 kW
S1,max 78.5 kVA
Pfd,max 2.4 kW
ζmax 65.2 %
Tmax 852 Nm
m 35.3 kg
Tmax /m 24.14 Nm/kg
Pmech,max /m 1.56 kW/kg
S1,max 18.5 A/mm2
S2,max 19 A/mm2
Fig. 9. Phasor diagram in the complex plane for the direct drive concept power capability. To emphasize the importance of low leakage
and an operating point with TEM = 837 Nm, nEM = 400 min−1 , I1d = 0 A,
0 = 277 A
I1q = 228 A and Ifd designs, the design of an ESM for a wheel hub drive with
55 kW maximum output power (equivalent to 220 kW total
 vehicle output power if all four tires are equipped with such
 
 an e-machine) is described to give a negative example on the


consequence for the drive system (ζmax = 65 %). For both
ζmax = 65 % 
drive concepts, the influence on the factor ζmax , the power

 
factor, the excitation power demand and the resulting ohmic
  
losses are analyzed by means of analytical calculations, FEM-


 


 based efficiency maps as well as phasor diagrams including



 cross-coupling effects.

 

 

R EFERENCES

 




 [1] Z. Q. Zhu and D. Howe, Electrical machines and drives for electric,




 hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles, Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 95, no. 4,

 
         April 2007.
 [2] G. Pellegrino, A. Vagati, B. Boazzo and P. Guglielmi, Comparison of
induction and PM synchronous motor drives for EV application including
Fig. 10. Efficiency map of an ESM designed for a direct drive application design examples, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 48,
no. 6, 2012.
[3] A. Kock and M. Gröninger and A. Mertens, 2014 International Con-
ference on Electrical Machines (ICEM), Modeling and control of fault
IV. C ONCLUSION tolerant drive topologies for electric vehicle applications, 2014, Sept.
[4] F. Oelkers and T. Krone and A. Mertens and A. Rosen ”Implementation
It can be summarized that ESM for axle drive applications and Test of a Fault-Tolerant Wheel Hub Drive System for an Electric Ve-
can be designed to maximize the mechanical output power hicle”, in 2015 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC)
Oct, 2015.
for a given maximum provided output power. This factor [5] W. Q. Chu et al., Investigation on operational envelops and efficiency
can reach more than 95 % and is therefore higher than for maps of electrically excited machines for electrical vehicle applications,
comparable PSM designs for traction applications. Design IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 51, no. 4, April 2015.
[6] N. Bianchi and S. Bolognani ”Magnetic models of saturated interior
recommendations to realize such a high factor include rather permanent magnet motors based on finite element analysis, Conference
low torque densities and minimal total leakage factors. As Record of 1998 IEEE Industry Applications Conference, 1998.
shown in this paper on the basis of two ESM designed for an [7] J. Redlich and J. Juergens and B. Ponick ”Synchronous machines with
very high torque densities for automotive traction application, IEEE
axle drive application with 220 kW maximum output power Electric Machines and Drives Conference, May 2017.
with two different gear ratios, increasing the torque density [8] J. Jürgens and A. Brune and B. Ponick ”Electromagnetic design and
from roughly 7 Nm/kg to 13 Nm/kg reduces the factor ζmax analysis of a salient-pole synchronous machine with tooth-coil windings
for use as a wheel hub motor in an electric vehicle”, in 2014 International
from 95 % to 92 % and increases the excitation power demand Conference on Electrical Machines (ICEM) Sept, 2014.
by 333 % which leads to a drastic decrease in continuous
54
Time Efficient Integrated Electro-Thermal Model
for Bidirectional Synchronous DC-DC Converter in
Hybrid Electric Vehicles
Peter Azer, Student Member, IEEE, Romina Rodriguez, Student Member, IEEE, Hao Ge, Member, IEEE
Jennifer Bauman, Member, IEEE, P. Sai Ravi* , Member, IEEE, and Ali Emadi, Fellow, IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
*
FCA US LLC, Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA
Abstract—This paper introduces a simple and fast method to

calculate the junction temperature of power electronic devices in Q2 Q4 Q6
a 3-phase DC-DC converter by representing converter dynamics L1 RL1
during a simulated drive cycle. Simulating a DC-DC converter as
a switching model during a drive cycle, which can have durations L2 RL2
of 1000 to 2000 seconds or more, requires long simulation times RL3 VLoad
L3
and/or high-processing units like cluster computers. Thus, this
paper presents a state-space averaged model to describe the 3-
phase interleaved converter dynamics in buck and boost modes. VBattery
Q1 Q3 Q5
Converter dynamics of the averaged model are compared to
those of the switching model at different operating conditions to
validate the model. The full Simulink model includes a battery
Fig. 1: 3-phase bidirectional synchronous DC-DC converter
model, the buck-boost average model, a buck-boost temperature-
dependent power loss model, and a thermal model. The power
loss calculated by the proposed method is compared to that of
the switching Simulink/PLECS model, and the error is found to control of dead-times affects overall converter efficiency, as a
be less than 4% over a variety of operating points.
longer dead-time corresponds to lower efficiency due to more
Index Terms: average model, DC-DC converter, electro-thermal diode conduction time. Therefore, optimization methods for
model, junction temperature, power loss. dead-times are necessary, as found in [6]–[10].
Much of the previous research on DC-DC converter model-
I. I NTRODUCTION ing only uses the average model for the purpose of designing
Bidirectional DC-DC converters are gaining more interest a control system [11]–[13]. However, the proposed method
for use in electric and hybrid vehicles. The DC-DC converter uses the state variables of the average model to represent
output voltage is chosen to minimize the losses in the motor converter dynamics, calculate power loss, and estimate junc-
and motor controller [1], [2], as the optimum battery voltage tion temperature based on the fact that the thermal system
level is often less than that of the motor controller [3]. Single time constant is much higher than the electrical system time
phase DC-DC converters are designed to operate at maximum constant. Predicting switch junction temperature during a drive
efficiency at full load. Thus, when the converter is partially cycle is important in order to verify converter performance,
loaded, as often occurs in an electrified powertrain over a robustness, design, and thermal management needs. Junction
drive cycle, the converter efficiency lowers. Therefore, multi- temperature estimation depends on power loss calculations, yet
phase converters can be used to increase the efficiency at low power loss also depends on junction temperature. To perform
loads by operating a number of phases proportional to the temperature-dependent power loss calculations, curve fitting of
output power load [4]. In this paper, a 3-phase synchronous switch parameters from device data sheets can be used [14],
bidirectional boost converter is used, as shown in Fig. 1. [15]. In [16], a fast electro-thermal model of inverter power
In a bidirectional synchronous boost converter, a MOSFET, modules using IGBTs is developed; however, it cannot be
which is a bidirectional switch, replaces the traditional diode used to represent inverter dynamics due to the large simulation
so that conduction losses can be reduced and bidirectional time step. In [17], a comparison is performed between silicon
current flow can be achieved. The silicon carbide (SiC) power and SiC semiconductors in terms of loss and efficiency for
MOSFET CREE C2M0025120D is used in this analysis a 3-phase inverter, and the junction temperature is predicted
[5]. Since each phase of the synchronous converter has two over a drive cycle. However, this method uses stored voltages
MOSFETs, shoot-through is prevented by ensuring a dead- and 3-phase current profiles from Advanced Vehicle Simulator
time exists where both MOSFETs are off simultaneously. The software, which adds limitations on representing other inverter
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 55

Batter y
M ode l
thermal effect, this paper develops an average model including
all three phases, as shown in Fig. 1. Firstly, a 2-phase converter
Input
Co i l
V o l t ag e
Cu r r en t is modeled, then the 3-phase model is derived from it. For
P o w er
Loa d Power Lo a d Combin ed Buck -
Cap a ci t o r
Combin ed high power converters like those used in electric and hybrid
Boo st Av er age Buc k-Boo st Te mper a tu re -
Dema nd
M ode l
V o l t ag e
Dep end en t Los s Mo de l vehicles, inductor equivalent series resistance (ESR) cannot be
Cu r r en t
neglected [25]. In order to represent buck and boost modes,
Ripple T Ju nction P Loss the load is represented as a current source as shown in Fig. 3.
Sy stem
Pa ra meter s In the boost circuit, each phase works in two modes: inductor
The r ma l Mo de l
charging mode (Q1 is short circuit) and inductor discharging

Fig. 2: Integrated electro-thermal model mode (Q1 is open circuit). The system is non-autonomous,
because its differential equations are discontinuous. The theory
of the averaging method is to use the autonomous system be-
dynamics or a controller that differs from what was originally havior to approximate the more complicated non-autonomous
used. Similarly in [18], by using Autonomie software, the system [11]–[13], [26]. The 2-phase DC-DC converter has
average power loss of inverter is calculated using RMS current three modes of operation; first mode is when phase 1 is
values and junction temperature over a drive cycle. Much charging and phase 2 is discharging, second mode is opposite
of the previous research on thermal analysis for junction to the first one and the third mode is when both phases are
temperature prediction is done for inverters, while this paper charging. In state space description, the state equations of a
proposes a loss and junction temperature prediction method system which has three modes of operation can be described
for bidirectional synchronous DC-DC converters. as:
In this paper, curve fitting is used to estimate switching
losses and device voltage drop for conduction losses. The ẋ = A1 x + B1 y (1)
proposed electro-thermal model contains all relevant compo-
nents of a hybrid or electric vehicle powertrain as shown in
Fig. 2. The model incorporates a battery model, a combined ẋ = A2 x + B2 y (2)
buck-boost average model to represent converter dynamics,
a combined buck-boost temperature-dependent loss model to
calculate switch power loss, and a transient thermal model. ẋ = A3 x + B3 y (3)
For simplicity, the traction motor is represented as a variable
power load which defines the converter power loading during a where x and y are system state variables and system inputs,
drive cycle. Simulation results show that the proposed average respectively. A1 , A2 , and A3 are the state matrices for each
model runs over 1000 times faster than the PLECS switching mode and B1 , B2 , and B3 are the input matrices for each
model and the proposed loss calculations have an of error less mode. The average state space model can be derived as:
than 4% compared to PLECS switching model.
A thermal model of the converter and cooling system is ẋ = Ax + By (4)
required to estimate the junction temperature of the MOSFET
for varying driving conditions. Many models exist for con- in which, A = D1 A1 + D2 A2 + D3 A3 , B = D1 B1 + D2 B2 +
verters and are usually broken into two different categories: D3 B3 . D1 , D2 and D3 are duty cycles for each mode. Inductor
1) Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations [19]–[21] currents and capacitor voltage are usually chosen as the states
and 2) Equivalent Thermal Networks models [22]–[24]. Due of the system. In this case, the system states are chosen as:
to the ease-of-implementation, thermal networks are chosen
for integration with the vehicle model and Foster Thermal x = (il1 il2 vc )T (5)
Networks are used to model the transient behavior of the boost
Where (il1 il2 vc )T are the two phase currents and the output
converter.
capacitor voltage, respectively. When phase 1 is charging and
This paper is organized as follows: Section II describes the
combined buck-boost average model for the DC-DC converter,
Section III presents the proposed temperature-dependent loss
model, and Section IV discusses the thermal model Section Q2 Q4
V presents the results of the integrated electro-thermal model RL1
L1
and Section VI concludes the paper. VLoad
L2 RL2
II. C OMBINED B UCK -B OOST AVERAGE M ODEL
For control purposes, modeling one phase of a multi-phase Q1 Q3
converter can be sufficient [25] as there is usually equal VBattery
current sharing at steady state. However, in order to capture the
converter dynamics during phase transitions and the associated Fig. 3: 2-phase synchronous DC-DC converter with current source
56
phase 2 is discharging during duty cycle D1 , substituting (9), (13) and (17) in (4), the 2-phase average
1 −1 model can be represented as:
v̇c = il2 + Io (6)
C C
   −RL1 −(1−D1 )
 
i̇l1 L1 0 L1 il1
1 −RL1  i̇l2  =  −RL2 −(1−D2 ) 
il2  +
i̇l1 = Vin + il1 (7)  0 L2 L2

L1 L1 v̇c 1−D1 1−D2 vc
C C 0
1 −RL2 −1
 1 
L1 0
i̇l2 = Vin + il2 + vc (8) 1 Vin
L2 L2 L2 
L2 0 
−1 Io
0 C
   −RL1
0 0
  (18)
i̇l1 L1 il1
 i̇l2  =  −RL2 −1   i +
0 L2 L2 l2 For the case where both phases duty cycles are less than 0.5,
v̇c 1 v Equation 17 is different, but the result reduces to the same
0 C 0 c
 1  (9) Equation 18. In case of a 3-phase average model, the third
L1 0
1 Vin phase is an additional state variable with duty cycle D3 so

L2 0 
−1 Io that the state matrix A has size of 4x4 and the input matrix B
0 C is 4x2. Thus, the 3-phase average model can be represented
When phase 2 is charging and phase 1 is discharging during as:
duty cycle D2 ,    −RL −(1−D1 )
 
i̇l1 L 0 0 L il1
−RL −(1−D2 )  
1 −1  i̇l2  
 = 0 L 0 L   il2 +
v̇c = il1 + Io (10) 
 i̇l3   0  −RL −(1−D ) 
il3 
C C 0 L L
3

v̇c 1−D1 1−D2 1−D3
0 vc
1 −RL1 −1  1C C C
i̇l1 = Vin + il1 + vc (11) L 0
L1 L1 L1  1

 L1 0  Vin
1 −RL2 
L 0  Io
i̇l2 = Vin + il2 (12) 0 −1
L2 L2 C
(19)

i̇l1
  −RL1
0 −1 
il1
 in which RL = RL1 = RL2 = RL3 , L = L1 = L2 = L3 , as
L1 L1
 i̇l2  =  0 −RL2
0   il2  + the three phases are symmetrical. Io is positive and negative
L2
v̇c 1 vc for boost and buck modes, respectively, and it can be calcu-
C 0 0
 1  (13) lated as load power divided by capacitor voltage. Converter
L1 0 parameters are shown in Table. I. Simulation results in single
1 Vin

L2 0  phase operation comparing current and voltage dynamics
−1 Io
0 C between the average model and switching model are shown in
If duty cycles of both phases are greater than 0.5, thus, there Fig. 4, and Fig. 5, respectively. The simulation results verify
is another operating mode when both phases are charging. This the average model dynamics, as both models have similar
interval is equal to D1 + D2 − 1, therefore: dynamics during load change from 18 to 20 kW, input voltage
change from 140 to 160 V and output voltage change from
−1 300 to 320 V. To show the natural response of the converter; it
v̇c = Io (14)
C is driven as an open-loop system without any influence from
an external control system.
1 −RL1
i̇l1 = Vin + il1 (15) III. C OMBINED B UCK -B OOST
L1 L1
T EMPERATURE -D EPENDENT L OSS M ODEL
1 −RL2 From the average model, the inductor current and capacitor
i̇l2 = Vin + il2 (16)
L2 L2 voltage are obtained. The average losses of the switching
devices are calculated using the average value of the system

i̇l1
  −RL1
0 0

il1
 states, as they change accordingly in each simulation step.
L1
 i̇l2  =  0 −RL2
0   il2  + Since the time constant of the thermal system is much higher
L2
v̇c 0 0 0 vc
1
(17)
Table I: Converter Parameters
 
L1 0
1 Vin

L2 0  Vbattery L RL C VC
−1 Io 140V 21.2uH 22mΩ 160uF 320V
0 C
57
Switching Model Current Average Model Current Power Flow
200
Vin: Vout:
Load: 140 160 V 300 320 V Q2
18 20 kW RL L
150
Current (A)
VC
D2
Q1 RLoad
100
V Bat t ery D1 C
50 (a)
0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
Time (S) Ids1 = +ve Ids1 = +ve
source
source
drain
drain
Fig. 4: Inductor current dynamics at different operating conditions
335 Q1 Q2
Switching Model Voltage Average Model Voltage
(b) (c)
325
Output Voltage (V)
Fig. 6: Converter at boost mode: (a) Power flow direction (b) Current
315 direction through Q1 (c) Current direction through Q2
305 Load: Vin: Vout:
18 20 kW 140 160 V 300 320 V
295
doubles the power loss calculation error. Equations (21) and
285 (22) describe the conduction loss calculation for boost and
0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
Time (S)
buck modes. In boost mode,
Fig. 5: Capacitor voltage dynamics at different operating condition
Pcond.Q2 = I−ds .V−ds (Tj ).[1 − D − 2Tdead .fsw ] (21a)
Pcond.Q1 = I+ds .V+ds (Tj ).[D] (21b)
than the step size of the average model, the effects of the
instantaneous losses and the average losses are equivalent, In buck mode,
i.e., the thermal performance under the average loss excitation
Pcond.Q2 = I+ds .V+ds (Tj ).[1 − D] (22a)
can be used to represent the thermal performance under
instantaneous loss excitation. Pcond.Q1 = I−ds .V−ds (Tj ).[D − 2Tdead .fsw ] (22b)
1) MOSFET conduction loss: It is assumed that the switch I−ds and V−ds are switch current and the corresponding
current during the conduction period is constant and equals voltage drop when Ids is negative, while I+ds and V+ds are the
the inductor average current. Thus, the MOSFET conduction current and voltage when Ids is positive. Tdead is dead-time to
loss can be calculated by multiplying the switch current Ids , prevent shoot-through and fsw is the switching frequency. In
the voltage drop across it Vds and switch conduction time, in this paper, it is assumed that only one diode conducts during a
which Ids is the average inductor current output from converter switching cycle at the start and end of the inductor discharging
model. This current value is used to estimate the voltage drop period to prevent shoot-through, as shown in Fig. 7. As a
from the MOSFET data sheet [5] by curve fitting. The data result, the switch conduction time of Q2 is subtracted by twice
sheet defines the relation between Vds and Ids at 150◦ C and the dead-time in boost mode, while Q1 conduction time is
25◦ C only. Therefore, the weighted average method is used to subtracted by twice the dead-time in buck mode.
calculate Vds at any temperature as Vds (Tj ). This method is 2) MOSFET switching loss: Calculation of the switching
a linear interpolation where two weights are introduced: one energy is required to obtain the switching power loss. Switch-
for Vds (25◦ C) and the other for Vds (150◦ C). According to the ing energy is calculated from the switch data sheet at a certain
value of the temperature, the two weights are calculated as: current. However, switching energy is only defined in the data
sheet at 25◦ C and 800 volts. Therefore, energy loss at any

◦ 150 − Tj
Vds (Tj ) =Vds (25 C). +
125 voltage is calculated as:
(20)
Tj − 25 Vc
Vds (150◦ C). Ev (25◦ C) = E800v (25◦ C). /γ. (23)
125 800
in which Vds (25◦ C) and Vds (150◦ C) are calculated from the
switch data sheet at a certain Ids . For instance, if Tj =25◦ C, D2 operating time
the weight of Vds (150◦ C) is zero while that of Vds (25◦ C) is
Dead-time
one. ΔI/2
During boost operation, power flow is from the battery to Iavg ΔI/2
the load. Current direction (Ids ) of Q1 is positive as it is from
Q1 operating time Q2 operating time
drain to source, while current direction of Q2 is from source
Switching time
to drain, so Q2 has negative Ids , as shown in Fig. 6. The
switch data sheet shows different conduction characteristics Fig. 7: Current waveform and operating switches through a switching
for positive and negative current directions. Ignoring this fact cycle during Boost Mode.
58
γ = aTj2 + bTj + c (24) start and end of discharging the inductor current. Thus, Q2 is
switched on and off at zero voltage. As a result, the switching
Vc is the capacitor voltage and also the switch voltage during
loss of Q2 and conduction loss of D1 are zero. Similarly in
switching, E800v (25◦ C) is calculated from the data sheet at a
buck mode, but Q1 switching loss and D2 conduction loss are
certain current. Due to the fact that energy loss is not com-
zero. Each phase actually has four switches in parallel in order
pletely linear with voltage, a coefficient γ is used, which is a
to meet the current-carrying requirements of each switch and
quadratic equation and a function of Vc , in which a = −8e−07
the power loss calculations are for single switch. Thus, the
, b = −0.00064, c = 1, where a, b and c and are found by
currents used for the power loss calculations are actually 41 of
curve-fitting. The relation between the 25◦ C switching energy
the inductor current in each phase. Tables II to V show the
(E(25◦ C) and switching energy at any temperature (E(Tj ))
same inductor mean current and output voltage values for both
can be represented from data the sheet as:
switching and average models, which verifies the accuracy of
the average model, for a given junction temperature. Power
Ev (Tj ) = β.Ev (25◦ C) (25)
loss comparisons show that the error between the average
β = aTj2 + bTj + c (26) and switching models does not exceed 4% for both buck and
−06
boost modes. The final step is to add the thermal model of the
in which a = −6.3795e , b = −0.001154, c = 1.0287, converter so that these losses can be used to actually determine
where a, b and c and are found by curve-fitting. Ev (Tj ) can the junction temperatures.
be switching on energy, switching off energy or total energy
depending on deadtime adjustment. In this method, when IV. B OOST C ONVERTER T HERMAL M ODEL
switching on and switching off energies are calculated for the A thermal model of the boost converter is developed in
same switch, like Q1 at boost mode (Fig. 7), therefore, the MATLAB to estimate the junction temperature of the MOS-
average inductor current is used to estimate total energy loss FETs during operation in a vehicle drive cycle. A model is first
from the device data sheet instead of calculating switching on created in ANSYS Fluent and both steady state and transients
and off energies and separately adding them. Finally switching simulations are completed. Transient thermal simulations were
loss equal to: completed to obtain thermal impedance values and Foster
Psw = Ev (Tj ).fsw (27) equivalent thermal circuits were extracted from this data to
3) Diode conduction loss: Similar to the MOSFET con- create the MATLAB model.
duction loss in subsection (1), the weighted average method
A. Transient Thermal Model Simulations
is used to calculate diode voltage drop at any temperature.
Diode operation is during dead-time only, and it can be at A three-phase, 40kW inverter with 8 MOSFETs per phase
the starting or ending of the inductor charging or discharging was simulated on a 4-pass cold plate. Based on thermal
period. For example, in boost mode, if D2 is conducting at analysis of the converter, the inductors require air cooling and
the start and end of the inductor discharging period as shown
in Fig. 7. The conduction loss of D2 is equal to: Table II: Power loss calculations from average model and
SIMULINK/PLECS model during boost mode at 100◦ C

∆I
Pcond.D2 = Vds1 . IL + .Tdead .fsw
2 Parameter PLECS model Average model
(28) IL (A) 139.6677 139.7
∆I
+Vds2 . IL − .Tdead .fsw Vc (V) 273.7759 273.8
2 Pcond,Q1 (W) 28.12 25.51
Where Vds1 and Vds2 are diode voltage drops corresponding to Pcond,Q2 (W) 22.72 23.3
Pcond,D2 (W) 1.674 1.667
maximum current (IL + ∆I ∆I
2 ) and minimum current (IL − 2 ), Psw,Q1 (W) 30.15 29.06
respectively. ∆I is the current ripple and is equal to: Total loss (W) 82.67 79.54
D.VBattery Absolute error (W) 3.13
∆I = (29) Error % -3.78
L.fsw
4) Power loss calculation results: Power loss is calcu- Table III: Power loss calculations from average model and
lated based on the proposed average model and calculation SIMULINK/PLECS model during boost mode at 150◦ C
method, and then compared to the power loss calculated Parameter PLECS model Average model
from a Simulink/PLECS switching model for buck and boost IL (A) 139.6768 139.7
modes at steady state using the selected CREE switch. Battery Vc (V) 312.8898 312.9
voltage is 140V and load power is 20 kW. Tables II and III Pcond,Q1 (W) 36.55 34.42
Pcond,Q2 (W) 23.7 23.7
compare the power loss in boost mode when the junction
Pcond,D2 (W) 1.601 1.594
temperature equals 100◦ C and 150◦ C, respectively. Tables Psw,Q1 (W) 34.32 33.97
IV and V shows the power losses in buck mode when the Total loss (W) 96.17 93.68
junction temperature equals to 75◦ C and 50◦ C, respectively. Absolute error (W) 2.49
As discussed previously, D2 conduction time is only during the Error % -2.58
59
Table IV: Power loss calculations from average model and
SIMULINK/PLECS model during buck mode at 75◦ C
Parameter PLECS model Average model
IL (A) 142.7953 142.9
Vc (V) 286.2036 286.3
Pcond,Q1 (W) 21.11 22.29
Pcond,Q2 (W) 26.59 24.05
Pcond,D1 (W) 1.754 1.747
Psw,Q2 (W) 32.32 31.51
Total loss (W) 81.77 79.6
Absolute error (W) 2.17
Error % -2.65
Table V: Power loss calculations from average model and

SIMULINK/PLECS model during buck mode at 50◦ C
Fig. 9: Temperature rise when heat is added to Quadrant 1 only
Parameter PLECS model Average model
IL (A) 142.7822 142.9
Vc (V) 327.0923 327.2
Pcond,Q1 (W) 20.99 22.88
Pcond,Q2 (W) 20.75 18.71
Pcond,D1 (W) 1.793 1.784
Psw,Q2 (W) 36.37 36.34
Total loss (W) 79.91 79.71
Absolute error (W) 0.0025
Error % -0.25
Fig. 10: Temperature rise when heat is added to Quadrant 4 only
the cold plate, it was separated into four quadrants to acquire

the thermal impedance values from the CFD model. ANSYS
Fluent simulation results for the temperature rise over time
when 54W per MOSFET are added to quadrant 1 only and
quadrant 4 only are shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10, respectively.
The coolant temperature is then subtracted and divided by the
Fig. 8: Temperature (Celsius) of cold plate at steady state applied power to obtain Z(t) as seen in Fig. 11. The results
for quadrant 2 and 3 are similar.
only the MOSFETs need active cooling. The 24 MOSFETs are B. Equivalent Thermal Foster Circuits
mounted on the cold plate as seen in Fig. 8 and have thermal Once the thermal impedance curves are found from the
pads between them. The worst-case heat dissipation of each transient simulations, the temperature at any location can be
MOSFET is 54W and this condition was used to simulate the calculated from the following [28]
cooling system and MOSFETs in ANSYS Fluent. The coolant
flow rate is set to 8L/min and an inlet temperature of 75◦ C as   P (τ )
is expected in a vehicle.

T1 (t)
 Ż11 Ż12 ... Ż1j 1
Z
. . . P2 (τ )
Thermal impedance, Zic , is defined as the temperature  ..  Ż22 ... Ż2j  

 . =  .  dτ + Tc (t)
 
difference at location i relative to some reference temperature, . . . ... ... . . .   .. 
in this case the coolant, c, when power P is dissipated. Ti (t) Żi1 Żi2 ... Żij Pi (τ )
(31)
∆T (t)
Zic (t) = (30) where Zij represents the thermal impedance at location
P (t)
i due to heating at location j, hence Zii represents the
Thermal impedance values may be obtained from simulations self-heating term and Zi6=j represents the thermal coupling
by studying the temperature response at different locations between locations. Pi represents the power being dissipated at
when constant power is applied [27]. Due to the symmetry of location i and Tc is the coolant temperature.
60
Table VI: Foster Equivalent Parameters for Thermal Impedances
Z11 Z21 Z31 Z41
R1 0.0161 0.0018 0.0016 0.0149
R2 0.0057 0.0035 0.0143 0.0025
R3 0.0203 0.012 0.0018 0.0016
C1 237.2022 276.164 1019.6 453.4287
C2 1506.6 573.6364 463.6595 987.6251
C3 18.3719 528.779 463.6595 1106.8
Z12 Z22 Z32 Z42
R1 0.0033 0.0128 0.0018 0.0023
R2 0.0014 0.0177 0.0028 0.0086
R3 0.0125 0.0115 0.0144 0.0086
C1 239.4336 17.6158 5400.3 660.1255
C2 239.4336 321.5659 668.5774 643.2257
C3 410.9047 85.3147 411.7785 1160.3
Z13 Z23 Z33 Z43
Fig. 11: Thermal impedance when heat is added to Quadrant 1 only R1 0.0089 0.0015 0.0173 0.014
R2 0.0042 0.0036 0.0191 0.0015
R3 0.003 0.0124 0.0058 0.0018
C1 485.5005 7298.5 244.666 484.0555
C2 1861.7 242.4839 20.0858 1730.7
C3 236.6429 405.4358 1569.3 794.5089
Z14 Z24 Z34 Z44
R1 0.0117 0.0037 0.0137 0.019
R2 0.0117 0.0017 0.0021 0.0137
R3 0.0016 0.0107 0.0013 0.0095
C1 511.3476 523.9356 475.4784 327.4074
C2 494.8841 279.5797 790.9124 18.8649
C3 292.8314 579.281 2137.1 126.9771
Flow Coolant MOSFET

Duty Switching rate Initial Thermal
cycle frequency temp. Impedance
Ploss_ph_1
IL
Switch junction
Vc C o m b i n ed B u ck - B o o s t Ploss_ph_2 C o n v er t e r temperature
Fig. 12: RC fitted model results compared to ANSYS simulation t em p er at u r e d ep e n d en t Th e r mal
ΔI/2 Lo s s M o d e l M o d el
Ploss_ph_3
Due to CFD models being computationally expensive and

integration with a vehicle model even more complex, the
solution was to create a model in MATLAB/Simulink en- Fig. 13: Detailed signal flow of loss model and thermal model.
vironment. Foster thermal networks can be used to fit the
thermal impedance curves. A Foster network has the solution 150
Pn
of Z(t) = n=1 Rn (1 − e−t/τn ) where τ = RC. Fig. 12 140
shows the RC thermal network fitting results for heating on 130
quadrant 1 only. Since the cold plate was separated into 4 120
Tj ºC
quadrants, there are 16 thermal impedance curves and each 110
was fit with a third-order Thermal Foster Network with the 100
results shown in Table VI. 90
80
V. E LECTRO - THERMAL M ODEL 70
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1369
The temperature dependent loss model and thermal model Time (Sec)
are connected together as shown in Fig. 13. Based on a load Fig. 14: MOSFET Junction temperature within UDDS drive cycle
profile which corresponds to the UDDS drive cycle, the power
loss of each phase is calculated as an output of loss model and
sent as in input to the thermal model. Then thermal model electric vehicles is presented in this paper. The converter is
calculates junction temperature based on these power losses. presented as a state space averaged model. Converter dynamics
The calculated junction temperature is fed back to the loss and calculated power losses are compared with dynamics and
model and so on. Junction temperature within the UDDS is power losses of the switching model from Simulink/PLECS.
represented in Fig. 14. Power loss error doesnt exceed 4% and results show that the
closed loop average model takes around 25 minutes to run
VI. C ONCLUSION the UDDS drive cycle, compared to an estimated 20 days for
A high-speed accurate electro-thermal model for bi- the PLECS switching model. As a result, junction temperature
directional synchronous DC-DC converters for hybrid and can be predicted within a driving cycle by using the proposed
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62
A PV Array Fed BESS Supported Speed Sensor-less
PMSM Driven Water Pumping System
Shadab Murshid
Bhim Singh
Department of Electrical Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
New Delhi, India
New Delhi, India
Email Id.: mail2smurshid@gmail.com
Email Id.: bhimsinghiitd61@gmail.com
Abstract— This work proposes an effective power transfer reliability. Under such conditions, an estimation of motor speed
scheme between two stage solar photovoltaic (PV) array and and rotor position is much required.
battery energy storage system fed field oriented controlled
permanent magnet synchronous motor drive for water pumping. A standalone PV array fed water pumping system suffers
Owing to real situation where solar insolation is constantly from the drawback of intermittent power supply as it largely
changing and constant water supply is required, a BESS is depends on climatic condition, which results in unreliable water
employed to provide the excess power. Moreover, at the time when pumping. Moreover, the pump is underutilized in bad weather
no pumping is required, PV power can be fed to the battery. A condition and is completely shut down during night time. These
maximum power point tracking algorithm is used to extract flaws have to be dealt with and incorporated with PV array water
optimum power from the PV array. The PV array is operated at pumping system to improve its reliability. Some literature has
maximum power point ensuring its full utilization until the battery reported the use of battery bank as a solution to this problem [9-
charging current is within safe limit. Above it, the MPPT 10]. When the insolation is low, battery provides the extra power
algorithm de-rates itself and bring the charging current within required by the pump and the excess power from the PV array is
safe limit. Moreover the proposed algorithm stops energy fed to the battery when no pumping operation is required.
harvesting from PV array when battery is fully charged and water Although it looks to be quite convincing, but an inappropriate
pumping is not required. A sensor-less field-oriented controlled charging of the battery significantly reduces its life [10]. Since
PMSM is used to drive the PMSM. The applicability of overall the cost of the battery is quite high, a battery management
system constituting BESS in conjugation with PV array fed PMSM
system is much required to take care of health of the battery.
coupled water pump is validated on a hardware prototype
developed in the laboratory. Owing to the above discussed issues, this work proposes a
PV array fed battery energy storage system (BESS) supported
Keywords—Solar Photovoltaic, Battery Energy Storage System, speed sensor-less PMSM driven water pumping system. A
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor, Maximum Power Point maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm with battery
Tracking management capability is proposed. Along with maximum
I. INTRODUCTION power extraction, the proposed algorithm is capable of keeping
the battery charging current within safe limit. The algorithm
Renewable energy source offers an excellent solution to stops the battery charging when the battery is fully charged and
escalating energy crisis, rising environmental concerns and water pumping is not required. The proposed system is
depleting conventional energy sources. Among various forms developed in the laboratory and the system performance is
available for harvesting renewable energy, photovoltaic (PV) validated using a digital signal processor DS-1103.
generation system is gaining wider popularity these days [1-2].
An emphasis on increased utilization of solar PV generation is II. PROPOSED SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
being laid on wherever possible. Water pumping is a potential The schematic diagram of the proposed system is shown in
application of PV generation system [3]. Fig.1. The proposed system utilizes a PV array, a boost
Solar water pumping system requires an electric drive for converter, a BESS, a voltage source inverter (VSI), a PMSM and
rotating the pump. Due to high efficiency, high power density, a pump. The BESS is connected at the DC link of the VSI. The
faster response, good power factor and compact design, PMSM presence of BESS improves the utilization of the water pumping
drive is best suited for this application [4]. Although PMSM has system. The BESS charges during the availability of excess
been used in past for water pumping and is an exploring power. Under reduced or no availability of solar insolation, the
technology [5-6], the existing literature has reported the use of BESS provides required energy to drive the pump. The speed of
encoder for speed control of PMSM. It has been observed in PMSM is controlled using well known field oriented control
some cases, the cost of encoder can be as high as the cost of technique [11]. A back emf based technique is employed for
motor itself [7]. This makes the system costly. Moreover, in case estimation of motor speed and rotor position. An improved
of long cables as used in submersible pump applications, the incremental conductance (InC) algorithm with battery
signals from encoder gets distorted. It reduces the system management capability is used for MPPT.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 63

Fig.1. Schematic of Proposed System
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM CONTROL Where, p is the number of pole pairs, ψ α is the derivative of ψ α
The control of the proposed system constitutes speed and and ψ β is the derivative of ψ β .
position estimation, speed control of PMSM drive and MPPT of As it is difficult to estimate ψα and ψβ at low speed during
PV array. starting. A start up scheme by providing a constant reference
quadrature-axis current and a ramp up position signal as
A. Estimation of Speed and Position of PMSM Drive proposed in [12] is utilized to start the PMSM from standstill.
The various steps involved in estimation of rotor speed and B. Speed Control of PMSM Drive
position by stator fluxes, are given here. Since for water pumping operation, the speed of the PMSM
The 3-phase VSI voltages in stationary reference frame (vα, vβ) is controlled below base speed, no external excitation is required
are calculated from the DC bus voltage (Vbat) as per expression and therefore, reference direct-axis current (id ref) is always kept
given as, zero.
V V The quadrature-axis current (iq ref) in stationary reference
v α = bat * ( 2SI1 -SI3 -SI5 ) , vβ = bat *  3 ( SI3 -SI5 )  (1)
3 3 frame w.r.t. rotor is calculated as follows.
Where, SI1, SI3 and SI5 are switching logic (set either one or zero) The error signal of estimated motor speed (ωm est) and
of the upper three legs of VSI, respectively. reference speed (ωref) is the input of speed proportional integral
The 3-phase motor currents are converted into stationary (PI) controller and the output is the motor torque (Te ref).
reference frame (iα, iβ) by the expressions given as,
1 ωer =ω ref -ω m est (7)
iα =ia , iβ = ( i b -ic ) (2)
3  K 
Te ref (k)=  K pω + iω  ω er (k) (8)
The stationery components of flux (ψα, ψβ) are expressed as,  S 
ψ α =  ( v α -R s *i α ) dt+ψ α0 , ψβ =  ( vβ -R s *iβ ) dt+ψβ0 (3) Thus, the reference quadrature-axis component is calculated as,
The resultant flux linkage (ψs) is expressed as, T
iq ref = e ref (9)
K
ψs = ψα2 +ψβ2 (4)
Where, K =3(pλ af )/2 , p is the number of pole pairs and λaf is flux
The estimated rotor position (θest) is expressed as, linkage.
 ψβ  The value of id and iq are obtained from sensed motor currents
θest = tan-1   (5) using following relations.
 ψα 
The estimated rotor speed (ωm est) is expressed as, i d =iβ sinθ est +i α cosθ est (10)
1 d ψ . ψ - ψ . ψ i q =i β cosθ est -i α sinθ est (11)
ωm est = ( θest ) = α β 2 β α (6)
These estimated currents are compared with their reference
p dt ψr
values id ref and iq ref and passed through the current PI controllers.
64
The error signals are reduced to zero with the output of the PI
controllers given as reference d-q voltage signals.
The d-axis current error signal is passed through PI controller
which generates d-axis voltage as given below.
i d er =i d ref -i d (12)
 K 
v d ref (k)=  K pds + ids  i d er (k) (13)
 S 
Similarly, the q-axis current error signal is used to get q-axis
voltage when passed through PI controller.
i q er =iq ref -i q (14)
 K iqs 
v q ref (k)=  K pqs +  i q er (k) (15)
 S 
These reference voltage vectors and the estimated flux angle
(θest) are used to get the reference 3-phase voltages (va ref, vbref and
vc ref) by the following equations.
v a ref =v d ref sinθ est +v q ref cosθ est (16)
 2π   2π 
vb ref =vd ref sin  θ est -  +vq ref cos  θ est -  (17)
 3   3 
 2π   2π 
vc ref =vd ref sin  θest +  +vq ref cos  θest +  (18)
 3   3 
The reference voltages are compared with the triangular
wave to generate switching pulses for inverter switches (SI1 - SI6).
C. MPPT Algorithm
An InC method is the most popular MPPT algorithm and is Fig.2. Schematic of Proposed MPPT Algorithm
reported in plethora of literature that exploits the non-linear
relationship of P-V curve. The proposed algorithm is explained
through Fig.2, which generates the duty ratio (D) used for
converter switching. In this way, the converter controls PV array
at its maximum power point throughout the insolation range.
During normal operating condition the algorithm works as
conventional InC algorithm. However, when charging current
exceeds the maximum charging current limit, the proposed
algorithm de-rates the PV array. The proposed algorithm also
stops battery charging by setting duty to one, whenever battery
is fully charged. When D=1, the PV array gets shorted through
the inductor (L) and switch (S) of the boost converter. Under this
condition the PV array voltage becomes zero and current
becomes equal to short circuit current of PV array. Solar PV (a)
power also becomes zero. This limits the overcharging of battery
resulting in increased battery life.
IV. TEST RESULTS
The performances of BESS Supported speed sensor-less
PMSM driven solar water pumping system is experimentally
validated on a developed prototype in the laboratory. Various
parameters for solar PV array, BESS, boost converter and
PMSM used for experimental validation are given in appendices.
All the operating possibilities are considered.
A. Starting and Steady State Performance
The starting performance and steady state performance of the
proposed system when PV array is operated at rated insolation
i.e.1000 W/m2, is shown in Figs.3. (a-b) and Figs.4. (a-b), (b)
respectively. The proposed system shows an excellent starting.
Fig.3. Starting performance at 1000 W/m2
65
(a) (a)
(b)
(b)
Fig.5. Dynamic performance when insolation at 1000 W/m2 is changeover to
Fig.4. Steady State performance at 1000 W/m2 500 W/m2 and vice versa
A smooth starting performance of PMSM is observed. Since the
PV array was already on, the battery is initially charging. Once
the pump is switched on, the motor draws larger power to
overcome the initial inertia. During this duration the PV array
and the battery, both feed power to the pump. On reaching steady
state, the power from the battery becomes zero and PV array
alone feeds the pump.
The motor draws a sinusoidal current during steady state as
shown in Fig.4. (a). The battery maintains a constant dc link
voltage. The stationary estimated flux components ψα and ψβ are
sinusoidal and the motor speed and rotor position are effectively
estimated.
B. Performance During Insolation Change (a)
The system performance during insolation change from 1000
W/m2 to 500 W/m2 and vice versa, is shown in Figs.5 (a-b). To
keep pump operating at its rated speed even during reduced
insolation condition, the additional power is supplied from the
battery. Under this condition, the both PV array as well as battery
feed energy to the pump. As the solar insolation is restored to
rated value, the battery current and power reduce to zero. The
speed and power input to the VSI driving PMSM remain constant
during the dynamic condition.
Figs.6 (a-b) shows the dynamic performance when the solar
insolation is changed from rated condition (1000 W/m2) to zero
and vice versa. Under the absence of insolation, the BESS feeds
the pump. The solar PV power reduces to zero and the complete
required power is fed from the BESS. As the insolation is back (b)
to rated, the battery power goes to zero and under rated Fig.6. Dynamic performance when PV array fully feeding Pump changeover to
insolation, PV array alone powers the pump. BESS fully feeding Pump and vice versa
66
C. Performance of Proposed MPPT Algorithm
The de-rated MPPT performance of PV array is visualized in
Figs.7 (a-b) during the dynamic condition when the pump is
switched on from off condition and is switched back to off
condition. When the pump is switched on the PV array reaches
MPP and feed rated power to the pump. However once the pump
is switched off, the PV array starts feeding the BESS. Since the
battery charging current is more than the rated, the proposed
MPPT algorithm reduces power output from the PV array by
shifting the operating point and bring the charging current back
within the safe limit.
When the battery is fully charged (SOC= 100%) and water
pumping is not required, the proposed algorithm stops the energy (a)
harvesting from PV array as shown in Fig.8. This reduce the PV
power to zero thereby reducing the input power and charging
current of the battery to zero. As voltage based determination of
SOC works reasonably well for a lead acid battery, the same is
employed over here [13].
D. MPPT Performance
The desired tracking efficiency for PV array of 1.6 kW, is
achieved by proposed MPPT control technique for a 1.5 kW
PMSM rotating a water pump. The Ppv-Vpv and Ipv-Vpv curves are
shown in Figs.9. (a-c). A tracking efficiency greater than 99 % is
achieved at 1000W/m2 and 500W/m2. Under de-rated operation
the PV array tracking efficiency is 73% even when the insolation
is 1000W/m2.
(b)
V. CONCLUSION
Fig.7. Dynamic performance when PV array at 1000 W/m2 feeding the BESS
A PV array fed BESS supported speed sensor-less PMSM changeover to PV array feeding Pump and vice versa, showing the de-rated
driven water pumping system has been proposed and its MPPT performance when PV array at rated insolation is feeding the BESS
suitability is justified under various operating conditions. The
BESS support has enabled the full utilization of pump
irrespective of the insolation conditions. The pump delivers
water to its full capacity in every case. Estimation of PMSM
speed and position, has eliminated the speed sensor and reduced
the system cost. The field oriented control has provided a good
speed regulation. The proposed MPPT algorithm provides an
excellent MPPT tracking along with derating and shut down
capability, thereby increasing the life of BESS. Moreover the
applicability of the proposed MPPT algorithm is not limited to
water pumping. It can be utilized for all the applications using
BESS supported PV array fed system such as electric vehicle.
Therefore, the proposed topology gives a practically feasible
solution for a PV array fed, BESS supported water pumping
system. Fig.8. Shutting down of BESS charging
(a) (b) (c)

Fig.9. MPPT Efficiency curve: (a) 1000W/m2 (b) 500 W/m2 (c) De-rated Operating Condition
67
APPENDICES
Solar PV Array Parameters: Voc =350V, Isc =5.7A Vmp
=301.52V, Imp = 5.4 A, Pmp = 1.63kW.
Nominal BESS Parameter: Vbat =360V, Cbat= 30Ah, Ic max= 3A
Boost Converter Parameter: Vin=Vmp; V0=Vbat
D=1-(Vin/Vout)=0.162; fs = 10 kHz, ΔI = 0.05* Imp=0.275A;
L = {Vin*(V0-Vin)}/(ΔI*fs*V0)= 17.8mH
PMSM Parameter: Prated=1.5kW, Trated =9.55Nm, ωr rated
=157rad/s, p=2, Rs = 1.8 Ω, Ls =0.975 mH, ψm =0.1688Wb
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pp. 1084-1099, 2015.
[4] T. R. Brinner, R. H. McCoy and T. Kopecky, “Induction Versus
Permanent-Magnet Motors for Electric Submersible Pump Field and
Laboratory Comparisons,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 50, no. 1, pp.
174-181, Jan.-Feb. 2014.
[5] R. Antonello, M. Carraro, A. Costabeber, F. Tinazzi and M. Zigliotto,
“Energy-Efficient Autonomous Solar Water-Pumping System for
Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motors,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Elect., vol.
64, no. 1, pp. 43-51, Jan. 2017.
[6] S. Murshid and B. Singh, “Double stage solar PV array fed water pump
driven by permanent magnet synchronous motor,” in proc. 7th IEEE
Power India International Conference (PIICON), Bikaner, pp. 1-5,
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[7] R. Krishnan, “Permanent Magnet Synchronous and Brushless DC Motor
Drives,” 1st Ed., Boca Raton, Florida, FL, USA, CRC Press, 2010.
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Storage,” Chinese Patent CN 103595337 A, Feb. 19, 2014.
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68
Super-Twisting Algorithm Based on Fast Terminal
Sliding Surface for Buck Converter in Fuel Cell
Electric Vehicle
Qian Li1, Yigeng Huangfu1, Dongdong Zhao1, Minchi Xie1 and Jun Zhao2
1
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, P.R. China
2
AVIC Computing Technique Research Institute, Xi’an 710065, P.R. China
Emails: xiaoqian@mail.nwpu.edu.cn, yigeng@nwpu.edu.cn
Abstract—As one of the most common step-down DC-DC higher-order SMC which retains the main advantages of
switching power converters, Buck converters with the simple CSMC, plays a significant role in chattering attenuation [5]-
structure and easy control are widely applied to the fuel cell [7]. Furthermore, the derivative information of the sliding
electric vehicles. In order to reduce chattering phenomenon variable is not required in the design of STA which makes it
which is inherent in conventional sliding mode control and solve more advantageous, and the control law of STA is continuous
the problem of slower convergence rate of the linear sliding [5]. Therefore, STA is called the third generation sliding mode
surface, this paper presents a novel super-twisting algorithm controller by Fridman [8].
based on the fast terminal sliding surface (STA+FTSS) strategy
on basis of the super-twisting algorithm based on the linear The linear sliding surface (LSS) which is a linear
sliding surface (STA+LSS) by adding the nonlinear term to LSS. combination of the system states is often utilized in the CSMC
Comparisons of numerical simulation results between the design for Buck converter [9] [10]. However, the state error
STA+LSS and the STA+FTSS are presented and discussed for signal can’t converge to zero with finite time due to the
various test conditions such as steady state, input voltage asymptotic convergence property of the linear sliding surface.
variations, output load disturbance and uncertainness in circuit Therefore, as a solution to eliminate the steady state error,
parameter. It is worth to note that the proposed controller has a terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) based on nonlinear
better performance related to the STA+LSS in terms of the hyperplane was proposed and studied in many literatures [11] -
transient response time and robustness to the disturbance. [13]. However, TSMC is not always optimal in terms of
Keywords—Buck converter; electric vehicles; fast terminal
convergence time because when the system state is far away
sliding surface; super-twisting algorithm; transient response time; from the equilibrium point, convergence speed is slower than
robustness. that of the CSMC [14]. Therefore, to overcome the problem,
the fast terminal sliding mode control (FTSMC) which
combines the merits of the TSMC and the CSMC together
I. INTRODUCTION stands out [15] - [17].
Owing to the issues of energy shortage and the
Inspired from the FTSMC and the STA, in this paper, a
increasingly serious environmental pollution associated with
novel super-twisting algorithm based on the fast terminal
the extensive use of personal vehicles, electric vehicles (EV),
sliding surface strategy is proposed for the DC-DC Buck
especially fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) with clean and
converter. The motivation of this paper is to reduce chattering
environmentally friendly and high efficiency have attracted
phenomenon and enhance the performance of the converter in
ever-increasing interests from researchers in many fields. In
terms of the transient response time and robustness to the
FCEV, due to the nonlinear volt-ampere characteristics of the
disturbance. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In
fuel cell, a step-down DC-DC converter for matching the fuel
Section II, the mathematical model of Buck converter is
cell output voltage with the low voltage auxiliary units such as
derived. The following Section III discusses design of the
control system and water circulating pump may be necessary
super-twisting algorithm based on the fast terminal sliding
[1] [2]. Among the many step-down converters, Buck
surface (STA+FTSS). Next, to demonstrate the superiority of
converters due to the simple structure and easy control are
the proposed control strategy, numerical simulations are carried
extensively used.
out and compared with the super-twisting algorithm based on
In addition, since Buck converter is a strongly nonlinear the linear sliding surface (STA+LSS) in Section IV. Finally,
system with uncertainties, it’s difficult to achieve the ideal the conclusions are drawn in Section V and the reference are
control effect using the traditional linear control strategy such attached to the end of the paper.
as PID. Therefore, for this nonlinear system, sliding mode
control (SMC) is utilized owing to its the guaranteed stability II. MODELING OF BUCK CONVERTER
and its strong insensitive to internal parameters and external
disturbances [3][4]. In order to reduce chattering phenomenon Before designing the controller, it’s essential to derive the
generated by the discrete control law of the conventional SMC mathematical model of the Buck converter. The topology of
(CSMC), the super-twisting algorithm (STA), one of the the Buck converter is depicted in Fig.1, where Vin is the input
DC voltage source and Vo is the output voltage. R, L and C is
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 69

iL generally includes two steps. Firstly, a switching function
deciding the convergence property should be determined.
S L +
Secondly, a control law steering the system states to move
u along the chosen switching surface till the origin by zigzag
D vo trajectory should be established.
Vin C R
A. Switching Function Design
-
Fig.1 Topology of Buck converter Considering that the Buck converter is a system with
relative degree 2 when choosing the output voltage error as a
the load resistance, inductor and capacitor, respectively. D is state variable and super-twisting algorithm is intended to
the diode and S is the power switch controlled by the control systems with relative degree 1. Thus, the corresponding sliding
signal u. It’s assumed that the Buck converter is operating in surface based on STA for the Buck converter are LSS which
continuous conduction mode (CCM). According to the power can be expressed as
switch condition, “on” and “off”, there are double operating
mode of the Buck converter. S = α x1 + x1 (5)
When the power switch is on (u=1), the differential Where x1 defined in (4) represents the output voltage error.
equation can be written as α is a time-invariant sliding coefficient which must be greater
than zero to achieve the system stability. Furthermore,
 diL 1
 dt = L (Vin − vo ) according to [10] [18], it’s recommended that α usually is
 chosen as 1/ ( RC ) for the Buck converter to obtain the fast
 (1)
 dvo = 1  i − vo  dynamic response and avoid the inductor current overshoot.
 dt C  L R 
In general, the SMC can be decomposed into two modes:
And that when the power switch is off (u=0), the the reaching mode and the sliding mode. Once the system
differential equation will be enters to the sliding mode within the finite time t=tr. At this
time, S=0, then the output voltage error can be calculated as
 diL vo
 dt = − L x1 ( t ) = x1 ( tr ) e −α t (6)

 (2)
 dvo = 1  i − vo  Obviously, It should be noted from (6) that the output
 L R
 dt C   voltage error converges to zero with exponential rate α as
Combining (1) and (2), the average system model can be t → ∞ . In other words, there always exists steady state error
given as follows: and the slower convergence speed no matter what the value of
α.
 diL 1
 dt = L ( uVin − vo ) So, in order to eliminate the steady state error of the output
 voltage and speed up the convergence rate, a nonlinear term is
 (3)
 dvo = 1  i − vo  introduced into the sliding surface, then the sliding surface is
 dt C  L R  defined as
Where iL is the inductor current. In addition, the circuit S = α x1 + x1 + β x1γ (7)
parameter uncertainties are also considered, i.e. L = L + ΔL ,
C = C + ΔC . Next, let x1 = vo − Vref , x2 = x1 , then the The above defined sliding surface is the so-called fast
terminal sliding surface. Where α > 0 , β > 0 , and
following equation can be obtained by taking the time
derivation of (3). 0 < ( γ = q p ) < 1 where p, q are positive odd integers
satisfying p > q .
 1 vo 
 x1 = x2 =  iL −  When the system reaches to and maintain on the sliding
C R
 (4) surface S=0 in (7) starting from t=tr, the system dynamic can be
 x = − 1 x + 1 uV − v
 2 2 ( in o ) given by the following nonlinear equation
RC LC
Where Vref is the reference value of the output voltage, and x1 = −α x1 − β x1γ (8)
x2 denotes the derivative of x1. Before calculating the finite time of the system state (i.e. x1
and x1 ) converging to zero, it’s assumed that the initial state
III. CONTROLLER DESIGN OF BUCK CONVERTER
x1 ( tr ) ≠ 0 and then the exact convergence time is given as
The SMC is the well-known to be a robust method with
strong anti-disturbance ability to address the control problems  α x1 ( tr )(1−γ ) 
for nonlinear systems. According to the definition of the sliding 1
ts = ln 1 +  (9)
mode variable structure control, the design procedure of SMC α (1 − γ )  β 
 
70
According to (9), we can see that the output voltage can In practice, the appropriate controller gains are chosen as
track to the reference output voltage in finite time. Furthermore, follows for the faster convergence and the higher accuracy [19].
it’s clear that the faster convergence rate is guaranteed by the
linear term ( α x1 ) when x is far away from zero; whereas the C C (14)
λ1 = 1.1 , λ0 = 1.5
higher convergence rate is guaranteed by the nonlinear term Km Km
( β x1γ ) when x is close to zero. Hence, it can be concluded that
the output voltage can track to the reference quickly no matter C. Stability Analysis
where x is. The stability of the closed system employing the proposed
control method in this paper is established by the following
Additionally, from (9), we know that the convergence time theorem [20].
still depends on the parameters α , β and γ . Therefore, these
parameters should be designed reasonably to achieve the Theorem: Consider the output voltage error system (4), if
desired performance. However, there is no relevant literature to assumption (11) is satisfied and the sliding surface is chosen as
calculate systematically these coefficients. Thence, in practice, (7), the STA+FTSS controller guarantees the finite-time
a trial-and-error method is adopted to obtain the optimal convergence of output voltage error, i.e., the output voltage
parameters in terms of the output voltage overshoot and the converges to the reference voltage in finite time.
inductor current overshoot, settling time and steady-state error. According to the above analysis of the fast terminal sliding
surface and super-twisting algorithm, the following two
B. Super-Twisting Algorithm Design conclusions can be obtained.
In order to satisfy the so-called hitting condition of SMC, (i) The sliding variable reaches the sliding surface in finite
an appropriate sliding mode control law is required. From the time;
perspective of alleviating the chattering effects, Super-twisting
algorithm is a suitable approach because the discontinuous (ii) The output voltage error converges to zero in finite time.
control is transferred into the higher order sliding surface. So, from (i) and (ii), it can be concluded that the closed
Since the fast terminal sliding surface has a relative degree system is stable.
one with respect to the control input which means the control
input appears in the first derivative of the sliding surface. IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
Without losing generality, suppose the sliding surface S has
relative degree one, and then its first derivative can be To further demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of
expressed as [5]: the proposed control approach in this paper, STA+LSS and
STA+FTSS based on the Buck converter have been
S = h ( t , x ) + g ( t , x ) u implemented and compared by simulation in Matlab/Simulink
with the same design specifications given in Table I.
h = S | u =0 (10)
In the light of the analysis of Section III, the design
∂  parameters of the STA+LLS controller and STA+FTSS
g= S ≠0
∂u controller are listed in Table II.
Where h ( t , x ) and g ( t , x ) are smooth uncertain functions Thereafter, numerical simulation results carried out using
which are assumed to be bounded for some positive constants Euler method with step size 10-5 in presence of steady state,
C, Km, KM , i.e. variation in output load and step changes in input voltage are
presented as follows.
0 ≤ Km ≤ g (t, x ) ≤ K M TABLE I. SPECTIFICATIONS OF BUCK CONVERTER
(11)
| h ( t , x ) | + | g ( t , x ) |≤ C Description Parameter Nominal value
Then, the control law u is defined by the following Input voltage Vin 8~15V
expression: Reference output voltage Vref 5V
Output voltage ripple Δvo/vo <1%
u = −λ0 | S |1/ 2 sgn ( S ) + v Nominal inductance L 2mH
(12) Nominal capacitance C 4700uF
v = −λ1 sgn ( S ) Load resistance R 2.5~10Ω
Where λ0 and λ1 are controller gains that need to meet the TABLE II. PARAMETERS OF TWO DIFFERENT CONTROLLERS
following inequalities for the finite time convergence to the Controller Parameter
sliding mode surface.
STA+LSS α = 85, λ0 = 1.5 × 103 , λ1 = 1.1 × 106
2 ( K m λ1 + C )
2
C α = 85, β = 8.5 × 104 , γ = 0.2, λ0 = 1.5 × 103 , λ1 = 1.1 × 106
λ1 > , λ0 > (13) STA+FTSS
Km K m2 ( K m λ1 − C )
71
A. Steady state without any disturbances
Inductor Current (A)

3
STA+LSS STA+FTSS
First, the effectiveness of the proposed controller for Buck 2
converter is validated by simulation under the steady state
1
operating condition that the input voltage is 15V and the load
resistance is 2.5Ω. The corresponding simulation results under 0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
the control of the STA+LLS and STA+FTSS are depicted in Time(s)
Fig.2.
(a) Inductor Current
From Fig.2(a), it can be seen that there are both no apparent 6
STA+LSS STA+FTSS Voltage Reference
overshoot in the inductor current which shows that the choice 5
Output Voltage (V)

of the controller parameters α is reasonable. Additionally, we 4
5.1
X: 0.05199 X: 0.09552 5.0005
Y: 5 Y: 4.999
can also see from the big picture in Fig.2(b) that the output 3
5
5
voltage under different controllers both can be stabilized at the

4.9
4.9995
4.8
2
reference output voltage 5V and both have the roughly the 4.7 4.999
0.15 0.151
0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
same output voltage ripple which are far less than 1% due to 1
using super-twisting algorithm. However, in case of avoiding 0

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
inductor current overshoot, the STA+FTSS has a faster Time (s)
convergence rate that the rising time is only 52ms while
(b) Output voltage
95.5ms by STA+LSS. And the STA+FTSS leads to lesser
steady state error than the other one. The analysis of simulation Fig.2 Simulation comparisons between STA+LSS and STA+FTSS for
results indicates that the proposed STA+FTSS provides a better Buck converter under the steady state condition.
steady state performance such as the rising time as compared to
6 6
the STA+LSS. STA+FTSS STA+LSS Voltage Reference Laod Resistance
Load Resistance (Ω )
5
Output Voltage (V)
5
B. Variation in output load 4
5.05 X: 0.5004
Y: 5.048
5.04
In the next study, the robustness of the suggested controller 3
5.03
X: 0.5002
Y: 5.035
4
against variation in output load is tested. In this simulation, the 5.02
2 5.01 X: 0.5565
output load is step variation from 2.5Ω to 5Ω at 0.5s. The
X: 0.507
Y: 5.0 Y: 5.0
5 3
corresponding simulation results are pictured and compared in 1 4.99
0.48 0.5 0.52 0.54 0.56 0.58
Fig.3. 0 2
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
According to Fig.3(a), it’s observed clearly that the output Time(s)
voltage under two different controllers both can track the (a) Output Voltage
constant reference value 5V with the basically similar voltage 250
STA+LSS STA+FTSS
increase (no more than 50mV or 1%) after load disturbance. 200
But from the perspective of setting time, the STA+FTSS has a 150
faster transient response, only 7ms, which is about eight times
x2(V/s)
100
less than that for STA+LSS is 56.5ms. In addition, note that
from Fig.3(b) which describes state trajectory of output voltage 50
error x1 and its derivative x2 in phase plane, it’s very 0
intuitional to see that the length of the trajectory for the -50
-0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
STA+FTSS is shorter than the STA+LSS. That’s to say, the x1(V)
same conclusion can also be obtained, i.e. the STA+FTSS acts (b) State trajectory of output voltage error x1 and
more excellent fast-response performance as compared to the
its derivative x2 in phase plane
STA+LSS.
Fig.3 Simulation comparisons between STA+LSS and STA+FTSS
C. Step change in input voltage based Buck converter for step load variation from 2.5Ω to 5Ω at 0.5s.
Finally, the robustness of the proposed controller versus 6 STA+FTSS STA+LSS Voltgae Reference Input Voltage 20
step change in input voltage is also evaluated. When the step 5

change from 15V to 8V at 0.5s occurs on the input voltage, the
Output Voltage (V)
Input Voltage (V)
5.01
X: 0.5172 X: 0.5672
4 Y: 5.0 Y: 5.0 15
comparative simulation results are plotted in Fig.4. 5
X: 0.5066
Y: 4.99
3 4.99
From the local amplification pictures in Fig.4, we can get 4.98
some information. As the result of this disturbance, the drop in 2
4.97
X: 0.5077
Y: 4.975 10
the output voltage goes down by 25mV and the time taken to 1 4.96
0.48 0.5 0.52 0.54 0.56 0.58
recover to the desired voltage level 5V is 67.2ms for the 0 5
STA+LSS. While under the control of STA+FTSS, the 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Time(s)
0.7 0.8 0.9 1
recovery time taken to eliminate the smaller voltage drop

(about 10mV) is shortened to 17.2ms. Hence, the results Fig.4 Output voltage comparisons between STA+LSS and STA+FTSS
demonstrate that the STA+FTSS has the better robustness to based Buck converter for step change in input voltage from 15V to 8V
the input voltage disturbance than the STA+LSS, especially the at 0.5s.
recovery time.
72
TABLE III. COMPARISONS OF TRANSISENT RESPONSE TIME FOR OUTPUT 6
VOLTAGE UNDER THE TWO DIFFERENT CONTROLLERS
Output voltage (V)

Transient response time of output voltage
4 5.08 X: 0.5002
Rising time Setting time Recovery time 5.06 Y: 5.065
Controller
5.04
Due to R: Due to Vin: X: 0.5102 Case a
Steady state: 5.02
Vin=15V, R=2.5Ω 2 Y: 5
Case b
2.5Ω→5Ω 15V→8V 5
Case c
STA+LSS 95.5ms 56.5ms 67.2ms 4.98
Voltage Reference
0.495 0.5 0.505 0.51 0.515 0.52
STA+FTSS 52ms 7ms 17.2ms 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
In order to further illustrate the superiority of the proposed Time (s)
controller, the simulation results of the STA+LSS and (a) STA+FTSS
STA+FTSS are summarized in Table III in terms of the
transient response time. It can be concluded that the 6
Output Voltage (V)

STA+FTSS outperforms the STA+LSS in the above three
case. 4 5.06 X: 0.5005
D. Uncertainties in circuit parameter 5.04 Y: 5.045
5.02 X: 0.5469 Case a
The above simulation results are obtained on the basis of 2 Y: 5.001
5 Case b
the nominal inductance and capacitance. In order to test the 4.98 Case c
ability of the proposed control scheme to deal with 0.48 0.5 0.52 0.54 0.56 0.58 Voltage Reference
uncertainties in circuit parameter, three cases are considered. 0
When the inductance and the capacitance values are deviated 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
separately then synchronously by 50%, the corresponding Time (s)
comparative simulation results of the load disturbance which (b) STA+LSS
steps from 2.5Ω to 5Ω at 0.5s are illustrated in Fig.5. Fig.5 The comparative simulation results of Buck converter with
It can be observed from the figure that the setting time and circuit parameter, (a) STA+FTSS (b) STA+LSS. Case a is L=3mH,
voltage overshoot of the three cases under the control of two C=7050μF; case b is L=1mH, C=2350μF; case c is L=2mH,
C=4700μF.
controllers are almost same regardless the parameter value
deviation. This is because that both controllers utilize the
super twisting algorithm which is insensitive to internal ACKNOWLEDGMENT
parameters. However, for STA+LSS, there is the larger steady This work was sponsored in part by the Seed Foundation
error in case b. This is because is that the linear sliding surface of Innovation and Creation for Graduate Students in
can’t completely eliminate the steady state error. Therefore, Northwestern Polytechnical University under Grant
the proposed STA+FTSS maintains the stronger robustness ZZ2018159 and in part by the Key Laboratory Program of
against the circuit parameter uncertainty. Science and Technology Co-ordination and Innovation Project
of Shaanxi Province.
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
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74
Urban Grid Monitoring and Distributed Energy Resource Integration –
Approach using Analytics
Eversource Energy Corporation

One NSTAR Way, Westwood, MA 02090
Bahwan CyberTek Inc

209 W Central St, Ste 312, Natick MA 01760
Moody N. Demetry: Moody.Demetry@eversource.com

Krishna Paracharan: krishnap@bahwancybertek.com
Stanley Moses Sathianthan: ssmoses@bahwancybertek.com
Keywords: Distributed Energy Resources, Renewables Integration, Secondary Network, Analytics, Smart Grid.
comparison to that of the high voltage grids. In such

Introduction environments, interconnection of renewable generation to
In metropolitan and sub urban business districts of Boston, the grid is critical for smart grid programs. To understand
New York city, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other major the dynamics of the secondary area network and the
load centers, utilities have installed an electrical impacts of DER , under a Department of Energy (DOE)
distribution system known as a secondary area network Grant, Eversource Energy (previously NSTAR Energy)
grid for that provides operational flexibility and the have implemented a project called “Urban Grid
highest level of reliability. In secondary network grids, Monitoring and Distributed Resources Integration
integration of distributed energy resources (DER) such as Program” in the City of Boston, Massachusetts on one of
inverter based solar photovoltaic (PV) installations and the secondary network grids.
through DG. The new power landscape is a mix of grid
scale and distributed power resources with an increasing
Background:
share of the later. This creates a constellation which
Eversource Energy operates 12 areas with secondary
distributed networks were never designed of. Hence the
network grids in the City of Boston, with grid points
management of distributed generation becomes more
covered by approximately 4,600 manholes across the
complex than that of the current transmission grid. The
metro area. Typical network voltage is 120/208V or
distributed generation offers the flexibility adds supply
277/480V providing 99.9% reliability to the customers
wherever needed at lower infrastructure and provides
served in the region.
more reliability. But with the addition of more of them to
the grid, there evolves unintended consequences and Boston area customers, have shown interest to
inherent operating challenges. The secondary network grid interconnect solar photovoltaic (DER) and be able to
is designed for directional power flow, from multiple direct surplus power generated back into the grid. In order
transformers all connected in parallel (secondary to integrate DER into the grid, a better understanding of
connected), providing power “into the load”. In a the grid dynamics in terms of dispatch and load demand
secondary network grid scenario, utilities need to for the various parts of the day across seasons are
understand the dynamics as the integration of DER can required.
render existing protective schemes inadequate and can
create an unsafe condition as monitoring involves a high
number of components, substations and nodes in
1
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 75

Project Details temperature of the cables in all the manholes. The
manholes designated “minor nodes” have alarm sensors
Urban Grid Monitoring and Distributed Energy
that provide notifications on a low current state in the
Resources Integration Project deployed sensors and
cables than the threshold value which is configured for
monitoring instrumentation on one of the grids in Boston
different seasons ( for summer it is 4 amps and for winter
–– configured as section 492N, covering around 400
it is 8 amps) on the any of the individual secondary main
manholes representing approx. 10% of the total secondary
cables within the grid point and high ground temperature
grid network of the city. Section 492N has 129
These nodes have cellular wireless transmitters to
transformers with 7 feeders serving 10,351 customers
broadcast alarms which are assimilated for analysis via an
within 0.424 square miles. This grid was selected based on
existing cellular network. The “major nodes” manholes
the suitable mix of commercial and residential customers,
are instrumented with technology to provide current and
as well as an expected higher request for PV-type solar
temperature sensing on a real time basis and equipped
installations and the subsequent integrations into the grid
with power line carrier technology to allow near real-time
in the future.
monitoring at the operations center. The data flow also
Eversource installed two different types of state-of-the-art
provides the time lag between the updates of the sensor
grid monitoring systems with appropriate sensors. The
information which could be useful for the validation of the
Minor and Major nodes are to monitor the current and
inferences
Fig: Secondary Grid layout
In total Eversource installed sensors in 436 manholes in Eversource will be utilizing this data to bring out insights
the 492N grid - 126 Major nodes with 6,480 sensors and on the secondary grid and provide an application that can
310 Minor nodes with 4,386 sensors starting from the mid guide Eversource to make decisions that can be used for
of 2013. History data from the major and the minor nodes multiple reasons:
were collected for carrying out the study and arrive at the
▪ Assist to identify and address potential equipment
models required that enables the DER integration and
failures, such as secondary main cable failures and
analyze the consequences of the same post such
open limiters.
integrations if any. Each node has around 24 to 36 cables.
Data is transmitted to the monitoring center every 6 ▪ Identify and address potential distribution equipment
minutes. Currently, data covering multiple seasons (from overloads.
2013 to 2106) is available for analysis.
2
76
▪ Over the long term, reduce the number and severity of the load notifies of increasing deviations. The usual and
underground electrical events including manhole fires, normal patterns are recorded and maintained as a
smoke conditions, and jarred manhole covers. knowledge base.
▪ Assist in determine locations that potentially could
• Pattern Analysis - Stability status
accept DER integration without operational
Based on the information collected in the above two
disturbances.
techniques, Identification of Outliers and Performance
Variation, the pattern of the node in response to the
Data Analysis environment changes and grid disturbances is developed.
An advanced analytics application was used to mine data The pattern is monitored for declaring a node stable or
that identified and suggested proactive maintenance to unstable.
improve safety & reliability of the Secondary Network
Grid at the determined substation 492. The analytics Computation of the stability status
solution built the predictive models for the load demand Stability of each major node is assessed based on
and the reliability models for the manholes / nodes after a following factors:
thorough analysis of the data for a period of 4 months. It Factor Details Description
used the real time data from the various sensors as well as Sum of Under load
the alarm notifications from different sources that were Under Load incidents of the node for
F1
integrated on a server platform to perform the following Incidents the entire set of cables
functions: for a given day
Sum of Duration of under
• Identification of Outliers Under Load
F2 load incidents of the
Analysis of real time values of Current and Temperature is Duration
cables, calculated in mins
used to identify any abnormal trends of the load consumed
Sum of Duration of over
at each node. The data of each node is compared against Over Load
F3 load incidents of the
data collected from similar nodes, historical data of the Duration
cables, calculated in mins
node itself and data between the cables of the same node
Sum of over load
to identify the outlier as well as the true yet out of the
Over Load incidents of the node for
normal range values that have been recorded on specific F4
Incidents the entire set of cables
periods. The validations of the above were done in
for a given day month
conjunction with the Eversource personnel.
Predictability
Ambient temperature,
• Performance Variation Analysis using Seasonal / of load based
F5 Humidity, pressure,
Time of day / Temperature on weather
dewpoint
Predictive models using artificial intelligence techniques data
were built with the historic data to determine the load Number of
given any time of the day across all seasons of the year. alarms from Count of validated minor
F6
Input considerations included the weather data and the the connected load Alarms
uniqueness of the time period defined by various states Minor Node
such as weekend/weekday, the four seasons, day/night etc.
Based on the models current across each cable of all the An incident of overload or underload for a cable of a
major nodes is monitored in real time and any unusual particular node is counted on the occurrence of the cable
deviations from the predictions would be validated for load going below or above the respective threshold for
either retuning of the model or referred for detailed more than 6 min. (the duration at which the sensor
observation or analysis. The models have the capability to transmits values, underload threshold is 4/8 amps
self-tune once a certain number of fresh data have got depending upon the season, overload threshold is 210/250
accumulated in the system or when the predictability of amps depending upon the season). Continuous occurrence
3
77
of the cable load in the same underload or overload state is Relations between Minor & Major nodes:
deemed as one instance until the threshold is crossed. If
Each minor node is supplied from two or three major
the cable load goes to the underload or overload state after
nodes either directly or through Vaults . Alarms are
being present in the normal range, the instance is counted
available from minor nodes indicating either a low current
as second and so on.
or high temperature. For analyzing the alarms from
The six factors described above are used to calculate the
minor nodes, all minor nodes are mapped to the power
Stability index for each major node, defined as:
feeding major nodes as per the details available in the
installation manuals. Based on this mapping, minor node
Stability index = [(a1*F1) + (a2*F2) + (a3*F3) +
alarms will be continuously monitored with reference to
(a4*F4) + (a5*F5) + (a6*F6)]/100
the current values of the cables of the major node. The
minor node provides only one alarm whereas the major
All “Factors - F Numbers” are scaled to 0-100%. Since the
node has current values for all phases for each of the 24 to
values are counts and duration, a table is defined to scale
36 cables that has been connected. The alarm is
the values. “a values” represent the weightage attached to
considered for analysis only when it’s present for 4 cycles
the factor and the weightage is determined based on the
of 15 mins. (i.e., 1 Hour). For each minor node alarm, the
effect of the respective factor on the dynamics of the node.
currents in all phases of the respective major nodes are
Typical scaling computations on the various factors that
checked for high or low limits. This provides additional
account for the stability are as follows:
confirmation on the status of the cables between the major
• Underload duration - less than 50 hours to greater than and minor nodes. (Fig 3)
750 hours for all the cables taken together per day Further there is no alarm present for the overload status of
• Underload incidents - less than 2 to greater than 20 for the cables. The analytical application has these
all the cables concerning the node per day. configurations to analyze the overloaded cables and gives
• Over load duration - less than 50 hours to greater than a priority ranking based on the deviation of the load value
750 hours for all the cables taken together per day from the overload limit and the duration of such overload.
• Overload incidents - less than 2 to greater than 20 for Based on the I2T value, the ranking is determined to
all the cables concerning the node per day. assign the importance wherein maintenance has to be
• Predictability of the cable load - 60 to 100% initiated.
• Unique distinct actionable alarms - 0 to 5 per day
Bin Classification of Alarms:
For example, if a node comprising of 36 cables has a total
While analyzing the alarms, all are collected and stored in
underload duration of less than 50 hours (average of less
BIN 1. These are then subjected to uniqueness test as the
than 1.5 hours for the entire set of cables in a day), then
origin of the alarms can be from the same node but of
maximum scaling factor of 100% would be allotted. Any
different cables. Also same cables would have been the
value above would get proportional decrease in the scaling
cause for the generation of the alarms at different times.
factor.
The unique alarms are stored in BIN 2. From these the
After computation of various scaling factors, the stability
application applies the historic models and segregates
index for the given node is computed based on the
those that needed attention from those that can be ignored.
weightage to the different factors. It is updated on a daily
From the historic data models, the application senses those
basis and historised for reference.
cables that historically have the same values of low load
Node condition is declared using the respective stability
(low load at nights or same pattern of low load for most
index. (Fig 1 & 2)
days) and categorizes as non-actionable one. These are
stored in BIN 3. Finally, the actionable alarms are put in
Stable Stability Index >= 0.80
BIN 4 which constitutes of cables where in anomalies are
Unstable Stability Index < 0.80
seen in terms of load which deviates from the history data
78
or defying the logic of consumption and are notified to potentially consider DER. While implementing the DER
respective personnel. integration, it is imperative to note that the value of the
DER source shall be lesser than the minimum load
What If Analysis
requirement of that part of the grid. These minimum
The predictive models helps to compute the possible values are provided by the predictive models built within
current flows in each cable thereby determining the future the application. The consequences will be adverse if
stability status. For calculation of such future status all otherwise as the grid has been designed for unidirectional
relevant inputs including meteorological data need to be flow.
considered for an exact determination. (Fig 4) The
Operations use
weather predictions – temperature, humidity, and sky
conditions (cloudy, rainy, sunny etc) – are used from the Load consumption patterns for each major node is
websites that offer these values for the immediate future. monitored during night & day on for all seasons. A month
Else manual entry options are provided to feed in the on month comparison will help the operating and
desired values for simulating the average values for the engineering organizations to better understand and
given period.. These are contextualized with node current prepared for potential abnormalities based on the
and temperature history data for predicting the load for the historical and real time information.
give node.
Aggregated load fluctuations for segments will provide
Models using Markhov chain, AI techniques and valuable information for planning purposes to include new
regression helps to predict the current flow behavior loads or for maintenance activities in the given section.
within the cables of the node as well as to study the impact
The application provides a summarized view for the
of a cable failure on the other cables within the same node.
engineering teams to identify the potential problem areas
Also these models suggest the impact of DER integration
such as abnormal currents due to multiple cable failures or
if inputs are provided specific to the time period of
no load due to open limiters and prioritize them as well
generation and integration. Impact of these additional
based on heat losses computation. This reduces the
supplies of power on the stability index can be understood
analysis time of the maintenance to study the alarms
by providing the relevant time period of integration of
reported for the last day and go through the load data of
these DER sources with the grid.
the cables and determine the plan of action. Also the
application pre-processes the data and provides
Outcomes & Engineering use information on sensor validation on a continuous basis. A
Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Integration sensor which is struck on a certain value is a more viable
The determination of the stability of the major nodes can candidate for future problem as the exact load is unknown
be used for the purpose of trying to determine the potential on that cable.
and appropriate DER integration locations and size. The The determination of maximum allowed load reduction
history of the node stability index and the what if analysis from a distributed energy source can be concluded on the
will guide the engineering team to select the nodes that number churned by the analytics solution based on the
may be suitable for the DER integration as well as suggest minimum load demand at the point of the grid where the
the dispatch timings. Upon understanding the behavior of DER source has been integrated. IEEE standards that
the individual cables in the grid as well as knowing the define DER integration can see possible data validations
demand pattern for the various parts of the day across for a secondary grid using the analytics solutions. It is to
seasons, the models can suggest the impact on more DG be noted that with the addition of more DERs a continuous
integration requirements on the network. With these study of load flow and predictive model is a must to insure
insights Eversource could decide on the type of the DER a continued stable Network system.
that may be appropriate, the time of the day that DER
could be supported and the list of customers who could Integration results and impacts:
79
Two DG’s of 2.94 KW and 1.75 KW capacities were PV capacity Voltage No of Phase Power factor Current
120 1 0.9 16.2
connected to the secondary grid of the substation S492 1.75 kW 120 3 0.9 4.8
during the period between Nov ’2013 & Apr ’2014. 120 1 0.9 27
2.95 kW 120 3 0.9 7.8
Analysis of the data provided by these two installation
provided insights on future DER integration. A detailed The possible load that gets injected into the network on
report was generated on the closest major nodes to these DER integration of two such PV installations is provided
two DER integration points – major nodes MH1255 and above.
MH20122B and serviced out of MH 14279 and MH
21054 minor nodes. The report includes number of Major Node RNCID No of Cables Min Load Max Load
underload incidents, underload duration, over load MH1255 248 30 411 2730
incidents, overload durations, relevant number of alarms
from the minor nodes and the Stability index. The report For the integration at Yarmouth Street at the major node
also included the predictability of the load current in MH1255, the yearly analysis of the load is given above.
percentage (Sample report added in Appendix, Fig 5). The Considering a safety loading of 80 % through the DER
predictability indicates the availability of relevant integration so as to prevent any abnormal consequences on
scenarios to arrive at conclusions. The reports indicated the reverse flow, 20 such integrations will inject a load of
that the node maintains stability after the DER integration. 326 amps into the network.
It could be seen that the selection of the integration points
was chosen that despite the integration, the load on the As more integrations on the grid points will test the
cables is fairly on the lower side. When compared to the consequences of such integration and educate on the
other major nodes (MH 1255 and MH 20123) present adaptability into the grid. The awareness of the load
adjacent to this point of integration, the number of low consumption at various seasons or time of the day by
load incidents and duration has fairly decreased means of predictive models will help in deciding those
suggesting that the DER integration points were poorly points in line with the capacity of the DER sources. These
loaded before and loading got better after the integration. integration points shall be of those which have more stable
pattern of consumption on either end of the load
The quantum of such integrations into the grid can be consumption spectrum rather than those areas where it is
studied by providing appropriate inputs into the What if fluctuating.
analysis – module of the application. Before integration,
the additional load that would be imparted into the
network on such DER integration needs to be known. For
example, a 1.75kW PV installation will inject a load of
16.2 amps in a single phase power line.
80
A typical load profile for an entire day in a peak winter season is provided above. Based on the predictive
models, a near accurate estimate of the load at various parts of the day is obtained and the what if analysis
throws information on the load sharing nature between the cables of the particular major node, under such
circumstances, 71 PV installations of 2.95kW or 118 PV installations of 1.75 kW can be integrated into the
considered network for a loading up to 1923 amps. With these models, a combination of the any available
capacity at a given point of time can be considered for more such DER integrations
For the considered day profile, the continuous run of these DER sources and their integration into the grid at
stable load consumption points will be seen as priority than their integration in the areas having fluctuating
consumption wherein the reduction of these DER generations has to be considered to avoid abnormal
consequences.
Note, these outcomes are only a guide-line base on Eversource case study and doesn’t not by any means set in
stone. The Network system is very dynamic and with every addition of DER, a model of load flow and
predictive calculation must be studied by engineering to determine if it is safe to add any DERs to avoid any
instability to the system liability
Appendix – Screen shots of the Analytics application
Fig 1 – Stability Index factors for a major node

7
81
Fig 2 – Stability summary report
Fig 3 – Major node analysis
82
Fig 4 – What If analysis
NodeName RNCID DT UnderLoad UnderLoadDur CablesPeakLoadDur Predictability CablesPeakLoadSimul ConnMinorAlarms StabilityIndex Stability
MH20124 120 01/01/2015 00:00:00 271 1607.817 0 76.17382 1 0 0.9085215 Stable
MH20124 120 01/02/2015 00:00:00 338 1454.8 0 91.74349 1 0 0.9452305 Stable
MH20124 120 01/03/2015 00:00:00 332 1422.617 0 67.59052 1 0 0.8727716 Stable
MH20124 120 01/04/2015 00:00:00 318 961.8666 695.9167 65 1 0 0.865 Stable
MH20124 120 01/05/2015 00:00:00 387 1017 1003.167 65 12 0 0.865 Stable
MH20124 120 01/06/2015 00:00:00 363 1391.417 695.85 65 1 0 0.865 Stable
MH20124 120 01/07/2015 00:00:00 482 1973.5 719.8834 65 1 0 0.855 Stable
MH20124 120 01/08/2015 00:00:00 301 1581.45 719.9167 0 1 0 0.67 Unstable
MH20124 120 01/09/2015 00:00:00 373 934.0833 961.4167 0 17 0 0.67 Unstable
MH20124 120 01/10/2015 00:00:00 192 1541.083 0 65 10 0 0.885 Stable
MH20124 120 01/11/2015 00:00:00 250 1683.683 0 65 22 0 0.875 Stable
MH20124 120 01/12/2015 00:00:00 262 1704.2 0 65 2 0 0.875 Stable
MH20124 120 01/01/2016 00:00:00 258 1073.45 0 65 7 0 0.875 Stable
Fig 5 – Stability Analysis report
83
An Inductive Power Transfer System Design for Rail
Applications
Luocheng Wang*, Tiefu Zhao*‡, Shen-En Chen†‡, Dave Cook§
Email: lwang45@uncc.edu, Tiefu.Zhao@uncc.edu, schen12@uncc.edu, dave.cook@railpropulsion.com
*
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA
†
Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA
‡
Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC), University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA
§
Rail Propulsion Systems, Fullerton, CA, USA
Abstract-An Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) system for rail per mile electrified rail track ($10~15 million) slow down this
applications is proposed in this paper. IPT has attractive features renovation [1]. Alternatively, a novel hybrid locomotive named
for battery charging in electric vehicles and consumer electronics. Zero Emission Boost Locomotive (ZEBL), shown in Fig. 1, is
For those applications, IPT technology has already been proposed by Rail Propulsion Systems (RPS) [1], which has the
commercialized in the market for practical use. However, due to potential to integrate wireless power transfer (WPT) technology
the unique requirement of rail applications on the power ratings with onboard battery management system and charge the
and intrinsic disadvantages of IPT compared with wired charging standard locomotive onboard battery with low initial cost of
on misalignment and Electromagnetic Field (EMF) leakage, IPT construction from wayside power source instead of the use of
has not been commercialized for rail applications in U.S. so far. To
diesel. Among WPT technologies, the inductive power transfer
fill these gaps, this paper introduces an IPT design with
advantages of good geometry integration to rail tracks, high
(IPT) technology can be employed to provide this hybrid
inductive coupling and low EMF leakage. Two I-type ferrite cores locomotive with both stationary and dynamic charging. IPT
are paralleled as one lumped transmitter and one rectangular systems transfer power from transmitter side to receiver side on
ferrite plate is coupled as the onboard receiver. The designed IPT the basis of electromagnetic induction over an air gap.
system is aimed at 1 kW onboard battery charging on a park gauge Benefiting from this contactless power transmission, IPT is
train at UNC Charlotte. The multi-objective optimization based preferable in many different applications. These include, but
magnetic and electrical systems co-design is proposed to meet not limit to, power transmission in intricate geographical
system specifications and optimize system performance. The co- environment and under severe weather conditions (such as
simulation results are presented to verify the performance of underground mining applications [2]), user interface and
proposed IPT system design. aesthetic requirement (such as consumer electronics [3]).
Meanwhile, with the booming development of electric vehicle
Keywords—inductive power transfer, rail electrification, (EV) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), IPT plays a significant
battery charging, magnetic and electrical systems co-design. role in the roadway applications as the battery charger in either
stationary way or dynamic way [4]-[5]. IPT system designs,
I. INTRODUCTION including single phase or polyphase [15], various transmitter
Rail electrification is a crucial part in transportation and receiver core types [6]-[9] and different power electronics
electrification. It is being implemented in many urban and circuit topologies have been proposed to improve the
regional rail applications in the U.S. nowadays. Electrified rail performance of IPT systems. Moreover, by improving power
is quieter, cleaner, more reliable and less expensive in ratings and system efficiency which use to be a shortcoming of
maintenance and service compared with the traditional diesel- loosely coupling, IPT technology shows a strong potential to
fueled locomotives which are a significant source of air reform the future railway pattern [10], especially for
pollution by emissions of greenhouse gas [1]. Besides, substitution of traditional diesel-fueled locomotives.
advanced electrified rail is able to capture around 30% of The scope of this paper is concentrating on an I-type dipole
energy consumption through regenerative braking. However, a IPT system design for rail applications, particularly the multi-
big burden hampering rail electrification is the economic cost.
Initial costs for per electrified locomotive ($6~10 million) and
Fig. 1. Hybrid Zero Emissions Boost Locomotive (ZEBL) [1].
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 84

objective optimization based magnetic and electrical systems
co-design. Section II first introduces the basic idea of this IPT
system for rail applications from geometry, magnetic and
electrical aspects. Then, the co-design of magnetic and
electrical systems is investigated to improve the overall system
performance by optimizing magnetic and electrical design
variables. Section III presents co-simulation results from
computer simulation tools to verify the performance of
proposed IPT system. Fig. 2. Small-scale park gauge train.
II. PROPOSED IPT SYSTEM DESIGN Receiver )

The proposed IPT system is aimed at a small-scale park
Moving Direction
gauge train as shown in Fig. 2. This park gauge train is
measured at a dimension of 191cm, 51cm, 66cm (L, W, H) and )
driven by two standalone 500W/48V DC motors powered from ) )

Ground
a 1kW/48V onboard battery. The goal of this IPT system is to

)
charge this onboard battery in either stationary way or dynamic
way at the rated power from wayside power source. The Transmitters
onboard receiver needs to be placed in the limited area of 50cm, HF Inverter HF Inverter
38cm (L, W) between two DC motors. The wayside transmitter GND
Power Grid
is required to fit in a 17cm-width rail track with a distance of
23cm from train chassis to ground. Considering the special (a)
characteristics of rail applications, which are
1) fixed-guideway motion.
2) rectangular interface between track and train chassis.
3) steel contour and periphery.
4) high weight tolerance.
a rectangular shaped ferrite plate is used for the onboard
receiver instead of the circular pad mostly used in EV and
consumer electronics. With only longitudinal misalignment on
the track, a rectangular shape increases effective area given the
fixed guideway width comparing with the circular pad.
Moreover, it enlarges the proximity from receiver edge to the (b)
rail track and contributes to a significant reduction of EMI to
the train body. A novel arrangement of I-type ferrite cores is
proposed for the on-track transmitter. Different from KAIST
narrow-width IPT system for online electric vehicles [7]-[8],
each IPT system transmitter unit consists of two I-type cores in
parallel shown in Fig. 3(a), (b) and (c), where this layout can (c)
easily fit in the wood or concrete slabs on the track and
meanwhile, erect cores can reduce the air gap from the
transmitter to the receiver. By exciting coil currents at 180°
phase shift, two I-type ferrite cores are magnetized as a dipole
so that magnetic flux passes from one pole to another through
receiver coils, which forms a circulation path with the least
reluctance shown in Fig. 3(d). This design inherits the merit of
high inductive coupling from [7]. When longitudinal
misalignment occurs, the pole whichever is closer to the (d) (e)
receiver plate will be controlled to operate as a standalone Fig. 3. Proposed I-type dipole IPT system design: (a) block drawing (b)
transmitter to maintain power transmission. This IPT system geometry parameters (c) side-view layout (d) magnetic equivalent circuit
has advantages of good geometry integration to rail track, high (e) transmitter and receiver equivalent circuit
inductive coupling and low EMF leakage to the steel periphery.
The equivalent circuit is illustrated in Fig. 3(e), where wM 2 I12
P2 = Sun ×Q2 = Q2 = wk 2 L1I 1Q2 (1)
inductance matrix including all self and mutual inductances will L2
be considered in this proposed design.
where k = M / L1 × L2 is the coupling coefficient of IPT
A. Magnetic System Design system depending on mutual inductance M, transmitter and
The maximum real power that an IPT system can output to receiver self-inductances L1, L2, Q2 is the quality factor of
the load with compensated circuit is described in (1): receiver resonant converter which is determined by the specific
85
compensation circuit from electrical system design, I1 is the
transmitter current and w=2πf is the system angular velocity. hair § Ad Aair ·
max k { min y = ¨ + ¸ (8)
Equation (1) shows that the performance of any generalized IPT x x lt ¨© d hp ¸¹
system strictly depends on the magnetic and electrical systems
co-design, where k, M, L1, L2 and w, I1, Q2 come from magnetic
Equation (8) shows approximation relationship between
components and electrical circuit respectively. These design
geometry parameters x and coupling coefficient k. Leakage
variables correlate to each other in the results of inverter power
areas Ad, Aair are further approximated by Ad / Aair<1.
rating, system spectrums, coil turns, and ferrite core dimensions
[14]. It is also noted that k in (1) only depends on the geometry Due to the dimension of the small-scale park gauge train
and material of ferrite cores. Thus, the geometry parameters of 2lt+d ≤ 40cm, pole top length lt and pole distance d to optimal
this IPT system are designed for a max inductive coupling k. k is solved by calculating (8) and simulating in Ansys Maxwell
The objective function is defined for this purpose as follows: through 3D finite-element analysis (FEA). The results are
demonstrated in Fig. 4. In Fig. 4, it is noted that optimal
ΦM coupling coefficient k exists around pole top length lt = 17cm
max k | (2) and pole distance d = 6cm from both approximation analysis
x ΦM +Φd +2Φside
and FEA. Different combinations of {lt, d} affect coupling
coefficient k, which can be explained in terms of the magnetic
lb l p lt lr ½ flux. When lt initially is small and d is large, mutual flux ΦM
° ° between the two poles is small due to a high reluctance RM
where x = ® wb ,w p ,wt ,wr ,d,AirGap ¾
° hb hp ht hr ° resulting from a small effective area AM. This results in a small
¯ ¿ k according to (3). When lt is eventually large and d is small,
and the ratio of mutual flux ΦM to total flux is maximized for a leakage flux Φd along pole distance takes up more portion of
maximized k. All reluctances inside of ferrite cores in Fig. 3(d) total flux due to a low reluctance Rd resulting from a small d.
are negligible due to a large enough relative permeability μr = This results in a small k again. Thus, a local maximum k by
2000. Geometry parameters x include dimensions {length l, varying {lt, d} are searched by approximation analysis and
width w, height h} of bottom plate {lb, wb, hb}, pole {lp, wp, hp}, verified in Fig. 4. The value of k in approximation analysis is
pole top {lt, wt, ht} and receiver plate {lr, wr, hr} shown in Fig. calculated by (8) which only provides researchers with insights
3(b). From Fig. 3(d), (2) is recalculated as follow:
mmf / RM 1 Ad/Aair=1/3
k| =
mmf
+2
mmf
+2
mmf
1+ 2RM (
1
+
1
)
(3) Ad/Aair=1/5
RM Rd Rair Rd Rair
Ad/Aair=1/7
Ad/Aair=1/9 optimal k around

Equation (3) is derived by canceling out magnetomotive lt = 17 cm
force mmf in both nominator and denominator of (3). Then,
approximation analysis is used to simplify the design
complexity of irregular volume integral by applying (4), (5) and
(6). Partial denominator of (3) is transformed into (7):
(a)
h
RM | air (4)
Max k by Ansys Maxwell 3D FEA
μ0 AM
d
Rd | (5)
μ0 Ad
hp
Rair | (6)
μ0 Aair
Pole Top Length lt (cm)

1 1 h A A
RM ( + ) | air ( d + air ) (7) (b)
Rd Rair AM d hp
Fig. 4. Optimal inductive coupling coefficient derived by (a) approximation
where AM, Ad, Aair are effective areas of the path of magnetic analysis (8) and (b) Ansys Maxwell 3D FEA
flux. Since maximizing k is equivalent to minimize (7), (7) is
used as the objective function instead of (3) and reformed into
(8) with approximation analysis AM ∝ lt,
86
Iin Io
IT IR ILoad VLoad
CT CR
Vo
Vin VT I-Type Dipole IPT VR
System
(a) Onboard
Battery
HF Inverter Transmitter Receiver HF Rectifier Voltage Regulator
(a)
4 S vtripk vinverter
1: sin( )
S 2 vtripk
1: D
(b) Resonant Converter on
Transmitter and Receiver
Vin Re Ro Rload
H(s)
Series LC/Parallel LC/LCL/CLC
(b)
Fig. 6. Proposed I-type dipole IPT system circuit (a) circuit topology with
full bridge inverter, passive diode rectifier and buck converter (b) equivalent
(c) circuit in steady state
4Q23 ½
min ® ITf_pk , , THD ¾ (9)
¯ (4Q22 - 1)Q1 ¿
(d)
where ITf_pk is the transmitter fundamental current peak value,
Fig. 5. Coupling coefficient k vs. variable geometry parameters (a) bottom THD is the total harmonics distortion of transmitter voltage. In
plate height, pole top height and receiver plate height (b) pole length (c) pole (9), the transmitter current is minimized to reduce inverter
width and pole top width (d) air gap current rating. Q1 and Q2 follow the constraints from [12] and
the THD of transmitter voltage is also minimized. Fig. 6(a)
of geometry design rather than realistic coupling coefficient shows the designed system circuit. The steady state equivalent
between the transmitter and the receiver. circuit is shown in Fig. 6(b). The proposed I-type dipole IPT
system is modelled as a high order resonant converter with
Given designed lt and d, impacts on coupling coefficient k
voltage and current transfer functions H(s) = {Hv, Hi}.
by other geometry parameters are compared and the results are
Sinusoidal approximation is used to model the high frequency
shown in Fig. 5. It is noted that variations on plate height {hb,
inverter. The transfer function between system input and load
ht, hr} and pole length lp have small influences on k in Fig. 5(a)
is derived as a function of modulation index vinverter of inverter,
and (b). Pole width {wp, wt} and air gap {AirGap} between
H(s), and duty ratio D of buck converter.
transmitter and receiver have a significant influence on k, which
can be explained by basic principle of wireless power transfer.
After several trials, complete geometry parameters x of Vload π Vtri_pk - vinverter
Gv (s)= = Dsin( )H v (s) (10)
proposed I-type dipole IPT system are illustrated in Table. I. Vin 2 Vtri_pk
TABLE I
GEOMETRY PARAMETERS X OF PROPOSED I-TYPE DIPOLE IPT SYSTEM (CM)
lb = 42 lp = 2 lt = 14 lr = 42 I load 2
d=9 Gi (s)= = H i (s) (11)
wb = 15 wp = 10 wt = 10 wr = 30 ITf_pk πD
AirGap = 5
hb = 1 hp = 11 ht = 1 hr = 1
where Gv, Gi are transfer functions for voltage and current

B. Electrical System Design respectively, Vtri_pk is the inverter carrier signal peak value,
With the development of power electronics technology, the which normally equals to 1. In (11) and (12), it is noted that Gv,
degree of circuit design freedom increases greatly from both and Gi only depend on vinverter, H(s), and D. Thus, the
topology side and control side. IPT system is provided with coordination of these three variables are essential to overall
advantages of good interface with AC grid or DC bus, system design. Thus, magnetic and electrical systems co-design
bidirectional power flow, high frequency operation and is introduced to achieve an optimized system performance.
misalignment tolerance by a comprehensive power electronics
circuit design. For example, in [12], the IPT system is analyzed
as a high order resonant converter and its quality factors Q1, Q2 C. Magnetic and Electrical Systems Co-design
are restricted to certain ranges to stabilize system dynamic Multi-objective optimization based magnetic and electrical
behaviors. These constraints are also employed here as an systems co-design is introduced. Based on the system
objective for electrical system design. The overall system specifications, this co-design is aimed at 1kW/48V onboard
objective functions considered are shown in (9): battery charging with 400V DC bus input and 20kHz operating
frequency, {Vin = 400V, f = 20kHz, Vload = 48V, Pload = 1kW}.
87
Optimal
Geometry ª L11 M12 M13 M14 º System Circuit
Parameters k
H(s)
Inverter Modulation
«M M 24 »» Y
L 22 M 23 Specifications Objectives
« 21
« M 31 M 34 » End Objective: ITf_pk
«
M 32 L33
» ITf_pk ,Q1 ,Q2 ,THD 5.73A
Design Vin ,Vload ,Pload
Index
¬ M 41 M 42 M 43 L 44 ¼
0.64
N
v inverter ,D
Transmitter Coil Turns N1 ,N 3
Receiver Coil Turns N 2 ,N 4 Buck Converter Duty Ratio
(a)
Fig. 7. Block diagram of multi-objective optimization based magnetic and
electrical systems co-design of I-type dipole IPT system Optimal
Inverter Modulation
Objective: Q1,Q2
According to design diagram shown in Fig. 7, inductance
Index
0.64
matrix is tuned by changing coil turns N1, N2, N3, and N4. vinverter
and D are calculated to meet system specifications, which
Buck Converter Duty Ratio
provides a large number of sets of feasible design solutions.
System objectives in (9) are calculated and compared in order (b)
to select the specific design solution. After a large amount of Optimal
Inverter Modulation
computations and simulations, the inductance matrix derived Objective: THD
from coil turns N1, N2, N3, N4 ranging from 1 to 30 are
Index
0.64
compared. Then, N1 = N3 = 24, N2 = N4 = 15 are selected

eventually since the system specifications are satisfied over the
most range of vinverter and D (from 0.01 to 1) based on such coil Buck Converter Duty Ratio
turns. Once inductance matrix is determined, H(s) is calculated (c)

and system objectives in (9) are analyzed by using discrete Fig. 8. Magnetic and electrical co-design results with N1 = 24 and N2 = 15
design variables vinverter and D (from 0.01 to 1). The results are on D-vinverter coordinate system (a) transmitter fundamental current
illustrated on a D-vinverter coordinate system in Fig. 8. In Fig. amplitude (b) quality factors constraint (c) THD of transmitter voltage
8(a), circle size at each coordinate (D-vinverter) reflects its
required ITf_pk. With larger D, vinverter is smaller in order to meet
system specifications according to (10) and (11) and ITf_pk is
smaller according to a smaller circle size, which gives a better
objective on ITf_pk. Similarly, in Fig. 8(c), THD of transmitter
voltage is reflected here instead of ITf_pk. In Fig. 8(b), circle
color at each coordinate (D-vinverter) reflects the objective on Q1,
Q2. With lighter yellow located at smaller D and greater vinverter,
the ratio of quality factors in (9) is smaller. Conversely, purple
stands for a worse objective on Q1, Q2. By weighting most on
the objective of ITf_pk, medium on the objective of Q1, Q2 and
least on the objective of THD, 22 sets of feasible solutions (D- (a)
vinverter) are derived with D ranging from 0.33 to 0.54. One (D-
vinverter) is selected based on empirical design as shown in Table
II. The corresponding inductance matrix is presented in Table
III. The labels of inductance matrix are the same as Fig. 3(e).
TABLE II
VARIABLE SOLUTION OF MAGNETIC AND ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS CO-DESIGN
N1 = N3 = 24 N2 = N4 = 15 vinverter = 0.64 D = 0.5
TABLE III
INDUCTANCE MATRIX (uH) OF IPT SYSTEM WITH N1=N3=24, N2=N4=15
L1 M1 L2 M2 L3 M3 L4 M4
L11+L13 L12+L14 L22+L24 L21+L23 L33+L31 L32+L34 L44+L42 L41+L43 (b)
838.7 274.3 291.7 172.5 838.7 274.3 292.8 172.5
Fig. 9. Proposed I-type dipole IPT system Ansys Maxwell 3D FEA results
(a) magnetic field density B magnitude distribution (b) magnetic field
III. SIMULATION RESULTS density B vector distribution
Given all design parameters including geometry parameters irregular volume integral to regular volume in magnetic system
x and co-design variables N1, N2, N3, N4, vinverter, D, the proposed design. In Fig. 9(b), vectors of B are pointed from the first
I-type dipole IPT system is co-simulated in Ansys Maxwell and transmitter pole upwards to its receiver pole and then from
Simplorer. Magnetic field density B of the magnetic system another receiver pole downwards to the second transmitter pole,
design is calculated by Ansys Maxwell 3D FEA shown in Fig. which verifies the hypothetic magnetic flux circulation path
9. Fig. 9(a) shows the magnitude of B between receiver and pole shown in Fig. 3(a).
top of transmitter. It is noted that the magnitude shows greatest
on the top of transmitter and uniformly distributed in the space In electrical system simulation, each receiver pole of
between transmitter and receiver. This distribution justifies that proposed I-type dipole IPT system is connected to a diode
approximation analysis in Section II is feasible to simplify bridge rectifier and a buck converter for AC/DC conversion and
88
IPT system is proposed and its scale-down 1kW system is
designed by a multi-objective optimization based magnetic and
electrical systems co-design. This IPT system has advantages
of good geometry integration to rail track, high inductive
coupling and low EMF leakage to steel periphery. The co-
simulation results verify the performance of proposed IPT
system on both system specifications and optimized objectives.
In the near future, this design can be scaled up for ZEBL with
necessary modifications and also prepared for further rail IPT
system research.
(a) REFERENCES
[1] D. Cook, I. Stewart, “On Board Electrification and Near Zero Emissions
for Regional Rail,” in Steel Wheels, July August September 2014.
[Online]. Available: http://www.railpac.org/2014/09/05/on-board-
electrification-and-near-zero-emissions-for-regional-rail/
[2] K. W. Klontz, D. M. Divan, D. W. Novotny and R. D. Lorenz,
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[3] A. W. Kelley and W. R. Owens, "Connectorless power supply for an
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[4] S. Li and C. C. Mi, "Wireless Power Transfer for Electric Vehicle
Applications," in IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in
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(b) Power Interface for Electric Vehicles in V2G Systems," in IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 4789-4796,
Fig. 10. 1kW IPT system co-simulation results (a) one pole load waveforms Oct. 2011.
(b) one pole transmitter and receiver currents [6] J. Shin et al., "Design and Implementation of Shaped Magnetic-
Resonance-Based Wireless Power Transfer System for Roadway-
Powered Moving Electric Vehicles," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial
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load with 500W real power. Fig. 10 shows the co-simulation [7] J. Huh, S. W. Lee, W. Y. Lee, G. H. Cho and C. T. Rim, "Narrow-Width
results in Ansys Simplorer. Due to the limit of computer Inductive Power Transfer System for Online Electrical Vehicles," in IEEE
computing capability, 400V DC bus and high frequency Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 26, pp. 3666-3679, Dec. 2011.
[8] C. Park, S. Lee, S. Y. Jeong, G. H. Cho and C. T. Rim, "Uniform Power
inverter are replaced by, vTf(t), the transmitter fundamental I-Type Inductive Power Transfer System With DQ-Power Supply Rails
voltage at 20kHz. Fig. 10(a) shows the load voltage and current for On-Line Electric Vehicles," in IEEE Transactions on Power
waveforms, where the onboard battery is charged at 51.99V and Electronics, vol. 30, no. 11, pp. 6446-6455, Nov. 2015.
10.67A. 555W DC power is transmitted through each receiver [9] S. Y. Choi, S. Y. Jeong, B. W. Gu, G. C. Lim and C. T. Rim, "Ultraslim
stage, 1110W in total. Fig. 10(b) shows transmitter current I1 S-Type Power Supply Rails for Roadway-Powered Electric Vehicles," in
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 30, no. 11, pp. 6456-6468,
and receiver current I2. Transmitter current I1 is optimized at Nov. 2015.
5.87A peak value which is close to the system objective ITf_pk [10] J. H. Kim et al., "Development of 1-MW Inductive Power Transfer
(5.73A) in the co-design in Fig. 8(a). For further reduction of System for a High-Speed Train," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial
transmitter current, multi-objective optimization enables to add Electronics, vol. 62, no. 10, pp. 6242-6250, Oct. 2015.
more weights on ITf_pk and design variables are expected to be [11] J. T. Boys, G. A. Covic and A. W. Green, "Stability and control of
inductively coupled power transfer systems," in IEE Proceedings -
on the right-hand side of the current selected point on D-vinverter Electric Power Applications, vol. 147, no. 1, pp. 37-43, Jan 2000.
axis. It is also noted that I2 is leading I1 at 90 degrees and the [12] C. Wang, G. A. Covic and O. H. Stielau, "Power transfer capability and
magnitude is based on Hi(s) calculated by inductance matrix bifurcation phenomena of loosely coupled inductive power transfer
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pp. 148-157, Feb. 2004.
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method. Some deviations may be caused by variation of for Transportation Applications," in IEEE Journal of Emerging and
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power transfer systems," PowerCon 2000. 2000 International Conference
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WA, 2000, pp. 85-90 vol.1.
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Inductance in Polyphase Inductive Power Transfer Systems," in IEEE
The importance of transportation electrification rises with Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 56, pp. 2393-2400, July 2009.
concerns on deteriorated natural environment. IPT offers a huge
propulsion for rail electrification by charging the onboard
battery of locomotive wirelessly. In this paper, an I-type dipole
89
FPGA-based Real-Time Simulation of Floating
Interleaved Boost Converter for FCEV Powertrain
Hao Bai1,2, Huan Luo1, Chen Liu1,2, Rui Ma1,2, Damien Paire1,2 and Fei Gao1,2
1
FEMTO-ST (UMR CNRS 6174), Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comte, UTBM
2
FCLAB (FR CNRS 3539), Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comte, UTBM
Rue Thierry Mieg, F-90010 Belfort Cedex, France
Email: {hao.bai, huan.luo, chen.liu}@utbm.fr, {rui.ma, damien.paire, fei.gao}@utbm.fr
Abstract— Floating interleaved boost converter (FIBC) is a a time-step of hundreds of nanoseconds [8][9][14]. In addition,
high-voltage-ratio DC/DC converter with low input current one of the flaws of FPGA is that some math operations can be
ripple which is suitable for the fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) very time-consuming, such as division operation, which indeed
powertrain. This paper proposed a methodology for the FPGA- impose restrictions on the achievable time-step. Therefore, the
based real-time simulation of FIBC converter with a time-step of computation will be significantly accelerated if the solvers are
25 ns. The FIBC is modeled with highly paralleled structure and designed with division-free characteristic.
division-free characteristic to accelerate the simulation on FPGA.
The accuracy and effectivity of proposed methodology are In this paper, a network decoupling method based on
verified by the offline simulations and the practical experiments. explicit integration methods is employed on the modeling of
FIBC. As a consequence, each sub-circuit is small-scale and
Keywords— floating interleaved boost converter, real-time can be solved simultaneously. The solver is totally division-
simulation, FPGA, network decoupling, FCEV powertrain free by pre-calculating and storing a small number of
coefficients. The FIBC model is then designed in the Labview
I. INTRODUCTION Software equipped with NI real-time module and FPGA
module. A fast solver with 25 ns time-step is implemented on a
Floating interleaved boost converter (FIBC) [1][2] is an
Kintex-7 XC7K70T FPGA board, which is embedded in NI
attractive selection for the DC/DC converter in Fuel Cell
PXIe 7975R of PXIe platform NI. The proposed FIBC model
Electric Vehicle (FCEV) powertrain between fuel cell and
is validated by SimPowerSystems (SPS) model in Simulink
motor drive dc-link due to its high-voltage-ratio and low-input-
offline simulation. Moreover, practical experiments of FIBC
ripple characteristics. In order to obtain a good performance of
are conducted to verify the performance of the real-time
FIBC, some advanced control strategies [2][3] have been
simulation.
adopted but the complexity is enhanced when designing the
control strategies. A real-time simulation is an essential tool for This paper is organized as follows. A brief introduction of
designing and testing controllers [4]. However, real-time FIBC is presented first in section II. Detailed modeling of
simulation of power electronic circuits is challenged by the FIBC is then elaborated in section III. In section IV, the
very small time-step which is imposed by the higher switching implementation of FPGA-based real-time simulation is
frequency. In order to guarantee the accuracy of the simulation, illustrated and the simulation results are compared with
the practical simulation time-steps are about to be a hundred practical FIBC experiments. In the final, conclusions are
times less than the switching period [6]. The realistic switching drawn.
frequency of power converters in state of art reaches to 100
kHz or higher, leading to a real-time simulation time-step L2
located at the level of nanoseconds. Conventional CPU-based
L1
real-time simulation is limited to a time-step of several + ① ② ③ D2 ⑥
+
microseconds [5]. As a result, more attention has been focused I FC D1 I out
on FPGA, since its parallelism can be used to realize a VFC S1 S2 C1
nanosecond-level time-step. In addition, circuit-under-test
should be modeled into paralleled structures to alleviate the - Vout
computation overhead in each time-step. Several network
tearing and partitioning methods have been proposed to
S3 S4 C2
decouple circuits into different parts, including the state-space L3 D3
nodal method (SSN) [7], network tearing method [9], multi- ⑦
-
L4 D4
rate method [10] and multi-solver method [12]. These methods ④ ⑤
are capable to partition the network into different independent
parts which can be computed in parallel. The partitioning can Fig. 1. Four-phase FIBC topology.
be very effective for FPGA-based simulation and contribute to
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 90

II. BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF FIBC CONVERTER independent and can be computed in parallel within each time-
FIBC can provide high voltage ratio and low input current. step.
This is very meaningful for the DC/DC converters between
fuel cell and inverter in FCEV powertrain. A fuel cell is a
current source like device with low output voltage while the +
Part A C Part B Part C L Part D
voltage of powertrain drive link is higher. More cells stacked -
to achieve high output voltage can reduce its reliability and
lifetime. Therefore, a high voltage ratio converter is required.
Moreover, a small current ripple can contribute to the longer
lifespan of the fuel cell and the decrease in inductor volume as Sub- VCn +1 Sub- Sub- I Ln +1 Sub-
circuit circuit circuit circuit
well. A typical four-phase FIBC is depicted in Fig.1. It is A B C D
composed of four paralleled conventional boost converters
with a floating output and interleaved input. In order to reduce
the input current ripple, the phases of four PWM control
signals are spaced with an interval of 90 degrees. [1] gave an Fig. 2. Schematic of decoupling method.
expression of input current ripple evaluation for four-phase
FIBC, shown in (1) where X is the number of four duty cycle
intervals, D is the duty cycle. It reveals that the input current  n +1 n h n
ripple is always less than the inductor current ripple. Besides,  J L = J L + L VL
the ratios of output voltage and input voltage of the FIBC and  (3)
V n +1 = V n + h I n
conventional boost converter are expressed as (2), showing the  C C
C
C
fact that the FIBC output voltage is higher than the

conventional boost converter under the same duty cycle. Sub-circuits 1 to 5 can be formulated as Y = Coef ⋅ S ,
where vector S is the vector of sources in each sub-circuits, Y
ΔiFC ( X − 4 D ) ( D − 0.25 ( X − 1) ) is the vector of state variables, Coef is coefficients matrix
= (1) which is obtained by KCL/KVL and superposition theorem.
ΔiL D (1 − D ) Coefficient matrix of sub-circuit 1 is constant during the
simulation and can be pre-calculated. The sub-circuit 2-5 are of
the same formulation which is given by (4). Their coefficient
 1
1 − D , conventional boost matrices are variant and depend on the switches states.
M ( D) =  (2) Considering that each sub-circuit has 2 switches, 4
1 + D , Four -Phase FIBC possibilities of coefficient matrices can be pre-calculated and
1 − D stored in the specific memory. After the acquisition of IGBT
and diode states, the coefficient matrix can be loaded from
memory in each time-step based on switch states. Due to the
III. DETAILED MODELING OF FOUR-PHASE FIBC parallelism between sub-circuits, only a small number of
possibilities are required to be stored, which occupies a small
A. Circuit Decoupling and Formulation of FIBC percentage of available resources in FPGA. Therefore, the
For a circuit with state space representation x = Ax + Bu , if computation of entire circuit involves no division operations.
some state variables are discretized by explicit integration This is meaningful for FPGA since division operation is pretty
methods at each time-step, they can be treated as power time-consuming and disadvantageous for real-time applications.
sources injected into the rest of network [10]. This is because
explicit integration methods only concern about values of ② SUB2 ③ SUB3
previous time-steps. Therefore, different parts of the circuit + GD1 I D1 + GD 2 I D2
SUB1
connecting in series with a current source can be decoupled; VC 2 VS1 GS 1 VS 2 GS 2
① J L1 VC1 J L 2 VC1
different parts connecting in parallel with a voltage source can
I FC I out
be decoupled as well. For example, series inductors and - - -
paralleled capacitors can be treated respectively as current VFC

JL RL Vout
sources and voltage sources injected into the rest of circuit if + SUB4 SUB5
① ①
they are discretized by Forward Euler method, shown as Fig.2. VC1 + I D3 + I D4
Four-phase FIBC is decoupled into five sub-circuits as 4
J L =  J Li J L3 VS 3 GS 3 VC 2 J L 4 VS 4 GS 4 VC 2
shown in Fig.3 when currents of boost inductors and voltages i =1
GD 3 GD 4
- -
of output capacitors are discretized by Forward Euler ④ ⑤
integration method. Currents of boost inductors and voltages of
output capacitors are treated as constant current sources and Fig. 3. Decoupling of four-phase FIBC.
constant voltage sources at each time-step, respectively. The
values of these two sources are computed based on (3) and (4).
Four IGBTs and four diodes are modeled as two-value
conductance to represent on/off state. Hence, 5 sub-circuits are Y (i ) = Coef (i ) ⋅ S ( i ) (4)
91
D. Offline Simulation Validation
Where Y = [VS I D ] , S = [VC J L ] , i = 2,…, 5
(i ) (i ) T T
To prove the correctness of modeling method and proposed

1  GD 1  solver for FIBC, offline simulation validation is necessary. The
Coef ( ) =
i
 −G G GD  results are compared with commercial simulation software and
GS + GD  S D errors are then calculated. A reference SPS model of four-
At the end of each time-step, history items need to be phase FIBC is established in Simulink and solved by Ode23tb
updated, including voltages across boost inductors and currents (stiff/TR-BDF2) while the proposed model and solver are
flowing through output capacitors, shown as (5) by taking L1 designed in MATLAB scripts. The parameters of FIBC is
and C1 as an example. shown in Table I. The sample time is 100ns.
TABLE I. CIRCUIT PARAMETERS OF FIBC

VL1 = VFC − VS 1
 (5) Parameters Values Parameters Values
 I C1 = I D1 + I D 2 − I out
PWM Frequency 20 KHz FC-rated Voltage 72 V
Inductors (L1-L4) 100 μH Capacitors (C1-C2) 2200 μH

B. Switch State Identification
Turn-on Equivalent Turn-on Equivalent
1×10-3 S 1×103 S
The method of identifying on/off state of switches is Conductance (Gon) Conductance (Goff)
presented in Fig.4. The state of IGBT is identified by the gate
signals. The IGBT turns on and the corresponding diode shuts
off when the gate signal is positive. When the gate signal is
zero or negative, the IGBT turns off and diode state is
determined by the inductor current. The continuous inductor
current leads to the diode forward conduction while the
discontinuous inductor current blocks the diode. It is notable
that inductor current is obtained at the beginning of each time-
step by the explicit integration method, which introduces no
latency in the identification of diode state.
Start
Gate signal
NO
PWM==1?
YES
Inductor
YES Current NO
IL>0?
IGBT is ON IGBT is OFF IGBT is OFF

Diode is OFF Diode is ON Diode is OFF
Stop
Fig. 4. Flowchart of the identification process of switch states.
C. Stability Verification
Explicit integration method can be risky due to its stability
issue. Therefore, the stability of proposed FIBC solver needs to
be verified based on the pole position of the discretized system. Fig. 5. Offline simulation results comparison. Dashed line: results of SPS
model; Solid line: results of proposed model. (a) FIBC input current; (b)
The global discretized system can be given by the FIBC FIBC output current; (c) inductor currents; (d) capacitor voltages
discretized state space equation since the decoupling method is
based on the explicit method and all the state variables are The SPS model and proposed model of FIBC are operated
selected as decoupled variables. If all the poles of the under the open-loop condition with a resistive load. Offline
discretized system are located with a unit cycle, the solver is simulation results are displayed in Fig.5. According to the
considered to be stable. The stability is related to the modes of results, the proposed model shows favorable accuracy
the FIBC model and the adopted discretization time-steps. The compared with SPS model. Average relative errors are less
modes of a system are inherent, however the shorter time-step than 0.2%. The feasibility and accuracy are verified and the
is conducive to the stability. In this paper, the proposed solver foundation has been established for the FPGA implementation.
is verified to be stable with the ultra-small 25ns time-step.
92
IV. FPGA IMPLEMENTATION OF FIBC REAL-TIME MODEL B. Hardware Designs
A diagram of FPGA hardware implementation is depicted
A. Real-Time Test Bench in Fig.7. The hardware is composed of four modules, including
The real-time simulation of four-phase FIBC is performed explicit integration module, switch state identification module,
on a Kintex-7 XC7K70T FPGA board, which is embedded in sub-circuit computation module and history item update
PXIe 7975R of PXIe platform with 40.00 MHz onboard clock, module. At the beginning of each time-step, history items
shown as Fig.6. All the FPGA hardware is designed in the related to inductors and capacitors are loaded from shift
Labview software equipped with FPGA module and Real-Time registers and sent to explicit integration module to compute the
module, by using the graphic programming techniques. The new values of state variables. Then, switch states are identified
designed codes can be compiled into FPGA bit-files. The bit- based on the gate signals and the inductor current of present
file will be downloaded into FPGA when conducting the time-step. Afterward, five sub-circuits are computed
simulation. All the output results from FPGA are converted simultaneously. At the end of each time step, output variables
from digital signals to analog signals by NI Signal Generator are exported and history items are updated to prepare for the
Adapter Module NI-5741 so that they can be displayed on the computation of next time-step. It can be observed that the
oscilloscope screen. multiple explicit integration modules can be computed in
parallel as well as the five sub-circuits. After the circuit
decoupling, parallelism is fully utilized to accelerate the
simulation.
If coefficients in (3) and (4) are pre-computed, the division
operation is completely avoided. This method is feasible due to
the small scale of each sub-circuit and a small number of
switches in each sub-circuit. Consequently, the computational
latencies are reduced tremendously.
A 40-bit word length fix-point numerical representation is
adopted in the design. Moreover, the designed codes is
synthesized by the Vivado High-Level synthesis tools provided
by NI IP builder. The timing performance and device
utilization can be quick-estimated. Table II lists the timing
performance and device utilization of the implementation. The
latency is reported as ‘0’ which means all the codes can be
executed in one clock cycle. Therefore, an ultra-small time-
step of 25ns is achieved with a clock of 40MHz. The top-level
design is implemented in the single-cycle timed loop in order
Fig. 6. NI FlexRIO FPGA-based real-time test bench. to guarantee the strict time constraints of 25ns in each time-
step. Because the timing of the loop corresponds exactly to the
specified FPGA clock rate.
n +1
VFC , RL−1 Vout VFC
n +1
I out vLin +1
vLin iLin +1
iLin GLi × + n +1
I FC
iLin +1
VSn +1 I dn +1
vCin +1
vCin
vCin +1
iCin GCi−1 × +
iCin +1
Coef
PWM 
S =
Fig. 7. Diagram of FPGA hardware for the FIBC real-time simulation.
93
TABLE II. TIMING PERFORMANCE AND DEVICE UTILIZATION OF THE
FPGA IMPLEMENTATION
Slice Block
Device Slice LUTs DSP48s
Registers RAMs
Utilization
624 2840 83 0
Initiation
Timing Clock Rate Pipelined? Latency
Intervals
Performance
40MHz 1 NO 0
C. Performance Validation
In order to validate the performances of proposed FPGA-
based real-time simulation of FIBC, a real four-phase FIBC has
been tested with the same parameters. FIBC operates under the
closed-loop condition of inductor currents. Two sets of
dynamic step responses of inductor currents in real-time
simulation and experiments are captured in Fig.8 and Fig.9.
Inductor current iL1 is only depicted in the figure for simplicity.
In Fig.8, the reference inductor current steps up from 13A to
20A and the magnified waveform is depicted. In Fig.9, the
reference steps up from 10A to 20A and then steps down to
10A after a few seconds. The results are filtered in Fig.9. It can
be observed that real-time FIBC model responds well to the
reference signals and produces consistent results with practical
experiments. Therefore, the real-time FIBC model can serve as
a real converter when tuning the parameters of an embedded
controller. Fig. 9. Step response of inductor current 10A-20A-10A. (a) inductor current
reference; (b) real-time simulation results; (c) experiment results.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents a detailed design methodology of
FPGA-based real-time simulation for the four-phase FIBC
converter. The developed model has a highly paralleled
structure and the division-free characteristic, which is tailored
to FPGA solution. A fast simulation with 25 ns time-step is
achieved. Simulation results are compared with offline
simulations and practical experiments. The validity and
accuracy are confirmed. The modeling methodology and its
FPGA implementation can be also expanded to FIBCs with a
different number of phases as well as other types of the
converters in FCEV powertrain.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by the European Commission
H2020 grant EPSESA (H2020-TWINN-2015), EU Grant
agreement No: 692224.
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Miraoui, "Experimental Validation of High-Voltage-Ratio Low-Input-
Current-Ripple Converters for Hybrid Fuel Cell Supercapacitor
Systems," in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 61, no.
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95
Autonomous circuit design of a resonant converter
(LLC) for on-board chargers using genetic
algorithms
Andreas Rosskopf, Sophia Volmering, Stefan Ditze, Christopher Joffe, Eberhard Baer
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems
and Device Technology IISB
Erlangen, Germany
Abstract—In the field of conductive and inductive charging In the electronic domain, GAs are already used in the field of
systems, contrary requirements such as high power density, function and signal fitting [9], [10], [11] determining the best
small installation space, low power losses and costs need to combination of component values and topology of an electrical
be optimized for multiple operation points taking into account circuit for a given set of measurements. Moreover, these opti-
customer defined power transfer profiles. In this paper the mization algorithms are already applied on tuning component
engineering experience for safe and practical operation modes
values of simple electrical circuits with regard to one objective
(complete zero voltage switching, inductive operation region,
etc.) is transferred into the mathematical domain of multiple (minimal losses) based on initial values [12]. In this work,
constraints and objectives. Based on that, a new cascading common approaches are enhanced by a cascading penalty
penalty strategy is combined with a genetic algorithm (GA) to strategy enabling the consideration of multiple objectives and
process the circuit design of a resonant converter (LLC) for on- constraints in the design of power electronic circuits. This
board chargers autonomously. Within this self-learning design new methodology is demonstrated by tuning multiple operation
process the power losses on the primary and secondary side points of a galvanically isolated LLC resonant converter as a
of the resonant converter are minimized for multiple operation part of an on-board charging system.
points. The optimization setup reliably reaches feasible solution In section II the basics of the LLC topology for electric vehicle
candidates for this highly non-linear problem and even enables charging systems are provided, while the following section
the prediction of technological limits. Due to the general purpose
describes the strategy of state of the art GAs. In section IV the
of the method, this autonomous design process can be adapted
to other circuit topologies and applications. consideration of varying constraints with multiple objectives in
parallel is demonstrated by the cascading penalty approaches.
This new methodology is applied on the corresponding setup
I. I NTRODUCTION design of an exemplary on-board charger application. Setup,
The design process of electronic circuits in power elec- optimization parameters and results are provided in section V,
tronic systems and especially in vehicle charging systems is and finally discussed with regard to future design strategies and
characterized by a high amount of objectives, constraints and limitations of GAs in the domain of power electronic circuits.
limits. In general, the design of such complex systems requires
a wide and extensive experience in the associated topology and II. LLC T OPOLOGY FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING
a multi-level preselection of potential parameter configurations SYSTEMS
using simplification and linearization of the corresponding
circuit [1], [2], [3]. In the domain of conductive and inductive charging sys-
However, this traditional design process can be transferred tems, resonant topologies have demonstrated their potential
from a knowledge- and experience-driven approach to a self- due to high efficiency and robustness [13], [14]. They exhibit
directed learning and data-driven methodology. Based on an advantages like low switching losses using zero voltage switch-
analytical implementation of the system requirements for prac- ing (ZVS) of the primary power semiconductors and zero
tical operation points, a multi-objective optimization problem current switching (ZCS) of the secondary side rectifier diodes
is formulated guiding the design process of the electrical what results in high converter efficiency. Moreover, resonant
circuit. In this iterative process, the input parameters are tuned topologies utilize the intrinsic stray inductance of non-ideal
autonomously by the artificial intelligence (within the user coupled transformers beneficially and thus, high switching
defined ranges) and yields an increasing improvement with frequencies and low overall system size can be achieved.
regard to the user defined objectives (such as minimal currents The LLC topology (cf. Fig. 1) is one of the most common
or losses). The approach described takes advantage of the evo- topologies established in a large variety of applications ranging
lutionary and explorative characteristic of genetic algorithms from milliwatts to kilowatts [15], [16], [17], [18] and especially
(GAs) which have already demonstrated their potential in many in the field of on-board chargers for electrical vehicles [19],
kinds of engineering [4], [5], [6] as well as economic prob- [20]. In the latter application, the LLC resonant converter is
lems [7], [8]. These mathematical methods only require little supplied by an active power factor correction (PFC) converter
knowledge about the optimization function and corresponding and realizes the galvanic isolation between the mains and the
solution space and even enable an efficient exploration of high voltage vehicle battery. The active PFC draws a sinusoidal
large parameter spaces with up to several dozen parameters. current from the mains to achieve a power factor of unity. The
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 96

Fig. 1. Topology of the LLC resonant converter for a galvanic isolated on-
board charger. Fig. 3. Exemplary output power profile for five operation points correspond-
ing to variations of the output voltage Vout .
and switching frequency, electrical circuit simulators such as

LTSpice, Simulink, or Simplorer are used to solve the circuit
problem for the given topology. This helps the designer to con-
sider further components with non-linear behavior, e.g. diodes
and switches, and to analyze the influence of input voltage and
switching frequency variations on transferred output power.
The most challenging task in the design process consists of tun-
ing the parameter values in such a manner, that an optimum is
achieved with regard to multiple objectives (minimal currents
and losses within the inductive components and semiconduc-
tors) and all constraints (e.g. each operating point fulfills the
ZVS within the inductive operation region) considering several
operating points. In Fig. 3 an exemplary output power profile
of a 3.7 kW on-board charger is depicted over the varying
battery voltage Vout . For the further considerations a fixed input
Fig. 2. Scaled representation of an exemplary output power-vs.-switching
frequency characteristic of a LLC resonant converter. Vout is the battery
voltage Vin = 400 V for the LLC resonant converter is assumed
voltage. and the LLC resonant converter depicted in Fig. 1 is modelled
in LTSpice with ideal active and passive components.
almost constant output voltage of the active PFC circuit is III. G ENETIC A LGORITHMS
adapted to the current battery voltage by the LLC resonant
converter and the output power is regulated as well. The traditional design process for optimizing electrical
However, the dimensioning of a LLC resonant converter is circuits for multiple operation points is commonly very time
challenging due to the multi-resonant behavior of the resonant consuming and heavily relies on experiences. However, from
tank components. In Fig. 2 an exemplary output power charac- a mathematical point of view, this engineering task can be
teristic is depicted in a scaled representation showing the non- transferred to a multi-objective optimization problem taking
linear relation between output power and switching frequency into account the criteria for feasibility and practicability of the
[14]. During the change of the output-to-input voltage transfer operation points described in the previous section.
ratio M the operating point of the LLC resonant converter Due to the fact that the relation between input parameter and
changes between the individual output characteristics. As- output results is not given by a defined function, but rather by
suming a constant input voltage Vin supplied by the active evaluations of the electrical circuit, derivative-based optimiza-
PFC, the switching frequency of the LLC resonant converter tion approaches such as the Conjugate Gradient (CG) or Quasi-
has to be decreased with rising battery voltage and power Newton Method are not feasible to predict better parameter
requirement. Depending on the range of the battery voltage, the sets [4]. Additional restrictions in the choice of the algo-
LLC resonant converter has to manage a rather large voltage rithms result from the high amount of optimization parameters
transfer ratio M. Therefore, a precise selection of the converter and the optimization considering multiple objectives. Such
component values is necessary to achieve high efficiency and requirements on the optimization approach commonly lead
stable operating points over the entire working range. to the usage of heuristic, biologically inspired, evolutionary
In general, the design process is characterized by using approx- based methods summed up in the family of genetic algorithms
imation methods (e.g. first harmonic approximation (FHA), (GA). These algorithms approximate the solution of an opti-
extended FHA) and linearized components to calculate a first mization problem using techniques inspired by the processes
set of component values for the defined operating range [21], of natural evolution: recombination, mutation and selection
[22]. Basic considerations are used to narrow the available within a reproduction procedure [4], [23]. Individuals (solution
component values down to a robust operation point of the candidates) from a population (set of solution candidates) are
LLC resonant converter enabling ZVS within the inductive recombined, randomly modified and finally rated considering
operation region for a defined power transfer. Based on this their fitness (provided by a user defined evaluation function,
given set of component values (inductances, capacitances, hereafter ’fitness function’). Combining the new generated
switches, transformation ratio, etc.) and the applied voltages individuals with the individuals in the archive and selecting
97
A constant granularity of large parameter ranges
within the optimization process would excessively
prefer the probability of choosing the larger values.
Consequently, logarithmically scaled parameters
for multi-magnitude quantities such as parameter
f log kHz from 0 to 3 instead of a frequency range
of f from 1 kHz to 1 MHz are used.
Fig. 4. General workflow of a genetic algorithm, covering the process of • Predefined Constraints
natural evolution: recombination, mutation and selection within a reproduction
procedure
Depending on the topology of the electrical circuit,
analytical formulas or approximations enable an a pri-
ori restriction of the solution space considering robust
and viable operation points. For instance, in case of
the LLC topology, the ZVS provides the potential
for an a priori restriction on inductive setups (section
II) based on the component values (inductance and
capacitance in the resonant circuit) without evaluating
the electrical circuit. However, it turned out that such
a fixed and predefined limitation prevents the GA
from converging: The usage of the ZVS condition
as a strict exclusion criterion impedes parameter sets,
which might meet all constraints and additionally
provide good results (corresponding to small values
for the fitness function), but with a slightly capacitive
operation mode. Consequently, such a parameter set
would not augment the set of solution candidates and
therefore provides no chance to eliminate this single
weak point (violation of the ZVS) iteratively.
Fig. 5. Cascading penalty for two objectives
As a consequence, all electrical circuits are evaluated
(such as by Spice simulations), even if predefined
the fittest ones leads to the new archive. Based on that, the constraints (like the ZVS condition) are manifestly
reproduction procedure is restarted and a new population can violated. However, in case of violation, a distance
be generated (cf. Fig. 4). weighted penalty (such as fcircuit − fZVS ) needs to
In case of multi-objective optimization problems the fitness be implemented. This penalty is added on top of
based selection is replaced by an operator that uses a so called the objective values which are described in detail
’dominated relation’. In this term an individual is dominated subsequently.
by a second one if and only if it is worse in at least one • Cascading penalty:
criterion (corresponding to one fitness function) and better in Optimization problems are modelled in the manner
none. Consequently the two contrary goals of multi-objective that the fitness functions need to be minimized. In
optimization are: discover solutions as close to the Pareto front doing so, an individual fitness function commonly
(non-dominated individuals) as possible, and find solutions as contains of one objective and additional penalties
diverse as possible in the obtained non-dominated front [24]. (such as due to violating a constraint) if necessary
In the following, the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Al- [32]. In case of a high amount of constraints,
gorithm NSGA2 [25] is used for the optimization of the individuals of the GA nearly exclusively violate
electrical circuit. The algorithm has demonstrated its potential at least one of these limitations (especially in the
in standard benchmark contests [26] as well as in various early period of the optimization). Consequently,
engineering tasks [27], [28]. However, all applications of GAs the final fitness value which is used for rating the
on engineering problems indicate a high significance of the individuals within the GA provides no indication how
design of the fitness function with regard to the performance many and how strong the constraints are violated. In
of the optimizer and the quality of the corresponding results such a scenario, GAs can hardly benefit from their
[29], [6]. Consequently, the consideration and implementation selection and recombination strategy, and therefore
of multiple constraints and objectives are considered in detail the evolutionary process needs an additional guidance
in the following section. to the target domain of the optimization in which all
constraints are fulfilled.
IV. M ODELLING AND I MPLEMENTATION To circumvent the problems described, a new strategy
Apart from standard guidelines for the application of GAs for the optimization process is introduced using
on engineering problems [30], [31], the following enhance- a cascading structure of the penalties (Fig. 5) for
ments have to be taken into account to model the optimization the fitness function. The amounts of violations of
of electrical circuits efficiently: the individual constraints differ in their order of
magnitude. This allows an iterative improvement of
• Parameter granularity the fitness function with regard to one constraint
98
TABLE I. PARAMETER RANGE OF THE OPTIMIZATION SETUP. T HE
FREQUENCY RANGE IS APPLIED ON EACH OPERATION POINT
defined.
INDIVIDUALLY. In case of violation:
Quantity Range min Range max result(ψ) − 50 2
pen1 = k k
Cr 1 nF 1.6 µF 40
Lm 50 µH 1000 µH • Constraint 2: Deviation to the target power transfer
Lr 5 µH 40 µH smaller than 25 %.
n 0.6 2.2 Penalty of results with a large deviation to the user
fop1 . . . fop5 50 kHz 320 kHz
defined power profile to limit the solution candidates
to parameter sets with similar power transfer rates.
In case of violation:
without mixing it with improvements considering
result(pi )
other constraints. pen2 = (k − 1k + 1)2
Based on the worst case scenario where the electrical pi
circuit simulation provides no results, every small • Constraint 3: Switching frequency in the range
improvement of the results is rewarded and therefore 50 kHz − 300 kHz.
yields a continuous improvement process (within The switching frequency range is selected in regard
the evolution loops). The corresponding ’learning’ to utilize MOSFETs as primary switches and to meet
process results in populations consisting of vital the relevant standards for grid and automobile appli-
solution candidates fulfilling all constrains. In case cations.
of the electric circuit optimization this vitality is In case of violation:
reflected by different parameter setups covering a
result(fsw kHz) − 175 2
great variety of operation points. pen3 = k k
125
The goals of the optimization are defined by minimizing
• Parallelization
the quadratic sum of the primary resonant current and the
Within the optimization process of GAs the parameter
magnetization current (in order to minimize the losses) as well
sets of one generation are provided all at once at the
as the deviation to the desired power profile in all n operation
beginning of an iteration (initialization and offspring
points:
in Fig. 3, respectively). Moreover, the corresponding
circuit simulations can be calculated independently as Obj1 =
P 2
ipri /n
long as the results are provided to evaluate the fitness P 2
functions in the end. Consequently, all electrical simu- Obj2 = isec /n
lations in one generation can be performed in parallel Obj3 =
P
∆p/n
using common server- or cloud-based implementa-
tions. Due to the fact that the pure calculation effort Based on these definitions, the three fitness functions used
for the GA (recombination, mutation and selection) is for rating the results within the GA are constructed by one
negligible compared to the parallelized evaluations of objective each and additional cascading penalties weighted
the circuits, the speed up of the parallelization directly with varying orders of magnitudes. It has been found ap-
scales with the amount of cores. propriate to permute the weighting of the penalties between
the different fitness functions to benefit from the dominated
V. V ERIFICATION OF THE O PTIMIZATION A PPROACH relations in this multi-objective optimization problem. Suitable
fitness functions for the scenario described are given by
A. Setup
F0 = Obj1 + pen1·1e6 + pen2·1e5 + pen3·1e4
An exemplary resonant converter based on the LLC topol-
ogy described in Fig. 1 and the power profile provided in F1 = Obj2 + pen2·1e6 + pen3·1e5 + pen1·1e4
Fig. 3 is used for benchmarking the mathematical modelling F2 = Obj3 + pen3·1e6 + pen1·1e5 + pen2·1e4.
and the genetic algorithms presented in previous sections. The
parameter set consists of the component values for the Cr , B. Optimization
Lr , Lm and the transformers turns ratio n, as well as the
frequency values for the five operating points. The ranges of Genetic algorithms are designed to improve (commonly
the parameters are provided in table I, while the constraints minimizing) the fitness functions based on manipulating the
and the corresponding penalties are defined as following: input parameters within the defined parameter ranges. Conse-
quently, all intermediate steps and results are unknown for this
• Constraint 1: Phase angle ψ in the range 10◦ − 90◦ . black box approach. In the problem described, the GA does
The phase angle ψ is defined between the resonant not learn all the different criteria for a practicable operation
tank input voltage vprim and the resonant tank input mode of the electrical circuit but rather learns to avoid the
current iprim (cf. Fig. 1). Using MOSFET semicon- penalties.
ductors as primary inverter switches it is mandatory Based on the parameter ranges (table 1) and the fitness
to achieve an inductive behavior of the resonant tank functions provided in the previous section, the optimization
with ψ > 0. To ensure ZVS and to provide more was performed using the NSGA2 implementation of the DEAP
flexibility to the GA a range between 10◦ and 90◦ is package [33]. Over 50000 iterations with a population and
99
Fig. 7. Parallel coordinates plot of the 9 input parameters and corresponding 3 objectives (responses) for all parameter sets of Fig. 6 with less then 5 %
deviation of the power transfer to the target plower transfer.
quadratic mean of the primary resonant current, while the

magnetizing current has minor influence (cf. Fig. 6). Thus,
configurations marked in green with low relative deviation to
the desired output power and close to the x-axis should be
preferred. However, a common pareto frontier is not clearly
visible in the depicted data in Fig. 6 and solutions with
different relative deviation of the transferred output power are
mixed up in some areas.
In Fig. 7 the input parameters and the three objectives are
plotted in parallel with the averaged relative deviation of the
calculated power transfer to the target power transfer limited
to less than 5%. All colored lines represent sets of design
parameters which comply with all set up constraints over the
entire output power profile (cf. Fig. 3). Lines colored from
red to light blue mark configurations with low to medium
Fig. 6. Colorplot of the pareto frontier consisting of the best individuals quadratic mean of the primary resonant current. Concerning
with regard to the three fitness functions (objectives) of the exemplary the individual operating frequencies, the valid configurations
electrical circuit: Minimal averaged quadratic currents on primary (x-axis) split into three ribbons in which the higher switching frequen-
and secondary side (y-axis), and the deviation to the power profil (Fig. 3) in cies are dedicated to the configurations with minimum primary
percentage (colorization).
resonant currents colored in red. Analyzing the optimized
results, it is noticeable that only step-down operating points
archive size of 50 individuals are calculated using a 1% rate (M < 1) are selected. Following the goals of the optimization,
of simulated binary mutation. The evaluations of the electrical the GA tries to minimize the primary resonant current and the
circuits were performed on 50 cores (Intel Xeon E5-2667 v4 magnetizing current. For step-up operating mode (M > 1)
@ 3.2GHz) in parallel. a considerable magnetizing current is needed to guarantee the
ZVS of the primary MOSFETs. Further, to transfer the required
amount of energy from the primary to the secondary side, an
C. Results inductance ratio Lr /Lm > 0.2 is necessary. However, this is
Due to the three objectives, the resulting pareto frontier in contrast to the intended minimization of the resonant and
consists of a plane in a 3D domain which is visualized by a magnetizing currents.
2D color-map in Fig. 6.
VI. C ONCLUSION AND FURTHER WORK
The quadratic mean of primary and secondary currents
(iprim and isec ) are provided in the x and y coordinates, while The autonomous design process presented does not only
the averaged relative deviation of the calculated power transfer provide a large variety of suitable operation points, but also the
to the target power transfer are visualized from red (15 %) to technological limitation for a given topology (within the user
green (0%). defined constraints and parameter ranges). The approach purely
It can be observed, that the defined output power is reached bases on the mathematical modelling of feasible operation
with certain relative deviation only for specific values of the points for an electronic circuit and therefore can be adapted
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101
Data-driven Prognostics for PEM Fuel Cell
Degradation by Long Short-term Memory Network
Rui Ma1,2,3, Elena Breaz1,2,4, Chen Liu1, Hao Bai1,2, Pascal Briois1,2, Fei Gao1,2
1
FEMTO-ST (UMR CNRS 6174), Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comte, UTBM, F-90010 Belfort Cedex, France
2
FCLAB (FR CNRS 3539), Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comte, UTBM, Rue Thierry Mieg, F-90010 Belfort Cedex, France
3
Electrical Engineering Department, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 710072 Xi’an, China
4
Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca 400604, Romani
Abstract—Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) model-based and data-based. Model-based methods in [5]-[11]
degradation prediction is essential especially in transportation tried to make the degradation prediction through the semi-
applications, since one of the major issues that hinder its empirical fuel cell model. The modeling approach can include
worldwide commercialization is represented by its durability. equivalent circuit model and multi-physical model. The
However, due to the complex physical phenomena inside the fuel equivalent circuit models regard the fuel cell as a circuit for
cell, which are strongly inter-coupled, the conventional semi- indicating its output performance [5]-[9]. The approach is
empirical model-based prognostics approach may fail to predict simple and easy to be realized, whereas the parameters need to
the aging phenomena under varies fuel cell operating conditions. be estimated in the degradation prediction. Thus, it can be easily
In order to improve prognostics accuracy, this paper proposed a
understood that such a circuit model may lead to a decrease of
data-driven approach to predict the fuel cell performance based
the prediction accuracy. The multi-physical model-based
on the long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network
(RNN). Compared with traditional RNN, LSTM can be used to
prediction approach couples the complex mathematical
avoid gradient exploding and vanishing problems. Such a equations among thermal, electrochemical and fluidic domains
prediction model for the short-term memory can last for a long [10]-[11]. Despite the multi-physical model can improve the
period of time, which makes LSTM suitable for time series prediction accuracy, the complex mathematical equations and
forecasting. In order to validate the performance of the proposed parameters in the model make it hard to implement and develop
LSTM approach, two different types of PEMFC along with five among different types of fuel cells.
aging experimental data sets have been used. The results show that
Recently, thanks to the development of semiconductor and
the proposed LSTM approach can accurately predict PEMFC
degradation. An accurate degradation prediction plays an
computer science algorithm, artificial intelligence like neuron
important role in PEMFC optimization used in transportation network (NN) draws research attention again and is successfully
applications. applied in many fields. Thus, data-based fuel cell prognostic
models are proposed based on the experimentally measured
Keywords—Fuel cell; modeling; degradation; Long short-term degradation data [12]-[24]. One of the advantages of the data-
memory (LSTM); Recurrent neural network (RNN) driven approaches is that the physical phenomena happened
during the fuel cell degradation do not need to be fully
I. INTRODUCTION understood. Once the experimental data are measured and used
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) raised to train the NN, the corresponding prognostic model can be
research attention lately due to the electricity generation without obtained. However, most of the existing data-based approaches
greenhouse gas emission. PEMFC allows the direct conversion are not capable to forecast and prediction the degradation trend
of chemical energy stored in the fuel into electricity, and are of the fuel cell. Recently, literature [25]-[27] discussed the fuel
suitable for transportation applications [1]. Fuel cell vehicles cell degradation and prognostic from a statistical point of view.
have received an increased attention in recent years, due to the The support vector machine (SVM) and relevance vector
major advantages of zero emissions and comparable driving machine are used to analyze and predict the degradation under
range with conventional vehicles. However, fuel cell is sensitive both constant and dynamic load conditions. However, the
to the operating environment and its performance will be proposed model requires additional work when the fuel cell
influenced by the degradation phenomenon. Moreover, in operating conditions are changed.
transportation applications, fuel cells are working under high The previous mentioned data-based approach makes the
dynamic operating conditions, which causes durability problems author wonder whether an appropriate degradation model can be
and represents one of the main challenges today for their proposed which is not only based on experimentally measured
implementations at worldwide level [2]. In order to design data but also capable to make prediction. Among the popular
properly the maintenance strategy of the PEMFC, an accurate machine learning algorithms, long short-term memory (LSTM)
prediction of the aging mechanisms should be done. cell based recurrent neural network (RNN) is suitable for the
Among the existed literature, the developed degradation time series prediction [28]. In the available literature, no
prognostic model can be classified into two categories [3]-[4]: research has been done on fuel cell degradation prediction by
using LSTM RNN approach. Thus, a LSTM degradation
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 102

prediction model is presented and validated by two different type is the memory of the current unit. As shown in Fig.1, the
fuel cells including NEXA PEMFC and Proton Motor 200 horizontal line running through the bottom can maintain the
(PM200) PEMFC. By using the experimentally measured information unchanged through the network cell state, which is
degradation data, the proposed LSTM can be used to predict the the key to the LSTM approach. The functional equations for
fuel cell degradation by the trained network. Moreover, the LSTM can be expressed as:
training and prediction accuracy is analyzed under different
training configurations. The main contributions of this paper are ∙ , , (1)
shown as follows: ∙ , , (2)
1. a data-based fuel cell degradation model is proposed ∙ , (3)
based on the LSTM RNN.
tanh ∙ , (4)
2. The LSTM can have a better performance for improving
the prediction accuracy of the degradation model. ∙ ∙ , ∙ tanh (5)
3. The aging experimental tests of different fuel cells are where , , and are weight matrices, , , and
conducted under varies operating conditions. are bias vectors.
The following of the paper are organized as follows: Section B. Degradation Model Configuration
II gives the mathematical formulation of proposed LSTM Fuel cell degradation can happen during the system
network, and the degradation model is built and discussed; In operation. The materials for the electrodes and the bipolar plates
Section III, the aging experimental configuration is can age even faster under critical operating conditions. It can be
demonstrated and the model prediction results are discussed in easily understood that the degradation inside the fuel cell is not
order to verify the prediction performance; At last, a conclusion capable to be measured directly, thus the output performance
section is given in Section IV. like the output voltage and current can be used for indicating the
II. DEGRADATION MODEL WITH LSTM ARCHITECTURE aging degree. In this work, we use the experimentally measured
data of fuel cell voltage curves for identifying the degradation.
In this section, the LSTM RNN will be introduced for the Thus, the fuel cell polarization performance can be regarded as
fuel cell degradation model. The mathematical expressions of a time series problem. Usually, a fuel cell lifetime is about
the LSTM are firstly discussed, and then the prognostic model thousands of hours operating, and such a long-time period makes
is developed based on the trained LSTM network. the degradation prediction by RNN possible.
A. LSTM Architecture With the understanding of the previously mentioned
During the gradient back-propagation, the gradient signal of machine learning approach, the degradation model can be
the conventional RNN can end up being multiplied a large developed with the help of trained LSTM network. The
number of times by the weight matrix associated with the flowchart in Fig. 2 is the process for training the network.
connections between the neurons of the recurrent hidden layer Specifically, the fuel cell degradation data should be measured
[29]. Thus, the learning process can be greatly influenced by the and recorded first in order to make a consistency check. Then
magnitude of weights in the transition matrix. The gradients will the initial value of the fuel cell degradation model input
vanish if the weights are small, and the exploding gradients parameters should be given in a matrix form. Then there are four
phenomenon will occur once the weights are too large. These major steps which need to be done for the LSTM network
issues are the main motivations behind the LSTM model which training and verification.
introduces a new structure called a memory cell.
a) Forward propagation of each neurons’ output. For LSTM
A repeated LSTM cell with four interacting layers is shown proposed in this work, this step means the calculation of five
in Fig. 1. stands for the input of the current time step, is vectors include , , , and .
the output from the previous LSTM unit and is the memory b) Back propagation of error for each neuron. Similar with
of the previous unit; is the output of the current network, and traditional RNN, the error will back propagation through
Fig. 1. LSTM cell architecture
103
two directions. One is along the opposite direction of of the system can ensure a lower error by adjusting the system
timeline, which means calculating the error at every time to operate under the given conditions. Table I concludes the
step forms the current time step. Another direction is the detailed fuel cell operating conditions. In the aging experiments,
propagation to the previous network layer. pure hydrogen is used as the fuel and the oxygen comes from the
air.
c) Calculation of gradient for every weight according to
corresponding error term.
d) Update weight through stochastic gradient descent method.
Fig. 3. NEXA fuel cell stack experimental platform

TABLE I
NEXA BALLARD FUEL CELL OPERATING CONDITION
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4
Operating hours 400 h
Number of cells 47
Air supply Air blower & filter
Cooling system Air fan cooled
Fuel gas supply 99.99% dry H2 @1.2 bar
Operating mode Dead-end mode
Air stoichiometry 4.2 2.2 2.0 2.0
Stack temperature 30 35 40 44
Fig. 2. Flowchart for the LSTM network training
Current density 0.08 A/cm2 0.20 A/cm2 0.24 A/cm2 0.30A/cm2
III. FUEL CELL AGING EXPERIMENTS AND DEGRADATION
MODEL PREDICTION RESULTS Compared with the 400 hours operating time, the aging
experiments for the Proton Motor 200 PEMFC lasted for 10000
In this section, the fuel cell aging experiment configurations
h in order to test the fuel cells lifespan. The PM200 PEMFC
are introduced first. Then the prediction performance criteria are
contains 96 individual cells, and the nominal power of the fuel
discussed. At last, the degradation prediction performance is
cell stack is 25 kW. The operating temperature of the fuel cell is
verified with the experimentally measured data.
set to 58 °C during the aging experiments. Different from the
A. Aging Experimental Configuration NEXA fuel cell, the pressure of the hydrogen fuel here is 1.5 bar
The aging experiment tests are conducted on two different in order to satisfy the reaction demand. Since the fuel cell system
types fuel cell including Ballard NEXA PEMFC and Proton can encounter operating faults under such a long period of aging
Motor PEMFC. The NEXA fuel cell experimental platform is experimental time, the experimental system needs to be reset
shown in Fig. 3. The tests of fuel cell stack which contains 47 weekly to make sure the reliability.
cells are conducted under different operating currents and B. Prediction Performance Criteria
temperatures. Specifically, four different fuel cells work under The performance of the prediction model can be evaluated
steady-state conditions of 12 A 30 °C, 30 A 35 °C, 36 A 40 °C by the two commonly used criteria including the mean absolute
and 44 A 40 °C, respectively. The fuel cell voltage is measured percentage error (MAPE) and the root-mean-square error
by the plug-in sensors inside the fuel cell and the fuel cell (RMSE). Smaller values of MAPE and RMSE indicate more
temperature is measured by the infrared camera. And the accurate prediction with lower errors. We can assume the value
measured data will be stored in the supervising computer of MAPE and RMSE equal to 0 in a perfect prediction model.
through the designed Labview interface. The equations for those criteria can be expressed as:
In this group of aging experiments, the individual cell MAPE ∑
| |
(6)
voltages are measured continually for 400 hours, and the | |
temperature variations inside the fuel cell can also be monitored.
It should be noticed that the fault diagnostic and system RMSE ∑ (7)
monitoring must be maintained during the whole aging where represents the measured real voltage value, is
operating process. Since degradation of the fuel cell can be the voltage value predicted by the degradation model,
influenced once the operating condition changed, the monitoring
104
indicates the average value of the voltage data, N is the number stresses to the fuel cell can be larger. Specifically, for the
of the measured voltages. performance of the degradation model, a smoother curve can be
observed for both the training and prediction phase as shown in
C. Degradation Model Performance and Discussion Fig. 5. The trained predict data follow the experimental data well,
In this part, the performance of the proposed degradation and the tested predict data fit the experimental results in an
predication model will be given and discussed. For the accurate way. Compared to the lower limit and upper limit in
degradation data sets from 1.2 kW Ballard NEXA commercial [27], the LSTM can follow the degradation tendency better.
PEM fuel cell stack, the experimentally measured data covers
400 hours fuel cell operating time under varies operating
temperatures and working currents. In the LSTM training
process, the data are divided into training phase and test phase.
The first 225h degradation data are used to train the LSTM
Output voltage (V)

model, whereas the rest 175h data are used to validate the
predicted data. For the PM200 fuel cell, the voltage data from
first 6800 hours will be used to train the prediction network,
whereas the rest measured data will be used to verify the
prediction performance. With the help of both the mean absolute
percentage error (MAPE) and the root-mean-square error
(RMSE), the modeling prediction accuracy can be further
discussed. Moreover, in order to make comparisons, model
prediction results in [27] are also demonstrated in the figures for
the NEXA fuel cells. Fig. 5. NEXA fuel cell model prediction performance (30 A 35 °C)
Then, the aging test under both a higher current and higher
temperature is conducted for the NEXA fuel cell. This is used to
simulate a heavy load for the fuel cell operating. As shown in
Fig. 6, a 3 V decrease can be obtained at the end of the aging test.
Output voltage (V)
This result corresponds to the fact that fuel cell degrades faster
under heavy load. The voltage curves in this group test is
smoother than previous two group, and an obvious decreasing
tendency can be easily found. For the performance of the
prediction network, we can notice the trained predict data almost
follow the experimental one in the same way, and the tested data
can also fit the experimental data well. It should be noticed that
the degradation prediction method in [27] for this group has a
better performance since the range between the upper and lower
limit becomes smaller.
Fig. 4. NEXA fuel cell model prediction performance (12 A 30 °C)
Fig. 4 first shows the model prediction performance for the

NEXA fuel cell aging under a constant current of 12 A with an
operating temperature of 30 °C. It can be seen that the overall
voltage drop under a low fuel cell current is not obvious. After
Output voltage (V)
400 h operating, the output voltage only decreases around 0.8 V.

This is because a lower current means a lower fuel demand, thus
the degradation in the electrode and membrane can be smaller.
The thermal stress and the mechanical stress during the reaction
can also be smaller. Specifically, we can see that the trained
predicted data follow the real measured data in a good way.
Although the voltage curve has some fluctuations, the error
between the trained predict data and the experimental data will
help to improve the prediction accuracy. When we come to the
prediction phase, the results for the upper limit and lower limit Fig. 6. NEXA fuel cell model prediction performance (36 A 40 °C)
in [27] are added for comparison. The proposed LSTM network
can predict the degradation in a more precise way. At last, another aging test is conducted by just increasing the
Then, in order to test the performance under a larger operating current from 36 A to 40 A with the same operating
operating current, another aging experiment result with 30 A is temperature of 40 °C. This is used to test the extreme load
measured for the LSTM prediction. Under this group of conditions for the fuel cell, and we can notice the initial fuel cell
experiments, a 2 V drop can be obtained from the start of voltage drops from 30.5 V in Fig. 6 to about 28 V in Fig. 7. And
operating to 400 h. A larger current will make the membrane the voltage drops dramatically at both 160 h time point and 250
degrade faster, and the corresponding thermal and mechanical h time point. The degradation model shows the best fitting in this
105
group test of both the training and prediction phase. Moreover, model. The experimental tested PM200 fuel cell operates as a
the method in [27] can also capture the decrease tendency, stationary prime power application, and it can be seen from Fig.
although the accuracy is lower compared with the proposed 8 that the degradation becomes obvious after 6000 h working
LSTM approach in this work. time point. At the beginning of the aging test, the mean voltage
of cells in the fuel cell stack output voltage is around 650 mV.
Then after the aging test, a 110 mV drop can be obtained by the
experimentally measured data. We can also notice that the
degradation model can make the training predict data fit the
experimentally measured voltage data very well. And for the
Output voltage (V)
prediction part, the model tested predict data can track the
decreasing tendency of the voltage curve. Despite the prediction
error becomes a little larger near the end of the prediction part
(as it is amplified in Fig. 8), the overall degradation prediction
performance can be satisfied. Specifically, the RMSE of the
prediction phase is 3.41, and the RMSE of the training phase is
0.90. The huge amount of experimental data may include some
manmade error, and the LSTM model here was trained to avoid
overfitting. Moreover, the time step for the learning network can
Fig. 7. NEXA fuel cell model prediction performance (44 A 40 °C) be changed to improve the accuracy, and here it is set to 200.
Thus, the proposed LSTM degradation model is not only
In order to analyze the training and prediction accuracy, the suitable for the degradation prediction of a short time period but
error assessment for the NEXA PEMFCs is shown in Table II. also capable to make prediction for a long operating time.
For the four groups tests, the MAPE varies from 0.0025 to
0.0076. The RMSE of the training phase ranges from 0.1475 to IV. CONCLUSIONS
0.1719, and for the prediction phase, the RMSEs are within A data-based fuel cell degradation prediction model built in
0.2291. It can be concluded that the proposed LSTM performs this paper can help to design and test the fuel cell performance
well in the degradation prediction of the NEXA fuel cell under before its mass implementation in industrial applications. In
different operating conditions. order to make the degradation prediction, five fuel cells
TABLE II
including 1.2 kW NEXA Ballard PEMFC and 25 kW Proton
ERROR ASSESSMENT FOR NEXA PEMFC Motor 200 PEMFC are tested under aging operating time range
12 A 30 30 A 35 from 400 h to 10000 h. By applying the long short-term memory
Train Test Train Test (LSTM) cell in recurrent neural network (RNN), the fuel cell
MAPE 0.0076 0.0045 0.0046 0.0034 aging phenomenon can be explicitly predicted.
RMSE 0.1719 0.1567 0.1710 0.1495
36 A 40 44 A 40 The prediction results indicate that the proposed LSTM
Train Test Train Test degradation model can make predictions for fuel cell aging
MAPE 0.0048 0.0044 0.0025 0.0027 under both long period and short period. The MAPE of the
RMSE 0.1685 0.2291 0.1475 0.1238 prediction model can reach 0.0025, and the RMSE has its
minimum value of 0.1238. The MAPE and RMSE results
The experimentally measured aging data of the PM200 fuel
indicate the model can effectively describe the aging phenomena
cell are also trained and tested for the degradation predication by
regardless of different fuel cells operating time.
the LSTM model. This group of tests aims to verify the long-
time period performance of the proposed LSTM degradation
Fig. 8. PM200 fuel cell prediction performance
106
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107
A Parallel Solver to the Three-Level VSC Modeling
for HIL Application
Chen Liu, Rui Ma, Hao Bai, Franck Gechter and Fei Gao
FEMTO-ST (UMR CNRS 6174), Energy Department, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comte, UTBM
chen.liu@utbm.fr,rui.ma@utbm.fr,hao.bai@utbm.fr,franck.gechter@utbm.fr,fei.gao@utbm.fr
Abstract-This paper presents enhanced parallel field- based solution, the model approach usually stores all possible
programmable gate array (FPGA) architecture for solving the switch combination with the formation of nodal analysis or
model of diode-clamped three-level voltage source converter
(VSC). The simulator is intended for the testing evaluation of modified nodal analysis. In paper [6][7], it utilize the
digital control based on the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) concept. associated discrete circuit (ADC) method implementing in the
The philosophies of the proposed implementation are: 1) it FPGA. They associate to each element a companion circuit
enables to the use of simulation as low as 40 nanoseconds, 2) it (LC circuit) in order to keep the topology and admittance
can provide a fixed timeline for the whole system execution; 3) it matrix constant, but due to it requires a convergence process
effectively utilize the parallel architecture in the FPGA. The
implementation results in the National Instruments FlexRIO which could introduce a numerical oscillation. In paper [8], it
PXIe-7975 platform are compared with offline simulation in stores all network equations for every system status. The
Matlab. The results show high accuracy of the modeling calculation time could reach dozens of nanoseconds but
approach. requires large memory unite, thus would limit the total
Keywords: FPGA; Parallel Calculation; Diode-clamped three- number of switches and the system size. In paper [9], the
level voltage source Converter; HIL; FlexRIO. author proposes a network tearing technique (NTT) that splits
a given circuit into separate parts and utilize a highly
pipelined Gauss-Jordan (GJ) processor for solving interface
I. INTRODUCTION variables of the torn circuit. But the calculation time reaches
Hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILs) provides a time- 1 us.
saving, inexpensive, and safe alternative for testing The other way to reduce the calculation time is to use high-
prototypes of power electronic controllers. The main hurdle level synthesis tools to optimize the performance of FPGA.
for an HIL simulator of power-electronic systems lies in the High-level synthesis (HLS) tools available in the market such
small calculation time required by the high switching control as Vivado HLS (VHLS) from Xilinx [10][11], allow the use
frequencies. The application of FPGA in the real-time of high-level languages to ease design and verification of
simulation has enabled the time step within nanosecond hardware. Such tools could be employed for developing high-
range, as demonstrated by the lectures[1]-[3]. However, the performance computing units, designated hereafter as
performance of FPGA still remains to be improved. hardware solvers (HS), for real-time simulation applications.
The electric power system is composed of switches that can In real-time applications, the trapezoidal is the most
rapidly change its topology either with the time constant of commonly used. But a series structure in their solver causes a
the circuits or control signals [4]. The computation of low utilization of their FPGA resources and a parallel multi-
electromagnetic transients utilizes various numerical methods subsystem could use to improve its performance.
for the formulation and solution of network equations. The The main objective of this work is to address the
total calculation time in the HIL simulator consists of the aforementioned challenges of real-time simulators based on a
solving time of the circuit state-space equation and the update new parallel architecture for implementation of diode-
time of system equation every time some switching occurs. clamped three-level VSC with the benefit of HLS.
Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to accelerate the The salient features of the proposed approach permits,
solving time in FPGA, reduce the calculation time and 1) The use of small simulation time step as low as 40ns;
achieve the performance of real-time performance in 2) Elimination of the complex interpolation method to
nanoseconds range. reduce the effect of the Multi-switch event ;
The fixed-step solver, mostly used in real-time simulation, 3) Synchronization between the simulation time-grid and
requires a small enough time step to produce the same the switch driver signals;
simulation results [5]. Previous works, aiming to reduce the The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II
execution time, have concentrated on two aspects. One is to talks about parallel solver. Section III describes the switch
find a way to optimize the updating of the equations set. The modeling method. And their implementation in FPGA shown
basic idea is to separate the switch model from the circuit in Section IV. Section V presents the mathematic model of
model and update the equation with the number of switches diode-clamped three-level VSC as well as its implementation
in the circuit rather than circuit topology. However, due to the in FPGA environment. Section VI provides the comparison
fact that factorization is hardly conceivable in an FPGA- with Matlab Simulink. Section VI is the conclusion.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 108

C
y&+1 = y& (6)
1+ E3
D
C
1F E3
Assuming that G& is the error, then ! H &+1 = y&+1 . G& ,
II. A PARALLEL SOLVING METHOD D
! H &+1 is the accurate value. We can then get (7).

A. Parallel Method Description
The methods we considered in modeling power electronic
C
G&+1 = G& (7)
1+ E3
system can be considered as a class of first-order ordinary
D
C
1F E3
equation with the formation of state space equations .
D
! " = #($, !), !($% ) = !%

From the requirement that Re(K) < @, we can deduce the
(1)
The sequential process is a common method for the following relationship
to obtain the initial approximation to the solution y($& ) in the |G&+1 | I |G& |
solution of (1). During the process, an explicit method is used
current time point $& . Then implthe icit algorithm is applied

(8)
with fixea d number of iteration. A modification of these Thus, it can be concluded that the proposed Predictor-
algorithms could achieve a faster simulation time. Taking Corrector Method is numerically A-stable.
explicit and implicit Euler method as an example, the III. SWITCH MODEL
modified parallel process can be written in.(2),
''!*&+- = !& . 2 / 0 / #($& , !& )

An ideal switch is introduced in this section in order to
achieve a fast simulation algorithm.
y&+1 = !& . / 4#($& , !*&+1 ) . #($& , !& )5
3
(2)
-
(3) A. The direct solution to the internal drive device
An ideal switch model of semiconductor model has zero
predictor value !*&+- at time point $& within the process

As shown in Fig 1, the new proposed method calculates the impedance when on, and infinite impedance when off.
solving'y&+1 . In the next step $&+1 , when we estimate the

Switching from one state to another is instantaneous. It is
value of y&+- , the value of !*&+- is already known from last

convenient to represent states of the switch as a Boolean
step.the the As a result, !*&+- and y&+1 are known at the same
variable with the formation of the switch function.
For a diode device, state of the switch is the function of the
time [12]. switch current. Its switch function is expressed as,
M NOPQST3 ($ 7 0) > @
J($) = L
@ NOPQST3 ($ 7 0) < @
Predictor
t n yˆn+1
(8)
tn+2 t n+ 4
t n+1 t n+ 3 t n+ 5
h
For the IGBT device, state of the switch is a function of the
Corrector
2h switch current and external drive signal. The switch function
is shown in (9),
M NOPQST3 ($ 7 0) > @VVWX ($) > @

Fig 1: The Proposed Parallel Structure
J($) = U
Compared to the corresponding formulas for the sequential
@ WX ($) = @
trapezoid algorithm solving process, there is a slight (9)
difference in the truncation error but the speed ratio could
Since the simulator takes step-time 0 to calculate states in

reach 2.
B. Truncation Error
depend on the current'NOPQST3 ($ 7 0) from the last step. Thus,

The local truncation errors in (1) can be expressed in (4), the whole system, the status of the semiconductor have to
6& = |!($& ) 7 !& | < 8, t 9 : there is step latency between driving signal WX ($) and
current 'NOPQST3 ($ 7 0) . However, we utilize the predictor
(4)
where 8 is positive constant. The system is considered to current value 'YZ[OPQST3 ($) from (3), the error in the switch
which can be expressed as'6& > 6&+1 . Assuming that

be absolute stable when this error is decreasing at each step, judgment can be reduced. Thus, we can keep the
dy?;$ = Ky and according to Lipschitz continuity theory, the

synchronization between the simulation time-grid and the
solver is stable if Re(K) < @A The (3) can be rewritten in (5).

switch driver signals.
A special case is the dead-time in the IGBT leg (Fig. 2).
y&+1 = !& . / (B / y& . B / y&+1 )

3
During effective dead-time output voltage is determined by
-
(5) the direction of output current but not the control signal. To
take into consideration the effect of dead time, the definition
of switch function is shown below,
Then we could obtain
109
@ \]1 = @ \• = \• H (fM . f2 . M) 7 \‚ H fM 7 \„ H f2
JM($) = U
M \]1 > @'or'(\]1 . '\]- = @'VV'^[T (t) < @)
(14)
(10)
Combine (12) (13) and (14), we can obtain
\‚ @
l† ‡\• ˆ = ‡‰Š (t)ˆ
B. Graph Theory in Circuit Connection
\ƒ @
The capacitor and inductance in the network can be (15)
calculated and replaced by an equivalent voltage source and
current source respectively. In order to find a generous
method finding the relationship between circuit topology and where
M 7fM @
switch status, we introduce the concept of a tree. Consider a
l† = ‡7fM fM . f2 . M 7f2ˆ'
graph with four branches and three nodes as shown in Fig. 3.
S1 1 b S2 2 C @ 7f2 M
If the node voltage \‚ (or \ƒ ) is known

A B
L1 L2 L3
5 S3 3
\• = \‚ H fM
6 4
\ƒ = \‚ H f2 H fM
D
Let i1 , i- , … A i_ be the branch currents with directions and \‚ = \‚ H (fM . f2 H fM . M) 7 \• H fM 7 \„ H f2

Fig 3. Node among the switches
\` , \a , \b A \c be the nodal voltage as shown in Fig. 3.

f1 , f- , fg are the switch devices in branch 1, branch 2 and
(16)
Define ha = ji1 , i- , … A i_ k , branches currents are written

branch 5 respectively. Its matrix formation can then be deduced as in 17.
\‚ ‰Š (t)
l† ‡\• ˆ = ‡ @ ˆ (17)
using Kirchhoff current law (KCL) equation in terms of
l / ha = @ (11) \ƒ @
where A is the node-to-branch incidence matrix, its where
fM . f2 H fM . M 7fM 7f2 H fM
coefficients are defined as follows:
@ is'uode'i'iv'uot'wouuewted'xrmuwz'{ l† = ‡ 7fM M @ ˆ
mnp = q.M is'uode'i'iv'tze'}oviti~e'uode'os'xrmuwz'{ 7f2 H fM @ M
7M is'uode'i'iv'tze'ue•mti~e'uode'os'xrmuwz'{
The definitions matrix'l† is defined as below,
Since current in the switch'jiO1 , iO- , iOg k = ji1 , i- , i€ k, we can Definition 1: If the voltage of an isolated node k is known,
calculate the rest branch current. we define its entries as,
M i = {'mud'i • Ž'
S1 S2
7fŠ•n•„‘ (i, {) i = Ž'or'{ = Ž
Vc
‹† (i, {) = Œ
VA VB
M . f1 / f- / … / f’ i={=Ž
A B C
(17)
Fig 4. Node among the switches @ e“ve
For a given topology, there are either nodes that connect to
4) or a set of coupled nodes (Node B). If the voltage \• is

only one isolated switch device (Node A and Node C in Fig. Definition 2: If the voltage of a coupled node k is known,
known, the relationship among voltage nodes'\‚ , \• 'and \ƒ M i = {'mud'i • Ž

we define its entries as,
7fŠ•n•„‘ (i, {) i = Ž'or'{ = Ž

‹† (i, {) = Œ
M . f1 . ” . f’ i={=Ž
can be expressed as:
(18)
\‚ = \• H fM @ e“ve
\ƒ = \• H f2
(12)
With the known voltage source position among nodes, the
In the meantime, we have: node voltage relationship is expressed as
\‚ H fM = \• H fM l† A \• = ‰Š
\ƒ H f2 = \• H f2
(19)
(13)
where'l† is the admittance matrix, \• is the vector of node
As a result, voltages that need to be solved and ‰Š is the voltage source in
the circuit.
110
the predictor value –*(’+1) from last time point. During
corrector process, the value –*(’+1) is known at current time
IV. FPGA SOLVER IMPLEMENTATIONS
point t ’ in all subsystems. Thus no latency exists among the

Fig. 5(a) is the Predictor and Corrector Structure. Inside the
framework, both C-step and P-step have a math calculation
unit, which consists of fixed point multiplications and data changes of different subsystems.
Sub/Add operation. After the calculation is done, results are V. DIODE-CLAMPED THREE-LEVEL VSC MODELING
stored in the register. As for the calculation of switch status,
A. Circuit Description and Modeling
we need the traversing current from predictor step and the
—O˜ , —O™ 'and'—OT are 2@š F€ ›, œO˜ , œO™ 'and'œOT are Mš F• ž, œŸ

driver signals. Its internal structure is shown in Fig 5(b). The three-level converter is shown in Fig 7. The value of
is MA2 ž , 8Ÿ1 ' and '8Ÿ- are ¡ š Fg ¢ . £˜ , £™ ' and '£T are three
Read Write
0.5
y (t+h)
Register y (t+h)
f ( tn , yn+1 )
Register
Math Operation
Unit 1
∑ X
C-Step
Register
phrase voltage source with 330V amplitude, 50Hz frequency.
y(t) The system is divided into three parts: N1, N2 and N3.
̗
Register Math Operation Register
Parallel y(t+2h)
f ( tn , yn ) Unit 2
Unit P-Step
Register
f (tn, yn+1 ) N2 Id N3
Constant
f ( tn , yn ) h/L or h/C Idc1
MUL
Constant
2h/L or 2h/C y(t)
MUL
Cd1
y(t)
ADD/SUB N1
ADD/SUB Out
Usa Lsa Rsa Rd
Out
Ia Vd
Usb Lsb Rsb Ib Ic
Usc Lsc Rsc
(a) Parallel ODE solver Cd1
ŷ(t+2h)
Register Idc2
Write
Id
Driver
Signal Register Math Operation
Switch Status Register
Vg(t+h) Circuit
S(t+h) Fig. 7 Diode-clamped three-level VSC Topology
driver signals \• and the P-step current value

̗
Parallel i(t+h)
Register
Unit N2 subsystem consists of the switch devices. It utilizes the
[¤Z¥(’+1) , [¤Z¦(’+1) 'mud'¤Z[„(’+1) to judge the status of switches, as

x ŷ(t+2h)
Read Vg y(t+h)
MUL
False If I<0
If Vg>0
True
True Out
Switch Switch
On
S=1
Off
S=0
shown in Fig 8.
IS1 Ia1
(b) Switch Status S1 D1
Fig 5: Predictor and Corrector Structure in FPGA Id5 ucd1 C

S2 D2 S2 IS1
2
The relationship of these two blocks is connected by the Ia
D5
A
D2
S1 IS2
B I 4
d5
state flowchart shown in Fig 6. Ia(n+1)

Ucd1(n+1) 0A 1 3 F
O Ia 8 Id6
S3 IS3
Input Parameters O
D6
S3 D3
D1 6
D3
ucd2 D 7 5
State Space Equation && S4 Id6 Is2(n+1) IS4
E
Circuit Partitioning D4 Id(n+1) D5
Driver Ia2
Vg X (0) X̂ ( 1 ) (c)
Signals (a) (b)
While Loop
Switch Update
Fig 8. Switch subsystem Partitioning and Tree
The switch structure is shown in Fig 7(b), their status can
X1(n) X1(n) be judged with (8)(9)(10). We can obtain the following
Predictor Step Corrector Step equations,
h§1 = J1 h§- h§g = Jg h˜

Xˆ 1( n+2) f ( tn , yn ) f ( tn , ŷn+1 ) X 1( n+1)
h§- = 7J- h˜ h§• = Jg h§g

Update Update
hc€ = Jc€ (h§- 7 h§1 ) h = Jc_ (h§€ 7 h§• )

Xˆ 1( n +1)
(20) c_
X1(n)
Z-1 Z-1
h1 = h§1 h• = h§1
(21)
h- = h§- h€ = h§-
h¨ = hc€ h© = hc€
Output
y( n+1 )
current vector in the N2 system 'ha = ji% , i1 , … A i© k , with

Fig 6: Simulation Flow Chart The tree in the subsystem N2 is shown in Fig 7(c). Define
inductance and capacitance as well as the simulation step 0.

Firstly, the input parameters for the system are the value of
(20)(21) and (11), we can obtain current in branch 3 and
Then, with the partitioning method proposed in this Section, a branch 5,
hg = hŸ 7 h§1
state-space model and subsystem division is made. Secondly,
1
the initial values –(%) and –*(1) . Predictor step calculates two
the predictor and corrector methods are used as a solver with
g
step forward –*(’+-) based on the system status –(’) of the last h_ = hŸ . h§•
1 (22)
g
point. Corrector step calculates the system status –(’+1) with
111
In the same way, we can get the current form in phrase B
YZ[OQ(&+-) = NOQ(&) . µ ¸ #4$& , NOQ(&) 5

-3
and phrase C in Subsystem N2,
¶·°
hg™ = hŸ 7 h§€ hgT = hŸ 7 h§©
1 1
NOQ(&+1) = ¹YZ[OQ(&+1) . jNOQ(&) . µ ¸ #4$&+1 , YZ[OQ(&+1) 5kº
1 3
g g
(28)
- ¶·°
h_™ = hŸ . h§¨ h_T = hŸ . h§1-
1 (23) 1 (24)!
g g
Thus, we can get the value of hŸT1 and hŸT-

As for N3 subsystem, the mathematical expression can be
described as (29):
hŸT1 = hg . hg™ . hgT

hŸT- = h_ . h_™ . h_T »¼1 = i¼„1 7 (¾1 7 ¾- )¿R
(25) ¼½C
¼•
»¼- = 7i¼„- 7 (¾1 7 ¾- )¿R

¼½D
Define voltage vector 'ªMO = j\T , @,@, k , ªMO = j@,@, \« k ,
(29)
¼•
W¬1 = jWb1 , Wa1 , W`1 k and W¬- = jW«- , Wc- , W`- k, we can obtain
with (26)
Its discretization formulation can be expressed as below,
‹†1 A \•1 = ‰Š1
À*TŸ1(&+-) = ÀTŸ1(&) . µ ¸ / #($& , !& )
-3
‹†- A \•- = ‰Š- bÁC
(26)
À*TŸ-(&+-) = ÀTŸ1(&) . µ ¸ / #($& , !& )

-3
bÁC
À1(&+1) = ¹À*1(&+1) . jÀ1(&) . µ ¸ #4$& , À1(&+1) 5k

1 3
where (30)
- bÁC
f1 . f1 / f- . M 7f1 7f1 / f-
À-(&+1) = ¹À*-(&+1) . jÀ-(&) . µ ¸ / #4$& , À*-(&+1) 5k
1 3
-®1 =‡ 7f1 M @ ˆ - bÁD
7f1 / f- @ M
f• . fg / f• . M 7f• 7fg / f•
B. Implementation Results in FPGA
-®- =‡ 7f• M @ ˆ
7fg / f• @ M
1. Software Components
(Labview FPGA,
Labview RT controller)
1 PXIe-8135 8-slot Chassis
2. FlexRIOs
3. Oscilloscope
From (26), we could get the nodal voltage W`

2
W` = W`1 . W`-
3
= f1 / f- / \T . fg / f• / \T !
FlexRIOs (Flexible Reconfigurable IO)
(a) NI 7975R FlexRIO FPGA Module (Kintex-7)
(b) NI 5741 Adapter Module (200MHz)
b a
Fig 10: Simulation State Flow Chart
The embedded system we utilize is FPGA Kintex-7
N1 and N3 subsystem contain the circuit element, as
XC7K410T, which is embedded in National Instrument (NI)
'(im, ix, iw) and capacitance-voltage ( ¯wdM, ¯wd2 ) with the
shown in Fig 9. They calculate the inductance current
PXIe platform [13], shown in Fig 10. Table 1 shows the
speed performance and area utilization of the case study using
above parallel method.
the proposed method. The data representation in the FPGA is
in this paper, a clock time constraint of uv can be met. The

Usa Lsa Rsa Ia A
O Usb
Lsb Ib B N a 32 bit fixed-point. Using the proposed modeling approach
Rsb N2
Usc Lsc Rsc Ic C
D model is implemented in Labview FPGA, in which a single-

N1 Id time-loop with a clock frequency of 25MHz is realised. The
Cd1
O total calculation time is 40ns, which can effectively ensure an
Vd N2
R accurate real-time simulation result to be given even with
N3
Cd2 high switching PWM frequency.
TABLE 1
E
SPEED PERFORMANCE AND AREA OCCUPATION
Fig 9: Circuit Partitioning of Diode-clamped three-level VSC
The equation in N1 subsystems is defined by the (27): Metric Occupied Available Percen
—OQ = £OQ 7 œOQ / NOQ 7 £Q± (27)

Total 17566 63550 27.6%
ŸQ°
ŸS
Slice 42642 508400 11.2%
Slice 47028 254200 25.8%
where N = ², ³, ´. Its discretization formulation with

Block 91 795 11.6%
DSP48s 120 1540 17.7%
Predictor-Corrector in Explicit and Implicit Euler can be
Time 40ns N/A N/A
expressed as (28),
Clock 200MHz N/A N/A
112
National Instruments FlexRIO PXIe-7975. It enabled a
simulation step below 40 ns. In order to investigate the
accuracy, the comparison with results obtained from
Simpower system in Matlab has also been made. The results
showed a very good agreement between proposed model and
Simpower system. It can be noted from the results that the
difference between these two results is less than 0.8%.
Compared with former work [8][9], the proposed structure
only needs 40ns for pre-calculation, which means the latency
between external controller and the embedded system is the
minimum.
Fig 11: Implementation in Labview FPGA ACKNOWLEDGMENT
C. Simulation Results This work is supported by the European Commission
The results presented hereafter consider the NPC converter H2020 grant EPSESA (H2020-TWINN-2015), EU Grant
with a time-step of 40 ns. The DC regulator uses two PI agreement No: 692224.
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Fig. 11 presents the voltage on capacitor 8;M and 8;2Â'W;.

[9] T. Ould-Bachir, H. F. Blanchette and K. Al-Haddad, "A Network
Tearing Technique for FPGA-Based Real-Time Simulation of Power
Fig. 11(b) shows relative errors in this custom design and Converters," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62,
no. 6, pp. 3409-3418, June 2015.
Matlab Simulink.It demonstrates that the overall relative error [10] FPGA Design with Vivado High-Level Synthesis, [online] Available:
Fig.12 presents the load current N², N³'and'N´ on phase A, B

less than 0.8%. http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/sw_manuals/xilinx2014
3/ug871-vivado-high-Ievel-synthesis-tutorial.pdf.
[11] F. Montano, T. Ould-Bachir and J. P. David, "An Evaluation of a High-
and C respectively. The comparison with the Matlab and Level Synthesis Approach to the FPGA-Based Submicrosecond Real-
proposed method has shown each other with a good accuracy Time Simulation of Power Converters," in IEEE Transactions on
and agreement. Industrial Electronics, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 636-644, Jan. 2018.
[12] Chen Liu, Rui Ma, Hao Bai, Franck Gechter, Fei Gao, "A new
VI. CONCLUSIONS approach for FPGA-based real-time simulation of power electronic
system with no simulation latency in subsystem partitioning",
This paper presented a parallel FPGA based structure International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, Volume
solver for diode-clamped three-level VSC modeling. The 99, 2018, Pages 650-658
[13] NI PXIe-7975R, NI FlexRIO™ FPGA Module for PXI Express,
model and solver have been implemented in a Field http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/373980d.pdf
Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) Kintex-7 embedded in
113
Decoupled Modeling of Mutually Coupled SRM
Based on Net Flux Method
Siddharth Mehta∗ , Md. Ashfanoor Kabir† and Iqbal Husain∗
∗ NSF FREEDM Systems Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
† ABB US Corporate Research Center, Raleigh, NC, USA
smehta5@ncsu.edu
Abstract—This work presents a novel method to model mu- also need to separate mutual and self-inductance information
tually coupled switched reluctance machines (MCSRMs). The to predict the performance. This separation is difficult and
model uses flux look-up tables (LUTs) generated from finite the assumed approximations become a major source of error.
element analysis (FEA) based on dual phase excitations. The
modeling process is simplified by removing the segregation of These inaccuracies occur because the mutual inductance LUT
the self and mutual flux components. The performance can be does not consider both the phase currents into account. If both
predicted using only one 2D LUT. The net flux approach makes the phase currents are taken into account, then it will result in
the model universal and can be applied to any dual phase excited 3D Tables.
SRM. Details of the model implementation are described along Method similar to dual phase excitation (DPE) is used
with its performance with comparison against existing methods
and FEA. Results show that the proposed model has improved to derive flux LUTs for dual channel SRMs [6], [7]. These
accuracy, especially in the saturated operating conditions, making machines are operated by unipolar excitations with equal
it more suitable for high performance applications. magnitude of currents. However, these models end in sepa-
Index Terms—Modeling, Lookup table, MCSRM, SRM, torque rating self and mutual components, resulting in 3D LUTs.
prediction An analytical model of MCSRM is developed in [8], but
lacks accuracy especially during saturation. There have also
I. I NTRODUCTION been artificial neural network (ANN) based model of MCSRM
Recently, there has been a lot of interest in mutually that adds training and unnecessary complexities [9]. An LUT
coupled topologies of switched reluctance machines (MC- based dq model of MCSRM has been presented in [4] that
SRMs). These have improved efficiency, power density and requires 3D tables or can also work with multiple 2D tables
reduced torque ripple as compared to conventional switched but requires FFT computation of data which adds size and
reluctance machines (SRMs) [1]. MCSRMs can be operated complexity. In this work, a new MCSRM modeling technique
with balanced three phase bipolar currents, hence they can is developed that utilizes one 2D table and considers magnetic
utilize standard two level voltage source inverters (VSIs) and saturation as well as other non-linearities. The model requires
state-of-the-art control techniques [1]. One major issue is dual phase excitation for improving accuracy especially in the
the highly nonlinear nature of these machines that makes it saturation region. This modeling technique considers the net
very difficult to develop an accurate equation based model flux linkage of a phase to predict the performance; hence,
to expedite controller development and tuning [2]. Without a there is no requirement to separate the self and mutual flux
fast and accurate model, the only way to develop a precise linkage components. This avoids complexity and improves
controller is to depend on FEA based machine model which accuracy. Furthermore, it decreases the system matrix size,
is computationally time consuming [3]. In order to overcome and reduces memory requirement for data storage and com-
these issues of MCSRMs, an accurate, simple and fast model putational time. Moreover, the net flux method makes the
is developed in this research for bipolar MCSRMs that can developed model universal which can be used for any dual
utilize standard VSIs with balanced currents. phase excited SRM topology (fractional, short, or fully pitched
For the modeling approach, LUT based models have been MCSRM). Model development in this paper is detailed for the
presented for both SRMs and MCSRMs [3], [4]. LUT based fully pitched MCSRM excited by balanced-bipolar trapezoidal
models are accurate, simple and fast which is important for current waveforms.
controller development [4]. MCSRMs phases are coupled, and
at least two phases operate simultaneously, the flux linkages II. D UAL P HASE E XCITATION M ETHOD
become a function of three variables (two phase currents and In this modeling technique, the flux linkage data is initially
rotor position) resulting in 3D tables. As a result, the same captured from the FEA model of MCSRM. This data is stored
LUT approach as SRM [3] is not suitable for MCSRM to in the form of LUTs and post-processed for torque estimation.
achieve high level of accuracy. Wasi et al. in [5] have presented Flux extraction method utilized in [3] and [5] is referred in
a modeling technique for unipolar excited MCSRMs based this work as the single phase excitation (SPE) method. In
on [3]. Their model requires three 2D LUTs per phase and SPE, one phase at a time is excited with DC current and the
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 114

Fig. 1. Dual phase excitation method.
resultant flux is captured from all machine phases. In SPE

method, it is assumed that mutual-flux is a function of only the
single phase current and rotor position. This assumption works
very well with SRM, because the variation in mutual- flux Fig. 2. Flux density plot for dual phase excitation method for 5A.
is almost negligible if the operation is not in the continuous
conduction mode [3]. For MCSRMs, the operation is dual
phase, and hence, it is important to capture flux linkages
with two phases being simultaneously excited. In the DPE
method, two phases are excited simultaneously with the same
magnitude of DC current I, but with opposite polarity as
shown in Fig. 1. The net flux for each phase is obtained as a
function of rotor position and I. DPE ensures that saturation
and excitation level of the machine while capturing flux is the
same as it will be during its actual operation. Flux density
levels for DPE and SPE for an excitation level of 5 A is
shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, respectively. Difference in the
saturation levels even though the machine is operating at same
magnitude of current, hence making DPE an effective way
for extracting flux linkages for MCSRMs. Moreover, since
net flux is being captured, there is no need to separate self
and mutual flux components which improves the accuracy
by avoiding separation especially during saturation. However,
frozen permeability method can separate these components, Fig. 3. Flux density plot for single phase excitation method for 5A.
but it is time consuming, cumbersome and not accurate [10].
Hence using DPE, the net flux, λ = f (iA , iB , θ) = f (I, θ)
becomes a function of two variables and flux can be stored in
form of a 2D LUT. In summary, DPE improves the accuracy
and makes sure that the flux extracted can be stored in form
of 2D tables, thus avoiding 3D tables.
III. P ROPOSED N ET F LUX M ODEL (NFM)
A 12-slot/8-pole, fully pitched MCSRM, rated at 7.8 Nm is

considered as the benchmark whose meshed FEA geometry is
shown in Fig.4. The model for the three-phase (A, B, and C)
MCSRM is developed following the process explained below:
• Pass the same magnitude of constant current with oppo-

site polarity through two phase coils, say A and B. Polar-
ity is kept opposite because the test machine is operated
with balanced bipolar excitation with a conventional 6 Fig. 4. Meshed geometry for 12/8 MCSRM.
switch VSI. Polarity can be modified depending on the
type of excitation, whether uni-polar or bipolar.
115
• Record the net flux linked with coil A and B as a function
of rotor position and current, which are λA(AB) and
λB(AB) . Here λA(AB) , λB(AB) stand for the net flux
linkage of phase A and B respectively when phases A
and B are operating. SimilarlyλB(BC) , λC(BC) , λA(CA) ,
λC(CA) are obtained shifting the data by P2πm degrees
(mechanical) between each phases where P is the pole
number and m is the number of phases. Moreover
λA(AB) = −λB(AB) because of the opposite polarities of
currents that are passed through the phases. These flux
linkages are shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.
• According to the DPE method, λx(xy) − I(xy) − θ LUT
is obtained. Here x and y are the phases for which flux
0
is extracted. Co-energy, Wx(xy) , and torque, Tx(xy) , are Fig. 6. Net flux of phase B when phases A and B are conducting.
estimated using (1-3). The process is illustrated in Fig. 7.
λx(xy) = f (ix(xy) , iy(xy) , θ) (1) To explain the process of extracting the torque from flux an
example is illustrated below. In this example phases A and B
ix(xy) are considered to be in operation. So, flux net linkages are
Z
0 obtained for phase A and B as a function of current and rotor
Wx(xy) (ix(xy) , θ) = λx(xy) (ix(xy) , θ) dix(xy) (2)
position. The assumption as stated before for this model is
0 that both phases carry equal magnitude of current. These net
0
∂Wx(xy) (ix(xy) , θ) flux linkages are λA(AB) and λB(AB) as shown in Fig. 5 and
Tx(xy) (ix(xy) , θ) = (3) Fig. 6, respectively. Note that these two linkages are mirror
∂θ
images of each other along the x axis. Now using (2) and (3)
0
WA(AB) and TA(AB) are calculated as shown in Fig. 7 and
Fig. 8. In order to have very good accuracy between the torque
estimated and the torque calculate by the FEA, it is necessary
to have very tight meshing around the air gap region in the
FEA model and perform the interpolation of the flux linkage
data.
Fig. 5. Net flux of phase A when phases A and B are conducting.
0
Similarly Wy(xy) and Ty(xy) can be estimated from λy(xy) .
And T(xy) is the sum of Tx(xy) and Ty(xy) . For this machine,
currents and rotor position are varied from 0 to 12A and 0 to
45 degrees, respectively at a step of 0.5 to generate the flux
LUTs. The machine model is described using the state space Fig. 7. Co-energy of phase A when phases A and B are conducting.
model based on (4) and (5). Vx(xy) , R, Tl and Jare the phase
voltage, resistance, load torque, and inertia respectively.
The machine model and system level block diagram are
dλx(xy)
Vx(xy) − dt
shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 respectively. A hysteresis con-
ix(xy) = (4) troller is developed for controlling the torque of the machine,
R
which determines the appropriate phase voltages to be fed
dω Tnet − Tl into the machine model. Dynamic simulations are performed
= (5)
dt J taking speed, rotor position and DC link voltage into account.
dθ Only one table is needed in this model since λB(BC) , λC(BC) ,
=ω (6) λA(CA) , λC(CA) and λB(AB) can be derived from λA(AB) .
dt
116
self and mutual flux) [6], SPE2 (considering only mutual flux),
proposed NFM, and FEA are shown in Fig. 12 and Fig. 13.
NFM and FEA torque waveforms for 5 A and 10 A peak
current are very close to each other, which shows the accuracy
of the model. Average torque and mean square error (MSE) in
comparison to FEA results are calculated for different current
levels which are shown in Table I and Fig. 14. It can be clearly
seen that the NFM based on DPE method has a better accuracy
as compared to the SPE1 and SPE2. Both the average and
instantaneous torque prediction by NFM are closer to the FEA.
However, the model is not that accurate in the commutation
region. The error is more significant for higher excitation levels
which can be attributed to the assumptions made in the flux
Fig. 8. Torque from phase A when phases A and B are conducting. linkage extraction process.
The system matrix considering A and B phases under oper-

ation is described in (7). It can be observed that for each
phase, only one net flux table is required. Because of one
single table, only one set of W and T tables is calculated,
whereas it would be three tables/phase for SPE. Since, there is
no need to separate it into self and mutual flux tables it reduces
the computational time, data storage, and most importantly
improves accuracy.

ıA(AB) 1 VA(AB) d λA(AB)
= − (7)
ıB(AB) R VB(AB) dt λB(AB)
Fig. 11. Balanced three phase currents.
Fig. 9. Development of Machine Model.
Fig. 12. Comparison of torque for 5A peak current.
Fig. 10. System level model for the MCSRM.
IV. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSIONS

To verify the above modeling method, the NFM is tested
with bipolar trapezoidal current waveforms shown in Fig. 11.
In the real scenario, trapezoidal waveforms are used instead
of square waveforms for MCSRMs. However, the model is
also valid for square shaped currents. The dynamic torque Fig. 13. Comparison of torque for 10A peak current.
performance by 4 different models, namely, SPE1 (considering
117
TABLE I
segregating it into self and mutual flux components. Utilizing
Average torque comparison dual phase excitation method improved accuracy has been
Model 2A 5A 8A 10A 12A achieved. The model is universal and is applicable to any kind
SPE-I 0.30 1.96 5.07 7.97 11.44 of dual phase excited SRM. Average torque and mean-square
SPE-II 0.32 1.98 5.17 7.98 11.5
NFM 0.33 2.16 5.43 7.94 10.66
error are presented and it is observed that the proposed method
FEA 0.33 2.16 5.43 7.80 10.31 is more accurate even in saturation region making it suitable
for high performance applications. Moreover, NFM requires
only one 2D LUT. Reduced calculations, less data storage
During the commutation period, the phase currents are not space, reduced complexity, universality and improved accuracy
equal but the LUTs are derived such that both the currents are the key features of this MCSRM model. However, because
are equal. As a result the flux obtained from the LUT is not of the assumption made while extracting the flux linkages
very accurate and results in error in torque prediction. But, can lead to low accuracy in the commutation region. In the
for operation in saturation region NFM is the most accurate forthcoming work, the model to improve will be enhanced to
one, which makes this model suitable for high performance address the accuracy issue during the commutation period.
applications (automotive) where motor is highly saturated R EFERENCES
because of high current densities [1]. Also, the NFM requires
[1] M. A. Kabir and I. Husain, “Design of mutually coupled switched re-
just one table/phase to predict the performance of the machine, luctance motors for extended speed applications using 3-phase standard
whereas SPE methods require at least 3 tables/phase to predict inverters,” IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 31, no. 2, pp.
the performance. A run time comparison between the NFM 436–445, June, 2016.
[2] M. Ilic’-Spong, R. Marino, S. Peresada, and D. Taylor, “Feedback
method and the coupled FEA simulation is shown in Table II. linearizing control of switched reluctance motors,” IEEE Transactions
on Automatic Control, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 371–379, May, 1987.
[3] R. Mikail, I. Husain, and M. Islam, “Finite element based analytical
model for controller development of switched reluctance machines,”
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Denve, CO, 2013, pp. 920–925.
[4] J. Dong, B. Howey, B. Danen, J. Lin, J. W. Jiang, B. Bilgin, and
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coupled switched reluctance machine,” IEEE Transactions on Energy
Conversion, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 146–154, March, 2018.
[5] W. Uddin and Y. Sozer, “Modeling of mutually coupled switched reluc-
tance motors for torque ripple minimization,” in 2015 IEEE International
Electric Machines Drives Conference (IEMDC), Coeur d’Alene, ID,
2015, pp. 1066–1010.
[6] W. Ding, D. Liang, and H. Sui, “Dynamic modeling and performance
prediction for dual-channel switched reluctance machine considering
mutual coupling,” IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 46, no. 9, pp.
3652–3663, Sept, 2010.
[7] W. Ding, “Comparative study on dual-channel switched reluctance gen-
erator performances under single- and dual-channel operation modes,”
IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 680–688,
Fig. 14. Comparison of MSE for different excitation levels. Sept, 2012.
[8] W. Uddin and Y. Sozer, “Analytical modeling of mutually coupled
switched reluctance machines under saturation based on design geome-
TABLE II try,” in 2015 IEEE International Electric Machines Drives Conference
(IEMDC), Coeur d’Alene, ID, 2015, pp. 133–138.
Run time comparison [9] M. Karacor, K. Yilmaz, and F. E. Kuyumcu, “Modeling mcsrm with
Model Run Time artificial neural network,” in 2007 International Aegean Conference on
NFM 20 sec Electrical Machines and Power Electronics. IEEE, Bodrum, 2007, pp.
849–852.
FEA- Coupled Simulation 6.5 hrs
[10] G. J. Li, Z. Q. Zhu, and G. W. Jewell, “Comparative study of torque
production in conventional and mutually coupled srms using frozen
permeability,” IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 52, no. 6.
V. C ONCLUSION
The MCSRM model is developed based on the net flux look-
up table method. Utilizing net flux removes the process of
118
Improved Model Predictive Control Method for
Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) based on
Insertion Indexes
Minh Hoang Nguyen*, Sangshin Kwak*, Member, IEEE, and Jeihoon Baek**
*School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Chung-ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
**Department of Electrical Engineering, Koreatech Univeristy, Cheonan, Korea
Email: sskwak@cau.ac.kr
Abstract – This paper proposes an approach to improve the IDC

computational burden of Model Predictive Control (MPC) Submodule
SM1 SM1 SM1
method by preselecting insertion indexes. This approach is iCum,j
Upper arm
based on utilizing number of on-state submodules (SMs), vuA vuB vuC
S1
SM2 SM2 SM2 vCum,j
neighboring output voltage levels and circulating current to
calculate the insertion indexes which are evaluated in the Vdc/2 SMN SMN SMN S2 vSMum,j
next sampling instant. This allows to reduce significantly
number of control options and the computational burden. La iuA La iuB La iuC L
By using a sorting algorithm, which retains balance of ioA R
icirc,A
capacitor voltages while a cost function ensures the A ioB
icirc,B
regulation of the output current, arm voltages, and MMC O
Leg ‘A’ of the MMC
B
icirc,C C ioC
circulating currents. Performance of the proposed
La ilA La ilB La ilC
approach is verified by experimental results.
I. INTRODUCTION SM1 SM1 SM1
Lower arm
Vdc/2
Modular multilevel converters (MMCs) (Fig. 1) have been
strongly concerned toward the converter topology for medium- vlA SM2 vlB SM2 vlC SM2
or high- power applications, especially high-voltage direct

SMN SMN SMN
current application (HVDC) [1]. Due to modular and scalable
structure, MMC is allowed to generate any voltage level
Figure 1. Schematic of the MMC and SM
compared to other multilevel converter topologies. In terms of
a voltage source converter, because of cascaded SMs structure, of power electronics. As for the MPC methods, several control
the MMC can provide excellent harmonic spectrum of output schemes were presented for the MMC [3] – [5]. A finite-
voltage and current waveform, which results in sinusoidal control set (FCS) MPC strategy for controlling the output
voltage waveform, even without any output filters. Among two current tracking of the MMC for two distinct cases, balanced
type of MMC output voltage level, the maximum phase voltage reference current and unbalanced reference current, was
of the MMC (i.e., 2N+1, where N is the number of SMs in the presented and verified by simulation studies [6]. In [7], the
upper or lower arm of each phase), compared to N+1, has FCS-MPC strategy, the most suitable combination option is
many merits, representatively, considerable suppression of the chosen by considering N combinations in 2N options, i.e.,
ac output harmonics and EMI noise (caused by dv/dt). Thanks in each phase within each sampling period. However, this leads
to these advantages, MMC is drawn attention in high-voltage to a sharp increase in the number of control options, as the
application in case of large number of SMs. number of SMs rises, making the implementation of the FCS-
Recently, MPC method has been considered to be the most MPC strategy impractical due to the major issue of calculation
promising control method for MMC control due to many load. To solve this issue, an Indirect FCS-MPC strategy, that
advantages of this method. This allows to consider variety of decouples the control of SM capacitor voltages from the cost
control objectives by proper selection of cost function, function by utilizing a voltage sorting algorithm, was proposed
overcome the issue of complex controller, reduces the system’s in [8]. Because of there being N+1 selected voltage levels in
overshoot, and suppresses the nonlinear effect of the converter. each arm, there are (N+1)2 control options in this FCS-MPC
Therefore, MPC methods have been widely utilized in the area strategy for 2N+1 output voltage levels.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 119

Jopt = 106
Predictive model
MMC Measured for the MMC
Currents and Read preselected insertion indexes Muj, Mlj
Voltages
for i = 1 : 3
Switching State
No
Signals 0≤Muj(i), Mlj≤N
Cost Function
Optimization Yes
iuj, ilj, vCumj, vClmj
Figure 2. Block diagram of the conventional MPC
Calculate cost function J (3)
The target of this paper is to propose a simple approach,

which utilizes redundant number of on-state SMs in 2N+1 J(i)< Jopt
output voltage level case combined with MPC method to
generate preselected insertion indexes for the control options
every sampling. The proposed approach, uses the neighboring Jopt = J(i), nuj = Muj(i), nlj = Mlj(i)
output voltage level around the last output voltage and
redundant number of on-state SMs to preselect insertion
indexes corresponding to the number of on-state SMs to be No
i=3
evaluated in the next sampling instant. As a result, the
proposed method could improve the computational burden Yes
while guarantee three crucial controlling objectives of the Apply nuj and nlj to preselection part
MMC: correction of sinusoidal form, magnitude of output and voltage sorting algorithm
current or voltage, suppression of circulating current inside the Figure 3. Block diagram of the proposed MPC strategy
converter, and voltage balancing of capacitors of the SMs. The
performance of the proposed method is verified with system. Therefore, the number of control option should be
experiment results from a single- phase laboratory prototype. reduced to overcome this issue.
II. CONVENTIONAL MPC STRATEGY A. Cost Function Design

Fig. 2 illustrates the basic conventional MPC block diagram, The proposed MPC strategy combines the advantages of the
can be summarized in the following steps [9]: conventional MPC as well as the capacitor voltage balancing
1) The prediction of a one-step forward behavior of the algorithm based on a sorting method [10]. First, the two control
variables by using a discrete-time model of the system objectives: correction of sinusoidal form, magnitude of output
2) Cost function designing based on desired behavior of the current and the suppression of circulating current inside the
control objectives in the system converter are controlled by using cost function. Then, the
3) All possibility of switching states of the MMC is evaluated capacitor voltage sorting algorithm is applied to keep the SMs
through the defined cost function and the most optimal capacitors voltages balanced and generates the switching
switching states that corresponding to the minimum value of signals.
the defined cost function is selected. The implementation of proposed MPC approach is shown in
Fig. 3:
III. PROPOSED MPC STRATEGY FOR MMC • Measure the upper and lower arm currents, iuj and ilj,
The proposed MPC strategy method reduces the respectively and SM capacitor voltages
computational burden compared to the conventional MPC by • Generate the cost function corresponding to the control
adding preselection insertion indexes part. It generates the objective as below:
predicted insertion indexes (Muj, Mlj) to be evaluated in the next = ∗ ( + 1) − ( + 1) , (1)
sampling instant. The advantage of using preselection insertion
indexes part is to reduce the number of control options every Where, J1 is the output current cost function, i*oj represents the
sampling instant. As mentioned before, the number of control reference of output current and ioj is the predicted output
option grows sharply when the number of SMs is considerably current.
large. This leads to huge drawback as computational burden of ∗
MPC method which makes it hard to implement in a large = , ( + 1) − , ( + 1) . (2)
120
Where, J2 is the cost function of the circulating current, i*circ,j and the magnitude of the capacitor voltages VCum,j, VClm,j are
and icirc,j represent reference circulating current and predicted considered to decide which SMs to connect or by pass. Then,
circulating current, respectively. the switching signals Sxj are generated to send to the MMC,
= + (3) which are applied at the sampling instant k.
where, λ1 and λ2 are weighting factors of the corresponding IV. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENT RESULTS
subsection of cost function. The insertion indexes which
minimize the system cost function is selected and applied to the TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF THE MMC SYSTEM
preselection part and voltage sorting algorithm which are
discussed in the following parts. Symbol Parameter Simulation Experiment
B. Preslection Insertion Indexes Vdc DC link voltage (V) 150 100
In case of N+1 output voltage level voltage of MMC, the N SMs per arm 3 3
number of on-state SMs always equals N. In the contrast, in SM capacitor voltage 50
2N+1 output voltage level MMCs, the number of on-state SMs VC 33.3
(V)
in one phase can equal N-α, N-α+1, N-α+2, …N, N+1, N+2, …, C SM capacitance (µF) 3300 2200
and N+α (1 ≤ α ≤ N), meanwhile the number of on-state SMs La Arm Inductance (mH) 4 4
N+α and N-α generate the same intermediate output voltage Load Inductance
level. This increases output voltage level from N+1 to 2N+1. L 10 10
(mH)
Based on this characteristic of 2N+1 output voltage level case, R Load Resistance (Ω) 15 20
the preselection insertion indexes can be constructed to reduce F Output Frequency 60 60
the number of control options evaluated every sampling instant. Tsp Sampling period 100 100
It is not necessary to evaluate all case of number of on-state
SMs in every sampling instant which is a reason increase the A. Simulation Results
computational burden. In this study, the neighboring output To verify the performance of the proposed method,
voltage levels corresponding to the last output voltage level are simulation were implemented using PSIM software using the
considered to preselect insertion indexes while ensuring the system parameters given in Table I.
proper of MMC operation as well as control objectives. The Fig. 4 illustrates the steady-state simulation results of the
utilization of neighboring output voltage level not only allow to proposed method, considering a total simulation time of 0.06s.
reduce the computational burden but also assure a low dv/dt in The phase-A output current of the proposed method is depicted
the output voltage. in CH1. This verifies that the output current tracks its reference
Furthermore, as mentioned above, in 2N+1 output voltage value, with THD = 0.54%. CH2 monitors the phase-A MMC
level case, the intermediate output voltage level is generated by output voltage waveform, which is a 7-level output voltage
two cases of number of on-state SMs N+α and N-α. This two waveform varying from –Vdc/2 to Vdc/2 with N=3. Meanwhile,
cases of number of on-state SMs have opposite effect to the the circulating current is minimized and the SMs capacitor
circulating current: the N+1 cases allow a reduction of the voltages of the MMC remained in balance. The steady-state
circulating current, while the N-1 case has the opposite effect, simulation results verify that the proposed method operates
which increase the circulating current. This means that when correctly.
the circulating current is greater than the reference circulating B. Experiment Results
current, the N+1 cases should be chosen to apply in the next The performance of the proposed MPC strategy was also
sampling instant, and inversely, when the circulating current is validated on a single-phase MMC laboratory prototype using
smaller than the reference circulating current, the N-1 cases the experimental system parameter given in Table I. A digital
should be applied. Base on this characteristic and signal processor (DSP) board (TMS320F28335) was utilized to
aforementioned analysis, the preselection insertion indexes is implement software. It received the arm current signals of
constructed. The preselection insertion indexes analyzes current sensors and the SM capacitor voltages signals of the
number of on-state SMs sj, the measured circulating current voltage sensors, then, transmitted the switching state signals to
icirc,j(k), and the reference circulating current i*circ to predict the control the MMC.
insertion indexes which are evaluated in the next sampling Fig. 5 depicts the experiment waveform of the steady-state
instant. operation of the MMC with the proposed method. The output
C. Voltage Sorting Algorithm voltage as shown in Fig. 5, is a seven level (2N+1) while the
In this paper, the voltage sorting algorithm in [10] is utilized output current is a correct sinusoidal. The waveforms of Fig. 5
to maintain balancing of all capacitor voltages of the MMC. show the SM capacitor voltages of upper SM1 and lower SM3,
This read the insertion indexes nuj and nlj for the upper and which are well matched and fluctuate at around 33.3 V and the
lower arms, respectively, the direction of the arm current iuj, ilj
121
Figure 5. Steady-state operation experiment waveforms with the
proposed method. CH1 - Output current, CH2 - Output voltage,
CH3 - Circulating current, CH4 - Capacitor voltages of SMs
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation
Figure 4. Steady-state operation simulation waveforms with the of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP)
proposed method. CH1 - phase A output current, CH2 - phase A (2017R1A2B4011444).
output voltage, CH3 - phase A SM capacitor voltages, CH4 -
circulating current
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Jun. 2016.
123
Nonlinear modeling based harmonic analysis of the interior
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines
Zhang Jian1,2,3,4, Wen Xuhui1,2,3, Yan Zhaopeng1,2
1
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
2
Key Laboratory of Power Electronics and Electric Drive, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
3
Beijing Engineering Laboratory of Electrical Drive System & Power Electronic Device Packaging Technology, China
4
The State Key Laboratory of Heavy Duty AC Drive Electric Locomotive Systems Integration, Zhuzhou, China
E-mail: zhangjian@mail.iee.ac.cn
Abstract- In this paper, an analytical nonlinear model basing on better control performance to the PMSMs, which are
winding function theory is presented, which takes into account generally based on harmonic analysis of voltage and current.
of magnetic field harmonics together with non-sinusoidal Therefore, it is necessary to develop a nonlinear model
winding distribution of the interior permanent magnet
synchronous machines (IPMSMs). The voltage, current and
suitable for motor designing enhancement or higher control
inductance vector expression are deduced in detail. And then, performance purposes, i.e. not only rich enough to capture in
the relationship between the fundamental model and the spatial harmonics elements, but also simple enough to be
improved nonlinear counterpart is demonstrated, which gives a used in real-time system. Therefore, for steady state analysis
clear physical picture for the nonlinear phenomenon in the d- and accurate predictions of machine performance, the widely
axis and q-axis representation of motor. All parameters in the adopted d-q axis equivalent fundamental model should be
nonlinear model can be calculated with the basic modified to account for such applications if realistic results
electromagnetic parameters of the motors. This paper provide
an effective tool for analysis of nonlinear characteristics of
are going to be obtained.
IPMSMs, which can be used in such field as vibration and Some past researches[4][5]cconcerning the nonlinear
acoustic noise analysis, torque ripple suppression, etc. mathematical model of IPMSMs are based on Finite element
analysis (FEA) methods. It is true that FEA is powerful,
I. INTRODUCTION however, the design process may take an important number of
iterations and many iterations using FEM analysis could lead
With the merits of brushless, high torque-to-inertia ratio,
to large computation times. Therefore, above mentioned
high power density and high efficiency range, permanent
methods are more suitable for machine design verification
magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) offer significant
rather than for rapid iterative design optimizations.
efficiency advantages over induction and DC motor[1].
Another widely extended modeling technique is based on
Therefore, PMSMs have been widely used in such
Fourier series, references[6][7] carry out analytical model
applications as Electrical Vehicles (EVs), industrial drives
representing the electromagnetic torque and the EMF. The
and servo systems.
approach is directly related to geometrical shapes and
Previous lumped-parameter modeling research concerning
material characteristics, and only the electromagnetic torque
IPMSMs developed and utilized such methods as the two
and the EMF expression are deduced. To get the reluctances
reaction theory[2], and focused primarily on fundamental
network, a big number of calculations should be done, which
component of electromagnetic variables so that their
is similar to those FEM methods, and the large computational
harmonic contents are not taken into account[3]. According to
time needed for repeating and routine building of the
the above modeling method, the standard mathematical
equivalent nodal network makes such techniques uneconomic.
model of the PMSMs is based on d-q reference frame and is
Based on air gap flux density and winding function of the
derived under the condition that the space distribution in the
PMSM, an analytical nonlinear model is presented which
air gap flux density is sinusoidal. Furthermore, the spatial
taking into account of magnetic field harmonics together with
harmonics of armature winding due to the restricts of
non-sinusoidal winding distribution. Moreover, the voltage,
fabricated technique is ignored. Actually, the magnetomotive
current and inductance vector expression are deduced in
forces (MMF) due to armature currents, rotor magnets and the
detail. The relationship between the fundamental model and
air gap permeance generally have a space distribution with
the improved nonlinear counterpart is demonstrated, which
harmonic contents. Considering that the air gap flux density
gives a clear physical picture for the nonlinear phenomenon
is given by the product of MMF and air gap permeance, the
in the d-axis and q-axis representation of IPMSMs. All
distribution of the air gap flux density should be expressed as
parameters in the nonlinear model can be calculated with the
a waveform including harmonics. And also the spatial
basic electromagnetic parameters of the motors.
harmonics of armature winding should be taken into account.
With the increasingly expanding application of the II. ANALYSIS OF THE BASIC THEORY FOR MODELING
PMSMs, more and more demands about enhanced In this section, the basic theory of modeling a three-phase
characteristics had been put forward, such as lower vibration, IPMSM will be described.
lower acoustic noise, stricter torque ripple suppression and
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 124

From (3) we can see that the derivation of stator inductance
need the knowledge of Na,b,c(γ) and g-1(γ,θ).
N (γ )
Nt
γ θ
2n p
γ =0
Nt 0 π 2π 3π γ
−
2n p
a+ a− a+ Stator
(a) Schematic view of 3-phase IPMSM

Fig.2. Armature winding function of PMSM
I R
To illustrate it more clearly, a IPMSM with Nt-turns
Ls symmetric full pitch coil will be taken as an example in the
following section. And the armature winding function is
dΛ
E=
dt dΛm
u shown in fig.2. In which, γ is the distance from arbitrary point
E0 = to the stator phase a axis. In order to help facilitate analysis, it
dt
is useful to express Na,b,c(γ) in terms of its Fourier
components, with following expression,
(b) The equivalent circuit  ∞ k −1 ∞
2 Nt
Fig.1. Structure and equivalent circuit of IPMSM  N a (γ ) =  （ − 1）2 cos(kγ ) =  N k cos(kγ )
(4)
 k =1,3,5,⋅⋅⋅ kπ n p k =1,3,5,⋅⋅⋅

A. Basice equations under natural coordinate system  ∞ k −1
2 N ∞
 Nb (γ ) =  （ − 1）2 cos k (γ − 2π 3) =  N k cos k (γ − 2π 3)

t
An equivalent schematic representation of the PMSM is  k =1,3,5,⋅⋅⋅ kπ n p k =1,3,5,⋅⋅⋅
shown in fig.1(a), and the corresponding equivalent circuit  ∞ k −1

2 N ∞
 N c (γ ) =  （ − 1）2 t
cos k (γ − 4π 3) =  N k cos k (γ − 4π 3)
with assumed current flow from winding to inverter is shown  k =1,3,5,⋅⋅⋅ kπ n p k =1,3,5,⋅⋅⋅
in fig.1(b). In general, the voltage equation can be expressed k −1

In which, N k =（− 1）2 2 Nt kπ n p , k = 1,3,5, , ∞ is the winding
in vector-matrix form as,
dΛ coefficient.
u = − RI − E = − RI − (1)
dt
-1
θ g (γ , θ )
And the flux linkage equation is, γ
Λ = Ls I − Λm (2) γ'
−1
d air
T
α PM
Where stator voltage u=[ua ub uc] , stator current I=[ia ib
(d air + d PM ) −1
ic]T,stator flux Λ=[λa λb λc]T, the fundamental flux linkage
due to the permanent magnet Λm =[φma φmb φmc]T, E is the −π −0.5π 0.5π π γ (γ ' )
induction electromotive force , Ls is stator inductance, R is
d air
stator resistance. d PM
B. Analysis of stator inductance
One of the key tasks of building the physics-based model
Fig.3. The inverse gap function of IPMSM
of PMSMs is the description of the inductances, which vary
For motors with interior permanent magnet, burying of
nonlinearly with the position of the rotor and the armature
magnets inside the rotor introduces saliency into the magnetic
currents. As we all known, windings of the motors are
circuit. And therefore the air gap width is non-uniform any
arranged on the periphery of the stator so as to set up a field
more due to the interior type construction. The inverse gap
distribution of magnetic flux density in the air gap. Winding
function g-1(γ,θ) can describe the change of air gap inside the
function can be used to describe the physical distribution of
motor, and fig.3 shows the inverse gap function of the
windings, together with winding current essentially describe
IPMSM with similar structure of fig.1. By Fourier series
the spatial field distribution in the gap of the machine. Base
expansion in time-varying field, analytical formulation of the
on winding function theory[1], the mutual inductance can be
inverse gap function is derived,
expressed as, ∞
(5)
2π
Lxy = μ0rlg −1( γ , θ )  N x( γ )N y( γ )d γ (3) g -1( γ , θ ) = σ + 0 
σ cosk( γ − θ )
k = 2,4,⋅⋅⋅
k
0 Where,
In which, g-1(γ,θ) is the inverse gap function, μ0 is the 1 d PM α PM −4d PM kα PM
σ0 = − , σk = sin
magnetic permeability of air, r and l is the inner radius and dair π dair( d air + d PM ) k π d air (dair + d PM ) 2
axial length of stator, Nx(γ) and Ny(γ) are the phase winding Due to limitations of manufacturing process, the actual flux
function(the subscript x,y stands for phase a,b or c of motor). density due to the permanent magnets of the motor is non-
sinusoidal in the air gap, which is shown in fig.4 (with blue
125
Line). The flux of density can be simplified to be rectangular- Where Lσ , Lθ is the leakage inductance and reaction
wave, with width αPM and amplitude Bδ, as shown in fig.4. inductance matrix, L0 = π Nt2μ0rlσ 0 4 , L2 = π Nt2μ0rlσ 2 8 .
As far as a random point Γ on the curve is concerned, we can It is clear that Lθ contains such terms varying with rotor
make the Fourier decomposition of the flux curve, using d- position which is related with the salient characteristics of the
axis as the coordinate origin. The result only contain cosine rotor. Similarly, with (5) (6) (8),the flux linkage can be
component for the reason of symmetry, expressed as,
4 Bδ ∞
sin(kα PM 2)  rlN t 2π
Bgap (γ , θ ) =  cos[k (γ − θ )] (10)
2 0 1
π k (6) ϕ ma = B cos(γ − θ ) cos(γ )d γ = λm1 cos(θ )
k =1,3,5...

∞
ϕ = λ cos(θ − 2π 3), ϕ = λ cos(θ + 2π 3)
=  Bk cos[k (γ − θ )]  mb m1 mc m1
k =1,3,5...
Or in matrix form,
Bgap (θ )
θ Λm = [ϕmb ϕmb ϕmc ]T 1 (11)
γ Γ
= λm1[cos θ cos(θ − 2π 3) cos(θ + 2π 3)]T
Bδ In which, λm1 = π rlN t B1 2 .
−π γ ′ = γ −θ Using PARK transformation method, (1) turns to be,
2π −π
2
π 2π
0 dΛ
udq = C32 (θ)u = −C32 (θ)RI − C32 (θ)
α PM γ dt 1 (12)
d dC32 (θ)
= − RI dq − [C32 (θ) Λ] + Λ
α PM dt dt
π− d dC (θ)
2 = − RI dq − Λdq + 32 C32 −1 (θ)C32 (θ) Λ
dt dt
Fig.4. Non-sinusoidal flux density of rotor
d dC32 (θ)
Using (6) together with the winding function[11] expression = − RI dq − Λdq + C32 −1 (θ) Λdq
dt dt
of (4), the phase flux of the motor can be calculated as In (12), the subscript dq stands for variables in d-q axis
following expression, frame, and the PARK transform matrix[1] is,
 2π ∞ ∞
2 cos θ cos(θ − 2π 3) cos(θ + 2π 3)  (13)
ϕ ma = rl  Bgap (γ , θ ) N a (γ )d γ = rlπ  Bk N k cos( kθ ) =  λmk cos(kθ ) (7) C32 (θ) = 
 0 k =1,3,5⋅⋅⋅ k =1,3 3  − sin θ − sin(θ − 2π 3) − sin(θ + 2π 3) 
 ∞
ϕ mb =  λmk cos k (θ − 2π 3) Therefore,

 k =1,3 Λdq = C32 (θ) Λ = C32 (θ) Ls I − C32 (θ) Λm
 ∞ , 1 (14)
 mc  λmk cos k (θ + 2π 3)
ϕ = = C32 (θ) LsC32−1 (θ)C32 (θ) I − C32 (θ) Λm
 k =1,3
= C32 (θ) LsC32−1 (θ) I dq − [λm1 0]T
In which, Bk = 4 Bδ (π k )−1 sin(kα PM 2) and λmk = rlπ Bk N k .
With (1)(12)(13)(14), the voltage equation can be deduced,
III. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED MODEL u d  id   Ld   did   Lq iq 
     0   dt   
  = − R  − 
 di  + ωe   (15)
A. PMSM with stator windings of sinusoidal distribution-the  uq   iq   0  q 
     Lq    − L i + λ 
 d d m1 
fundamental model  dt 
To make it more easy to be demonstrated, a special case id   −λq   d λd 

     dt 
will be discussed firstly in this section. For those machines = − R   + ωe   +  dλ 
which have three-phase symmetrical windings with ideal iq  λ   q
   d   dt 
sinusoidal distribution (or only the fundamental components
Also, we have the flux linkage equation,
of the winding function in fig.2 are of interest), (4) can be
rewritten as, λd   − Ld id + λm1 
λ  =  −L i  (16)
 Nt  q  q q 
 N a( γ ) = 2 cos( γ )
 (8) The electromagnetic torque equation is,
 Nt 1 ∂L ∂Λ
 Nb( γ ) = cos( γ − 2π 3) Te = n p [ I T s I + I m ]
 2 2 ∂θ ∂θ 1(17)
 Nt 1 T ∂Ls ∂Λ
 N c( γ ) = cos( γ − 4π 3) −1
= n p [ (C32 (θ) I dq ) (C32 −1 (θ) I dq ) + (C32 −1 (θ) I dq ) m ]
 2 2 ∂θ ∂θ
Using (3),(5),(8), the equivalent expression of inductance 3
= − n p [λm1iq + ( Ld − Lq )id iq ]
in matrix form is , 2
 L1 0 0   L0− L0 2 − L0 2  In which, L = L1 + 3 L0 + 3 L2，Lq = L1 + 3 L0 − 3 L2 .
d
Ls = Lσ + Lθ =  0 L1 0  + − L0 2 L0 − L0 2  (9) 2 2 2 2
 0 0 L1   − L0 2 − L0 2 L0  With L2 < 0 , it is clear that Ld < Lq is always true due to
 L2 cos(2θ ) L2 cos(2θ − 2π 3) L2 cos(2θ + 2π 3)  the salient characteristics of IPMSM.
+  L2 cos(2θ − 2π 3) L2 cos(2θ + 2π 3) L2 cos(2θ ) 
 L2 cos(2θ + 2π 3) L2 cos(2θ ) L2 cos(2θ − 2π 3)  B. PMSM with stator windings of nonsinusoidal
distribution-the nonlinear mode
126
For more general conditions, PMSM with stator windings of non-sinusoidal distribution will be considered in this section.
From (4) we can see that the amplitude of Nk decays rapidly with the of increasing harmonics order. Therefore, the 7th and
above order component of winding function will not be considered. Similar with what is discussed in above section, the
winding function Na,b,c(γ) and the inverse gap function g-1(γ,θ) can be calculated as following expressions,
 N a (γ ) = N1 cos(γ ) + N3 cos(3γ ) + N5 cos(5γ ) g −1( γ , θ ) = σ 0 + σ 2 cos 2( γ − θ ) + σ 4 cos 4( γ − θ )
 (18) (19)
 Nb (γ ) = N1 cos(γ − 2π 3) + N3 cos(3γ ) + N 5 cos(5γ + 2π 3) + σ 6 cos 6( γ − θ ) + σ 8 cos 8( γ − θ ) + σ10 cos 10( γ − θ )
 N (γ ) = N cos(γ − 4π 3) + N cos(3γ ) + N cos(5γ − 2π 3)
 c 1 3 5
With (3)(19)(20),the mutual inductance Lxy (x,y=a,b,c) can be calculated, then the inductance matrix can be expressed as,
 L1 0 0   Laa Lab Lac 
  
Ls = Lσ + Lθ =  0 L1 0  +  Lab Lbb Lbc 
0
 0 L1   Lac Lbc Lcc 
 
 co s2θ 0 0 
 L1 0 0 1 0 0  0 1 1   
  N2 N2 N2 2π
=0 L1 0  + πμ 0 rlσ 0 ( N 12 + N 32 + N 52 )  0 1 0  + πμ 0 rlσ 0 ( N 32 − 1 − 5 )  1 0 1  + πμ 0 rlσ 2 ( 1 + N 1 N 3 + N 3 N 5 )  0 cos ( 2θ + ) 0 
2 2 2  3 
0 0 L1  0 0 1   1 1 0  
   2π 
 0 0 cos ( 2θ − )
 3 
 2 2   1 1 
 0 cos ( 2θ − π) cos ( 2θ + π) 0 cos ( 2θ + π ) cos ( 2θ − π ) 
3 3   3 3 1 0 0
   
πμ 0 rlσ 2 N 
2
2  + πμ 0 rlσ 2 N 3 ( N 1 + N 5 )  cos ( 2θ + 1 π )
2
 + πμ rlσ ( N 3 + N N ) cos 6θ  
+ cos ( 2θ − π) cos2θ − cos2θ 0 1 0
1
0 0
2  3  2  3  0 6
2
1 5
    0 0 1 
2 1 
 cos ( 2θ + π) cos2θ 0   cos ( 2θ − π ) − cos2θ 0 
 3   3 
 2 2   1 1 
 0 cos (4θ + π ) cos (4θ − π )   0 cos (4θ − π ) cos (4θ + π ) 
3 3 3 3
    2
0 1 1 (20)
+ πμ 0 rlσ 4 N 1 N 5  cos (4θ + π )
2
0 cos 4θ  + πμ 0 rlσ 4
N1N3 
cos (4θ − π )
1
0 − cos 4θ  + πμ rlσ ( N 3 − N 1 N 5 ) cos 6θ  1 0 1 
 3  2  3  0 6
2 2 
    1 1 0 

 cos (4θ − 2 π ) cos 4θ 0   cos (4θ + 1 π ) − cos 4θ 0 
 3   3 
   
 cos 4θ 0 0   cos 8θ 0 0 
   
 2π   2 
+ πμ 0 rlσ 4 ( N 1 N 3 + N 1 N 5 ) 0 cos (4θ − ) 0 + πμ 0 rlσ 8 N 3 N 5 0 cos (8θ + π ) 0
 3   3 
 2π   2 
 0 0 cos (4θ + )  0 0 cos (8θ − π ) 
 3   3 
 1 1   2 2 
 0 cos (8θ + π ) cos (8θ − π ) cos 10θ cos (10θ + π ) cos (10θ − π ) 
3 3   3 3
  2  
N N 1  + πμ rlσ N 5  cos (10θ + 2 π ) cos (10θ − 2 π )
+ πμ 0 rlσ 8 3 5  cos (8θ + π ) 0 − cos 8θ cos10θ 
2  3  0 10
2  3 3 
   
 cos (8θ − 1 π ) − cos 8θ 0   2
cos (10θ − π ) cos10θ
2 
cos (10θ + π )
 3   3 3 
Then, flux linkage can be expressed as,

Λm = [ϕmb ϕmb ϕmc ]T   3 2 3 2 
σ 0 2 ( N 1 + N 5 ) + σ 10 4 N 5 cos12θ 
2
(21) 
 2π 2π 
T
 Ld 1 = L1 +πμ 0 rl ×  
=   λmk cos kθ  λmk cos k (θ − )  λmk cos k (θ + )   +σ 2 3 N 12 + (σ 4 + σ 6 ) 3 N 1 N 5 cos 6θ 
 k =1,3,5 k =1,3,5 3 k =1,3,5 3    4 2 

3 3
 Ld 12 = πμ0 rl × ( − σ 4 N 1 N 5 sin6θ − σ 10 N 5 sin12θ )
And the vector equation of voltage and current considering 
2
2 4
non-sinusoidal winding distribution and magnetic field 
  3 3 2 
σ 0 2 ( N 1 + N 5 ) − σ 10 4 N 5 cos12θ 
2 2
harmonics is, 
id   Ld 1 Ld 12   did   L11id + L12iq − λm5 sin6θ   Lq1 = L1 + πμ 0 rl ×  
(22)  −σ 2 3 N 12 − 3 (σ 4 − σ 6 ) N 1 N 5 cos 6θ  (24)
    dt    
udq = − R   −    di  + ω e     4 2 
   Lq1    q
   21 39
 iq   Ld 12  dt   L21id + L22iq − (λm1 +λm5 cos 6θ )   L11 = πμ 0 rl × [ − σ 4 N 1 N 5 sin6θ − 9σ 6 N 1 N 5 sin 6θ − σ 10 N 5 sin12θ ]
2
 2 4
 kd 0 + 2 kd 2 cos(6ωet + θ d 2 )    3 2 3 2 15 
  −σ 0 2 ( N 1 + N 5 ) − σ 2 4 N 1 + 2 σ 4 N 1 N 5 cos 6θ 
2
 
 ∞  2U n −1 kd 3n cos(nωet + θ d 3n )   L21 = − L1 + πμ0 rl ×  
+  ∞    −σ 6 3 N 1 N 5 cos 6θ + σ 10 33 N 52 cos12θ
 n (23) 
  
=3i +  2U n +1 k d 4 n cos( nωet + θ d 4 n )   2 4 
id    n =3i  
  3 2 3 2 15 
idq =  =  , i = 1, 2,3 ⋅⋅⋅
σ 0 ( N 1 + N 5 ) − σ 2 4 N 1 + 2 σ 4 N 1 N 5 cos 6θ 
2

iq   kq 0 + 2 kq 2 cos(6ωe t + θ q 2 )   L12 = L1 + πμ 0 rl ×  2 
 
 ∞  2U n −1 k q 3n cos(nωet + θ q 3n )    + 3 σ 6 N 1 N 5 cos 6θ + σ 10 33 N 52 cos12θ ) 
  2 
+  ∞  4
 n

   L22 = πμ0 rl × [ − 15 σ 4 N 1 N 5 sin6θ + 9σ 6 N 1 N 5 sin 6θ − 33 σ 10 N 52 sin12θ ]
=3i +  2U n +1 k q 4 n cos( nωet + θ q 4 n )
   
  n =3i  2 4

In which, 
127
 9 9 inductance (together with its counterpart in d-q coordinate)
 U1 cos ϕ1 η1i s i + (U1 sin ϕ1 + ωe λm1 )η 2i s i
 and inverse gap function is summarized as fig.5. The digital
 kd 0 =
i=0 i=0
′ on vertical stripes represents the harmonic order of stator

  10 
 γ is 
i +1
 armature inductance, which is decided by the winding
  i=0  s =0
 function and gap function.
 9
U1 cos ϕ1 η3i s i + (U 1 sin ϕ1 + ωe λm1 )η4 i s i
9
Based on above discussion, we can see that the

 kq 0 = i =0 i=0 fundamental voltage equation (15) define an ideal state by
  10 ′ neglecting the harmonic factors of the magnetic field and
i +1 
  γ is 
  i=0  s=0 winding, which can be looked as a simplified version of the
 nonlinear voltage equation (21). It is also clear that the
 9 9
 ωe λm5 [6ωe η1i s i + s η 2i s i ] fundamental and 6 multiples harmonic components appear in

 kd 2 = i = 0 i = 0
 ′ the voltage equation under d-q coordinate system with the
 10
i 
  ( s + 36ωe ) γ i s  joint action of harmonic inductance and harmonic magnetic
2 2
  i=0 

s = 6ωe
field, and there is fundamental and 3 multiples harmonic
 9 9
components in the stator d-q axis current.
 ωe λm 5 [6ωe η3i s i + s η4 i s i ]

 k q 2 = i =0 i=0
 ′
 i
10
 ( s + 36ωe ) γ i s 
2 2

  i =0  s = 6ωe
  ∞ 9


   U n −1 ( s cos ϕ n −1 − nωe sin ϕn −1 )η1i s i 
  n =3 i i=0

 ∞ 9
i

  + 
 n = 3i
U n − 1 ( s sin ϕ n −1 + n ω e cos ϕ n − 1 ) i =0
η 2 i s 

 kd 3n = ′
  ∞ 10
i 
  ( s + n ωe ) ×  γ i s 
2 2 2

  n = 3i i=0 

 s = nωe

  ∞ 9
i  (25)
   U n −1 ( s cos ϕn −1 − nωe sin ϕn −1 )η3i s  Fig.5. The harmonic relationship of inductance,winding and gap air of IPMSM
  n =3 i i=0

  ∞ 9
i
  +  n −1U ( s sin ϕ n −1 + n ω e cos ϕ n −1  4 i 
) η s IV. CONCLUSIONS
 k q 3 n =  n =3 i i=0 
  ∞ 10
i 
′ The conventional IPMSM model was modified in order to
   ( s + n ωe ) ×  γ i s 
2 2 2
  n = 3i i=0  include the influence of magnetic field harmonics together

 with non-sinusoidal winding distribution in the d- and q-axis.

 s = nωe The presented nonlinear model offers a better analysis of the
 nonlinear phenomenon in the d- and q-axis representation.
 ∞ 9

  U n +1 ( s cos ϕ n +1 − nωe sin ϕn +1 )η1i s 
 i

 n = 3i i=0

The practicability of the proposed method lies in that all

 ∞ 9
i parameters in the nonlinear model can be calculated with the
  n +1 n +1  2 i 
 + U ( s sin ϕ 1 + n ω e cos ϕ ) η s
  n = 3i i=0  basic parameters of the IPMSM. Therefore, this paper provide
 kd 4 n = ′
  ∞ 10
 an effective tool for analysis of nonlinear characteristics of
  ( s + n ωe ) ×  γ i s 
2 2 2 i
 IPMSM, which can be used in such field as vibration and
  n = 3i i =0 
 acoustic noise analysis, torque ripple suppression, etc.
 s = nωe
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
  ∞ 9
i 
   U n +1 ( s cos ϕ n +1 − nωe sin ϕn +1 )η3i s  This work was supported by the Science Foundation of
  n = 3i i=0

  ∞ 9
i
Chinese Academy of Science (Grant No. CXJJ-17-M173).
  +  U n +1 ( s sin ϕn +1 + nωe cos ϕn +1 )η4 i s 
 k =  n = 3i i =0  REFERENCES
 q 4n ′
 ∞ 10
i 
   ( s + n ωe ) ×  γ i s 
2 2 2
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
i=0
Electronics Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison,2009.
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129
Time-Dependent Multi-Physics Analysis of
Inductive Power Transfer Systems
Masood Moghaddami and Arif Sarwat
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Florida International University, Miami, FL 33174, USA
email: mmogh003@fiu.edu, asarwat@fiu.edu
Abstract—A multi-physics time-dependent model for design

and analysis of inductive electric vehicle (EV) charging systems is
presented. The model combines time-harmonic electromagnetic,
time-dependent or steady-state thermal and fluid models that are
all solved together using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Detailed
coupled formulations for each physics and their corresponding
boundary conditions are presented. The multiphysics model
includes the fluid dynamics model that incorporates the air
convection process and therefore results in more accurate thermal
performance analysis. COMSOL Multiphysics software is used
for performing the steady-state and time-domain FEA based
multi-physics simulations on a case study inductive EV charging
system. The results show that using the multi-physics model the
behavior of the IPT system can be effectively analyzed. The
Fig. 1. A typical inductive electric vehicle charging system.
multiphysics model is specifically helpful for choosing the proper
cooling system and thermal insulation between the charging pad
and the vehicle.
Index Terms—electric vehicle, finite element analysis, inductive open-loop or closed-loop controller. Where in a closed-loop
power transfer, multi-physics model, time-dependent analysis. thermal management system, the temperature of the device is
kept around a reference point.
I. I NTRODUCTION The losses in magnetic structures are distributed over its
different key components including Litz wire coil, ferrite core,
Inductive power transfer (IPT) systems are highly optimized
and shielding plates. Magnetic structures in IPT systems are
to achieve high power transfer efficiency and high power
cooled either by natural air or forced air [2], [3]. Therefore, the
density. Although IPT systems can achieve efficiencies as
air convection also should be considered in the calculations.
high as 95% at high power transfer levels, they produce
Air convection is a process that involves both heat transfer
power losses in different components of the system including
and fluid flow processes in fluids. Also, temperature changes
magnetic structures. The power losses and high power den-
in the coils cause changes in the resistance of the coils in the
sity requirements together bring about design challenges for
magnetic structures which can significantly affect the losses
IPT systems that require electromagnetic and thermal design
generated in the coils. Therefore, the electromagnetic model
considerations [1].
should be also coupled with the thermal and fluid models.
The thermal performance of an inductive charging system
Electromagnetic analysis of IPT systems using finite element
should be considered in their design process. Specifically, the
analysis (FEA) has been studied in many studies [4]–[8].
thermal performance is of great importance in inductive EV
However, multiphysics analysis of IPT systems considering
charging systems with high power levels light-duty (up 22
electromagnetic, thermal and fluid models has not been re-
kW) and heavy-duty (higher than 22 kW) EVs. The thermal
ported.
performance of an inductive charging system is directly related
This paper proposes Finite Element Analysis (FEA) based
to the distribution of power losses in the system. The power
multiphysics models for accurate thermal performance anal-
losses in an IPT system is distributed over the magnetic
ysis of inductive electric vehicle charging systems. The mul-
structure, power electronic converters, compensation circuits
tiphysics model combines electromagnetic, thermal and fluid
on both transmitter and receiver sides. The heat dissipation
models in order to include all the essential physics models
in the power electronic devices is usually optimized by the
required for accurate thermal analysis. The loss distribution in
use of effective heat sinks along with natural air or forced air
key components of magnetic structures in inductive charging
convection inside the device. Moreover, the thermal manage-
systems is discussed in detail. Moreover, the time-dependent
ment system inside power electronic converters can be either
multiphysics model of an inductive charging system that
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant includes time-harmonic electromagnetic field model, time-
number 1541108 and FIU Graduate School Dissertation Year Fellowship. dependent thermal, and time-dependent fluid dynamics model
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 130

with detailed partial differential formulations are presented in 2) Ferrite Core Losses: Magnetic structures which are de-
detail. Also, the details of the initial conditions and boundary signed for inductive charging systems usually utilize magnetic
conditions and assumptions are discussed in detail. The ther- cores in order to achieve higher magnetic coupling between the
mal performance of a case study inductive EV charging system transmitter and receiver structures. Since ferrite materials have
is investigated and time-dependent and steady state analyses low electrical conductivity and high magnetic permeability,
are carried out and the results are presented. A preliminary 3D ferrite cores are usually utilized in the magnetic structures to
FEA based thermal model for the case study system is also minimize the losses due to high operating frequency require-
presented. ments of IPT systems. The loss density in ferrite cores can be
calculated as,
II. T IME -D EPENDENT M ULTI -P HYSICS M ODEL
pcore = ks f α B̂ β (3)
The multi-physics model of an IPT system is composed
of electromagnetic, thermal and fluid models. Since the ther-
where Pcore is the core loss per unit volume, B̂ is the peak
mal and fluid behaviors are of inherently slower dynamics
flux density, f is the operating frequency, and ks , α, β are
compared to the electromagnetic model, a time-harmonic
Steinmetz constants. The total loss in a ferrite core can be
electromagnetic model is sufficient. In the following sections,
calculated by integrating (3) over the core’s volume as,
different physics models which are considered in IPT system
Z
modeling are discussed in detail. α
Pcore = ks f B̂ β dv (4)
A. Time-harmonic Electromagnetic Field Model V
The time-harmonic electromagnetic model is identified by where V is the volume of the ferrite core.
the following vector potential formulation [9]: 3) Shielding Plate Losses: In inductive charging systems,
the shielding plates are employed to confine the electromag-

1
∇× (∇ × A) = Je − jωσ A (1) netic fields (EMF) inside the charging area and reduce EMF
µ
emissions in the environment. The shielding plates are usually
where A is the magnetic vector potential, µ is the relative per- made of conductive material such as aluminum. The high
meability, Je is the external current density source (A/mm2 ), frequency magnetic flux which generated by the coil main
ω is the operating frequency of the IPT system, and σ is the coils, losses will be induced on the shielding plates. Due to
electrical conductivity which is a function of the absolute tem- the high conductivity of the shielding plates, the magnetic
perature. σ is the link between the electromagnetic model and flux can only penetrate a very short distance into the plates
thermal model. The time-harmonics electromagnetic model and therefore, an Impedance Boundary Condition (IBC) can
can be coupled with other physics models by calculating the be applied to surfaces of the shielding plates in the FEA
power losses in each component. These losses are then defined model. The use of IBC eliminates the need for very fine
as heat sources in the corresponding components in the thermal mesh requirements inside the shielding plates. IBC is a valid
model. In the next section, the methodology for calculation approximation if the skin depth is small compared to the size
of losses in different component of a magnetic structure is of the conductor. The skin depth δ can be calculated as,
presented.
r
B. Losses in Magnetic Structures of IPT Systems 2
δ= (5)
ωµσ
The losses in a magnetic structure are distributed over its
different key components including Litz wire coil, ferrite core, Since the skin depth (δ) of aluminum at high frequencies
and shielding plates. is much smaller than the dimensions of the shielding plates
1) Litz Wire Coil Losses: The Litz wire is composed of (at 85 kHz the skin depth of aluminum is about 0.2 mm), in
bundled strands which are individually isolated and are twisted the FEA model, IBC is applied to the exterior surfaces of the
along the wire. The losses in Litz wire coil is associated with shielding plates. More importantly, the surface loss density on
skin and proximity effects which lead to an increase in the the shielding plates can be calculated as [11],
conduction losses at high frequencies which are required in
IPT systems. The structure of Litz wire minimizes the skin r
ωµ 2
and proximity effects and thereby the coil losses are reduced. ps = H (6)
2σ trms
The losses in Litz wire coil can be calculated as,
2
Pcoil = (Fskin + Fprox ) i2rms rdc (2) where ps is the surface loss density, Htrms is the RMS
tangential magnetic field at the surface. The total shielding
where Fskin and Fprox are the loss factors that represent skin plate losses can be calculated by integrating (6) as follows,
and proximity effects, respectively, rdc is the DC resistance of
the coil, irms is the RMS current of the coil. The loss factors r
ωµ
Z
2
Fskin and Fprox can be calculated based on the structure of Ps = Htrms ds (7)
2σ S
the Litz wire, operating frequency and the external magnetic
field generated by the magnetic structure as presented in [10]. where S is the surface of the shielding plate.
131
Fig. 2. The 2D model and corresponding boundary conditions.
C. Time-Dependent Thermal Model III. F INITE E LEMENT M ODEL AND B OUNDARY

The governing heat transfer equation in solids can be C ONDITIONS
formulated as follows [12]: In Fig. 2, a 2D model of an inductive EV charging system
comprised of transmitter and receiver power pads is presented.
∂T
ρCp − ∇ · (k ∇T ) = Q (8) It is assumed that the transmitter power pad is placed on
∂t the ground and the receiver power pad is mounted under
where ρ is the volume density in kg/m3 , Cp is the specific the chassis (metallic plate) of the the vehicle. Therefore,
heat capacity in J/kg.K, T is the absolute temperature in K, impedance and open boundary conditions are applied to the
and Q is the external heat source in W . The heat source Q in top and bottom edges respectively. Also, two side edges are
different object is determined using the electromagnetic model considered as open boundary conditions for all three physics
by calculating the Ohmic losses in coils, eddy-current losses in models. In the thermal model, two side edges are set as
the shielding plates and ferrite core. Therefore, Q is dependent constant temperature (T = T0 ) and a thermal insulation
on the electrical conductivity of the solid materials which is is applied to the top edge and thermal contact boundary
in turn dependent to the temperature. Since air convection is condition is used on the bottom edge. In the fluid model, wall
used in IPT systems, the multi-physics model involves heat boundary condition (fluid velocity u = 0) are applied to all
transfer in fluids which can be formulated as follows [12]: interior, top and bottom edges, and constant pressure boundary
(p = pref ) is applied to the two side edges. A volume force
∂T
ρCp + ρCp u.∇T − ∇ · (k ∇T ) = Q + Qp (9) of F = −ρg ay (g: acceleration due to gravity) is applied to
∂t the fluid model in order consider the effect of gravity on the
where u is the velocity vector in m/s. fluid model.
D. Time-Dependent Fluid Dynamics Model IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS

In order to consider the air convection in the multiphysics A WPT4 [14] level 22kW inductive EV charging system
model, the heat transfer model needs to be coupled with a fluid with circular power pads is investigated as a case study system.
model that takes the air flow into account. The time-dependent The 2D model and corresponding boundary conditions of the
fluid dynamics equation for air convection is formulated as case study system are presented in Fig. 2. In order to demon-
follows [13]: strate the performance of the model, various multiphysics FEA
simulations are carried out including time dependent, steady-
∂u state analyses with natural and forced air convection and the
ρ + ρu · (∇u)
∂t results are presented in Fig. 3. The magnetic flux density and
2 flux lines are calculated using the time-harmonic magnetic
−∇· −pI + µ ∇u + (∇u)T − µ(∇ · u)I = F
3 field model and are shown in Fig. 3(a). By performing the
(10) time-dependent analysis the temperature distribution can be
calculated at the desired time. Fig. 3(b) shows the temperature
∂ρ
= −∇.(ρu) (11) distribution in the charging area 15 minutes after system start
∂t up. IPT systems can have an forced air cooling system. By
where ρ is the fluid density, u is the fluid velocity in m/s, p defining the left side of the model as an air inlet with speed
is the pressure in P a, and F is the volume force applied to of 1 m/s the simulation is carried out. Figs. 3(c) and 3(d)
the fluid in N/m3 . show the air velocity distribution (in m/s) and temperature
132
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig. 3. The FEA results on the multiphysics IPT system model: (a) magnetic flux density distribution and flux lines, (b) temperature distribution 15 minutes
after start up, (c) steady-state air velocity distribution (forced air), (d) steady-state temperature distribution (air forced).
distribution respectively. The 2D multiphysics models can be model is presented in Fig. 4.

extended to 3D models in order achieve even more accurate
V. C ONCLUSION AND F UTURE W ORKS
calculations. A preliminary result on temperature distribution
on charging power pad calculated using 3D multiphysics The multiphysics analysis of IPT systems has been in-
vestigated. The multiphysics model is composed of electro-
133
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[10] Q. Ke, W. Luo, G. Yan, and K. Yang, “Analytical model and optimized
multiphysics model. The multiphysics model is specifically design of power transmitting coil for inductively coupled endoscope
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[11] K. Ishibashi, “Eddy current analysis by boundary element method utiliz-
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134
Control System to Regenerative and Anti-Lock
Braking for Electric Vehicles
Marina G.S.P. Paredes, José A. Pomilio
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department of Systems and Energy (DSE)
University of Campinas, SP - Brazil
gabbil@dsce.fee.unicamp.br, antenor@fee.unicamp.br
Abstract—Anti-lock brake system (ABS) control is an impor- braking development for different ground conditions, ensuring
tant solution in a vehicle to act on cracks conditions, road bumps, the regenerative procedure, together with the complementary
and different surfaces to improve driver safety. Currently, several mechanical brake.
efficient strategies on control module are being enhanced to
work with braking stability. This paper studies, based on the
Simulink/Matlab, the braking control for maintaining a smooth II. B RAKING C ONTROL S TRATEGIES TO V EHICLE WITH
torque to shortstops, mechanical ABS and on the cooperative ABS
regenerative and mechanical braking control system for electric
vehicles (EV). These are fitted with supercapacitors to achieve a As it is well known, the regenerative brake allows con-
high-performance braking and energy storage. verting the kinetic energy to electricity, increasing the vehicle
range and also reducing the use of the mechanical brakes. The
Index Terms—Mechanical ABS, Regenerative Braking, Energy
Recovery, Simulation.
mechanical part must act if the electrical brake is not enough
or if the energy balance is not positive.
I. I NTRODUCTION The strategy of the braking ABS system seeks the stability
The automotive technology moves toward safer vehicles. of the vehicle. The tire slip plays a crucial role in the analysis
Automobile manufacturers are focused on installing vehicle of ABS and, due to regenerative braking torque, and the
safety systems such as ABS, electric stability control (ESC), hydraulic braking torque, both should be regulated rapidly to
chassis control, and driver assistance systems for improving the slip ratio at 15% to 25%.
the vehicle safety. This paper considers an electrical vehicle Nevertheless, the regenerative braking stage allows for the
(EV) with regenerative braking, in which the electrical brake recovery the kinetic energy lost during braking and reduces
operates in cooperation with the mechanical brake, including the use of the brake pads that are suitable for a more effective
the ABS function. range for the electric vehicle [5], [6].
The ABS mechanical is based on the conventional system The system model includes the vehicle dynamics, the tire,
parts: sensors, electronic control unit (ECU) and hydraulic the induction motor, direct torque control (DTC), superca-
modulator (pressure regulator). The ABS calculates the slip pacitor bank, and the mechanical torque control system (PID
ratio to control the braking force during changes in the road controller).
surface grip. This ensures that the actual slip rate works Figure 1 describes the tire slip ratio, which is the wheel
between 15% to 25%, ideal to the directional stability and speed divided by the actual speed of the vehicle. The friction
braking performance [1], [2]. coefficient (µ) depends on many factors, such as tire construc-
Taking advantage of the quick response and accurate control tion, road surface, tire loading, temperature, moisture etc, but
of an electric machine, researchers have explored ways to use generally, it increases with increasing wheel slip, up to a point,
EV regenerative braking with anti-lock brake system (ABS) and then decreases [5].
control, expecting a better control effect [3], [4]. Papers [4], [5] show an ABS system with a fuzzy logic
This paper develops the dynamic model of an electric car controller to regulate the pressure valve. For low vehicle
driven by an induction machine (IM) with direct torque control speeds, generally the ABS is deactivated at 5km/h, due to time
(DTC) powered by a supercapacitor bank. The braking system response of the valve, so taking the maximum force applied
explores the regenerative braking adding an ABS behavior, to vehicle braking.
what means, avoiding the wheel blocking also during the Figure 2 displays the Simulink model to study the behavior
electrical braking. This works will be analyzed in two stages. of the EV in a driving cycle. The torque reference represents
In the first stage the ABS shows the mechanical brake with the accelerator and braking pedals.
a low variable friction coefficient (VFC) and a PID controller The motor is driven by three-phase inverter using direct
to calculate the force distribution on the front wheels. torque control (DTC).
In the second stage, it is calculated the motor torque and The force (F) available at the tire-ground contact depends
its applications to the wheels in order to allow the correct on the axle torque (T) and tire radio (R).
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 135

F = T /R (1)
The vehicle braking force (Fv ) depends on the vehicle

mass (m) and variable longitudinal vehicle velocity (υ) or
acceleration (a).
∂υ
Fv = m. = Ff + Fr (2)
∂t
During braking, the traction or braking force is produced
by the pneumatic tire and friction coefficient. Depending on
the driver command, this is an acceptable procedure, provided
a protection devices that prevents an exaggerated elevation of
temperature and current peaks [7].
In Equation 3, the slip ratio (λ) is the difference between
the vehicle speed (υ) and the linear wheel speed, normalized
by the first.
Fig. 1. Slip and the friction coefficient curve
υ − ωi R
λi = (3)
υ
The variable friction coefficient (VFC) for road conditions
performed by the Pacejka nonlinear model (The Magic For-
mula) which is a widely used tire model. The Magic Formula
coefficients for common road conditions, given by surfaces
from wet to snow, have the followings coefficients (B=12,
C=2.3, D=0.82, E=1 ) to (B=5, C=2, D=0.3, E=1) [1]
µi (λ) = θDsin(C tan−1 Bλi − E[Bλi − tan−1 (Bλi )] ) (4)

Fig. 2. EV Model System for driving cycles studies
TABLE I
EV PARAMETERS
Induction Motor 50 HP
SC Bank 17 F Fig. 3. Controller of the Mechanical ABS and Combined Regenerative and
mechanical braking of ABS (Mechanical Torque Block)
Gearbox Ratio 2.5 : 1
IM Maximum Torque 300 Nm If the braking torque command is low, it can be realized only
by regenerative mode. However, if its value is above threshold
Wheel Maximum Torque 750 Nm
it is necessary to add the mechanical brake.
Tire Radio (R) 0.25m Figure 4 shows a diagram used to define the joint oper-
Tire Rolling Resistance 0.015 ation of both brake systems. After a high braking signal is
produced by the driver, the demanded torque (Td ) is split in
Coefficient(Cr )
electromagnetic (Tem ) and mechanical (Tmec ) parts. While
Vehicle Mass (m) 660 kg the slip coefficient is in the acceptable range (lower than -0.2)
Path Inclination 0 rad the braking follows the normal procedure. However, if slip
becomes dangerous, the ABS mode is turned-on, reducing the
force applied to the wheel.
136
The ABS mode acts in both, the electrical and the mechan- torque must be provided by the mechanical part. At 7 s the
ical brakes. While the electrical part is able to deliver power ground changes from ”wet” to ”snow”, drastically reducing the
to DC SC bank it operates. At low speed, the converter power wheel friction with the soil. Consequently, the force applied to
losses become higher than the regenerated power. the pads blocks the wheels and the vehicle starts to slide. As
In such case the Tem reference becomes zero and the final a result, vehicle distance braking depends on the horizontal
part of the braking procedure is done only with the mechanical force exerted on the tires by the road, mass and the rolling
device. At very low speed the ABS is turned-off. resistance. Therefore, a vehicle without ABS can lose the
maneuver control producing an unstable steering.
B. Mechanical Braking with ABS
At first, let us consider the usual mechanical ABS system
acting on the front wheels. As Figure 6 shows, after the
same initial procedures, at 6 s the vehicle receives the braking
command, which is split between the motor and the pads. At
6.2 s the inverter is turned-off and the pads assume the full
torque. At 7 s the vehicle enters in a different ground, losing
friction. The wheels start to slide and the system activates
the ABS procedure, reducing the torque until getting the slip
value in the safety range. At low speed, the applied torque
starts to present an uncontrolled behavior, due to the low
force necessary to complete the vehicle stop. To avoid such
bad operation the ABS is turned-off (TO) at 5km/h until the
complete stop. The total braking distance is 90 meters and the
total braking time, after the ABS application is 5.8 s.
C. Regenerative and Mechanical Braking with ABS
The third case is similar to the second, except that the
regenerative braking operates until the power balance is pos-
itive, what means, while the absorbed power compensates
the converter and motor losses, allowing to recharge the
supercapacitor bank. When the vehicle enters in the ”snow”
region, it is necessary to reduce the braking torque to avoid
the wheels slide. In this case, such reduction applies to both,
electromagnetic and mechanical parts, proportionally to the
respective initial braking efforts, as Figure 4 shows. When
the regenerative brake becomes inefficient it is turned-off, at
10.17 s. The mathematical brake assumes the full torque until
at 11.8 s. It is turned-off to avoid the final oscillation. The
braking time and stopping distance are the same as in the
previous case.
TABLE II
Fig. 4. Logic Diagram of Braking Control Strategy E LECTRICAL Q UANTITIES FOR H ARD B RAKE WITH VFC
Parameters Hard Brake Hard Brake-TO

III. S IMULATION R ESULTS AND A NALYSIS
with VFC with VFC
The driving cycle has three (3) parts: acceleration, cruise
and braking. without ABS and ABS
Brake Peak Current (A) 109.70 44.51
A. Mechanical Braking without ABS
Brake Peak Power (kW) 29.48 15.39
To allow the analysis of the braking efficacy, the first case
considers the following situation, illustrated in Figure 5. The Supplied Energy (kJ) 134.50 134.50
EV accelerates with constant torque (+210 Nm). At 5 s it Recovered Energy (kJ) 2.81 18.47
reaches the cruising speed. The torque reduces to zero until
Initial Voltage SC (V) 380 380
6 s, when the braking torque is set to -300 Nm. The braking
effort is divided between the motor (-240 Nm) and the pads Final Voltage SC (V) 359 361.50
(-60 Nm). At 6.2 s the inverter is turned-off and all the braking
137
Hard Brake Torque without ABS (N.m) Hard Brake Torque with Mechanical ABS (N.m)
300 300
200 VFC: Wet - Snow 200 VFC: Wet - Snow

(T =7s) (T =7s)
sn o w sn o w
Accelerator Regenerative-HB Accelerator Regenerative-HB

T r e f =70% (Torque) Mechanical-HB T r e f =70% (Torque) Mechanical-HB
100 100
0 0
Inverter
Turn-Off
Brake T s t a r t =6.2s
-100 T r e f =80% -100
(Torque)
Brake
Inverter T r e f =80%
-200 -200
Turn-Off (Torque)
T s t a r t =6.2s
-300 -300
-400 -400
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Time (s) Time (s)
Motor Rotation Speed without ABS (RPM) Vehicle Braking Distance and Speed
1500 16 100
VFC: Wet - Snow
Inverter (T sn o w = 7s)
Turn-Off Inverter 90
(6.2, 1252) Speed 14 Turn-Off
T s t a r t =6.2s
Regenerative Speed-Ref
80
Braking Speed-HB
12
Speed-Ref-HB
70
VFC: Wet - Snow
1000 Snow Snow Start (T sn o w =7s)
Start 10
Vehicle Distance (m)

(7,9.71) 60
Vehicle-HB
Speed (m/s)
Wheel-HB
8 Vehicle-HB-TO 50
Wheel-HB-TO
Distance-HB
Distance-HB-TO 40
6
500 Mechanical
Regenerative and Braking 30
Mechanical Braking 4
Mechanical
Braking 20
2
10
TO
(11.8,1.1)
0 0 0
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Time (s) Time (s)
Tire Slip Ratio without ABS Tire Slip Ratio with Mechanical ABS
0.2 0.2
Wet Wet
0 Wet 0
VFC: Wet - Snow Wet
(T sn o w =7s)
X: 7
Y: -0.05081 W/O ABS
Snow
W/O ABS-HB
-0.2 -0.2
X: 7.03
Y: -0.1979
Snow
-0.4 -0.4
-0.6 -0.6
VFC: Wet - Snow
(T sn o w =7s)
With ABS-HB
With ABS-HB-TO
-0.8 -0.8
-1 -1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Time (s) Time (s)
Fig. 5. Mechanical Braking with VFC (Wet-Snow) and without ABS Fig. 6. Mechanical Braking with VFC (Wet-Snow) and with ABS
138
IV. C ONCLUSION
Hard Brake Torque with ABS
300 The article has studied the use of the ABS braking in
VFC: Wet - Snow
an electrical vehicle with regenerative braking. The vehicle
200 (T =7s)
sn o w dynamic was simulated with Simulink, focusing the braking
Regenerative-HB
Accelerator Mechanical-HB
interval. Different braking situations were considered, mainly
Mechanical-HB-TO
100 T r e f =70%
the hard-braking (HB) case, in which the electromagnetic
(Torque)
and the mechanical brakes must act together to allow the
0 necessary braking torque. Additionally, case the driven wheels
Inverter
Turn-Off
T s t a r t =10.17s
block (for example, due to a wheel-soil friction change), the
-100 ABS system must act, maintaining the braking control, even
Brake
T r e f =80%
if with a lower torque. In such case, to effectively use the
-200
(Torque) regenerative braking, even in challenging situations as the
TO
T s t a r t =11.8s wheels slide, it is necessary to develop an ABS procedure
-300
also for such electromagnetic brake. The results show that the
electromagnetic ABS is able to work together the mechanical
-400
system, resulting the desired braking effort.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work has been partially supported by the Brazilian
Vehicle Braking Distance and Speed
16 100 agency CAPES.
90
14
TABLE III
80 PARAMETERS OF THE INDUCTION MACHINE
12 FOR THE SIMULATION
70
VFC: Wet - Snow
Snow Start (T sn o w =7s)
10
Vehicle Distance (m)
(7,9.71)
Vehicle-HB
60
Nominal Power 37 kW
Speed (m/s)
Wheel-HB
8 Vehicle-HB-TO
Wheel-HB-TO
50 Nominal Voltage 220 VAC
Distance-HB
6
Distance-HB-TO 40 Nominal Torque 200 Nm
30 Rotor Resistance (Rr) 0.23 Ω
4
Inverter
20
Stator Resistance (Rs) 0.025 Ω
Turn-Off
T s t a r t =10.17s
2
10
Rotor Inductance (Lls) 0.87mH
TO
(11.8,1) Stator Inductance (Llr) 0.22mH
0 0
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Time (s) Mutual inductance (Lm) 3.79mH
Poles Number (P) 4
Tire Slip Ratio with ABS
0.2
Wet
0
R EFERENCES
Wet
[1] G. Yin and X. Jin, “Cooperative control of regenerative braking and fric-
tion braking for a hybrid electric vehicle,” Proceedings of the Institution
Snow
-0.2 of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering,
X: 7.017 2013.
Y: -0.2031
[2] Y. Hori, “Future vehicle driven by electricity and control—research
-0.4 on four-wheel-motored “uot electric march ii”,” IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Electronics, 2004.
[3] X. WANG and Q. WANG, “Modeling and Simulation of Automobile
Anti-Lock Braking System Based on Simulink,” Journal of Advanced
-0.6
VFC: Wet - Snow Manufacturing Systems, 2012.
(T sn o w =7s)
[4] M. W. Al-Grafi, M. K. Mohamed, and F. A. Salem, “Analysis of vehicle
With ABS-HB
With ABS-HB-TO
friction coefficient by simulink with Matlab,” International Journal of
-0.8
Control, Automation and Systems, 2013.
[5] O. Tur, O. Ustun, and R. Tuncay, “An Introduction to Regenerative
Braking of Electric Vehicles as Anti-Lock Braking System,” 2007 IEEE
-1 Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 2007.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Time (s)
[6] J. Wang, J. Qiao, and Z. Qi, “Research on control strategy of regenerative
braking and anti-lock braking system for electric vehicle,” 2013 World
Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition (EVS27), 2013.
Fig. 7. Combined Regenerative and Mechanical Braking with ABS [7] K. R. Ed, Brakes, Brake Control and Driver Assistance Systems, 2014.
139
DM and CM modeling of non-isolated buck
converters for EMI filter design
Aaron D. Brovont Robert M. Cuzner
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
The University of Alabama University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Tuscaloosa, AL, USA Milwaukee, WI, USA
Abstract—Non-isolated dc-dc converters play an important design that best meets the objectives in a highly constrained
role in the electrification of automotive, aircraft and shipboard system environment.
systems. Maximizing the power density/specific power of the This paper applies the DM and CM decomposition and
EMI filter stage of these converters is critical to achieving the
full benefits of electrification. To this end, lean yet accurate equivalent circuit modeling approaches detailed in [9], [10]
models are required. In this paper, a differential-mode/common- to a non-isolated synchronous buck converter. The results set
mode decomposition and equivalent modeling approach is applied up a methodological approach to evaluate non-isolated dc-dc
to a non-isolated buck converter topology. Fully decomposed converter topologies from the perspective of their CM and DM
differential-mode and common-mode equivalent models are pro- producing behavior, providing a means to optimally design
duced that yield insight into the significant impact typical
asymmetries in the buck converter and its parasitics have on its filters against system-level design objectives. Two surprising
conducted emissions. A process is outlined for using the equiv- insights are revealed by the analysis of the example buck
alent models to design optimal EMI filters for dc-dc converters converter system. First, it is determined that the filter inductor
with respect to system-level objectives. concentrated in the positive rail of the buck converter causes
CM voltage cancellation that reduces CM current through the
I. Introduction
EMI filter by a third relative to a “balanced” arrangement.
Non-isolated dc-dc converters play a significant role in Second, for the canonical buck converter, it is found that LISN
electrification of automotive, aircraft and shipboard systems. measurements used to design the EMI filter to the standards
Such systems typically require energy storage, generators, and are dominated by parasitic capacitor effects rather than the CM
a variety of loads to exchange power with at least one common voltage produced by the converter.
dc bus [1], [2]. System stability and dynamic resiliency is
ensured by dc-dc converters, which enable bidirectional cur- II. DM and CM Modeling of a Buck Converter
rent control between the common bus and battery storage and DM and CM voltage and current may be defined for a set
dynamic control of voltage at load interfaces. In the shipboard of N conduction paths as in [10]:
dc zonal architecture, the non-isolated dc-dc converter forms
a buffer between dc buses spanning the length of the ship vmn vmP − vnP (1)
and dc and ac distribution systems (through inverters) within i mn 2 (i m − i n )
1
(2)
zones [2]. Because these transportation systems are space,
1 N
weight and loss constrained, non-isolated dc-dc converters are vcm vnP (3)
N n=1
preferred over high-frequency-transformer-isolated converters
[3]–[6], especially since voltage ratios between the common
N
bus and battery/load are typically small (e.g., 270-V common i cm in (4)
bus with 250-V battery in aircraft and 1000-V common bus n=1
with 650-V loads in ships). where P is an arbitrary reference point. The physical interpre-
Achieving high power density in power electronic converters tation of these definitions is that a DM voltage is the voltage
is a primary consideration for transportation systems [7], [8]. difference between any pair of the N lines, and DM current is
Yet, system compatibility must be ensured by enforcing con- that which travels down the first line of a pair and returns on
ducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) and power quality the second. CM voltage is the average voltage of all N lines
standards at all common interfaces. Thus, simultaneous power with respect to an arbitrary reference point P, and CM current
density and compatibility requirements drive the need to holis- is the sum of all current flowing in parallel along the N lines.
tically and systematically design common-mode (CM) and In any practical system, the mixed-mode (MM) quantities
differential-mode (DM) filters for dc-dc converters. Promising (e.g., vnP and i n ) comprise both DM and CM components.
power converter topologies and power semiconductors, such as The decomposition of DM and CM behavior can be viewed
wide-bandgap (WBG) devices, should be key design variables as a spatial transformation from N MM voltages and currents
ensuring coverage of the range of solutions leading to the to N − 1 DM voltages and currents plus a single CM solution.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 140

(a)
Ci Le vf,FP
vQ kfLf Lf keLe io
vL+
vi Cf Ce Ce
vGP Cf vCf vo
vo
vQ Ce
Ci kf Lf
vLí Le (b)
vFP vf,GP
Fig. 1. Buck converter with split filter inductance. iFP kf kfLf +keLe
vLf,FP
Ci Ce
Thus, transformation matrices can be defined in accordance
with the definitions in (1)–(4) and employed to decompose
the governing equations of a system under analysis [10]:
Fig. 2. (a) DEM and (b) CEM of the buck converter.
iDCM TNi in (5)
vDCM TNv vnP . (6)
The use of transformation matrices is particularly useful for voltage drops across the filter inductors are given by
asymmetric conduction paths and even more so when the
number of lines constituting a CM path is greater than two. v L+ 1 − k f 0 i+
= pL f (7)
v L− 0 k f i−
The synchronous buck converter and EMI filter depicted in
Fig. 1 is a candidate topology for a ship-service load-interface The DM/CM decomposition matrices for a pair of lines may
converter. A few features are worth noting. First, the EMI filter be defined

Y-capacitors are tied back to the dc-link midpoint. This is done 1 −1
for consistency with neutral-point-clamped topologies and also T2v = 1 1 (8)
to limit ground connections in an ungrounded system. Second, 21 2

− 12
the converter is shown with the filter inductance split between Ti2 = 2 . (9)
1 1
the positive and negative output rails in proportion to the factor
k f ∈ [0, 1]. For example, if k f = 0, then the filter inductor is Left-multiplying by T2v and substituting in (T2i )−1 iDCM , the
lumped entirely in the upper rail. If k f = 0.5, the inductor decomposed DM and CM voltage drops across the inductors
is split symmetrically between upper and lower rails. Third, are
parasitics are neglected initially. This is done to investigate the
v L,dm 1 1
(1 − 2k f ) i dm
effect of the filter inductor asymmetry in isolation. Parasitics = pL f 1 2 (10)
v L,cm 2 (1 − 2k f )
1
4
i cm
will be added to the model later in this paper.
where p is the Heaviside operator. Through manipulation of
From an EMC perspective, asymmetry should be avoided as
(10) and relating the DM voltage drop across the inductors to
it provides an opportunity for coupling between DM and CM
the switch and capacitor voltages, one can obtain
behavior [11]. Without a detailed understanding of the CM
sources and DM-CM couplings of a given system, decoupling v L,dm = pL f i dm + p( 12 − k f )L f i cm (11)
of DM and CM behavior is the best that can be hoped for. v L,cm = pk f (1 − k f )L f i cm + ( 12 − k f )(vQ2 − vC f ). (12)
However, as was suggested in [12], DM-CM coupling can
produce an equivalent voltage source that may actually oppose Applying this same DM/CM decomposition and equivalent
the CM voltage production of the converter’s switching behav- modeling approach to the remainder of the system yields
ior. Indeed, the methods of [10] applied to the buck converter the DM equivalent model (DEM) and CM equivalent model
of Fig. 1 shows that this topology benefits to a significant (CEM) shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b), respectively, for the
degree from such fortuitous voltage cancellation, which results synchronous buck converter of Fig. 1. The coupled equivalent
entirely from the asymmetry of the filter inductor. circuits in Fig. 2 each include one independent source and one
The DM/CM decomposition and equivalent modeling ap- dependent source. The voltage sources in the DEM are given
proach detailed in [9], [10] may be applied to the buck by
converter of Fig. 1 to determine the DM and CM equivalent
vdm = vQ2 (13)
models. The most interesting result is obtained from the
1 − 2k f
asymmetry of the filter inductor, and therefore the analysis v f ,cm = v L ,cm . (14)
of these elements is provided herein. To this end, the MM 2k f (1 − k f ) f
141
The CEM sources are defined as /,61V
kfLf Le Ll
vi Ci
ve,cm = k f vQ2 − (15) vQ Cli Clo
2 VGF
iORDG
1 − 2k f Cf Ce
v f ,dm = − vC f . (16) Rli Rlo
2 Ce
vQ
These are determined by the definitions in (1) and (3) as Ci kf Lf Ll
well as the coupling terms in (11). The independent sources Le Cli Clo
are defined by the same inputs as the MM model (i.e., dc Cp Cp kpCp
input voltage and switching commands) whereas the dependent Rli Rlo
Rh
sources represent the coupling between the differential and
common modes due to the potential asymmetry of the filter
inductor. It is noted that the coupled equivalent circuits in Fig. 3. Buck converter model including switch parasitics and output LISNs.
Fig. 2 are exactly equivalent to the MM circuit in Fig. 1. They
represent the exact mathematical decomposition of the DM
and CM behavior of the MM circuit. level, the system-level objectives may be best achieved by
Looking closer at the sources in each of the equivalent maximizing efficiency, minimizing failure rate or maximizing
models, it is observed that the coupling source in the DEM is specific cost. WBG devices, such as SiC or GaN MOSFETs
proportional to the CM voltage drop across the filter inductor. offer tremendous opportunities for increased power density
Since the impedance presented by the CM choke Le in the and ease of plug and play solutions, but their implications
CM is generally much larger than that presented by the filter for system-level objectives must be well understood in order
inductor L f , the voltage v L f ,cm is usually small, and the CM to achieve the full benefit. This need has given rise to the
to DM coupling term v f ,cm can be neglected. For this reason, use of Pareto surfaces for power density (ρ), specific power
CM-to-DM can often be neglected and a CEM alone may (γ), efficiency (η), failure rate (λ−1 ) and specific cost (σ) in
suffice. In contrast, the DM-to-CM coupling source in the a multi-objective optimization or virtual prototyping process
CEM v f ,dm is central to the CM behavior of the system, [13], [14].
particularly in the case of the canonical buck converter with For IGBT-based designs, the convention has been to first
the filter inductor lumped entirely in the positive rail (k f = 0). approach the design from a power quality perspective, which
In that case, the asymmetry of the filter inductor cancels typically applies to a limited frequency range. Here classical
out the CM voltage produced by the switching action of the constraints are applied, such as minimizing RMS currents,
converter. The only remaining ac CM voltage source v f ,dm is voltage ripple, THD or deviation factor, using standard for-
proportional to the filter capacitor voltage. Thus, making the mulations derived from a simplified DM representation of the
system more symmetric by splitting the filter inductor between circuit for the metrics. The challenge that has emerged for
the positive and negative rails (k f = 0.5) actually increases WBG device-based implementations, from the standpoint of
CM current. This prediction was borne out by a simulation of CM and DM filter design, is that compliance with conducted
the MM model of the system: the RMS current through the EMI standards rather than power quality is often the principal
filter increased by a factor of three after splitting the inductor design driver.
between positive and negative rails. In this case, MM coupling The approach to design for EMI compliance has varied,
is negligible in the DM and actually beneficial in the CM. depending on the application. For example, in shipboard
This is an isolated result, however. This same MM coupling applications conducted EMI limits apply to frequencies as
can be highly problematic when paralleling buck converters or low as 1kHz. Between 1-10kHz, there is a direct correlation
auctioneering loads between parallel buses [3]. between the power quality and EMI requirements. Above
10kHz, compliance is based upon Line Stabilization Network
III. Filter Design Process (LISN) measurements extending up to 10MHz. In other appli-
Transportation applications, such as shipboard integrated cations where FCC or CISPR limits apply, the LISN voltage
power and energy systems, more electric aircraft and electric requirement does not apply until 150kHz. In any case, to
vehicles, require high power quality and low conducted and design the EMI filter for the example buck converter system, it
radiated EMI as determined by compliance with stringent is necessary to interface the converter model with a LISN and
standards. At the same time, the achievement of maximum include the dominant parasitics of the system. It is expected
power density (kW/liter) or specific power (kW/kg) are critical that the primary leakage path to ground in this single buck-
objectives because of space/weight limitations. Since power converter system is composed of the parasitic capacitances of
electronic converters in such applications are part of a larger the switches or power module [12], [15], [16]. Fig. 3 shows
system where all power throughput from energy sources is the expanded buck converter model that includes the switch
delivered through power electronic converters, optimization parasitics and output LISNs.
often must take place at the system level. Higher level For an IGBT-based converter, frequency-based filter design
considerations such as cost and reliability may dictate the optimization techniques can be successfully applied to the CM
viability of a given system design. Therefore, at the converter inductor design, given a discrete design space for capacitor
142
Fig. 6. Simulated inboard LISN voltage spectrum versus limits.
Pareto surfaces. A typical optimization-based design process

proceeds as follows:
Fig. 4. Frequency spectrum produced by IGBT based converter.
1) Assume DM and CM filter structures;
2) Develop the transfer functions for filter insertion loss at
the LISNs due to EMI noise sources (vdm , vcm );
3) Define the design space for commercially available ca-
pacitors that can be applied to the design, core materials
and geometries, winding techniques, etc.
4) Formulate appropriate metrics and constraints;
5) Develop fitness function and apply optimization tech-
nique.
For step (4), the metrics will include insertion loss expres-
sions derived in step (2) and the constraints will include
the applicable emission limits. Other constraints will include
connections to the thermal design and optimizing objectives
such as maximum ρ or maximum η. Because the EMI filter
cannot be optimized in isolation from other parts of the
Fig. 5. Frequency spectrum produced by SiC MOSFET based converter. power electronic converter, such as heat sink design, switching
frequency, etc., step (5) will benefit from a population-based
optimization approach such as a genetic algorithm. Inherent
values with associated physical parameters. This process can to the proposed technique is the independent application of
assume relatively linear inductance with frequency up to conducted EMI limits to the insertion loss expressions derived
100kHz with good results (assuming minimization of inter- from both the DEM and the CEM. For example, using the
winding capacitance and appropriate core selection) [17]. capacitor design space for potential DM and CM capacitors
Parasitic effects that dominate at higher frequencies can be defined in step (1), DM and CM inductors are optimally
managed through symmetrical layout and appropriate applica- designed to the objective function. The problem is formulated
tion of shielding for IGBT techniques. The typical spectrum such that DM and CM emissions measured at the LISNs
of vcm for an IGBT-based converter is shown in Fig. 4. are just under the limits. Fig. 6 shows the measured LISN
The dominant frequency content is associated with higher voltage of the positive leg versus the EMI limit from a detailed
order switching harmonics. The pulse shape is trapezoidal, simulation of the circuit in Fig. 3 using filter component
resulting in a steep roll-off in frequency component amplitude values derived from this process for a 50kVA dc-dc converter
as frequency increases. As a result, dv/dt induced harmonics producing a 375-V output, connected to a 700-V bus.
are not significant. Typically, content in the 1-2MHz range
occurs due to interactions between edge rates and bus structure IV. Equivalent Models for Filter Design
resonances which are often addressed through the addition of The extension of the DM and CM modeling approach
smaller common mode chokes during testing. demonstrated in Section II to the buck converter interfaced
With WBG-based converters, optimization of the EMI filter with a LISN in Fig. 3—as is necessary for EMI filter design—
presents a significant challenge because frequency content is straightforward. The DEM and CEM corresponding to Fig. 3
shifts to higher frequencies (as switching frequency is in- are provided in Fig. 7. The only modification to the DEM
creased to achieve higher ρ − γ in addition to higher edge is the inclusion of differential equivalent values of the LISN
rates). This challenge is illustrated in Fig. 5. In this example, parameters and an output load current. Since the LISNs are
switching frequency is increased to 100kHz. As a result, the symmetric, the differential equivalent parameters presented by
EMI requirement drives the EMI filter design almost com- the LISNs are simply the series combination of corresponding
pletely, both from a CM and DM perspective. Parasitics must elements (i.e., impedance terms are doubled and admittance
also be taken into account in the generation of ρ−γ−η−λ−1 −σ terms are halved).
143
(a)
vf,FP Lf keLe Ll 3
Cli Clo 2
iORDG
Ce
vGP Cf vCf
1
Rli Rlo
Current (A)
0
(b)
ve,FP vf,GP -1
ie,FP kf kfLf +keLe Ll
vLf,FP -2
Cli Clo Ungrounded
Ci Ce Grounded
Rli Rlo -3
vp,FP kpCp 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
ip,FP Rh
Time (ms)
Fig. 7. (a) DEM and (b) CEM of the buck converter including switch parasitic Fig. 8. CM current measured through the LISNs when system is ungrounded
capacitance and output LISNs. vs. grounded at the negative terminal of the switch module.
V. Conclusion
The changes to the CEM of the system are more pronounced
than those to the DEM. The kernel of the system represented Non-isolated dc-dc converters will likely play an impor-
in Fig. 2(b) remains the same, but it is now enclosed by an tant role as load-interface converters in the electrification
outer loop that represents the path through earth ground. This of automotive, aircraft and shipboard systems. Maximizing
outer path conducts the CM current through the LISN. The the power density/specific power of the EMI filter stage of
CM voltage source that drives current through the LISN (and these converters is critical to achieving the full benefits of
system ground) is given by electrification. To this end, lean yet accurate models are
required. In this paper, a DM/CM decomposition and equiv-
1 Vdc alent modeling approach is applied to a non-isolated buck
v p,cm = vQ2 − k p . (17)
kp + 2 2 converter. Fully decomposed DM and CM equivalent models
are produced that yield interesting insight into the effects of
The DEM and CEM of Fig. 7 are much more amenable to typical asymmetries in such systems. Specifically, it is found
analysis than the MM model of Fig. 3. The circuits are readily that the filter inductor concentrated in the positive rail of the
simplified to Thevenin form or small terms easily discarded buck converter causes CM voltage cancellation that reduces
when appropriate to improve computational performance (e.g., CM current through the EMI filter by a third relative to a
v f ,cm ). This is particularly helpful within an optimization- “balanced” arrangement. Additionally, for the canonical buck
based design paradigm as described in the previous section converter, LISN measurements used to design the EMI filter
wherein both accuracy and computational efficiency are criti- to the standards are dominated by parasitic capacitor effects
cal, considering that including high-frequency effects generally rather than the CM voltage produced by the converter.
leads to a tradeoff between stiff models or overly simplified
With regard to EMI filter design, DM and CM equiva-
models.
lent models provide an effective means for connecting EMI
Additionally, the DEM and CM reveal other surprising behavioral models to the physics-based models that include
results that may have implication for system-level design high-frequency effects. The models of Fig. 7 ignore internal
choices. For example, it is noted that the CM voltage source component parasitics and assume frequency linearity, but more
in the ground path v p,cm is proportional to 1/(k p + 2). The complex models can be developed that include these effects
practical meaning of this result is that if the admittance of and that tie back to the physical construction of the EMI filters.
the connection between the negative terminal of the power For example, in the same way that magnetic equivalent circuit
module and ground goes to infinity, the CM voltage producing models are used to incorporate physics into the behavioral
most of the CM current in the LISN will go to zero. Indeed, scaling laws [18], similar approaches can be developed con-
a detailed simulation of the overall system corroborates this necting inter-winding capacitance and core frequency effects to
finding as shown in Fig. 8. Specifically, if the negative terminal the electrical equivalent circuits. Future work will demonstrate
of the power module is grounded, the CM current measured how this can be done for a range of converter topologies
through the LISNs drops by over 94%. This implies that, for and applications. In short, because the optimal application of
the circuit topology assumed, the LISN reading is dominated WBG power semiconductors moves the design constraints into
by parasitic capacitor effects in the power module rather than the frequency range where coupled DM and CM phenomena
the CM voltage produced by converter [12]. and associated parasitic behaviors dominate, EMI filter design
144
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145
Multi-Physics Modeling for Electric and Hybrid
Vehicles with In-wheel Electric Motors
Vandana Rallabandi, Damien Lawhorn, Dan M. Ionel Xiao Li
SPARK Laboratory ANSYS Inc.
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY Pittsburgh, PA
vandana.rallabandi@uky.edu, dan.ionel@uky.edu xiao.li@ansys.com
Abstract—This paper discusses multi-domain and multi-

physics modeling of in-wheel electric vehicles using ANSYS
Simplorer and ANSYS Maxwell. The study includes component
level modeling of the vehicle, brakes, wheels, battery, traction
motor, inverter, solar panels and boost converter. The traction
motor used is an axial flux permanent magnet synchronous
machine. In order to accommodate both the large time constants
of the mechanical system and the high switching frequency (a) (b)
power electronics, average models of the inverter and boost
converter are considered. Simulation examples are provided for
the University of Kentucky Gato Del Sol V car.
Index Terms – Permanent magnet synchronous machine, elec-
tric vehicles, solar panels, ANSYS Simplorer.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Electric vehicles (EV) constitute a subject of increasing
(c)
importance owing to the concern over emissions, and em-
phasis on smart grids. Recent literature on EV includes the Figure 1. The UK Solar Car Gato Del Sol V with the PV equipped body
cover (a) and with the cover removed (b). Photos courtesy of the UK Solar
development and control of electric motors [1], [2], their Car Team. Power system schematic for the car including the solar PV panels,
role in grid support including the performance of functions the DC-DC converter for MPPT, battery, inverter and in wheel motor.
such as primary frequency regulation, balancing intermittant
renewable energy [3]–[5] and system level modeling [6], [7],
[8]. ADVISOR (ADvanced VehIcle SimulatOR), a tool, which II. M ULTI - DOMAIN MODELING
runs in MATLAB/Simulink capable of assesing performance The different components of the vehicle considered in the
and fuel economy of EVs, HEVs and other vehicles was model of Fig. 2 include mechanical components of the car,
developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s wheel, brake, electrical components, namely, traction motor,
(NREL) Center for Transportation Technologies and Systems inverter and battery. Other constituents of the system include
[9]. Other such platforms include Autonomie, capable of ana- the driver, which contains vehicle velocity controllers, and
lyzing new powertrain configurations, advanced transmissions, outputs signals of start, drive, stop and idle, and the EV
engines and control strategies developed by Argonne National controller, which distributes the braking functions between the
Labs [10]. mechanical system and traction motor. Braking is primarily
This paper discusses the multi-domain modeling of an in- performed by the electric machine.
wheel drive electric vehicle exemplified for a small electric The dynamic equation used in the model of the car is given
car, such as the University of Kentucky solar car shown as,
in Fig. 1b. Component level modeling of the mechanical
dv 1
constituents including the vehicle, wheels, brake, engine and Ft = m + µmg cos(α) + ρCd Av 2 + mg sin(α) , (1)
controllers is done in the ANSYS Simplorer platform. A dt 2
detailed model of the traction motor may be developed in where, Ft is the tractive force; m, the mass of the vehicle;
ANSYS Maxwell. The simulation approach is illustrated for v, the vehicle’s linear velocity; µ, the coefficient of rolling
two different implementations, in the first, the vehicle is all- friction,; α, the road angle, A, the frontal area; Cd , the drag
electric, fed by a battery driving a 3-phase permanent magnet coefficient, ρ and the density of air. The relation between the
synchronous motor (PMSM) employed for traction. In order car’s velocity and wheel’s rotational velocity is obtained by
to extend the range, plug-in hybrid implementations with on- considering the dynamics of the wheel from the following,
board solar panels and maximum power point tracking are dωr
studied. J = Tt − Fx rw , (2)
dt
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 146

Figure 2. An all-electric vehicle model in the ANSYS Simplorer system simulator including the driver, EV controller, battery, traction motor and drive, car,
brake and wheel. The permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive incorporates the power electronic inverter and the associated controls.
where, J is the moment of inertia of the wheel; ωr , the

wheel’s angular velocity; Tt , the traction torque; Fx , the wheel
longitudinal reaction force, and rw , the wheel radius. For non
driven wheels, the term Tt may be set to zero. The longitudinal
wheel reaction force is found from the slip ratio and fitted
wheel constants. The wheel slip ratio is given as
rw ωr − v
λ= . (3)
rw ωr
(a) The wheel’s friction coefficient is a function of slip, and is
obtained from a model such as the commonly used Pacejka
Tire Model [11]. The longitudinal force is the product of
the normal wheel force, which is a function of vehicle mass,
geometric parameters, grading angle, and acceleration and the
coefficient of friction.
The brake component is based on a single state hydraulic
model. Regenerative braking is the major braking source. The
electric vehicle seen in Fig. 2 employs as traction motor, an
axial flux permanent magnet synchronous motor with a single
stator and rotor, and an exploded view is seen in (Fig. 3a). A
detailed 3D electromagnetic model for this motor which takes
(b) into account non-linearity, saturation and electromagnetic be-
Figure 3. (a) The 3D FEA model of the traction motor, an axial flux two havior can be developed in ANSYS Maxwell (Fig. 3b) and
rotor, single stator PMSM employed in the UK solar car. (b) Flux plots as is exemplified in [12]. The large time constants associated
obtained from ANSYS Maxwell.
with the mechanical system necessitate long simulation times.
However, power electronics converters switch in the order of
kHz, and require small time steps. This motivates the use of
average models, such as the ones expemplified in [13], [14],
for the inverter. The PMSM controller, which employs vector
control (Fig. 4) calculates the reference torque based on the set
speed. The current required to produce this torque is calculated
as follows,
∗ ∗
Te = Kp (wm − wm ) + Ki (wm − wm ) ,
2Te (4)
Figure 4. Vector control for the permanent magnet synchronous machine. iq = ,
The d-axis component of the current, oriented along the rotor magnetic field, 3pλm
is maintained at zero. ∗
where ωm and ωm are the set and actual speeds; Te , the
147
Figure 5. The model of a solar electric car in Simplorer, which can be viewed as another implementation of a series hybrid vehicle. The solar PV system
includes an average model of a boost converter, which is used for maximum power point tracking.
desired electromagnetic torque; λm , the permanent magnet

flux amplitude; iq , the q-axis component of the current; ωm ,
the angular velocity of the rotor, and p, the number of pole
pairs of the traction motor. The d and q components of the
voltages are obtained by
did
v d = Ld + Rid − pLq ωm iq ,
dt (5)
diq Figure 6. Implementation of the solar panel in ANSYS Simplorer including
vq = pλm ωm + Lq + Riq + pLd ωm id ,
dt a current source and an exponential diode, D7.
where vd and vq are the q and d axis voltages; id , the d-
axis current, zero in this case; Lq and Ld , the d and q axis
inductances and R, the stator winding’s resistance. At steady
state field orientation, the terminal voltage developed by the
motor is given by,
q q
vs = vd2 + vq2 = (pωm iq Lq )2 + (pλm ωm + Riq )2 . (6)
The inverter switching and dynamics are neglected, and it is
considered that the voltage calculated using (8) is applied to
the motor. A simplified model for the battery, relating the
voltage and state of charge which neglects temperature, self-
discharge, charge and discharge history is considered.
III. S OLAR C AR M ODELING Figure 7. Characteristics of the solar panel used in the study under different
conditions of irradiance.
The solar car, which can be considered as another imple-
mentation of a plug-in hybrid vehicle, with the battery charged
by an on-board PV source, instead of an engine like in a be used, with the output current given by,
conventional series hybrid electric vehicle (Fig. 5). In addition
V +IRsr V + IRsr
to the components of the electric vehicle of Fig. 2, it includes a I = Ig − Io [e( AnKTc /q ) − 1] − , (7)
solar panel and boost converter, which performs the functions Rsh
of maximum power point tracking as well as raises the dc-bus where, I is the output current; Ig , the photo current; Io , the
voltage to the value required by the battery. A PV model saturation current; A, the ideality factor taken as 1.5 in this
based on the Norton equivalent circuit, as seen in Fig. 6 may study; K, the Boltzmann constant; q, the electron charge; V,
148
Figure 8. Implementation of an average model of the dc-dc boost converter
in ANSYS simplorer.
Table I
PARAMETERS AND RATINGS OF COMPONENTS IN THE UK G ATO D EL S OL
V SOLAR CAR .
(a)
Car mass [lb] 650

Car maximum speed [mph] 72
Battery voltage [V] 70-160
Battery capacity [Wh] 4536
Traction motor peak power [kW] 7.5
Solar panel maximum power [W] 967
Solar panel voltage [V] 32
the output voltage; Tc , the cell temperature; n, the number of

cells in series; Rsh , the shunt resistance and Rsr , the series
resistance. For known values of open circuit voltage, short (b)
circuit current and maximum power, the terms of equation (5)
may be determined by a procedure described for example in
[15]. The characteristics of the PV array considered in this
study are illustrated in Fig. 7. An average model of the boost
converter is implemented in ANSYS Simplorer (Fig. 8). The
model includes controlled current (IC1) and voltage (EC1)
sources, such that
d
EC1 = Vin , (8)
1−d
IC1 = Iin × d , (9)
where, Vin is the input voltage to the boost converter; d, the
duty cycle and Iin , the input current. The circuit connection
(c)
ensures that the output voltage and current are given as,
Figure 9. (a) Set and actual vehicle speeds over a driving cycle, and (b) The
Vin state of charge of the battery. In the all-EV case, the battery keeps discharging
Vo = Vin + EC1 = , (10) as it supplies power to the traction motor, while in the case of the solar
1−d
powered EV, the battery discharges to a smaller extent (c) Power of the traction
Io = Iin + IC1 = Iin (1 − d) , (11) motor. Braking is accomplished entirely by the regeneration in this case.
in line with the steady state operation of the boost converter

under continuous conduction. Maximum power point tracking
IV. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
is implemented by operating the boost converter at a duty cycle
such that The system of Fig. 5, is solved using ANSYS Simplorer
Vmp initially, for a simple driving cycle, in which the vehicle
d=1− , (12)
Vb accelerates to and decelerates from a maximum speed of 72
where, Vmp is the maximum power point voltage of the PV mph. The vehicle cruises at this speed for approximately 900
panel, and Vb , the battery voltage. The maximum power point seconds of the 1000 second driving cycle. The maximum
voltage is a function of the irradiance. This model neglects acceleration is limited by the peak power rating of the traction
the dynamics of the MPPT controller, which is a reasonable motor. The system is simulated under conditions of varying
assumption considering the long simulation times. irradiance, such that shading occurs when the vehicle is
149
(a) (a)
(b) (b)
(c) (c)
Figure 10. (a) Set and actual vehicle speeds over an urban driving cycle, Figure 11. (a) Set and actual vehicle speeds over an EPA highway fuel
and (b) The state of charge of the battery. The vehicle’s speed follows the set economy driving cycle, and (b) The state of charge for the battery.
speed as long as the acceleration demands do not exceed the motor’s rating.
by regenerative means, as can be inferred from the power of

cruising at 72 mph. Shading is simulated by changing the the traction motor in Fig. 9c.
photocurrent of the solar cell in a step. In Fig. 9a, the vehicle’s The system is tested for different types of driving cycles,
set and actual speeds are seen, and their equality confirms the Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule and Highway Fuel
the successful operation of the EV model. The ratings of the Economy Test from the EPA [16], and the results on set and
different components are shown in Table I The state of charge actual vehicle speeds, as well as battery state of charge are
for the battery is seen in Fig. 9b, and it reduces as the power seen in Fig. 10 and 12. The power of the motor is limited to
is supplied to the traction motor, in the all-electric case. In the the peak value of 7.5 kW as seen in Fig. 10c and 12c.
plug-in hybrid or solar EV configurations, the battery charges Switching models of the power electronics are developed,
from the solar PV system. Braking is accomplished primarily and the results for a specified operating condition are shown
150
engine, traction motor, battery and solar PV system using
analytical equations. Average models for the inverter and boost
converter are employed in order to accommodate for the large
time constants of the mechanical system. The average models
may be insufficient in case of non-ideal conditions such
as reduced battery voltage, which might result in operation
of the inverter in over-modulation leading to low frequency
harmonics in the current, and in such cases switching models
may be employed.
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151
Electric Vehicle Policy Formulation Framework for
SIDS in the Caribbean
Chris Meetoo, Sanjay Bahadoorsingh, Dillon Jaglal Kevin Baboolal and Marlon Williams
Vickram Balbadar and Chandrabhan Sharma Government Electrical Inspectorate
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Ministry of Public Utilities
The University of the West Indies St. Augustine Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago kbaboolal@mpa.gov.tt
sanjay.bahadoorsingh@sta.uwi.edu
Abstract—Small Caribbean island power systems face nu- fossil fuels, promotes a cleaner environment and sustainable
merous unique policy, technical, infrastructural and financial development of the country. Larger regions around the world
challenges which have stymied electric vehicle (EV) adoption. This such as the United States and Europe have adopted the use of
paper outlines the approach to strategically plan for long-term EV EVs into various markets. However, for smaller regions such as
penetration toward the development of an EV policy in Trinidad the Caribbean where electrical and business infrastructures are
and Tobago with application to other Caribbean territories.
Through analysis of the EV registration processes and roles
limited, this implementation has not been properly standard-
of local stakeholders, legislation and coordinated enforcement ized. For such small countries, if the process of implementing
processes have been identified to ensure safe development of the use of EVs is not coordinated in an efficient manner,
EV systems. Internationally accepted practices have also been this can lead to improvident economic decisions and improper
suitably modified for adoption by small island developing states infrastructure implementation with regard to safety and load
(SIDS) to ensure an enabling environment for EVs is legislated. demand from electrical utility companies. Obstacles that may
arise with respect to the electrical grid include reliability is-
Keywords—Smart Grid, Electric Vehicles, Integration
sues, increased peak loading with an associated peak generator
cost and costs to the utility in upgrading and maintaining these
I. I NTRODUCTION facilities.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming popular in various To fill this gap, this paper proposes a policy based frame-
markets around the world. EV sales are expected to increase as work that will assist governing bodies in various countries as
the world’s population reduces its dependency on non- renew- a guide to the implementation of BEVs into their system but
able fuel resources. Worldwide sales for EVs have increased can be applied to PHEVs. This paper will discuss issues and
by 42% from 2015 to 2016 [1] and is expected to increase details that arise from importation to electrical infrastructure
significantly in the future. The growth in EVs have spurred that should be considered by small Caribbean countries.
significant research, development and growth in the automotive
sector. This departure from conventional internal combustion II. P OLICY F RAMEWORK P ROCESS
engine (ICE) vehicles is set to play a key role to reduce carbon
emissions linked to global warming. The EV also reduces the Importation of EVs into small Caribbean countries require
dependency on fossil fuels and promotes sustainable energy a standardized process to ensure that these vehicles firstly
through the generation of electricity [2]. Also, the use of meet international and local standards and secondly, charging
EVs are becoming more prominent due to increases in the infrastructures and policies for EV waste management are
price of fuel, for example, Trinidad and Tobago’s fuel subsidy properly implemented. Figure 1 shows a generalized policy
decreased by 15% in 2016 [3] and the fuel price is expected to framework process that can be used in small Caribbean islands
gradually increase as the fuel subsidy is periodically removed. to begin EV importation. At the start of this process, a
In some Caribbean countries, such as Trinidad and Tobago, vehicle may be imported directly from a firm or it may be
Colombia, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Dominica [4], the low price a foreign used vehicle. If the vehicles are new, they are sent
of fuel financially discourages the population from moving directly to the customs department. For used vehicles, the
towards the use of EVs as it is not economically feasible when appropriate Ministry of Trade and advisory agencies need to
compared to conventional vehicles. However, increases in the verify extensively that these used vehicles are properly tested
price of fuel will promote EVs as a future feasible option. and meet international standards and requirements before being
sent to customs. Once prior processes are checked and verified,
Trinidad and Tobago has started moving towards promoting the vehicle enters the customs process and is passed to regis-
sustainable energy practices through the use of Compressed tration and licensing. If there are issues, the vehicle should be
Natural Gas (CNG), but with the advancement of technol- impounded. Before the vehicle is sent to the customer various
ogy, electrification of transportation is inevitable. Legislative processes are to be completed. Firstly, appropriate licensing
changes that allow for tax exemptions on these EVs will and registration fees are to be calculated and paid. Secondly,
attract consumers to purchase these vehicles, this will not only advisory agencies need to verify that proper infrastructure is
benefit them economically, but also reduces the dependency on present at the customer location for charging the EV according
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 152

TABLE II. V EHICLE S IDE C ONNECTIONS [5], [6]
to international standards. If proper infrastructure is not present
the customer shall not be able to register the vehicle until Vehicle Side
Connection
Region
Electrical
Characteristics
these facilities are implemented. Once the customer receives SAE J1772
Amps: 80 A
their vehicle, support should be present for the maintenance of North America
and
Volts: 120-240 V
Power: 0.96-19.20 kW
these vehicles, these include support from the electric utility Japan
Charge Level: 1 and 2
company and implementation of maintenance services such as GB/T 20234.2-2011 AC
repairs and proper disposal services for parts associated with Amps: 32 A
Voltage: 220-440 V AC
China
these EVs. This policy process ensures a seamless pathway Power: 3.52 kW-14.08 kW
Charge Level: 1 and 2
that can be followed to ensure proper integration of EVs from
SAE J1772 DC CCS
importation to infrastructure in a reasonable timeline. Table I Combo 1 Type 1
and II show common EV connections. Amps: 200 A DC, 80 A AC
Volts: 200-600 V DC, 120-240 V AC
America and Japan
Power: 90 kW (maximum)
Charge Level: 1-3
III. T YPES OF C ONNECTIONS

The Yazaki Chademo
TABLE I. C ONSUMER SIDE CONNECTIONS [5] Amps: 100-120 A
Volts: 500 V DC
Europe and America
Power: 60 kW (maximum)
Consumer Electrical Charge Level: 3
Region
Side Connection Characteristics
Type C or CEE 7/16 IEC 62196 Type 2
Current: 63 A
1ph-3ph Voltage: 250-400 V AC
Europe Europe
Amps: 2.5 1ph-3ph Power: 43 kW (max)
except Charge Level: 1 and 2
Volts: 110-240
United Kingdom,
Hz: 50-60 GB/T 20234.3-2011 DtC
Ireland, Cyprus and Malta
Current: 250 A
Voltage: 400-750 V DC
China
Power: 50 kW-187.5 kW(max),
Type A or NEMA 1-15 Charge Level: 3
Amps: 15 EU DC CCS Combo 2 Type 2

America and Japan Volts: 100-127 Current: 200 A DC,63 A
Hz: 50-60 AC
Europe Voltage: 200-850 V DC, 250-400 V AC
1ph-3ph Power: 13 kW-170 kW (max)
Charge Level: 2-3
Type F or CEE 7/4
Tesla Charging Current: 12 A-80 A
-250 A
Germany, Austria, 1-3ph Voltage: 110 V AC-240 V AC
The Amps: 16 Worldwide
- 500 V DC
Netherlands, Volts: 110-240 1-3ph Power: 1.32 kW-19.26 kW-120/135 kW
Sweden, Finland, Norway, Hz: 50-60 Charge Level: 1-3
Portugal, Spain and Eastern Europe
Type B or NEMA 5-15 uniformity. The following tables list the applicable standards
from ISO, UL, SAE and NFPA.
Amps: 15
USA, Canada, Mexico
Volts: 100-127
& Japan TABLE III. BATTERY S PECIFICATION S TANDARDS
Hz: 50-60
Standard Description
Test specification for lithium-ion traction
ISO 12405-(1-3)
Type I battery packs and systems: Parts 1-3
UL 2580 Batteries for Use in Electric Vehicles
Australia, Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Propulsion Battery
Amps: 10 System Safety Standard -
New Zealand, SAE J2929
Volts: 120-240 Lithium-based
Papua New Guinea,
Hz: 50-60 Rechargeable Cells
China and Argentina.
SAE J537 Storage Batteries
SAE J1495 Test Procedure for Battery Flame Retardant Venting Systems
Recommended Practice for Electric and
Type G SAE J1766
Hybrid Electric Vehicle Battery Systems Crash Integrity Testing
Recommended Practice for
SAE J1797
United Kingdom, Packaging of Electric Vehicle Battery Modules
Amps: 3-13 SAE J2288 Life Cycle Testing of Electric Vehicle Battery Modules
Ireland,
Volts: 110-240 SAE J2380 Vibration Testing of Electric Vehicle Batteries
Cyprus, Malta, Malaysia,
Hz: 50-60 Identification of Transportation Battery
Singapore and Hong Kong SAE J2984
Systems for Recycling Recommended Practice
SAE J3012 Storage Batteries - Lithium-ion Type
Technical Information Report on
SAE 2974
Automotive Battery Recycling
IV. ACCEPTED S TANDARDS TABLE V. E LECTRIC V EHICLE I NFRASTRUCTURE S TANDARDS

With the integration and provision of support of EVs in UL 2202 Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging System Equipment
various Caribbean countries, standards need to be adhered UL 2251
Standard for Plugs, Receptacles,
and Couplers for Electric Vehicles
with regard to electrical infrastructure and maintenance aspects Standard for Electric
UL 2594
of EVs. These maintenance aspects include Motor, Battery Vehicle Supply Equipment
Power Quality Requirements for
and Internal Charger systems. As the market for EVs grow, SAE J2894/(1-2)
Plug In Vehicle Chargers - Part 1&2
international standardization should be adopted for worldwide NFPA 70 National Electric Code Article 625
153
Fig. 1. Policy Framework Flow Diagram
TABLE IV. E LECTRIC V EHICLE S AFETY S TANDARDS

UL 62 The Standard for Safety of Flexible Cords and Cables
UL 458A Safety of Power Converters for Electric Land Vehicles
Standard for Safety for Personnel Protection
UL 2231-(1-2)
Systems for Electric Vehicle (EV) Supply Circuits
UL 2202 Safety of Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging System Equipment
UL 2251 Standard for Safety of Plugs, Receptacles and Couplers for Electric Vehicles
UL 2594 Standard for Safety of Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment
ISO 6469(1-3) Electrically propelled road vehicles – Safety specifications
Electrically propelled road vehicles Connection to an
ISO/IEC 17409 Ed. 1.0
external electric power supply Safety requirements
SAE J2344 Guidelines for Electric Vehicle Safety
Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicle Rechargeable
SAE J2464
Energy Storage System (RESS) Safety and Abuse Testing
Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Propulsion Battery
SAE J2929
System Safety Standard - Lithium-based Rechargeable Cells
TABLE VI. E LECTRIC V EHICLE I NTERNAL C HARGER AND M OTOR

S TANDARDS
Electric Vehicle and Plug in
SAE J1772
Hybrid Electric Vehicle Conductive Charge Coupler
Power rating method for automotive
SAE J2907
electric propulsion motor and power electronics subsystem
V. S TANDARDIZATION P ROCESS
SIDS should appoint appropriate bureaus that promote
and encourage the development and maintenance of standards
and shall further establish standards that conform to their
individual needs with respect to the integration and deployment Fig. 2. Standardization Process
of EVs. Standards are categorized into two types, voluntary
and compulsory standards. Voluntary standards are commonly
used by industry “players”, third party certification and by and hence reduce the negative effects of harmful emissions on
regulatory agencies. Compulsory standards are commonly used the environment. One such example in the Caribbean territory
for the following [7]: is Trinidad and Tobago’s tax exemption policy [8]. This finance
Act details tax exemptions on CNG, hybrid and EVs for
• Protecting the user or consumer both commercial and residential categories. Tax exemption
• Protecting public or industrial health, welfare or safety is allowed on all CNG vehicles and EVs not exceeding an
equivalent engine size of 159 kW. This example can be adopted
• Protecting the environment by other SIDS in the first steps for promoting EV penetration.
• Ensuring acceptable quality in products In perspective, Trinidad and Tobago has been nourished with
a fuel subsidy that is gradually being removed. With this fuel
subsidy being removed and tax exemptions, EVs are becoming
VI. TAX E XEMPTIONS AND TARIFF C ONSIDERATIONS
more favourable than the conventional ICE. Figure 3 shows the
The introduction of EVs have convinced countries to prices of both gasoline and diesel fuel in Trinidad and Tobago
introduce tax exemptions for purchasing these vehicles. This compared to the market value [9], [10]. It can be seen that the
endeavour promotes the change from conventional ICE to EVs price of fuel is approaching the market value as the subsidy
154
is being removed. Therefore, conventional ICE will no longer Table VIII shows the typical charge times for the different
be favourable over the EV. Based on the electricity price and classes of EVs at different levels of charging.
the price for fuel, EVs will be more economical.
TABLE VIII. C HARGE T IMES AND BATTERY S IZING [13]
120 VAC 120 VAC 240 VAC 480 DC
Battery Size
EV Configuration 15 amp 20 amp 40 amp 85 amp Technology
(kWh)
1.2 kW 1.6 kW 6.5 kW 60 kW
PHEV-10 4 3 h 20 m 2 h 30 m 35 m n/a Toyota Prius
PHEV-20 8 6 h 40 m 5h 1 h 15 m n/a Toyota Prius
PHEV-40 16 13 h 20 m 10 h 2 h 28 m 16 m Chevy Volt
BEV 24 20 h 15 h 3 h 41 m 24 m Nissan Leaf
BEV 35 29 h 10 m 21 h 50 m 5 h 23 m 35 m Toyota RAV4 EV
PHEV Bus 50 n/a n/a 7 h 41 m 50 m BYD K9
TABLE IX. BATTERY C HARGE T IMES FOR C OMMON E LECTRIC

V EHICLES [14]
Model Battery Charge Time
Toyota Prius 4.4 kWh 3h-115VAC 15A
PHEV 18km All Electric Range 1.5h-230VAC 15A
Chevy Volt 16 kWh 10h-115VAC 15A
PHEV 64km All Electric Range 4h-230VAC 15A
16 kWh 13h-115VAC 15A
Misubishi iMiEV
128km range 7h-230VAC 15A
16.5 kWh 8h-115VAC 15A
Smart Fortwo ED
136km range 3.5h-230VAC 15A
22kWh ∼4h-230V AC 30A
BMW i3
130-160 km range 50kW Supercharger - 80% in 30 mins
30kWh 8h-230VAC 15A
Nissan Leaf
250 km range 4h-230VAC 30A
Tesla S 70 & 90kWh 9h- 10kW Charger
Curb 2 Up to 424 km range 120 kW Supercharger - 80% in 30 mins
Fiat 500e 24 kWh-135 km range 4h-6.6 kW Charger
3h-240VAC
Fig. 3. Petroleum Price for Trinidad and Tobago Honda Fit 20 kWh-112 km range
15h-120VAC
5.5h-230VAC
Ford Focus 23kWh-110km range
30h-120VAC
Table VII shows the current electricity residential rates for Mercedes Benz
28kWh-136km range
2.5h-11kW
Electric 9h-2.3kW
Trinidad and Tobago (T&T)
TABLE VII. T RINIDAD AND T OBAGO R ESIDENTIAL E LECTRICITY
TARIFF [11] Tables VIII-IX are all quoted in countries where the
ambient temperature is lower than the ambient temperature
Taiff Range Rate/USD/kWh
1-400 kWh $0.039 of the Caribbean. For Caribbean countries, the temperatures
401-1000 kWh $0.048 will be much higher at peak times. This will result in reduced
>1000 kWh $0.055 ranges over time relative to other countries as the battery life
will degrade at a faster rate. However, it should be noted that
This is an example of the rate of electricity due to the oil Lithium-Ion batteries are best charged at higher temperatures.
and gas nature of T&T. With tax exemptions being employed The Battery management system (BMS) in EVs will play
on electric vehicles and petroleum prices approaching market an important role in charging the battery correctly based
value. Electricity rates should be restructured by carefully on temperature. Therefore, with the implementation of EV
considering and reviewing present tariff structures upon im- infrastructure, countries should ensure that personnel are well
plementation to prevent unnecessary loss of capital. trained in the areas of maintaining and servicing the BMS in
EVs.
VII. C HARGING L EVELS AND BATTERY C HARGE T IMES
VIII. G ROUNDING , S AFETY AND P ROTECTION
To date, Caribbean islands may not necessarily be equipped
economically and practically to install the latest and advanced With regard to grounding considerations for EVs, the
EV infrastructure with emerging technologies, therefore con- battery isolation detection circuit is used to detect ground
siderations need to be made with respect to the capital cost fault scenarios. However, the on-board EV charger works well
of electricity and infrastructure. In the absence of time of use only when the connected neutral is grounded directly to earth
tariffs, charging levels are standard and there is no financial where the ground fault will be detected via the EVSE. In few
incentives for charging at non-peak hours. However, with time cases the grounded neutral may have a DC offset, this DC
of use tariffs users may opt to charge their vehicle at the lower offset can significantly damage inverter circuits present in the
demand levels. Regardless of time of use tariffs, considerations vehicle. Therefore, AC GFCI protection measures should be
need to be taken with respect to infrastructure. Level 1 and implemented to prevent this both on Level 1 and 2 charging.
2 charging should not require any additional infrastructure In cases where the vehicle is used for power export, the neutral
for modern building as these outlets are standard. Level 3 will be directly connected to earth and the vehicle, this will
may require the use of a three phase supply which will cause an unintentional GFCI trip. Therefore, it is recommended
require additional infrastructure, due to high costs this may not to use GFCI circuits when export power is needed, instead
be more favourable to a commercial customer than residential. a supplementary grounded neural protection circuit should be
However, Efacec introduced a single phase DC quick charger implemented that works in conjunction with the GFCI circuit.
operating on Level 2 infrastructure which may appeal to This type of protection is already included in most modern
residential customers.[12] vehicle EVSE.[15]
155
IX. L ICENSING AND I NSURANCE B EST P RACTICE include vehicle-to-home (V2H; when the EV is at a residence)
or vehicle-to-building (V2B; when the EV is at a commer-
The basic licensing process should include the following
cial building). In these cases, the battery power is used to
steps[16]
supplement the building electrical load without transfer to
1) Compliance with Vehicle Construction Requirements, the electrical grid. Note that this still effectively displaces
exhaust (PHEV) and noise emission standards the building load from the grid, which provides a load-shed
2) Importation function. Alternatively, if there is a power outage from the grid,
3) Vehicle Inspection this permits emergency backup power. Grid feedback can also
4) Registration and Licensing be used with utilities to offer rebate to customers depending
5) Tax (Where Applicable) on the quantity of power they provide to the grid.
Insurance companies may want to consider the following Level 1 charging, also known as “standard charging” of
factors [17], EVs, provides a good avenue to allow grid feedback capabili-
ties since it is the most common method of charging. However,
1) Risk of Thermal Runaway because level 1 charging does not allow for more than 1.6 kW
• If a lithium-ion battery is overheated or over- of power transfer V2G applications will be impractical using
charged, it can experience a rupture and this level of charging. Level 2 charging is more promising
cause thermal runaway. Thermal runaway is as vehicles will be connected to the grid longer as well as
a situation where increasing temperatures in allowing for significantly more power transfer (up to 19.2 kW).
the battery start releasing energy, which then This provides significant functional benefit for facility or grid
generates heat and continues to increase the support services. With respect to Level 3 DC charging, this
temperature of the battery provides significantly greater power transfer than Level 2 (up
2) Risk of fire on Impact to 60 kW), vehicles will only be connected to the grid for
3) Risk of fire and Injury while parked or charging a short period of time for rapid charging and the user may
4) Risk of severe injuries in collision not allow grid feedback because it can delay battery charging
times. However, in the public sector where DC charging is
• Due to the lightweight construction of EVs, facilitated for public transportation, at off peak times, DC grid
the risk of injury may be higher for drivers feedback is an excellent method for large power demands. With
and passengers involved in a collision. In or- V2G operations it is key to note that the BMS system plays
der to extend driving distance and battery life, an integral part in ensuring proper operation.
EVs are designed to be as light as possible
5) Risk to pedestrians Communication protocols requesting the V2G operation
• EVs are extremely quiet, and many drivers will originate at the electric utility station and deliver the
love this feature as it makes for a very peace- request to the EVSE. The EVSE will communicate with the
ful driving experience. The downside of this BMS to request the power flow. The BMS then controls the
feature is that it may pose injury risks to output of the inverter to respond.
pedestrians as the EV is mostly silent outside
of the cabin as well, even when in motion
6) Aggressive driving patterns
7) Battery Disposal
With the implementation of EVs dependent on population
awareness and proper infrastructure, it is difficult to ensure
that owners of EVs use standardized and inspected interfaces
for charging. As such, a proposed idea will be to implement
a restricted policy usage for customers. This policy will entail
inspecting customer premises to ensure correct infrastructure
is installed for charging, this can be coupled to insurance
companies to obtain insurance certificates for EVs. Also,
nothing prevents the customer from charging from a non- Fig. 4. V2G Modes of Operation
inspected or non-standard infrastructure, this practice can be
deterred by stating that charging from these infrastructures will Some standards that should be adhered to for communica-
lead to voiding the warranty of the vehicles from their purchase tion between the grid and an EV include [19]:
company and also violation and termination of their insurance
contract. • ISO 15118-1-3 : Road vehicles-Vehicle to grid com-
munication interface Part 1-3
X. V EHICLE TO G RID C ONSIDERATIONS • SAE J2293/1-2 : Energy Transfer System for Electric
Studies indicate that vehicles are not in use for active Vehicles: Part 1-2
transportation up to 95% of the time [18] and the underlying • IEEE 1547 : IEEE Standard for Interconnecting Dis-
premise for V2G is that during these times, the battery can tributed Resources with Electric Power Systems
be used to service electricity markets without compromising
its primary transportation function. Subsets of V2G technology • IEEE 1675/2030/1901 - For Smart Grid Connectivity
156
• IEEE 1377/1701/1702/1703 - Smart Meter Standards R EFERENCES
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sonnel for EVSE installation (if required) and under- Available: http://www.tdipower.com/PDF/white paper/Ground-Fault-
stand safe charging practices White-Paper.pdf
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and Registration of Pure Electric Vehicle (PEV) and Plug-
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XII. C ONCLUSION
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Policy proposals for promoting the integration of low tions and Building Codes Review by the AVTA,” Idaho
carbon technologies of the EV for SIDs in the Caribbean were National Laboratory, Tech. Rep., 2012. [Online]. Available:
presented in this paper. This paper emphasizes on the paths https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/02/f8/v2g power flow rpt.pdf
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will be geared towards proper strategic planning to execute
these policies as well as to accelerate EV penetration in SIDs.
157
Determination of Differential Inductances for a
Permanent Magnet assisted Synchronous Reluctance
Machine with a Ribless Rotor
Marco Zimmermann and Bernhard Piepenbreier, Senior Member, IEEE
Electrical Drives and Machines
University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen, Germany
Email: marco.zimmermann@fau.de
Abstract—In the last decade permanent magnet assisted syn- the absolute inductance is depicted. Several determination
chronous reluctance machines (PMaSynRM) have gained more methods are compared in this paper. In the machine design
interest. Compared to induction machines in industrial appli- process differential inductances can be calculated with the help
cations, a good efficiency is achieved due to low rotor losses.
The low power factor of a pure synchronous reluctance machine of Finite Element Analysis (FEA). On the test bench it can
is mitigated by assisting ferrite magnets. These magnets are be distinguished into the identification of the flux linkages
environmentally friendly, cost-saving and do not suffer under and identification via test signals. These two methods are not
strong price fluctuations. As a drawback, they offer a low energy fully comparable due to the influence of magnetic hysteresis
density compared to rare-earth magnets. [7]. However, they lead to similar results. The test signal
The considered machine includes a special ribless rotor which
provides a high anisotropy and low cross-coupling over the can be injected current- or voltage-controlled. The results
whole current operating area. Hence, the machine is well suited of all three approaches will be compared for the considered
for sensorless operation. Furthermore, a high anisotropy has a machine design. Furthermore, the position dependency of the
positive impact on the torque. differential inductances is evaluated via test signal injection.
Differential inductances have a strong influence on the current The occurring harmonics can be predicted and are verified by
waveform and on the sensorless control capability at low or zero
speed. Therefore, the differential inductances are evaluated via measurements.
three approaches: Finite Element Analysis, the flux linkages and The paper is structured in the following way: First, the rotor
test signal injection. design and the modeling are introduced. Afterwards, the three
methods are described and the results are presented. At the
I. I NTRODUCTION end, the results are compared and the advantages are discussed.
Ferrite assisted synchronous reluctance machines in variable
speed drives are gaining increasing interest due to a higher
efficiency compared to induction machines and a higher power Ψ Labs Ldif f
factor compared to a pure synchronous reluctance machine [1].
The torque is mainly contributed by reluctance and not by the
Ψ, Labs , Ldif f
ferrite magnets. The ribs are a crucial design aspect [2]. A

trade-off between the mechanical safety and the electromag-
netic drawback has to be evaluated. The investigated machine
PSfrag replacements
in this paper features a special ribless rotor design which is
described in [3]. The leakage flux of the permanent magnets
is strongly reduced. Furthermore a distinct magnetic saliency
in the entire current range is present which contributes to the
torque production and improves the suitability for sensorless i
control at low speed.
Magnetic saliency can be assessed with the help of differential Fig. 1: Qualitative saturation shape of the flux linkage Ψ,
or absolute inductances. In this paper the focus will be on absolute inductance Labs and differential inductance Ldif f
the determination of differential inductances. In low-speed
sensorless control applications the accurate knowledge of
differential inductances is fundamental for the performance II. R IBLESS ROTOR DESIGN
[4]–[6]. In highly utilized machines, the inductance strongly The considered rotor is illustrated in Fig. 2. This machine
varies due to saturation effects. In Fig. 1 the qualitative design offers two advantages: On the one hand the permanent
current-dependency of the flux linkage, the differential and magnet flux linkage is not short-circuited along the ribs, on
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 158

Glass fiber / epoxy resin for determining the differential inductances are listed which
Glass fiber sleeve differ in the computational effort.
q Ferrites
1) Identification flux linkages + difference quotient
2) Frozen permeability method with test signals
Lamination
3) Transient analysis with test signals
The first method is based on the identification of the flux
(b) Final Assembled Rotor
linkages Ψd and Ψq [9]. Assuming sinusoidal currents, the
d
flux linkages will be calculated by performing a magnetostatic
(a) Rotor Cross Section simulation. The difference quotient leads to the differential
Fig. 2: Rotor inductances (4) and one simulation per current operating point
is needed. The accuracy depends on the number of operating
points and the level of saturation. It has to be remarked that
the other hand the weak ferrite magnets are utilized better. the assumption of sinusoidal currents is limited. Harmonics
Furthermore a low cross-coupling is achieved due to the on the inductances and on the permanent magnet flux linkage
fact that no iron parts are shared between d- and q-axis. ΨP M lead to harmonics on the current (see Section V-D and
Synchronous reluctance machines provide a loss of saliency at [10]).
low currents due to these ribs. This is avoided inherently by the ∂Ψd ∂Ψd
!
presented design. The inductances are not changing strongly dif f Ldd Ldq ∂id ∂iq
Ldq = = ∂Ψq ∂Ψq (4)
at low currents compared to a SynRM [4]. One disadvantage Lqd Lqq ∂i ∂i
d q
is the rotor sleeve which enlarges the electromagnetic air gap
Another option is the frozen permeability method. Hereby,
and lowers the inductance in the d-axis.
a magnetostatic simulation with the fundamental currents is
The stator provides a distributed winding with q = 3 number
needed to calculate the state of saturation. Afterwards the
per slots per phase. The device under test (DUT) PSfrag has a rating
replacements
”frozen permeability” is used in two AC-simulations with
of PN = 2.2 kW and IN = 8 A.
the desired current test signal magnitude (alternating current
III. H IGH FREQUENCY MODEL test signals in d- and q-axis, respectively). The computational
For test signal injection the high frequency model (HF- effort is therefore higher.
model) including cross-coupling can be described in phasor The last method is a transient analysis which is most time
representation (bold letters) with (1). This model is valid at consuming. The current response is evaluated in the time
low speeds and standstill as long as the induced voltages domain for each current operating point. The computational
ui,dq = ωΨdq are negligible [8]. effort depends on the time step. In the following, the first
method is chosen for further considerations.

ud,HF Rdd + jωHF Ldd jωHF Ldq id,HF
= ·
uq,HF jωHF Lqd Rqq + jωHF Lqq iq,HF
| {z } | {z } | {z } Ldd Ldq Lqq
udq,HF Zdq,HF idq,HF
(1) 0.08
The impedance matrix can be inverted in to an admittance 0.06
matrix Ydq,HF . Gxx and Bxx mark the conductances and 0.04
L[H]
suszeptances, respectively. 0.02

id,HF Gdd + jBdd jBdq ud,HF 0
= · (2)
iq,HF jBqd Gqq + jBqq uq,HF −0.02
| {z } | {z } | {z }
idq,HF Ydq,HF udq,HF 10
15
The HF-inductances depend on various influences:
0
0 5 10
−10 −5
iq [A] −15−10 id [A]
{Ldd, Lqq , Ldq , Lqd } = f (id , iq , îHF , fHF , ǫ) (3)
The dependencies are valid for the whole paper and are Fig. 3: Differential Inductances determined via FEA
omitted in the nomenclature for the sake of clarity. Due to
slotting, the differential inductances also depend on the angular The results for one rotor position are depicted in Fig. 3. Ldd
position ǫ of the rotor which is described in section V-D. For saturates slightly with higher |id | current. FEA does not suffer
this reason the test signal measurements were performed at a under noise or other influences, therefore the characteristics
speed of n = 50 rpm to calculate the mean value. are very smooth.
IV. F INITE E LEMENT A NALYSIS V. M EASUREMENTS
The FEA is a commonly used tool for calculating the be- The test bench is illustrated in Fig.4. The speed is kept
havior of electrical machines. In the following, three methods constant by a speed-controlled DC-machine.
159
B. Alternating Voltage Test Signal
Alternating test signals are a well-known method for pa-
rameter identification and sensorless control. A voltage test
signal is added to one of the axes and the current response
is demodulated by Goertzel’s algorithm [8] in this paper. An
alternate way is a demodulation via a band pass filter [2]. A
part of the control scheme is depicted in Fig. 6.
i∗d PI d-axis ud
Fig. 4: Test bench: DC-machine (load) and DUT
ÛHF cos(ωHF t)
A. Flux Linkages
i∗q PI q-axis uq
At steady-state, the flux linkages can be calculated by using
the voltage equations in the dq-frame system in the following
way: idq Goertzel idq,HF
uq − R1 · iq Fig. 6: Voltage test signal injection

Ψd = (5)
ω
ud − R1 · id In the time domain, an injection in d-direction ud,HF (t) =
Ψq = (6)
−ω ÛHF cos(ωHF t) leads to the following phasor representation:
R1 = R0 (1 + αCU (Tw − T20 )) (7)
ÛHF
udq,HF = (8)
In contrast to the test signal methods and FEA, an appropriate 0
speed is necessary for determination.
The current response can be used to calculate the differential
The rated speed of the machine is nN = 1500 rpm. The tem-
inductances or susceptances. With the help of (1) the param-
perature of the stator resistance R1 is measured with the help
eters can be determined:
of three sensors. The temperature has a strong impact on the
result and is therefore necessary. The control signals (ud , uq )
are used due to difficulties in the voltage measurement with Im{id,HF } ÛHF
frag replacements Bdd = ↔ Ldd = − (9)
inverters (fundamental harmonic). An inverter compensation ÛHF ωHF Im{id,HF }
is implemented because of the occurring voltage drop [11]. Im{iq,HF } ÛHF
The results are depicted in Fig. 5. The measurements were Bdq = ↔ Ldq = − (10)
ÛHF ωHF Im{iq,HF }
performed at a speed of n = 500 rpm. Deviations from the
smooth shape occur at low currents and voltages. The slight It can be carried out in the same way for the q-axis
influence of noise and the division by ∆i affect the smoothness uq,HF (t) = ÛHF : cos(ωHF t)
of the plot. The absolute values show a good accordance with
0
the FEA results in Fig. 3. udq,HF = (11)
ÛHF
ÛHF Im{iq,HF }
Lqq = − ↔ Bqq = (12)
Ldd Ldq Lqq ωHF Im{iq,HF } ÛHF
0.08 In this case, the use of suszeptances is beneficial due to low
0.06 values of iHF . Especially for the cross-coupling inductance a
0.04 division close to zero leads to unrealistic values. The required
L[H]
0.02 voltage magnitude has to be adjusted for the investigated axis

due to the distinct saliency of the machine to get the desired
0
current magnitude.
−0.02 The measurements are depicted in Fig. 7a & 7b for the induc-
10
5 10 tances and suszeptances, respectively. The voltage magnitudes
0 5
−5 0 are ÛHF,d = 50 V and ÛHF,q = 25 V at a test signal frequency
−5
iq [A] −10−10 id [A] of fHF = 500 Hz and a speed of n = 50 rpm.
C. Alternating Current Test Signal
Fig. 5: Differential Inductances determined via Flux Linkage
A specified current magnitude requires a controller due to
the unknown voltage demand. A resonant controller which
160
PSfrag replacements
PSfrag replacements
Ldd Lqq Bdd Bqq Bqd

0.07 5 Im{ud,HF }
0.06 0 Ldd = (15)
0.05 −5 ωHF IˆHF
B[mS]
L[H]
0.04 −10
0.03 −15 Im{uq,HF }
0.02 −20 Ldq = (16)
0.01 −25 ωHF IˆHF
10 10
5 10 5 10
0
−5 0
5 0
−5 0
5 Likewise, for the q-axis it can be deduced:
iq [A] −10 −10 −5 iq [A] −10 −10 −5
id [A] id [A]
∗ 0
(a) Differential Inductances (b) Differential Suszeptances idq,HF = ˆ (17)
IHF
Fig. 7: Results Voltage Test Signal
PSfrag replacements Im{uq,HF }
Lqq = (18)
ωHF IˆHF
operates at the test signal frequency is a well-known method
Im{ud,HF }
[8]. Another possible method is the amplitude-quadrature- Lqd = (19)
modulation which was published in [6], [12], [13] and is ωHF IˆHF
used here (Fig. 8). The HF-controllers operate in parallel to
the controllers of the fundamental current. The phasors are
evaluated in the synchronous reference frame which rotates
by ωHF . The controller output signals deliver inherently the
demanded voltage. Due to the discrete implementation, the 1
phase shift can be to compensated with γHF [k + 1]. 0.8
In time domain, it follows exemplarily for id,HF =
0.6
Ldq [mH]
IˆHF cos(ωHF t) in the d-axis:

0.4
d 0.2
ud,HF = Rdd id,HF + Ldd id,HF
dt 0
= cos(ωHF t) · Rdd IˆHF ... −0.2
| {z } 10
Re{ud,HF }
5 10
... − sin(ωHF t) · ωHF LddIˆHF 0 5
| {z } −5 0
Im{ud,HF } −10 −10 −5
iq [A] id [A]
(13)
Analogues the derivation can be deduced for the q-axis. Fig. 9: Cross-coupling Inductance determined via Current Test
Signal (IˆHF = 0.25 A; n = 50 rpm)
PI-Controller (fundamental)
The measured cross-coupling inductance is illustrated in
Fig. 9. The cross-coupling inductance can be determined more
edq Tz
Kp + Ki z−1 udq accurate and smoother in comparison to the voltage test signal.
The characteristics of the self inductances are similar to Fig.
7b because the magnitudes IˆHF occurring due to voltage test
cos(γHF [k]) KHF T2s z+1
z−1 cos(γHF [k + 1]) signal are approximately in the same range. Therefore just the
Re{udq,HF }
cross-coupling inductance is depicted.
− sin(γHF [k]) KHF T2s z+1

z−1 − sin(γHF [k + 1])
Im{udq,HF } D. Position Dependency
HF-controller
The differential inductances offer a position dependency of
the rotor angle which is caused by the slotting. The stator
Fig. 8: Demodulation and Controller Scheme for a Current provides a distributed winding with three slots per pole per
Test Signal phase (q=3). The following harmonics in the air gap occur:
According to the voltage test signal injection similar expres- ν = 1 + 2mg where g∈Z (20)
sions can be derived for a current test signal with the help of The corresponding winding factors are listed in table I and
(1). In phasor representation it follows: can be determined by:
πν
Iˆ sin( 2m )
i∗dq,HF = HF (14) ξν = πν (21)
0 q sin( 2mq )
161
q Qp = N/p ξ1 ξ5 ξ7 ξ11 ξ13 ξ17 ξ19
3 18 0.96 0.218 -0.177 -0.177 0.218 0.96 0.96
TABLE I: Winding factors for a distributed winding (number of slots per pole per phase q = 3)
The main impact is caused by the slot harmonics. These are

not damped by the winding distribution ξ1 = |ξν |. Meas Ldd Fit Ldd
νS = 2m · g · q ± 1 (22) 75
Ldd [mH]
The slot harmonics ξ17 & ξ19 (g = 1) show the largest 70
contribution. The winding factors are listed in Table I. The
winding distribution offers Qp = 18 slots per pole pair. The 65
slot harmonics of order ν = 17 and ν = 19 are represented 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
by the 18th harmonic in the dq-frame system. A permeance
Meas Lqq Fit Lqq
function in stator coordinates with the first slot harmonic can
be formulated in the following way:
Lqq [mH]
14.2
λd − λq 14
λ(ǫ) = λ0 + · cos(2ǫ) + λQp cos(Qp ǫ + γQp ) (23) 13.8
2
13.6
λ0 describes the mean value over one electrical period. The 13.4
saliency is expressed by λd and λq . The phase shift γQp 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
depends on the rotor position compared to the slots. ǫ[deg]
The electromagnetic air gap is enlarged for the considered Fig. 10: Position dependency of differential inductances
machine due to the rotor sleeve. Therefore the influence of (id , iq ) = (0, 3)A
slotting is higher and non negligible. These harmonics have
an impact on the current waveform and noise.
In the dq-frame system the position dependency of the induc- The percentage and therefore the influence of slotting is
tances [10] can be simplified for the considered machine: higher in the q-axis. This can be explained by the larger
electromagnetic air gap in q-direction. Alternative ways to
inf
calculate the influence of slotting are conformal mapping and
X
Ldd (ǫ) = Ldd,k cos(kǫ + γdd,k ) Finite Element Analysis.
k=6n
n∈N E. Comparison
!
= Ldd,0 + Ldd,18 cos(18ǫ + γdd,18 ) The introduced methods show similar qualitative character-
Xinf istics for the differential inductances. Ldd is slightly influenced
Lqq (ǫ) = Lqq,k cos(kǫ + γqq,k ) by saturation with increasing |id |. Lqq does not suffer under
k=6n saturation due to large magnetic air gap consisting of the
n∈N
! mechanical air gap, the rotor sleeve and the magnets. A high
= Lqq,0 + Lqq,18 cos(18ǫ + γqq,18 ) anisotropy is visible which is the main advantage of the
(24) investigated machine concept.
The absolute values differ slightly between the test signal and
This short overview of winding theory is verified by flux linkage method. This can be explained by the influence
measurements. The measurement effort rises if the position of magnetic hysteresis [7]. The material is stressed with small
dependency Lxx = f (id , iq , ǫ) is included. As an example hysteresis loops caused by the test signal. The calculated
the position dependency for one current operating point is values are readily about ≈ 10% smaller using the test signal
illustrated in Fig. 10. The load-machine controls the position of method.
the rotor. The measurements are carried out with a voltage test The cross-coupling is very low for the proposed design due
signal which was described in Section V-B. The identification to the absence of shared iron parts between d-and q-axis. By
via the flux linkages is not applicable due to the necessity of injecting a voltage test signal, this can lead to unreasonable
speed. In general, the measurement effort can be reduced by values as explained in Section V-B. A more accurate deter-
the knowledge of the occurring harmonics and periodicity. mination of the cross-coupling inductance is possible with a
The measurements show that the 18th-harmonic dominates. current test signal.
The magnitudes Ldd,18 & Lqq,18 can be calculated with the The proposed simple FEA method predicts the inductances in
help of an FFT. It yields to: a good manner. A full comparison is not possible because the
Ldd,18 Lqq,18 lamination material of the stator is not known. However, the
= 0.64 % = 1.19% (25) shape corresponds with the measurements.
Ldd,0 Lqq,0
162
PSfrag replacements
PSfrag replacements
using a voltage test signal. With the presented prototype a

2 2 remarkable small error of |∆γ| < 2◦ occurs.
1.5 1.5
1 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
∆γ[deg]
1
∆γ[deg]
0.5 0.5
0 0 The authors thank Micheal Muehlboeck and Wilfried
−0.5 −0.5
−1
10
−1
10
Jaeschke for setting up the test bench and the rotor. Sincere
5 5
0 5
10 0 5
10 thanks are given to Markus Seilmeier for his support and
−5 0 −5 0
−5 −5 advice.
iq [A] −10−10 id [A] iq [A] −10−10 id [A]
(a) Calculated error via (26) (b) Measured error (Fit) R EFERENCES
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error of the model corresponds with the measured error when
163
Modularized High Power Density Bidirectional
Buck-Boost DC-DC Converter for EV Battery
Management
Zhi Geng, Dazhong Gu, Tianqi Hong, Kedao Qi, Kuang Zhang, Joseph Ambrosio
Unique Technical Service, LLC
Stony Brook, NY, 11794
alex@utseng.com
Abstract- In electrical vehicles (EV), regenerative braking density bidirectional dc-dc converter is demonstrated for a
generates more power than the batteries can accept, which scaled experimental HESS with a high voltage battery string
means additional power is wasted to heat in the vehicle’s brake (72 V nominal) and a lower-voltage ultracapcitor string (0-48
pads. And the battery life span will be greatly reduced at a peak V).
power many times that of most battery technologies. Therefore,
Previous research has proposed few control strategies.[1-3]
a compact power unit is needed in parallel with the dc bus to
absorb and store the motor generated energy into But none of those solutions are proposed for converter
ultracapacitors. Then ultracapacitors release that power when modularization and paralleling purpose. Also, the hardware
the vehicle accelerates and the batteries are under the greatest prototypes are mostly based on IGBT device switching at 10
strain. In this paper, a modularized high power density kHz to 20 kHz. This is definitely not the desired frequency
bidirectional dc-dc converter is developed to perform the energy for a high power density converter design. In this paper, a
transfer between battery string and ultracapacitors. And a hundred kilo-Hz based high frequency power unit using low
so-called dual current loop control strategy is applied to enhance voltage OptiMOS is developed. The unit is capable of
the converter modularization capability. Experimental results achieving 4 kW 42 ℎ power density and 96% efficiency.
are provided to demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed
control strategy. The hardware prototype is capable of achieving
Furthermore, a so-called dual current loop (DCL)
4 kW 42 ℎ power density and 95.5% efficiency. ‘master-to-slave’ control strategy is implemented so that
multiple high efficiency power modules can be easily
paralleled together to scale up the power level.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the last decades, life extension of battery deployed in EV II. CONTROL STRATEGY
power system has gained more popularity due to the increase
of battery voltage and Ah rating. Ultracapcitors are Fig.1 shows the proposed control strategy which features a
high-power-density device which could respond very fast for dual current loop structure. An inner loop and an outer loop
high transient loads while reducing the peak battery current are developed from two different embedded hardware
during charging (regenerative breaking). However, placing platforms: a master control hardware and multiple slave
the ultracapacitors directly on the dc bus (in parallel with control hardware. In the master control platform, the outer
battery) yields very little efficiency benefit. This is because loop control output will modulate a 100 kHz PWM signal
the charge profile of battery over its normal operating range is duty cycle which carries information as inner loop current
closed to flat, while that of an ultracapacitor is linear reference. The PWM signal becomes analog after a 2nd order
proportional. Thus, the range of voltage seen during operation low-pass filter in Fig.1. And this analog signal will be
would be limited by the charging profile of battery, which synchronously digitized by the ADC channels of multiple
would represent a very small portion of the useful energy slave control platforms. The sample value will work as the
storage of the ultracapcitors. Instead, a dc-dc converter needs real current control reference for the inner loop.
to be placed between the ultracapacitors and dc bus. This
converter has the property to convert power in either direction
at a good efficiency over a very large operating range of
ultracapcitor voltage. Thus, battery string, dc-dc converter
and ultracapacitor formed a certain type of hybrid energy
storage system (HESS). In recently years, due to the demand
of increasing EV energy storage for extending traveling
distance, auto-makers are seeking more compact and
integrated HESS which can be directly plug in an EV chassis.
Thus, compact and high efficiency dc-dc converter design for
HESS is promoted. In this paper, a modularized high power
(a)
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 164

III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT
100 kHz Inner loop An experimental prototype is built and the proposed dual
PWM(Outer loop current reference current loop control architecture has been implemented for
control output) (analog)
real-time operation in separate embedded hardware platforms.
The outer current loop regulates the main dc output current
(b) and is implemented in the master control hardware based on
Fig.1. (a)System control architecture. (b) Analog link based on a 2nd order
TMS32028335 digital microprocessor. And the UCD3138
low pass filter. based slave control hardware performs the inner current loop
control for each single module. An Uart based
For example: if PWM duty cycle of 50% is defined as zero master-to-slaves communication protocol has been developed
current reference for inner loop. Then a duty cycle over 50% so that the master control platform is able to smoothly
will represent positive current and the converter is working in command or poll data from the slave control platforms. The
buck mode in our case. Similarly, a duty cycle below 50% single module power unit circuit is shown in Fig. 3. which is
represents negative current and the converter works in boost based on a three-phase interleaved buck-boost topology.
mode. Infineon low voltage OptiMOS IPB320N20N3 is applied for
The outer loop plant transfer function is given by (1) which is the power stage design. RSC2R7308LR IOXUS
the representation of a 2nd order low pass filter. Ultracapacitor string is connected on low voltage side (48 V)
with eighteen 2.7 V 3000 F cell in series. The hardware
= , = 1+ (1) prototype and test setup is shown in Fig.4. Detailed
parameters for power electronics circuit is given in Table I.
Fig.2 shows the bode plot of . The cutoff frequeny in
Fig.2 is around 2.5 kHz. At 100 kHz, the system gain is at -60
dB.
Fig. 3. Power electronics topology based on a three-phase interleaved

buck-boost converter.
Fig. 5 demonstrates the buck mode operation of the proposed

dc-dc converter (72 V battery string to 48 V ultracapacitor
bank). The current ramped up to +150 A full current at a
fixed step size after an initial start-up. The 150 A dc current is
equally shared by dual modules with the proposed dual
Fig. 2. Second-order low-pass filter bode plot, . current loop control architecture.
To compensate , controller is applied which TABLE II CIRCUIT PARAMETERS OF ALP
yields the compensated loop gain of the main dc current loop: Circuit Parameters Values
Outer loop sampling
= ∙ ∙ ∙ (2) 10 kHz
frequency
Slave module switching
where N is the number of phases in parallel, and K value is 100 kHz
frequency
the gain that represents the ADC reading to referene current
Filter inductance 42 uH
value in slave control platform.
Single-Cell ultracapacitor
The inner loop plant transfer function can be represented by 3000 F
capacitance
(3), where is the dc voltage, is the buck converter filter
HV battery voltage 72 V
inductor and is the equivalent series resistor (ESR) of
[4],[5]. LV capacitor voltage 48 V
= (3)
165
Main dc current, dual module
Master control card

100 kHz upper switch gate signal
Power Power
Module 1 Module 2
(b)
Fig.5. Buck mode operation at 150 A.(a) Start-up transient (b) steady-state.
Slave control card 1 Slave control card 1

(a)
Power
Modules Main dc current, dual module
(a)
Ultracapacitor Bank
(b)
Fig. 4. (a)Dual power modules. (b)Experimental setup. 100 kHz lower switch gate signal
Fig.6 demonstrates the boost mode operation of the proposed

dc-dc converter (48 V ultracapacitor bank to 72 V battery Main dc current, dual module
string). The current ramps up to -100 A at a fixed step-size
after an initial start-up.
(b)
Fig.6. Boost mode operation at 100 A. (a) Start-up transient. (b) steady-state.
Thermal characteristic is evaluated in Fig. 7. The highest

temperature on upper devices reaches 74 ℃ thermal
steady-state for buck mode under full current condition (25 A
per phase for a single module). And the highest temperature
on lower device reaches 90 ℃ for boost mode under full
Main dc current, dual module
current condition (25 A per phase for a single module).
(a)
166
is capable of achieving 4 kW 42 ℎ power density. (2)
High efficiency. Hardware prototype is tested under full
current for both buck and boost operation mode. The
prototype achieves a peak efficiency of 95% at 100 kHz
switching frequency. (3) Easy for modularization and
parallel. A dual current loop master-to-slave control
architecture is proposed to enhance the power level
scalability.
REFERENCES
[1] Sridhar, P. J. Kollmeyer, and T. M. Jahns, "Model-based Control
Design for a Battery/Ultracapacitor DC-DC Converter System," in
Energy Conversion Congress and Exhibition (ECCE), 2016 IEEE,
(a) 2016, pp. 1-8.
[2] Jérémy Malaizé, Paolino Tona, "Optimization-based control design for
hybrid energy storage systems in electric vehicles", Vehicle Power and
Propulsion Conference (VPPC) 2011 IEEE, pp. 1-7, 2011, ISSN
Pending.
[3] M. B. Camara, H. Gualous, B. Dakyo, C. Nichita, and P.Makany,
“Buck-boost converters design for ultracapacitors and lithium battery
mixing in hybrid vehicle applications,” in Proc. IEEE Vehicle Power
Propulsion Conf., 2010, pp. 1–6.
[4] Z. Geng, D. Gu, T. Hong, J. Teng and D. Czarkowski, “Novel control
architecture for programmable electronic AC load to achieve harmonic
load profiles”, in Proc. IEEE Appl. Power Electron. Conf. Expo., Mar.
2017, pp. 2888-2893.
[5] Z. Geng, D. Gu, D. and D. Czarkowski, “Novel control architecture
for dual-output dc-dc converters driving dc-ac inversion system,” in
Proc. IEEE Energy Convers. Congr. Expo., Sep. 2016, pp. 1-6.
(b)
Fig. 7 (a) Thermal image under full current for buck mode operation. (b)
Thermal image under full current for boost mode operation.
The efficiency of the proposed modularized DC-DC

converter is tested and plotted in Fig. 8. The efficiency are
measured from 1 kW power level to 3 kW full power per
module. The peak efficiency reaches 95.5% at 2 kW power
level.
0.96
0.95
0.94
Efficiency
0.93
0.92
0.91
0.9
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Output Power(W)
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a modularized ultra-compact non-isolated
bidirectional dc-dc converter is proposed to achieve
bi-directional power transfer between vehicle battery string
and ultracapacitor. The proposed converter has the following
features: (1) Compact power stage size. Hardware prototype
167
Design of a 5-Phase IPM Machine for Electric
Vehicles
Omid Beik, Member, IEEE, Rong Yang, Member, IEEE, and Ali Emadi, Fellow, IEEE
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
beikkha@mcmaster.ca, royang@borgwarner.com, emadi@mcmaster.ca
Abstract-This paper presents the design of a 5-phase interior reliability for electric vehicles. The multiphase (5-, 6-, 9-, and
permanent magnet (IPM) machine for electric vehicle (EV) 12-phase) machine design, modelling, and some prototypes
applications. The Nissan Leaf IPM machine is chosen as the
benchmark system against which two designs are developed, 3- for aerospace and marine applications as well as EV have
and 5-phase machines. The developed machines utilize the same previously been proposed [12]-[21]. This paper, however,
rotor topology as the benchmark machine and adopt a 60-slot presents results of a study into 3- and 5-phase interior
stator configuration to facilitate a short-pitch fractional-slot permanent magnet (IPM) machines for electric vehicle
winding scheme. However, the machine total mass, volume, and traction applications. A commercial EV traction machine, i.e.,
copper utilization is maintained the same in all designs.
Compared to the 3-phase IPM, the 5-phase design results in Nissan Leaf IPM motor, is chosen as the benchmark system
increased average torque due to improved winding factor hence to facilitate a comparison between the more conventional 3-
improved machine power density while maintaining the same phase topology and the proposed 5-phase configuration. For
total machine ampere-turns and copper losses to ensure the EV applications, the traction machines are required to have
same thermal performance. The study will discuss the high power density, high efficiency, low mass, wide
improvement in torque and speed capability and present the
comparison in loss and efficiency at the machine base speed. operating speed range, and high reliability [1], [11]. This
paper aims to illustrate improvements of such requirements
by presenting a 5-phase design.
I. INTRODUCTION
II. MACHINE CONFIGURATION
Main components of an electric vehicle (EV) powertrain
system usually include electric machines, power electronics The Nissan Leaf 3-phase IPM traction machine is chosen
converters, and energy storage. These components usually as a benchmark design since there is much published
operate as a separate system with control units coordinating technical and experimental data available to validate the
the system integration. The emphasis for future traction machine analysis tools utilized in the study [22]-[23].
systems design will be continuing improvements in Detailed finite element analysis (FEA) is performed on the
component integration and lifetime, factors that ultimately Nissan Leaf machine and analytical results are compared with
impact on system cost and application uptake. To have published experimental data in [23]. The comparison showed
greater impact on application, it is desirable to integrate a good agreement between analytical and test results, hence,
electromagnetic machines and their associated power the confidence in the FEA tools and design procedures. The
electronic converters into complicated systems that share tools and procedures are then applied to develop the
component count to minimize cost, for example integrated presented designs in this paper with confidence in the final
starter/alternator systems that are now becoming common for calculated predictions.
small urban vehicles [1]. However, while the compactness of Table I lists main features of the benchmark Nissan Leaf
system is achieved, reliability of the power conversion IPM machine [23]. Based on the benchmark machine, two
components can possibly be compromised by the arduous designs are developed: (i) a 3-phase IPM and (ii) a 5-phase
nature of the system operating duties and environments. IPM. The developed machines use the same rotor as the
In recent years, multiphase machines and drives designs benchmark system with 8 embedded rotor magnet poles
have brought a number of system advantages as reported in arranged in a delta shape. The magnets are sintered NdFeB,
literature including enhanced reliability, improved torque manufactured by Arnold Magnetics [24] and referred to as
characteristic, and capability in expanding speed range [2]- N28AH. The benchmark machine uses 48 slots stator
[5]. Compared to the 3-phase designs, multiphase windings laminations; however, to include a 5-phase winding and
lead to lower power ratings for the associated power facilitate the comparison, a 60-slot stator is designed for the
electronic converters, improved DC-link ripples [6]-[8], developed 3- and 5-phase machines while maintaining three
relatively lower winding copper losses, and potential criteria as compared with the benchmark system: (i) the same
improvement in capability of field-weakening related to total slot area to ensure the same iron mass, (ii) the same
current rating. An important area in the aerospace sector has outer and inner diameter and back-iron thickness to have
been improved fault tolerance by recourse to a multiphase equitable magnetic performance, and (iii) the same slot
design [9]-[11], an area of similar importance for the copper fill factor.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 168

For the benchmark machine, there are 2 slots per pole per
phase; therefore, it utilizes a single layer full-pitched stator
winding with 8 coils per phase, each coil having 8 turns. The
coils are connected in series-parallel pattern creating 4
parallel paths per phase. The 3- and 5-phase machines utilize
a 60-slot stator lamination; therefore, they have 2.5 and 1.5
slots per pole per phase, respectively. Hence, the winding for
both the 3- and 5-phase IPM machines is double layer short-
pitched and fractional slot. For the same total machine
ampere-turns and copper losses as the benchmark machine,
the number of turns, phase resistance, and winding specs are
calculated and shown in Table I. Note, for both 3- and 5-
phase windings, there are 4 parallel paths per phase.
However, for the same copper mass, the total number of turns
per phase for the developed designs is maintained at 60
compared to 64 turns for the benchmark machine. Fig. 1(a) (a) Benchmark machine
shows the magnetic flux distribution and winding
arrangement for a section of the three machines under study
while Table II presents a comparison of magnetic
performance. As seen, although the benchmark machine
operates at a lower peak flux density, the average over half a
cycle of air-gap flux density, i.e., the machine magnetic
loading and air-gap RMS flux density, is the same for all the
designs. Indeed, the 3- and 5-phase machines are designed to
have similar magnetic performance as the benchmark
machine to facilitate the comparison.
TABLE I
MACHINES MAIN SPECS
Benchmark 3-ph 5-ph
Item
IPM [23] IPM IPM
No. of stator slots (p.u.) 48 60
No. of poles (p.u.) 8
(b) 3-phase IPM
No. of coils per phase (p.u.) 8 20 12
No. of turns per coil (p.u.) 8 3 5
No. of turns per phase (p.u.) 64 60
No. of parallel path per phase
4
(p.u.)
No. of turns per parallel path
16 15
(p.u.)
Phase resistance (ohm) 0.00821 0.00722 0.012
3 pieces with delta arrangement
Rotor pole magnets
embedded into the rotor core
Large magnet dimensions (mm) 3.79 (DOM) × 28.85 × 8.36*
Small magnet dimensions (mm) 2.29 (DOM) × 21.13 × 8.34*
Air-gap length (mm) 0.5
Active axial length (mm) 151
Stator outer diameter (mm) 200
Stator inner diameter (mm) 131
Rotor outer diameter (mm) 130
(c) 5-phase IPM
Rotor inner diameter (mm) 22.9
Machine base speed (rpm) 5000 Fig. 1. Magnetic flux distribution and winding arrangement.
*18 pieces per active axial length
169
TABLE II The phase shift in the 3- and 5-phase waveforms in Fig. 2
COMPARISON OF MAGNETIC PERFORMANCE are due to displacement in the center of the windings as it is
Benchmark 3-ph 5-ph graphically shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 shows the torque-speed
Item
IPM IPM IPM and instant torque characteristics for the machines under
O.C. air-gap peak flux density (T) 0.74 0.77 consideration while Table III lists the operational
O.C. RMS air-gap flux density (T) 0.52 characteristics at based speed. The constant torque region is
O.C. magnetic loading (T)* 0.46 extended up to 5000 RPM, i.e., the base speed. As seen, the
Back-iron max. flux density (T) 1.6 average torque for the 5-phase design is increased by 4.1%
Tooth max. flux density (T) 1.65 and 3.5% compared to the benchmark and the designed 3-
Max. flux density (T) - occurs in phase designs, respectively. The increase in the torque in the
3 2.8 5-phase design is due to the improved winding factor
the flux barrier region)
*Average over half an electric cycle compared. Indeed, as listed in Table III, the back-EMF of the
5-phase winding is 3.5% higher than that of the 3-phase
winding. Note, the maximum RMS phase current for the
III. OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE benchmark machine is 600A with an excitation angle of 50
Fig. 2 presents the open circuit phase flux-linkage and electrical degrees in the constant torque region while it is
back-EMF for the benchmark, 3-, and 5-phase machines. The 640A with an excitation angle of 48°for the 3-phase design.
back-EMF waveform in the designed machines is closer to a However, for the 5-phase machine, the phase current is
sinusoidal waveform, a feature due to the winding reduced to 384A, i.e., 3/5 or 60% of the 3-phase with an
arrangements and slot-to-pole combination by reducing the excitation angle of 55°. The 5-phase design is connected to a
harmonics. Indeed, by increasing the number of teeth/slot power electronics converter with 5 legs compared to the
while maintain the same air-gap thickness and rotor topology, standard 3-leg drives; therefore, there are 10 active switches
the flux passing through the air-gap is facing a smoother in the 5-phase drive compared to 6 switches in the 3-phase
surface, which in turn results in less harmonics. standard drive. However, since the phase current is lower in
the 5-phase machine, the switches are rated at 60% of the
current compared to 3-phase switches. This could result in
60 overall reliability improvement of the drive and machine
system.
40
350
Flux-linkage (mWb)
Benchmark IPM
20
300 3-phase IPM
5-phase IPM
0 Benhcmark IPM 250
Average torque (Nm)
3-phase IPM
-20 5-phase IPM 200
150
-40
100
-60
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
50
Rotor angle (elec. deg.)
(a) Flux linkage 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000
Rotor speed (rpm)
(a) Torque speed characteristics
150
Benhcmark IPM
350
3-phase IPM
100
5-phase IPM
300
0
50
Back-EMF (V)
250
Torque (Nm)
0 Tave = 285.88 Nm; Benchmark IPM

200 Tave = 287.50 Nm; 3-phase IPM
-50 Tave = 297.47 Nm; 5-phase IPM
150
-100 100
-150 50
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
Rotor angle (elec. deg.) 0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
(b) Back-EMF Rotor angle (elec. deg.)
Fig. 2. Open circuit per phase waveforms at base speed (5000 RPM). (b) Torque at base speed (5000 RPM)
Fig. 3. Electromagnetic torque.
170
TABLE III For the IPM configuration, the topology and material of the
OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE AT 5000 RPM rotor are designed to provide PM flux-linkage and an
Benchm 3-ph 5-ph inductance difference in the d- and q-axes. Generally,
Item
ark IPM IPM IPM embedding the PM material in the rotor iron reduces the PM
RMS back-EMF (V) 81.48 74.38 76.60 flux-linkage, but leads to an inductance difference between
RMS phase voltage (V) 152.70 141.14 146.81 the two axes. Therefore, the machine torque consists of an
RMS phase current (A) 600 640 384 excitation component due to the PMs and a salient toque
Average torque (Nm) 284.78 287.55 297.45 component. The saliency torque arises from the difference
Excitation angle in the constant torque between the d- and q-axis inductances, a factor that varies
50 48 55 with load current or saturation in the machine stator and rotor.
region (elec. Deg.)
Torque ripple (%) 31 6 3 Fig. 4 shows variation of the machine d- and q-axes
Iron losses (kW) 0.29 0.28 0.27 inductances with respect to the excitation current and angle.
Copper losses (kW) 4.43 Following observations are made: (i) at a fixed excitation
Output power (kW) 149.11 150.56 155.74
angle, as the peak current is increased, the Ld and Lq decrease
Efficiency (%) 96.27 96.97 97.07
due to the saturation of the iron at higher currents, (ii) at low
currents, where the saturation is not in effect, as the excitation
angle is increased, the Ld and Lq decrease. Indeed, since at
The torque ripple at a 5000 rpm in the 5-phase design is 3%
low currents, saturation does not occur as the excitation angle
compared to 6% and 31% for the designed 3-phase and
is increased, the de-fluxing becomes more effective; hence,
benchmark IPM machines, respectively. The reduction in the
flux in d- and q-axes is reduced leading to reduction of Ld and
torque ripples is due to the winding arrangement, i.e.,
Lq, (iii) at high currents, as the excitation angle is increased,
improvement of the winding fill factor and pole-to-slot
the Ld and Lq increase. Therefore, at high currents, the
combination. The short-pitched fractional slot winding in the
saturation is dominant and, as the excitation angle is
3- and 5-phase machines results in reduced harmonics
increased, the de-fluxing decreases leading to increase in Ld
compared to the full-pitched distributed winding for the
and Lq.
benchmark machine. Note that the torque ripples stated here
are without considering a skew angle for the rotor.
The increase in machine average torque is observed for all
the speeds in the constant torque region, i.e., for speeds from 0
zero to 5000 rpm, as seen in Fig. 3(a). The improvement in 150
50
the machine total torque in the field weakening region is 140
L (uH)
significant when comparing the 3- and 5-phase designs 100

130
d
against the benchmark machine. This is due to multiple

150 120
factors including improved winding fill factor and drop
110
voltage across the machine inductance. However, in the field 200
600 100
weakening region and for the speeds above 7000 rpm, the 400 80
60 90
torque-speed characteristics for the 3- and 5-phase designs is 200 40
the same resulting in higher average torque and lower torque 0 0
20 80
ripples compared to the benchmark machine. Note the peak

phase current in the 5-phase design is 60% and 64% of the 3- (a) d-axis inductance
phase and benchmark designs, respectively. This results in the
same total machine copper loss and thermal performance. The
iron loss for the 5-phase design is reduced by 7% and 3.6%
while the efficiency is increased by 0.8% and 0.1% compared 0
to the benchmark and 3-phase designs, respectively. The 100 550
difference in the excitation angle in the constant torque region 200 500
L (uH)
among the three machines is due to the shift in the center of 300 450
q
400
the winding. The machine torque expression for a 3-phase 400
500
winding is [7]: 350
600
600 300
80
 L − Lq 2  400 250
T = 3 p ψ m I s cos (γ ) + d I s sin ( 2γ )  (1) 200 40
60
 2  20 200
0 0
where p is the number of pole pairs, ψ m is magnetic flux, I s

is the stator current, γ is the excitation angle, and Ld and Lq (b) q-axis inductance
are d- and q-axis inductances, respectively. Fig. 4. d- and q-axis inductance with respect to excitation current and angle.
171
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172
Dictionary Learning for Bearing Fault Diagnosis
Kudra H. Baruti, Mehrdad Heydarzadeh, Mehrdad Nourani and Bilal Akin
Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA
{khb160030, mehhey, nourani, bilal.akin}@utdallas.edu
Abstract—Abstract—Monitoring the vibration signal is an ef- sinusoid functions with different frequencies. Such a signal
fective way for automatic diagnosis of mechanical faults in rotary has a complex waveform in time domain but in the frequency
electric machines. This is done in order to to determine the state domain representation has impulses at those frequencies which
of health of electrical machines, especially those used in Hybrid
Electric Vehicle (HEV) and Electric Vehicle (EV) applications, is much simpler than temporal domain. In signal processing,
whose state of health needs to be monitored continuously. Feature this quality is usually referred to as sparsity of the signal
extraction is the key step in vibration diagnosis. Usually, the time which will be discussed more later in this paper. Second, the
domain vibration signal is transformed into another domain like new representation is more stable with respect to different
Fourier or wavelet for feature extraction. In this paper, a dictionary variabilities. For example, the Fourier module is invariant
learning method is proposed for finding an optimal transformation
for feature extraction. A label consistent sparse representation is against the variability caused by a shift in the signal. This
applied to vibration data collected from an electric machine to quality depends on the shape of basis functions which are used
diagnose three classes of bearing faults with a higher accuracy, for signal decomposition. If the basis functions are chosen
compared to other extraction methods found in the literature. The appropriately, the decomposition can capture this variability.
trained transform projects the vibration signal from different classes For example, wavelet transform is a suitable framework for
of faults to different basis function which improves the classification
task. capturing changes in a signal.
Index Terms—Keywords— Dimension reduction, Fault diagno- Generally, the transformation is done by decomposing the
sis, Model-based signal processing, Parametric spectral analysis, signal as a linear combination of basis functions (atoms).
Permanent magnet synchronous machine, Support vector machine In the Fourier transform, these basis functions are complex
exponential. In wavelet transform, different wavelet basis
functions are proposed. Usually, the set of basis functions, so
I. I NTRODUCTION called dictionary, is an orthogonal set which preserves some
Fault diagnosis in rotary mechanical systems plays an sort of completeness. Orthogonal basis functions are useful
important role in safety and maintenance of these machines. since the inner product operation can be used for finding the
This is especially crucial in HEV and EV applications, in decomposition coefficients. A set of n real orthogonal basis
which continuous and close monitoring of the state of health of functions form a complete basis in Rn , if any arbitrary signal
the machines is a requirement for safe operation. Specifically, with length n like x ∈ Rn can be uniquely represented using
bearing faults account for approximately 40% and 90% of the elements of the set. In many fault diagnosis application,
faults in large and small electric machines [1], [2]. Monitoring these basis functions are chosen from existing dictionaries
of the vibration signal is an effective way of monitoring these like Fourier or wavelet dictionaries. Although these general
machines. Reviewing the literature reveals a huge amount purpose dictionaries provide sparsity and stability in signal
effort in vibration diagnosis during the last three decades. representation, they are not designed for a specific application
Majority of prior works employed data-driven fault diagnosis and lead to sub-optimal results. Recent advancement in signal
techniques where fault detection is done through a pattern processing allowed us to learn dictionaries for a specific
recognition problem often with two steps. In the first step, application [11], [12], [13]. Basically, these methods assume
signal processing techniques are applied to extract features an over-complete dictionary which lead to a non-unique signal
(signatures) from measured signals. In the second step, a representation. Next, the sparsest representation will be chosen
classifier decides about the health state of the machine. by an optimization method. The dictionary learning has been
The key difference among prior works in this area is the already applied to fault diagnosis applications [14], [15]. In
feature extraction method. Generally, the measured signal is this work, we apply the concept of label consistent dictionary
transformed in another domain using a linear transform. For learning for vibration fault diagnosis in electric machines.
example, Frequency domain feature extraction methods are
II. M ATHEMATICAL F RAMEWORK
proposed in [3], [4], [5]. Wavelet domain features are em-
ployed in [6], [7], [8]. Basically, such transformations provide A. Sparse Decomposition
a better framework for studying the signal and facilitate the Let y ∈ Rn denote a signal with length of n, which can
classification part. This distinguishing quality is achieved due model a window of vibration data from a rotary machine.
to two properties. First, the measured signal has a simpler For a given dictionary of signal atoms like D, this signal
and more compact representation in the new transformed can be represented as y = Dx, where x ∈ RK holds the
domain. For clarification, consider a signal as a sum of few signal representation coefficients in a new domain where the
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 173

K is the number of atoms. This representation of y may be one can calculate the decomposition coefficients using OMP.
either exact (y = Dx) or approximate (y ≈ Dx), satisfying But, the remaining question is the choice of the atoms in the
ky − Dxkp ≤ kxkp = (|x1 |p + · · · |xn |p )1/p is the the lp dictionary which is dicussed in the next subsection.
norm where the Euclidean norm p = 2 and . In approximation
applications,the l2 norm or Euclidean norm is usually used. B. Dictionary Learning Using K-SVD
Each column of the dictionary matrix D ∈ Rn×K is a In this sub-section the problem of dictionary learning is
basis function (atom) like dj ∈ Rn and kdj k2 = 1 for discussed which is an unsupervised problem. In this work,
j = 1, · · · , K. If n < K and D is a full rank matrix, the K-SVD algorithm is used [11] which is introduced here.
the dictionary is called over-complete and there is an infinite Suppose a set of N training signals like {y 1 , · · · , y N } is
number of solution for x. One may choose x such it has given. This set can be represented as a matrix form of
the fewest number of nonzero elements, the sparsest solution, Y = [y 1 , · · · , y N ] which is an n × N matrix. Each y i in this
which leads to a simpler representation. The sparsity can set has a sparse representation like xi . Let X = [x1 , · · · , xN ]
be quantized using l0 norm which is equivalent number of denote the corresponding sparse representation of given train-
nonzero elements of a vector. So, the sparse decomposition ing set. In Eqn. 1 the sparse representation of a single vector
can be found by solving the following optimization: is obtained by an optimization. Here, the dictionary needs
to be chosen such that this representation is as sparse as
x∗ = arg min kxk0 subject to y = Dx (1) possible for all vectors. So, the dictionary can be found by
x
minimizing the sum P of objective function in Eqn. 1 for all
where kxk0 is the number of nonzero elements in x. In vectors as arg min i kxi k0 subject to ky i − Dxi k2 ≤
approximate representation, the constraint in Eqn. 1 will be D,X
replaced by ky − Dxk2 ≤ . Before talking about the for i = 1, · · · , N . Using the matrix form this cost can be
choice of D, an algorithm will be introduced for solving this equivalently written as:
optimization problem in the next sub-section. < D ∗ ,X ∗ >= arg min kY − DXkF
D,X (2)
1) Orthogonal Matching Pursuit: If the dictionary is an or-
thogonal dictionary, the decomposition coefficients can easily subject to ∀ı̇, kxk0 ≤ T0
be obtained by inner product operator. However, for sparse where k·kF is the Frobenius norm which is simply sum of
decomposition of a signal on an over-complete dictionary square of all elements. Minimizing the objective function
requires solving Eqn. 1. In this section, it is assumed that in Eqn. 2 minimizes both the error for choosing the sparse
D is given and a fast algorithm will be introduced for solving representation of a vector and choice of the dictionary atoms.
this optimization problem. One observation about this problem A fast and high performance method for solving the op-
is that the solution has two effective parts to be found: (i) the timization in Eqn. 2 is K-SVD algorithm proposed in [11].
support, nonzero elements, of x and (ii) the value of nonzero K-SVD is inspired by k-means clustering and singular value
elements. So, one way of attacking its numerical solution decomposition (SVD). K-SVD is an iterative algorithm which
is focusing on the support of the solution. By knowing the has two steps in each iteration: (i) Sparse coding stage and
nonzero elements one can find their values easily using the (ii) codebook update step. In the sparse coding step, the
least square method. Such a solution may lead to a sub-optimal approximate sparse representation of all training vectors, Y ,
solution of optimization in Eqn. 1, however it gives a fast, are obtained using a pursuit algorithm like OMP by solving
stable and sub optimal solution [16]. the optimization in Eqn. 1 to obtain X. Next, in the codebook
An algorithm which is based on the above mentioned update stage, a single atom in D, let say dk , will be updated.
approach for finding the solution of Eqn. 1 is Orthogonal For this purpose, all vectors in X which used dk are grouped
matching pursuit (OMP) [17]. OMP has two steps in each together. Then, the error of choosing dk is minimized. For this
iteration: (i) sweep (ii) update. These two steps are applied purpose the SVD is used to find a rank 1 estimation of this
in a loop to minimize the residual of signal which is the error. In the next iteration, another atom in the dictionary will
difference of the signal and its sparse approximation. In the be updated. The details of K-SVD is beyond the scope of this
first iteration, in the sweep step, the inner product of the digest and reader can refer to [11] for more details.
signal and all dictionary atoms are calculated and the atom
with largest absolute value of inner product is selected. In the C. Label Consistency
update step the residual of signal as the difference between The basic K-SVD provides an optimal dictionary for sparse
argumenty and Dx will be calculated and is projected coding. Although compressing the signal is the main goal
to the space orthogonal to span of all selected atoms. In the of sparse representation, it has been traditionally applied to
next iteration, the signal is replaced with its residual and the pattern recognition problems, too [18], [15]. However, an op-
above two steps are run. The algorithm ends when the norm timal dictionary for compression may not lead to an optimum
of residual is less than a threshold. For a signal with length n, dictionary for pattern recognition. One can think of finding an
the maximum number of iterations is n [17]. As a result, the optimal dictionary for pattern recognition itself. Specifically,
OMP gives a fast and near optimal solution to optimization if the sparse code of different classes have nonzero element at
problem in Eqn. 1. So, having an over-complete dictionary, different places in x, the classification can be done. Authors in
174
[12] proposed a label consistent (LC) version of K-SVD. For B. Experimental Results
achieving this type of sparsity, in LC-KSVD, the cost function
of dictionary learning is modified to include labels: The vibration signal is first down-sampled by a factor of
2. Then, a sliding window of 256 samples with 25% overlap
is shifted over vibration signal. Each window represents an
< D ∗ , A∗ , X ∗ >=arg min kY − DXkF + αkQ − AXkF
D,A,X observation of the system. Next, the LC-KSVD algorithm is
subject to ∀ı̇, kxk0 ≤ T0 applied to find a dictionary to decompose all signals with
(3) the length of 256 samples in dataset. For this purpose, an
over-complete dictionary with 512 atoms is used. The sparsity
where the scalar α adjusts the trade-off between reconstruc- threshold, T0 in Eqn. 3, is chosen as 30 which requires
tion error and imposed label consistency, matrix Q contains each signal in dataset to be written as a linear combination
the labels and matrix A is a linear transform which maps of 30 atoms. Fig. 2 displays sample atoms in the trained
the sparse codes to the most discriminative features in the dictionary as function of time. The constraint imposed by Eqn.
space of RK . Matrix QK×N = [q 1 , · · · , q N ] contains the 3 causes the sparse decomposition of signal from different
discriminative sparse codes and is made of zeros and ones. classes have nonzero coefficients for different atoms in the
Let q i = [qi1 , · · · , qiK ]t denote the ith column of Q which dictionary. Fig. 3 shows the sparse decomposition of a window
corresponds to the y i in the training set. Then, the element of vibration signal for three different classes using the trained
qij = 1 will be one if the sample y i and the atom dj are dictionary. As seen, these three signals have nonzero elements
from the same class. Then, the term kQ − AXkF forces that for different atoms.
the sparse codes of the same class have a similar sparse code. For fault diagnosis a linear support vector machine (SVM)
We need a fast and efficient optimization procedure for this has been used for classifying the sparse decomposition of the
problem as proposed in [12]. vibration signal. The accuracy of the classifier is evaluated
using a 10-fold cross validation and average classification
III. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS accuracy of 95.54 % is obtained. Table I depicts the confusion
matrix of the classifier where f0 represent the fault-free state
A. Test Setup and f1 and f2 represent fan end and drive end bearing faults,
The proposed method is applied to the vibration data respectively. Fig. 4 shows the receiver operation curve (ROC)
provided by the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) of the classifier which is obtained by plotting the true positive
bearing data center [19] as a benchmark. The experimental rate (TPR) against false positive rate (FPR) of a classifier for
setup, depicted in Figure 1(a), consists of a 2 HP motor, a different threshold values varying in the range of [0, 1]. An
torque transducer, in the center, and a dynamo-meter as a load. ROC shows the confidence of a classifier in its decision for
Bearings of motor shaft are studied in this benchmark. Figure classifying a feature. In an ideal classifier, the ROC is a unit
1(b) shows the setup’s block diagram. Single point faults step function between zero and one. The ROC of our classifier
is almost a step function which means the input features are
distinguishable with less overlapped. This is due to use of
the trained dictionary. Table II compares this work with some
prior works on CWRU dataset. The proposed method benefits
in processing the vibration signal in a shorter window length
which in turn leads to a lower memory and computation power.
(a) Setup (image from [19]) (b) Block diagram
Fig. 1. Experimental setup of CWRU bearing data [19]. IV. C ONCLUSION
were introduced to test bearings using an electro-discharge In this paper a novel fault diagnosis method using vibration
machine with diameters of 7, 14 and 21 mils on different signal is proposed. The proposed method studies the vibration
parts of bearing including the inner race, the outer race and signal in an optimal basis which is obtained by dictionary
the ball. Vibration data was collected using two single axial learning methods. This dictionary is an over-complete frame-
accelerometers with magnetic bases. One accelerometer was work for vibration decomposition which leads to a sparse
mounted on the drive end and the other on the fan end of representation of this signal. In addition to sparsity, the atoms
the motor’s housing. Both were sampled at the rate of 12,000 of dictionary are trained such vibration signal from different
samples per second in the constant shaft speed. The experiment classes have nonzero coefficients for different atoms which
was repeated for different fault intensities (7, 14 and 21 mils) helps the classification. Overall, the trained dictionary results
and locations (ball, races and drive/fan ends). Moreover, data in a better framework for fault diagnosis in comparison to ex-
was collected for four load conditions (0, 1, 2 and 3 HP) for isting wavelet or Fourier frameworks. Applying this technique
each class of faults. In this paper, the fault-free state, fan end to other modalities of measurement like stator current is the
and drive end faults are referred to as f0 , f1 , f2 , respectively. topic of our future research.
175
1
30
f f0
0
25
f1 f1
0.8
20 f2 f2
Decomposition Coefficient
True Positive Rate

15
0.6
10
5
0.4
0
-5 0.2
-10
-15 0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Atom index False Positive Rate
Fig. 2. Three sample dictionary atoms. Fig. 3. The sparse decomposition of vibration signal Fig. 4. ROC of classifiers.
from three different classes. Different classes have
nonzero elements for different atoms.
TABLE I TABLE II
C ONFUSION MATRIX OF THE CLASSIFIER C ONFUSION MATRIX OF THE CLASSIFIER
Classified (%) Ref. Window Length Features Accuracy(%)

Target f0 f1 f2 [20] 4,096 frequency domain features 91.33
f0 96.03 2.14 1.83 [21] 4,096 wavelet domain features 90.00
f1 3.10 95.78 1.12 [22] N/A fusion of time and frequency 89.63
f2 2.10 3.11 94.79 Ours 256 dictionary learning 95.54
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177
Efficient Interfacing Electric Vehicles with Grid
using Bi-directional Smart Inverter
Ashley Kaiser, Andrew Nguyen, Ryan Pham, Michael Granados, Cal Poly Pomona Students
Ha Thu Le, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract — This paper presents the design, implementation In a typical V2G system [10] there is an inverter with an
and verification of four intelligent functions that enable smart bi- FPGA board that runs control algorithms. To make the
directional inverter for electric vehicles (EV). Evaluation shows inverter smart, intelligent control algorithms are required. An
that the functions work properly. They can adjust the EV power efficient control strategy must take into account the battery
output smoothly, helping stabilize load voltage while keeping the SOC and SOH [11].
load voltage oscillation below 1%. The intelligent control schemes
help EV charge efficiently to decrease the charging cost. They Recent studies also pay attention to developing
also enable EV to discharge i.e. the EV owners can participate in applications and strategies for optimizing the V2G system. In
grid ancillary service to earn extra income. Furthermore, the [12], it was shown that profits may be maximized for parking
functions facilitate grid operators to regulate EV lots by offering parking, charge and discharge services in an
charge/discharge activities to raise the grid voltage and reduce optimal manner. In [13] a model of a V2G grid is tested. The
grid stress conditions. focus was to minimize current unbalance in the grid for
Index Terms — Electric Vehicle (EV), Ramp Rate Function, economic purposes and to decrease voltage unbalance to help
Smart Inverter, State of Charge (SOC), State of Health (SOH), prolong the life of transformers within the grid. The results
Soft-Start Reconnection Function, Volt-Watt Function, Vehicle- show that, by using current unbalanced minimization strategy,
to-Grid (V2G). the system profit is increased [14]. A control algorithm is
proposed in [15]. It finds that average EV SOC was lower
I. INTRODUCTION with the controlled charging. Since SOC is closely correlated
S mart inverters are increasingly investigated for

applications that require DC-AC or AC-DC power
conversion, such as converting solar power and charging
with SOH, this increases the life of the car battery. Apart from
controlling the V2G system to increase the car battery SOH
and economic cost, [16] proposes that the V2G system should
Electric Vehicles (EV). Smart inverters that possess bi- be control based off real time data coming in from the grid.
directional charging and two-way communication capability The above analysis suggests that EV charging and V2G
can manage the EV charging to make it more efficient. functionality have great potential to benefit both the grid and
Meanwhile, the EV can export its battery power to participate the EV owners. Though, lots of further research is required.
in a various grid supporting services such as injecting power Efficient interfacing EV with grid is the key to alleviate
to mitigate grid stress conditions. This capability is known as negative impacts of EV charging on the power network and
Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) functionality. The V2G capability can turn EV batteries into grid backing systems. There is an open
potentially minimize negative impacts of EV on power grid space for researchers and developers to design various
under charging and back the grid under discharging operation. intelligent functions to the inverter for this purpose.
It potentially creates excellent benefits for both the PEV The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and
owners and the grid [1-4]. California Smart Inverter Working Group (SIWG) have
Different aspects of the EV charging and their V2G recommended over 20 functions for utility distributed
capability have been studied in recent research. In [5], a model generators and energy storage systems which are relevant to
was developed a model that helped solve capacity issues of EV. The functions details can be found in [1-4]. Within the
renewable energy plants. In [6], when considering Level 1, 2, scope of this study, the following functions are developed as
and 3 of EV charging, it is found that the fastest Level 3 can part of the V2G functionality:
have negative effects on the battery such as negatively 1) Connect/Disconnect function
impacting its long term health due to high voltage and current
and greater thermal degradation [6]. In [7], a methodology is 2) Soft-Start Reconnection function
presented in developing hardware for measuring the SOH of 3) Auto Charge/Discharge function
lithium ion batteries that is implantable into microcontrollers.
The method can obtain the accuracy within 10% of the 4) Volt-Watt function
capacity decay curve. This is significant because SOH is a 5) Ramp Rate function
major portion of V2G integration. Other studies considered
the aggregation of EV batteries so as to maximize the life of These intelligent functions are developed and evaluated in
the batteries based on state of charge or state of health [8][9]. the following sections using MATLAB Simulink.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 178

II. V2G FUNCTION DESIGN AND EVALUATION
A. Connect/Disconnect function
The function is to connect and disconnect the EV
appropriately. It is developed, implemented and verified using
MATLAB Simulink and it works properly. The details are not
presented here due to space limitation, but are available upon
request.
B. Soft-Start Reconnection function
1) Function description
The SIWG defines the Soft-Start Reconnection function as
a function that reconnects an I-DER to the power system after Fig. 3 Grid model for evaluating Soft-Start Reconnect function
a specified time or through ramping up. After power is
restored, the I-DER cannot be automatically reconnected.
Otherwise it could cause voltage spiking, frequency changes,
and instability. The voltage and frequency of the power
system must return to normal before an I-DER can reconnect.
2) Implementation:
Figure 1 shows the flow chart of the logic behind our
proposed controller for the Soft Start Reconnection function.
It aims to reconnect EV after the grid voltage and frequency
have returned to certain levels by using a fixed time window.
The EV will reconnect to the grid when its voltage is between
normally accepted limits of +/-5% of the nominal value (240V
for EV). If the grid voltage is between -10% and 10% of 240V Fig. 4 Connection of EV battery for charging under normal grid voltage
then the control logic will check if the SOC of the PEV is less (Grid voltage within +/-5% limits and SOC = 85%)
than or equal to 50% to make a decision to reconnect or not. 3) Verification
Figure 3 shows the grid model used for verifying the Soft-
Start Reconnection function. The grid is modeled as a 25-kV,
10-MVA, 60-Hz voltage source. It supplies the EV battery and
an AC load. The EV battery is connected to the rectifier (left)
and the AC load is connected to the inverter (right). The state
flow controller with the function logic controls the left most
breaker that controls the grid power supply to both the EV
battery and the AC load. The EV breaker (middle) operation is
set internally.
Figure 4 shows the reconnection outcome for a situation
where the grid voltage is normal (i.e. within +/-5% limits) and
the battery SOC is 85%. The controller follows the logic
correctly and connects the EV battery (Output state is 1 or ON
for a time duration). The load AC RMS voltage (lower plot,
Fig. 4) shows some oscillation, but remains close to 240V.
C. Auto Charge/Discharge function
The SIWG defines charge/discharge function as a
Fig. 1 Flow chart for Soft-Start Reconnection function
switching mechanism that will completely isolate a DER from
the grid. In our design, the EV can be automatically connected
to the grid for charging (G2V) or discharging (V2G). The
conditions for activating G2V or V2G are realized by
parameters that determine appropriate EV operation modes
that benefit both the owner and the power network.
2) Implementation
The state flow for the Auto Charge/Discharge function
(Fig. 5 and Fig. 6) works as follows. There are three states
that affect the relays. State 0, or the offline state, has both
relay switches open, State 1 has the switch to the rectifier (for
charging) connected and State 2 has the switch to the inverter
Fig. 2 State flow diagram for Soft-Start Reconnection function
179
(for discharging) connected. The parameters of the SOC are
used for charging (V2G) and discharging (V2G) to achieve
efficient power consumption and lower charging cost.
The charging will not go beyond an SOC value of 92% as
charging from 92% to 100% is inefficient (based on Tesla
motor information). The discharging parameters requires a
SOC value of over 75% and can only discharge to 50% of the
battery capacity to preserve the battery life and sufficient
energy leftover for the owner to travel. The Charge/Discharge
logic controls two relay switches. One switch is used for
charging (G2V) and the other for discharging (V2G). When
combining with the Connect/Disconnect function (Section Fig. 8 Switch transition: OFF to Charge to Discharge
II.A), the charging/discharging process can be performed
remotely in an automatic or semi-automatic manner (by owner
or grid operator command).
3) Verification
The grid model in Fig. 3 is used to verify the function. The
selected results show that the function works properly ((Fig. 7,
8, and 9). Figure 7 shows that the switching process follows
the state flow chart in Fig. 5 and 6.
Fig. 9 Switch transition: OFF to Discharge to Charge
The EV is first connected for charging (G2V), then this

mode is turned OFF and the V2G mode is ON to enable the
EV discharging. Finally, the discharging mode is turned OFF.
Figure 8 and Fig. 9 present the switching transition
between charging (State 1) to discharging (State 2) to verify
that it is possible to allow the user to switch between charging
and discharging without having to turn the function off. The
results suggest that this transition can be performed smoothly
by the control logic. It follows that the EV owners can make
flexible charge/discharge schedules to decrease the charging
cost and increase the income from discharging.
D. Volt-Watt Function
Fig. 5 Flow chart for Auto Charge/Discharge function 1) Function description
The SIWG defines the Volt-Watt function as a function
that regulates the real power output of EV to grid. It is
desirable to regulate feeder voltage spikes (oscillation) when
many solar panels or EVs are connected to the grid. When
EVs discharge power to the grid, they reduce the power flow
from far-away power sources (and the respective current in the
line). In this way, EVs help raise the feeder voltage by
lowering the line voltage drop.
2) Implementation
The flow chart for the Volt-Watt function algorithm is
shown in Fig. 10. It determines the appropriate current that EV
Fig. 6 State flow for Auto Charge/Discharge function
supplies to the load based on the load voltage. For example,
the desired load voltage shown in Fig. 10 is 244V (or 1.016 pu
on 240-V base). The algorithm is activated when the load
voltage is less than 244V. If so, it changes the EV output
current in steps (e.g. 0.8 to 0.9-A) then tests the load voltage
after a delay. The process is performed as a feedback loop
until the load voltage is higher than 244V. A separate logic
(not shown) is attached to the function logic to ensure that
there is no negative current running through the 3-phase bi-
directional inverter (converter) that interfaces EV with grid.
Fig. 7 Verification of switches
180
3) Verification
The grid model used for verifying the Volt-Watt function
is a 25-kV distribution feeder that supplies a 15-kW load
through a 3-phase line. The feeder diagram is not shown due
to space limitation. The load and the line length may be
changed according to different scenarios. The feeder is Fig. 11 Scenario 6 – EV current output
obtained by modifying the feeder in [17]. The battery is
modelled using Tesla S battery. It is connected to the grid and
the load via a 3-phase converter and an LC filter.
Table I presents seven scenarios used to verifying Volt-
Watt function. The feeder load and line length are changed for
each scenario to create different conditions for the distribution
system. Initially, the Volt-Watt function does not output Fig. 12 Scenario 6 - Load voltage
power to the load. This is to allow more accurate measurement
of the load voltage. Once the delay is over, the Volt-Watt The load voltage (Fig. 12) is just a little below the desired
function begins to output power to the 3-phase load. value at the beginning. The control logic varies the EV output
Meanwhile, the rate of change of the EV current output is current flexibly (Fig. 11). This helps the load voltage stabilize
maintained at 0.9 A/s. The amount of 0.9 A is equivalent to at the desired value with only small oscillation (Fig. 12).
about 2% of the EV maximum current output. Table II It is visible from the results that the Volt-Watt function
presents the rate of change of the load voltage in V/s and in works efficiently. It adjusts the EV current output smoothly to
per unit (on 240-V base) for the seven scenarios. improve the load voltage without causing large oscillations of
Figures 11 and 12 show how the Volt-Watt control logic the voltage. As seen in Table II, the load voltage deviations
regulates the EV output current in response to load voltage. are small (less than 1%) for all scenarios.
E. Ramp Rate function
The SIWG defines the Ramp Rate function as a way to
increase or decrease a DER power output. The purpose of a
ramp rate is to help transition power output for the DER
smoothly. Our Ramp Rate function is related to our Soft Start
Reconnection function (Section II.B) in the way that it slowly
reconnects the EV to the power system rather than using a
delay as in the Soft Start Reconnection function.
2) Implementation
Figure 13 shows the logic for the Ramp Rate function. The
SIWG explains that the default ramp-up rate is 2% of
maximum current per second. The 2% is equivalent to 0.916A
based on Tesla S maximum current output of 45.8A. The
control logic is performed in a loop until the maximum current
Fig. 10 Flow chart for Volt-Watt function is reached. The whole ramp-up process takes approximately
50s. When the maximum current is reached, the ramp-up
TABLE I action is stopped and the logic is switched to Soft Start
SCENARIOS FOR VERIFYING VOLT-WATT FUNCTION Reconnection control logic.
TABLE II
RATE OF LOAD VOLTAGE CHANGE FOR SCENARIOS IN TABLE I
Fig. 13 Flow chart for Ramp Rate function
181
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VI. BIOGRAPHIES
additional income. Furthermore, the functions facilitate grid
operators to regulate EV charge/discharge activities so as to Ashley Kaiser, Andrew Nguyen, Ryan Pham, and Michael Granados
improve the grid voltage and mitigate grid stress conditions. are students at Cal Poly Pomona, studying for BS at the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering. The presented work is the outcome of
their senior design project.
IV. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Ha Thu Le (Senior Member, 2002) earned her BSEE from Odessa College
The authors acknowledge the initial background work for (Ukraine, 1994), MEEE from the University of Queensland (Australia, 2003),
this research by John Radcliffe. MS and PhD degree from the University of Texas at Austin (ECE, 2008,
2010). Presently, she is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona (CPP). Prior to joining the CPP,
V. REFERENCES she has over 12-year work experience at several academic and industry
institutions. Her research topics include wind and solar power, smart grid
[1] B. Seal, "Common Functions for Smart Inverters, Version 3,"
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)2014. technologies, energy storage, grid stability, demand response, distributed
[2] B. Seal, "Common Language for Distributed Storage Integration," generation, optimization, and power quality. Email: ahlephan@yahoo.com or
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), 2011. hatle@cpp.edu.
182
Making Electric Vehicles Smarter with Grid and
Home Friendly Functions
Thang Vo, Jassimran Sokhi, and Andrew Kim, Student Members, Ha Thu Le, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract — Electric vehicles draw lots of power from supply communication between the grid and EV, which would enable
feeders for charging, leading to increased power losses in the a wider range of control over both the grid and electric vehicle
power lines and depressed feeder voltages. This study proposes charging system. Several other studies also show promising
using smart inverters to enable electric vehicles (EV) progress in bidirectional charging [14-20].
bidirectional charging and interaction with the grid to mitigate The analysis suggests that using smart inverters to enable
the EV negative impacts on the power system. A key system to be
bidirectional charging and interaction with the grid is a
developed for the smart inverters is a Non-intrusive Control
System (NCS) which incorporates V2G functions. The outcomes promising solution for mitigating the impact of EV on the
include three smart functions. The evaluation results for a grid. It can also create additional benefits for the EV owners.
distribution feeder show that the functions work efficiently. The With bi-directional charging and two-way communication
NSC helps maintain the feeder voltage while reducing its power capability, smart inverters can manage the EV charging to
loss by 4.24%, thanks to appropriate discharge operation of EV. make it more efficient. Meanwhile, the EV can participate in a
The NCS also turns the EV into a flexible stand-alone power range of grid supporting services such as supplying power to
source for use in home emergency and recreational events. alleviate grid stress conditions. However, investigation of this
solution has just begun. More intelligent control functions
Index Terms—Electric Vehicle, Charge, Discharge, Power must be developed to make ordinary inverters truly “smart” to
Factor Adjustment, Smart Inverter, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)
manage EV effectively.
functionality.
In this study, a non-intrusive control system is proposed
I. INTRODUCTION for smart inverters to enable vehicle to grid (V2G)
functionality. Instead of altering the entire battery system of
E lectric vehicles have been increasingly welcomed by

consumers, thanks to advancement in the EV
technology. More and more people are becoming interested in
an electric vehicle, the non-intrusive control system (NCS)
would be an independent system that adds on to any EV to
provide a safe and reliable way to control the discharge from
replacing their gas guzzling machine with environmental- vehicle to grid.
friendly EV. This situation, however, has led to many Within the NCS smart functions are implemented to
problems for electric utilities. One of the major problems is facilitate efficient transaction between the grid and the vehicle.
intense energy consumption of the electric vehicles during In other words, the NCS is designed as a smart interface for
charging, which can depress the grid voltage and interfere EV which consists of a bi-directional inverter, an embedded
with normal operation of other electrical equipment served control system with two-way communication capability, and
from the same distribution feeders as the EV. intelligent functions. The NCS works as a plug-and-play
Many manufacturers have tried to solve this problem using device. Overall, the objectives of the study are:
battery integrated systems by taking advantage of the idle
component of the electrical vehicle (EV) during charging [1] , 1) To design an intelligent plug-and-play controller for
while others have tried to use the EV propulsion system to EV to enable both charge and discharge operation.
implement an integrated fast charging capability [2, 3]. 2) To operate the EV battery in an efficient manner to
On the consumer end, people have tried to reduce the cost reduce stress on the power grid and earn benefits for
of their electricity by utilizing renewable energy in their home, EV owners.
for EV charging and other appliances. The most popular
renewable energy methods among consumers are solar panels The paper is organized as follows. First, the scope of study
which allow the user to supply electricity to their home is defined where an analysis is performed to select intelligent
appliances and sell their excess power to the grid. By doing so functions to be implemented in the NSC. Next, the selected
the consumers would reduce their electricity bill while making smart functions are developed, implemented and simulated
extra income on selling surplus power to the grid [4-6]. using MATLAB Simulink to verify their accuracy and
Another alternative that has been rising in popularity is using efficacy. Finally, the NSC with smart functions is integrated
the EV itself to discharge to the grid during peak hours [7, 8]. into a realistic distribution grid for comprehensive evaluation.
This subject has recently been studied by several investigators
using a microgrid to transfer and accept power from an EV [9-
12]. A noticeable study in [13] shows the effectiveness of
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 183

II. SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of this study includes the implementation of
selected smart functions to enable V2G functionality through
the NCS. The main goal is to enable a bi-directional smart
inverter that allows a wide range of control of the EV
charge/discharge operation and the vehicle interaction with the
grid operators.
Major smart functions aim to allow the grid operators to
coordinate a charge/discharge schedule with the EVs that Fig. 1 NCS and bi-directional inverter for EV
participate in grid ancillary services. Also, the NCS is to
incorporate some features to ensure safe and efficient
operation of the EV battery.
The Non-intrusive Control System (NCS) works with the
EV according to the model presented in Fig. 1. The NCS
controls the bi-directional inverter (converter) based on the
command sent by the EV owner or the grid operator. It
connects or disconnects the EV by controlling the EV breaker
(not shown). The ultimate goal is to operate the EV in a grid-
friendly manner, for the benefits of both the grid and the EV
owner. To achieve the goal, the NCS incorporates V2G smart
functions and two-way communication.
The selection of the intelligent functions to be
implemented in the NCS is based on latest recommendations
of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and California
Smart Inverter Working Group (SIWG). There are over 20
functions recommended for utility distributed generators and
energy storage systems which are relevant to EV. The Fig. 2 State flow diagram for Connect/Disconnect function
functions details can be found in [21-28].
However, the EVs are primarily owned by private
consumers whose goal is to reduce their utility bills or earn
income by participating in grid ancillary services (i.e. by
offering their equipment for grid operator control). Realizing
all recommended functions would complicate the smart
interface operation and increase the cost. Therefore, within the
scope of this study, as a trade-off between the grid and the
consumer requirements, the following V2G functions are
proposed for the NCS: Fig. 3 Simulation setting for verifying connect/disconnect function
1) Function 1: Remote Connect/Disconnect

2) Function 2: Battery Charge and Discharge Duration
Management
3) Function 3: Power Factor Adjustment for Home
Independent Power Supply
The functions are developed and evaluated in the
following sections.
III. DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF V2G FUNCTIONS Fig. 4 Function output for user connect command
A. Function 1: Remote Connect/Disconnect 2) Function evaluation:

Figure 3 shows the simulation setting in MATLAB
1) Function development:
Simulink to verify the function accuracy. In the setting, the
This function is used to connect or disconnect an EV
user sends a connect command (i.e. user input is 1). The
remotely at a command issued by the grid operator or the EV
function (Fig. 2) checks if the grid voltage exceeds the upper
owner. Figure 2 shows a state flow diagram of the function.
limit of 5% for 240-V nominal voltage (i.e. 252V). Since the
The function accepts input from user (Fig. 2) to turn on or turn
grid voltage is 247.8V (Fig. 3), it connects the EV to the grid
off the EV. The user can be the EV owner or a grid operator
for charging. Figure 4 shows that the function output is 1, i.e.
and the input can be sent remotely, via wired or wireless
the EV is connected. The state flow in Fig. 2 can be modified
communication. The function will check the grid voltage to
to include other connect or disconnect requirements, such as
ensure that it is safe to connect the vehicle.
verifying lower limit of grid voltage before connecting EV.
184
B. Function 2: Battery charge and discharge duration
management
A timer block is connected to a comparator (Fig. 5) to
work as a mean for the NCS to control the EV breaker. Using
this method, we are able to manage time and duration where
the battery charges or discharges (i.e. it outputs power to the
grid load).
2) Function evaluation:
Figure 6 shows the simulation setting to evaluate Function Fig. 8 Model for evaluating EV discharge impact on a distribution grid
2. The battery is modeled based on Tesla EV battery data with TABLE I
peak power of 8.94 kW. It is connected in series with a 3- POWER LOSS FOR GRID WITH AND WITHOUT EV
phase converter and an LC filter and 3-phase RLC load. Note
Power losses Power losses Power loss
that the LC filter can provide some reactive power to the load. without EV with EV difference,
The model in Fig. 6 is simulated for 4 seconds where the (Case 1) , W (Case 2), W W/%
timer is set up to open the EV breakers after 2 seconds into the Measured value
11,800 11,300 500 / 4.24%
simulation. The EV is discharging its power to the load in this
case. Figure 7 shows that the real and reactive power output
3) Evaluation of EV controlled discharge impact on a
from the EV battery stops after 2 seconds. This function works
distribution feeder
as expected to allow the NCS user to manage the battery
To quantify the impact of EV controlled power discharge
charge/discharge duration. It can also be used to prevent to distribution system, a small yet realistic distribution system
excessive battery discharge, thereby increasing the battery life. is used to host two EVs, as shown in Fig. 8. The distribution
system is an 11-kV feeder which is fed from a bigger
distribution system, modeled as a 34.5-kV power source in
series with a RL-impedance. The feeder is 15.2-km long. The
feeder data is based on the distribution system used in [29].
Two EVs are connected to the distribution feeder where a 3-
phase 36kW/9kVAR load is supplied. The objective is to
evaluate the effectiveness of the EVs in maintaining the feeder
voltage and reducing power loss in the grid. The EV batteries
are fully charged for discharging their power to the load.
Fig. 5 Timer and a comparator to control charge/discharge duration Simulation is performed under peak load condition for two
cases: Case 1 and Case 2. For Case 1, the load is supplied by
the distribution feeder without any EV. For Case 2, two EVs
are connected and discharge power to supply the load
partially. The results are presented in Table I.
As shown in Table I, the system power loss reduction of
500W (4.24%) is obtained for Case 2 where the two EVs are
used to supply the load. Visibly, the power loss reduction is
achieved because the EV discharged power is local, i.e. it goes
to the load directly without passing through the 15.2-km
power line. Meanwhile, the system voltages are within +/- 5%
limits.
Fig. 6 Model for evaluating charge/discharge duration management function It is noted that, although the feeder is short (15.2 km), the
power loss reduction is significant (4.32%, compared to the
power loss of Case 1). This result suggests that, for larger
distribution systems with high line impedances, using EVs as
local power sources can lead to big reduction in power loss.
For EV owners, discharging power to the grid earns them
extra income. This income can be significant if they discharge
during peak hours and charge during non-peak hours.
C. Function 3: Power factor adjustment for home independent
power supply
This function is developed to enable the use of the EV
battery as a home stand-alone power source. It can be very
Fig. 7 Timer-controlled EV real and reactive power output useful for the EV owners in various situations such as loss of
185
utility power supply, natural disaster events, or recreational
events (e.g. remote camping). EV battery capacity typically is
in the range of 3kW-11kW, which is sufficient to power many
consumer appliances. As many consumer appliances require
both real and reactive power, we use the LC filter for the
converter and an additional capacitor as reactive power Fig. 11 Waveform of 3-phase voltage output
sources.
The state flow diagram developed for adjusting the EV
power factor by varying the capacitor reactive power output is
shown in Fig. 9. The function adjusts the capacitor reactive
power in steps to ensure sufficient reactive power supply to
the load while responding to changing load demand.
2) Function evaluation:
The model for accessing the function efficacy is shown in
Fig. 10. An EV battery is connected in series with a converter,
an LC filter, a varying capacitor, and a P-Q load. The load total
real power is 1545W and total reactive power is 600VAR. This
load represents a single-family-size fridge, a freezer, a fan and
a microwave oven. We use these appliances as an example
because they are the most common appliances to be used in a
typical family every day.
As shown by Fig. 11, the EV output voltages are Fig.12 Waveform of 3-phase real and reactive power output
sinusoidal 60-Hz, almost free of harmonics, thanks to the LC
filter. The sinusoidal voltages are needed for proper operation
of the household appliances.
Figure 12 shows real and reactive power output for
individual phases (A, B and C) and Fig. 13 shows the
waveform of total real and reactive power output by the EV.
The EV power output oscillates initially then stabilizes to
balance the load demand (1545W and 600 VAR). The function
Fig.13 Total real and reactive power adjustment (P=upper, Q=lower)
works properly as expected.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this study, a Non-intrusive Control System (NCS) is
developed for electric vehicles. It incorporates three intelligent
functions. They enable remote connection and disconnection
of the vehicles, charge/discharge duration management, and
turn the EV into an effective stand-alone power supply source
for home utilization.
With the NCS system, the EVs can be managed to operate
in an appropriate manner to bring benefits to both the grid and
the EV owners. The EV discharged power helps decrease the
host distribution feeder power loss by 4.32% while ensuring
the system acceptable voltages. The EV owner can use the EV
battery as a flexible back-up power source for many purposes
and emergency events. By selling EV power back to the grid
Fig. 9 State flow diagram for EV power factor adjustment during peak hours or during on-demand times, the EV owners
earn extra income. The NCS can be extended to incorporate
more smart functions, to make EVs more efficient.
V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The student authors acknowledge the support and guidance
received from Dr. Ha Le and the Cal Poly Pomona Electrical
and Computer Engineering Department.
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European Conference on, 2011, pp. 1-11. [22] B. Seal, "Common Language for Distributed Storage Integration,"
[4] J. A. Carr, J. C. Balda, and H. A. Mantooth, "A Survey of Systems Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)2011
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[5] A. Dubey, S. Santoso, M. P. Cloud, and M. Waclawiak, [24] "Recommendations for Updating the Technical Requirements for
"Determining Time-of-Use Schedules for Electric Vehicle Loads: Inverters in Distributed Energy Resources (Smart Inverter
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Journal, IEEE, vol. 2, pp. 12-20, 2015. Commission2014.
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VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Power and Energy Society General Meeting, 2012 IEEE, 2012, pp. Thang Vo (Student Member, 2014) was born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1993
1-8. and moved to the United States in 2001. He studies Electrical Engineering at
[11] Ka, x, S. bisch, A. Schmitt, M. Winter, and J. Heuer, California Polytechnic University, Pomona from 2011 till present. His main
"Interconnections and Communications of Electric Vehicles and focus is on power electronics and electrical integration in the automobile
Smart Grids," in Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm), industry.
2010 First IEEE International Conference on, 2010, pp. 161-166.
[12] Z. Chengke, Q. Kejun, M. Allan, and Z. Wenjun, "Modeling of the Jassimran Sokhi (Student Member, 2014) grew up in Oakland, California.
Cost of EV Battery Wear Due to V2G Application in Power He attends California Polytechnic University, Pomona, majored in Electrical
Systems," Energy Conversion, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 26, pp. Engineering. His main focus is on the automotive industries and battery
1041-1050, 2011. management system.
[13] J. Donoghue and A. J. Cruden, "Whole system modelling of V2G
Andrew Kim (Student Member, 2014) grew up in Northern California and
power network control, communications and management," in
attends California Polytechnic University, Pomona, for Bachelor degree in
Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition (EVS27), 2013 World,
Electrical Engineering since 2011. His main focus of study is power systems
2013, pp. 1-9.
and grid control.
[14] A. Mohamed, M. Elshaer, and O. Mohammed, "Bi-directional AC-
DC/DC-AC converter for power sharing of hybrid AC/DC
systems," in Power and Energy Society General Meeting, 2011 Ha Thu Le (Senior Member, 2002) earned her BSEE from Odessa College
IEEE, 2011, pp. 1-8. (Ukraine, 1994), MEEE from the University of Queensland (Australia, 2003),
[15] M. Hofmann, M. Schafer, and A. Ackva, "Bi-directional charging MS and PhD degree from the University of Texas at Austin (ECE, 2008,
system for electric vehicles: A V2G concept for charging and 2010). Presently, she is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical
discharging electric vehicles," in Electric Drives Production and Computer Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona. Prior to joining CPP, she has
Conference (EDPC), 2014 4th International, 2014, pp. 1-5. over 12-year work experience at several academic and industry institutions.
[16] S. S. Hosseini, A. Badri, and M. Parvania, "The plug-in electric Her research topics include wind and solar power, smart grid technologies,
vehicles for power system applications: The vehicle to grid (V2G) energy storage, grid stability, demand response, distributed generation,
concept," in Energy Conference and Exhibition (ENERGYCON), optimization, and power quality. Email: ahlephan@yahoo.com or
2012 IEEE International, 2012, pp. 1101-1106. hatle@cpp.edu.
[17] R. Shi, Z. Chi, Y. Chen, and Z. Li, "Bidirectional power transfer
control based on V2G concept," in Power and Energy Engineering
Conference (APPEEC), 2014 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific, 2014, pp. 1-
5.
[18] N. Rotering and M. Ilic, "Optimal Charge Control of Plug-In
Hybrid Electric Vehicles in Deregulated Electricity Markets,"
Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 26, pp. 1021-1029,
2011.
[19] H. Kai-Wei and L. Chang-Ming, "On a Bidirectional Adapter With
G2B Charging and B2X Emergency Discharging Functions,"
187
Multi-objective Coordinated Charging and
Discharging Strategy of Electric Vehicle between
Different Regions
HOU Hui1, KE Xianbin1, WANG Chengzhi2, LI Xianqiang1, XUE Mengya1, XU Tao1
1. School of Automation, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China;
2.Operation and Maintenance Department, State Grid Hubei Electric Power Company, Wuhan, Hubei ,China
husthou@126.com;1169271991@qq.com
Abstract-Electric vehicle, as a kind of moving load, its behavior This paper studies the coordinated multi-objective charging
of charging and discharging will have a huge impact on the and discharging strategy of EV between different regions. On
power grid. This article does some researches on coordination
charging and discharging strategy of electric vehicles between power grid side, the minimum load fluctuation and minimum
different regions. Considering the load characteristics of the charging cost are the ideal targets. The user side targets are
area and parking rules of electric vehicles, the paper proposes the minimum charging and discharging cycling times and
an optimal control strategy from different perspectives of the waiting time. The intermediary side can guide the charging
power grid side, intermediary side and user side. The power grid and discharging to meet the load demand of the grid by
side considers load fluctuations; the intermediary side considers
the benefits of charging and discharging, the user side considers regulating the price of electricity. Overall, the multi-objective
charge-discharge cycles and user convenience. Together it optimal strategy can realized the balance of the power grid
establishes the corresponding multi-objective function and uses side, the intermediary side and the user side.
multi-objective genetic algorithm to calculate the result. Finally
a demonstration is given to prove the validity of this method. II. COORDINATED CHARGING AND DISCHARGING
Simulation result shows that the multi-objective optimization STRATEGY FOR EV BETWEEN DIFFERENT REGIONS
method can achieve the overall demand of the power grid side, A. Overall framework of regional EV charging and
intermediary side and user side.
discharging strategy
Key words-EV; Grid to Vehicle; Vehicle to Grid; Coordination This paper puts forward a scenario that EV charging and
optimization; Genetic algorithm discharging area are divided into two regions: the residential
region as well as the commercial and industrial region.
I. INTRODUCTION
Assume that residential load will appear valley in the night,
With the development of electric vehicle (EV), large-scale while the commercial and industrial area load will appear
EV disorderly connection between vehicles and power grid peak in the noon. EV, as a moving load, can shift load peak
may cause the power grid load further increase on the peak according to their travelling characteristics to achieve the
and other adverse effects[1] . Therefore using Vehicle to Grid optimization of the regional load. The optimization strategy
(V2G) technology to coordinate between EV and power grid framework between different regions is shown in Figure 1.
to realize the peak load shifting becomes an advanced The charging and discharging optimization strategy is shown
research hotspot these days[2-4].The optimal scheduling and in Figure 2. After the optimal charging and discharging load
control is becoming more and more difficult. A hierarchical is calculated, the intermediary side guides the charging and
partitioning pattern of EV scheduling is proposed[5-8].It discharging users to meet the load demand of the grid by
provides new solutions on effective scheduling and control regulating the price of electricity. This can realize the balance
methods of EV. However, there is rare further study on among power grid side, the intermediary side and the user
decomposition and coordination in the charging process of side.
EV. Reasonable charge and discharge control for EV needs to
consider different factors. Literature [9-11] considers the
optimization of EV in V2G mode to adjust with the grid peak,
frequency and flat load fluctuation. However, the selectivity
ice nd
and engagement of EV users was not considered. Literature

pr a
e ge
Me
ng es
rg ar
[12-14] studied the peak valley electricity price in the optimal

vi at
ha ch
et
sa reb
s
sc st
l oa
on ser
V2G mode. Moreover, V2G electricity prices competition in

di dju
dd
se e u
.A
A
ba ak
the power market environment deserves further study.

em
M
d
and
B.
Literature [15-17] optimized the charging and discharging of

EV to improve the interests of users and middlemen. In
conclusion, although there are many studies on the single
factor of V2G strategy, the comprehensive consideration of
multiple factors are still deficient.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 188

Fig.1. The framework of EV coordination on charging and discharging According to the fluctuation of the original load, the TOU
power priceis kt formulated. Therefore the charging or
discharging fee is:
24
f2 (xt ) =  k t * xt (4)
t =1
When the discharging optimization is carried out in the

industrial and commercial region, the objective function
needs to meet the requirement that having maximum revenue
of the intermediary and the minimum fluctuation of the grid
load. When charging optimization is carried out in residential
region, it requires minimum G2V cost and minimum
fluctuation in power grid load using the same objective
function.
Suppose that the intermediary side can guide the EVs to
charge and discharge indifferent regions, Echg、Edis、Eroad are
charging, discharging and driving power consumption
respectively, which satisfies the following relationship:
E chg - E road = E dis (5)
1. Constraints of discharging side

1) Suppose that EVs start discharging immediately
Fig.2. The EV charge and discharge optimization strategy between different when arriving at the industrial and commercial region.
regions
According to the parking rule, the discharging power at every
B. Probability model of EV charging and discharging and moment is greater than the total power of the parking
objective function discharge at that time, but less than the total power of the
Assume the time of EV arriving residential region is accumulated parking discharge.
normal distribution N (17.6, 17.6), while its arriving time to 2) When the EVs return to the residential region, the
industrial and commercial region is normal distribution N total power should be no less than 20%. Assume the total
(13.52, 13.52). And the EV driving distance approximately
power is E B .
obey the lognormal distribution [18].
− (ln x − μ D ) 2
E dis + E road ≤ 80% ∗ E B
1 2σ D (1)
f D ( x) = e (6)
xσ D 2π
2. Constraints of charging side
The expectation μ D is 3.2, and the standard deviation σ D is 1) The charging power is greater than zero per hour and
0.88. less than the total parking power.
Optimize the load of charge and discharge according to the 2) The total power of the charging should satisfy
EV parking rules and the original load curve in various equation (5).
regions, as well as the probability distribution of the parking Using multi-objective GA to calculate the charging and
time of EV and energy relationship between charging and discharging load of the grid side in residential, industrial and
discharging conditions. commercial regions. But it still need to guide the users to
In order to realize the discharge of EV and achieve peak meet the load requirements.
load regulation, considering the EV discharging optimization C. Coordinated charging and discharging of EV
firstly. In a certain number of EV, the discharging load per There is a certain relationship between electricity
time is xt (from 1 to 24). The load variance of grid is shown consumption and electricity price. Assuming that the load and
as follow: electricity price of EVs’ users participate in the charging and
24
discharging subjecting to this relationship, the charging and
f 1 ( x t ) = {  [( x t + Pload ( t ) − μ ) 2 ]} / 24 (2)
t =1 discharging can be guided by adjusting the electricity price to
P load ( t ) is the grid power in the t hour. It can be obtained meet the load demand of the power grid. At the same time,
by the original total load curve. μ is the average equivalent the charging facilities demand under the optimized conditions
load of the grid in which the charging / discharging load of and random conditions are different. The intermediary side
the EV is taken within one day. can allocate cost savings from optimal charging to users for
24
their loss of battery service life and the allowance for waiting
μ = {  ( x t + Pload ( t ))} / 24 (3)
t =1
time, realizing the balance among the power grid side, the the
intermediary side and the user side.
189
1. Adjust the electricity price to respond to the load demand p1 − p 2
After getting the charging and discharging load demand
s=β∗ ∗ s1 (10)
Tect ∗ (365 ∗ T )
from the power grid by GA, the load demand can be satisfied
by adjusting the electricity price, thus guiding the users to In order to meet the interest of user, the subsidy can be
charge and discharge properly. The comprehensive response used for the battery service life compensation and user
functions of electricity consumption and electricity price for waiting time, etc.
charging are as follows [19]: 3. Optimal charging and discharging strategy of user side
3 2
y = 0 .4 3 1 x − 0 .4 7 3 x − 0 .4 1 9 x + User shortest travel path. The actual travel time of user
(7)
satisfies the normal distribution N (7.5, 7.5)[21]. Assume a
3 0 ≤ x ≤ 1）
1 .4 6 （
road network as shown in Figure 3. The user shortest travel
y = 0 .3 2 9 x 3 − 1 .8 3 1 x 2 + 2 .5 1 x − path and the shortest travel time can be obtained by the
Dijkstra algorithm.
0 .0 1 1(1 ≤ x ≤ 2 )
x is the ratio of the electricity price, that is the ratio
between the current electricity price and the benchmark price.
y is the ratio of the electricity consumed by the user , that is
the ratio between the current electricity consumption and the
benchmark electricity consumption.
The comprehensive response functions of electricity
consumption and electricity price for discharging are shown
as follow:
y = − 0.329( x − 2) 3 − 1.83( x − 2) 2 −
Fig.3 Simulation model of road
2.5( x − 2) − 0.011(0 ≤ x ≤ 1) Assume the departure time is t 0 . The shortest travel path
y = − 0.431( x − 2) 3 − 0.47( x − 2) 2 + (8) of each point is D . Assuming the average speed is v . The
0.419( x − 2) + 1.463(1 ≤ x ≤ 2) time when EV reaches the discharge area is t 2 , and the
According to the relationship, the charging and discharging discharging time is td .
electricity price of certain time can be obtained, and the D (11)
t2 = t0 +
intermediary side can guide the charging and discharging v
action to meet the load demand of the power grid by adjusting ( E − E ave ∗ D − 20 % ∗ E B )
the electricity price. td = (12)
PC
2. The cost savings of construction of charging and discharging E is the electricity at departure time, E ave is the consumed
facilities
power per kilometer, and Pc is the discharge power.
The construction method of EV charging piles and the
The minimum charge and discharge times and waiting time.
number of charging piles are calculated according to the
User usually intend to reduce the times of charging and
electricity demand [20]:
discharging to reduce the damage of battery. And also people
Ptotal always intend to reduce the waiting time for convenience.
N = β∗ (9)
T ect The intermediary side can use the subsidy to compensate the
P total is the total charging and discharging capacity of EV. EV battery damage and the waiting time. Assume the times of
charging and discharging is P and the waiting time is N t ,
and the weight of distribution is α , k is the subsidy of unit.
T ect is the charging and discharging capacity of each charging
pile. β is the proportional coefficient. s = k ∗ [α ∗ N t + (1 − α ) ∗ P ] (13)
Calculate the total load of EV under the optimal charging
and discharging condition. The random charge and discharge In order to satisfy the user's interest, minimum P and N t
load of EV can be obtained by the Monte Carlo method. The are desired. The number of waiting EV is:
maximum charge and discharge load under random condition N t = N 0t + N1t − N 2t − N 3t (14)
is p1 , while the maximum charge and discharge load under t
N is the original number of EV. N 1 is the number of EV
t
0
optimized condition is p 2 . Assuming that the cost for each t

to be added , and N 2 is the number of EV that have
charging pile is s1 , and the serving life of charging pile is T , completed charging and discharging. N 3t is the number of EV
then the daily allowance is s . charging and discharging at this time.
190
N 0t , N 1 and N 3t are constant value. When N 2 takes the
t t Load after random discharge of Industrial and commercial region
15 The original load of Industrial and commercial region
maximum N t will be minimum. It means the EV with less 14
power can have the discharge priority. At the time t , assume 13
the remaining power for the EV is Sn,t and its discharge 12
P/MW
condition is X n , t . When the X n , t value is 1 it means 11
discharge and when the value is 0 it means not discharge, 10
then the minimum discharge times is: 9
P = min[ S n , t ∗ ( X n , t − X n , t −1 ) 2 ] (15) 8
(15) can be transformed for calculation convenience as 7

0 5 10 15 20 25
t/h
follows.
Fig.5. EV curve after random discharge
P = min[ S n ,t ∗ (1 − 2 ∗ X n ,t −1 ) ∗ X n ,t ] (16) Charging optimization in residential region is analyzed as
The condition of the last moment is X n , t − 1 ,which is follows. The electric consumption in the road can be obtained
known. The user side charging and discharging condition can as Eroad = 21300kW .h . The charging power can be obtained as
be optimized through the 0-1 programming, while it need to E ch g = 7 6 1 14 kW .h . The grid side formulates TOU
meet the load constraints of grid side.
Nt
corresponding to the fluctuation of residential load. The
xt = n =1
Pc ∗ X n ,t
(17) charging load curve is obtained by the multi-objective
algorithm based on GA as shown in Figure 6. The red and the
blue represent the original load curve and the charging load
III. CALCULATION DEMONSTRATION curve of the residential region respectively.
A. Overall framework of regional EV charging and Residential load after charging optimization
28
discharging strategy Residential region original load
26
Discharge optimization in industrial and commercial region.
Assuming that the number of EV is 4500, and the power 24
consumption of 100 kilometers is 12 kW .h . The standard of 22

charging interface is 440V/10A and the battery capacity is
P/MW
27 kW .h . When users arrive at commercial and industrial 20
region, the parking time satisfies the normal distribution. The 18

original load data about industrial and commercial region was
drawn from the literature [12], then the discharge load curve 16
is obtained by the GA as shown in Figure 4. The red and the 14

0 5 10 15 20 25
blue curves represent the original load curve and the t/h
discharging load curve of the industrial and commercial Fig.6. EV charge curve after optimization
region respectively. The user charges after the remaining battery is 20% at
15
Load after optimized discharge of Industrial and commercial region random condition. The load curve of the random charging is
The original load of Industrial and commercial region
shown in Figure 7. The red and the blue curve represent the
14
original load curve and the random charging load curve of the
13
residential district respectively.
Residential region load after random charge
30
P/MW
Residential regoin original load

12
28
11 26
24
10
22
P/MW
9 20
0 5 10 15 20 25
t/h 18
Fig.4. EV discharge curve after optimization 16
E dis = 54814 kW .h
The total load of discharging is . Under 14
the random condition, the EV selects to discharge completely 12

0 5 10 15 20 25
t/h
after driving. The discharging load curve under the random
Fig.7. EV curve after random charge
condition is shown in Figure 5. The red and the blue represent
the original load curve and the random discharging load curve The total cost and load variance of charging and
of the industrial and commercial region respectively. discharging side under the condition of random and
191
optimization is compared as shown in Table 1. It is concluded Optimal charging and discharging strategy of user.
that the intermediary side can get a higher income and the According to the actual travel situation, using Dijkstra
load variance of grid has optimized. algorithm to get the time and power distribution of the user
TABLE1 THE OBJECTIVE FUNCTION CONTRAST IN TWO CASES when arriving the destination. The number of waiting EV and
Random Optimized Random Optimized
discharging times is distributed through 0-1 optimization. It is
discharge discharge charge charge assumed that the cost of the charging and discharging
facilities under the random condition is fully subsidized, and
Intermediary side the weight is 0.3. The total subsidies of the intermediary side
charges/paymen 92.75 88.8 134.9 95.2 under optimization conditions is shown in Table 5.
(thousand yuan) TABLE 5 OPTIMIZATIO INDEX COMPARISON OF USER
Total
Load Total times subsidies/thous
53.83 13.2 216.6 181.3 waiting
variance((MW)^2) of discharge and yuan
time/h
B. Coordinate charging and discharging of EVs Random 9717 30348 3.8
Adjusting the electricity price to respond to the load
demand. The electricity price is 1.2 yuan per kW .h in China Optimization 4984 22369 2.44
in the time when load is normal [21]. The base load is
It can be seen that the total discharging times and the total
3400kW, and the distribution of electricity prices is obtained
waiting time is reduced after optimization. The user expense
according to (10) as shown in Table 2.
is reduced by reducing battery damage, and reducing the
TABLE 2 ELECTRICITY PRICE CHANGES FOR DIFFERENT LOAD waiting time brings convenience to the user. At the same time
DEMAND
T/h 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 the intermediary side benefits from reducing the cost of
Electricity subsidies.
0.46 0.5 0.41 0.53 0.46 0.47 0.46 0.48
price/yuan Comparing the optimized and random charging and
T/h 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
discharge of EV, it can be seen that the profit of the
Electricity
0.79 1.2 1.62 2.06 2.39 2.4 2.3 1.7 intermediary side increases and the load fluctuation of the
price/yuan
T/h 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 grid decreases. The subsidy reduces after the intermediary
Electricity side guides users to charge and discharge orderly, so as to
1.81 1.8 1.69 0.73 0.88 0.65 0.60 0.51
price/yuan
gain more benefits when meeting the needs of the grid side
By adjusting the electricity price, the user can be guided to and users side.
meet the discharge demand of the grid side. The same
calculation can be carried out under charging condition. It is
IV. CONCLUSION
assumed that the saving of grid construction under optimal This paper has studied the coordinated charging and
condition is 10% of the cost that grid gets. The cost discharging strategy in different regions considering from the
distribution of the grid side, user side and intermediary side is grid side, the intermediary side and the user side, according to
shown in Table 3. traveling characteristics of EV and the load characteristics of
TABLE 3 THE COST ALLOCATION OF GRID SIDE AND USER SIDE residential region and commercial and industrial region.
AND INTERMEDIARY SIDE Putting minimum load fluctuation and minimum charging
The grid pays User Intermediary side
cost as the objection, this paper has achieved peak load
/collects fees（ charges/payment（ profit（thousand
thousand yuan） thousand yuan） yuan） regulation. Under the circumstance of two minimal targets,
users will charge and discharge with the shortest path
V2G 88.8+8.88 85.6 12 according to the actual travel and meanwhile achieving the
G2V 95.2-9.52 115.4 29.7 limits of the fewest charging and discharging times and least
The total profit that the intermediary side gets is 41.7 waiting time. The intermediary side satisfies the load demand
thousand Yuan, which can be obtained by charging and through adjusting the price, thus guiding users to charge and
discharging of EV. discharging, which realizes the coordination and optimization
Saving cost of construction of charging and discharging among the grid side, the intermediary side and the user side.
facilities. According to the data from literature [22] as well as Through the coordination of the grid side, the intermediary
the Figure 5 to Figure 8, the maximum load of the charging side and the user side to achieve optimization strategy of
and discharging side is shown in Table 4. EVs’ charging and discharging behaviors, a complex process
TABLE 4 MAXIMUM CHAARGE AND DISCHARGE LOAD IN TWO is decomposed into different modules, which not only
CASES satisfies the demand of every part but also makes the process
Discharge side Charge side more maneuverability. How to calculate the economic
P1 4888 3826
benefits of EVs’ charging and discharging behaviors under
/kW different scales, it is necessary to study the economic risks of
P2 6200 8750 the power grid operation and to calculate the construction
/kW
The daily allowance can be calculated. investment and operation expenses of the charging and
s =3.8 thousand Yuan
192
discharging facilities, which is worth further studying in [21] WANG S, ZHANG N, LI Z, et al. “Modeling and impact analysis of
future research. large scale V2G electric vehicles on the power grid,” IEEE PES
Innovative Smart Grid Technologies. IEEE, pp. 1-6,2012.
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193
A Comparison of Electric Vehicle Power Systems
to Predict Architectures, Voltage Levels, Power
Requirements, and Load Characteristics of the
Future All-Electric Aircraft
Richard Alexander, Danielle Meyer, and Jiankang Wang
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The Ohio State University
alexander.718@osu.edu, meyer.758@osu.edu, wang.6536@osu.edu
Abstract—The aviation industry has been one of the biggest weight [4], [5]. For example, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was
beneficiaries of the major rise in electric power system technology able to remove approximately 20 miles of wiring by transi-
for the past several decades. With more electric aircraft now the tioning to a more-electric power system, ultimately reducing
industry standard, the new future vision is toward all-electric
aircraft, wherein conventional power systems and propulsion aircraft weight [6]. Today, MEA have become the aviation
sources are electrified. This paper compares and analyzes the standard, with major aviation companies, like Boeing and
Electric Power Systems (EPS) of all-electric vehicles, all-electric Airbus, adapting to the technological changes.
ships and more electric aircraft to help predict future develop- Despite that MEA have electric power systems (EPS), they
ment of all-electric aircraft EPS. It is concluded that gravimetric are not equipped with electric propulsion and still rely on
energy density, weight, cost of current battery, and propulsion
systems for aircraft are the main limitations preventing the tran- traditional jet engines. Batteries onboard MEA are only used
sition to all-electric aircraft. Furthermore, lithium-air batteries for engine start up, transient smoothing, and emergency power
show promise for closing the energy density gap between gasoline situations [7]. Thus, the objective of the aviation industry is to
and batteries. Finally, some recent advancements in small-scale transition from MEA to all-electric aircraft (AEA). The vision
all-electric aircraft development illustrate the bright future of of electrified propulsion sources would introduce additional
all-electric aircraft.
benefits, such as zero emissions and lower operation costs,
Index Terms—All-Electric Aircraft, More Electric Aircraft, by eliminating the need of fuel, improved system reliability,
Electric Power System survivability, and affordability [5], [8]–[10].
In general, the term all-electric has taken many meanings in
A BBREVIATIONS literature. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering,
AEA All-Electric Aircraft and Medicine have defined all-electric as a system relying
AEPS All-Electric Power System solely on battery power as the main source of propulsion power
AES All-Electric Ship [11]. In other studies, all-electric is used for platforms, such as
AEV All-Electric Vehicle all-electric ships (AES), where the power systems, including
EPS Electric Power System propulsion, are electric, but the propulsion energy sources are
MEA More Electric Aircraft not electric [12]. In this paper, all-electric in AEA follows the
MVDC Medium Voltage DC definition as outlined by the National Academies of Sciences,
UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Engineering, and Medicine, while in AES it is relaxed to the
latter definition due to its common adoption in practice.
This paper compares existing all-electric power systems
I. I NTRODUCTION (AEPS), including their distribution architectures, voltage lev-
Over the past several decades, there has been a worldwide push els, power requirements, and load characteristics, onboard all-
to transition from using gas energy sources within vehicles, electric vehicles (AEV), AES, and MEA with the goal of
ships, and aircraft to a more economically friendly alternative, predicting the EPS of future AEA. The merit of our prediction
electric energy sources [1], [2]. One industry that has worked approach is justifiable based on two main aspects: (i) general
effortlessly to adapt these changes is the aviation industry. similarities and (ii) the small number of differences among
Since the 1970s, the concept of more electric aircraft (MEA) the all-electric platforms. Additionally, this paper identifies the
has been raised as to replace conventional pneumatic, mechan- challenges of transitioning to AEA. Propulsion will need to be
ical, and hydraulic systems with electrical power [3]. MEA electrified and the sources providing energy to EPS will need
have numerous benefits over traditional aircraft, including to meet high power requirements. Characterizing all of these
reduced emissions, improved fuel consumption, and decreased aspects will help create a clear picture of the expectations
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 194

shown in Fig. 1. The power generation section is respon-
sible for providing the electrical power to the rest of the
power system. For all-electric power systems, this section is
represented by batteries. The primary distribution section is
responsible for taking the generated power and distributing
it to the power electronics converters. The conversion sec-
tion converts the voltage levels through the use of DC/DC
converters and DC/AC inverters. The secondary distribution
section distributes the converted power to loads, consisting
of propulsion loads and accessory loads. Lastly, the system
management section is responsible for managing the afore-
mentioned sections of the power system, ensuring reliable
operation.
Fig. 1. AEPS major sections. The white shade represents management, The most common issues in AEPS implementation are
the light shade represents energy sources, medium shade represents power related to voltage stability [19], [20], increased system com-
conversion, and the dark shade represents distribution. Arrows represent the plexity [13], additional necessary fault tolerance awareness
energy flow direction.
[21], [22], and increased weight. It should be noted that weight
is only an issue assuming implementation is with current
regarding future AEA. battery chemistry. An improvement in battery chemistry would
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section eliminate this issue, which is further discussed in Section III.
II compares AEPS in different all-electric platforms. In partic- The architecture of power distribution, both primary and
ular, Section II-A investigates the existing power distribution secondary, is usually a trade-off of these issues. In the
architectures seen on AEV, AES, hybrid unmanned aerial meanwhile, the primary power distribution architectures of
vehicles (UAV), and MEA, and Section II-B describes the AEV, AES, hybrid UAV, and MEA share many commonalities.
voltage levels, power requirements, and load characteristics. Analyzing and comparing these architectures is critical to
Section III presents the challenges of becoming truly all- achieve the goal of predicting future AEA.
electric and outlook for the future AEA development. Finally, 1) More Electric Aircraft: There are four main primary
Section IV concludes the paper. distribution architectures of MEA: the centralized, semi-
distributed, fault-tolerant, and advanced electric system [24].
II. T HE A LL -E LECTRIC P OWER S YSTEM The centralized architecture is most commonly used in existing
applications, which features a point-to-point radial distribution
Advancements experienced by existing AEPS can be at- connection, as shown in Fig. 2(a). Its main benefit is ease
tributed to the growth, development, and integration of power of maintenance, but the large quantity of wire needed leaves
electronics components into power systems [8], [10], [13], alternative architectures more desirable [22]. Additionally, a
[14]. The mid-1950s to mid-1980s experienced a power elec- fault in the main distribution center affects all of the loads.
tronics revolution, wherein solid-state technology enabled new To resolve these shortcomings, semi-distributed architecture
energy conversion within electrical power systems [2] and has been proposed as a main alternative. The semi-distributed
transistors and thyristors allowed for power conversion in architecture is a zonal architecture that utilizes multiple dis-
high power applications. Without the ability to easily convert tribution centers to supply loads locally [23], as shown in
between power levels, the DC power system seen in MEA Fig. 2(b). This architecture not only allows for reduction
would not exist. Additionally, power electronics enabled con- in wiring, which decreases the overall cost by 40%, and
trol of electric motors requiring a variable input with respect weight by more than 40%, after accounting for the additional
to voltage and frequency [10]. Ultimately, this revolution en- protection devices needed, but also improves energy efficiency
abled electrification of actuation systems, wing ice protection, by shortening power transfer routes [23]. Moreover, distributed
environmental control, and fuel pumping onboard modern day load supply provides the flexibility of replacing designated
aircraft [15]. components without affecting the rest of the power system,
This section compares AEPS of different all-electric plat- enabling easy upgrade and maintenance.
forms, aiming at providing insight into the EPS onboard future The other two architectures possess more benefits while
AEA. In the following Sections, II-A and II-B, power distri- coming with even higher costs. The fault-tolerant architecture
bution architectures, voltage levels, power requirements, and consists of switch matrices for the sources and loads. The
load characteristics for various electric vehicles are discussed. architecture is highly redundant, but would fail operationally
when there is a fault in the switch matrices. The advanced
A. Power Distribution Architectures electric system is considered to be a replacement for the
The overall, generic AEPS contains five major sections: previous three architectures by some studies, since it is claimed
power generation, primary distribution, voltage conversion, as retaining all of their benefits. It is a microprocessor-based
secondary distribution, and system management [16]–[18], as system containing load management units and relay switching
195
(a)
Fig. 3. MVDC AES block diagram with a radial distribution. Adapted from
[26].
architecture because of its similiarity to commonly used ar-

chitectures of the past, allowing for easy transition. Radial
is also known for its simplistic application and lower total
implementation cost [28]. Similarities can be drawn between
the centralized architecture of the MEA, shown in Fig. 2(a),
and the radial distribution of the AES, as both are point-to-
point architectures.
On the contrary, the zonal distribution is known for its
continuity of service, meaning that any faults or errors in
the system do not have a significant impact on the system’s
(b) operation [8], [28]. Zonal distribution has been particularly
effective in low voltage ship service power systems, i.e., 440
Fig. 2. Centralized (top) and semi-distributed (bottom) EPDS of MEA [22]– V AC [29]. Similarities can be drawn between the semi-
[24].
distributed architecture of the MEA, shown in Fig. 2(b), and
the zonal distribution of the AES. Ultimately, the decision
units, with which all of the sources and loads interact. Utilizing between radial and zonal comes down to the intended ap-
this architecture, nevertheless, requires extra caution due to its plication, i.e., the requirements of the AES being designed
design as a single unit, which lends itself to fault issues [24]. are highly important. It is anticipated that future shipboard
The figures of these two architectures are not shown here due power systems will tend to prefer the zonal architecture over
to the space limit. the radial architectures because of the continuity of service
aspect, which is critical when considering protection.
2) All-Electric Ships: Primary distribution architectures
seen in AES are very similar to those in MEA with one 3) All-Electric Vehicle and Hybrid UAV: Common power
distinguishing factor: power system complexity. AES have distribution architectures of AEV are similar to those seen on
more complex power systems than MEA due to the sheer AES [30], as illustrated in Fig. 4. It should be noted that the
number of components that need integrated. Widely varying AES in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4(b) are essentially the same, with
requirements between individual ships make it challenging to the minor difference being the specific loads shown in Fig.
specify architectures. For this reason, AES design considers 3. The major differences between AEV and AES are the EPS
many design methodologies, rather than specific architectures complexity and methods of source utilization, i.e., recharging
[25]. Nevertheless, there are specific power system architec- of the battery with the generator on the AES and through a
tures that exist and are worth discussing. charging pile on the AEV. On the other hand, hybrid UAV
AES development is pointing towards medium voltage DC power systems share many similarities with the MEA power
(MVDC) power systems, i.e., 1–35 kV, with two common system (e.g., non-electric propulsion, payloads, flight critical
architectures: radial and zonal [26], [27]. The point-to-point loads). However, it should be understood that the drastic size
radial distribution, shown in Fig. 3, has been the preferred difference means there are different limitations and challenges
196
TABLE I
MEA P OWER S YSTEM V OLTAGES
Bus Voltage (DC) Bus Voltage (AC) Large Loads Avionics Loads
270, 350, 540 V 230 V 115 VAC 28 VDC
(a) B. Power System Characteristics

This section addresses the similarities and differences be-
tween AEA and MEA with regards to voltage levels, power
requirements, and load characteristics.
1) Voltage Levels: AES and MEA have utilized a wide
array of voltage levels over the course of their lifetimes.
AES have experienced a trend towards MVDC, i.e., 1–35 kV,
because of the lower overall performance of high voltage AC
applications [12], [26]. For MEA, both AC and DC voltages
are used. Military aircraft tend to use 270 V DC [3]. The
new generation of civilian aircraft power systems commonly
use a wide array of voltages [22], [35]. Table I outlines the
(b)
most frequently applied voltages onboard these MEA. Overall,
Fig. 4. Power system comparison of AEV (top) and AES (bottom). The light MEA are much more application dependent than AES when
shade represents energy sources, medium shade represents power conversion, it comes to selecting voltage levels.
and the dark shade represents system loads. Adapted from [13], [34].
It is important to consider why MEA have not moved toward
higher voltages in the kilovolt range similar to what is seen in
AES. According to the Paschen curve for air, corona discharge,
that must be considered, further discussed in Section III. Yet, i.e., the partial breakdown of the air around the conductor,
even with these challenges, examining small-scaled power occurs anywhere from 1 kV RMS to 5 kV RMS at 30,000 ft,
systems is helpful for understanding concepts before shifting depending on gap spacing [36]. For this reason, power system
focus to larger applications [31]. voltages must be chosen carefully for aircraft. The expectation
for AEA in the future is to adhere to the common practices
of the MEA, limiting the voltages to less than 1 kV RMS to
4) Future All-Electric Aircraft: Considering power distri-
avoid issues with corona discharge.
bution architectures of the above platforms, predictions can
be made for AEA. Benefits of zonal distribution topologies, 2) Power Requirements: Increasing load demands onboard
including additional redundancy and continuity of service, AES and MEA have driven up power requirements. The load
suggest it will be the chosen architecture on AEA. While demand increase, results from both an increase in the quantity
many past applications for AES and MEA have utilized the of loads and the need for converters to interface with the loads.
radial architectures, the zonal architecture is predicted for AEA Large MEA have up to twice as many loads as traditional
because of its ability to function under extremely adverse aircraft [37]. The same will be true for commercial size AEA.
conditions. An all-electric power system will need those ad- Power requirements, currently in the 1–10 MW range for AES
ditional redundancies in order to maintain operation. A semi- and the 1–5 MW range MEA, will only continue to rise with
distributed EPDS, or advanced electric system architecture is the electrification of the main energy sources [2], [15], [37].
the logical choice for AEA because of their zonal topologies. 3) Load Characteristics: The loads on AES are divided into
However, depending on the complexity of the power system, two major categories: essential users and non-essential users
a zonal topology closer to the one seen on MVDC AES may [12]. The essential users include propulsion systems, motors,
be necessary. communication systems, etc. Their continuous operation is
Furthermore, the form of the generation section may also critical to the power system. Non-essential users are loads that
influence the design of distribution architecture. Recently, are nice to have during normal operation, but can be shed in
there has been a recent trend towards distributed propulsion, the event of a serious issue. A few non-essential users are air
which features segmenting and spreading sources of thrust to conditioning, toilets, and lighting.
reduce fuel consumption [32], [33]. It can be anticipated that Similarly, for aircraft, there are flight critical and non-
an AEA architecture integrated with distributed propulsion will flight critical loads [5]. The flight critical loads include safety
be developed to improve efficiency and decrease the sizes of lighting systems, de-icing systems, control systems, etc. [37].
onboard batteries. More information on distributed propulsion Future AEA should have ability of a power management
can be found in Section III. system to shut off non-flight critical load in the event of a
fault to avoid a full system failure [8], [10]. Referencing the
197
TABLE II Comparison of Energy Density for
C OMPARISON OF E LECTRIC V EHICLE E NERGY R EQUIREMENTS AND Existing Battery Chemistries
R ESULTING T OTAL BATTERY W EIGHT 2000
1700 1700
Vehicle Properties
Energy Density (Wh/kg)

Vehicle
Energy (kWh) Weight (kg) 1500
All-Electric Vehicle 75 300

All-Electric Ship 11,710 46,842
1000
More Electric Aircraft 56 224
Battery More Electric Aircraft 9,807 39,228
All-Electric Aircraft 235,262 941,048
500
250
200
60 100
methods of load shedding on existing AEPS platforms will 0
40
help make implementation easier. id Cd o ion air oline

Ac Ni- MH LiP Li- Li-
ad Ni- Ga
s
Le
III. C HALLENGES OF B ECOMING A LL -E LECTRIC Battery Chemistry
This section discuss the obstacles in transitioning from
MEA to commercial size AEA, including propulsion methods Fig. 5. Comparison of energy density for existing battery chemistries. The
gasoline energy density shown accounts for the tank-to-wheel efficiency.
and batteries, and looks ahead to predict the EPS of AEA. Adapted from [38]–[40].
A. Current Limitations
Reaching technological feasibility for AEA requires two has driven the required energy storage capabilities of batter-
main limitations be overcome. First, the propulsion sources on ies higher [8], [41]. The ability of batteries to provide the
aircraft must become electric. Next, the energy sources used necessary energy requirements lies in the energy density of
to power the electric propulsion must improve. The following the battery chemistry of choice. Fig. 5 compares the energy
two subsections consider these limitations in detail. density of common battery chemistries to gasoline, the fuel for
1) Propulsion Methods: Existing electric vehicles use an traditional and MEA. Li-ion, the common battery chemistry
assortment of propulsion methods. The two main methods of for 21st century applications, is only capable of providing
propulsion are traditional propulsion and electric propulsion. 250 Wh/kg, well below that of gasoline with the unadjusted
Traditional propulsion refers to what is found on hybrid UAVs value being 13.2 kWh/kg [39], [42]. With an energy density
and MEA, where internal combustion engines and jet engines approximately seven times higher than Li-ion, gasoline is a
are used, respectively. While these methods of propulsion much easier choice in current applications.
function well in their respective applications, attaining aircraft Related to the energy density limitation is the weight
that are all-electric will require their replacement with electri- limitation. Li-ion batteries have a much smaller energy density
cal alternatives. Electric propulsion refers to the use of electric than gasoline, so more batteries must be on board to provide
motors for propulsion [10]. The sources used to provide energy the same amount of energy to EPS. As a result, the weight
to the electric motors do not have to be electric for electric of the aircraft increases significantly. Table II compares the
propulsion. As addressed in Section I, this is the common battery weight for various AEPS platforms applications.
misconception with the term AES, where electric propulsion The AEV energy requirement in Table II references the
is used, but diesel engines generate the necessary energy. battery capacity for the Tesla Model 3, which can travel ap-
The main limitation with respect to propulsion is the techni- proximately 310 miles on a charge [43]. To properly compare
cal capabilities of the electric motors needed to fly the aircraft. the other AEPS platforms with the Tesla Model 3 AEV, an
Motor power requirements for single-isle AEA are estimated estimation of the travel time using the 75 kWh battery capacity
to be 1 MW and even higher for twin-isle aircraft [11]. and vehicle range must be made. AEV range is approximated
Weight remains a critical issue when selecting motors for these using the testing standard J1634 set forth by SAE International
applications and current industrial solutions are too heavy [32]. [44]. The testing procedure includes a multi-cycle range and
For this reason, distributed propulsion will enable the splitting energy consumption test consisting of four different cycles. For
up of the thrust sources, allowing for smaller motors on board simplicity, only the constant speed cycle is considered here.
[32]. Even in the face of electrified propulsion, the provision of Using the steady-state speed of 55 mph and the estimated
electrical energy to these motors is a critical questions. Thus, range, the travel time of the AEV is estimated as 5.63 hours.
battery improvements are necessary to make AEA a reality. This estimate is applied to the remaining AEPS platforms
2) Batteries: Three main limitations related to batteries to determine their resulting energy requirement and battery
influencing the transition to AEA are: energy density, weight, weight. The table includes two MEA, one traditional and
and cost. Each limitation is related to the battery being the another battery powered, which represent the specifications
primary EPS energy source. Increasing power requirements, of an entire power system powered via batteries, not just
due to the electrification of primary vehicle energy sources, the emergency situations and engine start-up of traditional
198
MEA [7]. The additional weight for traditional MEA is much increase in total weight of the battery, as a result of these
less significant than if the whole power system was powered systems, will further decrease the estimated energy densities.
through batteries, as suggested by the battery powered MEA. For now, Li-ion will continue to be the battery chemistry
The battery powered MEA could be considered to be one of utilized in aircraft applications.
the intermediate steps toward AEA, a solution independent of Even with its shortcomings, current Li-ion battery chemistry
the propulsion limitation previously addressed. has enabled progression toward an AEA. The current trend
Energy requirements for AES vary significantly depending is toward the development of smaller all-electric commercial
on the size of the ship under consideration. For this example, planes before the larger commercial planes are electrified. It
the energy storage system of the MF Ampere, the world’s first is easier to overcome challenges and technological limitations
fully electric battery powered ferry, was used for comparison when initially addressed on a smaller scale. This is one of
[2]. It should be noted that earlier discussion in Section I the main reasons why AEV are widely available today, i.e.,
suggested that the term AES is often misused to represent a energy density of Li-ion batteries is not as big of an issue
ship with an all-electric power system and electric propulsion, when the power requirements are not as significant. Eviation,
but not powered by batteries. The MF Ampere, however, was an Israeli aviation company, has created prototypes for a new
able to electrify propulsion and the power system, and power AEA capable of flying 9 passengers up to 600 miles [46]. The
all of it with batteries. The power system of a typical large plane could be commercially available as soon as 2021. While
civilian aircraft was used to compute the energy requirements smaller than potential AEA of the future, Alice would be a
for MEA and AEA [15]. Inclusion of the propulsion thrust major developmental milestone.
power requirement distinguishes the AEA from the MEA. Continued development of the AEPS in AEV, AES, and
The total battery weight was computed using the gravimetric MEA, has also played an important role in the push for AEA.
energy density of the best available Li-ion batteries, shown Specifically, distributed propulsion has and will continue to
to be 250 Wh/kg on Fig. 5. The resulting battery weights enable future growth. As mentioned, distributed propulsion
illustrate the current shortcoming of Li-ion battery chemistry. splits up the sources of thrust onboard the vehicle, with the
An all-electric commercial airplane capable of flying for 5.63 benefit being improved specific fuel consumption and longer
hours would have a battery weight of 941,048 kg, much too operating range [32]. Distributed propulsion will help enable
heavy to fly. A reduction in the flight time would still result electric propulsion onboard aircraft, one of the necessary steps
in a battery weight that makes the aircraft incapable of flight. before a commercial AEA can be realized. Implementation on
Therefore, until battery chemistry improves, an all-electric MEA results in better management of the electrical energy.
commercial aircraft is a vision of the future. Improved electrical energy efficiency will expedite the imple-
Lastly, the cost of Li-ion batteries limits the transition from mentation of electric propulsion, as the motors need to provide
MEA to AEA. The cost of Li-ion battery packs for electric less power. For ships, distributed propulsion also enables more
vehicles is approximately $600/kWh. Current forecasts predict efficient use of the energy sources, resulting in a lower overall
this could drop to $200/kWh by 2020 [45]. Assuming the fuel consumption [33]. The success of distributed propulsion
cost of battery packs for aircraft is comparable to that of thus-far, as seen on ships and MEA, will certainly influence
electric vehicles, the total cost is much higher than when using the design of EPS onboard future commercial AEA.
gasoline. Ultimately, the trade-off between cost of fuel and
cost of batteries plus the benefits of going all-electric will IV. C ONCLUSION
drive the feasibility of implementation. In the future, when All-electric aircraft boast numerous benefits, mainly in-
battery chemistry improves, the difference in cost will be much creased efficiency, zero emissions, and lower costs in the
smaller giving AEA more overall benefit. long run. This paper has presented a comparison of power
systems of various AEPS platforms, including the AEV, AES,
B. Looking to the Future and MEA with the goal of predicting the future of AEA
In the coming years, the push toward the true AEA will EPS development. Analysis of current AEPS characteristics
continue. Improving battery chemistry is an essential step in and distribution architectures show that AES and MEA have
reaching this goal. In 2009, a new battery chemistry, lithium- similar power systems and indicate that commercial AEA of
air, began to receive recognition around the world for its po- the future will be similar to the power systems seen in these
tential implementation in various electric vehicle applications 21st century electric vehicles.
[39]. Lithium-air batteries boast higher gravimetric energy Current propulsion methods and battery technology have
densities than Li-ion. Some current estimates suggest the been limiting factors in the push for commercial AEA. Increas-
energy density for these batteries could reach 1700 Wh/kg ing power requirements due to electrification of energy sources
[39]. Commercialization of lithium-air technology could be has illuminated the shortcomings of Li-ion battery chemistry.
the improvement in battery chemistry needed to enable AEA. Higher energy densities and lower costs are necessary before
The major concern with lithium-air batteries is the clean- commercial AEV can be developed.
liness of the surrounding air needed for the reaction. Air- Lastly, recent advancements in small-scale AEA devel-
cleaning systems will need to be developed on a much larger opment have been a sign of a bright future, serving as a
scale if lithium-air is to become a feasible solution [40]. The stepping stone for commercial sized AEA. Overcoming current
199
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200
A Bidirectional NPC-based Level 3 EV Charging
System with Added Active Filter Functionality in
Smart Grid Applications
Ali Mortezaei, Student Member, IEEE, Mohamad Abdul-Hak, Member, IEEE,
Marcelo Godoy Simoes, Fellow, IEEE
limit the permissible harmonic and dc current injection into

Abstract--This paper proposes a bidirectional Level 3 (fast) the grid, and EV chargers are usually designed to abide by [1].
power level Electric Vehicle (EV) charging system where the Charger systems are classified into off-board and on-board
control strategy consist of two cascaded stages. At first stage, the types with unidirectional or bidirectional power flow and their
control strategy allows the control structure to utilize a Three- power levels are categorized into Level 1 (convenience),
Level (TL) Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) multilevel converter Level 2 (primary), and Level 3 (fast) charging. Bidirectional
ensuring a unity power factor correction (PFC) by
charging enables the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability,
absorbing/injecting a sinusoidal current from/to the grid with
low current harmonics. At second stage, two dc-side capacitors
allowing EVs to inject energy into the grid. It can also
of the TL NPC on the dc-bus voltage are connected to two Dual contribute in stabilizing unbalanced situations during peak
Active Bridge (DAB) DC/DC converters paralleled at the hours or even provide electric energy for emergency backup
battery. This stage regulates the current that is delivered to or during a power outage [2]. Hence, the bidirectional power
from the battery according to its State of Charge (SOC) and flow capability of EVs connected to electric power grid
matches the difference between the dc-link and battery voltages. considers as one key opportunity that electro mobility is
The purpose of the proposed strategy is to deal with higher offering toward more efficient distribution network.
power levels with reduced stress on components. In addition to Typical on-board chargers limit power because of space,
bidirectional power exchange, active power filter capability is
weight, and cost constraints. On-board charger systems can be
also added to the control strategy for enhancing power quality in
presence of reactive, non-linear and/or unbalanced loads at
conductive or inductive. Currently, most EVs use a single-
point of common coupling (PCC) based on the Conservative phase on-board charger for charging their batteries, and many
Power Theory (CPT). Simulation results are presented to circuit configurations are addressed in the literature [1]. An
demonstrate the validity of the proposed charger system offering off-board charger can be designed for high charging rates and
very flexible, and selective functionalities. is less constrained by weight and size.
Multilevel converters have several merits over conventional
Index Terms—Active Filter, Bidirectional Battery Charger, converters, such as reduced size, switching frequency, and
Conservative Power Theory, Dual Active Bridge converter, stress on electronic components, and are suitable for high
Neutral Point Clamped Multilevel Converter, Vehicle-to-grid. power Level 3 charger systems [1]. They allow for a smaller
and less expensive filter and provide a high level of power
I. INTRODUCTION quality with reduced THD and EMI noise at input mains with
B attery chargers play a vital role in the expansion of EVs.

Charging time and battery life are associated to the
battery charger characteristics. A battery charger needs to
boost low-ripple regulated DC voltage at output. However, the
added complexity and additional components may increase the
cost and required control circuitry [3]. Among different
be reliable and efficient, with high power density, low volume, topologies of TL bidirectional multilevel converters, TL NPC
low weight, and cost. Its operation depends on the topology, rectifier consisting of two dc-side capacitors on the dc-bus
components, and control strategies. In designing a battery voltage is considered to be the candidate as it is a very general
charger, it must be ensured that the utility current exchanged and widely used topology although with added complexity in
with the charging system has low distortion to minimize control circuitry [4]. In this converter, a dc-side voltage
power quality impact, and high power factor to maximize the equalizing scheme need to be employed to set the difference
active power transfer. SAE-J2894 and IEEE-1547 standards between the voltages of the two dc-side capacitors to zero. If
not, voltages of dc-side capacitors drift from their nominal
A. Mortezaei and M. Abdul-Hak are with the Powertrain & eDrive -
values, that is, half the total regulated dc-bus voltage. The dc-
Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America (MBRDNA/P), side capacitors of the TL NPC are connected to two DAB
Redford Charter Twp, MI 48239 USA (e-mail: amorteza@mines.edu & DC/DC converters. Theses converters are then paralleled at
ali.mortezaei@daimler.com; mohamad.abdul-hak@daimler.com). the battery side. The DAB DC/DC converter is appropriate for
M. G. Simões is with the Electrical Engineering Department, Colorado
School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401 USA (e-mail: msimoes@mines.edu).
high power applications providing galvanic isolation and
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the bidirectional power flow [5]. Thus, a bidirectional power
Powertrain & eDrive - Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North exchange and isolation between the battery and the AC system
America.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 201

appropriate for higher power level transfer with reduced current control scheme is then passed to the dc-side voltage
device and component stresses is now being provided. In equalizing scheme to counteract the dc-side voltage
addition to normal and rapid charging, and grid support imbalance. PWM switching schemes are adopted at the end to
including V2G mode, this paper proposes the off-board switch the NPC converter.
charging infrastructures to provide ancillary functionalities The NPC current controller is designed in frame based
such as active filtering based on CPT for minimization of on classical frequency response analysis method. The AC-
particular load disturbances. Such flexibility is particularly side current dynamics are described as following:
important in the presence of reactive, unbalanced, and ( )
nonlinear loads and in conditions where the grid might be + ( )= , ( )− , ( ). (1)
weak [6]. Details of the theoretical formulations of CPT
In (1), ( ) are the state variables, , ( ) are the control
method, as well as current and power decompositions can be
inputs, and , ( ) are the disturbance inputs. The voltage
found in [7]. Simulation results are presented to support the
theoretical analysis. feed-forward compensation are employed to mitigate the
dynamic couplings between the TL NPC and the grid. This
II. EV BATTERY CHARGER STRUCTURE & CONTROL helps to improve the start-up transient and to enhance the
disturbance rejection capability of the converter system [8].
The proposed EV charger is indicated in Fig. 1, where it is The NPC current control transfer function, ( ), is
also possible to see the network loads connected at the PCC. determined as in (2). The open-loop current transfer function,
The PCC loads are constituted by both balanced and ( ), is expressed as in (3) with ( ) the controller of the
unbalanced linear and nonlinear devices. The TL NPC is current control loop. It consists of a Proportional Integral (PI)
controlled to regulate the dc-side capacitor voltages, to compensator as illustrated in (4). The PI compensator in (4) is
exchange a bidirectional power between the grid and the sufficient for the current controller ( ) to track the inverter
battery, and to compensate load current terms related to current references with fast dynamic response, where and
disturbing effects. The control strategy for NPC dc-link
are the proportional gain and time constant, respectively.
voltage regulation is illustrated in Fig. 1. It is comprised of
Table I presents the requirements chosen for the current
inner and outer control loops [8]. The outer loop regulates the
control scheme and controller using parameters in Table II.
dc-link voltage at the desired reference ( ∗ ). The dc-link
voltage controller is multiplied by the sensed PCC voltages ( ) 1
( )= = . (2)
( , ) to define an additional current reference, ( ∗ , ). , ( ) +
This current reference is added to the reference of the ( )
( )= , (3)
disturbance currents ( ∗, ) delivered by the CPT technique. +
The resulting current reference ( ∗ ) is then directed to the +1
( )= . (4)
NPC current controller in the inner loop. The output of the
PCC
~
c b a
il,abc
R1 L1
Z
Grid
iabc Rf Lf vt,abc ig,abc
Bidirectional Dual Active Bridge 1 Ldc1
Bidirectional Multilevel Rectifier
Llk1 TR1 iBattery Battery

L2 iout1
Vin1 C1 +
vp1
-
+
vs1
-
C2
N:1
R2
Phase Shift PWM 1
Bidirectional Dual Active Bridge 2 Ldc2
L2 Vdc
Llk2 TR2
iout2
R2 Vin2 C1 +
vp2
-
+
vs2
-
C2
N:1
R3 Phase Shift PWM 2

NPC Capacitor Voltage Balancing + PWM
R2 1
Ci(s)
+ + -1 Vin1 Vin2 Cidc(s) Cidc(s)
imax
iabc - + vpcc,abc Ginv iabc* + ip,abc* + Vdc* + +
-Cvdc(s)
+ -
-
-
iout1
iout2
if,abc* -imax
vpcc,abc Vdc
Compensation
irb
References
u
i
1/2
iv
Conservative ina iBattery*
Power Theory
(CPT) Selected Signal SOC Battery Management System
Decision Taker (BMS)
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the power circuit, control scheme and network loads connected to the power grid
202
3
The transfer function between the defined current reference smaller filter components, reduced device and component
and the dc-link voltage of the NPC is determined in following stresses, reduced switching losses due to soft switching,
to perform the dc-link voltage controller design. From power reduced sensitivity to system parasitic, and ultimately
balance of the TL NPC terminal, we have: improved power density and efficiency. The operating mode
+ + = 0. (5) of the DAB converter uses 50% duty cycle for all switches,
3 and adjusts the phase shift between the active bridges with a
, , + + = 0, (6) PSM (Phase Shift Modulation) to control the amount of power
2
where is the regulated dc-link voltage, is the effective flow between the input and output. The DAB converters
dc-link capacitor current, and 3/2 factor comes from the regulate the battery current according to the battery current
average ac power flow using peak values. reference that is generated by the Battery Management System
From (6) the current through the effective capacitor is: (BMS). Battery current reference is calculated depending on
3 , , the SOC of the battery, which is estimated depending on
=− + . (7) different parameters such as battery voltage, temperature, etc.
2
The same current in terms of voltage across the effective The output of the controllers specifies the phase shift between
capacitor is given by (8). Note that the effective dc-link the control signals of the active bridges on the DAB
capacitor for the TL NPC is half each of its dc-side capacitors converters. The ideal output power of DAB converters are
[8]. achieved as below:
| |

= (8) = 1− , (12)
2
From (7) and (8) the differential equation for the dc-link where is the input DC voltage, is the output DC
voltage becomes: voltage, is the transformer turns ratio, is the switching
2 3 , , frequency in radians per second, is the transformer leakage
=− + . (9)
2 inductance referred to the primary side, and is the phase
Based on (9), we can regulate the dc-link voltage by shift in radians between the input and output active bridges.
controlling the active current , . The open loop transfer The soft switching is achieved through zero-voltage switching
function of the dc-link voltage control loop, ( ), is (ZVS). Both snubber capacitors and dead-time adjustment are
presented in (10) with ( ) the controller of the dc-link required for ZVS operation. The snubber capacitor ensures
voltage control loop. In fig. 1, the dc-link voltage controller there is little change in the voltage across the switch during its
( ) is multiplied by −1 to compensate for the negative turn-off (low ⁄ ) thus reducing turn-off losses, and
sign of dc-link voltage dynamics. choosing an appropriate dead-time will ensure the voltage of
3 2 switch has reached zero before it is turned on, enabling turn-
,
( )= ( ) . (10) on with ZVS. DABs currents in Fig. 1 are being regulated
2 using PI controllers as in (4). Table I presents the requirements
We select the bandwidth of dc-link voltage control loop to chosen for the current controllers using parameters in Table II.
be two orders of magnitude smaller than that of the current
loop. This means the dc-link voltage controller is decoupled TABLE I
Requirements Chosen for EV Battery Charger Control Scheme.
from the current controller as its dynamics is slowed down.
Therefore, the closed current loop can be assumed ideal for Symbol Quantity Value
design purposes and replaced by unity. A type 2 controller is
NPC current loop phase margin 60 °
chosen for ( ) as shown in (11) for tracking reference NPC current loop cut-off frequency 1
command. Table I presents the requirements for control Proportional gain of NPC current controller 16.29
scheme of the DC voltage loop using parameters in Table II. Time Constant of NPC current controller 0.27
K-factor approach is used to design the parameters of (11) [9]. NPC dc-link voltage loop phase margin 60 °
NPC dc-link voltage loop cut-off frequency 30
(1 + ⁄ ) Gain of NPC dc-link voltage controller 0.062
( )= . (11)
(1 + ⁄ ) Zero of NPC dc-link voltage controller 8.03
A dc-side voltage equalizing scheme is also designed to Pole of NPC dc-link voltage controller 111.96
DAB current loop phase margin 90 °
maintain dc-side capacitor voltages of the TL NPC at half of
DAB current loop cut-off frequency 1
the net dc-side voltage. The voltage balancing scheme is Proportional gain of DAB current controller 0.00083
designed independently of the other controllers, since the Time Constant of DAB current controller 1
dynamics of partial dc-side voltages are decoupled from those
of terminal currents/voltages.
Each of the DAB DC/DC converters connected to the III. SIMULATION RESULTS
battery shown in Fig. 1 consist of two active bridges which are This section investigates the proposed battery charger in G2V
interfaced through a high-frequency transformer. Not only and V2G modes for charging or discharging the battery,
does the transformer provide galvanic isolation and a respectively, and also APF mode mitigating load current
conversion ratio, but its leakage inductance is also used as the disturbances based on CPT decomposition approach.
main energy transfer element. The active bridges generate Simulations are conducted using PSIM software package. The
square wave voltages at both ends of the ac-link, and the switching and sampling frequencies were set at 10 kHz.
leakage inductor of the high frequency transformer is used as Battery charger parameters and load data are provided in
an impedance to limit power transfer. Other benefits include Table II.
203
4
TABLE II and the network loads. Fig. 2(a) also shows that each DAB
EV Battery Charger and Load Parameters.
converter is supplying 100A DC current, together totally 200A
Symbol Quantity Value to the battery equal to 80 KW active power for a 400V DC
voltage. The partial DC voltages across dc-side capacitors of
Grid voltage 277/480
TL NPC are regulated at 750V DC which is half of the total
Grid frequency 60 Hz
NPC nominal capacity 120 KVA regulated dc-bus voltage, i.e. 1500V DC. It can be seen that
Switching frequency 10 kHz the peak to peak ripples of the DAB converters DC output
NPC filter inductor 3 mH currents and TL NPC partial DC voltages are less than 5% of
NPC filter resistor 0.1 Ω their reference values which is within the design criteria. Fig.
NPC converter Gain 750 V 2(b) shows the square wave voltages generated by the active
, NPC Partial dc-link voltages 750 V
NPC dc-link capacitors 2 mF bridges of the DAB converters on primary and secondary sides
DAB output capacitors 100 µF of the transformers, and their leakage inductor ac currents. The
, Filter inductors on DC side 0.1 mH transformer leakage inductances are set to be 80 µH. The
, Transformers’ leakage inductor 0.08 mH leakage inductor ac current is produced due to differential
N Transformers’ ratio 1 voltage applied on the inductor. The control is on the phase
Battery voltage 400 V
Nominal battery current 200 A shift between the ac voltage waveforms on the primary and
Load inductor 15 mH secondary sides of the transformer. Since the square voltages of
Load inductor 1 mH primary active bridges leading the voltages of the secondary
Load resistor 5 Ω active bridges, the power flow is from the grid to the battery.
Load resistor 40 Ω In Fig. 3 the charger operates under V2G or discharging
Load resistor 60 Ω
mode to support the grid plus APF mode to compensate the
Fig. 2 present voltage and current waveforms for the system load unwanted current. From Fig. 3(a), until t = 0.2s, the
of Fig. 1, under G2V or charging mode plus APF mode to charger is discharging the battery, injecting active power to the
compensate the load unwanted current components which grid. The DC output currents of DAB converters show -100A
include all disturbances, i.e. load unbalances, nonlinearities DC, meaning each DAB converter is supplying 100A DC
and reactive power. Fig. 2(a) includes the PCC voltages, current, together totally 200A or 80 KW active power from the
inverter currents, grid currents, load current and DAB DC/DC battery to the grid. The injected currents by TL NPC are
converters’ output currents supplied to the battery and partial sinusoidal and in phase with the PCC voltages showing the
TL NPC dc-side voltages. Until t = 0.2s, the charger is direction of power is from inverter to the PCC. After t = 0.2s
charging the battery. The supplied currents by TL NPC are the charger also operates as APF simultaneously, supplying the
sinusoidal and 180 out of phase with the PCC voltages, unwanted current components of the load current. It can be
showing the inverter is absorbing active power from grid. seen that the grid current after t = 0.2s is sinusoidal and 180 out
After t = 0.2s the charger also operates as APF of phase with the PCC voltages showing the grid is absorbing
simultaneously, supplying the unwanted current components the remaining active current which is not consumed by the
of the load current. It can be seen that the grid currents after t load. Fig. 3(b) shows the square voltages of secondary active
= 0.2s is sinusoidal and in phase with the PCC voltages bridges leading the square voltages of the primary ones
showing the grid is supplying only active power to the charger representing the power flow is from the battery to the grid.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. Voltage/Current waveforms under battery charging plus APF modes: (a) converters terminal waveforms, (b) transformers waveforms.
204
5
(a) (b)
Fig. 3. Voltage/Current waveforms under battery discharging plus APF modes: (a) converters terminal waveforms, (b) transformers waveforms.
(a) (b)
Fig. 4. Voltage/Current waveforms under APF mode for selective compensation of loads disturbances (reactive current, asymmetry, unbalances or
nonlinearities) extracted using CPT: (a) converters terminal waveforms, (b) transformers waveforms.
In Fig. 4 the charger only operates as APF for selective aims to compensate the load unbalance current component
compensation of the load disturbances. From Fig. 4(a), making the grid currents balanced (same amplitude in all the
between t = 0.15s and t=0.18s, the TL NPC currents has 90° phases). From Fig. 4(a), after t = 0.24s the TL NPC is set to
phase lag with the PCC voltage showing the inverter is only compensate all load disturbances, i.e. load unbalances,
compensating the reactive current component of the load. This nonlinearities and reactive power and the grid is supplying
compensates the lag between PCC voltages and grid currents only active power to the charger and the network loads. Fig.
in Fig. 4(a), which corresponds to mitigating the load reactive 4(b) shows the square voltages of primary and secondary
current component. From t = 0.18s to t=0.21s, the TL NPC active bridges are in phase representing no power is
only compensates the load nonlinearities making the grid exchanged between the battery and the grid. It is also clear
currents quasi-sinusoidal, unbalanced, and not in phase with from Fig. 4(a) since each DAB converter is supplying zero DC
the PCC voltages. Between t = 0.21s and t=0.24s, the TL NPC current.
205
6
Fig. 5. Dynamic response of the charger system to reference changes in battery charging or G2V mode.
Fig. 5 illustrates the dynamic performance of the proposed useful. Moreover, using the CPT no reference-frame
battery charger in G2V mode during reference changes. It transformation is required for the applied control strategy.
includes the PCC voltages, inverter currents, DAB DC/DC This gives an excellent opportunity to the concept of smart
converters’ output currents, battery current, partial TL NPC grids to cope with a more efficient distribution network where
dc-side voltages, and total regulated dc-bus voltage. Initially, EV chargers can contribute to support the grid in many ways.
the battery current is set to zero. Later at t = 0.2s, it switches to The performances of the control schemes in all modes of
200A DC current. It can be seen each DAB converter is operation are validated in the results section demonstrating the
supplying 100A DC current. At t = 0.29s, the battery current is feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed charger system.
set back to zero again. The dc-link voltages are controlled at
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[4] A. Mortezaei, M Godoy Simões, A. Al-Durra, and S.M. Muyeen
"Selective Operation of 3-level NPC Inverter Based on Synchronous
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converters serving as the interface between a TL NPC AC/DC topologies for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles,” in Proc. IEEE Appl.
and the battery for plug-in electric vehicles. The aim of this Power Electron. Conf. Expo., pp. 2066-2072, Feb. 2010.
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isolation with compact transformer design between the battery Durra, “Cooperative Control of Multi-Master-Slave Islanded Microgrid
with Power Quality Enhancement Based on Conservative Power
and the AC system for higher power level transfer with Theory,” IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. PP, no. 99, Nov. 2016.
reduced stress on the converters components. This paper also [7] P. Tenti, H. K. M. Paredes, and P. Mattavelli, “Conservative Power
proposes the charger system to operate as a flexible power Theory, a framework to approach control and accountability issues in
conditioner. The proper current reference is calculated using smart microgrids,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 664-
CPT. Functionalities of active filtering become very flexible 673, 2011.
because of the possibility of being performed selectively. This [8] A. Yazdani, R. Iravani, “Voltage-Sourced Converters in Power Systems;
Modeling, Control, and Applications,”John Wiley & Sons c2010.
feature is powerful, especially when the charger operates close
to its power/current limits, where the prioritization of specific [9] N. Mohan, T. M. Undeland, and W. P. Robbins, Power Electronics
Converters, Applications and Design, 3rd ed. New York: Wiley, 2003.
electrical disturbance compensation becomes relevant and
206
Fault Considerations of Non-Isolated Electric Vehicle
Chargers with a Mutual DC Supply
Kilian Gosses*, Julian Kaiser*, Leopold Ott*, Matthias Schulz*, Fabian Fersterra*, Bernd Wunder*,
Yunchao Han+, Melanie Lavery+, Martin März+
*Power Electronics Division, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB,
+Chair of Energy Electronics, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg
kilian.gosses@iisb.fraunhofer.de
Abstract-This work focuses on the differing fault behavior of while higher costs can easily be negated by charging a higher
non-isolated electric vehicle chargers that are being sourced by a price for the added service of fast charging. Neither can be
mutual DC grid, compared to an isolated system. Therefore a
simulation model for a small DC grid is created. Evaluated fault applied for charging systems used at home or the workplace.
scenarios are earth faults on the vehicle side as well as the grid One solution to reduce both costs and size would be
side, and parallel faults between the positive conductors of two non-isolating power converter topologies, since removing the
EVs. The resulting currents and voltages are compared to safety aforementioned first stage of the converter would result in a
requirements with regard to current standards. cheaper and smaller charging system. In order to reduce size
and costs even more, the integration of the charging system into
I. INTRODUCTION a DC-microgrid has been proposed for some time [2]. This
would allow having one mutual AC frontend for all systems
The charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EV) does instead of rectifiers and PFCs in each one, while reducing
not only pose a challenge for the electric grid, but is also conversion losses from PV to EVs by up to 3% [3]. But the
offering a vast amount of possibilities that cannot be realized IEC 61851-23 [4] only specifies charging outlets that are
with the infrastructure for combustion engine vehicles. galvanically isolated from the AC grid as well as from each
Integration of renewable energy sources like wind energy for other, while referring to non-isolated topologies as “under
high power applications [1] or photovoltaics (PV) increases the consideration”. With moving to a DC-microgrid, the isolation
usage of locally produced energy, limiting conduction losses from the AC grid with its huge fault energy is left untouched,
and the dependency on public infrastructure. Also, with while the fault current that can occur in a DC-microgrid is
Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), the EV can be used as a stationary usually limited.
battery system, offering various benefits like grid stabilization, This paper aims to provide a better understanding of some
uninterruptible power supply (UPS) functions and better overall faults that can occur in a system with no galvanic isolation
energy management. To utilize the possibilities that V2G between multiple EV chargers. Therefore in Section II a
offers, the application moves from High Power Charging (HPC) simulation model is developed with two EVs and chargers with
near highways towards smaller wallbox applications at home or a mutual DC supply. In Section III this model is utilized to
the workplace. The average parking durations in those simulate earth and parallel faults and the results are compared
applications are long enough for the charging power not to be to current standards and isolating topologies. The paper closes
the crucial factor. But still the changes to the standards, that with a conclusion in Section IV.
allow charging with up 1000 V and thus opening the market to
EVs with a broader range of battery system voltage, pose
II. SIMULATION MODEL
challenges to the power electronics used in the charging system.
Single-stage topologies like the isolated Dual Active Bridge are A LTspice model is developed in order to analyze the faults
usually optimized for a single output voltage, e.g. 400 V, while in non-isolated charging appliances. A simple grid consisting
the efficiency decreases the further you move away from this of one mutual source and two vehicle chargers (Electric Vehicle
operation point. Therefore a two-stage approach with an Supply Equipment EVSE) and EVs, as it is shown in Fig. 1, is
isolating stage, at either grid frequency or mid/high frequency, sufficient for the general understanding of the faults and their
followed by a simple DC/DC converter like a buck or effects. For a more complex grid with distributed sources and
buck/boost converter seems plausible. more EVSEs, the model can be scaled.
Keeping in mind the application at home or the workplace, The EVs are represented by a standard battery model (blue in
two other factors play a more prominent role: costs and size. Fig. 2) extended by X and Y capacitances (green in Fig. 2)
For HPC at highway stops, size can usually be disregarded according to the standard test load for EVSEs defined in [4].
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 207

TABLE I
LINE PARAMETERS FOR THE RLC CIRCUIT
Parameter Value
Inductance 0.34 µH/m
Capacitance 0.12 nF/m
Resistance 0.9 mΩ/m
300 µH and the value for the input and output capacitances is
200 µF. In normal operation, both converters are operating in
buck-mode with an input voltage of 1000 V.
For the evaluation of parallel faults (Section III.B), linearized
models of DC/DC converters according to [5] are used to
simulate the EVSEs. With these the correct dynamic behavior
in short circuits can be simulated due to implemented over-
current and over- and under-voltage protection, which is of
importance for the parallel faults. As a drawback, earth faults
placed on the common DC supply cannot be evaluated due to
Fig. 1. Simulated grid with two EVs and one common DC source.
the nature of the model, thus in Section III.A the averaged
The battery model consists of an ideal voltage source VEV_Batt, switch model is used.
followed by a resistor Ri of 70 mΩ representing the series Both DC/DC converters are connected to a DC-Bus sourced
resistance of the battery while RCT (60 mΩ) and CD (40 F) by a 700 kW feed-in, for which a linearized model according to
represent the charge transfer across the battery’s interface. The [5] is used as well. This source has an output capacitance of
values for those parameters are extracted from measurements of 250 µF and is connected to the DC-Bus via an additional RLC
an actual LiFePo4 EV battery system. circuit, representing 5 m cabling with the same parameters as
Extending this standard battery model, X (470 µF) and Y above.
(2 µF) capacitances are connected, as demanded by the test load Normative voltage of the DC-Bus is 1000 V and the grid is
described in [4], with the midpoint of the Y capacitances set up as an IT system. To prohibit uncontrolled floating of
connected to PE via a 50 Ω resistor. While those parameters potentials, the DC-Bus is grounded via high resistive midpoint
are equal for both simulated EVs, the source voltage is grounding [6]. According to IEC 61851-23 [4], the isolation
different; EV1 represents an 800 V vehicle, while EV2 is monitoring device (IMD) has to output a warning if the
implemented with a 500 V battery system. resistance between a conductor and protective earth (PE) falls
To emulate the influence of the charging cables, both EVs are below a threshold off
connected to their charging system with a RLC circuit model
_ 500 (1)
representing 3 m of copper cabling. The line parameters that
are emulated are shown in Table I are derived from where VOut_max is the maximal output voltage that can occur.
measurements from 70mm² cables. Therefore the value of the grounding resistors used for the
For the evaluation of earth faults (Section III.A), the vehicle simulations is set to 500 kΩ.
chargers are modeled with an averaged switch model of a half
bridge buck/boost converter with a fixed duty cycle of 0.8 for
III. FAULT EVALUATIONS
EV1 and 0.5 for EV2. The inductance of the converter is set to
A. Earth Faults
The first kinds of faults that will be evaluated in detail are
earth faults. A singular fault to PE via a 775 Ω resistance is
added to the grid. The 775 Ω represents average human body
resistance at a touch voltage of 1000 V according to [7]. This
fault is placed at three different positions in the grid, also shown
in Fig. 3: First at the positive conductor of the DC-Bus, then at
the positive pole of the 800 V EV1 and at the positive
conductor of the 500 V EV2.
Fig. 2. Simulation model of the EV, consisting of a battery model (blue) and
additional X and Y capacitors (green).
208
TABLE II
CLASSIFICATION OF DC ELECTRIC SHOCK ACCORDING TO [7]
Zone Effect
AC-1/DC-1 Perception, but usually without pain or danger
AC-2/DC-2 Muscular contractions likely, but usually no harmful
effects
AC-3/DC-3 Strong muscular reactions and reversible disturbances
AC-4/DC-4 Critical effects with rising risk of ventricular fibrillation
The steady-state current is limited by the grounding resistors

to a worst-case of 2 mA, which places it at the lower end of the
DC-2 zone, as it can be seen in the upper half of Fig. 5.
Especially when taking into account that the IMD will detect
the earth fault and ensure the disconnection of the EVs within a
few seconds, this steady-state current poses no additional threat
compared to a system with isolating converters.
The peak fault current is driven by the Y capacitances of the
Fig. 3. Fault positions in the simulated grid.
EVs. To classify those capacitor discharges IEC 60479-2 [8]
Because of the high resistive midpoint grounding, the has to be consulted. In order to evaluate the risk of ventricular
DC-Bus is placed symmetrically around PE potential, pulling fibrillation, the current’s RMS value and the shock duration are
the negative pole to 500 V below PE. Since both EVs are crucial.
connected to the Bus via non-isolating buck converters, the The RMS value can be calculated as
negative pole is shared, thus placing the three positive
conductors at different potentials with respect to PE: DC-Bus at
500 V, EV1 at 300 V and EV2 at -50 V. Therefore each fault
position results in a different maximum and steady-state fault
current, with the highest at position 1 as it can be seen in Fig. 4.
IEC 60479-1 [7] classifies electric shock into four categories
as can be seen in Table II and Fig. 5. The decisive parameters
are shock duration and body current, while also distinguishing
between AC and DC due to different effects on the human body
of the current forms.
700
Fault Position 1
600 Fault Position 2
Fault Position 3
500
Fault Current [mA]
400
300
200
100
-100
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0
6.7
Time [ms]
Fig. 4. Currents through a 775 Ω earth fault. Fig. 5. Classification of fault currents according to [7].
209
1
(2)
√6
while the shock duration is set as three times the time
constant of the capacitive discharge. For the worst case (fault at
position 1), a time constant of 6.7 ms can be read from Fig. 4,
leading to a shock duration of 20.1 ms with an ICrms of approx.
250 mA.
As it can be seen in Fig. 5, this places the fault at the very
beginning of the AC-3 zone where reversible disturbances of
the heart function may occur, but still far from the c1 line,
where the risk for ventricular fibrillation increases to about 5%.
In an isolated system only the Y capacitances of one EV will
be discharged during an earth fault at position 2 or 3. The worst
case for an isolated system would be at the maximum charging
voltage allowed by IEC 61851-23 [4]: 1000 V. Compared to the
simulation results of this non-isolated example, the time
constant will be halved, but the current peak and thus ICrms will
Fig. 6. Parallel fault with a varying resistance.
stay the same, placing the fault in the AC-3 zone, below the c1
line as well. instead. This results in a drop in the output voltage of EVSE1
In conclusion, earth faults in non-isolating topologies fall into and a rise of the EVSE2 voltage respectively, forcing the
the same category as in isolated systems, as long as the sum of controllers to readjust, which can be seen in the following 10 to
the Y capacitances of the EVs and all other converters 15 ms. In steady-state EVSE2 supplies approximately half the
connected to the DC-Bus do not push the capacitive discharge charging current for EV2 while the other half is routed from
current into the AC-4 zone. The steady-state fault current can be EVSE1 through the fault resistance. The spikes in the EVSE
treated as nonhazardous when the system is grounded in currents at 0 ms can be attributed to the output capacitors of the
alignment with current standards. converters. As a hard fault, the fault resistance is now reduced
But compared to isolating converters, the non-isolated to 500 mΩ and the resulting current and voltage waveforms can
topology still faces one additional challenge: the fault location be seen in Fig. 8. Hard faults can usually be attributed to
needs to be determined which leads to a short interruption of damaged insulation or human error. The event proceeds similar
the charging session for all connected EVs. In an isolated to the soft fault, but due to the lower fault resistance, EVSE1
system, each charging outlet needs to have its own IMD and reaches its current limit and cannot supply the entire fault
thus only the EV affected by the fault will be disconnected. But current as previously. This results in a voltage drop large
since the interruption will be within the range of a few minutes, enough for the charging current of EV1 to reverse and
this is tolerable, especially keeping in mind the application at 100
home or the workplace. 80
EVSE1
Current [A]
60 EVSE2
B. Parallel Faults 40
EV1
EV2
The second category of faults that will be evaluated are Fault
20
parallel faults. Therefore a fault resistor with varying resistance
0
is switched in between the positive outputs of the converters, as
shown in Fig. 6. At first, both bidirectional converters are 765
operating in constant voltage (CV) mode, with a set-point of 760

Voltage [V]
760 V for EV1 and 460 V for EV2, both with a current limit of 755 EVSE1
350 A. The CV mode represents a point near the end of a 465 EVSE2
charging cycle, where the EVSE is supplying the battery’s end-
460
of-charge voltage while the current decreases with rising state
of charge. The value of the fault resistance is set to 10 Ω 455
-5.0 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0
representing a so called soft fault, usually caused by ingress of
Time [ms]
moisture or animal residues. The resulting currents can be seen
in Fig. 7. At 0 ms, the fault drains current from EVSE1, thus
reducing the charging current of EV1 and feeding it into EV2 Fig. 7. Currents and voltages during soft fault with converters in CV mode.
210
800 Evaluating those faults, it can be seen that the soft faults pose
600
EVSE1
no real hazard to the EVs or the charging system since the event
400
Current [A]
200
EVSE2 lies within the normal range of operation. Nevertheless, EVSE
EV1
0 EV2
and EV constantly exchange information about the charging
-200 Fault current and when those values differ too much, the charging
-400 process will be aborted [9], resulting in a functional error, but
-600
not in a safety concern. Hard faults may pose a risk to the EVs
775
battery systems, since the peak currents might reach levels
750 above the allowed maximum and overvoltages can occur. But
Voltage [V]
725 EVSE1 since short circuits already result in higher currents and fuses or
500 EVSE2
other interrupting devices are already mandatory for battery
475 systems [10], the non-isolating topologies add no additional
450
hazard with this kind of faults.
0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5
IV. CONCLUSION
Time [ms]
Concerning earth and parallel faults, small scale non-isolating
Fig. 8. Currents and voltages during hard fault with converters in CV mode.
topologies with multiple EVs sourced by a mutual DC supply
pose no additional risks compared to systems providing
discharge the vehicle. Due to the large fault current, the output galvanic isolation between the EVs. On a large scale, the
voltage of EVSE2 rises to a level where the power flow from maximum allowed Y capacitances need to be evaluated though
EVSE2 is reversed in order to regulate the voltage and thus in order to stay within tolerable limits according to current
feeding power back into the DC-Bus. standards. Also all considerations in this paper were made
Now both converters are set to constant current (CC) mode, under the assumption of buck converters being used for the
which represents most of the charging cycle, where the EVSE EVSE, or topologies that feed through the negative pole. For
provides the maximal charging current. Both vehicles charge other topologies, the faults may need to be reevaluated.
with 200 A, and again a hard parallel fault of 500 mΩ is
switched in between the positive conductors of EVSE1 and REFERENCES
EVSE2 as it is shown in Fig. 6. The corresponding currents [1] J. Brombach, J. Winkler, F. Mayer, A. Beekman and C. Strafiel, “Grid-
and voltages are displayed in Fig. 9. It can be seen that the two Integration of High Power Charging Infrastructure”, in 1st E-Mobility
Power System Integration Symposium, Berlin, Germany, October 2017
converters quickly adjust to the fault and continue sourcing [2] K. Johnson, V. Vossos, M. Kloss, G. Robinson and R. Brown, “Direct
200 A each. Due to the small fault resistance, the voltage of Current as an Integrating Platform for ZNE Buildings with EVs and
EV1 drops by approximately 30 V, reverting the charging Storage: DC Direct Systems – A Bridge to a Low Carbon Future?” in
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800 Building_profiles_and_impact_by_DC_grids.pdf (Accessed March 29th
600 2018)
EVSE1 [4] 69/523/CD IEC 61851-23 Ed.2.0 Electric vehicle conductive charging
400
Current [A]
EVSE2
EV1
system – Part 23: DC electric vehicle charging station
200
EV2 [5] L. Ott, J. Kaiser, K. Gosses, Y. Han, B. Wunder, M. März and C. Strobl,
0 Fault “Model-Based Fault Current Estimation for Low Fault-Energy 380VDC
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[6] K. Hirose, T. Tanaka, T. Babasaki, S. Person, O. Foucault, BJ Sonnenberg
800
and M. Szpek, “Grounding Concept Considerations and
Recommendations for 400VDC Distribution System,” in 33rd
International Telecommunications Energy Conference (INTELEC),
Voltage [V]
700
EVSE1 Amsterdam, October 2011.
600 EVSE2 [7] IEC TS 60479-1 Effects of current on human beings and livestock – Part
1: General aspects.
500 [8] IEC TS 60479-2 Effects of current on human beings and livestock – Part
2: Special aspects.
0.0 100.0 200.0 300.0 400.0 500.0 [9] ISO 15118-1 Road vehicles – Vehicle to grid communication interface –
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Fig. 9. Currents and voltages during hard fault with converters in CC mode.
211
Smart Grid Distribution Management System
(SGDMS) for optimized electricity bills
Weixian Li∗ , Chong Hao Ng† , Thillainathan Logenthiran¶ , Van-Tung Phank , and Wai Lok Woo∗∗
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Newcastle University, Singapore Campus∗† ‡§¶ k ∗∗
Email: ∗ w.li17@newcastle.ac.uk, † c.h.ng@newcastle.ac.uk, ¶ t.logenthiran@ncl.ac.uk,
k vantung.phan@ncl.ac.uk, ∗∗ lok.woo@newcastle.ac.uk
Abstract—This paper presents the use of proposed Smart control and monitoring. Therefore, availability of equipment
Grid Distribution Management System (SGDMS) for Singapore or tools would be crucial for the research of such technology
Contestable and Non-Contestable consumers. The SGDMS is [10].
a distributed management system proposed using Multi-Agent
System (MAS) technology. This system can optimize the distri- The use of RES were encouraged by various countries to
bution of renewable energy while minimizing electricity bills for decarbonize the traditional power generators. This resulted in
consumers. The entire system was developed using Java with the increasing use of wind, tidal and solar to produce distributed
extension of JADE which is an IEEE FIPA compliant multi-agent power for the grid with immense pace.
system platform. This decentralised platform allows agents to This proposed system named Smart Grid Distribution Man-
interact and communicate using energy sources from different
sectors and control them intelligently to minimize the cost of agement System (SGDMS) allows smart grid to be equipped
electricity for the consumers. Simulation studies that were carried with better distribution techniques to optimize electricity costs.
out on the proposed system to show its potential for providing The remaining paper is organized as follows: Section II
solutions through intelligent distribution techniques and how it shares the information used for the proposed system. Section
influences the cost of electricity. III shows proposed design of the Smart Grid Distribution Man-
Index Terms—Smart Grid, Multi-agent system, Electricity bill
agement System (SGDMS). Section IV provides simulation
results. Finally, the paper is concluded in the section V.
I. I NTRODUCTION
II. S INGAPORE P OWER G RID
Power grid system is one of the main factors which control
the distribution of the electricity to various grids. Singapore power grid was distributed to 3 main sub grids
Tradition power grid are usually dispatchable and relatively which are the Industrial, Commercial and Residential grids.
inexpensive, however it will cause significant pollution to the Transport-related and others grids contain a smaller distri-
environment. As such, renewable energy has been extensively bution of electricity. Singapore is exploring the options of
researched due to generation of clean power sources. However, alternative power resources using renewable energy to create
the generation of power cannot be accurately predicted, hence a smart nation concept of a green country.
smart grid system are more favourable compared to traditional Singapore power grid have one of the most reliable electric-
power grid [1]. ity networks in the world. Singapore power grid had already
In order to achieve a low carbon energy environment, deployed advanced Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
power grids and renewable energy integration developments (SCADA) systems which were able to read electricity supply
are currently carried out. However, the increasing research data to bring its power grid capabilities even further [11].
on such technology would incur high cost which requires the In Singapore, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) was set
support of the government [2]–[5]. up to liberalize the electricity markets to promote reliable,
The world renewable energy has been contributing 19% to secure and effective electric supply. Energy Market Company
the current electricity usage. Hydroelectric energy had been (EMC) was established to connect the electricity makers and
producing 16%, thus making wind and PV energy production buyers in order to give alternative from regulated tariffs from
modest but it means that many initiatives can be done on the SP Services [12]. The wholesale electricity market allows
improvement on these renewable energy [6], [7]. consumer to purchase electricity from electricity retailers that
Renewable energy systems (RES) are not able to replace fluctuates every half an hour. Currently in Singapore, a com-
existing electrical grids as it has been established and used mercial or industrial consumer with an average monthly elec-
for ages due to its reliability. Although RES technology are tricity consumption of 2000 kwh (approximately SGD$550) is
not able to cope with the demand of electricity consumption eligible to be contestable while residential consumers are all
these days but integrating it with the existing power grid has non-contestable [13].
shown that it was able to change the system towards certain The electricity prices were separated into contestable and
extend [8], [9]. non-contestable due to different pricing in electricity purchase.
RES involves certain criteria to be practical. The criteria are Contestable consumers are able to purchase from the elec-
reliability, efficiency, development of algorithms for advanced tricity market using wholesale pricing run by Energy Market
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 212

Company while non-contestable consumers use the regulated Pperiod = Pday /365 (2)
tariff prices from SP Services.
Table I shows the electricity price for a Contestable con- Where Pyear represent the total power consumption in a
sumer in a 48 period (24 hours) format from Energy Market year, Pday in a day and Pperiod in a period.
Company (EMC) for 1st September 2015 [15]. The average power consumption is scaled down to year, day
TABLE I: Wholesale Pricing for 48 periods and period using the formula 1 and 2. Due to different periods
WEP WEP
Time Period Time Period having different prices, it can be used to calculate how much
($/MWh) ($/MWh)
00:00-00:30 1 77.78 12:00-12:30 25 64.45 the consumers were paying per period.
00:30-01:00 2 73.95 12:30-13:00 26 66.39 Table IV data shows the total power harvested from renew-
01:00-01:30 3 67.14 13:00-13:30 27 71.31
01:30-02:00 4 68.26 13:30-14:00 28 77.6 able energy in Singapore.
02:00-02:30 5 66.54 14:00-14:30 29 77.73 TABLE IV: Total Renewable Energy harvest in Singapore
02:30-03:00 6 73.85 14:30-15:00 30 85.31 Power per annum for Singapore
03:00-03:30 7 69.11 15:00-15:30 31 85.24 Renewable Energy
(MWh)
03:30-04:00 8 67.44 15:30-16:00 32 73.11 Wind 0.26
04:00-04:30 9 66.06 16:00-16:30 33 67.09 Tidal 8.76
04:30-05:00 10 60.81 16:30-17:00 34 66.28 Solar 4800
05:00-05:30 11 55.66 17:00-17:30 35 64.35 Total 4809.02
05:30-06:00 12 67.75 17:30-18:00 36 60.83
06:00-06:30 13 68.65 18:00-18:30 37 59.85
06:30-07:00 14 66.98 18:30-19:00 38 61.1
The mathematic equation for renewable energy in Singapore
07:00-07:30 15 53.95 19:00-19:30 39 65.36 was defined as follow:
07:30-08:00 16 56.69 19:30-20:00 40 66.49
08:00-08:30 17 59.87 20:00-20:30 41 66.91 PSG W ind/year = PW ind /39 (3)
08:30-09:00 18 61.41 20:30-21:00 42 61.16
09:00-09:30 19 61.12 21:00-21:30 43 63.52
09:30-10:00 20 64.94 21:30-22:00 44 61.19 PSG = PSG ∗ 365 ∗ 24 (4)
T idal/year T idal/P eriod
10:00-10:30 21 66.55 22:00-22:30 45 58.09
10:30-11:00 22 66.71 22:30-23:00 46 56.34
11:00-11:30 23 66.69 23:00-23:30 47 54.3 Where PW ind represent the total wind power generated for
11:30-12:00 24 64.59 23:30-00:00 48 53.01
the region for the year, PSG W ind/year represent the wind
The non-contestable consumers electricity pricing were power generated for a year in Singapore. PSG T idal/P eriod
20.35 cents per kWh (with effect from 1 Oct 15 to 31 Dec represent the tidal power generated for a period in Singapore,
15) regardless of the time periods [16]. These data collected PSG T idal/year represent the tidal power generated for a year
accommodates different electricity pricing which allows eco- in Singapore.
nomical research on both non-contestable and contestable In Singapore, the government agencies JTC Corp and the
electricity sources. Housing Board are looking into the use of wind turbines. Small
Table II shows the data taken from Energy Market Authority and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) like CygnusPower and
of Singapore [17]. Daily Life Renewable Energy (DLRE) are exploring the
TABLE II: Singapore Electricity Data usage of wind turbines to have better efficiency. Daily Life
Non-Contestable Total Singapore Renewable Energy (DLRE) had already built a 10MW com-
Contestable
Year 2014 Consumers electricity demand
(GWh) mercial wind farm in Sri Lanka to serve 39 countries in the
(GWh) (GWh)
Industrial 18,528.20 1,260.30 19,788.50 Asia-Pacific region [18]. Thus the power distribution divided
Commercial 12,163.50 4,790.80 16,954.30 equally using formula 3.
Transport 2,284.00 155.4 2,439.40
Residential 0 6,935.80 6,935.80 There had been a study that Singapore environment can
Others 28.5 256.4 284.90 extract 250MW peak with a tidal barrage [19]. Thus, a team
Overall 33,004.20 13,398.70 46,402.90 from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) designed and
Table III shows the data of the total electricity in period, built 2 turbines which will extract up to a thousand watts
day and year. of energy per hour combined. This test project shows the
Singapore government support of tidal energy usage [20]. By
TABLE III: Different type of power in period, day and year
2014 Contestable Consumer Non-Contestable Consumers using formula 4, the Tidal energy for a year in Singapore can
Per year Per day Per period Per year Per day Per period
(GWh) (GWh) (GWh) (GWh) (GWh) (GWh)
be calculated.
Industrial 18528.20 50.76 1.06 1260.30 3.45 0.07 Singapore total generations of electricity by PV systems
Commercial 12163.50 33.32 0.69 4790.80 13.13 0.27
Transport 2284.00 6.26 0.13 155.40 0.43 0.01 (Solar energy) were estimated to be 4.8GWh electric energy
Residential 0.00 0.00 0.00 6935.80 19.00 0.40 per annum [21]. Singapore Housing and Development Board
Others 28.50 0.08 0.00 256.40 0.70 0.01
Overall 33004.20 90.42 1.88 13398.70 36.71 0.76 (HDB) are currently installing PV systems on residential build-
ing rooftops to increase the electricity generation by renewable
energy [22].These information allows a realistic calculated
Pday = Pyear /365 (1)
amount of renewable energy produced for the overall power
grid in Singapore.
213
III. P ROPOSED S MART G RID D ISTRIBUTION Fig.4 shows the grid connection with power consumption if
M ANAGEMENT S YSTEM (SGDMS) renewable energy is connected and evenly distributed.
A. Proposed Algorithm
Fig.1 shows a general flowchart of the algorithm in regards
to the price and electricity distribution.
Fig. 4: Illustration of PG with RES evenly distributed in PWS

Fig.5 shows the grid connection with power consumption
if renewable energy is connected and distributed only to
contestable.
Fig. 1: Flowchart for the proposed algorithm
B. Proposed RES connections

Fig.2 shows the overall grid connections with RES using
Power World Simulator Software [23].
Fig. 5: Illustration of PG with RES distribution to Contestable

in PWS
Fig.6 shows the grid connection with power consumption
if renewable energy is connected and distributed only to Non-
Contestable.
Fig. 2: Illustration of Overall grid connections
Fig.3 shows the grid connection with power consumption if

no renewable energy is connected.
Fig. 6: Illustration of PG with RES distribution to Non-

Contestable in PWS
For this research, Fig.3 connection will be the first case
study, Fig.4 connection will be the second case study, Fig.5
will be the third and lastly Fig.6.
These case studies will be used to determine the economic
Fig. 3: Illustration of PG without RES in PWS
impact of the electricity prices in Singapore.
214
C. Proposed Multi-Agent System the total power for non-contestable in a year, Pcont/period for
Fig.7 depicts the overall picture of the multi-agent system. contestable in a period.
The formulas shown were used to calculate the consumer
cost dependent on how the electricity is being distributed in
the grid.
Table VI represents the final simulation results for each
individual power distribution system.
TABLE VI: Overall results of electricity distribution to differ-

ent sector
Description No RES RES RES1 RES2
Amount of RES power distribution (MWh)
Fig. 7: Multi-Agent System Architecture Contestable 0 2404.51 4809.02 0
Non-
0 2404.51 0 4809.02
Smart Grid Distribution Management System (SGDMS) Contestable
Total Power after RES power distribution (GWh)
was categorized into two parts which are the Renewable Contestable 33004.20 33001.80 32999.39 33004.20
Energy System (RES) and Grid System (GS). RES was then Non-
13398.70 13396.30 13398.70 13393.89
further categorized into three parts which are the PhotoVoltaics Contestable
Average electricity usage (MWh)
(PV) system, Tidal Energy and Wind Energy. GS was then Contestable
1883.80 1883.66 1883.53 1883.80
further categorized into three parts which are the Industrial for 1 period
Average electricity price (SGD$)
Grid (IG), Commercial Grid (CG) and Residential Grid (RG).
Contestable
The functionality of the RES collects and calculates the data 5951889.27 5951455.64 5951022.021 5951889.27
for 1 day
that is available to the SGDMS. GS calculates the amount Contestable
2172439582 2172281310 2172123038 2172439582
for 1 year
of electricity that is needed for them. SGDMS will then Non-
decide how much power will be distributed to which grid. The Contestable 2726635450 2726146133 2726635450 2725656815
messages set are ”REQUEST”, ”SUBSCRIBE”, ”CONFIRM”, for 1 year
Cost (SGD$)
”INFORM” and ”CFP”. Each message sent would provide Total for
different kinds of information when it is required during the 4899075032 4898427442 4898758488 4898096397
1 year
process of algorithm calculations. Savings
compared 0 647589.66 316544.49 978634.84
to no RES
IV. S IMULATION S TUDIES AND R ESULTS
Simulation studies were carried out on the following types It shows a significant difference of up to SGD$978634.84
of distribution system which are given in Table V savings by using the integrated power grid when comparing
TABLE V: Representatives of Different Power Distribution RES with traditional power grid.
System These results were understood by the amount of money
Representative Description saved when more renewable energy is distributed to the
Power Grid with no contestable or non-contestable electricity source with the same
No RES
Renewable Energy System supply
Power Grid with evenly distributed, total electricity consumption. The simulation result shows
RES
Renewable Energy System supply when the power were distributed more to the non-contestable
Power Grid with,Renewable Energy System electricity demand, the overall electricity pricing would be
RES1
supply distributed to Contestable only
Power Grid with,Renewable Energy System cheaper compared to the contestable electricity demand.
RES2 The results shown in Fig.8 was done by using Java with
supply distributed to Non-Contestable only
the extension of Jade to simulate the overall results and
The mathematical formulas of the cost was defined as
communications of the grids.
follow:
X48
Mcont/yr = ( Pcont/period ∗ P Pcont(i) ) ∗ 365 (5)
i=1
Mnon−cont/yr = Pnon−cont/year ∗ P Pnon−cont (6)
MT otal/yr = Mcont/year + Mnon−cont/year (7)
Where P Pcont(i) represent the price in different period

for contestable, P Pnon−cont for non-contestable. Mcont/yr
represent the total amount of electricity cost in a year for
contestable, Mnon−cont/yr for non-contestable and MT otal/yr
for total amount of electricity cost. Pnon−cont/year represent Fig. 8: Simulation of MAS communication using JADE
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216
LI-FI BASED SMART TRAFFIC NETWORK
A. Correa, A. Hamid, and E. Sparks

ABSTRACT II. BUILDING IT UP
Cities are struggling to cope with problems caused by the
increased demand of roadway. In a future where autonomous This project was simulated using Intel’s Altera Cyclone V
cars replace our current human based traffic system, the smart FPGA. The Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) was
traffic system is designed to allow communication between chosen for its versatility, usability, and flexibility which is
automobiles and their traffic environment. This is usually called ideal for prototyping. The Cyclone V has many improvements
V2X technology. Using Li-Fi, a visible light communications compared to its earlier generations such as its low power
system, autonomous cars will be able to communicate with each usage. The Altera Cyclone V features an ARM based 1.6GHz
other and with the traffic network to eradicate any human error
that might occur while driving today. That said, this Li-Fi based base frequency, Intel dual-core Arm Cortex A9 MP Core
system is complimentary to existing autonomous systems that processor. Each processor provides 32 KB of L1 instruction
cars use such as radar, LIDAR or cameras. Using light pulses at a cache along with 32 KB of data cache to make up a 64-Bit
specific frequency, an FPGA will be used to send a unique signal instruction set, 512 KB of L2 cache, 64 KB of scratch RAM,
for every traffic light, sign and car. and an 8 channel direct memory access controller. The
Index Terms—Li-Fi, FPGA, LIDAR, UART, powerful Intel processor also boasts 2.5 GT/s DMI and a 3.5
Watt TDP. [3] These processors contain a rich set of
peripherals, and a multiport memory controller which is
I. INTRODUCTION
shared with logic to create flexibility and cost savings. FPGA
T HE Smart Traffic System is designed to allow stop signs,

traffic signals, and even roadways to communicate with
automobiles to provide the fastest, smoothest and safest ride
resources are freed due to these hardened peripherals, since
the need to implement functions in the program are no longer
required. Intel’s Quartus Prime II software was used as the
for passengers. Modern autonomous cars operate by using simulation medium for the project. Three separate sets of code
radar, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), computer vision, were needed to fully simulate a basic version of the project.
odometry, or a combination of the aforementioned Using the Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter
technologies. A common technology that utilizes radio waves (UART) capability of the Cyclone, a transmitter code and a
is Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-infrastructure receiver code are used for the brains behind the system, with a
(V2I), collectively known as V2X, which allows automobiles test bench code used to monitor how the system acts. [4] The
to communicate with other automobiles and their traffic codes were written in VHDL since a hardware description
environment. [1] V2V and V2I uses the same frequency as language is needed to program the Cyclone. The transmitter
Wi-Fi. Cable companies and other technology industries are code and receiver code are very similar in context so only a
fighting to take away part of the radio spectrum that V2V portion of the transmitter code is shown below in Figure 1.
uses. Any new technology that uses radio waves will have to
compete with existing technologies that currently have control
of the radio spectrum. The Smart Traffic System will utilize
Li-Fi to avoid using the already crowded radio air waves. Our
system will also eliminate a problem faced by the Tesla
Autopilot System, a currently popular autonomous car
technology. [2] This system is currently designed to be used
on limited-access highways, and not in urban streets as it is
unable to improvise in construction areas and locations with
no lane markings. Our system would require a light transmitter
be placed on each traffic sign to send a signal to cars that alert
the system of the position of each sign so the car can
determine the action required by each sign. As traffic signals
already emit light, they would not require an additional
transmitter. They would only need to be reprogrammed in
order to change the flash rate of the existing lights.
Fig. 1. UART Transmitter Code in VHDL: The above code
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 217

is a set up for the transmitter; it will dictate what start bit to
initiate sending data to the receiver.
III. BREAKING IT DOWN

Once the start bit signal is received, the FPGA is open to the
data signal coming from the transmitter side. The stop bit
signifies the end of the data transmission. This is then
compared with the cache memory to understand what the
signal is conveying, whether it is to stop the car, slow down,
speed up or any number of the countless cases that can occur
on the road. The simulation was run under 8-bit data signals Fig. 3. UART simulation results: the following is the result
but real life application of this concept would require at least of the simulation starting with the transmitter sending the test
128 or 256 bits to accommodate all the different traffic signs, bit and the receiver starting to process the data.
lights, and vehicles on the road and hexadecimal encryption
and additional extra layers of encryption for security. It took about 175 us for the simulation to send the 8 bit data
successfully. With 256 bits, the whole process would take
about 2.5 ms for the data to be transmitted. That means for a
car going at 80mph, it would take about 3.5 inches to send a
signal from the traffic sign to the car and another 3.5 inches to
reply and acknowledge the signal, possibly indicating to slow
down or switch lanes in case of a construction zone
obstruction known by the system. At 670,600,000 miles per
hour, nothing travels faster than the speed of light, but it does
take a small amount of time to process the signal. In the real
application, the transmitting and receiving time will be a lot
faster due to the increased clock rate and processing speed.
There has been a lot of talk regarding the safety and security
of the system.
IV. POSSIBLE HURDLES

As mentioned earlier, the Li-Fi network will work
simultaneously with other functions included in an
autonomous car, and this network will be monitored by the
local traffic department[5]. The system in the vehicle will
encounter many obstacles while it’s operational. Other traffic
signs in the area might interfere with the signal from the
significant signs in a specific location. Using GPS systems
Fig. 2. UART Test bench code in VHDL: It is essential to
which is already incorporated in almost all modern cars, the
note that the following code initiates with a start bit and when
location of the vehicle and the signs are to be recorded in the
the receiver detects the start bit it will begin to process the rest
network mainframe so that the vehicle would expect a signal
of the incoming data from the transmitter.
from the signs in its way and ignore all the other signals from
irrelevant traffic signs and traffic lights. Alien obstacles
The code in Figure 2 tests the combination of the
however, might block the signal between two communicating
transmitter and receiver codes. The code for the test bench is a
objects, in this case the current technologies in autonomous
simple code that sends the 10-bit signal (one start bit, one stop
vehicles would be relied on, such as Lidar, radar, and cameras
bit and the 8-bit data) and check whether the data transmitted
scanning the surroundings of the vehicle to navigate safely.
is the same as data received. Since the system is
asynchronous, the receiver would detect the start bit to initiate
processing the data coming to it. A. SURFACE APPLICATIONS
As mentioned earlier, the Li-Fi network will work
simultaneously with other functions included in an
autonomous car, and this network will be monitored by the
local transportation department [5]. The system in the vehicle
will encounter many obstacles while it’s operational. Other
traffic signs in the area might interfere with the signal from the
significant signs in a specific location. Using GPS systems
which is already incorporated in almost all modern cars, the
218
location of the vehicle and the signs are to be recorded in the analysis of the system and a more in-depth view of the system
network mainframe so that the vehicle would expect a signal working with current technologies.
from the signs in its way and ignore all the other signals from
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distance [9].
V. CONCLUSIONS AND THE FUTURE OF TRANSPORTATION

The concept of the autonomous car has repeatedly been
introduced to society, however many drivers feel that a
program error or virtual hijacking can happen which can result
in accidents. Along with the impression that society has
towards autonomous vehicles, the system cannot be
implemented within a short amount of time. It will take many
years to implement the devices due to economic factors and
politics. Also, the system on vehicle cannot simply rely on
current autonomous technology alone. The addition of Li-fi
sensors on the road and on signs will greatly enhance the
capability of the autonomous vehicle, and evolve the driver
assistance technology into a driverless era. There will be more
obstacles in the future, but with time the smart traffic system
can become a reality. The full paper will include detailed
219
A 3.6 kV full SiC fuel cell boost converter for high
power electric aircraft
Otto Kreutzer, Maximilian Gerner, Markus Billmann, Martin Maerz
Fraunhofer IISB Schottkystr. 10 91058 Erlangen, Germany
otto.kreutzer@iisb.fraunhofer.de
In order to electrify commercial passenger aircrafts with several approach is to use a fuel cell as done in [4] and drive it either
MW propulsion power, voltages in the kilovolt range are with hydrogen or a hydrocarbon at reduced efficiency. Even
necessary. Since fuel cells show a soft output voltage
characteristic, a boost converter is essential. Within this paper a though increasing droughts in sub-Saharan countries, melting
3.6 kV fuel cell DCDC-converter is presented that is based on terrestrial poles and natural disasters have become an
3.3 kV SiC-MOSFETs allowing much higher light load efficiency inconvenient truth, no real actions are taken to overcome jet
and switching frequency than conventional silicon IGBT engine exhausts in high altitude. Therefore this paper goes
solutions. The higher light load efficiency is an important ahead with a first power electronic design for the electric
feature for long haul aircrafts since the maximum power is only
needed for take-off and climbing up to the cruising altitude. drivetrain of a fuel cell powered commercial aircraft. First
Within this paper, a single phase setup is built-up, the electrical approaches as presented in [4] are promising concepts, but
design is explained and efficiency measurements are performed. need to be upscaled to much higher thrust levels to be
INTRODUCTION adequate for passenger aircrafts. As presented in [4] an
engine power of 8 – 10 MW is necessary for a 100 seater
The threat of the consequences of global warming is aircraft. Even when splitting this drive power to several
increasing the pressure on aircraft industry to overcome engines, the conventional +/- 270 V level used in nowadays
combustion jet engines. Rail transport already has a high jets is not sufficient any more. This drive power would result
electrification percentage and road transport is starting to be in 15 - 20 kA overall current which would cause an enormous
electrified as well. The enormous growth of the civil aircraft cable weight. Therefore the voltage level in all electric, or
market within the last decades is artificially inflated basically hybrid powered aircrafts must be increased. On the one hand
by two governmental made factors: A worldwide almost increased air and creepage distance is always lighter than
untaxed jet fuel market (in comparison to the mainly in increased copper and aluminum diameter, so from a weight
Europe highly taxed road vehicle fuel and electricity market), point of view the higher the voltage in aircraft applications,
and a missing necessity of jet engines’ exhaust gas the better. On the other hand power electronic costs and
purification. As presented in [1] and [2], the unfiltered technical complexity increase with rising blocking voltage.
emission of severely active greenhouse gases as water vapor, So a trade off has to be found, that is based on the actual
CO2, NOX, CXHX, particles and contrails leads to a dramatic technical and monetary achievements. For a first start, a
environmental and misanthropic footprint, that can be 3.6 kV system approach is availed within this paper. The
avoided by an electrification of the worldwide aircraft reason for choosing this voltage level is the arising
market. Two approaches are mainly possible. A battery availability of 3.3 kV SiC-MOSFETs [5]. As stated in [4],
powered all electric aircraft which is and will be within the cosmic radiation requires a reduction of blocking voltage to
near future limited to short ranges due to a, compared to jet 50 - 60 % of the rated value to reach a sufficient lifetime.
fuels, extremely low energy to weight and volume density of Therefore two 3.3 kV SiC-MOSFETs are connected in series
electric batteries. The other approach that also fits for long at a resulting rated blocking voltage of 6.6 kV, and they are
haul aircrafts is a hybrid concept. A conventional turbine or a operated with 3.6 kV, which would mean 55 % of the rated
fuel cell generates electricity that powers an electric motor. blocking voltage. With ongoing research and improvements
This motor can either drive a propeller (for lower speeds in high voltage SiC technology, other voltage levels can be
< 600 km/h), or an electric fan (for higher speeds > 600 km/h) achieved as well. But separating the 8-10 MW that are
as presented in [3]. The big advantage of such a concept is necessary for a 100-seater aircraft on four electric motors, the
that even if a conventional turbine is used, the exhaust gas 3.6 kV level would result in 550 - 700 A maximum current
can be purified. Water vapor can be extracted quite easy from per motor, which is quite comparable to nowadays currents in
the exhaust gas, and a catalyser could be added to reduce electric vehicles, so the chosen voltage level is a good start
harmful gases. The emitted CO2 can be collected and stored if for the electrification of passenger aircrafts. The intention of
a reduced drivetrain efficiency is accepted. The stored CO2 this project was a first demonstrator, which was limited to a
could then be used for the production of synthetic fuel. The single chip design, because the costs of these SiC-MOSFETs
efficiency of such a drivetrain will definitely be lower than are still extremely high (300 – 400 € / MOSFET) and
with conventional aircrafts, since conversion energy losses paralleling of SiC-MOSFETS as well as interleaved multi-
increase (mechanic – electric – mechanic) and because of the phase operation are proven technologies. The developed
unused core flow thrust of a turbofan engine. Another DCDC converter is one part of the fuel cell electric drivetrain.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 220

An overview of such a drivetrain (similar to the one in [4]) is For example an equal gas distribution, cell temperature or
presented in fig. 1. exhaust flow resistance of each single fuel cell is vital for the
proper lifetime operation of a complete fuel cell stack. In
automotive applications fuel cell voltages of up to 300 –
400 V are manageable as mentioned in [7], so further
development will allow higher voltages within the near
future. An open circuit voltage of 3600 V is chosen since the
efficiency and power density of a boost converter increases
with decreasing difference of input and output voltage. A
typical fuel cell characteristic is extracted from [6] and
displayed in fig. 2. The maximum transferred power is
reached at around 40 – 45 % of the freewheeling voltage.
Since the difference between freewheeling and output voltage
causes losses and reduces the fuel cell efficiency, this
operating point will not be used in normal operation. Only in
emergency operation, if a malfunction in one fuel cell stack
Fig. 1: Fuel cell drivetrain of an electric aircraft
occurs and the remaining ones have to compensate the
The DCDC-converter from this work is enframed in red. It missing power, this lower efficiency operating point will be
is necessary within the drivetrain since the fuel cell has a very used. Since fuel cell efficiency has a significant influence on
soft voltage characteristic so the HV-battery charge can only the transported fuel of long haul aircrafts, the full power fuel
be controlled, and an impedance matching of fuel cell and cell voltage will rather be at a more efficient 2000 V (3600 V
HV-battery can only be done via a power electronic freewheeling voltage), than at the maximum power stack
converter. The power electronic half bridge within the fuel voltage of 1500 V. Consequently, the requirements for the
cell boost converter acts as a basis for all other power fuel cell boost converter become precise. The efficiency
electronic applications within the drivetrain and can be optimum has to be set at an input voltage of around 2000 V
transferred to the drive inverter and auxiliary supply and an operation in case of emergency has to be possible for
converter as well. The fuel cell voltage can basically be set as Vin = 1500 V and an increased current as well. A reduced
necessary, as well as the battery voltage. Since the bottleneck DCDC-converter lifetime in that emergency operating point
of a series connected chain is always limited by the weakest will be accepted.
link, there are practical limitations that increase the necessary
effort when increasing the fuel cell and battery voltage. As FUEL CELL BOOST CONVERTER DESIGN
given in [6] a fuel cell has a no-load voltage of around 1.05 V Since a fuel cell and a battery in aircraft applications form
per cell that decreases with increasing load. If the voltage of a an island grid, no galvanic isolation is necessary within the
fuel cell stack has to be increased to 3600 V, a series fuel cell DCDC converter. Therefore a non-isolating boost
connection of more than 3400 single cells is necessary. The converter topology is chosen. Instead of a direct series
more single cells that are connected in series, the more connection of two 3.3 kV SiC-MOSFETs, two independent
challenging it is to ensure a consistent operation of each converters are connected in series to facilitate the balancing
single cell. control algorithm. SiC-MOSFETs are preferred to Si-IGBTs
firstly because of their better conduction behaviour. The lack
1 0,5
fuel cell voltage / V
power density / W·cm-2
of a forward voltage drop for MOSFETs increases the light-

load efficiency which is especially beneficial as the maximum
0,8 0,4 output power for an aircraft is only required during starting
and climbing. The combination of SiC-MOSFETs with SiC-
0,6 0,3
Schottky diodes leads to much lower switching losses as the
typical reverse-recovery-effect is nearly non-existent. The
0,4 0,2
switching frequency can be raised and power capacitors and
inductors become smaller and lighter which is a crucial
0,2 0,1
advantage for application in aviation. The schematic is
displayed in fig. 3. The components of both converters are
0 0
equivalent, the main difference for the MOSFET control is
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
the source interconnection. The TOP MOSFET’s source pin
■ FC-voltage ■ FC-power current density / A·cm-2
is connected to a stable 0.5 · VIN potential, the BOT
Fig. 2: Typical measured current / voltage relationship of an anode- MOSFET’s source pin is floating with fast transients between
supported SOFC fuel cell characteristic from [6] zero and 0.5 · VOUT. Therefore the BOT MOSFET control has
to have a higher common mode (CM) transient immunity
than the TOP one. The necessary inductance value L and
221
saturation current Isat calculates as follows (ΔIL inductor
ripple current; fS switching frequency; VIN/OUT input/output
voltage; IE input current):
∙( − )
= (1)
2∙ ∙∆ ∙
∙( − )
= + (2)
4∙ ∙ ∙
The necessary capacities CE / CA for the input- and output

voltage depend on the maximum allowable ripple voltage
VRIN/OUT and are calculated according to:
Fig. 4: Developped directly cooled, low inductive switching cell
− equipped with 2 x Wolfspeed CPW3-3300-Z045B SiC-diodes and
≥ (3)
8∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ 2 x Wolfspeed XPM3-3300-0040-ES SiC-MOSFETs
bonded (DCB) substrates (2 x 0.3 mm Cu + 0.63 mm AlN)
2∙ ∙ ∙ 1− ! %
that are directly soldered on a copper baseplate. The SiC-
≥ #$ − ≥ (4) chips are soldered onto the substrates and the electrical
∙ ∙ 2
contacts are bonded directly onto a surrounding printed
The symmetry of the TOP and BOT converter must be circuit board (PCB). To be able to increase the switching
ensured by a voltage control loop. As long as the fuel cell speed to the MOSFETs’ technical maximum and
converter is inactive, the balance of in- and output capacitor consequently reduce the switching losses to the minimum,
voltage is ensured by symmetry resistors, that are switched in Kelvin source contacts are bonded separately close to the gate
parallel to the capacitors (CE,T, CE,B, CA,T and CA,B). bonds. For the electrical isolation and for the protection
against environmental influences, the chips and bond wires
are moulded with silicone gel (Wacker 612, not displayed in
fig. 4). As power electronic devices, 3.3 kV Wolfspeed (Cree)
SiC-MOSFETs (40 mΩ @ 25°C) and SiC-diodes (45 A) with
comparable chip size are used. No MOSFET half bridge with
synchronous rectification is applied to avoid the resulting
significant rise of reverse recovery losses and since the
forward voltage of a SiC-Schottky diode (1 - 3 V) at 1.8 kV is
negligible.
The surrounding PCB board is used for the output capacitor
as well as the gate drivers in order to ensure a low inductive
driver and load circuit. In the end, a gate driver and output
capacitor integrated power module is achieved, which is
shown in fig. 5. The output capacitor is built-up of 450 V
Fig. 3: Basic schematic of the applied fuel cell boost converter 2.2 µF ceramic MLCCs to ensure a high capacity density in
setup; index T representes the TOP and the BOT converter combination with a high ripple current capability and a low
Each power electronic device (TT, TB, DT and DB) and the series inductance. The capacity of the used X7T dielectric is
output capacitors (CA,T and CA,B) are loaded with a maximum significantly dependent on the applied voltage. Tab. 1 lists the
voltage of 0.5 · VOUT and the input capacitors (CE,T and CE,B) main electric parameters.
with a maximum of 0.5 · VIN. Max. voltage 2 x 5 x 450 V = 4500 V
Capacity per capacitor 720 nF (at 360 V)
FUEL CELL BOOST CONVERTER SETUP Number of capacitors 2 x 5 series, 9 parallel
Overall capacity 648 nF (1296 nF per converter)
The most challenging component of the boost converter is Technology Ceramic X7T
the switching cell. Since the 3.3 kV SiC-MOSFETs are very
Tab. 1: Key parameters of the output capacitor
expensive, the necessary chip size has to be reduced to a
minimum to allow an economic operation. Therefore two, in The gate driver is a very challenging component as well
power electronics usually opposing goals have to be since it has a significant influence on the achievable
achieved: a very low inductive setup (to achieve the lowest switching speed. Two main challenges appear: on the one
possible switching losses) and a low resistive thermal hand the driver must be capable to charge the high MOSFET
interconnection between chip and heatsink. The achieved chip input capacity (rated gate charge Qg = 241 nC) as fast as
setup is displayed in fig. 4. It consists of two direct copper possible, on the other hand the high dV/dt causes common
222
mode currents that interfere the gate signal and cause ringing. storing capability (air gap) without a significant increase in
The fast gate capacity charging is realized with a 14 A power AC-losses, a distributed airgap is applied within the E-cores
stage (Ixys IXD 614) and a -5 / +20 V power supply. The center leg. A total airgap length of 10 mm per core pair is
XPM3-3300-0040-ES has an intrinsic gate resistance of distributed onto 11 small airgaps with a length of 0.9 mm
2.5 Ohm, so even without any external gate resistance or each. The main technical parameters of the realized custom
inductance, the maximum gate charge current is 10 A. The made inductor are summarized in the following tab. 2:
applied 14 A gate drive power stage ensures that no switching
Inductance 247 µH
speed limitation arises. DC-resistance (25°C) 12.1 mΩ
Saturation current (25°C / 85°C) 77.6 / 66.5 A
Core geometry / material E80/38/20 / MF106
Number of windings 32
output
capacitor
Air gap 10 mm (11 x 0.91 mm)
Switching cell Litz wire 490 x 0.2 mm
Copper cross-section of litz wire 15.39 mm²
Tab. 2: Key parameters of the custom made power inductors
gate drive
power stage gate transformer The inductor is calculated and designed to be able to work
without any active cooling for the first prototype. Since the
two inductors have become quite big and heavy compared to
the power switches and other passive components, a further
optimization between cooling effort and inductor size has to
Signal Isolator be made in future prototypes. But since no reliable experience
Fig. 5: Picture of the power module, integrated gate driver, output concerning the 3.3 kV SiC power devices’ switching losses
capacitors and cooling baseplate has been available at the beginning of the project, an
oversizement has been accepted to compensate a possibly
Signal isolator and gate transformer are an important
necessary reduction of switching frequency.
coupling path for the CM-currents during switching.
Therefore great emphasis was put on low coupling capacity
Input Capacitor BOT
and a high dV/dt noise immunity of the signal coupler. The
Input Capacitor TOP
applied Texas Instruments ISO5851 has a rated CMTI
(common mode transient immunity) of 120 V/ns which
would be sufficient for a switching time of 15 ns (at VOUT =
1.8 kV). Since commercially available gate transformers are
often not optimized for a low coupling capacity (CC), the used
one is custom made resulting in a very low CC of 1.4 pF. The Inductor BOT
inductor is custom made as well, since the high operation
voltage requires large inductance values and for an aircraft Y-Capacitor
Current Sensor
application, low AC and DC losses are vital as well, since Inductor TOP
cooling effort results in additional weight and volume.
Fig. 7: Picture of the built-up 3.6 kV 60 kW aircraft boost converter
single phase power stage
The power inductors are moulded in epoxy resin for a

better isolation strength towards the metallic housing. As it
can be seen in fig. 7, the moulded inductors are mounted onto
a water-cooled baseplate, which is basically not necessary
(because of the low-loss design) and will not be applied in a
final setup. In aircraft applications an air cooling is preferred
to avoid the fluid weight of a water cooling system. The input
capacitor and current sensor board, that is mounted on top of
the power module board is displayed in fig. 7 as well. Current
sensing is realized with magnetoresistive Sensitec CDS4050
because of their high bandwidth capability and low auxiliary
power requirements. The input capacitor is realized with film
Fig. 6: Custom made power inductor without epoxy moulding
technology, since ripple current capability and stray
The custom made power inductor is realized with 4 pairs of inductance is not that significantly important than for the
E80/38/20 ferrite cores. In order to increase the energy output capacitor. The most important parameters are listed in
223
tab. 3. In addition a Y-capacitor is contacted directly on top The tube lifetime can be quite short, if surrounding lamps
of the power module to short circuit CM-currents with the cause a high ambient temperature. Therefore the typical
shortest possible electric path length and prevent them from halogen tube resistance is measured and the bulb array setup
straying into the metallic cooler plate. is cooled with fans. The measured resistance diagram is given
in fig. 8. The halogen bulb array is shown in fig. 9. It consists
Max. voltage (70°C / 85°C) 1300 / 1100 V
Capacity 12 µF of 8 series switched bulbs for the TOP and BOT converter
Ripple current capability (70°C) 14.5 A each, and 4 parallel strings to adjust the load current. The
Technology MKP foil capacitor bulb array is cooled by two fans to reduce the ambient
temperature and increase the lamp lifetime. To prevent a
Tab. 3: Key parameters of the input capacitor Epcos B3277G1126J
sudden load dump, at least two strings are switched in parallel
LOAD DESCRIPTION during operation.
BOOST CONVERTER MEASUREMENTS
Since no high voltage fuel cell or battery is available for
testing the built-up DCDC-converter, a workaround had to be Measurements are performed at two different gate
found. A voltage source for up to 2 kV is realized with two resistances (3.3 and 10 Ω), in- and output voltages and
series connected 1 kV 30 A sources. different input currents. The load currents are set by the
resistance steps of the halogen bulb array. As a first start
60 900 double pulse measurements have been done to evaluate the
3.3 kV SiC-MOSFETs’ switching behavior. Fig. 10 shows
50 750 the voltage rise- and fall characteristic during switching.
40 600
PLamp / W
RLamp / Ω
2500
30 450
2000
20 300
1500
10 150
1000
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 500
UDS / V
Resistance Power VLoad / V 0

Fig. 8: Measured resistance and dissipation power of one single -500
230 V, 1000 W halogen bulbs at different voltages
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Since current sinks with a voltage rating of 3.6 kV are hard t / ns
to find, the sink is built-up of series- and parallel connected Fig. 10: Measured drain-source voltage rise and fall characteristic
halogen bulbs (230 V 1000 W). Halogen bulbs are cheap, (Ion = 10 A, Ioff = 35 A, RG = 3.3 Ω, VDS = 2 kV)
don’t need much cooling effort, but have several
disadvantages. The resistance value changes with tube The drain source voltage is measured with an isolated HV-
temperature (applied power) and the filament melts through probe directly at the bond wires. Since the maximum
the glass housing at the end of the bulbs’ lifetime. switching speed reaches ~100 V/ns during turn-on, no lower
gate resistance has been applied, in order not to exceed the
driver signal isolator’s limit of 120 V/ns. Since no significant
voltage overshoot arises during turn-off, the low inductive
setup would have allowed a much higher switching speed.
When comparing the turn-off and turn-on graphs, one
measurement error is quite obvious: After each switching
edge, a DC-offset of 100 to 200 V occurs. This offset dis-
solves after 10 µs and is caused by a poor voltage probe
calibration. The turn-on speed (90 – 10 %) is 17 ns and the
turn-off speed (10 – 90 %) 32 ns. Within the built-up DCDC-
converter, maximum voltages of 1.8 kV appear per converter,
but the 2 kV have been tested to ensure a safe continuous
operation and identify any possible switching anomaly. But
the waveforms in fig. 10 show quite well, that the custom
made gate driver and power module is working splendidly.
After the positive double pulse tests, the DCDC-converter
Fig. 9: Picture of 32 series and parallel switched halogen bulbs with has been operated in continuous operation. Fig. 11 shows two
forced cooling measured efficiency curves for two different input voltages.
224
The output voltage is kept constant at 1800 V. The SUMMARY
measurements are at first performed with the TOP and BOT
The built-up and tested 3.6 kV DCDC-converter has
converter separately and efficiency measurements are done.
proven the outstanding technical advantages of high voltage
Afterwards both converters are driven together as a proof of
SiC-MOSFETs. Switching speeds of low voltage MOSFETs
concept.
have been realized for high voltage applications. A full
100% working prototype has been realized with a very good
efficiency, performance and power density. Within further
Efficiency
99%
improvements the current capability needs to be upscaled by
98% paralleling power switches and realizing a multi-phase
interleaved operation. The inductors need to be optimized to
97% reduce the overall volume and to merge better into a
rectangular converter volume. Furthermore a pressure-tight,
96%
air-cooled housing has to be designed to supersede the actual
95% water-cooled baseplate.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
IIN / A ACKNOWLEDGMENT
500 V -> 1800 V 60 kHz 1000 V -> 1800 V 70 kHz
The work in this paper is based on the master thesis of
Fig. 11: Measured efficiency of the TOP DCDC converter (BOT Maximilian Gerner, supervised by Otto Kreutzer and Martin
converter efficiency comparable) at RG = 3.3 Ω (the red stray
bullets are explained in the text)
Maerz.
REFERENCES
The measurements show a very good efficiency of up to
98.7 % in the targeted operation point (2000 -> 3600 V when [1] H. Djojodihardjo, Climate Change Creativity for Cirrus Clouds and
Contrails Control, International Conference on Space Science and
both converters are running). Even if the input voltage is Communication (IconSpace), Langkawi, Malaysia, 2015
decreasing and the fuel cell is running at its maximum power [2] W. Lili et al., Research on Optimization Method of Flight Conflict
point in emergency operation, an efficiency of more than Deployment Strategy for Environmental Protection, International
97 % can still be reached. At lower input currents (< 10 A) Symposium on System Integration, Taipei, IEEE SII2017
[3] Airbus, Rolls-Royce, and Siemens team up for electric future
some efficiency points are higher than the average (up to Partnership launches E-Fan X hybrid-electric flight demonstrator.
99 %). This is caused by the discontinuous current mode Available:http://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-
(DCM). If the input current is lower than half of the inductor releases/en/2017/11/airbus--rolls-royce--and-siemens-team-up-for-
electric-future-par.html
ripple current, the inductor current becomes zero before the [4] O. Kreutzer et al., “Non-isolating DC/DC converter for a fuel cell
end of the clock cycle is reached. The SiC-MOSFET’s output powered aircraft,” in 2016 International Conference on Electrical
capacity forms an oscillating circuit with the wiring stray Systems for Aircraft, Railway, Ship Propulsion and Road Vehicles &
International Transportation Electrification Conference (ESARS-ITEC),
inductance. At the end of the clock cycle, when the MOSFET 2016, S. 1–6.
is switched off, the amplitude of the turn-off losses depends [5] J. W. Palmour et al., “Silicon carbide power MOSFETs: Breakthrough
significantly on the actual oscillation voltage. The turn-off performance from 900 V up to 15 kV,” in 2014 IEEE 26th International
voltage can vary between zero and Vout. The summarized Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices & IC's (ISPSD), 2014, P.
79–82
technical data overview is given in the following tab. 4: [6] P. Lindahl et al., Fuel Cell Stack Emulation for Cell and Hardware-in-
the-Loop Testing, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION
Input voltage range 1000 – 2600 V AND MEASUREMENT, Volume: PP, Issue: 99, Mar. 2018
Output voltage 3600 V [7] O. Kreutzer et al., Unidirectional fast switching non-isolated 100 kW
Max. input current (single phase) 30 A fuel cell boost converter, European Conference on Power Electronics
Rated power (2000 -> 3600 V) 60 kW and Applications, Lappeenranta, EPE, 2014
Cubic converter volume (incl. 6.9 dm³
water cooling) (5.56 x 1.26 x 0.99 dm³)
Converter weight 10.6 kg
Switching frequency 50 - 100 kHz
Power density (volume) 8.7 kW / dm³
Power density (weight) 5.7 kW / kg
Tab. 4: Key parameters of the built-up fuel cell boost converter
225
Methodology for Utility Incentive Programs to
Advance Nonroad Electric Vehicles and
Charging Infrastructure
Ian Metzger P.E.*, Brenton Montgomery P.E., Angela Gordon, Robert St. Amand and Scott Steiner
Lockheed Martin Energy
Nashville, TN, USA
*Email: ian.metzger@lmco.com
Abstract—This paper discusses a methodology for prescriptive program design and the recruitment and training of program
and custom utility incentive programs to calculate and pay partners, program implementers can make meaningful
incentives on emissions reduction or beneficial load growth in contributions to cost-effective emissions reduction and
order to accelerate adoption of electrified nonroad transportation beneficial load growth.
assets. The emissions simulation methodology from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) NONROAD model is
adapted into a per-unit calculator for use by utility incentive II. METHODOLOGY
programs. Emissions reductions are calculated for individual The following methodology provides an approach for
projects that can be either retrofits or new purchases, and estimating emissions savings from retrofitting existing IC
incentives are calculated per ton of CO2 reduced or per kW (or engine equipment with electric equipment and electrified fleet
kWh) of load growth. This paper focuses on the following
expansion. Specific considerations are discussed for the
technologies: electric forklifts, airport ground support equipment,
heavy-duty truck stop electrification, and electric truck following nonroad technologies: electric forklifts, airport
refrigeration units. A case study of a cost-effective utility program ground support equipment (GSE), heavy-duty truck stop
at Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) using this methodology to electrification (HD-TSE), and electric truck refrigeration units
promote the beneficial electrification of nonroad transportation (eTRU).
and infrastructure is discussed.
Estimating local emissions from IC engines in nonroad
Keywords—beneficial electrification, demand side equipment can be complex and can depend on many different
management, nonroad, electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, factors. Some programs have oversimplified the calculation to
utility incentive program, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, basic factors that erroneously estimate emissions reduction, and
load growth. fail to take into account different equipment types and operating
conditions. The U.S. EPA developed a simulation model,
NONROAD, for estimating broad populations of nonroad
I. INTRODUCTION
vehicles for regional reporting and emissions accounting [1].
For many years, utilities have lamented the combined crises This model evaluates the emissions from several different
of aging infrastructure and stagnant load growth. These two processes associated with IC equipment. Table I shows a
problems fed off each other as the steady demand for energy summary of the various processes where emissions can occur.
failed to justify the significant investment in utility rate base
required to meet future needs. Utilities turned to least-cost TABLE I. EVAPORATIVE EMMISSIONS FROM IC EQUIPMENT
resources, like energy efficiency and demand response, to [2][3][4][5]
prepare for future load growth. Simultaneously, technological
Emission Type Description Applicability
advancements and more-competitive prices encouraged the
These emissions are due to
implementation of renewable energy resources. These market Diurnal temperature changes throughout
Applicable only
conditions, as well as energy- and emissions-reducing policies, to gasoline/E85
the day
have resulted in cleaner energy supplies. Today, plant-generated These emissions are due to fuel Not applicable
electricity can have significantly better efficiencies and lower Permeation that works its way through the to large
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than mobile internal material used in the fuel system equipment
combustion (IC) engines burning fossil fuels such as gasoline These emissions are due to
Applicable only
Hot Soak residual heat from the equipment
and diesel. This is especially true for nonroad vehicles that have just after the engine is shut off.
to gasoline/E85
lower emissions standards than other vehicle types. These emissions are similar to
Applicable only
Running Loss diurnal except the heating is
The electric nonroad vehicle market presents a good caused by engine operation
to gasoline/E85
opportunity to leverage existing utility incentive programs to These emissions are the vapors
Applicable only
provide public benefits, encourage clean load growth, and Displacement displaced from the fuel tank
to gasoline/E85
replace aging infrastructure. Through efforts such as effective when the tank is refueled
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 226

Emission Type Description Applicability activity hours per year, horsepower, and unit conversion factor
Spillage
This refers to fuel spilled during Applicable only (1) [7].
refueling events to gasoline/E85
Not applicable
These are vapors released from
Crankcase
the crankcase of an engine
to large EAnnual = A · hp · EF · C (1)
equipment
These are the vapors released
through the exhaust from the Applicable to all Where, EAnnual is the annual emissions in tons per year, A
Exhaust
combustion chamber in the IC equipment represents the activity level in hours per year, hp is horsepower
engine of the retrofit or equivalent (if new) IC engine, EF represents the
The technical approach developed by the U.S. EPA for broad emission factor from the EPA NONROAD model process
population studies can be adapted and applied at the project level described in Figure 1, and C is a conversion factor from grams
for custom and prescriptive programs to quantify the emissions to tons.
reduction and economic benefits of transportation electrification The life cycle emissions can be estimated by multiplying the
measures. Figure 2 summarizes the required program participant annual emissions by the equipment useful life (2)
inputs, the dependent variables calculated in the EPA
NONROAD simulation model, and the emission factor that is
output. Participant requirements are straightforward, easy to ELife-Cycle = EAnnual · EUL (2)
obtain, and verifiable. Dependent variables are automatically
calculated inside an ”emissions factor calculator” using EPA where ELife-Cycle is the life cycle emissions in tons, and EUL
NONROAD model methodology. Local weather conditions that represents the equipment useful life in years for the electric
affect emission factors are also used in the calculation, such as vehicle or infrastructure.
ambient temperature, daily high temperature, daily low Charger type can impact the beneficial load growth. In
temperature, and Reid vapor pressure. Model year is an determining the revenue from kWh and kW load growth,
important input, as EPA emissions standards have changed over charger type should be considered. Specific considerations for
time with the implementation of four tiers of emissions electric forklifts, airport GSE, HD-TSE, and eTRU were
reduction standards between 1996 and 2012 for nonroad IC researched and included in the analysis methodology.
engines. The output of this process are emission factors that can
be used to estimate annual savings. A. Forklifts
Industrial forklifts can be operated for a different number of
shifts each day depending on the business purpose. Therefore,
activity levels should consider how many shifts per day a forklift
is operated. Emission-dependent factors such as spillage and
vapor displacement from filling a gas tank should also correlate
to number of shifts. Number of shifts will also influence the
equipment useful life (EUL) years. For example, if EUL is based
on manufacturer warranty and a typical manufacturer provides a
warranty for 10,000 hours, EUL should be adjusted based on
number of shifts and annual activity. Industrial vehicles often
Fig. 1. Overview of process for calculating emissions savings from utility
program applications [6] have hour meter displays that can be used to help estimate
existing and projected activity levels.
This methodology produces several emission factors that are Forklifts that are leased can have contracts that limit the
associated with the IC engine. Table II shows a list of all of the equipment useful life within a defined territory. Therefore,
emission factors. Although carbon dioxide is the only GHG, minimum contract duration terms should be defined for leased
other emissions can combine with other elements to make GHGs vehicles to ensure a minimum life in the defined territory to
or be independently harmful to health and the environment. achieve cost-effectiveness. For example, lease terms can be
defined using a tiered function to ensure the desired EUL is
TABLE II. IC EMIISSION TYPES AND SYMBOLS achieved.
Emission Type Symbol • Two years if operating at a three-shift-per-day operation

Hydrocarbons HC • Three years if operating at a two-shift-per-day operation
Carbon Monoxide CO
Nitrogen Oxides NOx • Five years if operating at a one-shift-per-day operation
Particulate Matter PM
Carbon Dioxide CO2
Sulfur Dioxide SO2 B. Airport GSE
Airport GSE covers a wide variety of equipment and
The annual emissions for each emission type can be
applications—a fact that creates a large variation in emission
estimated by multiplying the emission factors by the equipment factors. EPA and California Air Resources Board have
conducted research and published guidance to support emission
227
reductions for GSE. Table III summarizes the wide range of
equipment types, brake horsepower, activity levels, and load
factors.
TABLE III. GSE AVERAGE CAPACITY AND OPERATING CONDITIONS

Load Factor Activity (hrs/yr) Power (Bhp)
GSE Category [8] [9] [9]
Air Conditioner 0.75 794.5 149.4
Air Start 0.90 317.6 352.3
Aircraft Tractor 0.80 632.6 200.4
Baggage Tractor 0.55 1,394.7 92.5
Belt Loader 0.50 980.2 84.4
Bobtail 0.55 1,786.9 140.7
Cargo Loader 0.50 909.2 101.7
Cargo Tractor 0.54 1,309.3 100.8
Cart 0.50 46.0 55.0
Catering Truck 0.53 984.5 207.3
Deicer 0.95 110.0 117.5
Fork Lift 0.30 854.2 79.6
Fuel Truck 0.25 2,008.7 136.7 Fig. 2. TSE with electric dock power stations only (Photo: Shorepower)
Generator 0.55 900.0 107.0
Ground Power Unit 0.75 1,008.1 149.3
Hydrant Truck 0.70 1,300.7 130.8
Lavatory Truck 0.25 1,395.1 146.8
Lift 0.50 790.7 113.6
Other 0.50 954.1 137.8
Passenger Stand 0.57 172.9 124.1
Service Truck 0.20 896.3 132.5
Sweeper 0.51 234.7 50.0
Water Truck 0.20 770.2 158.6
In addition to the EPA NONROAD model, other GSE

emissions models have been developed, such as the Federal
Aviation Administration Aviation Environmental Design Tool
(AEDT). The AEDT uses a similar approach as the EPA
NONROAD model to calculate emissions factors, and provides
additional features such as dispersion modeling. Similar to EPA
NONROAD, the AEDT is not specifically designed for
emission reduction calculations, but rather for a wider
population analysis of air quality for aviation sources. Fig. 3. TSE with electric dock power stations and HVAC (Photo: IdleAire)
Many companies operate at airports. Eligible program Several challenges are associated with estimating emissions
participants may include airports, airport authorities, airlines, reductions from TSE. Similar to other nonroad electrification
cargo carriers, corporate procurement offices, other airport measures, varying engine sizes, vintages, idling RPMs, and
stakeholders, and any other businesses that operate GSE. emissions standards can create a wide range of emission factors.
Airports may be located in environmentally challenged areas TSE emission savings may come from two completely different
that struggle with non-attainment classification—a possible IC engines, the main truck engine or an auxiliary power unit.
consideration when potential participants are being evaluated. TSE has additional challenges of varying HVAC loads
depending on time of day and local climate at the truck stop.
C. HD-TSE Finally, a wide variety of electronic accessories can be used in
HD-TSE eliminates emissions associated with the the cab during the mandatory rest stops, such as televisions,
continuing idling of diesel engines during a truck stop layover refrigerators, computers, and phone chargers.
in order to power internal over-the-road cabin loads, such as Because TSE is an infrastructure-based electrification
heating and cooling equipment, refrigerators, and lights in the measure, emissions are always saved at the truck stop rather than
truck’s main cabin and attached living space. HD-TSE provides when the vehicle is mobile. Therefore, emissions can be
the necessary power needed to run this equipment. Two main estimated on a per-parking-space basis if the utilization rate is
configurations of HD-TSE are commercially available: electric known. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires that
only dock power stations, and electric dock power and HVAC long haul truck drivers rest for at least 10 hours for every 14
supplied from truck stop packaged heating and cooling units. hours of driving [10]. The American Trucking Associations
(ATA) estimates that trucks idle on average for six hours per
day. Researchers have conducted numerous field tests
monitoring utilization rates for TSE and found average
utilization rates of 25% [11], consistent with ATA estimates.
228
electric powered alternatives, and the installation of 24
electrification stations at truck stops throughout the TVA service
territory between March 2015 and September 2017. As a result
of these conversions, net emissions of CO2 were reduced
209,337 tons over the lifetime of the new equipment. The
average incentive cost of emissions reduced was $17 per ton.
In addition to the benefit of the utility’s $3.6 million
investment in emissions reduction, the local power companies
will realize net load growth of 9,445,276 kWh annually from the
nonroad vehicle conversions to electricity power. At an average
Fig. 4. Average TSE parking space utilization rates [11]
price of 8 cents per kWh, local power companies will realize
increased revenue from this program of more than $755,000
D. eTRU annually. The revenue from beneficial electrification will
Conversions of eTRU or hybrid refrigerated trucks reduce surpass the cost of the incentives in less than five years while
the emissions generated by diesel-powered refrigerated units providing cost-effective economic and environmental benefits
when docked at ports, distribution centers, warehouses, etc. to TVA customers.
Similar to TSE, eTRU is an infrastructure-based electrification The following measures were available as part of the TVA
measure where emissions are always saved at the facility with Non-Road Transportation Electrification and Infrastructure
electrified docks rather than when the vehicle is mobile, and Applications Project.
emissions can be estimated on a per-dock basis if utilization rate
is known. However, the refrigerated truck must be equipped A. Forklifts
with a plug-in electric or hybrid compressor to run the • Replacement of a Class 4 or Class 5 IC forklift to a new
refrigeration cycle [12]. Therefore, on-board compressor purchase or lease of Class 1 or Class 2 electric forklift
conversions should be included in measure descriptions to
increase utilization. • Purchase or lease of a new Class 1 or Class 2 electric
forklift instead of the purchase or lease of a new Class 4
Compressor engine (or generator) size and duration of time or Class 5 IC forklift
at dock are the key parameters needed to estimate emissions.
Unlike TSE, main engine idling and cabin loads are not
considered because the refrigeration cycle is typically run B. Airport GSE
independently from the main engine of the truck. However, the • Electric Pushback or Electric Aircraft Tractors
load on the cooling system changes as truck contents are loaded
• Electric Belt Loaders
and unloaded, creating some challenges in calculating the
emissions reduction from eTRU. • Electric Tugs and Tow Tractors
In some cases, refrigerated trailers are disconnected from the • Ground Power Units
cab and mounted on jack-stands with a large auxiliary fuel tank.
In this configuration, the refrigerated truck is being used as a • Pre-Conditioned Air Units (PCAs)
more permanent structure for refrigerated storage. Permanently • Other internal combustion technologies that can be
docked truck refrigeration units are a large opportunity for replaced with electric options that support airport/airline
emissions savings and beneficial load growth because the operations
operating hours at the dock are much higher.
C. HD-TSE
III. CASE STUDY
• Truck stop power and HVAC infrastructure
In 2011, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) launched a
Non-Road Transportation Electrification and Infrastructure D. eTRU
Applications Project designed and implemented by Lockheed
Martin Energy. This program had an objective to foster the • eTRU or hybrid conversions on refrigerated trucks
adoption of electrified nonroad transportation assets within the currently equipped with diesel-powered refrigeration
TVA seven-state service territory by promoting electric fuel units (dTRU)
options over traditional fossil fuel options. TVA’s goal was to • Dock power station installations which facilitate the
achieve a 5% aggregated market development of the targeted powering of an eTRU while a refrigerated truck is parked
technologies: forklifts, airport GSE, HD-TSE, and eTRU. The at a loading dock stall
program cost-effectively increased adoption of nonroad electric
vehicles, reduced emissions, enhanced environmental benefits,
IV. CONSIDERATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
supported capital investment in local businesses, and improved
commercial and industrial customer operations. While a national CO2 market does not currently exist in the
United States, the creation of a carbon tax has been discussed in
The TVA program paid $3.6 million in incentives to recent years and is already being adopted in other countries.
facilitate conversion of 651 fossil-fueled units of equipment to
Synapse Energy Economics has conducted studies of the value
229
of carbon dioxide emissions reductions under low/mid/high REFERENCES
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of 5%) for the period 2022 – 2050 of $23.02. The lowest value Emission Factors for Nonroad Engine Modeling - Compression-
Ignition,” 141 pp, EPA-420-R-10-018, July 2010.
per ton of CO2 is forecasted to be $15 per ton in 2022, with the
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valued at $36 per ton [13]. The potential avoided costs of a [4] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Nonroad Evaporative Emission
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programs. Nonroad Engine Modeling - Spark-Ignition,” 58 pp, EPA-420-R-10-
EV adoption presents a valuable market opportunity for 019, July 2010.
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Engine Emission Deterioration Factors,” 17 pp, EPA-420-R-10-020,
infrastructure and stagnant load growth that utilities face. July2010.
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recruitment and training of program partners, utilities can make and Load Factor Values for Nonroad Engine Emissions Modeling,” 47
meaningful contributions to emissions reduction and beneficial pp, EPA-420-R-10-016, July 2010.
electrification. [8] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Technical Support for
Development of Airport Ground Support Equipment Emission
The methodology described in this paper helps utilities Reductions,” 144 pp, EPA420-R-99-007, July 2010.
develop electric nonroad vehicle and infrastructure [9] California Air Resources Board, “Ground Support Equipment (GSE),”
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B-04-001, January 2004.
load growth, and lessons learned. The technologies described in
[11] Center for Air Quality Studies, Texas Transportation Institute, “Truck
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the way for future beneficial electrification measures. Consumption and Pollutant Emissions,” 16pp, 2008.
[12] New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, “
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Electric-Powered Trailer Refrigeration Unit Market Study and
Technology Assessment.” 197pp, Agreement No. 8485-1, 2005.
Lockheed Martin Energy thanks the TVA team members for
their dedicated support of the project, especially Angela Carroll. [13] Synapse Energy Economics, “Spring 2016 National Carbon Dioxide
Price Forecast,” 39 pp, 2016.
Thank you to the Lockheed Martin Energy implementation team
for providing technical assistance and access to data.
230
An MPC-Based Power Management of a
PV/Battery System in an Islanded DC Microgrid
Salem Batiyah1 , Nasibeh Zohrabi1 , Sherif Abdelwahed2 , Roshan Sharma1
1
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, USA
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
Emails: smb940@msstate.edu, nz75@msstate.edu, sabdelwahed@vcu.edu, rs2142@msstate.edu
Abstract—In this paper, a power management strategy for a is designed for a stand-alone PV/battery system in terms of
photovoltaic (PV)/battery system in an islanded DC microgrid is linear matrix inequalities. A double-layer hierarchical control
proposed based on a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach. algorithm is presented in [8] for islanded dc microgrids to
A PV system and a battery storage source are connected to
a common DC bus through two DC/DC converters that are regulate the bus voltage and also to keep the states of charge
providing power to the loads. The considered PV-Battery system of batteries close to each other during replenishment. Generally,
is presented by a nonlinear model with four operational modes. the main control objectives for the PV/battery system in a stand-
As part of the proposed MPC power management strategy, alone DC microgrid can be summarized into four categories: 1)
an optimization problem is formulated to meet the voltage extracting Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) of PV due
performance in the system with respect to operating conditions
and constraints. The aim of the proposed MPC is to control to the intermittent nature of solar irradiance, 2) power sharing
the DC/DC converter to extract the maximum power from among the entire energy sources, 3) charging/discharging
the PV system under different weather conditions and also to pattern of the battery, 4) regulating DC bus voltage.
control the bi-directional DC/DC converter for charging and Model predictive control is an advanced model-based method
discharging the battery by considering the State of Charge that has received considerable attention from industry due to its
(SoC) of the battery. The battery storage source is incorporated
into the system to compensate power generation due to possible advantages in real-world applications [9]–[11]. MPC can handle
fluctuation in PV or changes in load demand, and as a result, to different types of systems including linear or nonlinear model
regulate DC bus voltage and supply the loads when necessary. as well as multivariable cases. Moreover, it is straightforward to
The simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed consider operating conditions and constraints on state variables
method. and control inputs in the MPC optimization problem [12]–[14].
Index Terms– DC Microgrid, Photovoltaic (PV) system, Model In this paper, we propose an MPC-based power management
Predictive Control (MPC), Maximum Power Point Tracking. for a stand-alone PV/battery system under different operational
modes.
I. I NTRODUCTION The aim of this paper is to design an MPC-based controller
Among all the renewable energy resources, the photovoltaic to consider power management problem of a PV/battery system
(PV) power generation system has recently received a great deal in a stand-alone DC microgird. In this paper, we have defined
of attention from the power society due to its special features four operational modes for the system. These modes are mainly
including low environmental impact, ease of integration and categorized based on PV power generation, battery State of
direct energy conversion [1]. A stand-alone PV system is one Charge (SoC) and the load demand. To ensure maximum power
of the famous applications of photovoltaic generation which point tracking, Perturb and Observe (P&O) method [15] is
is used in the off-grid areas. Since the output power of PV is used to extract the PV reference voltage for the MPC. The
significantly dependent on climate conditions, a battery storage first objective of optimization problem is to guarantee that
system is also needed in islanded DC microgrid to supply power PV voltage will track the reference value obtained by P&O
to the loads when necessary [2], [3]. Multiple topologies have algorithm. The second goal is to meet DC bus voltage transient
been proposed in the literature to connect the battery storage performance with respect to changes in operational modes.
device to the system [2]. In the commonly used architecture, The controller manages the charging/discharging process of a
the battery is connected to a common DC bus [4]–[6]. In this battery based on SoC constraint and each operational mode’s
paper, we also consider this structure which the battery is conditions. In order to regulate DC bus voltage, the battery
connected to a common DC link through bi-directional DC/DC system will compensate power generation to supply the loads in
converter. case of any fluctuation in PV due to environmental conditions
During the past decades, a number of power management (e.g. temperature and irradiance changes) or possible changes
strategies have been investigated for a PV/ battery system in an in load demand.
islanded microgrid [2], [4]–[7]. In [2], the authors propose a The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Sec-
control strategy that combines a multiloop proportional-integral tion II describes the considered islanded photovoltaic-battery
(PI) controller and a sliding mode controller to manage the DC microgrid architecture in this paper. A complete description
operation of the converters. In [7], a robust H∞ controller of model predictive control structure and the main results are
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 231

presented in Section III. The simulation results for four defined
system operational modes are given in Section IV. Finally, the
VP V + IP V Rs VP V + IP V Rs
conclusion is given in Section V. IP V = Iph −Io exp −1 −
aVt Rsh
II. S YSTEM M ODEL AND F ORMULATION (2)
In this paper, we use a nonlinear model of a photovoltaic where IP V , Io , Iph , VP V , Vt are the PV output current, the
panel and a battery storage system which are connected to saturation current, photovoltaic current, PV voltage, and thermal
the DC bus through two DC/DC converters providing power voltage, respectively. The saturation current, photovoltaic
to the DC loads. The general dynamic of this system can be current and thermal voltage are dependent on changes in
described as follows: temperature and irradiance and expressed as:
x(k + 1) = f (x(k), u(k), k), x(0) = x0 (1) G
Iph = (ISC + ki (T − Tn )) ,
where x(k) ∈ Rn and u(k) ∈ Rm are the state variables and 1000
I Ns kT
control inputs of the system, respectively, at sample time k. Ion = SC , Vt = ,
x0 vector represents the initial values of state variables. The Vocn
exp aVt N s − 1 q
state variables defined in the considered PV/battery power 3
T qEgap 1 1
system are shown in Table I. Fig. 1 shows the diagram of the Io = Ion exp − . (3)
system under consideration. In this architecture, the PV panel is Tn ka Tn T
considered as the main source and connected to the load through The full description of the parameters used in the PV model
a DC/DC boost converter. Meanwhile, a battery storage system is given in Table II.
is cooperated with the PV panel through a bi-directional DC/DC
Rs
converter to compensate the PV intermittent nature. The battery IP V
converter can be operated in the buck mode while charging the Id Ish +
battery and the boost mode while discharging to the load. Since Iph Rsh VP V
a PV panel operates under various weather conditions, it is
crucial to apply a maximum power point tracking algorithm to −
extract the maximum amount of photovoltaic power from PV Figure 2: The Equivalent Circuit of a PV Cell
panels. In this paper, the Perturb and Observe (P&O) algorithm
is used for the MPPT implementation.
Table II: Significant Parameters of PV System
Table I: State Variables of PV-Battery System
Symbol Description Symbol Description
Symbol Description ISC Short-Circuit Current Rs Series Resistor of PV
ILb Inductor Current of Battery PV Open-Circuit Volt-
Vocn Rsh Shunt Resistor of PV
Vb Capacitor Voltage of Battery age
ILP V Inductor Current of PV T Prating Temperature Tn Nominal Temperature
VP V Capacitor Voltage of PV Band Gap Energy of the
Egap ki Temperature Coefficient
Vdc DC Bus Voltage Semiconductor
SoCb Battery State of Charge k Boltzmann Constant G Solar Irradiation
q Electron Charge a Ideality Factor
In the practical applications, a number of PV cells can be

+ + connected in series and parallel to obtain higher voltage and
Solar VP V CP V RLoad
DC-DC Cdc Vdc current, respectively. In our case study, the PV system consists
Panel − −
of interconnection of ten PV modules in series to generate
higher voltage and five PV arrays (each with ten modules) in
parallel to increase current. Accordingly, the equation (2) is
rewritten as:
Battery +
Vb Cb DC-DC VP V + IP V Rseq
System −
IP V = Nsh Iph −Nsh Io exp −1
aNs Vt
VP V + IP V Rseq
− (4)
Figure 1: Diagram of Photovoltaic-Battery DC Microgrid Rsheq
where Rseq and Rsheq are the equivalent values of series and
A. Solar PV Model Formulation shunt resistors, respectively, and are calculated as follows:
A well-known equivalent model for the PV panel consists of Ns Ns
Rseq = Rs , Rsheq = Rsh (5)
a single diode along with series and parallel resistors as shown Nsh Nsh
in Fig. 2. The mathematical description of the nonlinear I-V where Ns and Nsh are the number of series and parallel PV
characteristic for a photovoltaic cell is as follows [16], [17]: cells, respectively.
232
B. Battery Model Formulation controller tracking. For operational mode 2, the status of
Depending on applications, different types of model for battery is full-charged. In this mode, since the PV power
batteries have been proposed in the literature. In [18], a is greater than load demand, the PV system operates in the
generic dynamic model for four types of batteries is presented off-MPPT mode to prevent system instability. In this case, the
considering state of charge. The model for a lithium-ion controller just regulates the DC bus voltage through the PV
battery [18], [19] is considered in this study. This model is source. In the operational mode 4, the battery is the only
shown in Fig. 3 consisting of a controlled voltage source in power source to supply the loads since the PV power source
series with an internal battery resistance. The behavior of the is not available during cloudy periods and overnight. Here, the
battery is mainly described by the two parameters, namely controller also manages the battery charging and discharging
terminal battery voltage (Vb ), and state of charge (SoC). Both pattern to regulate DC bus voltage and also increase battery’s
Vb and SoC are determined based on overall lifetime through protection from overcharging/over-
Z the
t
battery current (Ib ):
discharging by setting appropriate constraints on battery’s state
Vb = Ebat − Rbat Ib , it (t) = Ib (t)dt, of charge. The next section presents a complete description of
0

it
MPC structure and main results.
SoC% = 100 1 − (6)
Q III. M ODEL P REDICTIVE C ONTROL A PPROACH
where the controlled voltage source, Ebat , depends on charging In this paper, we present an MPC-based power management
Charge
or discharging mode. The charging voltage, Ebat , and method for the PV-Battery system in an islanded DC microgrid.
Discharge
discharging voltage, Ebat , are represented by: The basic MPC structure is shown in Fig. 4. In this method,
Charge Q Q
the controller uses a prediction model of the PV-battery system,
Ebat = Eo − K Q−i t
it − K it −0.1Q Ib + A exp(−Bit ) constraints on states and control inputs, and an objective
Discharge Q Q
Ebat = Eo − K Q−it it − K Q−it Ib + A exp(−Bit ) function to formulate the optimization problem. In the MPC
(7) approach, the controller predicts future state variables by using
system model and generates control input sequence by solving
More information about the parameters used in (6) and (7) is the optimization problem over prediction horizon h with respect
provided in Table III. to constraints. However, only the first element of control input
Table III: Significant parameters of the battery system sequence is given to the system at time k, and the rest is
discarded. In our case study, the control inputs are defined as
Symbol Description Symbol Description duty cycle of PV converter, dP V , and duty cycle of battery
Battery open-circuit Battery polarization
Eo
voltage
K
voltage converter, db . The operating conditions of four defined modes
Battery exponential are also considered in the MPC optimization problem. To
Q Battery capacity A
voltage ensure maximum power point tracking, Perturb and Observe
Battery exponential Battery internal
B
capacity
Rbat
resistance
(P&O) method [15] is used to obtain the PV reference voltage
for the MPC.
Ebat = Eo − K Q−iQt (t) + Ae−Bit (t)

it Z
Rbat
Ib
•
+
Ebat +
− Vb
−
Figure 3: The equivalent circuit of the battery
The full circuit diagram of the considered PV/battery model

along with MPC controller is also provided in the Section IV. Figure 4: Basic structure of MPC controller
C. System’s Operational Modes Accordingly, the objective function for operational modes
The power generated by the PV panel is dependent on 1,3, and 4 is defined as follows:
changes in temperatures, solar irradiation, and other weather NX−1
ref ref
patterns throughout the day. In our case study, we have defined J= Vdc (k) − Vdc + VP V (k) − VP V

P R
four operational modes for the system. These modes are mainly k=0

categorized based on PV power generation, battery state of
+ k∆ukF (8)
charge and the load demand. The full description of each
system’s operational mode is given in Table IV. For operational ref
modes 1 and 3, we use the P&O algorithm to ensure Maximum where Vdc is the desired value of DC bus voltage and VPref
V
Power Point Tracking and acquire reference PV voltage for represents the reference value of PV voltage obtained from
233
Table IV: System’s Operational Modes
Mode # Operating Conditions Description
PP V > PLoad
SoCb < 90% The PV panel has enough power to supply the loads as well as charging
Mode 1
PV Status: ON the battery.
Battery Status: Charging
PP V ≥ PLoad
In this case, PV can supply the loads sufficiently. The battery is in the
SoCb ≥ 90%
Mode 2 full-charged status. The PV system is required to regulate DC bus voltage
PV Status: ON while the MPPT is an idle mode.
Battery Status: Full-Charged
PP V < PLoad
SoCb ≥ 20% The PV power is not enough to supply the loads. In this case, the battery
Mode 3
PV Status: ON bank also needs to discharge to meet the load demand.
Battery Status: Discharging
PP V = 0 W
SoCb ≥ 20% The PV panel can not provide power to the loads at night or on cloudy
Mode 4
PV Status: OFF days. In this case, the battery is the only power source to supply the loads.
Battery Status: Discharging
MPPT algorithm. N denotes the final time step. P , R, and F are where the control inputs, dP V and db ∈ (0, 1) are the duty
the weighting matrices. The controller solves the optimization cycles of the PV and battery converters, respectively. The
problem over the prediction horizon h in each time step k with conditions of operational modes defined in the Table IV are
minimal changes in the control inputs. The first objective of also considered in the MPC optimization problem.
optimization problem is to meet DC bus voltage performance
IV. S IMULATION R ESULT
with respect to system operational modes. The second goal is
to guarantee that PV voltage, VP V , will track the reference In this section, the proposed MPC-based power management
value obtained by P&O algorithm. is implemented on the PV/battery system described in Sec-
In operational mode 2, the objective of MPC controller is tion II to evaluate the performance of system under different
to only regulate DC bus voltage and not track PV voltage. operational modes. The 9.5 − kW PV system and a 210 − Ah
Because, in this mode, the battery is full-charged and for the battery system are connected to a common DC bus as shown
purpose of stability and preventing circulating current, we don’t in Fig. 5. Here, the sampling time (Ts ) is 0.001s, the control
need to have maximum PV power in the system. Therefore, interval (Tc ) is 0.01s, and the reference value of DC bus
ref
the objective function in mode 2 is as follows: voltage is Vdc = 600 V . To demonstrate the robustness
N −1
of the proposed control, the response of the system to the
changes in environmental conditions and the load demand
X
ref
J= Vdc (k) − Vdc + kILb kS + k∆ukF (9)

P are investigated. Fig. 6 shows the intensity and temperature
k=0
variations considered here. Fig. 7 shows the changes in the
where S is the weighting matrix. In mode 2, ILb is included load demand considered in the simulation.
in the objective function to be regulated to zero. The controller The PV is the main source and operates at Maximum Power
ceases the charging process to avoid the battery overcharging. Point (MPP) for most of the time using the P&O MPPT
We have considered the following state and control inputs’ algorithm. The generated PV power is utilized to supply the
constraints in the optimization problem: load and charge the battery. Whenever the load demand is
• States’ constraints: greater than the maximum power from the PV, the battery
SoCb min
≤ SoCb ≤ SoCb max
(10) discharges to supply the deficit power. However, if the battery is
fully charged and the power demand is less than the maximum
Vbmin < Vb < Vbmax (11) power of the PV, the battery is turned off, and the PV is
The minimum value of SoC, SoCbmin , and the maximum controlled to regulate the DC bus voltage. In this case, the PV
value of SoC, SoCbmax , are defined as 20% and 90%, does not operate at MPP any more. Therefore, the controller
respectively. The SoC should be maintained in this defined automatically switches between different operational modes to
range to avoid overcharging or deep discharging of the appropriately manage both PV and battery system based on the
battery in order to decrease possible damage. The battery measurement of current, voltage, and state of charge. Fig. 8
voltage, Vb , also needs to be maintained in the predefined shows the simulation results for all four operational modes.
range. A. Operational Mode 1 (0 ≤ t < 0.15 & 2.5 ≤ t < 3):
• Control inputs’ constraints: Both duty cycle of PV
converter,dP V , and duty cycle of battery converter,db , The system starts at mode 1 where the PV is operating at
need to be in the acceptable ranges: MPPT to extract maximum available PV power, and the load
voltage is regulated to meet the load demand. In this mode,
dmin
P V < dP V < dP V
max
(12) the battery is charging with the excess power from the PV
max
min
db < db < db max
(13) panel until the SoC reaches SoCb . Fig. 9 shows that the
234
ILpv D Iout
Ipv
Lpv rLpv
T +
+
Solar Vpv Cpv Cout Vdc RLoad

PV
−
G SW −
dPV PWM
SW
(1 − db ) PWM Objective Function
ILpv
ILb Nonlinear Vpv
Ib Lpv rLb dpv Optimization x(k+1) State- ILb
db Problem Space Vb
+ +
Model SoCb
Battery Vb Cb
Vdc
- − Operating Constraint
SW
db PWM M P C Controller
Figure 5: Circuit diagram of the PV-battery system along with MPC controller
SoC is continuously rising during this period. At t = 0.15 s, The above simulation results verify that the proposed MPC
the battery SoC reaches SoCbmax which is defined as 90% in controller effectively manages the PV/battery system with
the MPC constraints. respect to changes in operational modes based on battery state
At t = 2.5 s, the load demand is less than the maximum of charge, any fluctuation in PV, and possible changes in load
power from the PV and the SoC of the battery is less than demand.
SoCbmax . Therefore, in this case, the PV operates at MPPT 1000
Intensity Changes
45
Temperature Changes
again to supply the load and also charge the battery. 800 40
Temperature (o C)
Intensity (W/m2)
35
B. Operational Mode 2 (0.15 ≤ t < 0.5): 600
30
At t = 0.15 s, the battery is in the full-charged status. In 400
25
this mode, the controller ceases the charging process to avoid 200 20
the battery overcharging. In this case, the objective function (9) 0

0 1 2 3
15
0 1 2 3
is used in the MPC. Therefore, the PV panel no longer operates Time (s) Time (s)
at MPP, and it just aims to regulate the output DC voltage in Figure 6: Irradiation and temperature variations
order to meet the load demand. Fig. 8 (e, f) shows that the
Load Changes
battery power is zero, and the PV output power drops to supply 16000
14000
the load during this period.
12000
Power (W)
C. Operational Mode 3 (0.5 ≤ t < 2.5): 10000

8000
At t = 0.5 s, the load demand is increased beyond the
6000
maximum power of the PV. In this case, the system is switched 4000
to mode 3 where the PV starts to operate at the MPPT again, 2000
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
and battery supplies the deficit power to meet the load demand. Time (s)
From t = 0.5 s to t = 2.5 s, the temperature, the intensity,
Figure 7: Load changes considered in the system
and the load demand are changing, and the load demand is
greater than the maximum power from PV during this period. V. C ONCLUSION
In Fig 9, the SoC of the battery is decreasing in this mode due In this paper, an MPC approach is proposed to address
to discharging of the battery to supply the deficit power to the the power management problem of a stand-alone photo-
load. voltaic/battery system. The PV panel and battery storage system
D. Operational Mode 4 (t ≥ 3): are connected to DC bus by boost and bi-directional converters,
respectively. Four operational modes are defined in the PV-
In this mode, the battery is the only power source to supply
battery architecture, and their operating constraints have been
the loads since the PV power is not available after t > 3 s.
This mode represents cloudy periods and overnight that the PV included in the MPC optimization problem. In order to ensure
source can not provide power to the loads and PP V = 0 W .
235
Figure 8: (a) Output DC voltage, (b) PV voltage, (c) Control input of battery converter, (d) Control input of PV converter, (e)
Battery power, and (f) PV power
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236
Comprehensive Design and Control of Electric
Powertrain Evaluation Platform for Next Generation
EV/HEV Development
Xiaorui Wang, Deepak Gunasekaran, Allan Taylor, Wei Qian, Fang Z. Peng
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University
428 S Shaw Ln, East Lansing, MI 48824
wangx110@msu.edu
Abstract— Electric powertrain or power control unit, which is VII introduce different operation modes of the evaluation
the integral part of the EV/HEV, is consisting of the high voltage system and present the powertrain data collection system.
battery, DC/DC converter, inverter, and electric motor. To Some future work is planned in the last section ending with
evaluate the powertrain performance is a crucial stage for its conclusions.
development. In this paper, a peak 150-kW powertrain
evaluation system with 2006 Toyota Prius as the evaluated target
is designed along with its control technique being elaborated.
This system is constructed as grid-connected back-to-back
inverters driving a 55kW IPM machine to work as the load to the
Prius’s powertrain. Operation modes of the system and the data
collection are presented in the end. Overall, this platform extends
an energy-saving solution for powertrain evaluation with the
capability of sending the energy from the evaluated vehicle back Fig.1 Typical HEV Powertrain Structure
to the grid compared to traditional dyno system which only
dumps the power a passive load. II. OVERVIEW OF PROPOSED EVALUATION PLATFORM
Keywords—EV/HEV; Electric powertrain; PWM rectifier; The overall system is laid out in the following way shown
inverter design; Dynamometer in Fig 2(a) and (b). The HEV being evaluated is placed on two
drums and the drums are connected to IPM’s shaft through belt
and gear system. The IPM is working as the load against the
I. INTRODUCTION HEV and its output torque is controlled by an inverter. The
Electric vehicles (EVs) are considered as a cost-effective advantage of driving the IPM with inverter is that road profile
solution to improve the environment by means of gas emission can be emulated by controlling the inverter.
reduction. There are more automotive manufacturers paying
increasingly bigger attention to the vehicle electrification
research and development. And the transition from traditional
internal combustion engine(ICE) car to more-electric vehicle is
taking place step by step, such as from HEV, PHEV and then
to EV. HEV main powertrain [1] - [6] is normally constructed
in a typical way as shown in Fig 1. It is consisting of ICE along
with one high voltage battery powering the traction motor
through an inverter, and one generator collecting regenerative
power during decelerating or parking which can be exploited to Fig. 2(a) Powertrain Evaluation Platform – Mechanical Setup
charge the high voltage battery. In some of the cars, there is
one more stage of power conversion between the battery and Grid PWM Rectifier Motor Drive Traction Motor
inverter which is a bidirectional DCDC converter, for example,
the Prius 2004, and it is also known as THS II. To examine
HEV/EV powertrain performance, an evaluation system is
designed in this paper with 2006 Prius being the evaluated
target. This paper starts with overview of the proposed Inverter #1 Inverter #2
platform in Section II. In section III, details of the inverters and
Fig. 2(b) Powertrain Evaluation Platform – Electrical Setup
their controller can be found. Section IV and V explain the
control of the motor drive and PWM rectifier. Section VI and
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 237

III. DESIGN OF THE EVALUATION PLATFORM
The core of this platform is the inverters and their control
system as shown in Fig. 3. The DC link of the two inverters is
directly coupled. Both inverters’ gating signals are generated
by the Myway PE-Expert 4 and sent through fiber optic to the
inverters’ gate drive board. The voltage and current sensor
feedback signals are also fed into PE-Expert4 through co-axial
cable for closed-loop control computation. The digital control
software is auto-generated by PSIM simulation software.
Isolated current transducer LA 205-S and isolated voltage
transducer LV 25-P from LEM are selected and proper
measuring resistance are placed on the sensor interface board.
To ensure system reliable operation, a robust two-level inverter
is designed with details as followed. The rated output voltage
Fig.4 150kW Water-cooled Inverters
of this inverter is 480V and the inverter can output 100 kW
continuously with 150 kW peak output power. The DC link
voltage is 680Vdc and the capacitor bank is composed of six IV. MOTOR DRIVE CONTROL
85uF film capacitors in parallel, which are from Electronic In this evaluation platform, the torque of the motor is
Concepts UL30. Film capacitors are selected instead of controlled instead of the speed. It is due to the fact that the
electrolytic capacitors for better RMS current capability. Low motor speed is solely determined by the car coupled through
parasitic inductance bus bar is also customized and connecting the drum. Field-oriented control [7] - [11] is implemented here
the capacitor bank to the power module. Three phase IGBT with access to the rotor angle position information from a
power module 6MBI450U4-120 from Fuji is used here for resolver. The FOC control architecture is shown in Fig 5.
higher power density concern and it has current rating of 600A
and voltage rating of 1200V. Switching frequency of the Iq reference
inverter is 10 kHz and cold plate is placed beneath the power PI d ,q
module to ensure safe operation avoiding overtemperature of SV 3-Phase

PWM Inverter
the IGBTs. To have clean and neat gating signals is of crucial  ,
PI
importance to the inverter, gate drive system has been carefully Id reference
=0
designed. The gate drive system consisted of two separate
PCBs as shown in Fig. 4. The upper board is the isolated power Rotor Angle
Position
supply for each IGBT’ gate drive with the output of +15V and - d ,q
10V.The lower board is taking the gating signal from fiber
optic and pipes the signal through isolated gate driver IC with
handful protection features such as de-saturation, over voltage, a,b,c
and over temperature. To ensure enough turn on/off peak
current, additional amplifier (buffer) is placed between the IC
Resolver
and IGBT. Resolver IPMSM
Decoder
F
ig.5 Field Oriented Control of IPMSM
If only electromagnetic torque is large enough, there is no

need for knowing the detailed machine parameters such as Ld
and Lq. Machine torque equation is:
Myway Digital 3
Controller
Te  P [miq  ( Ld  Lq )id iq ] (1)
2
150 kW Inverter - 150 kW Inverter-
In this system, machine reluctance torque is voided and id
PWM Rectifier Motor Drive reference can be set to zero. Hence, the machine torque is only
Sensor Signal
Phase Current
Sensors
related to iq, which means that changing iq reference is enough
Interface Board to regulate the load torque. Kp and Ki are 0.01 and 1000
respectively in both PI controllers.
Resolver Decoder
The rotor angle information is of great importance to the dq
Grid Voltage
DC Bus Voltage
Sensor control and a high-resolution resolver is applied here. The
output information of resolver is amplitude modulated signal
shown in Fig. 6(a). A sine excitation signal is generated from
the digital controller and sent to the resolver. The rotor angle
Fig.3 Inverters and Control Platform information can be reviled and restored by sampling only on
the sine excitation signal peak as illustrated in Fig. 6(b).
238
A low speed test is taken to justify the inverter operation
and the motor currents along with rotor position information
are shown in Fig 7. The motor electrical speed is 4.3 Hz with
12.5 A as the torque current reference (known as iq reference).
The yellow and green curves are the demodulated signal of the
rotor angle’s sine value and rotor angle’s cosine value. The
blue sawtooth waveform is the rotor angle which shares the
same frequency of the curves above. The bottom two curves
are the motor current.
Fig. 6(a) Amplitude Modulated Rotor Angle Waveform
Fig. 7 Low Speed Motor Control Operation
The IPMSM being driven is the same one as the traction

motor inside the Prius. A 2D FEA model using ANSYS
Maxwell [19] is shown in Fig. 8. Since id is set to zero,
equation (1) is simplified to (2).
3
Te  P miq (2)
2
Fig. 6(b) Digital Demodulation where P is the number of pole pairs which is 8, and m is
In this setup, an 1kHz of 50% duty cycle square wave is the flux constant which is 0.14 Wb [20].
generated, being level shifted and then fed through a 2nd order
low pass filter to deliver a sine excitation signal. The advantage
of doing so is that the controller has the information about the
sine peak location. Phase-shift incurred by filter also needs to
be considered for accurate sampling. This setup is summarized
in Fig. 6(c).
Fig. 6(c) Implementation of Digital Demodulation Fig. 8 2D Model of 55kW Prius Motor
239
V. PWM RECTIFIER CONTROL Kp and Ki gain of the PLL PI controller are 5 and 500
PWM rectifier is utilized here for two reasons. The first reason respectively. The simulation result of the PLL dynamic
is that it can reduce grid side harmonic current injection response is in Fig. 9(d). It can lock the grid frequency within 2
compared to the diode bridge. The second one is that the DC ms.
bus voltage can be controlled and be using active switch can
allow the power flow bidirectionally. The second feature is the
key to send the power generated back to the grid while
evaluating the EV/HEV powertrain and it has energy saving
advantage over traditional dyno. Both current and DC bus
voltage are controlled and regulated [12] - [15] in this system.
Two voltage transducers are used to sense the line-to-line
voltages which are fed into the phase lock loop. Another DC
bus voltage sensor is also used for closed-loop DC bus voltage
regulation. Two line-current sensors are needed to ensure
sinusoidal line current with closed-loop control as shown in Fig. 9 (d) PLL simulation result – Phase angle; Grid frequency; Vd
Fig. 9(a). The control architecture is shown in Fig. 9(b). Grid component; Vq component
voltage is 480V and the inverter is also working at 10kHz.
There are technically two control loops in Fig. 9(b). The DC
bus control loop also known as the outer loop. The q current
control loop also referred as the inner loop. The Kp and Ki for
Ls ia outer loop PI controller are 2 and 20. The Kp and Ki for inner
Vdc loop PI controllers are 0.1 and 10.
From simulation results shown in Fig. 9(e), the line current
ic
has lower THD compared to diode rectifier bridges and the
bus voltage is well regulated to 700V.
 V ,V
 d q
Fig. 9 (a) Current and voltage sensors for PWM rectifier
Vdc * d ,q
 ,
Vdc iq*
iq
ia Fig. 9 (e) PWM Rectifier Simulation Result – Three phase line current; DC
d ,q
ic bus voltage
id
a ,b ,c 
Fig. 9 (b) PWM Rectifier Control Loop VI. OPERATION MODES
There are two possible operation modes when evaluating the
The phase lock loop serves the purpose of finding the correct performance of the EV/HEV powertrain:
grid angle and frequency information. It is taking two line-line Mode #1: Power is flowing from the vehicle to the grid. The
voltage signals and then convert them to d/q components. By front-end converter is now working as a grid-connected
driving the d component to 0 using a PI controller, the correct inverter and the back-end converter is serving as the PWM
frequency value will be found. It is summarized in Fig. 9(c) rectifier to charge up the DC link. Under this mode, the 55kW
motor is providing load torque emulating the real road
condition such as friction. Road running test profile can be
a,b,c  readily achieved by controlling the torque dynamically and
1 accordingly.
S Mode #2: Power is taken from the grid to the car. The front-
end converter is working as PWM rectifier feeding the DC
d ,q link and the back-end one is functioning as motor drive
powering the 55kW motor under the chassis. Under this mode,
 the system is emulating the car is going downhill.
Fig. 9 (c) Grid Connected Phase Lock Loop
240
Tcar Fcar Tcar Fcar ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the enormous effort
and contribution by Dr. Craig Rogers and Denso Corporation
[22] on the mechanical bench construction and system setup.
Drum  Drum  The authors also gratefully acknowledge Myway Plus
Corporation [17] and Powersim Inc [18] for their excellent
Finverter technical support.
Tinverter Tinverter Finverter
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Fig. 10 Operation Modes #1(Left) and #2(Right)
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242
Optimal Charging of Plug-in Electric
Vehicle (PEV) in Residential Area
Harun Turker
Turker Ar-Ge Smart Grid Ltd Sti
Yozgat, Turkey
harun.turker.1984@gmail.com
Abstract— This paper presents the majority of the possible presents the simulation results and this paper ends with
charging algorithms in the context of the charge of one vehicle in conclusion in part IV.
a housing. As such six optimal strategies are proposed: three smart
unidirectional and three smart bidirectional algorithms where the
Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and the Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) concepts
II. ALGORITHMS FORMULATION
were exploited. The common aim of the six algorithms is to The formulation of each of the six optimal algorithms
minimize the charging cost of the Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV). studied in this paper (Figure 2) are presented in this part. This
Linear Programming method is used to solve the optimization last is divided into two sections: first, the smart unidirectional
problem. The use case results show the great economic charging strategies are presented and then the optimal
profitability potential of the optimal bidirectional algorithms. In bidirectional charging algorithms.
addition, the results show also the largely influence of the shape of
the Daily Energy Price (DEP) profile.
A. Smart Unidirectional Charging strategies
Keywords—Plug-in Electric Vehicle, Vehicle-to-Grid, Vehicle-
The common aim of all the algorithms is to minimize the energy
to-Home, Daily Energy Price, Linear Programming. supplied from the grid to the PEV coupled with the Daily
Energy Price (DEP) profile. To facing this aim, the formulation
of the objective function is as follows (1):
I. INTRODUCTION
𝑡𝑓
In recent years, developed countries promote the Plug-in
Electric Vehicles (PEVs) which are thriving. Many car 𝐽(𝑡) = 𝑀𝑖𝑛 ∑ 𝐷𝐸𝑃 × 𝑃𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑→𝑃𝐸𝑉 (𝑡) (1)
manufacturers offer PEVs and since some time, there is an 𝑡𝑖
emerging bidirectional PEVs market. These are strategic
because they allow to use the batteries for multiple purposes. The Variable Standard Algorithm (VSA) includes one inequality
constraint related the maximum charge power of the PEV
The research activities on the interaction PEV/Grid field are battery (2). The maximum charging power is equals to 7.36kW
spread since many years and evolve in stages. First, the impacts (230V-32A).
on residential [1] and on distribution electric grids [2-3] were
assessed. Several studies have quantified the life duration losses 𝑃𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑→𝑃𝐸𝑉 (𝑡) = 𝑃𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒−𝑀𝑎𝑥 ≤ 7.36𝑘𝑊 (2)
of high- and low-voltage transformers [4-5] caused by the Two equalities constraints are available. The first one concerns
charging of PEVs. Secondly, significant research work were the final PEV battery SOC (3). The secondly represents the
carried out to minimize impacts [6-11] with centralized, dynamic monitoring of the battery SOC (4).
decentralized, on-line and off-line strategies.
𝑆𝑂𝐶𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 (𝑡𝑓) = 𝑆𝑂𝐶𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 (3)
The trend research topic is now the smart charging of the
vehicles. Lot of papers is available in the literature but the results 𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡) = 𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡𝑖) + 𝑃𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑→𝑃𝐸𝑉 (𝑡) × 𝜂𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 (4)
comparison is difficult because each work uses their own data
for testing the performances of the proposed strategy. The Variable Overruns ban Algorithm (VOA) differs and in this
declination the PEV charging process don’t caused overruns of
Consequently, in this paper the majority of the possible the maximum value of the house contract subscripted (5). In
charging algorithms of one vehicle in the residential area are addition, the charger limit (7.36kW) is still available. The others
studied. As such six strategies have been formulated and tested: elements of the formulation is similar of the VSA.
three smart unidirectional and three smart bidirectional
algorithms where the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and the Vehicle- 𝑃𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑→𝑃𝐸𝑉 (𝑡) = 𝑃𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒−𝑀𝑎𝑥 ≤ 𝑆𝐸𝑆 − 𝑆𝐻 (𝑡) (5)
to-Home (V2H) concepts were exploited. Figure 1 presents the Where:
energy flows of the system studied.
𝑆𝐻 = The instantaneous house energy consumption
The organization of the paper is as follows: firstly, the six
optimal strategies formulation are presented (Part II). Part III 𝑆𝐸𝑆 = The value of the electricity subscription
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 243

Residential consumption
GRID to Home
Grid
V2H-V1OA
PEV to Grid
V2G-V1SA,
V2G-V2OA
 Minimize Grid to PEV energy
 Maximize PEV to Grid energy
GRID to PEV  Maximize PEV to Home energy
 Optimal charging of the PEV
All algorithms
VSA, VOA, CSA
Electric
Vehicle Battery
Fig. 1. Energy flows of the system
Fig. 2. Review of charging algorithms studied
𝑡𝑓
The Constant Standard Algorithm (CSA) formulation is 𝐽(𝑡) = 𝑀𝑖𝑛 ∑ 𝐷𝐸𝑃 × 𝑃𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑→𝑃𝐸𝑉 (𝑡) − 𝐷𝐸𝑃
identical to VSA excepted the introduction of a third equality 𝑡𝑖
constraint (6). This one ensures a constant charging power × 𝑃𝑃𝐸𝑉→𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑 (𝑡) 𝑜𝑟 𝑃𝑃𝐸𝑉→𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑒 (𝑡) (7)
during all time where the vehicle is plugged at the housing.
𝑃𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑→𝑃𝐸𝑉 (𝑡) = 𝑃𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑→𝑃𝐸𝑉 (𝑡 − 1) (6) The dynamic monitoring of the battery SOC is presented by (8)
for all the bidirectional optimal algorithms.
B. Smart Bidirectional Charging strategies
This section presents the formulations of all the bidirectional 𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡) = 𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡𝑖) + 𝑃𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑→𝑃𝐸𝑉 (𝑡) × 𝜂𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒
optimal algorithms studied in this paper. These three algorithms − 𝑃𝑃𝐸𝑉→𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑 (𝑡) × 𝜂𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 (8)
have two aims: to minimize the energy supplied from the grid to
the PEV coupled with the DEP and the second is to maximize
selling process from PEV to Grid (or Home), here again, coupled The first one is the Vehicle-to-Grid Version 1 Standard
with the DEP. To facing these aims, the formulation of the Algorithm (V2G-V1SA). Its formulation is the same of VSA
objective function is the same for all the three strategies (7): excepted that the lower limit is the maximum discharge power
244
(-230V/32A/-7.36kW) instead of zero (9). In the same way, the evolutions and the charging costs are also presented. It is found
Vehicle-to-Grid Version 2 Overruns ban (V2G-V2OA) kept this that the V2G and V2H concepts are efficient because the
lower limit and uses (5) to avoid overruns of the maximum value charging cost is largely reduced. Here again, the shape of the
of the house contract subscripted. DEP profile is very important and influences considerably the
charging cost results.
𝑃𝑃𝐸𝑉→𝐺𝑟𝑖𝑑 (𝑡) = 𝑃𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒−𝑀𝑎𝑥 ≥ −7.36𝑘𝑊 (9)
The Vehicle-to-Home Version 1 Overruns ban Algorithm (V2H-

V1OA) has the same formulation of the V2G-V2OA but in
addition the vehicle has a limitation of discharge power coupled
with the house electricity consumption (10). Indeed, at each
sampling time, the maximum PEV discharge power is limited by
the house consumption.
𝑃𝑃𝐸𝑉→𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑒 (𝑡) = 𝑃𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒−𝑀𝑎𝑥 ≥ −𝑆𝐻 (𝑡) (10)
The system under study and the constraints are represented by

linear equations. That is why the Linear Programming (LP) was
chosen to solve the optimization problem. The total number of
sampling time steps is 144 for the simulation of one day. A
sampling time step equal to 10 minutes is the best compromise
between precision and calculation time. The Linprog tool
provided by Matlab has been used to solve the optimization
problem [12]. The formulation is represented by (11). Interior-
point method has been employed [13].
𝐴 ∙ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑏,
𝑚𝑖𝑛(𝑚𝑎𝑥) 𝑓 𝑇 𝑥 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 {𝐴𝑒𝑞 ∙ 𝑥 = 𝑏𝑒𝑞, (11)
𝑥
𝑙𝑏 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 𝑢𝑏.
The Coulomb metric method (which is very simple and the most
popular) has been used for the dynamic monitoring of the battery
SOC (12) [14].
𝐼𝐵𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦 (𝑡)
∫ × 𝑑𝑡
𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡) = 𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡 − 1) + 3600 × 100 [%] (12)
𝑄𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 (𝑡)
III. SIMULATION RESULTS

This part presents the simulation results of the six algorithms.
Figure 3 shows the elements used during the simulations. Two
Daily Energy Price (DEP) profiles have been used (Figures 3.a
and 3.b). A real house Daily Load Profile is used. It is issued
from previous works [14]. The data related the vehicle are show
in Figure 3.c. A typical use case is selected arbitrarily. The
proposed algorithms in this paper are generic and so, the users
can change the inputs.
Figure 4 presents the results related the three smart
unidirectional charging strategies under the two DEP profiles.
The charging prices are presented in the Figure 4.c. The charging
cost obtained with the standard (230V-16A and 230V-32A)
charging process are also integrated to compare. The results
show that CSA (i.e. constant charging power strategy) leads to
poor results. Indeed, the charging cost reduction is low. The best
results are obtained thanks to VSA because it is the strategy with
the most flexible constraints. VOA is also competitive. The
impact of the DEP profile is high on the charging costs results.
Figure 5 presents the results related the three smart bidirectional
charging strategies under the two DEP profiles. The SOC Fig. 3. Elements used during the simulations
245
Fig. 4. Simulation results – Smart Unidirectional Charging
Fig. 5. Simulation results – Smart Bidirectional Charging
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper the majority of the possible charging the Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) concepts were exploited. The
algorithms in the context of the charge of one vehicle in a common aim of the six algorithms is to minimize the charging
housing are presented. As such, six optimal strategies have cost of the Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV). The proposed
been studied: three smart unidirectional and three smart algorithms have been proved by the simulation of one use case
bidirectional algorithms where the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and under two Daily Energy Price (DEP) profiles. The use case
246
results show the great economic profitability potential of the IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT), Washington,
optimal bidirectional algorithms. In addition, the results show 2012.
also the largely influence of the shape of the DEP profile.
BIOGRAPHIES
An infinite number of use cases are possible but this work
allows to compare the performances of each strategy studied Harun Turker was born in Grenoble, France, on
thanks to a use case. One relevant future work consists to June 2, 1984. He received the Master’s degree in
continue by proposing a smart strategy which work on real- Électronique, Électrotechnique, Automatique and
time conditions where the house Daily Load Profile (DLP) is Traitement du Signal (EEATS) from the
unknown by the algorithm. University of Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France, in
2009 and the PhD. Degree in Electrical
Engineering from the Grenoble Institute of
REFERENCES Technology (Grenoble INP) in 2012. It has been
Project Manager at Grenoble INP and Grenoble
[1] H. Turker, A. Florescu, S. Bacha and D. Chatroux, “Voltage profile
Electrical Engineering Laboratory (G2ELab) in
and excess subscription assessments indexes based on random
2013-2014 and at the University of Applied
selection of real Daily Loads Profiles (DLPs) on residential electric
Sciences of Western Switzerland in 2016. He created the start-up Turker Ar-
grid areas for a high penetration of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
(PHEVs),” 2011 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference, Ge Smart Grid in 2015. His main fields of interest are Smart Grids,
2011, pp. 1-5. V2H/V2G integration (30 papers), Renewables and Microgrids.
harun.turker.1984@gmail.com
[2] H. Turker, A. Florescu, S. Bacha and D. Chatroux, “Load rates of low
voltage transformers and medium voltage profile assessments on a real
distribution electric grid based on average Daily Load Profile (DLP) of
a housing for a high penetration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
(PHEVs),” 2011 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference,
Chicago, IL, 2011, pp. 1-8.
[3] L. Pieltain Fernandez, T. Gomez San Roman, R. Cossent, C. Mateo
Domingo and P. Frias, “Assessment of the Impact of Plug-in Electric
Vehicles on Distribution Networks,” in IEEE Transactions on Power
Systems, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 206-213, Feb. 2011.
[4] H. Turker, S. Bacha, D. Chatroux and A. Hably, “Low-Voltage
Transformer Loss-of-Life Assessments for a High Penetration of Plug-
In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs),” in IEEE Transactions on
Power Delivery, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 1323-1331, July 2012.
[5] S. M. Agah and H. A. Abyaneh, “Distribution Transformer Loss-of-
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1136, Ap. 2011.
[6] H. Turker, S. Bacha and A. Hably, “Rule-Based Charging of Plug-in
Electric Vehicles (PEVs): Impacts on the Aging Rate of Low-Voltage
Transformers,” in IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 29, no.
3, pp. 1012-1019, June 2014.
[7] E. Sortomme and M. A. El-Sharkawi, “Optimal Charging Strategies for
Unidirectional Vehicle-to-Grid,” in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid,
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[8] E. Sortomme, M. M. Hindi, S. D. J. MacPherson and S. S. Venkata,
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[9] H. Turker, A. Hably and S. Bacha, “Dynamic programming for optimal
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[10] H. Turker, A. Hably and S. Bacha, “Smart charging of plug-in hybrid
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[11] H. Turker and S. Bacha, “Application of Housing Peak Shaving (HPS)
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Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC), Dearborn, 2015, pp. 1-6.
[12] [available online] http://fr.mathworks.com/help/optim/ug/linprog.-
html?s _tid=gn_loc_drop
[13] Mehrotra, S. “On the Implementation of a Primal-Dual Interior Point
Method.” SIAM Journal on Optimization, Vol. 2, 1992, pp 575–601.
[14] H. Turker, S. Bacha, D. Chatroux and A. Hably, “Modelling of system
components for Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Vehicle-to-Home (V2H)
applications with Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs),” 2012
247
Power Channel based Power Electronics Transformer
(PC-PET) with Reduced Capacitance for interfacing
AC and DC grid
Liqun He1, Yong Yang1, Mingdi Fan1, Menxi Xie1, Shengfang Fan2
Yinnan Yuan1 2 Suzhou Powersite Electric CO. Ltd.
1
School of Rail Transportation, Suzhou, 215010, China
Soochow University sf0502@foxmail.com
Suzhou 215131, China
lqhe@suda.edu.cn,
Abstract—Power electronic transformer (PET) is being widely by using redundancy [3]. Usually two approaches are consid-
used in place of line frequency transformer (LFT) in modern ered: cascaded H-bridge (CHB) and modular multilevel con-
power systems. For PETs’ circuit in high-power and high-voltage verter (MMC) based architecture [11]. The CHB solution uses
applications, cascaded H-bridge or modular multilevel converter CHB at AC input side as active front end (AFE), and then fol-
is preferred due to the advantages of modular structure. For such lowed by dual-active-bridge (DAB), as shown in Fig.1 (a). This
topologies, the low-frequency ripple powers stored in dc-link solution is popular and widely applied, however there are sec-
capacitors pose passive effects on power density. In this paper, a ond-order ripple powers in the middle dc-link introduced by
power channel based power electronic transformer (PC-PET) as each single-phase AC port. The MMC solution uses three-
well as power decoupling control is proposed for three-phase AC
phase MMC at AC side, and the DABs are followed by split dc
– DC conversion. Based on cascaded architecture, the ripple
powers introduced by each AC input are counteracted without
capacitors [12] (see Fig. 1(b)), or MMC submodules (SM)
flowing into dc link. Therefore the dc capacitance can be reduced [13]-[14] (in Fig. 1(c)). Avoiding the second-order ripple pow-
so as to achieve higher power density and lower cost. Simulation ers in dc-link, the MMC based topologies introduce fundamen-
results prove the validity of proposed topology and decoupling tal ripple powers in SMs.
control strategy. It is expected to be applied in the inter-
connection of three-phase AC and DC grid as smart energy rout-
er.
Keywords—power electronic transformer; power channel;

power decoupling control
...
...
...
I. INTRODUCTION
(a)
As the need for flexible power conversion rapidly increas-
ing, power electronic transformer (PET) is attracting lots of
interests with the benefits of reduced weight/volume, flexible
power flow control, improved power quality, enhanced reliabil-
ity and so forth [1]-[3]. Various architectures of PET have been
investigated for applications in smart grid [4]-[7] and traction
...
...
drive [8]-[9]. A special favor of PET is found in AC - DC con-

version, that if replacing the the line-frequency transformer
(LFT) by PET, it can reduce the volume and weight to about
one third, halve the power loss, while the cost still competes
[10].
When interfacing three-phase high-voltage AC grid, a (b)
modular design is preferred for the topology of AC/DC PET,
since it can reduce manufacturing cost and improve reliability
Sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no.

51707127).
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 248

ω1 and φ are fundamental angular frequency and power factor
angle. Supposing the powers at all input ports are equally dis-
tributed, the input power of module a_1 is expressed as:
U s Is U I
pin _ a1 = cos ϕ − s s cos(2ω1t − ϕ )
...
...
2n 2n (3)
= Pdc + Ps _ 2 sin(2ω1t + ϕ 2 )
In case three phases are balanced, the input powers of module
b_1、c_1 are :
pin _ b1 = Pdc + Ps _ 2 sin(2ω1t + ϕ 2 + 2π / 3) (4)
(c)
Fig. 1. Main topologies for AC-DC PET with modular structure. (a) cascaded pin _ c1 = Pdc + Ps _ 2 sin(2ω1t + ϕ 2 − 2π / 3) (5)
H-bridge (CHB) based PET (b) MMC based PET with modified SM (c) MMC
based PET with split capacitors Obviously the input power of each module consists of dc and
If the low-frequency ripple power in dc capacitors can be second-order components, where the second-order components
eliminated, the power density of PET will be obviously pro- are three-phase balanced with negative sequence. The
moted. Based on analysis of the ripple power in CHB based amplitude Ps_2 can be as large as active power Pdc. In such PET,
PET, this paper proposes a PC-PET to solve the issue. The ripple powers does not flowing into the capacitor in DC bus,
power channel structure together with power decoupling con- but stored in module capacitors, i.e. Ca1 ~ Can, Cb1 ~ Cbn and Cc1
trol realizes counteraction of the ripples powers. Consequently ~ Ccn.
all the capacitors no longer need to store ripple power. The
control scheme and simulation results are also provided. A. Circuit Configuration of PC-PET
In conventional PET (Fig.2 (a)), each phase has to store its
II. PROPOSED POWER CHANNEL BASED POWER ELECTRONIC ripple power independently and large capacitance for each
TRANSFORMER module. In this paper a power channel is proposed to solve the
problem. The prototype, named “power channel based power
The existing CHB based AC/DC PET is shown in Fig. 2(a). electronic transformer (PC-PET)” is shown in Fig. 2(b).
Supposing each phase of PET is constructed by N modules,
a_1 ~ a_n，b_1 ~ b_n，c_1 ~ c_n, the input voltage and cur- There are still n modules in each phase, including three
rent of phase a are: stages of power conversion totally: the input AC/DC conver-
sion stage (active front end, AFE), the midterm DC/AC and
usa = U s sin(ω1t ) (1) output AC/DC stage. High-frequency transformer is adopted
between the last two stages for power transform and isolation.
isa = I s sin(ω1t − ϕ ) (2) It’s worth noting that the transformer is multi-winding with
Where Us and Is are amplitude of phase voltage and current, three inputs and one output. For module i of phase a，b and c,
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. (a)The topology of cascaded H-bridge based AC/DC PET. (b)The topology of PC-PET proposed in this paper.
249
pin = pdc + 
ps _ 2 p1 = pdc + 
ps _ 2
usa Lsa S1 S3 S5 S7
+ C
ucaj p2 = pdc
-
S2 S4 S6 S8
S9 S11
udc
AFE (Level 1) DC/AC (Level 2) Load
...
usb Lsb Cdc
S10 S12
usc Lsc AC/DC (Level 3)
Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit of PC-PET (a new module) and the illustration of power decoupling.
the three outputs are connected to the input ports of transformer.  dvCa 
The output dc voltage of PC-PET udc is achieved after voltage  dt 
step-down and AC/DC conversion. The total n outputs are par-    Sa 0 0  isa  isa 
alleled to form dc bus. The module a_i, b_i, c_i, the multi-  dvCb  = 1  0 Sb
   
0  isb  − isb  (7)
winding transformer and the AC/DC converter constitutes a  dt  NC 
“new module” (see Fig. 2(b)). The modular property of the PC-   0 0 Sc  isc  isc 
 dvCc  
PET is therefore sustained.
 dt 
B. Working Principle and Modeling Description  
The multi-winding transformer together with its input and  usa −  Saj ucaj 0 0 
isa   j =1~ N  isa 
output make up the “power channel”. Assuming the output d   1  i 
powers of a_1, b_1 and c_1 are p1_a1，p1_b1 and p1_c1 respec-
i
dt   Ls 
sb = 0 usb −  Sbj ucbj 0
  sb 
isc  
j =1~ N b
 isc 
tively. If the second-order ripple power at input port of the PET usc −  Scj uccj  (8)
 0 0
module is controlled totally transferred to the primary-winding  j =1~ N 
isa 
of the transformer (power decoupling control), then the power R  
− s isb 
at secondary-winding results in: Ls
isc 
p2 _1 = p1_ a1 + p1_ b1 + p1_ c1
(6) Where S is the switching function, and vc , S represent the
= pin _ a1 + pin _ b1 + pin _ c1 = 3Pdc average value of the variables.
Eq.(6) indicates that the three-phase second-order ripple
powers are counteracted after superposition in the power The level 2 and level 3 are functioned for stabilized DC bus
channel, only active power is transferred to DC side. voltage as well as power decoupling. Considering each phase
Considering one power module in each phase, the circuit of independently, the single-phase-shift (SPS) control is applied,
PC-PET (illustration of one “new module”) can be seen in Fig. as illustrated in Fig. 3:
2. With power decoupling, there is no low-frequency voltage
ripple in all the capacitors of PC-PET.
Since the three-phase ripple powers in PC-PET can be di-
rectly eliminated by power channel without flowing into dc
capacitance, the weight and volume of dc capacitors in the
modules can be reduced and thereby power density is in-
creased. There are n high-frequency transformer in proposed
PC-PET, while in conventional cascaded PET, there are 3n
transformers. Therefore core material is also saved. In Fig. 3,
the power transfer of PC-PET can be summarized to 3-level
stages. For level 1, the CHBs act as AFE to realized voltage
balancing for the module capacitors. Considering only the dc
component, and regarding the current flowing into next level
as disturbance which is neglected, the averaged mathematical
model can be derived: Fig. 4. Switching function waveforms of single phase shift control (applied to
level2 and level 3).
The shift phase ϕ also equals to the phase difference between

AC voltages at primary and secondary side of the transformer.
250

ps _ 2
Δ
ps _ 2
Fig. 5. General control scheme of the proposed PC-PET.
Neglecting the disturbance of dc load, the balance of udc in

account of ϕ is: III. SIMULATION RESULTS
To demonstrate proposed topology and control scheme, a
dudc 1 φk (π − φk ) uc φk (π − φk )
dt
=
Cudc

k = a ,b ,c
udc uck
πω L
=
C

k = a ,b , c πω L
(9) PC-PET interfacing three-phase AC and DC grid is set up in
MATLAB/Simulink. With two modules in each phase, parame-
ters of the PC-PET are summarized in Table I.
And the control variable ϕ can be calculated by:
π − π 2 − 4 Pref πωs Ltk / udc uc TABLE I. SIMULATION PARAMETERS OF PROPOSED PC-PET

φk = , k = a, b, c (10)
2 Items Values
Where Ltk is the leakage inductance of the transformer for each AC side line voltage: Vll (rms) 1558 V
phase.
DC-bus voltage: Vdc 750 V
C. Control Scheme of PC-PET Rated power: P 300 kW

The overall control scheme of PC-PET is depicted in Fig. 5. No. of “new” modules 2
For CHB in level 1, two loops are included to stabilize voltages
of all module capacitors Cij (i = a, b, c, j = 1 ~ n): the balancing Capacitance in module: C1 1 mF
control accounting for average value and individual energy
balance. Various SPWM methods for multi-module converters Capacitance at dc bus: C2 0.5 mF
can be applied and is not detailed here.
Switching frequency 2 kHz
The phase shift control for level 2 and level 3 consist of
two feedback loop and one feedforward control. The closed- Rated voltage of module: VC 750 V
loop control of udc generates the dc power reference pdc*. The
Transformer ratio 1:1
reference of ripple power  ps _ 2 is calculated from AC input us
and is. In addition, the pulsating components in module capaci-
tors Cki (k = a, b, c, i = 1 ~ n) are extracted from 2nd synchro- Fig. 6 presents the steady-state waveforms of proposed PC-
nous rotating frame, and restricted to zero (generating Δ  ps _ 2 ). PET. The voltage at primary-side of transformer, shown in Fig.
* 6(a), is high-frequency square-wave with duty ratio D = 0.5.
These three power references are added up to form p1 . The Fig. 6(b) shows that the current following into primary-side is
phase-shift-angle φ between the two bridges is sinusoidally high-frequency wave with sinusoidal envelop. Transferring
varied so as to realize active power transfer and power decou- low-frequency ripple power, the transformer is still high-
pling simultaneously. The method to calculate φ can be re- frequency designed. Fig. 6(c) indicates that the three-phase
ferred to [15]. ripple powers at AC side of PC-PET have been transferred to
the input ports of multi-winding transformer, proving the effec-
tiveness of decoupling control. While at secondary-side of the
transformer, as shown in Fig. 6 (d), only active power is re-
251
served. Therefore the validity of proposed power channel is
verified.
Fig. 7 illustrates the voltage waveforms of the two module-
capacitors of PC-PET, all of phase a, in p.u. value. Three key
time points (t1 ~ t3, marked by the red arrow) are worth noticing:
Before t = t1, power decoupling does not work and the voltage
ripple in the module capacitor reaches 23.1%. At t = t1, the feed
forward part of power decoupling control activates and the
amplitude of ripple voltage decreases to 7%. However, vca1 and
vca2 diverts. As individual balancing control is introduced at t =
t2, the voltage difference between two capacitors immediately
reduces. When the feedback control branch of power decou-
pling control starts to work at t = t3, the capacitor voltage ripple
(a)
is suppressed to only 4%. The overall control scheme guarantee
the operation of the PC-PET, and the effect of ripple power
suppression is significant.
Current (A)
IV. CONCLUSION
In existing modular structure based power electronic trans-
(b) former, there is low-frequency ripple power in module capaci-
tors, which prevents the PET from promoting the power densi-
ty and is not welcome in high-power applications. In this paper,
Power (W)
a new three-phase AC-DC PET topology with power channels

(PC-PET) is proposed to solve the problem. The three-phase
ripple powers are counteracted by power channels combined
with power decoupling control, hence the dc capacitance can
be greatly reduced. Simulation results prove the validity of
proposed PC-PET and its effect on capacitor voltage elimina-
(c) tion. The proposed PC-PET can be applied for interfacing AC
and DC grid, such as power supply of urban rail transportation.
Power (W)
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253
Decentralized Controller for Energy Storage
Management on MVDC Ship Power System with
Pulsed Loads
Samy Faddel, Student Member IEEE, Tarek A. Youssef, Member IEEE and Osama Mohammed, Fellow, IEEE
Energy Systems Research Laboratory, Florida International University, Miami, Florida USA
mohammed@fiu.edu.
Abstract— Medium voltage DC systems (MVDC) are gaining generators commonly used in AES are not going to play a
more interest in ship power systems. Although, MVDC system has significant role in feeding pulsed loads that requires power in
many advantages for the ship power grid, it is challenging to the range of 1 second [3]. Therefore, proper management and
ensure load-generation balance in the presence of pulsed loads. control is needed to ensure load-generation balance and keep
Therefore, proper energy management algorithm of the energy
the MVDC bus voltage within the standards.
storage devices connected to the system should be developed. This
paper proposes an automatic decentralized controller for the Modelling of shipboard MVDC for dynamic analysis was
energy storage devices connected to the MVDC power system. considered in [4]. The focus of this work was to model the
The controller ensures load-generation balance, maintain the stator transient dynamics of the generators. In [5] source-load
MVDC bus constant and ensures proper power sharing among dynamic interactions were considered. The authors tried to
the storage devices. The simulation results, using MATLAB, consider the behavior of the constant power loads (CPLs) and
prove the adequacy of the proposed controller. their interaction with the generator inductances, dc bus
capacitors and cable effects. In both papers, energy storage
Index Terms— Ship power system, decentralized control, MVDC, devices and their control were not considered. Modelling and
pulsed loads, Energy Storage.
control of modular multi-level DC-DC converter in the
I. INTRODUCTION presence of energy storage for MVDC ship power system was
considered in [6]. A controller based on fundamental period
Next generation of ship power system is adopting more averaging and phase shifting technique was proposed. The
electrical energy that increases complexity of the supply and focus of the controller was to control the different submodules
the control process of the isolated power system. This is mainly of the converter under different operating conditions.
driven by the increasing electrical demand and the nature of However, the output voltage is not constant during the
anticipated new types of loads such as electromagnetic aircraft overloading condition due to the absence of sufficient
launch system (EMALS) [1]. This kind of loads draw generation.
intermittent pulses of power from the system [2]. Due to the Energy storage system with isolated modular multilevel
need of high power supply and flexibility in All Electric Ship DC-DC converter was considered in [7], [8]. The authors
(AES) power system, medium voltage direct current (MVDC) developed centralized control strategy for controlling the
systems are going to be a viable option. MVDC power system modular converter to achieve fault current limiting and fault
has multiple advantages against the MVAC system. These ride through using the converter cell capacitor. However, no
advantages include: 1. the replacement of bulky transformers consideration for the pulsed loads on the ship power system.
with the compact power electronic converters. 2. increased fuel Battery energy management was not considered as well.
efficiency of the generators and elimination of the Centralized controller for energy storage management for AES
synchronization problems. 3. Reducing the risk of systematic power systems with pulsed loads was considered in [9], [10].
disintegration while supporting the emerging pulsed loads [2]. In [9], the author proposed a PI controller based energy
Due to the nature of future pulsed loads on AES power storage management to handle the charging and discharging of
systems, energy storage devices are going to play a key role in a hybrid storage system that consists of a supercapacitor and a
the ship power systems. This comes from the fact that the battery. The energy management is based on a centralized
capacity of the generators for the AES power system is controller that requires the knowledge of the generators and the
designed to feed the loads that are continuously connected to load currents. In [10], Fuzzy logic controller was proposed to
the system. Otherwise, more cost is included to oversize the provide energy management of the hybrid energy storage.
generators. Also, due to its slow response, gas driven However, it still requires the knowledge of the generator and
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 254

load current. In [11], hierarchical control algorithm that MVDC
bus
ensures that the genset, in MVDC power system, to work in
their most efficient operational points was proposed. It is based on Radar
cooperative asymmetrical droop method to coordinate the G Load
Gas
charging among the hybrid energy storage system and the gensets. Turbine Main AC
However, the problem of supplying big loads within short periods Generator
Port
of time (pulsed loads) was not considered. Controllers based on M Propulsion
virtual impedance droop controller for low voltage DC microgrids Motor
with renewable energy was proposed [12], [13]. The authors
proposed a decentralized control algorithm that can change from LV DC
constant control mode to voltage control mode autonomously and Load
ensures good power sharing between batteries in the energy
storage system. Although the algorithm showed a good LV AC
performance, it is hard to be applied in the MVDC ship power Load
LVDC
system due to the slow response of the gas-driven generators. The
Battery
same applies for the use of supercapacitors in [14]. Banks
Starboard
Due to the anticipated use of MVDC and new types of pulsed M Propulsion
loads on AES, there is a need for automatic control algorithms Motor
that should provide smooth insertion and removal of power G
Pulsed
sources and sharing of loads as desired [2]. Gas Auxiliary Load
Turbine
In this paper, an automatic decentralized controller for fair AC
Generator
power sharing among batteries on MVDC ship power system is
proposed. The controller requires no communication or Fig. 1 Notional MVDC system
knowledge of the generator and load currents. It can ensure load-
generation balance for normal operating conditions and during TABLE 1
feeding the pulsed loads. It also ensures that the MVDC bus MVDC SYSTEM PARAMETERS
voltage is within the IEC 60092-101 standards [2]. The Type Quantity Power (MW)
controller is based on a two function controller that uses the Main Generators 2 36
Auxiliary Generators 2 4
concept of virtual impedance controller [12] and the Propulsion Motors 4 32
exponential SOC controller [15]. To avoid unnecessary Radar System 1 3
discharging of the batteries, the controller uses state machine Service Loads - 5
method to ensure efficient use of the energy storage units. Pulsed Loads 1 2
II. NOTIONAL MVDC SYSTEM DESCRIPTION Due to the large power required to feed the pulsed load, battery
The MVDC ship power system is shown in Fig. 1. The banks will be used. However, to maintain the MVDC bus
system parameters are shown in Table I. To meet the total voltage within the standards and to increase the life time of the
installed demand of the loads, two large capacity “main” batteries, proper energy management of the batteries is
generator sets (e.g., 36 MW) can be supplemented with two or required.
more small capacity “auxiliary” generator sets (e.g., 4 MW) III. CONTROLLER DESIGN
[2]. The generators are connected to a controlled rectifier. This
allows more fuel efficiency since the generators are not To ensure adequate operation of the MVDC AES in the
obligated to operate at a fixed speed anymore. The ship is presence of large pulsed loads, there is a need for proper
driven using a propulsion system that uses induction motors. management of the batteries.
The propulsion system represents 80% of the total ship power The energy management system should ensure load-
system loads [5]. The radar system represents a standalone generation balance and avoid unnecessary
load that draws around 3 MW in its steady state operation. Ship discharging/charging of the batteries to increase the life time
service loads are supplied from the MVDC through DC/DC or of the system. Therefore, there is a need for automatic
DC/AC converters. Pulsed Loads represent load center that decentralized control algorithm that should provide smooth
draws intermittent pulses from the system. It draws power in insertion and removal of the batteries [2]. Decentralized
the range of 2 MW within one second. controllers usually have the ability to provide fast response and
The generators on the ship power systems are designed to they are less expensive than the centralized ones.
supply the continuous loads that are connected to the system. Due to the nature of the decentralized controller, it does not
Also, the response time of the gas driven generators is slow. know about the capability of the generators. For example,
Therefore, sudden load additions or rejections to the MVDC when a large load is added to the system, it will cause a
caused by step changes coming from the pulsed loads are met momentary voltage drop on the MVDC bus. This may prompt
by energy storage devices. the batteries to start discharging regardless of the fact that the
generators can supply this added load. Therefore, the control
algorithm should satisfy the following condition:
1. Ensures load-generation balance.
255
2. Ensures proper power sharing among the batteries. Fig. 4 (a) Virtual impedance droop controller (b) Exponential controller
3. Avoids unnecessary discharging/charging of the deciding on the current reference value of the controller. This
batteries. It is only when there is a deficit/surplus, the controller is shown in Fig 3. The current reference value of the
batteries will be used. controller IDE is coming from two parts: The first one is based
The proposed controller that satisfies these requirements is on the value coming from the droop part shown in Fig. 4(a).
shown in Fig. 2. It consists of an outer droop-exponential During the discharging of the batteries, the reference current
controller that tries to ensure load-generation balance and will be managed partially by the droop controller. Therefore,
equal power sharing among the batteries. The droop- the MVDC bus voltage is given by:
exponential controller is followed by a state machine logic that
takes the reference current from the controller IDE and decides = − (1)
if this value will be passed to the PI controller or it will be
manipulated to avoid unnecessary discharging/ charging. Once where Rdc is the virtual resistance at each droop controller loop,
the final reference current Iref is obtained, it will be compared ID is the portion of the output current that is coming from the
to the converter current and the error will be passed to a PI droop control part. Vdc is the voltage at the common MVDC
controller that will force the converter to follow the reference bus and Vref is the voltage reference for the MVDC bus.
value of the current. The details of the various parts of the To take into consideration the state of charge of the battery, the
controller are as follows: battery current is measured and the state of charge of the
battery is estimated according to relation (2):
A. Droop Exponential Controller (2)
= (0) −
This part of the controller is a combination of the virtual
resistance droop control that is used for equal power sharing in
the DC micro-grids and the exponential controller that tries to where SOC(0) is the initial state of charge of the battery, Ibat is
take into consideration the state of charge of the battery when the battery current and Cbat is the battery capacity. Once the
SOC is estimated, it will be used in the second exponential part
of the controller. It is desired that the battery with the highest
DC/DC
Battery MVDC SOC is discharged faster than the others to ensure the balance
converter Bus among the batteries and increase the life time of the overall the
Ibat
storage system. In case of charging, it is required that the
SOC
State Machine battery with the lowest SOC to be charged faster than the
Logic
Estimator PWM others. Therefore, the controller will decide on part of the IDE
SOC Charge I
ref current based on the SOC based on the following equation:
Droop- I DE PI
V dc Exponential
I ∙
Controller
Discharge
L
= . (3)
Delay
Del_V
where exp(.) stands for the exponential function and SOCpu,i
Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of the proposed controller = SOCi/Cbat. This relation is show in Fig 4(b). This relation
will bias the effective discharging rate toward the highest
charged battery. In case of battery charging, this current will
Ir be manipulated by the state machine logic.
V dc
The final reference current coming from the droop-
Ir − V dc exponential controller is as follows:
Irbase I = ∙ ∙ (4)
×
DE
Ir
SOC Where K is a constant value that increases/decreases the
reference value based on the battery type and rating. ID is the
Ir − SOC
part of the controller current that is coming from the droop
relation and IE is the part of the controller current that is coming
Fig. 3 Droop Exponential Controller
from the exponential relation.
Once the reference current IDE is obtained, this value will be
I D Vdc=Vref-ID Rdc I
E
passed to the state machine logic that will generate the final
reference value Iref to the PI controller.
B. State Machine Logic

The state machine logic is responsible of generating the final
charge/discharge reference current Iref to the PI controller. It
(a) V dc (b) SOC is shown in Fig. 5.
256
Initialization
(Soc>=20) Discharging (Boost mode):

Flag2=dV If SOC<20 Iref=0
Else Iref =IDE
(Soc<20)
((abs(Flag1)< abs(del_V))
Discharge_decrementing && Soc>20)
Flag1=del_V
charge_incrementing
(abs(Flag2)<
abs(del_V)) Charging (Buck mode):
Decrement Discharging:
If SOC>80 Iref=0
Iref =Iref -(0.1*Iref)
Else Iref=Iref+((80-SOC)*Imax)
(abs(Flag2)> (delay; (abs(Flag1)> (delay;
abs(del_V)) abs(Iref)<Imax&&Del_V abs(Del_V)) Iref<Imax&&Del_V<Vth)
<Vth)
Hold on Hold on
Fig. 5 State machine Logic

IV. RESULTS
The inputs to the state machine logic are the discharge
To validate the proposed controller, it was implemented and
reference from the droop-exponential controller, the change in
tested in the notional MVDC system given in Fig. 1. To test the
the voltage of the MVDC bus (Vt - Vt-1) and the SOC of the
ability of the controller for proper power sharing, it is assumed
battery. The main function of the energy storage is to maintain
that the storage system consists of two large storage batteries.
the MVDC bus constant and to ensure load-generation balance.
Each one of them has a rated capacity of 800 AH and nominal
Mainly, the energy storage system will be used when there is a
voltage of 800 V. The validation is performed under different
deficit in the generation, especially while feeding the
loading conditions and different state of charge of the batteries.
intermittent pulsed loads. The charging of the energy storage
devices will occur when there is a surplus of energy that will
be detected by the change of the bus voltage. A. Controller Performance With Equal SOCs of the Batteries
Once there is a change in the MVDC bus voltage, the state First the controller performance is tested when the two
machine logic will be activated and receive the discharge batteries have equal state of charge of 50% of their capacities.
reference current IDE. To avoid unnecessary discharging of the Fig. 6 (b) shows the loading connection/disconnection process
batteries, the reference current IDE will go to the discharge where there is a propulsion system load of 6400A is connected
decrementing block which will reduce the reference current to the system at the beginning. The system continues to start
and wait for few microseconds. The change in voltage will be operation. At t=0.7 sec, service loads of 1000A are added to
detected after that waiting time (the delay). If the voltage has the system. It is worth mentioning that the generators can feed
decreased by decreasing the discharge reference current, this loads up to 8000A when the generators reach their maximum
indicates that the system needs the support from the batteries. capacities. Therefore, as long as the current is less than 8000A,
Therefore, the controller will stop decrementing the the batteries should not supply any current. At t=1.5 sec, radar
discharging current. In case of the voltage did not change or it system load of 600A is added to the system. From 1.5 to 2
increased, this means that the generators are supporting this seconds, the generators are working at their rated power. Fig.7
extra load. So, the discharging current will be decremented till and Fig. 8 show that during this period (0-2 seconds), the
it reaches zero. batteries are idle. At t=2 sec, a pulsed load of (400A) is added
If there is an increase in the MVDC voltage, the state for one second. Since the generators are already running at
machine will switch to the charging mode where it will their rated power, the batteries should supply the extra load to
increase the charging reference current through the charge ensure load-generation balance. This is shown in Fig. 7(a)
incrementing block. This block will increase the charging where the two batteries start to discharge. This also confirmed
current and check the change of the MVDC voltage after each by the decrease in the SOCs in Fig. 8. Since both batteries have
increment to ensure that the charging of the batteries does not the same initial SOC of charge, Fig 7(a) shows that both
negatively impact the MVDC bus. batteries feed the same amount of current. This ensures equal
In case the SOC of the battery is below 20%, this battery will load sharing among the batteries and increases the system life
not participate in the discharge process. Similarly, if the SOC time. It is worth mentioning that high current (1000A) is drawn
of the battery is higher than 80%, this battery will not from the batteries because there are connected at the low
participate in the charging process. voltage side of the converter and the discharge of the battery is
associated by a decrease in the battery voltage as shown in Fig
7(b). After the pulsed load is disconnected at t=3 sec, the
257
batteries are smoothly disconnected as well since the
generators can feed the existing loads. At t=3.5 sec, another
Voltage (V)
load is disconnected which means that there is a surplus of
energy that can be used to charge the batteries. Therefore, the
batteries are smoothly connected again but at the charging
mode in this case. Fig. 7(a) shows that the current of the
batteries becomes negative (which means charging) after t =3.5
sec. Both batteries charge with the same current which is
desirable. Fig 7(b) shows that the voltages of the batteries
increase after t= 3.5 sec. The charging process is confirmed by
Current (A)
the increase in the SOC as depicted in Fig. 8. Finally, Fig. 6(a)
shows that regardless of the different loading condition on the
ship power system, the MVDC bus voltage is kept constant and
within the standards.
B. Controller Performance With Different SOCs of the

Batteries Fig. 6 Case of equal SOCs
a) The MVDC bus voltage. b) Total load current.
In this test, the same loading conditions are applied but the
initial SOC of the two batteries are different where battery1 has
higher initial SOC of 75% of its capacity while battery 2 has
Current (A)
only 45% of its capacity. Fig. 9(a) shows that the MVDC bus
voltage remains constant with the different loading conditions.
At t= 2 sec, when the pulsed load is connected and the
generators can no longer support this extra load, the two
batteries start to discharge to maintain load-generation
balance. Since battery 1 has higher SOC, its contribution in
supporting the system is higher as shown in Fig. 10(a) where
Voltage (V)
the discharge current of battery 1 is 1500A while the discharge

current of battery 2 is 400A. This is also shown by the
difference in the drop of the battery voltage in Fig 10(b) where
the drop of the voltage is higher for battery 1. The decrease in
the SOC of the batteries during the period 2-3 second is shown
in Fig. 11. At t=3 sec, the pulsed load is disconnected.
Therefore, the batteries are disconnected as well. At t=3.5 sec,
Fig. 7 Case of equal SOCs
when another load is disconnected, both batteries start to a) Battery current. b) Battery voltage.
charge. However, because battery 2 has lower SOC, its
charging current is higher than that of battery 1 which is
desirable. Fig. 11 show the increase of the SOC of the batteries
SOC (%)
after t=3.5 sec.

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, an automated decentralized controller for
energy storage management for ship power system with pulsed
loads is proposed. The controller is based on a combination of
virtual impedance droop control and SOC exponential control
SOC (%)
to support the system and ensure proper power sharing. State

machine logic was used to avoid unnecessary discharging of the
batteries. The controller was tested in Simulink under different
loading conditions and different SOCs of the batteries. The
results showed that the controller ensures load-generation
balance and the voltage of the MVDC is kept constant. It also
ensures proper power sharing among the batteries which
increase the system life time. Fig. 8 Case of equal SOCs
a) SOC of battery1. b) SOC of battery 2.
258
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[9] M. M. S. Khan and M. O. Faruque, “Management of hybrid energy
storage systems for MVDC power system of all electric ship,” in North
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[10] M. M. S. Khan, M. O. Faruque, and A. Newaz, “Fuzzy Logic Based
Energy Storage Management System for MVDC Power System of All
Electric Ship,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 798–
809, Jun. 2017.
Fig. 10 Case of different SOCs [11] Z. Jin, L. Meng, J. C. Vasquez, and J. M. Guerrero, “Frequency-
a) Battery current. b) Battery voltage. division power sharing and hierarchical control design for DC
shipboard microgrids with hybrid energy storage systems,” in Applied
Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 2017 IEEE,
2017, pp. 3661–3668.
SOC (%)
[12] N. L. Diaz, D. Wu, T. Dragicevic, J. C. Vasquez, and J. M. Guerrero,

“Fuzzy droop control loops adjustment for stored energy balance in
distributed energy storage system,” 2015, pp. 728–735.
[13] N. L. Diaz, T. Dragicevic, J. C. Vasquez, and J. M. Guerrero,
“Intelligent Distributed Generation and Storage Units for DC
Microgrids—A New Concept on Cooperative Control Without
Communications Beyond Droop Control,” IEEE Trans. Smart Grid,
vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 2476–2485, Sep. 2014.
[14] H. F. Habib, A. A. S. Mohamed, M. El Hariri, and O. A. Mohammed,
“Utilizing supercapacitors for resiliency enhancements and adaptive
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Fig. 11 Case of different SOCs

a) SOC of battery1. b) SOC of battery 2.
259
Dynamic Analysis of a Novel Synchronous
Reluctance Motor with a Sinusoidal Anisotropic
Rotor
Mbika Muteba, Member IEEE , Dan Valentin Nicolae, Member IEEE
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technology
University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
mmuteba@uj.ac.za
Abstract— This paper deals with the dynamic analysis of a [6]-[7]. A good number of previous work intended to reduce
Novel Synchronous Reluctance Motor (NSynRM) having a the torque ripple contents in SynRMs was mostly focused on a
sinusoidal rotor shape in the axial direction, without suitable choice of the number of flux-barriers in respect to the
changing the flux-barriers design variables. Due to the number of stator slots per pole per phase [8]-[9]. It also
non-self-starting characteristic of a Synchronous focused on the optimization and asymmetry of the flux-
Reluctance Motor (SynRM), the motor is started by means barriers geometry and so on [7], [10], [11]-[13].
of an industrial drive of ACS880 type. The mechanical In 2014, Zhao proposed and analyzed the material-efficient
equations that describe the NSynRM rotor dynamic model permanent magnet synchronous motor with a sinusoidal
in machine variables and rotating reference frame are magnet shape [14]. The analysis was performed on a fraction
presented in this paper. The motor is a 4-pole, 5.5 kW with of horse power permanent magnet surface-mounted motor
a base speed of 1500 rpm. Finite Element Analysis is used in automotive actuators. For medium and high power
utilized to study the electromagnetic parameters of motors to be used in traction, electric vehicles and hybrid
interests. The practical tests are performed at three electric vehicles, where less torque ripple and high torque
different speeds in order to analyze the dynamic responses density are required, the magnet volume will be intolerably
when there is a sudden change in mechanical load high [15].
characteristics. The measured results of the NSynRM are The NSynRM with sinusoidal rotor shape in the axial
compared with those of a Standard Synchronous direction, without changing the flux barrier geometry, has
Reluctance Motor (SSynRM). positioned itself as an alternative in applications that require
high torque density and less torque ripple. The novel motor
Keywords—Dynamic analysis, Synchronous reluctance motor, was first reported in 2016 [15]. The study was done on a
sinusoidal rotor shape 1.5 kW, six-pole machine and it was only limited to Finite
Element Analysis (FEA) [15]. A based 3D FEA of a 4-pole,
I. INTRODUCTION 5.5 kW SynRM with sinusoidal rotor shape was recently
reported [16]. In the latter, the FEA results have shown that
Synchronous reluctance motors (SynRMs) are good the SynRM with sinusoidal rotor shape provided better
competitors in AC drives due to their compact design and high performance as far as torque characteristics are concerned.
power density. They have also become an interesting choice, The traction in EVs require less torque ripple contents, high
being used as small power motors in various applications [1]. ratio torque/mass, high efficiency and good overload
One of these applications is a small electric scooter, performance under the limited battery capacity condition. The
commonly used by people with physical disabilities. In [2] the novel SynRM presented in [15] and [16] is a good candidate in
in-wheel switched reluctance motor driving system for future such traction applications. Nothing is yet to be reported on the
electric vehicles (EVs) has been reported. A mechanical robust dynamic responses of the Novel SynRM. Therefore, this
rotor with transverse-laminations for a SynRM for electric paper evaluates the dynamic responses of the novelw SynRM
traction application is discussed in more detail in [3]. The with a sinusoidal rotor lamination shape in the axial direction.
novel lamination concept for transverse flux machines suitable
for direct drive application to EVs is presented in [4]. The
design optimization of SynRM drives for Hybrid Electric II. MOTORS SPECICATIONS AND RATINGS
Vehicles (HEVs) power train application is analyzed in [5].
However, the interaction between spatial harmonics of the Fig. 1 shows the photographs of SSynRM and the
electrical loading and the rotor anisotropy of SynRMs causes a NSynRM rotors. The variation of the cut-off pitch angle of the
high torque ripple that is intolerable in most applications NSynRM rotor structure results in step-changing of the cut-off
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 260

base lengths, thus forming a sinusoidal shape along the axial III. DYNAMIC EQUATIONS OF THE NOVEL SYNRM
length of the rotor. The total axial length of the rotor
lamination is equal to A. Dynamic model of the NSynRM in machine variables
The novel SynRM with sinusoidal rotor shape presented in
Z = 2( y1 + y2 + y3... + yn ) + yv + wi (1) this paper has different magnetizing reluctances along the
axial length. The electrogmatic torque is expressed as
where wi is the total thickness of steel lamination insulation 10
coating, yv is the axial length of the middle lamination shape T d = T dυ + 2  T d n (2)
and yn is the axial length of each n individual lamination shape n =1
in one half period of the sinusoidal structure. It should be
noted that the middle stack lamination shape has no cut-off where Tdv is the electromagnetic torque developed in relation
angle at all and isolates the two adjacent periodical structures. with the middle stack lamination, Tdn is the electromagnetic
torque developed in correspondence to n number of stack
lamination. The differentiation of the expression for the co-
energy in [17] is used to determine the electromagnetic torque
of the NSynRM. After mathematical derivation, the developed
electromagnetic torque of the NSynRM can be calculated
using
p 3  10

Td =  M sin 2θ + G cos 2θ   Δ L mdq υ + 2  Δ L mdq  (3)

6 2 
 
n
n =1
where M and G are given as in (4) and (5) respectively.
(a)
M = ia2 − 0.5ib2 − 0.5ic2 − ia (ib − ic ) + 2ib ic (4)
G = ib2 − ic2 − 2 ia (ib + ic ) (5)
Here ia, ib, and ic are the three-phase stator currents. By

ignoring the friction coefficient, the dynamic equation of the
NSynRM in machine variables is given by
2 J dω  10

r
=  T dυ + 2  T d n  − T L (6)
p dt  n =1 
(b) and further written as

Fig. 1: Photographs of the prototype rotors, (a) Standard rotor, (b) novel rotor,
dωr  p2  3  10
 p 
=   M sin2θr + Gsin2θr  ΔLmdqυ + 2ΔLmdq n  − TL  (7)
dt 12J  2  n=1  2J 
TABLE I
MOTOR SPECIFICATIONS AND RATINGS
Description Values where J is the total inertia of the rotor, TL is the load torque,
Output power (kW) 5.5 and ΔLmdqv and ΔLmdqn are the differences of the d-axis and q-
Rated current (A) 12
Rated line-to-line voltage (V) 380
axis magnetizing inductances for the mid-point stack
Rated Frequency (Hz) 50 lamination and the n number of stack laminations respectively.
Rates Speed (rpm) 1500 The mechanical equation that describes the NSynRM dynamic
Number of pole pairs 2 model in machine variables is given in integral form by
Number of stator slots 36
Number of turns per phase 120
p2  3  10
 p
Airgap length (mm)
Stator outer diameter (mm)
0.5
210
ωr = 
12J 

 M sin2θr +
2
Gsin2θr 
  ΔLmdq + 2 ΔLmdq n dt − TL dt (8)
 2J

υ
n=1
Stator inner diameter (mm) 148
Rotor outer diameter (mm) 146.1
Shaft diameter (mm) 48
Stack length (mm) 160.00
261
B. Dynamic model of the NSynRM in rotor reference frame IV. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
The NSynRM has sinusoidal distributed stator windings,
and its associated phase voltages, currents, and flux linkages A. Finite Element Model
can be transformed to rotor arbitrary reference frame that Due to the axial geometry design of the NSynRM, a three-
rotates at angular velocity ωr. To transform the phase variables dimensional (3D) Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is
to corresponding direct, quadrature and zero-axis components performed in this paper, using ANSYS 16.0 electromagnetic
of voltages, currents, and flux linkages, the Park package.The ac magnetic-transient solver is used to perform
transformation is applied [17]. The relation between the three- the dynamic analysis of the SynRMs. The short-pitched three-
phase variables associated with the stator windings and the phase stator windings are excited by 3-phase sinusoidal
rotor arbitrary frame are well presented in [17]. After currents. Skin effect and core loss are considered in the FEA.
mathematical derivation, the electromagnetic torque of the Fig.2 shows the mesh plot on the surface of the rotor of the
NSynRM in rotor reference frame can be written as NSynRM with sinusoidal rotor shape (only one eighth of the
rotor is shown). A total number of 18076 tetrahedral elements
9 p  10
 are obtained for the rotor geometry with minimum edge length
Td =   Δ L mdq υ i qrυ i dr υ + 2  Δ L mdq n i qr n i dr n   (9) of 0.007857 mm on the low magnetic reluctance pole face (d-
 4  n =1 
axis region), and with maximum edge length of 16.4495 mm
on the high magnetic reluctance pole face (q-axis region). On
The circuit dynamic equations of the NSynRM in the rotor
other hand Fig.3 illustrates the magnetic flux density
reference frame are expressed as
distribution at full load plotted along the rotor periphery of the
NSynRM.
di qrυ r L dυ v qrυ
= −i r
qυ
r
− idυ ωr + (10)
dt L qυ Lqυ L qυ
di drυ r L qυ v dr υ
= −i r
dυ
r
− idυ ωr + (11)
dt L dυ Ld υ Ldυ
di dr n r Ld n v qr n
= −i r
qn
r
− id n ωr + (12)
dt Lqn Lq n Lqn
di dr n r L qn v dr n Fig.2: Mesh plot of the rotor at full-load for the NSynRM

= − i dr n − i dr n ωr + (13)
dt Ldn Ld n Ldn
di 0r r r v 0r
= − i0 + (14)
dt Ll Ll
It is noted that Lmdv, Lmqv, Lmdn, Lmqn are obtained through

FEM and practical measurements. The mechanical equation
that describes the NSynRM dynamic model in rotating
reference frame is given by
dω r  9 p 2  10
 p  (15)
=  ΔLmdqυ iqrυ idrυ + 2 ΔLmdq n iqrn idr n  − TL 
dt  8J  n =1  2J 
Fig. 3: Flux density distribution on the rotor periphery of the NSynRM

9 p2  10
 p
ωr =
8J   ΔL i r r
i
mdqυ qυ dυ + 2n =1
ΔLmdqn iqrn idrn  dt −
 2J 
TL dt (16)
262
B. Flux-linkages in machine variables and rotating reference V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
frame
In the NSynRM model, the cut-off pitch angle is varied A. Experimental Set up
along the q-axis, therefore changing quantities in the rotating The experimental setting comprises of the three-phase
reference frame [15]. The stator flux linkages λa, λb and λc can novel synchronous reluctance motor coupled to a Model 1 PB
be directly obtained from FEM. These stator flux linkages are 115 powder dynamometer having a water braking cooling
converted into the rotating reference frame. system. A DSP6001 high speed programmable dynamometer
The flux linkages in both machine variables and rotating controller is used to create transient conditions. The shaft
reference frame as functions of rotor position are shown in torque, speed and mechanical power are measured by a rotary
Fig.4 and Fig.5 respectively. The Finite Element Analysis type torque transducer Fig. 6 shows the experimental setup rig
(FEA) was performed at differeent current vector angles. The photo.
three-phase windings are made of distributed double layer
chorded coils to produce a sinusoidal inductance-position
curve. Therefore, all the flux linkage waveforms are nearly an
exact sinusoidal due to the sinusoidal excitation current.
Fig. 6. experimental setup rig photo
B. Transient response under different loads

Fig.4: Flux linkage of phase A for different current vector angles
Both SynRMs operated on no-load for a short time and
suddenly load torques of 10.5 Nm, 21 Nm and 28 Nm were
applied and removed at a certain time in order to analyze the
1.5
motors’ dynamic responses. Fig. 7 show the comparison
q-axis flux linkage between NSynRM and SSynRM dynamic responses, while
d-axis flux linkage
1
Table II depicts the transient behaviour of both SynRMs. The
rising time (RT) is observed to fall between 595 µSec and 488
0.5
µSec at 1500 rpm, 564 µSec and 464 µSec at 1000 rpm and
Flux Linkage (Wb)
560 µSec and 408 µSec at 750 rpm, while the falling time
0
(FT) with the same speed pattern is noted to be between 124
µSec and 200 µSec, 224 µSec and 348 µSec, and 229 µSec
-0.5
and 350 µSec when a load torque of 10.5 Nm or 21 Nm or 28
Nm is applied and removed respectively in the NSynRM. The
-1
change in speed (∆N) is between ± 0.2 % and ± 0.4 % for the
NSynRM and ± 0.21 % and ± 0.667 % for the SSynRM.
-1.5
The signs (-) and (+) refer to when the load torque is applied
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Rotor Angular Position (Mech. Degree) and removed respectively. The NSynRM responds faster than
the SSynRM due to its lower rotor mass which were measured
Fig.5: d-and q-axis flux linkages at current vector angle of 550 elec to be 17.6 kg as compared to 19.3 kg for the SSynRM rotor.
263
Novel SynRM at 1500 rpm Novel SynRM at 1500 rpm
35 30
10.5 Nm
30 21 Nm
20
28 Nm No-Load
25
10
Torque (Nm)
Current (A)
20
15 0
10
-10
No-Load
5
-20
0
-5 -30
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Time (mSec) Time (mSec)
(a)
Standard SynRM at 1500 rpm Standard SynRM at 1500 rpm
35 30
10.5 Nm
30 21 Nm
28 Nm 20
25 No-Load
10
Torque (Nm)
20
Current ( A)
15 0
10 No-Load
-10
5
-20
0
-5 -30
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
(b)
Novel SynRM at 1000 rpm Novel SynRM at 1000 rpm
35 30
10.5 Nm
30 21 Nm
28 Nm 20
25 No-Load
10
Torque (Nm)
20
Current (A)
15 0
10
-10
No-Load
5
-20
0
-5 -30
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
(c)
Standard SynRM at 1000 rpm
Standard SynRM at 1000 rpm 30
35
10.5 Nm
30 21 Nm 20
28 Nm
25 No-Load
10
Current (A)
Torque (Nm)
20
0
15
10 -10
No-Load
5
-20
0
-5 -30
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
(d)
Fig. 7: Comparison of dynamic responses between the NSynRM and SSynRM, (a) torque and current of NSynRM at 1500 rpm, (b) torque and current of
SSynRM at 1500 rpm, (c) torque and current of NSynRM at 1000 rpm, (d) torque and current of SSynRM at 1000 rpm,
TABLE II
COMPARISON OF TRANSIENT BEHAVIOUR FFRON NO-LOAD TO DIFFERENT LOAD TORQUES
10.5 Nm 21 Nm 28 Nm
SynRM Speed RT FT ∆N RT FT ∆N RT FT ∆N
Type (rpm) (µSec) (µSec) (%) (µSec) (µSec) (%) (µSec) (µSec) (%)
1500 594 124 ± 0.200 448 180 ± 0.312 488 200 ± 0.400
NSynRM 1000 564 224 ± 0.267 431 324 ± 0.312 464 348 ± 0.400
750 560 229 ± 0.200 416 352 ± 0.333 408 350 ± 0.400
1500 900 224 ± 0.267 902 216 ± 0.467 910 210 ± 0.667
SSynRM 1000 740 248 ± 0.400 868 474 ± 0.467 500 400 ± 0.600
750 600 336 ± 0.333 464 522 ± 0.467 462 464 ± 0.600
264
VI. CONCLUSION [6] N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, D. Bon, and M. D. Pre’, Rotor Flux-barrier
Design for Torque Ripple Reduction in Synchronous Reluctance and
PM-Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motors. IEEE Trans. on Ind.
This paper has presented the dynamic responses of a novel Appl., vol. 45, Issue 3, May-June 2009, pp. 921-928.
synchronous reluctance motor with sinusoidal rotor shape. The [7] N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, D. Bond and M. D. Pre’, Rotor Flux-barrier
mechanical equations that describe the Novel SynRM dynamic Design for Torque Ripple Reduction in Synchronous Reluctance
model in machine variables and rotating reference frame have Motors. Proc. 41th IEEE Conf. On Industry Applications, 2006, 1193-
1200.
been presented. The analysis has been carried out through [8] E.C Lovelace, “Optimization of a magnetically saturable IPM Sync.
Finite Element Analysis and practical measurements. The Mac. Drive”, PhD, Dept. of Elec. Eng. & Comp. Sci., MIT, 2000.
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Standard SynRM of the same ratings and specifications. From Traction Drives of Hybrid and Electrical Vehicles”, USA Department
of Energy, Freedom Car and Vehicle Technologies Mar 2011.
the results, it is evident that the Novel SynRM has exhibited [10] N. Bianchi and S. Bolognani, A Consoli, T. M. Jahns, R. D. Lorenz, E.
quicker time responses when the load torque is suddenly C. Lovelace, S. Morimoto and A. Vagati, “Design Analysis and Control
changed. The Novel SynRM’s sudden change in speed during of Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines”. Proceeding of
transient condition is observed to be minimal compared to the International Conference on Electrical Machines, ICEM. Aug.
Helsinki, 2000.
Standard SynRM. This has positioned the Novel SynRM with [11] E. Armando, P. Guglielmi, G. Pellegrino, M. Pastorelli and A. Vagati,
sinusoidal rotor shape to be a good contender in traction, “Accurate Modelling and Perf. Anal. of IPM-PMASR Motors”. IEEE
electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles applications. Trans. on Ind. Appl., vol. 45, Issue 1, Jan-Feb 2009, pp. 123-130.
[12] M. J Kamper, F. S. Van der Merwe and S. Williamson, “Direct finite
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an electric machine used on road vehicles”, 8th International IEEE Trans. On Industrial Electronics, vol. 61, Issue 10, 2014, pp.
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2014 International Conference and Exposition on Electrical and Power Sep 4-7, 2016, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Engineering (EPE 2014), 16-18 October, Iasi, Romania. [16] M. Muteba, B. Twala and D. Nicolae “Based 3D Finite Element
[4] J. Lin, K. W. E. Cheng, Z. Zhang and X. Xue, “Experimental Analysis of a Synchronous Reluctance Motor with Sinusoidal Rotor
investigation of in-wheel reluctance motor driving system for future Lamination Shape”, Proc. of IEEE the Int. Elect. Machines, Drives
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Systems and Applications, 2009. [17] S.E. Lyshevski, “Electromechanical Systems, Electric Machines, and
[5] S. Taghavi and P. Pillay, “A mechanically robust rotor with transverse- Applied Mechatronics”, CRC Press, Oct 27, 1999, New York.
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265
Bearingless Motor Technology for Industrial and
Transportation Applications
Eric L Severson
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Email: eric.severson@wisc.edu
Abstract—This paper reviews bearingless motor technology The second approach, magnetic levitation, has been com-
for use in large transportation and industrial applications. mercialized in the form of active magnetic bearings (AMBs).
Historically, bearingless motors have resided in research settings This technology can work for nearly any size shaft, any speed
and certain niche commercial applications. Significant literature
has been dedicated to developing designs that feature highly- range, and any operating condition. The active control of the
specific geometry, restricted by applications with a unique set of magnetic suspension can be used to modify rotor dynamics
needs, oftentimes with low power requirements. The first part in real time, i.e. to avoid critical speeds. There are several
of this paper reviews existing and potentially new use-cases of commercial AMB products that existing motor systems can be
magnetic levitation in transportation and industrial applications. retrofitted to use. This technology has been deployed in many
The second part of the paper presents design sizing equations
of promising bearingless motor topologies for these applications different applications over various speed and power levels,
and highlights efforts to generalize and increase the power rating described in Section II.
of bearingless motor technology. The low force density of magnetic bearings causes two key
problems: first, it reduces the power density of the overall
I. I NTRODUCTION motor system, something that is particularly problematic for
designers looking toward non-contact bearings to enable high
Contact-type bearings are typically the first components rotational speeds as a means of increasing power density.
to fail in an electric motor system. The recent introduc- Second, magnetic bearings occupy a significant portion of the
tion of commercial wide-band gap semiconductor switching shaft’s axial length, meaning that the shaft space cannot be
devices allows motor drives to efficiently operate at higher used by the motor. The maximum length of a motor system
fundamental frequencies, enabling motor designs to feature a shaft is typically limited to avoid flexible modes. For a given
higher number of poles as well as higher rotational speeds. maximum rotational speed, this means that the length of the
Both of these design aspects enable higher power density magnetic bearing reduces the designable power rating of the
motor designs, and have been instrumental in developing motor system, an effect that becomes especially problematic
new transportation electrification concepts [1], [2], especially as speeds exceed 100,000 r/min. Finally, AMBs are expensive
given the ability of high speed motors to match the rotational and complicated to integrate. Bearingless motors have the
speed of the load and eliminate any need for a gearbox. potential to solve the shortcomings of AMBs by integrating
However, increasing rotational speeds shortens the calendar the functionality of one or more AMBs into an electric motor.
life of the L10 rating of the motor’s bearings–a critical concern This paper considers the design of magnetic suspension
for transportation and industrial applications. In addition to systems based around bearingless motor technology for di-
lifetime concerns, bearing lubricants can interfere with the rect drive applications in transportation electrification and
broader system a motor is used in. Finally, bearings are a industrial compressors. The paper first reviews current and
source of frictional losses in motor systems. While these potential use-cases for AMBs and bearingless motors. The
losses are often insignificant at low speeds (≤ 3600 r/min) paper then reviews bearingless motor technology and high-
under normal operating temperatures, they can become quite lights development efforts to generalize this technology for
significant at high speeds, or in extreme thermal environments. large transportation and industrial applications. Finally, the
For these reasons, non-contact bearing systems have re- paper presents a sizing analysis illustrating how torque and
ceived recent commercial attention for motor systems. There suspension force ratings scale with bearingless machine size.
are two primary technology divisions for non-contact bearings:
passive air-foil bearings and magnetic suspension. The first, II. A PPLICATIONS FOR M AGNETIC L EVITATION
air-foil bearings, provide a purely passive, mechanical solution This section reviews current and potential use-cases for
that has been successful for smaller shafts, over a specific magnetic levitation in transportation and industrial applica-
speed range, and in non-vacuum environments. Commercial tions. Bearingless motors have the potential to solve several
applications include super chargers, industrial blowers and shortcomings of AMBs; however, current bearingless tech-
aeration equipment, and gas micro-turbine generators [3]–[6]. nology cannot yet meet the power requirements of these
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 266

Radial Mag. Bearings
AMB solution: insufficient motor space Possible bearingless solution: Axial Mag. Bearing Compressor
Exhaust Expander Intake Compressor
HS Motor
Power
VSD
Grid
0 - 30+ kRPM
Battery
Backup MBC
Radial AMBs Axial AMB Bearingless Motors Axial AMB
Fig. 1: Magnetically levitated e-turbocharger concept Fig. 2: Industrial compressor system with magnetic bearings
application spaces (which are highlighted in this section). [22], [23]. The rotor is supported radially via bearings, but can
The highest power published bearingless motor experimental be controlled to travel in the axial direction to disengage from
results are at approximately 30 kW [7], [8]. the stator during take-off and landing (when the high rotational
speeds may cause problematic back-EMF levels) and to re-
A. Transportation Electrification
engage when on the runway to taxi the aircraft.
Magnetic levitation is increasingly being considered for use
in transportation subsystems as a means of enabling higher B. Industrial Applications
efficiency (range increases), higher rotational speeds (size Several papers have reported on the suitability of magnetic
reduction), and intelligent self-monitoring. Three application bearings for use in industry, which are now highlighted. A
areas are identified in this paper: waste heat recovery for vehi- typical topology for a magnetic bearing equipped large fluid-
cle electric loads, aircraft engines and starter/generators, and handling industrial motor system is shown in Fig. 2.
electric assist turbochargers (e-turbochargers). An additional In [24], Knopse reviews research on developing AMBs to
area is described, which is not completely levitated: in-wheel overcome lifetime and damping limitations in rolling element
landing gear motors for aircraft taxiing. bearings for high speed machine tools. Experimental results
Organic Ranking Cycle (ORC) systems enable low tem- are presented for a 30,000 r/min, 67 kW induction motor with
perature waste heat recovery. This technology has been com- AMBs. One of the primary limitations noted is that AMBs’
mercialized for stationary applications and is gaining attention inherently low specific load capacity yields elongated designs,
for mobile applications, such as ships, rail, and city buses which can cause rotor dynamic challenges.
[9]. Magnetic bearings are currently used to facilitate efficient In [25], Kasarda presents the history of magnetic levita-
operation of compact, high speed generators [10]. This has tion and highlights several industrial deployments of active
recently been commercialized for marine applications in the magnetic bearings in the 1990s. These deployments include
form of an engine water jacket with a 125 kW permanent turbomachinery, primarily in large compressors for natural gas
magnet motor supported by AMBs [11]. transportation where motor power requirements ranged from
The potential use of AMBs in aircraft engines and a few kilowatts up to 29 MW and with maximum rotational
starter/generators is discussed in [12], [13] to enable com- speeds of 60 kRPM. Other applications reviewed include
pletely oil-free, low maintenance systems. Several patent ap- canned pumps, turbomolecular vacuum pumps, machine spin-
plications have been filed on these concepts, for example: [14], dle tools, gas turbine engines, and flywheel energy storage–
[15]. One of the key challenges in this space is reliable AMB featuring a wide range of speed and power requirements. In
operation at high temperatures. [6], Clark et al. compare rolling element, foil, and magnetic
Turbocharger and e-turbocharger technology has been de- bearings for engine applications (i.e. generators) and conclude
veloped for automobiles as a means of increasing efficiency that magnetic bearings are better suited for larger engines with
and performance. These systems typically have high rotational large loads (i.e. a 10 MW machine is discussed).
speeds (50,000 - 300,000 r/min), to minimize their size and In [26], Eaton et al. review commercial deployment of
weight, and operate under high temperature conditions, all of magnetic bearing technology in the petroleum and chemi-
which places strain on their bearing systems [16], [17]. It is cal industries. They highlight successful use-cases in natural
estimated that 80% of turbocharger failures are due to bearing gas pipeline compressors, vertical pump motors (where a 3-
problems from hydrodynamic or contact bearings [17]. Sev- 5% efficiency improvement is reported), subsea compressors,
eral patent applications have been filed around magnetically wastewater treatment aeration equipment, and refrigeration
levitated turbochargers with both passive and active magnetic compressors (highlighting a 300 kW commercial HVAC chiller
bearings as well as a bearingless motor concepts, for example compressor, reproduced in Fig. 3). Two detailed case studies
[17]–[21]. E-turbocharger motor/generator power ratings vary are presented to compare the cost, efficiency, and payback
from 1 to > 100 kw. The bulky nature of AMBs has prevented period of motor deployments with and without AMBs.
their use in the highest speed e-turbocharger designs because The use of magnetic levitation in HVAC chiller compressors
there is insufficient shaft space available for both the AMB has had an especially broad commercial impact for large
system and the motor/generator, depicted in Fig. 1. enterprise-scale systems (100+ kw) [26]. Studies have shown
In addition to these fully levitated applications, conical, that the lubricants of traditional compressor motor bearings
bearingless motors capable of controlled axial movement are leach into the refrigerant, impeding thermal transfer and
under development as in-wheel motors in aircraft landing gear thereby decreasing system efficiency in excess of 10% [27].
267
Hybrid AMB Bearingless Motor
(a) Category 1 (b) Category 2 [39]
Fig. 3: 300 kW, 20,000 r/min AMB HVAC compressor [26] Fig. 4: 2-DOF bearingless motor system topologies
AMBs offer an oil-free, high efficiency solution. Magnetic

stabilized by passive magnetic forces. This has been developed
bearings have also been widely commercialized for wastewater
as a low cost, low power (< 30 W) technology.
aeration compressors. Numerous reports document the benefits
2) 2-DOF Bearingless System: These types of bearingless
to municipalities of replacing legacy blower technology with
direct-drive blower systems featuring non-contact bearings [3], motors create radial x-y forces, but are stabilized in the
remaining DOF by other means. Two categories of interest to
[28]–[31]. These benefits include improved reliability, the use
this paper: 1) bearingless motors stabilized by AMBs and 2)
of high rotational speeds to decrease equipment size (increase
treatment capacity within existing blower room infrastructure), bearingless slice motors stabilized by passive magnetic forces.
The topology for category 1) is shown in Fig. 4a, where the
and energy efficiency (legacy technology is often reported with
“hybrid AMB” is able to produce both axial and radial forces.
system efficiencies under 50%). Efficiency improvement is
The hybrid AMB can be replaced with separate axial and radial
especially important because the energy to operate the aeration
AMBs or with mechanical bearings. This topology has been
blower motors constitutes approximately 25-40% of a typical
wastewater treatment facility’s operating budget [28], [31]. widely developed in the literature and textbooks [33], [34]
and has been considered for meeting the power requirements
In [32], the authors interview manufacturers, distributors, and
of large industrial motor systems [7], [8], [37], [38].
users of wastewater blower systems to understand the motor
design requirements and suitability of bearingless motors. Category 2, bearingless disk or slice motors, have been
Based on these results, bearingless design target ratings of developed and brought to market for centrifugal compressors
100 kw, > 95% efficiency, and 30,000 r/min are proposed. and mixing devices in semiconductor, bioreactors, and medical
applications–and have been the focus of many review and
III. B EARINGLESS M OTOR S OLUTIONS design papers, for example [39]–[43]. The topology along
By definition, bearingless motors are electromechanical de- with the active and passive forces is depicted in Fig. 4b. A
vices that are able to produce either radial or axial controllable large rotor diameter to length ratio is required to ensure stable
forces in addition to torque. Active control techniques are levitation. This restricts the topology’s power capabilities,
used to control the forces to replace one or more bearings particularly at high speeds where the material strength limits
in the motor system. The remaining degrees of freedom are the allowable rotor diameter. Typical design power ratings are
supported by either AMBs or some other bearing technology. 1.2 kW or less [43], [44], but designs in the 3 - 4 kW range
Bearingless motor technology has been developed over the are reported in [44]–[46]. Rotational speeds range from under
last several decades, with key theory summarized in two 500 r/min to over 100,000 r/min [39], [47].
textbooks [33], [34]. Despite the extensive research on this 3) 4-DOF Bearingless System: These systems typically
technology, there has been only limited work on designing consist of two bearingless motors, each able to produce radial
these bearingless machines for the power ratings required in x-y forces, and an axial magnetic bearing. This topology
large transportation and industrial applications. is depicted in Fig. 5a and has been considered for meeting
Bearingless motor system topologies, motor technologies, the power requirements of large industrial motor systems
and research on large transportation and industrial bearingless [32], [48]–[52]. An alternate 4-DOF topology consists of a
motor systems are now reviewed. single bearingless ac homopolar motor and one axial magnetic
bearing [33], [53]–[55]. The ac homopolar motor is shown in
A. System Topologies Fig. 5b and has two rotor / stator sections, each able to create
Bearingless motor systems can be categorized based on the radial x-y forces. This machine works best when it has at least
number of degrees of freedom (DOF) that the bearingless 8 poles, which will result in very high electric frequencies
motor can control, as follows: in the direct drive compressor applications (30,000 - 300,000
1) 1-DOF Bearingless System: These types of bearingless r/min) highlighted in Section II.
motors are typically able to create controllable axial forces. 4) 5-DOF Bearingless System: Bearingless conical motors
Examples in the literature include the conical aircraft in-wheel have been proposed which are capable of controlling radial
motor [22], [23] described in Section II-A and single-drive x-y forces in two planes as well as axial forces. A typical
bearingless motors [35], [36]. The single-drive bearingless topology is depicted in Fig. 6a. Projects include a NASA
motors are able to use a single three phase inverter to control flywheel initiative with an inside-out vertical rotor [56]–[58],
both torque and axial forces, with the remaining DOF being a 1 kW, 18,000 r/min horizontal shaft machine [59], [60], and
268
Magnetizing flux path
of 92.7%. Redemann et al. present results from testing a 30 kW

canned 2-DOF bearingless induction motor pump with a rated
speed of 3000 r/min in [7]. In [48], a 4-DOF 15kW bearingless
induction motor pump is tested at 7000 r/min. Apart from
Rotor laminations
fully levitated prototypes, a 30 kW, 3000 r/min bearingless
Bearingless Motors
Stator laminations
Sationary field winding induction motor with a rotor supported by contact bearings is
Axial AMB Stator sleeve
(a) Twin bearingless motors (b) AC homopolar motor [55]

tested in [64], [65], where the bearingless motor forces are
used to dampen vibrations.
Fig. 5: 4-DOF bearingless motor system topologies
C. Challenges and Advancements
Challenges and opportunities lie in the development and
experimental validation of a large bearingless motor system.
This includes careful design optimization to simultaneously
achieve high power ratings (on the order of 100 kw), high
❈ ✁
✆✝✞ ✂✄☎ efficiency (> 95%), and suitable levitation performance. The
bearingless motor design optimization is significantly more
constrained than a standard motor design due to stringent lev-
(a) Image from [60] (b) Image from [61] itation performance requirements. For example, [50] discusses
limitations on the allowable error angle of the suspension force
Fig. 6: 5-DOF bearingless motor system topologies
vector–which is analogous to torque ripple. In bearingless
permanent magnet motor designs, a trade-off exists in the
thickness of the permanent magnets between torque rating
a nested double rotor cone motor [61] shown in Fig. 6b.
and suspension rating. In bearingless induction motor designs,
B. Motor Types For Large Bearingless Motors care must be taken to prevent the squirrel cage rotor from
reacting to the suspension winding field and creating force
Examples of bearingless versions of nearly every motor
disturbances–a phenomenon that has been demonstrated to
system can be found in the literature [33], [62], [63], including
worsen with increasing loads [33], [48], [67]. Finally, studies
the following:
are needed on the complete design optimization of a bearing-
• induction [7], [48], [64]–[69]; less motor, including the use of an optimization algorithm with
• permanent magnet [8], [36], [38], [45], [49]–[52], [56]– computationally efficient modeling techniques.
[61], [70]–[75]; A promising recent advancement for the development of
• consequent pole [76]–[79]; large bearingless motors is the combined winding. These
• synchronous reluctance [80]–[82]; windings use the same coils to create torque and levitation
• switched reluctance [83]–[86]; force. This removes a design trade-off in slot space allocation
• ac homopolar [32], [53]–[55], [87]; between the torque and suspension windings–approximately
• flux switching [88]–[91]; 1/3 of the slot space is often allocated to the suspension
• doubly salient [92]; and hysteresis motors [93]. winding as a safety margin, while during normal operating
Of these motors, bearingless versions of the induction and conditions < 5% of the slot space is needed by the suspension
permanent magnet motor have received the most attention for winding. By using a combined winding, the bearingless motor
industrial scale power levels. drive is able to dynamically allocate slot space to levitation
In [32], target bearingless motor system ratings for wastew- or torque purposes during runtime. This has been shown to
ater aeration compressors are proposed to be 100 kW, > 95% yield significant torque density and efficiency improvements.
efficiency, and 30, 000 r/min. The paper goes on to investigate There is a large volume of literature published on combined
the potential for a 4-DOF bearingless ac homopolar motor windings, key papers include [94]–[99].
system to meet this criteria. Studies targeting similar ratings
have been conducted by Jastrzebski et al. in [49]–[51] based IV. D ESIGN S IZING
around an inset permanent magnet motor design. In [52], This section derives design sizing equations and provides
a 4-DOF, 50 kW, 60,000 r/min bearingless surface mount insight into the physics of bearingless motors. A bearingless
permanent magnet motor design is investigated. In [70], a motor is excited from two stator windings, each with a
50 kW, 9,000 r/min axial flux permanent magnet design is different number of pole pairs: p pole-pairs for the torque
investigated. These papers all consist of numeric design studies winding, ps pole-pairs for the suspension winding. Using the
and do not present experimental validation. standard assumptions of infinite permeability in the back iron,
There are few published articles containing prototype results the winding currents can be modeled as an equivalent linear
of bearingless motors at significant power levels. In [8], a 2- current density on the inner bore of the stator (1), where ÂL is
DOF bearingless surface mount permanent magnet motor is the peak linear current density, n is the number of pole-pairs
tested at 30 kW and 30,000 r/min, with a measured efficiency (n = p for the torque winding and n = ps for the suspension
269
winding), and ψ is the angular location of the equivalent Rotor quadrature axis
current density (ψ = θm + φT for the torque winding). The Equiv. winding axis
angle definitions are shown in Fig. 7a. ψ α Rotor direct axis
θm
AL (α) = ÂL sin (nα − ψ) (1) x
Phase u-axis
(a) Angle definitions (b) Consequent pole rotor [76]
If a non-salient airgap with an effective length of g is assumed,
this linear current density results in the following radial (2) and Fig. 7: Design sizing figures
circumferential (3) airgap fields, where rg is the airgap radius:
rg ÂL A. Bearingless motors with ps = p ± 1

Bw,r = µ0 cos (nα − ψ) (2)
ng Conventional three phase motors can be transformed into
Bw,φ = −µ0 AL (α) (3) bearingless motors by adding a suspension winding with ps =
p ± 1 pole pairs. This class of motors includes bearingless
In addition, the motor contains a radial magnetizing field: induction and permanent magnet motors.
Design sizing equations are now derived for the suspension
Bm,r = B̂m cos (pα − θm ) (4) forces. Equation (7) is evaluated for an equivalent suspension
winding with ÂL = ÂL,s , ψ = θm + ψsw , and n = ps as
The total airgap field is the summation of the winding fields (11), where g is the effective airgap length. Forces in the x̂
and the magnetizing field. The Maxwell Stress Tensor can be and ŷ directions can be controlled independently by properly
used to find the stress acting on the rotor’s radial surface as selecting ψsw of the suspension winding. This can be viewed
(5), where the subscripts r, φ, and z indicate radial, circumfer- in a field oriented control reference frame as d and q currents
ential, and axial stress components. The σr stress component and is well documented in the literature [33].
is frequently referred to in the literature as producing Maxwell
forces and the σφ component as producing Lorentz forces. Fx 1 1 cos ψsw
= σS VR ps g ± rg (11)
Fy ± sin ψsw
   1 2 2

σr 2µ0 Br − Bφ
B̂m ÂL,S
σφ  =   σS = (12)
1 (5) 2
µ0 Br Bφ
 
σz 0 The ± r1g term of (11) corresponds to the Lorentz forces and
adds to the Maxwell forces for designs with ps = p + 1,
These stresses can be integrated over the rotor’s radial surface while subtracting from the Maxwell forces for designs with
to find the torque and forces acting upon the rotor: ps = p − 1. The Maxwell force scales with the machine
Z dimensions and electric and magnetic loading in the same
T = ~r × ~σ dA (6) manner as the machine’s torque rating, while the Lorentz force
R is less sensitive to the rotor’s radius. The ratio of Maxwell and
Fx ~σ · x̂ dA Lorentz force components is given by (13). In most designs,
= R (7)
Fy ~σ · ŷ dA this ratio is ≫ 1 and Lorentz forces are neglected. However,
Evaluating (6) for a non-salient airgap results in (8). This is there are a class of bearingless motors which rely on Lorentz
the common designing sizing expression for an electric motor forces instead of Maxwell forces [34], [61], [70], [74], [75].
in terms of the rotor’s volume (9) and mean shear stress (10), These designs typically require very large airgap length or no
where ÂL,T is the equivalent peak linear torque current density rotor/stator iron. The relative force magnitudes are described
from (1) and l is the motor’s active axial length. in more detail in [101].

FMaxwell rg
FLorentz = ps g (13)

T = 2σf VR (8)
VR = πrg2 l (9) Producing a constant radial force requires that the suspen-
B̂m ÂL,T sion current density and field rotate at a speed of ωs /ps , where
σT = (10) ωs is the synchronous frequency of the motor. This can be
2
viewed in induction motor terms as a slip of 1/p, and has
These parameters are considered fundamental design choices a frequency of ωs /p in the rotor’s reference frame [8], [72].
in an electric machine design. Common values for the mag- This rotating field causes iron losses in the rotor. Examples of
netic and electric loading (B̂m and ÂL,T ) can be found in the design process for relevant p ± 1 bearingless motors are
design textbooks such as [100] based on the motor type presented in [71], [102].
(induction, permanent magnet, etc.) and type of cooling used.
The rotor’s radius and length are scaled to achieve the desired B. Bearingless motors with ps = 1, p ≥ 4
power based on the required aspect ratio, with the radius Another popular class of bearingless motors considered for
constrained by the rotational speed and rotor material strength. large power applications have the properties that ps = 1 and
270
p ≥ 4. This class consists of the bearingless ac homopolar mo- V. C ONCLUSION
tor and consequent pole motor, shown in Fig. 5b and 7b. This Potential use-cases for bearingless motors in large trans-
bearingless class has the advantageous property of suspension portation and industrial systems has been reviewed. Bearing-
forces being independent of the rotor’s angular location. This less motors have potential to decrease the cost and size of
means that precise and accurate rotational position sensing is magnetic suspension systems, thereby allowing new applica-
not needed to obtain stable levitation. tion spaces to benefit from the high efficiency and intelligent
Design sizing equations are now derived for each of these operation of magnetic levitation. Relevant literature on devel-
bearingless motor types. In both cases, the effective airgap oping large bearingless motor systems has been reviewed. It
length is modeled for the suspension winding with minimal was shown that this technology needs additional development
harmonic content as (14), (2) is then rewritten as (15). to reach the power ratings required in transportation and indus-
1 trial applications. Finally, design sizing equations have been
g= (14)
g1 + g2 cos (pα − θm ) presented to compare different bearingless motor technologies.
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273
Self-Pumped Air-Cooling Design for a High-Speed
High-Specific-Power Motor
Xuan Yi, Reed Sanchez, Kiruba Haran Joseph Veres Aaron T. Perry, Philip J. Ansell
Department of Electrical NASA Glenn Research Center Department of Aerospace Engineering
and Computer Engineering Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois 61820
Urbana, Illinois 61820
xuanyi2@illinois.edu
Abstract—High specific power is critical in large electric

machines to power commercial aircraft. Advanced thermal man-
agement is a key enabling factor. The solution chosen for the
machine presented here is an aggressive self-pumped air-cooling
scheme. It allows a level of electric loading typically associated
with liquid cooling. A rotor-integrated centrifugal fan is designed
to pump sufficient cooling air through the machine. A detailed
thermal analysis has shown that the designed mass flow rate can
cool the machine. The initial flow test results using a hardware
rotor prototype validated the fan performance.
I. I NTRODUCTION
The commercial aircraft industry is moving towards elec-
trification to reduce fuel use and emissions. Since aircraft
applications are sensitive to weight, high specific power is a
critical requirement. The electrical machines for commercial
passanger-class aircraft need to reach 9 kW/kg with a power
rating at 1-3 MW within the next 20 years [1]. Our motor,
first introduced in [2], is being developed to meet this target.
It is a one megawatt machine with specific power greater than Fig. 1: MotorDescription [5]
13.6 kW/kg and 96% efficiency, as shown in Fig. 1. Such
high specific power is attained by minimizing machine weight,
while maximizing electric loading and tip speed. As electric modeling of the proposed machine. Section IV shows how
loading is constrained by the winding insulation temperature the designed air mass flow rate in Section II is sufficient to
limit, thermal management is a key enabling factor. cool the machine within the Class H insulation temperature
Our cooling strategy is a self-pumped air-cooling scheme. A limit. In Section V, a flow test of a rotor hardware prototype
centrifugal fan integrated within the rotor pumps up to 1000 was conducted to verify fan-pumping performance. Initial
CFM of air through the machine. Adopting such a cooling experimental results of the flow test are discussed in Section
method reduces system weight without adding a secondary V. Section VI gives conclusions and future work.
cooling loop—unlike traditional liquid cooling. Potentially, the
heat generated by the machine could be used in combustion II. C OOLING D ESIGN
to improve engine system efficiency. An aggressive self-pumped air cooling method is detailed
Given our aggressive cooling scheme, the tip speed and and the centrifugal fan design process is also discussed.
electric loading, respectively, can be pushed close to or beyond
the current state-of-the-art. The tip speed is 264.8 m/s, near A. Cooling scheme
the machine record [3]. The electric loading with air cooling Understanding the machine heat and cooling paths is crucial
is 17 A/mm2 , a value as high as can be realized through liquid to the cooling design. The air cooling method of the proposed
cooling [4]. This is accomplished by reducing electrical losses, machine is implemented by a centrifugal fan mounted on
minimizing heat resistance, and maximizing air mass flow. the rotor. When the rotor is spinning, cooling air is pumped
This paper on thermal management is broken down as through the machine, which generates mechanical and electri-
follows. Section II introduces the cooling scheme and fan cal losses. The mechanical losses are air-friction and bearing
design. Sections III and IV give a detailed loss and thermal losses. The former occur at highly rotating surfaces and are
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 274

Fig. 2: Heat Flow Path and Cooling Passages Illustration
blown into the ambient air. The later are conducted through
the stator to the heat sink and from there to the outside air.
Electrical losses are generated at active components, including
the magnet, winding and yoke. Most of the electrical losses
are transferred into the heat sink; the remainder escape into the
air gap. When the centrifugal fan pumps cooling air through
the heat sink and the air gap, that air is heated by the machine
Fig. 3: Power Lost (Blue) and Flow Rate (Orange) Predicted
losses and expelled out the exit holes in the titanium shell, as
by 1-D Code
shown in Figures 1 and 2.
B. Fan Design
A fan must be either axial or centrifugal. An axial fan
provides an only limited pressure rise, because it cannot
change with the radius. Thus, a centrifugal fan was chosen; it
can overcome the pressure drop of cooling air through the heat
sink and can be integrated into the cantilevered machine shape,
by varying radius and blade angle from leading to trailing
edge.
The fan design comprises several steps. First, a thermal
circuit and ANSYS R
model were used to determine the
necessary air speed through the heat sink—20 m/s. Then,
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was employed to find the
pressure drop through the heat sink due to the air flow—0.6
psi.
Next the fan blades must be designed to meet the cooling-
flow target found in the thermal analysis and pressure drop
predicted in the CFD. This design is done iteratively using a Fig. 4: Rotor Section View Showing Fan and Exit Holes
one-dimensional (1-D) model [6]. The fan is over designed
to account for pressure drops such as those in the end-
winding regions not included in the CFD model. The flow III. H EAT L OAD P REDICTION
rate calculated by our 1D code is shown in Fig 3. Loss analysis is necessary for evaluating machine efficiency
For a certain rotational speed, there is an angle of incidence and thermal feasibility. The estimated heat loss values will be
which optimally overcomes the built-up pressure to create air added in the later thermal analysis.
flow. This angle is 75 degrees from tangent and defines the
leading-edge angle of the centrifugal fan blades. Because of A. Electrical Losses
the pressure rise required by the rotor and the diffusion factor DC loss is generally equivalent to ohmic loss in conductors
of aerodynamic loading limits, the blade number and trailing due to the conduction friction property of metal under electric
edge were chosen to be 28 and 58 degrees, respectively. The field. Assume uniform current density on the cross section of
final fan design is displayed in Figs. 4 and 5. Figure 4 gives conductors. Given pure copper volume of windings and copper
a section view of the rotor with its fan and air exit holes. One current density, DC loss can be estimated by
fillet type (singular) is used to aid turning the air flow from 2
Pdc = Jcu rms Vcu ρcu (1)
axial to radial. The other type (multiple) between fins around
the rotor is used to relive stress concentration at the fan blade Due to small skin depth effects and insulated bundle/strand
rotor interface. configuration, AC loss in the conductor is dominated by the
275
Since the extremely small gap ratio of the proposed motor
has never been studied experimentally, developed empirical
correlations might result in a large range of uncertainties and
errors. Nevertheless, at the initial sizing study stage, it is
beneficial to have a rough approximation of windage loss to
eliminate infeasibility of design. More rigorous windage loss
and heat transfer studies of annuli with rotating cylinders are
demanded for high-tip-speed machine design.
Fan blowing loss is considered within fan blade design. Fan
power loss and speed correlation is presented in Fig. 3
IV. S TEADY-S TATE T HERMAL A NALYSIS

Given the loss estimations and mass-flow rate specified by
the fan design, the machine steady-state temperature profile
Fig. 5: Manufactured Fan can be generated. A detailed thermal modeling in the proposed
machine is discussed in this section.
strand eddy-current loss. With given average flux density in A. Geometry, Material Property, and Boundary Condition
the winding region and optimal pitch dimension, and other Setup
known parameters, eddy-current loss in strand level is given For saving computational time, machine temperature is
as [7]: predicted by thermal steady state conduction analysis with es-
πω 2 Bpk
2 d4 nl
π 2 nd2s

s timated heat transfer boundary conditions. The exact machine
Pac = 1+ (2)
128ρc u 4Kcu p2opt geometry in Fig.6, is modeled in ANSYS for accurate thermal
prediction. In order to shorten computational time, only one
where Kcu is Litz wire fill factor.
pole slice of machine is used in thermal steady state analysis
The iron loss with sinusoidal excitation can be estimated as
by symmetry principle. The rotor solid part is decoupled from
[8]:
stator solid part.
Piron = Ph + Pe + Pa = kh f B 2 + ke f 2 B 2 + ka f 1.5 B 1.5 (3)
where kh is the hysteresis loss coefficient, ke is the eddy cur-
rent loss coefficient, and ka is the anomalous loss coefficient.
B. Mechanical Losses
An empirical correlation is used for initial approximation of
windage loss generated at the outer surface of the rotor during
rotating. The problem is simplified as a rotating cylinder in
free stream. The friction coefficient (Cmc ) empirical relation
is given as [9]:

1
Cmc = √ (4)
−0.8572 + 1.25ln(Re Cmc )
With the calculated friction coefficient, the windage power Fig. 6: Machine Geometry of One Pole
outside the rotor is
Boundary conditions are estimated with empirical correla-
Pwind outer = πCmc ρRo4 ω 3 L (5) tions provided in literature. It is assumed that estimated heat
where L is axial length of the rotating cylinder. transfer coefficients are average values in time and spatial
Another important portion of windage loss occurs in the gap domains. Rotor outer surface experiences strong convection
between rotor and stator. The empirical correlation is selected effects due to its high speed rotation. It can be regarded
from Vrancik [10], given as as a rotating cylinder in quiescent air and its heat transfer
coefficient can be estimated in [11] [12] [13]. Heat transfer in
1 p
√ = 2.04 + 1.768ln(Re Cd ) (6) the gap of concentric rotating cylinders is given in [14] [15]
Cd [16]. Rotor rotating ending is similar to a rotating disk. Its
where Cd is the friction coefficient for this condition. Gap associated convection effects can be predicted by [17] [18].
windage loss (Pwind gap ) can be calculated in a similar way Convection cooling also occurs at end-region, especially end-
as winding. End-winding region heat transfer is similar to the
Pwind gap = πCd ρRr4 ω 3 L (7) flow through flat plane and can be estimated by [19].Cooling
276
TABLE I: Primary Design Machine Metrics
Rotor Outer Radius Ro 0.1588 m

Magnet Outer Radius Rm 0.1508 m
Rotor Inner Radius Rr 0.1383 m
Winding Outer Radius Rw 0.1373 m
Stator Yoke Outer Radius Rsy 0.1318 m
Active Length L 0.2295 m
Gap Thickness δ 0.001 m
Rotating Speed ωm 15000 rpm
Pole Pair p 10
Slot Current Density Js 7.25 Arms/mm2
Fig. 8: Rotor Temperature Distribution with Outlet Tempera-
Stacking Factor 97%
ture at 86 ◦ C
channels heat transfer estimation can be treated as a problem V. F LOW T EST OF S PINNING M OTOR
of inner flow in a hydraulic pipe [20]. A. Hardware Setup
The target axial flow speed is set as 20 m/s for the initial
A hardware flow test is a key process to ensure for inves-
machine design. The following flow test verifies whether target
tigating sufficient cooling flow and fan pumping cost. In the
axial flow speed can be reached within cooling ducts. Inlet
flow test, a dummy motor with no active components, magnet,
temperature is assumed as 40 ◦ C. The machine material prop-
winding and yoke, is used for mechanical validation at the
erties are listed in Table I. The component material thermal
initial development. Figure 9 shows the hardware test setup.
conductivity is listed in Table II. Materials, such as carbon
Cooling air is pumped from the motor bottom and expelled at
fiber and winding, is a mixture-type material which has various
the top outlet holes by the integrated centrifugal fan. The flow
thermal conductivity in different directions.
path within the dummy motor is detailed in Fig. 10.
B. Machine Thermal Performance Prediction
The temperature distribution results are collected from AN-
SYS steady state thermal analysis simulator. With the heat
loads in Table III and boundary conditions estimated, Fig.7
and Fig. 8 show temperature contour of stator and rotor. The
Fig. 9: Hardware Setup
The axial flow speed and pressure drop within the heat sink
are verified at several rotating speeds. Two sets of pressure
Fig. 7: Stator Temperature Distribution with Outlet Tempera- sensors are mounted at 0 and 180 degrees, along the tangential
ture at 86 ◦ C axis, illustrated in Fig. 10. The total pressure at the inlet
and the outlet of heat sink is monitored for each tangential
location. The pressure sensor used in the test is a pitot tube.
machine hotspot temperature is around 182 ◦ C occurred at
The total pressure is measured by placing pitot tube opposite
outlet end-winding region, because of temperature rise of air
the axial cooling flow direction at target locations. If it is
flow mass and limited convection effects. The air flow mass
pointing perpendicular to the axial flow speed, the result is
is assumed to absorb all stator heat, including copper loss,
static pressure at that point. The difference between total
iron loss and gap windage loss. And ambient temperature
pressure and static pressure at a measured point is the dynamic
along active region varies linearly from inlet to outlet air
pressure due to axial air flow. Given dynamic pressure, the
temperature.The rotor hotspot temperature is around 155 ◦ C
axial flow speed can be obtained by the Bernoulli equation:
at retaining ring and magnet. Magnet is heated up by viscosity p
of air in the gap of rotating concentric cylinders. vaxial = 2(Ptotal − Pstatic )/ρ (8)
277
TABLE II: Component Material Thermal Conductivity
Component Material Perpendicular (W/mK) Parallel (W/mK)

Retaining Ring Carbon Fiber (IM-7/PEEK) 0.253 6.5
Rotor Inconel Shell Inconel Alloy 15.9 15.9
Permanent Magnet NdFeB 6.75 6.16
Insulator Epoxy 1 1
Winding Copper, Resin and Air 0.47 177.8
Stator Yoke Iron 67 67
Thermal Fins Aluminum 206 206
Ground Layer Aluminum 206 206
TABLE III: Loss Breakdown Summary presents inlet and outlet axial flow speed in a rotating speed
range from 1800 to 3800 rpm. Both curves follow a linear
Copper Loss (DC) 6.7 kW
correlation. With the current measurement result and linear
Copper Loss (AC) 1.7 kW
relation projection, the axial flow speed at rated speed 15,000
Iron Loss 2.1 kW
rpm can reach 30-40 m/s. According to the previous thermal
Magnet Loss 0.5 kW
analysis results, 20 m/s axial flow speed is sufficient for cool-
Windage Loss 5 – 12 kW
ing the proposed motor under Class H insulation temperature
Bearing Loss 0.2 kW
limit. The flow test results seem promising and indicate that
our target mass flow rate can be achieved.
Fig. 11: Axial Flow Speed vs. Rotating Speed
Another indication of Fig. 11 is that outlet flow speed

Fig. 10: Pressure Sensor Location drops by only 10-20% of the inlet speed due to friction
on the heat sink surface. An insignificant amount of air is
lost when flowing through cooling channels. Error bars of
The next step is to spin the dummy motor. Rotation is driven
speed measurement are caused by device sensitivity and flow
by the induction motor using pulleys connected through two
instabilities.
belts, as shown in Fig.9. The pulley ratio between the dummy
The pressure drop difference across the heat sink varying
motor and the driving motor is 1:3. Thus, the rotating speed
with speed is shown in Fig. 12. A quadratic relation is hard
of the dummy motor is three times that of the driving motor.
to abstracted from the current measurement data points. More
In this way, the test speed range of the dummy motor can be
data points at higher speed are needed to justify the pressure
expanded, since the driving motor can only spin up to 1800
drop difference. Nevertheless, current measurements indicate
rpm. So the initial test span of the dummy motor is up to 4000
that the small amount of pressure drop occurs at heat sink
rpm. Future tests will upgrade the driving motor to higher rated
channels. Axial flow will not decay much from inlet to outlet
power and rated speed.
of heat sink.
B. Experimental Results VI. C ONCLUSIONS
The flow test verified axial flow speed and pressure drop A self-pumped air-cooling design of the proposed motor
across the heat sink at initially low-speed range. Figure 11 is presented. The associated centrifugal fan is designed to
278
[13] G. A. Etemad, ”Free convection heat transfer from a rotating cylinder
in ambient air with interferometric study of flow”, Trans. ASME, 77,
pp.1283–1289, 1955.
[14] F. Tachibana, and S. Fukui, ”Convective heat transfer of the rotational
and axial flow between two concentric cylinders”, JSME, 7(26), pp.385–
391, 1964.
[15] Y. Yamada, ”Resistance of a flow through an annulus with an inner
rotating cylinder”, JSME, 5(18), pp.302–310, 1962.
[16] K. M. Becker, and J. Kaye, ”Measurements of diabetic flow in an annulus
with an inner rotating cylinder”, Int. J. Heat Mass Trans, 84, pp.97–105,
1962.
[17] E. C. Cobb, and O. A. Saunders, ”Heat transfer from a rotating disc”,
Proc. Soc. London, 236, pp.343–351, 1956.
[18] D. K. Edwards, V. E. Denny, and A. F. Mills, ”Transfer Processes”, 2nd
ed., Hemisphere, Washington, D. C., 1979.
[19] J. Saari, ”Thermal Analysis of High-speed Induction Machines”, Acta
Polytechnica Scandinavica Electrical Enginering Series, 90, 1998.
Fig. 12: Heat Sink Pressure Drop vs. Rotating Speed [20] V. Gnielinski, ”New Equations for Heat and Mass Transfer in Turbulent
Pipe and Channel Flow”, Int. Chem. Eng., 16, pp.359–368, 1976.
provide sufficient cooling air flow through the machine. The

corresponding thermal performance is evaluated by loss semi-
analytical correlations and numerical thermal models. A flow
test with a hardware rotor prototype verified our initial cooling
mass flow target at a low speed range. Future work will focus
on collecting more experimental results at higher speeds.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by the NASA High Speed,
High Frequency Air-core Machine and Drive project (grant
no. NNX14AL79A) and the POETS (power optimization of
electro-thermal system) research center.
R EFERENCES
[1] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, ”Commer-
cial aircraft propulsion and energy systems research: reducing global
carbon emissions”, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC,
2016.
[2] A. Yoon, X. Yi, J. Martin, Y. Chen, and K. Haran, ”A high-speed,
high-frequency, air-core PM machine for aircraft application”, Power and
Energy Conference at Illinois (PECI), 2016.
[3] A. Borisavljevic, ”Limits, modeling and design of high-speed permanent
magnet machines”, Delft University of Technology, 2013.
[4] X. Zhang, C.L. Bowman, T.C. O’Connell, and K.S. Haran, ”Large
electric machines for aircraft electric propulsion”, IET Electric Power
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[5] R. Sanchez, A. Yoon, X. Yi, L. Zheng, Y. Chen, K. Haran, A. Provenza,
and J. Veres, ”Mechanical validation of high power density external
cantilevered rotor”, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, to be
published.
[6] J. Veres, ”Axial and centrifugal compressor mean line ow analysis
method”, 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including The New
Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition, 2009.
[7] J. Martin, A. Yoon, A. Jin, and K. Haran, ”High-frequency litz air-gap
windings for high-power density electrical machines”, Electric Power
Components and Systems, pp.798805, 2017.
[8] G. Bertotti and M. Pasquale, ”Physical interpretation of induction and
frequency dependence of power losses in soft magnetic materials,” IEEE
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[9] P. Childs, Rotating Flow. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2010.
[10] J. Vrancik, “Prediction of windage power loss in alternators,” NASA
Technical Note, Tech. Rep., 1968.
[11] D. Dropkin, and A. Carmi, ”Natural convection heat transfer from a
horizontal cylinder rotating in air”, Trans. ASME, 79, pp.741–749, 1957.
[12] K. M. Becker, ”Measurement of convective heat transfer from a horizon-
tal cylinder in a tank of water”, Int. J. Heat Mass Trans, 6, pp.1053–1062,
1963.
279
Multistate Markov Analysis in Reliability Evaluation
and Life Time Extension of DC-DC Power Converter
for Electric Vehicle Applications
Vamsi Mulpuri, Moinul Haque, Mohammad Noor Shaheed and Seungdeog Choi
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Akron, Ohio, USA.
schoi@uakron.edu
Abstract— Reliability of power train in electric/hybrid DC-DC converter is the least reliable component in the drive
vehicles is one of the important research topics. DC-DC train system. In this paper, reliability models based on
converter plays a crucial role in the electric power train by multistate Markov analysis are presented by considering the
boosting or chopping voltage levels between the battery
effect of thermal cycles on power MOSFETs in DC-DC
storage and the dc link. Consequently, reliability and
efficiency of the DC-DC converter is important for safe and converter. In [4] conventional Markov analysis is used to
efficient vehicle operation. In this paper, multistage Markov evaluate the reliability of the dc-dc buck converter with parallel
analysis has been used for reliability evaluation. This and stand by configurations. It is there by concluded that
analysis provides accurate insight to MOSFET degradation parallel configuration has more reliability at high power
progression over time. Moreover, an adaptive control operating conditions. However, detail study is significantly
algorithm is developed for extending the life time of the DC- needed to choose the type of redundancy. In conventional
DC converter maintaining high efficiency and low cost.
Markov models the intermediate transitions are neglected.
Reliability models for interleaved converter using
conventional Markov model as well as multistage Markov However, in multistage Markov model by monitoring the
model are discussed in this work. The mean time to failure junction temperature of the switch which is a key parameter
(MTTF) of each configuration is explained in detail with effecting the lifetime, several intermediate transition states can
experiment results of laboratory prototypes. Results be considered and represented as degradation initiation states.
revealed that life time of the converter can be increased Further in this paper, adaptive control has been proposed to
which significantly reduces the cost of the converter over a extend the life time and reduce the cost of the converter. The
period by carefully monitoring the junction temperature
comparative reliability analysis is presented that provides the
and adjust the control of the converter in adaptive manner.
following contributions:
Keywords— Wide band gap semiconductors, Power MOSFETs, 1) Reliability models have been developed for Interleaved
Threshold voltage instability. DC-DC converter based on conventional Markov and
I. INTRODUCTION multistate Markov models.
E
2) Junction temperature of the power MOSFET is monitored
lectric vehicles with their competitive price and miles-
online which is further used in adaptive control of the
per-gallon performance, have been chosen as the
power converter in varying duty cycle and switching
alternative technology in automobile industry [1-3].
frequency.
Although the benefits of electric and hybrid vehicles have been
The rest of the paper is logically organized as follows: Markov
widely discussed, very limited research has been carried out on
reliability models for interleaved DC-DC converter is discussed
the reliability and fault tolerant capability of the electric drive
in section II. Effect of junction temperature on the lifetime of
train. The drive train in electric vehicles usually consists of
SiC MOSFET is discussed in section III followed by failure
several power electronic systems as shown in Fig. 1. The
rate calculation and conclusion.
aggregation of multiple power electronic systems causes the
reliability issues in the vehicle system. The reduced reliability II. MARKOV RELIABILITY MODELS FOR INTERLEAVED DC-
not only increases the operation cost but also ultimately risk the DC CONVERTER
passenger safety. Therefore, appropriate reliability evaluation The interleaved boost converter considered in this work is
must be performed to clearly understand the failures in the shown in Fig. 2. The number of interleave stages can be
drive train. From the component point of view, MOSFET in the increased based on application. S1 and S2 are the switches to be
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 280

monitored during operation. The ratings of the MOSFET and
other components are chosen based on the power rating of the where j is the state of Markov chain at time t. The probability
application. In this work SCT2450KE RoHM SiC MOSFETs that the Markov chain is in the ith state at time t is given by
have been used. following linear differential equation.
( )
= ∑ ( ) +∑ ( ) (2)
where 1 ≤ i, j≤ N, and λij denotes the rate at which the chain
transitions from state i to j. The final sate N is assumed to be
the state in which the whole system will be failed. Thus, the
reliability of the system is
( ) = 1- ( ) (3)
The mean time to failure (MTTF) determines the expected

lifetime of the system and is as follows:
= ( ) (4)
Fig. 3 shows the conventional Markov model for discussed

interleaved boost converter. The state in which both the
switches S1 and S2 are healthy is represented as state 11, the
state when switch S1 is healthy and the switch S2 is failed is
represented as state 10, while when S1 is failed and S2 is healthy
is represented as state 01 and when both the switches S1 and S2
are failed the state is represented as 00 state.
Fig.1. Drive train of an electric vehicle with various power

converters.
Fig. 3. Markov chain diagram of interleaved boost converter

Fig. 2. Selected drivetrain interleaved DC-DC converter.
The occupational probabilities of these states are given as
P1.....P4. The transition from state 11 to state 01 is when switch
S1 fails from healthy state. This rate of transition is represented
A. Conventional Markov reliability model development for as λ1P. The probability that failure tolerant mechanism can
manage the fault is given by P. The Markov chain transition
interleaved boost DC-DC converter
from state 01 to state 00 is represented as λ2. The rate at which
both switches healthy state 11 to both failed state 00 is
A Markov chain is considered as a special type of stochastic represented as λ1(1-P). Likewise, the rates at which Markov
process. It can be defined as a collection of random variables chain transitions from state 11 to state 10 and from state 10 to
{Xt} (where the index t is a number 0, 1 ...) having the property state 00 is represented as λ2P and λ1 respectively. The
that, if given the present state, the future state is conditionally differential equation of the occupational probabilities is given
independent of the past. It can be represented as as follows:
( = | = , = ,…, = )= ( = | = ) (1)
281
( ) − − 0 0 ) 0 (
III. JUNCTION TEMPERATURE EFFECT ON LIFETIME OF SIC
( ) − 0 ) 0 ( MOSFETS
= (5)
( ) 0 − ) 0 (
The change in junction temperature is commonly referred as the
( ) (1 − )( + ) ) 0 (
important failure accelerator mechanism. The failure precursor
under such mechanism is identified as on-state resistance. The
But substituting the initial conditions in (5) the reliability
junction temperature is estimated by multiplying the power loss
function for interleaved boost converter is given as
and thermal impedance and summing it with the case
( ) ( ) ( )
( )= 1− − + + (6)
temperature.
B. Multistate Markov reliability model development for

= ( ∗ )+ (9)
interleaved boost converter
Where Tj is the junction temperature, Ploss is the power loss in
In the proposed multistate Markov reliability model for the switch, Zth is the thermal impedance of the device and Tc is
interleaved boost converter shown in Fig.4, an intermediate the case temperature. The end of life time EOL is defined as
state is considered in between healthy and failure state in which 50mΩ (12%) deviation from its initial on-state resistance value.
one of the switches are initiated to degradation. The occupation To illustrate the life time extension by reducing the thermal
probabilities and the reliability function is given in (7) and (8).
stress on the aged device, testing have been done and the results
The proposed adaptive control and multistate Markov have
similarities in which continuous monitoring of the are shown in Fig. 5. So, from the results it is clear that to
semiconductors is possible and based on the health condition of increase the life time of the MOSFET as well as the power
the switch the next stage in the operation is decided. converter, the junction temperature of the device has to be
monitored and controlled accordingly. For this purpose, an
() adaptive control system consisting of LTE (life time extension
() controller) whose flow chart is shown in Fig. 7 has been
() introduced.
=
()
()
() 0.06
− − − − 0 0 0 0 0 ( ) ΔTj=125oC
+ − − 0 0 0 0 ( ) 0.05 ΔTj=175oC
+ 0 − − 0 0 0 ( )
(7)
0 0 0 ( ) 0.04
ΔRds-on(Ω)
0 − − 0 0 ( )
(1 − )( + ) 0 0 0 ( ) 0.03
But substituting the initial conditions in (7) the reliability 0.02

function for interleaved boost converter is given as
0.01
525 Cycles
( )= 1− ( )
− + 0
( ) ( ) 0 200 400 600 800
+ (8)
Cycles
Fig.5. Life time extension of SiC MOSFET by reducing thermal stress.
This controller monitors the junction temperature of the switch

and activates the redundant switch when needed keeping the
on-state resistance below its threshold value. Hence from (10)
when the junction temperature of the device varies with
degradation the temperature factor varies which eventually
effects the failure rate of the MOSFET thereby the converter.
Fig. 6 shows the proposed adaptive control system. To reduce
Fig.4. Multi state Markov chain diagram of interleaved boost the thermal stress on the switch that avoids complete
converter. degradation, the proposed system includes a LTE controller in
the loop that is intended to extend the life time of the converter.
282
The LTE controller switch that must be active and the power the ∆ , of both the switches. Fig. 8 shows the experimental
sharing value if operated in parallel. When operating in parallel set up of the considered interleaved boost converter. The case
mode the LTE controller generates a ratio in favor of equalizing temperature of the SiC MOSFETs is measured by using Fluke
80BK-A type K thermocouple temperature probe cable that is
L1
D1 attached to the devices throughout experiment.
L2
D2
DC
Vb S1 S2 C Link
g1 g2
Vref
Voltage & current
PWM Modulator Vo
controller
Is
DSP Controller
Tj1 Thermo couple

ΔRds-on1 On state resistance attached to SiC Cooling Fan
LTE controller
calculation Tj2 MOSFET
ΔRds-on2
Gate driver Parallel Boost

Fig.6. Proposed control system for interleaved boost converter. Converter
Infrared
Thermometer
ΔRds,on measurement of Fig.8. Experimental Setup.

S1 and S2
Degradation
identification Parallel IV. FAILURE RATE CALCULATION AND RELIABILITY
N
(ΔRds,on1/ operation COMPARISON RESULTS
ΔRds,on2>ΔRds, continues
on threshold)
The failure rate of power MOSFET is given according to MIL-
? HDBK-27F [7] as
Y
Degraded switch is kept = (10)
inactive and the
redundant switch operates Where , , , , and are base failure rate,
temperature factor, application factor, quality factor, and
environmental factor, respectively. In (10) is only factor that
Self healing varies with the degradation of the MOSFET while all the other
Redundant
identification of N factors are constants. The temperature factor with dependence
operation
degraded switch on junction temperature Tj is given as
continues
? = −1925 − (11)
Y
Converter Tj = Ta + (θJA) PSW
operates in
parallel mode The ambient temperature Ta is 25 oC and junction to ambient
thermal resistance θJA is 18 oC/W for D2PAK packaging. The
total power dissipation of the switching device is PSW. The
Fig.7. Flowchart of LTE controller. failure rate of the interleaved boost converter is calculated by
(10). The base failure rate λb has a constant value of 0.012, and
the application factor πA and quality factor πQ are both equal to
283
8 according to [7]. Environmental factor πE is considered as 9 Consequently, the total cost of converter for expected lifetime
for equipment installed on wheeled or tracked vehicles. of 15 years is presented in Table I.
Considering the values given above the failure rate of MOSFET
can be calculated as Table I: Expected Life Time
=
Converter Failure Rate MTTF Total
= 0.012 × × 8 × 9.0 × 8 ( ) (years) Cost ($)
Conventional 14.430×106 6.93 7257
= 6.912 ×
Boost hours
The power loss which is a combination of switching and configuration
conduction loss is found to be 1.843W, which results in Interleaved
boost 10.08×106 9.82 1526.9
Tj = Ta + (θJA) PSW = 25+(18×1.843) = 58.174o C configuration hours
with
The temperature facture is calculated by
1 1 conventional
= −1925 − control
+ 273 298
Interleaved
= 1.7806 boost 7.2×106 hours 13.7 615.3
configuration
Therefore, the failure rate of the MOSFET is with proposed
= 6.912 × 1.7806 control
= 12.3075 failures/million hours I. CONCLUSION

Reliability of interleaved boost power converter in electric
Similar analysis can be performed to other components of the vehicle power train is evaluated using multistage Markov
interleaved converter such as inductors, diodes and capacitors. analysis and the results are compared with conventional boost
The failure rare and MTTF of the considered interleaved boost converter. Taking junction temperature into consideration
converter is calculated as MTTF of the converter is increased by using proposed adaptive
control method. Further cost analysis of the converter is done
for a period of 15 years. Result shows the advantages of
= + + + + + +
proposed control method in increasing MTTF without much
lowering the efficiencies. The proposed control method and
=7.2 failure/million hours multistate Markov model will be applied to other configurations
of dc-dc converters and more experimental results related to
MTTF = converter losses and switching will be presented in the full
paper. These reliability models in future will be able to provide
high reliability and prolonged lifetime for mission critical and
= hours/failure high temperature applications.
.
= 13.8 years/failure
REFERENCES
Further cost analysis of converter is investigated by considering [1] W. Zhang, D. Xu, P. N. Enjeti, H. Li, J. T. Hawke and H. S.
Krishnamoorthy, "Survey on Fault-Tolerant Techniques for Power
the reliabilities. The total cost of the system includes initial Electronic Converters," in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol.
installation cost, downtime cost, and power loss cost [8]. The 29, no. 12, pp. 6319-6331, Dec. 2014.
respective cost of two power MOSFETs, one diode, one [2] S. Yang, A. Bryant, P. Mawby, D. Xiang, L. Ran and P. Tavner, "An
inductor, and one capacitor would be $4.8, $1.3, $0.25, and Industry-Based Survey of Reliability in Power Electronic Converters,"
in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 1441-
$0.50 respectively [9]. Thus, the installation cost is evaluated. 1451, May-June 2011.
For substituting the failed device, one-week period is required. [3] Y. Song and B. Wang, "Survey on Reliability of Power Electronic
A financial loss of a $2 /hour for downtime period, would be Systems," in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 28, no. 1, pp.
591-604, Jan. 2013.
assumed. Therefore, downtime cost plus substituting cost will
[4] H. Wang and F. Blaabjerg, "Reliability of Capacitors for DC-Link
be calculated in terms of in a lifetime of N years. In addition, Applications in Power Electronic Converters—An Overview," in IEEE
the cost of the power loss is assumed to be 10 ¢/kWh. Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 50, no. 5, pp. 3569-3578, Sept.-
Oct. 2014.
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[5] S. Ceballos, J. Pou, J. Zaragoza, E. Robles, J. L. Villate and J. L. Martin,
"Fault-Tolerant Neutral-Point-Clamped Converter Solutions Based on
Including a Fourth Resonant Leg," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Electronics, vol. 58, no. 6, pp. 2293-2303, June 2011.
[6] H. Behjati and A. Davoudi, "Reliability Analysis Framework for Structural
Redundancy in Power Semiconductors," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Electronics, vol. 60, no. 10, pp. 4376-4386, Oct. 2013.
[7] Reliability prediction of electronic equipments,’’ Relex Software Corp.,
Greensburg, PA, Rep. MIL-HDBK-217, 1990.
[8] F. H. Aghdam and M. Abapour, "Reliability and Cost Analysis of
Multistage Boost Converters Connected to PV Panels," in IEEE Journal of
Photovoltaics, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 981-989, July 2016.
[9] Futurlec: Components price highlights, ct. 2015. [Online]. Available:
http://www.futurlec.com/Components.html
285
Multi-Objective System Design Synthesis for
Electric Powertrain Development
Martin Hofstetter Martin Gintzel
and Mario Hirz and Andreas Schmidhofer
Institute of Automotive Engineering Magna Powertrain GmbH & Co KG
Graz University of Technology Engineering Center Traiskirchen
Austria Austria
Email: martin.hofstetter@tugraz.at
Abstract—The design process of automotive electric power-

trains, considering electric machine, gearbox and power elec-
tronics, is influenced by manifold requirements regarding per-
formance, efficiency, package and costs. The high variability
of component design parameters and packaging-related aspects
leads to a complex problem in the design process. In the present
work, an innovative system design optimization method is intro-
duced, holistically considering all components and requirements
in a multi-objective manner. In this way, the system design
synthesis is based on component-specific Pareto optimal designs
to handle performance, efficiency, package and costs for given
system requirements. The results are displayed as Pareto fronts of
electric powertrain system designs variants, from which decision
makers are able to choose the best suitable trade-off. The new
approach is exemplarily demonstrated on an electric axle drive
application with a permanent magnet synchronous machine and
a single-speed, two-stage helical gearbox with an integrated
Fig. 1. Exemplary vehicle installation space of an eDrive (based on [11]).
differential drive, representing a common topology for electric
axle drives in passenger cars.
I. I NTRODUCTION component properties interfere with each other. Exemplarily,

In the design process of automotive electric powertrain the available installation space for each component shows ma-
systems (eDrives) consisting of nifold characteristics due to multiple possible motor, gearbox
• the electric machine (EM),
and power electronics variants as well as versatile system
• the gearbox and
installation positions and angles. This space can be utilized
• the power electronics (also called inverter),
by different component variants, which are characterized by
component-specific design parameters. They affect the outer
requirements regarding
shape of each component and therefore the package as well
• performance (torque/power), as the performance, efficiency and production costs. The high
• efficiency, variability of component design parameters and packaging-
• package and related aspects leads to a complex problem in the design
• costs process.
are typically set on axle system level. Fig. 1 shows the desired The state-of-the-art design process follows the V-model [1],
installation space of an exemplary vehicle integration scenario where an experienced system engineer breaks down the system
and Fig. 2 a corresponding eDrive solution. Performance requi- requirements to the individual component requirements. Each
rements are formulated as torque and/or power requirements at component-specific expert team creates a component draft
the output shaft for different durations and axle speeds (Fig. 4). design considering experience-based trade-off decisions regar-
Requirements regarding efficiency specify certain regions in ding target conflicts. The system is synthesized by combining
the torque-speed map with different priorities (Fig. 5). In and integrating the different component solutions. This process
the layout and optimization process, the electrical boundary is repeated several times to balance design decisions and their
conditions relating to the range of battery voltage and allowed impact on system level. The quality and efficiency of this
maximum current must be considered too. process strongly depends on the experience of the system
The specification of requirements on axle system level impose engineer and due to limited resources only a limited number
that deduction of component requirements is not unique and of design variants can be examined and compared.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 286

em(xem ) and the gearbox gb(xgb ) (1), with their component-
specific design parameters xpe , xem and xgb , respectively (2).
eDrive(x) = {pe(xpe ), em(xem ), gb(xgb )} (1)

x = (xpe , xem , xgb ) (2)
Theoretically, a system-wide multi-objective optimization con-

sidering parameters of all components x at once would be
possible, but the curse of dimensionality leads to impractical
computational time. Therefore, the proposed synthesis process
is based on Pareto optimal sets of the power electronics,
the electric machine and the gearbox (PE, EM and GB,
respectively) which can then be combined to system solutions
(Fig. 3). These component sets (3) can either be provided by
component-specific optimizations or manually created compo-
nent libraries.
Fig. 2. eDrive system in desired installation space (turquoise). pe(xpe ) ∈ PE, em(xem ) ∈ EM, gb(xgb ) ∈ GB (3)
Recent publications regarding eDrive design, e.g. [2], include

certain separate considerations of the battery, power electro-
nics, electric motor and gearbox. General methodologies on
how the system interactions can be modelled are outlined,
but a specific design method and optimization strategy is not
discussed so far. In [3], the principle of system optimization of
the electric powertrain is discussed, but no detailed description
Power Electric
of the component models and the system synthesis is provided. Gearbox
electronics machine
Other work that deals with multi-objective optimization of
electric powertrains, e.g. [4], [5], [6], uses simplified com-
ponent models, which are based on scaling of characteristic
maps, but package influences and detailed component design
decisions are not considered.
A. Pareto Optimality
System
A system with design parameters x = (x1 , ..., xn ) is solution
subject to minimization regarding multiple objectives f (x) =
(f1 (x), ..., fp (x)). Due to physical restrictions, only certain
design parameter combinations x ∈ X may lead to feasible
Fig. 3. System synthesis concept.
solutions. A feasible solution x̂ ∈ X is called Pareto optimal,
if there is no x ∈ X such that fk (x) ≤ fk (x̂) for k = 1, ..., p
and fi (x) < fi (x̂) for some i ∈ {1, ..., p} [7]. If x̂ is Pareto This approach allows to balance component design decisi-
optimal, f (x̂) is called nondominated point. The set of all ons on system level to achieve Pareto optimal system solutions.
Pareto optimal solutions x̂ ∈ X is called the Pareto set. The The introduced process is based on a concept that was firstly
set of all nondominated points ŷ = f (x̂) is called the Pareto presented in [3].
front. For further introduction to multi-objective optimization Since this methodology is focusing on the early development
refer to literature, e.g. [7]. stage, specific detailed design characteristics, e.g. thermal
aspects [8], lubrication [9], deformation of the housing, noise,
B. Approach vibration and harshness (NVH) [10], are not covered by
The proposed methodology supports decision making in this design optimization. Nevertheless, these influences are
early stages of eDrive development, where the variety of essential for the design of successful eDrive solutions. They
possible solutions is large. The target is to generate Pareto must be covered in a subsequent process where the expertise
optimal system solutions, each consisting of a design variant of an experienced manufacturer is vital to deal with the
of the power electronics pe(xpe ), the electric machine challenges.
287
TABLE I
10 s E D RIVE S YSTEM O PTIMIZATION O BJECTIVES
3,000 60 s
Obj. Type Minimization Objective
60 min f1 Performance Performance deviation
f2 Efficiency Efficiency deviation
Torque in Nm
f3 Package (see Fig. 7) Axial dimension (incl. EM)

2,000 f4 Ground clearance metric
f5 Lateral dimension
f6 Radial dimension
(fpd ) (Package deviation, post-processed)
f7 Costs Costs
1,000
section System Package Optimization), since several arran-

0 gement parameters must be optimized in a computationally
0 500 1,000 1,500
expensive process to calculate the package deviation fpd .
Axle speed in rpm Therefore, the package deviation is not an integral part of the
optimization, but post-processed for Pareto optimal solutions
Fig. 4. Torque requirements depending on the axle speed and duration of regarding the objectives f = (f1 , ..., f7 ).
operation.
Since performance and efficiency requirements include mul-
tiple predefined operating conditions and test points, the
worst relative deviation of all conditions determines the de-
3,000 Prio IV viation measure; a positive deviation represents the worst
>80%
underfulfilment while a negative deviation represents the least
overfulfilment of all requirements. This definition leads to a
Torque in Nm
2,000 Prio II consistent formalization of minimization objectives.

>85% In order to break down the entire optimization problem to
Prio I component level optimization, appropriate component-specific
>90% Prio III objectives are introduced.
1,000 >80% Synthesis Process: The process to find optimal eDrive
design solutions follows the sequence presented in Fig. 6.
Starting from the requirements, the power electronics library
is searched for suitable components as a function of the
0
0 500 1,000 1,500 power supply specifications. Two important characteristics
Axle speed in rpm in this context are the power supply voltage VDC and the
maximum direct current IDC,RMS . Suitable inverter solutions
Fig. 5. eDrive efficiency requirements: multiple regions in the map are are checked against the performance requirements. The power
defined with the corresponding priority. supply and inverter setup determine the electrical boundary
conditions applicable for the electric machine, where the line-
to-line voltage VL2L , which depends on the applied modulation
II. M ETHODOLOGY method, and the maximum line current IL,RMS are considered
A. Optimization as essential parameters.
With the electrical boundary conditions set, the performance
Optimization Problem: The system design problem of an
behavior of each variant of an electric machine design is
eDrive is formulated as a multi-objective minimization pro-
determined by means of a finite-element-simulation method.
blem (4),
In the exemplary application of the method, the active length
minf (eDrive(x)) (4)
of the electric machine is adjusted to achieve suitable torque
where the eDrive’s design parameters x must be selected output.
appropriately to generate a feasible eDrive solution. The The gearbox is designed considering a given load spectrum.
formulation as a minimization problem enables to propose Furthermore, the EM outer diameter EM and maximum
best suitable solutions, even if simultaneous fulfilment of all speed nEM,max are essential for the gearbox design: The
the desired requirements is physically not possible. The system EM outer diameter determines the gearbox’s minimum center
objectives f = (f1 , ..., fp ), p = 7 described in Table I relate to distance of input and output shafts, while the maximum speed
the requirements and consider aspects from component design affects the transmission ratio and the rotational speeds, which
and composition. The package-related objectives f3 , ..., f6 are critical for bearing selection.
in Table I cover the assembly of the electric machine and In this way, complete eDrive systems are synthesized from
the gearbox; the power electronics’ effect on the package is Pareto optimal component solutions and their system objecti-
included in a subsequent process (described in the following ves regarding performance, efficiency, package and cost are
288
Input
Requirements
Power supply Performance requirements Load cycle

VDC
IDC,RMS
nEM,max
VL2L ØEM
Power IL,RMS
Electric
electronics Gearbox machine
Power
Gearbox
library Gearbox Gearbox
electronics library & Electric
Gearbox
design Gearbox
simulation machine Gearbox
optimization Gearbox
Gearbox
Gearbox
Gearbox
eDrive
Gearbox
system
Output
Performance
Efficiency
Package dimensions
Arrangement
parameters Package
Package metric
optimization
Cost
Fig. 6. System synthesis concept.
calculated. To quantify the package metric (definition in the This definition enables the coverage of both cases with a single
following section), the arrangement parameters of each eDrive scalar value, where smaller values are beneficial. The system
are optimized for the desired installation space. The resulting arrangement parameters in the considered use case are:
Pareto optimal solutions are then examined by engineers and 1) Axial eDrive placement: Positioning along the direction
decision makers to find the best suitable trade-off solution of the drive axis.
depending on individual requirements and priorities. 2) Angular eDrive placement: Angular placement of the
System Package Optimization: The components are as- eDrive with respect to the horizontal plane.
sembled to an axle system to determine its system per- 3) Angular inverter placement: Angular positioning of the
formance, efficiency, costs and package. The latter is then inverter along the perimeter of the electric machine.
checked against the available installation space, which is 4) Axial inverter placement: Positioning of the inverter along
achieved by CAD-based automation using parametric body the direction of the drive axis.
models for the power electronics, the electric machine and the The automated system package optimization is achieved by
gearbox [12] (Fig. 9). In addition to the component’s package, a downhill simplex optimization algorithm [14] investigating
also various system arrangement parameters are examined the arrangement parameters for each eDrive solution.
to find a package-optimal arrangement. The characteristic
of ‘package-optimal’ refers to the minimization of a special B. Component Models
package metric [13], depending on two cases:
For the proposed system design methodology, each
a) If the eDrive design variant completely fits inside the desi- component design variant (power electronics, electric
red installation space, the negative value of the minimum machine, gearbox) is evaluated regarding their component-
clearance between the eDrive and the installation space is specific objectives. Since there are multiple objectives, the
measured. result of this evaluation process forms a multi-dimensional
b) If the eDrive design variant violates the desired installation objective space. This evaluation is based on information that
space, the violating volume is measured. can either be supplied by test bench measurements or by data
289
TABLE II
G EARBOX C OMPONENT O BJECTIVES
Type Minimization Objective Comment

Package Axial dimension see Fig. 7
Ground clearance metric see Fig. 7
Lateral dimension see Fig. 7
Efficiency Losses Bearing and gear losses Lateral
Costs Costs Shafts, gears, bearings and housing dimension
of parametric component models. For the latter the choice of

parameters and model depth must be defined appropriately to
sufficiently represent the effects on the optimization targets.
Similar representation of both experimental data and data
from parametric models in the corresponding objective space
also enables an implementation of both data sources, with the Fig. 7. Housing and interior of a single-speed, two-stage helical gearbox
with an integrated differential drive in offset design (desired installation space
best component solutions forming the Pareto front. in turquoise).
In the presented example, the optimization process is
demonstrated for parametric models of gearbox and electric
machine, whereas for the power electronics a library of TABLE III
components is applied. E LECTRIC M ACHINE C OMPONENT O BJECTIVES
Type Minimization Objective EM A EM B

1) Gearbox: To generate the required Pareto front of ge- Performance −Max. torque
arbox design variants, a parametric model of the gearbox is −Max. power
−Corner speed
used in conjunction with an optimization algorithm based on −Max. speed
differential evolution [15]. Design parameters include gearing −Max. torque at max. speed
parameters for both gear stages like numbers of teeth, modules, Efficiency Losses (weighted average)
Package Axial dimension 300 mm 370 mm
helix angles and directions as well as profile shift coefficients, Diameter 280 mm 210 mm
bearing selection and shaft dimension parameters [13]. The Costs Costs
gearbox optimization objectives are related to package, effi-
ciency, and costs (Table II). The so-called ground clearance
metric is defined as the gear tip radius on the output shaft, as
it influences the ground clearance of the vehicle (Fig. 1 and the motor length under consideration of a given rotor and yoke
Fig. 7); smaller values of this metric are beneficial, as they design. Each electric machine variant is evaluated regarding
increase the ground clearance. the objectives stated in Table III, where a negative sign is used
Each gearbox solution variant is designed to withstand a given to transform a maximization objective into a minimization
load spectrum to ensure reliability. The center distance of the objective.
input and output shaft is chosen with respect to the electric
machine diameter, since the drive shaft must pass the electric 3) Power Electronics: In this procedure, suitable power
machine in the offset design (Fig. 2). The gear ratio is basically electronics components are taken from a library of available
set by the ratio of maximum speed of the electric machine and supplier components and their characteristics are according
the desired axle speed; slight adaptations may be used to affect to the datasheet. A main characteristic of the inverter’s power
the speed-depending torque curve of the eDrive. For a detailed module is the duration-dependent current load capacity (e.g.
description of the gearbox optimization methodology see [13]. Table IV). Together with the allowed voltage range they
determine the transmittable electrical power. A parametric pre-
2) Electric Machine: The electric machine is modeled by designed inverter housing representing the power electronics
a library of predefined rotor and yoke designs for a variety of outer contour is used to model the required package (orange
different outer diameters and electric machine technologies. body in Fig. 9).
Electric machine characteristics strongly depend on the pro-
perties of the applied inverter, therefore the performance of
the electric machine-inverter combination must be evaluated
together. The performance and efficiency characteristics are TABLE IV
examined by a transient electromagnetic simulation based C HARACTERISTICS OF THE I NVERTER ’ S P OWER M ODULE
on the finite-element-method. Thermal aspects of EM design
Duration Max. Current (RMS)
are not covered by the current implementation and must be 10 s 480 A
considered in a subsequent process. 60 s 430 A
Exemplarily, the maximum torque output is scaled by varying 60 min 240 A
290
TABLE V
E D RIVE M INIMUM R EQUIREMENTS FOR F URTHER C ONSIDERATION EM-A-based eDrives
EM-B-based eDrives
Property Requirement Pareto front (in this perspective)
Ground clearance metric in mm

Performance deviation < 4%
Efficiency deviation < 0%
Selected solutions
Ground clearance metric < 105 mm
Axial length < 570 mm
100
III. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION

A. Use Case
90
The introduced methodology is demonstrated on a real
eDrive development scenario. In this application, the desired 600
400 550
installation space (Fig. 2) and torque requirements (Fig. 4)
are given. The inverter setup including the power module is 500
kept constant in this demonstration (Table IV). Two electric 300 450
machine designs (A and B, Table III) with strongly different Radial dimension in mm Axial dimension in mm
diameter/length ratios are under investigation. The impact of
the electric machine design on the system optimal design
including the gearbox selection and package arrangement are Fig. 8. Trade-off regarding the eDrives’ main outer dimensions.
outlined.
B. Results
In the demonstration use case, eight1 objectives quantify
the fitness of each eDrive solution (Table I). All the presented
results are Pareto optimal regarding these objectives and fulfil
the minimum requirements stated in Table V. Since visuali-
zation of more than three objectives at once is not feasible,
selected perspectives are presented to show the capability of
the introduced method. Pareto optimal results with respect to
the plotted objectives are additionally highlighted with circles.
(a) (b)
In the presented use case, package integration is a key chal-
lenge. When comparing the eDrives’ main dimensions (Fig. 8), Fig. 9. Selected Pareto optimal eDrive solutions for each EM variant. a) EM-
A-based eDrive with a package deviation of 33 cm3 . b) EM-B-based eDrive
it is obvious that the smaller diameter electric machine B with a package deviation of 261 cm3 .
requires a longer active length to provide a similar torque
output, which generally results in larger axial dimension of
the eDrive. Supposing ground clearance is a high-priority goal, C. Outlook
the ground clearance optimal solution for EM-A-based eDrives The methodology is outlined by exemplarily comparing two
is selected and its package-deviation-optimal integration is EM designs. To effectively support eDrive development in
depicted in Fig. 9a. For the EM-B-based eDrives, a trade- practical applications, the EM library must contain a variety
off between axial dimension and ground clearance is selected, of EM technologies and rotor/yoke designs. To further extend
since axial length is more critical due to the larger EM the accuracy of the introduced method, adaptation of the
length. The package-deviation-optimal integration for this case winding configuration [16] can be implemented to enable a
is depicted in Fig. 9b. consideration of e.g. the effects on the shape of the torque
The best performing eDrive solution for each type of electric curve. In addition, the implementation of a library of power
machine is shown in Fig. 10. The shapes of the torque curves electronics components might provide a higher degree of
differ because of the different characteristics and combinations variety during the design and optimization process.
of electric machine and gearbox. The presented package deviation metric measures the eDrive’s
Two key objectives regarding eDrive design are costs and package deviation volume with respect to the desired in-
efficiency, respectively losses (Fig. 11). eDrive solutions using stallation space. In this procedure, any deviating volume is
EM B are generally cheaper, which is mainly because of a similarly accounted, independent from the location of the
magnet-saving design. On the other hand, EM-A-based designs violation. In many cases, some locations of package deviation
lead to superior efficiency. are acceptable while others are not. To generally address
this challenge in an automated procedure, location-dependent
1 The package deviation is only computed in a post-processing step, since ‘package deviation cost factors’ (up to infinite) can be assigned
it requires a computationally expensive package optimization process. to specifically penalize package violations.
291
The proposed method offers engineers and decision makers
Actual torque Actual torque a quantitative basis to process specific product characteristics
4000 Requirement 4000 Requirement
with respect to individual requirements and priorities. It po-
Torque in Nm
Torque in Nm
10 s 10 s tentially reduces development time and improves result quality

2000 2000
in early development stages.
0 0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
0 500 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1500
This work is supported by Magna International and Magna
4000 4000
Powertrain. To reduce development time and effort in future,
Torque in Nm
Torque in Nm
60 s 60 s Magna Powertrain is investigating a holistic optimal design

2000 2000
approach for electric drive systems in co-operation with Graz
University of Technology.
0 0
0 500 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1500
R EFERENCES
4000 4000
Torque in Nm
Torque in Nm
[1] Design methodology for mechatronic systems, VDI 2206:2004-06,

Beuth, Jun. 2004.
60 min 60 min
2000 2000 [2] A. Albers, K. Bause, U. Reichert, and S. Ott, “The development of
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30th International Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exhibition, Stuttgart,
0 0
0 500 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1500
Germany, Oct. 2017.
[3] M. Hofstetter, M. Hirz, and M. Ackerl, “System design optimization of
Speed in rpm Speed in rpm
xEV-axle drives with package restrictions,” in Proceedings of the FISITA
(a) (b) 2016 World Automotive Congress, Busan, South Korea, Sep. 2016.
[4] M. Eghtessad, “Optimale Antriebsstrangkonfigurationen für Elektro-
Fig. 10. Performance-deviation-optimal eDrive solution for each electric fahrzeuge,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Brunswick – Institute of
machine variant. a) EM A. b) EM B. Technology, 2014.
[5] T. Meier, “Multikriterielle Optimierung hybrider Antriebsstränge mittels
3.6 statistischer Versuchsplanung,” Ph.D. dissertation, TU Darmstadt, 2015.
[6] C. Schulte-Cörne, “Multikriterielle integrierte Systemoptimierung von
hybriden Plug-In-Antriebssystemen,” Ph.D. dissertation, RWTH Aachen
University, 2015.
3.4 [7] M. Ehrgott, Multicriteria optimization. Springer Berlin Heidelberg New
York, 2005.
Losses in percent
[8] C. Paar, A. Muetze, and H. Kolbe, “Influence of machine integration on

3.2 EM-A-based eDrives the thermal behavior of a PM drive for hybrid electric traction,” IEEE
EM-B-based eDrives Sep. 2015.
3 Pareto front (in this perspective) [9] T. Moshammer, F. Mayr, K. Kargl, and C. Honeger, “Simulation of oil
flow in gear box housing,” in SAE 2006 World Congress & Exhibition,
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[10] R. Buchberger, O. Grieshofer, W. Hinterberger, and R. Sereinig, “NVH
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2.6 com/3d-models/model-30253.html. Accessed on Apr. 2 2018.
900 1,000 1,100 1,200 [12] M. Pichler, “Parametrisches Gehäusemodell eines Stirnradgetriebes für
elektrifizierte Fahrzeuge,” bachelor thesis, Graz University of Techno-
Costs in Euro logy, 2018.
[13] M. Hofstetter, D. Lechleitner, M. Hirz, M. Gintzel, and A. Schmidhofer,
Fig. 11. Trade-off regarding losses and costs on eDrive level. “Multi-objective gearbox design optimization for xEV-axle drives under
consideration of package restrictions,” in Dritev - Drivetrain for Vehicles,
Bonn, Germany, Jun. 2018, to be published.
[14] J. A. Nelder and R. Mead, “A simplex method for function minimiza-
IV. C ONCLUSION tion,” The Computer Journal, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 308–313, 1965.
[15] R. Storn and K. Price, “Differential evolution – a simple and efficient
The complex problem of high variability of component heuristic for global optimization over continuous spaces,” Journal of
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velopment of electric powertrain systems is addressed by [16] S. Stipetic, D. Zarko, and M. Popescu, “Ultra-fast axial and radial
scaling of synchronous permanent magnet machines,” IET Electric
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system requirements, design parameters of each component
are determined to handle performance, efficiency, package and
costs in a multi-objective manner on system level. The introdu-
ced methodology is demonstrated exemplarily on an xEV-axle
application, consisting of a permanent magnet synchronous
machine and a single-speed, two-stage helical gearbox with
an integrated differential drive, which represents a common
topology for xEV-axle drives in passenger cars today.
292
A Review of Front End AC-DC Topologies in
Universal Battery Charger for Electric
Transportation
A.V.J.S.Praneeth and Sheldon S Williamson
Advanced Storage Systems and Electric Transportation (ASSET) Laboratory
UOIT-Automotive Center of Excellence (UOIT-ACE)
Department of Electrical, Computer, and Software Engineering
University of Ontario Institute of Technology,Canada
Abstract—Electric transportation is the future; the role of

AC-DC DC-DC
power electronics will help achieve better performance. One of EMI FILTER
PFC STAGE CONVERTER
V
the most crucial systems in the electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in Vin Battery
hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) is the charging system, in which
the front end ac-dc converter connects the grid and the vehicle Fig. 1: Block Diagram of PFC Converter
with high power quality. In North America and Europe, all auto-
motive companies are equipped with level I and level II residential supply [3]-[5]. Several organizations, such as IEEE, the So-
charging for vehicles. Failure to maintain power quality will ciety of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and other government
result in significant impact on customers. Therefore, the charger organizations have prepared a set of standards such as FCC,
must achieve high efficiency, power density and low harmonic
content. This paper presents a survey of different topologies of
ECR and codes with respect to utility/customer interface. The
power factor correction (PFC) converters in the vehicle on-board main purpose of these regulations is to maintain the harmonic
charging system.The drawbacks for all the topologies, and their contents within the limit when the equipment is connected to
corrective actions in the PFC boost converter, are also briefly a power supply. The effect of and the need for maintaining
discussed. power quality is discussed in [6].
Index Terms—AC–DC power converters, Power Factor
correction (PFC), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)/ Elec- A boost circuit is added to a converter when fed from an ac
tric Vehicle (EV) supply to improve the power quality; this is known as a power
factor correction (PFC) circuit. In a battery charger, due to the
I. I NTRODUCTION low frequency ripple, a two stage ac-dc along with the PFC
Electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles circuit is required. For lead acid batteries, single stage con-
(PHEVs) are the latest trends in transportation that come with version is suitable even though there is a large low frequency
battery packs as the main or one of the energy storage systems ripple in the output current. Conversely, two-stage ac-dc/dc-
[1]. The EV is comprised of all the power electronics modules dc power conversion provides inherent low frequency ripple
needed to control and assist the safe drive of operation. A soft rejection. Lithium-ion batteries require a low voltage ripple
start, and smooth and noiseless running performance can be [7]-[10]. Therefore, the two-stage approach, as shown in Fig.1,
easily attained in a vehicle with power electronic devices. The is preferred for Lithium ion battery chargers with a relatively
energy storage system can be recharged by connecting a level I high power rating. The literature on the different types of PFC
or level II residential plug to an external electric power source. circuits was presented in [11]-[30]. When connected to the
The on-board charger connects the grid power supply from the grid for charging, EVs should possess minimum harmnonic
residential user to the vehicle. The various topologies and the contents to prevent the damage caused by nonlinear loads.
levels of charging are discussed in [2]. Tough protection is The standards for charging EVs are specified in [31]-[38]. The
required in a vehicle when dealing with a high voltage system conventional PFC circuit has its own limitations and power
but the use of power electronic devices minimises the frequent level for operation.There are drawbacks in the boost diode
abruptions. Some of the power electronic modules in EVs are during the turn on of the main switch, which degrades the
the battery management system, traction controller, intelligent efficiency of the converter and increases the losses as well
energy management system, vehicle charger, and controller. as stresses on the device.In this paper, we present a review
Among these, the charging system plays a dominant role. The of different topologies for the PFC stage in the charger and
vehicle charging ac inlet requires an on-board ac-dc charger the drawbacks. We identify the use of switch based resonant
with power factor correction. converters and the design procedure is discussed in [39]-[47].
A normal 2-3 KW charger with 90-95% efficiency can This paper also suggests some solutions for resonant switch
charge a battery pack in about 6-7 hours from a 240 V based quasi or multi resonant converters to improve their
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 293

L1
efficiency as well as reduce switching and conduction losses.
+-
DF
II. TOPOLOGIES FOR THE PFC STAGE
D1 D2
In the PFC stage, for CCM shaping there are different

control methods such as average current mode control, peak V1
AC C1
current mode control, hysteresis control, charge control and MOSFET R
the capacitor voltage control technique can be implemented.

Among all these, the average current mode control is the most D3 D4
popular control technique because of its high performance,easy -

control, improved noise immunity, lower input ripple, and
stable operation.There are various topologies in the power Fig. 2: Conventional Boost PFC
factor correction (PFC) circuits when a device is connected L1
to the ac power source. The following points show the insight DF
view of each topology and its limitations. D1 D2

Lr
A. Conventional Boost PFC Converter D1

AC Cr C1
In most applications, the conventional boost PFC is com- MOSFET Aux MOSFET R
monly used as it is simple to design. This topology has a few

D3 D4
limitations in charging the battery packs for EVs. They are:
1. This topology has a efficient operation for low to medium
power range, up to 1 kW. As the power level increases,
the circuit control and sensing complexity level also Fig. 3: ZVT Boost PFC
increases.
2. The input diode bridge (D1-D4) degrades the perfor- are high voltage stress on the main diode (DF) and high
mance of converter when the power level increases since voltage swing during the resonant period. To overcome all
the reverse recovery time of the input diodes causes more these limitations on the new hybrid, resonant converters are
heat dissipation over an area, which is problematic. introduced. The operation of these ZVT-ZCT converters is
3. The only parasitic capacitance that contributes to CM discussed in [45]-[49].
noise is drain-to-ground capacitance of MOSFET.
4. The volume of inductor design also becomes a problem- B. Interleaved Boost PFC Converter
atic at high power levels.
The interleaved boost converter consists of two boost con-
5. The voltage stress on conventional boost devices is high.
verters in parallel operating with 1800 out of phase between
6. The reverse recovery current of the diode (DF) during the
the two switches. The most important points of the interleaved
turn on of the MOSFET creates a sudden shoot-through
converter are as follows:
in the output capacitor and causes more EMI in the circuit
due to negative spikes in the diode current [48]. 1. In interleaving topology, if the phase shifting is present
in m channels at uniform intervals, the effective ripple
In addition to the above limitations, conventional boost
frequency increases m times and the current ripple mag-
PFCs have high switching and conduction losses. Most of
nitude decreases with the ripple cancellation at the output,
the switching losses occur in the mosfet during turn-on and
which reduces stress on the output capacitors.
turn-off conditions.The improper discharge of stored energy
2. The size of the EMI filter at the input can be reduced
in Cds causes turn-on losses and the switching at non-zero
further with asymmetrical topology. It is desirable to
voltage and current causes turn-off losses. Resonant transition
arrange a phase shift to an angle such that the first noise
converters are recent trends that provide a solution to these
peak is not fully cancelled and the noise peak of the
problems.These converters contain auxilary circuits which
next higher order harmonics can be reduced. By doing
have a switch and some passive elements along with the main
circuit. The switching losses and conduction losses are low
in these converters when compared with hardswitching con-
L1
verters. Transition converters are basically classified as zero
voltage transition (ZVT) and zero current transition converters D1 D2
DF
(ZCT). Lsa
The above Fig. 3 shows a ZVT boost PFC converter. The AC MOSFET Cr D1 C1
auxiliary circuit in the converter helps the main switch to R
operate with soft switching. It is also able to eliminate the D3 D4

Aux
diode reverse recovery current effect on the circuit. A draw-
back of this circuit is that the auxiliary switch operates with
hard switching. Similarly, the drawbacks of ZCT converter
Fig. 4: ZVT-ZCT Boost PFC[49]
294
100 Input Voltage/4
L1 D1
90 Input Current
80
L2 D2
70 D1 D2
60
50
40 AC C1 R
Input Voltage (V), Input Current (A)
30 S1 S2
20 MOSFET MOSFET
10
D3 D4
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
Fig. 6: Interleaved Boost PFC
-50
-60
-70
-80 D1 D2
-90
L1
-100
0.98 1.00 1.02 1.04 1.06 1.08 1.10 1.12 1.14 1.16
Time (sec)
Fig. 5: Simulation result of conventional boost PFC AC

L2 CF
R
so, maximum reduction in the EMI size and cost can be
achieved.
Q1 Q2
3. The optimal phase shift angle can be calculated by deter-
mining the relative amount of attenuation of the first two
noise peaks of interest and setting the relative amounts
G1
of cancellation to be complementary to the attenuation of
the filter. Fig. 7: Bridgeless Boost PFC
4. The power loss at the input diode bridge rectifier with the
‘bridgeless’ itself indicates, the topology is without a diode
interleaved topology is the same as a conventional boost
bridge at input.This topology is mainly classified into bridge-
PFC which limits the power levels of this topology to
less, dual boost, semibridgeless and phase shifted bridgeless
3-3.5 kW.
PFC converters. The drawbacks and the advantages for each
The multi channel interleaved PFC stage has significant topology are given below.
impact on EMI filter design and the output capacitor life- 1) Bridgeless Boost PFC: The bridgeless topology is
time. The1800 phase shift helps the ripple cancellation, which shown in Fig.7, which contains two switches with common
increases the life of an electrolytic capacitor. These capacitors gate pulses to both of them, eliminating the input diode bridge.
provide energy hold-up times in output.Due to the ripple cur- The important points of this topology are as follows:
rent and the ESR (equivalent series resistor) of the capacitor,
1. This bridgeless topology is applicable for applications
there is a major power loss on the capacitor, which increases
more than 1 kw, where power density and efficiency are
the temperature and in turn shortens the life of the capacitor.
important.
The estimated lifetime of the capacitor calculation is defined
2. This converter solves the problem of heat management
in [50]. In order to reduce the size of EMI filter, the PFC
in the input rectifier diode bridge inherent to the con-
should be operated at very high frequency. The desirable range
ventional boost PFC but introduces an increased EMI
of the switching frequency in PFC converter design should
(because the amplitude of the noise source applied to
be below(¡) 75 kHz and above(¿) 200 kHz. If the frequency
the stray capacitor from a high-voltage dc bus and power
is in between the mentioned range, there is a considerable
ground is much higher in a bridgeless PFC.The common-
penalty on the size of EMI filter. The filter corner frequency is
mode (CM) noise generated by a bridgeless PFC is much
used to quantify the EMI filter size. If the corner frequency is
higher than conventional boost PFC topology.
high, it realizes in smaller inductances and capacitances, which
3. This topology is the floating input line with respect to
reduces the desirable size.The input current of the interleaved
the PFC ground, making it impossible to sense the input
boost converter is the sum of two input inductor currents.
voltage without a low frequency transformer or an optical
If the ripples at the inductor currents are out of phase, they
coupler.
tend to cancel each other to reduce the input ripple current.
4. Current sensing is very difficult in bridgeless topologies.
This reduces the voltage and current stress on the devices.
We can use a differential mode amplifier and current
Asymmetrical operation of the PWM signal in multi-level
transformers to sense the input current. However, the most
interleaved operation gives better performance and efficiency
optimal method is the use of one cycle control.
of converter.
2) Dual Boost PFC:
C. Bridgeless Boost PFC Converter 1. The topology in Fig. 8 illustrates when the mosfet gates
This bridgeless boost PFC converter solves the problem are decoupled, enabling one of the switches to remain on
of heat management at the input diode bridge.As the name and operate as a synchronous mosfet for a half-line cycle.
295
D1 D2
D1 D2 L1
L1
AC
L2 CF
AC R
L2 CF
R
Q1 Q2
Da
Q1 Q2 Db
G1 G2
G1 G2 Fig. 10: Phase Shifted Bridgeless Boost PFC

Fig. 8: Dual Boost PFC
D1 D2 D3 D4
L1
D1 D2 L3
L1 AC
CF
L2 R
L4
AC
L2 CF
R
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Q1 Q2
Db Da Fig. 11: Bridgeless Interleaved Boost PFC
4) Phase Shifted Semi-Bridgeless(PSSB) PFC:
G1
1. This topology provides a solution to simplify current
Fig. 9: Semi-Bridgeless Boost PFC
sensing in bridgeless PFC boost applications using the
2. The dual-boost topology reduces the gate switching loss current synthesizer sensing method.
and at light loads, it also reduces the conduction loss. 2. The gating signals for the MOSFETs are 1800 out of
3. This topology is the floating input line with respect to phase. This has reduced EMI, high efficiency at light
the PFC ground, making it impossible to sense the input loads, and low lines.
voltage without a low frequency transformer or an optical 3. This topology is critical in order to minimize charger size,
coupler. cost, charging time, and amount and cost of electricity
4. In a bridgeless PFC, because of the two inductors on the drawn from the utility.
input, the voltage potential of the output bus pulsates with This topology solves all the problems discussed above.The
the amplitude of half of the output voltage. only constraint is the cost. The current sensing in this topology
The common mode noise in these topologies is due to is simple, using the current synthesizer technique. In this
the voltage pulsating, generated by high frequency switching. technique, by using the MOSFET switch current, the inductor
dv current can be easily predicted.
The high at the switch generates a common mode noise 5) Bridgeless Interleaved Boost PFC Converter:
dt
in currents through the parasitic capacitances and ground. 1. This bridgeless interleaved topology is the best topology
The dual boost converter is similar to two boost converters with a low EMI filter at the input side and low capacitor
connected in parallel at the input side. ripple.
3) Semi-Bridgeless PFC: The topology shown in Fig. 9 2. Efficiency with this topology is high. Its use is desired at
illustrates two slow diodes Da and Db that are added at the power levels of above 4 KW.
input side to address the EMI related issues.The current does 3. This topology consists of four MOSFETs and four diodes.
not always return on this path, hence the conduction losses This converter topology shows a high input power factor,
are low. high efficiency over the entire load range and low input
1. This configuration resolves the floating input line problem current harmonics. Since the proposed topology shows a
with respect to the PFC stage ground. high input power factor, high efficiency over the entire
2. Voltage and current sensing can be easily sensed with load range, and low input current harmonics, it is a
resistances. potential option for single phase PFC in high power level
The current sensing methods for the semi-bridgeless topology II battery charging applications.
can be measured in three ways. The first method is with the use The above mentioned PFC converters are analysed and
of three CTs (current transformers), which are bulky in size simulated on the PLECS 4.1.1 software to understand the loss
and high in cost. The second method involves using Hall effect analysis of the converter for a 1 kW power. The Fig.12 gives
sensors which are very high in cost.The third method involves the plots of loss and efficiency of the various PFC converters.
using a differential amplifier with a noise in the signal.
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298
Analytical Models of Wireless Power Transfer
Systems with a Constant-Power Load
Yiming Zhang1, Tianze Kan1, Zhengchao Yan1, 2, and Chris Mi1
1
San Diego State University, USA
2
Northwestern Polytechnical University, China
mi@ieee.org
Abstract-Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) has attracted much

attention in recent years. Voltage tuning and frequency tuning
are two major tuning methods to control the output of a WPT
system. For the design of a WPT system at the rated output Uinv Urec
power, it is crucial to analyze the WPT system with a constant-
power load under voltage tuning and frequency tuning. The
analytical models of a WPT system with a constant-power load
both at and off the resonant frequency are established. The
expressions of the transmitter current, the receiver current, the
DC voltage of the rectifier, and the coil-to-coil efficiency are Inverter TX RX Rectifier
derived. The conditions to achieve the maximum coil-to-coil
efficiency for voltage tuning and frequency tuning are obtained. (a)
An experimental prototype is implemented. The experimental
results agree well with the analysis and the calculations. With a I1 M I2
strong coupling, the maximum efficiency of frequency tuning
can be as high as that of voltage tuning. + R1 R2
Keywords—Wireless power transfer (WPT); constant U1
power; voltage tuning; frequency tuning; Thevenin circuit L1 L2 RL
C1 C2
-
I. INTRODUCTION (b)
Fig. 1. A typical WPT system: (a) topology; (b) equivalent circuit.
Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) [1-2] has high potentials
to be applied in many areas due to its safety, convenience,
and reliability. Inductive Power Transfer (IPT), a WPT are normally utilized, namely amplitude control (changing the
technology that is based on magnetic induction, has attracted DC voltage of the inverter Uinv) and phase shift control
enormous attention in the past few years and has been applied (changing the phase difference between the two legs of the
in commercial markets such as wireless charging of consumer inverter). These two methods are equivalent in that the root-
electronics and electric vehicles. WPT standards, such as Qi mean-square (RMS) value of the AC output voltage of the
standard from the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) and inverter is adjusted. Phase shift control is faster in response
J2954 from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), have but may lose soft switching of the switches. Amplitude
been proposed to further extend the application of the WPT control is slower but can maintain soft switching status. One
technology. example of frequency tuning is Qi standard, where the
With series compensation on both the transmitter side and operating frequency ranges from 100 kHz to 205 kHz. This
the receiver side, a typical topology for a WPT system, paper focuses on amplitude tuning for the voltage tuning
namely the series-series (SS) topology, is shown in Fig. 1 [3- method.
5], where Uinv is the DC voltage of the inverter, Urec is the DC Currently WPT systems are modelled based on either a
voltage of the rectifier, U1 is the fundamental component of constant-resistance load [10-12] or a constant-voltage load
the AC output voltage of the inverter, L1 (L2), C1 (C2), R1 [13-14]. These models are not adequate to analyze a WPT
(R2), and I1 (I2) are the inductance, the capacitance, the system with a constant-power load via voltage tuning or
equivalent resistance, and the current of the transmitter frequency tuning. This paper analyzes the transfer
(receiver), M is the mutual inductance of the transmitter and characteristics of a WPT system with a constant-power load
the receiver, and RL is the load resistance. In low-power and via voltage tuning and frequency tuning, respectively. The
medium-power applications, either the output voltage [6] or Thevenin equivalent circuits of the WPT system reflected on
the operating frequency [7-8] of the inverter can be adjusted the receiver side are developed. The theoretical calculations
for a target output, corresponding to voltage tuning and and the experimental results are conducted to validate the
frequency tuning [9]. In voltage tuning, Two control methods analysis.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 299

I2  Pout
U bat 
+ + 2 2 I2
Rth (8)
Uth RL U2

 M
2 2 2 R1

U1  U12  4 R1 Pout 
- -
The coil-to-coil efficiency can be calculated by
Equivalent Source
Pout
Fig. 2. Thevenin equivalent circuit at resonance. coil 
Pout  I12 R1  I 22 R2
Pout
II. VOLTAGE TUNING 
  1 R2  2 
Based on the Fourier decomposition of a square wave, we  Pout  

 

U  2 R P   (9)
 2 R1 2  M  
2 1 1 out
have  
 
  1 R2  
    U1 U1  4 R1 Pout 
2
2 2 
  2 R1 2  M  
2
U1  U inv (1) 

For voltage tuning of a WPT system at the resonant By letting ∂ηcoil / ∂U1 = 0, the optimal U1 to achieve the
frequency, the equivalent circuit based on Thevenin's maximum coil-to-coil efficiency at the power of Pout is
Theorem on the receiver side is displayed in Fig. 2, where Uth
is the Thevenin equivalent voltage and Rth is the Thevenin  1 
U1 opt   FOM   2  R1 Pout (10)
equivalent resistance.  FOM 
Uth and Rth can be expressed, respectively, by
in which FOM (Figure of Merit) is defined as
 MU1
U th  (2)
R1 M
FOM  (11)
R1 R2
 M   M 
2 2
Rth  R2   (3)
R1 R1 The optimal U1 increases with the output power and the
mutual inductance. For a given coil set and a rated output
For a given Pout, RL in Fig. 2 can be expressed as power, the optimal U1 can be obtained according to (10).
Replacing U1 in (9) with (10) yields
Pout U th
RL    Rth (4) FOM
I 22 I2 coil-max  (12)
FOM  1
Taking I2 as a variable, Equation (4) can be transformed
into Similarly the optimal I1, I2, and U2 can be obtained. The
theoretical maximum coil-to-coil efficiency increases
monotonically with FOM.
Rth I 22  U th I 2  Pout  0 (5)
In this section, the SS topology is adopted as an example
for analysis. Different topologies have different expressions
Thus, I2, I1, and Ubat can be derived as of Uth and Rth. The relationship between the transmitter-side
quantities and the receiver-side quantities is also determined
U th  U th2  4 Rth Pout U1  U12  4 R1 Pout by the resonant topologies. Nevertheless, since the Thevenin
I2   (6) equivalent circuit on the receiver side is adopted, the
2 Rth 2 M
derivation aforementioned can be easily applied to other
resonant topologies.
Pout U  U th2  4 Rth Pout U1  U12  4 R1 Pout
I1   th  (7)
 MI 2 2 M 2 R1
300
Inverter Rectifier
+ I2
Zth = Rth + jXth
Electronic
Uth Load
RL Receiver
-
Equivalent Source
Fig. 3. Thevenin equivalent circuit off resonance. Transmitter
Fig. 4. Photograph of experimental prototype.

III. FREQUENCY TUNING
For frequency tuning of a WPT system operated off the R 2
th  X th2  I 24  U th2  2 Rth Pout  I 22  Pout
2
0 (20)
resonant frequency, the equivalent circuit based on
Thevenin's Theorem on the receiver side is shown in Fig. 3, Thus, I2 and I1 can be calculated by
where Zth is the Thevenin impedance, Rth is the real part of Zth
and Xth is the imaginary part.
U  2 Rth Pout   4 Pout  Rth2  X th2 
2
Uth, Zth, Rth, and Xth can be expressed, respectively, by U th2  2 Rth Pout  2
th
2
I2  (21)
2  Rth2  X th2 
 MU1
U th  (13)
R12  X 12
2
1 Pout
I1   X 22 I 22 (22)
Z th  Rth  jX th M I 22
 M    M  X 1 
2 2
R1 (14)
 R2   j X 2  2 Thus, the coil-to-coil efficiency can be calculated by
R X
2 2
 R1  X 12 
1 1 
Pout
coil 
 M 
2
R1 Pout  I12 R1  I 22 R2
Rth  R2  (15) Pout
R12  X 12  (23)
P 2
R1  X 22 R1 
Pout  out
  R2  I 22
 M 
2
X1  M 
2
I 2   M 
2 2


X th  X 2  (16)
R12  X 12
By letting ∂ηcoil / ∂I2 = 0, the optimal receiver current to
where X1 and X2 are the transmitter reactance and the receiver achieve the maximum coil-to-coil efficiency at the power of
reactance, respectively, given as Pout is
1
X 1   L1  (17)
I 2  opt 
Pout
C1 (24)
R
X  2  M 
2 2
2
R1
1
X 2   L2  (18)
C2
The optimal operating frequency can be calculated by
letting the receiver current in (21) equal the optimal value in
When the output power is set to be Pout, the model in Fig. 3 (24).
can be established by For a given Uinv, the range for the operating frequency is
limited, and the range can be calculated by the fact that the
U 2   R  R 2  X 2  I 2 discriminant of (20) should be no less than zero.
 th  th L th  2
 P (19) IV. CALCULATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS

 RL  out2
 I2 An experimental prototype is implemented, depicted in Fig.
4. The self-inductances of the coils (L1 and L2) are 49.57 μH,
Eliminating RL in (19) yields the capacitances (C1 and C2) are 74.5 nF, and the resonant
frequency is 83 kHz. Three cases of coupling are studied: k =
0.54, k = 0.35, and k = 0.16.
301
Fig. 5. Calculations and experiments of output power varying with Uinv and Fig. 8. Calculations and experiments of Urec varying with operating
Urec. frequency.
Fig. 6. Calculations and experiments of Urec varying with Uinv. Fig. 9. Calculations and experiments of DC-DC efficiency varying with
operating frequency.
By regulating the output power to be 500 W, the

calculations and the experimental results of Urec and the DC-
DC efficiency varying with Uinv are given in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7,
respectively. The proposed model matches the experimental
results.
With frequency tuning, the load is tuned such that the
output power equals 500 W. Four cases are studied for
frequency tuning: Case 1: Uinv = 120 V and k = 0.54; Case 2:
Uinv = 100 V and k = 0.54; Case 3: Uinv = 120 V and k = 0.35;
Case 4: Uinv = 120 V and k = 0.16. The comparison between
Case 1 and Case 2 illustrates the impact of the DC voltage of
the inverter, and the comparison among Case 1, Case 3, and
Case 4 demonstrates the impact of the coupling coefficient.
Fig. 7. Calculations and experiments of DC-DC efficiency varying with Uinv. Urec and the DC-DC efficiency varying with the operating
frequency under the four cases are plotted in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9,
With voltage tuning, the operating frequency equals the respectively. It can be seen that there are two tuning zones.
resonant frequency. When Uinv = Urec, the calculations and the The right tuning zone is selected because this tuning zone is
experimental results of the output power varying with Uinv wider and the input impedance in this zone is inductive,
and Urec are shown in Fig. 5. Under the same Uinv and Urec, achieving zero voltage switching. In the right tuning zone,
the smaller the coupling, the larger the output power. The Urec decreases with the operating frequency and there is an
proposed model matches the experimental results well.
302
optimal operating frequency to achieve the maximum Amplitude Control to Maximize Efficiency and Extractable Power,"
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voltage of the rectifier. Increasing the coupling coefficient
will not only extend the operating frequency range, but also
improve the DC-DC efficiency and the optimal DC voltage of
the rectifier.
With a strong coupling coefficient (typically larger than
0.5), it has been found that the maximum DC-DC efficiency
of frequency tuning can be as high as that of voltage tuning.
When the coupling coefficient is smaller than 0.2, the
maximum DC-DC efficiency of frequency tuning is much
smaller than that of voltage tuning.
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303
A Bayesian Framework for EV Battery
Capacity Fade Modeling
Mehdi Jafari Laura E. Brown Lucia Gauchia
Department of Electrical and Department of Computer Science Dept. of Electrical and Computer Eng.
Computer Engineering Michigan Technological University Dept. of Mechanical Eng.-Eng. Mechanics
Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI, 49931 Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI, 49931 Email: lebrown@mtu.edu Houghton, MI, 49931
Email: mjafari@mtu.edu Email: gauchia@mtu.edu
Abstract—In this study, we present a Bayesian Networks profile as input and gives the probability of the battery being in
(BNs) approach for the electric vehicle (EV) battery degrada- different capacity classes. Similarly, Jin et al. have estimated
tion modeling. Battery aging is caused by factors that carry the spacecraft secondary batterys capacity fade using online
heavy uncertainty, such as battery usage depending on driver
behavior, temperature profile depending on location and thermal charge/discharge measurements [9]. In [6], Electro-chemical
management system, etc. with all these variations complicating Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) test results are used to develope
the battery aging modeling with traditional frameworks. That is BN to estimate the battery internal impedance as a battery
why we propose that the modeling should be carried out in a health index. Simplified Bayesian model known as naive
Bayesian Network framework that is capable of incorporating Bayes is proposed in [10] to predict the battery SOH. Naive
uncertainty and causality. The battery aging model is developed
in the Bayesian framework and set of training and test data are Bayes assumes that unobserved variables are independent and
used to validate the model. Results show that the BN model has a therefore it simplifies the Bayes theorem. This method of
promising performance in the battery aging modeling. The model modeling eliminates the hierarchical parts of Bayesian network
is also used to estimate the battery capacity loss in real driving which present the intermediate hidden states.
cycles. In this paper, we presented Hierarchical Bayesian model for
the battery capacity fade with full conditionals. The model uses
I. I NTRODUCTION
the current and temperature profiles as inputs and estimates
ATTERY research is a crucial part of the electric vehicle the intermediate variables such as Ah and SOC, and then
B (EV) advancement, and its degradation modeling and
state of health estimation is important due to its cost and
estimates the battery capacity fade. The Marcov Chain Monte
Carlo (MCMC) algorithm is used to calculate the posterior
impact on the vehicle range and performance. Battery aging distributions for all random variables. A set of experimental
studies are conducted from different perspectives such as data is used to train the model and obtain the model parameters
material degradation, single cell experiments, application level and then the model is validated by the test set. Results show
and control oriented modeling [1]–[3]. that the model is successful in estimating the battery capacity
The battery degradation modeling in the literature is mostly fade with acceptable precision. In addition, the model is used
performed by deterministic mathematical equations which to estimate the battery capacity fade in real-world daily driving
are derived from regression on the experimental data [4], cycles.
[5]. However, the battery capacity fade modeling through
measurements of current, Ah, temperature, etc. has many II. BAYESIAN F RAMEWORK FOR BATTERY D EGRADATION
sources of uncertainties that cannot be completely presented M ODELING
by a deterministic mathematical equation. Bayesian statistical Bayesian Network is a probabilistic presentation of process
approach is a method that can work with unseen, anticipated models with directed acyclic graph including nodes and arrows
variables and historical data to consider uncertainties in the (called edges). Each node represents a random variable and
estimation and therefore it is an appropriate solution for the edges indicate its probabilistic relationship to its parent nodes.
battery degradation modeling problem [6], [7]. In Bayesian modeling, all variables are divided into two groups
State of health (SOH) estimation and remaining useful life of of Observations and Unobserved values. In Bayes theorem,
the battery is studied by different Bayesian models in [8]– unobserved variables (θ) including models parameters and
[10]. He et al. [8] proposed the online SOH estimation with intermediate unseen variables can be calculated conditional
the Dynamic Bayesian networks. They have used the terminal to vector of observations (y) including measurements, using
voltage measurements in the constant current charging cycle joint probabilities:
and estimated the state of charge (SOC) of the battery in
each time interval and then estimated the battery capacity [θ, y] [y|θ][θ]
after charging session. Their model uses the charging voltage [θ|y] = = (1)
[y] [y]
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 304

There are i = 1 . . . N number of observations and in each
20 observation, we have M , K and J number of measurements
for the temperature, current and capacity, respectively. So, the
temperature (Tim ), current profile (Iik ) and battery capacity
15 (qij ) for each data point are observations. Unobserved vari-
Capacity fade (%)
ables including temperature distribution (Ti ), C-rates (Ici ),

Ampere-hour (Ahi ), state of charge (SOCi ), estimated ca-
10 pacity fade (λi ) and model parameters (α, β, Ea , η, ζ and ε)
are conditional to observations. Using Fig. 2, we can write
the mathematical expression of the network considering all
5 likelihood and prior distributions as (3). Vector of values are
Cell A denoted by bold variables and f is based on the general
Cell B
Cell C
Arrhenius equation to relate the variables and parameters to
0
the capacity fade as (4).
0 2000 4000 6000 8000
Total Ah throughput (Ah) [λ, T̄, Ic , Ah, SOC,α, β, Ea , η, ζ, ε|T, I, q] ∝ (3)
Figure 1: Capacity fade data for three different test conditions N Y
J
Y
[11] [qij |λi ] × [λi |fi ]
i=1 j=1
M
Y
× [Tim |T̄i ] × [T̄i ]
m=1
K
Y
× [Iik |Ici ] × [Ici ]
k=1
×[Ahi |Ici ] × [SOCi |Ici ]
×[α] × [β] × [Ea ] × [η]
×[ζ] × [ε]
−(Ea −ηIc i )
( )
Figure 2: Bayesian network for capacity fade modeling f = (αSOCi + β)e RT¯i
Ahζi + ε (4)
Where, [θ|y] is the posterior distribution, [y|θ] is the like- Note that in (3), the sign between left and right side of
lihood and [θ] is prior distribution for θ. [y] is the marginal expression is ∝ and not equal. This is because it is not possible
distribution of observations on the unobserved variable θ (Eq. to calculate the marginal distribution of observations for all
2). This probabilistic expression can include all uncertainties values of unobserved quantities, as noted before. Therefore,
such as sampling, measurement and process uncertainties in Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm is used to
calculation of an unobserved variable through definition of calculate the posterior distributions and Metropolis-Hastings
probability distributions parameters. It is worth noting that criteria is applied for sampling. To apply the MCMC algo-
analytically integrating (2) is very difficult except for simple rithm, full conditionals for all random variables and parameters
problems. For example, a model with three parameters requires are calculated. Full conditional of λi , T̄i and SOCi are shown
a three-dimensional integral solving. in (5), (6) and (7) as examples.
Z N Y
J
[y] = [y|θ][θ]dθ (2)
Y λi fi
[λi |·] ∝ N (qij |λi , ) × G(λi |fi , ) (5)
i=1 j=1
10 5
To define the capacity fade problem in Bayesian framework
N M
we present the training set through the use of the experimental Y fi Y
[T̄i |·] ∝ G(λi |fi , ) N (Tim |T̄i , σT̄i ) (6)
capacity fade percentage for different battery cells in different 5 m=1
i=1
temperatures and C-rates (Fig. 1), as obtained from experimen-
tal study in [11]. The first step is to define the observed and ×N (T̄i | E(Tim ), σTi )
unobserved variables of the problem and draw the describing N
Bayesian network including all nodes (variables, parameters) Y fi
[SOCi |·] ∝ G(λi |fi , ) × B(SOCi |Ici , σSOCi ) (7)
and edges (Fig. 2). i=1
5
305
Where, [λi |·] stands for λi conditional to all the variables
3
that are its parent or child nodes. N , G and B refer to the
Cap. Fade(%)
normal, gamma and beta PDFs. Probability functions are se- 2
lected based on the requirements of each variable. For instance,
SOCi has a beta distribution as it varies between 0 and 1. 1
(1)
Model starts with initial guess (e.g. θi ) for all variables and
0
in iteration k, it offers random proposals for the next values 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
of variables, calculates the full conditionals probability for MCMC Samples
(k) (P ) 300
each variables current (θi ) and proposal value (θi ) and
compares these probabilities by Metropolis-Hastings sampling
Histogram
200
criteria as follow:
(P ) (k) (P ) 100
[θi |·] [θi |θi ]
R = min(1, (k)
× (P ) (k)
) (8)
[θi |·] [θi |θi ] 0
1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8
(k+1) Capacity fade (%)
The proposal value is accepted as the next value in (θi )
the chain with probability R and the current value is kept with Figure 3: Training set: MCMC sample and its histogram and
probability 1 − R. Repeating the sampling generates random fitted gamma distribution
draws from the posterior distribution of all variables. If the
number of samples is large enough, it will converge to a well-
fitted distribution of the variable.
III. C APACITY FADE M ODEL T RAINING AND T ESTING
Three sets of experimental data for capacity fade of 2.4Ah,
3.3V, 26650 LFP battery cells are used to train and test the
developed model. Each set has different current, temperature
and capacity fade data over total Ah throughput. From the
data, 70 capacity fade data points are used for the training
and 12 are used for the test. In the training, the model gets
the temperature, current and capacity fade measurement data
as inputs and calculates the posterior distributions for the
intermediate variables T̄ , Ic , Ah and SOC, estimated capacity
fade and model parameters. Then, in the test set, it uses the
parameters and inputs to estimate the capacity fade without
measured data. Fig. 3 (upper trace) shows the 10000 MCMC
Figure 4: Training and test sets capacity fade gamma PDF
sample for a training data point, which proves the consistency
of MCMC sampling and Fig. 3 (lower trace) is the histogram cases, the estimated value lies in between two observation
and fitted gamma distribution for these samples. Variation of points. The calculated R2 of training set estimation (Fig. 5(a))
fitted distributions mean and standard deviation for this data is 0.9927. Therefore, the modeling procedure and obtained
chain with 95% confidence interval are 0.1315 and 0.0066, distributions for unobserved variables are acceptable. The test
respectively. set data estimation (Fig. 5(b)), on the other hand, has R2 equal
These samples are used to calculate the gamma PDFs for all to 0.9543, which indicates the model accuracy in calculating
data points of training and test sets and results are presented the capacity fade.
in Fig. 4. Gamma distribution is selected because the capacity
fade should present positive values. This figure shows that IV. BN S R ESULTS FOR R EAL D RIVING S ETS
the higher capacity fade estimations have higher standard The developed model is used to estimate the battery capacity
deviation, as the probability of uncertainties rises in higher fade in real driving data set, which is collected from different
values. Similar sampling and distribution fitting are performed drivers in Ann Arbor, MI [12]. A sample driving cycles
for all of the variables and parameters in the model and velocity profile is shown in Fig. 6 (upper trace), which is 9.7
parameters from the training set are used in the test set to miles of driving. An EV power-train simulation model from
estimate the battery capacity fade. our previous work [13] is used to obtain the required battery
To show the precision of model in capacity fade estimation, power for this driving cycle (Fig. 6 (lower trace)). The battery
the mean value of distributions in Fig. 4 are plotted and power is scaled down to the cell level and translated to the
compared to the experimental data for both training and test current profile.
sets in Fig. 5. Note that for each estimated data point, we have This simulation is performed for 45 driving different cycles
two experimental observations of capacity fade and in most that are sorted based on their average acceleration. It is
306
resulting current profile and temperature as inputs, calculates
20 the intermediate variables and estimates the capacity fade. Fig.
7 shows the output Beta PDFs of SOC for all driving cycles.
Color spectrum in these figures is based on the acceleration
15
Capacity fade (%)
profile of each cycle, green to red color denotes the lowest to

highest average acceleration. This figure indicates that drivers
10 with higher average acceleration consume more energy for
driving and therefore, their vehicles battery rests in lower
SOCs. However, the color change in this figure is not linear,
5 so, the SOC is not linearly related to the average acceleration.
Fig. 8 illustrates the relationship of the average SOC and
Estimated Experimental average Ah throughput the battery. Aggressive drivers with
0 higher average accelerations extract higher average Ah from
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Training data (-) the battery for similar traveled distance. Difference between
highest and lowest Ah demand is 1304 which is equivalent to
about 271 full cycles.
(a)
Both the SOC and Ah have direct effect on the battery
20 degradation, i.e. the higher SOC and Ah lead to higher capacity
fade. Note that lower average accelerations cause higher SOC,
but lower Ah demand and higher average acceleration has
15 lower SOC with higher Ah throughput. Therefore, with in-
Capacity fade (%)
10
80
70
5
60
Estimated Experimental 50
Beta PDF
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
40
Test data (-)
30
(b)
20
Figure 5: Capacity fade distributions mean values (a) training
set and (b) test set 10
0
Vehicle velocity(km/h)
80 80 85 90 95 100
60 SOC (%)
40 Figure 7: SOC beta PDFs for driving cycles

20
94
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
40
Battery power (kW)
92
20
SOC (%)
0 90
-20
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Time(s) 88
Figure 6: Sample driving velocity (upper trace) and battery

power (lower trace) 86
1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 2600 2800
considered that each driver has 3 travels per day with total Average Ah
distance of 29 miles [14]. The Bayesian model uses the
Figure 8: Average Ah vs average SOC for all driving cycles
307
trained with a set of experimental data and tested to validate
its accuracy and precision. Results show that the model is
successful in estimating the battery capacity fade for different
input variables. In addition, the model is use d to estimate
the battery capacity fade in real driving cycles. These results
prove that the Bayesian approach can be a promising method
for the battery aging modeling. This model will be extended to
include other sources of uncertainties and evaluate the battery
capacity fade in different daily driving, recharging and V2G
scenarios, in future work.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Science Founda-
tion through the project CAREER: An Ecologically Inspired
Approach to Battery Lifetime Analysis and Testing, under
Award 1651256. Also, authors would like to acknowledge
(a) Dr. Kuilin Zhang from Michigan Technological University
for providing the driving data and Mr. Ali Aghdaei for his
contribution on preparing the document.
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In this paper, a Bayesian framework is proposed to model [14] A. Santos, N. McGuckin, H. Y. Nakamoto, D. Gray, and S. Liss,
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308
Battery modeling using real driving cycle and
Big-Bang Big-Crunch algorithm
Loic Vichard1,2 , Simon Morando7 , Alexandre Ravey1,2 , Fabien Harel3,6 , Pascal Venet3,5 , Serge Pelissier6
, Daniel Hissel3,4
1
FEMTO-ST Institute, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, UTBM, CNRS
2
FCLAB, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, UTBM, CNRS
3
FCLAB, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS
4
FEMTO-ST Institute, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS
5
Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, INSA Lyon, CNRS, Ampère, F-69622, Villeurbanne, France
6
Univ Lyon, IFSTTAR, AME, LTE F-69675, LYON, France
7
Faurecia Clean Mobility (FCM) - System Advanced Technologies - Powertrain 25500 BAVANS - France
Corresponding author: loic.vichard@utbm.fr
Abstract—The purpose of this study is to model battery II. M OBYPOST P ROJECT

packs integrated in a ten fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle fleet
developed among the European project Mobypost dedicated to A. Concept
postal delivery applications. This project led to create and feed The european project Mobypost aimed at developing and
a big database as the vehicles were deeply monitored. Thanks to instrumenting a fleet of ten hybrid hydrogen vehicles powered
this database and Big-Bang Big-Crunch optimization algorithm
this paper proposes a method to model battery using real driving
by fuel cell for postal delivery applications (Fig. 1) [2], [3].
cycle data in few minutes with a NRMSE less than 0.02.
I. I NTRODUCTION
With the growing popularity of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and
fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEVs), batteries used
in those applications are now a famous topic [1]. However
it is frequently pointed out that the batteries are still too
expensive and a very critical part among the entire electric
power-train. Indeed their lifetime and their autonomy are
still a limitation to a worldwide deployment as it cannot
compete internal combustion engine (ICE) yet. Consequently
in order to improve the energy management of the batteries
and thus their autonomy and lifetime, a good understanding of
the dynamic behavior is required. This is why mathematical
models are needed in order to represents and predict this Fig. 1: 3 vehicles of the Mobypost fleet
dynamic behavior. Generally battery models are determined
from battery characterizations by using constant current or The design of such vehicles, lightweigth hybrid electric
simplified current profile. Models can also be determined by including fuel cell and batteries, includes a powertrain design
using impedance spectroscopy. These processes require to set and components sizing taking into account the type of applica-
up experiments needing equipment, cost and time. The purpose tion : postal delivering services. The powertrain was designed
of this paper is to present a fast way to model a battery cell using serie architecture by operating the fuel cell as a range
through a Thevenin Electrical Equivalent Circuit (EEC) by extender [4], [5].
using an optimization algorithm and field use experimental
data. The particularity of this study is the use of a rich database The battery pack is composed of four modules (U24-
created from an ten fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle fleet. 12XP) connected in series and manufactured by Valence.
Those modules, present a nominal voltage of 12.8V and a
In a first part the Mobypost European project and the nominal capacity of 110Ah measured with a current C/5 at
vehicles will be presented. In a second part the data used to 23°C. Each module is also composed of four parallel 3.2V
model the batteries will be enumerated. In a third part Thevenin LiFeMgPO4 cell groups in series.
representation and mathematical equations will be presented.
Then, in a fourth part, the optimization algorithm used to
B. fleet monitoring and used data
identified the model parameters will be explained. Finally in
fifth part the results will be illustrated and discussed to go on This project led to create a big database by monitoring ten
conclusion and perspectives. postal delivery vehicles during almost three years. Physical
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 309

values from sensors are measured and saved on a server every
1
second [3]. Now an access to data of more than 1500 real
driving cycles can be used to model the battery cells and
observe the aging. In this study the data used are the battery
current (𝐼𝑏𝑎𝑡𝑡), the state of charge (𝑆𝑂𝐶), the battery cell 0.95
voltage (𝑉 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙) and the battery temperature (𝑇 ).
SOC
The following figures Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 illustrate 0.9
the data mentioned above recorded during one postal delivery.
This driving cycle was realized using the vehicle only in pure
electric mod (fuel cell shutdown). 0.85
50 0.8
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Time (s)
0
Fig. 4: State of charge evolution along the driving cycle
-50
I (A)
-100 24.5
24
-150
23.5
Temperature (°C)
23
-200
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 22.5
Time (s)
22
Fig. 2: Battery current during the driving cycle
21.5
21
20.5
20
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
3.5
3.35
Time (s)
3.45
3.3
Fig. 5: Temperature evolution along the driving cycle
Vcell(V)
3.4 3.25
Vcell(V)
3.35 3.2
2200 2400 2600 2800 3000
III. BATTERY MODELING

3.3
A. Thevenin model
3.25
Thevenin electrical equivalent circuit can be used to rep-
3.2 resent the temporal voltage response of a battery. Among all
the equivalent circuits which can be found in the litterature, a
3.15
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 most common structure is illustrated in the Fig. 6. The battery
time (s) cell voltage response being composed of transient periods of
many different duration, this is necessary to add several R//C
Fig. 3: Battery cell voltage in function of time circuits. The R//C circuits will get different time constants
(𝜏 ) in order to make the model capable to reproduce larger
interval of transient periods duration. In this structure, R//C
series circuits are used to represent impedances linked to the
charge transfers effects, double layer and diffusion effects. In
Fig. 4 illustrates the SOC evolution through this driving the literature, models can be found integrating only one R//C
cycle. The SOC is determined by the battery management circuit as in [6]–[8], with two R//C circuits [9]–[14], or again
system developed by the battery manufacturer. with three R//C circuits [15] [16].
310
a𝑛 and b𝑛 being constants to be identified
From these equations, an objective function can be de-
duced. Then an optimization algorithm is run using the objec-
tive function : Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE)
(8) in order to determine the parameter values of the model.
This NRMSE is obtained from the following equations : Error
(6) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) (7).
𝐸𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑉 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 − 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑𝑉 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 (6)
Fig. 6: Battery RC model

𝑛
1 ∑
𝑅𝑀 𝑆𝐸 = ⎷ . 𝐸𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟2 (7)
𝑛 𝑖=1
In this study the Thevenin structure is used with three R//C
circuits in order to get more accuracy. Indeed these three R//C
circuits are used to represent the charge/discharge phases, the 𝑅𝑀 𝑆𝐸
diffusion phases and the relaxation phases. 𝑁 𝑅𝑀 𝑆𝐸 = (8)
𝑚𝑎𝑥(𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑉 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 ) − 𝑚𝑖𝑛(𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑉 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 )
B. Model equations IV. O PTIMIZATION ALGORITHM

Using Kirchhoff’s circuit laws from the Fig. 6 , the A. Optimization concept
equation (1) can be used to determine Vcell, the estimated
voltage response of the battery. Optimization problem can be summarized as finding the set
of input parameters (x𝑛 ) minimizing a mathematical function
f(x𝑛 ). Nature is a main source for proposing optimization
methods such as ant colony system (ACO), genetic algorithms
𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑𝑉 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 = 𝑂𝐶𝑉 − 𝑈 0 − 𝑈 1 − ... − 𝑈 𝑛 (1) (GA) or again big-bang big-crunch (BB-BC). In this paper,
the objective is to identified the set of inputs parameters (pa-
The next step is to resolve the differential equation (2) rameters of the Thevenin structure), minimizing the NRMSE
due to the capacitor. After having resolved (2), the equation which means the 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑𝑉 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 is as close as possible than
(3) was deduced as solution in order to express Un. It has to the 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑉 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 .
be notified, since the acquisition frequency is 1𝐻𝑧, t is then
discretized with a range of 1 second to solve the equation. B. Big-Bang Big-Crunch algorithm
In this study the BB-BC algorithm has been used. This
1 1
𝑈˙𝑛 = .𝐼 − .𝑈 𝑛 (2) optimization algorithm relies on one of the theories of the
𝐶𝑛 𝑅𝑛.𝐶𝑛 universe evolution [17] [18]. This theory, based on the general
relativity of Einstein, explains that the expansion phase of the
universe due to the big bang will end to be replaced by the
𝑈 𝑛(𝑡) = 𝑈 𝑛(𝑡 − 1).𝑒−1/(𝑅𝑛.𝐶𝑛) + 𝑅𝑛.(1 − 𝑒−1/(𝑅𝑛.𝐶𝑛) ).𝐼(𝑡) big crunch phase which consists of the universe contraction.
(3) This algorithm is used in this study as it shows good
In order to improve both accuracy and reality meaning, results and efficiency in [17]. It refers to the creation of the
some dependencies have to be taken into account. Open Circuit initial population randomly. This phase consists in spreading
Voltage (OCV) will be dependent on the SOC and on the the candidates solutions all over the search space in an uniform
Temperature as in the function (4). This OCV expression has manner.
been deduced during this study after a long work to find out The BB-BC optimization algorithm is based on the se-
how to reproduce OCV evolution versus the SOC and the quence of the following steps :
temperature. Internal resistances will be dependent only on
the temperature as in the function (5). Step 1: Create an initial population of N𝑝𝑜𝑝 candidates
randomly, respecting the limits of the search space.
Step 2: Evaluate the objective function value of all candi-
𝑏.(25 − 𝑇 (𝑡)) 𝑐
𝑂𝐶𝑉 (𝑡) = 𝑎 + + + 𝑑.𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡) date solutions from the initial population.
𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡) 𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡)
(4) Step 3: Find the center of mass referring to the best
+ 𝑒.𝑙𝑛(𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡)) + 𝑓.𝑙𝑛(1.001 − 𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡))
candidate solution. (candidate giving the lower error).
+ 𝑔.𝑙𝑛(1.01 − 𝑆𝑂𝐶(𝑡)) + ℎ.𝑒𝑥𝑝(𝑖.𝑇 (𝑡))
Step 4: Calculate new candidates around the center of mass
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h and i being constants to be identified by adding or subtracting a normal random number which its
value decreases as the iterations elapse (reduction of the search
space). Also an exploration probability is integrated in order
𝑅𝑛 (𝑡) = 𝑎𝑛 .𝑒𝑥𝑝(𝑏𝑛 .𝑇 ) (5) to get out of an eventual local minimum.
311
Step 5: Return to step 2 until stopping criteria is met. time constants present three different values, 2 seconds to
reproduce charge transfer and double layer effects, 66 seconds
The reduction of the search space is represented by a func-
and 500 secondes to reproduce both diffusion phenomena and
tion inversely proportional to the number of generation. The
relaxation phases. Regarding relaxation phenomena, to be able
equation (9) illustrates the research space division according
to better reproduce it at best, others R//C circuits should be
to the number of generations.
added with higher time constants up to several hours [19].
The Fig. 8 illustrates the evolution of the internal resistance
1 𝑅𝑖𝑛 (which is the sum of the four resistances) versus the
𝑅𝑆𝑑𝑖𝑣 (𝑔𝑒𝑛) = (9)
𝑔𝑒𝑛 temperature.
This function drastically reduces the search space for the

first generations and this can lead to progress to a local TABLE I: Model parameters values and time constants for
minimum instead of the desired global minimum. In order to 20.5°C<T<24.5°C
avoid this, another way to reduce the search space, proposed Components Values
in [17], has been used in this study. Indeed this way divides
𝜏1 66 𝑠
more slowly the search space during first generations and then 𝜏2 2𝑠
accelerate to find the results more efficiently. The proposed al- 𝜏3 500 𝑠
gorithm replaces the linear function by a translated exponential 𝐶1 72000𝐹
function. 𝐶2 2700𝐹
𝐶3 500000𝐹
It has to be specified that this algorithm is stochastic and to
𝑎 3.22 𝑉
be sure to achieve the global minimum, an infinite number of
𝑏 −0.001 𝑉 /∘ 𝐶
iterations is required. In this study what is desired is a set of
𝑐 −0.0216 𝑉
inputs parameters which will be able to reproduce the voltage 𝑑 0.182 𝑉
for the entire temperature range with a good accuracy. Also 𝑒 −0.0886 𝑉
as a short computing duration, is desired, a big population is 𝑓 −0.0632 𝑉
avoided, and not a lot of generations are proceeded so here 𝑔 0.0778 𝑉
finding the global minimum is not the target. ℎ −0.001 𝑉
𝑖 −0.5 ∘ 𝐶 −1
V. R ESULTS
Figures 7 and 10 compare the estimated battery voltage
from the model regarding the real measured cell voltage from TABLE II: Model resistance coefficient values
the database. The error that presents the model is 𝑁 𝑅𝑀 𝑆𝐸 =
0.0185 proving the effectiveness of the proposed method. Resistance 𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑛
𝑅0 0.0003 Ω −0.0753 ∘ 𝐶 −1
𝑅1 0.0010 Ω −0.0052 ∘ 𝐶 −1
𝑅2 0.0013 Ω −0.0301 ∘ 𝐶 −1
3.34
𝑅3 0.0010 Ω −0.0025 ∘ 𝐶 −1
3.32
3.33 10-3
2.64
Rin
Vcell (V)
3.28 2.62
Internal Resistance Rin (Ohms)
23
3.26 2.6
3.24 2.58
estimated Vcell
Real Vcell 2.56
3.22
OCV
T 2.54
3.2
2.52
4800 5000 5200 5400 5600 5800 6000 6200
Time (s) 2.5
Fig. 7: Cell voltages comparison with driving cycle used for 2.48
20 20.5 21 21.5 22 22.5 23 23.5 24 24.5
parameters identification T (°C)
Fig. 8: Internal resistance evolution versus temperature

Tables I and II display the three average time constant
values and their capacitance values for the driving cycle which
was used for parameters identification. These tables also show These results can lead to the following conclusion. The
the values of the constants in equations (4) and (5). The model is able to reproduce the voltage response of one driving
312
cycle by taking into account the dependencies on the temper- [2] A. Ravey, S. Faivre, C. Higel, F. Harel, and A. Djerdir, “Energy
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2014 - 40th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics
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with the driving cycle which has been used to identify the
[3] L. Vichard, A. Ravey, S. Morando, F. Harel, P. Venet, S. Pelissier, and
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3.24
7 [10] J. Zhang, S. Ci, H. Sharif, and M. Alahmad, “An enhanced circuit-based
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3.45 25
3.4
24
3.35
3.3
23
3.25
Vcell (V)
3.2
22
3.15
estimated Vcell
3.1 Real Vcell
OCV 21
3.05
3 20
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Time (s)
Fig. 10: Cell voltages comparison with entire driving cycle used for parameters identification
3.45 9
3.4
3.35
8
3.3
3.25
Vcell (V)
3.2
3.15
estimated Vcell
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3.1
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T
3.05
3 5
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000
Time (s)
Fig. 11: Cell voltages comparison with entire driving cycle used for validation
314
Workplace Charge Management with Aggregated
Building Loads
Myungsoo Jun Andrew Meintz
National Renewable Energy Laboratory National Renewable Energy Laboratory
15013 Denver W Pkwy 15013 Denver W Pkwy
Golden, CO 80401 Golden, CO 80401
Email: Myungsoo.Jun@nrel.gov Email: Andrew.Meintz@nrel.gov
Abstract—This paper describes a workplace charge manage-

ment system developed to control plug-in electric vehicle charging
stations based on aggregated building loads. A system to collect
information from drivers was also developed for better charge
management performance since the present AC charging station
standard does not provide battery state of charge information.
First, simulations with uncontrolled charging data were con-
ducted to investigate several scenarios and control methods, and
then one method with the most power curtailment during peak
load was selected for verification tests. This paper illustrates
load reduction test results for 36 charging stations and real-time
campus net load data.
I. I NTRODUCTION
As the number of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) grows,
needs for more electric vehicle charging stations, or electric
vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) increase to relieve PEV
range anxiety. The availability of workplace charging can Fig. 1. Monthly electricity cost of workplace charging at NREL where
encourage commuters to use PEVs more to travel to their work demand charges are on the margin for charging demand.
and can promote penetration of PEVs. However, charging sta-
tions can impact building peak load and thereby can increase
electricity costs to employers. This paper investigates saving As a result, energy charge rates are less for commercial
costs by managing workplace charging depending on building facilities with demand charges than those without demand
load. charges in the same service territory. An analysis of workplace
There has been some recent work on coordinated and charging at NREL has shown that reduced charging during
managed charging to minimize distribution system losses [1], critical periods could decrease the annualized average cost of
to minimize power losses and improve voltage profiles [2], charging from about 7¢/kWh to as low as 3.8¢/kWh. This
to minimize load variance [3], and to minimize peak power reduction is possible because the peak net load for the rest of
demand by demand response [4]. However, most previous the NREL load behind-the-meter tends to occur in either the
results focus on simulations, and there are very few studies that early morning or the late afternoon. This smart charging con-
have investigated real-world test results. This paper analyzes trol system can reduce the volatility of the marginal demand
cost saving by charge management with the data collected charge, shown in Fig. 1, by leveraging the flexibility of when
from the charging stations on the National Renewable Energy PEVs charge. These demand charges totaled $4,500, which
Laboratory (NREL) campus and from NREL employees who could have been avoided through peak load management.
commute using PEVs.
NREL has developed a smart charge control system to II. S YSTEM A RCHITECTURE
aggregate PEV charging that reduces the cost of electricity NREL’s charge management system consists of electricity
for the rate payer at workplace or commercial facilities. In meters and servers located both on campus and outside the
some cases, the electricity for these facilities is billed for the campus that are connected by a communication network.
energy consumed (in kilowatt-hours) or for the energy charge The overall system structure is illustrated in Fig. 2. Our
and a demand charge, which is the peak power (in kilowatts) charge management algorithm uses information provided by
or rate at which energy is consumed during the billing period. the drivers about how much energy should be delivered to
The demand charge portion is used to separately reflect the their vehicles and by what time. The SAE J1772 standard for
infrastructure cost associated with serving peak load periods. AC charging stations does not provide battery state of charge
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 315

Fig. 2. Architecture of NREL charge management system
Fig. 3. Average energy request error for 6 months of collected data.
data and thus does not give information to the charger about
how much energy is needed to fully charge the battery [5]. shown in Fig. 3. The average energy for users who requested
Further, it may not be necessary to fully charge every vehicle if less energy than delivered is known as the system continues
a reduced capacity can meet the transportation requirement of to charge vehicles beyond the requested energy during the 6-
the driver. Therefore, each user is requested to enter a charging month data collection period.
request using the web site for the charge management system. For load management, the charge management server calcu-
The requested information is: 1) the miles needed for the lates how much charging power each station can curtail when
following trips until the driver reaches a charging opportunity, the total building load reaches a threshold value. The algorithm
2) charging station number, and 3) expected departure time. should guarantee that each station delivers the requested en-
The PEV model of each user is stored in a database with the ergy amount by the departure time with this adjusted charging
username of each user and is automatically populated when power. The algorithm calculates a new adjusted power value
the user logs into the system. With this information and the for EV charging as follows:
energy efficiency data of the PEV, the amount of the energy
• Find a list of charging stations k ∈ {1, 2, · · · , n} that can
that should be delivered by the departure time is calculated.
provide more than the requested energy amount by the
NREL’s parking garage has 18 dual-port charging stations.
departure time.
The original stations did not have communication and remote
• For each k, calculate a new adjusted charging value P̃ :
control function. The original control boards of the charging
stations have been replaced by new controllers with the Ereq,k − Ek (t)
capability to control charging current remotely. They have a P̃k (t) = (1)
Tdep,k − t
ModBus TCP interface for communication. There are other
communication protocols used for remote control of charging where t is current time, Ereq,k is the energy amount
stations in the market. The Open Charge Alliance developed an requested by the user of the charging station k, Ek (t)
open communication protocol called Open Charge Point Proto- is the energy amount provided to charging station k until
col (OCPP) for communication between charging stations and time t, and Tdep,k is the departure time provided by the
a central system. Another communication protocol available user of charging station k.
for remote control of charging stations is Smart Energy Profile Notice that the more stations are in the list, the more power
(SEP) 2.0. This protocol is not just for charging stations but that can be reduced by charge management. If there is no
is also used for home energy networking. charging station in the list, there is no power reduction possible
by charge management.
III. C HARGE M ANAGEMENT A LGORITHM The peak demand value is set to 4.5 MW on the first day of
We analyzed the user information data to compare the each month and the system starts charge management if the
energy amount that users requested with what was actually total building load exceeds the threshold, which is set to 4.5
delivered. The analysis showed that the data provided by MW less a preassigned tolerance value (0.2 MW was used in
the users were not always reliable. For example, some users the tests). If the total building load exceeds the peak demand
requested more energy than the amount needed to fully value even with charge management, a new peak demand value
charge the battery or more than could be delivered before the is set for the total building load and a new threshold value that
departure time when considering the onboard charger power triggers charge management becomes the new peak value less
capability of the vehicle. A plot of error statistics between the the tolerance. The flowchart of the algorithm is illustrated in
requested energy amount and the actual delivered energy is Fig. 4.
316
Fig. 5. Curtailment power available by prediction method
TABLE I
D EMAND CHARGES PER K W
Distribution Demand $3.86

Generation & Transmission Demand $9.55
Transmission Cost Adjustment $0.51
Demand Side Management Cost $0.54
Fig. 4. Flowchart of charge management Purchase Cap Cost Adjustment $1.29
Clean Air Clean Jobs Act $1.04
Total Demand Charge $16.79
IV. S IMULATIONS
The charge management algorithm described in Section 3
can provide more EVSE load reduction if there are more they provided. We analyzed the error of the delivered energy
charging stations that can deliver the requested energy amount amount when drivers actually left with charge management
by the departure time. However, we can observe from Fig. 3 and without management for the case in July 2017 with
that typically half of the users (51 out of 104 users) request 3 Method 3. The average number of daily users is 44. The
kWh more than what is delivered. Unreliable data provided by average number of cases that drivers left with less energy
the users can reduce the performance of the charge manage- with a 30-minute demand response event is 0.43 cases per
ment system. Three different methods to determine an accurate day, and the average difference in energy delivered is 0.0895
value for requested energy are examined in the simulation. The kWh. This error is due to the use of the historic average value,
value for each method is determined as follows: but it shows that drivers can get the expected energy amount
• Method 1: Energy request provided by the user even with charge management in most cases.
• Method 2: The historical average energy actually pro- V. T EST R ESULTS AND A NALYSIS
vided to the user
It is not straightforward to measure the amount of power
• Method 3: Energy request by user (Method 1) if user-
reduced by charge management because the power provided
provided error is typically less than 3 kWh; otherwise
by the charging stations without charge management cannot be
the average energy actually delivered (Method 2).
measured if charge management is active. Therefore, we esti-
Building load data for July 2017 were used for the simu- mate the amount of curtailed power from charge management
lations. An artificial demand event was injected into each 30- by two power values—the total EVSE power demand before
minute time window from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM to examine the charge management is active and the total managed EVSE
how much power is available for curtailment in each time power demand when the charge management is active. For
slot. The simulation results are shown in Fig. 5 as an average example, if charge management becomes active at time T , the
of every time window for all days within the month. The sampling time is ∆t, and the total demand by the charging
simulation shows that Method 3 provides more curtailment station before charge management is P (T − ∆t), then the
power throughout all time windows. It also shows that charge curtailed power by the charge management system at time T
management will have more peak load reduction if a peak is P (T − ∆t) − P (T ). If charge management is active from
occurs around 9:00 AM. This is due to the immediate charging time T through T + n∆t, then an estimated average curtailed
nature of the vehicles, which were not controlled, in combi- power is
nation with the arrival times of the vehicles. Pn
The charge management system adjusts charging power k=0 (P (T − ∆t) − P (T + k∆t))
. (2)
so that it can deliver the requested energy amount by the n+1
departure time. However, the requested energy amount cannot For February 2018, the monthly peak of 4,559.777 kW
be delivered if drivers depart earlier than the departure time occurred at 8:45 AM on February 22. The demand charge
317
TABLE II
C OMPARISON OF REQUESTED ENERGY, ACTUAL DELIVERED ENERGY,
PROVIDED DEPARTURE TIME , AND ACTUAL DEPARTURE TIME FOR THE
USERS WITHOUT THEIR BATTERIES FULL UPON DEPARTURE ON F EBRUARY
22, 2018
Requested Delivered Provided Actual

User
Energy (kW) Energy (kW) Departure Departure
User A 8.4 19.67 4:00 PM 3:57 PM
User B 27 4.74 6:00 PM 12:10 PM
User C 6.25 1.06 2:00 PM 12:22 PM
User D 3.7 2.65 5:00 PM 11:30 AM
User E 18 13.90 12:00 PM 12:48 PM
User F 18 6.13 7:30 PM 5:50 PM
Fig. 6. Total building load with and without charge management on February
22, 2018.
upon departure. On February 22, 2018, a total of 41 users used
the charging stations. Six users left on that day without their
batteries fully charged, and the other 35 PEVs had full batteries
upon departure. The requested energy, actual delivered energy,
provided departure time, and actual departure time for those
six users are shown in Table II. User A departed at the
provided departure time with more energy than requested.
Four users (Users B, C, D, and F) received less energy
than requested, but they departed earlier than their provided
departure time. User E left after the provided departure time
and received less energy than requested; however, the average
energy delivered to User E from the historical data is 12.08
kWh. Since User E typically provides requests with more than
3 kWh of error, the charge management system used 12.08
kWh, not 18 kWh, as a value for the energy amount that should
Fig. 7. Total building load with and without charge management on
December 7, 2017.
be provided by the departure time, and User E received more
than 12.08 kWh upon departure.
In February 2018, we had eight days with active charge
management, and a total of 1,192 minutes of active charge
per kW is about $17. The detailed items for demand charge
management. The total energy consumption by the charging
are shown in Table I. The peak value is calculated as a 15-
stations in this month was 7,578 kWh, which cost $285.84 in
minute average from 8:45 AM to 8:59 AM. The plots of
energy consumption charges (at $0.03772/kWh). The marginal
the total building load with and without charge management
demand of the charging stations during the monthly peak
around the monthly peak period are shown in Fig. 6. The 15-
period (from 8:45 AM to 8:59 AM on February 22, 2018)
minute average curtailed EVSE load is about 20 kW, which
was 46.28 kW, which cost $777.04 in demand charges. This
would have been added to the total campus load, resulting in
corresponds to $1,062.88 in total electricity cost for the
a monthly campus peak of 4,580 kW had charge management
charging stations and is a combined cost of about $0.14/kWh.
not been operational. The 15-minute average load reduction
This is higher than the residential Schedule R Winter season
of 20 kW contributes to a $332 saving. This is less than the
electricity rate ($0.05461/kWh) for the surrounding service
amount reduced in the simulations shown in Fig. 5, which is
territory [6]. The marginal demand has not been eliminated
more than 70 kW around 8:45 AM when Method 3 is used.
because we cannot predict when the monthly peak will oc-
As shown in Fig. 5, the amount of available curtailment cur, and the charge management system does not turn off
power is large in the morning and small in the afternoon. As charging station power completely as the power curtailment
a comparison, the monthly peak in December 2017 occurred is calculated assuming the peak demand event continues until
in the afternoon. The plots of the total building load with and departure. If the control knew when the monthly peak would
without charge management around the monthly peak period occur and completely turned off charging station power during
are shown in Fig. 7. The curtailed EVSE demand on December only the monthly peak period, we could have saved $777
7, 2017, is about one-third of the curtailed amount on February demand charge (or $0.03772/kWh).
22, 2018, resulting in a similar cost saving reduction ($117 vs.
$332). VI. C ONCLUSION
The charge management algorithm described in Section III This paper describes a workplace charge management sys-
guarantees users should receive the requested energy amount tem we developed. The system is integrated with campus
318
building meters and utilizes real-time building load for charge [5] SAE International, SAE Electric Vehicle and Plug in Hybrid Electric
management. While the system interacts with users to collect Vehicle Conductive Charge Coupler, SAE International, 2012
[6] Public Service Company of Colorado, ”Public Service Company
the necessary information for charge management, the control of Colorado Electric Tariff Index”, Accessed 03-28-2018,
algorithm uses statistics of actual user usage to account for https://www.xcelenergy.com/staticfiles/xe/PDF/Regulatory/CO-Rates-&
incorrect information provided by users. The charge manage- -Regulations-Entire-Electric-Book.pdf
ment algorithm was validated through simulations first and
verified that it performs well with very little error in energy
delivery when user statistics are used. The charge management
system has been validated with actual charging stations and
real-time building load.
The lessons we learned from real-world tests are: 1) the
information provided by users is not always correct, 2) better
prediction for peak load period and/or user energy needs
provide better charge management performance and more cost
savings. Machine learning might be one approach for better
prediction of user energy needs if enough user data is col-
lected. Building peak load prediction is dependent on the types
of buildings. If a building has low PV generation and load
is mostly determined by heat and air conditioning, building
peak load will closely synchronized with the temperature. If
a building has high PV generation like at the NREL campus,
the building peak load is quite dependent on PV generation
and not easy to predict. PV generation is mostly determined
by local weather conditions like small local cloud covering or
local wind speed/direction that control cloud movement as well
as solar irradiation. Thus, a local weather forecast with high
resolution and a short time window should be incorporated to
predict the peak load periods for such buildings.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy
under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308 with the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory. Funding provided by the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office. The
authors would specifically like to thank the Grid and Infras-
tructure R&D Program Manager Lee Slezak for his guidance.
The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by ac-
cepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the
U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable,
worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form
of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government
purposes.
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[3] L. Jian, H. Xue, G. Xue, X. Zhu, D. Zhao, and Z. Y. Shao, “Regulated
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319
Integrated Single-Phase Electric Vehicle Charging Using a
Dual-Inverter Drive
Sepehr Semsar, Student Member, IEEE, Theodore Soong, Member, IEEE,
and Peter W. Lehn, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—Electric vehicles have the potential to reduce

emissions from the transportation sector. However, the Battery
lack and/or expense of charging infrastructure has slowed M
Traction
Single- Inverter
their adoption. As such, vehicles are often equipped with Phase
small on-board chargers, which serve as the primary AC
charging method. These chargers are discrete devices, with
additional power electronics and magnetics, which increase
(a) PFC boost charger [4]
the cost and weight of the vehicle. Another solution is to
look at redeploying the existing drivetrain components to
serve as an integrated charging system. This work proposes Battery
a charging scheme that utilizes the inverter and motor in a
dual-inverter drive to directly charge from a single-phase
AC grid, at power levels greater than existing on-board
chargers. In concept, the dual-inverter drive is shown to Traction Traction
M
Inverter Inverter
be operable similar to a PFC based charger with high input
voltage. The challenge addressed in this paper relates to
how charging power can be arbitrarily divided amongst
Single-Phase AC
the energy sources of the dual-inverter drive. This ability
to divide charging power is a critical feature needed to
prevent overcharging of the batteries and is also a key (b) Integrated charging using split-phase
motor [5]
feature required in a hybrid energy storage configuration.
Battery 1 Battery 2
I. I NTRODUCTION Single-
Traction Traction
Despite the mature and advanced internal combustion en- Phase Charger
Inverter
M Inverter
AC
gine (ICE) technology, it is predicted that the transportation Open-end
sector will be responsible for about 50% of global greenhouse winding
gas emissions by 2030 [1]. As such, there is a large push for
(c) Semi-integrated dual-inverter drive charging [6]
the adoption of a more sustainable solution, namely the electric
vehicle. Unfortunately, challenges still remain before they can
be widely adopted by consumers. One such challenge is the
long charging times relative to fueling times in ICE vehicles Traction Battery
Inverter 1
[1].
Fast charging stations are quickly reaching speeds that come
Single-
close to conventional fueling methods, however on top of Phase M
Open-end
winding
requiring an industrial grade power supply, they are also sparse AC
and can be very costly to install [2]. Therefore, the majority
Traction Battery
of charging is done using on-board chargers, which are often Inverter 2
discrete devices with slow charging rates [2].
While advances in semiconductor technology and new
topologies have increased power density of chargers [3], the (d) Proposed integrated dual-inverter charger
fact still remains that on-board chargers add to the already
constrained cost and weight of a vehicle. Therefore, it would Fig. 1: Existing integrated charging solutions and proposed
be beneficial to make use of pre-existing hardware on the dual-inverter drive topology
vehicle to charge the traction battery.
This notion of integrated charging has been investigated
already using a variety of different topologies [4]–[10] with notably the motor and the inverter(s). An added benefit to
each solution leveraging the electric drivetrain components, integrated charging is that faster charging speeds are possible,
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 320

as the electric drivetrain is capable of processing high powers. protection can protect against faults within the grid, motor, or
Examples of some single phase integrated chargers are either energy storage media, as a consequence of the effective
shown in Fig. 1. Using the conventional single inverter and orientation of the reverse conducting diodes. Naturally, the
motor drivetrain, Fig.1a demonstrates a possible approach to dual-inverter topology introduces additional complexities some
charging the battery. In the case of a split-phase drive-train, of which have been addressed in [11], where DC charging was
the grid can be connected between the two neutral points of demonstrated. In the case of AC charging, a second harmonic
the motor, as shown in Fig.1b, in order to charge the battery. component will appear on the energy storage media which
A semi-integrated solution is presented in Fig.1c, based on the will lead to increased losses, and should be addressed. As this
dual-inverter topology. One of the challenges associated with topology has the capability of hybrid energy storage, it can be
this topology is that two separate batteries must be charged. exploited to alleviate this issue.
In the semi-integrated solution, a separate on-board charger is
still required to charge both batteries in the vehicle, which adds
A. Principle of Operation
cost and weight the vehicle, while bottlenecking the charging
power to that of the extra charger. A drawback to all of the The average model in Fig.3 is used to discuss the principle
previously proposed topologies is that the minimum battery of operation. Each half-bridge in Fig.2 is modeled as a unipolar
voltage must exceed the peak value of the AC grid voltage, voltage source as shown in (2) and (3), where x = {a, b, c}
which limits their compatibility with higher voltage grids. for each phase. Furthermore the input voltage taken after the
The proposed topology, shown in Fig.1d, also utilizes the diode rectifier, vin is described by (4), and consequently, the
dual-inverter drive topology, however, it eliminates the need current should be controlled to have the form (5) in order to
for an extra on-board charger. Instead, this fully integrated meet grid requirements. The charging currents into the energy
solution requires only a simple, un-controlled diode rectifier sources (ES) are described by (6) and (7). Applying KVL
front end in order to directly interface with the AC grid across the dual-inverter and the grid (neglecting losses), it can
and charge both batteries simultaneously. It is also capable be shown that:
of connecting to higher voltage grids, which could further vin = v1x + v2x (1)
increase charging power. Interleaving between the phases is Notice the higher grid voltage compatibility stems from the
also possible and can be employed to reduce switching ripple. fact that the voltage produced by the converter is the sum of
The purpose of this work is to demonstrate viability in directly v1x and v2x .
charging from a single phase AC grid while meeting grid
requirements.
d1a : 1 d1b : 1 d1c : 1
iES1
II. P ROPOSED T OPOLOGY +
v1a +
v1b +
v1c +
− VES1
− − −
The proposed topology is shown in full detail in Fig.2. It

consists of the existing dual-inverter drivetrain used for propul- Rs Rs Rs
iin (t)
sion, as well as an additional diode rectifier stage that would +
v (t)
be on-board the vehicle. The rectifier can be connected directly − in i la ilb ilc
Ls Ls Ls
to the grid, or through an external isolation transformer if
required. This direct connection to the grid is as simple to use iES2
as current on-board chargers, but can offer charging at a lower
+
−
v2a +
−
v2b +
−
v2c +
− VES2
cost, lower weight, and higher power, which can help reduce
the range anxiety of potential and existing EV owners. The d2a : 1 d2b : 1 d2c : 1
topology can also provide additional safety, as electronic fault
Fig. 3: Average model of topology used for analysis
iin
v1x = d1x VES1 (2)
+ S1 S5 S9
+
ES1 VES1 v2x = d2x VES2 (3)

−
S2 S6 S10
igrid vin (t) = V g|cos(w0 t)| (4)
i la ilb i lc
vgrid+− vin La Lb Lc iin (t) = Ig|cos(w0 t)| (5)
S3 S7 S11
iES1 = d1a ila + d1b ilb + d1c ilc (6)
+
ES2 VES2 iES2 = d2a ila + d2b ilb + d2c ilc (7)
− −
S4 S8 S12
Fig. 2: Topology employing two energy sources (ES)
321
III. M ODULATION S CHEME
A simple modulation scheme can be constructed from (1). iES2 = d2a ila (11)
Substituting(2),(3),(4) into (1), the following relation can be where ila = iin(t) = |cos(w0 t)|. Notice that iES2 can only
found: be modified by changing d2a , since ila must be the current
drawn from the grid, and is constrained by PFC requirements.
VES1 d1x + VES2 d2x = V g|cos(w0 t)| (8) Furthermore, since VES1 d1x > 0, d2a is constrained according
From this, a modulation scheme can be constructed such that to
each of the dual-inverters produce half of the rectified grid
voltage: d2a <= |cos(w0 t)| (12)
V g|cos(w0 t)|
d1x = (9) and should be taken into account to ensure the calculated ideal
2VES1 current is feasible. This can be done by rewriting (12) as a
V g|cos(w0 t)| Fourier expansion with constant multiplying factor km for the
d2x = (10) mth harmonic (where 0 <= km <= 1),
2VES2
∞
This will insert ES1 and ES2 based on their respective 2 4 X (−1)m
d2a = + km cos(2mw0 ) (13)
voltages, which means they will charge at equal power. This is π π m=1 1 − 4m2
useful when ES1, ES2 are identical, such as in a split battery
pack. If the two ES are at a different state of charge (SoC), Plugging (13) into (11), an equation for iES2 is created
one duty cycle can be made bigger such that it inserts the ES with variables km that can be adjusted in order to determine
with the lower SoC more frequently (and consequently the ES the ideal current waveform. Notice that using the form as
with higher SoC less frequently). Notice however, that this is described in (13) ensures that no matter what the km , a
only feasible when both ES have room to be charged. If one solution will still exist for (8). As iES2 contains both DC and
is at full SoC, then this basic modulation scheme will cause harmonic components, a metric for the harmonic ratio (HR)
overcharging. Furthermore, simply inserting an ES less (or not can be defined as
√
at all) will lower the grid voltage compatibility, according to RM S 2 − DC 2
HR = (14)
(1). DC
The dual-inverter drive has also been proposed for use The ideal current should have the lowest HR, as it implies the
with hybrid energy storage configurations (HES) [12]. One smallest amount of harmonic content for a given DC level.
potential mix of sources involves combining batteries and Using Matlab, the ideal current can be numerically calcu-
supercapacitors (SC). In such HES configurations, it is an lated which yields the lowest HR for a given DC level. In
operational necessity to be able to charge the system for an order to do this, each individual km was varied and the RMS
extended duration after the ES with the lowest capacity (i.e. and DC value of the resulting iES2 was calculated, and used
SC) has reached maximum SoC. to determine the HR. This was repeated for all possible values
In cases where one energy source has a higher tolerance to and combinations of km . Finally, the current with the lowest
harmonic ripple in the charging currents, it would be desirable HR was found. This result is shown graphically in Fig.4.
to transfer as much of the ripple onto that source. For example,
in a battery/SC HES configuration, the harmonic ripple on the
battery should be shifted onto the SC.
A. Harmonic Shifting
Harmonics in the charging currents of the ES have the
potential to increase losses, as well as increasing the cooling
requirements during charging. As such, it is always desirable
to either eliminate them or shift them to an ES with higher
harmonic tolerance. In this case, as the harmonics are a direct
consequence of performing power factor correction (PFC),
they can only be shifted between sources.
The methodology used to develop a harmonic shifting
modulation scheme involves determining the ideal ES current
waveform that contains the least amount of harmonic com-
Fig. 4: Ideal current waveform with a DC level of 0.34
ponents, while adhering to the previously discussed system
equations. From that, the required modulation which would From this ideal current, according to (11), d2a can be
produce that current can be calculated. calculated and according to (8) d1a can also be calculated.
In order to simplify analysis of the ideal current waveform, The resulting duty cycles are shown in Fig.5.
it can be assumed that there is only a single phase (i.e. x = a) In order to generate such duty cycles, the modulation must
and that the phase current has unity magnitude. Here we can split the reference signal into the corresponding d2a and
rewrite a simplified version of (7) as d1a . This can be accomplished with a saturation block and
322
subtraction. The resulting implemented modulation block is
1:1 1:1 0:1
shown in Fig.6. The HR can be changed by varying the iES1
threshold of the saturation block. The adjust factor is an +
− 1V
+
− 1V +
− VES1
approximation of the ideal d1a shown in Fig.5. This needs
to only be calculated once, ideally off-line, and stored in ila ilb il c
1mΩ 1mΩ 1mΩ
memory, for a given HR. The HR would be chosen based
on the particular ES configuration in order to optimize system iES2
+ +
efficiency, and need not change during operation. − 0.99V − VES2
0:1 0:1 0.99 : 1

Fig. 7: Average model with imbalanced duty cycles demon-
strating DC circulation
TABLE I: DC circulation values
Parameter Value
ila −5A
ilb −5A
ilc 10A
iES1 −10A
iES2 9.9A
Fig. 5: Ideal duty cycles, calculated from the ideal current

IV. C ONTROL S TRATEGY
In a practical implementation, care should be taken to
prevent unintentional torque generation. A block diagram of
the control scheme is presented in Fig.8. The grid current
is equally divided amongst 3 current controllers that ensure
only zero-sequence current flows in the machine to prevent
torque, while simultaneously regulating the current to have the
form (5) in order to meet grid requirements and eliminate the
need for bulky, costly grid interface filters. Energy balancing
is accomplished through simple integral control that regulates
the DC current into ES1 by circulating DC currents within
Fig. 6: Implementation of modulation scheme for shifting the machine. This effectively controls the charging rate of
harmonics from ES2 to ES1 each ES since the DC current into ES2 will have to change
in order to maintain power balance. For permanent magnet
B. Energy Balancing Phase Current Control

ila
Energy balancing may be required regardless of the ES
PI
configuration. However, it is especially important in a HES
Modulators (Fig.6)
configuration, where ES1 can be power dense, and ES2 can be

Power Stage
iref ilb
energy dense. One way this balancing can be done is through 3 12
PI
circulating DC currents, by leveraging the three phase nature
of the system. A DC imbalance to the duty cycle can be ilc
introduced in one phase, which will establish a circulating DC
PI
current. According to (6),(7) the unequal DC components of
the duty cycles and currents will result in either a positive or 1
2
negative current into the ES. Fig.7 demonstrates this principle,
using the average model with sample parameters. Using (6),(7) <IES1>ref
Integrator
and KVL, the currents can be calculated. The results are shown
<IES1>
in in Table I. This principle can be superimposed onto the
Energy Balance Control
AC charging system in order to control the rate of charge of
each individual ES when necessary, regardless of any SoC, or Fig. 8: Proposed control scheme to achieve PFC charging &
voltage limitations. energy balancing (<> denotes average component).
323
machines, aligning the rotor of the machine with the d-axis
of the stator ensures no torque is produced, even in the
presence of unbalanced DC currents. For induction machines,
this constraint does not exist. The controllers all feed into
the modulation block which can adjust the harmonic content
distribution of the ES, which finally feeds the power stage.
The actual reference quantities to these controllers can be set
by the battery management system as it attempts to maximize
charging speed whilst preventing overcharging.
V. R ESULTS
A switched model of the proposed topology was simulated

(a) Grid voltage and current
in PLECS with the parameters shown in Table II. Although
both ES1 and ES2 were modeled as ideal voltage sources,
they were assumed to be a SC and battery respectively, in order
to emulate a possible hybrid storage configuration. The worse
case scenario was studied with a battery at a low SoC. This
means that the battery alone does not have enough voltage
range to interface to the grid. Energy balancing was applied
in order to charge only the battery, while still using the SC
for voltage support. Harmonic reduction was also applied in
order to shift some of the charging harmonics from the battery
to the SC.
TABLE II: Simulation Parameters
Parameter Symbol Value (b) Filtered voltages produced by top and bottom inverters
SC voltage V1 400 V
Fig. 9: Simulation results demonstrating unity power factor
Battery voltage V2 320 V
Phase inductance Ls 0.5mH operation
Phase resistance Rs 45mΩ
Switching Frequency F sw 15kHz
Grid Voltage Vgrid 240 V rms
Grid current Igrid 80 Arms
Charging Power Pin 19.2 kW
The grid voltage and current, as well as voltages v1a ,v2a are
shown in Fig.9. It can be seen that the grid current is at unity
power factor, with a total harmonic distortion of 4%, which is
below the 5% threshold set by the IEEE Std 519-2014 [13].
The filtered charging currents are shown in Fig.10, along with
their respective frequency components in Fig.11. It can be seen
that iES2 , which is assumed to be a battery current, closely
follows the ideal current waveform proposed in Fig.4. The
SC current, iES1 , has a zero DC component (employing the
Fig. 10: Filtered SC (iES1 ) and battery (iES2 ) currents. Dashed
maximum possible energy balancing), while taking charging
lines indicate DC components
harmonics from the battery. This harmonic shifting is evident
in Fig.11, where the large second harmonic present in Fig.11a
of the battery is moved to higher frequencies, with some of it VI. C ONCLUSION
shifted onto the SC. This results in a 31% reduction in the HR Integrated charging can provide faster, cheaper, and more
of the battery, as calculated by (14). This can be leveraged to accessible charging options for EV users. A dual-inverter drive
reduce system losses, increase battery lifespan, and decrease based integrated charger was demonstrated to be capable of
cooling requirements during charging. It is worth noting that charging from a single phase AC grid, while requiring only an
even though the SC is still contributing voltage and taking additional uncontrolled diode-rectifier front end. This particu-
harmonics from the battery, it is not charging. Therefore, in lar topology also offers an increased grid voltage level support,
this configuration the battery is charging at the full 19.2kW fault blocking, and ability to accommodate hybrid energy
drawn from the grid. storage. This paper summarizes the basic functionalities of
324
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325
Ruler-Search Technique (RST) Algorithm to Locate
Charging Infrastructure on a Particular Interstate or
US-Highway
Subhaditya Shom1, Arpan Guha2, Mahmoud Alahmad3
Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction
University of Nebraska - Lincoln,
Omaha, NE USA
1
sshom@unomaha.edu, 2aguha@unomaha.edu, 3malahmad2@unl.edu
Abstract- A key factor for the successful deployment of electrified vehicles and their feasibility options. In [5], a model is
transportation is determining locations for the electric vehicle developed, which determines the minimum number of
charging infrastructures and develop a proper charging charging stations required along highway corridors and then
infrastructure network. In this paper, an algorithm has been these charging stations’ deployment is optimized. A highway
developed to identify locations of charging infrastructures when corridor in Texas, US is considered as a case study. In [6], a
driving a particular Electric Vehicle (EV) on a particular simulation-based approach is proposed for charging station
Interstate or US-Highway in a given state. The algorithm utilizes placement, by the use of an agent-based traffic simulation. The
the concept of a ruler whose length is determined using algorithm developed determines locations such that it fits the
constraints that include: range anxiety, driver’s driving habits
drivers’ itineraries, and minimizes detours and waiting times at
and EV battery’s State of Health (SoH), State of Charge (SoC),
and Depth of Discharge (DoD). A case study is presented to
the charging station. Also, the algorithm tries to maximize the
demonstrate the application of this algorithm. utilization of the charging station and find the minimum
number of charging stations required. A case study for
I. INTRODUCTION Singapore is given.
In [7], the authors develop an algorithm which determines the
Electric vehicle (EV) market in the U.S. has seen a drastic
optimal locations for the placement of the charging stations
growth in the recent years. It is mainly due to the
taking into consideration investment costs and loss on the way
environmental benefits of using EVs, advancement in battery
to the charging stations. TAPAS Cologne is used for
technologies, incentives introduced by the federal government
simulation purposes. In [8], the authors discuss determination
[1], and energy independence. EVs have the advantage of
of the installation of the charging locations in urban areas
utilizing regenerative braking, where some of the energy lost
considering factors that include traffic density, limited space
as heat and friction can be recovered because electric motors
and power grids distribution. In [9], the authors developed a
are used instead of internal combustion engines. [2]
model to determine electric vehicle charging stations locations
In spite of these many advantages, one of the important factor in urban area, considering factors that include road network
hindering EV market growth is the lack of a proper charging structure, traffic flow data, and distribution system capacity
infrastructure network, well distributed across the country. limitations. In [10] [11], the authors developed a real time
From recent data, it is seen that in the U.S. there are 16,392 range indicator which will help the EV user to know the actual
public EV charging infrastructures and 46,104 charging outlets State of Charge (SoC) of the battery and help to reduce range
[3]. In a mid-west like that of Nebraska, there are 61 public EV anxiety. The calculations are based on real conditions and takes
charging infrastructures and 163 charging outlets [3]. It is into consideration the weather of the place, geographical
observed that the charging infrastructures are unevenly conditions of the place and the driving styles of different EV
distributed throughout the U.S. and EV user will be unable to users.
use their EV as their primary mode of transportation as they In this paper, a Ruler-Search Technique (RST) algorithm is
will not be able to travel long mainly on the Highways due to
developed to determine the number of charging infrastructures
range anxiety. [4]
and their location on an Interstate or a US-Highway for a
EV charging infrastructures should be deployed in public particular model of an electric car. This algorithm takes into
spaces to provide an adequate public charging infrastructure consideration the population of individual cities so as the
network to extend EVs’ battery ranges when away from home populated cities benefit from the installed charging
charging access. A lot of research work has been done on infrastructure and enhance the EV market growth. Also, this
location and placement of charging infrastructures for electric algorithm takes a simplistic approach where the worst-case
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 326

scenario is calculated first and based on that, a more plausible a) EV mileage calculator
and economical solution is reached.
Information on the rated mileage (mr) is retrieved from the EV
The paper is organized as follows: Section II explains the RST Model specification database. The value of mr is provided by
algorithm, and provides a workflow for better visual of its the EV manufacturers and this value is an EPA calculated Fuel
functionality. Section III discusses a case study for Interstate- Economy Estimate [13]. The actual mileage ma is then
80 and US-Highway 34 in Nebraska, US. The conclusion and determined using the following constraints:
future scope of work is given in Section IV. 1. DC fast charging constraint (DFC): This is the
percentage of battery that cannot be charged fast. When the
II. RULER-SEARCH TECHNIQUE ALGORITHM battery is put to charge, the voltage rises. Depending on the
charge cycle it is subjected to, Li-ion battery, which is the most
The Ruler-Search Technique (RST) algorithm is modeled such commonly used battery in EVs nowadays, reaches threshold
that it determines the number of charging infrastructures voltage per cell. Once the threshold voltage is reached, the
required and their locations, when the origin city of the travel, current tapers and the charge acceptance slows [14]. This is
destination and the specific model of the Electric Vehicle (EV) called “tapering” and it accounts for 20%. [15]
is specified. Since only Interstates and the US-Highways are 2. Battery life constraint (BL): This determines the
considered, the type of charging infrastructure to be installed percentage of charge that should remain in the battery for
is Level-3 DC fast charging. This is to avoid long waiting times battery life. For example, Nissan Leaf owner manual 2018 [16]
at the charging infrastructures of the EV users when they are suggests that Li-ion battery must be recharged before it reaches
traveling. Table [1] shows the different levels of charging near zero state of charge. The State of Charge (SoC) of battery
infrastructures, their corresponding voltage levels and the for BL accounts for nearly 20%. [17]
approximate time to charge the EVs [12]. 3. Highway driving constraint (HDG): Normal city
Table 1: Different types of charging infrastructures
driving and driving on the Interstates or the US-Highways are
Type of very different, with respect to, the speed of the EVs and brakes
Time taken Vehicle being applied. The speed is higher on the highways and affects
charging Voltage Level
to charge (Battery)
infrastructure the aerodynamic drag of the vehicle which is velocity squared.
EV (16-50 Regenerative braking can be very useful during city driving
Level 1 120 Vac 11-36 hrs
kWh)
EV (16-30 which is not that common during highway driving. Also, other
Level 2 240 Vac 2-6 hrs factors like outside ambient temperature, the slope of the road,
kWh)
Level 3
208 Vac or
0.2-0.5 hrs
EV (20-50 rolling resistance are also taken into consideration. All these
600 Vdc kWh) factors are approximated to account for 10% of the calculated
mileage. [18]
The RST algorithm comprises of three components, namely an 4. Range Anxiety (RA): The range anxiety [19] is the
EV mileage calculator, a search ruler (SR) and an Electric concern of the EV user of not making it to the nearest charging
Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) locator algorithm. In infrastructure or destination with the charge remaining in the
addition, two databases are created to support the RST EV. The range anxiety will vary from individual to individual.
algorithm. The first database, called the Highway information It is important to keep a range margin (in miles), for the EV
database, contains all the required information for all the users to find the nearest charging infrastructure when required.
Interstates and US-Highways, such as the cities on the The RA can then be calculated as a percentage of range margin
Interstate or US-Highway with their population, and the to the rated mileage (mr) of the EV and is approximated to be
distance between each city based on a reference city. The 10%. [18]
reference city is generally the origin city of travel. The second
database, called the EV Model specification database, lists all All the constraints are expressed in percentages and taking all
EV models and associated rated mileage. The flowchart for the the constraints into consideration, the EV mileage calculator
RST algorithm is shown in Figure [1]. calculates the ma in miles from equation (1) shown below:
1 + ∗ 1 + ∗ (1)
The values of the constraints are given in percentages and

shown in Table [2].
Table 2: Approximate values of the constraints (in %)
Constraint Percentages (%)
DFC 20
BL 20
Figure 1: RST algorithm flowchart HDG 10
RA 10
327
b) A Search Ruler (SR) the end point (MMN*ma/2, Hm) are given. The value of N is
calculated from equation (2):
For the purpose of identifying the locations for the charging
stations, a search ruler (SR) is designed. The locations here to (2)
be determined include city locations, gas stations, rest areas
among others. The SR is basically a region of length ma/2 In this approach, the maximum number of charging
where the locations are to be determined. There can be two or infrastructures required on that highway is calculated. This
more locations in this region defined by SR where charging corresponds to the round-trip coverage of the EV on that
infrastructure could be placed. The EVSE locator algorithm highway and is used to find out a more optimal solution. The
will then determine the best fit location for the placement of number of charging infrastructures to be determined is denoted
charging stations. Figure [2] below shows how the SR will look by nHm, Sk. For each highway Hm, a charging station is located
like. at MM0 to make sure that the EV is fully charged when it starts
the journey.
ROUND-TRIP COVERAGE: This determines the maximum
number of charging stations that need to be placed on highway
Hm to ensure round-trip coverage of the electric vehicle. It
places the charging stations at ma/2 intervals following the
mile-markers as shown in Figure [3]. These points are labeled
as MMi*(ma/2), Hm and the distance di will be ma/2, where i=0, 1,
2, …, N.
Figure 2: A Search Ruler
c) Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) locator

algorithm
Table [3] gives a brief description of all the notations to be used

Figure 3: Round-trip coverage
in the EVSE locator algorithm.
Table 3: Description of the notations used in EVSE locator The maximum number of charging infrastructures in this case
algorithm is CSMAX. This is given by the integer value of N i.e., ⌊N⌋+1.
Notation Description 1 is added to ensure that there is a charging station at the
Sk State in the country origin city of travel.
Hm Highway in a state
Dtotal Total distance of the highway in a state Algorithm for EVSE Locator: Using the round-trip coverage
MM Mile-markers on the highway
MM0,Hm Start point of the highway in a state
layout, the following steps are then used in the EVSE locator
MMN*ma/2, Hm End point of the highway in a state algorithm.
Distance between two mile-markers used for calculation
di INPUT: ma, Highway Hm, State Sk, N, City names, Population,
purposes
CSMAX
Gives the maximum number of charging infrastructures Distance from reference city which is the start point (MM0).
which is ⌊N⌋+1
jLL
The lower labeled mile-marker between the two labeled STEP 1: The round-trip coverage layout is used as a base. The
mile-markers where the charging station is placed mile-markers at ma/2 intervals will be labeled as MMi*(ma/2), Hm
The distance between the placed charging station mile-
Ddiff
marker and the lower labeled mile-marker
where i=0, 1, 2, …, N and shown in Figure [4].
dN The distance between the last two labeled mile-markers
The total number of charging infrastructures in a
nHm, Sk
highway in a state.
The EVSE locator algorithm calculates the number of charging

infrastructures and their location for a particular model of an
electric vehicle when traveling between two points in a
particular Interstate or US-Highway. The state is first chosen Figure 4: Round-trip coverage layout for the EVSE locator
and is denoted by Sk where k=1: K, and K is the total number algorithm
of states in the country. Next, a highway is selected in that
STEP 2: The start point (MM0) is considered. Go to the next
given state and is denoted by Hm where m=1: M, and M is the
mile-marker labeled from the start city, i.e. the MM1*(ma/2)
total number of highways in that state. The total distance of the
label.
highway in that state is given by Dtotal. The mile-markers (MM)
on that highway are identified. The start point (MM0, Hm) and
328
STEP 3: Use search ruler (SR) and place it right of the EVSE Locator algorithm, a sample database is taken from the
MM1*(ma/2) label. Highway information database on Interstate 80 and shown in
Table [5].
STEP 4: Search for all the mile-markers (MM) in the SR
region from the Highway information database and choose the Table 5: Sample Highway information database
best-fit. To do so, the city with the highest population will be Distance
chosen as the best-fit MM for the placement of charging City Names Population [21] (cumulative)(in
stations. miles)
Omaha 408,958 0
STEP 5: The mile-marker for the placement of the charging Gretna 4,441 19.6
station lies in between two labeled MMs. The lower label is Ashland 2,453 26.5
assigned to a variable jLL. Greenwood 568 31.6
Waverly 3,277 40.1
STEP 6: Calculate the distance (Ddiff) which is the distance
Lincoln 258,379 51.4
between the identified best-fit MM and the jLLth label.
Seward 6,964 73.3
STEP 7: Advance to jLL+2nd label. York 7,766 99.2
Henderson 991 110
STEP 8: Place SR in such a way that dR remains right of
Aurora 4,479 120
jLL+2nd label and (ma/2 - Ddiff) remains left of it.
STEP 9: Go back to STEP 4 until the end point is reached. Also, Nissan Leaf 2016 S24 model is selected for
demonstration purposes. The value of ma is 40 miles from
The condition for placement of charging stations at the end Table [4]. The length of the search-ruler will be 20 miles. Then
point is dN ≥ ma/2. EVSE Locator algorithm is applied.
For a given U.S. state, nHm, Sk and their probable locations are
determined for each Interstate and US-Highways and stored in STEP 1: Figure [5] shows the mile-markers in I-80 for sample
a result database. The whole process of designing a search ruler database.
(SR) and then using it in the EVSE locator algorithm is
achieved in the RST algorithm and the probable locations for
the charging infrastructures are determined when driving a
particular EV model on any particular Interstate or US-
Highways in a given state.
Figure 5: Mile-markers in Interstate-80 for the sample database
III. SIMULATION & RESULTS
STEP 2: Go to MM20, I-80.
In a previous work [20], Interstate 80 and US-Highway 34 in STEP 3: Place SR right to MM20, I-80.
the state of Nebraska are used to demonstrate case studies for STEP 4: In between MM20, I-80 and MM40, I-80, Ashland is the
determining the number of charging infrastructures required best-fit location for the placement of the charging
and their locations with specific model of an EV using a infrastructure.
different approach [18]. In this paper, the Highway information STEP 5: jLL= MM20, I-80.
database contains information on Interstate 80 and US- STEP 6: Ddiff= 26.5-20=6.5 miles.
Highway 34 and is similar to the database as in [20]. To STEP 7: Go to jLL+2nd = MM60, I-80.
evaluate our findings from RST algorithm approach, the EVs STEP 8: Place SR on MM60, I-80 in such a way that (20-6.5=)
used are Nissan Leaf 2016 S24 model, Tesla 2016 S60 model 13.5 miles of the SR remains left of MM60, I-80 and 6.5 miles of
and Chevrolet Bolt 2017 model. The EV model specification the SR remains right of MM60, I-80.
database contains the rated mileages (mr) of the STEP 9: Go to STEP 4 and continue until MM120, I-80 is
aforementioned EV models and shown in Table [4]. The EV reached.
mileage calculator is used and the actual mileages (ma) are
calculated for these EVs and shown in Table [4]. Going back to Step 4 in the 2nd iteration:
STEP 4: In between MM46.5, I-80 and MM66.5, I-80, Lincoln is the
Table 4: The rated and actual mileage values of different EVs best-fit location for the placement of the charging
Rated Mileage Actual mileage
EV model
(mr)(in miles) (ma)(in miles)
infrastructure.
Nissan Leaf 2016 S24 84 ≈40 STEP 5: jLL= MM40, I-80.
Tesla 2016 S60 219 ≈105 STEP 6: Ddiff= 51.4-40=11.4 miles.
Chevrolet Bolt 2017 238 ≈114 STEP 7: Go to jLL+2nd = MM80, I-80.
STEP 8: Place SR on MM80, I-80 in such a way that (20-11.4=)
The value of ma is used to design the search-ruler and the 8.6 miles of the SR remains left of MM80, I-80 and 11.4 miles of
EVSE Locator algorithm is then applied. To demonstrate the the SR remains right of MM80, I-80.
329
STEP 9: Go to STEP 4 and continue until MM120, I-80 is
reached.
Similarly in 3rd iteration:

STEP 4: In between MM71.4, I-80 and MM91.4, I-80, Seward is the
best-fit location for the placement of the charging
infrastructure.
STEP 5: jLL= MM60, I-80.
STEP 6: Ddiff= 73.3-60=13.3 miles.
STEP 7: Go to jLL+2nd = MM100, I-80.
STEP 8: Place SR on MM100, I-80 in such a way that (20-13.3=) Figure 7: The locations of charging infrastructures while driving
6.7 miles of the SR remains left of MM60, I-80 and 13.3 miles of Tesla 2016 S60 model and Chevrolet Bolt 2017 model on I-80
the SR remains right of MM100, I-80.
STEP 9: Go to STEP 4 and continue until MM120, I-80 is
reached.
Similarly in 4th iteration:

STEP 4: In between MM93.3, I-80 and MM113.3, I-80, York is the
best-fit location for the placement of the charging
infrastructure.
STEP 5: jLL= MM80, I-80.
STEP 6: Ddiff= 99.2-80=19.2 miles.
STEP 7: Go to jLL+2nd = MM120, I-80.
MM120, I-80 is reached. Aurora needs to be installed with a
charging infrastructure as dN = MMurora – MMYork = 120- Figure 8: The locations of charging infrastructures while driving
99.2=20.8 miles which is greater than ma/2=20 miles. Nissan Leaf 2016 S24 model on US-HWY 34
The RST algorithm has been applied to Interstate-80 and US-

Highway 34 in the state of Nebraska for all the three EV
models in Table [4]. The number of charging infrastructures
required is calculated and shown in Table [6]. The locations of
the charging infrastructures are displayed in the state map of
Nebraska and shown in the Figures [6], [7], [8], [9] and [10].
Table 6: The number of charging infrastructures for different EV

models and corresponding CSMAX values
Number of charging infrastructures required
(including the origin city of travel)
EV Model
I-80 US-HWY 34
RST CSMAX RST CSMAX Figure 9: The locations of charging infrastructures while driving
Nissan Leaf 2016 S24 16 22 12 15 Tesla 2016 S60 model on US-HWY 34
Tesla 2016 S60 6 9 5 6
Chevrolet Bolt 2017 6 8 5 6
Figure 10: The locations of charging infrastructures while driving

Chevrolet Bolt 2017 model on US-HWY 34
Figure 6: The locations of charging infrastructures while driving
RST algorithm can be a more economical approach to
Nissan Leaf 2016 S24 model on I-80
determine the number of charging infrastructures required to
be installed to move about freely, not limiting the EV to be
330
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864–868. Lincoln, NE, 2017, pp. 050-055.
[3] "Alternative Fuels Data Center: Electric Vehicle Charging Station [21] "List of Counties and cities in Nebraska.", SuburbanStats.org, 2018.
Locations", Afdc.energy.gov, 2018. [Online]. Available: [Online]. Available: https://suburbanstats.org/population/nebraska/list-
https://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_locations.html#/analyze? of-counties-and-cities-in-nebraska. [Accessed: 17- Apr- 2018].
fuel=ELEC&ev_levels=all. [Accessed: 17- Apr- 2018]. [22] S. Shom and M. Alahmad, “Determining optimal locations of electrified
[4] T. D. Chen, K. M. Kockelman, and M. Khan, “The electric vehicle transportation infrastructure on interstate/us-highways,” in Emerging
charging station location problem: a parking-based assignment method Technologies for a Smarter World (CEWIT), 2017 13th International
for Seattle,” in Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting, Conference and Expo on, 2017, pp. 1–7.
2013, vol. 340, pp. 13–1254.
331
A Novel Dependence-Decoupling Method for
Battery Cell Balancing
Jiucai Zhang, Jin Shang, and Yizhen Zhang Gang Li, Hongzhong Qi, and Ao Mei
GAC R&D Center in Silicon Valley GAC Engineering Institute
San Jose, California 95112 Guangzhou, Guangdong 511434
Email: {jzhang, yzhang, and jshang}@gacrndusa.com Email: {ligang and qihongzhong and meiao}@gaei.cn
Abstract—Existing battery balancing methods compare voltage Voltage based approach

or state of charge difference between cells during charging and Fixed Duration
parking to determine whether turning on the balancing circuit. Mesurement Mesurement Mesurement Mesurement
Since these methods require the balancing measurement and control control control control
control happened at the same stage, the effectiveness of these
methods depends on the duration for charging and parking.
Cell Voltage
To eliminate the dependence on operating conditions, this paper
presents a novel balancing method to decouple the dependence
between the balancing measurement and control by dividing them
into two independent stages. The two independent stages real- Vmax Vmin
timely estimate the difference of the state of charges between Time
cells during charging and parking and control balancing at all
operating conditions such as charging, parking, and especially
driving separately. Our simulation shows that the proposed
dependence-decoupling balancing method are very effective for
rarely charging and parking applications.
Proposed approach
I. I NTRODUCTION
Measure the Calculate
Battery balancing is a critical technology to reduce the cell status balancing time
effects of cell inconsistence and improve the capacity Capacity
of a series-connected battery [1], [2]. Existing voltage- Track the cell difference Enable balancing
capacity difference switch
based battery balancing methods compare voltage differences
between cells during charging and parking to determine Stage 1 Stage 2
whether turning on the balancing circuit, and the balancing Measurement Control
measurement and control typically occur at the same stage
[3]–[6]. These methods are only effective when time for Fig. 1. Proposed balancing approach.
charging and parking is enough for balancing. Many State
of Charged (SOC) based balancing algorithms are also
proposed to compare the cell SOC difference in a battery balancing at static conditions such as charging and parking
to align all cells to the same SOC, but these methods and control the balancing current at all operating conditions
also only balance battery during charging [7]–[11]. Although such as charging, parking, and driving. The dependence of
these methods assume that the durations of charging and balancing on the drive cycles is eliminated.
parking processes are always sufficient to provide enough The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section
time for balancing, this assumtion is not always valid. II presents the proposed method. Section III illustrates the
For example, a three-shift taxi which typically operates for simulation results. Section IV concludes the paper.
24 hours a day and seven days a week cannot provide
enough charging and parking time for balancing. To fill II. P ROPOSED M ETHOD
this gap, this paper presents a novel balancing method for The proposed battery balancing approach is shown in Fig.
series-connected batteries to enable battery balancing under 1. To make balancing measurement and control independent,
all operating conditions including charging, parking, and the whole balancing is divided into measurement and control
especially driving. This method decouples the dependence stages. In the measurement stage, the proposed method tracks
between the balancing measurement and control by dividing the capacity difference according to the measured battery
them into two independent stages, and thus the balancing status. To provide sufficient oppority to track cell capacity
measurement and control can conduct independently. This difference, we propose two methods according to the operating
independency allows balancing algorithm to measure battery conditions. Since charging current is stable, the capacity
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 332

R Rs Rl
OCV
Cell voltage (V)

+
OCV(SOC)
Vkey-on
Vo(SOC)
SOC
Ic(I) +
Rd
- Cs Cl V
I Vkey-off
-
Key-off Key-on Time

Fig. 2. Battery model [12].
TABLE I Fig. 3. OCV prediction in parking.

BATTERY M ODEL PARAMETERS
Rd Self-discharge resistance
SOC State of charge vs and vl denote the voltages of Rs and Rl.
Ic The current of capacitor
OCV Open circuit voltage B. Cell Capacity Difference Estimation in Parking
R Ohmic internal resistance
Rs Internal resistance for charge transfer Since the current in parking approaches to zero, the state
Cs Capacitance for charge transfer space model for parking can be further simlicified as equations
Rl Internal resistance for charge fusion in Eq. 3
Cl Capacitance for charge fusion
V Out voltage xk = Axk−1
OCV Current (3)
Vk = OCV (SOCk ) + Cxk
Assuming that the equivalent current just before parking is
I0 . The I0 can be directly derived according the voltages at
difference can be dirrectly tracked by measuring capacity key-off and key-on in Eq. 4.
difference when all cells pass the same target voltage. We
also use circuit based battery model to estimate open circuit Von − Vof f
I0 = tp tp (4)
voltage(OCV) in parking, and then map OCV to SOC to track Rs(1 − e− RsCs ) + Rl(1 − e− RlCl )
the cell capacity differeces. The following paragraphs review
where Von and Vof f denote the voltages at key-off and key-on,
the circuit based battery model in [12] and proposed capacity
respectively.
difference tracking methods for charging and parking.
The open circuit voltage can be derived by voltages at key-
A. Review of the Circuit based Battery Model off and key-on as shown in Fig. 3, which can be obtained by
Fig. 2 illustrate the circuit based battery model in [12]. Eq. 5.
This model is composed of two parts. The left part captures OCVk (SOCk ) = Vof f + Io (Rs + Rl) (5)
nonlinear battery capacity behaviors. The right part models
nonlinear circuit characteristics. The two parts are coupled The SOC of each cell can be obtained by mapping OCV to
together by voltage controlled and voltage source and currrent SOC, which can be described by the following equation.
controlled current source. The voltage controlled voltage
SOCki = focv2soc (OCVk ) (6)
source models the relationship between SOC and OCV. The
current controlled current source maps current from right part where fo cv2soc denotes a function to map OCV to SOC,
to the left part. The RC networks of Rs & Cs and Rl & Cl which can be directly measured from an open circuit test. The
capacture the voltage dynamic processes for charge transfer capacity difference between the cell i and the minimum SOC
and diffusion, respectively. The parameters of the battery of all cells can be derived by the following equation.
model are listed in Table I. We use this model to estimate
the battery capcity in parking. αiparking = (SOCki − minj=1,2,. . . N (SOCkj ))αf (7)
This circuit based battery model can also be described by where αiparking
is capacity difference of the cell i. αf is the
a state-space battey model in Eq. 1. cell full capacity. N is the number of series connected cells
in the battery.

xk = Axk−1 + Buk
(1)
Vk = OCV (SOCk ) + Cxk + Duk
C. Capacity Tracking during Charing
where the A,B,C, and D can be calculated by the equtions in Since a battery is typically charged at constant current
Eq. 2. or power, the battery current is constant during a certain
" dt
# " dt
#T time period. We can directly measure the capaicty difference
e− RsCs , 0 Rs(1 − e− RsCs )

vs
A= dt , B = dt , x = (2) between cell by tracking capcity differences of cells when
0, e− RlCl Rl(1 − e− RlCl ) vl
they pass the same target voltage as shown in Fig. 4. To

I eliminate the effect of past driving profile on the cell voltage, a
u= , C = [1, 1], D = [R]
I charging steady state dection stage is added before the capacity
333
60
50
40
Speed (mph)
30
Steady state detection
Target voltage Vtarget 20
10
0
t1 t2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time (hours)
Fig. 4. Cell capacity difference tracking during charging.

Fig. 5. The driving profile between neighbor gas fueling.
6
differenc tracking. The charging steady state detection stage Voltage based method
The proposed method
tracks the current and accumulated capacity to make sure the
5
battery voltage is stable. Both charging steady-state detection
stage and capacity difference tracking stage repeats during
SOC difference (%)
charging process to provide more opportunities to update 4
the capacity measurement. The capacity tracking can also be

described in Eq. 8. 3
Z t2
T racking
αi = Idt (8) 2
t1
where t1 and Vtarget denote the time and the maximum cell
voltage after steady-state detection stage, respectively. t2 is 1
the time when the voltage of cell i reaches Vtarget . The cell
capacity difference can be obtained in Eq. 9. 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
αichg = maxN T racking
j=1 αj − αiT racking (9) Time (days)
D. Balancing Control Fig. 6. Voltage curves of the maximum and minimum voltages of cells with
the voltage based balancing method.
In the balancing control stage, the balancing time for passive
balancing of the cell i is calculated by the following equation.
αi proposed balancing strategies aim at enabling balancing under
τi = (10)
Ibal all operating conditions, especially driving conditions, the
where τi and Ibal denote balancing time and current, balancing strategies are validated under dynamic driving
respectively. After the battery management system gets the profiles with little charging and parking time. The Urban
balancing time, the balancing controller will turn on balancing Dynamometer Driving Schedule(UDDS) profile is adopted to
switch to enable the battery capacity balancing. αi is the last simulate a driving profile. In the simulation, the UDDS profile
update of capacity difference of αichg or αiparking . is iterated over time. The total range per tank is 588miles.
After vehicles drives every 588 miles, the vehicle is fueled at
III. S IMULATION R ESULTS a gas station. That is, the UDDS is iterated 30 time and then
To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed battery fueled at the gas station. The total service time at gas station
balancing approach, a battery pack with 96 lithium cells in is 5 minutes [13]. The profile of per full tank fuel is shown
serial is adopted. The nominal capacity of each cell is 37 in Fig. 5.
amper-hours. The initial SOCs of 96 cells were randomly set Fig. 6 illustrates SOC differences between cells with the
with a normal distribution. The mean and standard deviation existing voltage based and proposed balancing methods,
of all cell SOCs are 88.47%, and 0.153%, respectively. respectively. Since there is no changing event occured in this
The maximum cell SOC is 89%. The minimum cell SOC driving profile, the voltage based method is never triggered.
is 88.76%. The passive balancing method with balancing The maximum cell SOC difference keeps increasing over time.
current of 0.1A is adopted in this simulation. Since the The proposed method can fully utilize the limited time to
334
changing and parking opportunities to balance cell capacity,
and thus the maximum and minimum cell voltages are merged
together over time. The existing method does not work for
rarely parking and charging applications while the proposed
method can effectively balance cell voltages and capacities.
IV. C ONCLUSION
This paper proposed a new balancing method to decouple
the dependence between the balancing measurement and
control by dividing them into two independent stages. The
two independent stages eliminate dependence of the battery
balancing method on the operating conditions, and enable the
battery balancing under all operating conditions. The results
shown that the proposed balancing approach is very effective
for rarely charging and parking applications while the existing
voltage based method is not effective.
Fig. 7. Voltage curves of the maximum and minimum voltages of cells with
the voltage based balancing method.
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voltages of cells in the battery pack. Fig. 7 illustrates the equalization based on state of charge,” in 2010 IEEE 72nd Vehicular
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curves of the maximum and minumum voltages of cells [11] M. F. Samadi and M. Saif, “Nonlinear model predictive control for cell
with the voltage based method. At the beginning of battery balancing in li-ion battery packs,” in 2014 American Control Conference,
charging process, the maximum and minimum voltage are June 2014, pp. 2924–2929.
[12] J. Zhang, S. Ci, H. Sharif, and M. Alahmad, “An enhanced circuit-
slight different due to initial unbalanced conditions. Since based model for single-cell battery,” in 2010 Twenty-Fifth Annual IEEE
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voltage keeps rising while the minimum cell voltage degrades 2010, pp. 672–675.
[13] How convenience stores and their contributions to
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cell voltages with the proposed balancing methods. Although
the cell voltage shows some differences at the begening of
the driving cycles, the proposed method fully utimizes the
335
A Modular Multi-Level Converter for Energy Management
of Hybrid Storage System in Electric Vehicles
Sharon S. George, Student Member, IEEE, Mohamed O. Badawy, Member, IEEE
Electrical Engineering
San José State University
San José, CA, USA
Abstract - This paper presents a novel energy management braking limits of the EV. The relatively low power density of a
system (EMS) that for hybrid energy storage devices in fully battery based system can be mitigated by integrating ultra-
Electric Vehicles (EVs). The use of ultra-capacitors as the capacitors (UCs) with battery cells. Employing such hybrid
power pulsating storage device in EVs mitigates the energy storage system (HESS) can vastly improve the
inefficiencies associated with the slow power dynamics of efficiency of power processing during the rapidly changing
battery cells. Thus, Li-ion batteries can only supply the EV drive profiles of an EV [2-3].
average power due to their high energy density
The sensitive operation of the HESS necessitates a charge
characteristics. Such a hybrid system leads to challenging
equalization mechanism as part of the EVs’ energy
tasks in managing the energy between the individual
management system (EMS). Numerous schemes were put
battery and UC cells. Additionally, accounting for the
forward [4-8] but their implementation is limited to either
motor loading conditions and extending the maximum
battery cells or UC cells. The modularity of the system is
torque per ampere operation is desirable for an EV drive
predicated on the choice of DC-DC converters that feature low
powertrain. Thus, a modular multi-converter is configured
power losses and easy scaling. Modular systems with cascaded
to manage the energy between the different storage cells for
cells and interfacing converters were shown in different
an EV application. Furthermore, the use of MMCs
configurations with promising results [9-11]. Besides
eliminates the need for a system-level drive inverter feeding
modularity, these systems have the added advantage of reduced
the EV motor. The presented results verify the proposed
control complexity.
configuration effectiveness.
Index Terms – Energy management, Battery management, DC-
In this paper, the authors propose a modular multilevel
DC Converter, Electric Vehicles, Flux Weakening, Hybrid energy converter (MMC) architecture with cascaded battery and UC
storage, Maximum torque per ampere operation, Multi-level cells to enhance the power processing capabilities of
modular converter. conventional EV battery packs. The stress on battery cells is
reduced by throttling the high C-rate current drawn from the
I. INTRODUCTION battery cells. Instead, the UCs are used for supplying peak
Batteries are the key enabling devices that facilitate our power during traction or regenerating power during braking.
reliance on sustainable energy solutions. In high voltage Consequently, the energy density of battery cells can be
applications, battery packs are composed of a large number of leveraged for long-term power processing, and the power
cells connected in series, which entail higher risks in terms of density of UCs is utilized for pulsated power processing. The
reliability and safety. Depending on the cell chemistry, there are need for a system-level drive inverter is eliminated with the
thermal and voltage constraints that need to be accounted for proposed HESS configuration. The control strategy for the
during the design of battery modules. Moreover, factors such as proposed HESS is deployed in accordance with the power
the self-discharge rates and the internal impedances of the requirements set by the EV motor. Many IPM motor
battery cells may vary from one cell to another due to applications rely on maximum-torque-per-ampere (MTPA)
manufacturing imperfections. In such a scenario, overcharging control for producing the desired torque from minimized
of battery cells can cause system failures while deep current magnitudes. In the proposed configuration, the MMCs
discharging can cause heating issues that deteriorate the battery are controlled to extend the MTPA operation for increased
system efficiency. Moreover, reduced number of switches are
life span [1]. Thus, a battery management system (BMS) is
used in every operational mode if compared to conventional
necessary to maintain the battery charging/discharging rates
MMC configurations.
within the desirable operating limits. Additionally, a well-
designed BMS extracts that the maximum available power from The novel configuration of the MMC based HESS is
the connected battery cells at different operating conditions. presented in Section II, while the system structure is illustrated
in Section III. Section IV delineates the system’s core energy
The usage of battery as the sole storage device in an electric
management functions and the verification results are collated
vehicle (EV) limits the system power density due to the low
in Section V.
pulsating power of Li-ion batteries. The power density of the
storage system determines the acceleration and regenerative
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 336

II. PROPOSED SYSTEM motor from the HESS are alternating waveforms that do not
require any other form of inversion. This eliminates the need
The system framework of the proposed hybrid system for for a system-level drive inverter present in conventional motor
EVs is shown in Fig. 1. The high voltage battery is made up of drives sized to invert high voltage DC signals. The three-phase
low voltage sub-modules that store and supply energy to the EV connections in the main system framework carry three-phase
motor. Within each sub-module, UCs cascade with battery cells alternating voltage and current waveforms to feed the motor.
via DC-DC converters enabling both series and parallel For higher current discharge, more parallel sub-module strings
configurations of the energy cells. The modular multi-level H- can be added for each phase. Sizing of the HESS is done based
bridge inverter ( − ) is used at the output of each sub- on the maximum, average and minimum power demands of the
module and the modular multi-level half-bridge converter EV motor.
( − ) is chosen for cascading the energy cells (Fig. 1).
These converters belong to a class of Modular Multi-Level
Converters (MMCs) that can operate with a high efficiency over III. CONVERTER CONTROL STRATEGY
a wide range of switching frequency thus resulting in low power
The DC energy source(s) of each sub-module is fixed with
losses [12]. Each sub-module is essentially a hybrid converter
a multi-level H-bridge inverter at the sub-module output that
structure that combines different MMCs. The proposed system
performs DC-AC conversion. There are three alternatives for
is developed to extend the MTPA operation, thus, a series
the DC source of a sub-module: battery only, UC only, battery
connection of the UC with the battery is allowed. Consequently,
and UC. The corresponding conduction paths of the three
two back-to-back switches ( − ) are placed along the
modes are featured in Fig. 2.
alternate discharge path of the battery cell to prevent
unanticipated charge sharing between the energy cells due to
leakage current or SOC imbalance. However, if the proposed
system is to be developed for regular power modes without S7 S8
accounting for MTPA control conditions, then can be

+
S1 S2
excluded from the converter structure. UC
_
The UC is always maintained at a voltage level lower than S5
the nominal voltage of the battery cell. This is set as a prior B S3 S4
constraint in order to account, in advance, for low voltage levels S6
required during peak power fluctuations. Additionally,

maintaining the UC voltage less than the battery cell voltage (a)
prevents mutual charge sharing since the anti-parallel diode of
tends to form a parallel conduction path between the UC and S7 S8
battery cell. The UC is placed close to the H-bridge output to

+
S1 S2
minimize conduction losses while supplying peak power during UC

_
traction or accepting power during regeneration. For sub-

S5
modules, there are battery cells, UCs, and 8 switches.
B
The corresponding control strategy is developed in such a way S3 S4
that minimum number of converter switches are used for a S6
given voltage level. (b)

Ph-C
Ph-B
M S7 S8
Ph-A
+
SM11 SM12 SM1P S1 S2
UC
Phase C
SM21 SM22 SM2P

_
Phase B
Energy
Bank
SM31 SM32 SM3P S7 S8

S5
Phase A
+
S1 S2
UC
SM41 SM42 SM4P B S3 S4
_
S5
S6
SM51 SM52 SM5P B S3 S4
S6
SMN1 SMN2 SMNP

(c)
Figure 2: Conduction Modes: (a) Battery only (b) UC only (c) Battery + UC
N The modularity of these units coupled with easy switching
Figure 1: Novel Hybrid Storage System for Electric Vehicles control make their use appropriate in high voltage drive
applications that demand variable speed and consequently
Moreover, the simple structure of sub-module converter
variable power. During regular speeding conditions when the
allows easy scaling of the HESS depending on the application
power demand ranges from average to low, the current is drawn
requirement while establishing absolute control over the power
from the battery cells while bypassing the UCs (Fig. 2(a)).
contributions of each energy cell. The signals reaching the
During peak power fluctuations that occur at high speeds, the
337
low voltage UCs are connected to the output inverter while assigned to different sub-modules based on their SOC levels.
bypassing battery cells (Fig. 2(b)). For speeds above the Reference signals with appropriate parameters (amplitude,
nominal motor speed, high voltage levels are to be maintained frequency and phase) for the three-phase waveforms are
in order to keep the motor operating at maximum-torque-per- defined and passed though the stacked carrier signals. The
ampere (MTPA). This is achieved by connecting both the reference voltage waveform can be generalized for the three
battery cell and UC in series to serve as the DC source to the H- phases as follows:
bridge inverter (Fig. 2(c)).
Table 1: Sub-module Converters Switching States S1 S2
Source : S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 Output +
Mode UC
_
S7 S8
Battery : 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 +Vdc
+
S3 S4 S1 S2
Low/Average 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 UC
Power
_
0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 -Vdc S5
B S3 S4
UC : 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 +Vdc S1 S2
S6
High Power 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 B
0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 -Vdc S3 S4
Battery + 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 +Vdc
UC : 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Figure 3: Comparison of conventional and novel converters for series-
Maximum connected battery cell and UC
Torque Per 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 -Vdc
Ampere
Vref = A × m × sin (ω t - ø) (1)
The switching states of the sub-module converters are
detailed in Table I with respect to Fig. 2. Analysis of the switch
conduction losses reveal the efficiency merits of the proposed
converter design. For a given voltage level, 4 switches are
conducting in the battery only mode, and only 3 switches are
conducting in UC only and combined energy cell modes.
Consequently, the minimum number of switches used per
module reduces the conduction losses associated with high
T/2 T
power transfer in the UC only mode. This design merit extends
to the combined battery cell and UC mode as well. In a
conventional hybrid system, that has a single battery or UC for
each H-bridge module, a minimum of 4 switches have to
conduct to establish a series path between two modules in order
to obtain increased voltage levels. In the proposed converter
design, only 3 switches are conducting when the battery and UC
are in series (Fig. 3). A significant reduction in sub-module
conduction loss by approximately 25% is observed during
MTPA operation, thereby, improving the system level
efficiency. The switching states remain the same during
discharging, charging and regeneration cycles signifying low
complexity in control. Moreover, if any of the sub-modules
have sources with extremely low levels of charge, the bypass
modes are activated to remove those modules from the main T/2 T
conduction path. There are multiple switch combinations by
which the 0Vdc bypass mode can be activated although Table I
enlists one of them.
Once the sub-module DC source is selected based on the
mode of operation, the H-bridge inverters are switched using a
pulse width modulation (PWM) scheme. A multi-carrier
technique called Phase Disposition PWM (PDPWM) is chosen
Figure 4: PWM Signals with Output Waveform
for switching the H-bridge inverters (Fig. 4). This method has
been widely used for performing balancing and control of A is amplitude of the reference waveform that is set as the
cascaded H-bridge inverter topologies [13]. High frequency maximum of all the carrier signals. m is the modulation index
carrier signals are stacked above and below the zero reference that allows selective switching of sub-modules by
with 0° phase shift. To obtain p levels in the output waveform, proportioning the amplitude of the reference wave. The
p-1 carrier signals have to be used. The carrier signals are frequency of the reference wave, ω, is the required frequency
338
of the output waveform. ø is phase shift in radians (0, 2π/3, different combinations of battery cells and UCs depending on
4π/3) to produce three-phase reference signals. Stair-shaped the power mode.
waveforms that are sinusoidal can be obtained from series
Battery only (Low/Average Power):
connected versions of these sub-modules for each of the three
phases. The waveform of a 9-level (8 non-zero levels and 1 zero During low and average power demands, current is drawn from
level) voltage signal is demonstrated in Fig. 4. the battery cells while the UCs are bypassed. The battery cells
are initialized with 100% SOC and the switches along their
IV. SOC ESTIMATION AND BALANCING discharge path are activated. This results in a 5-level alternating
waveform with each cell contributing about 4V as shown in Fig.
The proposed HESS incorporates SOC estimation and 6.
charge balancing functions as the part of the EMS. Energy cell START
status is determined based on states of charge (SOC) because it

can be generalized for any cell chemistry. Using high precision Measure Cell Voltage +
Current
sensors, the coulomb counting method is sufficient in Estimate Cell

performing SOC estimations. The battery and UC cell SOCs are SOC(s)
determined as follows:
NO
IB (t ).T Discharging Charging
SOC B (t ) = SOC B (t − 1) − (2)

QB _ Nom YES YES
Decreasing Order of Cell Increasing Order of Cell

VUC _ OC (t ) (3) SOC(s) SOC(s)
SOCUC (t ) =
VUC _ Nom
Eqn. (2) and (3) represent the SOC of a battery cell and UC NO Reference
cell respectively. The cell SOC is estimated for discrete time Waveform = 0
Bus Current = 0
steps of = , where is the discrete step and is sampling YES
time in seconds. and _ are the battery current and Set PWM Signals
nominal capacity respectively. _ and _ are the

ultra-capacitor open circuit voltage and nominal voltage END
respectively. The order of precedence of charging and

discharging of the energy cells is set based on online estimation Figure 5: Cell SOC Estimation and Balancing Algorithm
of SOC. For discharge, the sub-modules are ordered from 8
highest to lowest based on SOC. The corresponding PWM
6
signals are updated every half cycle of the modulation wave
when there is no current flow in the circuit. This is done to 4
reduce harmonic distortions during converter switching. 2
Voltage (V)
Consequently, the cells with high SOC are discharged more

0
than the cells with low SOC. The order of precedence is
reversed during battery charging and regeneration, i.e., the cells -2
with low SOC will have higher precedence and will be charged
-4
more than the cells with high SOC. The algorithm is generalized
in Fig. 6. -6
-8
V. SIMULATION RESULTS 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05
Time (s)
Figure 6: Five-level Voltage Waveform (Battery only)
The proposed HESS structure and operation are verified for
two and six sub-modules hybrid system. Simulations are Ultra-capacitor only (High Power):
performed for different modes of operation based on the power
During high power fluctuations, the battery cells are
requirements of the EV motor. The main controller inputs
inactive and only the UC cells are discharging. The UC cells
include cell states of charge, bus current, instantaneous power
starts the cycle with 100% SOC and the switches along their
demand, available battery power and available UC power.
discharge path are activated. This results in a 5-level alternating
Discharging and charging (regeneration) cycles are identified
waveform with each cell contributing a voltage level of 3V as
based on these inputs. A threshold function that senses power
shown in Fig. 7.
fluctuation is configured that automatically switches the DC
input of each sub-module during vehicle operation. Battery and Ultra-capacitor (MTPA Extension):
A. Five-level Voltage Waveform High voltage levels are required in order to maintain
The two sub-module system triggered by the PDPWM scheme efficient motor operation under MTPA conditions. This is
produces a 5-level output waveform that draws current from supplied by series-connected battery and UC within each sub-
339
module with all the cells initialized at 100% SOC. The resulting low SOC cell charges faster and the cell SOCs converge in the
5-level alternating waveform consist of battery cells and UCs advancing cycles of discharge. A similar behavior is exhibited
contributing about 4V and 3V respectively as shown in Fig. 8. by the battery cells during discharging and constant charging
6 although the dynamics are slower and require long periods of
simulation.
4
Discharging Charging Discharging

2
Voltage (V)
-2
-4
-6
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05
Time (s)
Figure 7: Five-level Voltage Waveform (UC only)
15
10
Figure 10: SOC Balancing of Six Sub-modules
5
Voltage (V)
V. CONCLUSION
0
The proposed HESS adopts a MMC based converter

-5
structure as to manage the energy between the battery and UC
-10
cells. Additionally, the proposed configuration eliminated the
need for a system level inverter as the AC power signal is
-15 generated from the MMC modules. The system has the ability
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05 to switch between high power, high energy and MTPA
Time (s)
Figure 8: Five-level Voltage Waveform (Battery + UC) extension modes seamlessly. The validation results prove that
the system can cater to various power demands while ensuring
B. Three-Phase System that the energy cells are efficiently utilized. The simplicity of
In order to verify three-phase operation, the system is scaled the novel converter structure can aid in the development of high
up to include six sub-modules. The corresponding thirteen-level voltage energy packs without compromising on power density.
phase shifted waveforms can be used to power a three-phase Moreover, the flexibility of control allows easy implementation
EV motor (Fig. 9). of energy management functions, some of which are presented
in this paper.
20
VII. REFERENCES
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[3] S. Park, Y. Kim, and N. Chang, “Hybrid Energy Storage Systems and
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[4] S. W. Moore and P. J. Schneider, “A review of cell equalization methods
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level balancing to improve performance of large battery packs,” in Proc.
C. Energy balancing of six sub-modules IEEE Energy Convers. Congr. Expo., Sep. 2014, pp. 4327–4334.
The cell balancing action of the control scheme for six sub- [6] Sang-Hyun Park; Tae-Sung Kim; Jin-Sik Park; Gun-Woo Moon; Myung-
modules is demonstrated in Fig. 5. The system is tested with Joong Yoon; , "A New Buck-boost Type Battery Equalizer," Applied
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that consist of high discharge and charge (regeneration) [7] Y. Yuanmao, K.W.E. Cheng, and Y.P.B. Yeung, "Zero-Current
currents. Clearly, the cell with the high initial SOC discharges Switching Switched-Capacitor Zero-Voltage-Gap Automatic
more than the cell with a lowest SOC. During regeneration, the
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Equalization System for Series Battery String," IEEE Trans. On Power
Electron., vol. 27, no. 7, pp. 3234-3242, Jul. 2012.
[8] H. S. Park, C.-H. Kin, K.-B. Park, G.-W. Moon, and J.-H. Lee, “Design
of a charge equalizer based on battery modularization,” IEEE Trans. Veh.
Technol., vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 3216–3223, Sep. 2009.
[9] Miquel Massot-Campos1, Daniel Montesinos-Miracle1, Joan Bergas-
Jané1 and Alfred Rufer2, “Multilevel Modular DC/DC Converter for
Regenerative Braking Using Super-capacitors”, Journal of Energy and
Power Engineering 6 (2012) 1131-1137
[10] Z. Zheng, K. Wang, L. Xu, and Y. Li, “A hybrid cascaded multilevel
converter for battery energy management applied in electric vehicles,”
IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 3537–3546, Jul. 2014.
[11] M. O. Badawy, T. Husain, Y. Sozer and J. A. De Abreu-Garcia,
"Integrated Control of an IPM Motor Drive and a Novel Hybrid Energy
Storage System for Electric Vehicles," in IEEE Trans. on Ind. Appl., vol.
53, no. 6, pp. 5810-5819, Nov.-Dec. 2017.
[12] Z. Zhao, K. Li, Y. Jiang, S. Lu, and L. Yuan, ”Overview on Reliability of
Modular Multilevel Cascade Converters”, In Chinese Journal of Electrical
Engineering, Vol.1, No.1, December 2015, pp.37–49.
[13] N. Raj, G. Jagadanand and S. George, “A Modified Charge Balancing
Scheme for Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter”, in Journal of Power
Electronics, vol.PP, no.99, pp.1-1.
341
State-of-Charge Estimation of the Lithium-Ion Battery Using Neural
Network Based on an Improved Thevenin Circuit Model
Haoliang Zhang1, Woonki Na2, and Jonghoon Kim3
1:mars_zhang@mail.fresnostate.edu, 2:wkna@csufresno.edu, and 3: whdgns0422@cnu.ac.kr
1
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, California State University, Fresno, CA, USA
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, California State University, Fresno, CA, USA
3
Department of Electrical Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejon, Korea
Abstract— This paper focuses on real-time estimation of State Among all estimation methods, equivalent circuit models
of Charge (SOC) in Lithium-Ion battery. Because of the are widely selected, which includes the Rint model [7], the
highly complex electrochemical reaction inside the battery Thevenin model [8], the RC model, and the partnership for a
the conventional first order battery model is not accurate new generation of vehicle (PNGV) model [9]. The first order
and cannot respond to the battery’s conditions correctly
Thevenin model was widely used in the past because of its
because of the simplicity of the model. So, the neural network
(NN) is selected to estimate the SOC dynamically due to its reliability, when the battery is discharged with stable current
strong nonlinear fitting ability. The NN strategy also was and voltage. But considering highly complex electrochemical
used to implement the parameter identification for the reactions inside of the battery, the first order of battery cannot
battery model. reflect the battery’s condition accurately during the charge or
discharge process. Because of above reason, the improved
Thevenin model was proposed which is second order
Thevenin model, comparing with the first order, second order
KEYWORDS— NEURAL NETWORK, SOC, AND LITHIUM-ION
Thevenin model add extra RC circuit to first order due to
BATTERY
polarization characteristics of battery [10]. But the improved
Thevenin model need a lot of calculation, which is time-
I. INTRODUCTION
consuming, at the flat period, it has almost same accuracy as
In recent years, under the background of global energy first order.
shortage, the pure electric vehicle becomes a popular study In order to use equivalent circuit model, the accurate
filed because of its high economic efficiency and lower parameter identification is needed. The neural network is the
environmental pollution. Considering battery is the best powerful algorithm used to identify system because of its
power source for the next generation vehicle, and the accurate strong nonlinear mapping ability. The SOC and the present
estimation of the battery performance is critical technic for terminal voltage are the output signals. In the parameter
the electronic vehicle operation [2]. Lithium-ion batteries identification process, the activation function of the neural
have been widely used in many industrial fields. In order to network is a linear function. In the battery modeling process,
use the Lithium-ion battery safely and efficiently, the internal backward or forward difference method is used to solve the
states of the battery must be monitored appropriately mathematical express of the Thevenin model. In this way, the
promptly [3]. For a Lithium-ion battery, migration of the relationship between the weights of the networks and the
electrolyte and the activity of electrode materials is affected circuit parameters can be found. The experiment data will be
by temperature, hysteresis, cells age and self-discharge rate used to train the initial weights of the neural network.
[4]. Furthermore, the battery is not charge/discharge with the In this project, open circuit voltage (OCV), terminal cell
constant current. Usually, the battery used under complex voltage, and impedance at certain frequencies are all used to
conditions, temperatures, and even extreme environments. estimate the SOC of the battery. This project used a linear
The safety of electric vehicle highly depends on Battery neural network to identify the battery model parameters.
Management System (BMS). There are several factors When the parameters of battery model are decided, it is
evaluating the batteries states. Especially, the accurate state- necessary to use a neural network to estimate SOC based on
of-charge (SOC) is one of the most important factors of BMS the OCV. This new method can reduce the amount of
[5]. Different from the common vehicle that can measure calculation and give the best SOC estimation of Lithium-Ion
reaming gasoline by the float ball, the SOC of the electric battery during charge and discharge.
vehicle cannot be measured directly but only be measured by
external information of the battery [6]. The SOC is affected
by the complicated internal nonlinear characteristics of the II. SYSTEM MODEL AND PARAMETER
battery such as mobility of a charged particle, discharge IDENTIFICATION
current, battery age, etc. Furthermore, the working The section will briefly introduce the concept of the overall
temperature and external environment also make the real- system and control for ease understanding of this work.
time SOC measurement difficult.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 342

A. Overall System
The overall system diagram is shown in Fig 1. There are four ( )= ( )− ( )− ( ) (2)
main steps in this paper : (1) battery parameters identification, There are many discrete methods for the Thevenin model,
(2) select the suitable battery model based on MSE, (3) such as backward difference method [12], forward difference
calculating the OCV by the decided battery model, (4) using method and bilinear transform method [13]. On the
the OCV-SOC function to estimate the SOC. assumption that
( )
=( ( )− ( − ∆ ))/∆ ≈ 0 (3)
When the battery undergoes slow charge/discharge process,
the open circuit voltage ( ) only has a slight change at a
Fig. 1 Overall system schematic short sample period, then taking derivative of ( )
+ T+T
( )= ( − 1) ( )
B. Battery model + +
+ ( − 1) + ( ) (4)
C pa Q1 C
pc
Rp Rc
Ro R pa R pc R0
+ U pa − + U pc − Up Uc
iL (t ) i (t )
Cp Cc
U oc UL U oc
U
Fig. 2 Variable-order RC Equivalent Circuit Model

The accurate SOC estimation depends on reliable and Fig. 4 Improved Thevenin model structure
practicable battery model. But the real-time order of the Fig. 4 shows the second order Thevenin model that adds
battery model is unknown, so it is hard to determine the another RC branch to the Thevenin model. In Fig. 4, and
real-time battery’s SOC. In this paper, the SOC estimation are concentration polarization capacitance and
is based on either first or second order battery equivalent concentration polarization resistance respectively. is the
model, use MSE to determines the battery model in real- voltage across the concentration polarization capacitance
time. [14].
In Fig.2, , , are the Ohmic resistance, Similar to the improved Thevenin model, the mathematic
expressions of the second order model are represented as
polarization resistance, and the capacitance. and follows.
are concentration polarization capacitance and ( ) ( )
=− + ( )/ (5)
concentration polarization resistance, is a switch that
determines the model could be first order or second order. ( ) ( )
=− + ( )/ (6)
Fig. 3 shows the first order structure [11]. The first order
U( ) = ( )− ( )− ( )− ( ) (7)
model considers polarization resistance and ( )
polarization capacitor . is the voltage across the Assuming ≈ 0, taking the time the derivative
capacitance , ( ) is charge/discharge current. of ( ) gives
d ( ) 1 1 1
Rp =− ( )+ − ( )
dt
R0 ( )
Up − + + ( )+ −
i (t ) (8)
Cp U
U oc C. Experimental battery characteristic
The high-power cell 18650-HE4 lithium-ion batteries are
utilized in the charge/discharge experiments. Fig. 5 shows
Fig. 3 Thevenin circuit model battery discharge experimental equipment. The lithium-ion
The electrical behavior of Thevenin model can be battery has a nominal capacity 2.5Ah. The nominal voltage is
expressed as follows, 3.7V, setting the maximum charging voltage to 4.2 V and the
( ) ( ) ( ) cutoff voltage to 2.5V. Fig. 4 shows the thermal chamber and
=− + (1) the measurement equipment, the test is carried out under
343
25.3℃ in a constant thermal regulated chamber to reduce the
influence of temperature. Thus, the battery’s temperature
varies within a very small range during the charge-discharge
cycles. In this experiment, the temperature variation is not
considered, and record the battery’s terminal voltage, current,
and the SOC states every five seconds.
Fig. 7 Simscape circuit of improved Thevenin model
Fig. 4 Thermal chamber and measurement equipment
Fig. 8 Simscape circuit of Thevenin model
Fig. 9 Signal builder of current
Fig.5 Battery discharging bench

In order to eliminate the measurement errors and
environmental noise, run the identical experiments with
Voltage [V]
several lithium-ion batteries. Fig. 6 shows the example of five

cells terminal voltage curves.
Voltage [V]
Fig. 10 Simulation results of the Thevenin model and

experiment data
Fig. 10 and 11 show the simulation results of Thevenin model
and estimation error, it is observed that the model has the
accurate estimation result at the most period but the error is
increased at the end of discharge due to polarization effect.
Fig. 6 Experimental voltage variety of five batteries
III. SIMSCAPE VERIFICATION
Fig. 7 and 8 show the Simscape simulation structure for both
Thevenin model and improved Thevenin model. Considering
the existing components in Simscape cannot satisfy the
Error
requirement to build the real battery, using Simcape language

create the battery, resistance, and capacitor
Fig. 11 Estimation error of Thevenin model
344
Voltage [V]
SOC
Fig. 12 Simulation results of improved Thevenin model and Fig. 16 Comparison of the actual SOC, the SOC estimation
experiment data by EKF, and the SOC estimation by variable Thevenin
Fig. 12 and 13 show the simulation results of the improved model
Thevenin model and the estimation error. It is observed that
the model has a better estimation result compared to the
Thevenin model but still a deviation at some period exist.
SOC error
Error
Fig. 17 Comparison of SOC estimation error by proposed

Fig. 13 Estimation error of improved Thevenin model algorithm and EKF
The SOC estimation results and error are shown in Fig. 14
and Fig. 15, the Fig. 16 compares the actual SOC with the
estimation SOC by EKF and SOC estimation SOC by the
proposed algorithm. Moreover, Fig.17 shows the comparison
of SOC estimation error between the proposed algorithm and
Voltage [V]
EKF. It demonstrated the satisfactory SOC estimation

performance with the proposed algorithm.
IV. CONCLUSION
Overall, the system performed as expected. A variable order
battery model has been proposed, and use NN to identify the
Fig. 14 Simulation results of variable Thevenin model and
model parameters, then the identified parameters are
experiment data
provided to both Thevenin model and Improved Thevenin
model. The better estimation results were used to determine
the SOC based on estimation error. The K-means algorithm
is used to process the experimental data to eliminate the
individual difference. The variable order Thevenin model has
good estimation results during discharge periods. The
Error
proposed methods give the best SOC estimation results as

well as the two advantages : (i)Having high accuracy, (ii)Low
computation. The proposed battery model was successful in
the charge/discharge operation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Fig. 15 Estimation error of variable Thevenin model
This work has been supported by Korea Electric Power
Corporation (Grant number: R17XA05-55).
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346
Performance Analysis of a Single-Stage
High-Frequency AC-AC Buck Converter for
a Series-Series Compensated Inductive Power
Transfer System
Phuoc Sang Huynh, Student Member, IEEE, Deepa Vincent, Student Member, IEEE,
Najath Abdul Azeez, Member, IEEE, Lalit Patnaik, Member, IEEE,
and Sheldon S. Williamson, Senior Member, IEEE

Advanced Storage Systems and Electric Transportation (ASSET) Laboratory
General Motors-Automotive Center of Excellence (GM-ACE)
Department of Electrical, Computer, and Software Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario-Institute of Technology
ACE-2025, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada
Tel: +1/ (905) 721-8668, ext. 5744. Fax: +1(905) 721-3178
Email: sheldon.williamson@uoit.ca
URL: http://www.engineering.uoit.ca/; http://ace.uoit.ca/
Abstract—A key requirement in inductive power transfer (IPT) charging. This is because it enables contactless power transfer
systems is primary high-frequency voltage generation. Until via an air gap with several benefits such as safety, convenience,
recently, two power conversion stages (AC-DC-AC) were flexibility, and weather immunity [1]-[4]. The basic
required to generate high-frequency voltage in the IPT systems. configuration of the IPT system consists of a loosely coupled
These systems are usually costly and cumbersome. Matrix AC- inductive coil pair, compensation networks, and power
AC converters, highlighted by the absence of bulky DC link electronic converters. Most of the IPT systems are supplied by
storage elements, are considered as a potential alternative. The utility AC sources. The conventional IPT system is equipped
removal of one power conversion stage enhances the system with a two-stage conversion (AC-DC-AC) on the primary side.
performance in term of efficiency, reliability, size, weight, and
Power factor correction (PFC) is necessary during rectification
cost. Now, AC-AC buck, half-bridge, and full-bridge converters
are gaining popularity in IPT applications. However, highly
from AC mains voltage to DC voltage in order to assure the
accurate analysis of their performance in the IPT systems is a quality of AC input power. Then an inverter connected to the
challenge. In this paper, a simple and accurate mathematical PFC rectifier via a DC-link filter generates a high-frequency
analysis for the AC-AC buck converter supplying a series-series voltage feeding the primary coil. Such a system is unreliable,
compensated IPT system is given. Performance indicators used costly, and bulky because it comprises many components.
for analysis are input power factor and power transfer Reduction in the number of power conversion stages can be
capability. The accuracy of the analysis is validated through achieved by employing matrix AC-AC converters, which can
simulation. The analytical results presented in this paper can
directly generate high-frequency primary voltage from the low-
also be employed to analyze the series-series IPT system fed from
other AC-AC matrix converters.
frequency AC mains. The removal of energy storage elements
in the DC-link enhances the system performance in term of
Keywords—AC-AC converter, inductive power transfer (IPT), efficiency, reliability, size, weight, and cost. Some matrix AC-
and series-series (SS) compensation network. AC converters have been recently introduced for IPT
applications, such as AC-AC buck [5]-[6], half-bridge [7]-[8],
and full-bridge [9]-[12]. Another benefit of these matrix
I. INTRODUCTION
converters is the capability of bidirectional power flow control,
Nowadays, inductive power transfer (IPT) technology is and can be used as a grid interface of an energy storage system
utilized in a wide range of applications such as medical described as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) in [13].
implant, electrical appliances, and electric vehicle (EV) battery
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 347

(a)
(b)
Fig. 1 (a) The topology of the SS IPT system with an AC-AC buck converter.
(b) Its equivalent circuit.
Fig. 2 Input voltage, switching scheme, and output voltage of the AC-AC
buck converter.
The comprehensive analysis of a matrix converter based
IPT is inherently complicated and involves large equations.
This paper aims to present a simple but accurate method to where ton is the on time of the switch S1, and Ts is the switching
analyze the performance of the matrix converter connected period.
with the IPT system. The topology of the AC-AC buck
converter with SS IPT as shown in Fig. 1(a) is picked for It can be observed from Fig. 2 that the output voltage of
analysis. Section II presents the switching scheme and the the AC-AC buck converter is a product between the line
output voltage waveform of the AC-AC buck converter. Next, voltage vi(t) and the PWM function GPWM(t) as given by:
the mathematical analysis of the key performance indicators v p (t ) = vi (t ) × G PWM (t )
(input power quality and power transfer capability) of the AC- (2)
AC buck converter with series-series IPT is given in Section = DVm sin(ω i t )
III, and simulation validation is shown in Section IV. Finally, Vm ∞
 sin(nDπ )
some conclusions are made in Section V. The analytical + ∑  [sin(nω s + ωi )t − sin(nω s − ωi )t ]
π n =1 n 
process presented in this paper can also be extended to IPT
systems using other matrix converter topologies. where
2 +∞
 sin(nDπ )  (3)
II. SWITCHING SCHEMES OF THE AC-AC BUCK CONVERTER
GPWM (t ) = D + ∑  cos(nω s t )
π n =1 n 
It has been established that the equivalent circuit of the SS
From (2), it can be seen that the output voltage of the AC-
IPT system operated at resonance can be obtained by reflecting
AC converter contains the line frequency component and the
secondary impedance to the primary side [14]. Now the circuit
sidebands of the switching frequency and its multiples.
is further reduced as shown in Fig. 1(b).
The AC-AC buck converter includes two bidirectional III. CIRCUIT ANALYSIS
switches S1 (S1a, S1b) and S2 (S2a, S2b). The switching schemes
of the AC-AC buck converter were introduced in [15] and [16]. A. Circuit impedances at the switching-frequency sidebands
However, the latter is performed in this paper due to its
For SS IPT, capacitors Cp and Cs resonate with the primary
simplicity and lower losses. As can be seen in Fig. 2, during
and secondary self-inductance Lp and Ls, respectively at the
the positive half-cycle of the line voltage, switches S1b and S2b
are turned on, whereas switches S1a and S2a are controlled by switching frequency (ωs = ωo). These resonant networks play a
complementary PWMs. During the negative half-cycle of the role as a sharp band-pass filter passing only components
line voltage, S1a and S2a are kept conducting, while S1b and S2b around resonance and blocking the others. Therefore, only the
are driven by complementary PWMs. A dead time should be sidebands of the switching frequency in the vp(t) contribute to
introduced between the switches S1 and S2, to avoid shoot- current generation. Since the IPT system is operated in the off-
through. However, the dead time is ignored to simplify the resonance condition (ω = ωo ± ωi), determining circuit
analysis in this paper. impedances at these sidebands is important to analyze the
system performance. The equations for the impedances can be
Duty ratio D of the AC-AC buck converter is defined as derived as follows.
t on (1)
D=
Ts
348
• Secondary impedance at ω = ωo ± ωi (ωo >> ωi):
  ω ± ωi ω0 
Z s (ω0 ± ωi ) = RL 1 + jQs  o − 
  ω0 ωo ± ωi  (4)
≈ Z s e ± jθ s
where
1 1 , Qs = ω 0 Ls = 1
ω0 = =
Ls Cs LpC p RL ω 0 RL C s
ωi2 , and  ω 
Z s = R 1 + 4Qs2
2
θ s = tan −1  2Qs i  .
ωo  ω0  Fig. 3 Variation of power transferred and input current harmonics as a
function of D.
• Reflected secondary impedance at ω = ωo ± ωi:
(ω0 ± ωi ) 2 M 2 ii (t ) = i p (t ) × GPWM (t )
Z sr (ω0 ± ωi ) =
Z s (ω0 ± ωi ) (5) 2Vm
= sin 2 ( Dπ ) sin (ωi t − θ p )
(ω0 ± ωi ) 2 M 2 m jθ s π 2 Zp
= e
Zs DVm
+ sin( Dπ )[sin ((ω s + ωi )t − θ p ) − sin ((ω s − ω i )t + θ p )] (8)
π Zp
• Primary impedance at ω = ωo ± ωi:
Vm
  + sin 2 ( Dπ )[sin(2ω s + ωi )t − sin ((2ω s − ωi )t + θ p )]
1 π 2 Zp
Z p (ω 0 ± ω i ) = j (ω 0 ± ωi ) L p − 
 (ω 0 ± ωi )C p  2Vm +∞
 sin (nDπ )
+ Z sr (ω0 ± ω i ) (6) + 2
π Zp
sin( Dπ ) ∑ 
n= 2  n
± jθ p
≈ Zp e 
[sin((ω
+ ω i )t − θ p ) − sin ((ω s − ωi t ) + θ p )]
s

where
It can be clearly seen that the input current spectrum shows
the presence of the line frequency component lagging θp with
ω04 M 4 4M 2ωi 4ω 2
Zp = 2
− sin θ s + 4 i 2 , and the line voltage and the sidebands of the switching frequency
Zs Zs Cp ω0 C p and its multiples. The undesirable high order harmonic
components injected into the grid can be easily removed by
 2ωi Z s  using a proper LC low-pass filter. Moreover, when ωs = ωo >>
θ p = tan −1  24
− tan θ s  .
 ωi, the angle θp is nearly 0, and the input power factor is in turn
 ω C p M cos θ s
0  nearly unity.
B. Input current quality C. Power transfer capability

The primary current ip(t) can be derived as: Ignoring the switching losses and coil losses, the power
transferred from the primary side to the secondary side is
v p (t ) Vm  sin(ω + ω )t sin(ω − ω )t  determined by
i p (t ) = ≈ sin( Dπ )  s
jθ
i
− s
− jθ
i

Z p (ω ) π (7)
 Z p e p Z p e p 
[ ] [
P = I p (ω s + ωi ) × Re Z p (ω s + ωi )
2
] (9)
2Vm
sin( Dπ ) cos(ω s t )sin (ωi t − θ p ) + [I (ω − ω )] × Re[Z (ω − ω )]
2
= p s i p s i
π Zp
V2
= 2 m sin 2 ( Dπ ) cos θ p
As can be seen from (7), the primary current is in the form π Zp
of an amplitude-modulated signal with a sinusoidal modulating
signal lagging θp with respect to the line voltage. Moreover, the where Ip (ωo ± ωi) are the rms values of current at at ω = ωo ±
modulating signal becomes maximum at D = 0.5. In other ωi
words, the primary current and output power are maximum
when D = 0.5. From (9), it can be observed that the maximum power is
delivered at D = 0.5. Fig. 3 shows the variation of the
Neglecting switching losses, the input current ii(t) is magnitude of the switching-frequency sidebands in the input
defined as current and the power transferred as functions of D. Note that
349
in order to minimize input current harmonics and maintain
transferred power level, the AC-AC buck converter should be
controlled in the range of 0 ≤ D ≤ 0.5.
IV. SIMULATION VALIDATION

In this section, a PLECS-based simulation is implemented
in order to verify the accuracy of the mathematical analysis of
the IPT system fed by the AC-AC buck converter. The system
parameters are given in Table I.
TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF SS IPT USED FOR SIMULATION
Parameters Values
vi 12 V/60 Hz
Lp 149.1 µH
Ls 23.4 µH
M 13.15 µH
Cp 73.74 nF
Cs 469.83 nF
f0 48 kHz
(a)
Fig. 4 shows the typical waveforms in the IPT system at D
= 0.5 and RL = 30 Ω. The zero crossing portion has been
zoomed in to show the phase displacement between the line
voltage and the fundamental component of the input current. It
can be seen that in this case, the angle θp is 120. A comparison
between simulation and mathematical calculation with
different D and RL is presented in Table II. The calculations
from the proposed analysis closely match the simulation
results. Fig. 5 shows the variation of angle θp with RL load.
Note that larger RL results in larger θp, thereby lowering the
input power factor.
The input current waveforms and spectrum at duty ratios D
= 0.3 and D = 0.7 are plotted in Fig. 6. It is clear that the input
current contains the fundamental component and the sidebands
of the switching frequency and its multiples. Additionally, as
can be seen in Fig. 6, for the same fundamental component, the
high-frequency current harmonics injected to the grid is higher
when the converter is operated at a higher duty ratio. This
proves the mathematical analysis that the AC-AC buck
converter should be controlled in the range of 0 ≤ D ≤ 0.5.
The waveform of input current after being filtered by an LC
filter is shown in Fig. 7. The filtered input current is sinusoidal (b)
and almost in phase with AC source voltage.
Fig. 4 (a) Typical waveforms at D = 0.5 and RL = 30 Ω. (b) Zoomed in
waveforms near zero crossing of input voltage.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the performance of the series IPT system with current quality and power transfer capability of the SS IPT
the AC-AC buck converter is mathematically analyzed. The system fed from other AC-AC converters such as half-bridge
accuracy of the analysis is successfully validated using (HB) and full-bridge (FB) converters can be achieved using the
simulation. There is a good agreement between analysis and same analytical process as shown in Appendix. Note that, the
simulation results. By employing AC-AC buck converter to switching patterns of the HB and buck converters are identical,
generate high-frequency current in the IPT system, the stage of while phase shift PWM scheme is used for FB converter.
PFC and DC-link elements are removed; therefore, the Obviously, the buck and HB converters transfer the same
performance of the system is improved in terms of reliability, maximum power. However, that value increases by 4 times
size, weight, and cost. The analysis shows that the grid power with using matrix FB converter. Input current of all topologies
factor of the system depends on the load. However, when ωs = contains fundamental component at line frequency. Current
ωo >> ωi , the grid power factor is nearly unity. The input harmonics in buck and HB are the sidebands of the switching
350
TABLE II. COMPARISON BETWEEN CALCULATION AND SIMULATION
RL θp (deg) P (W)
D Qs
(Ω) Calculation Simulation Calculation Simulation
5 1.411 1.84 1.79 6.07 6.07
10 0.706 3.99 4.1 12.08 12.09
0.3
20 0.352 8.09 8.1 23.80 23.81
30 0.235 12.07 12.1 34.84 34.84
5 1.411 1.84 1.79 9.27 9.27
10 0.706 3.99 4.1 18.46 18.46
0.5
20 0.352 8.09 8.1 36.37 36.37
30 0.235 12.07 12.1 53.22 53.22
5 1.411 1.84 1.79 6.07 6.07
10 0.706 3.99 4.1 12.08 12.09
0.7
20 0.352 8.09 8.1 23.80 23.81
30 0.235 12.07 12.1 34.84 34.84
(a) (b)
Fig. 6 Waveform and frequency spectrum of the input current at (a) D = 0.3
and (b) D = 0.7.
Fig. 5 Dependence of θp on RL.
frequency and its multiples. On the other hand, input current of

FB converter contains harmonics at the sidebands of the double
switching frequency and its multiples. In IPT applications, the
switching frequency is much higher than line frequency, so the
current harmonics can be removed very easily using a simple
low-pass filter without distorting fundamental component.
APPENDIX Fig. 7 Filtered input current at D = 0.3 and RL = 30 Ω.
AC-AC half-bridge converter

+ Input current quality AC-AC full-bridge converter
+ Input current quality
2Vm
ii (t ) = sin 2 ( Dπ ) sin (ωi t − θ p )
π 2 Zp
8Vm cos 2 α
( 2 D − 1)Vm ii (t ) = sin (ω i t − θ p )
+ sin( Dπ )[sin ((ωs + ωi )t − θ p ) − sin ((ωs − ωi )t + θ p )] (A.1) π 2 Zp
2π Z p
4Vm cos α
+
Vm
sin 2 ( Dπ ){[sin ((2ωs + ωi )t − θ p ) − sin ((2ω s − ωi )t + θ p )]}
+ [sin((2ω s − ωi )t + θ p ) − sin((2ω s + ωi )t − θ p )] (A.3)
π 2 Zp π 2 Zp
4Vm cos α +∞
1
2Vm sin(nDπ )
∑  n cos(nα )[sin(((n + 1)ω − ω i )t + θ p )
+∞
+ sin( Dπ )∑  cos(nωs t ) + s
π 2 Zp n=2  n π 2 Zp n =3
n odd
[sin((ω s + ωi )t − θ p ) − sin ((ω s − ωi t ) + θ p )]} − sin (((n + 1)ω s + ω i )t − θ p )
+ Power transfer capability + sin (((n − 1)ω s + ω i )t − θ p )
V 2
(A.2) − sin (((n − 1)ω s − ω i )t + θ p )]
P= m
sin 2 ( Dπ ) cosθ p
2
π Zp where α is phase-shift angle between two legs of the converter.
351
+ Power transfer capability 7th International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed
Generation Systems (PEDG), Vancouver, BC, 2016, pp. 1-8.
4 cos θ p Vm cos α  2 (A.4) [9] G. R. Kalra, C. Y. Huang, D. J. Thirmawithana, U. K. Madawala and M.
P= Neuburger, "A comparative study on grid-integration techniques used in
Z p  π 
 bi-directional IPT based V2G applications," 2016 IEEE 2nd Annual
Southern Power Electronics Conference (SPEC), Auckland, 2016, pp. 1-
6.
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352
Die Level Sensor Integration in SiC Power Modules
Minhao Sheng, Muhammad H. Alvi, Robert D. Lorenz
WEMPEC
Madison, WI, USA
msheng@wisc.edu, alvi@wisc.edu, rdlorenz@wisc.edu
Abstract- Giant magnetoresistive (GMR) detectors have been In [13], flat bandwidth (FBW) was proposed to quantify the
integrated in terminals of 2-in-1 Si IGBT modules for dynamic behavior of field distributions in power modules. 5%
galvanically isolated current sensing. This work integrates
GMRs into the region directly adjacent to the die of SiC FBW is defined as the frequency of current at which the
MOSFET modules. A fully integrated, ultra-low noise sensing magnitude of the magnetic field first deviates by ±5% from
system with a bandwidth of 2 MHz is developed. The Cu layers the field magnitude at DC current. By placing detectors in
in the DBC substrate influence the near die magnetic field. This high FBW regions instead of low FBW regions, current
field is analyzed and field differentiation is developed to extend sensing results will be less affected by frequency dependent
the flat bandwidth (FBW). FEA and experimental results of the
developed sensing methodologies are presented. The die level effects such as skin and proximity effects.
sensor integration is crucial for compact EV applications. In Si power modules, bond wires yield low FBW due to
nearby conductive material in the substrate. A field shaping
I. INTRODUCTION method was proposed in [14] to increase the FBW
surrounding the bond wires in the Si module. An additional
Significant advancements in the wide band gap (WBG)
conductive layer positioned above the bond wire was used to
devices over the past few years has now led to the mass
null the influence of the nearby conductive material on the
production of silicon carbide (SiC) power modules. Power
FBW. In SiC modules, the chip size are smaller than in Si
density, switching speed, voltage rating, temperature rating,
modules. As a result, the number of bond wires attached to
and efficiency of power electronics systems can be
the chip is reduce. Direct bonded copper (DBC), instead of
significantly improved by utilizing WBG devices. Following
bond wires, becomes the major current carrying interconnect
the trend of the evolving power electronics systems, current
that dominates the fields in module die region. The field
sensing systems that are capable of integration in SiC power
shaping method in [14] hasn’t been evaluated in SiC modules
modules are desired. The most commonly employed current
for extending the FBW of DBC fields.
sensing method in silicon (Si) based systems is the magnetic
One feature of the SiC module is the low commutation
core-based Hall-effect sensors [1][2]. The existence of the
inductance. As a result, the magnetic field flux density is
magnetic core makes the sensing system bulky and prone to
lower in SiC modules than in Si modules, which poses
core overheating at a high switching frequency. Most module
challenge to field-based sensing in terms of signal-to-noise
integrated current sensing utilizes shunt resistors, which are
ratio (SNR). The SiC semiconductor also features faster
not galvanically isolated [1-8]. The bandwidth of such
switching than Si, which leads to a higher bandwidth
sensing systems is limited by the inherent parasitics and the
requirement for current sensing. MHz level sensing
signal processing interface for isolation [3-9]. Substrate-
bandwidth is required for SiC devices that are capable of
integrated shunts can achieve high-level integration [4][5].
hundreds of kHz switching. Furthermore, although terminals
However, extra substrate area is needed for shunts and
can be used for sensing, integration of detectors in the regions
unwanted parasitics may be introduced.
directly adjacent to the die could achieve a higher level of
In order to achieve module integration and galvanic
integration, which is crucial for compact EV applications. In
isolation at the same time, Giant magnetoresistive (GMR)
these near die regions, the magnetic fields are simultaneously
field detectors have been integrated into the power modules
influenced by bond wires, direct bonded copper, base plate,
[10-14]. GMR-based closed-loop control has already been
and semiconductor chips.
realized in an inverter consisting of three 2-in-1 Si IGBTs
This paper extends GMR-based integrated sensing from Si
with external extruded terminals [10]. Simultaneous
to SiC modules. The developed sensing system that meets the
temperature information extraction using the same GMR
requirement of SiC applications is introduced in Section II. In
setup has also been achieved. In [10], the detectors were
Section III, FEA methods are used to identify the limitations
module integrated but the conditioning circuits were placed
of the field shaping method in SiC modules. To overcome the
outside of the module. The current sensing bandwidth
limitations, a field differentiation method is developed in
achieved was limited to 100 kHz, which is not sufficient for
Section IV to extend the FBW. Section V experimentally
SiC devices. Furthermore, although modules with external
evaluates the performance achieved with these methodologies
extruded terminals are still in use, module structures without
via die level integration of GMR detector-based sensing
extruded terminals are more commonly employed due to the
systems in a SiC MOSFET module open sample [15].
smaller size and the reduced stray inductance.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 353

II. DEVELOPED SENSING SYSTEM noise after 300 times on-board amplification. The -3dB
bandwidth of the circuit board is 2 MHz. This bandwidth is
A. Identification of Current Paths in Different Switching limited by the amplifiers.
States
The first step for GMR-based sensing is to identify
independent current signals in the cross-coupled system. In a
half bridge power stage, three terminal currents exist: positive
DC bus current, negative DC bus current, and AC switching
current, as shown in Fig. 1. Any two of the three currents are
(a) Zoomed side view of sensing PCB in the module
independent. In this work, positive and negative DC bus
currents are viewed as independent currents. The AC
switching current is the sum of the two DC bus currents based
on Kirchhoff’s law. Fig. 1 also illustrates the relation with an
example waveform that will be used in the experiment.
(b) Experimental setup with the entire sensing system integrated

Fig. 2. SiC module open sample [15] and integrated GMR sensing board
(a) DC-coupled circuit (b) Developed AC-coupled circuit

Fig. 3. Comparison between DC-coupled GMR conditioning circuit and
the developed AC-coupled circuit
Fig. 1. Current signals in a power stage with example current waveforms
III. FIELD SHAPING EFFECTS IN SIC MODULES
B. AC-coupled Low Noise GMR Circuit
The Sensitec GF705 GMR detector [16] is used in this A. Field Shaping Effect of Bottom-Cu on DBC
work due to its small size and high sensitivity. In order to The power module stack-up structure is shown in Fig. 4.
achieve full integration of the sensing systems in the SiC The terminologies used in this paper are also shown. In this
modules, the conditioning and processing circuits are paper, ‘DBC’ refers to the top Cu layer in DBC substrate.
developed to fit in a 23x24 mm PCB, as shown in Fig. 2. As ‘DBC substrate bottom Cu’ or ‘bottom-Cu’ refers to the
per [10-14] and [16], to have the GMR operate in its linear bottom Cu layer.
range, a bias magnet is often attached to the PCB to provide a It is shown in [14] that the FBW of bond wires is low due
DC bias field. As a result, the GMR detector output has a to nearby conductive layers. On the contrary, DBC, as a
constant offset voltage, which needs to be removed before conductor with rectangular cross-section, has high FBW in
signal amplification to avoid saturation of the amplifier. free space [13][14]. However, when another conductive layer
Usually a processing stage consisting of several op-amps is is laid below the DBC, its FBW is also degraded. Fig. 5
applied to remove this DC offset voltage, as shown in Fig. shows FEA results of a simplified DBC and bottom-Cu
3(a). This stage takes up space in the PCB, and degrades the model that demonstrates the field shaping effect of bottom-
SNR due to the amplifier noise. To address this issue, AC Cu. Fig. 5(b)(c) and (e) show the x-axis field flux density at
coupling is used in the developed circuit at the GMR to signal DC, 15 kHz and 10 MHz, respectively. At DC, the fields
processing interface. The AC coupling is realized by adding generated by the currents flowing in the DBC penetrate
two capacitors to the GMR output, as shown in Fig. 3(b). through the bottom-Cu. At 15 kHz, the fields start to be
Consequently, DC fields from the bias magnet and sensed shaped by the bottom-Cu. At 10 MHz, the fields are shaped to
currents are blocked. Since the DC removal stage is no longer be confined in the regions above the bottom-Cu. Shown in
needed, the number of amplifiers in the circuit is reduced, Fig. 5(d) is a field FRF at a point above the DBC. It can be
which leads to a smaller PCB size. The SNR is also improved seen that at around 10 kHz the field starts to deviate more
because less noises are induced by the amplifiers. The than 5% from its DC value. The FBW plot of the simplified
developed AC-coupled GMR circuit has no more than 15 mV model is shown in Fig. 5(f). It can be observed that the 5%
354
FBW is below 10 kHz all over the studied region. In other Fig. 6 shows the model and FEA results of the DBC and
words, the fields of the DBC are shaped to yield a low FBW bottom-Cu structure with the additional Cu layer at different
because of the existence of the bottom-Cu. heights. It can be seen that when the additional Cu layer is
placed close enough to the DBC, as shown in Fig. 6(c), the
FBW in some regions is extended to up to 1 MHz. However,
when the additional Cu layer is placed far away from the
DBC due to the existence of the GMR detector (0.55 mm in
height), as shown in Fig. 6(b), the FBW remains low.
The method proposed in [10] can be used in Si modules.
The additional Cu layer can be placed at proper locations
when it is used to extend the FBW of bond wires. However,
Fig. 4. Power module stack-up structure [15], the DBC substrate consists
of DBC layer, AlN insulation layer and bottom-Cu layer as shown in Fig. 6(b), when the method is used to extend the
FBW of DBCs, the 0.55mm height of the GMR detector
Furthermore, to illustrate the need for using 5% instead of negates the effect of the additional Cu layer. Furthermore, the
3dB as a percentage criteria for sensing, the 3dB lines are also height of the bond wire and insulation requirements also stop
shown in Fig. 5(d). It can be seen that the 3dB FBW of the the additional Cu layer from getting close enough to the
selected point goes up to 10 MHz. However, at around 100 DBC. Consequently the field shaping method via additional
kHz the fields have already deviated from its DC value by Cu layer can’t be applied to SiC modules where the DBC is
more than 25%. In other words, sensing of current signals the major current carrying interconnect.
with a frequency higher than 100 kHz would end up with an IV. FIELD DIFFERENTIATION FOR FBW EXTENSION
error more than 25%, which is not acceptable for most
applications. So in this work most magnetic field analysis are A. Field Differentiation Based on Imaged Current
based on the 5% criteria instead of the commonly used 3dB. Since the field shaping method is no longer effective, a
B. Field Shaping Method in SiC Modules new method that is compatible with SiC module structure
As stated before, a field shaping method was proposed in should be developed. As analyzed before, the FBW of DBC is
[14] to deal with the field shaping effect in the Si modules. degraded by the effect of the bottom-Cu. So in order to
An additional Cu layer, which could be a poured Cu layer on extend the FBW of the DBC, this effect should be decoupled.
the sensing PCB, was placed at the other side of the DBC to It is common to model an electrical conductor boundary using
decouple the effect of the bottom-Cu. To evaluate the an imaged current, as shown in Fig. 7. The original DBC and
effectiveness of this field shaping method in SiC modules, bottom-Cu structure in Fig. 7(a) can be effectively modelled
Flux Density[mT]
Flux Density[mT]
Position[mm]
Position[mm]
(a) Simplified FEA model of DBC Position[mm] Position[mm]

and bottom-Cu (b) DC x-axis field. Fields penetrate through bottom-Cu. (c) 15 kHz x-axis field. Fields start to be shaped.
Flux density[mT]
Flux Density[mT]
Position[mm]
Position[mm]
FBW[Hz]
Frequency [Hz] Position[mm] Position[mm]

-- ±5% line -- ±3dB line (e) 10 MHz x-axis field. Fields are fully confined above (f) 5% FBW
(d) FRF of field at [0, 0.2] the bottom-Cu.
Fig. 5. FEA results of a simplified DBC and bottom-Cu model
FBW[Hz]
FBW[Hz]
Position[mm]
Position[mm]
(a) Simplified FEA model of DBC Position[mm] Position[mm]

and bottom-Cu with an additional Cu (b) FBW with the Cu layer placed 0.55 mm away from (c) FBW with the Cu layer placed 0.27 mm away
layer the DBC. 0.55 mm is the height of the GMR detector. from the DBC
Fig. 6. FEA results of a DBC and bottom-Cu model with additional Cu layer at different heights
355
by the structure shown in Fig 7(b). The dashed yellow box in The limitation of the proposed imaged current-based field
Fig. 7(b) represents the imaged conductor. At DC, it is differentiation method is that the imaged current has a
infinitely far away because the fields at DC penetrate through frequency dependent location, which leads to a frequency
the bottom-Cu. At high frequencies, it approaches the dependent cross-coupling matrix. Such a cross-coupling
symmetrical position of the original conductor at the other matrix indicates that the decoupled sensing result is only
side of the bottom-Cu, which causes the field shaping effect. accurate within a limited frequency range, which is not
Since the effect of the bottom-Cu is replaced by an imaged desired. To address this, the detector locations need to be
current, the field of the imaged current can be decoupled by a optimized. Fig. 8 illustrates the concept of an improved field
second detector. differentiation method that could be applied to all
frequencies. Two detector locations of the model in Fig. 5(a)
are selected, as shown in Fig. 8(a). The field FRFs of the two
selected locations are shown in Fig. 8(b). It can be seen that
neither of the two locations have 5% FBW higher than 10
kHz due to the field shaping effect. Shown in Fig. 8(c) is a
(a) Cross section of the original DBC and bottom-Cu model scaled FRF plot in which detector 1 is multiplied by a certain
scale factor (×1.31 in this example). The scaled FRFs of the
two detector locations have similar trend and an almost
constant difference. Therefore, a differentiation operation
applied to the two detectors results in a flat FRF, as shown in
Fig. 8(d). The 5% FBW of the differentiation result is
extended to over 100 kHz. In fact, the FRF only escapes the
5% line by a small amount. If a less restricted percentage is
used, e.g. 10%, the FBW reaches over 10 MHz, which is
sufficient for most applications. To conclude, by placing two
detectors in selected locations that are similarly affected by
the field shaping effect, a field differentiation can be applied
to the two detectors to extend the FBW to a high frequency.
(b) Decoupling of imaged conductor using a second detector

Fig. 7. Illustration of field differentiation
For instance, at high frequency when the imaged current (a) Selected detector locations in the DBC and bottom-Cu model
approaches the symmetrical position, detector 1 and detector
2 in Fig. 7(b) pick up the field of both the original and the − Detector1
Flux density
imaged currents, forming a cross-coupling matrix

[mT]
− Detector2
 C11 C12   iorigin  = B1  - - ±5% line

 C C i    (1)
 21 22   image   B2  Frequency[Hz]
(b) Field FRF of two detector locations in Fig. 5: detector 1 at [-1.1, 0.5]
where C11, C12, C21 and C22 are the elements of the cross- and detector 2 at [-1.5,0.5]
coupling matrix, iorigin and iimage are the original and imaged − 1.31 × Detector1
Flux density
− Detector2
[mT]
currents, respectively, B1 and B2 are fields detected by

detector 1 and detector 2, respectively.
Note that at high frequencies when the imaged current has
already approached the symmetrical position, all the elements Frequency[Hz]
of the cross-coupling matrix are geometry dependent only. As (c) Scaled field FRF showing a nearly constant difference between the
long as the relative locations of the detectors are fixed w.r.t two responses
the DBC, the cross-coupling matrix will be a constant matrix. − 1.31 × Detector1 –
Flux density
With the knowledge of B1 and B2, iorigin can be solved by Detector2

[mT]
inverting the cross-coupling matrix. The solved original

- - ±5% line
current is not affected by the field shaping effect of the
bottom-Cu since the imaged current that models this effect is
decoupled. Frequency[Hz]
(d) Field differentiation between the two detectors results in a flat FRF
B. Field Differentiation for the Entire Frequency Range Fig. 8. FEA results of the improved field differentiation method
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
356
A. Evaluation of Developed GMR Circuit amplifier. The 100 MHz current probe is used as reference.
The SNR and bandwidth of the developed GMR circuit are Fig. 12(a) shows the detector locations used in this test. GMR
first evaluated. An experimental comparison between the DC 1 and 3 are used to measure the positive DC current.
coupled circuit used in [10] and the developed AC coupled Following the convention defined in Fig. 1, the positive DC
circuit is shown in Fig. 9. The test is carried out by injecting a current flows from +DC to AC terminals. GMR 1 and 2 are
500 Hz square wave current to the SiC module by keeping the used to measure the negative DC current, which flows from
gate positively biased. The detectors of both GMR boards are –DC to AC terminals. GMR 1 can be used for both positive
positioned at the same location inside the module. Since the and negative DC currents because it’s placed close to the AC
purpose of this test is to evaluate the board performance, the switching current, which is the sum of the two DC currents,
detector location doesn’t necessarily have a high FBW. The as illustrated in Fig. 1. Fig. 12(b) shows the GMR 1 and 2
results are scaled to the current reference. It can be results before differentiation. Each GMR is scaled to the
seen that the SNR of the developed AC-coupled circuit is magnitude of the current reference based on the peak to peak
approximately 5 times better than the DC-coupled circuit. value.
GMR
Current[A]
Current[A]
Current probe
Time[ms] Time[ms]
(a) DC-coupled circuit (b) Developed AC-coupled circuit
Fig 9. Experimental comparison of GMR circuit SNR on a quasi-square wave
signal injected to the SiC module
(a) GMR locations in the SiC module. Thick arrows indicate current paths,
The bandwidth of the developed circuit is then tested. of which the labels and colors are consistent with those shown in Fig. 1.
Because of the low FBW in the module, the test is conducted Arrows in white box indicates GMR’s axis of sensitivity.
on a PCB trace, which has a relatively higher FBW. A 1 MHz
triangular wave is injected to the PCB by a signal generator GMR 1
GMR 2
and a power amplifier. A 100 MHz current probe is used as a
Current[A]
Current probe
reference. The time domain result and FRF are shown in Fig.
10 and 11, respectively. A 2 MHz bandwidth with nearly zero
phase lag is verified by the FRF in Fig. 11.
GMR
Current probe
Current[A]
Time[ms]
(b) GMR outputs scaled to the current probe reference
GMR-based negative
DC bus current
Current[A]
Time[μs] (differentiation result)

Fig. 10. Experimental evaluation of GMR circuit bandwidth on a 1 Current probe
MHz triangular current signal injected to a PCB trace
− +3dB line
|ii |
GMR
probe
− -3dB line Time[ms]

(c) GMR-based negative DC current measurement with the improved field
differentiation between GMR1 and 2
Fig. 12. Experimental evaluation of field differentiation for negative DC
bus current measurement
Phase
[deg]
It can be seen in Fig. 12(a) that after the scaling, neither of

the two detector match the current reference due to the low
Frequency[Hz] FBW. A significant mismatch between the GMR and
Fig. 11. FRF of measurement accuracy comparing GMR current signal to
current probe on a PCB trace with 1 MHz excitation. 2 MHz 3dB reference exists in the time period right after the falling edge
bandwidth is verified. of the quasi-square waveform, which indicates a poor
dynamic response and a need for FBW extension. The result
B. Experimental Results of Field Differentiation
of applying field differentiation to the two detectors is shown
Field differentiation is then experimentally evaluated. The
in Fig. 12(c). It can be observed that the differentiated result
current signals of the same 1 kHz quasi-square waveform as
better matches the reference, especially in the time period
in Fig. 1 are injected into the SiC open sample for both
right after the falling edge. The FRF before and after field
switching states using a signal generator and a power
357
differentiation is shown in Fig. 13. The 5% FBW is extended REFERENCES
from 2 kHz to more than 10 kHz. Note that the FBW [1] S. Ziegler, R.C. Woodward, H.H.C. Iu, L.J. Borle, "Current Sensing
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[2] C. Xiao, L. Zhao, T. Asada, W.G. Odendaal and J.D. van Wyk, "An
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** GMR1 Conference, 2003, pp. 1251-1258 vol.2.
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[AA]
** GMR2
** GMR-based Microfluxgate Magnetometer Using Pulsed Excitation," 2007 IEEE
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iprobe
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- - - 5% FBW line SiC power modules with integrated shunt — Low-profile design for
Frequency[Hz] low inductance and low cost," 2016 18th European Conference on
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[5] M. Spang and N. Hofstoetter, "Evaluation of Current Measurement
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GMR3 Europe 2017; International Exhibition and Conference for Power
Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy
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Current[A]
Management, Nuremberg, Germany, 2017, pp. 1-8.

DC bus current
[6] H. Niu, “The effect of load properties on the reliability of machine
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drives — The temperature and stress analysis of power module bond
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Cincinnati, Oct. 2017.
[7] Z. Zhang, D. Leggate and T. Matsuo, "Industrial Inverter Current
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Fig. 14. Experimental evaluation of field differentiation for positive DC June 2017.
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Current Sensing," in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 51, no.
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VI. CONCLUSIONS [9] H. Niu, “A Review of Power Cycle Driven Fatigue, Aging, and Failure
Modes for Semiconductor Power Modules”, IEEE International Electric
This work establishes methodology for magnetic field- Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC), Miami, FL, May 2017.
based sensor integration in the region directly adjacent to the [10] T.J. Brauhn, M. Sheng, B.A. Dow, H. Nogawa and R.D. Lorenz,
die in a SiC MOSFET module. Key conclusions are "Module-Integrated GMR-Based Current Sensing for Closed-Loop
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summarized as follows: Applications, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 222-231, Jan.-Feb. 2017.
• The entire sensing system can be integrated in the SiC [11] J.D. Hoffman, B.A. Dow, R.D. Lorenz, “Integration of Point Field
modules with a sensing bandwidth of 2 MHz. Detectors within Power Electron. Packages to Achieve Multifunctional
Sensing,” Proc. ASME Int. Tech. Conf. and Exhibition on Packaging
• The AC-coupled GMR-to-amplifier interface can and Integration of Electron. and Photonic Microsyst. (InterPACK),
increase the sensing SNR to meet the requirement of 2013.
field-based current sensing in SiC modules. [12] E.R. Olson and R.D. Lorenz, "Effective Use of Miniature, Multi-Point,
Field-Based Current Sensors without Magnetic Cores," 2007 IEEE
• In SiC modules, the DBC substrate bottom-Cu degrades Industry Applications Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, 2007, pp.
the FBW of DBC. 1426-1433.
• The field shaping method can’t extend the FBW due to [13] E.R. Olson, R.D. Lorenz, “Using the dynamic behavior of
superimposed fields for point field-based current sensing”, Annual
the practical size of GMR detector and the height of IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conf. and Exposition, March 2006,
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• Field differentiation can extend the FBW by an [14] P.E. Schneider, M. Horio, R.D. Lorenz, “Integrating Giant Megneto-
Resistive (GMR) Field Detectors for High Bandwidth Current Sensing
additional detector that decouples the effect of the DBC in Power Electronic Modules,” in IEEE Transactions on Industry
substrate bottom-Cu. Applications, vol.48,no.4, pp. 1432-1439, 2012.
With these, the GMR sensing system can be compactly [15] ROHM Semiconductor, “BSM080D12P2C008: SiC Power Devices”,
BSM080D12P2C008 datasheet, Mar. 2016.
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multiple currents, which yields compact configurations that GmbH, Germany, Jan. 2014.
are consistent with EV requirements.
358
Design of a Fast Dynamic On-resistance
Measurement Circuit for GaN Power HEMTs
Fei Yang, Chi Xu, Enes Ugur, Shi Pu, Bilal Akin
The University of Texas at Dallas
Richardson, TX, 75080, USA.
fei.yang1@utdallas.edu
Abstract—Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices are becoming an operation, it is meaningful to evaluate the value of dynamic on-
attractive option in industry to achieve high-power-density and resistance at different operation conditions.
high-efficiency converter design. However, the dynamic on-
resistance of GaN devices still remains a major concern. In this However, the measurement circuit of Rdyn-ds,on is
paper, a new dynamic on-resistance measurement circuit is challenging for two reasons. First, the measurement circuit
proposed for fast-switching GaN power HEMTs. Simple circuit needs to block the high voltage (several hundred volts) and
design, fast sensing speed, and accurate measurement can be meanwhile measure the small on-state voltages (several volts)
realized with exclusively passive components. Compared with accurately. Second, the transition period from high voltage to
existing circuits, detailed component selection guidelines to realize low voltage is within several hundreds of nanoseconds because
fast sensing speed is discussed considering the switching of the fast-switching capability of GaN devices. Therefore, the
transients. Simulation results show an accurate tracking of on- measurement circuit needs to have a fast sensing response.
resistance in 48.3 ns after the drain current reaches the load
current in the turn-on process. The proposed circuit is Fig. 1 summarizes the existing dynamic on-resistance
implemented in a double-pulse test for a 650 V GaN device. measurement circuits. In circuit 1, a large value of resistor in
Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed circuit can combination with a Zener diode is used to block the high
work effectively at various gate resistance, dc-link voltage and voltage. It is rarely used because the RC discharge constant is
load current. At 300 V/15 A turn-on process with Rg,on = 20 Ω, the too long and cannot meet the fast sensing requirement.
circuit can accurately obtain the dynamic on-state voltage within
49.6 ns after the load current is reached. Under the same switching
condition with Rg,on = 0 Ω, a faster sensing speed is achieved, and D D D
+ D1 D2 Vcc
the circuit is able to track the dynamic on-resistance in 47.6 ns + +
after the drain current starts to rise. Vs Vs Vs
- - -
Keywords—GaN; dynamic on-resistance; fast measurement
S S S
circuit
(a) Circuit 1 (b) Circuit 2 (c) Circuit 3
I. INTRODUCTION
D D
Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices are appealing to high-
efficiency and high-power-density converter designs in the . + Vcc
+ .
. Vs
industry because of low on-resistance and fast switching speed
[1]–[6]. However, the reliability of high voltage (> 600 V) GaN
Vs -
devices in real applications is still a concern. Among those, the S - S
dynamic on-resistance Rdyn-ds,on issue in the enhancement-mode (d) Circuit 4 (e) Circuit 5
GaN devices is of special attention. Fig. 1. Diagram of existing dynamic on-resistance measurement circuits.
The dynamic on-resistance is the initial on-state resistance Circuit 2 can measure the on-state voltage quickly with the
value right after the device transits from the blocking state to the aid of a depletion-mode device [9]. However, due to the junction
on-state. In the ideal case, its value should be equal to the static capacitance of the active switch, the sensed voltage will
on-resistance Rds,on from the I-V curve. However, due to the experience large voltage spikes during the active device’s turn-
trapping effect of negative charges in blocking state and hot off. The undesired voltage spikes can cause oscilloscope
carrier injection during hard switching transients, the dynamic overdrive and affect the measurement accuracy as discussed in
on-resistance Rdyn-ds,on becomes much larger than the static on- [10].
resistance Rds,on [7], [8]. As a result, more conduction loss is Circuit 3 combines the benefits of circuit 1 and 2 [11].
generated which causes the device to operate at higher junction However, since the Schottky diode D1 is in parallel with the
temperature and less efficiently. Therefore, to ensure a reliable Zener diode D2 , there is a chance that the Zener diode D2
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 359

conducts during the turn-on dv/dt process of the device under ensure that D1 is forward biased, a proper selection of R1 and R2
test (DUT). The conduction of the Zener diode will induce extra is required such that the following equation is always met:
reverse recovery time which contradicts the fast sensing
requirement. Even if D1 is properly selected and can prevent the Vcc ·
R2
> Vds,on + Vd1_on (1)
conduction of D2 during turn-on process, the transition of D1 R1 +R2
from conduction to blocking state still takes time as the on-state
voltage is the only voltage source charging the junction D1 R1 VCC
capacitance of D1 . This charging time depends on the load -
current and on-resistance value. Consequently, fast sensing vs +
cannot be assured at all conditions. Meanwhile, in both circuit 2 D3 Rc1 Rc2
and 3, active switches are used which complicates the circuit D2 R2 + +
D4 C1 vs1 vs2 C2
design.
- -
In circuit 4, only the passive components are used [12].
However, similar to circuit 3, the dynamic on-resistance sensing Fig. 3. Circuit diagram during on-state.
speed is limited by the reverse recovery time of the Zener diode
and the slow charging period at the light load condition. Since the on-state voltage Vds,on depends on the load current
and junction temperature, the circuit operation condition needs
In [10], the current mirror circuit with blocking capability is to be known before the selection of R1 and R2 . Meanwhile,
proposed to measure Rdyn-ds,on as indicated in circuit 5. considering the dynamic on-resistance, a certain margin is
However, differential probes are required, and overall sensing required for calculating Vds,on . Otherwise, the sensed voltage can
speed will be constrained by the probe’s bandwidth. Meanwhile, be clamped to Vcc ·R1 /(R1 +R2 ) during the dynamic on-resistance
the detailed component selection and circuit operation during measurement period, and the real value of dynamic on-
transients are not discussed. resistance is neglected.
In this paper, a fast dynamic on-resistance circuit with a B. Off-state
passive probe adaptor is proposed based on exclusively passive When the low-side device is turned off, D1 starts to block the
components. Detailed design guidelines for each component high voltage as indicated in Fig. 4, and the sensed voltage is
will be presented considering all the switching transients. clamped to Vcc ·R1 /(R1 +R2 ) . In the following section, its
II. CIRCUIT DESIGN FOR DYNAMIC ON-RESISTANCE operation in switching transients will be analyzed in detail.
MEASUREMENT
D1 R1 VCC
Fig. 2 illustrates the typical double-pulse test (DPT) circuit -
for evaluating the switching characteristics of the low-side GaN vs +
device. The proposed dynamic on-resistance measurement D3 Rc1 Rc2
circuit is shown as well for ML . The sensing circuit obtains the D2 R2 + +
D4 C1 vs1 vs2 C2
on-state voltage, and the filter circuit eliminates the ringing
noises. The circuit operates as follows: - -
Fig. 4. Circuit diagram during off-state.
MH ILoad C. Transition from Off-state to On-state

When ML turns on, a falling edge dvds /dt is introduced as
Sensing Circuit Filter Circuit indicated in Fig. 5. The blocking diode D1 is still reverse biased
Vdc Cdec D1 R1 VCC and can be modeled as a junction capacitor Cd1 . The switching
- action of dvds /dt will force a current to flow, which discharges
vs + the sensing voltage vs as shown in Fig. 5 (a). The value of this
ML D3 Rc1 Rc2 discharge current depends on the junction capacitance value of
D2 R2 + + and the slew rate of drain-to-source voltage.
D4 C1 vs1 vs2 C2
- - The junction capacitor at the sensing node vs ( Cvs ) is
composed of Cd2 in parallel with the serial of Cd3 and Cd4 . If Cvs
Rshunt Dynamic Rds,on Sensing Circuit
is small, vs can be quickly discharged to zero. Then the
Fig. 2. Circuit diagram of the proposed dynamic on-resistance measurement discharge current continues to flow through D2 as indicated in
circuit in a typical double-pulse test system. Fig. 5 (b) since the voltage drop of the serial-connected Zener
A. On-state diodes is larger than the voltage drop of D2 . Accordingly, vs is
clamped to the negative on-state voltage of D2 .
During the on-state, the low-side GaN device ML is turned
on, and its on-state voltage is measured with the proposed circuit The dvds /dt period ends when the device’s voltage Vds,on
as shown in Fig. 3. Specifically, D1 is forward biased, and the meets the following condition:
sensed voltage is simply the addition of the on-state voltage
R2
drop of device ML plus the forward voltage drop of D1 . To Vds,on < Vcc · − Vd1_on (2)
R1 +R2
360
Cd1 R1 Vcc rendering the sensing speed of the circuit during turn-on, two
vds -
Zener diodes are in series.
vs +
Cd3 Rc1 Rc2 Cd1 R1 VCC
Cd2 R2 + + vds -
Cd4 C1 vs1 vs2 C2 vs +
- - D2 R2
D3 Rc1
+ +
Rc2
D4 C1 vs1 vs2 C2
(a) Capacitor discharge during turn-on dv/dt period Turn-off
dv/dt - -
Cd1 R1 VCC
vds Fig. 6. Circuit diagram during transition from on-state to off-state.
-
vs + III. SIMULATION RESULT
D3 Rc1 Rc2
D2 R2 + + The complete sensing circuit together with the double-pulse-
D4 C1 vs1 vs2 C2
Turn-on test circuit is built in LTspice as shown in Fig. 7. The behavior
dv/dt - - model of the GaN device from manufacture is used, and the
nominal on-resistance of the device is 50 mΩ at room
(b) clamped during turn-on dv/dt period temperature. Other component models are also from the
vendors. Meanwhile, the power loop parasitic inductance (15
D1 R1 VCC nH), sensing loop parasitic inductance (5 nH), gate loop parasitic
vds -
vs inductance (5 nH), and PCB parasitic are included as well.
+
Cd3 Rc1 Rc2
Cd2 R2 + +
Cd4 C1 vs1 vs2 C2
- -
(c) Turn-on charging period
Fig. 5. Circuit diagram during transition from off-state to on-state.
Then a new period initiates where D1 is forward biased, and

diode D2 transits from forward conduction to reverse blocking
state as shown in Fig. 5 (c). In this interval, the selection of D2 Fig. 7. Simulation model in LTspice.
is critical. If a diode with poor reverse recovery characteristic is With an external gate resistor of 20 Ω, the device is being
selected, this transition time is too long. Consequently, the switched at 600 V with a load current of 30 A. The simulation
circuit is not able to characterize the dynamic on-resistance waveforms during the turn-on process are shown in Fig. 8.
quickly. Hence, a Schottky diode is preferred for D2 .
dv/dt period Reverse recovery period Charge Period
Once D2 is reverse biased, the sensing node voltage is
charged from -Vd2_on to Vcc ·R1 /(R1 +R2 ) as indicated in Fig. 5
(c). The charging time depends on the amount of charge current
Drain Current ID
and the junction capacitance at the sensing node Cvs . To obtain
a fast sensing speed, a low value of Cvs is preferred and a
Schottky diode with a low value of junction capacitance is Vds
selected. Meanwhile, the serial connection of D3 and D4 helps
to further reduce the Cvs . In addition, the values of R1 and Vcc 803.90 ns
are selected to provide sufficient charging current. Compared to VS
circuit 3 and circuit 4 which rely on the on-state voltage to
charge [11], this charging current from Vcc expedites the
transition period, and a fast sensing speed can be achieved.
D. Transition from On-state to Off-state
When ML is turning off, a positive dvds /dt is expected. VS1
Therefore, a charge current is induced as indicated in Fig. 6. If Vd1_on VS2
the Zener diodes D3 and D4 are missing, this charge current can
cause large voltage spikes at the sensing point vs which Vds
overrides the probe and affects the measurement resolution.
To attenuate this voltage spike, the Zener diodes are added
to clamp the voltage spike to a controlled value. Since the
conduction of Zener diode can introduce reverse recovery thus (a) : p-n diode, = 3.5 kΩ, = 3.5 kΩ
361
dv/dt period Charge Period accurately obtain the dynamic on-resistance value, a coaxial
shunt with 1 GHz bandwidth and dedicated tip adaptors are used
to measure the drain current and on-state voltage, respectively.
Drain Current ID
Solid-state Short
Circuit Breaker
Vds
VS MH ILoad
Vdc Cdec
Dynamic Rds,on
ML Sensing Circuit
48.30 ns VS1
VS2 Vd1_on Rshunt
(a) Circuit diagram

Vds
Heatsink for
(b) : Schottky diode, =150 Ω, =150 Ω Protection
Solid-state Short
Device
Fig. 8. Simulation comparison of dynamic on-resistance measurement with Circuit Breaker Board
and without optimized components.
In Fig. 8 (a), the parameters of the components are not

optimized. Specifically, a p-n diode is used for D2 and large Dynamic
Gate Drive Circuit
values of R1 , R2 are selected. As a result, the time interval On-resistance
Circuit
between the end of turn-on dvds /dt period and the time vs1 (or
vs2 ) reaching the on-state voltage Vds,on plus the voltage drop Heatsink
for GaN
across (Vd1_on ) is 803.9 ns. This measurement delay is large Device
Power Stage Board
compared to the fast switching capability of GaN devices. As a
result, the initial dynamic on-resistance information is not
tracked. (b) Board assembly
On the contrary, another simulation is carried out at the same Fig. 9. Experiment set up illustration.
operating condition except that the components are properly
selected based on the previous analysis. Fig. 8 (b) shows the
simulation result. It is observed that diode D2 will not
experience reverse recovery when it is changed to Schottky
diode. Meanwhile, the charging time is greatly reduced by using
smaller values of R1 , R2 and choosing D2 with low junction
capacitance value. Consequently, a measurement delay of only
48.3 ns can be achieved at the same condition.
IV. EXPERIMENT VERIFICATION
To validate this dynamic on-resistance measurement circuit,
a double pulse test set up is built. The circuit diagram and the
board assembly are illustrated in Fig. 9 (a) and (b) respectively. Drain Current Dynamic on-state
Measurement voltage Measurement
The solid-state circuit breaker is used for short circuit protection,
Vds Measurement
and a dedicated heatsink is mounted for the device. The power
stage board sits on the bottom and connected to the circuit Fig. 10. Physical experiment set up.
breaker board through screws.
A. Verification of the Fast Sensing Capability of the Proposed
The gate drive circuit together with the dynamic on- Circuit
resistance measurement circuit are implemented as well. With
this configuration, the low-side active device has hard switching The design procedure in section II is followed for the real
with an inductive load, and the performance of the dynamic on- circuit in experiment. Specifically, resistors with a value of 150
resistance circuit is evaluated during the turn-on transients. Ω are selected for both and to ensure a fast sensing speed
without exceeding the power supply’s limitation (15 V, 2 W
The physical test circuit is shown in Fig. 10. The 650 V, 50 output). A 30 V Schottky diode with low junction capacitance is
mΩ enhancement-mode GaN device from GaN System used for . The Zener diodes clamp the voltage spikes at the
(GS66508T) is used as the device under test (DUT). To sensing node to 12 V.
362
With a proper selection of the circuit components, the B. Dynamic On-resistance Calculation
switching test is implemented at a dc-link voltage of 300 V with With the waveforms of the sensed voltage and drain current,
a turn-on gate resistance of 20 Ω. The low-side GaN device is the dynamic on-resistance value can be calculated offline in
hard switched, and the gate voltage, drain current, drain-to- Matlab. However, to obtain an accurate result of the dynamic
source voltage and the dynamic on-state sensing voltage are on-resistance value, the forward voltage drop of D1 should be
measured. deducted from .
The experiment turn-on waveforms at 300 V are captured To compensate the diode’s voltage drop, its I-V
from the oscilloscope as illustrated in Fig. 11. As can be seen, characteristic is first obtained from the Keysight B1506A curve
during the voltage falling period, a negative voltage is observed tracer as shown in Fig. 12. The characteristics at low current is
for the sensing voltage because of the discharge current mainly tested as its current in real circuit is small. Then a
through the blocking diode. At the point when starts to rise, piecewise linear interpolation method is used to curve fit the
the device’s drain current has reached the load current, and the experiment result, and the diode’s voltage drop at any given
ringing period begins where the junction capacitor of the upper current can be obtained from the fitted curve.
device is resonating with the power loop inductance [13]. With
a gate resistor of 20 Ω and optimized layout, the ringing does
not occur in this test.
Afterwards, the sensing voltage is being charged. It can be
seen from the experiment waveforms that no reverse recovery
time is observed, and the charging time is short. Specifically, at
Id (A)
a load current of 15 A, the sensing voltage can track the on-
state voltage accurately within 49.43 ns as indicated in Fig. 11
(a). A fast measurement of the dynamic on-state voltage can be
realized with the proposed circuit.
At another load condition of 20 A shown in Fig. 11 (b), the
charging time is longer (59.93 ns) mainly because the on-state
voltage is larger with increased load. Therefore, the required
charging time is longer.
49.43 ns Fig. 12. Characterized I-V curve of and the piecewise linear fitted curve.
~ 6.0 V
Sensing voltage Vs =
Following that, the diode’s current is needed to calculate its
On-state Voltage + diode’s voltage forward voltage. The equivalent circuit during the on-state is
1.5V/div
redrawn in Fig. 13 with the current directions defined.
Neglecting the filter circuit, the forward current of D1 can be
1.0V/div calculated by:
dvs Cd3 ∙Cd4 dvs

6.0A/div iD1 =iR1 − iR2 − Cd2 · − · (3)
dt Cd3 +Cd4 dt
55.0V/div Since the sensing voltage during the on-state has small
variations, the dvs /dt terms can be eliminated and the steady
state current in is:
(a) = 15
Vcc Vs Vs
59.93 ns ID1 =IR1 − IR2 = − (4)
R1 R2
~ 6.4 V
Sensing voltage Vs =
On-state Voltage + diode’s voltage 1.5V/div D1 iD1 R1 Vcc
-
vs iR1
+
1.0V/div
Cd3 Rc1 Rc2
Cd2 R2 iR2 + +
6.0A/div Cd4 C1 vs1 vs2 C2
- -
55.0V/div
Fig. 13. The equivalent circuit during on-state with defined current directions.
In the test circuit, high-precision and low temperature

coefficient resistors are used for both R1 and R2 . Therefore, the
(b) = 20 forward current of D1 can be readily obtained in offline
Fig. 11. Experiment turn-on waveforms at 300 V with Rg,on = 20 Ω. calculations with the experiment data of vs . Combining the fitted
363
I-V curve of D1 , its forward voltage drop Vd1_on is acquired, and The switching waveforms and the measured sensing voltage
the dynamic on-resistance value of the DUT can be calculated at 300 V, 15 A with 0 Ω external turn-on gate resistor are
by: illustrated in Fig. 15. As can be seen, the switching speed at
Rg,on = 0 Ω is much faster with a dv/dt value of more than 50
Rdyn-ds,on =
vs Vd1_on
(5) V/ns, and the current waveforms have significant ringing
id compared to the 20 Ω case. As a result, the sensing voltage is
slightly affected by the ringing noises. To eliminate those noises,
where is the instantaneous drain current of the GaN the RC filter discussed in Fig. 2 is implemented. In this
device. experiment, the filter resistance value is 75 Ω and the filter
Following the procedure discussed above, Fig. 14 capacitor is chosen to be 100 F. Consequently, the cut-off
demonstrates the experimental extracted dynamic on-resistance frequency fc is:
value together with the measured sensing voltage and switching 1
waveforms at room temperature with a load current of 20 A. The fc = = 21.2 MHz (6)
2π·Rf ·Cf
gate resistor value is fixed to 20 Ω, and the dc-link voltages are
varied at 200 V, 300 V and 400 V. With the filter circuit, the sensed voltage is noise-free, and
can track the transient sensing voltage within 17.6 ns from the
As can be seen, the proposed circuit can measure the time the drain-to-source voltage starts to fall (or
dynamic on-resistance shortly after the device is turned on. For equivalently the time the drain current starts to rise). In terms of
this experiment with Rg,on =20 Ω , the gate voltage is being tracking the dynamic on resistance, the sensed voltage after filter
slowly charged from the miller plateau voltage to the positive circuit is able to provide the dynamic on-resistance value in 47.6
driving voltage Vgs,on = 5 V. Consequently, the measure ns after the switching transient starts as indicated in Fig. 15.
dynamic on-resistance has a peak value and gradually decreases From the 0 Ω experiment result, it can be seen that the
as the gate voltage increases. In the steady state, the dynamic on- sensing speed of the proposed circuit is increased compared to
resistance settles to different values for various dc-link voltages. the 20 Ω switching case shown in Fig. 11 (a). This is mainly
All these values are much larger than the static on-resistance at because the gate voltage Vgs reaches the positive driving voltage
room temperature (50 mΩ), and a larger value of Rdyn-ds,on is
more quickly in the 0 Ω switching case. Accordingly, the on-
observed at a higher dc-link voltage. resistance value is smaller at any given time during the gate
Dynamic Rds,on Peaks due to low gate voltage voltage transition period. Consequently, a higher on-state
Dynamic Rds,on (Static Rds,on @ 25°C = 50 mΩ ) Vdc = 400 V voltage is observed in the 20 Ω switching case though the dc-
Rds,on (m )
300 Vdc = 300 V

200
Vdc = 200 V link voltage and the load condition are the same (300 V and 15
100 A). Since vs is higher with Rg,on = 20 Ω, the charging time is
0
0 400 800 1200 1600
prolonged and a different sensing speed is observed in the
8 experiment.
Sensed Vs (V)
6 Sensing Circuit Starts to work

4 Data affected by Reliable data with no noises
load current spikes after RC filter circuit
2
0 400 800 1200 1600 200 Dynamic on-resistance with filter
6
Rds,on (m )
Dynamic on-resistance without filter

4
Vgs (V)
100
2
0
0
-2
0 400 800 1200 1600 0 50 100 150 200
30 8
17.6 ns 47.6 ns Measured sensing voltage with filter
Sensed Vs (V)
Id (A)
20 6 Measured sensing voltage without filter

10 4
0 2
Ringing noises introduced
0 400 800 1200 1600 0 in the sensing circuit
400
0 50 100 150 200
Vds (V)
300
200
500
100
0 Vds of low-side GaN Device
400 Vgs (×20) of Low-side GaN Device
0 400 800 1200 1600
Id (×10) of Low-side GaN Device
Time (ns)
300
Fig. 14. Experimental extracted Rdyn-ds,on values and switching waveforms at 200
different dc-link voltages with Rg,on = 20 Ω and Iload =20 A.
100
C. Dynamic On-resistance Testing at Low Rg,on 0
In real applications, the GaN devices are operating at a high 0 50 100 150 200
switching frequency with low gate resistor values. Therefore, it Time (ns)
is meaningful to evaluate the proposed Rdyn-ds,on measurement Fig. 15. Experimental extracted Rdyn-ds,on values and switching waveforms at
circuit at low gate resistance as well. 400 V/15 A with Rg,on = 0 Ω.
364
V. CONCLUSIONS HFET,” in 2015 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition
(ECCE), 2015, pp. 400–407.
In this paper, a new dynamic on-resistance measurement [4] J. Lu et al., “Applying Variable-Switching-Frequency Variable-Phase-
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considerations are discussed considering the switching Based EV Battery Charger,” IEEE Trans. Transp. Electrif., vol. 3, no. 3,
transients. Simulation result shows that the circuit can accurately pp. 554–564, 2017.
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of device’s voltage. shift full bridge DC/DC converter for data center power supplies with
GaN FETs,” in The 1st IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices
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in experiment, and a dedicated double-pulse test bench is built [6] E. A. Jones, F. F. Wang, and D. Costinett, “Review of Commercial GaN
to correspond the device’s switching transient to the circuit’s Power Devices and GaN-Based Converter Design Challenges,” IEEE J.
Emerg. Sel. Top. Power Electron., vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 707–719, 2016.
operation. Compared to the state-of-art designs, a fast sensing
[7] G. Meneghesso, M. Meneghini, E. Zanoni, P. Vanmeerbeek, and P.
speed is achieved from the experiment result, and the circuit can Moens, “Trapping induced parasitic effects in GaN-HEMT for power
track the device’s on-state voltage within 49.6 ns after the switching applications,” in 2015 International Conference on IC Design
device’s current reaches the load current. Furthermore, the & Technology (ICICDT), 2015, pp. 1–4.
operation and functionality of the proposed circuit are tested at [8] M. Kuball, M. J. Uren, A. Pooth, S. Karboyan, W. M. Waller, and I.
various values of dc-link voltage, gate resistance and load Chatterjee, “Floating body effects in carbon doped GaN HEMTs,” in 2015
condition. From the experiment result, the circuit can provide an IEEE 3rd Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications
(WiPDA), 2015, pp. 70–74.
accurate dynamic on-resistance value with fast sensing speed at
[9] Y. Nozaki, H. Kawamura, J. K. Twynam, and M. Hasegawa, “Voltage
all conditions. With 0 Ω switching at 300 V/15 A, an even faster clamp circuit and semiconductor device, overcurrent protection circuit,
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT for the Accurate Measurement of the Dynamic ON-Resistance of Power
Transistors,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 1241–1250,
This work was supported by the National Science 2015.
Foundation under Award Number 1454311. [11] B. Lu, T. Palacios, D. Risbud, S. Bahl, and D. I. Anderson, “Extraction of
Dynamic On-Resistance in GaN Transistors: Under Soft- and Hard-
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365
A Modular Single-Phase Bidirectional EV Charger
with Current Sharing Optimization
Mithat C. Kisacikoglu
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL
Email: mkisacik@ua.edu
Abstract—Developing electric vehicle (EV) technologies puts stage, provide galvanic isolation, and can eliminate bulky
EV chargers in scope for successful integration into the smart DC-link capacitors used in PFC converters to provide higher
grid. The energy and power need for grid charging of EV efficiency in a smaller form factor. Two examples for a com-
batteries may have an adverse impact on the distribution grid
depending on the architecture of the distribution system and pact and unidirectional topology are discussed in [20], [21].
charging control structure employed. This effect can be mini- Dual-active-bridge based single-stage isolated bidirectional
mized utilizing on-board EV battery chargers. For the wide-scale topologies are proposed in [22], [23]. First is rated at 1.4 kW
adoption of EVs, an improvement in the charging operation of power level, achieves 89.9% peak efficiency, and presents a
the batteries will have a large cumulative impact on the grid. modulation scheme to easily control the direction and amount
Therefore, this paper presents a bidirectional modular single-
phase on-board charger with optimized current sharing for more of power delivered [22]. The latter operates with 230 V AC
efficient smart grid integration. The results of the implementation grid voltage and 400 V DC output voltage. It is rated at 3.7 kW
have been presented to verify the proposed idea in simulation and power level with 2.2 kW/lt power density with peak efficiency
experimental test environments. higher than 96% [23].
The above chargers are mostly designed to provide their
I. I NTRODUCTION peak efficiency at or near full load conditions. However, in
With a growing EV market, however, the mass penetration the scope of smart grid integration of chargers, lightly loaded
of EVs into the utility grid will result in detrimental effects due operation points are also desirable to address congestion and
to coincidence between peak loading and EV charging. This overloading conditions in the distribution grid. This will cause
impact will include increased peak loading and voltage drops charger efficiency to be lower than the peak efficiency and
that will call for over-investments in the network resulting result in a high energy loss overall. To increase efficiency
in an overall high cost for the society. Therefore, smart for a wide load range and to provide better grid integration,
managed charging solutions are the key for sustainable EV a modular design methodology is proposed in this study.
grid integration. Modularity brings numerous advantages, such as flexibility,
Solutions proposed in the literature include charging control ease of maintenance, and increased resilience. However, it
of EV batteries to decrease distribution system congestion and also has disadvantages such as cost and increased control
to improve voltage profiles [1], [2], to decrease distribution complexity.
system operating costs coordinating with renewables [3], to Modular structures are widely used in the industry where
operate within residential microgrids [4], or to provide emer- their advantages overwhelm the disadvantages. They are used
gency relief after disasters/hurricanes [5]. These improvements in power supplies [24], power factor correction applications
can only be realized with proper design and control of on- [25], and especially grid connected photovoltaic (PV) systems
board EV chargers, which have a wide variety of configura- [26]–[28]. A modular charger application for three-phase on-
tions possible [6]–[11]. board charging is proposed in [29], and another application
Conventional on-board battery chargers have double-stage for fast off-board charging is proposed in [30]. However, their
power conversion which takes place in two separate sections. main goal is to increase charging power to decrease charging
In the first stage, numerous front-end AC-DC converters, also time. Light load efficiency improvement idea proposed in
called PFC converters, are reported [12]–[15]. At second stage, [25] and [26] can be applied to EV chargers as well. Such
phase-shifted full bridge (PSFB) and variants of resonant configuration can serve well for the chargers which have the
converters are widely employed. PSFBs have approximately capability to adjust charging power according to different
96% peak efficiency and can operate with wide output volt- grid conditions during Level 1/Level 2 charging. With the
age ranges at reported power ratings of 3-6 kW [16], [17]. possibility of a wide scale electrification of the vehicles in
Resonant converters have slightly higher efficiencies, some of the future, any efficiency improvement in the charging process
them over 98%, and their rated power can range from 1-6 kW will have a large cumulative impact on the efficient operation
[14], [18], [19] for on-board charger applications. of the power delivered.
Studies on newer charger topologies are centered around Consequently, this paper presents a modular EV charger
higher efficiencies, more compactness, and bidirectional power implementation with the focus on efficiency improvement
flow, all of which can be achieved by single-stage topologies. at wide range using optimization techniques. Section 2 will
These topologies convert AC power to DC directly in single explain system description, information on selected topology,
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 366

ibat
Power Master Master Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7 Q9 Q11
Control ControllerController
i1 i1 i1
n1 : 1 Lr iL Cdcblk
r
Module 1 Module 1 Module 1 + +
vp
Master Slave Slave vs
n1 Vbat
ii − −
vi (t) T1
i2 i2 i2
Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8 Q10 Q12
Module 2 Battery Module 2 Module 2 Battery Battery
AC AC AC
Slave Slave Slave
i3 i3 i3
Module n Module n Module n
Slave Slave Slave Fig. 2. Single-phase single-stage DAB AC-DC converter with a separate
synchronous rectifier
(a) (b) compactness. Different topologies have been surveyed for

Fig. 1. Control schemes of individual modules, (a) embedded master, (b) modular operation [24]–[30]. For this study, the topology and
dedicated master.
the control method discussed in [22] is selected as a baseline
and state the optimization problem. Section 3 will present for a modular system due to advantages such as inherent
simulation results of various operation modes of the system. modularity, current sharing, and easily controlled bidirectional
Section 4 will present results from the experimental setup. power flow. Moreover, lack of electrolytic capacitors makes the
Finally, section 5 will conclude the paper and give information design more compact, and high frequency transformer brings
about planned future work. galvanic isolation for safety. In this study, aforementioned
topology is slightly modified. Instead of bidirectional switches,
II. S YSTEM D ESCRIPTION OF THE B IDIRECTIONAL a synchronous rectifier and high-frequency chopper are used.
C HARGER Further, power transfer is carried out by a discrete inductor
A. Modular Design Methodology instead of the leakage inductance of the transformer, and a
The system to be designed should provide as constant DC blocking capacitor is added right after the inductor to
efficiency as possible through a wide range of load conditions. compensate for any DC content in inductor current. Final
This can be achieved with a modular design approach. As configuration of the charger used in this study is given in Fig.
reported in [26], modules can be turned on and off one by one 2.
according the load demand. This approach can be enhanced As explained in the control algorithm proposed in [22], the
further by a master control algorithm. Load/efficiency curves charger behaves as a current sink on the input side and current
of each module can be recorded and loaded to the master source on the output side. This fact enables the chargers to be
controller. In a more advanced design, chargers can plot their paralleled easily. Also, with the help of modular operation,
load/efficiency curves and share this information with the optimization algorithm can be utilized to achieve efficiency
master controller via a communication bus. increase, especially in light to middle load conditions.
The master controller can orchestrate the operation of the As derived in [22], instantaneous DC charging current of
individual modules by solving an optimization problem formed the topology can be expressed as:
using the information on charging current and/or grid charging δ Vi2
power information. When certain amount of charging cur- ibat (t) = {1 − cos(4πfi t)} (1)
8 n21 L fs Vbat
rent/grid power is demanded, master controller should select
the optimal operating condition of the individual chargers where fs is the switching frequency (Hz), Vi is the input rms
based on their efficiency and set their reference commands voltage (V), Vbat is the battery terminal voltage (V), n1 is the
accordingly or shut them off completely. This master controller transformer turns ratio, L is the discrete inductor inductance
can either be embedded inside one of the modules as shown (H), fi is the grid frequency (Hz), and δ is the phase-shift ratio.
in Fig. 1(a) or can be a separate controller with the sole Assuming, fs , Vbat and Vi are constant, the only variable in the
task of commanding the operation of the modules as shown expression is δ. This quantity can be used to control charging
in Fig. 1(b). Processing power of micro controller units is current, and hence, input/output power.
increased considerably in recent years, and thus it is more The output current of single-stage chargers is inherently
suitable to follow the configuration described in Fig. 1(a) sinusoidal with a DC offset as seen in (1). This is because
to reduce cost and design complexity. This configuration is the pulsating power from the AC input have to manifest
selected in this study. itself at battery current due to single-stage AC-DC conversion.
Charging with a sinusoidal-like DC current is another research
B. Bidirectional Power Electronics Converter topic itself but the studies report that charging in this manner
For a modular EV charger unit, the topology selection is not harmful for Li-ion and lead-acid batteries [31], [32].
is critical. The combinations of the power semiconductors,
applicable topologies, and control methods are many. The C. Optimization Problem Statement for EV Charging
design considerations for this study are selected as modularity, Here we describe the optimization problem&solution to
galvanic isolation for safety, bidirectional power flow, and charge and discharge EV batteries using the best available
367
charger efficiency with a modular approach. To state the op- mode simultaneously, i.e. V2G or G2V. Last, steady-state
timization problem mathematically, the load-efficiency curves grid current cannot exceed the rated current of the individual
of individual modules should be expressed in equations with modules.
appropriate variables. Since the main two functions are to The cost function of this optimization problem is the
charge EV batteries and to provide power back to the grid, the overall efficiency function of the system for either mode. The
efficiency will be calculated in charging (grid-to-vehicle, G2V) optimization problem should be formulated to minimize the
and in discharging (vehicle-to-grid, V2G) modes. However, cost function, thus reciprocal of ηG2V and ηV 2G should be
finding the optimal power eletronics efficiency point depends used when formulating the problem. Since ηG2V and ηV 2G are
on factors such as temperature, AC grid and battery voltages, always positive and cannot be zero, using the reciprocal will
AC and DC current rates, and switching frequency. Temper- not pose an issue mathematically. The optimization problem
ature dependency of efficiency is not taken into account in can be expressed for both V2G and G2V operation modes. In
this study. Instead, the load-efficiency curves are assumed to G2V mode;
be obtained and utilized at room temperature. Moreover, the n
inputs and outputs of the modules are connected in parallel,
P
ik
thus the voltages seen by modules from input and output sides min n
k=1
are also the same and assumed to be constant. Furthermore,

P
fG2V,k (ik ) · ik
constant switching frequency operation is selected. Therefore, k=1
operating voltages and switching frequency are not included Xn (5)
in the problem formulation. subject to ik = idemand
It is assumed that the utility grid controller provides positive k=1

current command for G2V and negative current command i1 i2 · · · in ≤ irated
for V2G operation at a given time. Since operating voltages

−i1 −i2 · · · −in < 0
are assumed to be constant, grid voltage and battery voltage
can be excluded from the problem statement. Therefore, the In V2G mode,
optimization problem in both modes of operation can be n
P ik
expressed in terms of grid current command. Optimization k=1 f V 2G,k (ik )
algorithm will solve the optimization problem and decide the min n
amount of current that each charger module should draw or
P
ik
supply in G2V or V2G modes, respectively. k=1
n (6)
Assume that there are n number of modules. The grid AC X
subject to ik = idemand
current of any individual module can be denoted by ii . The
k=1
efficiency of the ith module in V2G and G2V modes are
expressed as ηV 2G,i and ηG2V,i , respectively. Then, n number −i1 −i2 · · · −in ≤ irated

of functions can be written for each operating mode as follows: i1 i2 · · · in < 0
ηG2V,i = fG2V,i (ii ), 1 ≤ i ≤ n Numerous methods can be used to solve the above opti-
(2) mization problem. When the number of modules are less than
ηV 2G,i = fV 2G,i (ii ), 1 ≤ i ≤ n
a certain number, brute force method can be utilized. However,
Overall efficiency function will define a surface in an (n+1) when the number of modules increase, the dimension of the
dimensional space. In a system with n number of modules, optimization problem will also increase and it will be much
overall efficiency in G2V mode can be expressed as follows: more difficult to use the brute force. Then, a heuristic algo-
fG2V,1 (i1 )·i1 +fG2V,2 (i2 )·i2 +· · ·+fG2V,n (in )·in rithm, such as particle swarm optimization (PSO) or artificial
ηG2V = bee colony (ABC) algorithm can be utilized to solve the n
i1 + i2 + · · · + in
(3) dimensional optimization problem.
Also, overall efficiency of a system in V2G mode with n III. S IMULATION R ESULTS
number of modules can be expressed as:
Simulations for the system are carried out in two differ-
i1 + i2 + · · · + in ent mediums. Conceptual simulation with the ideal circuit
ηV 2G = (4)
i1 i2 in elements is carried out in PLECS to get fast results for the
+ + ··· +
fV 2G,1 (i1 ) fV 2G,2 (i2 ) fV 2G,n (in ) general operation of a single module and the whole system.
Considerably more detailed simulations with the actual models
The purpose of the optimization algorithm is to maxi- provided from the manufacturers are carried out in LTspice to
mize ηG2V and ηV 2G using the available information. This get more accurate and detailed results in correspondence with
maximization can be expressed as a constrained optimization the real world operation of the system.
problem with three constraints. First, the sum of individual AC
grid charging currents in G2V mode and in V2G mode should A. Single Module Operation
be equal to the total demand from the utility grid in either As the first step in system design, the operation of a single
mode. Second, grid currents of individual modules should be module is verified. Modulation scheme described in [22] is
positive in G2V mode and negative in V2G mode. Note that, implemented using the C-block in PLECS. When everything
all the modules will only be operating at the same designated except δ in (1) is held constant, δ can be used to control
368
vac Zero Crossing Calculate Q
Detector Q Reference Current Iac*
trigger
Calculation
Pcmd
RMS
Vac,rms
iac Calculation
Iac,rms + PI
δ
-
Fig. 4. Controller block diagram.
0,95
0,9
Efficiency (pu)
0,85
0,8 Module 1 G2V

Module 2 G2V
0,75 Module 1 V2G
Module 2 V2G
0,7
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Grid Current (A)
Fig. 5. Hypothetical efficiency curves for simulation.
Modular system simulation should verify the benefits of the

developed optimization controller by comparing the efficiency
increase between equal current sharing and optimized current
Fig. 3. Simulation results of a single module. (a) Grid to vehicle charging, sharing. The proposed modular system should have higher
δ = 0.25. (b) Vehicle to grid discharging, δ = −0.25. (green: grid voltage,
red: grid current, blue: battery voltage, yellow: battery current)
overall efficiency at light to moderate loads compared to a
modular system in which all the modules are operated at
amount of current and/or power to be delivered. Moreover, balanced power. Since there is no working hardware prototype
when its sign is changed, current also changes direction, lead- during the simulations yet, two modules with hypothetical
ing to bidirectional power flow. This modulation scheme has load-efficiency curves are assumed as shown in Fig. 5. In
three major benefits; open loop power factor correction, easy general, the efficiency curves of two identical modules should
controllability of power, and soft switching of semiconductor not be much different from each other; however in the pro-
switches. posed modular system two different modules based on the
Simulation setup is built considering 220 V rms AC grid same topology but having a different characteristics can also
voltage, 200 V battery bank voltage and a rated power of be used. In this study, we also aim to minimize the impacts
600 W. Battery bank is modeled using a constant DC voltage of the differences of the modules in the overall operation of
source. Semiconductor and passive circuit elements only have the system.
resistive parasitics and all other parameters are assumed to be The system is first tested in equal current sharing mode
ideal. Simulation results obtained from PLECS show very low in which the modules are balanced for all demand values. In
current harmonics and unity power factor as shown in Fig. 3. other words, utility grid command is divided equally among
It is also verified that, grid AC charging current command can all modules considering their operating limits. Therefore, for
be tracked accurately for different operating points. However, this testing, no efficiency increase technique is used, and
the grid current waveform in PLECS is obtained using an the modules operate as if there is only one charger module.
averaging block. In real world application, an LC filter will be Then, it is tested in optimized current sharing mode. For this
utilized to filter out switching ripple from the input current. testing, it is assumed that utility grid demand can change over
This will introduce a certain amount of reactive power to time, and thereby, the master controller runs the proposed
the charger, causing a slight phase shift between voltage and optimization algorithm and determines the new AC grid charge
current. current values for each individual modules. In order to verify
the operation of the optimization algorithm, these two cases are
B. Modular Operation simulated in PLECS and the resulting efficiency curves shown
Modular operation is verified in PLECS using two individ- in Fig. 6. When the modules are operated in equal current
ual modules in single-phase. Phase-shift ratio defined in (1) is sharing mode, the resulting efficiency curve of the system
used to control the amount of power or current to be delivered. is not much different from the ones of individual modules
An AC current reference generated by the master controller which was presented in Fig. 5. On the other hand, optimized
based on the desired operating point of the individual chargers current sharing operation improves efficiency by up to 8.9%
is fed to the controller of the charger modules. Block diagram in G2V mode and up to 9.7% in V2G mode especially at light
is depicted in Fig. 4. loading. When heavy penetration of EVs into the utility grid
369
TABLE I
C OMPONENT LIST FOR THE HARDWARE PROTOTYPE
Part Manufacturer Part Number Details

Sync. Rect MOSFETs Infineon IPW60R045CP 650V, 60A
AC and DC side MOSFETs IXYS IXFH32N50Q 500V, 32A
Primary: 6x0.5 mm enameled copper wire, 50 turns
Transformer EPCOS B66395GX197
Secondary: 30x0.5mm enameled copper wire, 17 turns
Power Inductor Magnetics Inc. 55550 16 µH, 20x0.5mm enameled copper wire, 16 turns
AC Filter Inductor Magnetics Inc. 77930A7 320 µH, 1.2 mm enameled copper wire, 48 turns
DC Filter Inductor Magnetics Inc. 77930A7 80 µH, 1.2 mm enameled copper wire, 24 turns
AC/DC Filter Capacitors TDK CGA9P3X7T2E225M250KE 16x2.2 µF caps. for AC side, 20x2.2 µF caps. for DC side
Battery Bank SB. Battery SP7.2-12 10 units of 12V/7.2 Ah lead-acid batteries in series
Microcontroller Texas Ins. TMS320F28335
100
95
Efficiency (%)
90
85
80
Equal Sharing
Optimized Sharing
75
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Grid Current (A) (a)
(a)
100
95
Efficiency (%)
90
85
80
Equal Sharing
Optimized Sharing
75 (b)
-6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0
Grid Current (A)
Fig. 7. (a) Experimental setup. (b) Charger module.
(b)
The experimental results for the above described voltage
Fig. 6. Efficiency comparison of equal sharing and optimized sharing. (a) and power specifications are presented in Fig. 8. The results
G2V mode. (b) V2G mode.
show very low current harmonics (THD<3% for both of the
cases), almost unity power factor and bidirectional power flow.
is considered, this efficiency increase can translate into large
The efficiency is 91.4% in G2V and 90.1% in V2G. As shown
amounts of energy savings for the customers.
in Fig. 8, the experimental results are in-line with simulation
IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS results of a single module. The easy controllability of the
charger is tested and verified for bidirectional power flow.
Experimental setup is built for one module for single-phase Therefore, the results show that as more modules are added in
220 V rms grid AC voltage, 180 V DC battery bank voltage parallel, the developed optimization algorithm has the potential
at a rated power of 600 W. Due to availability of only one- to increase overall efficiency without any problem.
module, the proposed optimization algorithm is implemented
with this module (i.e. second module is assumed to operate in V. C ONCLUSIONS
parallel with this module). The lab experiments are conducted A modular charger design is proposed for improving effi-
at lower voltage and power levels than stated above for safety ciency for a wide load range for an on-board bidirectional
reasons, i.e. Vi =120 V, Vbat =120 V. From (1), by fixing voltage EV charger using optimized current sharing method. The
levels as stated before and by choosing, n=50/17, L=16 µH, idea is verified in simulations, and a hardware prototype is
fs =25 kHz and fi =50 Hz, δ is varied between ±0.3 to control built for bench-top testing. Initial data gathered from the first
power up to 400 W. Fig. 7(a) shows the experimental setup prototype show promising results regarding the verification
and Fig. 7(b) shows the individual charger module. Also, of the proposed operation for increased efficiency operation.
the components used in the development of the hardware Future work will include verification of the idea with two
prototype are listed in Table I. charger modules.
370
200 10
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371
Input Impedance Modeling of Three-Level
Multi-Stage NPC Topology
M. Makoschitz, J. Stoeckl and W. Hribernik
Electric Energy Systems (EES), Power Electronics Section
Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Austria;
Email: markus.makoschitz@ait.ac.at
Abstract—This paper presents a simple and vivid method interaction between power grid and grid connected circuits
to model the small signal input impedance of a single- it is therefore, of utmost importance to not only precisely
phase three-level multi-stage neutral point clamped (NPC) model but also understand effects evoked due to connected
converter system based on an electric locomotive (Re460) loads as e.g. converter systems, motor applications, elec-
as used for e.g. passenger trains and operated by Swiss
tric locomotives etc. These loads might generate harmonic
Federal Railways (SBB – ”Schweizerische Bundesbahnen”).
In general, these trains consist of several phase-shifted
currents which typically lead to harmonic distortions in the
and paralleled NPC sub-stages in order to handle more network. Simple passive damping circuits are not always
than 6 MW maximum output power. Each NPC branch a sufficient solution in order to mitigate network reso-
is typically operated at 200 Hz switching frequency which nances as the grid output impedance is highly dependent
results in a rather low and limited maximum bandwidth on instantaneous operating conditions (as e.g. islanding
for every appropriate current control circuit. Therefore an operation, outage of power plants, expansion of railway
input impedance resonant peak at very low frequency values network...) and hence these critical frequency bands may
can be expected. Without proper damping of all occurring change over time. The interaction between grid and loads
critical input impedance frequency areas of the electric
can be further improved if active loads are optimized
train, the stability of the total system – grid/locomotive(s)
– can not be guaranteed especially if two or more trains based on different critical grid situations. As components
are operated simultaneously and the capacitive share in and controller circuits of active loads are in general very
such a railway network is fairly high (e.g. high amount of well known, optimizations on these loads (e.g. performed
cabling). Therefore, a simple analytically derived averaged by the supplier) can be carried out if the input impedance
mathematical model of such locomotive becomes beneficial and its affecting parameters are rigorously modeled.
if an optimization of locomotive design parameters and a There are a lot of impedance modeling methods already
rough evaluation of the stability (electric vehicle – grid discussed in literature up to now as e.g. [2]–[10]. All
output impedance) of the system at different locations within
of these concepts come up with very promising results.
the railway network is of interest. The proposed solution is,
However, some of them engender a lot of calculation effort
furthermore, supported by and compared to simulation re-
sults (performed with the simulation software PLECs) of an and their final equations may end up in a high grade
actual switched three-level NPC implementation (including of complexity as the small signal input impedance of a
low-frequency transformer and all 8 sub-stages) of the train. NPC based three-level multi-stage in general results in a
challenging composition of multiple different parameters.
I. I NTRODUCTION The concept at hand can serve as alternative where the
In general, AC power systems show highly nonlin- designer can choose the complexity level depending on
ear and rather complex behavior and characteristics of application and severity of the issue that e.g. demands
their output impedance due to integration of virtual an optimization of the load or investigation of system
synchronous generators, high-voltage power lines, step stability. The following sections will hence introduce a
down transformers, additional cable integration, etc. All step-by-step description on how to employ the proposed
these components introduce various additional parasitic concept on and derive the input impedance of the Re460.
combinations of capacitance, resistance and inductance If such an input impedance is then available, for instance
values. Therefore several resonant peaks can occur within the stability of the total system (grid – locomotive) could
the power grid at different frequencies depending on be determined by applying e.g. the Nyquist Stability
location and operating conditions. To reduce and optimize Criterion (as described in [11] and [12]).
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 372

Fig. 1: Basic structure of the class 460 locomotive – Re 460 – which operates (according to [1]) within the conception ”Bahn 2000/Rail 2000”.
II. S YSTEM D ESCRIPTION AND S PECIFICATION fundamental feed-forward signals (e.g. active damping,...).
A. System Overview It should be noted that the sub-module at hand introduces
two additional voltage levels leading to a 5-level based
As already mentioned, point of origin is a class 460 topology (−Vo , − V2o , 0, V2o , Vo ) which is also illustrated
locomotive (as shown in Fig. 1 and described in [1]). The in Fig. 2(b). Furthermore, all existing sub-modules are
train consists of two bogies (with separated DC-link (Vo1 operated in interleaved PWM mode. Thus, the base PWM
and Vo2 ) – one for each bogie) which are directly fed carrier signal is phase shifted by 0, 2π 4π 6π
4 , 4 and 4 for
by a low-frequency transformer with 4 secondary trans- module 1-4, respectively. Due to interleaved operation of
former taps and an input-to-output ratio of approximately all paralleled NPC sub-modules, the resulting AC input
8.413 ( Np
Ns ). An optional fifth tap would allow to connect current shows a dominant harmonic content at 8fs (instead
the input damping filter on the low voltage side of the sys- of fs ) and significantly smaller current ripple ( ∆I
16 – equals
tem. Each secondary-side transformer output is connected a reduction of N12 for a number of Nm sub-modules) as
to two NPC 3-level stages (further on referred to as 1 ”sub- m
long as all implemented DC-link capacitor stages are per-
module”) which are operated in 180◦ interleaved PWM fectly balanced. The effective switching frequency which
mode (cf., Fig. 2(b)) while these two branches are directly can be observed at the input of the system is hence 1.6 kHz
connected to the same DC-link potential (e.g. Vo1 ). Such a for a switching frequency of 200 Hz per NPC branch.
setup allows to reduce the required total DC-link voltage Furthermore, it has to be noted that GTOs and diodes
of each bogie (Vo1 = Vo11 + Vo12 ) according to of each input stage are stressed with a DC-link voltage
2Ns V̂N Ns V̂N of Vo11 = Vo12 = Vo21 = Vo22 = V2o . Moreover, the DC-
Vo1,conv = → Vo1,enh = Vo1 = Vo = (1) link input stage is equipped with an adjacent absorption
Np M Np M
circuit which is tuned to 2fN = 33 13 in order to attenuate
compared to a conventional single stage implementa-
voltage ringing due to power fluctuations with twice mains
tion (cf., Fig. 2(a)) for unity power factor operation.
frequency. Aside from that, an additional over-voltage
M denotes the modulation index and is defined by
protection circuit (GTO plus resistor or crowbar circuit) is
M < 0.8125, considering a worst case > 20% margin for
required if the DC-link voltage is temporarily increasing
DC-link voltage, input current control and additional non-
373
due to e.g. regenerative braking. Finally, each axle consists
of a 3-phase electric drive system with 3-level/3-phase
NPC output behavior.
B. Specification of Input Parameters
Basic input characteristics of the system are defined
according to [1] as follows:
• AC input voltage (Vrms ): 15 kV
• mains frequency (fN ): 16.7 Hz
• nominal power (PN ): 4.8 MW
• maximum power (Pmax ): 6.1 MW
• number of three-level NPC stages (k ): 8
• switching frequency of each NPC branch (fs,i with
i = 1 . . . k ): 200 Hz
k
• number of sub-modules (Nm = 2 ): 4
• transformer secondary-side output voltage for each
transformer tap: ≈ 1.8 kV
(a) • DC-link voltage for stable operation: > 3.1 kV
C. Assumptions and Simplifications

In order to reduce complexity of the model some
assumptions are introduced:
• The electric drive is modeled as an ideal current
source, which is valid if the DC-link capacitance is
large enough to decouple both input and output power
electronics hardware.
• Over-voltage protection is neglected as this additional
resistance in parallel will only be present during
highly increased DC-link voltage levels due to re-
generative feedback mode which is not the case for
standard operational profiles.
III. M ODELING OF THREE - LEVEL M ULTI -S TAGE NPC
T OPOLOGY
The derivation of the input impedance of the locomo-
tive is sub-classified into various different tasks. First,
a conversion from the three-level converter stage into a
two-level switched equivalent model, considering only one
doubly fed (one sub-module) secondary transformer tap, is
performed. Second, the model is extended by introducing
an additional sub-module (second axle). Third, integration
of second bogy (with all axles powered). Furthermore, the
resulting input impedance model should be able to allow
distinction of different scenarios as for example:
• axles can be asymmetrically powered (Po1 , and Po2 )
• unbalanced DC-link bus voltages of both bogies (Vo1 ,
(b) and Vo2 )

• different PI controller values (HPI1−4 , Hff1−4 )
Fig. 2: Comparison of (a) conventional and (b) enhanced three-level
NPC topology which allows to operate the circuit at half DC bus • fluctuations in secondary-side parasitic resistance
voltage compared to the original version. and inductance values of low-frequency transformer
(Lσ,s1−4 , Rσ,s1−4 ).
374
frequency input transformer. Therefore input quantities are
defined as follows
vin Zs
vN → , iin → N iin , Zs → 2 , (4)
N N
whereas N denotes the primary- to secondary-side trans-
fer ratio N = N p
Ns . After computing Zin,s , the input
impedance can be transformed to a primary-side equiv-
alent via Zin,p = N 2 Zin,s , easily. If vo is assumed to be
(a) constant (vo = Vo ) and previous defined guidelines are
considered immaculately, the input impedance (referred
to the primary-side of the system results in
N2

Lσ,p
Zin,p (s) = s + Lσ,s + ...
geq Vo,eq HPI (s) N2

Rσ,p
... + + Rσ,s + Vo,eq [HPI (s) − Hff,i (s)] .
N2
(5)
HPI (s) denotes the PI controller transfer function and
Hff,i (s) the controller feed-forward transfer function
(b)
sLσ,s
Fig. 3: (a) Enhanced three-level NPC topology and (b) equivalent 2- Hff,i (s) = (6)
level circuit for small-signal input impedance analysis. sT1 + 1
with sT11+1 introducing a basic first order low-pass fil-
A. Step 1: Simplification of Original Topology tering regime in order to attenuate high-frequency noise
In order to transform the small signal impedance from which could be evoked due to the derivative behavior
the multi-level stage into a 2-level equivalent circuit (as of the sLσ,s characteristic. geq represents the equivalent
depicted in Fig. 3) values of input and output parameters electric conductance value which is defined by
have to be transferred from Fig. 3(a) to Fig. 3(b). As one V o Io
sub-module comes with a maximum applicable modula- geq = N 2 2 . (7)
VN,rms
tion range from (±Vo ), the equivalent parameters result
in Vo,eq = ±Vo and Io,eq = ±Io . It should be remarked Furthermore, it is assumed that in this first analysis
that, these values are defined by Vo,eq,conv = ± Vo,conv one bogie can dissipate the total denominated locomo-
2
and Io,eq,conv = ±2Io,conv for a conventional 3-level tive power. Additionally, Lσ,p , Rσ,p and Lσ,s , Rσ,s are
NPC equivalent. If Kirchhoffs Law is applied for positive introduced, specifying parasitic primary- and parasitic
and negative powerflow it can be shown that for P > 0 secondary-side inductive and resistive shares of the in-
(vN > 0, iN > 0) tegrated transformer, respectively. With such a general
definition of the input impedance as the one at hand,
−vN + vL + (1 − δ) Vo = 0 (2) several control strategies (as for instance proportional-
integral (PI), proportional-integral-derivative (PID) or
and P < 0 (vN < 0, iN < 0)
proportional-resonant (PR)) can be simplemindedly inves-
vN − vL − (1 − δ) Vo = 0 (3) tigated, optimized and compared to each other.
Fig. 4(a) illustrates simulated 2 stage 3-level (switched
applies. Hence, the small signal input impedance for unity
model as illustrated in Fig. 2(b) – implemented and
power factor operation can be represented via one 2-level
performed in PLECs simulation software) and analytically
equivalent circuit.
derived 2-level input admittance magnitude- and phase-
−1
B. Step 2: Derivation of Small-Signal Impedance for 1 plot (Yin = Zin ). The controller circuit is realized such
Sub-Module that gauged output power and input voltage define an
equivalent electrical conductance value (geq ) which serves
For sake of simplicity and reduced calculation effort all (in combination with the AC input voltage) as reference
signals are transferred to the secondary-side of the low-
375
current total harmonic distortion (THDi ). Colored curves
depict calculated (green – secondary-side, index ”s”; red –
primary-side, index ”p”) and thin white lines demonstrate
simulated results of AC-sweep for respective configura-
tions:
• input voltage: Vin = 15 kV
• parasitic values: Rσ,tot = 0.0011 Ω and
Lσ,tot = 0.002 H
• output power: Po = 3.2 MW
• DC-link voltage: Vo,eq = 4 kV
• PI-controller: kp = 1.67e−4 , ki = 3.33e−1
• ṽin = 10 %VN
Even such a simplified setup already reveals the critical
”active behavior” (φ > 90◦ , φ < −90◦ ) of the considered
locomotive. Furthermore, a brief analysis of the derived
equation is exemplarily accomplished by varying parame-
ters Vo and Po and assuming fixed predefined coefficients
of implemented PI current controller. As illustrated in
Fig. 4(b) two important issues which affect the input
(a)
admittance Yin (= Z1in ) of the train can be determined:
• Variations of Po implicate a change in magnitude (y-
axis) and NO change in phase
• Variations of Vo entail a modified resonance fre-
quency and damping factor (of Yin ), which finally
results in a different small signal phase response
(e.g. increased or reduced phase rotation which leads
to a worsened or improved active behavior of the
train, respectively) and NO change in initial (s → 0)
magnitude and phase response values.
It should be noted that, the fundamentally defined reso-
nance frequency and amplitude of the trains input admit-
tance is given according to combinations of all occurring
train parameters. Therefore, the ”active” locomotive be-
havior can also be inflicted by adapting e.g. the train’s
PI controller values. The demanded output power Po ,
however does not impair the phase rotation of the system.
In a next step, system-complexity is increased and a cas-
caded voltage controller (in addition to the ”fast” current
controller) is added. The calculated input impedance thus
(b)
rearranges to
Fig. 4: (a) Comparison of simulated dual 3-level topology and calcu- h i
lated 2-level converter model input addmittance Yin,p and Yin,s in phase Lσ,p Rσ,p
and magnitude of input. (b) Comparison of derived equations. Both Vo
s N 2 + Lσ,s + N 2 + Rσ,s + ζ (s)
and Po are modified in order to determine small signal behavior of Zin,p (s) = N 2 .
simplified topology and its respective input admittance. 1 + ξ (s)
(8)
For sake of simplicity ζ (s) and ξ (s) are not defined in
signal for the required PI current controller. Hence, small more detail due their high grade of complexity. Though,
signal distortions and variations of the input voltage are elaborated results are briefly discussed in the following.
directly inflicting controlled input currents (depending As already mentioned, what looks rather simple at a
on bandwidth of current controller) and impairing its first glance actually results in much higher complexity
376
(a) (b)
Fig. 5: (a) Locomotive model including two bogies (all axles powered) and assuming that both bogies can be powered asymmetrically and
DC-link voltages of both bogies are not perfectly balanced. (b) Analog circuitry for derivation of mathematical model.
(s3 → s31 ) in comparison to the initial derived equation • extension of first bogie (with all axles powered)
(ṽo = 0) without additional output voltage controller. • inclusion of second bogie (with all axles powered)
Moreover, if transfer functions of both models are com- • considering that axles could be slightly asymmetri-
pared to each other it can be seen, that deviations of both cally powered (distinction between Po1 , and Po2 )
input impedance plots (ṽo = 0 and ṽo 6= 0) can only • considering variations of total DC-link bus voltages
be found at frequencies below 50 Hz. This is based on of both bogies (Vo1 6= Vo2 )
the fact that in general the bandwidth of the prepended • considering different PI controller values
voltage controller is much smaller than the one of the (HPI1−4 (s), Hff1−4 (s))
respective fast acting current controller. Thus, in order to • considering fluctuations in parasitic secondary-side
keep results plain an interpretable ṽo = 0 is assumed for resistance and inductance values (Lσs1−4 , Rσs1−4 ).
further extensions of the regarded topology.
Contemporaneously with the extension of the switched
C. Step 3: Extension from 2- to 8-Stage Three-Level NPC 8-stage NPC model, also the appropriate simplified aver-
Topology aged synchronous boost system has to be enhanced (c.f.,
Fig. 5(b)). The modified input impedance for the extended
In order to derive a rather complete input impedance
paralleled model considering previously mentioned adap-
of the active power electronics grid connected topology
tions eventually leads to
(excluding input filter and auxiliary power supplies for
e.g. lighting...) the following system components are now Zp (s) Γc (s) + ZSPIff11 (s)
Zin,p (s) = N 2 1 (9)
included within the design procedure (cf., Fig. 5(a)): 2 (geq1 Vo1 ξ12 (s) + geq2 Vo2 ξ34 (s))
377
with
Lσ,p Rσ,p
Zp (s) = s + (10)
N2 N2
ZSPIff11 (s) ZSPIff11 (s) ZSPIff11 (s)
Γc (s) = 1 + + +
ZSPIff21 (s) ZSPIff32 (s) ZSPIff42 (s)
(11)
ZSPIff11 (s) ZSPIff11 (s)
ξ12 (s) = HPI1 (s) + HPI2 (s)
(12)
ξ34 (s) = HPI3 (s) + HPI4 (s) .
(13)
Furthermore, the following notations apply:
ZSPIffxy (s) = ZSx (s) + (HPIx (s) − Hffx (s)) Voy (14)
ZSx (s) = sLσ,sx + Rσ,sx . (15)
So if the transfer function ZSPIff32 (s) is given and the
previously discussed notation rules are applied, the repre- Fig. 6: Comparison of calculated (solid) and simulated (dotted) input
sented transfer function results in admittance results of fully integrated locomotive model (two bogies;
axles asymmetrically powered; different DC-link bus voltages of each
ZSPIff32 (s) = ZS3 (s) + (HPI3 (s) − Hff3 (s)) Vo2 (16) bogie; distinction of PI controller values for each sub-module; variation
of Lσ,s1−4 and Rσ,s1−4 ).
with an impedance value ZS3 (s) of
illustrates simulated (red dots for input voltage distortions
ZS3 (s) = sLσ,s3 + Rσ,s3 . (17)
at difference frequency values as an automated AC-sweep
In order to improve readability of the computed equation was not possible anymore) and calculated input admit-
a balanced system with the following assumptions is tance characteristics (red solid line) for the three-level
declared: multi-stage NPC topology (8 3-level branches – 4 sub-
• Lσ,s1−4 = Lσ,s modules) and the equivalent paralleled synchronous boost
• Rσ,s1−4 = Rσ,s configuration (compromising 4 different 2-level circuits)
• HPI1−4 (s) = HPI (s), Hff1−4 (s) = Hff (s) including one current controller per phase-leg. For sake
• Vo1 = Vo2 = Vo of completeness also results from subsection III-B(green)
• geq1 = geq2 and geq = geq1 + geq2 and results from an intermediate step describing a system
with 2 sub-modules which implies an extension of the first
The balanced form (if previously mentioned assumptions
bogie (with all axles powered) but excluding the second
are deployed) of the trains input impedance eventually can
bogie (blue), are shown. Parameters of different integrated
be computed and leads to
performance factors (as e.g. PI-controller, transformer
N2

4Lσ,p parasitics, etc.) of both simulated and calculated systems
Zin,p (s) = s + Lσ,s + ...
geq Vo,eq HPI (s) N2 are defined by:

4Rσ,p • input voltage: VN = 15 kV and ṽin = 10 %VN
... + + Rσ,s + Vo,eq [HPI (s) − Hff,i (s)] .
N2 • parasitic values: Rσ,p = 4 mΩ, Rσ,s1−4 = 1 mΩ and
(18) Lσ,p = 100 mH, Lσ,s1−4 = 1 mH
Obviously, this balanced form is very similar to the • output power: Po1 = Po2 = 1.6 MW, Po = 3.2 MW
derived input impedance of subsection III-B. The only • DC-link voltage: Vo1 = Vo2 = 4 kV
difference that can be found is that the effective primary- • PI-controller: kp1−4 = 1.67e−4 , ki1−4 = 3.33e−1
side parasitic components directly scale with number As can be seen from Fig. 6 the resonance frequency of
of sub-modules for such a symmetric version of the the system is shifted to smaller frequency values if the
locomotive. Consequently, the grade of complexity of the number of sub-modules is increased. This is evoked due
derived equation can now be chosen by the designer. Fig. 6 to increasing parasitic inductive shares in the system. This
378
becomes more obvious if the input admittance curve is NPC implementation of the train.
simplified as equivalent RLC circuit. With
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
1
fres = p (19) The authors are very much indebted to Swiss Federal
2π Leq Ceq
Railways (SBB – ”Schweizerische Bundesbahnen”) which
fres is decreasing for higher values of Leq which partly generously supported the work of AIT’s (Austrian Institute
depends on Nm Lσ,p . Furthermore, not only the resonant of Technology) Power Electronics Section (Center for
peak but also the ”active area” of the locomotive (φ < Energy, Electric Energy Systems).
−90◦ ) in this application (with such a low switching
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frequency of 200 Hz for each NPC three-level branch) is
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simultaneously within the same railway network. Hence, if Bossche, and J. A. Melkebeek, “Digitally controlled boost
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379
A Three-Phase AC-AC Matrix Converter with
Simplified Bidirectional Power Control for
Inductive Power Transfer Systems
Masood Moghaddami and Arif Sarwat
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Florida International University, Miami, FL 33174, USA
email: mmogh003@fiu.edu, asarwat@fiu.edu
Abstract—The use of direct three-phase ac-ac matrix con-

verter with bidirectional power control for inductive power
transfer (IPT) systems is proposed. The converter enables direct
power conversion between low-frequency three-phase AC mains
and high-frequency IPT systems. A digital power controller is
designed and developed to regulate the power transfer rate
at the desired level in both directions. A simplified circuit
for the bidirectional power controller is presented which can
be implemented with a few number of logic components or
using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The con-
troller enables soft-switching operations and benefits from the
resonance frequency tracking capability to maintain the high-
efficiency power transmission at any operating conditions. The
converter achieves bidirectional power transfer which is specifi-
Fig. 1. A typical inductive power transfer system.
cally useful for establishing grid-to-vehicle (G2V) and vehicle-to-
grid (V2G) connections through inductive electric vehicle (EV)
charging/discharging systems. Also, the proposed converter can
be employed in dynamic IPT systems as it can cope with converter topologies, AC-AC matrix converters (MCs) are
variations of the system. The controller design methodology, considered as main alternatives for conventional two-stage
simulation analysis, and the preliminary experimental results of AC-DC-AC converters. Due to the elimination of capacitive
the proposed matrix converter on a case study inductive battery and inductive energy storage elements, MCs benefit from high
charging system are presented in detail.
Index Terms—AC-AC converter, bidirectional inductive power power density and high reliability. The applications of MCs in
transfer, direct matrix converter, power control, soft switching. IPT systems has recently gained an increased interest [8]–[13].
In this paper, the use of direct three-phase AC-AC matrix
I. I NTRODUCTION converter with a simplified power transfer control for IPT
applications is proposed. Matrix converters are bidirectional
Inductive power transfer (IPT) is an emerging technique that
which makes it suitable for IPT based grid-to-vehicle (G2V)
has found many applications from low-power consumer elec-
and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) connections. A power controller
tronics to high-power inductive charging systems for heavy-
is specifically designed for the converter to enable the bidi-
duty electric vehicles (EVs) [1]. Specifically, inductive EV
rectional power transfer regulation at a desired level. The
charging systems are of a great interest as they can revo-
controller has the resonance frequency tracking capability to
lutionize the future transportation systems by bringing more
ensure maximum power transfer efficiency of in the system.
convenience and felxibilty to the charging process [2], [3]. The
Therefore, the proposed converter can be employed in dynamic
block diagram of a typical inductive charging is presented in
IPT systems as it can cope into variations of the system.
Fig. 1. IPT technology is categorized into static [4], [5] and
The converter benefits from soft-switching operations which
dynamic [2], [6], [7] inductive charging systems.
significantly enhances the performance of the converter and
In order to make inductive charging systems comparable to
reduces the complexity of the commutation between bidirec-
conventional conductive charging systems, they are designed
tional switches. A simplified circuit for the power controller
to achieve maximum power transfer efficiency. Also, such
is presented which can be implemented with a few number of
systems are required to have high power density. The power
logic components or using a Field Programmable Gate Array
electronic converters which are used in IPT systems play a
(FPGA). The controller enables soft-switching operations and
key role in the performance of the system. Among different
benefits from the resonance frequency tracking capability
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant to maintain the high-efficiency power transmission at any
number 1541108 and FIU Graduate School Dissertation Year Fellowship. operating conditions. The controller design methodology, sim-
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 380

Fig. 4. The proposed simplified digital power controller for the three-phase
AC-AC matrix converter designed based on the switching logic given in (3).
Fig. 2. A direct three-phase to single-phase AC-AC matrix

converter connected to an equivalent RLC circuit representing an IPT sys-
where ω is the angular resonance frequency and RL is the load
tem. at the receiver side. In order to generate an appropriate high-
frequency resonant current in the primary of the IPT system
and regulate the power transfer rate, a control mechanism
should be designed that can achieve the control objectives by
switching the converter into different states of operation.
The controller of the three-phase AC-AC converter can
be designed based on energy-injection/regeneration and free-
oscillation technique. This technique has been used in many
studied to regulate the power transfer level in IPT systems
[8], [10]–[13], [15]. In Fig. 3, the conceptual plot of the
primary resonant current and corresponding output voltage of
the converter of an IPT system in energy-injection and free-
oscillation modes for forward power transfer is presented. It
can be seen that energy-injection modes increase the resonant
Fig. 3. The conceptual plot of the primary resonant current and corresponding
current amplitude. In contrast, free-oscillation modes decrease
output voltage of the converter in energy-injection and free-oscillation modes. the amplitude of the resonant current. On the other hand,
when the converter operates in reverse power transfer, energy-
injection modes decrease the resonant current amplitude and
ulation analysis, and the preliminary experimental results of free-oscillation modes increase the amplitude of the resonant
the proposed matrix converter on a case study inductive battery current. Therefore, in both forward and reverse power transfer
charging system are presented in detail. The bidirectional modes, the resonant current can be controlled by controlling
power controller prototype is developed on an FPGA. the energy-injection and free-oscillation modes. In [10], it is
shown that the resonant current can be calculated as,
II. B IDIRECTIONAL P OWER T RANSFER C ONTROL FOR Vt − vc (0) −t/τ
T HREE -P HASE AC-AC C ONVERTER ir = e sin(ωt) (2)
ωL
The AC-AC matrix converter which is comprised of six where ir is the resonant current, Vt is the voltage source
bidirectional switches is presented in Fig. 2. The IPT system applied to the RLC tank, vc (0) is the initial capacitor voltage,
is modeled as a series RLC circuit where L is the transmitter ω is the resonance frequency, τ = 2L/Req is the time constant
inductance, C is the series connected compensation capacitor, of the RLC tank. In [15], it is shown that in steady-state
and Req is the equivalent load resistance reflected to the conditions vc (0) is also a function of Vt and RLC circuit
primary. The RLC equivalent circuit model is derived by parameters. Therefore, based on (2), it can be seen that
reflecting the secondary load to the primary side. In an IPT the amplitude of the resonant current can be controlled by
system with a series compensated secondary, the equivalent controlling Vt in each half-cycle.
load resistance reflected to the primary Req can be calculated The energy injection/regeneration technique which is em-
as follows [14]: ployed in IPT systems controls the applied voltage to the
ω2 M 2 RLC tank Vt by switching to different operating modes in
Req = (1) order to regulate the power transfer. Based on this technique
RL
381
TABLE I TABLE II
S WITCHING S TATES IN FORWARD POWER TRANSFER MODE S WITCHING S TATES IN REVERSE POWER TRANSFER MODE
Mode ir > 0 va > v b vb > v c vc > va Switches Mode ir > 0 va > v b vb > vc vc > va Switches
1 1 1 1 0 SA1 , SC2 1 1 1 1 0 SC1 , SA2
2 1 1 0 0 SA1 , SB2 2 1 1 0 0 SB1 , SA2
3 1 0 1 0 SB1 , SC2 3 1 0 1 0 SC1 , SB2
4 1 0 1 1 SB1 , SA2 4 1 0 1 1 SA1 , SB2
5 1 0 0 1 SC1 , SA2 5 1 0 0 1 SA1 , SC2
6 1 1 0 1 SC1 , SB2 6 1 1 0 1 SB1 , SC2
7 0 1 1 0 SC1 , SA2 7 0 1 1 0 SA1 , SC2
8 0 1 0 0 SB1 , SA2 8 0 1 0 0 SA1 , SB2
9 0 0 1 0 SC1 , SB2 9 0 0 1 0 SB1 , SC2
10 0 0 1 1 SA1 , SB2 10 0 0 1 1 SB1 , SA2
11 0 0 0 1 SA1 , SC2 11 0 0 0 1 SC1 , SA2
12 0 1 0 1 SB1 , SC2 12 0 1 0 1 SC1 , SB2
13 1 – – – SC1 , SC2 13 1 – – – SC1 , SC2
14 0 – – – SC1 , SC2 14 0 – – – SC1 , SC2
III. S IMULATION A NALYSIS AND E XPERIMENTAL

it can be found that each forward and reverse power transfer
R ESULTS
modes, the converter has 14 states of operation which are
determined based on the direction of the resonant current The proposed converter and its controller connected to
and the relative order of three-phase input voltages. The an inductive EV charging system are simulated in MAT-
forward power transfer mode consists of 12 energy-injection LAB/Simulink. The simulation model consists of transmitter
and 2 free-oscillation states which are presented in Table and receiver circuit with 172µH inductance and 120nF series-
I. The reverse power transfer mode consists of 12 energy- connected compensation capacitors, a 208VLL three-phase
regeneration and 2 free-oscillation states which are presented voltage source, a secondary AC/DC converter connected to a
in Table II. According to Tables I and II the switching logic 22kWh 360V battery. The simulation results for forward power
for six switches (SA1 ,SA2 ,SB1 ,SB2 ,SC1 ,SC2 ) of the converter transfer at 64.2kW and reverse power transfer at 26.4kW are
can be derived as follows: presented in Figs. 5(a) and (b) respectively. These results ver-
ify that the converter can effectively establish a bidirectional
connection between the IPT system and the power grid at
SA1 = Sab · Sca · Ssgn + Sab · Sca · Ssgn · Sinj
different power transfer levels. This figure also shows that
+ Sab · Sca · Ssgn + Sab · Sca · Ssgn · Sreg the converter generates a high-frequency resonant current in

SA2 = Sab · Sca · Ssgn + Sab · Sca · Ssgn · Sinj the IPT system which is regulated by controlling the energy

+ Sab · Sca · Ssgn + Sab · Sca · Ssgn · Sreg injection/regeneration level. The plots of the three-phase grid
voltage and unfiltered grid current show that the converter
SB1 = Sab · Sbc · Ssgn + Sab · Sbc · Ssgn · Sinj switches to different phases whenever grid voltages cross each

+ Sab · Sbc · Ssgn + Sab · Sbc · Ssgn · Sreg other. This ensures that the maximum power transfer is always
achieved.

SB2 = Sab · Sbc · Ssgn + Sab · Sbc · Ssgn · Sinj
The proposed three-phase AC-AC matrix converter along
+ Sab · Sbc · Ssgn + Sab · Sbc · Ssgn · Sreg
with its controller is implemented experimentally and is tested
SC1 = Sca · Sbc · Ssgn + Sca · Sbc · Ssgn · Sinj on case study IPT system as shown in Fig. 6. The controller

+ Sca · Sbc · Ssgn + Sca · Sbc · Ssgn · Sreg + Sinj is implemented according to the design which is presented in

SC2 = Sca · Sbc · Ssgn + Sca · Sbc · Ssgn · Sinj Fig. 4. The controller is composed of differential comparators,
peak detector and an FPGA board (Xilinx Spartan 6) to
+ Sca · Sbc · Ssgn + Sca · Sbc · Ssgn · Sreg + Sinj perform the logical operations. The IPT system test-bed is
(3) composed of transmitter and receiver power pads, each having
172µH inductance and a series connected 120nF compensation
where the variables are defined as Sab : va > vb , Sbc : vb > vc , capacitor thereby, resulting in a 35kHz resonance frequency.
Sca : vc > va , Ssgn : ir > 0, Sinj : reverse power A three-phase variable power supply is used as the grid con-
transfer mode, Sreg : reverse power transfer mode. Using (3), a nection. In order to validate the performance of the converter,
digital controller is designed which is presented in Fig. 4. The experiments are carried out at low-voltage grid connection at
controller takes three-phase voltages (va ,vb ,vc ) and resonant low-power level. In Fig. 5, SA1 and SB2 switching signals
current (ir ) measurements and generates the corresponding (according to Fig. 2) at 35W forward power transfer rate are
switching signals for the converter to regulate the resonant presented. This figure shows that the converter achieves zero-
current around the user-defined reference current (iref ) and current switching operation and effectively generates high-
desired power transfer direction (Rev=0 for forward power frequency resonant current from a low-frequency AC main.
transfer and Rev=1 for reverse power transfer). The harmonic content of the grid current can be effectively
382
200 200
Voltage (V)
Voltage (V)
va va
Grid
Grid
0 vb 0 vb
vc vc
-200 -200
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
200
Current (A)
Current (A)
500 ia ia
Grid
Grid
0 ib 0 ib
-500 ic ic
-200
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Converter Output
Converter Output
Voltage (V)
Voltage (V)
200 200
0 0
-200 -200
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
200
Current (A)
Current (A)
Resonant
Resonant
500
0 0
-500
-200
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
200
Current (A)
Current (A)
Charging
Charging
-60
-70
150
-80
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Time (ms) Time (ms)
(a) (b)
Fig. 5. Simulation results on the proposed AC-AC matrix converter: (a) forward power transfer mode at 68.2 kW charging power, (b) reverse power transfer
mode at 26.4 kW discharging power,
Fig. 6. The IPT system setup used for experimental analysis.
Fig. 7. Experimental results on the proposed three-phase matrix converter pro-

to-type: resonant current (ir ), and unfiltered phase A current (ia ), switching
mitigated by regular LC power filters. Also, high-order power signals SA1 , SA2 .
filters similar to the single-phase topology presented in [16],
[17] can be employed to further improve the power quality of
the proposed converter. switching logic which can be easily implemented on FPGA
boards without the need for DSP platforms. The details of
IV. C ONCLUSION AND F UTURE W ORK the controller design methodology, simulation analysis, and
The simulation and experimental results on the proposed experimental results of the matrix converter with the simplified
AC-AC matrix converter with power controller show that power controller will be presented in the final paper.
the converter can effectively establish a bidirectional power
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[7] M. Moghaddami, A. Anzalchi, and A. I. Sarwat, “Finite element
[14] C.-S. Wang, O. H. Stielau, and G. A. Covic, “Design considerations for a
based design optimization of magnetic structures for roadway inductive
contactless electric vehicle battery charger,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.,
power transfer systems,” in 2016 IEEE Transportation Electrification
vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 1308–1314, Oct 2005.
Conference and Expo (ITEC), June 2016, pp. 1–6.
[8] H. L. Li, A. P. Hu, and G. A. Covic, “A direct ac-ac converter for [15] M. Moghaddami and A. Sarwat, “Self-tuning variable frequency con-
inductive power-transfer systems,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 27, troller for inductive electric vehicle charging with multiple power levels,”
no. 2, pp. 661–668, Feb 2012. IEEE Trans. Transport. Electrific., vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 488–495, June 2017.
[9] N. X. Bac, D. M. Vilathgamuwa, and U. K. Madawala, “A sic-based [16] A. Anzalchi, M. Moghaddami, A. Moghaddasi, A. I. Sarwat, and A. K.
matrix converter topology for inductive power transfer system,” IEEE Rathore, “A new topology of higher order power filter for single-phase
Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 8, pp. 4029–4038, Aug 2014. grid-tied voltage-source inverters,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 63,
[10] M. Moghaddami, A. Anzalchi, and A. I. Sarwat, “Single-stage three- no. 12, pp. 7511–7522, Dec 2016.
phase ac-ac matrix converter for inductive power transfer systems,” IEEE [17] A. Anzalchi, M. Moghaddami, A. Moghadasi, M. M. Pour, and A. I.
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 63, no. 10, pp. 6613–6622, Oct 2016. Sarwat, “Design and analysis of a higher order power filter for grid-
[11] S. Weerasinghe, U. K. Madawala, and D. J. Thrimawithana, “A matrix connected renewable energy systems,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 53,
converter-based bidirectional contactless grid interface,” IEEE Trans. no. 5, pp. 4149–4161, Sept 2017.
384
Design and Analysis of Line Start Synchronous
Reluctance Motor with Dual Saliency
Bikrant Poudel, Ebrahim Amiri, Parviz Rastgoufard
University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA
eamiri@uno.edu
Abstract— This paper presents a design for a line start operate as a SynRM in both low and high speed regions. The
Synchronous Reluctance Motor (SynRM) capable of operating in flux barriers are specially arranged so that the rotor contains a 4-
two different synchronous speeds. The proposed design is based pole salient configuration overlaid on an 8-pole salient
on variable pole numbers for the stator and the rotor. To configuration, with the stator windings being reconfigured by
accommodate the stator with variable pole numbers, the stator two separate windings to change the operating pole count. It is
winding consists of two sets of independent windings to switch the worth noting that the proposed methodology is general and can
operating pole number for low and high speed regions. Likewise, be extended to any two different arbitrary pole numbers.
the rotor is especially designed to create two different reluctance
pole numbers to match with the operating stator pole numbers.
The proposed design enables the motor to operate as a SynRM at II. PRINCIPLE OF THE SCHEME AND MOTOR DESIGN
two different operating speeds without requiring a drive unit. To The stator winding consists of two independent windings
verify the performance of the proposed design, the motor is with two different pole numbers (4/8) to switch the winding and
analyzed in steady state and transient domain using 3-D Finite to change the operating pole count for high and low speed
Element Analysis (FEA). conditions. The rotor is designed to create two different
reluctance pole numbers to match with the stator operating pole
Keywords— Dual Saliency, Line Start Motor, Pole Changing,
Reluctance Torque count. This arrangement enables the motor to operate as a
SynRM at 750/1500 rpm. The produced reluctance torque is
given by Eq (1):
I. INTRODUCTION
Synchronous Reluctance Motor (SynRM) are gradually
= . 2 (1)
gaining interest in many industrial applications such as electric ɷ .
vehicles (EVs) [1, 2] for their simple rugged structure, high
power density, high efficiency and low cost. Such motors are where, , ɷ , , , , are respectively number
normally started and accelerated to the desired synchronous of poles, synchronous angular velocity, direct and quadrature
speed using a power electronics drive unit. Alternatively, reactance at the synchronous frequency, synchronous torque,
SynRMs can be started as a line start synchronous motor with input voltage and the torque angle.
the help of squirrel cage bars. The later approach would Fig. 1 illustrates the schematic of the proposed motor with
eliminate the operational cost and losses associated with the 4/8 pole structure to operate at 750/1500 rpm with the design
drive unit but would restrict the operation of the motor to a single data enclosed in Table I. As seen, flux barriers are especially
operating speed. arranged to create two different salient structures in the rotor. In
There are very few studies available in the literature on the Fig. 1 cage bars are shown with sky blue color around the
design of two-speed line start synchronous motors. In [3] a two- circumference of the rotor.
speed line start motor is presented to increase the efficiency of
compressor motors. However, this motor operates as an
induction motor at a high speed region (2-pole mode) and it is
only at low speed (4-pole mode) that the motor can operate as a
synchronous motor. The pole changing method based on
variable pole numbers for the stator and the rotor is presented in
[4-6] but with a considerable amount of Permanent Magnet
(PMs) in the rotor. In [4], a rotor design with dual PM polarity
enables the motor to operate as a PM synchronous motor at both
low and high speeds. In [5, 6], the two-speed operation is
realized by the combination of electromagnetic torque and
reluctance torque enabling the motor to operate as a synchronous
PM motor at high speed and a synchronous reluctance motor at
low speed.
To further reduce the operational cost, we propose and
present in this paper a design of two-speed line start synchronous
motor without using PMs in the rotor. In the proposed design,
the two-speed operation is achieved solely based on the
reluctance nature of the motor which enables the motor to Fig. 1. Schematic of the motor.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 385

TABLE I
DESIGN DATA OF THE TWO-SPEED MOTOR
Stator Outer diameter 284 mm
Inner diameter 175 mm
Stack length 68 mm
Number of slots 48
Conductor per slot for high speed winding 34
Conductor per slot for low speed winding 52
Rotor Outer diameter 174.2 mm
Inner diameter 34 mm
Inertia 0.04 kgm2
Load Inertia 0.02 kgm2
With this design, the rotor possesses two reluctance pole

numbers (in this case 8 & 4) simultaneously. At low operating
speed (when the 8-pole stator winding is switched on) the (a)
reluctance nature of the four reluctance poles is almost
neutralized from the stator windings perspective and, thus, do
not interfere with the motor performance (Fig.2 a). Contrary, at
high rotor speed - when the 4-pole stator winding is switched
on- viewing from the stator windings the reluctance nature of the
eight reluctance poles is almost neutralized and the motor
operates mostly based on a rotor with four reluctance poles
(Fig.2 b). Therefore, the rotor can adjust itself to match its pole
number with the operating stator pole count. Nonetheless, there
is always negligible interference when switching from one pole
number to another.
(b)
Fig. 3. Magnetic lines of flux (a) 4-pole run (b) 8-pole run.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. Schematic view of SynRM with (a) 8-pole winding and (b) 4-pole
winding.
Magnetic flux lines at no load are shown in Fig. 3.a and Fig. (a)
3.b for 4-pole and 8-pole runs. We deduce from these FEA
results that the motor is not saturated.
III. SIMULATION AND RESULTS
A. Steady State Analysis

The motor is excited by nominal sinusoidal current at 12 and
5 Amperes in 4-pole and 8-pole operation respectively. The
reluctance torque produced by the motor in each case is depicted
in Fig. 4. These torque results are obtained when the motor is
running at no load, and a speed slightly lower than synchronous (b)
speed to relate to various torque angles. From the steady state Fig. 4. Reluctance torque a) 4-pole run with the rotor speed slightly less than
analysis, it is inferred that the maximum reluctance torque synchronous speed (≤ 1500 rpm), b) 8-pole run with the rotor speed slightly
provided by the motor is almost 15 N.m. less than synchronous speed (≤ 750 rpm).
386
B. Transient Analysis
To analyze the transient behavior of the motor, the motor is
started under a fan type load as shown in Fig. 5. The load torque
is proportional to the square of the rotor speed of Eq. 2 with
maximum amount of 15 N.m. at the speed of 1500 rpm. The
applied effective line to line voltage for both four-pole and eight-
pole stator windings is 380 V.
= (2)
(c)
Fig. 6. Starting transient response of the motor in 4-pole run a) speed, b)
produced torque, c) input current.
Fig. 5. Load torque characteristic.
The speed-time response of the motor starting for the 4-pole

operating mode is depicted in Fig. 6.a. It is observed that the
designed motor can successfully start and after the transient time
has passed, it reaches the synchronous speed (≈ 1500 rpm). The
characteristic of torque and the stator phase current versus time
for the same operating mode (4-pole) are shown in Fig. 6.b and (a)
Fig. 6.c. As seen, the torque and current settle at their steady
state values after some oscillations. Repeating the same
procedure for the 8-pole operating mode, we arrive at the speed,
torque, and current results of Fig. 7.a, Fig. 7.b, and Fig. 7.c.
respectively.
(b)
(a)
(c)
Fig. 7. Starting transient response of the motor in 8-pole run a) speed, b)
produced torque, c) input current.
(b)
387
As for the transient response of the motor when it is switched Conversion, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, October 2015, Volume 31,
from one synchronous speed to another, the switching time may Issue 1, Pages 366-372.
[6] B. Poudel, E. Amiri, A. Damaki Aliabad and F. Ghoroghchian, "Line start
affect the dynamic behavior of the motor and, thus, should be synchronous motor for multi-speed applications," 2017 IEEE
done at a proper time instant. Motor transient response when its International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC), Miami,
switched from 8-pole mode to 4-pole mode is shown in Fig. 8. FL, 2017.
Fig. 8. Motor transient response when its switched from 8-pole mode to 4-pole
mode.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
A two-speed SynRM design based on the rotor structure with
dual saliency is proposed. The rotor contains a 4-pole
configuration overlaid on an 8-pole configuration, with the
stator windings being reconfigured to change the operating pole
count. The proposed design creates two reluctance pole numbers
and enables the motor to operate as a SynRM at two operating
speeds without requiring a drive unit which simply eliminates
associated cost and losses. This is desirable for applications that
mostly run at two discrete speeds like desert coolers.
The proposed design can still be applied for applications that
require variable (more than two) speeds, but with the help of a
drive unit. In this case, the switching between two distant
operating speeds is done by the proposed pole changing concept
and any minor speed change around the two distinct speeds is
done by the drive unit. Therefore, the proposed arrangement-
motor plus drive unit- could deliver speed change in a wider
range. To verify the performance of the proposed design, the
motor operation is analyzed in both steady state and transient
domain using 3-D FEA.
REFERENCES
[1] K. M. Rahman, B. Fahimi, G. Suresh, A. V. Rajarathnam, and M. Ehsani,
“Advantages of switched reluctance motor applications to EV and HEV:
Design and control issues,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 36, no. 1, pp.
111–121, Jan./Feb. 2000.
[2] N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, E. Carraro, M. Castiello, and E. Fornasiero,
“Electric vehicle traction based on synchronous reluctance motors,” IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 52, no. 6, pp. 4762– 4769,
2016.
[3] F. J. Haddad Kalluf, L. N. Tutelea, I. Boldea and A. Espindola, “2/4-
POLE Split-Phase Capacitor Motor for Small Compressors: A
Comprehensive Motor Characterization”, IEEE Transactions, Industry
Applications, Vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 356 – 363, 2014.
[4] F. Ghoroghchian, A. Damaki Aliabad, E. Amiri and B. Poudel, "Line start
permanent magnet synchronous motor with dual magnetic polarity," 2017
IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC),
Miami, FL, 2017.
[5] A. Damaki Aliabad, and F. Ghoroghchian, “Design and Analysis of a
Two-Speed Line Start Synchronous Motor”, IEEE Transaction on Energy
388
A High Torque Density Outer Rotor Claw Pole
Stator Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor
Jingchen Liang1, Amir Parsapour1, Eva Cosoroaba1, Minxiang Wu1, Ion Boldea2, Babak Fahimi1
1 The University of Texas at Dallas, USA, 2 Universitatea Politehnică Timişoara, Romaina
jxl146930@utdallas.edu
Abstract- This paper proposes a high torque density outer rotor [11], [12] with applications in car alternators, pumps and fans.
claw pole permanent magnet synchronous motor (CPPMSM). However, all of these applications are running at a higher rated
The increased torque density will allow for the development of speed, larger size and lower torque than the here proposed
many low speed actuators without transmission or with small
gear ratio, such as the actuators for robotics and alternators used motor.
in automobiles. The analytical design method, the structure of the One of the concerns of claw pole structure is the flux
machine as well as the results of a three dimensional (3D) leakage. The flux is traveling from one claw to another, such
electromagnetic model in ANSYS Maxwell are presented. A that stator suffers larger leakage flux than conventional
complete multi-physics finite element analysis including the machines. Furthermore, the three dimensional (3D) flux path
electromagnetic and thermal analysis are presented. Moreover,
an improved model for continuous operation of this machine has increases the complexity of the design which results in the
been proposed and analyzed to compare with the proposed restriction of size [13]. These are the two major drawbacks that
results. limit the efficiency and material selection in the proposed
Index terms- High torque density, claw pole motor, outer rotor, configuration. Leakages of the magnetic flux occurs primarily
CPPMSM, finite element method (FEM). around the rotor magnets and around the stator coils. Second
possibility for leakage is between adjacent claws. Third
I. INTRODUCTION
possible location for the leakage flux is the leakage between
Claw pole machines are widely used in automobiles phases [1]. The low efficiency caused by leakage fluxes is a
alternators. For robotic application such as those used in trade-off for high torque density when using claw pole
prosthetic arms, these machines are required to operate within structures. Laminated steel is not a suitable choice for armature
a compact space in low speed with high torque. Claw pole material in this case due to the presence of 3D magnetic flux
machines belong to the family of transverse flux machines distribution and the claw design. Instead, Soft Magnetic
(TFM). The simple hoop-wound structure of the armature Composites (SMC) material made by metal powders is a better
winding lowers the fabrication cost making it thus attractive choice since it has isotropic permeability and low conductivity
for mass productions [1], [2]. This kind of machines produce which allows for the traveling of 3D magnetic flux while
much higher torque densities than conventional machines due limiting eddy currents [9].
to electric and magnetic circuits being decoupled so that the In this paper, a high torque density outer rotor claw pole
increasing of pole numbers will not change the winding stator permanent magnet synchronous motor using SMC for
volume. As a result, the magneto-motive force (MFF) per pole stator steel has been proposed for the application of actuators
will not be reduced [3], [4]. and alternators in the area of robotics and automobiles. This
Small size claw pole synchronous generators used as motor provides comparably higher torque density than other
alternators in automobiles have been introduced in [5]. conventional designs, which can be competitive for a broad
Reference [6] reports a hybrid excited claw pole alternator range of applications. In the proposed motor, torque is
which satisfies the increasing power need on board. A claw generated when the rotor flux tends to align with the stator flux.
pole generator for an energy harvesting system that converts The magnet flux passes through air-gap, the closest stator claw,
the kinetic energy into electricity is presented in [7]. All of stator yoke, returning through the claw on the other side and
these applications are taking advantage of the claw pole air-gap back to the magnet pair [2]. This motor is able to
structure for high torque density. provide a 37.65 Nm/L torque density for very low duty cycle
In addition, outer rotor design can maximize the torque operation and a 10.75 Nm/L torque density for full duty cycle
within certain space due to the fact that the radius of the rotor operation.
is maximized, and torque is proportional to the square of the In the following sections of this paper, the preliminary
rotor radius. Also, the outer rotor structure reduces the volume analytical design methodology will be introduced to provide
of the armature windings so that copper losses can be an initial geometry for the given specifications in second
minimized. The permanent magnets (PMs) are mounted on the section. Copper loss is calculated in order to obtain the motor
inner surface of the rotor so that PMs can be well protected and efficiency. A 3D model of the proposed motor designed in
the retaining sleeve can be removed [8]. ANSYS Maxwell is presented in the third section. In the last
Several outer rotor claw pole stator permanent magnet two sections, the simulation results including torque results,
synchronous motors (PMSM) have been proposed in [9], [10], flux density analyses, and thermal analyses are presented for
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 389

both the proposed motor under rated operating point as well as TABLE I
DIMENSIONS AND PARAMETERS
an improved continuous operating point.
Dimensions and Parameters Quantity
II. PROPOSED STRUCTURE ANALYSIS AND MODELING Rated Speed nn (rpm) 100
In this section, a preliminary analytical design methodology Rated Power 𝑃𝑛 (W) 120
is introduced to provide an initial geometry for the given Rated Torque (Nm) 7.53
specifications. Current Density (A/mm2) 19.1
1. Design Parameters Rated Frequency (Hz) 16.67
Dimensions and parameters of the proposed motor are listed Number of Poles 20
in Table I. The electromagnetic torque 𝑇𝑒𝑚 is given by Number of Turns of Winding 167
Rotor Outer Diameter (mm) 71
𝑇𝑒𝑚 = 60𝑃𝑛 /(2𝜋𝑛𝑛 ) (1) Rotor Inner Diameter (mm) 65
Stator Diameter (mm) 60.4
where 𝑃𝑛 and 𝑛𝑛 are the rated power of 120 W and speed of Winding Diameter (mm) 40
100 rpm. The number of poles is chosen to be 20 according to Main Airgap Length (mm) 0.3
the designed stator diameter 𝐷𝑠 =60 mm in order to leave Stator Stack Length per Phase (mm) 15
sufficient space for inner claw. Pole pitch τ thus can be Total Volume (L) 0.2
obtained by
𝜏 = 𝜋𝐷𝑠 /20 (2)
Then the peak value of the PM flux per pole is calculated
𝜙𝑃𝑀𝑚𝑎𝑥 = (2/𝜋)𝐵𝑔𝑃𝑀 𝜏 𝑙𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑘 (3)
2
where is the coefficient of Fourier transform from rectangular
𝜋
flux to sinusoidal flux, 𝐵𝑔𝑃𝑀 and 𝑙𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑘 are the PM flux density
and the stack length per phase respectively.
The detailed dimensions of the cross section for the proposed
motor is illustrated in Fig. 1. The stack length per phase is 15
mm with 3 mm distance in between two phases, resulting in a
51 mm total stack length. The radius of the motor is 35.5 mm
with 0.3 mm air-gap. Stator has 10 claw pairs per phase, and
the phases are independent from each other. Windings are set
in the 56 mm2 slot area of the stators embraced by claws. Outer
rotor back iron is 3 mm thick with 10 pairs of 2 mm thick PMs Fig. 1. Cross section of the motor with dimensions
mounted on the inner surface of the rotor for each phase. The
total volume of this machine is 0.2 L.
Torque can be calculated by equation (4) for claw pole 1. Copper Loss Calculation
machines Copper loss is one of the most important parameters for
efficiency and thermal analyses, which determines the design
𝑇𝑒𝑚 = (3/2)𝑝2 𝜙𝑃𝑀𝑚𝑎𝑥 2 𝐼𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝜔𝑐𝑜𝑖𝑙 (4) of the thermal management [14], [15]. According to the
proposed design parameters, the copper area for each turn and
the total copper length for each phase are 0.234mm2 and
where 𝑝 is the number of pole pair, 𝐼𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘 is the peak current in 20985.8mm respectively. 1.52 Ω of copper resistance for each
each turn of the coil, and 𝜔𝑐𝑜𝑖𝑙 is the number of turns of the phase at room tempreature (20° 𝐶) has been calculated by
coil. Then the current density 𝑗𝑟𝑚𝑠 can be found according to
the total RMS current value by 𝑅𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 = (𝜌𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝐿𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 )/𝐴𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 (6)
where 𝜌𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 , 𝐿𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 , and 𝐴𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 are the resistivity, length,

𝑗𝑟𝑚𝑠 = 𝐼𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝜔𝑐𝑜𝑖𝑙 /(√2𝐴𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑡 ) (5)
and area for cooper respectively, and the resistivity for copper
at room temperature is 1.68 × 10−8 Ω ∙ 𝑚. The total copper
In order to achieve the proposed high torque density, the
loss for this motor is calculated by (7), which is 91.39 W.
current density of 19.1 𝐴/𝑚𝑚2 is calculated assuming a 70%
filling factor.
𝑃𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 = 3𝐼 2 𝑅𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 (7)
390
III. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS FOR PROPOSED MODEL
A 3D model is constructed in ANSYS Maxwell as shown in
Fig. 2 (a) in order to verify the feasibility of the proposed motor
using Finite Element Method (FEM). Simulation results
including torque waveform, flux density, and thermal analysis
are presented.
1. Model Description
Fig. 2 (b) shows the claw pole stator model for three phases. Fig. 3. Torque waveform with 19.1 A/mm2 current density and 70%
The stator material properties are set to reflect “Somaloy 700 filling factor
3P base material” from Höganäs AB [16]. There are 12
mechanical degrees (120 electrical degrees) phase shift
between each stack of stators. Fig. 2 (c) shows the outer rotor
structure using M19_29G material (as the back iron) with
NdFeB permanent magnets mounted on the inner surface.
Simulation results of the model are presented in the following
part.
A comprehensive study has been done based on the
proposed design parameters such as the claw length, the airgap
length, and the distance between three phases. The design with
15 mm claw length, 0.3 mm airgap length and 3 mm phase
distance has been selected which offers the highest torque
under the same operating point.
Fig. 4. Flux density of the cross section
(a)
Fig. 5. Flux density in the airgap
(b)
Fig. 6. Flux density in the cross section of the PMs
2. Simulation Results
The proposed 3D model is solved by FEM in ANSYS
Maxwell. This model is simulated under the rated speed of 100
rpm with three-phase sinusoidal AC excitation, current density
and filling factor are set to 19.1 𝐴/𝑚𝑚2 and 70% respectively.
These simulation results assume a very low duty cycle in
(c) operation when cooled by air or continuous operation when a
Fig. 2. (a) 3D model, (b) Claw pole stator, (c) Rotor and PMs liquid cooling is present.
391
Fig. 3 shows the torque waveform under this excitation,
which has 7.53 Nm average torque with 12.6% torque ripple.
This provides a 37.65 Nm/L torque density.
The flux density in the cross section of the motor is shown
in Fig. 4, slight saturation happened at the corner of the stator
slot, which will be improved in the later proposed operating
point (in the next section). Fig. 5 shows that the flux density in
the airgap is around 0.9 T.
3. Demagnetization Analysis
In this machine, due to the magnet flux passing through
air-gap, the closest stator claw, stator yoke, returning through
the claw on the other side and air-gap back to the magnet pair,
the direction of the magnetic flux is the same as the
Fig. 7. Steady state thermal analysis result with 19.1 A/mm2 current
magnetization direction, even with the flux leakage occurring density and 70% filling factor
between three phases, the demagnetization will not be a major
concern. As Fig. 6 shows the flux density in the middle of the
permanent magnets are around 1 T and as such no
demagnetization occurs in this machine.
4. Thermal Analysis
For 10% duty cycle operation with the 19.1 𝐴/𝑚𝑚2 current
density and 70% filling factor excitation, the steady state
thermal analysis has been done in ANSYS workbench to
analyze the feasibility of the machine. The highest temperature Fig. 8. Transient thermal analysis result with 19.1 A/mm2 current
density and 70% filling factor
this machine can reach is 54.7° 𝐶 with air cooling, as illustrated
in Fig.7. In order to explore the maximum operating time for
the proposed motor under this excitation, the transient thermal
analysis is obtained and shown in Fig. 8. The core temperature
raises to 128° 𝐶 after 5 minutes.
5. Copper Loss and Efficiency
As the copper resistance increases in correspondence with
higher temperature, the copper loss is recalculated since the
actual machine operating temperature is higher than the room Fig. 9. Torque waveform with 5 A/mm2 current density and 50% filling
temperature. The copper resistance under 54.7° 𝐶 will be factor
increased from 1.52 Ω to 1.736 Ω, and the copper loss is
obtained by (7) which is 104 W. Core loss is neglected in the
efficiency calculation due to the use of SMC and the low speed
application [17]. The efficiency under this excitation at the
rated speed of 100 rpm is 43.1%.
IV. MODELING FOR CONTINUOUS OPERATING
The proposed model with the 19.1 𝐴/𝑚𝑚2 current density
and 70% filling factor for continuous operation would be
thermally limited due to joule heating, which can ultimately
cause insulation breakdown. In order to improve the feasibility
and to ease the limitation of the proposed motor for broader
range of applications, an improved operation point for
continuous operating is proposed. The current density and
Fig. 10. Flux density of the cross section with 5 A/mm2 current density
filling factor are decreased to 5 𝐴/𝑚𝑚2 and 50% respectively and 50% filling factor
to reduce the copper loss. The simulation results are obtained
using FEM.
density. Fig. 10 shows the flux density on the cross section of
1. Simulation Results
the machine, saturation problem is solved with the lower
Fig. 9 shows the torque waveform with the lower current
current density and lower filling factor excitation [18]. The
density and filling factor, the average torque is dropped to 2.15
highest point is around 1.7 T.
Nm with 5.3% torque ripple, which gives a 10.75 Nm/L torque
392
proposed machine provides a 10.75 Nm/L torque density for
continuous operation. This proposed motor seems to be a good
candidate for low speed high torque applications without
transmission such as automotive actuators and prosthetic arms.
REFERENCES
[1] S. Lundmark. "Application of 3-D computation of magnetic fields to the
design of claw-pole motors." Chalmers University of Technology, 2005.
[2] S. K. T. Lundmark and E. S. Hamdi, "Designs of claw-pole motors for
industrial applications," The 3rd IET International Conference on Power
Electronics, Machines and Drives, 2006, pp. 111-115.
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Swaddle, "High torque machines for power hand tool applications," 2002
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393
Performance Validation of a PM Spoke Machine for
MotorSport Application Including 3DLeakage Effects
Giuseppe Volpe ‫†כ‬, Sara Roggia † ,
Fabrizio Marignetti‫כ‬ Mircea Popescu †,
*
Department of Electrical and Information Engineering James Goss †
University of Cassino †
Motor Design Limited
Cassino, Italy Wrexham, United Kingdom
Abstract—The objective of this paper is to accurately predict 230km/h (140mph) [6], equal to 64 m/s. Considering the
the behavior of a novel high-performing electric motor for motor maximum car speed and the tyre diameter limits, the wheel axle
sport application. A compact radial-flux spoke permanent magnet can run up to 1770rpm. Based on the aforementioned wheel and
machine, has been designed to achieve high torque with low tyre dimensions with an ideal maximum car speed of 230km/h
weight. For this machine structure, 3D leakage effects are not
negligible. In this study, analyses have been carried out using a 2D
the electrical machine target speed is in the range of 10000-
modified model that takes into account the leakage 3D effects. 12000rpm, if a single speed gearbox with a ratio between 6 and
These 3D effects have been estimated and formulated through an 7 is adopted. In this paper a ratio equal to 6.7 has been chosen
easy and accessible computation that has been validated against to obtain a maximum wheel axle speed of 1791rpm when the
3D simulations. Using the 2D calibrated model, the motor maximum motor speed is 12000rpm.
performances have been evaluated over the Le Mans circuit real The space occupied by the electrical motor within the vehicle
racing drive cycle. is the main concern for Formula E car designers. Therefore,
compactness and weight represent the main requirements for
Keywords—Spoke Permanent Magnet Motors; Traction
the motor choice. Several studies [7-10] have demonstrated the
Motors;Drive Cycle; Torque density; Power density.
effectiveness of permanent magnet synchronous machines
(PMSM) with spoke magnet configuration in applications
I. INTRODUCTION where a high level of power/torque density is required. In this
The Formula E Championship was established by FIA paper, the use of a spoke PMSM is considered for the
(Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) in 2014 [1]. During application at hand. A 200kW, high speed, spoke PMSM with
the first season of the competition, it was compulsory for all the high torque density and low weight has been designed in [11].
teams to have the same car including chassis, mechanical The same machine is used in this paper to prove its applicability
assemblies, and propulsion system. However, for the second for the Formula E application.
season new rules, which are currently valid, were established. In Formula E heavy duty cycles, that require the electrical
While the development of customized solutions in terms of motor to work toward the machine operational limits, are
electrical motors, controllers and transmission systems has been usually experienced. Therefore, an accurate prediction of motor
allowed to the participants, the mechanical parts and the battery electromagnetic performance needs to be assessed in order to
packages are currently mandatory and cannot be modified. avoid irreversible demagnetization and motor performance
The possibility of choosing personalized propulsion system degradation during the race. In this paper, the peak performance
led the teams to study different solutions with complex of the machine [11] as well as the behavior of the motor on a
integrated motor and transmission systems. Among the real driving cycle (i.e. Le Mans circuit) have been analyzed.
proposed systems it is difficult to discern which solution offers The analyses proved that the chosen machine resulted adequate
more advantages. An effective improvement, as explained in to operate over a dynamic drive cycles in which high peak
[2], was presented by Renault team for the Renault E. Dams car performances are required for short time i.e. Le Mans drive-
[3] where a reduced number of gear ratios in the transmission cycle.
apparatus helped minimise the parasitic losses and time losses Analyses are carried out considering that when spoke
due to the gearshift and the weight of the mechanical assembly. magnets motors are utilized, important 3D flux leakage effects
Another key rule of the Formula E regulation is the limit on are experienced, as reported in [10-14]. Due to the 3D effects,
the admitted power. The maximum power is restricted to a reduction in the motor performance, especially in terms of
180kW; however, bonuses can be gained to reach a maximum flux linkage, back-EMF and, therefore, in terms of the
available power of 200kW [4] [5]. deliverable torque, occurs. Thus, a prediction of the 3D motor
The size of the wheels for a Formula E racing car is 18 inches. behavior should be considered during the motor analyses.
The maximum admitted diameter of the rear tyre is 690mm [6]. The evaluation of 3D effects requires the use of 3D FE
The highest speed performed by a Formula E car is 225- studies which are time consuming and computationally
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 394

demanding. Several studies have been conducted in [10-14] to A. 3D Model
estimate the 3D leakage effects encountered in spoke PMSM, The 3D model geometry of the proposed machine is shown
with the aim of achieving a general formula that quantifies these in Fig.2. To simplify the 3D modelling procedure, at this stage,
phenomena. In [12], an interesting formulation of the problem the magnets segmentation is not taken into account.
has been proposed. However, the suggested approach requires Within 3D FE models, extra attention is required to define
3D simulations to calibrate the analytical model. the mesh, as a fine mesh is required to obtain correct results.
For the machine considered in this paper, several 3D models The choice of the mesh coarseness is the result of a compromise
have been built in order to obtain an easy formulation that between the accuracy of the results and the computational time.
correlates 3D leakage effects with the aspect ratio of the motor An optimal mesh size for the present model was found by
(length over motor diameter). This approach has been used for choosing a length-based mesh inside rotor lamination, magnets
calculating a coefficient that takes into account the 3D and stator lamination with maximum length of 8mm, 7mm, and
reduction in motor performance into 2D finite element (FE) 20mm, respectively.
simulations. Thanks to the formulation of the 3D leakage With regards to the coils, a surface approximation has been
coefficient, the prediction of the machine performance over the adopted. The initial mesh is shown in Fig.3. In the simulation
drive cycle at hand has been assessed using a 2D modified model, the whole machine lays inside a vacuum box, shown in
model. This technique avoided the use of 3D finite element Fig.4.
analyses (FEA) to predict the electromagnetic machine
behavior and to estimate the performance of the motor over Le
Mans drive-cycle. Using a 3D finite element model (FEM),
same analyses would have been impracticable, since more than
900 operating points per cycle need to be simulated.
II. MOTOR FEATURES
Machine design targets are in terms of power and speed. The
maximum power target is 200kW, due to the maximum allowed
power by the race regulations. The target speed is in the range
of 10000-12000rpm, due to consideration about single speed
gearbox and wheel dimensions exposed in Section I. The motor
base speed is 4000rpm, which is the maximum speed at which
the motor is able to operate at maximum constant torque. The
corresponding torque value is 480Nm.
The motor chosen for this study has 18 slots and 16 poles
with a double-layer concentrated winding. The winding Fig.1- Radial view of the machine
configuration achieves a high fundamental winding factor of
0.945 [15].
Thanks to the concentrated winding it is possible to reduce TABLE I – MACHINE PARAMETERS
the copper volume for the end winding, this leads to less Joule
Parameter Value
losses, higher efficiency and less heat generation.
The rotor poles are made of 16 NedFeB magnets, separated Maximum Speed (rpm) 12000
by rotor lamination segments as shown in Fig.1 within the radial Maximum Current (Arms) 380
cross section of the complete machine. The machine’s main Maximum Torque (Nm) 480
parameters are reported in Table I.
Output Peak Power (kW) 230
III. 3D EFFECTS Rated Efficiency (%) +92
Due to magnets disposition and compact axial length of the Stator OD (mm) 300
motor whose specifications are reported in Table I, a non- Stator Bore (mm) 220
negligible magnet axial-end leakage effect is expected during
the motor operations. The formulation of the problem has been Airgap (mm) 1
proposed in the literature for different applications using Rotor Poles 16
different approaches [10-14]. However, it is hard to find a Stator Slots 18
generalised formula that describes these effects independently
Axial Length (mm) 70
from the motor features. In fact, existing formulae make use of
parameters that have been derived from 3D analyses and are Magnets Thickness (mm) 12
only applicable for the considered specific motor.
In this section, the topic is introduced and an equation that
describes the dependency of the 3D leakage factor with
dimensions of the motor at hand is derived.
395
Fig.2 - Machine 3D model Fig.5 - Back-EMFs at 1000rpm
Fig.3 - Optimised initial mesh Fig.6 – 3D Flux density lines
Fig.4 - Vacuum box containing the machine Fig.7 - Back-EMFs comparison from 0rpm to 10000rpm
The size of the box is three times the machine volume; this stator laminations. This produces a leakage flux that does not
enables the leakage effects to be accurately evaluated at the contribute to torque generation, however it reduces the motor
motor front and back end. performances in terms of deliverable torque.
Open circuit simulations at different operational speeds, such As anticipated, the same phenomenon occurs at 5000rpm and
as 1000rpm, 5000rpm, and 10000rpm have been performed. 10000rpm, where a 6% difference is confirmed between the 3D
One electrical cycle with 60 points per cycle has been and 2D back-EMF peak values. The peak values, intended as
considered for both 2D and 3D analyses. Both back-EMFs and the maximum measured value on a rotor revolution of 360
flux leakages have been calculated. The line-to-line back-EMF electrical degrees, of the back-EMFs, considering different
between phase one and phase two at 1000rpm is shown in Fig.5. motor speeds, from zero to 10000rpm, are reported in Fig. 7.
Results of the back-EMFs obtained from 3D simulations, As can be observed from Fig. 7, the back-EMFs absolute
V3D, are displayed versus the 2D back-EMF results, V2D. The value increase, as expected, linearly with the speed, while an
peak value, over an electrical cycle, of the V3D in Fig.5 is 136V error of 0.06 of the total voltage is maintained all over the trend.
whereas the peak value of the V2D is 145V. This proves that a
difference of 6% of the total value of the voltage exists between B. Problem Formulation
the 3D and the 2D FE results. During the design process, different aspect ratios (motor
The flux density (B) behavior at the front axial end of the length L over motor diameter D) have been considered for
rotor is shown in Fig.6. As it can be noted from the B field trend, achieving the target performance. Since it is expected that
flux lines close onto the magnet itself instead of linking the motor dimensions affect the reduction of flux and voltage due
396
to 3D leakage effects, two further simulations with an aspect
ratio of 1 and 2 have been performed.
When an aspect ratio of 1 is adopted, the peak value of the
line-to-line back-EMFs, at 1000rpm, obtained from 3D FE
simulations is 438V whereas the 2D peak value is 455V, with
an existing percentage error of 4% between the two quantities.
In case of aspect ratio equal to 2, the peak value of line to line
back-EMFs obtained from 3D FE simulations is 882.5V and the
2D peak value of 910.5V, with an error of 3.2%. In both cases,
the percentage difference between 3D and 2D FE results
remains constant when analyses are performed over a speed
range between 1000rpm and 10000rpm.
The results have been used to define the trend of the
percentage error e% with respect to the aspect ratio L/D. The
stator winding does not significantly influence the magnets
leakage; hence it has not been taken into account during the
formulation procedure. On the other hand, the ratio between Fig.8 - Percentage error trend considering the proposed equation with 3D
magnet thickness wm and rotor lamination width wrl directly results used for calculating the equation coefficients (o) and 3D results used
affects the percentage error and the coefficient calculation. for validating the model (*).
With thicker magnets and smaller rotor laminations, it is easier
for flux lines at the end-space to reclose on the magnets instead As it can be observed from Fig. 8, a good agreement exists
of reaching the stator laminations. However, the aspect ratio has between the predicted error, obtained from the trend function of
a stronger influence on the percentage error. (1), and the actual results.
As it is can be noted from previous results, the higher the IV. MOTOR PERFORMANCE USING THE 2D FE MODIFIED
aspect ratio, the lower the percentage error e%. These concepts MODEL
have been formalized in (1) where an exponential function has
been adopted to describe the trend of e% with L/D. In (1), the After the equation validation, a solution for taking into
coefficients a and b have been determined using the least square consideration the 3D performance reductions into 2D FE
method, based on results obtained from 3D vs 2D FE analyses has been studied. The 3D effects have been
simulations. The values of the coefficients a and b are implemented into 2D simulation using a correction factor ktot as
respectively 0.5 and 0.33. proposed in (2). This has been determined as the product of kc
In Fig. 8, the three cases with different aspect ratio values and ks factors, where kc has a fixed value that takes into account
analyzed above are shown with circles and the trend variation the inevitable reduction of the flux linkage when performing 3D
of the error with the aspect ratio as formulated in (1) is reported. IPM analyses with respect to 2D FEA, whereas ks depends on
the percentage error calculates as (1). A fixed error of 3%
௪೘ ௅ ି௕
between 3D and 2D FE simulations exists independently from
݁Ψ ൌ ܽ ‫כ‬ ‫כ‬ቀ ቁ (1) motor parameters, therefore the factor kc is obtained as the
௪ೝ೗ ஽
complementary to one of this percentage i.e. 0.97. The quantity
ks is calculated in the same way using the percentage error
C. Error Trend Validation obtained from (1), i.e. 1-e%∙100. The total factor ktot is used as a
In order to verify the consistency of (1) that relates e% with correction factor to be multiplied to the magnets’ residual flux
the aspect ratio of the motor, other 3D FEA calculations have density Br. This operation allows the reduction of the magnets’
been performed. It has been considered an arbitrary aspect ratio field that will result in a proportional reduction of the back-
of 0.6 and 1.4. The line-to-line peak back-EMFs obtained from EMF voltage verified with the 3D FE model to be taken into
3D FEA using aspect ratio of 0.6 is 277V. For the same case of account in 2D simulations.
study, the 2D peak value is 290V with a percentage error of A number of 2D FEA at open circuit conditions, considering
4.7% between the 3D and 2D FE results. With an aspect ratio the presented modified model, have been performed for a speed
of 1.4, 3D analyses returned a peak line-to-line back-EMF of range from 1000rpm to 10000rpm and with a motor aspect ratio
598V, whereas the 2D peak line-to-line value is 620.5V, with a from 0.3 to 2. The line-to-line back-EMF peak values obtained
percentage error of 3.7%. through the proposed modified 2D model are compared with
In both case, 3D vs 2D analyses have been conducted for the 3D results obtained in same operational conditions and with
different operating speed, from 1000rpm to 10000rpm, in order the same aspect ratios. Results are reported in Fig.9. The
to prove that e% does not vary at different operating conditions comparison shows a very good matching between the modified
and depends uniquely from the motor dimensions as reported in 2D model and the 3D FEA.
(1). In Fig. 8, the results obtained from these two additional This proves the validity of the trend of the e% formulated with
studies have been plotted (*) together with previous cases (o) respect to the aspect ratio and the effectiveness of introducing a
and the trend function formulated in (1). ktot factor in the 2D model as a reduction factor of the Br of the
magnets to avoid 3D FE simulations.
397
Equation (1) is used for calculating ktot to be implemented This demonstrates that, during the duty cycle, at the
into the 2D modified FE model of the motor presented in maximum required speed, the required torque is still within the
Section II. With a stack length of 70mm, considering an aspect motor peak performances.
ratio of 0.3, ktot is 0.91 since it is the product between 0.97 and At 27.2s, in Fig. 12, a maximum torque demand of 455Nm is
0.94 for kc and ks factors, respectively. Modified 2D encountered. This operating condition corresponds to the
simulations, using 0.91 correction factor, have been carried out 3642rpm speed operating point of Fig.11. This represents the
with the aim of maximizing motor performances. The most critical working point for the motor in terms of torque.
Maximum Torque Per Ampere (MTPA) method [16] has been However, this torque value is lower than the maximum torque
adopted for determining the best advance angle for each of the that the motor can deliver. At 3642rpm, in fact, the maximum
torque-speed curves of Fig.10. The maximum speed and achievable torque is 475Nm, as shown in Fig.10.
maximum phase current utilized for these analyses are These analyses showed that a tangible possibility to utilize
respectively 12000rpm and 380Arms. Results are shown in the selected machine for this type of application exists and the
Fig.10. In Fig. 11, the maximum torque/speed curve obtained motor can safely operate within the required limits with no risk
with the 2D modified model is compared to the maximum of exceeding the overload conditions.
torque/speed curve of the conventional 2D, showing a
difference of 13% on the maximum deliverable torque. In fact,
the maximum torque achieved with the 2D modified model is
equal to 480Nm, whereas 543Nm is obtained using the classical
2D formulation.
݇௧௢௧ ൌ ݇௖ ‫݇ כ‬௦ (2)
Fig.10 - Machine performance prediction using the 2D modified model

0-12000rpm, 5-380Arms
Fig.9 – Back-EMF 3D results versus 2D modified results
V. DRIVE-CYCLE PERFORMANCE VALIDATION

Fig.11- Maximum machine torque/speed curve considering the 2D
The 2D modified model allows the machine performances to modified model and the 2D model
be studied over a drive cycle taking into account 3D effects,
avoiding the use of 3D FEA and maintaining the same accuracy
of the 3D results. A real racing circuit cycle, specifically Le
Mans circuit, has been simulated using 2D FEA. During a lap
performed in 1m 11.190s by a real racing car, 900 torque/time
and speed/time points have been sampled. These torque/ speed
points are used for the proposed machine study. Each of them
has been simulated and they are shown in Fig.12 and Fig.13.
Using a rear tyre diameter of 690mm and a single speed
gearbox ratio of 6.7, a maximum speed of 12000rpm is
achieved by the motor at 3.6s, as shown in Fig.11. Under this
operating condition a torque of 156Nm is required (Fig.13). The
maximum torque available to the motor with the maximum
current at 12000rpm is 180Nm, as reported in in Fig.10.
Fig.12 - Torque Requirements over the race
398
[4] http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/championship/regulations/
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399
High Temperature Operation and Increased Cooling
Capabilities of Switched Reluctance Machines using 3D
Printed Ceramic Insulated Coils
Fabian Lorenz, Johannes Rudolph and Ralf Werner
Chair of Electrical Energy Conversion Systems and Drives
Chemnitz University of Technology
Reichenhainer Straße 70, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany
fabian.lorenz@etit.tu-chemnitz.de
Abstract— This paper presents the thermal modelling of a structure (Fig.1) which can both operate in a wide speed range
high speed switched reluctance machine (SRM) for automotive of 0 – 25000 rpm. The system characteristics are listed in table
applications. The focus is on the thermal behavior of the winding I. To achieve a good performance of the system the machines
structure to improve the cooling and high temperature operation. have to be operated at their maximum peak power, that means
A novel approach to produce completely ceramic insulated they are heavily overloaded especially in fast charging cycles.
copper coils will be presented using an additive manufacturing The very high circumferential speed of the flywheel requires its
technique which was developed at the Chemnitz University of operation under reduced air pressure to limit the aerodynamic
Technology (TUC). The comparison between conventional resin drag of the system which causes poor cooling conditions for
insulated coils and ceramic insulated windings will be carried out
the inner structures. The heat generation in the stator core and
considering the SRM characteristics at a specific point of
operation.
the windings represent the most challenging design criterion,
since the peak temperature of the windings is limited by the
Keywords— switched reluctance machine; windings, high heat resistance of the insulation material and thus is the
temperature; advanced cooling, additive manufacturing, ceramic limiting parameter in the design. Conventional Insulation
insulation; materials like duroplastic or silicone allow hot spot
temperatures of 180 °C (thermal class H) and advanced
I. INTRODUCTION materials like polyamide or mica are applicable slightly above
200°C [4]. A further disadvantage of these materials arises
The increasing electrification of transportation systems from their poor thermal conductivity (0.2 – 1.0 W/m/K) which
induces a rising demand on powerful energy conversion reduces the heat dissipation in the windings and thus increases
systems. Electrical drives, generators and energy storages are the temperature gradients. However ceramics are an alternative
the key technology of future power trains in the automotive and which have far better thermal ratings than the above mentioned
aerospace industry. Most existing vehicle concepts use Li-ion materials. Ceramic insulated wires are available but they are
batteries as primary energy storage which have a high energy difficult to handle and quite expensive [6], furthermore some
density and show good performance if used at moderate levels design limitations have to be taken into account due to their
of charging/discharging current. To compensate also high lower mechanical and electrical ratings [7].
current peaks especially in case of recuperation a short term
storage with high power ratings can help to reduce the stress on
the batteries. Beside the commonly used super capacitors
advanced flywheels can be a competitive alternative which
carry an electric machine that can operate as motor and
generator to drive the kinetic energy storage. High power
density and fault tolerance in such mobile applications are
particularly important to meet the demanding requirements on
weight, reliability and operating temperature. Switched
reluctance machines (SRM) are well suited for that due to their
excellent high speed capabilities and simple structure [1]. The
focus of this paper is at the thermal behavior of the driving Fig. 1. Exploded view of the flywheel system structure
SRM’s of a mobile flywheel energy storage (FES) that has
been investigated in previous studies [2], [3]. The configuration TABLE I
carries two identical machines to achieve a symmetrical rotor FLYWHEEL SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
Storable Energy [Wh] 190
This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche
Max. rotational speed [1/min] 25,000
Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG). The work presented in this paper is part of the
Charging time at max. power [s] 55
research project “CRC TR96 C04 Thermo energetic design of machine tool”.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 400

The approach presented in this paper is to insulate the entire The combination of copper and ceramics on the
winding structure with ceramics, which can be achieved by an macroscopic scale is a particular challenge due to the high
additive manufacturing process that can combine copper and specific coefficient of thermal expansion of copper (16.5 ⋅ 10-6
ceramics simultaneously in one part. This method also called ⋅ -1) while most engineering ceramics come up with lower
“3D multi material printing” represents a novel manufacturing values. The thermal expansion rates of the ceramics could be
process which was developed especially for electromagnetic increased sufficiently by adjusting the mixture of ingredients to
structures at the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the control the thermally induced stresses in the combined parts.
Chemnitz University of Technology (TUC). This paper
investigates the thermal capabilities of printed coils compared
to conventional coils under the individual cooling conditions in III. SRM DESIGN
the proposed SRM application. The goal is to improve the
power density of the machine by increasing the current loading A SRM in 6/4 configuration was chosen as
capability of the windings. The material properties are motor/generator for the flywheel system. SRM’s have superior
considered as well as the conductor structure that can be characteristics meeting the quite challenging requirements in
thermally optimized using the geometric freedom offered by such mobile applications compared to permanent magnet
the additive manufacturing process. The key features of the synchronous machines (PMSM) and induction machines (IM).
manufacturing process will be described in Section II followed To operate the machine under reduced air pressure or at high
by the SRM design (Sec. III). The thermal modeling of the coolant temperatures the robust rotor structure in combination
machine will be described in Sec. IV at the basis of a specific with very low standby losses at high speed are particularly
point of operation to find comparable load conditions. important. The major goal in the winding design for this
application is to achieve the highest possible current loading
capability of the machine to increase the maximum peak
II. 3D MULTI MATERIAL PRINTING
power. The resistive losses of the conductors have to be taken
The 3D Multi Material Printing is an extrusion based into account as well as their thermal coupling to the stator core
process that uses powders of the target materials that can be which provides the cooling to prevent an overheating of the
metals like copper or iron and different types of ceramics. coils. The unipolar magnetization characteristics of the SRM
Mixed with special binding agents these materials create highly lead to block-shaped current courses in each of the three stator
viscous pastes that can be extruded through thin nozzles phases that are controlled independently of each other. To
forming complex geometries that can be built up of different realize these current profiles even at high switching frequencies
materials. After forming the geometry a heat treatment process a very low inductance per phase is required, which can be
follows, which removes the binding agents and solidifies the achieved by a low number of turns of the stator coils. To
materials by sintering to achieve the desired physical guarantee a sufficient amount of ampere turns on the magnetic
properties. Fig.2 shows the model of a 10-winding tooth coil circuit, this lack of windings has to be compensated by high
and the prototype in the manufacturing process. Table II lists phase currents and thus large cross sections of the conductors
the final characteristics of the prototype coil and shows a above 20 mm2. The manufacturing of such windings is difficult
sample part with opened top layer. The noticeably lower values to realize, therefore the prototype of the machine was equipped
of specific electrical conductivity (71%) and density (87%) of in the first state with a strip winding despite of the increased
the printed copper compared to conventional electrolytic conduction losses caused by eddy currents at high frequencies.
copper are due to the remaining porosity in the material. To investigate the potential of printed ceramic insulations in
comparison to conventional polymer based materials another
tooth coil was designed respecting the printing process. In the
current state restrictions like a minimum insulation thickness of
0.3 mm or the resulting lower conductivity of the copper have
to be take into account. On the other hand advantages like the
lack of a coil bobbin and the wide geometric freedom of design
are favorable, e.g. the conductor cross-sectional shape can be
varied over the winding length which leads to a better
utilization of the windings space in the machine.
Fig. 2. CAD model (left) of the prototype coil and printing process (right) TABLE III
SRM DESIGN PARAMETERS
TABLE II Stator phases 3 (6/4)

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROTOTYPE TOOTH COIL Phase voltage [V] 400
Speed range [1/min] 0 – 25,000
Windings 10
Max. power [kW] 30
Conductor cross section 5 mm2 Winding peak current [A] 400
Outer dimensions 34x34x22 mm Lamination steel M330-35A
Density copper (Cu) 7.78 g/cm3 Stator outer diameter [mm] 237
Electrical conductivity Cu 4.19·10-7 S/m Stack length [mm] 45
Density ceramics 1.93 g/cm3 Air gap length [mm] 0.2
Electric strength ceramics 2.9 kV/mm Cooling active water
Insulation class H (180 °C)
401
Fig.3 shows both designs which were tailored to achieve The number of charging/discharging cycles that can be run
the highest possible slot fill factor while Fig. 4 shows the through without waiting time depends on the thermal capacity
installed windings in the machine with different conductor of the machine and the thermal time constant of the system and
orientations. The installation space for both designs in the should be as high as possible. If the machine reaches the
machine is identical. Table IV lists the coil parameters in temperature limit, i.e. the maximum acceptable winding
detail. The characteristics of the machine are designed to have temperature, the power has to be reduced or a sufficient waiting
a high power over the full speed range. The torque decreases time to the next cycle has to be taken into account. Fig.5 shows
due to the rising switching frequencies with increasing speed power and torque curves of the machines vs. speed that
according to the required field weakening control. Since the represent the maximum short time performance of the SRM
application in flywheel energy storages does not require drive.
constant operation of the machines they are designed to be
thermally overloaded during fast charging cycles. The number
of charging/discharging cycles that can be run through without
waiting time depends on the thermal capacity of the machine
and the thermal time constant of the system and should be as
high as possible. If the machine reaches the temperature limit,
i.e. the maximum acceptable winding temperature, the power
has to be reduced or a sufficient waiting time to the next cycle
has to be taken into account. Fig.5 shows power and torque
curves of the machines vs. speed that represent the maximum
short time performance of the SRM drive. The characteristics
of the machine are designed to have a high power over the full
speed range. The torque decreases due to the rising switching
frequencies with increasing speed according to the required
field weakening control. Since the application in flywheel
energy storages does not require constant operation of the Fig. 5. Power and torque of the driving SRM vs. speed, maximum
machines they are designed to be thermally overloaded during performance
fast charging cycles.
IV. THERMAL MODELING

The thermal behavior of the windings is examined at a specific
point of operation to get a closer view on the heat distribution
and thermal time constant without changing thermal loads. The
analysis has been carried out at 15000rpm and maximum load.
Since the cooling of the machine can only be applied on the
stator the thermal coupling of the coils to the stator teeth
becomes crucial for the winding temperature. A transient
Fig. 3. Strip winding (left) and printed winding (right)
simulation of the heat distribution with focus on the winding
temperatures will be carried out regarding the housing, stator
TABLE IV
SPECIFICATIONS OF CONVENTIONAL AND PRINTED COIL and the windings. The 3D finite element model was set up in
NX NASTRAN with a sufficient resolution to completely mesh
Coil 1 (strip) Coil 2 (printed)
the conductors and the insulation layers and solved using the
Conductor dimensions 24 x 1 mm 16 x 1.6 mm
thermal/flow module. To reduce the computation time the
Conductor cross section 24 mm2 28.8 mm2
model was reduced to a 1/6 slice of the stator using the
Conductor length 2266 mm 2230 mm
symmetry of the machine.
Number of turns 10 10
Resistance (DC, 20°C) 0.00163 Ω 0.00193 Ω
Insulation thickness 0.4 mm 0.5 mm
Fig. 4. Cross sectional view of both winding designs in the machine, coil 1 Fig. 6. FEA meshes of the machine segment (left) and the winding structure
(left), coil 2 (right) (right), coil 1 exemplary
402
A. Boundary Conditions losses in switched reluctance machines requires the
The model contains two major contact regions. Contact 1 refers consideration of the pulse shaped phase currents in detail.
to the connection of stator and housing and contact 2 to the Especially the rising and falling edge of these current blocks
winding-stator tooth contact. The heat transfer coefficients at lead to pronounced eddy currents in the conductors and are
these surfaces have a large impact on the occurring mainly influenced by the DC link voltage of the machine and
temperatures in the structure. Contact 1 is defined to have a the instantaneous phase inductance. While the strong nonlinear
heat transfer capability of 10000 W/(m2·K). The cylindrical behavior of SRM’s leads to different current courses by
surface is machined very precisely to position the stator with varying the machine speed, load and control strategy a
very low tolerances to maintain the symmetry of the air gap. precalculation has to be done respecting the characteristic
The stator is connected by a medium press fit to the housing function of flux linkage at each desired point of operation [5].
which represents also a good thermal connection of both parts. The winding losses of the proposed SRM considering both coil
Contact 2 is far more difficult to determine because the coils structures have been analyzed in detail in [10]. The thermal
are just put on the stator teeth without a press fit. The coils are model is based on the average conductor losses of both coil
held in position by a slot closing part that also smoothens the designs considering eddy current effects and different values of
contour of the air gap. Thermal glue or filled silicon can help to conductivity (table VI). The core losses are quite complex in
improve the thermal coupling between these parts. The heat SRM’s due to the nonsinusoidal flux and to the different flux
transfer coefficient of contact 2 is thereby defined to 5000 waveforms in the teeth and back iron (yoke) [8] and cannot be
W/(m2·K). The coupling of the conductors to the surrounding treated in detail in this paper. To simplify the consideration the
insulation was modeled as ideal contact. Fig. 6 shows the core losses have been assumed to be constant in all stator parts
reduced FEA model and the locus of the contact regions as well and constitute 190 W/kg at the chosen point of operation (1.1
as the material definition while table V lists the defined T, 2000 Hz) according to the available material data [9]. Since
material properties. The model structure and contact the influence of the coil structure on the core loss can be
parameters are identical for all coils to find comparable results neglected this simplification still allows the comparison of the
that just concern the coil structure. different windings. The machine is equipped with active water
cooling at the housing close to the stator back to dissipate the
generated heat. The heat transfer coefficient of the cooling
Contact 1
10000 W/(m2⸳K)
channel was defined with 2200 W/(m2·K) at a coolant flow of 5
l/min and a coolant temperature of 20°C (Fig. 7). The
Aluminum Cooling convection of the housing outside surfaces to the surrounding
2200 W/(m2⸳K) air was neglected due to its low impact on the system
Contact 2 temperature as well as the radiative heat transfer at the inner
5000 W/(m2⸳K) surfaces. The material data applied in the model can be
obtained from Table V. The heat conductivity of the
conventional and printed copper differ due to the unequal
M330-35A density of the materials and the core lamination is represented
by orthotropic material properties. Taking into account the
Ceramics/ Copper temperature coefficient of resistivity of copper the resistive
Polymer losses in the coils increase with rising temperature which
further increases the thermal loads in the machine. The thermal
dependence of the winding losses has been considered as linear
Fig. 12. Thermal model of 1/6 stator slice, contact regions and material
definition
approximation according to the temperature coefficient of
resistivity (α=3.9·10-3·K-1) and was assumed to be identical for
TABLE V electrolytic copper as well as for printed copper. The courses of
MATERIAL DATA the coil losses vs. winding temperature are plotted in Fig. 8 and
Density Heat capacity Heat conductivity
use the average loss values calculated in [10] at 15000rpm as
[kg/m3] [J/kg/K] [W/m/K] reference at 20°C.
Aluminum 2700 900 270
M330-35A 7650 447 20/35/35
Polymer 2000 1900 1
Ceramics (printed) 1900 700 3
water out
Copper (pure) 8910 385 400
Copper (printed) 7760 385 284
B. Thermal loads
Thermal loads considered in this model are the conductor water in
losses in the winding and the core losses in the stator of the
machine. Regarding the load conditions the ohmic losses can Fig. 7. Cooling structure of the machine (water flow)
be derived from the phase currents. The analysis of copper
403
TABLE VI Coil 1 (strip) Coil 2 (printed)
THERMAL LOADS OF THE SEGMNET MODEL 407 °C 188 °C
Stator Coil 1 Coil 2
Thermal load 238 W 73.1 W 80.5 W
200
150 180 °C 176 °C
Fig. 11. Temperature distribution at 15000rpm, simulation time t=4200s, units

°C
100
coil 1 (strip)
coil 2 (printed) Looking at the tooth temperatures a contrary behavior can
50
be noticed which indicates the quality of the thermal coupling
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 between winding and stator. This means that the printed design
Temperature [°C] is capable to dissipate the heat loss from the windings much
faster and thereby limits the increase of resistance, which
Fig. 8. Thermal dependence of coil losses at 15000rpm, maximum load further accelerates the heating up. A look at the temperature
dependent losses in Fig.12 illustrates this relationship and
The thermal simulation was executed over 4200s with a shows that the printed coil structure can not only carry larger
time step of 280s. The resulting winding temperatures vs. a currents without overheating but also provides the lowest
simulation time of 70 minutes can be found in Fig.9 which conductor losses at longer overloading time of the machine.
shows significant difference between the conventional and Additionally the printed coils are able to withstand
printed design. Coil 1 reaches its maximum acceptable significantly higher operation temperatures which could be
temperature of 200°C in less than 20 minutes while coil 2 does proven in heating tests of prototype coils. Fig.13 shows the
not reach this temperature at all. A more detailed view on the heat test of a solenoid arrangement which was heated up to
results is given in Fig.10 and Fig.11. The cross-sectional view 300°C more than 20 times without any cracks in the insulation
on the coil-tooth geometry shows the heat distribution for a or a decrease of conductivity of the coil. The superior
simulation time of 1400s and 4200s. While the winding characteristics of the printed coil design can be explained
temperature of the conventional design increases rapidly the mainly by 3 reasons. First of all the ceramic insulation has a
printed coil is heating up much more slowly. better heat conductivity (3 times higher) than the epoxy based
conventional insulation material but a far greater impact arises
from the lack of a coil bobbin which reduces the insulation
thickness to the stator teeth significantly.
Fig. 9. Winding temperature vs. simulation time at 15000rpm, time step 280s
Coil 1 (strip) Coil 2 (printed) Fig. 12. Temperature dependent conductor losses vs. simulation time, at
266 °C
15000rpm, time step 280s
172 °C
140 °C 163 °C
Fig. 10. Temperature distribution at 15000rpm, simulation time t=1400s, units

°C Fig. 13. Prototype solenoid in the heat test
404
Furthermore the spatial distribution of the printed REFERENCES
conductors is advantageous because they are stacked on top of
each other referred to the coil axis whereby every single turn of [1] E. W. Fairall, B. Bilgin and A. Emadi, "State-of-the-art high-speed
the coil is directly thermally connected to the heat sink (stator switched reluctance machines," 2015 IEEE International Electric
teeth) just by one thin insulation layer. In contrast to this coil 1 Machines & Drives Conference (IEMDC), Coeur d'Alene, ID, 2015, pp.
is wound from inside out where the individual turns are 1621-1627
separated by a number of insulation layers which drastically [2] F. Lorenz, R. Werner, " Comparison of magnetic bearings and hybrid
roller bearings in a mobile flywheel energy storage," 1st Brazilian
increase the thermal resistance of the structure. Workshop on Magnetic Bearings (BWMB2013), Rio de Janeiro, 2013
[3] F. Lorenz, R. Werner, " Design of a Mobile Flywheel Energy Storage
V. CONCLUSION driven by a Switched Reluctance Machine," 2016 International
Symposium on Magnetic Bearings (ISMB15), Kitakyūshū, 2016
To increase the power density of SRM drives especially the
[4] J. Pyrhönen, T. Jokinen, V. Hrabovcova, „Design of Rotating Electrical
thermal ratings of the winding structure have to be improved. Machines“, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN: 978-0-470-69516-6, 2008
Low thermal conductivity and poor heat resistance of the [5] T J E Miller, “Electronic control of switched reluctance machines”,
commonly used polymer based insulation systems represent the Newnes Power Engineering Series, 2001
limiting design parameter. The potential of completely ceramic [6] D. Cozonac, S. Babicz, S. Ait-Amar-Djennad, G. Velu, A. Cavalini and
insulated coils in high performance SRM’s using a novel P. Wang, "Study on ceramic insulation wires for motor windings at
additive manufacturing technique called 3D Multi Material high-temperature," 2014 IEEE Conference on Electrical Insulation and
Printing has been investigated in this paper. Conventional resin Dielectric Phenomena (CEIDP), Des Moines, IA, 2014, pp. 172-175.
insulated windings are compared to ceramic insulated [7] D. Roger, V. Iosif and S. Duchesne, "High temperature motors:
structures concerning their thermal behavior. The simulation Investigations on the voltage distribution in windings at a short scale
times for a PWM supply," 2017 IEEE International Electric Machines
results show that the printed coils can be a competitive and Drives Conference (IEMDC), Miami, FL, 2017, pp. 1-7
alternative to conventional winding techniques to improve the [8] Shiliang Wang, Zhuo Yang and Lei Gu, "Core loss analysis for switched
cooling capabilities of high power density drives. The additive reluctance motor under hysteresis current control and single pulse
manufacturing technology opens new fields of application for modes," 2016 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo
high performance drives. The major lock in high temperature (ITEC), Dearborn, MI, 2016, pp. 1-6.
machines can thereby be shifted from the winding insulations [9] Cogent Power, “Datasheet M270-35A”, 2008, https://cogent-
to the heat resistance of permanent magnets. Therefore the power.com/cms-data/downloads/m270-35a_1.pdf
application of switched reluctance machines can be a suitable [10] F. Lorenz, J. Rudolph, R. Werner, " Design of 3D printed High
Performance Windings for switched reluctance machines," 2018 ,
choice. unpublished
405
Sensitivity Analysis and Design of a High
Performance Permanent-Magnet-Assisted
Synchronous Reluctance Motor for EV Application
Pengyu Li, Wen Ding, Guoji Liu
School of Electrical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
wending@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
stator has 24 slots and the rotor has 4 poles, each of which
Abstract-Permanent-magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance has 3 layers of flux barriers and 3 layers of PMs. The stator is
motors (PMa-SynRMs) have many advantages. This paper like the stator which has distributed winding of a
designs a PMa-SynRM and optimizes the machine structure to conventional induction motor.
achieve high performance for electric vehicle (EV) application.
Many variables such as width and length of permanent magnets, The stator windings are electrified and magnetic field is
length of air gap, and length and shape of tilted flux barriers are established. Then, the difference between d-q axis reluctance
created to study the effects of these variables on motor produces a reluctance torque. The inserted PMs in the rotor of
performance based on the finite element method (FEM). The PMa-SynRM can create permanent magnet torque, in
results indicate that the variables have an influence on the d-q addition. Thus, the total torque of a PMa-SynRM is
axis reluctances and inductances, and then affect the torque; the
tilted flux barriers are helpful to produce a large torque and a composed of reluctance torque and permanent magnet torque.
low torque ripple. Finally, optimal values of the variables for the Axis of magnetic in the rotor is d-axis (direct-axis). The d-q
designed PMa-SynRM and an optimal machine structure are axis reference frame is shown in Fig. 2.
obtained as well as a prototype PMa-SynRM is fabricated for
experimental verification.
Keywords-Permanent-Magnet-Assisted Synchronous Reluctance
Motor; FEM; rotor design and optimization; torque; torque ripple
I. INTRODUCTION
The PMa-SynRM has many advantages and is especially
suitable for electric vehicles, ships and so on [1-4].
Moghaddam put forward the concept of SynRM rotor slot
pitch angle and propose an easy approach for a complicated
rotor topology, which is helpful to optimize the PMa-SynRM
rotor [5-7]. In order to obtain a high performance PMa-
SynRM, designing and optimizing the PMa-SynRM rotor
geometry is important based on electromagnetic computation Fig. 1. The topology of the PMa-SynRM
of finite element software.
The aim of this paper is to study how the rotor structure
d -axis
affects the performance of the motor. The variables studied in
this paper are width and length of permanent magnets (PMs),
length of air gap, and length and shape of tilted flux barriers. u
1
isR
Finite element method (FEM) has been utilized to show the

effects of these variables on motor performance, such as,
torque, torque ripple, d-q inductances. Topology of the PMa- j s
SynRM is introduced in Part Ⅱ. Sensitivity analysis of the id is
variables and rotor design are in Part Ⅲ . Experimental
verification of a prototype PMa-SynRM is in part Ⅳ.The L di d
conclusion and future work are in Part Ⅴ. s
d 
II. MACHINE TOPOLOGY iq q-axis

 q  Lqiq
The topology of the designed PMa-SynRM in this paper is f
illustrated in Fig. 1 in two-dimension. It can be seen that the Fig. 2. The vector diagram of the PMa-SynRM.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 406

III. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS AND ROTOR DESIGN barriers length change simultaneously. The PM length varies
Before optimization, the original and key specified from 20mm to 28mm and each step is 1mm. The computed
parameters of the designed PMa-SynRM are shown in torques and the torque ripple as functions of the PM length
TABLE I. are presented in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, respectively.
In Figs. 7 and 8, it can be seen that 26mm length is the
TABLE I. ORIGINAL SPECIFIED PARAMETERS optimal value where an enough torque and low torque ripple
Rated Output 750W
can be obtained. Increasing PM length causes a large torque,
a large back-EMF, magnetic saturation and other issues.
Rated Torque 4.775Nm
Therefore, 26mm length is the optimal value where an
Rated Speed 1500rpm enough torque and low torque ripple can be obtained.
Rated Phase Voltage 220V
Number of Poles/Slots 4/24
Stator Outer Diameter 120mm
Stator Inner Diameter 74mm
Rotor Inner Diameter 26mm
Air Gap Length 0.3mm
Stack Length 100mm
(a) Width = 1.8mm (b) Width = 2.8mm
Permanent Magnet NdFe Fig. 3. Two typical width values of each flux barrier.
A. Influence of Width and Length of Permanent Magnets on

Motor Performance
The effect of width of PMs is discussed firstly through
changing the width of each flux barrier and two typical values
are shown in Fig. 3.
There are three layers of PMs in the rotor, which have the
same width. Width of PMs and width of flux barriers change
simultaneously; the former is 0.2 mm smaller than the latter
because of concerning the machinery manufacturing. The
flux barrier width varies from 1mm to 3.8mm and each step is
0.2mm.
In Figs. 4 it can be seen that as the width increases, the Fig. 4. The minimum, maximum and average computed torque vs flux
average torque increases gradually and the maximum torque barrier width.
is increasing. The minimum torque increases first, reaches the
maximum value when width is 2.8mm, and then decreases.
In Fig. 5, the torque ripple decreases first then increases
and it reaches the minimum value 0.12 at 2.8mm width. It is
obvious to see that the torque ripple has a sharp increase after
2.8mm width and the reason may be that a constant current
has been utilized. The constant current and a large number of
PMs make stator and rotor yoke too saturated and the flux
distribution in the air gap is not smooth, which causes a large
torque fluctuation. In Fig. 4, it also can be seen that the
average torque increases slowly after 2.5mm width. Fig. 5
shows that the torque ripple is minimal at 2.8mm width. Fig. 5. The torque ripple vs flux barrier width.
Therefore, 2.8mm width is the optimal value for torque,
where a large torque and low torque ripple can be obtained.
Next, the effect of the length of innermost PMs is discussed
through changing the length of each flux barrier and two
typical values are shown in Fig.6.
The innermost layer of PM is 2mm longer than the middle
layer of PM and the middle layer of PM is 2mm longer than
the outermost layer of PM. This rule is kept all the time in
(a) Length = 20mm (b) Length = 26mm
this paper. The length of PMs blow is the length of the
Fig. 6. Two typical length values of permanent magnet.
innermost layer of PM for simplicity. The PM length and flux
407
values of the tilted flux barriers, respectively. Here are
simulation results from FEM in TABLE Ⅱ.
Fig. 7. The minimum, maximum and average computed torque vs permanent

magnet length.
Fig. 9. The minimum, maximum and average computed torque vs air gap
length
Fig. 8. The torque ripple vs permanent magnet length.
B. Influence of Length of Air Gap on Motor Performance

The computed torques and torque ripple as functions of the
air gap length are shown in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. The Fig. 10. The torque ripple vs air gap length
torque ripple has minimum values when the air gap length is
between 0.35mm to 0.5mm and the average torque decreases
as the air gap length increases. The reasons may be explained
by the d-q axis inductances.
In Fig. 11, the q-axis inductance decreases quickly before
the air gap length is 0.5mm and slowly after 0.5mm. The d-
axis inductance decreases slowly all the time as the air gap
length increases. Because three layers of PMs are embedded
in the d-axis magnetic circuit, whose permeability is close to
the air gap, the change of the air gap length has little effect on
the d-axis inductance. The q-axis magnetic circuit is
composed of iron core and air gap and the permeability of
iron core is very large; therefore, the q-axis reluctance
increases quickly and the q-axis inductance decreases quickly
as the air gap length increases. In Fig. 11, it can also be seen Fig. 11. The d-q axis inductances and their difference vs air gap length
that the difference between d-q inductances decreases, which
makes the reluctance torque small. Thus, as it is showed in
Fig. 10, the average torque decreases. Therefore, when the
torque and torque ripple are taken into account, 0.3mm air
gap length is the optimal value, where an enough torque with
a big saliency ratio and low torque ripple can be obtained.
C. Influence of Length and Shape of the Tilted Flux Barriers

on Motor Performance
The position of the tilted flux barriers in rotor is illustrated Fig. 12. Illustrated tilted flux barriers Fig. 13. Tilted flux barriers length 1
in Fig. 12. And Figs. 13, 14 and 15 show three typical length
408
inductance is large. Therefore, the difference between d-q
axis inductances decreases, which produces a small
reluctance torque, as the TABLE Ⅱ shows.
A new method to reduce torque ripple is used in this paper,
which is tapering the top of the tilted flux barriers. Before, the
top of the tilted flux barriers is almost parallel to the edge of
the rotor. After, a corner of the top of the tilted flux barriers is
cut and the tilted flux barriers are tapered a little, as shown in
Fig. 14. Tilted flux barriers length 2 Fig. 15. Tilted flux barriers length 3
Fig. 17.
TABLE II. SIMULATION RESULTS I
Items Length 1 Length 2 Length 3
Average Torque[Nm] 4.25 3.17 2.56
Torque Ripple 0.118 0.644 1.016
Lq[mH] 493 501 499
Ld[mH] 133 273 350
(a) Before cutting a corner (b) After cutting a corner
Lq-Ld[mH] 360 228 149
Fig. 17. The change of the top of the tilted flux barriers
The results show that the length of tilted flux barriers is
larger, the average torque is larger. In other words, when the TABLE III. SIMULATION RESULTSⅡ
tilted flux barriers are near the edge of the rotor, the motor
Items Before After
produces a large torque. The reason can be explained by the
path of flux lines as Fig. 16 shows, which are simulated in the Average Torque[Nm] 4.3 4.25
case of the rated current. Torque Ripple 0.233 0.118
Lq[mH] 490 493
Ld[mH] 136 133
Lq-Ld[mH] 354 360
In TABLE Ⅲ, it can be seen that torque ripple decreases by

11.5% and the average torque does not change much after
(a) Flux lines in length 1 condition cutting a corner. Therefore, the tilted flux barriers should be
as long as possible because a motor with long tilted flux
barriers produces a large torque. When the mechanical
strength is taken into account, a reasonable value should be
chosen.
(b) Flux lines in length 2 condition

IV. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION
A prototype PMa-SynRM was fabricated and its
characteristics were measured. The picture of the rotor
lamination stack is shown in Fig. 18. The photograph of the
prototype is shown in Fig. 19.
(c) Flux lines in length 3 condition

Fig. 16. Flux lines in the condition of 3 lengths (rated current)
From (a) to (c) in Fig. 16, the tilted flux barriers length is
shorter successively. It can be seen that the flux lines that go
through the tilted flux barriers are less successively from (a)
to (c). The iron core’s permeability is large and reluctance is
very small, so the flux lines do not go through the tilted flux
barriers if there is some iron core, just like what happens in
(c). When the tilted flux barriers length decreases, the flux
lines that go through the tilted flux barriers are few, which Fig. 18. The rotor lamination. Fig. 19. The prototype PMa-SynRM.
means that d-axis reluctance is small and the d-axis
409
The noload back-EMF in 1500rpm of the analytical results Inductances of the prototype PMa-SynRM are measured by
and experimental results are shown in Fig. 20 and Fig. 21, LCR meter, then the self-inductances and mutual-inductances
respectively. The analytical results are computed by ANSYS can be cumputed.
Maxwell Version 16.0.0. A DC motor dragged the prototype The analytical inductances by ANSYS Maxwell self-
PMa-SynRM at the speed of 1500rpm and the back-EMF is inductances(LAA 、 LBB 、 LCC) and mutual-inductances
observed and measured in the digital oscilloscope. (MAB 、 MBC 、 MCA) are symmetrical and sinusoidal,
Comparison of the A-phase analytical back-EMF and A- which are shown in the Fig. 23.
phase experimental back-EMF are shown in Fig. 22. The measured self-inductances(LAA 、 LBB 、 LCC) and
It can be seen that the 3-phase analytical back-EMF is mutual-inductances(MAB 、 MBC 、 MCA) are symmetrical
symmetrical and sinusoidal from Fig. 20; the 3-phase and sinusoidal, which are shown in the Fig. 24.
measured back-EMF is symmetrical and more sinusoidal. To To compare the measured and analytical inductance, the A-
illustrate the two results are similar, only A-phase back-EMF phase inductances are plotted in the Fig. 25. Therefore, it can
is plotted in the Fig. 22. Therefore, the analytical back-EMF be seen that the analytical and measured inductances are
and experimental back-EMF are comparatively accordant. comparatively accordant in the Fig. 25.
Fig. 23 The analytical self-inductances and mutual-inductances
Fig. 20. 3-phase analytical back-EMF vs rotor position

Inductance [mH]
Fig. 24 The measured self-inductances and mutual-inductances
Fig. 21. 3-phase measured back-EMF vs rotor position

1-phase Back-EMF [V]
Fig. 25. Comparison of the A-phase self-inductance waveform
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the machine structure of a PMa-SynRM is
Fig. 22. Comparison of the A-phase back-EMF waveforms optimized to achieve high performance. The width and length
410
of PMs are the optimal values for the PMa-SynRM designed [2] Z. M. Zhao and B. Ahmed, “Advanced computer-aided design and
analysis for Synchronous Reluctance-Permanent Magnet Machines,”
firstly. The change of the air gap length has little effect on the Tsinghua Science and Technology, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. l143-1148,
d-axis inductance and the q-axis inductance decreases quickly September 1998.
as the air gap length increases. The air gap length is the [3] W. L. Soong, D. A. Staton and T. J. E. Miller, “Design of a new
axially-laminated interior permanent magnet motor,” IEEE
optimal value for the designed PMa-SynRM. Finally a corner Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 358-367,
of the top of the tilted flux barriers is cut and the tilted flux Mar/Apr 1995.
barriers are tapered a little, which is helpful to reduce the [4] Z. M. Zhao, “Review for the development of a novel synchronous
torque ripple. relutance and permanent magnet machine,” Advanced Technology of
Electrical Engineering and Energy, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 22-25, July 1998.
A prototype PMa-SynRM was fabricated. The back-EMF [5] R. R. Moghaddam, F. Magnussen and C. Sadarangani, “Novel rotor
was measured, which was comparatively accordant to the design optimization of Synchronous Reluctance Machine for low
analytical back-EMF. The self-inductances and mutual- torque ripple,” 2012 International Conference on Electrical Machines,
Marseille, 2012, pp. 720-724.
inductances were measured, which was comparatively [6] R. R. Moghaddam, F. Magnussen and C. Sadarangani, “Novel rotor
accordant to the analytical inductances. design optimization of synchronous reluctance machine for high torque
This paper presents some basic work to improve the motor density,” 6th IET International Conference on Power Electronics,
Machines and Drives (PEMD 2012), Bristol, 2012, pp. 1-4.
performance in the machine structure design and lots of [7] R. R. Moghaddam and F. Gyllensten, “Novel high-performance
detailed research studies such as experimental results will be SynRM design method: an easy approach for a complicated rotor
presented in the future papers. topology,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 61, no. 9,
pp. 5058-5065, Sept. 2014.
REFERENCES
[1] K. T. Chau, C. C. Chan and C. Liu, “Overview of Permanent-Magnet
Brushless Drives for electric and hybrid electric vehicles,” IEEE
June 2008.
411
A New Space Harmonics Minimization Strategy
for Fractional Slot Concentrated Windings
Md Sariful Islam1*, Md Ashfanoor Kabir2, Rajib Mikail2 and Iqbal Husain1
1
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University,
2
US Corporate Research Center, ABB. Inc.,
Raleigh, NC, USA
*mislam8@ncsu.edu
Abstract- A new winding concept for fractional slot concentrated specific location of back yoke is designed to reduce the sub
winding (FSCW) is proposed that can simultaneously cancel both harmonics. In these works, the reduction of sub-harmonics
sub and higher order harmonics of stator MMF. The new winding
concept proposes two sets of three-phase windings by doubling comes at a cost of 3-4% reduction of average torque. A
the number of stator slots connected in wye-delta configuration. combined 𝑌𝑌 − ∆ winding in double layer fractional slot
These two winding sets are shifted in space with respect to each concentrated winding shows that this combination can
other and are connected in series. The wye-delta configuration effectively cancel the sub-harmonics while increasing the
eliminates sub-harmonics and enhances the torque-producing torque-producing component by 3.5% [4]. However, the
component whereas their relative shifting angle eliminates the
dominant higher order harmonics to provide a cleaner and higher order harmonics still exist in the MMF spectrum which
enhanced spectrum. This concept is effective when the stator slot causes undesirable rotor losses, noise, and vibration [9].
number is multiple of twelve. The application of the proposed Dajaku and Gerling [9] proposed a 24-slot/10-pole winding
winding to a PM machine demonstrated dominant sub and higher configuration to reduce higher order harmonics where they
order harmonics cancellation, THD reduction, torque ripple have created two-sets of series windings while arranging them
reduction, and magnetic loss reduction along with torque density
and power factor improvements. with a mechanical phase shift. Uneven turns number for
neighboring phase coils are employed to reduce the sub-
I. INTRODUCTION harmonics. However, the sub-harmonic is not reduced to zero
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines (PMSMs) and at the same time, the fundamental winding factor reduces
exhibit high torque-density, high power-density and high by 2-3%. In [10], a six-phase machine is designed where two
efficiency because of high-energy permanent magnets in the sets of three phase windings are created, those are
rotor [1]. Commonly used winding configurations in PMSMs mechanically shifted in space, and a time domain shift is also
are distributed overlapping winding and non-overlapping created using two three phase inverter. However, the effect on
concentrated winding. Single and double layer tooth rotor loss, and increment in system cost with higher phase
concentrated windings in permanent magnet (PM) numbers were not investigated.
synchronous motors are gaining interest due to the advantages
of high power-density, high efficiency, shorter end winding In this work, a double layer winding is proposed to
length [2-3], high slot fill factor, low cogging torque, good simultaneously cancel both the sub-harmonics and the
fault tolerance, and zero mutual coupling between phases. dominant higher order harmonics. A combined 𝑌𝑌 − 𝛥𝛥 winding
However, due to the low slot/pole/phase, the magnetic field of is applied to the widely used 12-slot/10-pole configuration.
these windings has more space harmonics including sub- Two sets of windings are created using this 𝑌𝑌 − 𝛥𝛥 concept and
harmonic components that rotate asynchronously with the windings are space shifted with respect to each other by a
rotor and create eddy current losses in the permanent magnet particular mechanical angle depending on their slot pole
and rotor iron core. The excessive heating in the permanent combination. The effective number of slots for the resultant
magnet may lead to undesirable PM demagnetization [4]. stator is doubled compared to the original machine. The
Moreover, these unwanted harmonics lead to the undesirable fundamental winding factor is increased compared to the
effects of localized iron core saturation, noise, and vibration conventional double layer winding while higher order
[5]. harmonics are substantially reduced. The proposed winding is
applicable to the machines where the stator slot number 𝑄𝑄 is
Several research works have been reported to improve the multiple of twelve (𝑄𝑄 = 12 ∗ 𝑛𝑛, where 𝑛𝑛 is an integer
performance of FSCW, by reducing the eddy current loss number). The concept is equally suitable to reluctance
through the minimization of space harmonic contents of stator machines, induction machines, and permanent magnet
MMF. Going from single layer to double layer and double machines having either distributed or concentrated windings.
layer to four-layer result in substantial reduction of sub- Moreover, the common mode voltage problem in inverter fed
harmonics for this type of winding. In [6] and [7], multilayer electric machine can also be reduced using the proposed
tooth concentrated windings are used to reduce only the sub- winding concept. Additionally, a single three-phase inverter
harmonics of stator MMF. In [8], a stator flux barrier in a can be used to energize the winding.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 412

II. CONVENTIONAL DOUBLE LAYER (DL) FSCW
1
The air-gap MMF of DL FSCW contains sub-harmonics as 0.9

well as higher order space harmonics (super harmonics) in
addition to the main torque-producing component. If 𝑃𝑃 and 𝑄𝑄
0.8
are the pole number and slot number, respectively, then the 0.7
MMF spectrum contains the 1𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 and (𝑘𝑘 ∙ 𝑄𝑄 ± 𝑃𝑃/2) space
MMF Components, p.u.

0.6
harmonics where 𝑘𝑘 is an integer number. The conventional DL

0.5
FSCW for 12-slot/10-pole is shown in Fig. 1. Two non-
adjacent series coils are represented by a single coil in Fig. 0.4
1(a). Assuming that 𝑎𝑎1 and 𝑎𝑎2 are the spatial MMF axes of 0.3
neighboring coils, MMF vector diagram for sub-harmonics 0.2

and torque-producing component is shown in Fig. 2 (a); the
resultant space sub-harmonics is 35.2% of the fundamental 0.1
component. Air-gap MMF distribution can be expressed as 0

1 5 7 11 13 17 19
12𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 Harmonics

𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝐹𝐹𝑌𝑌𝑌𝑌 = ∑∞
𝜈𝜈=1,−5,7 𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 sin � 12 � sin(𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 − 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔 − 𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈/12) … … . . (1)
(b)
Fig. 2. 12-slot/10-pole, (a) MMF vector diagram 𝜈𝜈 = 1 and 𝜈𝜈 = 5 (b)
Here, 𝑁𝑁 is the turn number, 𝜈𝜈 is the harmonic order and 𝜃𝜃 is Harmonic spectrum.
the space angle. The corresponding harmonics spectrum is
shown in Fig. 2(b). For 10-pole motor the 5𝑡𝑡ℎ order harmonic
III. PROPOSED WINDING CONCEPT
is the main torque producing harmonic. The other space MMF
harmonics, particularly 1𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 , 7𝑡𝑡ℎ , 17𝑡𝑡ℎ , and 19𝑡𝑡ℎ have larger
magnitudes and create undesirable effect such as core loss, Among different slot/pole combinations, 12-slot (𝑄𝑄)/10-
core saturation, and torque ripple, as well as noise and pole (𝑃𝑃) has shown potential over other slot/pole
vibration [9]. configurations for different applications. The effectiveness of
the proposed winding concept is analyzed for 12-slot/10-pole
machine. The angular difference between the MMF of adjacent
coils is 150𝑜𝑜 (1800-𝜈𝜈. 2𝜋𝜋/𝑄𝑄) for sub-harmonic 𝜈𝜈 = 1 and 30𝑜𝑜
(1800-𝜈𝜈2𝜋𝜋/𝑄𝑄) for 𝜈𝜈 = 5 as shown in Fig. 2(a) for conventional
DL winding. It is possible to cancel out the sub-harmonic (𝜈𝜈 =
1) by shifting the MMF of one coil group by +𝜈𝜈. 2𝜋𝜋/𝑄𝑄 (30𝑜𝑜 )
which also yields 3.5% increment in torque-producing
component as illustrated in Fig. 3. In this proposed method,
(a) the two coil groups are connected in 𝑌𝑌 − 𝛥𝛥 configuration to
avail the advantage of 30𝑜𝑜 phase shift which is required to
cancel the sub-harmonic. This connection also yields a current
ratio of √3 between the coil groups. Hence, for maintaining
MMF balance, the number of turns in delta-coil should be
maintained √3 times that of the wye-coil. The area of each
conductor is balanced by appropriate conductor size
considering the effective current ratio.
Two sets (𝑊𝑊1, 𝑊𝑊2) of three phase 𝑌𝑌 − 𝛥𝛥 windings, as

presented in Fig. 4(a), are created; windings are shifted by 𝜃𝜃𝑠𝑠ℎ
in space and connected in series as illustrated in Fig. 4(b). The
𝑎𝑎1
(b)
Fig. 1. 12-slot/10-pole, winding (a) connection (b) arrangement
𝑎𝑎1
𝑎𝑎1
𝑎𝑎1 𝑎𝑎2 𝜈𝜈 = 1 𝜈𝜈 = 5
𝜈𝜈 = 1 𝑎𝑎2 𝑎𝑎2
𝑎𝑎2 𝜈𝜈 = 5
(a) Fig. 3. MMF vector diagram of Y-Δ winding
413
(a) (b)
Fig. 4. (a) Winding distribution of proposed concept, (b) Winding connection
resultant stator design has twice the number of slots (24- conventional, Y-Δ [4], phase-shift [9], and the proposed
slot/10-pole) compared to conventional concentrated wound winding are shown in Fig. 5. It is noted that the proposed
design (12-slot/10-pole). Air-gap MMF for both winding sets concept provides a cleaner MMF spectrum. The Y-Δ winding
𝑊𝑊1 and 𝑊𝑊2 is calculated using Fourier series expansion of in [4] can effectively cancel the sub-harmonic (𝜈𝜈=1) but it still
MMF distribution- has 7th, 17th, and 19th in its spectrum. The results in [8] show
that the phase-shift winding can cancel the 7th harmonic, but it
∞
6𝑁𝑁𝑌𝑌 𝐼𝐼𝑌𝑌 still has substantial sub-harmonic. In comparison, it is shown
𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝐹𝐹𝑌𝑌,𝑊𝑊1 = � sin(𝜈𝜈 𝜋𝜋/12) cos(𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 − 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔) … … … . (2) that the main unwanted sub-harmonic and 7th harmonic are
𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈
𝜈𝜈=1,−5,7,.. completely cancelled by the proposed winding concept.
∞
Moreover, the 17th harmonic is also reduced by more than 50%.
6𝑁𝑁Δ 𝐼𝐼Δ 𝜋𝜋 Additionally, the main torque-producing component is
𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝐹𝐹Δ,𝑊𝑊1 = − � sin(𝜈𝜈 𝜋𝜋/12) cos(𝜈𝜈(𝜃𝜃 − ) − (𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔
𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 6 increased by 1%, which lends to an increase in torque density
𝜈𝜈=1,−5,7,..
𝜋𝜋 of the machine.
− )) … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … .. (3)
6
𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝐹𝐹𝑊𝑊1 = 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸. 2 + 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸. 3
∞
12𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 νπ
= � sin � � sin((𝜈𝜈 − 1) 𝜋𝜋/12) sin(𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 − 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔
𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 12
𝜈𝜈=1,−5,7,..
(𝜈𝜈 − 1)𝜋𝜋
− ) … … … … … … … … … … … … … . . (4)
12
∞
𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝐹𝐹𝑊𝑊2 = � sin � � sin((𝜈𝜈 − 1) 𝜋𝜋/12) sin(𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 − 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔
𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 12
𝜈𝜈=1,−5,7,…
− − 𝜈𝜈𝜃𝜃𝑠𝑠ℎ ) … … … … … … … . . (5)
12
The total airgap MMF distribution is given by,
∞
𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝐹𝐹𝑇𝑇 = � sin � � sin((ν − 1) π/12) cos(𝜈𝜈𝜃𝜃𝑠𝑠ℎ
𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 12
𝜈𝜈=1,−5,7,….
/2) sin(𝜈𝜈𝜈𝜈 − 𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔 − − 𝜈𝜈𝜃𝜃𝑠𝑠ℎ /2) … . (6)
12
It is evident from (6) that 𝜈𝜈=1 makes the MMF sub-harmonics

zero. Moreover, to cancel one particular higher order harmonic Fig. 5. MMF spectrum of Y-Δ [4], phase-shifted [9], and the
cos(𝜈𝜈𝜃𝜃𝑠𝑠ℎ /2) needs to be equal to zero or 𝜃𝜃𝑠𝑠ℎ = 𝜋𝜋/𝜈𝜈 or 𝜃𝜃𝑠𝑠ℎ = proposed winding
3𝜋𝜋/𝜈𝜈 in (6). For 12-slot/10-pole with conventionally wound
design, 7th space harmonics is the dominant higher order Moreover, the new winding is expected to have the
harmonic and it is 71% of torque-producing (5th) component as same equivalent phase resistance as the conventional DLCW.
7𝜃𝜃
shown in Fig. 2(b). To cancel 7th space harmonic, cos � 𝑠𝑠ℎ � The equivalent resistance of the wye-coil in each phase can be
2
term in (6) has to be zero and this is possible by selecting 𝜃𝜃𝑠𝑠ℎ = calculated using (7). The equivalent resistance of the delta-coil
77.150 = 5.15𝛼𝛼𝑠𝑠 , where 𝛼𝛼𝑠𝑠 represents slot pitch of the group is calculated using (8).
resultant stator. MMF harmonic spectrums for the
414
𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌 𝑄𝑄𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 designed. All the PM machines are designed under the
𝑅𝑅𝑌𝑌,𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 = 𝑁𝑁 2 ∙ … … … … . (7)
𝐴𝐴𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 ∙ 𝐹𝐹 𝑚𝑚 constraints of the same magnet volume, rotor dimension, outer
diameter, copper volume, and phase current. The parameters
𝑅𝑅Δ,𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = 3𝑅𝑅𝑌𝑌 ,𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 … … … … … … … … … . (8) for the designed machines are given in Table I.
where, 𝐿𝐿 = 𝐿𝐿𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 + 𝐿𝐿𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 , 𝑄𝑄𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝 = slot number, 𝑚𝑚= phase TABLE I

number, 𝑁𝑁 is the turns number, 𝐴𝐴𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 is the total area of slot, 𝜌𝜌 DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
is material resistivity at operating temperature, 𝐹𝐹 is the fill Parameters Value
factor. The end winding length of the proposed winding are the Outer Diameter, 𝐷𝐷𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 100 mm
same as that of the conventional double layer concentrated
winding because of same angular span of the coil as in Fig. 6. Axial Length, 𝐿𝐿𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 100 mm
The end winding length can be calculated using the following Number of poles, 𝑃𝑃 10
(9) [3], DC Link Voltage, 𝑉𝑉𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 48 V
2𝜋𝜋𝑅𝑅𝑤𝑤 Speed, 𝜔𝜔𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 600 rpm
𝐿𝐿𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 = 0.93 … … … … … … … … … … … … … … . … … (9)
𝑄𝑄 Power 1 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘
Here, 𝑅𝑅𝑤𝑤 is the average slot radius, Q is the total number of 𝐼𝐼𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 (rms) 18 A
slots. The resistance of the delta coil is 3 times of wye coil
because it has √3 times turn compared to the wye coil. The
total stator copper loss in the proposed winding and
conventional winding will be the same for the fundamental To prove the proposed concept, the air-gap flux density
excitation frequency as the total copper volume, and the rated due to stator excitation are derived from 2D finite element
current is the same. However, there will be an additional loss analysis (FEA) for the 24-slot/10-pole machine. A solid rotor
in the delta winding due to the 3𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 order harmonic in delta is used to avoid rotor contribution to the airgap MMF. The flux
coil’s current. This loss can be reduced by proper design of the path due to armature reaction is shown in Fig. 7. Moreover, the
rotor of the permanent magnet machines. flux lines crossing the rotor indicates the presence of high
amplitude sub-harmonics as in Fig. 7(a) and the absence of
rotor crossing flux lines in Fig. 7(b) indicates that the proposed
winding can successfully cancel the high amplitude sub-
harmonics. The airgap MMF of the proposed winding with its
corresponding spectrum are presented in Fig. 8. FEA results in
Fig. 8 validate the analytical proposition of 𝜃𝜃𝑠𝑠ℎ = 77.150 for
the new 𝑌𝑌 − Δ winding for the 24-slot/10-pole motor. It is
evident that 1st and 7th harmonics become zero and 17th
𝜃𝜃 harmonic is also substantially reduced which matches with the
analytical model. The cancellation of the sub and super
harmonics are expected to reduce the torque ripple, noise and
(a) vibration, core loss, and demagnetization of PM.
𝜃𝜃
(b)
Fig. 6. Coil span, (a) DLCW, (b) proposed
IV. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
Four different PM machines, namely, (a) conventional DL (a) (b)
wound 12-slot/10-pole, (b) DL Y-Δ winding with 12-slot/10-
pole [4], (c) DL phase-shifted winding with 24-slot/10-pole
Fig. 7. Armature reaction flux lines using FEA,
[9], and (d) the proposed 24-slot/10-pole windings are
(a) DLCW, (b) proposed
415
in torque ripple and 2.70% THD in line voltages along with
3.5% improvement in the average torque. Therefore, the
proposed winding concept can achieve better torque ripple and
torque density.
TABLE II
RATED PERFORMACNE COMPARISON
Parameters Conventional Proposed [4] [9]
𝑇𝑇𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 (Nm) 12.95 13.10 13.43 12.75
𝑇𝑇𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 (%) 5.30 1.60 2.50 1.25
𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝐷𝐷𝑉𝑉𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿 (%) 4.60 1.10 2.70 1.63
(a)
1
𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 4.35 3.71 4.22 3.89
0.9 𝐼𝐼2 𝑅𝑅 128.4 129.8 129.8 128.4

0.8 Power factor 0.90 0.96 0.89 0.95
0.7 Harmonic in 0 1.60 1.52 0
∆ winding
MMF Components, p.u.
0.6
0.5
0.4
Similar stator copper loss is expected for all the
designed machines as they have the same dimensions and
copper volume. However, the introduction of 3rd harmonics in
0.3
0.2 delta current may lead to increase in stator copper loss for the
0.1
proposed winding. This extra loss depends on the PM design
and magnetization. Moreover, PM design is optimized for the
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 proposed design to keep this extra loss very negligible (1%) as
Harmonics in Table II. However, the proposed winding can reduce the
(b) total magnetic loss by substantial amount (15%) compared to
the conevntional DLCW. Moreover, the presented winding
Fig. 8. (a) MMF distribution, (b) harmonic spectrum
(FEA) of proposed 24-slot/10-pole machine achieves the minimum core loss (3.7 W) compared to 4.22 W
in [4] and 3.9 W in [9] due to the simultaneous cancellation of
The electromagnetic performances of the proposed winding sub-harmonics and super harmonics. The presence of sub and
using FEA are compared with the conventional DLCW as super harmonics in DLCW increases the harmonic leakage
presented by Ayman et al. [4] and Dajaku et al. [9], and the inductance and hence, degrade the power factor. Therefore, the
relative advantages are shown in Table II. The electromagnetic cancellation of harmonics leads to an improved power factor
torque profile at rated speed with rated current as in Fig. 9 as shown in Table II. The proposed winding enhances the
shows that the average torque is 13.1 𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 compared to the power factor to 0.96 compared to 0.90 of DLCW.
12.95 𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 of conventional DLCW. It also validates the 14
analytical proposition of torque density improvement of more
than 1%. However, the optimum shifting angle is found to be 13.5
760 from FEA for the design in comparison to 77.150 for the
ideal condition in mitigating the effects of rotor magnets, stator 13
slots, and teeth saturation. Moreover, the torque ripple comes

12.5
from the interaction of stator harmonics and rotor harmonics
along with the cogging torque of the machines. Therefore, the proposed [9] conventional [4]
Torque (Nm)
12
ripple reduction of the presented winding is 70% due to the
cancellation of both sub and super harmonics compared to the 11.5
conventional DLCW. The designed machine also achieves a
very low 1.1% THD in the line voltages as in Fig. 9 compared 11
to 4.6% THD of conventional DLCW. In comparison with
other windings, the winding of Dajaku et al. [9] achieves 76% 10.5
torque ripple reduction and 1.60% THD in the line voltages at

the expense of 1.6% reduction in average torque compared to 10
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
the conventional design following the optimized shifting angle
Angular position
to 760 . Moreover, winding of [4] achieves a reduction of 60%
(a)
416
shaping or skewing further reduces the manufacturing
complexity. The proposed concept is equally applicable to
50 proposed [4] conventional [9]
40 reluctance machines and induction machines with either

30
concentrated or distributed wound stator. Future work from
this research will include experimental results.
20
10
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Line Voltage (V)
0 Authors would like to acknowledge the support of Altair for

-10
providing the finite element analysis tool Flux 2D and thank
Dr. Tan H. Pham, and Ms. Carole Kenyon for their support
-20
during the machine design analysis.
-30
-40
REFERENCES
-50
[1] K. T. Chau, C. C. Chan and C. Liu, "Overview of Permanent-Magnet
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Brushless Drives for Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicles," in IEEE
Angular position
June 2008.
(b) [2] J. Cros and P. Viarouge, “Synthesis of high performance PM motors with
Fig. 9. (a) Torque profile, (b) line voltages (FEA) of concentrated windings,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 17, no. 2,
proposed 24-slot/10-pole machine pp. 248–253, Jun. 2002.
[3] F. Magnussen and C. Sadarangani, “Winding factors and Joule losses of
permanent magnet machines with concentrated windings,” in Proc.
IEEE-IEMDC, Madison, WI, Jun. 2003, vol. 1, pp. 333–339.
The proposed winding introduces the disadvantages [4] A. S. Abdel-Khalik, S. Ahmed and A. M. Massoud, "Low Space
of non-overlapping winding as the two three phase winding Harmonics Cancelation in Double-Layer Fractional Slot Winding Using
Dual Multiphase Winding," in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 51,
sets are used to cancel the higher order harmonics. There is the no. 5, pp. 1-10, May 2015.
possibility of slightly higher end winding length compared to [5] Z. Q. Zhu, Z. P. Xia, L. J. Wu and G. W. Jewell, "Analytical Modeling
the conventional DLCW. Even though the cancellation of sub and Finite-Element Computation of Radial Vibration Force in
and super harmonics improves the core loss, torque ripple, Fractional-Slot Permanent-Magnet Brushless Machines," in IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 46, no. 5, pp.
power factor and THD performances, this proposed winding [6] M. V. Cistelecan, F. J. T. E. Ferreira and M. Popescu, "Three phase
will degrade the flux weakening performance. The harmonics toothconcentrated multiple-layer fractional windings with low space
associated in the concentrated winding increase the harmonic harmonic content," 2010 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and
Exposition, Atlanta, GA, 2010, pp. 1399-1405.
leakage inductance and consequently, the direct axis [7] E. Fornasiero, L. Alberti, N. Bianchi and S. Bolognani, "Considerations
inductance. The absence of sub and super harmonics reduces on Selecting Fractional-Slot Nonoverlapped Coil Windings," in IEEE
the direct axis inductance, and hence, increases the Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 1316-1324,
characteristic current (𝐼𝐼𝑐𝑐ℎ = 𝜓𝜓𝑚𝑚 /𝐿𝐿𝑑𝑑 ). The increase in May-June 2013.
[8] G. Dajaku and D. Gerling, "A novel 12-teeth/10-poles PM machine with
characteristic current may degrade the flux weakening flux barriers in stator yoke," 2012 XXth International Conference on
performance. Electrical Machines, Marseille, 2012, pp. 36-40.
[9] G. Dajaku and D. Gerling, "A Novel 24-Slots/10-Poles Winding
Topology for Electric Machines," 2011 IEEE International Electric
V. CONCLUSION Machines & Drives Conference (IEMDC), Niagara Falls, ON, 2011, pp.
65-70.
In this paper, a winding concept is proposed to cancel [10] A. S. Abdel-Khalik, S. Ahmed and A. M. Massoud, "A Six-Phase 24-
simultaneously both the sub and higher order harmonics of Slot/10-Pole Permanent-Magnet Machine With Low Space Harmonics
for Electric Vehicle Applications," in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics,
stator MMF along with an increment in the torque density. The vol. 52, no. 6, pp. 1-10, June 2016.
proposed winding is based on two sets of three-phase Y-Δ
winding connected in series but shifted in space with respect
to each other. The winding pattern doubles the number of slots.
The designed machine with this winding shows 1.25%
increment in average torque, with 1.6% torque ripple, and
1.1% THD compared to conventional FSCW (torque ripple
5.3% and THD of 4.6%). The simultaneous cancellation of sub
and super harmonics increases the power factor of the machine
by 7% and improves the core loss performance compared to
the DL FSCW. Most of the reported works on harmonic
reduction can only reduce one particular harmonics with a
sacrifice or no improvement in the average torque. However,
the proposed concept has the advantage of cancelling most of
the unwanted harmonics without sacrificing torque density of
the machine. Torque ripple and THD reduction without pole
417
Comparison of the Reluctance and Permanent
Magnet Synchronous Machine operating at High
Temperatures
Marcin Lefik1, Krzysztof Komeza1 Senior Member, IEEE, Ewa Napieralska Juszczak2 Senior Member, IEEE, Daniel Roger2
Senior Member, IEEE, Piotr Napieralski 3 Senior Member IEEE
1 Institute of Mechatronics and Information Systems, Lodz University of Technology,
ul. Stefanowskiego 18/22, 90-924 Lodz, Poland, krzysztof.komeza@p.lodz.pl, marcin.lefik@p.lodz.pl
2 LSEE, UA, 62400 Bethune France, Technoparc Futura, ewa.napieralskajuszczak@univ-artois.fr, daniel.roger@univ-artois.fr
3 Institute of Information Technology, Lodz University of Technology, ul. Stefanowskiego 18/22, 90-924 Lodz, Poland
piotr.napieralski@p.lodz.pl
Abstract – The paper describes a 3D analysis of the thermal field must be paid to thermal strength of the winding insulation and
in a permanent magnet synchronous machine and a reluctance the operating temperature of permanent magnets. The HT°
synchronous machine enabling work at high internal motor, made of rigid inorganic coils, requires a specific design
temperature (HT° machine). The 3D coupled electromagnetic-
of the stator with rectangular teeth and opened slots. The
fluid-thermal model of projected machine is created to obtain the
distribution of thermal field and air flow and to calculate the slotting effect is much higher than for a classical machine; the
average temperature of the most sensitive parts such as coils and only available magnets have a higher electric conductivity, the
permanent magnets. The influence of the surface state of the machine design must take these effects into consideration
machine housing on its heating is examined. The points of the adding magnetic wedges between the stator teeth and
highest temperature inside analyzed machine are localized too. segmenting the magnets. Thus, the design calculations of these
The comparison of thermal properties and the possibility of electromechanical transducers require specific electromagnetic
working at high temperatures for both types of machines was
carried out. and thermal analyses, which allow calculating additionally the
thermal effects of power losses. The paper describes the
Keywords— Fluid dynamics, Permanent magnet machines, electromagnetic and thermal analysis of HT° PMSM and the
Synchro-reluctant machine, High Temperature, Thermal HT° Synchronous Reluctance Machine (SRM) operating at
analysis.. high ambient temperatures using 3D field calculations. The
machine is run at the rated speed of 5650 rpm. To analyze this
I. INTRODUCTION phenomenon, the 3D coupled thermal-fluid (CFD) model is
The HT (High temperatures) electric machines are designed used. The distribution of the temperature field and average
for special purposes. They are used in environments where the temperature of the windings and permanent magnets (in the
ambient temperature is much higher than typical ones. Of case of PMSM) are calculated. The impact of color and
course, this also causes an increase in the temperature inside surface condition of the motor housing on the temperature
the motor housing. For example, a Permanent Magnet distribution, the influence of the type of the material used for
Synchronous Machine (PMSM) designed to work in the magnetic wedges, conductivity and segmentation of the
vicinity of aircraft turbines, with an ambient temperature of permanent magnets on the power losses in the magnets, is
about 200°C, will work with an internal temperature estimated examined. This allowed the optimal way to choose the
to be 450-500°C at the hottest point. In order to work material and design to develop a prototype of the machine.
continuously at such internal temperatures it is necessary to
use inorganic Electrical Insulation Systems (EIS) and adapt II. CHOICE OF TOPOLOGY OF HT MACHINES
the machine design to this inorganic technology [1-4]. With As part of this project consists in studying the feasibility of
this topology, two main options are possible: a synchronous such a machine with its power supply that can work durably in
permanent magnet machine, or a reluctance synchronous a hot environment, the choice of structure of the machine can
machine that produces torque from variations of the reluctance be guided by different aspects, related mainly to the materials
of the magnetic circuit [5-7]. In the case of a machine with used in the manufacturing of active parts.
permanent magnets, special SmCo permanent magnets must In general, it is recommended to avoid machines with
be used and these magnets have a relatively high electrical brushes. The rotor in this case is powered via a sliding contact
conductivity in comparison to the classical ones. During the system. Indeed, two major difficulties are inherent in this type
design process of these HT° PMSMs, a particular attention of machines. The first being the wear and the oxidation of the
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 418

parts in contact, which risks being accentuated by the effect of magnetizing the machine. With this structure, the magnets are
heat and thermal cycles. The second concerns the presence of no longer needed, which is very interesting as it eliminates
a winding at rotor made of rigid inorganic materials that this technological lock. However, this topology requires a
would be subjected to mechanical stress and vibration in larger stator mmf and a reduced air-gap. Thermal expansions
addition to the constraints related to the temperature. The cage can create mechanical problems. On the other hand, this
induction machine is eliminated because of the need to use topology needs to use a larger number of turns for the stator
distributed windings that require some flexibility of the coils. windings, which makes the designing of the coils more
Of course, it is still possible to use rigid coils but at the difficult. This structure can operate at higher temperatures
expense of compactness. The induction machine is still a track than the PMSM, but with a lower power factor and lower
which can be explored in the future. energy efficiency. This type of machine, however, remains the
Aside from asynchronous machines, standard brushless only solution for the highest temperatures.
machines that can be tested are permanent magnet machines or Fig. 1 gives an idea of the two topologies envisaged for the
variable reluctance machines. The choice is made on a electric motor. The study is first focused on the permanent
synchronous machine with permanent magnets and / or a magnet machine with the two variants of a magnet placed on
synchronous reluctance machine (SRM), so that one same the surface or magnets inserted in the rotors.
toothed winding stator can be used with two different rotor
structures in architecture and materials. This makes it possible
to have an alternative solution in the case where the rotor with
permanent magnets has temperature resistance problems
beyond certain limits.
In synchronous magnet machines, two magnet mounting
technologies are possible: surface and embedded inside the !
rotor mounting. The first option is the easiest to achieve but it Fig.1. Different topologies of the machines (a) PMSM with embedded
places the magnets close to the stator coils, therefore at a high magnets, (b) PMSM with surface magnets, (c) VRM
temperature. The second solution places the magnets inside
the rotor core; the flux is concentrated towards the air gap by These machines have the advantage of following similar
soft magnetic parts. The magnet temperature is lower. In both rules as in the choice of the number of stator slots and number
cases, the design of the rotor must provide for a direct of poles, so that a stator of a PMSM can be used for a variable
evacuation of the heat created in the magnets by the eddy reluctance machine, provided that the number of turns or the
currents. In the case of the synchronous machine with wound voltage level is adapted. The most important criterion that led
rotor, we will find a stator winding and rotor winding with to this choice is the possibility of using prefabricated rigid
inorganic insulated wire. Joule losses will be accentuated in coils insulated by inorganic materials. The shape of the stator
high temperature. The sliding connection system that connects slots must be adapted to these rigid coils and their insertion.
the rotor coils to the circuit outside is quite tricky to achieve at For the magnet machine placed on the surface, it is sufficient
conventional temperatures. It is not reasonable to consider it in to adapt the height of the magnets and their arrangement so
HT. The only reasonable structure is therefore the Permanent that they produce the necessary flux. Particular attention is
Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM), which uses special paid to losses in magnets due to the magnetic reaction of the
SmCo alloys with a preference for the embedded magnet armature or to the effect of the stator teeth. A segmentation of
machine. each magnet in 4 pieces (2 in the azimuthal direction and 2 in
Synchronous reluctance machines have very different the axial direction) is enough to reduce these losses without
structures. Our machine uses the same basic physical principle increasing the complexity of manufacturing and assembly. Fig.
as all the others: the torque results by the variations of the 2a shows some elements on the design of the magnet rotor
magnetic energy stored in the motor at a given instant. In a placed on the surface. Regarding the inserted magnet rotor
conventional synchronous machine, the distributed windings (flux concentration), we maintained the same number of poles
are traversed by a balanced three-phase current system. The so as to keep the same stator winding. The peculiarity of this
stator creates a rotating magneto motive force (mmf) with a topology lies in the sizing or design of flux barriers. Indeed, it
sinusoidal spatial distribution. Induction in the air gap results is essential to limit the flow of rotor leakage to take full
from this mmf. The mmf brought by the rotor (magnets or advantage of the flux of magnets. The chosen topology is
direct current in the excitation coils) and the geometry of the described in Fig. 2b. The slots provided for inserting the
gap. When the rotor has salient poles, the natural spatial magnets into the magnetic circuit of the rotor are open on the
variations of the induction create a reluctant torque when the lower side (shaft side) so that the flux does not loop back by
rotor mmf is zero. This effect can be amplified by varying the the non-magnetic rotor. The upper side of these slots (air gap
amplitude of the stator mmf, the geometry of the rotor and the side) is closed by a narrow band to form a flux barrier by
anisotropy of the magnetic materials of the rotor. Therefore, saturating itself. The thickness of this band is dimensioned
the SRM is a special case of a salient-pole synchronous from this so that it holds mechanically but is very
machine; the magnetic energy in the gap is only provided by magnetically saturated. In the same way as for magnets placed
stator currents; a part of the reactive power is used for on the surface, the inserted magnets are also subdivided into 4
pieces to limit the losses and heating. Naturally, the topology
419
with inserted magnets better protects magnets that are not loss characteristic of the material for frequencies above
directly exposed to the armature reaction field or to the heat 5000Hz.
flux that may come from the stator following an over-heating. A design that enables a significant reduction in losses in the
magnets is that of the magnets embedded into the rotor known
as interior PM. Therefore, with similar stator winding, the
voltage induced in the phase is smaller than in the case of
surface-mounted magnets. Fig. 3 shows the stator voltage and
the comparison with the case of surface-mounted magnets.
Fig. 3 also shows the cogging torque at no-load for the same
cases.
! a)
! !
b) c)
Fig.2. Soft magnetic circuit a) with magnets on the surface, b) with ! !
embedded magnets, c) reluctance machine. Fig. 3: Comparison of stator voltages for the embedded (1) surface
The topology of the reluctance machine is presented in Fig. magnet (2) (left). Comparison of cogging torque for embedded (1) and surface
2c. The reluctance machine has a rotor with salient poles, magnets (-2). (right).
which are additionally provided with notches directing the The benefits of the embedded structure are a smoother voltage
flux and round holes in the rotor yoke limiting the quadrature and a much smaller cogging torque even than for the
flux. construction of non-magnetic wedges. For the loaded
III. ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD SIMULATION generator, the embedded magnets structure has also a much
lower torque ripple. The permanent magnet is protected from
In order to obtain heat sources for the thermal model, pulsating fields by the iron of the rotor. Consequently, eddy
calculations of the electromagnetic field were made using the currents are induced mainly on the surface of the magnet and
Opera program. As commonly known, the 3D time-stepping in the region of the upper corners. Lower losses in the magnets
FEM is very time-consuming [8-10] and thus the use of 2D and a smaller cogging torque are possible by adding magnetic
analysis is preferred [11-14]. The time-stepping analysis was wedges between the stator teeth. Three types of wedges were
performed over approximately 20 cycles until the steady state tested. The best effect is obtained using wedges made of
was reached. First 2D and then 3D simulation was realized. stainless martensitic steel, whose characteristics are similar to
For the purpose of the 3D simulation, a quarter of the machine the magnetic material of the core. For composite wedges of
was considered to benefit from the magnetic symmetry. The low permeability the cogging torque is higher. Through the
windings are modelled by connections to external resistances. use of magnetic wedges made of martensitic steel it was
The time-stepping analysis was performed assuming constant possible to reduce the losses in the structure with the surface
speed of rotation of the rotor. The 3D mesh contains 4.264778 magnet to a value of 22.9 W, and for the structure with
million elements in total. In the conductive areas, the elements embedded magnets - to 0.72 W (1.07 W for the structure
size was chosen to be less than one-third of the penetration without the wedges). Similar calculations were made for the
depth. Moreover, the distribution of the density of the mesh is reluctance machine. All above results for the stator current
greater than to correctly reproduce the effect of rotation of the offset angle give the maximum reluctance torque. It was
rotor relative to the stator. To reduce the computation times the assumed that the stator winding currents change sinusoidally
simulations were performed on a virtual machine with eight over time.
cores. Next, the core losses are calculated from 2D simulation
results as an average value taken from all available time 16000
snapshots. A number of sample points in time were chosen to 14000
Torque [mNm]
allow for the subsequent Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) 12000

analysis. Using the values of components of magnetic flux 10000
density in each mesh element calculated at sample points, the
8000
DFT analysis was performed in order to assess the
contribution of higher harmonics. The number of calculated 6000
harmonics was selected according to the Nyquist–Shannon 4000
sampling theorem as half of the number of sample points. The 2000

RMS current value [A]
calculation of losses necessitated extrapolation of the specific 0
! 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Fig.4 Torque for constant angle versus RMS current value.
420
IV. RESULTS OF THE COUPLED THERMAL-FLUID ANALYSIS IN 3D
For currents greater than 8 A, the relationship between torque Using the coupled thermal-fluid-electromagnetic [16-20]
and current is practically linear. model. the repartition of the temperature outside and inside the
The following results were obtained for the reluctance machine for the various designs and materials were calculated.
machine: coil losses - 610.56 W, stator iron losses - 68.9 W, Fig. 7 shows an example result of the distribution of the
losses in the rotor iron - 34.87 W, losses in the stator wedges - temperature in the all PMSM machine for 2 variants of
2.53 W. Fig. 5 presents the analysis of the stator and rotor surface-mounted magnets and embedded magnets with and
losses from higher harmonics for a reluctance machine. without wedges, for an ambient temperature of 200°C.
1,20
Stator core losses for
higher harmonics [W]
1,00
0,80
0,60
0,40
0,20
Harmonic order
! a)! b)
0,00
! 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 a)
0,25
Rotor core losses for
higher harmonics [W]
0,20
0,15
! c) ! d)
0,10
Fig.7. Temperature distribution in the motor - cross section XY: a) PMSM
surface-mounted magnets with wedges, b) PMSM surface-mounted magnets
(variant 1) without wedges, c) PMSM embedded magnets (variant 2) with
0,05
Harmonic order
wedges, d) PMSM embedded magnets without wedges
!
0,00
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 b) Fig. 8 shows the temperature distributions on the HT
Fig. 5: Losses for higher harmonics in: a) stator, b) rotor of SRM. machine's housing for a PMSM.
The difference between the 2D and 3D solution in the case

of a reluctance motor is small at about 5.3%. For the 2D
model, the electrical conductivity of the stator wedges was not
taken into account, but it has little effect on the solution. Fig. 6
shows the comparison of torque calculated by 2D and 3D
models. To reduce transient phenomena, the voltage increases
linearly over the first two periods.
! !
! !
Fig. 8. The temperature distributions outside HT PMSM machines: a) variant
1 with wedges, b) variant 2 with wedges, c) variant 1 without wedges, d)
variant 2 without wedges .
!
Fig.6.:Comparison of 2D and 3D torque calculation.
The difference between the 2D and 3D solution in the case of

a reluctance motor is small at about 5.3%. For the 2D model,
the electrical conductivity of the stator wedges was not taken
into account, but it has little effect on the solution.
421
Table 1 shows the average temperature values of selected
machine components for both variants and versions with
wedges and without wedges.
Table I average temperature in PMSM
Motor part Variant 1 Variant 1 Variant 2 Variant 2
With wedges Without With wedges Without

°C wedges °C °C wedges °C
Magnets 307,3 283,0 281,1 239,6

! a) ! b)
Wedges 321,0* 270,9** 300,3* 245,8**
Rotor 305,4 281,0 281,4 239,7

package
Stator 307,0 266,6 288,6 245,9

package
Winding 312,6 273,1 293,6 250,0

! c)! d)
* - magnetic wedge;  Fig. 9. Temperature distribution in the RM a) temperature inside the machine,
** - non-magnetic wedge; b)- cross section XY c) cross section YZ, d) temperature outside the
machine
Through the use of magnetic wedges made of martensitic
steel it was possible to reduce the losses in the structure with For the PMSM with the embedded magnets and with wedges
the surface magnet to a value of 22.9 W, and for the structure the efficiency is 85.6%, for a reluctance machine - 58.9%.
with embedded magnets to 0.72 W (l.07 W for the structure
without the wedges). The only reasonable structure is V. CONCLUSIONS
therefore the permanent magnet synchronous machine The paper presents a comparison of various construction
(PMSM) which uses special SmCo alloys with a preference
solutions for motors operating at an ambient temperature of
for the internal magnet machine. From a magnetic point of
200 to 500 ° C. The decisive factor are the temperatures of
view, the technological lock is located at the level of the
magnets. The only magnets available are Samarium and cobalt critical engine parts such as stator winding insulation and
alloys, the constructors announce interesting characteristics up permanent magnets in a PMSM. The design of a HT° motor
to 340 ° C. The internal losses by eddy current are greater. The made of rigid inorganic coils requires a specific design of the
design of the machine must take these elements into account stator with rectangular teeth and opened slots, making the
by acting on the closing of the stator slots by metal wedges to slotting effect much higher that for the classical design.
limit the amplitudes of the induction harmonics along the air Consequently, eddy currents in surface-mounted magnets and
gap. Synchronous motors with permanent magnets can be the corresponding losses are larger than for a standard design.
used in the case of an ambient temperature of not more than Moreover, because of high temperatures, the only available
300 ° C. For higher temperatures the using of the variable magnets have a higher conductivity, and so the machine
reluctance machine is advisable. design must take these effects into consideration, adding
Simulations of the reluctance machine were carried out for magnetic wedges between the stator teeth and segmenting the
two cases, for ambient temperatures of 200 ° C and 500 ° C. magnets. Two designs, surface-mounted permanent magnets
Table 2 shows the average temperature values of selected and magnets built into the rotor, are compared. The
machine components for an ambient temperature of 200 ° C. comparison considers the torque ripple, which is important
from the point of view of mechanical vibration, and power
Table 2 Temperature profiles for selected machine components losses in the magnets which may create a potential hazard due
for RM to local overheating of the magnets. At the same time,
improved operation characteristics of the machines with
Motor part R o t o r Stator Winding Housing internal magnets were shown.
package package To design and manufacture a machine capable of durable
operation at a very high internal temperature, a number of
Temperature 376.4 374.9 427.5 361.1
avenues must be explored:
[°C] 1)The soft magnetic circuit is not really a barrier, provided
that the plates are coated with an organic film. The
Fig. 9 shows the temperature distributions inside and outside conventional iron-silicon products are perfectly suited to
the reluctance machine for an ambient temperature of 200 ° C accept a slight deduction of the induction in the air gap. The
iron losses are clearly deduced because the resistivity of the
material increases naturally. The consideration is that the
market for iron-cobalt makes an excellent saturation induction
up to 500 ° C.
422
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423
A Proposition for Improving the Design of Motor
Windings for low-Pressure Environment
Daniel Roger1, Senior Member, IEEE; Sonia Ait-Amar1, Member, IEEE; Ewa Napieralska1, Senior Member, IEEE;
Piotr Napieralski2 Senior Member IEEE
1
Univ. Artois EA4025, Laboratoire Systèmes Electrotechniques et Environnement (LSEE) 62400, Bethune, France,
daniel.roger@univ-artois.fr, sonia.aitamar@univ-artois.fr, ewa.napieralskajuszczak@univ-artois.fr
2
Institute of Information Technology, Lodz University of Technology, ul. Stefanowskiego 18/22, 90-924 Lodz, Poland
piotr.napieralski@p.lodz.pl
Abstract—In low-pressure environment, partial discharges (PDs) polymer. However, a critical zone appears near the wire
appear for lower voltages, shortening strongly the machines life connections, where the enameled wire must be stripped. The
times fed by PWM inverters. A new approach is proposed for
designing AC motor windings free of PD at low pressure. The paper details theoretical investigations able to compute the
method consists of adding a thin resistive layer on the outer PDIV in such critical zones.
surface of the enameled wire used for winding the machine.
Thereby, PDs occur only in critical zones, near the wire
connections, rather than randomly in coils. Consequently, a coil II. ENVIRONMENT OF AIRCRAFT EMBEDDED MACHINES
design with a small additional quantity of varnish in critical
Two very different environments physical environments exist
zones can increase strongly the partial discharge inception
voltage (PDIV). The paper proposes a theoretical analysis of the for embedded motors; they can be placed in the cabin or
improvement based on Paschen’s law for its application in non outside. For the first case, the air-control of the cabin
homogenous electrical fields. provides classical temperatures at a pressure that gives
comfortable conditions to passengers. In old aircrafts, the
pressure corresponds to mountain conditions at an altitude of
I. INTRODUCTION 2000m and a little less for recent aircrafts (1850m). The cabin
In recent airliners, the electrical energy takes a larger and pressure is more or less 80% of the sea-level pressure.
However electrical machines can be placed outside the cabin
larger place because it brings many advantages comparing to
where the environmental conditions are very different.
hydraulic and pneumatic ones. For increasing the electric
Aeronautical engineers work with a standard atmosphere [6]
power, the aircraft industry has chosen higher voltages,
that gives temperatures and pressures representatives of any
switching from 115V AC to 540V DC. High power density point of the world. Table 1 gives 3 typical values. The lower
electric actuators are connected to the 540V DC grid by pressure and temperature influence the performance of the
inverters that provide an efficient machine control and a full Electrical Insulation System (EIS) of the electric actuator
reversibility of the power. However, the electronic switches windings.
of the inverters impose steep-fronted voltage pulses that cause
TABLE 1. PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURES DEFINED IN THE STANDARD
repetitive short voltage spikes in the machine windings and ATMOSPHERE [6]
induce PDs and an earlier aging of the machine Electrical Altitude Altitude (feet) Temperature Pressure
Insulation System (EIS), when their magnitudes exceed the [m] (°C) [hPa]
PDIV [1,2]. For Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors 0 – sea level 0 15 1013
5000 16404 -17.5 541
(PMSM), the winding can be made with concentrated 10000 32808 -50 265
windings (one coil per stator tooth), with a deterministic
design of coils. The exact position of each turn is known and The motor windings are generally made with enameled wire
the coil design can he made for getting a good distribution of and impregnated with a varnish that provides a mechanical
voltage spikes endured by the turn-to-turn insulation [3,4]. coherence and better insulation characteristics. However, it is
Cheaper induction machines are also used but they need practically impossible to guarantee the absence of small air-
distributed windings. The coils of such motors have a random voids between turns inside the windings. Partial Discharges
(PDs) may occur in these air-voids during the voltage spikes
topology. The turn-to-turn voltage may be large because the
caused by the PWM inverter that feeds the machine. When
probability to have the input turn near the output one is not
they exist, PDs accelerate the EIS aging by slow erosions, at a
negligible [5]. The thin insulating layer of the enameled wire
microscopic scale, of the thin polymer layer of the enameled
and the residual air between them must resist to a high
wire.
voltage stress and PDs may appear inside coils. The paper It is well known that PDs apparition conditions depend on
proposes technological solution that consists of adding a thin temperature and pressures in the small air-voids [7]. Two
resistive layer on the outer surface of the enameled wire. This cases must be analyzed because the air-void can be internal,
layer reduces the electric field in the residual air voids without any contact with the ambient air, or external at
between the turns and concentrates the electric field in the ambient pressure. For the first case, the air-void volume is
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 424

constant. The machine is generally made with the standard 3 Figure 1 shows the corresponding curves for temperature and
phases “vacuum pressure impregnation” (VPI) at standard pressure in opened air-voids at 3 altitudes. The horizontal axis
atmospheric pressure (sea level). During the first step, the is the distance d between the flat electrodes of Paschen’s
liquid varnish penetrates in the motor winding placed in a experiences. These curves can be used for estimating the
partial vacuum. The second phase consists in applying a partial discharge inception voltage (PDIV) at high altitude
pressure to the whole system when the varnish is still liquid from a measurement made at sea level. The small circles
helping its penetration. The third phase consist in added on this figure illustrate the case of a twisted pair made
polymerizing the varnish in a hoven at ambient pressure. At with a standard enameled wire whose diameter is 0.7mm. The
the beginning of the polymerization process, the varnish is PDIV measured at room temperature and pressure is
still liquid; the air-void volume change for getting a global 1.25kVpeak. When the variation the polymer permittivity is
pressure balance. The final volume of residual closed air- neglected and considering the same geometry, Paschen’s
voids is fixed when the varnish becomes solid. Consequently, curve, with Peek’s correction, predict a PDIV estimated to
the initial data of closed air-voids can be estimated to the 420Vpeak at 10000m. Consequently, for avoiding PDs in
pressure in the polymerization oven 𝑝! = 1013 hPa and its standard machines placed outside the cabin of airliners, the
temperature 𝑇! = 120 °C (393°K). The pressure at another voltage spikes must be much lower. With out any change in
temperature can be estimated using the perfect gas law the motor design, the supply voltage should be more of less
𝑝 𝑉 = 𝑛 𝑅 𝑇. The product pressure volume depends on the 1/3 of the standard one, which is very disadvantageous for the
number of gas molecule (n), the constant of the perfect gas drive global performances. Let us remind that Paschen’s
(R) and the absolute temperature in Kelvin (T). Considering experiences were made with flat electrodes that create
two absolute temperature T1 and T2, the ratio of the uniform fields. In the opened air-voids of motor windings, the
corresponding pressures in a given air-voids is: electric fields are not uniform. A more detailed analysis of
𝑇! Paschen’s hypothesis shows that Paschen’s law can be used
𝑝! = 𝑝! (1) with a reasonable error [14].
𝑇!
Table 2 gives the estimation of gas pressures in closed air-
voids at 3 altitudes computed by (1).
TABLE 2. ESTIMATION OF THE TEMPERATURES AND PRESSURES IN CLOSED
AIR-VOIDS
Pressure in
Altitude Altitude Temperature Temperature
closed air-
(m) (feet) (°C) (°K)
bubbles (hPa)
0 – sea level 0 15 288 739
5000 16404 -17.5 255.5 658
10000 32808 -50 223 574
For opened air-voids the pressure is the atmospheric one at

the considered altitude. The comparison of tables 1 and 2
shows that the pressure is much lower for opened air-voids.
This case is more stressful for the EIS.
Paschen’s formulae (2) results of old experimental works on
the breakdown voltage in gas a given pressure p, placed Fig. 1. Breakdown voltage in air versus the distance between flat parallel
between two flat electrodes at a distance d [8]. This formula electrodes for 3 altitudes.
predicts the avalanche threshold VTh at from the pressure
distance product. The Paschen’s formula uses the old unit for III. DRAWBACKS OF PDS IN A MOTOR WINDING
the pressure (Torr); the constants A and B use these units.
𝐴 = 15𝑇𝑜𝑟𝑟 !! 𝑐𝑚 !! ; 𝐵 = 365𝑉𝑇𝑜𝑟𝑟 !! 𝑐𝑚 !! . 𝛾 = 0.01 is Traditional motor are wound with enameled wires made of a
the second Townesend coefficient [9]. copper conductor insulated by thin polymer layers. The most
𝐵 𝑝. 𝑑 𝐴 widely used enameled wires are made with two insulating
𝑉!! = 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐶 = 𝑙𝑛 (2) layers. The first one, in contact with copper, is a polyester-
𝐶 + ln 𝑝. 𝑑 ln (1 + 1/𝛾)
Another old works made by Peek improve the Paschen’s law imide (PEI) providing a good adherence on the copper. The
taking the gas temperature into consideration [10]. Peek outer layer is made of polyamide-imide (PAI), which
propose a correction of Paschen’s threshold voltage provides the mechanical and thermal properties [15]. The
𝑉!!! computed at room pressure (760𝑇𝑜𝑟𝑟) and temperature global thicknesses of the insulating layers depend on the
(293𝐾). diameter of the wire and its grade [16]. A typical polymer
293 𝑝 thickness is 40µm for a 0.7mm wire diameter. The enameled
𝑉!! 𝑝, 𝑇 = 𝑉 (3) wire is manufactured with a complex industrial process,
𝑇 760 !!"
Recent experimental works confirm the Paschen’s law for the which consists in depositing several thin layers for getting the
right part of the curve, for distances and pressure over the required global insulation thickness. Consequently, no
Paschen’s minimum [11, 12]. Another recent work confirms significant air-void can exist inside the insulation layer of the
the Peek correction for very cold Nitrogen [13]. enameled wire. PDs occur only in air-voids existing between
turns or between wires and stator teeth. For both cases PDs
425
cause a slow erosion of the PAI layer of the enameled wire. With the conducting paint, the electric field is concentrated in
Figure 2 shows a microscopy of the cross-section of a twisted the thin PEI-PAI layer that has dielectric strength much
pair eroded by a large PD activity; the abrasion near the higher than air. Figure 4 present an image of the PD activity
contact point is clearly visible. of both twisted pairs fed by at 3kVpeak 50Hz. The pictures
were made in a deep darkness with a night vision device
For building machines able to operate during a long lifetime,
called "CoronaFinder" [17] placed at 0.8m. This optical
the windings made with standard enameled wires must be
system is able to make a visible image from the UV and IR
free of PD, despite the low-pressure environment.
radiation emitted by the observed objects. For these pictures
the voltage was much over the PDIV for getting many PDs.
The left picture shows that PDs are distributed along the
twisted pair; the right one shows that they are concentrated on
the ends of the conducting paint layer. These pictures show
that the conducting layer moves PDs to small zones. The
abrasion is now localized in deterministic small areas rather
than distributed along the twisted pair. However, electric
measurements show a slightly lower PDIV for the modified
twisted pair (1.1kVpeak rather than 1.25kVpeak). Therefore, at a
given voltage over the PDIV, the abrasion due to PDs will be
more intense. Without any corrective action, the enameled
wire lifetime will be much lower.
Fig. 2. Microscopy of the cross section of a twisted pair aged by a strong PD

activity where the polymer layer abrasion is visible.
V. ANALYSES OF THE ELECTRIC FIELD IN CRITICAL ZONES
IV. PRINCIPLE OF THE PROPOSED IMPROVEMENT A 2D finite-element (FE) linear electrostatic simulation is
performed for computing the electric field in the critical
In a motor coil, the outer surfaces of the wires are in contact zones where PDs may appear. The electric field is computed
together. Therefore, at a microscopic scale, an additional in the polymer layer and in the ambient air in the critical zone
resistive layer deposited on each turn will create equipotential near the end of the silver conducting paint. Figure 5 shows
surfaces able to reduce strongly electric field in the air-voids the FE mesh of the electrostatic problem built at the
between turns. Preliminary investigations are made on twisted micrometer scale. Figure 6 presents the corresponding color
pairs covered with a silver conducting paint. Fig. 3 shows the map of the electric field magnitude. The field is computed
classical twisted pair on the left and the modified one with a with a constant polymer relative permittivity of 4 and for 1kV
conducting paint on the right. imposed between the boundaries (conducting paint and
copper wire). The simulation results can be applied with other
voltages because of the linearity of the electrostatic problem.
Fig. 3. Classical twisted pait (left); modified twisted pair (right).
Fig. 5. Mesh of the critical zone and of the polymer layer.
In Fig. 6, the highest field values are removed because the

sharp end of the conducting paint is not realistic. The field
lines in the critical zone or air, where PDs may appear are
plotted in figure 7. The global shape of these field lines is far
from the straight lines on the uniform field of the Paschen’s
experiences. A deeper analysis must be made for applying his
Fig. 4. DPs observed by a corona finder device (left standard twisted pair,
right modified twisted pair with a silver conducting paint).
426
results, reminding the hypothesis made by Paschen for uniform field, the electrons inertia may change the free
interpreting these experiences. electron trajectories, they do not follow exactly the field lines.
The computation of free electron energy is more complex
because the free electron speed and the Coulomb force are no
more collinear vectors.
The proposed analysis uses the Paschen’s hypothesis but it
adds the inertial equation of a mass m placed in a field force
𝐹 = 𝑞𝐸. The influence of the gravity is neglected. The
mechanical problem is solved in an electric field map
proportional to the electric field in the critical zone computed
by the FE simulation at half the experimental PDIV of the
modified twisted pair. This value is defined considering a
perfect symmetry of the modified twisted pair: the same
phenomena occur on each wire covered with a conduction
paint. The air of the critical zone is supposed to be made only
of nitrogen and oxygen.
The ionization energy of these molecules is 13.6 eV for
Oxygen and 14.5 eV for Nitrogen. An average value rounded
Fig. 6. Electric field in the critical zone of air and in the polymer insulation
layer. at 14eV is considered for defining the points where energy of
a free electron is absorbed by an ionizing collision. The
elastic collisions does not change free electron energies, they
are not considered. The mechanical equation is solved with a
very short time step of 0.01ps; results are plotted in figure 8.
Two voltages 550V and 183V (half the PDIV measured on
modified twisted pairs and half the PDIV estimated at
10000m) are considered. This figure shows that the higher
voltage create a stronger acceleration. The free electron needs
a shorter time to reach the ionization energy level.
Figure 8 is plotted for a starting point of the first free electron
at the beginning or line field 15 of Fig. 7. For another starting
point situated at the beginning of a longer field line, the
curves are similar but with weaker accelerations and longer
Fig. 7. Field lines in critical zone of air, near the end of the conducting paint. times between two ionizing collisions because the field is
lower but the mechanism is the same.
VI. DISCUSSIONS ON PASCHEN’S HYPOTHESIS FOR

PREDICTING THE PDIV IN A MOTOR WINDNG
Let us remind that Paschen’s works were made more than a

century ago. At his time, the physics was mainly based on a
corpuscular approach of free electrons accelerated by the
Coulomb force 𝐹 = 𝑞𝐸. An electronic avalanche appears
when the accelerated free electrons acquire enough energy for
ionizing gas molecules when they collide. This electronic
avalanche creates more complex phenomena corresponding to
PDs or breakdown if no external phenomena stops the
discharges. The PDIV corresponds to the electronic avalanche
threshold. In Paschen’s experiences, the free electrons were
accelerated following the straight field lines the speed and the Fig. 8. Free electron energy between two ionizing collisions gor line fiels 15.
force are collinear vectors. The computation of the acquired
kinetic energy is a scalar problem. At a field supposed exactly The trajectories of successive free electrons are plotted in
equal to the avalanche threshold, a collision of an accelerated figure 9 for 2 starting points corresponding to the field lines
free electron with a gas molecule absorbed the kinetic energy 10 and 15 in Fig. 7. The small circles added on the curves
for creating a new free electron, which is accelerated by the correspond to the position of free electrons when they get the
Coulomb force. For a uniform field the free electrons follow ionizing energy for collisions. For computing these
the field lines. The trajectory of free electrons is trajectories, a square mesh of 0.5µm is used. Figure 9 shows
superimposed to the field lines. The distance d between the that, for this geometry and a voltage equal to half the PDIV at
flat electrodes is the field line length. However, for a non- room temperature and pressure, the free electron trajectories
(black lines) are very near the corresponding field line (red
427
lines). It is not exactly the case for a lower PDIV (green
lines), where the distance between two successive ionizing
collisions is larger. The trajectory and field line lengths are
computed and compared in table 3.
Fig. 10. Eclectic field modulus with an additional varnish drop.
Fig. 9. Trajectories of free electrons and field lines 10 and 15.
TABLE 3. TRAJECTORIES AND FIELD LINE LENGTH COMPARISONS

Field line Fiels line Tr.length Difference Tr.length Difference
Nb. length at 550V (%) at 183V (%)
(µm) (µm) (µm)
10 84.3 84.8 0.6 88 4.3
15 40 40 0 41 2.5
For lines length under 100µm of the considered geometry, the

maximum error is more or less 5% when the field line length
is considered rather than the actual free electrons trajectories.
Therefore, Paschen end Peek theories can be applied for
estimating the PDIV of modified motors up to an altitude of
10000m when the Paschen’s distance d is the field line
length; the voltage is the potential difference between the Fig. 11. Field lines in the critical zone of air and in the polymer drop.
ends of the considered line. More theoretical details are given
in [14].
VII. INFLUENCE OF AN ADDITIONAL POLYER DROP IN THE

CRITICAL ZONE.
For getting higher PDIV with the modified twisted pairs, il is

possible to add a drop on varnish in the critical zones. Figure
10 presents FE simulation results considering the same
geometry with an additional varnish drop, which is
represented in 2D by a circle arc, which radius is 40µm. The
varnish relative permittivity is 𝜀! =4. It can be seen that the
higher field modulus is now inside the polymer drop; the
critical zone in air is now shifted after the polymer drop, with
another geometry and weaker fields. The corresponding field
lines are plotted in Fig. 11; breaks at the border of the
polymer drop are typical of the permittivity change. Fig. 12. PDIV estimation using Paschen and Peek treory and fiend-line
length.
The field line length in air and the corresponding potential
differences are computed for both simulations and plotted in The “+” signs shows that lines 17 and 18 are very near the
red on Paschen-Peek curves in figure 12. The “+” signs Paschen-Peek curves at sea level, the applied voltage is just
correspond to the FE simulation made without any polymer below the PDIV at room temperature and pressure, which
drop; the “o” signs ate computed by the second simulation. corresponds to the experimental measurement. With a slight
The number placed near the signs corresponds to the field line increase of the peak voltage, PDs will appear between lines
ones. 17 and 18 for a distance between 15 and 22µm. At an altitude
of 10000m, many PDs will appear but the physical problem is
428
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International Conference on, 2001, pp. 283–286.
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[13] R. Massarczyk and P. Chu and C. Dugger and S.R. Elliott and K.
After studying the environment of electrical machines Rielage and W. Xu, “Paschen's law studies in cold gases, “ Journal of
embedded in airliners, the influence of pressure and Instrumentation, Vol. 12, No.6, P06019, June 2017.
temperature on the PDIV is explained. Specific investigations [14] D. Roger, S. Ait-Amar and E. Napieralska, “A method to reduce partial
on the proposed geometry places in the external environment discharges in motor windings fed by PWM inverter,” ISEF
International Conference, Lodz (Pl), 14-17 Sept. 2017.
of airliners show that the classical Paschen’s law modified by
[15] “W 210 enameled wire,” Synflex data sheet - http://www.synflex.com.
Peek can be used with an error of about 5%. On this basis, a [16] “Specifications for particular types of winding wires - Part 0-1: General
simple 2D finite element is proposed for estimating the PDIV requirements - Enamelled round copper wire,” IEC 60317-0-1 standard,
of the proposed solution in the harsh environment of an 2013.
airliner. [17] http://syntronics.net/coronafinder.html.
The experimental investigations were made with a
modified twisted pair covered by a silver conducting paint. It
is not possible to build motor coils such a modified wire
because its fragility its too high conductivity. Indeed, in a
motor coil, the outer surfaces of wires in contact form short-
circuited turns, which increase Joule losses due to currents
induced by the variations on the magnetic flux. The proposed
developments are at the beginning of the technological
maturation process; investigations are in progress with
thinner additional layers that have a lower conductivity in
order to find a balance between the larger PDIV and the extra
Joule losses.
REFERENCES
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insulating materials for electrical machine windings supplied by PWM
in the presence and in the absence of partial discharges,” in Solid
429
Efficiency Optimization Method of an Ultra-high
Speed, Low Torque Permanent Magnet Motor with
Multiphase Configuration
Md Tawhid Bin Tarek Seungdeog Choi

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
The University of Akron The University of Akron
Akron, Ohio, USA Akron, Ohio, USA
Email: mt106@zips.uakron.edu Email: schoi@uakron.edu
Abstract— In this paper, design and efficiency optimization of excessive heat can trigger demagnetization which can reduce
a five-phase permanent motor has been done with rated speed of efficiency. As a result, efficiency optimization of an ultra-high
500,000 rpm and power of 100 watt. With compact design and speed motor has become one of the important factors in the
high power density, ultra-high speed motors can be a potential machine design.
candidate for automotive applications. However, one of the major
issues for ultra-high speed motor performance is higher losses Previous literatures focus on improving efficiency
due to the high excitation frequency. Higher losses can degrade optimization of high speed motor by modifying the design
overall system performance and increase the temperature of the parameters and materials [15]. Different design parameters
motor which can lead to magnet demagnetization. Multiphase have been changed to see its effect on the efficiency.
winding configuration where per phase current is lower than Moreover, stator and rotor materials have been chosen to
three phase structure can be a feasible solution to increase the minimize the efficiency. Efficiency of the high speed motor has
efficiency coupled with optimization method concerning design been also been analyzed based on the modulation method of
parameters. In this study, design parameters of the motor such as the converter and stator structure of the motor [16]. From this
magnet and stator outer length has been selected for efficiency paper, it can be found that, for a slotless structure, pulse width
optimization of the motor. Along with the efficiency, weight and amplitude modulation (PWAM) with copper sleeve can reduce
current rating of the motor have been considered as constraints. losses in the ultra-high speed motor. Moreover, different
After that, by using multivariate nonlinear regression analysis cooling options are assessed to reduce the losses in an ultra-
and fmincon optimization, optimized magnet and stator length of
high speed motor [17]. Using annular gap and axial ducts in an
the motor has been calculated. Performances of optimized motor
has been compared with those of a benchmark motor and
ultra-high speed motor, winding temperature can be decreased
analyzed for performance improvement. by more than 40°C compared to state-of-the-art jacket cooling.
However, previous studies mainly focused on minimizing
Keywords—ultra-high speed; permanent magnet the efficiency by changing the design parameters intuitively. It
machines;optimization; regression analysis; efficiency. could not model the non-linear relationship between the design
parameters and the efficiency. The downside of choosing the
I. INTRODUCTION design parameters intuitively is that, it will fail to provide the
The trend of research in ultra-high speed machines has been exact value of the design parameters for maximizing
increased in recent years due to the emergence of new efficiency. Furthermore, using multiphase winding structure
applications. As discussed in [1], the speed of an ultra-high can increase efficiency of the motor compared with the
speed motor 300,000 to 1million rpm with the power rating conventional three phase structure [18]. Increasing the number
between 10kW to 3kW. In this speed and power range, the of phases can reduce per phase current which eventually
main application area of the ultra-high speed is reduces the copper loss and improves the thermal condition of
turbomachinery. Ultra-high-speed motors have been used in the motor. So, an optimization method where an objective
micro gas turbines [2]-[4], turbo-compressors [5]-[7], micro- function of efficiency is clearly defined in terms of design
machining applications [8]-[11]. Furthermore, the use of ultra- parameters along with multiphase configuration can optimize
high speed motor in the fuel cell [12] and turbocharger system the efficiency in a more structured manner.
[13] makes it a potential candidate in automotive applications. In this paper, efficiency optimization method of 100W,
Ultra-high speed motors can provide high power density 500krpm, 5 phase ultra-high speed motor has been proposed by
along with compact size. However, designing an ultra-high modeling the magnet and stator radius as a function of the
speed motors has some challenges too. One of the major issues efficiency. For the constraints, weight and current rating of the
with the high speed motor is the increased losses due to high motor have been selected. The efficiency of the optimized
excitation frequency [14]. For a permanent magnet motor, model has been compared with the benchmark model.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 430

Fig. 1. Flowchart for proposed algorithm for efficiency optimization of the multiphase ultra-high speed motor.
In five phase winding, per phase stator current will be

II. PROPOSED ALGORITHM FOR EFFICIENCY OPTIMIZATION lower than conventional three phase winding currents. That
Fig.1 shows the flowchart for the proposed algorithm for will reduce the copper loss of the five-phase motor. With the
efficiency optimization of the multiphase ultra-high speed optimization of design parameters, Pcore can be reduced further.
motor. The proposed algorithm can be divided into four major B can be optimized with magnet and core volume of the motor.
process. In the first stage, independent and dependent variables
have been chosen for the optimization process. Design IV. PARAMETER SELECTION
parameters like magnet and stator radius have been considered Optimization of design parameters will done for efficiency
as independent variables for the optimization process. On the maximization of the motor. Efficiency of the motor can be
other hand, performance parameters like efficiency, motor expressed in terms of design parameters [15].
weight and current rating of the motor have been considered as
the dependent variables. After that, performance parameters
have been modeled in terms of design parameters by using   f ( R1, R2, Rs , Rg , Rw , R3 , l ) (3)
multivariate nonlinear regression analysis. Sample data for
regression has been generated from initially designed model by Where, η is efficiency, R1 is shaft radius, R2 is magnet
changing design parameters in finite element analysis (FEA) radius, Rs is the sleeve radius, Rg is the air gap radius, Rw is the
simulation. inner stator radius, R3 is the stator outer radius and l is the stack
In the fmincon optimization, with the objective of length. Fig. 2 shows the radii of the motor which were
minimizing loss and constraints in performance parameters, considered for optimization.
optimal value of magnet and stator radius have been selected.
In the comparison stage, efficiency of benchmark and
optimized model was compared to check the improvement in
efficiency and magnet volume achieved by the method. Fig. 1
shows the flowchart of the proposed algorithm for efficiency
optimization of multiphase ultra-high speed motor.
III. LOSS MODEL FOR ULTRA HIGH SPEED MOTOR

In this study, only core and copper loss of the motor will be
considered. The losses can be expressed in following equations
[14].
Pcore  Peddy  Phys  Pex  keddy ( f , B)( Bf ) 2  khys ( f , B) B ( f , B )

(1)
kex ( f , B)( Bf )1.5
Fig. 2. Radius of different parts of the ultra-high speed motor.
Pcopper  mI Rs 2
(2)
a
In this model, shaft radius has been considered constant
with 1.5mm radius. Stack length is fixed with 12 mm. Airgap
here, Pcore, Peddy, Phys, Pex and Pcopper are core, eddy current, length is also considered fixed with 0.2mm for optimization.
hysteresis, excess and copper loss, respectively. B is maximum For retaining sleeve, length (Rs-R2) has been considered fixed
flux density, keddy is eddy current loss coefficient, khys is with 0.3mm. Stator inner length (Rw-Rg) has also been
hysteresis loss coefficient, kex is excess loss coefficient , f is considered constant (4.8mm) to provide 40%-50% winding fill
excitation frequency, α is the Steinmetz coefficient, Ia is the factor for the conductors. So, in this study for the efficiency
stator current and Rs is the winding resistance. optimization, only magnet and stator radius will be varied. So,
in this study, the modified equation will be:
431
  f ( R2 , R3 ) (4)
Weight of the motor is also functions of all design materials

used in the motor. Weight of the motor can be expressed in
following equation.
Wmotor  Wshaft  Wmagnet  Wsleeve  Wcopper  Wstator

= R12 l  shaft   ( R22  R12 )l magnet   ( Rs2  R22 )l sleeve (5)
 R 2
awg l copper   ( R  R )l  stator
2
3
2
w (a)
Where, Rawg is the radius of the wire used in the winding;

ρshaft, ρmagnet, ρsleeve, ρcopper and ρstator are density of shaft,
magnet, sleeve, copper and stator material respectively. For
the current rating of the motor, it is directly influenced by the
amount of magnet. As the magnet torque is the only generated
torque in the motor, current will change if the amount of
magnet changes.
I a  f ( R2 ) (6)
(b)
Where Ia is the rms value of the stator current.
Fig. 4. Core and copper loss curve of the ultra-high speed motor when magnet
V. INITIAL DESIGN OF THE ULTRA-HIGH SPEED MOTOR length is (a) 1.2 mm, (b) 1.9 mm. Stator outer length is 7.0 mm for both cases.
To check the effect of magnet and stator radius on From the figures, it can be found that, the efficiency of the
efficiency, magnet length (R2-R1) and stator outer length (R3- ultra-high speed motor increased from 89.31% to 95.87% when
Rw) have been varied simultaneously in Ansys finite element magnet length is reduced from 1.9 mm to 1.2 mm. Due to
analysis. A total of 118 sample data has been taken for increase of the magnet length, core loss increased from 3.37 W
analysis. For sample data collection, an initial model has been to 10.40 W. But with the increased magnet length, copper loss
used. Fig. 3 shows the initial model of ultra-high speed model decreased from 0.76 W to 0.29 W. If magnet length increases,
in this study. available area for the winding will also increase. And by
keeping same slot fill factor, lower resistance Litz wire can be
used which eventually reduces copper loss. However, larger
magnet length also increases the weight of the motor. Weight
of the motor increased from 58.20 g to 84.63 g when magnet
length has been changed from 1.2 mm to 1.9 mm.
The effect of changing the stator outer length while keeping
other parameters constant can be seen in Fig. 5(a) and (b).
Here, the stator outer length has been changed from 4.0 mm to
15 mm whereas magnet length has been kept constant (1.7
mm). It can be seen that, with the increase of stator outer
length from 4.0 mm to 15 mm, efficiency increased from
88.69% to 94.22%. As the magnet length remains constant,
Fig. 3. Initial model of ultra-high speed motor. core loss remains same (0.365 W) for both cases. With the
increased stator outer length, core loss has been reduced from
For magnet, rare earth Samarium Cobalt (SmCo24) magnet 10.96 W to 5.42 W. Again, increasing the stator length from
has been used. Titanum has been used as sleeve material 4.0 mm to 15 mm increased the weight of the motor from 60.45
whereas S18_50PN470 has been used as core.
g to 206.68 g.
The effect of increasing magnet length on the efficiency
These initial simulation results can provide an idea the
while keeping the same stator radius can be seen from
direction of efficiency change if any of the designated design
simulation result. Fig.4 (a) and (b) shows the loss curve of the
parameters has been varied. By using this model, these
initial model with magnet a length of 1.2 mm and 1.9 mm,
simulation results will be provided as an input for the
respectively. In these cases, stator radius has been kept as
multivariate regression analysis.
7.0mm. Current ratings are 2.822 Arms and 1.696 Arms when
magnet lengths are 1.2 mm and 1.9 mm, respectively.
432
Here, z is the dependent variable, β1-β9 are the regression
coefficients and ε is the intercept. x and y denotes the
independent variables. Regression coefficient can be
calculated based on the following equation [19].
n ab   a  b (8)
 ab 
n a 2    a 
2
Here, a represents independent variable and b is the

(a) dependent variable dataset.
From regression analysis, efficiency η, weight W and
current Ia can be represented in terms of magnet length x and
stator outer length y.
 ( x, y)  93.76  6.78 x  0.23 y  0.75 x3  0.002 y 3  0.64 xy

(9)
8.28 x 2  0.05 y 2  0.1x 2 y  0.03xy 2
W ( x, y)  4.63  1.50 x  3.95 y  0.58xy  0.32 x 2  0.29 y 2 (10)
(b) I a ( x)  10.62  0.89 x3  5.31x2  11.56 x (11)

Fig. 5. Core and copper loss curve of the ultra-high speed motor when stator
outer length is (a) 4 mm, (b) 15 mm. Magnet length is 1.7 mm for both cases. Fig. 6 shows the efficiency and motor weight curve in 3-D
plane and current curve in 2-D plane.
VI. MULTIVARIATE NONLINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS
From the initial design, sample data has been collected by
varying the independent variables in FEA simulations. Table I
shows some sample data where magnet length and stator outer
length are varied.
TABLE I. SAMPLE DATA FOR REGRESSION ANALYSIS
(a)
Magnet Stator outer Weight Efficiency Current
length (mm) length (mm) (g) (%) (Arms)
1.0 5.00 36.35 96.23 3.48
1.0 11.0 91.37 97.15 3.48
1.4 9.00 73.71 95.42 2.39
1.7 8.00 66.15 93.00 1.92
1.7 14.0 134.05 94.41 1.92
2.0 12.0 161.33 91.57 1.60 (b)
After collecting sample data from the initial design,

nonlinear regression analysis has been utilized to establish
numerical relationships between the independent (efficiency,
weight and current rating) and dependent (magnet length and
stator outer length). Here, third order equation has been
considered as it provides higher R2 value which indicated better
fit. Following equation provides the structure of third equation
through regression analysis. (c)
Fig. 6. (a) Plot of efficiency in 3-D plane, (b) Plot of weight of the motor in
z    1 x3   2 y 3  3 x 2 y   4 xy 2  5 x 2   6 y 2   7 xy 3-D plane, (c) Plot of current in 2-D plane.
(7)
 8 x   9 y
433
TABLE II. OPTIMAL VALUES OF MAGNET & STATOR RADIUS FROM FMINCON OPTIMIZATION
Optimal Values Efficiency (%) Current (Arms) Weight (g)

x(mm) y(mm) η(x,y) FEA Irms(x) FEA) W(x,y) FEA
1.00 8.40 97.04 96.99 3.473 3.475 64.96 62.62
match and percentage error between the values remains within

VII. FMINCON OPTIMIZATION 4%.
To calculate the optimal value of magnet and stator radius,
fmincon optimization function has been used in Matlab.
Objective function of the problem is to maximize the
efficiency. As fmincon minimizes the function value,
percentage loss function L(x,y) has been used as objective
function which can easily be derived from η(x,y). So, objective
function for the optimization problem can be written as:
Objective Function= minimize L( x, y) (12)
Constraints for the optimization problem will include the

performance parameters. For the optimization, efficiency Fig. 7. Loss curve of the optimized ultra-high speed motor.
should be higher, weight should be lower to achieve higher
power density and current should be lower to reduce copper VIII. PERFORMANCE COMPARISON
loss. Following constraints have been set for the problem.
For the comparison, benchmark model of ultra-high speed
motor described in [20]-[21] has been considered. The power
 ( x, y)  97%, and speed rating of the benchmark motor is same as the
optimized motor. Other design parameters of the benchmark
W ( x, y)  65g (13) model are mentioned in Table III.
I a ( x, y)  3.5 Arms
TABLE III. DESIGN PARAMETERS OF THE BENCHMARK MODEL
For the value of the magnet and stator radius, following Parameters Value
ranges have been considered.
Rotor diameter (mm) 5.00
Stator inner diameter (mm) 11.0
1.0mm  x  2.0mm ; 4.0mm  y  15.0mm (14) Stator outer diameter (mm) 9.00
Stack length (mm) 12.0
Magnet length smaller than 1.0mm will require high
amount current to produce rated current which increases copper Benchmark model uses conventional three phase winding
loss and cost of inverter. Large magnet increases weight hence in stator. Fig. 8 (a) and (b) shows the FEA model of the
reduces power density. Lower stator length may cause benchmark motor and efficiency comparison of the benchmark
saturation and higher core loss. On the other hand, large stator and optimized model, respectively.
can increase weight of the motor.
Combination of core and copper loss at 500,000 rpm for
After setting the objective function, constraints and range the benchmark model is around 8 watts which indicates the
of the independent variables, fmincon optimization was efficiency of 92%. For the optimized model, loss from FEA is
initiated. After iteration, optimal value of magnet and stator
radius was calculated. Table II shows the optimal value of
magnet and stator radius from fmincon optimization and values
of performance parameters from equations and FEA
simulation. Fig.7 shows the loss curve of the optimized ultra-
high speed motor.
To check the effectiveness of the proposed method, ultra-
high speed motor with optimized motor and stator radius has
been simulated in FEA and result has been matched with the
values calculated from the equations (7)-(9). Both simulation
and theoretical values for performance parameters are in good (a)
434
[6] Bon-Ho Bae, Seung-Ki Sul, Jeong-Hyeck Kwon and Ji-Seob Byeon,
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Fig. 8. (a) FEA model of benchmark motor described in [20], (b) Efficiency of
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435
Synchronous Space Vector Voltage Modulation of
Three-phase Inverter with Low Switching Number
Hyeon-gyu Choi, Jin-su Hong, Jung-Ik Ha
Department of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
E-mail: nadcha@snu.ac.kr, jinsu.hong@snu.ac.kr, jungikha@snu.ac.kr
pulse width modulation (PWM) technique is widely used

Abstract-For high-speed or high-power motor drive systems, it is with a voltage source inverter (VSI). Carrier-based PWMs
difficult to use conventional pulse width modulation because of such as space vector PWM (SVPWM) and sinusoidal PWM
the high harmonic current. These harmonic currents are caused are normally used for fixed sampling time PWM operation by
by the low-frequency beat phenomenon that occurs because the
rotation flux and switching timing are not synchronized. In this high frequency switching devices. However, since the
paper, an N pulse synchronous voltage modulation method with thermal rating of the switching device and the operating
low switching frequency is proposed based on variable time step speed of the digital signal processor (DSP) are limited, the
control. Unlike the previous study, the variable time step current synthesizable fundamental frequency is limited. In this case,
controller is analyzed in the z-domain and designed in a polar N is a small value, so the harmonic current becomes severe
coordinate system. The plant model shows the cross-coupling
effect between dq- currents. To solve this problem, the current due to the beat phenomenon. In general, considering output
decoupling controller is added to the feedback system. In order harmonic characteristics, it is necessary to make N larger than
to obtain better harmonic characteristics, an N pulse 15 in fixed sampling PWM operation [3]. If N is less than 15
synchronous space vector modulation method is also presented. and not an integer, low frequency harmonics become severe
The proposed method has better harmonic characteristics than due to the error between sampling timing and switching
the six-step operation in the region where the voltage
modulation index is 0.85-1. The effectiveness of the proposed timing [4]. This harmonic degrades the output quality and
method is demonstrated by the simulation results. system lifetime.
In order to remove low frequency harmonics, variable time
NOMECLATURE step control has been proposed especially in the six-step
s operation of [5]. By changing the sampling time, the output
Superscript Stationary reference frame (SRF).
pulse is synchronized with the operation period. In this way,
Superscript r Rotor reference frame (RRF).
the switching timing error is reduced to the unit of the DSP
Superscript * Reference value.
PWM clock cycle. However, in this paper, the system
fr Electrical rotating frequency of rotor [Hz].
analysis is performed not in the z-region but in the s-region.
fsw Switching frequency [Hz].
In high-speed operation, N is too low, so it is necessary to
fsamp Sampling frequency [Hz].
consider the influence of discrete properties (delay, zero-
N Frequency modulation ratio. (fsw/fr)
order hold) [6]. Therefore, analysis in z-domain is necessary.
|V| Magnitude of the output voltage [V].
Also, to synthesize output voltage with mi less than 1 without
Vn nth order harmonics [V].
low-frequency harmonics, an N-pulse modulation method
Vdc DC-link voltage [V].
using the variable time step control is proposed in [7]. In the
mi Voltage modulation index [= V1 /(2Vdc /  ) ].
conventional fixed sampling PWM method, since mi is not
vds, vqs d- and q- axis stator phase voltages [V].
linearly synthesized in a high mi region, an overmodulation
ids, iqs d- and q- axis stator phase currents [A].
method is usually used. However, it is difficult to synthesize
ωr Electrical rotating speed of rotor [rad/s].
the overmodulated voltage at high speed by the fixed
θe Angle of the output voltage at SRF [rad].
sampling PWM method due to excessive beat phenomenon.
θv Angle of the output voltage at RRF [rad].
Therefore, in [7], the proposed synchronous PWM and
Rs Stator resistance [Ω].
variable time step controller make the dq- axis current track
Lds, Lqs d- and q- axis stator self-inductance [H].
the MTPA points. However, with this method, the harmonic
λf Back electromotive force constant [V/(rad/s)].
characteristic is worse than the six-step operation.
I. INTRODUCTION Furthermore, there is no accurate system analysis, so an offset
It is well known that high-speed and low-torque motors are compensator is required which degrades the dynamic
smaller than low-speed and high-torque motors [1]. In high- performance of the system.
speed motor drive systems such as air compressors and This paper proposes the N-pulse synchronous space vector
turbochargers, much effort has been made to increase the voltage modulation method in three-phase VSI and the
output density by designing the base speed to be high [2]. In variable time step current controller. In section II, near state-
these applications, the operating fundamental frequency is up N (NS-N)-pulse method using concepts of the near state (NS)
to several kHz. To synthesize these rotating magnetic fields, a PWM [8] is introduced. Using NS-N-pulse method, WTHD
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 436

Sampling 110
(T2) Sampling
1.0
A phase 0.5 Carrier Tsamp
duty
0.0
1
Switching 1 α → s* T1 T2
state vdqs 100 A phase
0 (Tsamp-T1-T2) B phase
2/3v dc C phase
Phase 1/3vdc
voltage -1/3v 0 101 100 110
dc
-2/3v dc
vs
→
dqs 0
0 π/6 π/2 5π/6 7π/6 3π/2 11π/6 101
θe [rad] (a) (T1) (b)
(a) NS-3-pulse strategy
Sampling Fig. 2. (a) Voltage vector trajectory at stationary reference frame and
(b) switching pattern of the NS-3-pulse case.
1.0 0.094
110 0.092
A phase 0.5 0.09
(a) NS-3-pulse
duty 0.088
0.0 0.086
→ s*
vdqs
0.084
Switching 1 → s* 100 0.082

Min(WTHD)
state 0
vdqs 0.08
0.078
0.076
2/3v dc Sampling 101 0.074
1/3v dc
Phase
voltage-1/3vdc0 110 0.042
(b) NS-7-pulse
0.041
-2/3v dc
0 π/3 2π/3 π 4π/3 5π/3 2π 0.04
0.039
θe [rad] 0.038
(b) NS-7-pulse strategy → s* 100

vdqs
0.037
→ s*
vdqs Min(WTHD)
0.036
0.035
Fig. 1. The waveforms of phase duties, switching states and phase voltages 101
0.034
in (a) NS-3-pulse and (b) NS-7-pulse

0.033
Example 1 Example 2 WTHD

Fig. 3. The position of the sampling and reference voltage (upper side) and
of the phase voltage is lower than that of six-step operation WTHD variation of the phase voltage according to the position of the
(4.6 %) in the range where mi is between 0.85 to 1, unlike the reference voltage (lower side) (a) NS-3-pulse and (b) NS-7-pulse.
previous work. That means the harmonics characteristics are
vector as in NS-PWM [8]. Fig. 2(a) shows the reference
improved in overmodulation region, where MTPA condition
voltage vector trajectory and the output voltage vector
is satisfied.
trajectory in the SRF for 3 pulse case. For example, to
In section III, a variable time step controller is introduced.
synthesize the voltage reference of sector 1, three active
First, design method of feedback system and analysis are
vectors (101, 100, 110) are used. Here, the sector means a
presented. Since the sampling time is not sufficiently shorter
region between two consecutive sampling points because the
than the operation period, the stability analysis is performed
sampling timing is synchronized with the rotation speed. The
in the z-region. The result makes it possible to accurately
definition of the sampling time Tsamp and each duration of two
design the current controller. Due to the plant, a dq- current
adjacent vectors T1 and T2 are shown in Fig. 2(b). T1 and T2
cross-coupling effect occurs. Using the results of the previous
are calculated by the time-averaged reference voltage
analysis, this problem is solved by the decoupling controller.
magnitude |Vavg*| and the angle of the reference voltage α as
At the end of the paper, the results are verified using the
(2).
simulation results of section IV.
 3 *
Vavg 3
*
Vavg 
II. NEAR-STATE N-PULSE METHOD 
T1  Tsamp 1  cos   sin  
For motor drive applications, the harmonic performance of  2 V 2 V 
 dc dc

(2)
the phase current is more important than the performance of  3 *
Vavg 3 Vavg 
*
the phase voltage. However, the harmonic characteristics of T2  Tsamp 1  cos   sin  .
the phase current are largely dependent on the motor  2 Vdc 2 Vdc 
 
parameters, unlike the phase voltage. Therefore, WTHD of On the upper side of Fig. 3(a), two positions of the
the phase voltage is widely used as an index of harmonic reference voltage and the sampling timing (black arrow) in
characteristics of voltage modulation. The definition of the case of the NS-3 pulse method are shown. Example1
WTHD is as follows: shows a case where α is 0 rad. On the other hand, Example2
2 shows a case where α is -π/6 rad. For the NS-3 pulse method,
1  Vn 
WTHD  
V1 n  n 
. (1) as shown in Fig. 2(a), the angle at which the reference voltage
can be synthesized is indicated by a bright red region. That
In this paper, the upper limit of the WTHD is set to 4.6 % means it is possible to synthesize an output voltage with an
which is same as that of the six-step (mi=1) operation. angle between -π/6 to π/6 using three active vectors 101, 100,
A. N-pulse space vector voltage modulation and 110. The lower side of the Fig. 3(a) shows the WTHD
As shown in Fig. 1, the switching pattern of NS-N pulses is variation of the phase voltage in 3-pulse case according to the
realized by alternating sawtooth carriers in the case of N is 3 angle of synthesizable reference voltage which has the same
and 7. As a result, the NS-N pulse method utilizes three magnitude (indicated by the gray dotted circle). From the
adjacent effective voltage vectors without using the zero result of Fig. 3(a), it is noticed that the WTHD can be
437
8 NS(7) NS(3) 8
7 CVCS(9)[1] CVCS(3)[1] 7 WTHD
WTHD [%]
6 CVCS(7)[12] Optimal(7) Optimal(3)

5 6 of six-step
WTHD [%]
4
3 5
2 4
1
0 3 NS-
0.85 0.90 0.94 0.94 1.00 2 7-pulse NS-
mi mi 3-pulse
(a) (b) 1
0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00
mi
Fig. 4. WTHD of phase voltage in N-pulse modulation methods.
Fig. 5. WTHD variation trajectory with respect to mi operating according to
minimized when the angle of the reference voltage exists at N-pulse strategy.
zero in the 3-pulse case as shown in example1. Here, the fact
that T1 is zero means that T1 is equal to T2 from (2). Similarly, the range of 0.94-1. Unlike other methods, WTHD is kept
as shown in Fig. 3(b), in the case of 7 pulse case, the lower than that of six-step operation. In the range of 0.85-
minimum WTHD can be obtained when α is -π/12. 0.94, the NS-7 pulse shows WTHD even lower than the 9
Also, in order to synthesize accurate mi, it is necessary to pulse CVCS in the [7] method, which is close to the optimum
change the magnitude of the voltage reference. In (2), the 7-pulse PWM as shown in Fig. 4(a). In the 7-pulse CVCS
time-averaged value of the reference voltage is used for easy method of [7], mi is limited to 0.867, therefore excluded from
calculation. However, the magnitude of the fundamental comparison. According to these results, an operation strategy
voltage V1 is different from the magnitude of the averaged for minimizing the phase voltage WTHD is determined. Fig.
reference voltage |Vavg*| in (2). The relationship between V1 5 shows the trajectory of WTHD by mi. In order to keep
and |Vavg*| can be obtained by using a Fourier series such as WTHD below 4.6%, NS-7 pulse is selected with mi less than
(3) in the case of 3 pulse case. 0.94 and NS-3 pulse is selected where mi is higher than 0.94.
That is, the NS-N pulse space vector voltage modulation
  
3 Vavg 
*
4V  method is useful in a region where mi is larger than 0.85. As a
V1  dc cos 1  1 (3)
  3  2 Vdc  result, this paper focuses on the area where mi is between 0.85
    and 1.
With (2) and (3), the exact vector duration is calculated, and
the exact fundamental voltage is modulated in 3 pulse mode. III. VARIABLE TIME STEP CURRENT CONTROL
To maintain WTHD below 4.6%, more N is needed in the In this section a variable time step current controller for N
region where mi is relatively low. To maintain the NS-N pulse pulse synchronized space vector voltage modulation method
condition, N must be 3 and 7. The number of alternate is proposed. The control variables for dq- axis currents are |V|
carriers must be an integer multiple in one cycle. To and Δθv unlike that of in [7] where the control variables are
synthesize the reference voltage of the seven-pulse method, vdsr and vqsr. This system is easy to express in polar
the phase duties are obtained by substituting α into ± π/12 in coordinates because Tsamp is determined by the difference of
the case of 7 pulses according to (2). Also, the exact V1 of the output voltage angle. The entire block diagram is depicted in
7-pulse case is calculated from (4). The durations T1 and T2 Fig. 6 and is composed of a feedback controller and a
are calculated from the results of (2) and (4). These durations decoupling controller blocks.
should be between 0 and Tsamp. For this reason, there are
regions where it is impossible to synthesize the desired A. Plant modeling
voltage for each pulse mode. Therefore, the maximum In order to analyze the plant in the polar coordinate system,
possible value of mi is 0.98 for the NS-7 pulse. the conventional dq- axis voltage is represented by |V| and θv
[5]. Then, the voltage equations of the rotor reference frame
B. Operating strategy of the permanent magnet machine are described as follows:
As mentioned above, in this paper the upper limit of
 V cos  v  ( Lds s  Rs )idsr  r Lqs iqsr
WTHD is set to 4.6%. In order to satisfy this, an N pulse  (5)
 V sin  v  ( Lqs s  Rs )iqs  r ( Lds ids   f ).
r r
modulation method is used according to the operating point.
Fig. 4 shows the WTHD of optimal PWM, CSCV method For small signal analysis, (5) is linearly approximated
proposed in [9], and NS-N pulse method in the range of 0.85- around the operating point (|V0| and θv0) as
1. Here, the optimal PWM is cited only for performance
1
comparison because the real-time operation is not permitted  idsr   Lds s  R s   r Lqs  cos  v 0  V0 sin  v 0    V  (6)
 r    .
by optimal PWM. From Fig. 4(b), it is noted that NS-3-pulse  iqs    r Lds Lqs s  Rs   sin  v 0 V0 cos  v 0    v 
which is identical to optimal PWM shows lowest WTHD in
 * *   * *   * * 
   Vavg  3  Vavg  * *  2   Vavg  3  Vavg   5   Vavg  3  Vavg 
 Vavg  3  Vavg
 
 j   cos  sin     j  cos  sin   j  cos  sin 
2Vdc  6 4 12 V 12 12 V   j (  cos  sin )  3 4 12 V 12 12 V   6 4 12 V 12 12 V 
 j 3  1 (4)
dc dc dc dc dc dc
V1  e  
e 3 4 12 Vdc 12 12 Vdc
e  
e  

438
20 20
|V|
Magnitude
idsr* + idsr
0 0
[dB]
Cd + P21 -20
-40 H11 H12
-20
-40 H22 H21
+ -60 -60
P22 180
90
180
90
Phase
[deg]
Cdcpl,d 0 0
P21 iqsr -90

-180 0
-90
-180
Δθv
101 102 Nyquist 103 100 101 102 Nyquist 103
iqsr* +
10
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]
Cq P22 Fig. 8. The bode plot of the designed system where Kpd = 2, Kid = 4000 and
Kpq = 0.1.
Fig. 6. Block diagram of the variable time step controller.
parameters are shown in Table I and the operating points are
60 61.34 V and 1.81 rad. Because P11(z) has a small DC gain, the
Magnitude [dB]
40
20
P11(z) P22(z) d- axis current controller obtains a feedback DC gain of 1
0 using a proportional and integral compensator (PI).
-20
-40 Conversely, P22(z) has a high gain at low frequencies.
-60
-80 Therefore, in the q-axis current controller, only the
180 proportional compensator (P) is selected because the
Phase [deg]
90
additional integral compensator may cause an overshoot
0
problem. Defining the d- axis PI type compensator as Cd
-90
(Kpd+Kid/s) and q- axis P compensator as Cq (Kpq), the entire
-180
100 101 102 Nyquist 103 closed loop system is described as
Frequency [Hz] 1
idsr   A11 B12  idsr   H 11 H 12  idsr  (10)
* *
A12   B11
Fig. 7. Bode plot of the plant (self-term).  r   r *    r * ,
iqs   A21 A22   B 21 
B 22  iqs   H 21 
H 22  iqs 
The derivative of the dq- axis currents and |V| is obtained where A11  1  Cd P11 , A12  Cq P12 , A21  Cd P21 , A22  1  Cq P22
from the approximated equation as
B11  Cd P11 , B12  Cq P12 , B21  Cd P21 , B22  Cq P22 .
 sidsr  1  idsr  kr  idsr  V k r
 r   r   r ,s V    V . (7) From this result, the gain of the feedback compensator is
 siqs  Tsamp  iqs    iqs  Tsamp 
determined according to the desired dynamic performance. In
Here, k is 3 for 3-pulse and 6 for 7-pulse cases. For fact, this is a very iterative task, as the pole-zero of (10)
convenience of explanation, only the case of k=6 for 7 pulses changes according to three variables, Kpd, Kid, and Kpq.
will be described below. Using (6) and (7), the plant model However, using the MATLAB "pidTuner" function, these
equations which analyzed in the s-domain are acquired as gains are easily found. The Bode diagram of the designed
follows: system is depicted in Figure 9.
idsr   P11 ( s ) P12 ( s )   V   V  C. Decoupling controller
 r      P(s) , (8)
iqs   P21 ( s ) P22 ( s )   v    v  As shown in Fig. 8, the cross-coupling terms H12 and H21
degrade the current control performance, in transient state. In
where Det  ( Lds s  R s )( Lqs s  Rs )   r2 Lds Lqs ,
order to eliminate the influence of the cross-coupling term,
P11 ( s )  [( Lqs s  R s ) cos  v 0   r Lqs sin  v 0 ] / Det , the feed forward term can be added in advance to the output
P12 ( s )  [ ( Lqs s  Rs ) V0 sin  v 0   r Lqs V0 cos  v 0 ] / Det , of each compensator. A change in the q- axis current
P21 ( s )  [  r Lds cos  v 0  ( Lds s  Rs ) sin  v 0 ] / Det , reference affects the d- axis current through P12. The exact
transfer function of the decoupling controller is given by
P22 ( s )  [ r Lds V0 sin  v 0  ( Lds s  Rs ) V0 cos  v 0 ] / Det.
H12=0 and H21=0 in (10). The results are as follows:
The plant inputs are the dq- axis current and the outputs are
|V| and θv as shown in (8). In this paper, "self-term" represents  R 
 s  s  r cot  v 0 
the term with subscripts 11 and 22 and "cross-coupling term" P12 3 V tan  L
 Z r ,
0 v 0 qs
Cdcpl ,d ( z )  
represents the term with subscripts 12 and 21. P11   s Rs 
 s    tan  
Lqs
r v 0
(11)
As mentioned earlier, z-domain analysis is essential for  
analyzing variable time step control. Due to the delay  R  
 tan  v 0 s 2   s tan  v 0  r  s 
characteristic of the zero-order hold voltage latch and the P   Lds  ,
Cdcpl ,q ( z )   21  Z 
inverter, the transfer function of the plant is converted from P22  3 V Rs 
 r 0 s  r tan  v 0 
the s-domain to the z-domain as follows [6]:  Lds 
1 1  P( s)  where Cdcpl,d and Cdcpl,q are the transfer functions of the
P ( z )  z (1  z )   . (9) decoupling controller on the dq- axis, respectively, and Z [‧]
 s 
means z-domain conversion by trapezoidal rule. The order of
B. Closed loop system design the nominator of Cdcpl,q is greater than the denominator order.
To design a closed-loop feedback system, the type of This means that it is a differential form that makes the
feedback compensator is selected. Fig. 7 shows a Bode discrete system noisy and unstable. For this reason, it is better
diagram of each self-term in the plant model. Detailed not to use the q- axis decoupling controller. On the other hand,
439
60
 vr  
Phase [deg] Magnitude [dB]
R
40  s 2   s   r dsr  s 
3  Lqs vqs  
20 Exact Cdcpl ,d ( z )  Z  V0 2  . (12)
 s  2 HPF s   HPF2
0
Approximated 
-20  
180  
90 Here, the control delay 1.5Tsamp compensation is applied
0 when obtaining vdsr and vqsr [10]. Finally, the closed loop
-90 transfer function is calculated as follows:
-180 1
idsr   A11 B12  idsr   H 11 H 12  idsr 
* *
100 101 102 Nyquist 103 A12   B11 (13)
Frequency [Hz] r  *   * ,
iqs   A21 A22   B21 B22  iqsr   H 21 H 22  iqsr 
Fig. 9. Bode plot of the exact and approximated model of the d- axis
decoupling controllers. 
where A11  1  Cd P11 , A12  Cq P12  Cdcpl ,d P11 , 
20
A21  Cd P21 , A22  1  Cq P22  Cq Cdcpl ,d P21 ,
Magnitude
 
[dB]
B11  Cd P11 , B12  Cq P12  Cdcpl ,d P11 ,

-20
-40
 C P P .
-60
180
90 H11 H12 B21  Cd P21 , B22 q 22  Cdcpl ,d 21
Phase
[deg]
0
-90 H22 H21 Fig. 10 shows a Bode plot of a closed-loop system with a
-180 0
10 101 102
Frequency [Hz]
Nyquist 103 100 101 102
Frequency [Hz]
Nyquist 103
decoupling controller. The gain of the feedback compensator
Fig. 10. Bode plot of the closed loop system with the decoupling controller. is the same as in Fig. 8. As shown in Fig. 10, the magnitude
of H12 is reduced thanks to Cdcpl,d. This means that the
TABLE I. PARAMETER OF THE MOTOR
magnitude of the d- axis current shock resulting from the
Quantity Symbol Value Unit cross-coupling effect is reduced. Here, the q- axis current
DC-link voltage Vdc 100 V controller is faster than the d- axis. In the case of a permanent
Number of pole P 8 - magnet synchronous machine, the output torque consists of
Phase resistance Rs 8.5 Ω magnet and reluctance torque. Generally, the magnet torque is
d- axis inductance Lds 32 mH larger than the reluctance torque where mi is smaller than 1.
q- axis inductance Lqs 32 mH That is, the q- axis current control performance is more
Rotor flux linkage λf 53.5 mVꞏs important than the d- axis current control performance.
Rated RMS current - 1.3 A
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Rated speed - 1850 r/m
The proposed NS-N-pulse method and the variable time
if the pole (-Rs/Lqs-ωrtanθv) has a positive effective value, step controller are implemented to drive the permanent
Cdcpl,d may also become unstable. Since θv has a value magnet synchronous machine whose parameters are as in
between π/2 and π, ωrtanθv may become negative depending Table I. The waveform of the phase current with respect to
on the parameters. In this case, the exact equations of the the mi is drawn in Fig. 11(a). mi is changed by varying the d-
model of (11) cannot be used to decouple the system. Since axis current at same speed, 2000 r/m. Fig. 11(b) shows the
result of the harmonic characteristics of both phase voltage
the target speed is high and θv is usually close to π/2, the last
and phase current. The dotted blue line is the ideal WTHD
term ωrtanθv of the denominator of (11) is larger than the
value of the phase voltage and blue solid line represents the
other terms. Therefore, the denominator ωrtanθv term and experimentally obtained WTHD of the phase voltage. Also,
(s+Rs/Lqs+ωrtanθv) terms are almost canceled. Fig. 9 shows a the green line is experimentally obtained THD of the phase
Bode plot of an accurate model and an approximate model of voltage and the red line represents the experimentally
Cdcpl,d. There are errors between the two models for low and obtained THD value of the phase current. As expected, the
high frequency gain and phase as shown in Fig. 9. The high WTHD of the phase voltage in 0.85-1 is lower than six-step
frequency near the Nyquist frequency is much larger than the operation (mi=1). As mentioned before, THD of the phase
control bandwidth so it it negligible. However, low frequency current is important for motor drive system. As shown in Fig.
error affects control performance so cannot be ignored. For 11(b), WTHD of the phase voltage has close relation with
this reason, the decoupling controller is multiplied by a THD of the phase current because the motor is inductive.
second-order high-pass filter. The cutoff frequency (ωHPF) of However, the value is somewhat different because the THD is
the high pass filter is set to several tens rad/s according to Fig. highly dependent on the motor parameter. Also, even though
9, and the damping ratio is set to 0.707. The transfer function mi is equal, the THD value may be different if the magnitudes
obtained by combining the approximate model of the d- axis of the currents are different. So, it is reasonable for WTHD of
decoupling term and the second-order high-pass filter, as the phase voltage to represent the harmonic characteristic of
follow: the voltage modulation method. On the other hand, a small
difference between dotted blue and solid blue line is comes
from the inverter non-linearity such as an on-drop voltage of
the switching device and dead-time effect.
440
7.0 70
1.2
0.0
mi = 0.85 6.5
WTHD of Vdss
65
0.2 idsr [A] 0.2 idsr [A]
-1.2 THD of Ids 0.0 0.0
1.2 THD of Vdss
Phase current [A]
6.0 60
0.0
mi = 0.88 -0.2 -0.2
WTHD [%]
-1.2 5.5 55
1.2
THD [%]
0.6 0.15 0.6
0.0
-1.2
mi = 0.92 5.0 50
0.4 iqsr [A] 0.4
0.1 iqsr [A]
1.2 4.5 45
0.0 0.2 0.2
-1.2 mi = 0.96 4.0 40 0.0 0.0
1.2 -0.2 -0.2
0.0
mi = 0.98 3.5 35 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
-1.2
1.2 3.0 30 Time [s] Time [s]
0.0
-1.2
mi = 1.00 2.5 25 (a) (b)
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00
Time [s] mi Fig. 13. The waveforms of dq- currents according to the step change of q-
(a) (b) axis current (a) without and (b) with the decoupling controller.
Fig. 11. (a) The experimental waveform of the phase current with respect to
the mi and (b) comparison between calculated and experimentally obtained esult, the variable time step current controller for N-pulse
WTHD of the phase voltage and THD of phase current synchronous space vector voltage modulation method is
0.8
0.6
0.4
(1) (2) idsr [A] 0.8
(1) NS-7-pulse (2) NS-3-pulse proposed. The control variables are voltage magnitude and
0.6
0.2
0.0
-0.2
0.4
sampling time. At first, plant is analyzed with respect to the
0.8
0.6
0.4
(3) (4) iqsr [A] 0.2 control variables and the feedback system is designed. The
0.2
0.0
-0.2
0.0
-0.2
decoupling controller is presented to reduce the cross-
1.00
mi 0.8
(3) NS-7-pulse (4) coupling effect. These are verified by the experimental results.
0.95 0.6
0.90
1.20
0.4
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
0.2
1.15
1.10
1.05
Tsamp [ms]
0.0
-0.2
NS-3-pulse This work was supported by the Seoul National University
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Time [s]
3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 1.0 1.005 1.01 2.2
Time [s]
2.205 2.21
Electric Power Research Institute of the Korea Institute of
(a) (b) Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP),
Fig. 12. (a) The waveforms of dq- currents, mi and Tsamp according to the step granted financial resource from the Ministry of Trade,
change of q-current reference and (b) the magnified dq-currents waveform. Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea. (No. 0666-20160016)
Fig. 12 shows the step response of the dq- currents when
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the operating speed is 2000 r/m. The feedback gains are Kpd =
2, Kid = 4000, and Kpq = 0.1 as in Fig 8. The waveforms show [1] M. G. Simoes and P. Vieira, "A high-torque low-speed multiphase
no ripple because it is discretely sensed value in Fig. 12(a). brushless machine-a perspective application for electric vehicles,"
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Fig. 13 shows the response of the dq- currents when the q- Ultra-High-Speed Permanent-Magnet Motor for an Electric
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IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol. 22, no. 2, pp.
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by Space Vector Modulation in Ultrahigh Speed Drives," IEEE
controller, d- axis current shock is reduced as represented by Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 1029-
green rectangular in Fig. 13(b). This reduces unnecessary 1037, 2012.
overshoot current, as a result, reduces conduction losses. If [5] J. Park, S. Jung, and J. I. Ha, "Variable Time Step Control for Six-
the decoupling controller is absent, the d- axis current shock Step Operation in Surface Mounted Permanent Magnet Machine
Drives," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. PP, no. 99,
is generated when the q-axis current changes and the d- axis pp. 1-1, 2017.
current controller reacts sequentially to catch it. That is, this [6] H. Kim, M. W. Degner, J. M. Guerrero, F. Briz, and R. D. Lorenz,
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oscillate. As a result, this current ripple generates torque Drives," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 46, no.
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ripple. However, with the aid of the decoupling controller, d- [7] S. Jung, J. Park, E. Chung, and J. I. Ha, "Variable time step
axis current ripple as well as q- axis current ripple also control with synchronous PWM in low frequency modulation
reduced as in Fig. 13. index for AC machine drive," in 2016 IEEE Energy Conversion
Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 2016, pp. 1-8.
V. CONCLUSION [8] E. Un and A. M. Hava, "A Near-State PWM Method With
Reduced Switching Losses and Reduced Common-Mode Voltage
This paper presents synchronous space vector voltage for Three-Phase Voltage Source Inverters," IEEE Transactions on
modulation method which is called NS-N-pulse. With NS-N- Industry Applications, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 782-793, 2009.
[9] G. Narayanan and V. T. Ranganathan, "Synchronised PWM
pulse methods, the WTHD of the phase voltage is lower than
strategies based on space vector approach. I. Principles of
4.6 % with 3, 7-pulse number. By comparing with other waveform generation," IEE Proceedings - Electric Power
methods, the operating strategy is determined in the range Applications, vol. 146, no. 3, pp. 267-275, 1999.
where mi is from 0.85 to 1. NS-3-pulse and NS-7-pulse [10] B. Bon-Ho and S. Seung-Ki, "A compensation method for time
delay of full-digital synchronous frame current regulator of PWM
method show better harmonic characteristic compared to the AC drives," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 39,
other methods where mi is between 0.85 and 1. With these no. 3, pp. 802-810, 2003.
441
Online MTPA Control of IPMSM for Automotive Applications
Based on Robust Numerical Optimization Technique
Hyeon-Sik Kim*, Younggi Lee*, Seung-Ki Sul*, Jayeong Yu**, and Jaeyoon Oh**
*
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
**
Power Conversion Department, L&A Center, LG Electronics Inc., Seoul, Korea
hyeonsik@eepel.snu.ac.kr, younggi@snu.ac.kr, sulsk@plaza.snu.ac.kr, jayeong.yu@lge.com, jaeyoon.oh@lge.com
Abstract—This paper shows an online MTPA control which injecting current angle perturbation, which has been improved
considers not only magnetic saturation but also cross-coupling to high-frequency current injection methods [3]-[4]. It is
effects. In automotive applications, torque accuracy and high capable of keeping MTPA condition regardless of machine
efficiency operation are important issues. It can be dealt as a parameter variations. However, dynamic performance is hard
constrained optimization problem to satisfy both torque to satisfy the specification of automotive applications, i.e., too
reference tracking and loss minimizing operation. Nonlinear slow to trace rapid changes of a torque reference. Moreover,
simultaneous equations are derived from Lagrange multiplier these methods have been designed for speed-control
method, which could be solved by numerical algorithms. Among applications, which cannot guarantee torque accuracy of
them, Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is employed to guarantee
torque-control applications such as a traction motor of the
a robust calculation of optimal current references. It is optimized
to alleviate calculation burden while maintaining the stability of
electric vehicle.
the proposed algorithm. The feasibility of the proposed method is Otherwise, calculation methods have been developed
verified under various operating conditions by simulation and based on the mathematical model of IPMSM where Lagrange
experimental results. Through the proposed algorithms, accurate method is usually adopted to derive optimal current references
MTPA control is achieved under not only unsaturated but also [5]-[6]. It can offer satisfactory dynamic performance and
highly-saturated operating conditions. torque accuracy by reflecting accurate parameters in real time.
In [5], a fourth-order polynomial was derived from static
Keywords—IPMSM; maximum torque per ampere (MTPA);
torque accuracy; loss minimization; robust numerical algorithm
inductance model and solved analytically by Ferrari’s method.
However, it asked not only high computational burden but
also static inductances and PM flux linkage data. Especially, it
I. INTRODUCTION is well known that the estimation of both static inductances
Interior permanent-magnet synchronous machines and PM flux linkage with reasonable accuracy at the same
(IPMSM) have received much attention in automotive time is difficult. In [6], Newton’s method was utilized to solve
applications thanks to excellent features such as high equations based on the flux linkages, which requires the flux
efficiency, high power density, and extended speed range. In linkages and dynamic inductances. It could produce accurate
these applications, accurate torque control and high efficiency and efficient torque outputs with less computational burden by
operation are always emphasized for improved and cost- applying online parameter estimation algorithm at once [7]-[8].
effective performance. Thus, maximum torque per ampere However, it did not consider ill-convergence risks when
(MTPA) operation should be applied below base speed to Newton’s method is applied, that can be increased at a highly-
minimize current magnitude while satisfying torque accuracy. saturated operating condition of IPMSM [9]. The convergence
However, it is difficult to find optimal current commands due of Newton’s method cannot be guaranteed in harsh conditions,
to the influence of magnetic saturation, cross-coupling effects e.g., short-period overload operation. In addition, the cross-
and their variation according to operating conditions [1]. coupling effects also cannot be ignored especially under the
There have been lots of researches on MTPA operation saturated operation, i.e., under high-current loading, due to the
and torque accuracy [2]-[6]. Generally, look-up table (LUT) rise of cross-coupled inductance ratio [10]. Therefore, the
methods are adopted for IPMSM torque control to avoid robust numerical algorithm should be applied while
complex calculation in real time [2]. However, not only the considering the cross-coupling effects to extract the optimal
construction of LUTs requires costly and time-consuming current references under any operating conditions.
process, but the error due to a variation of flux linkages owing In this paper, an online MTPA control based on the
to temperature change and manufacturing tolerance is numerical optimization technique is proposed where the
inevitable. To overcome these constraints, online MTPA saturation and cross-coupling effects are fully considered. To
searching methods have been studied to reflect operating alleviate the ill-convergence risks at the saturated operating
conditions without premade LUTs. condition, Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is employed, which
MTPA searching algorithms can be classified into two guarantees a robust calculation of current references under
groups; perturbation searching methods and calculation high-torque references. Through simulation and experimental
methods based on a mathematical model. Perturbation results, the validity of the proposed method is verified for
searching methods trace the fluctuation of output torque after various operating conditions.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 442

II. IPMSM MODELING λd (id, iq) Is =1 pu
In IPMSM, the flux linkages, λdq ≡ (λd, λq), vary depending
1
on d- and q-axes currents, idq ≡ (id, iq). Flux variations are
highly nonlinear in case of the automotive applications. Thus,
0.8
the flux linkages are hard to express as a linear function and
rather easy to use a nonlinear flux model as they are. The
iq [pu]
0.6
stator voltage equations of IPMSM in the rotor reference
frame can be defined as (1), where Rs and ωr denote a stator
0.4
resistance and electrical rotor speed; vd and vq are d- and q-
axes stator voltages, respectively. The electromagnetic torque,
Te, can be expressed by the cross product of λdq and idq as (2), 0.2
where P is the number of pole pairs.
0
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0
vd = Rsid + sλd − ωr λq , id [pu]
 (1)
 vq = Rsiq + sλq + ωr λd . (a)
3P λq (id, iq)
Te = (λd iq − λq id ) . (2) Is =1 pu
2
1
When the magnetic saturation and cross-coupling effects
are taken into account, the flux linkage model of IPMSM and 0.8
its time derivative in the rotor reference frame can be defined
as (3) and (4) near an operating point, where Ldd, Ldq, Lqd, and
iq [pu]
0.6
Lqq denote the dynamic inductances; and λd and λq are d- and
q-axes flux linkages at the operating point. It could be 0.4
comprehended as the linearized flux linkage model near the
operating point, i.e., small-signal model, which depends on 0.2
both id and iq. The dynamic inductances, Ldq, can be defined as
the rate of change of λdq with respect to idq as (5) [11]. 0
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0
id [pu]
λd = Ldd id + Ldqiq + λd ,
 (3) (b)
 λq = Lqd id + Lqqiq + λq . Fig. 1. Flux linkages with d- and q- axes currents. (a) λd (id, iq), (b) λq (id, iq).
 d λd di diq
 = Ldd d + Ldq ,
dt dt dt III. ONLINE MTPA CONTROL
 (4)
 d λq = L did + L diq . A. Derivation of MTPA Equations
 dt qd
dt
qq
dt
The efficient operation can be achieved by minimizing the
 ∂λd ∂λd  losses of motor, the sum of copper loss and iron loss. The
 ∂i ∂iq   Ldd (id , iq ) Ldq (id , iq )  copper loss, PCu, is dominant than the iron loss, PFe, especially
L dq =  =
d
. (5)
 ∂λq ∂λq   Lqd (id , iq ) Lqq (id , iq )  in low-speed area, where the iron loss is almost negligible.
  Therefore, MTPA control by online calculation could be
 ∂id ∂iq 
adopted as sub-optimal solution especially when operating
under the base speed. Furthermore, because the extraction of
The flux linkages with d- and q-axes currents of IPMSM
iron loss requires much computational power in operation,
for automotive application are illustrated in Fig. 1. It is
minimizing the copper loss could be regarded as a practical
obtained by using an FEA software where the parameters are
suboptimal solution.
presented on a per-unit (pu) basis. The base current is defined
by a peak current where a maximum torque is produced for a In MTPA region, the loss minimization is formulated as a
short period of time, e.g., a few seconds. Fig. 1 shows that λd nonlinear constrained optimization problem defined as (6),
varies with not only id but also iq, and λq does similarly. It where Te* denotes the torque reference. It can be solved by
reveals that the cross-coupling effect as well as saturation Lagrange multiplier method, where Lagrangian function is
cannot be negligible in the automotive applications. The defined as (7) and μ is Lagrange multiplier [6]. Necessary
dynamic inductances can be extracted from flux linkage maps, conditions for optimization can be extracted as (8), where the
which are defined as partial derivatives of the flux linkages as partial derivatives of λd and λq are defined as Ldq. It is
(5). The cross-coupling effect can be modeled as cross- simplified to a pair of equations with two unknowns, id and iq,
coupled inductances, Ldq and Lqd, which is also utilized for the by eliminating μ because the flux linkages and dynamic
online MTPA control along with Ldd and Lqq. inductances are defined as the functions of id and iq. As a
result, constant torque curve and MTPA curve are defined as
(9) and (10), respectively, and they are represented by f(id, iq)
and g(id, iq).
443
f (id, iq) Is =1 pu B. Calculation of Current References
Solving simultaneous equations can be redefined as an
1 unconstrained optimization problem to minimize the objective
function, E(x), which means the sum of squared error. E(x) is
0.8 defined as (11), where x is a current vector called as
parameters. To find the minimum point of E(x), i.e., x*,
iq [pu]
0.6 numerical optimization methods for solving non-linear least

square problems can be applied. It is an iterative process
0.4 which starts from the operating point, x0, and converges to x*.
0.2
E ( x ) = F ( x )T F ( x ) = f ( x ) 2 + g ( x ) 2 (11)
T T
, where x = i dq = id iq  , F( x) =  f (id , iq ) g (id , iq )  .
0 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0
id [pu] There have been various techniques proposed to find the
(a) minimum of the objective function [12]-[13]. Gradient descent
g(id, iq) is the simplest and intuitive technique where the parameters
Is =1 pu are updated by subtracting a scaled gradient at each step as
1 (12), where αk is a step length and J(xk) is Jacobian matrix. A
convergence speed is quite linear near x* and often very slow
0.8 because the rate of convergence is highly dependent on the
curvature of E(x). However, the curvature of E(x) is not
utilized in this method. This makes it hard to set αk, which
iq [pu]
0.6
should be modified at each iteration to increase the speed.
0.4 Gauss-Newton algorithm (GNA) was proposed where the
curvature as well as gradient information are used to improve
0.2 the convergence speed. It is a modification of Newton’s
method, which derives same iteration function as (13), where
0 H(xk) denotes Hessian matrix which is proportional to the
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 curvature of E(x). However, the rate of convergence is
id [pu]
(b)
sensitive to the initial point, x0, especially when x0 is far from
x*. The risk of ill-convergence increases when J(xk) is not only
Fig. 2. Contours of torque and MTPA equations. (a) f(id, iq), (b) g(id, iq).
singular but also even ill-conditioned, which provokes
3P oscillatory response at the highly-saturated operating
min id2 + iq2 , subject to Te* = (λd iq − λqid ). (6) condition of IPMSM.
2
3P xk +1 = x k − α k ⋅ ∇f (x k ) = x k − α k ⋅ J (x k )T F (x k ) . (12)
(id , iq , μ ) = id2 + iq2 + μ ( (λd iq − λq id ) − Te* ) . (7)
2 −1 −1
xk +1 = x k − H (x k ) ∇f ( x k ) = x k − J (x k ) F (x k ) . (13)
 ∂ 3P
0 = = (λd iq − λq id ) − Te* , xk +1 = x k − {H (x k ) + μ k ⋅ diag (H (x k ))}−1 ∇f (x k ) (14)
 ∂μ 2
 ∂ 3P  ∂f ∂f 
0 = = 2id + μ ( Ldd iq − λq − Lqd id ), (8)  ∂i ∂iq 
 ∂id 2 , where J (x) = 
d
 , H(x) = J (x)T J (x) = ∇ 2 f (x) .
  ∂g ∂g 
∂ 3P  
0 = = 2iq + μ (λd + Ldq iq − Lqq id ).  ∂id ∂iq 
 ∂iq 2
2Te* Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm (LMA) can combine the
0 = (λd iq − λqid ) −
= f (id , iq ). (9) advantages of both gradient descent and Gauss-Newton
3P
algorithm. The parameters are updated following the update
0 = (λd − Lqqid + Ldqiq )id + (λq + Lqd id − Ldd iq )iq = g (id , iq ). (10)
rule as (14), where μk is a damping coefficient. ‘μk’ is
Fig. 2(a) shows f(id, iq) on d- and q-axes current plane multiplied by the diagonal of Hessian to scale each
when Te* = 1 pu, which shows that the torque reference can be components of the gradient. LMA is more robust than GNA
tracked by solving f(id, iq) = 0. Similarly, Fig. 2(b) shows g(id, due to the damping factor, μk ⋅ diag ( H( x k )) , which helps xk
iq) in d-q current plane, where the MTPA operation is converge into x* even if x0 are far away from x*. Moreover,
achieved by making g(id, iq) = 0. The intersection of constant LMA can be explained as GNA with a trust-region method
torque and MTPA curve can be easily recognized at a glance [12]. It alleviates the ill-convergence risk by restricting a step
by overlapping Fig. 2(a) and (b). However, it is hard to size within the trust region. LMA commonly operates as
implement it on a digital signal processor (DSP). Alternatively, gradient descent when xk is far from x*, whereas it operates as
the solution of nonlinear simultaneous equations, equivalent to GNA when xk is closed to x*. Thus, it is appropriate for the
intersection of torque and MTPA curve, can be found by automotive applications where the fast and robust numerical
choosing the suitable numerical algorithm. algorithm is required to extract accurate current references.
444
Gradient Descent Algorithm Gauss-Newton Algorithm Levenberg-Marquardt Algorithm
x0=[-4/5, 1/5]T x0=[-4/5, 1/5]T x0=[-4/5, 1/5]T
1 T
1 T
1
x0=[-1/5, 1/5] x0=[-1/5, 1/5] x0=[-1/5, 1/5]T
T T
x0=[-1/5, 4/5] x0=[-1/5, 4/5] x0=[-1/5, 4/5]T
0.8 0.8 0.8
iq [pu]
iq [pu]
iq [pu]
0.6 0 0.6 0 0.6 0
0 0 0
0.4 0.4 0.4
0.2 0.2 0.2
0 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0
id [pu] id [pu] id [pu]
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 3. Current reference trajectories depending on calculation algorithm: (a) Gradient descent (b) GNA, (c) LMA.
Fig. 3 shows current reference trajectories depending on Furthermore, the number of iteration, N, and calculation
the calculation algorithm when Te* and iteration number, N, is rate, fcalc, should be minimized to reduce the calculation burden
set to 1 pu and 5, respectively. x0 and xN are marked as cross while keeping both stability and accuracy of the proposed
and circle, respectively. xN should be approached to x* = [-0.69, algorithm. The current references should be calculated faster
0.72]T wherever x0 is located after several iterations. In Fig. than a current control bandwidth. However, the bandwidth of
3(a) where gradient descent is applied and αk = 200, xk the current controller, fcc, is limited below the sampling
converges to x* too slowly, or stays far away from x* frequency, fsamp, which means that the calculation of the
depending on x0. It shows that the performance of gradient optimal current references at each fsamp is too excessive. Thus,
descent is highly dependent on αk. Thus, αk should be modified N is set to 1 for mitigating a steep rise of the calculation
in accordance with x* and xk, which is difficult to calculate in burden. Likewise, fcalc should be set to a proper value between
real time. After applying GNA, xk cannot converge to x* fsamp and fcc, i.e., fcc < fcalc < fsamp. It gives enough convergence
because x0 is far from x* as shown in Fig. 3(b). In addition, it speed to approach the references. In summary, the online
provokes oscillatory xk near x* since J(xk) is ill-conditioned MTPA control can be achieved by solving 2 by 2 matrix
under the highly-saturated operating condition. However, xk equation as shown in (15) at each fcalc.
can converge to x* regardless of x0 and Te* by applying LMA
as shown in Fig. 3(c) where μk = 1. It shows that applying IV. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
LMA is helpful to stabilize the online MTPA control.
A. Simulation Results
C. Implementation of Calculation Algorithm To simulate actual behaviors of IPMSM including the
The damping coefficient, μk, can be modified according to cross-coupling and saturation effects, a flux-linkage-based
the changes of the error during iteration process, which varies machine model is used to simulate in MATLAB/Simulink
as a result of the update or degree of the saturation. The size of where motor parameters are extracted via FEA [14]. λdq are
μk can be updated by a gain ratio which means the ratio obtained by a linear interpolation from 2-dimentional LUTs as
between the actual and predicted decrease in the objective shown in Fig. 1 and Ldq are extracted by the differences of λdq.
function [13]. However, it requires extra computational burden The switching and sampling frequency are set to 10 kHz.
to extract the gain ratio. Thus, μk is being held constant in the Calculation algorithms are executed per 0.5 ms, i.e., Tcalc =
DSP, which should be fixed to a minimum value to stabilize 1/fcalc = 0.5 ms, where μ and N are set to 1.
the online MTPA control even under the highly-saturated Fig. 4 shows current reference waveforms, idq*, according
condition, i.e., worst-operating condition. to the calculation algorithm during the transition of Te* from 0
For the unsaturated condition, GNA could be a good choice to 1 pu and vice versa below the base speed. The conventional
because it reduces calculation burden as compared with LMA. method based on GNA [6] incurs oscillating idq* at full torque
Besides, a hybrid algorithm that combines GNA with LMA can while there is no oscillation at low torque condition as shown
be applied to reduce the burden of DSP, e.g., GNA for the low- in Fig. 4(a). It shows that not only MTPA control but also
torque references, whereas, LMA for the high-torque references. torque accuracy cannot be achieved due to the excessive
It could be optimized with consideration for not only magnetic torque fluctuation under the high-torque references. Applying
characteristics but also operating conditions of IPMSM. the proposed method based on LMA, idq* converges to the
optimal current references stored in LUTs, i*dq ,Table , even at
i*dq = i dq − {J (i dq )T J (i dq ) + μ ⋅ diag (J (i dq )T J (i dq ))}−1 J (i dq )T F(i dq ) (15)

 2T * 
 −λq − Lqd id + Ldd iq λd − Lqqid + Ldqiq   (λd iq − λqid ) − e .
, where J (i dq ) =  , F(i dq ) =  3P
λ
 d + ( Ldd − 2 Lqq )id + ( Ldq + 2 Lqd )iq λq + (2 Ldq + Lqd )id + ( Lqq − 2 Ldd )iq  
 d
( λ − L i
qq d + L i )
dq q di + ( λq + L i
qd d − L i )i 
dd q q 
445
Operating conditions Operating conditions
1.2 1.2
Torque, Speed [pu]
Torque, Speed [pu]

|Te*| |Te*|
0.9 0.9
|Te | |Te |
0.6 ωrm 0.6 ωrm
0.3 0.3
0 0
Current references Current references
1 1
r* r*
ids,Table ids,Table
0.5 0.5
Current [pu]
Current [pu]
r* r*
ids,Calc ids,Calc
0 r*
iqs,Table 0 r*
iqs,Table
r* r*
-0.5 iqs,Calc -0.5 iqs,Calc
-1 -1
0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9
(a) (b)
Fig. 4. Simulation 1: i *dq waveforms under motoring mode. (a) Conventional method (GNA) [6], (b) Proposed method (LMA).
Operating conditions Operating conditions
1.2 1.2
Torque, Speed [pu]
Torque, Speed [pu]

|Te*| |Te*|
0.9 0.9
|Te | |Te |
0.6 ωrm 0.6 ωrm
0.3 0.3
0 0
Current references Current references
1 1
r* r*
ids,Table ids,Table
0.5 0.5
Current [pu]
Current [pu]
r* r*
ids,Calc ids,Calc
0 r*
iqs,Table 0 r*
iqs,Table
r* r*
-0.5 iqs,Calc -0.5 iqs,Calc
-1 -1
0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9
(a) (b)
Fig. 5. Simulation 2: i *dq waveforms under generating mode. (a) Conventional method (GNA) [6], (b) Proposed method (LMA).
high torque condition as shown in Fig. 4(b). idq* traces MTPA Fig. 6(b), where idq* and Te match precisely to i*dq ,Table and Te*,
curve exactly even at transient conditions. respectively.
Fig. 5 shows the simulation results under the transition of Fig. 7 shows the experimental results under the same
Te* from 0 to -1 pu and vice versa, i.e., under generating mode. operating conditions with those in Fig. 5. Similar to the case of
In Fig. 5(a) where GNA is applied, the online MTPA control Fig. 5(a), the conventional method based on GNA produces
cannot be guaranteed when |Te*| exceeds about 80 % of a peak oscillatory idq* when Te* is closed to –1 pu, which causes
torque. However, torque accuracy as well as MTPA control unwanted Te vibration and acoustic noise as shown in Fig. 7(a).
can be achieved by applying LMA as shown in Fig. 5(b). It Therefore, it is not appropriate for the automotive applications
shows sufficient dynamic performance enough to apply for the which require robust operation even under the highly-saturated
automotive applications. operating conditions. On the other hand, the proposed method
based on LMA produces accurate idq* and Te equivalent to
B. Experimental Results i*dq ,Table and Te*, respectively, as shown in Fig. 7(b). It verifies
The proposed and conventional method were also tested in that the proposed method shows better performance under the
a practical system. All control algorithms are implemented high-torque references, where IPMSM is highly saturated.
digitally in the DSP, TMS320F28377D, where the control
parameters such as μ, N, and Tcalc are identical with those in V. CONCLUSION
the simulation.
Fig. 6 shows idq* waveforms under the same condition with In this paper, the online MTPA control has been proposed
those in Fig. 4, which shows the performance of calculation where the saturation and cross-coupling effects are concerned.
algorithms under Te* transients. Likewise, the conventional Firstly, MTPA control was defined as the constrained
method based on GNA causes incorrect idq* and Te vibration optimization problem to fulfill both torque accuracy and
when Te* is set to a value near 1 pu as shown in Fig. 6(a). On minimum-copper-loss operation. It has been derived to two
the other hand, the proposed method based on LMA generates nonlinear simultaneous equations, i.e., torque and MTPA
stable idq* and Te under any operating condition as shown in equations, which can be solved by the numerical algorithms.
446
|Te,ref| [0.2 pu/div] |Te,est| [0.2 pu/div] ωrm [0.1 pu/div] |Te,ref| [0.2 pu/div] |Te,est| [0.2 pu/div] ωrm [0.1 pu/div]
0 r* r* r* r* 0 r* r* r* r*
ids,Table, ids,Calc, iqs,Table, iqs,Calc [0.25 pu/div] ids,Table, ids,Calc, iqs,Table, iqs,Calc [0.25 pu/div]
0 0
100 ms 100 ms
(a) (b)
Fig. 6. Experiment 1: i *dq waveforms under motoring mode. (a) Conventional method (GNA) [6], (b) Proposed method (LMA).
|Te,ref| [0.2 pu/div] |Te,est| [0.2 pu/div] ωrm [0.1 pu/div] |Te,ref| [0.2 pu/div] |Te,est| [0.2 pu/div] ωrm [0.1 pu/div]
0 r* r* r* r* 0 r* r* r* r*
ids,Table, ids,Calc, iqs,Table, iqs,Calc [0.25 pu/div] ids,Table, ids,Calc, iqs,Table, iqs,Calc [0.25 pu/div]
0 0
100 ms 100 ms
(a) (b)
Fig. 7. Experiment 2: i *dq waveforms under generating mode. (a) Conventional method (GNA) [6], (b) Proposed method (LMA).
[6] Y.-S. Jeong, S.-K. Sul, S. Hiti, and K. M. Rahman, “Online Minimum-
Among them, Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm has been Copper-Loss Control of an Interior Permanent-Magnet Synchronous
adopted due to the robustness under the highly-saturated Machine for Automotive Applications,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 42,
operating condition of IPMSM, which alleviates the risks of no. 5, pp. 1222–1229, Sep. 2006.
ill-convergence. The effectiveness of the proposed methods [7] Y.-S. Jeong and S.-K. Sul, “Adaptive Flux Observer with On-line
has been verified by the simulation and experimental results. Inductance Estimation of an IPMSM Considering Magnetic Saturation,”
Thanks to the proposed algorithm, it has been shown that in Proc. IEEE PESC, 2005, pp. 2467–2473.
accurate MTPA control is feasible even under the deep [8] W. Xu and R. D. Lorenz, “High-frequency injection-based stator flux
linkage and torque estimation for DB-DTFC implementation on
saturation region of IPMSM without look-up tables. IPMSMs considering cross-saturation effects,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl.,
vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 3805–3815, 2014.
REFERENCES [9] J. Bonifacio and R. Kennel, "On considering saturation and cross-
coupling effects for copper loss minimization on highly anisotropic
[1] B. Stumberger et al., “Evaluation of saturation and cross-magnetization synchronous machines," in Proc. ICEMS, 2016, pp. 1-6.
effects in interior permanent-magnet synchronous motor,” IEEE Trans.
Ind. Appl., vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 1264–1271, Sep. 2003. [10] H. Lee, M. L. Woldesemayat, and K. Nam, “Zero Torque Control for
EV Coasting Considering Cross-Coupling Inductance,” IEEE Trans.
[2] B.-H. Bae, N. Patel, S. Schulz, and S.-K. Sul, “New field weakening Ind. Electron., vol. 64, no. 8, pp. 6096–6104, Aug. 2017.
technique for high saliency interior permanent magnet motor,” in Conf.
Rec. IEEE IAS Annu. Meeting, 2003, vol. 2, pp. 898–905. [11] N. Bianchi and S. Bolognani, “Magnetic models of saturated interior
permanent magnet motors based on finite element analysis,” in Conf.
[3] S. Bolognani, R. Petrella, A. Prearo, and L. Sgarbossa, “Automatic Rec. IEEE IAS Annu. Meeting, 1998, vol. 1, pp. 27–34.
Tracking of MTPA Trajectory in IPM Motor Drives Based on AC
Current Injection,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 105–114, [12] A. Ranganathan, The Levenberg–Marquardt Algorithm. Atlanta, GA,
Jan. 2011. College of Computing, Georgia Inst. Technol., 2004.
[4] S. Kim, Y.-D. Yoon, S.-K. Sul, and K. Ide, “Maximum Torque per [13] K. Madsen, H. B. Nielsen, and O. Tingleff, Methods for Non-Linear
Ampere (MTPA) Control of an IPM Machine Based on Signal Injection Least Squares Problems, 2nd ed. Lyngby, Denmark: IMM, Tech. Univ.
Considering Inductance Saturation,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. Denmark, 2004.
28, no. 1, pp. 488–497, Jan. 2013. [14] X. Chen et al., “A High-Fidelity and Computationally Efficient Model
[5] S.-Y. Jung, J. Hong, and K. Nam, “Current Minimizing Torque Control for Interior Permanent-Magnet Machines Considering the Magnetic
of the IPMSM Using Ferrari’s Method,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., Saturation, Spatial Harmonics, and Iron Loss Effect,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
vol. 28, no. 12, pp. 5603–5617, Dec. 2013. Electron., vol. 62, no. 7, pp. 4044–4055, Jul. 2015.
447
Nonlinear Kalman Filtering Based Sensorless Direct Torque Control of
Surface-Mounted Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors
Joon B. Park1 , and Xin Wang2
Abstract— The demand for sensorless control of surface- DTC is in nature “sensorless”, as rotor position is not
mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor drives has required for performing coordinate transform [3]. However,
grown rapidly. Among various sensorless control methods it relies on the information of stator flux vector. Especially,
developed, Matsui’s current model-based approach and the
extended Kalman filter approach have gained much attention. at relatively low speed range, due to inaccurate estimation of
However, the performance of these control methods can be flux vector, DTC suffers from the performance degradation.
severely worsened or may even become unstable under strong Sensorless estimation of stator flux and rotor speed has to be
disturbances or sensing failures. This paper presents a com- designed to preserve the advantages of direct torque control.
parative study of the extended Kalman filter, the resilient For traditional DTC, stator flux linkage (λs ) is estimated
extended Kalman filter, and the unscented Kalman filter based
sensorless direct torque and flux control approaches for the through integrating stator induced voltage over time.
surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor drives. Z
Computer simulation studies and hardware implementation λs (t) = (vs − Rs is )dt + λs (0) (1)
results have shown the efficiency and superior performance of
the resilient extended Kalman filter and the unscented Kalman
filter over the traditional extended Kalman filter for sensorless Even minor dc offsets in voltage or current signals accu-
direct torque control applications. mulated by integration will form a substantial disturbance.
Hence, traditional estimation of λs contains large and noisy
I. I NTRODUCTION ripples.
To improve the estimation of stator flux linkage, vari-
Over the past decades, there has been a rapid increase ous estimators have been developed including the back-emf
in the deployment of surface-mounted permanent magnet integration methods such as low-pass filtering [4][5], and
synchronous motors (SPM) in industrial and commercial stabilizing the integrator with a PI-corrector or current offset
applications, such as wind energy conversion systems, hybrid methods [6]. However, these approaches are not designed for
electric vehicles, robotics, home appliances, etc. Adjustable real-time estimation. The sliding mode observer (SMO) is de-
speed SPM drives offer many distinct advantages including veloped for providing real-time state estimates for permanent
large torque to weight ratio, wide constant-power operating magnet synchronous motors in [7]. However, higher-order
range, high efficiency and reliability, etc. derivatives presented in SMO are not desirable for hardware
A wide variety of adjustable-speed control techniques have implementations. The extended Kalman filter (EKF) is a
been studied in literature for permanent magnet AC motors. popular approach for sensorless control scheme. However,
Among them, field oriented control (FOC) for SPM drives the performance of EKF deteriorates or may even become
has reached industrial application maturity. FOC requires unstable under measurement failure conditions [8].
coordinate transforms and space-vector pulse width modu- To improve EKF performance under external disturbances,
lation (SVPWM), through which the flux and torque of AC noise and measurement failures, this paper presents a com-
machines are controlled independently [1]-[2]. In order to parative study of the extended Kalman filter (EKF), the
eliminate these requirements, direct torque control (DTC) resilient extended Kalman filter (REKF), and the unscented
was proposed as a powerful alternative [3]. The advantages Kalman filter (UKF) based sensorless direct torque control
of DTC include fast dynamic responses, elimination of approaches for SPM drives. Computer simulation studies and
coordinate transforms and SVPWM. DTC also has minor hardware implementation results have shown the efficiency
disadvantages including: difficulties to control torque and and superior performance of the resilient extended Kalman
flux at relatively low speed, variable switching frequency, filter and the unscented Kalman filter over the traditional
larger harmonics, larger noise level and ripples at low speed extended Kalman filter for sensorless direct torque control
range. Despite the aforementioned shortcomings, DTC is also applications.
a feasible solution for commercial permanent magnet AC
drives.
II. DYNAMICS OF S URFACE -M OUNTED P ERMANENT
1 Joon B. Park is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi- M AGNET S YNCHRONOUS M OTORS
neering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Southern Illi-
nois University, Edwardsville, IL 62026, USA. joopark@siue.edu Applying Park’s transform, the surface-mounted perma-
2 Xin Wang is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer-
ing, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Southern Illinois nent magnet synchronous motors (SPMSM) can be modeled
University, Edwardsville, IL 62026, USA. xwang@siue.edu as follows
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 448

1
did Rs 1

0
= − id + ωe iq + vd (2) Ls
1
dt Ls Ls 0
 Ls 
diq Rs λm 1 Bc = 
0 0 (15)
= − iq − ωe id − ωe + vq (3) 
dt Ls Ls Ls 0 0
The developed electromechanical torque is 0 0
, and
3P
τe = λm iq (4) 1 0 0 0 0
22 hc = (16)
0 1 0 0 0
Note that the mechanical and electrical angular velocities
are related by Note that subscript c represents continuous-time signals.
Applying Euler’s discretization, the discrete-time system
model can be reached as follows:
P
ωe =
ωm (5)
2
The mechanical dynamics can be summarized as xk+1 =xk + Ts f (xk , uk )
yk =h(xk , uk ) (17)
dωm 1
= (τe − τl − Dωm ) (6) where Ts is the sampling time.
dt J Based on Jacobian matrices computation, a linear-time-
Applying (4) and (5), we have invariant discrete-time state space equation can be reached:
2    
dωe 3 P P D id(x̂k+1 ) id(x̂k )
= λm iq − τl − ωe (7)  iq(x̂ )   iq(x̂ ) 
dt 2J 2 2J J  k+1 

 k  vd(x̂k )
And x̂k+1 = ωe(x̂k+1 )  = Ak 
  ω
 e(x̂k ) 
 + Bk (18)
 θe(x̂ )   θe(x̂ )  vq(x̂k )
dθe k+1 k
= ωe (8) τl(x̂k+1 ) τl(x̂k )
dt
The external torque load τl is also considered as state where

variable, which is assumed to be constant over a brief period ∂ f (xk , uk )
Ak = I + · Ts =
of sampling time Ts , i.e., we have ∂x
x=x̂k
dτl 1 − RLss Ts 0 0

ωe Ts iq Ts

≈0 (9)
dt  −ωe Ts 1 − RLss Ts −(id + λLms )Ts 0 0 
 
The continuous-time state space of SPM model can be  0 β λm Ts 1 − DJ Ts 0 − PTs (19)
 2J 
written as follows:  0 0 Ts 1 0 
    0 0 0 0 1
id id Similarly,
 iq   iq 
d     vd id
ẋ =  ω e
 ; x = ω
 e
  ; u = ; y = (10)  Ts
dt  vq iq 0

 θe   θe  Ls
0 Ts 
τl τl ∂ f (xk , uk )  Ls 
Bk = · Ts = 0 0 (20)
∂u
x=x̂k

0

0
ẋ = Ac (x) + Bc (u) = f (x, u) (11)
0 0
y = hc (x) = h(x, u) (12)
Now, the measurement equation can be expressed as:
Denote
2  
3 P id
β= , (13)  iq 
2J 2
id  
yk = hk (xk ) = = Ck 
ωe 
 (21)
iq  θe 
− RLss
 
ωe 0 0 0
τl
−ωe − RLss − λLms 0 0 
And
 
Ac = 
 0 β λm − DJ P ,
0 − 2J  (14)
 0 0 1 0 0  ∂ h(xk ) 1 0 0 0 0
Ck = = (22)
0 0 0 0 0 ∂ x x=x̂k
0 1 0 0 0
449
III. D IRECT T ORQUE C ONTROL the resilient extended Kalman filter (REKF) based sensorless
Direct Torque control (DTC) was proposed by I. Takahashi DTC approaches.
for controlling induction motors in the mid 1980’s [3]. The
Extended Kalman Filter
main feature of DTC is to apply appropriate voltage vectors
for voltage source inverter (VSI) from a predefined switching Consider the discrete-time nonlinear system dynamics and
table. measurement equation given as follows:
The overall scheme of the sensorless direct torque control
with nonlinear Kalman filtering is shown in Fig. 1. The
xk+1 = f (xk , uk , vk )
desired stator flux λre f and torque τre f are compared with
the estimated stator flux λest and torque τest in the hysteresis yk = h(xk , uk , wk ) (24)
flux and torque controllers, respectively. The flux controller
Define the following Jacobian matrices
is a two-level hysteresis comparator, whereas the torque
controller is a three-level hysteresis comparator.
∂f ∂f
Ak = |x=x̂k , Fk = |x=x̂k
∂x ∂v
∂h ∂h
Ck = |x=x̂k , Gk = |x=x̂k (25)
∂x ∂w
For time update, we compute the priori covariance and
priori state estimate
Pk− = Ak−1 Pk−1
+
ATk−1 + Fk−1Vk−1 Fk−1
T
(26)
x̂k− = fk−1 (x̂k−1
+
, uk−1 , 0) (27)
where Vk is the covariance matrix of process noise vk at time
step k. x̂− is the priori state estimate and Pk− is the priori
covariance matrix.
The measurement update can be summarized as follows
Fig. 1. The proposed block diagram of DTC with nonlinear estimators
Kk = Pk−CkT (Ck Pk−CkT + GkWk GTk )−1 (28)
The stator flux sector index N is obtained from the x̂k+ = x̂k− + Kk [yk − hk (x̂− , 0)] (29)
computed angular position
Pk+ = (I − KkCk )Pk− (30)
λβ
γs = tan−1 (23) where x̂k+ is the posteriori state estimate; Pk+ is the posteriori
λα
covariance matrix.
Together with digitized variables dλ and dτest , a digital
address for accessing an EPROM or EEPROM is created. Resilient Extended Kalman Filter
Hence, the appropriate voltage can be selected, which is
Consider the discrete-time nonlinear stochastic system
governed by the switching rules in Tab. 1. The voltage
model and measurement equations as follows [9]:
source inverter produces the desired three-phase voltages in
controlling rotation.
x = f (x ) + v
TABLE I  1k+1
  1k 1 k
γk h (xk ) + w1k

D IRECT T ORQUE C ONTROL S WITCHING TABLE yk
y2   γ 2 h2 (xk ) + w2 
 k  k k
yk =  .  =  .. (31)
 ..  

dλ dτest Number of Sectors (N) . 
1 2 3 4 5 6
dτest = 1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V1 ykp γkp h p (xk ) + wkp
dλ = 1 dτest = 0 V7 V0 V7 V0 V7 V0
dτest = −1 V6 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5
where
dτest = 1 V3 V4 V5 V6 V1 V2 xk ∈ R n state vector
dλ = 0 dτest = 0 V0 V7 V0 V7 V0 V7
dτest = −1 V5 V6 V1 V2 V3 V4 vk ∈ R n system noise
yk ∈ R p measurement vector
wik ∈ R measurement noise in each phasor
IV. N ONLINEAR E STIMATION measurement unit and wk = [w1k , w2k , ..., wkp ]T
f,h differentiable non-linear vector functions
First, we revisit the traditional extended Kalman filter [8].
In order to provide a reliable nonlinear estimation against The mean of initial state xo is E[xo ] = x̄o and covariance
external disturbances, noise, bad data and measurement fail- of initial state x0 is Xo = E[(xo − x̄o )(xo − x̄o )T ]. The noise
ures, we propose the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) and processes, vk and wk , are white, zero mean, uncorrelated
450
with each other and with xo , and have covariance Vk and from an upper bound on the local estimation error
Wk , respectively. covariance
vk ∼ (0,Vk ), wk ∼ (0,Wk ), Pk+1 = Ak Pk ATk +Vk + λmax {Γ̄kCk PkCkT Γ̄Tk +Wk +
E[vk vTj ] = Vk δk− j , E[wk wTj ] = Wk δk− j , ϒ ⊗ (h(x̂k )hT (x̂k ) +Ck PkCkT )}δ I
E[vk wTj ] = 0, E[vk xoT ] = 0, E[wk xoT ] = 0 (32) − (Ak PkCkT Γ̄Tk )[Γ̄kCk PkCkT Γ̄Tk +
ϒ ⊗ (h(x̂k )hT (x̂k ) +Ck PkCkT ) +Wk ]−1 (Γ̄kCk Pk ATk )
The scalar binary Bernoulli distributed random variables
γki are with mean πi and variance πi (1 − πi ) whose possible (42)
outcomes 0,1 are defined as Prob(γki = 1) = πi and Prob(γki = to be used in updating the state estimate as
0) = 1 − πi . The formulation involves hard measurement
failures, where the sensor either works properly or fails to x̂k+1 = f (x̂k ) + (Kko + ∆k )(yk − Γ̄k h(x̂k )) (43)
provide reliable estimation. where
By denoting
ϒ = diag[π1 (1 − π1 ), π2 (1 − π2 ), ..., π p (1 − π p )]
Γk = diag[γk1 , γk2 , ..., γkp ] (33)  
π1 (1 − π1 ) 0 · · · 0
h(xk ) = diag[h1 (xk ), h2 (xk ), ..., h p (xk )] (34)  .. .. .. 
 0 . . . 
= ..
 (44)
the measurement equation can be written as  .. .. 
 . . . 0 
yk = Γk h(xk ) + wk (35) 0 · · · 0 π p (1 − π p )
Our goal is to estimate the state vector xk based on our Unscented Kalman Filter
knowledge of system dynamics and the availability of the Consider the following system and measurement equations
noisy measurement yk under the effect of sensor failures. [10]:
The following discrete time nonlinear Luenberger observer
xk+1 = f (xk , uk ) + vk
is considered in this work.
yk = h(xk ) + wk (45)
x̂k+1 = f (x̂k ) + (Kk + ∆k )(yk − Γ̄k h(x̂k )) (36)
where
f (xk , uk ) process model
Although the filter gain should be Kk , due to computational
xk state vectors
or tuning uncertainties, it is erroneously implemented as Kk +
uk input state vectors
∆k . The term Γ̄k is defined as
h(xk ) output model
Γ̄k = E[Γk ] = diag[π1 , π2 , ..., π p ] (37) yk output state vectors
vk process WGN
Kk is the feedback gain with additive uncertainty ∆k . The wk measurement WGN
uncertainty ∆k , is assumed to have zero mean, bounded
1) Initialization
second moment and be uncorrelated with initial state, process
and measurement noises, i.e. x̂o = E[xo ]
E[∆k ∆Tk ] ≤ δ I, E[∆Tk xo ] = 0, E[∆Tk vk ] = 0, E[∆k wk ] = 0 Po = E[(xo − x̄o )(xo − x̄o )T ] (46)
(s)
(38) 2) Define sigma points χk and weights ϖ s for
s = 1, · · · , 2n as follows:
The resilient extended Kalman filter is defined as follows:
1) Initialization (0)
χk = x̂k (47)
x̂o = E[xo ] (s) (s)
χk = x̂k + x̃k s = 1, · · · , 2n (48)
Po = E[(xo − x̂o )(xo − x̂o )T ] (39) (s) √ T
x̃k = ( nPk )s s = 1, · · · , n (49)
2) Computation of Jacobian matrices (n+s) √ T
x̃k = −( nPk )s s = 1, · · · , n (50)
∂f ∂h The weighing coefficients are determined by
Ak = |x=x̂k ,Ck = |x=x̂k (40)
∂x ∂x
1 − ϖo
3) For time steps k = 1, 2, 3, ..., the estimator propagates ϖs = s = 1, · · · , 2n (51)
2n
by calculating the feedback gain
where the weight must agree
Kko =(Ak PkCkT Γ̄Tk )[Γ̄kCk PkCkT Γ̄Tk + 2n
ϒ ⊗ (h(x̂k )h T
(x̂k ) +Ck PkCkT ) +Wk ]−1 (41) ∑ ϖ s = 1.
s=0
451
√ TABLE II
and ( nPk )s is sth row or column of the matrix square
T HE PARAMETERS OF SPM
root of nPk .
Rated Power 400 W
3) Process Update Rated Torque 180 oz.in
The priori mean and covariance of the estimated value Rated Voltage 220 V
− Rated Current 2.7 A
x̂k+1 can be obtained using the transformed sigma
Stator resistance, Rs 4.7 Ω
points as follows:
Stator inductance, Ls 13.3 mH
Rotor magnetic flux, λm 0.0785 W b
2n Number of rotor poles, P 8
(s)
x̂k+1 = ∑ ϖs · f (χk , uk ) (52) Moment of inertia, J 0.00439 oz.in.sec2
s=0
2n
− (s) −
Pk+1 = ∑ ϖs · ( f (χk , uk ) − x̂k+1 )×
Without measurement failures, the estimation error com-
s=0
(s) −
( f (χk , uk ) − x̂k+1 )T +Vk parisons of EKF, UKF and REKF are summarized in Tab. III
to Tab. V. In comparison with EKF and REKF, UKF shows
(53) superior accuracy in torque, speed, and current estimation,
4) Output Covariance Update under the condition that all sensors work properly. Under
The predicted measurement is no sensing failure condition, UKF tracks the real state
variables more closely with less ripples, since it relies on
2n
(s) the unscented transformation to characterize the probability
ŷk+1 = ∑ ϖs · h(χk ) (54)
density function, without linearization involved.
s=0
Under the sensing failure condition, computer simulations
2n are conducted based on the assumption that each sensor has
(s)
Py = ∑ ϖs · (h(χk ) − ŷk+1 )× 5% failure rate. In this case, the resilient extended Kalman
s=0 filter provides more reliable state estimation with greater
(s)
(h(χk ) − ŷk+1 )T +Wk+1 accuracy compared to EKF and UKF, since the resilient
(55) extended Kalman filter is designed to handle measurement
failures.
5) Cross-correlation Update
TABLE III
The cross-correlation Pxy is determined by
T HE TORQUE ESTIMATION ERROR COMPARISON OF EKF, REKF, AND
UKF WITHOUT SENSOR FAILURE
2n
(s) (s)
Pxy = ∑ ϖs · ( f (χk ) − x̂k+1 )(h(χk ) − ŷk+1 )T (56)
s=0 Time period (sec) EKF Error REKF Error UKF Error
0 sec. - 0.5 sec. 0.6089 0.6692 0.6675
6) Measurement Update 0.5 sec. -1.0 sec. 0.2188 0.1987 0.1348
Kalman gain Kk can be written as follows 1.0 sec. -1.5 sec. 0.2180 0.1951 0.1653
1.5 sec. -2.0 sec. 0.2197 0.1938 0.1067
Kk+1 = Pxy Py −1 (57)
The posteriori covariance matrix Pk+1 and the esti-
mated state variable x̂k+1 can be expressed as follows: TABLE IV
T HE iq ESTIMATION ERROR COMPARISON OF EKF, REKF, AND UKF
WITHOUT SENSOR FAILURE
−
x̂k+1 = x̂k+1 + Kk+1 (yk+1 − ŷk+1 ) (58)
− T
Pk+1 = Pk+1 − Kk+1 Py Kk+1 (59) Time period (sec) EKF Error REKF Error UKF Error
0 sec. - 0.5 sec. 22.3889 22.4353 13.775
V. C OMPUTER S IMULATIONS AND H ARDWARE 0.5 sec. - 1.0 sec. 0.3985 0.3629 0.1491
I MPLEMENTATIONS 1.0 sec. - 1.5 sec. 0.3917 0.3718 0.2004
1.5 sec. - 2.0 sec. 0.3971 0.3619 0.1842
Computer simulations and Texas Instrument DSP imple-
mentations have been developed to show the effectiveness
of proposed sensorless direct torque control approaches. The
testing SPM parameters are summarized in Tab.II. VI. C ONCLUSIONS
Fig.2 and Fig.3 show speed and flux estimation compar- Direct torque control combines the benefits of direct flux
isons, respectively. Figures in the first, second and third row and torque control into an adjustable speed drive, which does
show EKF, REKF and UKF estimation results, respectively. not require pulse-width-modulation or coordinate transforms.
The first column figures are nonlinear estimation results The paper presented a comparative study of sensorless direct
under sensing failure condition. The second column figures torque control approaches of surface-mounted permanent
are nonlinear estimation results without sensing failures. magnet synchronous motors with the unscented Kalman
452
TABLE V
T HE SPEED ESTIMATION ERROR COMPARISON OF EKF, REKF, AND
UKF WITHOUT SENSOR FAILURE
Time period(sec) EKF Error REKF Error UKF Error

0 sec. - 0.5 sec. 10.7434 11.2876 1.7615
0.5 sec. - 1.0 sec. 4.3493 3.0354 0.5825
1.0 sec. - 1.5 sec. 4.3622 2.9833 0.7320
1.5 sec. - 2.0 sec. 4.3790 3.0036 0.7345
Fig. 3. Stator flux trajectory comparison of DTC with EKF, REKF and
UKF
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control strategy of an induction motor,” IEEE Trans. on Industry
Applications, IA-22 (5), 820-827, 1986.
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50, no. 2, pp. 262-271, Apr 2003.
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Control of Direct-Drive PMSM Servo Actuator With Improved Torque
Estimation and Control Characteristics,” IEEE Transactions on Indus-
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and the extended Kalman filter (EKF). As demonstrated Drive Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors: a New Approach,”
by simulation and implementation results, EKF, REKF, and IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 829-838,
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is a preferred estimation method when sensors fail to provide Kalman Filter for Direct-Torque-Controlled IPM Synchronous Motor
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[1] Z. Xu and M. F. Rahman, “Direct Torque and Flux Regulation of International Journal of System Science, Taylor & Francis, vol. 1,
an IPM Synchronous Motor Drive Using Variable Structure Control no. 9, Jan., 2014.
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[2] M. C. Paicu, I. Boldea, G. D. Andreescu and F. Blaabjerg, “Very low ceedings of the 1995, 21-23 Jun 1995. 1628-1632 vol.3.
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453
Compensation of Nonlinear Effects in Automotive
48V Position Sensorless IPMSM Drive Systems
Le Sun, Shamsuddeen Nalakath, Horacio Beckert Polli,
Member, IEEE, Student Member, IEEE, Member, IEEE,
McMaster University McMaster University FCA US LLC
1280 Main Street West 1280 Main Street West 1000 Chrysler Dr.
Hamilton, ON L8S4L8, CA Hamilton, ON L8S4L8, CA Auburn Hills, MI, USA
sunl21@mcmaster.ca nalakas@mcmaster.ca Horacio.Beckert@fcagroup.com
Daniel Luedtke, Matthias Preindl,

Member, IEEE, Member, IEEE,
FCA US LLC Columbia University
1000 Chrysler Dr. 500 W. 120th Street
Auburn Hills, MI, USA New York, NY 10027, USA
daniel.luedtke@fcagroup.com matthias.preindl@columbia.edu
Abstract —The performance of rotor position estimation of widely used voltage source inverter (VSI), the voltage
interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) tends to reference is used for the space-vector modulation (SVM).
be negatively impacted by inverter and motor nonlinearities. In However, there is usually a discrepancy between the voltage
low voltage systems, the on-voltage drop of power electronic reference and actual voltage. The first reason is the dead-time,
switches has a significant impact. This paper focuses on
compensating nonlinearities in a 48V motor drive intended for
which can reduce the actual voltage compared with the desired
hybrid vehicle powertrains with belt-driven starter-generator voltage reference. Existing papers [4]-[7] discussed this
(BSG). A real-time voltage compensation method is introduced phenomenon, and commonly use a sign function or sigmoid
and saturation is addressed with inductance measurements. The function to evaluate and compensate it. The second reason is
effectiveness of the proposed methods is validated and evaluated the power device switch-on voltage drop. This voltage drop is a
by the experimental results. nonlinear function, depending on the device characteristic and
load current.
Keywords— Sensorless, nonlinearity, voltage error model,
interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM), hybrid From the motor side, the sensorless technology is sensitive to
vehicle powertrain, belt-driven starter-generator. motor parameters, especially the motor inductances changing
by saturation effect [8]-[12]. Inaccurate parameters can
significantly reduce the estimation accuracy [13]-[15]. Some
I. INTRODUCTION paper proposed parameter identification method to consider the
I nterior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) is a inductance effect on position estimation [7], [16]. But these
common choice for hybrid vehicle powertrains using methods usually require high frequency signal injection, or
belt-driven starter-generators (BSG). Sensorless control for complicated real-time computation. It is still a practical
IPMSMs enables removal of the rotor position sensor which solution to measure the inductance in different conditions in
improves the system reliability, robustness and reduces the cost. advance and solve by a look-up table (LUT). The inductance
IPMSM sensorless technology has been researched for several measurement is conducted in motor operating conditions with
years [1]-[3]. As a result, various sensorless control strategies position sensor. The voltages and currents in these conditions
have been established. Generally, these methods are all based are recorded to calculate the inductance LUT.
on the basic PM motor voltage equation. In the recent decade, This method is also far from being optimum as the recorded
the well-known extended back-EMF method dominates the voltage for LUT calculation also suffers from the inverter
IPMSM sensorless research, and scholars are still trying to nonlinearity. However, there is limited literature with attention
improve the extended back-EMF estimation by advanced on such a consequential issue. With comprehensive considering
algorithms. the above problems, this paper does not only consider the
The 48V mild hybrid system is gaining popularity in hybrid voltage error on position estimation model but also modify the
vehicles. In contrast to high voltage sensorless drives [1]-[6], inductance measurement with considering inverter nonlinearity
the 48V sensorless system is sensitive to small voltage errors, e. to improve the position estimation accuracy.
g. a 0.5-1 V voltage drop due to inverter nonlinearities. In In this paper, a comparison is done between the measured
inductances with and without considering the inverter
nonlinearity. The voltage error impacts the measurement
This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada accuracy especially for medium and heavy load and indirectly
Excellence Research Chairs Program, Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Automotive Partnership Canada (APC)
Initiative, FCA US LLC, and FCA Canada Inc.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 454

Fig. 1 Overall block diagram of the IPMSM sensorless control with considering the voltage error (inveter nonlinearity).
increases the position estimation error. With accurate motor

parameters, voltage error compensation is also performed to ,
improve the extended back-EMF estimation model and finally
achieve better position estimation results. Fig. 1 shows the
, , ,
general control scheme adopted in this paper. Details about the
voltage model, inductance lookup table (LUT) and estimation
strategy are illustrated in the following sections. All the ,
comparison and performance evaluation are validated in a
back-to-back IPMSM motor test bench with 48V DC voltage.
, .
II. EXTENDED EMF-BASED SENSORLESS CONTROL
The linearization error item W is zero when current is stable.
IPMSMs usually exhibit strong saliency, which can support It impacts only during current transient period and can be
reluctance torque during flux-weakening condition. However, represented by a disturbance observer of the current derivative.
the IPMSM stator inductance, which also contains the position Meanwhile, by combining it with a current observer, a
information, makes the position estimation more complicated reduced-order observer model is constructed as:
than the surface-mounted permanent magnet motor (SPM). As
reported in [3], the extended back-EMF model is widely used to
solve this problem. (3)
The basic IPMSM model can be expressed in the stationary
coordinate α-β by: where G1 = g11I and G2 = g21I + g22J are feedback gain matrices.
III. COMPENSATION SCHEME FOR SENSORLESS CONTROL

(1) To build a precise inverter, it is necessary to consider the
dead-time and switch-on voltage drop. Fig. 2 shows the
simulated impact on phase voltage.
where s is the derivative operator; the vα and vβ are stator An approximate average voltage error model is used to
voltages, which are usually replaced by reference voltage, v*α compensate the voltage drop on the inverter. Fig. 3(a) shows
and v*β; the iα and iβ are stator currents; the ωre is rotor electrical the voltage error due to dead-time, and Fig. 3(b) shows the
angular rotating speed; the Ld and Lq are d-axis and q-axis voltage error induced by switch-on voltage drop. By combining
inductances, respectively; R is stator resistance; and θre is rotor these two kinds of error, an approximate average voltage error
position angle. In equation (1), the last item in the red frame is model depicted in Fig.3(c) can be obtained. The impact of
represents the extended back-EMF. voltage error can be evaluated in stationary coordinates. For
The motor model based on the voltage equation can be example, when motor is running with load (id=-200 A, iq = 300
A), the voltage reference can be measured (v*d=-19.32 V, v*q =
transformed to a linear state equation as:
4.72 V). With inverse Park transformation, phase A voltage
waveform va is obtaine as shown in Fig. 4.
(2)
Fig. 4 analyzes the impact of voltage error in one operation
period. In Fig. 4, the ia is phase A current, which can be used
In equation (2), the coefficient matrices are listed as:
455
(a)
Fig. 4 Impact of voltage error on the phase voltage (2000 r/min, id=-50 A, iq =
350 A).
A. Basic Measurement Method

Several papers discussed inductance measurement. Usually,
in commercial motors, core saturation is designed for heavy
(b) load in order to make full use of the material and improve
Fig. 2 Distortion in phase voltage due to dead-time and voltage drop. (a) Ideal
switches without dead-time and voltage drop. (b) Actual switches.
power density. Additionally, the cross-coupling flux between
direct and quadrature axes has a nonlinear effect on inductances.
Therefore, it is necessary to measure the inductance in all
operation points. From the voltage equation, it is easy to
calculate the d- and q- inductances by:
(4)
Usually, the voltage reference (v*d and v*q) is used instead of

actual voltages.
(a) (b)
B. Consideration of voltage error on inductance measurement
In order to incorporate the effect of voltage error in
inductance measurement, equation (4) can be modified as:
(5)
(c)
Fig. 3 Voltage error model. (a) Voltage error model for dead time. (b) Voltage
where vd_error and vq_error are voltage errors on direct and
error model for switch-on state voltage drop. (c) Approximate average model quadrature axes, which were calculated previously by Park
for general voltage error. transformation based on voltage error model as shown in Fig.
3(c).
to calculate the voltage error (va_error) in every sample time by The averages of vd_error and vq_error waveforms can be used
error model. The v*a is pole voltage reference, which is usually instead of approximate values from on-line calculation by
saddle-shaped in space vector PWM (SVPWM). By using voltage error model. Fig. 5 shows two 2-dimension LUTs of
va_error to subtract v*a, the actual phase voltage va can be vd_error and vq_error averages with respecting to d-q current.
predicted, showing obvious distortion. This phenomenon is Fig. 6 (a) shows the inductance LUT based on equation (5).
worse at lower speed and lower load, when the voltage Fig. 6 (b) shows the evaluation of the impact of the voltage
reference is relatively smaller. For the sensorless estimation error. The L*d and L*q are the inductances calculated using (4)
algorithm, voltage error should be transformed to static without considering the voltage error. The Ld and Lq are the
coordinate by Clarke transformation, as the inputs of the values from the LUT’s shown in Fig. 6 (a). It is easy to find the
observer are the voltages on α-β coordinate. voltage error responsible for the inductance calculation
inaccuracy especially in light load. Even with heavy id, this
IV. INDUCTANCE MEASUREMENT impact is obvious on Ld. Furthermore, the large current can
The impact of voltage error on the observer has been make the position estimation worse, although the inductance
discussed above. Besides, it also makes difference in inaccuracy of (L*d and L*q) is not very large in heavy load.
inductance measurement [17], where the voltage error is Hence, it is necessary to consider voltage error for precise
usually not under consideration. inductance measurement.
456
driven as a dyno, with an encoder. For the torque loop
sensorless control on MG1, MG2 controls the speed. For speed
loop sensorless control on MG1, MG2 controls the torque load.
Fig. 5 Voltage error average on the d-q coordinate.
Fig. 7 Position estimation comparison showing the impact of the inductance

error. Ld and Lq are inductances calculated considering voltage drop, L*d and L*q
are inductances calculated without considering voltage drop.
(a)
(b) Fig. 8 Impact of the voltage error on position accuracy: estimation with, i.e.
Fig. 6 Inductance measurement results. (a) Ld-Lq LUTs. (b) Ld and Lq considering, the voltage error and without error compensation.
comparison. Ld and Lq are inductances considering the voltage drop, L*d and L*q
are inductances without considering the voltage drop.
C. Evaluation of Voltage Error Impact on the observer

Generally, voltage error affects the position estimation
through the inductance measurement and observer input. In this
section, these effects are evaluated separately.
Initially, the measured inductances considering the voltage
error (Ld and Lq) and without considering the voltage error (L*d (a)
and L*q) are used for position estimation simultaneously. Fig. 7
shows this comparison. The black line represents position
estimation with (Ld and Lq), and the red line represents position
estimation with (L*d and L*q). The red estimation error is around
8 elec. deg., and the black one is improved to less than 1 deg.
Fig. 8 shows the comparison between the position
estimation observers considering the voltage error (black) and
without considering (red). The operating condition is same as
that in Fig. 7. It is easy to see that the consideration of the (b)
voltage error improves the position error from -5 elec. deg. to Fig. 9 IPM BSG test bench. (a) Back-to-back motors test bench. (b) Motor drive
setup (inverter and controller).
less than 1 elec. deg. These two comparisons indicate that, in
low voltage system, it is necessary to consider voltage error for
The experiment is performed in two steps. The first step
sensorless control.
consists of inductance measurement. In this step, MG1 is
controlled by the encoder and voltage references are recorded
V. EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION for inductance calculation. The inductance measurement results
A. 48V BSG Test Bench Setup are shown in section IV. The second step is implementation of
Fig. 9 shows the motor test bench and drive setup. For the sensorless control with measured inductance and proposed
continuous operation, the motors and inverters need coolant. method. This section focuses on the second step.
The proposed speed and position estimation strategy is tested in B. Evaluation of the Inductance Measurement Error
a back-to-back test bench in which two equal IPMSM motors Fig. 10 shows the experimental result for the same condition
are coupled together. The sampling frequency (same as simulated in Fig. 2 and Fig. 4. The distortion in phase voltage
switching frequency) of the drive system is 10 kHz. The can be observed due to the inverter nonlinearity (dead time and
sensorless control is implemented in MG1 (left) while MG2 is
457
device voltage drop).
Fig. 12 Position estimation comparison showing the impact from the

Fig. 10 Voltage error impact on the phase voltage (2000 r/min, id=-200A, iq inductance error. Ld and Lq are inductances with considering voltage drop, L*d
=300A). CH1: phase voltage; CH2: actual phase modulation (12 V/div); CH3: and L*q are inductances without considering voltage drop.
ideal phase modulation; CH4: phase current.
C. Evaluation of the Voltage Error in Observer
Fig. 13 shows the position estimation without considering
voltage error for observer input. Comparing the results in Fig.
13 with those in Fig. 11 (b), the effect of the voltage error
modification for the observer can be seen. In Fig. 13, the
position error remains around -5 deg. which is similar to the
simulation result in Fig. 8.
These experiments were repeated at several load conditions
shown in Fig. 14. Consideration of the voltage error improves
the position estimation. Especially under relatively high load
conditions, it can also reduce the position error to almost zero.
(a)
Fig. 13 Position estimation without considering voltage error for observer.

CH1: position error (10 elec. deg/div); CH2: calculated torque (12 Nm/div);
(b) CH4: phase current.
Fig. 11 Position estimation comparison showing the impact of the inductance
error. CH1: position error (10 elec. deg/div); CH2: calculated torque (12
Nm/div); CH4: phase current. (a) Using L*d and L*q. (b) Using Ld and Lq.
Fig. 11shows the comparison of the experimental position

estimation based on (Ld and Lq) and (L*d and L*q) for a similar
condition simulated in Fig. 7. In Fig. 11 load rises from
(id=-100 A, iq = 150 A) to (id=-200 A, iq = 300 A). In Fig. 11(a),
with (L*d and L*q), the position error is always large. At light
load, it is almost 10 elec. deg. Consequently, the error reduces
to around 5 deg. with increasing load. Position estimation is
improved in Fig. 11(b), where (Ld and Lq) is used. In heavy load, Fig. 14 Impact of the voltage error on position accuracy: estimation with, i.e.
the position error is around 0 deg. It should be noticed that the considering, the voltage error and without error compensation.
scale of the digital-analog conversion system is 0-3.3 V, where D. Dynamic Response of Sensorless Control
0 deg. Corresponds to 1.65 V.
These experiments were repeated at several load conditions In the above experiments, for a fair comparison to present the
shown in Fig. 12. It can be found that (Ld, Lq) makes sense for accuracy of the proposed method, the estimations are
position estimation, especially for large id. performed only for monitoring position and not used for motor
control. In Fig. 15, the sensorless control is validated using the
position estimated with the proposed method for compensating
458
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Feb. 2006.
It is highlighted in this paper that the voltage error affects the [15] S. Bolognani, S. Calligaro, and R. Petrella, “Design issues and estimation
inductance measurement, which finally and indirectly affects errors analysis of back-emf-based position and speed observer for SPM
the position estimation by inductance error. Accordingly, synchronous motors,” IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in
Power Electronics, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 216-224, Jun. 2014.
consideration and compensation of this voltage error are [16] S. Nalakath, M. Preindl, and A. Emadi, “Online multi-parameter
implemented to cancel these impacts as a result, the estimation estimation of interior permanent magnet motor drives with finite control
accuracy is improved significantly. set model predictive control,” IET Electric Power Applications, vol. 11,
no. 5, pp. 944-951, May. 2017.
The effects of the proposed method are validated and
[17] R. Dutta and M. F. Rahman, “A comparative analysis of two test methods
evaluated using a back-to-back IPMSM motor test bench. It is of measuring d- and q-axes inductances of interior permanent-magnet
worth noting that the position errors in the experimental results machine,” IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 42, no. 11, pp.
can be further reduced by mandatory error compensation LUT, 3712-3718, Nov. 2006.
in order to make a highly precise sensorless control in realistic
applications.
459
Optimization-Based Position Sensorless Control for
Induction Machines
Alan Dorneles Callegaro (St.M.,IEEE) Lakshmi Narayanan Srivatchan Matthias Preindl, (Member,IEEE)
Shamsuddeen Nalakath (St.M.,IEEE) and Daniel Luedtke Columbia University
McMaster University Electric Motor Control Engineer, Department of Electrical Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering Manager Electric Motor Control & Software New York, NY 10027, USA
Hamilton, ON, Canada Fiat Chrysler Automobilies - FCA Email: matthias.preindl@columbia.edu
Email: dornelea@mcmaster.ca
Abstract—A novel optimization-based sensorless technique for it is less attractive for sensorless control applications. On the
Induction Machines is presented in this work. The algorithm is other hand, a more practical solution is the stator model, that
able to estimate speed and position instantaneously (limited only relies only on the measured stator voltage and currents. In
by the Nyquist frequency and the PLL bandwidth) at stand- this case, the integration of voltage equations results on the
still low and high-speed. A cost function is introduced based on stator flux linkage from which the rotor flux is obtained by
the dynamic machine model. The stability analysis of speed and
position estimation shows whether the system is convex by solving
using equation 2. In practice, the stator model presents some
the Hessian matrix of the cost function. The method is unique for drawbacks due to the error of the stator voltage and currents
the entire speed range, in which high-frequency signal is injected that cause an accumulative error since there is no feedback
to the machine terminals at low speeds, to increase the convex to compensate such problems. Parameter sensitivity is also a
region of the cost function. concern on model-based observers [15]. The stator resistance
can increase up to 100 % at high temperatures. At low speeds,
the induced back-EMF is low and the voltage drop is Rs
I. I NTRODUCTION
becomes more prominent. Therefore, parameter variation has
The lack of rare-earth permanent magnet makes Induction a significant effect on these conditions.
Machines (IM) a cheaper and environmental friendly alterna-
tive when compared to Permanent Magnet (PM) machines. By using two different machine models, the model ref-
Currently, China is the largest producer of rare earth elements erence technique estimates one set of variable utilizing two
providing 95% of the world’s demand, consequently, it can different input quantities. For example, in [16], stator and
control the market of such elements. Also, the chemical sepa- rotor models are employed to estimate the rotor flux. In
ration process of rare earth uses solvents which can lead to po- this case, the stator model is the reference while the rotor
tential environmental hazards [1]. Moreover, position sensors, model is the adaptive model since it takes to account the
either mechanical or optical, require regular maintenance and estimated speed as a tunning signal. Parameter sensitive is
increases the hardware complexity. IM sensorless control tech- also a challenge for MRAS. For example, if the reference
niques have been extensively investigated and several methods model presents an error coming from σLs and Rs mismatches,
have been proposed [2]–[14]. In general, the machine stator this error will be tracked by the adjustable model as well,
or rotor models, Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) which leads the machine to lose the field orientation condition.
and the parasitic properties, such as inductance saliency, are The flux misalignment reduces the machine efficiency and
the main areas of study for IM sensorless control. electromagnetic torque capability.
A simple and low-cost sensorless technique is achieved A comprehensive review of MRAS applied to induction
by the constant Volts/Hertz method, where the stator flux machine was introduced by [17]. Other than rotor flux error
magnitude is kept at its nominal value by the Volts/Hertz based model, the back-EMF, reactive power, X-MRAS, stator
characteristic. The fact that this technique acts as a feed- current and high-frequency injection methods are discussed.
forward system, there is an error between the reference and Similarly to the rotor flux model, the back-EMF method uses
the actual motor speed, which can be mitigated through slip the estimated rotor speed as a tuning signal in order to bring the
compensation. Although the Volts/Hertz control presents a error to zero. An advantage of this method is the absence of an
poor dynamic performance it is a robust solution for some integrator on both reference and adjustable models. However,
applications where high dynamic performance is not required. the method requires the differentiation of stator currents which
reduces the estimation performance. A low-pass filter (LPF)
In Field Oriented Control (FOC) the machine models are can be implemented to overcome the differentiation problems,
implemented to estimate the position of the flux vector. For the but it reduces the speed tracking performance and dynamic
rotor model, the accuracy depends on the mutual inductance response. To overcome the parameter sensitivity problems
Lm , that affects the magnitude of the flux linkage vector, and regarding the stator resistance Rs , the instantaneous reactive
the rotor time constant τr , which is responsible for the angle of power based was introduced by [18]. The method eliminates
the flux vector, therefore a crucial parameter for field control. the estimation of flux, therefore provides a better estimation
Since the rotor model requires the rotational speed information at low speeds. Alternatively, the X-MRAS introduced by [19],
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 460

where a fictitious quantity, neither reactive nor active power, stator currents, which results in equation 5.
is used. Similarly to Q-MRAs, this method does not require
flux estimation and is immune to stator resistance variation. λsd =
Ls isd
L2

(5)
This work presents a new sensorless technique for In- λsq = Ls − m isq
Lr
duction Machine (IM) that instantaneously estimates speed
and position. There are two main advantages of the proposed
The final dq voltage equations used in the nonlinear opti-
method when compared with the existing literature. First, a
mization are defined by equation 6.
single algorithm capable of speed and position estimation at
stand-still, low and high speeds conditions. A high-frequency

vsd isd Ls 0 d isd
signal is injected at low-speeds when machine dynamics infor- = Rs + +
vsq isq 0 σLs dt isq
mation does not provide enough detail to extract the desired (6)
estimated variables. Second, since a demodulation technique
0 −σLs

isd

is not necessary, the presented methodology provides a high +ω
Ls 0 isq
bandwidth at low-speed condition. The method also gives
the ability to run a stability analysis of speed and position Where,
estimation. Hence, a conclusion can be made about the system L2m
convexity based on the initial condition of speed and position σ =1− . (7)
Lr Ls
values.
In a correlation with the internal permanent magnet (IPM)
II. P ROPOSED S ENSORLESS A LGORITHM machine d and q-axis inductances [21], the IM stator induc-
tance Ls and σLs corresponds to Ld and Lq , respectively. The
A. Machine Equations
greater the difference between Ls and σLs, the higher the
The stability analysis and sensorless algorithm are based on magnetic saliency will be, and, consequently, a better speed
the dynamic dq induction machine voltage and flux equations, and position estimation performance is achieved, [22], [23].
[20], represented by 1 and 2, respectively. For the nonlinear optimization, the stator voltage equations 8
d
in the stationary reference frame (αβ) are chosen, where T (θ)
vsd = Rs isd + dt λsd − ωλsq represents the Park Transform in which θ is the rotor flux
position.
d
vsq = Rs isq + dt λsq + ωλsd
(1) vα iα −1 Ls 0 d iα
= Rs + T (θ) T (θ) +
0 = Rr ird + d
− (ω − ωme )λrq vβ iβ 0 σLs dt iβ
dt λrd

0 = Rr irq + d
+ (ω − ωme )λrd 0 −σLs iα
dt λrq
−1
+ωT (θ) T (θ)
Ls 0 iβ
(8)
λsd = Ls isd + Lm ird
λsq = Ls isq + Lm irq
(2) B. Cost function and nonlinear optimization
λrd = Lr ird + Lm isd
λrq = Lr irq + Lm isq The IM nonlinear equation is derived from 8 where the
voltages, currents, and inductances are known quantities. For
As the rotor currents are quantities that cannot be directly an optimization problem, a cost function has to be defined.
measured, the stator voltage equations must be written as If the motor parameters, voltages, and currents are known
a function of the stator currents only. To accomplish this, variables, the solution of the nonlinear equation in 8 results
these equations are analyzed considering the FOC condition, on the actual speed and position. Therefore, the cost function
where the rotor flux is in parallel with the respective d-axis, to be minimized is given by 9, where the compensated voltage
consequently λr = λrd and λrq = 0. Since the q-axis rotor flux is defined as v̄αβ = vαβ − Rs iαβ .
is zero, from the third equation in 1, the d-axis rotor current
can be written as follows,

1 dλrd v̄α (k) −1 Ls 0 T (θ)
ird =− . (3) G(θ(k), ω(k)) =
− T (θ) ×
Rr dt v̄β (k) 0 Ls σ Ts

At steady state conditions, on average, the value of dλrd /dt iα (k) iα (k − 1)
× Tpk (∆θ) − −
and therefore ird is zero. Hence, this component is neglected iβ (k) iβ (k − 1)
in the d-axis stator flux. The expression for irq can be derived 2
from q-axis rotor flux in 2 and is given by, 0 −σ iα
−ωT (θ)−1 T (θ)
Lm Ls 0 iα
irq = − isq . (4) (9)
Lr
Where Tpk (∆θ) is the Park transform which represents
With both d and q-axis rotor currents defined, the stator the position difference between two consecutive samples, and
flux linkage in equation 1 can be written as a function of ∆θ(k) = ω(k)Ts .
461
50
Speed Error[rad/s]
-50
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Position Error [rad]
(a) Cost function at stand still without signal injection.
50
Fig. 2: Convex regions of the cost function for the IM running

Speed Error[rad/s]
at 3000 rpm and zero torque load.

0
At low speeds, the induced back-EMF voltage is reduced

and therefore, as shown in Fig. 1a, the position and speed infor-
mation is compromised. A small perturbation on the machine
-50
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
excitation voltages is necessary to circumvent this condition.
High-frequency signal injection is often used in order the
Position Error [rad]
obtain the desired information at low speeds [22]–[27]. The
(b) Cost function at stand still with signal injection. signal perturbation can be injected either on the stationary
or synchronous frame [6]. The synchronous reference frame
Fig. 1: Influence of signal injection at stand still condition. is chosen in this analysis where the high-frequency signal is
superimposed to the estimated q-axis, defined here as γ-axis.
When signal injection is present, the convex region becomes
bigger as shown in Fig. 1b. As the machine speeds up, the
To analyze the cost function in 9, the quantities vαβ , iαβ , signal injection is not suddenly turned off, but instead, it is
Lm , Ls and Lr are taken from the simulation result for a rotor gradually reduced to zero [21]. If the maximum synchronous
speed of 1000 rpm at a certain position θ. Fig. 2, illustrates speed for signal injection is defined as ωinj , the amplitude for
the cost function plot which shows that its minimum value the injected signal is defined as
corresponds to the point where both speed and position error
are zero. ω0 |
ωinj − |b
vinj = Vinj , (11)
ωinj
C. Stability analysis for induction machines sensorless control
where Vinj is the amplitude of the injected sinusoidal signal
The local minimum shown in Fig. 2 can only be reached and vinj = 0 for |bω 0 | > ωinj . The addition of signal injection
if the cost is locally convex. The convexity is determined by requires a modification in the cost function. The modified cost
analyzing the Hessian matrix, which is the second derivative function is shown in equation 12 where K1(θ(k) b − θ(k b − 1))
of the cost function. The function is said to be convex if the K2(bω (k) − ωb (k − 1)) are included in order to filter the high
Hessian matrix is positive semi-definite, [21]. In this regard, frequency signal component.
the Hessian matrix is computed at each speed and position
point of a predefined mesh grid, and, if both eigenvalues are Glow (θ(k), ω(k)) = G(θ(k), ω(k))−
equal or greater than zero the particular point is plotted as (12)
−K1(θ(k)
b − θ(k b − 1)) − K2(b ω (k) − ω
b (k − 1))
shown in Fig. 2 for the 3000 rpm operating point.
III. A LGORITHM I MPLEMENTATION & VALIDATION Since induction machines have no permanent magnets in
the rotor, the machine has to be excited at the startup to induce
The block diagram of the proposed system is shown in Fig. the rotor flux. Position and speed algorithm is implemented in
3. Speed and position are estimated using Newton’s Method three steps. First, both speed and position are set to zero and
based on the Hessian (H) and Jacobian (J) matrices. The d-axis current is applied to establish the rotor flux. Second, a
b − 1] and ω
estimated quantities θ[k b [k − 1] are feedback to high-frequency signal is injected, and the estimation algorithm
the solver as initial conditions, which updates the estimated starts. Finally, when the rotor flux is established, ω
b and θb are
speed and position values accordingly to equation 10. used by the motor control structure.

θ(k) b − 1)
θ(k Simulation results are shown in Fig. 5 for a rotor speed of
− H −1 J
b
= (10)
ω
b (k) ωb (k − 1) 100 rpm at zero load condition. The estimated synchronous
462
Fig. 3: Sensorless technique block diagram implemented in the αβ reference frame.
Sync Speed [rpm]
Sync Speed [rpm]

1000
500
ws Real
0 ws Est
Rotor Speed [rpm]
Rotor Speed [rpm]
1000
Fig. 4: Rotor flux and estimation start up.
500
wr Ref
wr Est
0 wr Real
Slip Speed [rpm]
Slip Speed [rpm]
50
Est.
0 Actual
Torque [Nm]
6
Torque [Nm]
Fig. 5: Sensorless algorithm validation at standstill, positive 2

Motor Torque
and negative speeds, rotor speed reference of ±100 rpm. 0 Load Torque
Speed Error [rpm]
40
Speed Error [rpm]
speed and position are compared with its respective actual 20

values. The results show that the algorithm is capable to
estimate speed and position at positive and negative speeds 0
as well as standstill condition. Rotor
At speed range above signal injection, Fig. 6 shows the -20 Synchronous
synchronous, rotor and slip speeds as well as electromagnetic 0 5 10
torque followed by the rotor speed error. The rotor reference Time [s]
speed is set to 1000 rpm, 300 rpm, and 1000 rpm at the
time instants of 1 s, 4 s, and 7 s, respectively, while a Fig. 6: Simulation results for synchronous, rotor and slip speed
load torque of 4 Nm is applied at 3 seconds. According to estimation without signal injection under a load torque of 4Nm.
the presented results, the estimated synchronous speed show
463
10 100
Position Error
Rs Error [%]
8 50
Pos. Error [degree]
6 Rs error
0
4 1.0
Pos. Error [degree]

2 0.5
0 0.0
Position Error
0 5 10 4 6 8 10
Time [s] Time [s]
Fig. 7: Simulation result of position error between the esti- Fig. 9: Stator resistance sensitivity for position estimation
mated and real rotor flux for the optimization-based estimation under 100 % error on Rs .
algorithm.
× 1e-4
Rotor Flux [Wb]
Inductance [H]
2.5 × 1e-2
d-axis 2.2
q-axis Lm
2.0 2.0 Ls
Lr
1.5
Flux [Wb]
Pos. Error [degree]
1.0 6
4
0.5
2
0.0 0 Position Error
4 6 8 10
0 5 10 Time [s]
Time [s]
Fig. 10: Magnetizing, stator and rotor inductance sensitivity
Fig. 8: Rotor flux in dq axis reference frame. for an error of 10%.
a good tracking capability, during speed ramp transients of introduced when the load torque is commanded to 4 Nm. The
3500 rpm/s as well as steady-state conditions. Because the resistance Rs gradually increases until it reaches the value that
back-EMF is proportional to the operating speed, a higher corresponds to an error of 100 %. A position error increase
position error is observed at 300 rpm, which results on slip of approximately 0.4 electrical degree at the rated condition is
speed estimation error and, consequently, rotor speed error. In observed, which indicates that the algorithm has low sensitivity
the results shown in Fig. 6, only one iteration of Newton’s to stator resistance.
Method is implemented in the optimization algorithm. For
a DSP with a clock frequency of 200MHz, each iteration Moreover, other than the temperature influence on stator
takes approximately 5µs. With additional code optimization, resistance, the saturation effects have to be taken into account.
the execution time can be further reduced allowing the system Heavy load conditions cause the machine core saturation which
feasibility in practical applications. can lead to a significant reduction of the inductance profile.
Therefore, as Fig. 10 illustrates, an error of 10 % is introduced
With the assumption that the machine is running in FOC, to the Lm , Ls and Lr. A position error of approximately 6
position estimation accuracy is crucial to properly keep the degrees electrical suggests a higher sensitivity for inductance
rotor d−axis flux at its desired levels and guarantee that the variation, therefore inductance compensation is necessary to
q-axis flux is zero. The position error in electrical degrees is avoid higher position error.
shown in Fig. 7. For the operating points shown in Fig. 6,
the maximum error at steady state operation remains at 1.85 The steady-state experimental validation of the proposed
degrees. The position error increase during transients is due sensorless algorithm is shown in Fig. 12 and Fig. 13. On both
to the fact that the conditions for field oriented control are cases, the load torque is 23 Nm and the algorithm performs
not satisfied. The slip speed oscillation at standstill is due to four iteration of the Newton’s Method. At low-speed operation,
the signal injection on q-axis. The rotor flux in Fig. 8 shows a high-frequency signal is injected to extract the position infor-
that, although q-axis flux is not zero during speed and load mation provided by the saliency caused by magnetic saturation.
transients, the estimation algorithm does not diverge and is At high-speed, the signal injection is gradually reduced to
able to keep the system stable after the transient periods. zero and the proposed sensorless method relies only on the
back-EMF information. The rotor speed error is measured to
In order quantify the parameter sensitivity of the proposed evaluate the estimation performance, which remains around
algorithm, in Fig. 9, an error on the stator resistance Rs was zero when the temperature and saturation effects on parameters
464
90 Sync. Speed
1350
80 84.16 deg
Estimated position [deg]
Sync. Spd. [rpm]

70 Wrong initial position 1300
60 1250
50 Real
Actual initial position 1200
40 Est.
30 25.92 deg 1150

550 555 560 565 570 575 580 585 590 595 600
20
10 Rotor Speed
1250
0
Rotor Spd. [rpm]

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
Time [s] 1200
Fig. 11: Experimental result with the algorithm convergence 1150 Real
at a given position (25.92◦ ) from a wrong initial position Est.
(84.16◦ ). 1100
550 555 560 565 570 575 580 585 590 595 600
Speed Error
40
Spd. Error [rpm]

Rotor
such as stator resistance, stator and rotor inductances are taken 20 Sync.
into account. Dynamic results are shown in Fig.14 for speed 0
slope of 3500 rpm/s and 16 Nm of load where synchronous and
-20
rotor speeds are illustrated followed by their respective error.
Both rotor and synchronous speed present a similar error with -40
550 555 560 565 570 575 580 585 590 595 600
satisfactory transient performance.
Fig. 13: Experimental result for rotor speed of 1200 rpm with
The practical bandwidth is analyzed by imposing a wrong 23 Nm of load with signal injection.
initial position and measuring the rise time (tr ) that the
estimator takes cover the range from 10 % and 90 % of the
initial condition to the actual value [21]. For the experimental
scenario shown in Fig. 11, tr = 0.02 s and the system
bandwidth is given by equation 13.
0.34
fbw = = 17 Hz (13)
tr
Sync. Speed
650
Sync. Spd. [rpm]
600
550
Real
500
Est.
450
660 670 680 690 700 710 720
Rotor Speed
550
Rotor Spd. [rpm]
500
450 Real
Est.
400
660 670 680 690 700 710 720 Fig. 14: Dynamic results for speed slope of 3500 rpm/s and
Speed Error 16 Nm of load.
50
Spd. Error [rpm]
Rotor
Sync.
0 IV. C ONCLUSION
A new sensorless technique for wide speed operation ap-
-50 plied to induction machines is presented in this work. Although
660 670 680 690 700 710 720
it does require signal injection at low speeds, the method
Fig. 12: Experimental result for rotor speed of 500 rpm with is unique for the whole speed range operation, therefore,
23 Nm of load with signal injection. the transition challenge between two different estimation ap-
proaches is avoided. It is capable to estimate both speed and
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[10] R. Raute, C. Caruana, C. S. Staines, J. Cilia, M. Sumner, and G. M.
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466
Thermal Analysis of an Electrical Traction Motor
with an Air Cooled Rotor
Markus Jaeger, Andreas Ruf and Kay Hameyer Thorben Grosse-von Tongeln
Institute for Electrical Machines (IEM) Siemens Mobile Divison, Mainline Transport
RWTH Aachen University Siemens AG
Aachen, Germany Krefeld, Germany
Email: Markus.Jaeger@iem.rwth-aachen.de Email: Thorben.Grosse@siemens.com
Telephone: +49 241 80 97680 Telephone: +49 2151 450-1330
Abstract—At low vehicle speed typical for urban areas the of the iron losses is calculated using finite element analysis
thermal limits of the electrical machine are mostly not reached (FEA) in combination with the iron loss formula from [7].
due to the thermal time constants being much higher than the The material iron loss parameters from that paper were fitted
short time spans of high power demand. However in a highway
scenario a higher power is required continuously. Due to rotor to a measured map of the total iron losses of the machine. For
iron losses caused by the high frequency of the modern traction more details about thermal simulation see for example [8].
drive and the thermally insulating air gap at high speeds the
rotor is the crucial element in terms of temperature. In this The insulation system of the winding is classified for 180 ◦C
paper the effect of an interior rotor air cooling to improve the (DIN EN 60085 [10]). High temperatures lead to accelerated
thermal utilization is studied. aging and reduced life time, therefor this limit is used. With
a method for calculating the aging effects higher short time
Index Terms—Electric Vehicles, Traction Drives, Rotating
Electrical Machines, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines, temperature limits could be allowed. The permitted permanent
Thermal Management, Rotor Air Cooling magnet temperature depends on the counter acting magnetic
field, therefore at low magnet temperatures a higher load
I. I NTRODUCTION can be tolerated. In contrast to the winding exceeding the
Various studies on the thermal behavior and overload capa- temperature limit leads to irreversible demagnetization. Using
bility of electrical machines can be found in literature [1] [2]. FEA and the permanent magnet characteristic an allowed
In [3] a convection cooled machine is investigated, intended temperature for every operating point is determined. Since the
for use in an range extender module with a rated speed of permanent magnet characteristic is not ideal linear, a small
2750 min−1 . This is much lower than modern traction drives demagnetization of 0.1 % is allowed.
featuring a speed in the range of 11 300 min−1 (Renault Zoe), III. P ERMANENT M AGNET S YNCHRONOUS M ACHINE
11 400 min−1 (BMW i3, Nissan Leaf) or 12 000 min−1 (Tesla WITH A IR C OOLED ROTOR
Model S, Smart Electric Drive). In [4] the thermal behavior of
The studied machine is an radial flux PMSM with internal
a traction drive with a rated power of 46 kW and a maximum
magnets. Main machine parameters are collected in table I.
speed of 6000 min−1 is analyzed. However studies of the
The rotor air cooling system is constructed internally inside
thermal behavior of the rotor of radial field machines which
the shaft, with air intake and output on the same side. In the
consider high machine speed are rare, despite the rotor being
harsh environment of a vehicle the air can be loaded with
the limiting factor for power output at this speed. To improve
water, salt or other aggressive substances. The advantage of
the thermal utilization of the electrical machine the effect of an
this concept is a separation of the air flow from the sensitive
integrated rotor air cooling system is analyzed and the possible
active components. Therefor a less complex air filter system
load determined.
is sufficient.
II. A PPROACH The hollow shaft features aluminum cooling fins on the
inside. Through the rotation of the fins and the static guidance
To determine the possible load the machine temperatures
are calculated and compared to the permitted temperatures.
Therefor a lumped parameter thermal model (LPTN) is es- TABLE I
tablished. Model parameters with significant uncertainties, in M AIN MACHINE PARAMETERS
particular the convection coefficients and thermal properties of Rated power 30 kW Yoke outer diameter 202 mm
the winding and grouting, are estimated with an optimization Rated torque 100 Nm Air gap diameter 122 mm
algorithm on a series of eight different measurements. As Max. speed 10 000 min−1 Shaft inner diameter 82 mm
Pole pairs 3 Active length 80 mm
starting point for the convection coefficients analytical and Slots 36
empirical approaches from [5] [6] are used. The distribution
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 467

is primarily dissipated through the water cooling jacket and
the rotor cooling, therefor in axial direction the temperature
gradient is low.
Table II lists some thermal conductivities and convection
coefficients which where in combination with the machine
dimensions used to calculate the thermal resistances. The rotor
cooling was modeled with the MATLAB/Simscape thermal
fluid box and the parameters again fitted with measurements,
so no simple convection coefficient can be given.
In fig. 4 the fitted convection coefficient for the airgap is
shown which is implemented as a saturation formula based on
the approach in [6].
Water cooling jacket

Fig. 1. Machine design with rotor air cooling system.
plates of the tube inside the shaft a speed dependent air flow is
achieved. In addition to the cooling of the electrical machine Housing
the air flow is used to cool the inverter system, which is (3155 J/K)
mounted circularly around the intake/output tube. The system
is illustrated in Fig. 1, the inverter itself is not shown. Further Yoke Grouting
information on the machine can be found in [9]. (2271 J/K) (406 J/K) A
m
IV. T HERMAL M ODEL W1 EW1 b
½ of Teeth
A rotational electrical machine features a good radial sym- (661 J/K) i
ES e
metry to the rotational axis, and to some degree a symmetry
to the axial center plane depending on the endwindings, shaft n
½ of Teeth t
and endshield with bearings. In this paper it is taken advantage (661 J/K)
of these symmetries for simplification of the model structure. W2 EW2
The LPTN is shown in fig. 3, and a sketch to illustrate the Airgap
areas/volumes represented by the distinct nodes is given in
fig. 2.
The heat path in radial direction is represented in fig. 3 Thermal Masses
Rotor_p2 Rotor_p1
by the resistances and thermal masses in vertical direction. (113 J/K) (270 J/K) W1 399 J/K
For the axial direction it is assumed that in the stacked sheet W2 774 J/K
metal the heat flow is zero. This assumption is feasible due to EW1 264 J/K
Rotor_p3 Magnets
two reasons: 1. The thermally insulating varnish layers reduce (248 J/K) EW2 2290 J/K
(342 J/K)
the thermal conductivity of the iron core, and 2. the heat
ES 1639 J/K
Rotor_p4
(404 J/K)
Rotor Air flow
Housing
Rotor_p5 Shaftend
Yoke (300 J/K)
Grouting E (370 J/K) A
Teeth & End- n Tube
d m
Winding winding Mount (200 J/K)
s b
Rotor & h (591 J/K) i
convection
i
Magnets in airspace
e e
l n
d Shaft_p1
(270 J/K) t
Shaft
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the LPTN considered. Black nodes are thermal
capacitors, light green resistances indicate a variable resistance representing
machine speed dependent convection.
Fig. 2. Sketch of cross section and longitudinal section of the Machine to
illustrate the structure of the thermal model.
468
TABLE II
M AIN MACHINE PARAMETERS
Thermal conductivity or convection coefficient

Water Jacket 503 W/m2 K (full Housing cylinder)
Sheet Metal 23 W/mK (in sheet plane)
Winding 174 W/mK (axial direction)
12 W/mK (radial direction)
Grouting 1 W/mK
Fig. 5. High load at 50 min−1 with high copper losses. Water coolant intake
at 20 ◦C, rotor cooling active.
Fig. 4. Fitted convection coefficient in airgap over machine speed.
V. VALIDATION OF THE T HERMAL M ODEL

Fig. 6. High load at 9500 min−1 with high iron losses. Water coolant intake
Measured and simulated temperatures for four measurement at 80 ◦C, rotor cooling not active.
series are given in Fig. 5-8. The measured temperatures are
from six sensors in the end winding on one axial machine end,
two sensors in magnet recesses and one sensor between the
shaft and the rotor core.
The measured temperatures at the six end winding sensors
show consistent differences of up to 20 K which indicates a
dependency of the local positioning of the sensor. Insulation
aging and possible failure will occur primarily at the end
winding hot spots, therefor the measurement data from the
hotter three sensors is used for parameter identification of the
thermal model.
The model with identified parameters shows good accor-
dance to the measurements with deviations lower than the
local temperature differences. The accordance also applies Fig. 7. High load at 50 min−1 , from min. 8 on at 8000 min−1 with step
for different operating points with different loss-distributions, wise decreasing load. Water coolant intake at 80 ◦C.
different coolant temperatures, with or without rotor cooling.
The impact of the iron loss distribution can be observed in
Fig. 7. At the time instant of ”minute 27” the model shows
slightly lower temperatures than measured. A decrease of load
does not change the thermal properties which are constant
or speed dependent (convection), but leads to slightly higher
temperatures in comparison to the measurement at ”minute
47”. This leads to the conclusion of deviations in the iron loss
calculation from the real iron loss distribution.
VI. E FFECT OF THE ROTOR A IR C OOLING S YSTEM

The rotor cooling yields a significant temperature decrease
of the magnets depending on the operating point. Because of
Fig. 8. High load at 4000 min−1 , then 6000 min−1 , then 9500 min−1 .
the speed dependent flow rate the biggest temperature decrease Water coolant intake at 80 ◦C.
469
VII. C ONCLUSION
In this paper the effect of an air cooled rotor on the
possible operation areas of a radial flux PMSM is investigated
via thermal simulation. The rotor cooling yields a significant
decrease in magnet temperature at high machine speed. This
effectively enlarges the area of possible continuous operation
as well as the possible overload. Due to the speed dependent
cooling behavior the effect is largest at high machine speed
which occurs at high vehicle speed where a high power output
is required and cooling of the rotor is crucial. The results show
a significant increase in thermal utilization of the motor.
VIII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The results presented Federal Ministry
Fig. 9. Steady-state temperature of the permanent magnets with and without in this paper have
rotor cooling.
of Education
been developed in and Research
the research project e-
occurs at 10 000 min−1 with more than 40 K difference to the MoSys: Entwicklung und
non cooled rotor (see Fig. 9). prototypische Umsetzung
To illustrate impact of the temperature decrease the areas eines anfordergungsgerechten und modularen Antriebs- und
of possible continuous operation (S1) with and without rotor Fahrwerkssystems fr ein Elektrofahrzeug” granted by the
cooling (RC) have been calculated. Figure 10 shows that at Ministry of Education and Research (reference number
10 000 min−1 the continuously possible torque or rather the 16N11637).
power output rises by about 50 %. Via simulation with a ve- R EFERENCES
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470
Thermal Analysis of Lateral GaN HEMT Devices for
High Power Density Integrated Motor Drives Considering
the Effect of PCB Layout and Parasitic Parameters
Woongkul Lee, Student Member, IEEE and Bulent Sarlioglu1, Senior Member, IEEE
Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC)
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Madison, WI, USA
1
sarlioglu@wisc.edu
Abstract—A high power density inverter is one of the

most important design requirements for a compact and
energy-efficient integrated motor drive (IMD) design. A
gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor
(HEMT) has a lateral device structure with land grid array
(LGA) or ball grid array (BGA) package for minimum
parasitic inductance and resistance, which is also
advantageous in a thermal management. This paper
presents a new thermal management methodology for a
high power density IMD using GaN HEMTs. An optimized
printed circuit board (PCB) design is investigated for an (a)
effective bottom-side cooling method without any heatsink.
The parasitic components are also analytically estimated to
prove the validity of the proposed circuit design.
Index Terms—GaN HEMTs, integrated motor drive,

parasitic parameters, PCB layout, thermal management.
I. INTRODUCTION
An integrated motor drive (IMD) has numerous
attractive features such as high power density, low weight
and cost, and improved EMI/EMC behavior due to the
absence of separate control cabinets and connection
cables [1]-[3]. The IMD has been increasingly more
popular in a number of applications including HEV/EV
propulsion system [4]-[5], servomotor, fan, pump [6], and (b)
compressor [7]. However, the physical integration of a Fig. 1. (a) Lateral GaN HEMT device structure with a thermal
motor drive with an electric machine brings up new model and (b) thermal model of a half bridge inverter including
challenges such as thermal management, mechanical PCB.
stress due to the vibration, and the design of a compact
motor drive for the seamless integration. PCB. The absence of the heatsink helped to reduce the
The use of gallium nitride (GaN) high electron volume of the drive modules, which made them suitable
mobility transistors (HEMTs) in IMDs can provide for the compact integration. In [13]-[16], several different
effective solutions to these issues due to their high GaN HEMT-based motor drives were designed without
switching speed, low on-state resistance, and small device any heatsink, which also showed the effectiveness of the
footprint [8]-[10]. The GaN HEMTs have an inherent bottom-side cooling method.
lateral device structure with land grid array (LGA) or ball In [17]-[18], two different prototypes were fabricated
grid array (BGA) package for the minimum parasitic to investigate the thermal performance of GaN HEMTs
inductance and resistance. These packages also improve using the bottom-side cooling method. The temperatures
the thermal performance of the device by providing low of GaN HEMTs on a direct-bonded copper (DBC) and a
thermal resistance channels through a printed circuit PCB (FR4) were compared where the DBC outperformed
board (PCB) as shown in Fig. 1 (a) and (b) [11]. the PCB. This was mainly due to the thicker copper layer
The IMD with GaN HEMTs was first investigated in (300 μm) of DBC as compared to that of PCB (35 μm)
[12] where a natural convection method was used without and high thermal conductivity of ceramic substrates.
any heatsink. Most of the power loss generated from the However, the-state-of-the-art PCB manufacturing
device was dissipated through the copper layer in the technology can provide a heavy copper layer (>2 oz/ft2),
which significantly improves the thermal performance of
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 471

(a) (b)
Fig. 2. (a) Schematic and (b) PCB layout of a half bridge inverter using GaN HEMTs (4 layers, 2.48 in2 copper area, 0.06 in
distance between device, and 0.1 in via pitch, 2 oz/ft2).
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 3. GaN HEMTs and PCB temperature estimation result with different copper thickness. (a) Device case temperature vs. copper
thickness. (b) Device temperature with copper thickness of 1 oz/ft2. (c) Device temperature with copper thickness of 2 oz/ft2. (d)
Device temperature with copper thickness of 4 oz/ft2.
GaN HEMTs on the conventional PCB. It is also worth II. THERMAL MODEL OF LATERAL GAN HEMT
noting that there are a few more PCB design parameters DEVICES
such as copper thickness, copper area, distance between The thermal model of a single device on a PCB is
devices, substrate materials, the via pitch, and the number illustrated in Fig. 1(a) and a half bridge inverter thermal
of layers to fully exploit the capability of GaN HEMTs, model is shown in Fig. 1(b). The device ratings and
which have not been investigated in the previous thermal impedances of the GaN HEMT are summarized
literature. in Table I where the thermal impedance of bottom-side
This paper presents a comprehensive thermal analysis cooling (RθJA) channel is 59.5 °C/W lower than that of
of the GaN HEMT-based IMD considering the effect of
top-side cooling channel (RθCA+RθJC). Although an
PCB layout and parasitic parameters. The contributions
of the paper include the thermal analysis of the GaN additional heat sink can be placed on top of the devices to
HEMTs with various copper thickness, board area, reduce the thermal impedance of the top-side cooling
distance between the devices, and via pitch. The parasitic channel, it increases the total volume of the drive module
inductances of the boards are also analytically estimated [19]. It also makes the device vulnerable to external
to ensure the minimum voltage overshoot and ringing. mechanical shock and vibration especially in the IMD.
472
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 4. GaN HEMTs and PCB temperature estimation result with different copper area. (a) Device case temperature vs. copper area.
(b) Device temperature with copper area of 0.26 in2. (c) Device temperature with copper area of 1.49 in2. (d) Device temperature with
copper area of 2.48 in2.
TABLE I different example PCB designs are shown in Fig. 3(b),

SPECIFICATIONS OF GAN HEMT WITH (c), and (d). The copper thickness has the significant
2 OZ/FT2 COPPER PCB [20] impact on the thermal performance of the GaN HEMTs
Voltage rating (VDS) 100 V since the device temperature drops down by 45.1 °C from
Current rating (IDS) 6 A 1 oz/ft2 copper thickness to 4 oz/ft2. One caveat is the
On-state resistance (RDS) 30 mΩ heavy copper PCB (>2 oz/ft2) manufacturing capability
Case-to-ambient (RθCA) 133 °C/W with less than 0.006 in trace/clearance. It is inevitable to
Junction-to-case (RθJC) 6.5 °C/W use 2 oz/ft2 or less copper on the top layer due to the
Junction-to-base (RθJB) 32 °C/W footprint clearance of the device and gate drive (< 0.006
Junction-to-ambient (RθJA) 80 °C/W in), but the rest of the layers can have higher than 2 oz/ft2.
PCB-to-ambient (RθPCBA) 60 °C/W The copper area is also the other key factor
Junction temperature (TJ) -40 – 150 °C
significantly affecting the thermal performance of GaN
HEMTs as shown in Fig. 4. It is found the copper area
needs to be larger than 2 in2 to dissipate 2 W of power
III. OPTIMAL PCB LAYOUT FOR THERMAL loss from the devices while not exceeding the maximum
MANAGEMENT temperature limit.
A GaN HEMT-based half bridge inverter shown in The distances between the devices and the via pitch are
Fig. 2 (a) is used for the thermal analysis and the baseline not as critical as the copper thickness and area in the
PCB design is illustrated in Fig. 2(b). Four different thermal performance of GaN HEMTs as shown in Fig.
design parameters are considered to find the optimal PCB 5(a) and (d). As the distance between the devices
layout: copper thickness, copper area, distance between increases, the device temperature marginally decreases
devices, and the via pitch (the number of thermal vias). (see Fig. 5(b) and (c)). It is worth noting that placing two
The baseline PCB has 4 layers, 2 oz/ft2 copper thickness, devices as close as possible is important in reducing gate
2.48 in2 copper area, 0.06 in distance between device, and loop and power loop inductances.
0.1 in via pitch. The power loss generated from each The impact of the via pitch on the temperature is not
device is set to be 2 W. The boards are designed in significant unless they are placed under or near the GaN
Altium and imported to Ansys SIwave for FEA-based HEMTs to reduce the PCB-to-ambient thermal resistance
thermal analysis. as shown in Fig. 5(b). The temperature variation is not
The temperature estimation results with different noticeable as the via pitch changes from 0 (no thermal
copper thickness are plotted in Fig. 3(a) and three via) to 0.025 in.
473
(a) (d)
(b) (e)
(c) (f)
Fig. 5. GaN HEMTs and PCB temperature estimation result with different distances between devices and via pitches. (a) Device case
temperature vs. distance between devices. (b) Device temperature with distance of 0.06 in. (c) Device temperature with distance of
0.6 in. (d) Device case temperature vs. via pitch. (e) Device temperature with via pitch of 0 in (no via). (f) Device temperature with
via pitch of 0.025 in.
IV. ESTIMATION OF PARASITIC INDUCTANCES the loop, w is the width of the copper trace, t is the
The parasitic inductances of the power and gate loops thickness of the copper (all in inch) [20].
are critical in designing GaN HEMT-based inverter due The estimation results are plotted in Fig. 6(a) and (b)
to the fast switching speed and the low threshold voltage. and where the distance between devices and the copper
As the copper thickness and the distance between devices thickness are varied depending on the design of PCBs.
change, these parasitic impedance values are also The gate loop inductance is not estimated since the trace
affected. length between the gate drive and the device is
The parasitic inductance of a straight rectangular bar maintained reasonably low (less than 0.1 in) with a
can be analytically estimated using ground return plane which further reduces the loop
2l 1 w+t inductance.
Lloop = 5.08l × [2.303log10( )+ + 0.2235 ], (1) The estimation results show that the distance between
w+t 2 l
device has the significant impact on the loop inductance.
where Lloop is the loop inductance in nH, l is the length of
In general, the loop inductance needs to be kept less than
1 nH to reduce the voltage overshoot and ringing
474
(a) (b)
Fig. 6. Estimated loop inductances with (a) different distances between devices and (b) different copper thicknesses.
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integrated and distributed inverter for a fault tolerant
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[7] W. Lee, D. Han, and B. Sarlioglu, “Comparative
significant impact on the thermal performance, it is performance analysis of reference voltage controlled
crucial to keep the distance as short as possible (less than pulse width modulation for high-speed single-phase
0.1 in) to maintain the loop inductance less than 1 nH. brushless DC motor drive,” IEEE Trans. Power
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commercial GaN power devices and GaN-based
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Topics Power Electron., vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 707-719, Sep.
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of 2016.
the Grainger Center for Electric Machinery and [10] D. Han, S. Li, W. Lee, and B. Sarlioglu, “Adoption of
Electromechanics (CEME) at the University of Illinois wide bandgap technology in hybrid/electric vehicles –
opportunities and challenges,” in Proc. IEEE Transport.
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integrated drive for hybrid traction,” in Proc. CPES drive design with GaN power FETs,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
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476
Presentation Abstract and Digest
Thermal Runaway Prevention of Li-ion Batteries by Novel Thermal Management
System
Mark Hartmann – CTO, Outlast Technologies LLC
Joe Kelly – Senior Scientist, Outlast Technologies LLC
ABSTRACT
Lithium-ion batteries are the preferred choice in many applications due to their energy
density, higher voltage, and negligible memory effects. Most commercial lithium-ion cell
chemistries will start to degrade at or above 60°C and leads to rapid loss of capacity over
subsequent charge/discharge cycles. Additionally, thermal runaway and propagation is a
priority safety concern due to the possibility of serious fire, explosion and injury in the event
the cells are physically damaged or short circuited. Thermal management of lithium-ion
battery packs using latent heat systems (LHS®) systems has proven highly effective for both
improved pack performance and prevention of thermal runaway or propagation. In addition
to prevention of thermal runaway and improved cell life, these systems provide for more
homogenous pack temperatures, electrically insulative properties and less complex BMS
system requirements.
INTRODUCTION
Lithium-ion (Li-Ion) batteries are nearly universally used as the rechargeable energy storage
in consumer goods, ranging in applications from cell phones to children’s toys. Their success
over other rechargeable batteries, in nearly every consumer goods market, has led to a
renewed expectation of better battery performance: faster charging, longer cell life, higher
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 477

voltage and improved safety. Larger power demands and increasing cell density of lithium-ion
battery packs result in high operating temperatures, especially under peak loads and because
of the susceptibility of most commercial lithium-ion cell chemistries to degrade or age at or
above 60°C, this leads to rapid loss of capacity and cell life over subsequent charge/discharge
cycles (C/D cycles) [1].
Large packs containing multiple cells (Fig 1)
have an inherent problem during use in that the
center or inner cells cannot effectively
dissipate their heat during C/D cycles due to Figure 1, Large Multicell Pack
surrounding cells blocking that heat dissipation, and also the surrounding cells themselves
creating heat during their C/D cycles. This creates multiple problems such as hot cells and
hot spots within the pack that can cause cell degradation leading to loss of cell life and cell
energy capacity. The C/D capacity (i.e. Wh/kg or Ah) of a cell is also proportional to its
temperature with higher temperature cells having higher capacity. Therefore, non-
homogenous pack temperatures lead to uneven C/D capacity in a pack. Depending on the
application, this non-homogeneity requires complex battery management systems (BMS) to
measure, monitor and control the various cells and their C/D rates and capacities.
One of the most catastrophic failures of a lithium-ion battery system is a cascading thermal
runaway event where failure in one individual cell causes multiple cells in a battery fail.
Thermal runaway can occur due to exposure to excessive temperatures, external shorts due
to faulty wiring, or internal shorts due to cell defects. Thermal runaway events, especially in
large multicell packs, result in the explosive release of significant energy in the form of heat
and also toxic flammable gases that can lead catastrophic and life threating failure of battery
packs.
It can be shown that correctly engineered passive thermal management systems based on
latent heat absorption, storage and dissipation can provide sufficient cyclable energy capacity
478
to absorb cell heat during charge/discharge cycles to reduce peak temperatures by 10-15oC.
This temperature control leads to less cell degradation, and depending on the cell and
environment can lead to a >40% increase in cell life. These systems also encase each cell in
the pack which provides consistent thermal absorption properties leading to homogenous cell
temperatures throughout the pack.
These same systems when optimized with the incorporation of absorption/degradation
mechanisms, electrically insulative properties, fire retardant properties, and latent heat
absorption properties at the correct latent heat absorption temperatures - the system can
withstand and absorb sufficient explosive energy to prevent a damaged or short-circuited cell
from thermally propagating to adjacent cells and starting them on fire.
PACK TEMPERATURE CONTROL AND CELL LIFE IMPROVEMENT
In order to test the effect of thermal control on the cells and
packs, 18650 cells from the same manufacturing lot were tested in
air as a control and held in an LHS® thermal management matrix
(Fig. 2). The LHS® Matrix had a 42-45oC transition/absorption
temperature with 75-80 Joules/gram of latent energy capacity and

Figure 2, Example of Cells and Matrix
thermal conductivity of ~0.3 W/m·k. Four LGDAHB41865 1.5Ah Li-
ion cells (3.7V, 6 Ah) were connect in parallel on an
Arbin® BT cell testing device. Thermocouples were
attached to cell surface between the cell and the
LHS® Matrix carrier. The charge/discharge cycle
protocol consisted of: cells rest for 1 minute before
charging at 6A till voltage reaches 4.2V, then trickle
charge until current drops to 0.25A. Cells rest for
30 seconds before discharging at 80A until voltage of
2.5V is achieved. The cells rest for 10 minutes Figure 3, Charge/Discharge temp. profile and pack homogeneity
479
before looping back to the charge cycle. This
repeats for 1000 cycles. As shown in Figures 3
and 4, the thermal management effect
reduces peak cell temperatures, provides
even cell temperatures throughout the pack,
and improves cell energy capacity, i.e. cell

Figure 4, Cell Discharge Capacity
life by reducing degradation due to cycling thermal exposure. Figure 3 shows the
temperature profile for control cell versus LHS® temperature managed cells. The control cell
in air reaches peak temperatures in the range of 60-65oC, whereas all of the cells in the LHS®
matrix are 10-15oC lower and peak temperatures remain in the 48-53oC range. This work also
shows the ability to even out the temperature of the pack with the interior cells within 1-2oC
of the exterior cells. Figure 4 shows the improvement in cell discharge capacity over cycling
lifetime. By reducing cell temperature, i.e. degradation, a >40% improvement in cell life and
discharge capacity can be realized, as measured by number of cycles above 75% capacity.
NAIL PENETRATION AND THERMAL PROPAGATION TESTING
In order to show the ability of the material to prevent
thermal runaway and propagation, nail penetration was
conducted using a custom-built testing instrument. A 5-
ton hydraulic press modified with a linear actuator was
used for cell penetration. The pack under test was
secured and cell perpendicularly oriented to the nail. The Figure 5, After Nail Penetration
nail was made of hardened tool steel 0.150” in diameter with a 0.025” diameter tip. The nail
was penetrated at a speed of 23 inches/minute into the cell about 50% through or about the
middle of the cell, at which point the nail movement was stopped. Nail penetration testing
perpendicular to the cell axis will more severely short circuit the internal foils of the cell
480
jellyroll creating a more intense and explosive
thermal runaway event [2]. Cell temperatures were
monitored and are shown in figure 6. As shown in
figure 5 and 6, there was no adjacent cell
propagation and adjacent cells did not overheat and
remained below 80oC.
CONCLUSIONS
Figure 6, Nail Penetration Temp. Profile
Latent Heat Systems passive thermal management, when
properly designed and engineered can provide significant benefits in pack safety and
performance. Benefits of this technology include:
• Eliminates Thermal Runaway
• >40% Improved Battery Life
• Significant Reduction in Thermal Degradation
• Electrically Insulative, not Conductive
• Superior Thermal Mitigation during High Charge/Discharge Cycles.
• Homogeneous Cell Temperatures Across Battery Pack
• Recyclability and Reuse of Shape Stable Matrix
REFERENCES
[1] Ling, Z., Zhang, Z., Shi, G., Fang, X., Wang, L., Gao, X., Fang, Y., Xu, T., Wang, S. &
Liu, X. ”Review on thermal management systems using phase change materials for
electronic components, Li-ion batteries and photovoltaic modules”. Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 31, 427-438, 2014.
[2] Lei, B., Zhao, W. “Experimental analysis of thermal runaway in 18650 cylindrical li-Ion
cells using an accelerating rate calorimeter, Batteries, vol. 3, issue 2, June 2017.
481
Impact of Heat Dissipation Profiles on Power Electronics
Packaging Design
Tong Wu1 Burak Ozpineci1,2

1 2
Bredesen Center Power Electronics and Electric Machinery
The University of Tennessee Research Center
Knoxville, TN 37996 USA Oak Ridge National Laboratory
twu11@vols.utk.edu Knoxville, TN 37932 USA
burak@ornl.gov
Abstract— This paper focuses on understanding the area can be achieved [1]. Moreover, the considerations of
thermal impacts of using discrete power devices and cost and parasitic capacitance limit the device size. To
limitations of applying conventional thermal design maintain a high yield percentage of 6-inch wafer, a
methods. Empirically, a thermal system is designed smaller die size is necessary to avoid the defects and
based on selecting a heat sink with the required reduce the material cost. The higher switching speed, on
thermal resistance from the manufacturer datasheet. the other hand, will introduce EMI issue which can be
This method, as an approximate estimation, has been mitigated by using smaller die size for a lower coupled
proven effective as a rough design of Si-based power capacitor.
module. However, wide bandgap (WBG) bare dies In addition to the smaller footprint, significant
bring additional thermal design concerns that have improvements in the device characteristics allow higher
been overlooked. The benefits of WBG devices, such current density and higher rated power. In comparison to
as smaller chip sizes and higher power ratings, on the the Si-based devices, even though SiC devices have lower
other hand, lead to thermal concentration issues. losses, they have a higher loss density, defined as the ratio
Detailed analyses and impacts of the thermal of total loss over footprint of the devices,
concentration are presented in this paper. A more
Loss density =
(1)
accurate model involving Finite Element Analysis
(FEA) and Genetic Algorithm Optimization is also This high loss density makes the hotspot issue more
proposed for a more accurate thermal design. severe, even with a higher thermal conductivity of the
material[2]. Moreover, applications using direct bond
Keywords—Thermal management, Junction copper (DBC) as the power module substrate bring
temperature, TEC, Modeling, Thermal coupling benefits like the low coefficient of thermal expansion,
thinner structure, better vertical thermal transfer, and
I. INTRODUCTION availability of custom layout design [3]. However,
The recent developments in power semiconductor compared to the commercial power modules with larger
technology, especially in wide bandgap devices, such as baseplates, horizontal heat spreading capability of DBCs
silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN), have is worse. Based on a rough estimation, with the same
significantly improved the performance of power material, cross-section of the DBC is one fifth of a
electronics converters. Because of the superior material baseplate. This change reduces the heat spreading
properties of WBG devices, a lower resistance per unit capability by five times and further aggravates the
thermal concerns.
This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract
No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United II. CONVENTIONAL DESIGN METHOD
States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for
publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non- The convention heat sink evaluation method, based on
exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the
published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States
equations (2) and (3), is illustrated in [4]:
Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access
to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE
Thermal equivalent circuit (TEC) model:
Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). T =T + (R +R +R )×P (2)

Thermal resistance selection criterion:
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 482

R < _
−R −R (3) Fig. 2. Thermal resistance comparison of footprint ratio
_ _
differences
The value of R
, is obtained from the
datasheet of the manufacturer as a function of the flow Case 2: Impacts of thermal coupling
rate as shown in Figure 6. This case is studied to illustrate the impact of thermal
coupling between the semiconductor die, which was
briefly mentioned in [6-7]. Impacts of the thermal
coupling versus the separation distance have been tested
in this paper for both perpendicular and parallel air flow
directions. The perpendicular thermal coupling results are
shown in Fig. 3, The maximum junction temperature
reduced from 82°C to 70°C by separating the devices
further. This example shows that the thermal coupling
effect can introduce as large as 40% extra junction
temperature.
Fig. 1. Datasheet of commercially available heat sink [5]
However, the more detailed information, such as the

discrete device locations and the heat dissipation profile,
are not provided in this datasheet. In order to better
understand the concept of the thermal resistance, the
following sections will show a group of numerical
simulations and will compare the results.
Fig. 3. Impact of perpendicular thermal coupling
III. CASE STUDY AND ANALYSIS
Case 3: Impacts of the heat source location
Case 1: Impacts of footprint ratio Another impact related to the device layout is the
A group of identical power modules with the same location of devices. As shown in Fig. 4, the junction
components and parameters, except the footprint ratio of temperature profiles of a single die placed in different
the heat source, which is defined as, locations are evaluated. This case is illustrated to prove
Footprint ratio = Die Area/Cross-section area of that the vertical thermal resistance of a power module is
the heat sink (4) not constant but a function of the location.
Have been simulated using FEA software. Thermal
resistance profile comparisons among datasheet, ratio of
0.9 and ratio of 0.2 are shown in Fig. 2.
As can be seen in figure 2, reducing the heat source
footprint ratio from 0.9 to 0.2, the thermal resistance of
the junction to ambient is doubled with the same inlet
speed of 6m/s and thermal resistance profile for ratio of
0.9 almost matches the profile from manufacturer’s
datasheet. It confirms the assumption that the datasheet of Fig. 4. (a) Temperature profile of different locations
(b) Design area and feasible locations
the heat sink is plotted based on the analysis of a large
By changing the device location of the module with a
heat source.
footprint ratio of 0.2 shown in the Case 1, the junction
temperature of the device varies from 130°C to 175°C. As
a design limit of 140°C, center of device can be only
placed inside the green domain.
Case 4: Overall impacts

Combining the impacts from the previous cases, both
worst-case and best-case scenarios with the same power
loss are constructed to illustrate the significant impacts of
the heat dissipation profile. The best case is two devices
with large footprint, large enough separation and located
483
at the center of heat sink. The worst case is created to be Fig. 7. The TEC models in this paper will be built based
an extra-bad design which both small devices are put this FEA simulation results.
close to each other at the corner of heat sink. For all other
possible layout designs, the junction temperatures of them
should be in between of two extreme cases.
Fig. 5. Comparison of overall impacts Fig. 7. The model of the heat sink with two heat sources
As the comparison results shown in Fig. 5, the junction A. Finite Element Analysis
temperature increase of the worst-case scenario is 200% Since advanced modeling details need to be extracted
higher than the best case heat dissipation profile. from the FEA simulation, at least two independent sets of
However, without considering the scenarios, a “safe test data should be extracted as input. To save the
design” using the conventional method can lead to a computation time, special setting adjustment has been
destructive thermal failure. The impacts should be made for the simulation with multiple data inputs.
considered in the future power module design. Assuming the temperature does not affect fluid material
IV. PROPOSED SOLUTIONS property significantly, a partial decoupling FEA method
is reasonable to apply so that NITF (Non-Isothermal
Previous comparisons indicate that the heat dissipation Flow) study can be used to solve for two physics
layout have to be considered in the design to avoid the interfaces (Laminar flow and heat transfer) sequentially.
design issues. But the layout impact has been overlooked The first study step focuses on the flow profile only.
in the one-dimensional TEC model. A modified thermal The flow distribution is evaluated regardless of the
modeling should be proposed based on results of finite thermal profile. That means, the temperature dependent
element analysis (FEA). For automation purposes the parameters such as density and dynamic viscosity are
model construction, the FEA simulation commands that represented by ( ) and ( ) and treated as
are executed in COMSOL are directly invoked from the constant values.
algorithms implemented in MATLAB. An automatic co- Next step, is using the previous flow distribution as the
simulation loop is built as shown in Fig. 6. [8] initial solution to solve for temperature profile.
Meanwhile, the temperature gradient change of the flow
is updated through the Multiphysics NITF interface.
With this approach, it is much more efficient to
evaluate the varied heat source parameters input case. For
two sets of data, a sequent auxiliary sweep is set. This
decoupled two-step study essentially reduces the total
computation time from 26min 18s of the fully coupled
model to 4min 8s. At the same time, the additional error
introduced by decoupling approach is no larger than 2 °C,
which is about 3%.
Applying this method and by altering the power loss
profile of two devices from [110W, 10W] to [10W,
110W], the junction temperature of two devices are
evaluated in COMSOL as shown in Table 1, and the
Fig. 6. Co-simulation loop parameters are reported to MATLAB through the co-
As a design example, a random heat sink with two simulation loop for construction of the TEC model.
devices on the top is built in COMSOL, as shown in
484
Loss1(W) Loss2(W) Junction T1(°C) Junction T2(°C) Fig. 9. 2D-TEC decoupled modeling
10 110 72.658 172.02 Parameters of the TEC are evaluated as:
110 10 157.91 73.704 = 1.38° / and = 1.25° /
Table 1. Simulation results of two sets of data 3. Two-dimensional coupled circuit modeling
In addition to the previous model, the proposed
B. Steady-State Thermal Equivalent Circuit modified thermal equivalent circuit (MTEC) constructed
Thermal equivalent circuit, as a simplified electrical in this paper considered the thermal coupling issues. As
RC model, has been used for decades to estimate the shown in Fig. 10, an additional resistance representing the
steady-state thermal performance of a power circuit horizontal heat transfer performance is included.
where heat flow is represented by current, temperatures
are represented by voltages. However, the accuracy of the
estimation is highly dependent on the modeling. Several
approaches of the thermal equivalent circuit are compared
in this section.
1. One-dimensional circuit modeling
1D-TEC is constructed based on the one-dimensional
circuit, as shown in Fig. 8. This is the most common and
simple model. A series of resistances represent the
thermal impedances along the one-dimensional vertical Fig. 10. 2D-TEC coupled modeling
direction. There are five parameters to be evaluated though. To
further simply the circuit, Delta – Y transformation has
been done leads to a simpler circuit as shown in Fig. 11.
Fig. 8. 1D-TEC modeling

R_th is calculated as
=( − )/ (5)
The thermal resistance value used in the following
Fig. 11. Modified TEC (MTEC)
comparison is the average R_th values of two sets results.
The junction temperatures of the model can be
In this example, the R_th is calculated as 1.2 °C/W.
expressed as the net voltages at the current source input
2. Two-dimensional decoupled circuit modeling
point. Though, it is solvable with analytical approaches,
2D-TEC is constructed in a more realistic way, which
to more efficiently acquire the parameters of the
is commonly seen in a power module datasheet. For
resistance net, Genetic Algorithm is applied as the
example, datasheet of an IGBT power module contains
solution approach tool. For more detailed Genetic
two thermal resistance values, named as ( ) Algorithm information, please refer to the previous paper
referring as the freewheeling diode (FWD) part of the published in 2016 [9]. Parameters of the three resistances
thermal resistance and ( ) referring as IGBT part initialized ranging between 0 ° / and 2 ° / and the
of the thermal resistance as shown in Fig. 9. In this model, fitness function is defined as the absolute error value of
the “location dependent discrete devices” concept has the estimated junction temperatures compared to the
been considered. But the impacts between devices are not simulated results. Using the input parameter sets in the
modelled. sequent of [P11, P21, T11, T21, P21, P22, T21, T22], as
shown in Table 1, the output of the Genetic Algorithm
converged after 210 iterations to [0.8538, 0.9817,
0.3595]. Those are the values of [Rth_a, R_th_b, R_th_c].
4. Modeling comparison
Three types of thermal circuit models have been built
and compared based on each test point from 10W to
110W of both devices power losses in COMSOL. The
485
junction temperatures for all operating points are recorded
for comparison purposes. Estimated junction
temperatures of the devices at those operating points are
calculated based on the three modeling methods described
earlier. The total deviation between estimation and the
simulation results of two devices is assigned as the
performance, which the higher, the worse.
The performance of all three models is presented in
Fig. 12-14, where the P1 and P2 are the input power of
devices and the vertical axis represents the performance,
which is the total deviation.
Fig. 14. Performance of MTEC

It can be observed that the one-dimensional approach
(Fig. 12) has a significantly large error with the
application of multiple devices. The second model (Fig.
13) got a fair performance when the power input
mismatch of two devices is small but performance got
worse with the increased mismatch. MTEC model (Fig.
14) showed almost no error compared to the COMSOL
simulation results. The MTEC modeling method perfectly
represents the thermal features of two device module.
Fig. 12. Performance of the 1D-TEC modeling
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, analysis of previous thermal system
design methods has been reviewed and their results were
compared. Severe issues have been pointed out due to the
power dissipation profile changes with applications of
WBG discrete devices. In order to stress and solve the
issues, a modified thermal equivalent circuit (MTEC) is
proposed using FEA and Genetic Algorithm to better
model the thermal behaviors of the power modules. To
further reduce the computation time, a decoupled NITF
approach is applied during FEA simulation. With the
MTEC modeling, much more accurate junction
Fig. 13. Performance of the 2D-TEC modeling temperature estimation can be achieved. This model
should be considered in the further applications and
datasheet.
Even though this work is based on an air-cooled heat
sink, similar issues can be also seen in liquid-cooled heat
sink models.
VI. REFERENCE
[1] X. She, A. Q. Huang, Ó. Lucía and B. Ozpineci,

"Review of Silicon Carbide Power Devices and Their
Applications," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics,
vol. 64, no. 10, pp. 8193-8205, Oct. 2017.
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[2] Z. Wang et al., "Temperature-Dependent Short- IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 32, no. 12, pp.
Circuit Capability of Silicon Carbide Power MOSFETs," in 9280-9292, Dec. 2017.
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. [7] Y. Xu, H. Chen, Z. Hu, H. Zeng, Q. Wang, “Research
1555-1566, Feb. 2016. on Heat Dissipation and Cooling Optimization of Power
[3] C. Yu, C. Buttay and É. Labouré, "Thermal Converter in Natural Convection,” Turk. J. Electr. Eng.
Management and Electromagnetic Analysis for GaN Devices Comput. Sci., 2013, DOI: 10.3906/elk-1308–51. Turk. J. Electr.
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Electronics, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 906-910, Feb. 2017. [8] T. Wu, B. Ozpineci, M. Chinthavali, Z. Wang, S.
[4] D. Christen, M. Stojadinovic and J. Biela, "Energy Debnath, and S.Campbell, “Design and optimization of 3D
Efficient Heat Sink Design: Natural Versus Forced Convection printed air-cooled heatsinks based on genetic algorithms”, 2017
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datasheet. [Online]. Available: Design of a 3D Printed Heat Sink”, 2016 IEEE Applied Power
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487
Performance Evaluation of Thermal Management
for a 3-Phase Interleaved DC-DC Boost Converter
Romina Rodriguez, Student Member, IEEE, Maryam Alizadeh, Student Member, IEEE
Jennifer Bauman, Member, IEEE, P. Sai Ravi* , Member, IEEE, and Ali Emadi, Fellow, IEEE
Department of Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

*
FCA US LLC, Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA
Abstract—Thermal management of power electronics in elec- Physically contacting measurements rely on contacting the
trified vehicles is critical for ensuring robust functionality during measurement device like a thermocouple (TC) to the semi-
a vehicle’s transient operation. For high-power converters, liquid conductor device. Prior research in this area has focused on
cooling is often necessary to maintain the device’s junction below
its critical temperature. Usually the manufacturer’s datasheet measuring the surface temperature of a liquid-cooled plate
for liquid cold plates is used to create thermal models, but this where the temperature measurement was not close to the case
method has some shortcomings. The data provided is generally of the power device and heat dummies were used that were
measured at steady-state and assumes uniform heating on the not characteristic of the power device [4]–[8].
surface; however, this scenario is not representative of the in-situ In [4], the cold plates are heated by rectangular heating
operation. To overcome these discrepancies, this paper introduces
an experimental method designed to accurately measure the case elements. The temperatures on top of the heating elements
temperature of individual devices on a cold plate. This allows and at some locations on the cold plate surface are measured
for temporal temperature characterization of localized heating by T-type stick-on thermocouples. Zhang proposes different
on the cold plate by power devices. Also, a thermal model is internal structures for a cold plate in [9], which are tested
created to predict the MOSFET junction temperatures at various with IGBT modules mounted on the cold plate. The surface
power dissipations based on the experimentally validated case
temperatures. of the cold plate is measured at various locations, though
the case temperature of the module is not measured directly.
Index Terms: DC-DC converters, cold plate, junction tempera- Furthermore, cold plate characterization is often focused on
ture, MOSFET, power loss, thermal management using IGBT modules and not MOSFETs, which have a higher
heat flux (W/m2 ). MOSFETs are studied in [10] and [11],
I. I NTRODUCTION however the temperature is measured on the exposed cold
Maintaining power electronic devices below their critical plate surface, not the MOSFET case surface. Although [12]
temperature is crucial for achieving reliable performance of did measure the case temperature for a single MOSFET, the
power electronic converters in electric and hybrid vehicles measurements were taken at a single location on the cold
[1]. During operation, these switches experience rapid power plate. In [13], a setup is built to measure the temperature of
transients and thus proper thermal management must be used a liquid mini-channel cold plate at different points between
to prevent device failures during the vehicle’s lifetime. There the inlet and the outlet of the channels. In their study, grooves
are various methods for observing the temperature of a semi- are machined on top of the cold plate and TCs are mounted
conductor device during its operation. Two of the main meth- at certain points to observe the temperature increase through
ods for measuring the temperature are optical and physically the channels; however, this setup is built for studying the
contacting measurements. Optical methods are non-contacting thermal performance of the cold plate and not for evaluating
ways of observing temperature, thus the semiconductor device the junction temperature of the power electronic devices.
must have an exposed surface to the measurement device [2]. In this study, the goal of the characterization of the thermal
One of the main optical methods is using an Infrared (IR) management solution (a 4-pass cold plate) is to create a
camera. This method for evaluating device temperature is validated thermal model for predicting the junction temper-
useful to show the temperature difference on the chip surface atures of the MOSFETs at different operating conditions.
and can show a temperature map of the semiconductors [2]. During operation of a boost converter in a vehicle, the power
However, a critical point for measuring the temperature with dissipation of the MOSFETs will continuously change over
an infrared camera is selecting the correct surface emissivity a drive cycle. Thus, a thermal model including these power
during measurements. Although authors in [3] proposed a fluctuations will allow the designer to ensure the thermal
way to control the surface emissivity with a paint solution system is adequate to keep the MOSFET junction temperatures
which allows more reliable temperature measurements, this below their critical operating temperature. Although different
method cannot be applied easily for setups including many approaches can be taken to create the thermal model of the
components with different geometries and materials with low boost converter, such as using commercial computational fluid
emissivity (< 0.1) [2]. dynamics (CFD) software, there are certain parameters such
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 488

as the contact resistance between the copper tubes, epoxy
resin, and aluminum plate that cannot be accurately quantified
for a model. Therefore, through the characterization presented
here, the case temperature of the MOSFETs can be accurately
measured and the junction temperature of the MOSFET can
then be derived using the thermal impedance data provided by
the MOSFET manufacturer.
This paper presents a novel experimental method for mea-
suring the case temperature of the mounted MOSFETs at the
closest point of the case to the junction. The performance of
this setup is studied using thermal pads for different flow rates
and power inputs. The objectives of this paper are to evaluate
the thermal management of the converter’s cold plate with
Fig. 1. Experimental setup for temperature data collection
localized heating from 24 discrete MOSFETs and to a create
an experimentally-validated thermal model of the 3-phase
interleaved boost converter under study. During operation
of the converter, each phase and each switch is dissipating
varying amounts of heat; hence each MOSFET is operating at
a different temperature, and an accurate model is needed to
predict these complex thermal interactions.
II. E XPERIMENTAL S ETUP AND T ESTING P ROCEDURE

The experimental setup is designed to measure the case
temperature of the MOSFETs. The main components of the
experimental test configuration are a cold plate, TCs, a data
acquisition system (DAQ), a thermal imager and hoses/fittings,
as shown in Fig. 1. Coolant enters the cold plate through the
inlet; the coolant flow rate is measured with a turbine flow-
meter installed near the inlet. The coolant inlet and outlet
temperatures are measured by 1/16 00 sheath T-type TCs that Fig. 2. Close-up of embedded TC, flush with case surface
are inserted perpendicular to the coolant flow direction; this
was done to break up the flow and get a more accurate
temperature reading. TC temperature data is collected by the DAQ. A LabVIEW
The cold plate is a 4-pass copper tube embedded in alu- program was written to record all the temperature data (12
minum. As the coolant travels through the copper tubes, heat thermocouple case temperatures, coolant inlet and coolant
is transferred from the plate and is dissipated from the power outlet) and save it every 1 second. T-type TCs have an accuracy
devices to the coolant. The layout of the MOSFETs mounted of 1° Celsius (°C) and were therefore calibrated prior to testing
on the cold plate was chosen based on the electrical require- to ensure the temperature measurement is highly accurate. In
ments of the converter. The 3-phase converter has 8 silicon order to calibrate the TCs, a cold water bath and hot oil bath
carbide MOSFETs per phase, for a total of 24 MOSFETs that are used. The thermocouples along with a laboratory-calibrated
require active cooling. To effectively mount the MOSFETs on resistance temperature detector (RTD), are submerged in a
the cold plate, M3 holes are drilled in the aluminum plate. water bath that is controlled by a chiller. Upon reaching
To minimize alterations, the holes are drilled blind, so the steady-state, the thermocouple and RTD readings are saved at
cold plates specifications will stay as close as possible to the 15°C increments, from 4°C to 75°C. This process is repeated
datasheet. by placing the thermocouples and RTD in an oil bath, for
In order to measure the case temperature of the MOSFETs, temperature intervals of 25°C to 160°C by 15°C increments.
0.02 00 T-type TCs are placed below every other MOSFET The recorded measurements are used get the offsets from the
(12 in total). These TCs are embedded in the cold plate measured data by the TCs to the real measurement readings
under the power devices by making grooves in parallel with captured by the RTD.
each copper tube with a width and depth of 0.025 and 0.040 To emulate and control the power dissipation on the cold
inches, respectively, as shown in Fig. 2. To ensure repeatability plate, 1 Ohm resistors with the same footprint and packaging
between tests, the thermocouples are placed in the center as the MOSFETs are used in the experiments. Using resistors
below the case of the MOSFET and are fixed with high thermal with the exact packaging as the MOSFETs has an advantage
conductivity cement in the grooves. The thermocouples are over using heater blocks. Heater blocks apply heat to large
flush with the surface to ensure maximum heat transfer. areas of the cold plate but will not provide local heating at
489
desired locations, which is what occurs in the real boost con- of the thermal image taken during a total power dissipation
verter. However, since the resistors used in these experiments of 100.4W to TC temperature measurements is shown in
have the same footprint as the MOSFETs, they are better able Fig. 3. Although the correct emissivity was chosen to take
to simulate how heating will occur during actual operation images of the resistor, there is a discrepancy between the
and therefore the measured temperature will be indicative of thermocouple measurements and the maximum temperature
what is expected during operation. Also, individual resistors seen by the thermal imager, as expected. According to Fluke
can dissipate power independent of each other so that boost
converter phase operation can be studied where only 1 or 2 of
the 3 phases process power at a time.
In this study the resistors are connected in series to a power
supply and the power dissipation of each is controlled by
setting a specific voltage. While the resistors were powered,
the voltage drop across each resistor was measured. At 4A,
the voltage drop across each resistor ranged between 4.03V
and 4.06V. As shown in Fig. 2, the resistor has a thru-hole,
which makes it possible to fix the chip on the cold plate
with a screw, just like the MOSFET. According to the thermal
pads data sheet [14], to obtain the thermal resistance of 0.28
(K-in2 /W ) the pressure on the resistor should be 200 psi;
thus, all the resistors are torqued down to 8 lb.-inch. As a
result, the same thermal resistance between all the resistors
and the cold plate is ensured. In order to minimize thermal
losses during the test, the setup has a plastic enclosure and the
cold plate is covered with the insulating material. To improve
accuracy of the thermal imager, the resistors are covered with Fig. 4. Temperature results for various power dissipations
black duct tape. Before starting the test, the coolant flow was
allowed to reach steady state condition. After applying power, the temperature error can be as much as 6°C but this depends
data recording was continued until reaching the steady state on the emissivity set and the complex geometry of the objects
condition, which was defined as less than 0.1°C temperature under investigation [2]. The thermal response for 224.7W
change in one minute. When the experiment reached its steady total to 909.3W total are seen in Fig. 4 for the measured
state condition, a thermal image of the setup was taken with a thermocouple data. Tmax refers to the maximum temperature
Fluke Ti105 thermal imager by setting the emissivity to “black observed on the cold plate which is the thermocouple placed
duct tape”. This process was repeated for various powers and under the resistor near the coolant outlet and Tmin refers
coolant flow rates. to the minimum temperature which is the resistor nearest to
the coolant inlet. This relationship was consistently observed
for all the cases tested. For the highest power level, 909.3W,
there was a difference of 7.3° between the hottest and coolest
device. This large difference highlights the importance of
understanding the heat dissipation of numerous smaller devices
on a cold plate, such as those in this converter. All the
thermocouple data for a total power dissipation of 909.3W
is seen in Fig. 5 which includes the case temperatures as
well as the coolant inlet and outlet temperatures. T1 is the
thermocouple case temperature of the resistor closest to the
inlet, T2 is the next closest to the inlet and so on, until T12
is the thermocouple case temperature of the resistor closest to
the outlet.
Fig. 3. Comparison of TC case measurement and thermal image
The effect of coolant flow rate on heat dissipation by the
cold plate was also studied. Experiments were completed at
various coolant flow rates for a total power dissipation of
III. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
403.2W and the results are shown in Fig. 6. The maximum
Following the procedure mentioned above, tests were com- temperature difference between the case and coolant temper-
pleted on the cold plate for various resistor power dissipations ature (∆Tmax ) is plotted versus coolant flow rate in LPM.
from 25W total (1.06W per resistor) to 909.3W total (37.8W The temperature difference increases, or cooling becomes less
per resistor) with a coolant flow rate of 9.2 Liters per minute effective as the flow rate of the coolant decreases. Heat transfer
(LPM) and coolant inlet temperature of 23.7°. A comparison is diminished as the flow rate decreases since the heat transfer
490
TC1 TC2 TC3 TC4 TC5 TC6 TC7
TC4 TC5 TC6 TC7 TC8 TC9 TC10 TC11 TC12
Fig. 7. Maximum and minimum temperatures on the cold plate when different
phase I is on only, and when phase I & II are on
Fig. 5. Temperature variation of all thermocouples at 909.3W & coolant
temperature change
Fig. 8. Thermal Image camera results for phase I on only (left) and phase I
& II on (right)
IV. B OOST C ONVERTER T HERMAL M ODEL

Fig. 6. Maximum temperature difference for varying coolant flow rates
A thermal model of the boost converter is developed to
estimate the junction temperature of the MOSFETs for varying
operating conditions. The cold plate and MOSFETs were
first modeled in ANSYS Fluent. However, due to the large
coefficient is a function of the Reynolds number, defined as
ρV D computation time, especially if the model requires various
µ with V being the velocity of the fluid. This is important
power dissipation levels, a model in MATLAB/Simulink was
to know as in a real vehicle operation, the coolant flow rate
created instead. An equivalent thermal resistance model was
may change depending on the power output of the vehicle.
first created based on the physical parameters of the cooling
Lastly, tests were performed to simulate having individual system. The junction temperature of the MOSFET is then
phases on of the 3-phase converter. At lower powers, only 1 or calculated from the thermal impedance properties from the
2 of the boost converter phases are operational, as this strategy manufacturer’s datasheet.
increases converter efficiency. The results for the maximum An equivalent steady state thermal network model is first
and minimum temperatures measured are shown in Fig. 7. created for the MOSFETs on the cold plate and the model was
Thermal maps of the cold plate are also seen in Fig. 8. discretized into 24 control volumes, one for each MOSFET.
Although the temperature is not accurate, these images provide A schematic showing the thermal resistances between the
a better understanding of the temperature distribution during MOSFETs on the cold plate and coolant are shown in Fig. 9.
operation and are valid when only temperature differences are Since the model consists of equivalent thermal resistances, it
of interest. The left image in Fig. 8 shows the heat distribution is easier to model the thermal pads as a single resistance.
when Phase I is on only, and the image of the right is when Tc represents the average coolant temperature of the control
Phase I & II are on only. volume and is averaged based on the coolant entering (Tc,in )
491
Fig. 9. Schematic of thermal network for MOSFETs on cold plate with
coolant flow
R1 R2 R3 RM Tj
Tc C1 C2 C3 P
Fig. 10. Equivalent thermal model for a single MOSFET on the cold plate
and leaving (Tc,out ) the control volume. It is solved iteratively

Fig. 11. Case temperature response of the experimental data and model with
using the following equation each resistor dissipating 16.8W
P = ṁc Cp (Tc,out − Tc,in ) (1)

with P being the power dissipated by the MOSFET, ṁc
the coolant flow rate and Cp the specific heat. The thermal
resistance values of the thermal network are based on physical
parameters of the cold plate and the heat transfer coefficient
for the pipe is based on the Reynolds number. The model
is then changed to account for transient effects and each
resistance shown in Fig. 10 represents the cold plate materials.
The thermal resistance of the coolant, copper, and aluminum
are represented by R1, R2, and R3, respectively. RM is the
thermal impedance of the junction-case from the MOSFET
datasheet plus the thermal resistance of the thermal pad. Each
of these resistances R1-R3 and C1-C3 were adjusted from
the experimental tests performed. Solving the 24 thermal
equivalent circuits in Fig. 10 is time consuming hence the
equations in the thermal network were changed to state space Fig. 12. Case temperature response of the experimental data and model with
representation X 0 = AX + BY as shown below each resistor dissipating 37.8W
 −1 1
"
+ R12 1
" #0 0
#
TC1 C1 R1 C1 R2 TC1
1 −1 1
measured case temperatures and thermal model is 0.9°. The
TC2 = C2 R2 C2 R2
+ R13 1
C2 R3
 TC2 +
TC3 1 TC3 results in Fig. 12 show that assuming that all MOSFETs
0 C3 R3
− C31R3
  are the same temperature during operation at equal power
1
C1 R1
0 dissipation would in fact be incorrect due to the localized
T
 0 0 c nature of the heating on the cold plate. Using an average
1 P
0 C3 case temperature for the MOSFETs would result in a lower
(2)
temperature prediction for the junction temperature meaning
This thermal network, which has the experimentally validated some MOSFETs could exceed their critical temperature limits.
case temperature is implemented in MATLAB; use of this The junction temperature can now easily be obtained by
software allows more simple integration with a vehicle model using the manufacturers junction-to-case thermal impedance.
that can simulate different power needs for different drive The junction-to-case thermal impedance is curve-fit from the
cycles. The state space simulations are solved 30 times faster manufacturer’s datasheet as shown in Fig. 13. These curves
than the regular RC circuits in MATLAB/Simulink. are implemented into MATLAB/Simulink as a lookup table
Results for the measured case temperature (taking into dependent on the converter’s duty cycle and switching fre-
account the thermal pads) for a dissipation of 16.8W (404.1W quency. The results for various power dissipation cases that
total) and 37.8W (909.3W total) for a flow rate of 9.46LPM are expected for the boost converter during a vehicle UDDS
are shown in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12, respectively. The equivalent drive cycle are presented in Table I. Tj,max is the maximum
thermal circuit model is able to accurately predict the case junction temperature of the MOSFETs in the boost converter
temperature rise with time as can be seen from the results and it remains below the critical temperature of 150°C for a
in Figs. 11 and 12. The maximum error between the coolant flow rate of 9LPM and coolant temperature of 75°C.
492
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding
from the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program, Nat-
ural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
(NSERC), Automotive Partnership Canada (APC) Initiative,
FCA US LLC, and FCA Canada Inc.
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493
Influencing Factors in Low Speed Regenerative
Braking Performance of Electric Vehicles
Shoeib Heydari*, Poria Fajri*, Nima Lotfi**, Bamdad Falahati***
* Electrical and Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV, USA
** Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, USA
*** Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. (SEL), Irvine, CA, USA
E-mail: pfajri@unr.edu
Abstract— This paper discusses different factors that influence the small EMF generated at low speeds, which makes it
the regenerative braking capability of Electric Vehicles (EVs) at challenging for the traction motor to operate as a generator
low speeds. A Low Speed Cutoff Point (LSCP) below which the during braking. Therefore, a low speed threshold has to be
regenerative braking process is no longer effective is considered taken into account when designing a brake controller. In this
as a determining factor to evaluate regenerative braking
performance under various conditions. Different scenarios are
paper, a Low Speed Cutoff Point (LSCP) is considered for
studied and the effect of each scenario on the displacement of regenerative braking operation of EVs at low speed that
LSCP is analyzed using an EV traction motor simulation model represents the instant in which the motor controller DC link
in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The results show that the LSCP current changes direction while the motor is still operating as
deviates under different operating conditions and should not be a generator. Below this point, current is no longer recharging
considered constant under various circumstances when designing the battery and instead is being extracted from it. This behavior
a brake controller. at low speeds results in energy loss during the regenerative
I. INTRODUCTION braking process. Therefore, below a certain speed, regenerative
braking can have a negative impact on the overall efficiency of
Nowadays, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are receiving increased the vehicle.
attention as clean alternatives to traditional vehicles. However, Authors in [9] have used a weight factor to reduce the
their limited driving range is still one of the main obstacles proportion of regenerative-based braking in comparison to
towards large-scale adoption of these vehicles [1]. Thus, friction-based braking at low speeds. In [10] and [11], since
extensive research is being conducted in both industry and only a small fraction of the total energy is recoverable in the
academia in order to improve the efficiency and driving range speed region below 10 km/h, the low speed threshold is
of EVs. The limited driving range can be improved by considered fixed at 10 km/h. However, a dynamically changing
advancements in the design and development of regenerative LSCP that is dependent on the operating conditions as well as
braking technology [2]. The fundamental concept behind the the driver’s behavior is not considered in the studies above.
application of regenerative braking is to recapture the kinetic Thus, analyzing and studying the effect of different parameters
energy of the vehicle while braking [3]. The so-called on the displacement of LSCP is a crucial step in improving the
regenerative braking uses the induced back Electromotive efficiency of the EVs as well as extending their driving range.
Force (EMF) of the traction motor during the braking process This paper investigates different factors affecting EV
to recharge the battery [2]. In this case, the traction motor regenerative braking performance at low speeds and examines
provides a negative torque to the driven wheels and converts the variations in LSCP under different conditions. The main
kinetic energy to electrical energy while slowing down the contribution of this paper is to explore whether the lowest
vehicle [1]. However, under heavy braking conditions, the speed at which regenerative braking is still effective can
produced resistive torque by the traction motor is not sufficient change under different conditions and identify different factors
to slow down the vehicle [4]. Therefore, in the braking system affecting this change.
design, co-existence of both friction-based and regenerative-
based brakes is inevitable. To accomplish maximum energy
recovery as well as good braking performance during II. REGENERATIVE BRAKING LIMITATIONS AT LOW SPEED
deceleration, blending of traditional friction-based brakes and Due to the small EMF generated at low speeds, it is
regenerative-based brakes is employed [5]. Thus, the operation inefficient for the EV traction motor to operate as a generator
and performance of the brake force distribution control and therefore, braking should solely be achieved by friction
strategy is of extreme importance [5]-[7]. braking below a certain speed threshold. Although below this
Many studies in the literature have focused on EV brake threshold the traction motor is still capable of being operated
research and different Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) as a generator, it is not able to harvest this energy, and instead
experimental platforms have been developed to emulate current is drawn from the battery. In [5], an experiment was
friction and regenerative brakes under different vehicle and performed to analyze the effect of regenerative braking at low
road conditions [3], [8]. However, in the majority of the speeds. This experiment was carried out with two electric
aforementioned studies, the low speed limitation of motors on a common shaft in which one resembled the EV
regenerative braking is overlooked. This limitation is due to traction motor and the other resembled the resistive forces
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 494

imposed on a vehicle. The traction motor was controlled to the longitudinal direction in m/s2, and is the resistive force
reduce the shaft speed from 1750 rpm to a full stop while a imposed on the vehicle in N. Forces resisting vehicle
constant opposing torque was imposed on the shaft by the other movement include rolling resistance of the tires which is
motor. During this time, as depicted in Fig. 1, the traction primarily caused by hysteresis in tire material, aerodynamic
motor DC link current changed its direction at point A. In other drag which is the air force resisting the vehicle motion, and
words, during deceleration, until point A, current was being grading resistance which is due to gravity and assists vehicle
pushed back into the battery while after reaching point A, movement when descending or resists vehicle motion during
current was drawn from the battery indicating that the climbing [12]. can be calculated as
regenerative braking was no longer effective. According to
Fig. 1, the area below the positive values of the traction motor
DC link current (area B) represented an energy loss during 1 (2)
regenerative braking process. This study revealed that below a cos sin
2
certain speed, regenerative braking is not capable of harvesting
energy and instead can have a negative impact on efficiency. where is the rolling resistance force, is the aerodynamic
Therefore, identifying point A and considering this point as the drag force, and is the grading resistance force.
LSCP boundary for deactivating regenerative braking, can Furthermore, is the rolling resistance coefficient, is the
minimize the losses associated with low speed regenerative ground slope angle, is the mass density of the air in kg/m3,
braking limitation discussed above. On the other hand, the is the aerodynamic drag coefficient which characterizes the
dynamic nature of LSCP, arising from various vehicle shape of the vehicle, is the frontal area of the vehicle in m2,
operating conditions and braking requirements, makes it a
is the vehicle speed in m/s and is the wind speed in
challenging task to accurately determine its value. Some of the
m/s [12].
parameters and conditions that can affect LSCP and therefore,
To study the effect of different parameters on LSCP, factors
have an impact on the effectiveness of the regenerative braking
that can induce a change in the operating point of the vehicle
at low speeds include the number of the passengers, cargo
during regenerative braking are considered. These factors can
weight, the imposed resistive forces on the vehicle, and the rate
be grouped into two categories that are associated with the
at which the driver desires to stop the vehicle.
driving behavior and driving conditions.
A. Driving Behavior
Driving behavior has an unquestionable effect on the energy
consumption and driving range. One of the main factors
influencing regenerative braking that is associated with driving
behavior is deceleration rate. Deceleration rate of a vehicle
depends on the time in which the driver desires to reduce the
speed of the vehicle or bring the vehicle to a complete stop.
This requested rate of deceleration during braking can change
from one situation to another depending on the circumstances
and driver behavior. Since a faster deceleration rate requires
more resistive force from the traction motor, this factor can
have significant influence in changing the LSCP.
Fig. 1. Experimental results showing variation of motor speed and DC link

B. Driving Conditions
current [5]. A change in driving conditions such as the weight of the
vehicle, road grade, and wind speed can also impose
unpredictable forces on the vehicle that are different from the
III. FACTORS AFFECTING REGENERATIVE BRAKING normal operating conditions. By increasing the number of
CUTOFF POINT passengers, the weight of the vehicle increases; thus, the inertia
of the vehicle, which can store kinetic energy also increases,
In order to analyze the effect of different conditions on EV
which in turn requires the traction motor to produce more
regenerative braking performance at low speeds and further
resistive force to slow down the vehicle during regenerative
study the effect of these conditions on LSCP, first the forces
braking and therefore, can have an impact on the LSCP.
influencing and resisting EV movement should be identified.
According to (2), wind speed can also have a significant effect
The dynamic equation of an EV using Newton’s second law
on the resistive forces acting on the vehicle and depending on
can be expressed as
the direction of wind, the required resistive force to stop the
vehicle can change during regenerative braking. Furthermore,
(1)
the road slope will also play a role in determining vehicle
resistive force and if the vehicle is travelling downhill, more
where is the driving force in N, m is the vehicle mass in kg, regenerative braking force is required to slow down the
is the linear acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle along vehicle.
495
IV. SIMULATION MODEL AND CASE STUDIES
A. Simulation Model
In this section, the above stated factors are studied and
simulated in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. In order
to analyze the effect of each factor, a test bench simulation
model is used to model the resistive forces acting on an EV
traction motor. The simulation platform is depicted in Fig. 2
and consists of a 400 V Li-ion battery model as the main
energy source, a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor
(PMSM) drive which emulates the EV traction motor, and a
controller block.
In order to simulate a predetermined driving profile where
the speed is given as a drive cycle, the controller calculates the
PMSM speed reference from the drive cycle while resistive
forces at each instance are calculated using (1)-(2) and by
taking into consideration the brake force distribution, EV
parameters and driving conditions. The calculated resistive
force is then converted to a torque signal and given to the
PMSM as the load torque in order to emulate road conditions.
In this configuration, the PMSM is operated in speed control
mode while its load torque mimics the acting forces on the
vehicle during deceleration. The block diagram of the
controller is depicted in Fig. 3. The controller uses the overall
gear ratio of the vehicle (G) to convert the rotational speed of
the wheels ( ) to the rotational speed of the motor ( ) and
also to convert the resistive torque calculated at the wheels
( to the motor load torque ( ).
Furthermore, by monitoring , the controller decides
whether brake is being requested or not. It should be noted that
in the controller, the brake force distribution between front axle
and rear axle of the EV is implemented based on an ideal
distribution curve known as the I curve [4]. Since in this paper,
it is assumed that the vehicle model under study is a front-
wheel drive EV, only the front axle brake share is considered
effective during regenerative braking process. In this
configuration, the rear axle brakes consist of only friction-
based brakes while the front axle brakes consist of both
friction-based and regenerative-based brakes. On the other
hand, since the objective of this paper is to demonstrate the
influencing factors on low speed regenerative braking
capability of an EV, it is assumed that all of the front axle brake
share can be recaptured through regenerative braking and
friction braking is not utilized at low speeds. The vehicle
parameters used for the simulations are presented in Table I.
Fig. 3. Controller block diagram for a front-wheel drive EV
B. Case Studies
1. Effect of Deceleration Rate
In the first study, it is assumed that the vehicle is traveling
at 20 mph and at t = 1 s the speed of the vehicle is reduced from
20 mph to 0 mph. To investigate the effect of deceleration rate
on the LSCP, two scenarios are studied. In the first scenario,
the driver desires to fully stop the vehicle in 6 s with a
deceleration rate of 3.33 mph/s. In the second scenario, the
driver intends to stop the vehicle within 8 s with a deceleration
Fig. 2. Test bench simulation model rate of 2.5 mph/s. The simulation results for both scenarios are
496
TABLE I
It can be seen that for this scenario and according to (1), for
VEHICLE SPECIFICATIONS UNDER STUDY higher deceleration rates ( ), more resistive force is needed to
slow down the vehicle; thus, the required resistive torque to
Parameter Value decelerate the vehicle is larger, and the current is pushed back
to the battery with a larger slope.
Initial vehicle mass ( 1000 kg
Air density ( ) 1.22 kg/m3 2. Effect of Vehicle Mass
Aerodynamic drag coefficient ( ) 0.3 To study the effect of vehicle mass on LSCP, two different
Frontal area ( ) 1.6 m2 scenarios are studied. In the first scenario, it is assumed that
the total mass of the vehicle including the driver is 1000 kg
Rolling resistance coefficient ( ) 0.01
while in the second scenario, it is assumed that the vehicle is
Wheel radius ( ) 0.28 m full of passengers with a total mass of 1400 kg. The effect of
Initial wind speed ( ) 0 m/s vehicle mass is reflected in the resistive torque calculated by
Initial road slope ( ) 0° the controller. In fact, based on (1) and (2), the mass of the
vehicle influences the terms sin , cos , and
Overall gear ratio ( ) 2.3
and therefore, increasing the vehicle mass requires higher
resistive force to slow down the vehicle. As a result, the
traction motor resistive torque is increased which leads to an
shown in Fig. 4. In this plot, a negative traction motor DC link earlier current direction change as shown in Fig. 5. It is evident
current indicates charging the battery and a positive value from the results that for the vehicle with a higher mass, the
shows that the battery is being discharged. It is observed that current is pushed back into the battery with a larger slope and
the traction motor DC link current changes from negative to the current direction change occurs earlier. In this case, LSCP
positive values at 13.5 mph and 9.7 mph for the first and deviates from 9.7 mph for the vehicle with 1000 kg mass to
second scenarios, respectively. These two points indicate the 14.2 mph for the vehicle with 1400 kg mass.
LSCP for each test and show that LSCP changes under various
deceleration rates. In other words, for the first and second 3. Effect of Wind Speed
scenario, below 13.5 mph and 9.7 mph, regenerative braking is Two different scenarios studied below show the effect of
no longer effective and instead energy is being extracted from wind speed on the displacement of LSCP. In the first scenario,
the battery.
Fig. 4. Vehicle speed, traction motor torque, and traction motor DC link Fig. 5. Vehicle speed, traction motor torque, and traction motor DC link
current profiles for different deceleration rates current profiles for vehicle mass of 1000 kg and 1400 kg
497
it is assumed that the wind speed is zero. In the second
scenario, however, it is assumed that wind with a speed of
20 m/s is blowing in the opposite direction of the vehicle
movement. A change in wind speed is reflected in the resistive
torque calculated by the controller and is applied to the traction
motor. In other words, based on (2), if the wind is blowing
opposite to the vehicle traveling path, the term
is increased which means that the wind is
contributing to stopping the vehicle. Thus, the required
resistive torque to slow down the vehicle is less and this causes
a delay in direction change of the current. The results for this
case are shown in Fig. 6, and reveal that the LSCP is once again
deviated from 9.7 mph to 8 mph when the wind speed is
increased to 20 m/s.
4. Effect of Road Slope Angle

When the vehicle goes up or down a slope, its weight
produces a force component which is always in the downward
direction [12]. In this section, uphill motion with a slope of 3°
is compared to a road with no slope. As a result, this downward
force helps the braking process. As depicted in Fig. 7, if the
vehicle goes uphill, the LSCP decreases from 9.7 mph to 3.5
mph. Due to the term sin in (2), when the vehicle is
travelling uphill, less energy is available for recapturing and
less resistive force is required from the traction motor to slow Fig. 7. Vehicle speed, traction motor torque, and traction motor DC link
down the vehicle. Hence, current direction change occurs later current profiles for two different slope angles
for this scenario.
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, different factors that influence the LSCP under
which regenerative braking is no longer effective were
examined. Different cases were studied and simulation results
revealed that the rate of deceleration, vehicle mass, wind
speed, and road slope angle, all had significant effects on the
low speed regenerative braking threshold. Thus, considering a
dynamically changing LSCP is important in designing brake
controllers to maximize regenerative braking capability of
EVs. Taking advantage of dynamic LSCP when designing the
brake controller of EVs can maximize the energy savings
through regenerative braking process. This energy saving can
be even more significant during heavy stop-and-go traffics.
Thus, this study can be beneficial for EV automotive
companies looking into improving regenerative braking
capability of their existing products or planning to invest in
different EV configurations from the viewpoint of maximizing
regenerative braking performance.
REFERENCES
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effective method of electric brake with energy regeneration for
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Automobile Engineering, vol. 216, no. 11, pp. 855-864,
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failure,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 59,
[5] P. Fajri, S. Lee, V. A. K. Prabhala, and M. Ferdowsi, “Modeling no. 3, pp. 1488-1499, March 2012.
and integration of electric vehicle regenerative and friction
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Vehicular Technology, vol. 67, no. 1, pp. 285-295, July 2017.
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Ed. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2004, pp. 19-65.
499
Mass Production Costing of Induction
Machines for Automotive Applications
*Vladimir Hundak, *Tom Cox, *Gaurang Vakil and *ϮChristopher Gerada
*University of Nottingham – UK and ϮUniversity of Nottingham – Ningbo, China
Abstract-Cost is one of the key parameters of electric machines

designed for automotive applications. In order to keep
manufacturing cost low, it is desirable to estimate the
manufacturing cost of the machine in the early stages of the
design process. For this purpose, a costing algorithm for mass
production of induction machines is proposed. The case study
examines the impact of variations in dimension (stack length and
bore diameter) of the input design on cost outputs, in order to
validate the base structure of the algorithm. The overall aim of
this work is to provide cost optimization of the machine design
by implementation into a design optimization routine.
I. INTRODUCTION
Manufacturing processes in general are typically complex
and consume large amounts of resources. Automotive
industry is very competitive, and therefore, it is desirable to
perform accurate cost estimation during the design process of
a new drive for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) to optimize
its parameters and their implications on cost. Published
literature for cost estimation of induction machines (IMs)
considers multiple approaches. Most basic approach for cost
optimization is carried out at the material level only, not
taking production costs into account [1, 2, 3]. On the other
hand, [4] describes a model of an induction machine
manufacturing factory and [5] presents production costs
model of electrical machines in general. [4, 5] provide
information useful for general understanding of processes Fig. 1. Flowchart of induction machine costing algorithm.
presented in this work. A simplified cost models are proposed
for understanding of tradeoffs between performance, cost and [1, 2, 3, 16] and it was demonstrated in [16] for IMs designed
volume in [6] and optimization of a more complex system for industrial applications.
where the machine is contained is demonstrated in [7]. The
work presented in [7] describes optimization of hybrid
electric vehicle powertrain featuring interior permanent II. OVERVIEW OF THE PROPOSED PROCESS
magnet machine. A discussion on evaluation of IM An induction machine costing algorithm has been
manufacturing cost based on improvement of efficiency of developed in Matlab, following the process shown in Fig. 1.
the machine is illustrated in [8]. The work presented in [9, 10] The manufacturing process of the machine was investigated
focuses on reduction of cost of small IMs by technical at the component level at first (e.g. stator core, shaft, etc.).
changes in production. The cost model of each part was formulated independently as
The analysis of manufacturing costs presented in [11] lacks a set of equations describing all steps in the production of the
a general method of cost estimation. Analytical calculation of given machine part. These equations calculate required
production costs is the most suitable method for detailed amount of materials, man-hours and machine processing
analysis because it splits whole task into elementary parts hours for each part. Estimated cost was calculated with
[12]. This method was used for cost estimation of small consideration of machine geometry, material cost including
single-phase IMs for household appliances [13] and is called scrap material, staff salary and operational cost of equipment
activity-based costing (ABC) [14]. An example of ABC used during manufacturing. A mass production cost analyzing
successful implementation into industry is presented in [15]. tool was established by combining all of the related models
The work presented in this paper is also based on ABC (mentioned above) according to the machine assembly. This
costing method. Advanced methods for cost estimation was implemented at the design stage of the induction machine
include usage of genetic algorithms and neural networks
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 500

for all presented results. It is assumed that the squirrel cage
rotor is constructed from conductive bars and end rings that
are independently cut from raw blocks of material and then
brazed together using automated processes. The developed
program is highly flexible and can easily adapt to any specific
process of manufacturing.
The validation of this script was implemented by scaling
length and diameter of a typical induction machine design
suitable for application to automotive hybridization. The
scaling test was performed using estimated manufacturing
input parameters, including equipment running costs along
with the man hours required for suggested processes.
III. SPECIFICATIONS OF INDUCTION MACHINE DESIGNS
USED FOR VALIDATION
A. Scaling of Single Machine Design
An induction machine was investigated to validate the
Fig. 2. Cross-section area of original machine design. developed cost analysis tool. This machine was originally
designed for automotive applications. Its cross-section area is
and thus, considered during the optimization process of the shown in Fig. 2 and all important parameters are listed in first
induction machine design. column in Table 1. Four combinations of stack length L and
Material costs are determined from the raw blocks of diameter D arrangements were analyzed for the validation,
material whose dimensions are slightly larger compared to including the original model – i) A model with stack length
input machine design values. The only exception are copper halved vs the original, ii) A model with diameter halved vs
wires used for manufacturing of windings, for which, an the original and iii) A model with both of these dimensions
additional percentage of material is added on top of total (i.e. stack length and diameter) halved. The aim of this work
length of conductors to cover material wasted in was to validate the base structure of the costing algorithm by
manufacturing process. Another difference in calculation is in observing the output response as the inputs are scaled.
case of core laminations. The amount of material is defined Combining two equations - (1) and (2), a commonly used
by number of laminations required to cover full stack length in design procedure, results in an expression (3) defining
of core. relationship between input voltage and air gap dimensions L
Calculations of production processes used in the algorithm and D [17]
describe an automated manufacturing line where the labor
operates machines with pre-defined programs (e.g. CNC D
machine). The only exceptions are stacking of laminations m  B  p L  m  B L (1)
p
and complete manufacturing and assembly of stator windings,
which are calculated as pure human labor. Core laminations
V
are made by punching whereas all other components (shaft, N  V  4.44 N k w f  m (2)
casing and end caps) are machined by CNC processes. A 4.44 k w f  m
water jacket inside the casing is used as the cooling solution
4.44 
V DL B N kw f (3)
p
where B is flux density, τp is pole pitch, p is number of poles,

V is input voltage, kw is winding factor, f is frequency, and Φm
is magnetic flux.
Input voltage is, therefore, directly proportional to both
core length and air gap diameter of the machine and should
be appropriately scaled with these dimensions. The chart in
Fig. 3 shows the torque-speed characteristics of the four
machines and it can be observed that scaling without any
further optimization has a significant negative impact on
performance (as expected). In case of models with halved
bore diameter, their breakdown torque points lie in an area
with a very high value of slip, also resulting in high losses
Fig. 3. Torque-speed characteristics of scaled models obtained from and decreased performance. These models are subjective and
Motor-CAD software.
501
can effectively represent the cost difference and enables to
carry out the validation process for the costing algorithm.
Peak torque, power and efficiency values of all four machine
models are listed in Table 2.
TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF OPTIMIZED INDUCTION MACHINE DESIGNS USED FOR THE
COSTING TOOL VALIDATION
Original D, D/2, D/2,

design L/2 L L/2
Number of phases 3 3 3 3
Number of poles 4 4 4 4
No. of stator slots 36 48 48 48
No. of rotor slots 30 42 42 42
External diameter [mm] 269.45 269.09 134.72 134.15
Bore diameter [mm] 172.32 172.32 86.16 86.16

Fig. 4. Flux density profile for original design at maximum torque operation.
Shaft diameter [mm] 92.41 101.60 44.81 43.89
of simulations with varying rotor speed were performed.
Core length [mm] 106.84 53.42 106.84 53.42
Rated torque point was selected as half of peak value. Speed
Total length [mm] 173.67 123.83 151.92 100.60 points were selected as steps of 5 rpm for every consecutive
Air gap length [mm] 1 1 1 1 simulation. This method revealed torque profile around
desired areas of the torque-speed curve and allowed
No. of turns per coil 3 4 5 10 localization of two important operating points. An example of
Conductor diameter [mm] 3.798 3.467 1.782 1.258 flux density profile for this operating point is presented in
Fig. 4. Obtained results are listed in Table 2 that contains
Winding layers double double double double
performance data for all tested machines. This table shows
benefits of optimization in terms of performance. All
B. Optimization of Scaled Models
processed models offer higher torque, power and efficiency
As scaled models serve well for validation purposes, but
values compared to scaled machines of the same frame size.
further optimization of these machines is required. Design
The only exception is in case of designs with halved
optimization would solve the issue of the breakdown torque
diameter. Optimized model provides slightly lower torque
points lying in an area with a very high value of slip (and
and power in rated torque operation and lower torque in peak
hence high losses) and provide improved designs for
torque operation. However, this design operates with
comparison of estimated costs for given frame size of the
significantly higher efficiency in both cases. Another benefit
machine.
of optimization is the constraint of equal voltage level that
The optimization for each frame size was performed by
allows direct comparison of cost against original model.
using analytical equations for design of the induction machine
and along with the detailed analysis of the performance. This IV. COSTING RESULTS
process included set of limiting conditions and fixed values Manufacturing cost analysis of all seven induction machine
for multiple design variables. Number of phases, number of designs was performed using developed costing algorithm.
poles, bore diameter, core length, air gap length and input Fig. 5 shows the trend in variation of manufacturing cost
voltage were used as constants during the procedure. With using per-unit values for four models – original and three
respect to original models, external diameter value was used scaled down designs. The base value was selected as core
as constraint to allow the optimization to consider only the cutting cost of original model. In case of core cutting, only
given frame size. As a result, the machine was optimized in the change in length has a significant impact on cost. On the
terms of slot count and design for both stator and rotor, other hand, shaft and end caps are mostly influenced by
winding layout, external and shaft diameter. Parameters of changing of diameter. Manufacturing cost of squirrel cage
final models along with original design are listed in Table 1. and casing is dependent on both the dimensions, i.e. diameter
and stack length.
C. Performance evaluation Due to the fact that the stator winding layout is exactly the
Performance of all seven machine designs, including same across all four scaled down designs, winding
original model, three scaled down models and three manufacturing cost results are also equal, and therefore,
optimized models were evaluated using FEA analysis. In omitted from Fig. 5. In order to validate this part of the script,
order to locate peak torque and rated operating points, a series another test was performed, where original number of stator
502
slots Q1 was halved. Another important part of cost are
materials used in process of manufacturing. These results are
also shown in Fig. 5.
TABLE II
PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS OF INDUCTION MACHINE DESIGNS.
Peak torque operation
Effi-
Torque Speed Power
ciency
T [Nm] n[rpm] P [kW]
η [%]
Original design (V) 298.12 2535 79.14 72.86
L/2, D (V/2) 90.81 2635 25.06 75.15
Optimized L/2, D (V) 122.92 2725 35.08 80.72 Fig. 5. Trends of manufacturing costs.
L, D/2 (V/2) 74.00 1440 11.16 31.01
Optimized L, D/2 (V) 71.16 2055 15.31 53.78
L/2, D/2 (V/4) 24.86 1800 4.69 36.68
Optimized L/2, D/2 (V) 26.29 2175 5.99 54.77

Rated torque operation
Effi-
Torque Speed Power
ciency
T [Nm] n[rpm] P [kW]
η [%]
Original design (V) 149.55 2890 45.26 91.45
L/2, D (V/2) 45.47 2910 13.86 91.06
Optimized L/2, D (V) 63.00 2925 19.30 92.35

Fig. 6. Comparison of all obtained partial manufacturing results.
L, D/2 (V/2) 37.25 2650 10.34 75.65
due to more complex layout caused by higher number of
Optimized L, D/2 (V) 35.24 2775 10.24 84.99
stator slots.
L/2, D/2 (V/4) 12.58 2740 3.61 74.75 Total manufacturing times and costs in per-unit values are
Optimized L/2, D/2 (V) 13.18 2800 3.86 83.06 shown in Table 3. The base value for manufacturing times
was selected as value of man-hours for original model. In the
second table, the base value was selected as total cost of
Complete manufacturing cost comparison in per-unit
original design and base values of cost/performance ratios
values for all seven designs is presented in Fig. 6. Base value
were selected as original model results in both cases. Since
for this chart was also selected as core cutting cost of original
the production processes are considered to be automated, and
machine. Since core length was set as a constant during
even the winding layout is the same across all scaled down
optimization process, core cutting costs are equal for models
machine designs, the difference in the total man-hours is
with the same frame size. Cost of squirrel cage on all
minimal. Optimized designs require larger amount of man-
optimized designs is higher due to higher amount of rotor
hours in comparison with models of the same frame size due
slots. These rotors, therefore, require longer time for bar
to higher complexity of their windings. On the other hand,
cutting and brazing. Shaft costs are similar between models of
dimension changes have a significant impact on all automated
the same frame size, and depends on the diameter. The only
tasks. This translates into differences in manufacturing times
noticeable difference is in case of optimized design with
and also into cost. In this case, optimized machines also
halved length. This machine features shaft with significantly
require more time for manufacturing due to higher slot
larger diameter, causing increase in manufacturing cost.
number. Longer time also reflects into higher cost compared
Differences in cost of casing for machines with the same
to scaled down designs. As expected, smaller dimensions of
frame size are caused by changes in total length. In case of
the machine also require smaller amount of material for
models with halved length, stator windings on optimized
manufacturing, and therefore, resultant material cost
machine require more space, thus longer length and higher
decreases with volume. Total manufacturing cost of
manufacturing cost. The cost of end caps is equal for models
investigated machine models also decrease with smaller
having the same external diameter. In terms of materials, all
dimensions. However, cost per kW and cost per Nm ratios
optimized models require larger amount materials for
significantly increase with volume reduction. Therefore, even
windings and squirrel cage, thus increasing the cost. Cost of
though the biggest machine is the most expensive to
windings manufacturing is increased for all optimized models
manufacture, it is the most efficient in terms of power/cost
503
and performance/cost. The only exception among scaled of the algorithm and show that the program correctly
down models is the machine with halved diameter. This represents the impact of parameter changes to the overall
design has higher peak torque/frame size ratio compared to machine cost. The next stage of validation consists of using
other machines, therefore, its cost/torque ratio is lower. Even real-world data obtained directly from the manufacturing
though that optimized designs have higher total production processes to validate the results in order to give a more
costs, their cost/performance ratios are significantly improved complete picture of absolute cost effects. The finalized script
compared to scaled down versions due to increase in can be implemented into a full machine design procedure,
performance. The only exception is again in case of the providing more options in terms of optimization of the
machine design with halved length. machine costs at the design phase.
TABLE III VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
OVERVIEW OF TOTAL PER UNIT MANUFACTURING COSTS
Total per-unit manufacturing times
This work was supported by the Ningbo Science &
Technology Bureau under Grant 2013A31012 and by the
Machine
Direct man-hours Ningbo Science & Technology Bureau under Grant
processing
Original design (V) 1.00 2.04
2014A35007.
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505
Design and Optimization of An Electric Vehicle
with Two Battery Cell Chemistries
Christina Riczu1, Saeid Habibi2, Jennifer Bauman1, Member, IEEE
1
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
2
Mechanical Engineering Department, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
E-mail: riczucl@mcmaster.ca, habibi@mcmaster.ca, jennifer.bauman@mcmaster.ca
Abstract-This paper describes the design and optimization of an yet improve the performance compared to a lead-acid single
electric vehicle (EV) prototype which will be built as part of a energy storage system. The proposed system uses multiple
large collaborative project between researchers and industry. power electronic converters to actively manage power flow
The goal is to develop a long-range EV that can travel 600km on
a single charge. To keep the battery mass reasonable, the
from the modular batteries. The results show that when
proposed design combines lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells with lithium- compared to a lead-acid single energy storage system, the
silicon (Li-Si) cells, an emerging battery chemistry which proposed HESS achieves a 17% range improvement and a 23%
provides a 16% mass reduction compared to lithium-ion cells. In efficiency improvement during continuous low-speed driving.
this study, two powertrain topologies are investigated using the Since EV range is still a concern for many potential EV
dual-battery hybrid energy storage system (HESS). The vehicles buyers, the EECOMOBILITY project has set out to develop an
are modeled in MATLAB/Simulink and a combined plant- ultra-long-range EV with a forecasted driving range of 600km.
controller optimization study is conducted. The results quantify
the energy use benefit from selecting certain sizes of Li-Si packs, With a target range this high, the mass of the energy storage
and find the Pareto front which characterizes the trade-off system is a major concern. Thus, this project will investigate
between energy use and cost of the emerging battery cell the use of a secondary battery chemistry with a high power
technology. density: lithium-silicon (Li-Si) cells. Li-Si cells are an
I. INTRODUCTION emerging technology that offer higher energy density than Li-
ion cells. This paper will investigate the optimal sizing and
Electric vehicles (EVs) can reduce greenhouse gas control of the Li-ion and Li-Si cells in the proposed HESS,
emissions when compared to traditional gasoline vehicles, and while minimizing energy use and cost.
have seen a rise in sales and research funding over the last Li-ion refers to the cluster of cell chemistries that pair a
decade [1]. However, EV sales are still only a small fraction of graphite anode with various cathode materials such as lithium
total new vehicle sales; high cost and limited vehicle range are iron phosphate (LFP), lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide
the main consumer concerns. To disrupt the EV market, a (NMC), and lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA). The
long-range vehicle is proposed in a large collaborative project typical range for the specific energy and specific power of
between researchers and industry: Electric Extended Range these Li-ion cells are 90 – 230 Wh/kg and 160 – 2700 W/kg
Clean Affordable Ontario (EECOMOBILITY). This 5-year respectively [7] [8] [9] [10]. In comparison to other energy
project will include the design, optimization, prototyping, storage chemistries such as lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, nickel-
integration, and testing of a novel electric powertrain with two metal hydride, and ultracapacitors, Li-ion has the highest
different battery cell chemistries combined in a hybrid energy energy density. This is advantageous in EVs to reduce vehicle
storage system (HESS). mass and/or extend driving range. In this project, the Li-ion
Combining multiple energy storage systems can provide cells will be used on short drives and for all transient currents,
improvements in performance, cost, mass, volume, and including regenerative braking.
efficiency, though the benefits possible will be unique for each Li-Si cells improve the graphite anode in Li-ion cells by
particular application. Prior HESS research has mainly focused introducing silicon. Graphite anodes have a maximum
on the combination of batteries and ultracapacitors (UC) [2-5]. theoretical capacity of 372 mAh/g due to the limitation of
The main advantages of using a battery/UC HESS are (i) the accepting one lithium per six carbons (LiC6) [11]. Since the
potential downsizing of the battery since the UC can provide theoretical capacity of silicon is much higher than that of
relatively high-power pulses [2] and (ii) the reduction in carbon, reaching 3579 mAh/g (gravimetric) and 9800
battery degradation due to the UC handling the high-power mAh/cm3 (volumetric) due to its fully alloyable form Li15Si4
pulses [3]. A lithium iron phosphate pack in a battery/UC [12], it is an attractive material for increasing the energy
HESS experienced multiple benefits such as a reduced capacity density per cell. Yim et al. have shown that full-cell Li-Si
loss of up to 29% and reduced power fade of 23.6% [4]. batteries can provide up to a 16% improvement in energy
Furthermore, Akar et al. [5] has reported an extension of density over current Li-ion cells for the same mass. However,
battery life of up to 55% by using a battery/UC HESS. adding silicon introduces a large volume expansion which can
Chung et al. [6] proposes a HESS including 2 battery cell exert mechanical stress on the electrode and render the cell
chemistries: Li-ion (Li-ion) and lead-acid. The goal is to unusable [13]. In addition, the volume expansion allows for the
reduce cost compared to a Li-ion single energy storage system, build up of a solid electrolyte interface, reducing cycling
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 506

ability [14]. Realistic specific energy values of 525 – 3750
Wh/kg [12] and 750 – 3600 Wh/kg [15] have been reported,
but reliable power density data is not yet available.
The further development and characterization of Li-Si cells
is an integral part of the ECCOMOBILITY research project.
The novelty of this vehicle design is to include this early-stage
cell chemistry as a range extender due to its higher energy
density. One limitation of these new Li-Si cells is that they are
not well-suited to provide fast transient power pulses; thus, the
Li-ion cells in the powertrain will provide the power pulses,
and the Li-Si pack will act as a range extender, providing the Figure 1: Topology 1
average power required on longer drives.
To investigate the range-extending capability of the new
Li-Si cells, several models, validations, and optimizations are
presented. The 2013 Ford CMAX Energi chassis is used as the
basis for this study. Section II describes the vehicle modeling
and validation process. Section III presents the optimization
process, and Section IV presents the results.
II. VEHICLE MODELING

A. Vehicle Model
A forward-looking vehicle model was created in Figure 2: Topology 2
MATLAB/Simulink to investigate the proposed dual-battery
chemistry powertrain. Two powertrain topologies with the increase or decrease the “smoothness” of the power demand
dual-battery HESS were created. Topology 1, shown in Fig. 1, from the Li-Si cells.
has a direct connection between the Li-ion battery and the The plant block contains models of each powertrain
inverter/motor. In this case, the Li-ion battery must be sized to component. The required torque signal is passed forward from
have a nominal voltage near the optimal input voltage for the the motor output to the chassis subsystem, whereas the speed
inverter/motor. The actual terminal battery voltage will vary signal is passed backwards from the chassis to the motor block.
under load and as the state-of-charge (SOC) drops. Topology The calculation of the speed of the vehicle at the next
2, shown in Fig. 2, has a DC/DC converter between the Li-ion simulation time step (t+1) is shown in Equation (1):
battery and the inverter/motor. This allows the control of a
constant voltage at inverter/motor input, which is chosen to
correlate to the optimum efficiency operation of the ( + 1) = ( )+ ∙ ( _ −
inverter/motor. The tradeoff is that extra losses and cost will ( )) (1)
be associated with this DC/DC converter compared to
Topology 1.
vchas(t) = vehicle chassis speed at current time [m/s]
As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the vehicle model contains
Fout_wheel = force out from wheels [N]
three main blocks: the driver, the controller, and the plant. The
m = vehicle mass [kg]
driver block uses a PI controller to generate a torque request
ρair = air density (1.23 kg/m3)
which is needed to closely follow the drive cycle. The
A = vehicle frontal area [m3]
controller block requests the required torque from the motor
Cd = coefficient of drag
and determines the power split between the two batteries by
sending a power demand to the DC/DC converters. Since the
The force out of the wheel block is found from the torque
Li-Si cells are considered range extenders, the powertrain
operates in 2 modes: (i) when fully charged, Li-ion cells provided to the wheel from the final drive (τfd), the friction
provide all power until the Li-ion SOC drops to 10%. Then, for braking torque (τfr_br), and the rolling resistance losses, as
longer drives, the Li-Si cells provide the average power while shown in Equation (2).
the Li-ion cells provide and absorb the transient power
_
demands. In this mode, the Li-ion cells are controlled within = −( + ) (2)
the SOC range of 5% to 15%. This operation is analagous to
the charge-depleting (CD) and charge-sustaining (CS) modes rwheel = wheel radius [m]
of a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV), where the Li-Si cells are μ1 and μ2 = rolling resistance coefficients
analagous to the engine in a PHEV. During CS mode, a first- ωwheel = wheel speed [rad/s]
order low-pass filter is used to achieve the power split between g = gravity (9.81 m/s2)
the two battery packs. The time constant of the filter, τ, is the
control parameter that is varied in the optimization study to
507
The torque provided by the final drive block (τfd) is the
motor shaft torque multiplied by the final drive ratio (rfd) and
the final drive efficiency (εfd), as shown in Equation (3).
= (3)
The motor output torque is equal to the motor torque demand

from the controller block, subject to the speed-torque limits of
the motor. The current flowing into the motor/inverter block
(Iin_motor) is calculated from the output torque and speed of the
motor (ωmotor), the voltage of the DC bus (VDCbus), and an
efficiency map which determines the combined motor and
inverter efficiency (εmotor) for each combination of the three
inputs, as shown in Equation (4). Equation (5) shows the
calculation of the motor speed.
Figure 3: Motor Efficiency Map
_ = (4)
= (5)
The combined motor and inverter efficiency map is

approximated from the 2010 Prius motor maps [16]. The motor
is assumed to operate between 225V and 400V, with peak
operating efficiency at 400V. Thus, a voltage dependency has
been added to the efficiency map such that the efficiency
reduces linearly as the DC bus voltage drops from 400V,
dropping 2% points at 225V [16]. The motor efficiency map at Figure 4: DC/DC Efficiency Map
400V input voltage is shown in Fig. 3.
The current into the motor, Iin_motor is the sum of the power
from both batteries (including losses in the DC/DC converters)
minus the electrical accesory power (300 W), divided by the
DC bus voltage. The power split at any instant is determined
by the low-pass filter parameter τ, from the controller block.
The DC/DC converter mass and efficiency are approximated
based on the Brusa BDC546 bi-directional DC/DC converter
[17]. In this study, both the number of battery cells in series
and the number of battery cells in parallel will be varied to find Figure 5: Equivalent Circuit Battery Model
optimal sizing of the proposed powertrain. Thus, the modeled
DC/DC converter(s) scale according to battery voltage and resistance, R, are both functions of SOC. The SOC at any time
power throughput. The chosen Brusa converter is 25.2kg for instant is calculated based on integrating the current into and
180kW of power throughput; thus, linear mass scaling is used out of the battery.
in the model at 0.14kg/kW. The DC/DC converter efficiency The battery open-circuit voltage curves and internal
is modeled as a look-up table that depends on both current and resistance curves for the Li-ion cells were obtained using
battery terminal (input) voltage. The approximated DC/DC parameter estimation from publicly available test data for a
converter efficiency map is shown in Fig. 4. The maximum 2013 Ford CMAX Energi vehicle from Argonne National Labs
current rating (Ibatt_max) is changed for each simulation run [19]. This pack-level data was adjusted to cell-level parameters
based on the number of battery strings in parallel – this is so that any configuration of series and parallel cells could be
analagous to selecting a DC/DC converter with the correct used in the optimization study. Since this type of detailed
peak power rating for each simulation run. testing data is not yet available for the Li-Si cells, these Li-ion
The mass manufactered cost of power electronic converters open-circuit voltage curves and internal resistance curves have
is very difficult to estimate. Thus in this paper, the inverter cost been used for the Li-Si cells in this study.
of $13.7/kW from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle The mass of the Li-ion battery pack is based on the
Technologies Office [18] is increased to $20/kW since DC/DC Chevrolet Bolt pack (435kg for 60kWh [20]) since this vehicle
boost converters require larger and more costly inductors than is the newest long-range EV on the market. The mass is scaled
inverters. linearly at 7.25 kg/kWh as the battery size changes in this
The battery model is a simple equivalent circuit model as study. The Li-Si battery pack is approximated to be 16%
shown in Fig. 5. The open-circuit voltage, VOC, and the internal lighter for the same energy, based on Yim et al. [12].
508
The cost of the Li-ion battery pack is scaled linearly at
$190/kWh [21]. It is unclear at this time what the cost of mass-
manufactered Li-Si cells would be in the future. Currently,
research involving silicon-graphite anodes makes use of
nanoparticles or nanostructures of silicon [22], which leads to
a high cell cost.. However, Favors et al. [23] has proposed a
synthesis of industry grade silicon nanoparticles using beach
sand, which has low environmental impact, high abundance
and is a low cost alternative to traditional methods. Therefore,
it is possible to estimate that the low cost and abundance of Figure 6: UDDS Validation Cycle
silicon will allow for a cheaper alternative to graphite anodes
once the manufacturing processes are refined. Thus, this study
will consider 3 cases: (i) Li-Si cells are 20% cheaper than Li-
ion cells, (ii) Li-Si cells are equal in cost to Li-ion cells, and
(iii), Li-Si cells are 20% more costly than Li-ion cells.
B. Vehicle Model Validation

In order to validate the basic vehicle model, vehicle
parameters corresponding to the 2013 Ford CMAX Energi
were entered into the model and the Li-Si battery pack and
associated DC/DC converter were removed from the model. Figure 7: CMAX Energi Validation – SOC
This simplified model was run on test cycles from Argonne
National Labs, and the simulated results were compared to the
dynamometer test results, as shown in Figures 6, 7, 8 and 9.
These results show that the model accurately reflects real-
world vehicle behaviour, and thus can be confidently used to
investigate the proposed dual battery chemistry HESS
powertrain.
III. OPTIMIZATION PROCESS
This vehicle design challenge poses a multi-objective Figure 8: CMAX Energi Validation – Voltage
optimization problem because the goals are to maximize range
while minimizing cost and energy use. The selected approach
runs vehicle simulations on only a small segment of the US06
cycle, as shown in Fig. 10. Thus, the simulation runs are very
fast. Therefore, it was practically feasible to perform a brute
force optimization where all reasonable plant and control
parameters are varied in a loop. The advantage to this method
is that resulting graphs show not only the optimum point, but
how the energy use changes with the parameter changes – this
gives more insight into the underlying mechanisms of power
loss in the powertrain. Figure 9: CMAX Energi Validation – Current
The specific approach is to first set the total energy capacity
of the two battery packs to a constant value that will yield an
electric range of about 600km. Simulation results for the
CMAX Energi chassis indicate that a total battery size of
85kWh will satisfy this constraint. The independent plant
variables are the number of Li-Si cells in series and in parallel.
The number of Li-ion cells in series is fixed, and thus the
number of Li-ion cells in parallel is a dependent plant variable,
and is chosen to meet the 85kWh total energy criteria. In this
study, non-integer values of parallel battery strings are allowed
so that finely-tuned results are obtained. Furthermore, for each
plant variable combination, the best filter control parameter, τ,
is chosen and used in all results for that plant.
The valid options for the number of Li-Si cells in series and Figure 10: Selected Test Section of the US06 Drive Cycle
parallel are cycled through in a loop. Within each loop, the
509
process shown in Fig. 11 is followed to calculate the average IV. RESULTS
weighted CD-CS energy use for the given Li-Si configuration.
Once the Li-Si configuration is set, the Li-ion pack is sized to A. Topology 1 Results
keep the on-board energy constant at 85kWhAfter creating the Fig. 12 shows the HESS mass is reduced when Li-Si cells
vehicle model from the parameters set by both packs, three CD are added, which is as expected because they displace the
mode simulations are run, with initial SOCs of 90%, 50%, and heavier Li-ion cells. The weighted energy uses of Topology 1
20%. Next, three CS mode simulations are run with the Li- in Fig. 13 vary between 20.39 – 20.83 kWh/100km, which is
ion SOC set to 10% and the Li-Si initial SOCs set to 90%, 50%, consistent with EPA values of current EV models. The 2017
and 20%. Five values of τ are used for each CS set of Chevrolet Bolt has an EPA rating of 17.4 kWh/100km, which
simulations, and the results with the lowest energy use are is approximately 3 – 4 kWh more efficienct per hundred
used. In CS mode, the Li-ion pack’s SOC is controlled to vary kilometers. This difference is expected since the modeled
between 5 to 15%, and an SOC correction is used to calculate vehicle has a larger, heavier battery pack than the Bolt since
the total energy use. The CD and CS energy use are averaged the target range of this vehicle is 600km.
using the weighting of energy capacity in the Li-ion pack (for Energy use is higher for a small Li-Si pack, and decreases
CD mode) and Li-Si pack (for CS mode). Then this loop is until it reaches a minimum for the largest possible Li-Si pack.
repeated for the next set of values for the numer of Li-Si cells Energy use decreases with increasing Li-Si parallel strings due
in series and parallel. to the decrease in HESS mass when trading Li-ion cells for
lighter Li-Si cells. The omitted portion of the curve is where
value are not possible as they would exceed the 85kWh limit.
It can be noted that energy use decreases with increasing Li-Si
cells in series. This is directly due to the efficiency increase in
the associated DC/DC converter as a result of boosting a
smaller voltage difference between the Li-Si pack and the
400V high-voltage bus. Overall, a larger amount of Li-Si cells
is beneficial for energy use optimization, due to their lower
mass.
The question then becomes: what is the cost implication of
a larger Li-Si pack? For the case where Li-Si cells are 20%
more costly per kWh than the Li-ion cells, the red data points
show the trade-off between decreased energy use and increased
cost. The optimal solutions are located along the lower bound
of the data, or the Pareto front: where the energy use and cost
of the HESS are minimized. The expensive HESS structures in
the top left of Fig. 14 represent solutions that have large
numbers of Li-Si cells. The optimal solution that minimizes
energy use is rated at 20.39 kWh/100km for a configuration of
96 series cells and 3.5 parallel cells for a price of $19,025 USD.
At the opposite end of the curve, solutions which are low cost
with low numbers of Li-Si cells will result in larger energy use.
The combination that minimizes cost? along the Pareto front
corresponds to 20.67 kWh/100km with HESS structure of 48.5
series and 1 parallel. The most interesting phenomena in Fig.
14 is the sudden decrease in cost for energy uses exceeding
20.45 kWh/100km. The configuration before the drop is
represented by 20.45 kWh/100km for 74.5 series and 3 parallel
Li-Si pack with a price of $17,769 USD, while the HESS after
the drop is rated for 20.46 kWh/100km for 96S1P at $16,768
USD. This demonstrates a trend, whereas energy uses
exceeding 20.45 kWh/100km represent HESS structures with
only one parallel string of Li-Si cells and above consists of
multiple parallel strings adding significantly to the final cost.
It is interesting to note that no combinations along the Pareto
front exceed 3.5 parallel strings. The black curve in Fig. 14
describes the HESS structures associated with Li-Si cells at the
Figure 11: Optimization Process Summary same cost as Li-ion, and behaves as expected. Some variation
in the total HESS price is due to variation in the DC/DC
components, but otherwise it maintains a constant cost for
replacing Li-ion cells with Li-Si cells. Therefore, the Pareto
510
front for this curve is entirely located at low energy use and the
majority of optimal solutions consist of 90 series cells or
greater, and 3.5 strings in parallel. Again, it is evident that 4
parallel strings or greater can produce low energy use values,
but contributes detrimentally to the cost of the HESS.
The blue data points in Fig. 14 represent the results for the
hypothetical case where Li-Si cells cost less than Li-ion cells.
As expected, the lower energy use by adding Li-Si cells will
result in lower costs as well – i.e., there is no cost-energy use
tradeoff in this case. Much the same as when cost is equal, the
solutions in the Pareto front are occupied by large numbers of
Figure 12: Topology 1 HESS mass Li-Si cells. The optimal solution range is exclusively above 85
series cells and varies between 3.5 – 4.5 parallel strings. When
cost is lower, exceeding 4 parallel strings to obtain the lower
energy uses becomes possible since the cost range is lowered
to $13,200 to $13,600 USD.
B. Topology 2 Results
In general, the weighted energy use for Topology 2 is larger
than that of Topology 1, ranging from 20.52 – 21.02
kWh/100km. The increase in energy use is due to additional
energy loss in the DC/DC converter connected to the Li-Ion
pack. This highlights the importance of designing a pack to
have a nominal voltage near the optimal motor voltage so that
this converter is not required. This curve follows a similar
shape as the Topoloy 1 energy use, with decreasing energy use
Figure 13: Topology 1 Weighted Energy Use with larger series and parallel combinations of Li-Si cells.
Topology 2 shows similar cost-energy tradeoff curves in
Fig. 17. As with Topology 1, the high cost and low energy use
solutions are dominated by large combinations of the Li-Si
pack. The optimal solution to minimize energy is a HESS with
92 series cells and 3.5 parallel strings rated for 20.52
kWh/100km and a cost of $18,891 USD. It is interesting to
note that Topology 2 can produce a cost reduction of the Li-
ion pack due to the ability for the number of series cells to vary
since the DC/DC will regulate the DC bus voltage. However,
this cost is still larger than the corresponding Topology 1
solution for 20.52 kWh/100km, which gives optimal solutions
around $16,500 USD. At the opposite end of the curve,
solutions with low cost and high energy use are once again
determined to have only one Li-Si parallel string. The minimal
cost of the Topology 2 HESS comes from a 20.94 kWh/100km
Figure 14: Topology 1 Energy Use vs. Cost of HESS rated combination of 44 series and 1 parallel string at $16,321
USD. For Topology 2, the drop in cost is seen for
configurations exceeding 20.67 kWh/100km, which again
corresponds to one parallel string of Li-Si cells.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper performed an optimization study on a novel

HESS consisting of Li-ion and Li-Si cells. The unique goal of
this HESS is to achieve a long driving range of 600 km for an
electric vehicle with a reduced battery mass compared to a
standard Li-ion pack. Although the Li-Si cells are still in the
early stages of development, the modeling performed in this
study shows that the Li-Si cells are advantageous due to their
Figure 15: Topology 2 HESS mass
511
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"Electric Vehicle Battery Life Extension Using Ultracapacitors and an
FPGA Controlled Interleaved Buck–Boost Converter," IEEE
512
Design of a 48V electric all-wheel-drive system for
a hybrid vehicle
Martin Nell, Daniel Butterweck and Kay Hameyer Orkan Eryilmaz
Insitute of Electrical Machines (IEM) GKN Driveline
RWTH Aachen University Advanced Driveline Systems Development
Aachen, Germany Lohmar, Germany
martin.nell@iem.rwth-aachen.de orkan.eryilmaz@gkndriveline.com
Abstract—This paper proposes an numerical design- II. V EHICLE S IMULATION

optimization procedure for an 48 V induction machine
The hybrid AWD system is modeled by Matlab/Simulink.
implemented in a hybrid vehicle. Based on the scaling laws
of the induction machine, the utilization of the equivalent The model includes different devices of the power train such
fuel consumption calculation and the Willans approach an as the internal combustion engine (ICE), the main gear and the
Evolutionary Strategy is used to find the optimum induction Power Takeoff Unit (PTU). The PTU takes of the power from
machine design. The scaling of the induction machine considers the front front differential and leads it by the propshaft to the
axial and radial scaling as well as rewinding. Furthermore, a
Rear Drive Unit (RDU). The RDU and the hybrid power train
change of the gear ratio of the hybrid power train is considered.
By using a hybrid vehicle model the optimized induction are included in the model as well. The different components
machines are analyzed due to their consumption savings of the Simulink model are shown in Fig. 1.
potential. To define the power distribution of the combustion
engine and the 48 V electric machine the equivalent consumption A. Controlled AWD Modell in Simulink
minimization strategy is used. The simulation of the vehicle is based on the control scheme
Index Terms—all-wheel-drive, hybridization, 48V drive, induc- shown in Fig. 2. The driving cycle data are used to calculate
tion machine, numerical optimization, scaling laws the actual reference speed vref of the car. By using (1) - (6)
the total driving resistance force FTotal is calculated. It is
I. I NTRODUCTION the summation of the air resistance force FAir , the rolling
An All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) system has approximately resistance force FRolling , which depends on the uprising force
8 % higher fuel consumption as a comparable front-wheel FUprising and the lifting force FLifting , and the slope resistance
drive. Besides the reduction of the vehicles weight and the force FSlope . Here, vCar is the actual velocity of the vehicle,
improvement of its aerodynamics the inclusion of a 48 V vWind the wind velocity, cw the drag force coefficient, A the
electric drive system can reduce the fuel consumption and the front surface, ca the lift coefficient and mCar the mass of the
local CO2 emission. Designing a hybrid drive and creating vehicle, fr0 , fr1 and fr2 the rolling resistance coefficients,
a hybrid strategy cannot be performed separately [1]. On the ρAir the density of the air, g the constant of gravitation and β
one hand, the optimum hybrid strategy in a hybrid system the slope angle.
is dependent on the vehicles properties, such as weight and
the AWD drive train topology, the driving cycle, the gear
ratio of the electric drive train and especially the topology,
size and power of the hybrid system. On the other hand,
the design of the hybrid system is dependent on the hybrid
strategy [1]. In this paper a simulation and optimization-based
design of an electrical traction unit for a 48 V AWD hybrid
electrical vehicle is presented. The optimization is done for an
induction machine (IM) by applying an Evolutionary Strategy Fig. 1. Components of the simulated vehicle.
and under the utilization of scaling laws for IMs, considering
axial and radial geometric scaling of the IM. By using the
equivalent fuel consumption calculation [2] in combination
with the Willans approach [3] the equivalent consumption for
every operating point of the considered IM is calculated. The
resulting euqivalent consumptions are used for the objective
function of the Evolutionary Strategy. With this procedure the
optimum length and radius of the IM, its winding number
and the gear ratio of the hybrid power train is calculated. The
resulting fuel consumptions by using the optimized machine Fig. 2. Control scheme of the vehicle simulation.
are simulated by a hybrid vehicle model in Matlab/Simulink.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 513

This type of modeling the AWD power train devices enables
1 2 2
the possibility to use the Willans Approach proposed in section
FAir = · vCar + vWind · cw · A · ρAir (1)
2 III-B.

vCar vCar 4
FRolling = fr0 + fr1 · + fr2 · · FUprising (2)
100 100 III. H YBRIDIZATION
FUprising = mCar · g · cos (β) − FLifting (3)
For the design of a hybrid strategy various approaches can
1 2 2

be employed. They can be distinguished in rule-based and
FLifting = · vCar + vWind · ca · A · ρAir (4)
2 optimization based methods [4]. In a rule based approach the
FSlope = mCar · g · sin (β) (5) desired torque distribution of the hybrid system is determined
FTotal = FAir + FRolling + FSlope (6) by predefined rules, taking the drivers torque command, the
State of Charge (SoC) of the battery and other physical
quantities into account [5], [6]. Optimization based methods,
With the dynamic wheel radius rW heel the resistance torque
e.g. equivalent fuel consumption minimization [2], dynamic
TResistance is calculated with:
programming [7] and fuzzy logic [8], calculate the optimum
TResistance = FTotal · rW heel (7) torque distribution at any time. Therefore, the process of
The driver is simulated by a PI controller. Input ev is the finding the optimum solution is a multi-dimensional optimiza-
difference of the reference speed vref and the actual vehicle tion problem. In this paper the equivalent fuel consumption
speed vCar . Its output is the controlled torque demand Tcontrol , minimization strategy is taken into account. The method is
which for the acceleration case is the necessary ICE torque used to derive the torque distribution of the ICE and the IM.
and for the deceleration case the necessary breaking torque. Its impact is analyzed and compared to results from different
By applying loss torques due to the losses of the power train driving cycles and hybrid power train topologies. The process
devices the driving torques at the wheels TWheel are calculated. of the equivalent fuel consumption calculation is also used for
Using the driving torque TWheel and the resistance torque the optimization of the IM.
TResistance the actual speed of the vehicle is calculated by
Z t A. Equivalent Fuel Consumption Minimization
TWheel − TResistance
vCar = rWheel · dt, (8) In a hybrid system the battery is discharged during electric
0 Jtotal
driving and can be charged by braking recuperation or by
where Jtotal is the total inertia of the car. The total inertia is
the ICE. In the equivalent fuel consumption minimization
the summation of the rotational interia of the wheels JWheel
strategy the equivalent power and consumption respectively
and translational inertia of the vehicle JCar . The calculation is
is the power and consumption that is necessary to keep the
shown in (10), where mWheel is the mass of one wheel and ei
SoC of the battery fictitious constant. The principle is shown
a gear dependent mass factor, which represents the rotational
in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. In the discharge mode the battery is
part of the mass inertia.
discharged (black power path (a) Fig. 4) and the equivalent
JTotal = JWheel + JCar (9) fuel consumption is the consumption of the ICE which is
4 2 2
necessary to keep the SoC level constant (gray power path (b)
= · mWheel · rWheel + mCar · ei · rWheel (10) Fig. 4). This equivalent fuel consumption is required in a future
2
driving situation to recharge the battery. In the charge mode
(black power path (a) Fig. 3) the equivalent fuel consumption
B. Modelling of AWD Devices is defined as the consumption of the ICE which can be saved
The devices of the AWD powertrain, depicted in Fig. 1, are (gray power path (b) Fig. 3). This ICE power can be saved
modeled by (11) in a future situation by using the electric drive. Thereby, the
future use of the electric drive can be seperated into a boost
1
TInput = · TOutput + TDrag (n) , (11) mode, where the electric drive supports the ICE and into a
ηdif f
pure electric drive.
where TInput is the input torque that comes from the engine’s
side, TOutput is the output torque to the wheel’s side, ηdif f the B. Willans Approach
differential efficiency value and TDrag (n) the speed n depen-
dent drag torque of the device. The differential efficiency and The Willans approach transforms an efficiency map into a
the drag torque are determined by test bench measurements. family of functions in an Output-Input-power-plane [3]. The
The ICE is modeled by (12), where CICE is the consumption efficiency map is subdivided into equidistant values of the
of the ICE in l/h, νpe the differential consumption coefficient, speed. For each value a polynomial Input-Output-power curve
POutput the output power of the ICE in kW and C0 (n) the (13) can be extracted. With this polynomial functions the
speed dependent no-load consumption of the ICE in l/h. hybrid AWD system can be described. A parallel connection
of the AWD elements results in an addition of the Willans lines
CICE = νpe · POutput + C0 (n) , (12) (14) and a series connection in a composition of them (15).
In Fig. 4 and Fig. 3 the type of the Willans line connection,
514
The input power PInput describes the necessary power of
the ICE for the non-hybrid, the discharge and the charge mode.
Because of the fact, that the speed of the main gear and the
ICE is dependent on the main gear’s ratio the Willans lines
are calculated for each gear. The resulting Willans curves of
all three modes for gear three are shown in Fig. 5. For the
calculation of the equivalent consumption in the charge mode
a future pure electric mode is taken into account. With this
approach it is possible immediately to see the consumption
and equivalent consumptions of the ICE for each operating
point. This approach will be used to configure the objective
function of the design optimization of an IM.
Fig. 3. Equivalent fuel consumption: Charge mode of the battery.
which is either in series or parallel, can be seen by the arrows

of the shaded black power path.
x 0
PInput (POutput ) = ax · POutput + .... + a0 · POutput (13)
Pparallel (POutput ) = PInput,1 (POutput ) + PInput,2 (POutput ) (14)
Pserial (POutput ) = PInput,2 (PInput,1 (POutput )) (15)
With an interconnection of the Willans lines of the different

AWD power train devices, such as the RDU and PTU, a
Fig. 5. Willans lines of the pure AWD, the discharge and the charge mode.
Willans line for the whole AWD power train is achieved.
This procedure is executed for the pure AWD system without
considering the hybrid power train, for the discharge mode, IV. I NDUCTION M ACHINE S IMULATION
depicted in Fig. 4, and for the charge mode depicted in Fig. 3.
The connection of the devices is done along the shaded black The simulation of an IM by the finite-element-method
power path (Path (c) in Fig. 4 and Fig. 3, that describes the (FEM) takes a large number of simulation time steps to
calculation path for the equivalent consumption calculation build up the machines rotor flux matrix [9]. Therefore, the
using the Willans Approach, and ends at the ICE. With this use of the FEM in a mathematical optimization procedure
definition the power at the street, also called load power is not suitable due to time-consuming calculations. A pro-
Pload , is defined as the output power of the Willans approach posed hybrid simulation approach for IMs 2D-finite-element
POutput . (FE) calculating of Von Pfingsten, Nell and Hameyer [9],
[10] drastically decreases the simulation time by shortening
the transient build-up of the rotor flux. Nevertheless, this
hybrid approach is still not sufficient for the application
in a mathematical optimization procedure. To overcome the
time-consuming calculations of the FEM scaling laws of the
induction machine are used. Scaling laws are a popular method
in physics and engineering and are often used in numerous
examples. Žarko, Stipetič and Ramakrishnan published several
papers about the scaling laws for synchronous machines (SM).
In [11] and [12] the procedures of radial and axial geometrical
scaling and of rewinding for a SM are introduced. In [13] and
[14] the scalable SM models are used to find the optimum
sizing of a SM traction motor. For the IM Žarko presented a
method to design premium efficiency IM using scaling laws
for its equivalent circuit parameters in [15]. Bone’s research in
[16] deals with the influence of the rotor diameter and length
Fig. 4. Equivalent fuel consumption: Discharge mode of the battery. on the rating of IMs.
515
A. Scaling Procedure where lFe is the active length of the IM, rring the middle radius
The basis of the scaling procedure of the IM are the FEM and Aring the area of the short circuit ring, Abar the area of a
solutions in a I1 -f2 -map of a reference IM, which is calculated rotor bar, Q2 the number of the rotor bars and p the number
by the hybrid simulation approach of von Pfingsten, Nell of polepairs. The multiplication of the first and second time
and Hameyer [9], [10], where I1 is the stator current vector scaling factors leads to the total time scaling factor
and f2 rotor frequency vector. Without changing the field kt = kt1 kt2 . (20)
solution of the IM the FE-solutions are scaled in the I1 -f2 .
By taken into account the inverter requirements maximal 2) Scaling of the Winding Number: A change of the wind-
current and maximal dc-link voltage and the operation ing number in the IMs stator winding has an influence on
strategy Minimum-Torque-Per-Electrical-Losses (MTPEL) the the induced voltage and therefore on the corner speed of the
I1 -f2 -maps are transformed into torque-speed-operation maps IM. Therefore, the winding number is of great interest in the
(T -n-map). In the transformation into the T -n-map the motor design of the IM espacially for a 48 V system. According to
as well as the generator operation mode are considered. [12] the windingnumber is scaled with (21)-(23).
1) Geometric Scaling: For the geometric scaling of the IM 1
I∝ (21)
the radial scaling factor kr and the axial scaling factor ka is kw
introduced. The length l of the IM are scaled by (16), the Ψ ∝ kw (22)
surfaces A by (17) and the volume by (18) L∝ k2w (23)
0
l = l · ka (16)
0
3) Scaling of the torque and losses: With the derived
A = A · kr ka (17) scaling relationships the torque and ohmic losses are scaled
0
V = V · k2r ka (18) with (24) - (25).
According to Bone’s [17] a time scaling factor kt1 has to T = ka k2r (24)
0
be used to satisfy that the magnetic flux density B is kept PL,ohm,2 = PL,ohm,2 k2r kR (25)
constant. This time scaling factor is equal the scare of the
radial scaling factor. Fig. 6 shows a change of the rotor The iron loss power density, separated into hysteresis, eddy
resistance R22 has an influence on the current distribution of the current and excess losses [18] is scaled with
stator and rotor currents I1 and I 22 respectively. Therefore, a 0
pL,Fe (26)
change of the rotor resistance R22 due to a geometrical scaling 2 1.5

of the IM has to be considered in the time scaling factor to f f f
= khyst B α + keddy B 2 2 + kexcess B 1.5 1.5
keep the field distribution constant. Fig. 6 also illustrates the kt kt kt
impact of the time scaling factor kt . By scaling the inductances where khyst , keddy and kexcess are the hysteresis loss, eddy
with the inverse of kt the current distribution and therefore the current loss and excess loss coefficient respectively. With the
field distribution is kept constant. iron loss power density and the iron mass mFe , scaled with
0
k2r ka , the scaled iron loss power PL,Fe is
1 1
∝ kt
∝ kt f (geo)
0 0
PL,Fe = pL,Fe mFe k2r ka . (27)
I1 I s2
Iµ
1
V1 ∝ kt V. I NDUCTION M ACHINE O PTIMIZATION
The scaling laws of the IM can be used in numerical
optimization procedures to achieve an optimum design of the
IM. An overview of such numerical optimization procedures
Fig. 6. Scaling factor dependencies of the elements of the equivalent circuit
diagram of a squirrel cage induction machine. is presented by Stipetič and Žarko in [19]. In this publication
meta-heuristic algorithm, such as Evolution Strategy or Dif-
The additional time scaling factor kt2 due to the change of ferential Evolution, are suggested for the complex electrical
the rotor bar geometry is machine design [20]. In [21] a multi objective optimization in
1 combination with the scaling laws of a SM is used to find the
kt2 = (19) optimum size of the traction motor as it is done in [13] with
kR1
the gear ratio as an additional design variable. In this paper
an Evolution Strategy is used to find the optimum design of

kr
with kR1 = 1 + − 1 κ2 the 48 V IM of the AWD vehicle. The objective parameters
ka
1 of the Evolution Strategy are the radial scaling factor kr , the
and κ2 = l Aring 2
, axial scaling factor ka , the winding number w and the gear
πrring Abar Q2 sin (πp/Q2 ) + 1
Fe
ratio iGear of the gear in the hybrid power train.
516
A. Objective function Cycle and the ARTEMIS Road Cycle. The simulation is
The design optimization has the goal to make a chosen done in 3 steps. First, the hybridization strategy is calculated
objective function reach its minimum or maximum value while and configured by using the equivalent fuel consumption
keeping other technical indices within acceptable ranges [19]. calculation and the Willans approach describes in section III,
For different field of applications different objective functions second the optimum power train configuration is determined
are used. Some of the typical objective functions are the by using the scaling laws of the IM of section IV and by
minimization of the material cost or the maximization of the using the optimization procedure of section V. Third, the
torque per volume [19]. In this paper the objective function driving cycles are simulated without a hybridization, with the
is based on the equivalent fuel consumption calculation. For reference hybrid power train and with the optimized one. The
every operating point in the driving cycle that can be reached vehicle is an AWD of a mass of mCar = 1875 kg, a front
by the IM the equivalent consumption in this point is cal- surface of A = 2.61 m, a drag force coefficient cw = 0.35 and
culated. Here, the speed and torque dependent losses of the a lifting coefficient of ca = 0.2. For a fair comparison of the
AWD system devices are taken into account by using the series difference of the SoC of the 48 V battery between the start and
or parallel connection of the Willans lines. With the proposed end of the drive has to be considered. By using a penalty factor
Willans approach in section III-B the equivalent consumptions in the equivalent fuel consumption minimization strategy due
in the motor and generator mode of the IM are calculated with to Rizzoni, Pisu and Calo [22]. With this enhancement the
the discharge and charge mode of the euqivalent consumption battery SoC in the different simulations differs less than 1.2 %.
calculation procedure. A further assumption in the simulation is that the ICE is
completely turned off during an pure electric drive. During
B. Reference Hybrid power train parameter this situation the 12 V battery provides the electronic devices
The reference hybrid power train has a gear ratio iGear = 7, of the car with power. The fuel consumption difference due
an active length of the IM lFe = 200 mm, an outer stator radius to a decreasing SoC of the 12 V battery is considered in the
r1 = 87.5 mm, an outer rotor radius r2 = 51 mm, an airgap adjusted SoC value ∆C ∗ . The energy to restart the motor is
length lAir = 0.5 mm and a winding number Nw = 6. not considered. Moreover, the temperature rises of the IM are
neglected in a first step. The simulation results of the reference
C. Boundary constraints vehicle without the hybrid power train, with the reference IM
The optimization is done with certain boundary constraints. with a aluminum and copper squirrel cage rotor respectively
The installation space of the IM can be considered via borders are shown in table II.
of the scaling factors kr and ka . The gear ratio iGear can
also be limited by this way as well as the winding number. Simulation Without IM Ref. IM (Al) Ref. IM (Cu)
Further constraints in this paper are the maximum current C WLTP 6.37 L −11.80 % −12.55 %
C FTP75 6.25 L −16.87 % −18.10 %
density in the stator conductors Jmax , the maximum surface
C ArtemisUrban 7.78 L −24.89 % −26.72 %
velocity of the rotor vsurface and the minimum achievable C ArtemisRoad 5.78 L −9.97 % −10.34 %
torque of the hybrid power train. The constraint of the current TABLE II
density considers the maximum thermal stress of the stator R ESULTS OF THE IM OPTIMIZATION AND VEHICLE SIMULATION
winding concerning a maximal temperature increase of 140 K ( ALUMINUM CAGE ).
in 120 s and the maximum surface velocity of the rotor
the considers the mechanical stress of the rotor. With the
minimum achievable torque a costumer costumer requirement The results of the IM optimization are listed in table III. It
is considered. The boundary constraints for the IM in this shows the optimum gear ratio, radial and axial scaling factor
paper are listed in table I. and winding number of the IM. The consumption difference
∆C ∗ and the adjusted consumption difference ∆C ∗ show
iGear kr ka Nw Jmax vsurface Taxle,min that the optimized motor design results in a fuel consumption
min 4 0.6 0.6 1 0 A/mm2 0 m/s 1100 N m saving of 2.3 % to 7.4 % depending on the driving cylce. It
max 22 1.2 1.2 10 14 A/mm2 120 m/s ∞
also shows that the optimum gear ratio is in the range of 9, the
TABLE I optimum radial scaling factor 1.17, the optimum axial scaling
B OUNDARY CONTRAINTS OF THE IM OPTIMIZATION . factor in the range of 0.9 and the winding number 3 or 4.
Driving Cycle iGear kr ka Nw ∆C ∆C ∗

VI. S IMULATION RESULTS WLTP 9.6645 1.1771 0.9952 3 −14.14 % −13.95 %
FTP 75 8.6945 1.1788 0.8878 4 −22.46 % −22.26 %
To validate the proposed approach simulations are per- Artemis Urban 9.8726 1.1802 1.200 4 −34.36 % −34.26 %
Artemis Road 9.6712 1.1828 0.9488 3 −12.77 % −12.68 %
formed. With the controlled AWD model of section II-A 5 dif-
ferent driving cycles are simulated with different hybrid power TABLE III
train topologies. The simulated driving cycle are the World- R ESULTS OF THE IM OPTIMIZATION AND VEHICLE SIMULATION
( ALUMINUM CAGE ).
wide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP), the
Federal Test Procedure 75 (FTP75), the ARTEMIS Urban
517
Driving Cycle iGear kr ka Nw ∆C ∆C ∗
WLTP 8.2088 1.1917 0.994 3 −15.04 % −14.86 %
[4] C. Desai and S. S. Williamson, “Comparative study of hybrid electric
FTP 75 8 2456 1.1875 0.8561 4 −23.06 % 22.86 % vehicle control strategies for improved drivetrain efficiency analysis,”
Artemis Urban 6.1642 1.1896 1.1904 4 −34.96 % −34.87 % IEEE Electrical Power & Energy Conference (EPEC), Montreal, QC,
Artemis Road 9.7661 1.1949 1.0409 3 −13.37 % −13.27 % pp. 1–6, 2009.
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518
A Data-Driven Framework for Residential Electric
Vehicle Charging Load Profile Generation
Zonggen Yi and Don Scoffield
Idaho National Laboratory
Zonggen.Yi@inl.gov and Don.Scoffield@inl.gov
Abstract—Residential electric vehicle charging load profile is in control scheme. Much research used random distributions
indispensable to achieve reliable control strategies for mitigating to simulate the residential EV charging load profile [27]–[29].
negative effects on power distribution system due to emerging But this doesn’t work to validate the performance of control
electrified transportation. This paper introduces a data-driven
framework of charging load profile generation for residential strategies in realistic application. To our best knowledge, there
plug-in electric vehicles. Real world historical residential charg- is no residential charging load profile that is derived from
ing behavior data is utilized to construct empirical charging realistic data or informative enough to be used for system
decision making model by using machine learning algorithm. level control strategies.
A multiple channels method with kernel density estimation is This paper aims to develop a scalable and flexible frame-
proposed to construct probability density functions for estimating
charging duration based on parking duration. A generation algo- work that can generate informative residential EV charging
rithm considering parking time and travel demand dependency load profiles by taking advantage of a historical charging
is introduced to generate residential charging behaviors. This behavior data set. Data-driven models can be constructed from
framework is extensible to generate various charging load profiles large scale historical data to describe the underlying realistic
and simulate varied residential charging scenarios under different charging behaviors. Based on these data-driven models, the
number of households and charging rates. This will be crucial for
designing and validating residential charging control strategies. residential EV charging load profile can be generated with re-
gard to different number of households and charging rates. The
I. I NTRODUCTION generated charging load profile for a single household illus-
Increasing electric vehicle (EV) usage for accelerating trans- trates the residential parking and charging behavior, including
portation electrification has crucial impacts on greenhouse arrival and departure time, arrival SOC and departure SOC
gas emissions and energy dependency. In order to improve requirement for each home parking. The charging load profile
the adoption of electric vehicles, tremendous work is being can provide comprehensive information to design residential
performed to electrify powertrain systems and the transporta- charging strategy for flattening the overall load shape profile,
tion system [1]. Lots of research works on charging station minimizing the charging cost, or minimizing power losses, etc.
placement, e.g. [2], [3], etc. to make EVs get charged easily.
II. M ETHODOLOGY
Meanwhile, much research has been performed to design
energy management strategy in order to optimize the energy A. Data Set for Modeling
usage of electric vehicles and redude their range anxiety, e.g. Idaho National Laboratory partnered with ECOtality, Nis-
[4]–[7]. Recently more than 700,000 plug-in vehicles are on san, General Motors, and other city, regional and state gov-
road in US since 2010 market introduction [8]. To meet charg- ernments, electric utilities, other organizations and members of
ing demand from EVs, charging stations are installed at both the general public, to deploy over 12,000 AC Level 2 charging
residential and commercial locations. However, the increasing units and over 100 DC fast chargers in 20 metropolitan
number of residential EV chargers is likely to increase the areas. Approximately 8,300 Nissan LEAF, Chevrolet Volts,
effects on electricity generation adequacy, transformer aging, and Smart ForTwo Electric Drive vehicles were enrolled in the
and distribution system power quality, etc. as discussed in [9]. project. The data collection phase of The EV Project ran from
Several mitigation schemes proposed in the literature, in- January 1, 2011, through December 31, 2013 and captured
cluding indirect control using Time-Of-Use (TOU) rates [10]– almost 125 million miles of driving and 4 million charging
[13] and direct control using smart charging algorithms [14]– events. The detailed information of this project and data set
[24], etc. However, if, while designing the TOU schedule, can be found in [30].
the total demand and load profile of the EV load is not Different areas usually have different residential charging
taken into consideration, the effects of EV charging under a load patterns. The proposed data-driven generation framework
TOU schedule might get worse [10]–[13]. The power system in this paper will be suitable for different areas. Charging load
could be utilized more efficiently if the EV charging rate and profiles in different areas for both weekdays and weekends
charging start time are controlled to optimize a desired grid can be derived by using historical data and the proposed
objective [25], [26]. Therefore, an informative EV load profile framework. Historical data in a specific area is needed to
(including the available charging time interval, the required construct the required data-driven models. In this paper, a
energy, etc.) is fundamental to achieve a good performance subset of historical data of Nissan Leaf in San Francisco
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 519

Fig. 1. A diagram for daily residential parking behavior
Distribution of Number of Daily Home Parking Fig. 3. Data-driven modeling process for charging decision making
80000 80548
70000
60000
duration (Tpd ) and the arrival SOC (SOCa ). For each parking
50000 action, parking duration is obtained by using the arrival time
Count
40000 and departure time. Therefore, we have the following model

30000 30061
to determine whether a charging action is necessary.
20000
10000 9699
1, if charged
charging decision = f (SOCa , Tpd ) =
3166 962 270 60 12 2
0, if not charged
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Number of Daily Home Parking (1)
Due to different charging behaviors between the daily mid-
Fig. 2. A histogram for number of daily home parking in San Francisco dle short-time parking and last long-time parking, the charg-
between 2012 and 2013 ing decision making for a home parking behavior has been
modeled separately for these two cases: flast (SOCa , Tpd ) for
last home parking and fmid (SOCa , Tpd ) for middle home
during weekdays will be utilized to demonstrate the data- parking. They have similar model formulation only with
driven generation framework for residential charging load different parameters, which are obtained from different parts
profiles. of historical data. The K-nearest machine learning algorithm
B. EV Residential Parking Model is utilized to construct these two charging decision making
models by feeding the corresponding historical data. Figure 3
The daily residential parking behavior of an EV can be
illustrates the detailed procedure on how to build these two
modeled as Ph = (Np , Mt , MSOC ). In this model, Np is the
models. When new parking behavior data is obtained, we can
number of home parking for each vehicle within a day, Mt ∈
utilize these two models to decide whether a charging action
RNp ×2 is a matrix for parking time information, including the
is necessary. If a charging action is needed, the following
arrival time (parking start time) and departure time (parking
charging duration model will help to decide how much the
end time) in each column, respectively. MSOC ∈ Z NP ×2 is
charging time will be and the energy will be charged.
a matrix for parking SOC information, including the arrival
SOC (parking start SOC, SOCa ) and departure SOC (parking D. Charging Duration Model
end SOC, SOCd ) in each column, respectively. According to
SOC change/increase (the difference between arrival SOC and The actual charging duration (Tc ) within each parking
departure SOC in each row of MSOC ), we can know whether duration when a charging action occurs is necessary to know
the EV performs charging action during a home parking. or predict how much energy will be charged or energy demand.
All these information is illustrated in Figure 1. Based on Assume that the charging action in the last home parking can
the parking time and SOC information, the following data- always achieve a full battery state because of its long parking
driven decision making models are constructed for residential duration. Therefore, we only has to utilize data-driven method
charging load profile generation. to create a prediction model for charging duration of middle
Figure 2 is an example to illustrate the distribution of parking behavior.
number of home parking for historical data in San Francisco. Figure 4 illustrates real world data distribution between SOC
It shows that lots of daily residential parking behavior only increase and parking duration at each parking with charging
has one time of parking at home. However, there are still action from historical data. By using the historical data and
many daily residential parking activities that have more than providing the realistic average charging rate (3.74kW for 2012
one home parking actions within one day. Most of residential Nissan Leaf) and battery capacity (20kWh for 2012 Nissan
parking behaviors include no more than five parking events. Leaf), we can calculate the charging duration according to
SOC increase and then find the potential relationship with
C. Residential Charging Decision Making parking duration. Figure 4 demonstrates large uncertainties
Residential charging decision making model is used to of SOC increase by giving specific parking duration. This
describe whether a charging action occurs during a parking means that realistic charging duration can have randomness
action. Based on the knowledge from historical real world with regard to parking duration. Furthermore, the uncertainty
data, this paper assumes that the residential charging decision becomes larger when parking duration increases. In order
of a home parking action is determined by the home parking to handle these situations, we design a multiple channels
520
45
40
35
30
SOC Increase
25
20
Fig. 6. Overall generation framework for residential EV charging load profile
15
10
5 under charging rate Cr . In Algorithm 1, it works for one daily
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Parking Duration(hour) sample in historical data to generate a new daily sample in
new data set. Therefore, each sample in historical data has
Fig. 4. Distribution of SOC increase in percentage with regard to parking to be transformed by this algorithm so that we can obtain
duration for Nissan Leaf in San Francisco the entire new profile {Phnew }. After the generated whole
profile is obtained, we can sample this profile with replacement
according to the required number of households to get the
needed residential charging load profile.
Algorithm 1: Generation Algorithm

Input: Ph , flast (SOCa , Tpd ), fmid (SOCa , Tpd ),
Fig. 5. Multiple channels method for charging duration prediction
Dct (Tpd ), Cr
Output:Phnew = (Np , Mtnew , Msoc new
)
Initialization: i = 1, Calculate the SOC difference
method as shown in Figure 5 to produce the probability between two consecutive parking to get
density function for each given parking duration interval. The {Diff(k, k + 1), k = 1, ..., Np − 1}, where
size of these intervals is not necessary to be equal to each Diff(k, k + 1) = MSOC (k, 2) − MSOC (k + 1, 1)
other. Generally we can utilize small size of interval for while i < Np do
small parking duration. Assuming to use N parking dura- SOCa = MSOC (i, 1), Tpd = Mt (i, 2) − Mt (i, 1)
tion intervals, we can obtain N different probability density y = fmid (SOCa , Tpd )
functions for charging duration prediction. By using these if y==1 then
Tc = sample(Dct (Tpd ))
obtained probability density functions, we can generate the
SOCd = min(100, SOCa + 100Cr Tc /capacity)
corresponding charging duration values. This is powerful to new new
Msoc (i, 1) = SOCa , Msoc (i, 2) = SOCd
simulate the realistic patterns between parking and charging
duration when a large size of samples are needed. else
new new
Msoc (i, 1) = SOCa , Msoc (i, 2) = SOCa
E. Overall Generation Framework for Residential Charging new
Mt (i, :) = Mt (i, :)
Load Profile new
Msoc (i + 1, 1) = Msoc (i, 2) − Diff(i, i + 1)
The purpose of this paper is to generate electric vehicle i=i+1
residential charging load profiles under different charging while i == Np do
rates. Historical data is used to construct data driven models, SOCa = MSOC (Np , 1),
e.g. charging decision making models and charging duration Tpd = Mt (Np , 2) − Mt (Np , 1)
model. In order to obtain charging load profile by giving a y = flast (SOCa , Tpd )
charging rate and number of households, the charging decision if y==1 then
making models and charging duration model are used to SOCd = min(100, SOCa + 100Cr Tc /capacity)
new new
establish the entire generation procedure as shown in Figure 6. Msoc (Np , 1) = SOCa , Msoc (Np , 2) = SOCd
The input information of the overall generation process else
new new
includes the historical data, the new charging rate and the Msoc (Np , 1) = SOCa , Msoc (Np , 2) = SOCa
required number of households. The original parking behavior
in historical data {Ph } is kept the same. We need to recalculate
the potential charging load or energy demand from residential
EVs at each parking under a newly given charging rate. By us- III. R ESULTS
ing the charging decision making models (flast (SOCa , Tpd ), In order to demonstrate the functionality of the proposed
fmid (SOCa , Tpd )) and charging duration model (Dct (Tpd )), generation framework for residential charging load profiles,
we can utilize the proposed Algorithm 1 to generate a new we illustrate the results by utilizing a subset data of 2012
data set ({Phnew }) which can describe the new charging load Nissan Leaf in San Francisco in EV Project. As shown in
521
Figure 2, the residential parking behavior within one day
Percentage of Charging Actions During Parking
can have several parking actions. In the proposed generation 1.0
0.8 60109(0.746) 61269(0.761) 61269(0.761)
process, we do not change the parking time information but
Percentage
0.6
generate new charging demand (SOC increase) in each parking
0.4
action according to new charging rates. Figure 2 illustrates that
0.2
there are at most nine residential parking actions within one 0.0
day. Most of the samples only have three residential parking Actual 3.74kW 6.48kW
actions. Therefore, the following results only demonstrate the SOC Increase Distribution of Charging Actions
results for data samples with one, two and three residential 0.100 Actual
0.075 3.74kW
Percentage
parking actions within one day. 6.48kW
Results compare the statistical analysis under three different 0.050
cases: actual case is for the original historical data; 3.74kW 0.025
case is for the newly generated profile by using charging rate 0.000
0 20 40 60 80 100
of 3.74kW; 6.48kW case is for the newly generated profile by SOC Increase
using charging rate of 6.48kW. Each figure from Figure 7 to
Figure 12 includes both the percentage of charging actions dur- Fig. 7. Statistic results of last parking actions for residential charging load
ing parking and SOC increase distribution of charging actions. profile with only one parking action within one day
Percentage of charging actions during parking describes the
percentage of parking actions in which charging actions take
place. SOC increase distribution of charging actions describes 1.0
the overall distribution of SOC increase for all charging 0.8
actions. This is a distribution to show the energy demand from Percentage 0.6
0.4
residential charging. 4938(0.164) 5012(0.167) 5012(0.167)
0.2
Figure 8, 10 and 11 illustrate the statistic analysis results 0.0
of middle parking for charging load profiles with two and Actual 3.74kW 6.48kW
three parking actions within one day. Very little difference SOC Increase Distribution of Charging Actions
exists in the results for percentage of charging actions during 0.15 Actual
parking. This is determined by the charging decision making 3.74kW
Percentage
0.10 6.48kW
model fmid (SOCa , Tpd ). This similar percentage means the
0.05
charging decision making model is stable under different
charging rates. Distributions of SOC increase demonstrate the 0.00
0 20 40 60 80 100
different patterns under different charging rates. Generally, SOC Increase
distributions of case 3.74kW are close to those from actual
historical data. This is because that the average actual charging Fig. 8. Statistic results of middle parking actions for residential charging
rate is close to 3.74kW. Case 6.48kW has larger percentages on load profile with two parking actions within one day
high SOC increase values. This generally follows the realistic
mechanism that, with the same available charging duration,
more energy will be charged by using a higher charging same under different charging rates. The slightly difference in
rate. These results show a good capability for our proposed Figure 9 and 12 is caused by more charged energy in previous
framework to generate reasonable residential charging load middle parking actions due to higher charging rates.
profiles under different charging rates.
Figure 7, 9 and 12 illustrate statistic analysis results of IV. C ONCLUSION
last parking actions for charging load profiles with one, two,
three parking actions within one day, respectively. In each This paper introduces a data-driven framework to generate
result, the percentage of charging actions during parking are residential EV charging load profiles. To our best knowledge,
almost the same. This shows that charging decision model this is the first work to construct realistic residential charging
flast (SOCa , Tpd ) works well. But we still can see the light load profiles based on real-world collected data. The estab-
difference between investigated cases under different charging lished data-driven models for charging decision making and
rates. If the daily residential parking behavior has more than charging duration make the framework extensible for different
one parking actions, the percentage of charging actions for the scales of scenarios, i.e. different number of households and
last parking has got a slightly decrease when the charging rate charging rates. This is durable for future application with
increases. This is because that more energy can be charged large-scale deployment of EVs. Detailed experiments and
during middle parking due to a higher charging rate. This comparisons show the capability and validate the functionality
illustrates our proposed framework can capture realistic time of the proposed framework. This work will be important and
dependence along different parking actions when charging rate fundamental for developing system-level residential charging
is changed. The SOC increase distributions are almost the strategies with benefit of realistic EV charging load profile.
522
Percentage of Charging Actions During Parking 1.0
1.0 0.8 7736(0.798) 7454(0.769) 7288(0.751)
Percentage
0.8 23079(0.768) 22870(0.761) 22517(0.749) 0.6
Percentage
0.6 0.4
0.4 0.2
0.2 0.0
0.0 Actual 3.74kW 6.48kW
Actual 3.74kW 6.48kW
SOC Increase Distribution of Charging Actions
SOC Increase Distribution of Charging Actions 0.100 Actual
0.100 3.74kW
Actual 0.075
Percentage
0.075 3.74kW 6.48kW
Percentage
6.48kW 0.050
0.050
0.025
0.025
0.000
0.000 0 20 40 60 80 100
0 20 40 60 80 100 SOC Increase
SOC Increase
Fig. 12. Statistic results of last parking actions for residential charging load
Fig. 9. Statistic results of last parking actions for residential charging load profile with three parking actions within one day
profile with two parking actions within one day
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Percentage of Charging Actions During Parking This work is performed for the U.S. Department of Energy
1.0
0.8
under Idaho National Laboratory contract number DE-AC07-
Percentage
0.6 05ID14517. Funding is provided by the U.S. DOE Office of

0.4 Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technolo-
0.2 1577(0.163) 1498(0.154) 1498(0.154) gies Office.
0.0
Actual 3.74kW 6.48kW
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524
Estimated Value of Smart / Managed Charging of
Electric Vehicles for a Vertically Integrated Utility
Deepak Aswani1, Bill Boyce1, and David Yomogida2
1
Energy Strategy, Research & Development
2
Resource Planning & Energy Trading
Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)
Sacramento, California USA
Abstract — Electric Vehicles (EVs) offer a unique opportunity of financial structure. This cost structure directly influences the
providing unidirectional smart / managed charging (demand cost to supply electricity at different hours in a year (time
management). This smart / managed charging may be able to varying nature).
provide energy load shifting, capacity, spinning reserve, or regu-
lation up/down services. This report offers an economic esti- b) Power directionality: Although discharging energy
mate of the value that can be captured from smart / managed onto the grid is an interesting area of research, most
charging for a vertically integrated utility, using the Sacramento automotive manufacturers are not open to offering this
Municipal Utility District as an example. capability with their series production EVs at this point in time
due to the risk of battery life degradation from increased
Index Terms— Electric vehicles, Charging stations, Smart grids, charge/discharge cycling. This functionality is unlikely to be
Load management, Electricity supply industry available in the near term and therefore some of the estimates
in [5] are higher than if limited to managed charging.
I. INTRODUCTION
c) Hardware configuration: Certain studies such as [5]
Certain controllable loads offer the ability to move energy assume a single EV model that has a specific battery size and
consumption from one time-period to another such as onboard charger rating. Results for one EV model may not be
controllable heat pump water heaters, thermal energy storage directly relevant when considering a portfolio of diverse EV
with chiller tanks, controllable pool pumps, and managed types available to customers.
charging of Electric Vehicles (EVs). This report focuses on
managed charging of EVs. The opportunity for load shifting d) Optimization/control methodology: Each optimization
arises from the fact that although driving determines the algorithm or control strategy implementation has some
battery discharge profile, there is flexibility in when and how inherent constraints due to newly introduced assumptions or
quickly the battery is recharged as long as the EV is connected performance limitations of the algorithm. In practice, this
to the grid and the battery is sufficiently charged before the results in suboptimal solutions. Lacking knowledge of the
next driving trip. Most mainstream EVs and chargers specific optimization algorithm applied further complicates
currently lack the communications and control capability to the comparison of different analyses.
deliver grid services or the metering and telemetry capability II. OBJECTIVE AND ASSUMPTIONS
to qualify for many of the bulk level grid services [1], [2].
Several studies have been conducted to estimate the potential The objective of the analysis summarized in this report is
value that can be captured to help explore regulatory and to estimate the value of managed EV charging for SMUD to
business models of such technology investment. A wide range help bound investment costs that can be justified for a scaled
of values have been estimated: $85/EV/year by San Diego Gas implementation. Assumptions are as follows:
& Electric in [3]; $400/EV/year by eMotorWerks in [4]; and a) Energy cost structure: SMUD’s cost of electricity is
$2,900/EV/year by researchers in [5]. modeled as a vertically integrated utility. SMUD is able to
Several factors have an impact on the estimated value of provide energy and balancing using its own generation assets
managed charging such as energy cost structure and access to and has access to both the California Oregon Border (COB)
different electricity markets, power directionality, hardware and California ISO (CAISO) energy markets as shown in Fig-
configuration, and optimization/control methodology: ure 1. Production cost modeling in PLEXOS® by Energy
Exemplar is used to estimate the hourly marginal costs as-
a) Energy cost structure: The resource mix and suming generation build-out for a 50% Renewable Portfolio
operational model of a utility can have a significant impact on Standard (RPS) by 2030. Managed charging of EVs is treated
the cost of energy and grid services. For example, since PJM as a resource that can avoid cost of services from the energy
has a lower fraction of flexible hydroelectric resources than markets or from SMUD’s own generation assets.
the California ISO, their ancillary service products are valued
higher than those from California ISO. All three referenced b) Power directionality: Bidirectional charging is not as-
studies involve fully market-integrated utilities which assumes sumed. EVs are treated as managed loads where charging can
that value for EV managed charging is derived from energy be curtailed and moved from one time to another (V1G).
market products. However, a vertically integrated utility such c) Hardware configuration: A mix of three vehicle types
as the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is is assumed: 1) PHEV with 30-mile electric range; 2) BEV
responsible for its own balancing and faces a different
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 525

with 70-mile electric range; and 3) BEV with 200-mile elec- tionally intensive or append additional constraints or simplifi-
tric range. These EVs are assumed to have attributes as sum- cations to satisfy the necessary conditions for established
marized in Table 1 of the following section. optimization algorithms to be applied.
d) Optimization/control methodology: The optimization The approach proposed in the following absorbs the state,
methodology used is detailed in the following section. control, and constraint complexity into a static optimization
across time by modeling the statistical expectation of charg-
ing behavior for vehicles in aggregate and taking advantage
of convex attributes for each daily period. This methodology
is then applied to optimize against energy costs over a one-
year time period considering generation dispatch costs, ener-
gy market prices, and local capacity costs. Figure 2 shows
how the charging command ( ) relates to the actual resulting
EV load ( ), which can be affected by a number of factors
such as whether a vehicle is connected to the charger, the
L2/L2 onboard inverter power rating, whether the battery is
fully charged, and a variety of other factors.
Figure 1: SMUD resources for energy and balancing
III. MODELING & OPTIMIZATION METHODOLOGY

A. Problem Description
Managed charging of EVs is a high-degree of freedom,
constrained, dynamic optimization problem:
a) Degrees of freedom: Each EV has a dedicated battery
Figure 2: Relation of control command trajectory to controlled power
State of Charge (SOC) and each EV’s charging rate can be trajectory for managed EV charging
throttled up or down independently of all other EVs. As of
June 2017, there were about 6,000 EVs in SMUD’s service C. Model Development for a Single Electric Vehicle
area, with a total of between 44,000 and 92,000 forecasted by To model a single vehicle we used Sacramento Area
2030. For analysis in this paper, the ramp to 44,000 EVs by Council of Government (SACOG) transportation data that
2030 was assumed. shows the average daily mileage in Sacramento County is 25
b) Constraints: As is generally the case for controllable miles per day [11]. For electric vehicles, an analogous distri-
loads described in [6], the cumulative energy delivery over a bution could be inferred for daily electrical energy consump-
given time period is one of the constraints to fulfill customer tion. It is important to distinguish the fact that individual
needs. More specifically, each EV has a minimum ending Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) probability distribution dif-
battery SOC prior to each driving trip. For example, a driver fers from the aggregate or ensemble distribution in important
cannot have only 5 miles of range available in the morning ways [12]. For example, each individual does not necessari-
before their 30-mile drive to work. There is also the inherent ly have the same daily mean and standard deviation VMT as
limitation of load throttling being available only when the EV the overall population. Partitioning the population based on
is connected to a charger on the grid (not driven) and when the three previously identified EV types can therefore im-
the EV battery is not fully charged. prove the quality of modeled energy consumption. The rela-
tive mix of EV types is extrapolated for data associated with
c) Dynamic: The optimization decision cannot be made SMUD’s service area from [13] and summarized in Table 1.
independently for each discrete time interval because the op-
timization objective is coupled to past and future states across TABLE 1: ASSUMED ELECTRIC VEHICLE TYPES
the time horizon. For example, the battery SOC is the initial Vehicle Type Capacity Level 2 Charg- Fraction of
condition at the beginning of a charging session plus the inte- (kWh) ing Rate (kW) population
gral of the throttled charging rate over time when the EV is PHEV-30 11 3.5 40%
connected to a charger on the grid.
BEV-70 24 7 47%
B. Simplified Problem Statement
BEV-200 70 10 13%
Examples of diversity in optimization and control ap-
The average daily EV energy consumption among SMUD
proaches are: dynamic programming [7] , game theory [8] ,
fuzzy logic [9] , and transaction-based and distributed pricing residential customers is about 8.8 kWh. The associated Prob-
mechanisms [10] . Most approaches are either too computa- ability Mass Function (PMF) is depicted in Figure 3. Assum-
526
ing the EV population mix from Table 1 and the individual 0 , Not charging at time (1)
PMFs from Figure 3 is consistent with an ensemble energy = 1 , Reduced Level 1 charge rate at time
consumption distribution that has an average consumption of 2 , Full Level 2 charge rate at time
8.8 kWh. Figure 4 shows the assumed day-time (workplace)
and night-time (home) arrival PMFs. 3) A guarantee of at least 3 hours of Level 2 charging and
another 3 hours of Level 1 charging is assumed to provide a
high confidence of replenishing lost battery SOC given com-
mute statistics. With this assumption combined with the ve-
hicle attributes assumed in Table 1, over 99.5% of the vehi-
cles should have recharged to recover their used mileage from
the previous day based on the 25 miles/day SACOG data.
Simplification #1 avoids the complexity introduced by
limited charging infrastructure or charger sharing among ve-
hicles for this analysis.
Simplifications #2-3 intend to approximate the “satisfacto-
ry” control command trajectories } which result in the cor-
responding controlled power trajectories of Figure 2.
The “satisfactory” qualifier is used to provide assurance that
vehicles are sufficiently charged before their next driving trip.
From Figure 2 the expected value (2) of the approximated
“satisfactory” power trajectory is calculated, where
, , , , is defined as the joint PMF for EV charger con-
Figure 3: Assumed daily energy consumption PMFs nect or “begin” time , daily PEV energy consumption , and
EV charger disconnect or “quit” time . For the joint PMF,
, , , , , the random variables , , and are assumed
to be statistically independent so that , , , , =
. The PMF for daily energy consumption
is assumed to be unique for each vehicle type as de-
fined in Figure 3. The PMF for EV charger plug-in time
is assumed to be the corresponding curve for day-time
or night-time charging as shown in Figure 4. To reduce com-
putational burden of the triple summation of (2), the PMF for
EV charger disconnect time uses a Dirac delta function so
that daily day time charging is disconnected at 5 PM and
night time charging is disconnected at 6 AM.
(2)
= , , , , , , ,
Where also for each vehicle type as defined in Table 1,

L1 rate , , , =1 (3)
Figure 4: Day-time and night-time EV arrival PMFs
, , , = L2 rate , , , =2
In order to reduce the complexity of the load shaping con- 0 , otherwise
trol problem statement, three simplifications are made:
and
1) It is assumed that EVs are not limited by infrastructure
when parked and each parked EV is connected to a grid con- (4)
= , , , .
nected charger.
2) For each EV, three discrete control choices are availa- D. Model Extension to Groups of Electric Vehicles
ble on an hourly interval: do not charge, charge at the Level 1
rate, or charge at the Level 2 rate. However, the vehicle may For a group of vehicles,
not accept any charge rate if the battery is full. Both SMUD (5)
and SCE have demonstrated this charge functionality with , = , ,
technology that is currently available [14]. The following ∈
notation was used in the analysis. where is the fractional weighting or size of groups of EVs
with the same control command trajectory as in Table 1.
With the previously defined sensitivity factors and permuta-
527
tions of “satisfactory” control command trajectories, a matrix E. Economic Dispatch of a Group of Electric Vehicles
of expected aggregate loads can be defined as follows:
In this simplified framework, a simple static optimization
Permutations of “satisfactory” (6) can easily be applied to schedule periodic (such as daily day
control command trajectories ahead) batches of control command trajectories to minimize
Time some economic cost objective. This cost objective, defined in
horizon
| | | assumption (a), is the hourly marginal energy cost resulting
from production cost modeling in PLEXOS® by Energy Ex-
Pugroup = , , , ,⋯, , emplar assuming generation build-out for a 50% Renewable
| | | Portfolio Standard (RPS) by 2030. The batch process would
From the singular value decomposition, periodically partition the population of participants by frac-
tion described by column vector Q opt in (11), where the num-
Pugroup = U V , (7) ber of columns of Pufundamental is defined as . This is a sim-
ple constrained linear optimization problem that can be
the first two terms can be partitioned as
solved using Karmarkar's algorithm [15].
… (8)
… … . (11)
…
Q opt = arg Q cost :
From (8), the principal components of controlled power
trajectories for the kth dimensional subspace approximation
are = ,…, , = 1,
Puprinciple = … … . (9)
The principal components Puprinciple , being derived from > 0, 1…
the singular value decomposition, span a linear space that is
not necessarily realizable. The aggregate response is only
possible with the population partitioned among the “satisfac- The expected value of the sample mean of n vehicles ap-
tory” controlled power trajectories from Pugroup (positive frac- proaches the optimal net controlled power, opt ,
tions with a unity sum, characteristic of a convex function). as the sample size gets large as shown in (12).
In order to reduce optimization complexity a subset of Pugroup
1 1 (12)
may be used as an inner approximation of the convex hull of lim = lim
vehicle vehicle
Pugroup . The most relevant subset of Pugroup can be deter- → →
mined by projection onto Puprinciple and selecting the highest = opt = opt
absolute value dot products per principle component such as
F. Capacity Services
Pufundamental = : (10)
, , Given a schedule for optimal dispatch (such as day
∙ , ahead), there is also shorter term (such as hour ahead) oppor-
> , 1… , 1… , tunity for adjustments in dispatch that allow the load to be
higher or lower than the optimized schedule at any given in-
where are the (diagonal) singular values of … . Also stant. This additional load curtailment potential offers ca-
is a constant selected such that at least one satis- pacity that could fulfill Spinning Reserve, Non-spinning Re-
,
serve, or Resource Adequacy services. For each discrete time
fies the inequality, while keeping the column-wise dimension
index index , curtailment is possible to a minimum load level
of Pufundamental at a manageable scale for subsequent optimiza-
as determined by (14) with partition defined in (13).
tion. The matrix ufundamental is defined as the control com-
mand trajectories that correspond to Pufundamental . Figure 5 Q CLB index = arg Q (13)
depicts the relative relationship among Pugroup , Puprinciple ,
index
Pufundamental , and the convex hull described by Pufundamental .
: opt = ,
index
= ,…, , = ,
> , …
Figure 5: Controlled power trajectory categories CLB = CLB (14)
528
IV. RESULTS
The optimization was applied to both the 2020 and 2030
scenarios from assumption (a). The cost of local capacity
impact at the service transformer level was also included as
modeled in [11] and [16], but with an updated forecast of
10,250 EVs by 2020 and 44,000 EVs by 2030. The ancillary
service split was determined subsequent to the energy optimi-
zation. Given that EV commute patterns coincide with a por-
tion the system peak (summer-time home arrivals) and the
Residential Time of Day (RTOD) rate already moves most
EV charging off-peak, there was no opportunity for peak Re-
source Adequacy services (little to no load to curtail). How-
ever, Spinning Reserve and Non-spinning Reserve could be
delivered off-peak at the expected levels that EVs were con-
nected and had available capacity. Although the optimized
managed EV charging was designed with a constraint to re-
store 99.5% of lost battery SOC, in simulation 95% of lost
battery SOC was restored. Figure 7: Average night-time home charging per vehicle for the summer
2020 season (forecasted)
Figure 6 compares night-time managed EV charging vs.
baseline EV load under the RTOD rate with a mid-night off- Figure 8 compares day-time managed EV charging vs.
peak period in one summer week of 2020. The baseline load baseline EV load under commercial rates in one spring week
under RTOD was inferred from data collected in SMUD’s of 2030. The commercial (workplace) EV load data is in-
RPEV2 pilot rate (submetered midnight off-peak) and ferred from data collected in SMUD’s onsite workplace
RTOU-EV (whole house midnight off-peak) rate design as- charging program for the 2016 calendar year. In the 3-day
sumptions. In the 3-day example period of Figure 6, the example period of Figure 8, the heaviest managed EV charg-
heaviest managed EV charging happens before, after, or ing happens in the afternoon to absorb solar generation and
around midnight. On the hottest days air conditioning load soften the ramp of thermal generation as solar generation
can continue later into the night resulting in elevated energy declines (“the belly of the duck curve”). Figure 9 shows a
prices for an extended duration while on milder weather days similar trend for the whole Spring season.
energy prices fall earlier in the day as generation ramps down
to adjust for lighter night time loads. Figure 7 shows a simi-
lar trend for the whole Summer season where the managed
charging on average is more spread out in the middle of the
night.
Figure 8: Average day-time workplace charging per vehicle for three

weekdays for April 2030 (forecasted)
Figure 6: Average night-time home charging per vehicle for three weekdays
for June 2020 (forecasted)
529
does not meet the sampling rate requirements to qualify for
these services [17]. Without ancillary services, only energy
cost savings and local capacity (service transformer) savings
can be realized reducing this net value to about 10-15% the
average retail cost of electricity. For high charging rate vehi-
cles, substantial avoided local capacity cost is possible as de-
scribed in [11]. However, it is important to note that this is a
zero-sum net benefit because higher charging rates significant-
ly increase the local capacity cost of which only a fraction is
the avoided local capacity cost from managed charging.
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[12] M. Tamor, "Global Vehicle Usage Studies (aka who can use an electric
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[13] Center for Sustainable Energy, "California Air Resources Board Clean
Vehicle Rebate Project, Rebate Statistics," 30 June 2017. [Online].
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This estimate assumes that ancillary services such as spinning System Overloads in a Growing EV Market," in EV29 Symposium,
reserve, regulation up, and regulation down can be delivered. Montreal, 2016.
Current Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) at SMUD [17] D. Aswani and B. Boyce, "Autonomous Grid Services through Electric
Vehicles," in IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting, Denver,
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1
Night-time charging assumes the average residential retail cost of electricity
while day-time charging assumes the average commercial retail cost of elec-
tricity.
530
An Implementation of Solar PV Array Based
Multifunctional EV Charger
1
Anjeet Verma, Member, IEEE, 1Bhim Singh, Fellow, IEEE, 2A. Chandra, Fellow, IEEE and 2Kamal Al-Haddad, Fellow, IEEE
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz-Khas, New Delhi-110016, India
(Email: anjeet15@gmail.com, and bhimsinghiitd61@gmail.com)
2
Department of Electrical Engg., ETS, 1100, rue Notre-Dame Ouest, Montreal, QC H3C I K3, Canada
(Email: ambrish.chandra@etsmtl.ca, kamal.al-haddad@etsmtl.ca)
Abstract— In this paper, a solar PV (Photo-voltaic) array station.

based EV (Electric Vehicle) charger is proposed, which has a bi- Several publications have been proposed in the area of solar
directional flow of active and reactive powers. The proposed PV array integration with the EVs, and many advantages have
charger uses a solar PV array energy to charge the EV battery been listed in the literature. The coordinated operation of solar
and to feed the grid with the remaining power. In this charger,
PV array and EV mitigates the impacts of solar PV generation
the VSC (Voltage Source Converter) does the task of harnessing
the maximum power from the solar PV array. At the time of high on the utility, and it eliminates the problems caused by the
cost of energy, the charger has the provision to inject the battery solar PV intermittency [10]. Because, the EVs are parked for
energy into the grid to earn revenue. In addition to the active about 90% of their lifetime and EV battery stores a huge
power exchange with the grid, the proposed charger also amount of energy, Verma et al. [11] have proposed to use the
exchanges the reactive power with the grid, simultaneously. In all EV battery energy in vehicle-to-grid mode to support the grid.
operating modes, the THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) of the Kydd et al. [12] have proposed to use the unutilized solar PV
grid current remains within the IEEE 519 standard. The inverter and EV batteries to deliver ancillary assistance to the
proposed charger is designed for a single phase 230V, 50Hz grid. The reactive power is also a problem for the utility grid.
supply and is experimentally validated in the laboratory.
To meet the reactive power demand of the distribution system,
Keywords— Electric vehicle, bi-directional charger, solar PV the utility installs the capacitor banks. Since the reactive power
array, reactive power, power quality. flow through the transmission lines from the source to the load
end, the loss in the transmission line increases. Melo et al. [13]
I. INTRODUCTION have proposed to provide the reactive power support to the
grid using the voltage source converter (VSC). Nowadays
In the current scenario, the electric vehicle is emerging as a most of the loads are nonlinear, and they draw non-sinusoidal
promising solution to the problems caused by the fossil fuel current from the grid. Because of this, the harmonics are
powered vehicles [1]. However, the adaptability of EV injected into the grid. Brenna et al. [14] have utilized the V2G
(Electric Vehicle) in society, depends on the charging functionality of the EV charger for improving the power
infrastructure [2]. The charging of EV requires a huge amount quality of the grid.
of electrical energy, which mostly comes from the coal/ gas In this proposed bidirectional charger, the boost converter is
based power plants. Therefore, in the true sense, the EVs can eliminated, and the solar PV array is connected directly to the
be a green and clean alternative to the present transport system DC bus of VSC. Here, in this topology, the VSC fulfils the
when the electrical energy required for charging of EV, comes task of harnessing maximum power from the solar PV array.
from the renewable energy sources such as solar, wind etc. [3]. Therefore, this charger is a retrofit solution to the existing
Gunter et al. [4] and Satpathy et al. [5] have proposed the solar single phase bi-directional charger with a modification in the
PV array and wind energy based grid connected system. control algorithm. The proposed charger has following
However, this requires the revamping of the transmission lines distinctive features.
for carrying more power. It also incurs transmission power Ipv
losses. On the contrary to this, Marra et al. [6] have proposed
the implementation of the solar PV based charging station. Vpv
The advantage of this kind of charging station is that the solar
PV power is generated locally and used locally [7]. Because of PV array
this, the transmission lines need not to be upgraded for the Bidirectional AC-DC Bidirectional DC-DC
Converter Converter
high power. Moreover, the charging station does not require to
draw power from the grid when the cost of energy is high [8]. PCC
S1 S3 S5
Ma et al. [9] have proposed the use of office building and is Ls vs Lc
Lb Ib
parking area for laying down the solar PV panels as these solar Rf Vdc Cdc
Cf
PV panels work as a shed and prevent the heating of the cb
230V, 50 Hz
vehicles and buildings. Therefore, the use of solar PV array single Phase S2 S4 S6
based charging station not only avoids the overloading of the Supply
grid but it also minimizes the operational cost of the charging Fig. 1 System configuration of the proposed charger
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 531

 It uses the solar PV energy to charge the EV battery and uses Here PPV, PB and Ps are solar PV array power, EV power and
the grid in case of insufficient the solar PV energy. The grid power, respectively. In this expression, the positive power
controller decides when to use the solar PV energy and when represents the supplying of power, and negative power
to use the grid energy. represents the consumption of power. This means that the EV
 Along with the active power trade with the utility, the and the grid can both supply and consume the power. The
charger exchanges the reactive power with the grid using the charger undergoes the transient caused by the change in solar
VSC of the charger. Both active and reactive powers irradiance and change in charging demand. The dynamic
exchanges are possible even when the EV is not connected to power management equation in case of solar irradiance change
the charger. is given as,
 The proposed charger eliminates the DC-DC boost converter PPV  PB  Ps  0 (2)
used for MPPT in the conventional charger.
 While exchanging the active and reactive powers, the grid Since the solar irradiance is changing throughout the day, the
current THD remains within the limits of the IEEE 519 charging of the EV battery should not be affected. Therefore,
standard. based on the energy management strategy, a series of event
 To use the solar PV array efficiently, the control algorithm occurs to achieve the energy equilibrium in the system.
extracts the maximum power at all irradiance levels.
Solar irradiance   PPV   power at DC link   Vdc 
(3)
II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION  Vdc regulation  I P   is* 
The circuit topology of the proposed system is shown in Fig.
1. This system is a single phase bi-directional charger for an Similarly, the energy management in case of decreased solar
EV that integrates the solar PV array directly on the DC bus of irradiance is achieved as,
the VSC. The proposed charger charges the EV battery using Solar irradiance  PPV   power at DC link   Vdc 
the solar PV power/the grid power and feeds the solar PV / EV (4)
battery power into the grid. The proposed charger is a two-  Vdc regulation  I P   is* 
stage charger, i.e. a bi-directional AC-DC conversion followed
by the bi-directional DC-DC conversion stage. The AC-DC With the load change, the solar PV array power should not be
conversion stage converts the input AC voltage into the DC affected, and series of events for energy management during
voltage while charging the EV battery and works as an inverter these transients are as follows,
to change the DC voltage into the AC voltage while feeding charging power   I B   power at DC link   Vdc 
the solar PV power and EV power into the grid. The EV (5)
battery is connected to the output of the bi-directional DC-DC  Vdc regulation  I P   is* 
converter (BDDC). The DC-DC converter in this charger
charging power   I B   power at DC link   Vdc 
accomplishes the various tasks. While charging the EV (6)
battery, the DC converter works in buck mode and operates in  Vdc regulation  I P   is* 
boost mode while discharging the EV battery. Moreover, it
also regulates the DC bus voltage and harnesses the maximum B. VSC Control
generated power from the solar PV array. The proposed
The VSC control diagram is shown in Fig. 3. The purpose of
charger is connected to the grid through the coupling inductor
the VSC control is to regulate the DC bus voltage and control
(Lc). A coupling inductor is needed to eliminate the harmonics
the grid current for controlling the active and reactive power
and to smoothen the grid current. A ripple filter is also
flow, thereby generating the switching pulses for the VSC.
connected at the PCC (Point of Common Coupling) to prevent
The DC bus voltage regulation is achieved by a proportional
the injection of switching harmonics generated by the
integral (PI) controller [15] used for minimizing the error
switching of VSC into the grid.
between actual DC bus voltage (Vdc) and reference DC bus
III. CONTROL ALGORITHM voltage (Vdc*). The MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking)
[16] algorithm estimates the reference DC bus voltage (Vdc*) at
The charger is controlled to perform these required functions
which the peak power of the solar PV array is extracted. In the
as follows, 1) energy balance in the system, 2) harnessing of
absence of the solar PV generation, the DC link voltage is
maximum solar PV array power, 3) generation of reference
regulated at 360V. The DC link reference voltage (Vdc*) is
grid current for both active and reactive power flow, 4)
compared with the sensed DC link voltage (Vdc). The error
charging/discharging current control of EV by controlling the
voltage (Ve) of the DC link voltage, is the input of the PI
bi-directional DC-DC converter. The energy balance in the
(Proportional Integral) controller. The output of the PI
system and harnessing of maximum solar PV array power are
controller gives the magnitude of the real power constituent
attained by regulating the DC bus voltage. However, the
(Ip) of the reference grid current (is*). The expression of PI
active/reactive power control is achieved by the grid current
controller in the discrete domain is given as,
control. The overall control of the charger is designed as, 1)
energy management strategy of charger, 2) VSC control, and I P (k )  I P (k -1)  k pd Ve (k ) - Ve (k -1)  kidVe (k ) (7)
3) bi-directional DC-DC converter control. *
Where Ve=Vdc -Vdc, k and k-1 are sampling instants and kpd and
A. Energy Management Strategy of the Proposed Charger kid are the proportional and integral gains of the controller.
The amplitude of the reactive power constituent (Iq) of the
The energy management strategy of the proposed charger is reference grid current (is*), is obtained based on the reference
based on the constant DC bus capacitor voltage. The flow reactive power command (Qcmd) and it is given as,
chart of the energy management under different operating
2  Qcmd
conditions is shown in Fig. 2. The energy management in Iq  (8)
steady state is given as, Vtm
Where Qcmd is the reference reactive power command.
PPV  PB  Ps  0 (1)
Whereas Vtm is the peak amplitude of the PCC voltage (vs).
532
START
SOC
SOC<20 20<SOC<80 SOC>90

Requires charging
No charge/ Discharge No
PPV>0 discharge discharge
charge ?
Regulate DC bus Yes ? Yes No
voltage at 360V
PPV>0
Regulate DC bus No Remain
PPV>0 Yes
voltage at MPPT idle
Take PB power from grid Vdc r Yes Grid
Grid No
Regulate DC bus Available
Available
Feed PV-PB power into Yes voltage at MPPT ?
PPV>PB No ? Yes
grid Yes Vdc r
No Disable Feed PPV power into grid
Take PV-PB power from discharging Grid
grid
Available Yes
Feed PB power into grid Derate MPPT
?
No
Derate MPPT and Feed PPV+PB power into
disable discharging grid
Fig. 2 Power management strategy
gives the duty cycle of the DC-DC converter and PWM

The real (Ip) and reactive (Iq) components are multiplied with
modulator generates the switching pulses for the converter.
the in-phase (up) and the quadrature phase unit template (uq) to
obtain instantaneous reference active grid current (ip) and Ib
instantaneous reference reactive grid current (iq), and it is PWM S5
Ib*
given as, PI Gating
Pulses S6
i p  I p  u p , iq  I q  uq (9)
The in-phase (up) and the quadrature phase unit template (uq) Fig. 4 Control diagram of DC-DC converter
are obtained using the following expressions,
v v IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
u p   , uq  (10)
Vtm Vtm The charger is designed for single phase 230V 50Hz supply
Where vα and vβ are the in-phase and quadrature phase voltage system. The open circuit voltage and short circuit current of
of PCC voltage (vs). It is generated using the quadrature signal solar PV array is 425V and 7A, respectively. However, the
generator. Using reference active grid current (ip) and maximum power point voltage and current are 366 V and
reference reactive grid current (iq), the total reference grid 6.6A, respectively. The lead-acid battery of 240V, 35Ah is
current is obtained as, used as an EV battery in the experimental prototype. The
implementation of the proposed charger is done using the
i*s  i p  iq (11)
digital controller (dSPACE-1006). For the implementation of
This reference grid current (is*) is compared with the sensed the control algorithm, the digital controller requires various
grid current (is) and the hysteresis controller generates the (voltage and current) signals of the charger. Therefore, various
triggering signals for the VSC. voltage and current signal (analog) are acquired using the Hall
Effect based voltage and current sensor. These signals are then
Vdc LPF is converted into a digital signal using analog to digital converter
V*dc=360 Ip (ADC).The digital controller uses the digital signal to
ip
V*dc PI
up is* Hysteresis S1 implement the control algorithm and generate the switching
VPV MPPT Iq Current
S2
pulses for VSC and DC-DC converter. The experimental
IPV Controller iq S3
uq controller S4 waveforms of the proposed charger are shown in Figs. 5-11.
Qcmd The performance of the proposed charger is evaluated in both
Vtm 2
Vtm steady state and dynamic conditions. In steady state
conditions, various modes of operation are considered such as,
Unit template and up
1) EV is not connected to the charger and whole solar PV
vs Vtm voltage array generated power is fed into the grid, 2) the grid is not
estimation uq available and solar PV array generated power is consumed by
the EV, 3) reactive power compensation of the charger along
Fig. 3 Control diagram of VSC
with the active power operation, and 5) solar PV array
supplying power to EV and feeding power into the grid. The
C. Bi-directional DC-DC Converter Control
dynamic performance is evaluated under solar irradiance
The control diagram for the bi-directional DC-DC converter change and change in the battery charging current. During
is shown in Fig. 4. Based on the power demand for the implementation, the solar PV array power (PPV), the power is
charging of EV battery, the reference charging current (Ib*) is drawn from the grid (Ps), the power drawn from the battery
estimated. After that, a PI controller is used to regulate the EV (PB), are considered positive. However, the power fed into the
current at the reference value. The output of the PI controller grid and the battery is considered negative.
533
A. Steady State Performance of Proposed Charger
The performance in the case when the state of charge (SOC)
of the EV battery is more than 80%, and solar PV array is
generating maximum power, are shown in Figs. 5. In this case,
to avoid the overcharging of the EV battery and to utilize the
solar PV array energy fully, the charger feeds the solar PV
energy into the grid using VSC. Figs. 5(e)-(f) show that the
solar PV array is generating 2.32kW. Out of 2.32kW, 2.29kW (a) (b) (c)
is fed into the grid at UPF. The voltage (VPV), current (IPV) and
power (PPV) of the solar PV array, are shown in Figs. 5(e)-(f).
However, the voltage (vs), current (is), and power (Ps) of the
grid are shown in Figs. 5 (a)-(b). The charger is not injecting
any voltage and current harmonics into the grid (despite the
charger is having power electronic component), as shown by
the grid voltage (vs) and current (is) total harmonic distortion
(THD) in Figs. 5(c)-(d). Moreover, it is also not drawing any
(d) (e) (f)
reactive power from the grid as justified by the unity
displacement power factor (DPF) operation of the charger in
Fig. 5 (b).
When the EV battery is discharged, and its SOC reaches
below 20%, the EV battery takes power from the solar PV
array for charging in the absence of the grid. The performance
under this case is shown in Fig. 6. The voltage (VB), current
(IB) and power of the EV battery (PB) are shown in Figs. 6 (a),
(b). However, the voltage (VPV), current (IPV) and power of (g)
solar PV array (PPV) are shown in Figs. 6 (c), (d). Fig. 7 Performance of charger when feeding solar PV power into grid and
charging EV battery, (a) vs and is, (b) Ps, (c)-(d) THDs of vs and is, (e) Vb and
Ib, (f) PB, (g) PPV
(a) (b) (c)

(a) (b) (c)
(d) (e) (f)

Fig. 5 Performance of solar PV feeding power into the grid when EV battery is (d) (e) (f)
fully charged, (a) vs and is, (b) Ps, (c)-(d) THDs of vs and is, (e) Vpv and Ipv,, (f) Fig. 8 Performance of charger when feeding solar PV power and EV power
PPV into the grid, (a) vs and is, (b) Ps, (c)-(d) THDs of vs and is, (e) Vb and Ib, (f) PB
(a) (b) (c) (a) (b) (c)
(d) (e) (f)

(d)
Fig. 6 Performance of charger when charging EV battery in absence of grid, Fig. 9 Simultaneous active and reactive power operation during battery
(a)Vb and Ib, (b) PB, (c) Vpv and Ipv, (d) PPV charging from solar PV, (a) vs and is, (b) grid active and reactive power, (c)-(d)
THDs of vs and is, (e) Vb and Ib, (f) PB
534
During the day hour, sometimes the solar PV array generated Similarly, in case of an increase in solar irradiance from
power (PPV) becomes more than the charging demand (PB) due 500W/m2 to 1000W/m2, the solar PV array power (PPV)
to increased solar irradiance level or decreased charging increases from 1.2kW to 2.4kW as exhibited in Fig. 10 (c). In
demand. In this condition, the power management strategy of this condition, the DC bus voltage (Vdc) increases from 351V
the charger automatically feeds the surplus solar PV array to 372V to continue the process of maximum power
power into the grid without derating the MPPT performance or extraction. However, the charging of the EV does not get
altering the charging demand. The performance under this affected by the solar irradiance increase as shown by IB in Fig.
condition is shown in Fig. 7. The EV battery is taking 1.38kW 10 (d).
of 2.44kW of solar PV generated power. The voltage (VB), The performance under change in charging current is shown
current (IB) and power of the EV battery (PB) are shown in in Figs. 11 (a)-(c). Under this dynamic change, the charging
Figs. 7(e), (f). The solar PV array power is displayed in Fig. 7 current (IB) is decreased from 3A-1.5A and again it is
(g). Since the solar PV array power (PPV) is fed into the grid, increased from 1.5A-3A. Since the charging current (IB) of EV
the controller of the charger synchronizes the PCC voltage is decreased from 3A-1.5A, the energy management strategy
with the grid voltage as per the control algorithm is shown in maintains the power balance by feeding the extra power into
Fig. 3. Figs. 7(a)- (b) show that the 898W is fed into the grid at the grid without disturbing the MPP operation of the solar PV
UPF. The performance of the charger while feeding power into array. Because of this, the grid current (is) increases as shown
the grid in terms of THD of the voltage (vs) and current (is) are in Fig. 11(a). Similarly, when the charging current (IB) in
exhibited in Figs. 7(c)- (d). It shows that the THD of the grid increased from 1.5A to 3A, the grid current (is) reduces to
voltage and current are less than 5% thus achieving the IEEE- maintain the power balance as solar PV array cannot supply
519 standard. more power as presented in Fig. 11 (b). Moreover, the DC bus
The performance of the charger while feeding both solar PV voltage (Vdc) does not get affected by this disturbance as
array and EV battery powers into the grid is shown in Fig. 8. exhibited in Fig. 11 (c).
During the peak demand of the grid, the charger uses both
solar PV array energy and EV energy to support the grid. Figs.
8(a)- (b) show that the 2.97kW is fed into the grid using the
solar PV array and EV energy. The EV is feeding 815W (Figs.
8 (e)- (f)) and remaining power is coming from the solar PV
array. In this case, also, the THDs of the grid voltage (vs) and
current (is) (Figs. 8 (c)- (d)) are less than 5% as required by the
IEEE 519 standard.
The charger capability to provide reactive power support
along with the active power flow is shown in Fig. 9. On
demand of the grid, the charger also supplies the reactive
power (inductive/capacitive) to the grid along with the active
power. The charger is drawing 910VAR of inductive reactive
power from the grid while feeding 1.42kW active power into
the grid. Due to the reactive power compensation, the charger (a)
is operating at 0.85PF as shown in Fig. 9(b). The voltage (vs),
current (is) and power (Ps) of the grid while flowing both
active and reactive powers, are shown in Figs. 9(a)- (b). The
THDs of grid voltage (vs) and current (is) are 2.6% and 1.8%,
respectively as shown in Figs 9 (c)- (d). Figs. 9 (e)- (f) show
the EV voltage, current and power.
B. Dynamic Performance of Proposed Charger
During the operation, the charger is subjected to the transient
caused by the continuously changing solar irradiance level due
to the shading of the clouds and the change in the charging
demand. Under these two transient conditions, the charger and
the control of the charger should operate such that the
maximum power is harnessed from the solar PV array at all
irradiance level without disturbing the charging of the EV. (b)
Moreover, the flow of active power should be balanced in the
system during transients. The performance under step change
in solar irradiance level from 1000W/m2 to 500W/m2 and vice
versa are exhibited in Fig. 10. Figs. 10(a)-(b) show the
performance under step change in solar irradiance intensity
from 1000W/m2 to 500W/m2. Due to a decrease in the solar
irradiance intensity, the solar PV current (IPV) decreases.
Moreover, the DC bus voltage (Vdc) also decreases from 372V
to 351V to extract the maximum power at 500W/m2. As a
result, the solar PV generated power (PPV) decreases from
2.4kW to 1.2kW. As the charging of EV is undisturbed (as
shown from IB in Fig. 10(a)), the power which is being fed into
the grid decreases. Therefore, the grid current (is) reduces as
shown in Fig. 10(a).
(c)
535
V. CONCLUSION
The performance of proposed single stage solar PV array
based bi-directional EV charger has been presented under both
active and reactive power flows. Test results have verified that
along with performing its primary tasks of charging the EV
battery, the proposed charger has integrated the solar PV array
very efficiently. Moreover, the elimination of DC-DC boost
converter has not affected the performance of the solar PV
array, and VSC has performed the task of harnessing the
maximum power from the solar PV array. The various steady-
state and dynamic conditions results have proved the
promptness of the controller, capability to maintain the
sinusoidal grid voltage and current and power quality of the
(d) grid voltage and current within the IEEE 519 standard.
Fig. 10 Performance of charger under solar irradiance change, (a)-(b) solar
irradiance decrease from 1000W/m2 - 500W/m2, (c)-(d) solar irradiance REFERENCES
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536
Design of Minimum Fuel Consumption Energy
Management Strategy for Hybrid Marine
Vessels with Multiple Diesel Engine Generators
and Energy Storage
Olve Mo and Giuseppe Guidi
SINTEF Energy Research, Norway
olve.mo@sintef.no, giuseppe.guidi@sintef.no
Abstract—The paper presents an analytical method for generation of 50/60Hz AC voltage must run at fixed speed,
estimation of the fuel saving potential resulting from installation while hybrid vehicles can adjust speed to maintain a high
of energy storage on-board of marine vessels equipped with efficiency at different loads due to the action of gearshifts
multiple diesel engine generators. The method is based on quasi- and/or to the possible mechanical decoupling between
steady-state assumptions and does not require precise a-priori
generator axle and driving axle. On the other hand, most marine
knowledge of the operating cycle of the vessel. The method also
gives insight about the expected energy throughput of the storage
vessels have more than one engine, while hybrid vehicles
system that can be directly related to its expected lifetime. Simple typically have only one. Regeneration of kinetic energy, while
procedures are proposed for favorable trade-off between fuel being one of the main factors for increased fuel efficiency in
saving and storage lifetime. The paper also shows how the off-line hybrid vehicles, is only relevant for ships with large cranes and
method can be extended to design high-level power flow control drilling draw works, especially in combination with heave
and energy management strategies for the engines and storage. compensation. Besides these technological aspects, rules,
Time-domain simulations with several load profiles having regulations and operational procedures used to ensure safety at
different characteristics are presented, showing the validity of the sea will typically pose restrictions on the operation of the vessel
proposed approach.
power plant. The energy management strategy must therefore
take such operational constraints into account, especially for
I. INTRODUCTION vessels in critical maneuvers and during dynamic positioning
Increased focus on pollution and emissions from marine (DP) where the vessel is to retain its maneuverability after any
activities requires technology and operation strategies that can single failure.
contribute to reduced fuel consumption. The most common operating constraints imposed by
The use of on-board electrical energy storage to reduce fuel regulatory aspects are related to spinning reserve, meaning that
consumption in vehicles such as cars, buses and trucks has a certain amount of power and energy is required to be instantly
become common practice, following the commercial success of available in case of a contingency. Moreover, spinning reserve
the first hybrid power trains introduced around the turn of the is typically required on each power bus bar present on-board.
century. A similar trend is now emerging in the maritime sector Typically, a modern vessel has at least two power bus bars. In
[1]. Several new builds and retrofits are now being equipped some cases, further requirements exist concerning the minimum
with battery energy storages as supplement to internal number of generators that need to be online and running at all
combustion engine-based generators (ICEG). There are also times.
examples of vessels that charge in harbor (similar to the ground- The problem of optimum fuel consumption has been studied
based Plug-in Hybrids) and even some that are sailing with in detail for vessels without energy storage [6][7] and to some
batteries as their only on-board source of energy [2]. extent also for vessels with energy storage. In [8] a simple load
The process of designing a hybrid power plant for a vessel, leveling strategy is used, [9][10][11] and [12] utilizes different
meaning choosing type and size of energy storage, as well as online optimization techniques, [13] uses load prediction for
rating, number and type of ICEGs to achieve minimum fuel the optimization while [14] and [15] utilizes offline
consumption is strongly application-dependent [3]. The optimization.
expected operating cycle of the vessel must be taken into It is pointed out in [16] that the use of on-board energy
account and - what is often overlooked - the power management storage in marine vessels can contribute to reduce fuel
strategy must be included in the early stage of the design consumption in several different ways. This paper will focus on
process. In its essence, the power management strategy defines two aspects: strategic loading and spinning reserve. Strategic
how to share power between the alternative sources available loading indicates the use of storage to shift the operation point
on-board and how to choose the best time to store energy. of ICEGs to minimize fuel consumption. Storage-based
Although there is a vast scientific literature related to optimal spinning reserve refers to the use of storage as backup source
power sharing strategies for hybrid vehicles such as cars, buses that can immediately be deployed in case of contingencies,
and trucks [4][5], many of the concepts cannot be applied allowing the vessel to be operated with reduced number of
directly to hybrid marine vessels due to several marked running ICEGs while still fulfilling the redundancy
differences. Marine auxiliary engines designed for direct requirements.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 537

4xDG
@3.1MW
G G G G
690V
∼ ∼
∼ ∼
∼
∼
M M
=
Battery Battery
storage storage
Fig. 2 Specific fuel consumption (tons/MWh) for 1-4 engines. Red line shows
Fig. 1 The hybrid system. Parameters for the system are reported in Table III. best operation without storage and without spinning reserve.
The paper presents a systematic method to map equivalent can however be easily extended to include a constraint on the
fuel consumption resulting from cycling energy in and out of a minimum number of running engines.
battery-based energy storage in hybrid vessels, considering the
operational and regulatory aspects described above. The basic III. STORAGE USED FOR STRATEGIC LOADING
assumptions and methods for the mapping are related to those
In theory, with an infinitely large, lossless storage it will be
found in [12][13][15]. The mapping is used to develop rule-
possible to operate the engines at their best efficiency at all
based energy management strategies for minimum fuel
times, store energy as needed and obtain an equivalent specific
consumption.
fuel consumption equal to the lowest possible SFC of the
It is noted that an improperly designed energy management
engines. A practical energy storage system will however have a
strategy, besides increasing fuel consumption, can also
limited storage capacity and non-negligible losses.
accelerate the degradation of the energy storage system.
Consequently, it will not be optimal to cycle power through the
Manufacturers of battery storage systems usually specify the
storage at all loads. It will also not necessarily be optimal to
expected lifetime of their components in terms of number of
always operate the engines at their lowest SFC.
equivalent full charge-discharge cycles. It is therefore also
Determination of the optimum strategy starts from
important to take the cycling into consideration in the design of
energy management strategies. The paper shows a possible way considering steady-state operation at a specific load level PL .
to take the cycling effect into consideration. When the load is constant, average fuel consumption of the
system in Fig. 1, is minimized by selecting the optimal storage
II. CASE STUDY cycle. In steady state, the energy supplied to and delivered by
To illustrate the principles, the proposed methodology is the battery WB ,in , WB , out are related by:
applied to the hybrid system shown in Fig. 1, consisting of an
energy storage and four identical diesel engines, each rated for
WB , out = WB ,in − Pl , D ⋅ TD = (P
B ,C − Pl ,C ) ⋅ TC − Pl , D ⋅ TD (3)
3.1 MW and optimized for 80% of maximum continuous Charging and discharging time TC , TD are consequently
operation (MCO). The specific fuel consumptions for one to related to the charging and discharging power as:
four diesel engines running in parallel are shown in Fig. 2.
Shown in the same figure is also the minimum specific fuel TC PB , D + Pl , D
=
consumption (SFC) achievable by selecting the number of TC + TD PB ,C + PB , D − Pl ,C + Pl , D
running engines n according to the load level, assuming no (4)
TD PB ,C − Pl ,C
required spinning reserve: =
TC + TD PB ,C + PB , D − Pl ,C + Pl , D
SFCDG ,opt ( PL ) = min ( SFCDG ( n, PL ) ) (1)
n =1,,4 Due to power balance, the total power from the engines
The two battery storage systems in Fig. 1, storage converters during storage charge and discharge is expressed as:
included, are treated as an aggregate system whose operating PDG ,C =PL + PB ,C ≥ 0
losses while charging and discharging are expressed as: (5)
Pl ,C = f1 ( PB ,C ) = pl ,0 ⋅ PB , rated + pl ,C ⋅ PB ,C PDG , D =PL − PB , D ≥ 0
(2)
Pl , D = f 2 ( PB , D ) = pl ,0 ⋅ PB , rated + pl , D ⋅ PB , D The equivalent specific fuel consumption of the overall system,
taking the battery cycling into account is therefore:
where PB ,C ≥ 0 and PB , D ≥ 0 are the charging and discharging
TC TD
SFCSys SFCDG (nC , PDG ,C ) ⋅
power, respectively and PB , rated is the rated power of the battery = + SFCDG (nD , PDG , D ) ⋅
TC + TD TC + TD
storage. All the other storage parameters, as well as the engine (6)
parameters are reported in Table III.
where nC , nD are the number of engines running during charge
In the following, it is assumed that operation with storage
only (no running engine) is acceptable. The presented method and discharge, respectively. SFCSys ( PL ) can now be written in
terms of four independent variables PB ,C , PB , D , nC , nD by
538
combining equations (4), (5) and (6). The optimization problem
is then formally stated as:
 0 ≤ PB ,C ≤ PB ,max,C , 
  
 0 ≤ PB , D ≤ PB ,max, D , 
SFCSys , opt ( PL ) = min  SFCSys ,   (7)
0 ≤ nD ≤ 4,
PB ,C , PB , D ,
nC , nD  
 n ≤ n ≤ 4 
  D C 
The results of the optimization process performed for all
possible load levels between zero and maximum system load
are reported in Fig. 3, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. Fig. 3 shows the optimal
charging and discharging power of the storage, PB ,C , opt ( PL ) and Fig. 3 Optimal charge and discharge power (PB,C,opt / PB,D,opt ) at different load
levels
PB , D , opt ( PL ) respectively. Fig. 4 shows the optimal load on
diesel engines while charging and discharging the storage,
PDG ,C , opt ( PL ) and PDG , D , opt ( PL ) respectively. Fig. 5 shows the
optimal number of DGs running during storage charge
nC , opt ( PL ) and discharge nD , opt ( PL ) , respectively.
As can be seen, there are large operating areas where:
B , C , opt ( PL ) B , D , opt ( PL )
 P= P= 0

 P=DG , C , opt ( PL ) P= DG , D , opt ( PL ) PL (8)

nC ,opt ( PL ) = nD ,opt ( PL )
Fig. 4 Optimal load (PDG,C,opt / PDG,D,opt ) on diesel generators during charge
and discharge for different system loads PL. No storage usage in intervals
The condition in (8) states that for such values of PL , it is where DG power for charge and discharge are equal to the load power
optimal to have all the load energy supplied directly from the
engines without using the storage for strategic loading. This
stems from the fact that when the engines are loaded close to
their optimum operating point, the additional losses resulting
from the use of the storage and from the starting of an additional
engine during storage charging overcome the gain of operating
the engines exactly at their point of minimum SFC. Fig. 4 also
shows that even when the storage is used to shift the loading
point of the engines, optimum system SFC is in general not
obtained by loading the engines exactly at their lowest SFC
point.
The resulting optimum equivalent specific fuel consumption
for the overall system at different system loads is shown in Fig.
6 together with specific fuel consumption for engines only. Fig. 5 Optimal number of running engines (nC,opt / nD,opt ) for system with
The fuel saving ( ∆fc ) per hour operation at each constant storage. No storage usage at load levels where nC,opt = nD,opt.
load level PL can then be expressed as:
∆fc ( PL ) =⋅ (
PL SFCDG ,opt ( PL ) − SFCSys ,opt ( PL ) ) (9)
Fig. 7 shows the amount of fuel saved per hour of operation

at different constant load levels. For comparison, the potential
saving using a lossless storage is also shown. As expected, the
fuel saving potential will be less due to the storage losses. What
is also very clear from Fig. 7 is that fuel saving is very
dependent on the system load. The consequence is that fuel
saving estimations based on an arbitrary load cycle defined in
the time-domain will be extremely sensitive to what is the
dominating load power levels in the analyzed profile, making
the results difficult to generalize to different time-series.
Fig. 6 Specific fuel consumption (tons/MWh) for 1-4 engines. Red line shows
best operation with storage and optimal charge/discharge strategy for strategic
loading of DG units.
539
Fig. 7 Fuel saving potential (tons/hour) at different load levels for ideal lossless Fig. 8 Fuel saving at different constant load levels if storage used to fulfil a
storage and for the real storage of the example system. 150% spinning reserve requirement.
in Fig. 8, since redundant DP operations without storage

IV. STORAGE USED AS SPINNING RESERVE requires minimum two running engines even for the lowest load
levels. Further, in some cases only an even number of running
It is common practice in vessel power systems to avoid
DG's will satisfy the requirements. The same approach can,
loading the DGs to their absolute maximum. A certain reserve
with modification of (10) and (11), be used to find fuel saving
(spinning reserve) is maintained to prevent overloading the
potential for these more restrictive cases as well, by replacing
DGs in case of a step increase in load power demand.
n=1,..,4 by n=2,…,4 or by n=2,4 for the strongest requirement.
Additional spinning reserve is required in redundant DP
operations. Spinning reserve implies that at some load levels,
more DGs are required to run than what is strictly needed to V. FUEL SAVING POTENTIAL FOR AN ACTUAL LOAD PROFILE
supply the load power, resulting in the power plant being The calculation of the optimal loading strategy presented so
operated less efficiently than what would otherwise be possible. far requires no a-priori knowledge of the load profile. Fuel
In the general case the required spinning reserve will be a saving potential resulting from an actual load profile is
function of the load. estimated by using a load distribution that describes the typical
The minimum specific fuel consumption of a system operating cycle of a particular vessel. An example is given in
operated at load level PL and spinning reserve PSR ( PL ) is Fig. 9. Although not originating from a real measured profile,
expressed as: such load distribution is synthesized to be representative for a
dynamic positioning emergency response and rescue vessel
SFCDG , SR ,opt ( PL , PSR ) = (ERRV). These vessels will typically have over-sized power
(10)
(
min SFCDG (n, PL ), {n ⋅ PDG ,max ≥ PL + PSR }
n =1,,4
) plants due to redundancy requirements and they spend most of
the time at rather low load compared to maximum installed
where PDG ,max is the maximum power that can be generated by power. It is noted that load distribution can be easily extracted
from a real load profile given in time-domain. Vice-versa, a
a single engine. given load distribution can describe an infinite number of time-
If a given amount of power capability of the storage system domain profiles.
PB , SR ≤ PB ,max and PB , SR ≤ PSR is reserved for spinning reserve, Fuel consumption is first determined for given load
the system SFC becomes: distribution assuming no use of storage, no spinning reserve
requirements, optimal number of engine running for each load
SFCSys , SR ,opt ( PL , PSR − PB , SR ) =
and no additional fuel consumption for start and stop of engines.
(11)
n =1,,4
(
min SFCDG (n, PL ), {n ⋅ PDG ,max ≥ PL + PSR − PB , SR } ) The given load distribution results in a total energy demand of
11530 MWh for one year of operation. Fuel consumption for
The fuel saving in tons per hour resulting from the use of one year of operation was found to be 2322 tons. In comparison,
storage as spinning reserve will then be:
∆fcSR ( PL , PSR , PB , SR ) =
PL ⋅ ( SFCDG , SR ,opt ( PL , PSR ) − SFCSys , SR ,opt ( PL , PSR − PB , SR )) (12)
Fig. 8 shows calculated fuel saving if the requirement is

= 1.5 ⋅ PL ) and all
150% spinning reserve at each load level ( PSR
the reserve is covered by the storage ( PB , SR = PSR ). It can again
be seen that saving depends very much on the load levels. The
origin of the observed discontinuities in fuel saving potential is
explained in the figure.
A spinning reserve as high as 150% can be realistic for
redundant DP operations, but note that fuel saving potential in Fig. 9 Expected relative time the example Vessel will operate at different load
redundant DP operations can be significant larger than shown levels
540
Fig. 10 Percent fuel saving for different spinning reserve requirements for the Fig. 12 Average MWh energy throughput per hour of operation at different
load profile in Fig. 8 (sum of saving for spinning reserve and strategic constant load levels when optimal charging strategy is applied.
loading).
fuel consumption if power plant is operated with 150% spinning

reserve and no storage was found to be 2446 tons per year.
The load distribution can be used to directly estimate total
fuel consumption reduction over one year of operation simply
by summation of the fuel saving potential at each load level
weighted by the relative time spent at each load level and
multiplied by the number of hours in one year. The contribution
from spinning reserve and strategic loading can then be added
to find the total fuel saving potential. Fig. 10 shows the
expected fuel saving for different levels of required spinning
reserves over one year of operation of the example vessel for a
loads distribution as given in Fig. 9. Fig. 11 Fuel saving per MWh energy cycled through the energy storage if the
optimal loading strategy in Fig. 4 is used
It is to be noted that the criticality of a vessels activities will
typically not be the same throughout the year. The required
spinning reserve can for instance be quite different during a
redundant DP operation compared to when vessel is in transit
or at quay. To take this into account one may use different load
distribution curves, each combined with individual spinning
reserve requirement, and then perform a weighted summation
to find the yearly fuel savings.
VI. ENERGY STORAGE CYCLING AND CONSEQUENCES FOR

STORAGE EXPECTED LIFE-TIME.
Expected lifetime of a battery, when operated within Fig. 13 Illustration of modified operation strategy for reduced use of energy
specified conditions, is mostly affected by the amount of energy storage (case with minimum yearly saving of 0.01tons/MWh cycling).
cycled (the so-called throughput). The latter can be predicted
storage and cost saving due to reduced fuel consumption into
by the steady-state method presented so far.
consideration.
Fig. 12 shows the average energy throughput per hour at
It is also possible to use the energy throughput calculation to
different load levels PL for the case study. Throughput per unit modify the energy management strategy such that storage
of time is determined by combining (4) and: energy cycling is prioritized for the load levels that give the
Wcycle T largest payback in terms of fuel saving. To that aim, fuel saving
= ( PL ) PB , D , opt ( PL ) ⋅ D (13) per cycled energy at different load levels can be determined by
TCycle TCycle
dividing the fuel saving (Fig. 7) by the energy throughput (Fig.
Where TCycle= TC + TD is the number of hours to complete a full 12) at each load level. The result is shown in Fig. 11. It is then
possible to set a minimum threshold for the yearly tons of fuel
storage charge/discharge cycle following the chosen operation
saving per MWh cycled energy below which the storage is not
strategy at a constant load, PL and TD is the time used for to be used, as it is deemed that the savings will be marginal
discharging in the same full charge/discharge cycle. compared to the detrimental effects on storage lifetime.
The average throughput per hour in Fig. 12 can be used in As an example, the resulting operation strategy for minimum
combination with the load distribution in Fig. 9 to find expected yearly saving of 0.01 ton/MWh is shown in Fig. 13. Compared
energy throughput in the same way as for calculation of yearly to the original situation in Fig. 4, storage is now used in a
fuel saving. The throughput can be used as key input to a life- smaller portion of the operating region. Both yearly fuel saving
time model of the battery storage in order to determine expected and throughput will necessarily be reduced. The effect on fuel
life time for different alternatives of storage type and size. Total saving and throughput can be found by recalculating those
cost (OPEX+CAPEX) can then be optimized taking cost of quantities without including the contribution at the load levels
541
where one no longer choose to use the storage. Table I shows In the next sections, time-domain simulations with variable
the consequences of setting different thresholds for minimum loads will be used to assess the validity of both the off-line
fuel saving per MWh throughput. The relationship between fuel estimation of the long-term fuel-saving potential and of the
saving and throughput is depicted in Fig. 14. Such results can proposed real-time energy management.
be useful when having to compromise between storage size,
storage life-time and fuel saving. It can for instance be observed VIII. VALIDATION OF METHOD
that by sacrificing 5% fuel saving, one can reduce storage The real-time energy management strategy presented in the
cycling by as much as 28% for the given load distribution previous section has been implemented in a Matlab time
profile. domain energy flow simulation model, with system parameters
TABLE I reported in Table III. The load power profile has been
TRADEOFF BETWEEN STORAGE USAGE AND FUEL SAVING synthesized from the load distribution shown in Fig. 9 that was
Set minimum yearly tons Resulting storage Resulting tons of previously used to illustrate the proposed steady-state method
of fuel saving per MWh MWh throughput fuel saving per
routed through storage per year year
for off-line estimation of potential fuel saving. As already
0 2814 100% 101.6 100% mentioned, there exists an infinite number of load series that
0.01 2026 72% 96.8 95% comply with the given distribution. For the validation we have
0.025 1181 42% 82.6 81% chosen first to use the simplest possible load series, built by
0.05 473 17% 57.9 57% sequentially applying all the load levels from zero to the
maximum system load for a duration proportional to the
corresponding probability. This obviously results in a profile
120
characterized by a minimum variability. Such profile is shown
Fuel saving [Tons/year]
100
by the blue curve in Fig. 15, assuming a total duration of the
80 time series of 24 hours. This basic time series was then used to
60 synthesize load profiles with more variability, in order to
40 challenge the method. The synthesis process consisted in slicing
20 the basic time series in intervals of fixed duration. Half of the
0 slices where then reverted in time, and finally all slices where
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 stitched together in a random sequence to form a new time
Storage throughput [MWh/year] series. An example of the outcome of this process is illustrated
by the red curve in Fig. 15, where a 24-hour sequence is built
Fig. 14 Relationship between yearly fuel saving and yearly storage throughput
starting from 1-hour time slices. This same method was used to
synthesize load series of different characteristics by changing
the two parameters T , TRand representing the duration of the
VII. REAL-TIME ENERGY MANAGEMENT BASED ON PROPOSED
STRATEGY time series and the duration of the single slices used for
randomization. Some selected combinations are reported in the
A simple real-time energy management strategy can be first three columns of Table II and are used as input to the time-
derived by applying the results presented in section III. The domain simulations. Variations marked as A and C corresponds
strategy will consist in starting and stopping the engines to time series with no randomization (the blue curve in Fig. 15).
according to the illustration in Fig. 5 while controlling the Variation G is the case featuring the highest load variability, as
power flow of the energy storage according to Fig. 3, so that shown in Fig. 17.
engines are loaded as prescribed in Fig. 4. In general, the time series generated with this method tend to
Although the optimal sharing between engine power and give an exaggerated load variability, since there is no
storage cycling at each load level is defined, due to the steady- correlation between average load in adjacent slices. For most
state assumption no clear prescription is given on whether the vessels the load would be more correlated.
storage should be charged or discharged at a given point in time.
Here, a simple method based on monotonous state-of-charge
(SOC) variation between preset upper and lower limits is used.
More specifically, the method consists in always discharging
the storage with a load-dependent power calculated following
the red line in Fig. 3 (discharging mode) until the lower bound
of the SOC is reached. From this point in time, the storage is
always charged with a load-dependent power calculated
following the blue line in Fig. 3 (charging mode). When the
upper bound of the SOC is reached, the operation is switched
back to discharging mode and the cycle continues.
Such basic strategy can only be guaranteed to approach
optimality if the underlying assumptions of quasi-steady-state
conditions are fulfilled. Moreover, the number of required Fig. 15 Synthesized time series of load power with same distribution as shown
engine start/stop operations should be small, making the in Fig.9. The blue curve will be closest to the constant load assumed in the
additional fuel consumption and engine wearing negligible. steady state method. The blue corresponds to variant A defined in Table II
while the red is one possible time series for variant B defined in same table.
542
In order to validate the real-time strategy presented in section
VII, ten instances of each load series variant were generated
with different seed for the randomization. The results of time-
domain simulations in terms of fuel saving and energy
throughput were analyzed and compared to the predicted values
obtained by application of the steady-state method of section
III. The influence of the randomization for time series
characterized by the same parameters T , TRand is shown in Fig.
16. The effect is rather small for all the analyzed cases except
for variant B, where both fuel saving and throughput have
noticeably different values for different seeds used in the
randomization. This is due to the short duration of the
Fig. 17 240-hour randomized time series of load power with same distribution
simulation compared to the randomization period. as shown in Fig 9 using 5 minutes time slices in the randomization (Variant G)
Values of fuel savings and throughput averaged among the
ten cases for each variant of the load time-series are reported in It is clear from the table that a strategy based on loading
Table II. As expected, the relative difference between such engines to their best SFC consistently gives less fuel saving and
values and those calculated off-line by the steady-state method increased energy storage throughput and thus reduced storage
is small for the minimum variability load series (A and C). The lifetime, compared to the proposed one. In particular, while the
difference increases as the duration of the time slices is reduced achieved fuel saving may be comparable for some of the
and variability increases, but is still within an acceptable range, analyzed load series, the resulting throughput is always
with a maximum deviation of 11% for time slices of 5 minutes. considerably higher, indicating that the storage is often used in
The difference in storage throughput is larger (29% for variant conditions where the gain in fuel efficiency is marginal or
G). This is however also considered to be acceptable, taking negative.
into account the rather extreme variability introduced.
X. ENGINE START AND STOP
IX. PROPOSED LOADING STRATEGY VERSUS NATURAL Load-dependent start and stop of individual engines is the
LOADING STRATEGY usual way of operating vessels to minimize fuel consumption.
Starting from the steady-state assumptions, the problem of In principle, energy storage can be used to reduce the number
finding a suitable loading point for the engines by cycling some of start and stops, thus reducing wear and tear of the engines.
energy through the storage has an intuitive solution consisting However, it is acknowledged that if storage is used for strategic
in using the storage to always achieve operation of all the loading of engines with the main aim of further improving fuel
necessary engines at their optimal SFC point. This corresponds efficiency, then it is likely that the number of start and stops
to the load-dependent strategy for engine loading depicted in will increase rather than decrease. A strict use of the proposed
Fig. 18. This natural loading strategy is not optimal under ideal strategy in combination with very dynamic load will probably
steady state conditions, as demonstrated in section III. cause too many start and stops of DG units. The energy
However, it is interesting to check how the natural strategy management strategy will then have to be modified, e.g. by
would perform, compared to the optimal one (Fig. 4), if used as using hold-on and hold-off timers on the start and stop criteria,
basis for a real-time energy management system. To this aim, in a similar fashion of what is commonly done for vessels
the same time-series used in the previous section are used, and without storage. It is also possible to implement more
average results of the ten runs for each load variant of the sophisticated modifications that prioritizes keeping the same
achieved fuel saving and throughput are reported in the last number of engines running when choosing whether to charge or
columns of Table II. discharge the storage rather than following the monotonous
05
SOC variation or even rather than fulfilling the optimal loading
100 strategy for minimum fuel. The consequence may then be
95 somewhat less fuel saving in favor of reduced mechanical
90 stress. The number of start and stops cannot easily be quantified
85 using the steady state approach. This is a weakness of the
80 proposed method.
135 Var. B Var. C Var. D Var. E Var. F Var. G
130
125
120
115
110
105
100
95
Var. B Var. C Var. D Var. E Var. F Var. G
Fig. 16 Variation in fuel saving (upper) and throughput (lower) for 10 runs of
time domain simulation of each variant B to G. Different seed for each
randomization of the load time series are used for each of the 10 runs. Red
markers are placed at average value for 10 runs. Fig. 18 The natural loading strategy where DG are loaded to their individual
optimum
543
TABLE II
COMPARISON STEADY STATE METHOD AND TIME DOMAIN SIMULATIONS WITH DIFFERENT LOADING STRATEGIES
Time domain simulation Time domain simulation
Prediction by steady state method Load engines to system optimal as Load engines to DG best SFC
Variant T TRand found by steady state (Fig. 4) (natural load. strategy in Fig. 18)
Fuel saving Storage throughput Relative fuel Relative Relative fuel Relative
Tons/year MWh/year saving throughput saving throughput
A 1 day (None) 99 % 102 % - -
B 1 day 60 min 90 % 125 % - -
C 10 days (None) 100 % 101 % 94 % 127 %
101.6 2814
D 10 days 120 min 98 % 105 % 96 % 134 %
(=100%) (=100%)
E 10 days 60 min 93 % 117 % 91 % 149 %
F 10 days 10 min 89 % 127 % 85 % 166 %
G 10 days 5 min 89 % 129 % 82 % 168 %
XI. CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES

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544
Wireless Energy Harvesting System Through Metal for Aerospace
Sensor
Chi Van Pham, Tuan Anh Vu, William Tran, Anh-Vu Pham, and Christopher S. Gardner1
Davis Millimeter Wave Research Center, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA
1
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA
Abstract— We present the development of a contactless energy

harvesting system to transfer power through metal that could be
potentially used for aerospace applications. By co-designing a
switching power amplifier, high performance inductive coils and
rectifier with load, the inductive power transfer system is pro-
posed. Practical issues such as coil winding to maximize power
transfer efficiency, effective implementation of ferrite, and the op-
timal design of impedance transformation network are consid-
ered. Power measurement results demonstrate that the harvester
system achieves a measured power efficiency of ~3.4 %. The meas-
ured maximum output power is more than 500 mW and linearly
increases with input current. The proposed inductive coupling
type of harvesting system overcomes major limitations of conven-
tional vibration-type of energy conversion such as lower power,
short life cycle, unreliable problems in extremely harsh aero-
nautics environment.
Index Terms— Wireless power transfer, Aircraft systems, En-

ergy harvesting, Metal tank, Wireless sensor.
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, aeronautics and aerospace industry have a
Fig. 1. Wireless energy harvesting system through metal (a) 3D view of sys-
strong demand for wirelessly powered sensors to support struc-
tem. (b) Stack-up view. (c) Our proposed circuit model.
tural health monitoring (SHM) of aircrafts or helicopter and
sense pressure leaks without drilling wire through mechanical when the transducer pair requires a correct alignment and a di-
structures [1]. The SHM systems typically require embedded rect contact with metal surface, (2) discontinuous charging
sensors for data acquisition, wireless communication, and en- when temperature and vibration may not be constant most of a
ergy harvesting. The sensors need to be powered and controlled long flight to keep the energy conversion, and (3) it would be
through a conductive wall without penetration because most of difficult to universally implement on airplanes. In consumer
the structures like airplanes are made of aluminum. For aero- electronics, these issues have been resolved by inductive power
space applications, most of the reported wireless sensors [1-8] transfer (IPT) technology, the most popular wireless power
are currently powered by either vibration or thermoelectric en- transfer solution. This approach has been well studied over the
ergy harvesters. Energy harvesting from vibration utilizes pie- last decade to charge cell phones, electric vehicles, and power
zoelectric transducers while thermoelectric generator converts up sensors over a short air-distance [9-14]. The concept of IPT
temperature gradients on an aircraft during the flight to electric is similar to the principle of transformers, in which an alterna-
using thermoelectric generator (TEG). Both technologies ex- tive magnetic field in primary coil induces a load voltage on
tract energy from local energy sources of aircrafts, including secondary coil when these two coils are tightly coupled [9-10].
temperature differences, temperature changes, vibrations, This induced voltage is used to energize an electric circuit. For
strain, ambient light, pressure changes, and electrostatic energy harvesting through metallic objects, the effectiveness of
charges. Alternative approach implements electromagnetic the inductive coupling approach is limited due to Faraday
conversion, which uses the motion of permanent magnet, which shielding effects. Recently, very few studies [16-20] have de-
is attached on or near aircraft tail rotor, to induce a voltage veloped inductive coils that can transfer continuous power
across the terminal of a coil of wire [8]. However, there are big through a thin stainless steel wall. Furthermore, there have
issues with these methods used on the aircraft including (1) low been no existing studies that have reported this new develop-
power (< 10 mW) operation, short working life, and reliability
problems
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 545

ment of a fully functional system design that complies with re- as possible. However, the shielding effect of the aluminum wall
quirements of charging wireless sensors for aerospace applica- or the metal thickness will severely degrade this coupling coef-
tions. ficient. For a 3-mm aluminum thickness, the system in [10] can
In this paper, a high efficiency inductive power transfer only achieve k~0.06 at the optimal frequency of 200 Hz. Addi-
(IPT) system through a sealed-aluminum tank is developed. tionally, the proximity effect, or air distance from each coil to
The original contributions of this paper include a novel stacked- the metal surface, will reduce the quality factor of the coils.
coil development with an optimal ferrite implementation, an Hence, k2Q1Q2 experiences a maximum and consequently de-
impedance transformation network to maximize power transfer termines the peak efficiency for an optimal operating frequency
efficiency (PTE), and a switching power amplifier to deliver range, which will always be relatively low. In such aerospace
power. Simulation and experimental results show that a 3.4 % applications, the coupling factor is constrained by the physical
PTE and more than 500 mW output power can be achieved with size of the system (e.g. AA battery size), coil winding and outer
a 4 mm thick-aluminum sealed tank, the highest values reached diameter of each inductive coil, coil-to-coil distance parameters
to-date for a full system and larger separation distance. (metal thickness t, D1, D2) which have been fixed. Therefore,
design of a high-quality factor inductive coil in a small form
factor is a key aspect in achieving the high efficiency power
II. PROPOSED ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND
transfer.
DESIGN
A. Proposed System and Circuit Model Analysis B. High Performance Inductive coil design
Fig. 1 shows our proposed energy harvesting system using
two inductive coils, wirelessly transferring power through an
aluminum tank. Each metal panel of the tank has dimensions of
400 mm x 400 mm x 3.1 mm. The air distance from each coil
to metal (D1 and D2) is 7.5 mm. The wireless power transfer
system can be generalized by block diagrams and equivalent
circuit as shown in Fig. 1(c). The transmitter (Tx) and receiver
(Rx) coils represent by an inductance (L1, L2), a series resistance
(R1, R2). To drive the Tx coil, a switching-mode class-E power
amplifier (PA) is designed using Infineon’s insulated-gate bi-
polar transistor (IGBT), IGW30N65L5, followed by an imped-
ance transformation network. Two topologies are implemented, Fig. 2. Orientation for magnetic field calculation (a) Side view (b) Transmitter
coil and (c) Receiver coil
including 1) series capacitor (C1) at Tx coil-series capacitor (C2)
at Rx coil and 2) series capacitor (C1)-parallel capacitor (Cshunt)
topologies. Fundamentally, a series capacitor adds a negative
reactance and does not change the real part of impedance. On
the other hand, a parallel capacitor changes both the real part
and imaginary part of the impedance, as Zrx is calculated in (1).
The system delivers AC power to the Rx coil, which needs to
be terminated with an optimal load RL to achieve the maximum
power transfer [11]. The AC voltage is rectified with a full-
bridge rectifier (GBPC3502WFS-ND) to provide DC voltage
for a device under test (DUT). By considering series-series im-
pedance transformation network, the quality factor of the two
Fig. 3. Simulation result of the magnetic flux density at 200 Hz, 700 Hz and
coils, Q1=ω0L1/R1 and Q2= ω0L2/R2, and the mutual inductance 1500 Hz with input current I= 10 A.
M, the maximum power transfer efficiency (PTE) of the system
is calculated in (2) [9-11].
RL 0Cshunt RL2
Zrx  j (1)
1  02Cshunt
2
RL2 1  02Cshunt
2
RL2
1 1
  (2)
4 4 R1R2
2 2
2
k Q1Q2 02 M 2 Fig. 4. Inductive coil development: (a) FEM 3D modeling. Simulation result
of (b) magnetic flux lines coil-to-coil. (c) Magnetic flux density on transmitter
PTE is determined by Q factors of the inductive coils and coil’s surface at 200 Hz.
coupling factor k. The product k2Q1Q2 is desirable to be as high
546
Fig. 2 shows side and top view of the IPT coil, which is com- frequencies when the AC part of the coil winding resistance (Rc)
posed of coil windings (transmitter and receiver coils) and fer- increases due to proximity effect.
rite plate covers. For transmitter coil, the winding shape is anal-
ogous to a helical coil topology—this can improve the power
transfer efficiency eight times better than a conventional IPT
system using solenoid or loop coil topology [18]. The current
of the transmitter coil (Tx) generates magnetic field ( ) that
can penetrate through the metal plate, and then linkage mag-
netic flux ( ) induces the voltage in the receiver coil (Rx).
These magnetic fields are represented by flux density vector
( ) and ( ) for Tx and Rx coils with their spatial ori-
entations as in Fig. 2. Fig. 3 shows the simulated magnetic flux
density versus the distance to magnetic field calculation points,
dz (vertical distance) and dy (horizontal distance) at 200 Hz, 700
Hz, and 1500 Hz. The lower frequency is, the larger magnetic
flux density is. The magnitude of ( ) component quickly
degrades after the aluminum boundary barrier (dz= 8.1 mm).
The ( ) component appears uniformly across the surface
of the receiver coil, which effectively induces voltage in the re-
ceiver coil. It is noted that the magnetic flux density is quite
uniform at the center of the Tx coil with a diameter of 50 cm.
To efficiently absorb the center field area, a receiver coil size
can be reduced. Transmitter and receiver coils are asymmetrical Fig. 5. Coil prototypes (a) transmitter coil (outer diameter of 150 mm). (b)
designs. Using a novel stacked-coil winding significantly en- Inductance and quality factor of the Tx coil with and without ferrite: Simulation
hances inductance, quality factor of the Rx coil, and allows the (dash line) and measurement (solid line) results. (c) Receiver coil (outer diam-
eter of 49 mm). (d) Inductance and quality factor measurement of the Tx coil
implementation of ferrite bars (TDK PC95) effectively. Fig. 4
with and without ferrite.
shows FEM modeling of simulated magnetic flux lines between
two coils: transmitter coil of a flat helix coil with 46 turns and
receiver coil of a small stacked-Helix coil with 514 turns. Fig. III. EXPERIMENT VERIFICATIONS
4(c) shows the distribution of the surface magnetic fields
( ) on the receiver coil at 200 Hz. The simulation results
reveal that the induced magnetic fields are denser and more uni-
form in the circular boundary at an optimal frequency of 200
Hz. The simulations are performed by ANSOFT MAXWELL
finite element modeling software.
Fig. 5 (a) and (c) show transmitter and receiver coil proto-
types with ferrite. The proposed coils were wound up using
AWG 16 magnet wire. Rx coil has 514 turns of AWG 17 mag-
net wire while Tx coil has 46 turns with inner and outer radius,
Rin=11 mm, Rout= 75 mm, respectively. To make the coil pro-
totype more solid, each coil is applied industrial epoxy and
backed by a plastic shield formed by 3-D printing. A ferrite
sheet made of Mn-Zn type soft ferrite material (Fair-rite 75 ma-
terial) was selected to provide coil shielding. The coil induct-
ance and quality factor of the two coil prototypes are given in
Fig. 5 (b) and (d). For the Rx coil at 200 Hz, the coil inductance
is 23.53 mH and 3.62 mH while the quality factor is 9 and
2.578, with and without the ferrite respectively. For the Tx coil,
both full-wave simulation and measurement with Keysight
E4980AL LCR meter show good agreement. Inductances are
measured as Lc= 282 µH and 158 µH with ferrite and without
ferrite, respectively. The quality factor (Qc=7 and 4, with and
without ferrite at 500 Hz) shows a non-linear characteristic.
= / rapidly increases at lower frequencies where the Fig. 6. (a) Experimental set-up (b) Receiver coil inside aluminum tank (c)
DC part resistance is dominant, but remains constant at higher Power transfer efficiency and coupling factor k
547
TABLE I. COMPARISON OF INDUCTIVE ENERGY HARVESTING THROUGH METAL
Structure Tx/Rx coil outer Coil to metal Metal thickness Eff. (%)
Design Frequency (Hz)
diameter (mm) distance
[16] 30-300 Solenoid coil design N/A 0 mm 4 mm steel pipe N/A
[17] 50 Loop coil design 120/120 0 mm 12 mm steel-open disk 4.6
[18] 50-3000 Helix coil design 220/220 5 mm 3.1 mm aluminum panel 4
Full system design: PA,
This work 30-1000 150/50 7.5 mm 3.1 mm aluminum tank 3.4
stacked-Helix coil, rectifier
Fig. 6 shows the experimental setup to verify the power trans-

fer efficiency of the energy harvesting system. Power measure-
ments are performed from 30 Hz to 1 kHz. A 4 mm-thick alu-
minum box is used for the measurement. Total distance from
Tx to Rx coils is about 20 mm. It is found that the system
achieves a maximum power transfer efficiency of 3.4 % and a
high coupling factor of 0.3 at an optimal frequency of 200 Hz.
Fig. 7 (a) illustrates the measured PTE with two different im-
pedance transformation topologies (series-series) and (series-
parallel). While PTE remains constant in both cases, the later
topology can transform optimal load of the system terminated
at 6 Ω (using series-series network) to 10 Ω, which is an input
resistance of any USB-enabled device or common sensor. Fig.
7 (b) shows the measured PTE over a range of center Tx coil to
center Rx coil misalignment for 200 Hz and 500 Hz. The system
maintains PTE > 2 % over a smaller 20 mm misalignment. Fig.
7(c) shows the measured output power with varying input cur-
rent for 200 Hz and 500 Hz. At 200 Hz, the maximum output
power is 480 mW with 8.5 A and linearly scales with the input
current. Table I shows a comparison of our proposed system
design and recently published papers.
IV. CONCLUSION
The paper demonstrates the model, design, and fabrication of
a fully functional wireless energy harvesting system through
metal. The analysis, simulation, and experimentation have
shown that 3.4% power transfer efficiency is achievable
through a sealed 4 mm- aluminum box container with the coil
to coil separation distance of 20 mm totally. The system design
takes advantages of a novel stacked winding topology to
achieve a strong coupling factor. The contactless, scalable
power transfer system can be utilized to operate aerospace sen-
sors in harsh conditions. High power measurement is ongoing
to achieve 5 W output power, as well as to verify the saturation
level of the inductive coils.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Fig. 7. (a) PTE of the system with different impedance transformation net- This work is supported by Lawrence Livermore National La-
works. (b) PTE with coil-to-coil misalignment. (c) Output power versus input boratory.
current at 200 Hz and 500 Hz.
548
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549
Turbo-electric Distributed Aircraft Propulsion:
Microgrid Architecture and Evaluation for ECO-150
David C. Loder*, Andrew Bollman*, Michael J. Armstrong**
*Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc., Indianapolis, IN, 46241
**Formerly with Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc.
david.loder@rolls-royce.com
Abstract-This work describes the architecture and evaluation of today’s state-of-the-art (SOA) electrical conversion
a turbo-electric distributed propulsion microgrid for ECO-150, technology (e.g. generators with 7 kW/kg specific power) [2].
a NASA funded 154 passenger subsonic fixed wing commercial
transport aircraft concept for entry into service by 2035. Three Rolls-Royce has been tasked in Phase II with determining a
different microgrid types are considered: ac synchronous more accurate assessment of the electrical system mass and
distribution, dc distribution, and a hybrid approach. A high efficiency, and evaluating the impacts of voltage and
level architecture for each grid type is proposed, considering architecture choices. In performing this study, sizing tools
requirements for single point failure accommodation, were developed for electrical components targeting a
redundancy and reconfigurability, and electrical protection.
Component sizing models were developed for rotating electrical technology readiness level (TRL) of TRL-6 by 2025.
machines, power converters, distribution, and protection
equipment, targeting a technology readiness level (TRL) of
II. MICROGRID ARCHITECTURE
TRL-6 by 2025. These tools are combined to evaluate the mass
and efficiency metrics for each microgrid type. Sensitivity A. Grid Architecture, Reconfigurability, and Redundancy
sweeps on grid voltage and frequency were completed in order The three options for power distribution are shown in
to determine optimal choices for both parameters. Results
indicate that microgrid performance metrics are optimized for Figure 1. Distributing power through four separate buses
ECO-150 near 6 kilovolts (kV) and 1 kilohertz (kHz), with the dc implies that no single point failure will result in more than
and hybrid grids having a greater sensitivity to voltage than the +25% thrust reduction. If power generation components are
ac grid. Advantages of the dc and hybrid grids include ability to upsized, a central bus tie and redundant feeders allows for
provide powered yaw, and ability to incorporate energy storage. reconfigurability to regain full thrust in the event of a
However, powered yaw control was investigated and determined
to be less effective than a conventional tail on a per mass basis. generator or rectifier failure. Discussed further in the
After accounting for the mass of the associated thermal protection discussion, each contactor is intended only to
management system (TMS), the dc grid emerges as the lowest switch under de-energized conditions, implying a negligible
mass option above 3 kV, followed by the ac and the hybrid grid. penalty on mass and efficiency for these components.
However, ac grid achieves a transmission efficiency 2-3% higher
than the dc grid, which will have system level effects on fuel
B. Electrical Protection Requirements
burn, fuel weight, and overall propulsive efficiency. For near
term practical implementation of turbo-electric distributed Requirements for electrical protection devices depend upon
propulsion, the ac synchronous system should be considered the selected protection strategy. A minimalist approach to
seriously as a strong candidate. fault accommodation is outlined in the following steps:
1) Detection of an electrical fault. This can consist of a

I. INTRODUCTION fault anywhere along the bus or distribution cabling, or
Electrification of air travel is following closely behind a failure internal to one of the components (i.e. power
automotive and other industries, and is motivated by similar converter or electrical machine).
goals of reduced carbon emissions and improved efficiency. 2) Isolation of all electrical power sources connected to
However, only in the last 5-10 years has electrified aircraft the bus.
propulsion begun to receive serious attention, resulting 3) Location of the fault using electrical measurements.
primarily from the NASA Subsonic Fixed Wing (SFW) 4) Removal of the faulted branch or component, and
Project beginning in 2008. NASA has since set aggressive reconfiguration using contactors in a de-energized
targets of developing key technologies for the mid-term (by state.
2025-2035) to reduce fuel burn by 50 – 60 % [1]. The ECO- 5) Reconnection of electrical power sources.
150R is a NASA-funded airframe concept intended to address
these targets, employing a turbo-electric distributed This approach allows for a lightweight and highly flexible
propulsion (TeDP) architecture using non-cryogenic reconfiguration system which only acts in a de-energized
technology. Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero) state. The only components which must act under faulted
concluded in Phase I of the Small Business Innovation conditions are the power source isolation components at the
Research (SBIR) contract that the ECO-150R can achieve a generators or energy storage.
38% decrease in specific fuel consumption (SFC) using
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 550

C. Powered Yaw Control and Accommodation
The first question when considering powered yaw control
is the optimal strategy with which to distribute thrust among
the propulsors. Figure 2 illustrates one potential control
strategy, option #1, in the hybrid grid. This strategy
minimizes the oversizing of the fan propulsors, but requires
more power generation capacity due to dissymmetric thrust
redistribution. To satisfy a given maneuver with yaw
Fig. 1a. AC synchronous distribution. Generators are wound field machines. command , , and thrust command , , the following
The ac grid has the potential for lightest weight and highest efficiency, but relationships must be satisfied
has limited flexibility for yaw accommodation and control.
, = ∑ −∑ (1)
, = ∑ +∑ (2)
where indicates thrust on fan on the right side, and

indicates the distance to fan . Normalizing (1) by the rated
thrust provided by an individual propulsor (i.e. the maximum
value of or is unity), we can express the yaw provided
by option #1 with
Fig. 1b. DC distribution. Generators are permanent magnet machines. The dc
grid has the largest amount of power conversion equipment, implying higher
mass and efficiency, but high flexibility for yaw control and hybridization. , = ∑ + ∗∑ (3)
where indicates the total number of propulsors on the left

side that are reduced to zero thrust. The increase in thrust
capability associated with this maneuver is given by
Δ | , = (4)
While this assumption is not highly accurate when

extrapolated, we assume a 1:1 relationship between thrust and
shaft power for the sake of this analysis. The increase in
Fig. 1c. Hybrid distribution. Generators are wound field machines. The power generation capacity associated with option #1 is then
hybrid grid attempts a compromise between mass, efficiency, and flexibility.
Power is distributed to inboard propulsors through an ac grid, and to the
outboard propulsor through a dc grid. Incorporation of motor drives on Δ | , = − . (5)
outboard propulsors allows for yaw control.
We then define the ratio between the specific power of the
The general approach remains the same regardless of the fan motors, and the specific power of the generators as ,
grid type. However, the implementation of step 2) differs where > 1 indicates higher specific power for the fan
between the grid types. motors. The normalized specific yaw (i.e. amount of yaw
For ac and hybrid grids, which use wound field generators, it provided per increase in grid mass) is given by
is assumed that the generator excitation can be controlled to ∑ ∗∑
isolate the electrical power source. Due to the nature of the YPM , = . (6)
∗
permanent magnet fed power converters in the dc grid, a fault
will continue to be fed passively through the anti-parallel
diodes, even if the converter switches are turned off. Therefore, the case where < 1 will improve the
performance of option #1. Similarly, for option #2, where
Therefore, circuit breakers must be included for all power thrust is redistributed symmetrically among the left and right
sources in the dc grid. Selection and sizing circuit breakers wings, the specific yaw is given by
for dc distribution is discussed in the component modelling
section. It is expected that a fast acting and autonomous fault YPM , = ∗∑ (7)
accommodation system can be implemented, resulting in a
loss of 25% thrust for less than a second, which will be A comparison of these two options for the geometric layout
imperceptible to the operator or passengers due to the inertia of ECO-150 is illustrated in Figure 3.
of the generators and fans.
551
size the machine.. Parameters of the baseline machine are
scaleed according tot heuristics in order to arrrive at a dessign
that meets these requirements.
r . The tool theen computes the
lossees, and correspponding efficiiency, at eachh operating pooint.
Geneerally, we wissh to maximizze the rotationnal speed in orrder
to m
minimize the torque
t requireement. Therefore, mechan nical
limitations are ussed to determ mine radial diimensions of the
machhine. The outeer rotor topology uses a thhin titanium shhell
and carbon fiberr wrap to retain r the rootating magnnets.
Conssidering only the rotating mass
m of the magnets,
m and the
carboon fiber wrapp as the only retaining eleement, the radial
expannsion of the wrapping
w is givven by
Fig. 2.
2 An illustratioon of powered yaaw control with the hybrid grid. Yaw
contrrol strategy optioon #1, dissymmetric thrust redistrribution, is illusttrated Δ = ∗ + − (8)
here. Fan colors indiccate electrical buus assignment. Fans
F on the outerrmost
left side
s are sequenntially throttled down to zero thrust, and thru ust is
redisttributed evenly oon the right handd side. This figuure illustrates the case wherre is thee tip speed off the rotor, is the air--gap
where two propulsors are fully throttledd down (n=2). radiuus, is the radial thickness of the maagnet, is the
masss density of the magnets, is the radiaal thickness off the
carboon fiber, and is the yooung’s modullus of the carbbon
fiber [4]. We thenn fix the wrapp thickness, annd determine the
air-gap radius of the scaled machine
m to acchieve the saame
radiaal expansion liimit as the baseline. The acctive length of
the machine is then determ mined by thhe peak torrque
requiirement by
= ∗ ∗ (9)
usingg the same air-gap sheaar stress of the baseline

machhine. Fixing the t shear streess is enforceed by fixing the
magnnetic air-gap, magnetic radial depth, and electrrical
loadiing. Stator currrent density is also assum med to be fixedd in
orderr to have manageable
m w
winding tempperatures, wh hich
Fig. 3. Comparisonn of yaw control strategies for hybrid h grid for = 1.
Optiion #2, which employs symmeetric thrust rediistribution on thhe dc
furthher implies thaat the windingg radial thicknness is also fixxed.
prop
pulsors, is found tto be the superiorr strategy for ECO
O-150. All curvess have Deptth of the statoor yoke is sccaled accordinng to pole pitch,
been
n normalized as shhown in the equaations. whicch is determinned by the num mber of poless input. Once the
dimeensions are known, thee machine mass m is eaasily
III. ELECTRICAL COMPONENT MODELLING deterrmined. The loss
l computattion considerss copper resisttive
A. Rotating Elecctrical Machinees lossees, ac loss mechanisms
m (i..e. hysteresis,, eddy currennts),
Sizing
S tools w
were develop ped for both wound
w field (WF) and mechanical losses
l (i.e. beearing frictionn and windag ge).
syn
nchronous m machines, an nd permanennt magnet (PM) Winddage loss is adjusted
a accorrding to air deensity at altituude.
syn
nchronous maachines. The PM machinne is based on a The WFW machine tool uses sim milar scaling heuristics,
h but the
currrent NASA NRA with the Universsity of Illinoois to detaiils of the baseline
b machhine are prooprietary to the
demmonstrate by 2019 a 1 MW W machine acchieving 13 kW/kg
k manuufacturer.
speecific power, and 96% effficiency [3]. This machinee was
selected as the baseline for sevveral reasons: B. P Power Converrters
Thhe baseline PM M machine reequires an invverter drive withw
1)
1 1 MW poower level an nd TRL timeline are conssistent very low total harm monic distortiion (THD) vooltage output, due
with ECOO-150 requirem ments to the low synchro onous reactan nce of the air-core topologyy. A
2)
2 Aggressivve yet realisticc performancee targets flying capacitor multilevel
m convverter (FCMC C) was selected d as
3)
3 Information is readily available on the
t machine design
d the baseline
b topoloogy for the coonverter sizingg tool, which can
details achieeve ultra-low THD with a sufficiently high numberr of
levells. This topolo
ogy is also beiing pursued inn a similar NAASA
The
T sizing tool
t takes a number off operating point NRA A at the Univversity of Illinnois, targetingg 19 kW/kg and
req
quirements (i.e.
( power, shaft speeed, altitude) and 99% efficiency forr a 1 MW invverter at a 1 kV V dc link volttage
dettermines the ppeak torque aand peak speeed requiremennts to [5]. A huge advanntage providedd by the multiilevel topology is
552
that the nominal switch blocking voltage requirement is C. Power Distribution Cabling
reduced in relation to the dc link voltage Power distribution cabling is sized according to the SAE
wiring standard [12]. Selection of wire gauge is limited to
V , = (10) maintain an ac resistance factor below 1.1 at high
frequencies; proximity effect losses in cabling are neglected
assuming that proper bundling and transposition techniques
where is the number of output voltage levels. The other
are employed to mitigate this concern. Practical high
advantages include a higher output ripple frequency as
frequency distribution systems may employ hollow tubular
compared to the switching frequency
conductors, or advanced cabling material such as Litz wire.
f , =f ∗ (11)
D. Protection of DC Microgrids
The protection of interconnected dc grids is a highly active
And a lower voltage ripple amplitude seen at the output
area of research, with work spanning a wide range of
applications including high voltage dc (HVDC) transmission
ΔV , = (12) in utility scale power grids, naval and aerospace power
systems, and traction applications such as electric vehicles
As switch on-state resistance is related to its voltage rating, and rail. While this topic merits more discussion than can be
this in combination with lowered switching frequency results included in this paper, the authors have attempted to give a
in greatly reduces losses as compared to conventional brief treatment of the challenges of dc protection systems, and
topologies; the multi-level topology enables an ultra-low the TRL status of the most promising protection devices.
THD output at high dc link voltages. Using advanced silicon From this discussion, we then move on to select a baseline
carbide (SiC) MOSFET devices from Cree rated at 1200 V circuit breaker topology to be used for this study.
[6] and 1700 V [7], a dc bus voltage of 6 kV can be achieved The protection of dc systems encounters new challenges
with only 7 or 5 levels, respectively. due to the fundamental differences in which power is
Other than switching devices, passive energy storage conditioned and distributed, as compared to traditional ac
components contribute greatly to the converter mass, the systems. These challenges are related mainly to these three
mass contribution of which is dominated by the dc link and items:
flying capacitors, and ac side dV/dt filters. However, EMI 1) Lack of natural zero-crossings
filtering components such as common mode chokes and Y 2) Natural fault current limiting mechanisms
capacitors also contribute. Recent work funded by the DOE 3) Fault behavior in dc grids
[8] and the Navy suggests that capacitor specific energy of
greater than 4 Joules/gram is achievable. An inductor sizing AC protection devices take advantage of the natural zero-
tool was also constructed and calibrated to [9], wherein an crossings that are implicit in ac systems. After an ac breaker
energy density of 1 Joule/kg is typical. The flying capacitors has triggered, the electrical contacts are separated, and a zero-
are sized to satisfy the dc voltage ripple requirement, and the crossing allows the arc to extinguish. In dc systems,
ac filter inductor is sized to satisfy the current ripple additional mechanisms are required to quench the arc if using
requirement. Due to the low specific energy of inductive solely electromechanical protection devices. A popular
energy storage, the mass of all the energy storage components method is to include an oscillatory circuit (e.g. RLC
is dominated by the inductors within the dV/dt filter oscillator), which can be switched in parallel with the circuit
Converter branches are added in parallel as necessary to to artificially create a zero crossing that a conventional circuit
reduce the junction temperatures below their maximum breaker can interrupt; however, attempts to demonstrate these
limits, assuming a cold plate temperature of 80 °C. devices at high voltages have largely proven unsuccessful
Finally, the cooling system for the converter is another [13]. AC systems also benefit from the natural current
large piece of the weight. The heat exchanger is sized based limiting effects of electrical machine impedances, whereas dc
on a simple mass per heat rejection relationship, set at 1500 grids have only the inductance of the distribution cabling and
Watts/kg according to surveys done in prior NASA studies filtering components to limit the rise of the fault current.
[10]. The loss computation considers only loss generated A dc bus fed by a voltage source converter (VSC) will
within the switching devices (i.e. conduction loss and exhibit two main stages of fault behavior:
switching loss), which is calculated with switch manufacturer
data according to methods described in [11]. Finally, a 1) Capacitor discharge: The first stage of a dc fault is
scaling factor of 2x is applied to the aggregated mass of the characterized by the discharge of any dc link
switching devices, passive energy storage components, and capacitors tied to the bus; capacitor discharge occurs
heat exchanger; the 2x scaling factor accounts for weight of very rapidly, with peak currents reached at 10s of
the packaging, enclosure, and EMI filtering, and brings the 100s of microseconds, depending on location of the
specific power in line with the NASA program targets. fault and the inductance of the cabling. Peak current
is dictated primarily by capacitor ESR and cabling
553
resistance, and is typically an order of magnitude current, the device voltage blocking capability must be
greater than the nominal rated value. High fault greater than the nominal bus voltage by some margin,
currents can result in damage to the capacitors and typically 1.5x-2x [17]. The best example of a fully designed
cabling not only from thermal shock, but also from solid state breaker system at voltage and power levels
the severe electromagnetic forces that are relevant to ECO-150 was found in [16], in which a breaker is
experienced during the event. To mitigate this fault claimed to withstand 18 kV by including four IGBTs [18] in
behavior, protection devices must either be series, and operate at 800 A continuously; the device weighs
extremely fast-acting, or fault current limiters (FCL) 60 lb. in total, including cooling. In order to achieve bi-
must be included in order to limit the rate of the directional capability, two IGBT legs must be placed in anti-
discharge. To properly limit the fault current, the parallel. While MOSFETs could be used instead to achieve
FCL must be sized to absorb most of the energy bi-directional conduction (but not bi-directional breaking),
discharged by the capacitor without saturating. Due current voltage ratings of MOSFETs would only allow dc
to the massive disparity in specific power, this link voltages up to 4 kV, even with four series switches. The
implies that any effective FCL will weigh primary disadvantage of the SSCB is the power loss and
approximately an order of magnitude greater than associated cooling.
the dc link capacitor bank. Thus, it is expected that Hybrid circuit breakers attempt to combine the best
the added mass of FCLs would be unacceptably characteristics of both classical and SSCBs. The general
high. configuration is to have a mechanical contact that normally
conducts the current, resulting in almost zero on-state losses.
2) Passive rectification: Upon detection of the fault, it When breaking a fault, the mechanical contact is opened and
is assumed that the active rectifier will shut down current is commutated into a solid-state interrupter parallel
the active switching devices. However, once the dc path. Once the contact is fully open, the interrupter can act as
bus voltage has collapsed, the fault will be fed it normally would in a solid-state breaker to disrupt the fault.
passively from the generator as the anti-parallel ABB demonstrated a 320 kV breaker, rated at 2 kA
diodes act as an uncontrolled rectifier [14]. The continuous and 10 kA breaking capability, claiming to break
magnitude of the passively rectified fault current the fault in a little over 2 ms [19]. However, this
depends primarily upon the characteristics of the configuration included a FCL which must have an energy
electrical generator, chiefly the strength of the storage requirement of 5 MJ. Other lower power examples
magnets and the winding impedance. Due to the air- include a hybrid relay developed by Mersen [20], which is
core architecture of the baseline PM machine, it is rated at 1,200 V and 300 A nominal, and has been
expected that fault currents could be greater than 10x demonstrated to break up to 2 kA at 2 kV, weighing less than
the nominal current. FCLs placed on the dc side of 1 kg.
the rectifier will have little impact on the steady state While hybrid relays may be useful for other systems, the
value of the fault current in this stage, and may protection requirements for ECO-150 require the speed of
actually make matters worse by increasing the SSCBs to mitigate damage incurred by the fault. Therefore,
amount of energy that the circuit breaking device the work described in [16] is taken as the baseline device for
must absorb. the sizing tool. This tool is structured very similarly to the
power converter tool. When sized for a dc link of 6 kV, the
Now that we have discussed the fault characteristics for dc breaker can achieve an efficiency of 99.9%, and a specific
microgrids and associated protection requirements, we now power of near 200 kW/kg.
move on to discuss protection devices. DC circuit breakers
can be classified into three categories [13]: IV. MICROGRID SIZING & SENSITIVITY
• Classical mechanical breakers
• Solid-state breakers A. Voltage and Frequency Sensitivity
• Hybrid breakers ESAero provided inputs for the microgrid sizing tool based
on the baseline propulsive power requirements for the ECO-
Classical breakers use mechanically actuated contacts to 150-100, which is a configuration derived from the earlier
separate the electrical connection. These have the advantage ECO-150R vehicle. The peak sizing point is at second
of having almost zero on-state losses, but are the slowest segment climb, which requires about 22 MW total of
option, and suffer from the challenges described earlier. propulsive power. Power at cruise is approximately 9 MW.
ESAero has provided a preliminary estimate of 1.6 kW/kg for
Solid-state circuit breakers (SSCB) use semiconductor
the specific heat rejection capacity of the thermal
devices as the method of disconnecting the fault. Metal oxide
management system (i.e. 1 kg weight of TMS is required to
varistors (MOV) are also commonly employed in parallel in
reject 1.6 kW of heat to the ambient). Fan motors are
order to absorb the fault energy [15]. Solid-state breakers act assumed to be directly air-cooled, so the loss of the fan
incredibly fast; less than 15 μs breaking time has been motors is not included in the sizing of the platform thermal
demonstrated [16]. In order to effectively break the fault
554
management system (TMS). The total microgrid mass and Therefore, it is likely that the optimal frequency at a system
inefficiency is given for the three different grid types in level will be below 1 kHz; this ultimate determination must
Figure 4 and Figure 5, respectively, over a range of voltages be done at a system level with ESAero. Unlike frequency,
and frequencies. For all three grid types, the frequency point increasing grid voltage benefits both efficiency and mass.
of diminishing returns in mass reduction is near 1 kHz. However, higher voltage has second-order implications for
However, the efficiency steadily decreases with increasing sizing that were not captured in this study. These include
frequency, which implies a greater power requirement for the increased insulation thickness for electrical machine windings
prime mover, increased fuel burn, and increased mass and cablings, and corona mitigation mechanisms for power
associated with the additional required fuel capacity. converters and protection devices, all of which will ultimately
Furthermore, lower transmission efficiency counteracts lead to increases in mass.
benefits in propulsive efficiency, which is needed to meet the
NASA targets for fuel burn and emissions reduction.
Fig. 4a. AC grid mass sensitivities.

Fig. 5a. AC grid efficiency sensitivities.
Fig. 4b. Hybrid grid mass sensitivities. Fig. 5b. Hybrid grid efficiency sensitivities.
Fig. 4c. DC grid mass sensitivities. Fig. 5c. DC grid efficiency sensitivities.
555
Fig. 6a. Grid type mass comparison. Fig. 7a. Grid type inefficiency comparison at cruise condition.
Fig. 6b. Grid type mass comparison including the mass of the airframe
TMS.
Fig. 7b. Grid type inefficiency comparison at peak power condition.
Therefore, we recommend selecting the highest voltage that

yields diminishing returns on the benefits. As power
grids is no longer relevant. With both lower efficiency and
electronic equipment is highly sensitive to voltage, we
higher mass, the hybrid system becomes the least attractive
observe an increasing sensitivity to grid voltage as we move
from ac, to hybrid, to dc grids. Therefore, the point of option. The ac system is the clear winner in terms of
diminishing returns in voltage appears to be near 7.5 kV for efficiency. The ac grid can claim 97% efficiency at cruise,
the DC grid, 6.0 kV for the hybrid grid, and near 4.5 kV for while the dc grid is closer to 94% at 6 kV. Due to the higher
the AC grid. power density of the PM generators, the dc grid outperforms
other options even at low voltages when considering just the
B. Yaw Control Evaluation and Grid Comparisons mass of the electrical components.
ESAero provided estimates in order to complete a The dc system achieves the lightest weight, especially at
preliminary evaluation on the viability of using powered yaw. voltages above 6 kV, lower than 7,000 kg, as compared to the
The required control moment to be provided by the microgrid ac system which is near 8,000 kg. However, when including
was estimated to be 170,000 lb-ft, assuming complete the estimated TMS weight, the dc grid only surpasses the ac
removal of the vertical tail. Removal of the vertical tail, grid as the lightest option around 3 kV.
responsible for lateral stability and directional control, was Additionally, if a robust ac grid could be constructed using
estimated to provide a weight reduction of approximately 250 completely permanent magnet machines, the entitlement for
kg, and a drag reduction of 2%. A comparison of the weight savings and efficiency improvement would be even
efficiency and mass for the different grid types is given in greater. If hybridization of propulsive power is required, then
Figure 6 and Figure 7, respectively. Even after accounting for either the dc or hybrid system would be required to
the drag reduction, the hybrid grid and dc grid suffer a 1,000 incorporate energy storage components. While the hybrid grid
kg penalty for employing powered yaw control. As this is ~5x is the least attractive option, perhaps the ac grid configuration
heavier than simply using a conventional tail, we can could be modified to allow for incorporation of energy
conclude that the yaw control advantage of the hybrid and dc storage, while still maintaining the efficiency benefits of ac
556
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has potential to be the most lightweight above 3 kV, it 2011.
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Technology, Trondheim, Norway, Jan. 2016.
electronic technologies to TRL-6 will likely require a longer [18] Hy-Line Power Components, “High Voltage IGBT Modules,”
timeframe than those for electrical machines and cabling. CM800HC-90R Datasheet.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was funded in part through NASA grant
NNX16CD03C, in collaboration with Empirical Systems
Aerospace.
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557
Design and small signal stability analysis of DC side parallel-
connected power system for the All-electric vessel
Zhang Jian1,2,3, Wen Xuhui1,2,3, Yan Zhaopeng1,2
1
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
2
Key Laboratory of Power Electronics and Electric Drive, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
3
Beijing Engineering Laboratory of Electrical Drive System & Power Electronic Device Packaging Technology, China
E-mail: zhangjian@mail.iee.ac.cn
Abstract-In this paper, a new relative droop gain based current modules, which is not always easy to be implemented in
sharing and voltage regulation method of DC side parallel distributed power system architectures.
connected power system for all-electric vessel has been Droop control has been widely adopted since no
presented. Based on the concept of relative droop gain, enough
stable margin of system can be guaranteed. To mitigate the load
communication among power modules is needed, hence
sharing error caused by inaccurate line impedance with lower improving IPS modularity, reliability, and reducing cost. In a
droop gain, an adaptive impedance compensation strategy is multi-source IPS with droop control, the main design criteria
deduced. An additional voltage control loop is also built to deals with the current sharing accuracy and voltage
compensate the voltage drop of DC bus, with which the DC bus regulation. As discussed in [4]–[7], there is always a tradeoff
voltage can be restored to its nominal value under abruptly between the current sharing accuracy and the voltage
varied load. Small-signal modeling of the whole system is regulation. The simplest way to improve the load sharing is
established and system stability based on the proposed method is
investigated in detail. Simulation studies are also presented to
increasing the droop gain, some scholars proposed that the
illustrate the feasibility of the proposed new droop method. relative ratio of droop gain to cable impedances can be set to
a higher value with enhanced voltage compensation
I. INTRODUCTION method[4][5], which results in more accurate of load sharing.
However, the system stability is degraded with the increase of
Due to the higher flexibility and mobility, greater the global droop gain. On the other hand, those above
convenience for general arrangement, reduced maintenance methods are only applicable for small scale system catering
and operational costs, vessels with all-electric drive and DC its local load. Base on the deviation of bus voltage [6] or
area distribution topology have gained popularity, output current[7], some variable coefficient droop control
representing the direction of the development of next strategies are developed, but the criteria about choosing initial
generation vessel power[1]. Fig.1 shows the integrated power value of coefficient droop are not demonstrate clearly, and
system (IPS) of modern Vessel based on DC networks. As the deterioration of voltage stability with increasing droop
one of the most important parts of the IPS, the power coefficient has not been considered either.
generation module (PGM), which include rectifier and the In a voltage droop-controlled system, the selection of droop
connection with diesel-Permanent Magnet Synchronous gain is critical as it not only impacts on the load sharing
Generator(PMSG), play a significant role in energy accuracy and the voltage regulation but also influences
management and auxiliary loads supporting. system stability. However, most of the DC droop
implementations are usually analyzed separately and there is
a lack of research in the area of droop strategy design
considering stability together with voltage and current
regulation. In this paper, the stability of the system with
proposed controller under different values of droop gain is
analyzed. A new relative-droop method based current sharing
and voltage regulation method of parallel-connected PGMs
has been presented, and relative lower droop gain can be
achieved to guarantee the stable margin of system. The
novelty of this method lies in the fact that, it combine the
Fig.1. Block Diagram of the IPS with DC network droop law with the stability requirement of the system, and
In an IPS with multiple parallel connected PGMs, the method is easily implemented since no communication
appropriate power sharing is of great importance since it will lines are needed, hence the advantages of droop-controlled
impact on the overall performance of vessel. As far as DC IPS such as reliability and modularity are retained. To
networks is concerned, the known load sharing strategies can mitigate the load sharing error caused by inaccurate line
be grouped into two categories[2][3]: active load sharing impedance with lower droop gain, an adaptive droop gain
(such as master–slave control and centralized control) and compensation strategy is deduced and an additional voltage
passive load sharing using droop control. The common control loop is also built to compensate the voltage drop of
drawback of the active load sharing methods is the DC bus, with which, the DC bus voltage can be restored to its
dependence on the communication link between the parallel nominal value under abruptly varied load. Small-signal
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 558

modeling of the whole control system is established and With above mehtod, the impact of varying zli becomes
system stability of the proposed method is investigated in negligible and the current sharing accuracy will be improved.
detail. The proper function of the new droop method However, good voltage regulation cannot be ensured due to
proposed in this paper has been verified by simulations of significant voltage deviations with large droop gain, and
parallel-connected PGMs. which is unacceptable for some applications.
II. LIMITATION OF CONVENTIONAL DROOP METHOD Taking dual parallel connected PGMs as an example, fig.
3 gives the relationship between output voltage and current.
The current sharing accuracy is degraded due to the When droop gains are zero ( zd 1 = zd 2 = 0), the current
inherent line resistance of parallel-connected power System. sharing error between the PGMs are obvious, due to different
To illustrate above phenomenon more clearly, a detailed value of zli (described by the droop curves with different
mathematical analysis will be provided and the way system slopes). With conventional droop control strategies, the
should be modified to get rid of the adverse effect will be equivalent series impedance of both PGMs becomes
presented below. A power system with N parallel-connected relatively large due to droop gains z di , which reduce the
PGMs will be discussed with equivalent circuit diagram current deviation between PGMs at the cost of a larger
shown in fig.2. Each module is connected to the DC bus with voltage drop. Therefore, with conventional droop methods,
connecting line, and each line is represented by a series good voltage regulation and accurate load sharing cannot be
impedance zli (neglecting the line inductance and locally achieved at the same time, that is, there must be a tradeoff
controlled DC bus capacitance for steady state analysis). The between voltage regulation and current sharing.
droop controlled PGMs are represented by the thevenin Voltage
equivalent model.
U dc
zl1 iL1 iL z iL 2 zlN iLN A2 A1 ΔU dc
zl 2 ΔU dc'
l2 U dc'
''
zl1
U dc
A2∗ A1∗ zd 1 + zl1
zd 1 zd 2 zdN
z d 2 + zl 2
uo1 udc uo 2 uoN
∗ ∗ ∗
udc udc udc
iL 2 iL∗ 2 iL∗1 iL1 Current
Fig.3. V-I curves of system with/without droop control

Fig.2. Steady state equivalent circuit of multi-PGMs
The output voltage of the droop controlled PGM can be III. PROPOSED NEW DROOP METHOD
expressed as, A new relative droop gain based power sharing and voltage
udc = (udc∗
− iLi zdi ) − iLi zli = uoi − iLi zli (1) regulation method of parallel-connected rectifiers will be
With equation (1) we can get, deduced in detail in this part.
iLi zd 1 + zl1 λi (2) A. Design of the relative droop gain
= =
iL1 zdi + zli λ1 By choosing any one of those parallel connected PGMs as
In which, i = 1, 2,..., N represents parallel-connected reference (i.e. PGM1, in fig.2), PGM1 will be assigned to
PGMs respectively. λi is the weighting proportion of the regulated the DC bus voltage. Other PGMs’ voltage regulator
PGMi’s output current iLi with respect to the total load is influenced by the difference of the droop gain ( z di ,
current iL , zli is the cable impedance between PGMi and DC i=2,3,…,N) between the PGM1 and PGMi.
bus, z di is the droop gain. From above discussion, we can see that the voltage drop

It can be seen from (2) that the accuracy of load sharing is will be minimal with relative smaller droop gain. In this
influenced by the value of cable impedance zli . In order to paper, a new droop method based on relative droop gain
mitigate the adverse effect of varying zli , two approaches can concept is proposed, which design the droop gain to be a
be used: smaller value to minimize the voltage drop. And an adaptive
One is to modify the droop gain according to the actual droop gain compensation strategy will be deduced to mitigate
cable impedances as, the load sharing error caused by inaccurate line impedance
λ with lower droop gain.
zdi = 1 ( zd1 + zl1 ) − zli , i = 2,3,..., N (3)
λi For those applications which demand power equal sharing,
that is, in (4) we have λ1 = λ2 =  = λN , and the relative
However, this approach requires accurate measurement of
droop gain control method can be described as,
the value of zli . Taking into account the fact that zli is not
constant during the operation and highly depends on  zd 1 = 0 i = 2,3, ⋅⋅⋅, N
 (5)
environmental conditions. Above method is only theoretical  λ1
z =
 di λ d 1 l1( z + z ) − zli =z d1 + ( zl1 − z li ) = zl1 − zli
feasible in practice.  i
An alternative solution is to set a relatively large droop In medium or small scaled integrated power systems of
gain z di . If zdi  zli is true, (2) can be rewritten as, vessel applications, the actual cables impedances zli are
iLi zd 1 + zl1 zd 1 λi (4) generally small due to limited cable length between PGMs
= ≈ =
iL1 zdi + zli zdi λ1 and DC bus. Therefore, the droop gain defined by (5) are
559
small enough, and we can get relative smaller droop gain With (1) and (12), the following voltage control strategy
based on above method. can be derived,
B. Impact of cable impedance for precise current sharing  uo∗1 = udc
∗
 (13)
To explain more clearly, a power system with dual  ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ kir
uo 2 = udc − iL 2 zd 2 = udc − iL 2 ( zˆl1 − zˆl 2 ) − ΔiL (k pr + )
parallel-connected PGMs will be discussed firstly, and the  s
characteristic can be applied to the similar system with more Based on (13), the current sharing can be achieved.
PGMs. Supposing zl1 , zl 2 denotes the real value of cable D. Proposed compensation method
impedance between PGM1,2 and DC bus, zˆl 1 , zˆl 2 denotes From (1) we can see that the DC bus voltage will reduce
the nominal values of cable impedance correspondingly. with the increase of load power/current. Even though, a
With (5) the droop gain can be written as, relative small droop gain has been selected in (6), the voltage
 zd 1 = 0 (6) drop due to the droop impedance under heavy loads is
 notable. To achieve good voltage regulation, an enhanced
 zd 2 = zˆl1 − zˆl 2
voltage compensation method which adjusts the voltage
Reformatting (1) results in,
references according to the load current is proposed, as
udc = udc
∗
− iL1 zd 1 − iL1 zl1 = udc ∗
− iL1 zl1 (7)
 shown in fig.5. A feed-forward term is added to the voltage
∗ ∗
uL = udc − iL 2 zd 2 − iL 2 zl 2 = udc − iL 2 ( zˆl1 − zˆl 2 ) − iL 2 zl 2 reference in each module, with which, (13) can be rewritten
Hence,sharing error of output current can be expressed as, as,
( zˆ − z ) − ( zˆl 2 − zl 2 ) (8)  uo∗1 = udc
∗
+ k pu (udc ∗
− udc ) + k pi  (udc
∗
− udc )dt
Δi = i − i = l1 l1 L ×i L1 L2 L2 
zl1 (14)
 ∗ kir
uo 2 = udc + k pu (udc − udc ) + k pi  (udc − udc )dt − ΔiL (k pr + )
∗ ∗ ∗
From (7) and (8) the average load current can be derived, s

 −iL 2 ( zˆl1 − zˆl 2 )
iL1 + iL 2 ( zˆl1 + zl1 ) − ( zˆl 2 − zl 2 ) Δi 0(9) 
iL = = × iL 2 = iL 2 + L
2 zl1 2
IV. STABILITY ANALYSIS
Then, we define the current sharing error rate as,
δ = ΔiL / iL 0 (10) Based on above discussion, a power system configuration
consisting of dual-PGMs parallel-connected to a DC Bus is
With (10), we can discuss the impact of cable impedance
assumed as a test case,with similar block diagram represented
for current sharing error rate, as shown in fig.4. For the
in fig.1, and its control scheme is shown in fig.5.
circumstance of ( zli − zˆli ) zˆli = 20% and zˆl 2 zˆl1 = 2 , δ is
i ,i ,i
about 15%, which is totally unacceptable in real applications. u
i udc ∗ ∗
o1
a1 b1 c1
u u u i dc o
∗
o1
* d1
Therefore, an adaptive droop gain compensation strategy i

s1
∗
d1
must be designed to mitigate the load sharing error caused by z =0 i i d1

∗
q1
q1
∗ 2 ∗ 2
i (i ) − (i )
the deviation between zˆli and zli .
u u i dc
L1 s1 d1
o1 L1
Load current sharing error ration:δ [%]
60 ia 2 , ib 2 , ic 2
zˆl 2 zˆl1 = 3 uo 2 udc2
id 2 Z=
∗
udc uo∗ uo∗2 is*2 uo2 iL 2 P
50
zˆl 2 zˆl1 = 2.5 id∗ 2
40 zd 2 iq∗2 iq 2
(i ) − (id∗ 2 ) 2
∗ 2
zˆl 2 zˆl1 = 2 udc iL 2 ΔiL

s2
30
20 zˆl 2 zˆl1 = 1.5

10 zˆl 2 zˆl1 = 1.2 Fig.5. The control scheme of dual-PGMs with proposed adaptive droop method
0
To study the stability of the closed loop system with the
0 10 20 30 40 50
Calculated error ration of cable impedance: ( z − zˆ ) zˆ , i = 1, 2
60
[%]
proposed droop method, a small signal model of the system is
li li li
Fig.4. The relationship between Load current sharing error and derived using the small signal modeling theory provided in
calculated error ration of cable impedance [8], which is shown in fig.6. The system is able to realize the
C. Voltage control strategy with adaptive impedance correction following functions:①Current close-loop control;②Rectifier
With (4) and (6), one can get the following expression, voltage control; ③DC Bus voltage correction;④Droop gain
ΔiL iL 2 − iL1 ( zl1 − zl 2 ) − ( zˆl1 − zˆl 2 ) ( zl1 − zl 2 ) − zd 2 (11) correction;⑤ Droop control.
= = =
iL 2 iL 2 zl1 zl1
The cable impedance is influenced by operating Δudc uo1 id 1
*
Δudc is*1 id∗1
temperature, it is not easy to get the real value of impedance k pu +
kiu
s e k pu1 +
kiu1
s
KUPF k pd 1 +
kid1
s
ud 1
−1
1
R1 + sLd 1 id 1
K 31
accurately, generally saying, zˆl1 ≠ zl1 , zˆl 2 ≠ zl 2 , with (11) we zd 1

K 41
1
ΔiL1 K 61 K81
have ΔiL = iL 2 − iL1 ≠ 0 .Then, an adaptive droop gain
iL1 + sK 71
kiq1 1 iq1 uo1
K11 k pq1 + −1 K51
ΔiL 2 iq∗1 iq1 s uq1 R1 + sLq1
correction strategy is designed, and the current sharing zd 2 Δudc

id 2
error ΔiL between the parallel modules will be used to modify e k pu 2 +
kiu 2
s
is*2
KUPF
id∗ 2
k pd 2 +
kid 2
s
ud 2
−1
1
R2 + sLd 2 id 2
K 32
uo 2
1
K 82
the droop characteristics of PGM2, the correction law is, uo 2 K42
iL 2 + sK72
Δi Δi
K62
k k (12) kiq 2 iq 2
z d∗ 2 = z d 2 + L ( k pr + ir ) = ( zˆl1 − zˆl 2 ) + L ( k pr + ir )
1
kir K12 k pq 2 +
uq 2 −1 K 52
( ΔiL 2 − ΔiL1 )(k p r + ) iq∗2
iq 2
s R2 + sLq 2
s
iL 2 s iL 2 s
Fig.6. The small signal control scheme for proposed droop method
560
A small signal dynamic structure diagram is obtained by increasing the droop gain can mitigate the adverse effect of
simplifying fig.6, which is shown in fig.7. varying cable impedance, the conventional droop method
achieve satisfactory accuracy of load sharing at the expense
Δudc K 91
ΔiL1
1 K10
of the stability of the system.
zd 1W1 ( s)
Gcu ( s )
Δu ∗
o uo1 Δudc
Gcu (s ) W1 ( s) K 81
*
Δudc Δ uo 2
Gcu (s ) W2 ( s ) K82 Direction of droop gain increasing
zd 2W2 (s) G z ( s )W2 ( s )

K 92 ΔiL 2 − ΔiL1
ΔiL 2
K10
Fig.7. The simplified small signal dynamic structure diagram of dual-PGMs

Then the transfer function of DC bus voltage can be Direction of droop gain increasing
expressed as,
Δudc ( s)   K 81 ( K 91 − K10 ) zd 1 − K 82 ( K 92 − K 91 )Gz ( s )  
=G ( s )W1 ( s ) 1 − W1 ( s )    (15)
Δuo∗ ( s) cu   − K82 ( K 92 − K10 )( zd 1 + zl1 − zl 2 )  
Fig.8. 1Root locus of dominant poles with varying droop gains
  K 81 ( K 91 − K10 ) zd 1 + K 82 ( K 92 − K 91 )Gz ( s )  
=Gcu ( s )W1 ( s ) 1 − W1 ( s )   The time domain simulation result of DC Bus with varying
  + K82 ( K 92 − K10 )( zd 1 + zl1 − zl 2 )  
droop gains is shown in fig.9. And it’s also clear that the DC bus
 1 zl 2 zl1
K = ,K = ,K = ; voltage tends to be oscillating with load step when the droop
In which,  10 zl1 + zl 2 81 zl1 + zl 2 82 zl1 + zl 2 gain zd 1 ≥ 0.93. In another word, the largest stable margin can be

K = zl 2 + Z , K = zl1 + Z ; got with zd 1 =0, which also validate the feasibility of fig.8.
 91 (zl1 + zl 2 )Z 92 (zl1 + zl 2 )Z
The small signal control scheme of dual-PGMs parallel-
connected system shown in fig.6 is based on the general two
loops control structure: the inner current loop and the outer
voltage loop. And the following new adding strategies are
adopted in the control scheme as it made the working of Load step at 1.5s (420kW)
parallel-connected system even more realistic: ③ DC Bus
voltage correction;④Droop gain correction;⑤Droop control.
Considering the fact that the stability of voltage/current
closed-loop control has been widely studied, the stability of Fig.9. 1Voltage response with varying droop gains(in time domain)
the parallel-connected system according to the above new B. The influence of DC Bus voltage correction
adding strategies will be discussed in this section. The effect of the control coefficient kpu and kiu will be
A. The influence of virtual droop gain explored in this section. The DC Bus voltage correction
With (5),the relationship of droop gain of dual-PGMs control rate can be expressed as,
parallel-connected system can be expressed as, k
Gcu ( s ) = k pu + iu (17)
zd 2 = zd 1 + ( zˆl1 − zˆl 2 ) (16) s
Based on (15) and (16), some analytical works related to First of all, kpu is set to 1 pu and kiu is set to four
system stability have been done. And the parameters of the
values:10,50,200 and 350 pu.
PGM are listed in Table. I.
TABLE I
SYSTEM PARAMETERS(FOR SINGLE GENERATION MODULES) With increasing kiu
Items Parameters
Rated power 350 kW
main capacitance of rectifier 3.3mF
Rated DC Bus Voltage 750V
Cable impedance zl1=0.04Ω, zl2=0.02Ω With decreasing kiu
Switching frequency of rectifier 5KHz
Generator Ld=0.18mH,Lq=0.27mH,φr=0.22Wb
np=8 ,rated speed(2000rpm)
Stability of the system can be tested by analysing the location
Fig.10. The Amplitude/phase-frequency responses with varying kiu
of the eigenvalues of the system while varying the droop gain,
Fig.10 and fig.11 shows the frequency and time domain
fig.8 shows the root locus of the system dominant poles when the
response of voltage with varying kiu coefficient. From the
droop gain zd 1 = 0,0.1,0.2,0.4,3.
Bode diagram shown in fig.10, we can see that the system
From fig.8, it is seen that the dominant poles of the system bandwidth is increased, and the dynamic response speed of
are moving toward the imaginary axis with the enlargement voltage is enhanced with kiu increasing from 10 to 350.
of the droop gain zd 1 , zd 2 , challenging the system stability. However, excessive value will cause high frequency
It is clear that the poles of the system move toward the fluctuation of bus voltage during load step, which is shown in
right half of S-plane as the droop gain increases.Eventhough
561
fig.11. Therefore, on considering the stability and dynamic the dominant poles of the system are moving toward the deep
performance of system, kiu =100 is selected. into the left half of S-plane ensuring the stability.
With increasing kir
Fig.11. The influence of kiu on DC Bus voltage responses

Fig.14. Root locus of dominant poles with varying kir
Similarly, kiu is set to 100 pu and kpu is set to four
Load step at 1.5s (420kW)
values:1,5,10 and 20 pu. Fig.12 shows the frequency domain
response of voltage with varying kpu coefficient. From fig.12
DC Bus voltage (V)

it is clear that the cut-off frequency increases rapidly with kir=200
increasing of kpu, which means the system's fast response
kir =100
towards voltage increased. However, the phase margin
decreases, so the stability margin of the system decreases kir =10
with increasing kpu. In the time domain response of voltage

shown in fig.13, the system is losing stability and oscillations
occur when kpu is approaching 10. Therefore, the kpu
coefficient is set to be 1 pu after comprehensive consideration.
(a) DC Bus voltage response during load step t (s)
With increasing kpu

Load current sharing error:(iL1-iL2) (A)
Load step at 1.5s

(420kW) kir =100
kir =200
With increasing kpu
kir =10
Fig.12. Amplitude/phase-frequency responses with varying kpu
(b) Load current sharing error during load step

t (s)
Fig.15. Voltage and current response with droop gain correction
The time domain response of voltage and current is shown
in fig.15. From which we can see that the dynamic regulation
time of the system reduced with increasing kir coefficient
under sudden change of load. We can also see that extensive
kir resulting in the high-frequency oscillation of bus voltage
Fig.13. The influence of kpu on DC Bus voltage responses and load current during the dynamic regulation process.
C. The influence of droop gain correction Therefore, the kir coefficient is set to be 100 pu after
The transfer function of droop gain correction is, comprehensive consideration.
kir (18) V. SIMULATION RESPONSES
Gz ( s ) = k p r +
s
A dual parallel-connected PGMs system with connecting
According to the fact that (17) and (18) have the same form,
similar process can be adopt as previous section. The design line impedances zli (i=1,2) as shown in fig.2 is used for
of droop gain correction control rate is mainly focused on simulation purpose to show the applicability of the proposed
integral action, and the same time, a smaller proportional control method. The overall control system is built using
coefficient kpr is selected to ensure the rapidity of voltage classical cascaded control loops, as depicted in fig.4. The
response. internal loops provide decoupled d-axis and q-axis current
And kpr is set to 1 pu, kir is set to the following control using standard proportional-integral (PI) controllers,
values:1,10,100 and 200 pu respectively. Fig.14. gives the and the droop gain correction loop and voltage compensation
root locus of the system dominant poles with varying kir loop is also included in this scheme.
coefficient. From fig. 14, it is seen that with increasing kir ,
562
To simulate the transient response of the system, load
conditions varying with following pattern: 60% percent
(420kW) nominal load added at the end of 1.5s, additional
40% load (280kW) added at 3s, 40% percent (280kW)
nominal load removed at the end of 4s, additional 30% load
removed from DC bus at the end of 5s.
Fig.16 shows the DC bus voltage response with/without
proposed voltage correction scheme. The voltage of the DC
Fig.19. 1Current response of parallel-connected PGMs (λ1=0.67, λ2=0.33)
bus is 750V under no-load, obvious voltage drop occur under
load step condition using conventional droop method. With Fig.19 is the result of current response that power is not
effect of the voltage correction algorithm, there is much less equally divided between the parallel PGMs. In this case,
as compared to droop conventional method. PGM1 provides as twice much power as PGM2.
From above analysis, it is clear that proposed control
method is capable of achieving both the objectives of stable
DC Bus voltage control and load distribution according to
expected proportions, without the need for accurate line
impedance.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
A new relative droop gain based current sharing and
Fig.16. DC Bus voltage with/without voltage correction voltage regulation method of parallel connected PGMs has
been presented, which guarantee the largest stable margin
Supposing that the nominal values of line impedances comparing with conventional droop methods. An additional
deviates from the real value ( zˆ li = 10 z li ), fig.17 gives the voltage control loop is also built to compensate the voltage drop
current response of parallel PGMs with equal load demand of DC bus, with which the DC bus voltage can be restored to its
(λ1=λ2). It is clear that good current sharing can be achived nominal value under abruptly varied load condition. Small-
with proposed correction strategy, even with zˆ li ≠ z li . The signal modeling of the whole system is established and
proposed correction algorithm works well, and power sharing system stability based on the proposed method is investigated
is insensitive to line parameters. in detail. This method combine the droop law with the stability
requirement of the system, which is easily implemented without
the need for accurate line impedance, the advantages of droop-
controlled PGMs such as reliability and modularity are retained.
Simulation studies are also presented to illustrate the
feasibility of the proposed new droop method.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
(a) Current response with droop gain correction

This work was supported by the Science Foundation of
Chinese Academy of Science (Grant No. CXJJ-17-M173).
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[1] M.Benatmance, Ralph Maltby. Integrated Electric Power and Propulsion
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Fig.17. Current response of dual parallel-connected PGMs (λ1=λ2=0.5) Power Flow Analysis for Low-Voltage AC and DC Microgrids
Considering Droop Control and Virtual Impedance[J]. IEEE Trans. on
Fig.18 exhibits the smooth process of transferring 50% Smart Grid,2017,8(6),pp.2754-2764.
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DC Power System for the More Electric Aircraft[J]. IEEE Trans. on
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[5] Tahim,Pagano,Eduardo Lenz. Modeling and Stability Analysis of
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[6] Haojie Yu, Xinzhen Feng. Research on an Adaptive Droop Control used
in DC Micro-Grid [C]. IEEE 8th International Power Electronics and
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With PGM2 adding in the DC Bus at2.5s Voltage Regulation and Load Sharing in DC Systems[C]. IEEE First
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[8] T A Lipo. Analysis of Synchronous Machines[M]. Wisconsin Power
Fig.18. Current response (λ1=1@1.5s, λ1=λ2=0.5@2.5s) Electronics Research Center,University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2009.
563
RUL Estimation of Power Semiconductor Switch using Evolutionary Time series
Prediction
Moinul Shaidul Haque1, Mohammad Noor Bin Shaheed2 and Seungdeog Choi3
The University of Akron
msh100@zips.uakron.edu1, mbs58@zips.uakron.edu2, schoi@zips.uakron.edu3
Abstract- Electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid EV (HEV) are most vulnerable components in the motor drive, they may
popular for their low fuel cost per mile and near zero carbon result in unexpected breakdowns and compromise the
emission. These vehicles utilize power semiconductor switches reliability of the EV and HEV [1]. Prognosis methods
for high efficiency power conversion. These switches identify the degradation in these switches and estimate
experience electrical, thermal, mechanical stresses during Remaining Useful Life (RUL). Prognosis method conducts
their operation and these stresses result in degradation and continuous health monitoring and estimate RUL accurately
subsequently, wire–bond lift-off and solder fatigue. This to avoid these breakdowns by scheduling timely service
degradation can be identified at an early stage by monitoring maintenance and replacements [1-3]. A great number of
the tendency of fault precursor trajectory. Moreover, researches have been conducted on RUL estimation of
remaining useful life (RUL) is estimated from prediction and power switches. These researches are categorized into two
projection of this trajectory. Bayesian filters such as Kalman broad categories namely Physics based analytical methods
filter (KF), extended KF and generic particle filtering (GPF) and data driven methods. Physics based analytical methods
methods have been recently used for trajectory tracing and presents a general fault propagation method for the switch
projection. These methods suffer large variance in tendency
under test. However, general model will not fit all the
switches even from same manufacturer due to
projection when trajectory has both linear and non-linear
manufacturing imperfection. In addition, these algorithms
tendencies and subject to harsh measurement noise.
show insignificant adaptability to dynamic operational
Moreover, these methods require large number of samples for
environment due to cumulative random behavior of
probability density function (PDF) construction. In this
thermal and mechanical stressors. Their lack of
paper, a hybrid Auto regression integrated Moving Average
adaptability results in a large variance in RUL estimation
(ARIMA)-Neural Network (NN) model is utilized for [2]. Data driven methods avoid complex physics of the
tendency prediction and RUL estimation. The contribution of switch and uncertainties of the randomness. These methods
these two models is estimated and optimized using a nature identify the tendencies of the variable and extrapolate it to
inspired Covariance Matrix Adaptation (CMA) evolutionary predict regarding health condition of the switch.
technique. This hybrid algorithm combines the advantages of Fault precursor trajectory of power semiconductor
ARIMA and NN model to precisely trace and project fault switches shows a time- dependent pattern over its life time.
precursor trajectory even under harsh noise. Simulation Usually, fault precursor trajectories show three tendencies
results verify its effectiveness under different noise level. The over its life time- insignificant degradation rate followed
experimental validation of the proposed method is shown by constant degradation and exponential degradation at the
using RUL estimation of collector-emitter on-state voltage end. During exponential degradation, the switch may fail
(VCE,ON) of IGBT. The performance of this method is within a very short time and results in unexpected
compared to ARIMA model, NN, and PF model. breakdown [4]. Data driven methods identifies this time
dependent tendency and projects this tendencies to
Index Terms—Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors, estimate RUL [3]. Bayesian estimation methods such as
Prognostics and Health Management, Particle Filter, Kalman Filter (KF) can trace linear tendency with
Statistical analysis, and Remaining Life Estimation. precision. However, KF method shows large variation
while tracing non-linear trend. Although Extended Kalman
I. INTRODUCTION Filter (KF) and Particle Filter (PF) can trace non-linear
tendencies, their performance deteriorates when the
E
LECTRIC vehicle (EV) and Hybrid EV (HEV) have trajectory has both linear and non-linear tendencies [6].
experience a market growth due to low fuel cost and Their performance deteriorates further when subject to
carbon emission. These vehicles use power harsh measurement noises [6], [7]. In addition, these
semiconductor switches for high efficiency energy algorithms require complex prior probability estimation
conversion applications. These switches are one of the which is computationally costly and needs significant
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 564

number of samples for prior probability estimation. In this
paper, Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average
(ARIMA) and Neural Network (NN) are hybridized using
nature inspired Evolutionary Algorithm (EA). This hybrid
method combines the advantage of ARIMA and NN in an
optimized way. ARIMA model show better performance in
linear tendency identification while NN is efficient for
identification and prediction of non-linear tendencies even
at the presence of harsh noise. For performance
verification of this hybrid model for RUL estimation,
IGBT is used for life testing as IGBT is widely used in Fig. 1. Cross-section of IGBT.
high power density power electronics applications [1, 4].
RUL of IGBT is estimated by projecting the trajectory of
on-state collector-emitter voltage (VCE,ON). This paper is
logically organized as follows: Section II discusses the
stresses on IGBT and suitable fault precursors for WBLO
and solder-fatigue. The evolutionary time series prediction
method is discussed in the Section III. Simulation shows
the effectiveness of the proposed method under different
level of faults in Section IV. Section V provides
experimental dataset and testing result which is followed
by conclusion in Section VI.
II. IGBT FAULT PRECURSORS
A. Stress on IGBT
IGBT shows high efficiency in high power density regions. Fig.2. Performance comparisons of the fault precursors of IGBT.
A cross-section of an IGBT is shown in Fig. 1. There are
multiple copper and ceramic layers on the silicon base. the off period is insignificant. For this reason, the heat is
These different layers are held together using SiO2 trapped and results in rise of steady state temperature. The
soldering. Aluminum (Al) wire is used as the bond-wire to temperature variation at higher temperature is more
connect different IGBTs [1-3]. This wire is known as the destructive than the similar variation in lower temperature
wire-bond (WB). [8].
The main failure mechanisms of Open phase faults in
IGBTs are WB Lift-Off (WBLO), die solder degradation, B. Fault Precursors
and package delamination. Almost 55% of open phase Junction temperature (TJ) is show sensitivity to
degradation. Access to junction is difficult and invasive. TJ
faults in IGBT are result of high steady state operating
estimation using temperature sensitive electrical
temperature and temperature swing at the junction [2]. parameters (TSEP) is non-invasive and requires no
Most significant factor of degradation in IGBT is additional hardware. However, these methods show
different coefficients of thermal expansions (CTE) of deteriorated performance when switching frequency of
copper, ceramic, silicon and SiO2. When IGBT experiences IGBT increases. Electrical signals, VCE,ON, collector current
large junction temperature variation during operation, CTE (IC), Gate Emitter Threshold voltage (VGE,TH), Turn-on
of different layers results in mechanical stress at their time(Ton) and Turn-off time (Toff) show different level of
sensitivity to the degradation of IGBT [9]. A comparison
junction. Continuous mechanical stresses eventually result
of the performance of these precursors for WBLO and
in degradation of thermal elasticity of the materials and solder fatigue has been shown in Fig. 2 [10].
eventually, WBLO and solder fatigue occur [8]. These two VGE,TH shows significant sensitivity to gate oxide
mechanisms are dominant when IGBT is operating under failure when ton and toff are indication of short circuit failure
high frequency. At high frequency operation, [7]-[8]. However, these parameters show insignificant
565
sensitivity to WBLO and solder fatigue. VCE,ON is more VCE,ON,t = f ( VCE,ON,t −1 , VCE,ON,t −2 ,..., VCE,ON,t − n ) (2)
suitable precursor for WBLO and solder fatigue
investigation. This parameter changes significantly with where, future observation of VCE,ON is a non-linear function
ageing compare to the change in VGE,TH and IC [19-21]. In of previous observation of VCE,ON. This mapping is
addition, VCE,ON shows better online measurement controlled by the weight of the node linker of different
capability and accuracy than other parameters. IGBT is levels. The optimal weights of these linkers are estimated
considered faulty when VCE,ON increases 20% of its initial during the training period. Each of the node is activated by
value [1,15, 20]. However, VCE,ON measurement is subject to the activation function. The activation function is as
harsh industrial noise which result in uncertainty and large follows:
variation in RUL estimation. This paper precisely applies a 1
f ac (VCE,ON ) = (3)
hybrid trajectory tracing and RUL estimation method to 1 + exp(−ηVCE,ON )
minimize the estimation variance compared to the state-of- where fac is the nonlinear activation function, η is the
art methods. scaling constant for bounded fac response. Accurate VCE,ON
trajectory projection is ensured by modifying and updating
these weights to address change in the trajectory tendency.
III. EVOLUTIONARY TIME SERIES PREDICTION BASED RUL
The output of the hidden layer, Hj is expressed as follows:
ESTIMATION
 
H j = f ac   w ji Pi +  w jx C x  (4)
In time series forecasting, data is acquired over time and  i x 
analyzed for identification of underlying tendencies over Where, P is the input unit and g is the activation function.
its life time. These tendencies are extrapolated for The t-step context unit, Cx holds output of hidden layer at t-
predicting future behaviors. ARIMA model shows accurate 1. The links between input units and hidden units have
prediction when the tendency is linear. This model weight wij, where i is the input unit and j is the hidden unit.
includes autoregressive (AR) terms, moving average (MA) The links between hidden units and output unit have
terms, and differencing operations. The weight, Wj. The output of NN is expressed as follows:
model development stage includes model identification,   
parameter estimation and diagnostic checking. However, VCE ,ON ,NN = g  W j   w ji Pi +  w jx Cx   (5)
this method shows large variation when tracing non-linear   i x 
tendency. where, VCE,ON,NN is the output of NN model. Weights are
ARIMA model for VCE,ON is as follows: adjusted repeatedly so that error, e=VCE,ON,measured,t-
VCE,ON,NN becomes sufficiently small.
,ON ,t ,arma = c + α 1VCE ,ON ,t −1 + α 2VCE ,ON ,t − 2 + ...
' ' '
VCE
(1) The advantages of these two methods are combined to
accurately detect the mixed tendencies in VCE,ON trajectory.
+α pVCE
'
,ON ,t − p + β1et −1 + β 2 et − 2 + ... + β q et − q + et EAs are global random search algorithms which are used
where V`CE,ON is the difference between two consecutive for optimization of the parameters [5]. These algorithms
measurement of VCE,ON, t is the time, c is the non-zero optimize the contribution of the constituent models.
mean of VCE,ON, α and β are AR and MA parameters of
ARIMA model respectively, p and q are the order of AR
and MA, respectively and e is the error in prediction. In Input Hidden
this model, tendency of VCE,ON is smoothed by using MA layer Layer
of previous error estimations.
NN has the ability to recognize the non-linear
Output
tendency accurately and extrapolate that tendency to
Layer
predict its future progression. This model is able to adapt
changes in the tendencies of data precisely. Moreover, it
has the advantage of flexible computing structure to
model wide range of non-linear classes. However, it
shows significantly lower performance when the
underlying tendency is linear. They are networks with
loops in them, allowing information to persist.
A NN is used to project VCE,ON based on previous t-step
measured VCE,ON as input shown in Fig. 2. The functional Context Unit
relationship of a NN is shown as follows: Fig. 3. Hidden Layered Neural Network.
566
EAs optimization technique is based on the concept of
organic evolution to formulate search and optimization Load
algorithms. The steps in EA are- mutation, selection and VCE,ON
recombination. To adopt itself with the dynamic operating Measurement
environment, it utilizes measurement data as feedback to
correct its projected trajectory. EA is used to optimize the
parameters of ARIMA model and NN as shown in Fig. 3.
NN
In this paper, Covariance Matrix Adaptation (CMA) EA is Network
used for optimization of the parameters of ARIMA model Optimized EA Optimized
and NN model. Projected VCE,ON is combination of the ARIMA Parameters Optimization Parameters
(α,β,p,q) of ARIMA
output of these two models as shown-
and NN
VCE ,ON,t,est = c1VCE ,ON ,t ,ARIMA + c2VCE ,ON ,t ,NN (6) Prediction
c1 c2
Prediction
where c1 and c2 are the weight of ARIMA and
NN model, VCE,ON,t,Pro is the projected value of the hybrid
model at t. EA model optimizes the objective function to
Optimized
estimate the contributions of these two models. The
trajectory
objective function is as follows:
Fig. 4: Evolutionary Algorithm Based VCE,ON prediction.
J = Min(VCE,ON,Meas − VCE,ON,est ) 2 (7)
where, J is the cost function, VCE,ON,Meas is the measured
VCE,ON. In this algorithm, c1 and c2 are sampled from their
respective distributions. Their distributions are
c1   (0, σ1 ) and c 2  (0, σ 2 ) respective where σ1 and σ2
are the standard deviation of c1 and c2. The choice of c1
and c2 are subject to the constraint: c1 + c2 = 1 . This cost
function is estimated for different possible combination of
c1 and c2 to select the best combination to minimize the
error.
C. Fundamental of RUL Estimation

Fig. 5. Prediction trajectories of VCE,ON.
Fundamental of RUL estimation process using the
proposed method in this paper is briefly depicted in Fig. 5
with example. In Fig. 5, cyan color shows actual trajectory
RUL estimate gives probability distribution function
of VCE,ON. At time n-1, the band of trajectories can be
(PDF) instead of a deterministic value as band of trajectory
simulated based on different combination of c1 and c2. The
is simulated based on different combination of c1 and c2.
band of possible trajectories is shown in blue line. At time
Each of these trajectories has its estimated RUL. The
n, model parameters of ARIMA and NN is updated when
median of the RUL PDF is considered for performance
new VCE,ON,measured is available. Then, the new predicted
evaluation. The best trajectory of VCE,ON is estimated using
trajectory band is simulated using this updated model.
root mean square error as follows:
These updated trajectories are shown in maroon color,
show lower variance than previous band of trajectories. RMSE = ( RUL pro − RULact )2 (9)
This proposed hybrid model continuously updates
estimation based on new measurement to reduce variance where RULpro is the projected RUL estimated from the
in RUL estimation. RUL is estimated time required for the projected trajectory and RULact is the actual RUL of IGBT.
trajectory to reach threshold. RUL is estimated as follows:
RUL n = n tr − n (8) IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Where, RULn is the estimated RUL at time n, ntr is the Power cycling test has been performed to induce
projected time to reach the threshold value of VCE,ON. accelerated degradation in IGBT. Power cycling test bed
includes a DC power supply, gate driver circuit and
567
resistive load. IR2110 gate driver has been used for driving
IGBT. The tests are conducted at 60 V and 10 A. IGBT is
air cooled during these tests.
During this test, IGBT is turned on with 100% duty
cycle until its case temperature reaches 100oC. When case
temperature reaches 100oC, IGBT is turned off and case
temperature is allowed to reach room temperature. This
cycle continues until the IGBT is failed. This temperature
based switching is controlled by a k-type thermocouple and
TI DSP F28335. This temperature variation reflects stress
experienced by IGBT in industrial applications. This
temperature variation results in WBLO and solders fatigue. Fig. 6. Trajectory of VCE,ON during power cycling.
A. Tendency of VCE,ON during power cycling test able to trace the trajectory when it is following a linear
VCE,ON shows higher sensitivity and online measurement tendency. However, ARIMA method shows large variation
capability than other precursors. VCE,ON trajectory shows when the trajectory is non-linear. RUL for these three
three types of tendencies over its lifetime shown in Fig. 6. methods are shown in Fig. 11. The RMSE error of these
The entire trajectory can be segmented into three regions three methods is 3%, 5% and 13% respectively.
based on these tendencies. In region 1, VCE,ON show slow RUL estimation of the IGBTs when the proposed
and insignificant change till VCE,ON increases 2% of its hybrid method is applied is shown in Fig.12. RUL
initial value. In region 2, VCE,ON shows a slow but constant estimation errors for different IGBTs are within 3% -8%.
increasing tendency till it reaches 5% of its initial value. In
region 3, VCE,ON shows exponential tendency in region 3. V. CONCLUSION
IGBT is considered faulty when VCE,ON reaches 20% of its
initial value. Power Semiconductor switches specially IGBTs have
been widely used in EV and HEV. WBLO and solder
B. Effect of measurement Noise on RUL estimation fatigue result in unwanted failure of vehicles. These
VCE,ON measurement is corrupted with harsh industrial failures are avoided using accurate RUL estimation
noise which results in large variation in RUL estimation measurement and mixed tendency in VCE,ON trajectory
when RUL estimation method is not tolerant to noise in
measurement . To examine the effect of noise, VCE,ON
trajectory shown in Fig. 6 is corrupted with different level
of white Gaussian noise. The proposed method is applied
for tracing VCE,ON under these noise level shown in Fig. 7.
It is observed that as the noise level is increased, the
predicted median trajectory has showed deviation from the
actual trajectory. RUL estimation under different noise is
shown in Fig. 8. It is observed that RUL estimation
variation is 3% for low noise level and 9% for high noise
level.
Fig. 7. Performance of Hybrid model under different noise
C. Trajectory projection and Comparison of different
level.
methods
The test has been conducted using 42 IGBTs. For model
formulation and parameter tuning VCE,ON of 35 IGBTs have
Trajectories of seven (7) IGBTs during power cycling test
is shown in Fig. 9. The trajectories of the IGBTS are
following the degradation tendency as mentioned earlier.
In Fig.6, the performance of proposed model is compared
with that of particle filtering and ARIMA model. For this
analysis a 30 particle PF method is used. ARIMA model is
Fig. 8. RUL estimation under different noise level.
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result in large variation in RUL estimation. In this paper, a
hybrid method is applied for trajectory tracing and RUL
estimation of IGBT. This method has shown 5% better
performance compared to 30-particle Particle filter based
RUL estimation and more than 10% better performance
than ARIMA based RUL estimation method at different
noise levels. This method is extended to multi IGBT
applications such as synchronous DC-DC converters and
inverter applications.
REFERENCES
Fig. 9. Trajectory of VCE,ON of IGBT under test.
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Diagnostic and Protection Methods for Power Inverters,” IEEE
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Driven Techniques For Prognostics,” Proceedings of the 62nd
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[5] M. A. Eleffendi and C. M. Johnson, “Application of Kalman Filter to
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pump using time series forecasting and outlier detection," 9th
International Conference on Knowledge and Smart Technology, pp.
193-198, 2017.
Fig 11. RUL estimation of proposed method, PF and [8] K. Goebel, B. Saha, and A. Saxena, “A Comparison of Three Data-
ARIMA. Driven Techniques For Prognostics,” Proceedings of the 62nd
Meeting of the Society For Machinery Failure Prevention
Technology, vol. 2008., pp. 119–131, May 2008.
[9] Y. Xiong, X. Cheng, Z. J. Shen, C. Mi, H. Wu, and V. K. Garg,
“Prognostic and Warning System for Power-Electronic Modules in
Electric, Hybrid Electric, and Fuel-Cell Vehicles,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 2268–2276, Jun. 2008.
[10] M. Musallam, C. M. Johnson, C. Yin, C. Bailey, and M. Mermet-
Guyennet, “Real-Time Life Consumption Power Modules Prognosis
Using On-Line Rainflow Algorithm in Metro Applications,” IEEE
Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, pp. 970-977, 2010.
[11] T. Sreenuch, A. Alghassi, S. Perinpanayagam, and Y. Xie
“Probabilistic Monte-Carlo Method for Modelling and Prediction of
Electronics Component Life,” Int. Journal on Adv. Comput. Sci.
Applications, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 96-104, 2014.
[12] X. Si, W. Wang, C. Hu, and D. Zhou, “Remaining Useful Life
Estimation—A Review on The Statistical Data Driven Approaches”,
Fig. 12. RUL estimation of different IGBTs. Eur. Jour. Oper. Res., vol. 213, no. 1, pp. 1-14, 2011.
569
Design of an Integrated Inductor for 45kW
Aerospace Starter-Generator
M. Raza Khowja*, C. Gerada*+, G. Vakil*, S. Quadir Quadri*, P. Wheeler* and C. Patel*
Power Electronics, Machines and Control (PEMC) Group
The University of Nottingham, UK* & CHINA+
Abstract – A close physical and functional integration of passive integrated and traditional inductors are modelled and analysed
components is required to make an efficient and power dense through finite element analysis (FEA).
overall system. Such power dense systems are a prerequisite in
aerospace and marine applications. This paper presents a design II. LITERATURE REVIEW
of an integrated rotor-less inductor for the application of a 45kW
aerospace starter-generator. The impact of high current density A. Traditional Filter Inductors
inductor is investigated and compared with traditional core Fig. 1 shows the traditional shapes and designs of the filter
inductor in terms of total weight and volume. Both inductors are inductor. In common practice, different type of cores has been
sized using area product approach and its design parameters are used for fabricating inductors which includes: tape wound,
validated using finite element analysis. Comparative analysis powder and laminated cores [6].
between the traditional core and the integrated inductor has
shown a significant reduction in total weight and volume. The total (a)
C Core (b)
weight of the integrated inductor is reduced by 55.4% whereas the Toroidal Core
total volume is reduced by 52.7% when compared to traditional Construction
Construction
air cooled core inductor.
Index Terms — EE Core Inductor, Integrated Inductors, Mandrel

Integration of Passives, Rotor-less Inductor, Aerospace Mandrel
Applications and Starter-Generator.
(c) (d) Wa Ac
I. INTRODUCTION
P
assive filter components such as filter inductors and
capacitors occupy a substantial amount of space in
electric motor drives which add the penalties of increased
system losses and its associated weight. In a conventional
approach, the filters are designed and introduced separately
after the drive system components have been defined. This (e) (f) Ac (g) Ac
leads to discrete sub-systems which require a functional and
structural integration of each sub-system in order to make an
efficient and power dense overall system. Such power dense
system is vital in aerospace and marine applications [1-5]. In Wa Wa
order to overcome these drawbacks, the integration of passive
components need to be introduced both from functional and
physical point of view [1-5].
There are many possibilities in aircraft drives system to
Fig. 1. Construction of Conventional Inductors (a) C core (b) Toroidal Core
integrate the passive components. The integration of passive (c) EE core (d) EI core (e) LL core (f) UI core (g) Toroidal Core
components in such systems offer many benefits such as power
dense design, reduction in cost, mass, size and eases Air core does not use the steel material. The coils are wound
manufacturing process. Thus, applications where high power on non-magnetic formers such as plastic or ceramic. The
density is needed, integrative approach seems to be the best drawback of air-cored inductor is that they are less permeable
solution. than steel material. However, they are often adopted in high
This paper will look into a design of an integrated rotor-less frequency applications where core losses need to be avoided
inductor which was proposed in [2-5] for a 45kW aerospace which are dependent on frequency squared [6-8].
starter-generator. This paper investigates the impact of high Tape wound cores are manufactured by winding the copper
current density on the inductor design, effectiveness of tape/wire around a mandrel. A magnetic material in the form of
integration and compares its design with traditional core air- preslit tape as shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b). The benefit of using
cooled inductor in terms of its weight and volume. Both this type of core is that flux is parallel with the direction of
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 570

rolling of the magnetic material, which allows to setup correction application is presented in [9]. The paper modified
maximum flux with minimum field strength. Tape wound core the stator laminations to increase the stator back iron which acts
can be constructed with , or toroid cores [6]. as an integrated filter inductor. This modification increases the
outer diameter of the motor.
Powder cores are very unique as they have inherent airgap
which is evenly distributed throughout the core material. This In [10-11], the entire stator back iron is utilized as a
acts in a similar way as a core with airgap which reduces the magnetic part for one or more discrete inductors by integrating
core saturation at higher levels of current. They come in a toroidal winding which pushes the alternating magnetic flux in
variety of materials and are very stable with temperature. They the complete loops through the back iron of the stator core. If
can be toroid, or in construction [6]. the stator back iron of the machine is operating linearly then the
presence of ring flux due to toroidal winding will not affect the
The laminated cores are one of the most commonly used main flux. But in physical prototype because of nonlinearity the
cores in power electronics and motor drive applications. back iron thickness has to be increased.
Laminated core consists of pressed steel sheets with the coating
of insulation on the surface. The insulation coating reduces the The principle of electromagnetic integration is used for
eddy currents between the sheets. The laminated cores can also integrating capacitor in the same magnetic component as that of
be , , , and toroid in construction as shown in Fig. the inductor. The integrated filter is the planar integrated L-C
1(c)-(g) [6]. winding, which consists of a dielectric substrate with conductor
windings directly deposited on both sides, thus resulting in a
B. Integrated Filter Inductors distributed inductance and capacitance structure. Moreover,
different equivalent circuits can be achieved by connecting the
Recently, the passive integration has been a prime focus in
terminals of integrated LC structure in an appropriate manner
power electronics and motor drive application that has resulted
[12-18].
in an overall compact and power dense system. In [2], a novel
approach to integrate the inverter output filter inductor is The same principle of [12-18] is applied for C-core EMI
presented for PMSM motor drives. The proposed motor uses the inductor in [19-20]. The distributed capacitance is implemented
inherent motor magnetics as a filter inductance instead of using in the conventional way, whereas the inductor is implemented
an external filter inductor. This leads to the elimination of power by utilizing the cathode and anode foils of the capacitor to form
losses and its associated weight and volume. the windings. The windings are then enclosed in a can, which
has a hole in the middle for the magnetic core.
The author of [3-5] introduced the novel options to integrate
the passive filter inductors within the housing of the electrical III. AREA PRODUCT APPROACH
machine as shown in Fig. 2. The novel options include: motor-
shaped rotational inductor and motor-shaped rotor-less inductor. The voltage induced on the inductor terminals can be
Both inductors are integrated axially on the same shaft, inside obtained by referring to Fig. 3 while assuming the terminal
the motor housing which results in a shared cooling system and voltage and current through the inductor is sinusoidal. The
hence, eliminates the requirement of a separate cooling system. expression for induced voltage is,
The rotor of the rotational inductor rotates at the synchronous
speed of the stator magnetic field to minimize the magnetic = (1)
losses in the rotor.
Housing
= (2)
Shaft
Integrated Rotor-less Starter-Generator

Inductor
Fig. 2. Radial Cross-section and Flux Distribution (a) EE Core Inductor Fig. 3. Physcial Layout of 3 Phase EE core Inductor
Where , , , , f and are waveform

On the other hand, rotor-less inductor is having the similar
structure without rotor which makes it suitable for DC-Link factor, cross-sectional core area, magnetic flux, peak flux
smoothing inductors, grid input filters and isolation density of the magnetic core, source frequency and number of
transformers. In contrast, the rotational inductor can only be turns per phase respectively.
adopted for the applications of high speed inverter motor drives. The phase turns of the inductor for a given window and
In [9-12], the perspectives on the integrated filter inductors conductor strand area can be determined by,
are presented, that motivates the drive integration on a system
level. The design of integrated filter inductor for power factor = (3)
571
Where, is the window fill factor which is defined by the generates a maximum power of 45kW up to a maximum speed
ratio of copper area to the window area. is the window area of 32000 ( ).
and is the conductor area.
In practice, for inductor, window fill factor typically varies
from 0.4 to 0.6 to provide enough space for wire insulation,
bobbins, slot liner and air space between the insulated wire turn.
By substituting the Eq. 3 in Eq. 2, we have, N S
= (4) S N 164.0
mm
By multiplying the current through the inductor on N S
both sides, we have,
= (5)
Solving for the area product ( . ) we have, Fig. 4. Radial Corss-section of the Starter-Generator
. = , = (6)
Where Jrms is the current density of the conductors

which is limited by thermal losses in the windings. For three
phase inductor, the area product is different from the one Required Torque
indicated in Eq. 6. Since the window utilization is half in the 3-
phase core for each coil, therefore, the area product changes to, Motoring Mode
Generation
, =3 . = 1.5 , (7) Mode
2
From Eq. 6, it can be seen that factors, such as peak flux Rotor Speed
density, current density and fill factor have a strong Fig. 5. Torque-speed Characteristics of the Starter-Generator
influence on the area product. The right-hand side shows the
electrical parameters whereas left-hand side of Eq. 6 indicates Since the phase inductance of the starter-generator is low
the physical core dimensions. The iron core area relates the flux (99 µH), an additional inductance is required to increase the
permeance capabilities whereas the window defines the current motor side inductance by twice. This increase in inductance will
conduction capabilities of an inductor which is limited by the reduce the magnitude of the inverter generated switching ripple
conductor’s thermal characteristics [4-6, 21]. by half. Moreover, doubling the motor inductance will also ease
It is important to note that the area product does not depend the control system design of the starter-generator.
on the fundamental supply frequency. However, the core losses
are proportional to the frequency squared. Therefore, while TABLE I. DESIGN DETAILS OF THE STARTER-GENERATOR
sizing an inductor for high frequency ( ) PARAMETERS VALUE UNIT
applications, it is required to consider the core flux density JFE
Stator Core Material -
lower compared to that of the low frequency ( ) 10JNEX900
applications [21-22]. Stator Slots and Poles 36/6 -
Cooling System Liquid -
IV. 45KW AEROPSACE STARTER-GENERATOR Base Speed / Rated Speed 8000
Maximum Speed 32,000
The radial cross-section and required torque-speed RMS Current at 8000 236.9 A
characteristics of the starter-generator are depicted in Fig. 4 and RMS Current at 20,000 154.4 A
Fig. 5 respectively. Its parameter details are shown in Table I. RMS Current at 32,000 188.2 A
The machine works as a motor during engine start and is RMS Current Density 18 A/mm2
needed to produce a maximum constant torque from standstill Active Stack Length 80.2 mm
to an engine firing speed of 8000 . Between the speeds of Inner and Outer Diameter 96/164 mm
8000 ( ) to 20,000 ( ), the machine Shaft Diameter 4 mm
supplies the constant power to accelerate the engine. Once the Phase Resistance @ 30 0C 13.2 mΩ
engine reaches its steady state region, the machine acts as a Phase Inductance 99 µH
generator between the speeds of 20,000 ( ) and
32,000 ( ). In generating mode, the machine
572
V. INDUCTOR SIZING TABLE III. SPECIFICATIONS OF INTEGRATED INDUCTOR
SPECIFICATIONS VALUES UNIT
Six slot integrated rotor-less inductor with double layer Hiperco 50A
Core Material -
concentrated winding ( ) is chosen to be designed at 0.014
current density of 18 A/mm2 (which is same as the current Required Inductance 99 µH
density of the starter-generator) whereas, the core inductor Operating Current 236.9 A
is designed for natural convection cooling system. The core Peak Flux Density 2.3 T
reason of choosing is to limit the overall volume of Slot Fill Factor 0.5 -
the end-windings which was the strict guideline from the RMS Current Density 18 A/mm2
starter-generator’s point of view. Waveform Factor ( ) 4.44 -
Hole for the motor shaft >4 mm
To size the core and the integrated inductor, the area
Outer Diameter 164 mm
product approach is used. Both inductors are sized by
specifying the required synchronous inductance, peak magnetic
flux density in the core, fill factor, current density of the B. Integrated Rotor-less Inductor
conductor and the type of magnetic core material, the details of The area product of the integrated rotor-less inductor
which are shown in Table II and Table III respectively. (Fig. 6) is estimated based on the current density as
However, the current density through the inductor is illustrated in Table III. At first, the windows area is fixed to that
different for both inductors. of EE core inductor along with the identical number of turns.
The tooth width is then selected as the limb length ( )of
While sizing the inductor, the following design ratios were
core inductor. This is correct for 6 slots inductor however, for
considered for both integrated and core inductors.
higher number of slots, the tooth width needs to be adjusted in
 Window to Core Area Ratio, / = 0.7 proportion to the total number of slots. The back iron width is
 Window Length to Height Ratio, / = 3 adjusted to keep the identical flux density in the core and the
 Stack to Limb Length Ratio, / = 0.77 slot opening height is increased to keep the uniform flux density
The author of [6] has suggested to set a low window-to-core throughout the stator slots. Since it is a rotor-less inductor,
area ratio in order to keep the fringing effect at a minimum phase inductance is only controlled by the slot opening unlike
level. Also, the window length-to-height ratio is selected based integrated rotational inductor in [3, 4]. Fig. 7(a) and Fig. 7(b)
on the information provided by the manufacturer in [6]. shows the cross-section and flux distribution of core and
However, the stack-to-limb ratio is chosen based on the outer integrated rotor-less inductor respectively.
diameter limitation of the starter-generator for the integrated
one and the same ratio was maintained for core inductor.
Tw
A. EE Core Inductor So
Once the area product is estimated using Eq. 7, the core Soh
length ratio ( / ) and window aspect ratio ( / ) are Wa Bw
then chosen to set the stack and limb dimensions and the window
dimensions of the core respectively. The number of turns per
phase is calculated based on the specified voltage across the
inductor. The airgap is fixed to get a required synchronous
inductance. So, the number of turns and the airgap length can be
determined using,
Fig. 6. Physical Layout of Integrated Rotor-less Inductor
= (8)
VI. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
(4 × 10 )
= (9) A. Weight and Volume Comparison
Both core and integrated inductors are compared in
terms of their total weight and volume. The total weight and
TABLE II. SPECIFICATIONS OF EE CORE INDUCTOR
volume includes: iron core and copper including the end-
SPECIFICATIONS VALUES UNIT windings. The end-windings length is calculated using the
Core Material
Hiperco 50A
-
method described in [4-5]. The comparison of the sizing
0.014 parameters between the core and the integrated inductor is
Required Inductance 99 µH shown in Table IV, whereas its design parameters are illustrated
Operating Current 236.9 A in Table V. Significant reduction in total weight and volume is
Peak Flux Density 2.3 T achieved by sizing the integrated inductor at the same current
Slot Fill Factor 0.5 - density of the starter-generator (as expected). As a result, the
RMS Current Density 4.8 A/mm2 weight of the integrated inductor is reduced by 55.4%, while its
Waveform Factor ( ) 4.44 - volume is reduced by 52.7% as compared to the traditional
core inductor.
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TABLE IV. SIZING COMPARISON OF EE CORE AND INTEGRATED starter-generator. The thermal behaviour of the integrated
INDUCTOR
inductor can also be predicted by looking at its losses. Since the
SIZING EE CORE INTEGRATED integrated inductor is placed axially with the starter-generator,
UNIT
PARAMETERS INDUCTOR INDUCTOR the loss of 1.57KW can easily be handled by the existing
Iron Weight 6.84 2.44 Kg cooling system of the starter-generator.
Copper Weight (With End
3.10 1.99 Kg 198.3 mm
Windings)
Total Weight (Iron + (a)
9.94 4.43 Kg
Copper)
Total Volume (Iron +
2078 981.8 cm3
Copper)
TABLE V. DESIGN PARAMETERS OF EE CORE AND INTEGRATED

INDUCTOR A A’ B B’ C C’
156.9
DESIGN EE CORE INTEGRATED mm
UNIT
PARAMETERS INDUCTOR INDUCTOR
Area Product 181.6 45.7 cm4
Synchronous Inductance 90 90 µH 2.2T
Peak Flux Density 2.2 2.2 T
Phase Resistance @ 30 C 0
1.0 8.2 mΩ (b) 2.2T
Turns per Phase 10 36 -

Slot Area 1840 925 mm2 a1 a1’
Conductor Diameter 8.0 4.0 mm c2 b2’
Active Stack Length 32 20 mm

Active Stack Length for c2’ b2
36 22.5 mm 25mm 164.0
99µH b1’ mm
c1
Total Stack Length (With
66.8 46.5 mm
End Windings)
b1 c1’
The phase resistance of the EE core inductor is 8.2 times a2 a2’
lower than that of the integrated inductor due to lower current
density. The associated thermal losses are managed by the
existing cooling system of the starter-generator which is forced
oil cooling (engine oil). The inductance values are validated Fig. 7. Radial Cross-section and Flux Distribution (a) EE Core Inductor (b)
using the simulations. The synchronous inductance of Integrated Rotor-less Inductor
90µH is obtained through for both core and the
TABLE VI. CORE AND COPPER LOSS OF INTEGRATED INDUCTOR AND
integrated inductor. The required inductance of 99µH is STATER-GENERATOR
achieved by adjusting their stack length of the iron core as
indicated in Table V. EE INTEGRATED STARTER-
PARAMETERS
INDUCTOR INDUCTOR GENERATOR
Core Loss at 8
B. Total Loss, Volume and Weight Comparison kRPM
489.3 W 193 W 86 W
In this section, the total losses, volume and weight of the
Copper Loss at 8
filter inductor is combined with that of the starter-generator for kRPM
168.5 W 1381W 2223 W
comparing traditional and integrated systems. The core and
copper loss of the EE core inductor, integrated inductor and the Total Losses 0.658 KW 1.57 KW 2.31 KW
starter-generator has been investigated and compared using Total Volume 2078 cm 3
981 cm 3
1689 cm3
models at 8000 . This is due to the fact that the copper
losses are maximum at this speed which is also a dominant loss Total Weight 9.94 Kg 4.43 Kg 11.7 Kg
component compared to the iron loss. Combined
Volume (SG + 3767 cm3 2670 cm3 -
From Table VI, it can be seen that both volume and weight Inductor)
of the combined system are significantly reduced. The Combined Weight
21.6 Kg 16.1 Kg -
combined volume is reduced by 29.1% while the combined (SG + Inductor)
% Volume
weight is reduced by 25.5% for the integrated inductor as Reduction
- 29.1 % -
compared to the system with EE core inductor. However, this % Weight
reduction comes at the expense of extra 0.9 kW loss which is - 25.5 % -
Reduction
absorbed effectively by the existing cooling system of the
574
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575
Minimum Volume Design of a Forced-Air Cooled
Three-Phase Power Factor Correction Stage for
Electric Vehicle Chargers
Friedrich Schultheiß and Thinh Nguyen-Xuan Achim Endruschat and Martin März
BMW AG Fraunhofer IISB
Research, New Technologies, Innovations Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology
Munich, Germany Erlangen, Germany
Email: Friedrich.Schultheiss@bmw.de
Abstract—This paper describes a volumetric design study,

which evaluates switching loss, thermal management and the
physical dimensions of all major passive components, including
the electromagnetic interference (EMI) input filter, boost induc-
tors and DC-link capacitors, for a three-phase low-voltage power
factor correction (PFC) stage for electric vehicle chargers. The
proposed design study considers three popular three-phase pulse
width modulated (PWM) active front-end AC-DC topologies:
the standard 2-level industry solution, the 3-level neutral point
clamped (NPC) converter and the 3-level T-type (T²C) converter.
For each topology, the pulsating switched phase-leg voltages are
computed for both continuous space vector pulse width modu-
lation (SVPWM) and 60° discontinuous pulse width modulation
(DPWM). Based on the switched phase-leg voltages, the impact of
the modulation technique and switching frequency on switching
loss, heatsink and passive components is thoroughly analyzed.
For an accurate estimation of the switching loss, the switching
energies of state-of-the-art silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs have
been measured at corresponding operating points. Results are
presented for an 11 kW, 800 V active power factor correction
(PFC) application.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Many industrial sectors, e.g. the automotive industry, are
more and more demanding for highly integrated, compact
power electronics systems with very high power densities.
Converter solutions with a high degree of integration can help
to significantly reduce the volume, weight and costs of such
systems. The size of a converter is often dominated by passive
components and thermal management. Minimizing the volume
of these components is hence a crucial step in the downsizing
process of a converter. In general, increasing the switching fre-
quency of a converter can lead to smaller passive components.
Unfortunately, higher switching frequencies are also accompa- Fig. 1. Surveyed voltage source converter (VSC) topologies: a) 2-level six-
nied by increased semiconductor switching loss, which leads to switch VSC, b) 3-level neutral point clamped (NPC) VSC, c) 3-level T-Type
more heat dissipation and thus bulky heatsinks. In this context, VSC.
multilevel topologies can offer several advantages, including
reduced input current ripple and higher effective switching
frequencies to enable the use of smaller passive components, conductor devices [1]. receive growing attention in industrial
while maintaining relatively low switching loss. Multilevel low-voltage applications [2]-[5]. In [6] and [7], comprehensive
converters have been widely used in high- and medium-voltage volumetric evaluation methods are presented which both indi-
applications to compensate the lack of high-voltage rated semi- cate that 3-level topologies, such as the neutral point clamped
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 576

Fig. 2. Reference (red) and pulsating switched phase-leg (blue) voltages for 2-level operation. Left: Continuous space vector pulse width modulation
(SVPWM). Right: 60° discontinuous pulse width modulation (DPWM).
Fig. 3. Reference (red) and pulsating switched phase-leg (blue) voltages for 3-level operation. Left: Continuous space vector pulse width modulation
(SVPWM). Right: 60° discontinuous pulse width modulation (DPWM).
TABLE I
(NPC) and the T-type (T²C) converters in Figure 1, can help C ONVERTER S PECIFICATIONS .
to dramatically increase the power density of converters in
industrial low-voltage applications compared to the standard Rated Power Prated 11 kW
industry 2-level solution. For topologies with a higher amount DC − Link Voltage VDC 800 V
of voltage levels, i.e. 5,6,7..., the need for additional bulky Amplitude o f AC Input Voltage V̂in 325 V
energy storage elements and increased conduction losses due Mains Frequency fmains 50 Hz
to more semiconductor devices in the power path often limit
a further increase in power density. Therefore, only the most
promising 3-level topologies in Figure 1 are compared to the 2- volume design. This methodology is applied here for the
level six-switch converter in this paper. These topologies offer design of a minimum volume forced-air cooled three phase
a good trade-off between high density design and a reasonable power factor correction (PFC) stage with the specifications
level of complexity of both the power system and the system listed in Table I.
control. In Section II a comprehensive volumetric design
study is presented, which evaluates switching loss, thermal A. Semiconductor Loss
management and all major passive components, including the The semiconductor loss in a converter originates from both
electromagnetic interference (EMI) input filter, boost inductors conduction and switching loss in the semiconductor devices:
and dc-link capacitors, of the standard 2-level industry solution
and the 3-level NPC and T²C topologies. Section III shows the Psemi = Pcond + Psw . (1)
main results and Section IV concludes the paper with a short While the temperature dependent on-state resistance of a
summary. SiC MOSFET can simply be extracted from the datasheet,
the switching loss strongly depends on the application. Linear
II. VOLUMETRIC D ESIGN S TUDY
approximation of the datasheet values leads to inaccurate
In [6], a comprehensive volumetric topology evaluation has results and should therefore be avoided. In order to obtain
been conducted with the result that 3-level converters offer an accurate estimation of the switching loss, state-of-the-art
a good trade-off between system complexity and minimum devices have been tested in Table II for operating points with
577
TABLE II
C HARACTERIZATION OF 900V AND 1200V S I C MOSFET BARE DIES .
Model Rated R ds,on Switching Switching Temperature Transient Gate dv/dt di/dt Switching
Voltage @ 25°C Voltage Current Resistance Energy
[V ] [mΩ] [V ] [A] [◦C] [Ω] [V /ns] [A/ns] [µJ]
XPM3-1200-0013C 1200 13 800 16 150 on 5.6 30 4.1 542

off 0 13.2 0.2 322
400 16 150 on 5.6 17.7 3.1 198
off 0 8.6 0.3 77
CPM3-0900-0010A 900 10 400 16 150 on 5.6 13.3 2.3 257
off 0 7.6 0.3 85
a current of 16 A at 400 V and 800 V for 2- and 3-level

operation, respectively. The gate resistances are chosen such
that the gate-source voltages during the switching instant stay
within the maximum ratings in the datasheet. It should be
noted that the XPM3-1200-0013C causes less switching loss
even though it is rated for 1200 V instead of 900 V. Since its
on-state resistance is not significantly higher and the switching
losses are the dominant part of the total losses, the XPM3-
1200-0013C is used for all loss estimations in this paper.
Both conduction and switching loss are computed for the
considered topologies by means of the switched phase-leg
voltages in Figures 2 and 3 [7]. With the values of Table
I, the modulation index used for the computation of the
semiconductor loss equals
2V̂in
M= = 0.8125. (2) Fig. 4. Semiconductor conduction and switching loss versus switching
VDC frequency for different 2- and 3-level modulation techniques.
Figure 4 presents the switching loss for switching frequencies
between 20 and 500 kHz.
B. Heatsink Design
With the known semiconductor loss, allowed junction tem-
perature and the thermal equivalence circuit in Figure 5 from
the semiconductor junction to the coolant, the physical dimen-
sions of the required heatsink can be computed. Since this
paper aims at fast and accurate component design strategies,
an analytical approach for the heatsink design is presented,
which allows an estimation of the heatsink volume. Therefore, Fig. 5. Thermal equivalent model from junction to ambient temperature.
various parameters of a straight fin heatsink, such as width,
height, fin diameter and fin spacing are predefined, while the
length is varied. Table III summarizes the heatsink parameters. of the base plate, ṁ and c p are the mass flow rate and specific
When air is used as coolant, the thermal resistance of the heat of air, h is the heat transfer coefficient and At represents
heatsink Rth,hs as a function of the length of the heatsink L the total effective heat transfer area, which includes the free
comprises of the conduction resistance of the base plate Rth,bp , area of base plate A f b , and fin array area A f . Thus, convection
the convection resistance Rth,conv from fin surface to the air and resistance becomes:
the heating resistance Rth,air caused by temperature rise of the 1
air [8]: Rth,conv = . (4)
h(A f b + A f η)
dbp 1 1 The fin efficiency is set to η = 1. For the geometry of the
Rth,hs = Rth,bp + Rth,conv + Rth,air = + + , (3) fin heatsink, the heat transfer coefficient
λhs Abp hAt ṁc p
where dbp represents the thickness of the heatsink base plate, λ f luid
h = Nu · , (5)
λhs and Abp are the thermal conductivity and cross section area dhyd
578
TABLE III
H EATSINK S PECIFICATIONS .
Material Aluminum
Coolant Air
Volumetric Flow Rate ṁ 8.5 m3 /h
Length L tbd.
Width W 40 mm
T hickness o f base plate Dbp 3 mm
Number o f Fins Nf 10
Fin T hickness D 3 mm
Fin Height H 10 mm
Fin E f f iciency η 1
Hydraulic Diameter dhyd 2 mm
Fig. 7. 3D CAD model of the heatsink. Heat flow: 28.64 W, width: 40 mm,
heigth: 10 mm, length: 14.5 mm.
thermal resistances of its individual components, namely the

thermal resistances of the chip Rth,c , the solder Rth,s , the direct
bonded copper layers Rth,cu , the aluminum oxide substrate
Rth,dcb and the thermal interface between the bottom copper
layer and the heatsink Rth,int :
Rth,module = Rth, j + Rth,s + Rth,c + Rth,dcb + Rth,c + Rth,int . (10)

The volume of the heatsink can then be estimated by varying
the length of the heatsink L such that Rth,hs (L) in Equation 3
satisfies the required thermal resistance value
Fig. 6. 1D analytical and 3D simulated results for the thermal resistance of
a straight fin heatsink. Ths − Tamb
Rth,hs,req ≤ . (11)
Psemi
The analytical approach is validated by means of compu-
can be determined with the Dittus-Boelter correlation for tational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation for commercially
turbulent heat transfer available axial dc fan with a volumetric flow rate of 8.5 m3 /h.
Figure 6 shows a close correspondence between the analytical
Nu = 0.023 · Re0.8 Pr0.4 , (6) and the simulated results. The corresponding 3D CAD model
where the Nusselt number Nu is a function of the Reynolds of the heatsink for a length of 14.5 mm is presented in
number Re and the Prandtl number Pr: Figure 7.
C. Boost Inductors
v The value for the boost inductors is computed considering
Re = dhyd · , (7)
vkin the current ripple ∆i pp at the peak of the fundamental input
ρc p
Pr = Vkin · = 0.72 ( f or air). (8) current, as described in [9]. This is a valid design strategy
λ f luid because high-density boost inductors are usually designed to
As can be derived from Figure 5, if the maximum allowed meet the required inductance near the saturation limit, where
junction temperature T j and the thermal resistance of the they already suffer from a certain drop in inductance. Hence,
semiconductor module Rth,module are known, then the thermal for lower currents the inductance value will be higher. If ideal
resistance of the heatsink Rth,hs must be determined such that PFC operation is assumed, then the current space vector will be
the heatsink temperature Ths does not exceed a certain value in phase with the output voltage space vector. Consequently,
the peak of the fundamental current occurs at an electrical
Ths ≤ T j − Rth,module Psemi , (9) angle of the output voltage space vector of ϕV = 0. For a given
current ripple ∆i pp , the required boost inductance equals
where the maximum junction temperature T j = 175°C of the
bare dies is given in the datasheet and the semiconductor loss
Psemi is computed in Section II-A. The thermal resistance of the 1 2/3VDC − V̂in
Lboost = · dnlvl · , (12)
entire module comprises of a series connection of the single fsw ∆i pp
579
Fig. 8. Filter corner frequency versus switching frequency for SVPWM (left) and DPWM (right). Top: Common-mode filter corner frequency. Bottom:
Differential-mode filter corner frequency.
power of the converter drops to zero while the load is still

drawing the maximum current. It has been shown in [5] that
the minimum required capacitance is then given by
Prated
Creq =
2 ·f
. (14)
VDC · ∆V ± 0.5 ·VDC sw
where ∆V is the allowed voltage ripple across the dc-
link capacitor (10% of VDC ). For minimum volume design,
surface-mount (SMD) multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC)
offer numerous benefits, such as high capacitance densities
Fig. 9. Structure of the passive two-stage input EMI filter. and a very high degree of freedom regarding optimal volume
utilization. Consequently, with the TDK CKG57 a family of
MLCCs is considered for the calculations at hand. Ripple
using the parameters of Table I, the switching frequency fsw current stress, however, is not a design criteria here.
and the relative on-time of the respective active voltage space
vector dnlvl , depending on the number of output voltage levels E. EMI Input Filter
n: For EMI filtering, the passive two-stage LC-LC filter struc-
ture in Figure 9 with an attenuation curve of approximately
3 V̂in 80 dB/Dec is considered. Prior to the evaluation of the filter
d2lvl = · , components, the values of the filter capacitors Cx and Cy are
2 VDC
(13) predefined in order to reduce the degrees of freedom. The
V̂in
d3lvl = 3· − 1. inductances can then be varied to meet the desired filter corner
VDC frequency. Considering the total filter volume, inductors are
usually the dominant parts of an EMI filter. Consequently, both
The inductance values are then linked to inductor volumes the values of Cx and Cy should be chosen as high as possible
of commonly available High-Flux ferrite cores by means of to keep the inductors small. Due to power factor requirements
the Kg -method over the aforementioned switching frequency at light load, the capacitance Cx is restricted to relatively
band between 20 and 500 kHz [10]. small values. In this case, 1 µF is chosen. Additionally, safety
requirements typically limit the allowed earth leakage current
D. DC-Link Capacitors
IPE to 3.5 mA. The total capacitance between any of the
Dc-link are required to avoid heavy voltage variations in the input phases and PE may therefore not exceed an approximate
converter. The main reason for voltage variations between the maximum value of
dc-link rails is generally a power unbalance between input and
output power of the converter. This can either be caused by IPE
CCM ≤ ' 44nF. (15)
sudden collapses of the source voltage or heavy load changes. 1.1 ·Vin · 2π fN
Hence from the energy standpoint, the values of the dc-link Allowing enough safety margin, each Cy capacitor is then
can be estimated for the worst case scenario when the input divided into 3 · 4.7 nF = 14.1 nF, where 4.7 nF is a common
580
Fig. 10. Total volume of major components versus switching frequency in a a) 2-level six-switch converter with SVPWM, b) 2-level six-switch converter
with DPWM, c) 3-level neutral point clamped (NPC) converter with SVPWM, d) 3-level neutral point clamped (NPC) converter with DPWM, e) 3-level
T-Type converter with SVPWM and f) 3-level T-Type converter with SVPWM.
value for low-volume, ceramic Y2-rated capacitors. The total filter corner frequency fc,DM :
inserted capacitance Cy per phase is then 28.2 nF. 2
In [6], a method is presented to compute the noise spectra of 1 1
LDM = · . (17)
the common-mode (CM) and differential-mode (DM) voltages 2π fc,DM Cx
in order to determine the filter corner frequencies of the filter
The differential-mode inductors are designed with a ferrite
stages. As shown in Figure 8, this procedure is carried out for
core set of the material High-Flux. In contrast to common-
SVPWM and DPWM and switching frequencies between 20
mode inductors, differential-mode inductors are not wound on
and 500 kHz. The results show nonlinear correlations between
common cores. In this case, as further described in [6], the
the switching frequency and the filter corner frequency, respec-
Kg -method allows a first estimation of the core size [10].
tively, leading to different CM and DM EMI filter component
sizes. III. R ESULTS
With the determined filter corner frequencies and the Cx and
The total volumes of the respective 2- and 3-level converters
Cy values specified earlier in this section, the inductance values
are presented in Figure 10 as a function of the switching
for the missing filter inductors LCM and LDM can be obtained.
frequency. The results of each converter are presented for two
At the filter corner frequency, where the filter attenuation is
different pulse width modulation techniques, namely SVPWM
0dB, LCM and CCM should have a resonant frequency. Hence,
and DPWM. It should be noted that there are clearly preferred
the common-mode inductance is given by:
switching frequencies when minimum volume is desired. As

1
2
1 the heatsink volume increases monotonously with the switch-
LCM = · . (16) ing frequency, higher switching frequencies do not lead to
2π fc,CM Cy
the least overall volume within the considered switching fre-
In a three-phase system, the CM inductors can typically be quency band width. Although converter efficiency as a design
wound on a common core. Considering core loss and required parameter is not investigated in this paper, when considering
inductance values, the volume of the resulting three-phase the semiconductor losses and heatsink volumes it is obvious
common-mode choke can be estimated for different switching that the efficiency suffers dramatically with higher switching
frequencies, in this case for a nanocrystalline (Vitroperm 500F) frequencies with no or almost no gains in converter volume.
core set. During hard switching, high switching frequencies should
Similarly, the differential-mode inductance value LDM can therefore arguably be avoided. Additionally, due to conducted
be derived from the resonance between LDM and CDM at the EMI requirements, switching frequencies where the harmonic
581
peaks need to be attenuated closely above 150 kHz (i.e. 80 Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 23, No. 6, pp.
kHz and 150 - 200 kHz) lead to considerable filter volumes 2665-2680, Nov. 2008.
and should therefore also be avoided. The dc-link capacitor [6] F. Schultheiß and M. März, "Volumetric Evaluation of
volume, however, is negligible if multilayer ceramic capacitors Passive Components in Multilevel Three-Phase Active
(MLCC) are used. According to these results, the design with Front-End AC-DC Converters", IEEE Int. Conference on
the least volume for the considered application is the 3-level Integrated Power Electronics Systems (CIPS), Mar. 2018.
T-Type converter when switched with fsw = 140 kHz, when [7] J. Azurza Anderson and J. W. Kolar, "Multi-Level Topol-
the first harmonic peak above 150 kHz appears at 280 kHz, ogy Evaluation for Ultra-Efficient Three-Phase Inverters",
twice the switching frequency. IEEE INTELEC Conference, Oct. 2017.
[8] D. G. Holmes and T. A. Lipo, Pulse Width Modulation for
IV. C ONCLUSION Power Converters: Principles and Practice, John Wiley &
Sons, 2003.
This paper presents a comprehensive design study with the
[9] M. März, "Thermisches Management in der Leistungs-
objective of minimum overall converter volume. Therefore,
elektronik", ECPE Workshop, Erlangen, April 2017.
the impact of the switching frequency on the total volume
[10] M. Schweizer, "System-Oriented Efficiency Optimization
of a preselection of three promising converter topologies is
of Variable Speed Drives", Dissertation, ETH Zurich,
thoroughly investigated. As a starting point, the conduction
2012.
and switching loss in the semiconductor devices is computed.
[11] R. W. Erickson and D. Maksimović, Fundamentals of
It is pointed out that with increasing switching frequencies,
Power Electronics, Springer, New York, 2001.
the additional thermal effort due to increased switching loss
generally offsets the positive shrinking effect of high switching
frequencies on the size of passive components. Furthermore,
when using multilayer ceramic capacitors, the required volume
of the dc-link capacitor is relatively small and hence the in-
creased capacitor requirement of 3-level converters compared
to a 2-level converter can be neglected. The comparison of all
major passive components including the heatsink indicates that
the 3-level T-Type converter with a switching frequency of 140
kHz will lead to the least overall volume for the considered
application. In a next step, an 11 kW, 800V hardware prototype
of the 3-level T-Type converter will be built to verify the
theoretical approach and results presented in this paper.
R EFERENCES
[1] J. Rodriguez, J.-S. Lai, and F. Z. Peng, “Multilevel Invert-
ers: A Survey of Topologies, Controls, and Applications,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 724–738,
Aug 2002.
[2] G. Gong, M. L. Heldwein, U. Drofenik, J. Minibock, K.
Mino and J. W. Kolar, "Comparative Evaluation of Three-
Phase High-Power-Factor AC-DC converter concepts for
application in future more electric aircraft", IEEE Transac-
tions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 52, pp. 727-737, Jun.
2005.
[3] C. Klumper, F. Blaabjerg and P. Thogersen, "Evaluation
of the converter topologies suited for integrated motor
drives", Proceedings of the Industry Applications Confer-
ence, Oct. 2003.
[4] R. Lai, F. Wang, Y. Pei, R. Burgos, B. Dushan, "Minimiz-
ing Passive Components in High-frequency High-density
AC Active Voltage Source Converters", IEEE Power Elec-
tronics Specialists Conference (PESC), 2007.
[5] R. Lai, F. Wang, R. Burgos, Y. Pei, D. Boroyevich, B.
Wang, T.A. Lipo, V.D. Immanuel and K.J. Karimi, "A
Systematic Topology Evaluation Methodology for High-
Density Three-Phase PWM AC-AC Converters", IEEE
582
High Power Traction Inverter Design and
Comparison for Electric Vehicles
Lihua Chen, Baoming Ge
Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI 48124, USA
which is not feasible in mass production. To overcome this

Abstract- High performance or heavy weight electric vehicles issue and limit circulating current between the inverters,
(EVs) require high power electric drive (e-drive) systems. inductors or filters usually need to be connected between two
However, availability of automotive qualified power devices with inverters [1], [2]. However, additional inductors or filters
demanded high voltage and high current ratings are limited.
Devices and inverters in series and/or in parallel are typical and make whole inverter system size increasing and not preferred
effective solutions to achieve high power output capability. This for automotive applications.
paper investigates high power traction inverter design, from a This paper proposes high power e-drive solutions through
practical point of view, through providing three options for EV utilizing combined features of both motor and inverter
applications. The three circuit topologies are described firstly.
together. First, two inverters are in parallel via dual-windings
Typical modulation methods are reviewed, and optimal
approaches are proposed to minimize DC bus capacitor ripple three-phase machine or six-phase machine to achieve high
current. Inverter total loss and key components sizing are power. The solution electrically achieves isolation between
compared in detail. Simulation results verify the proposed high two inverters, current circulating issue is avoided without
power traction inverter design and theoretical analysis. additional filter inductors. This design minimizes the
stringent requirement of consistent power devices in two
parallel inverters. The solution can achieve high power
I. INTRODUCTION capability by doubling the output current.
High power electric drives (e-drives) are usually required The second solution is to increase DC bus voltage by using
to provide high torque and high dynamic response for high three-level neutral point clamp (NPC) inverter [3]. For the
performance or heavy weight electrical vehicles (EVs). same phase current output, doubled DC bus voltage will make
However, commercially available silicon based power the three-level inverter deliver twice power when compared
devices qualified for automotive applications show with typical two-level inverters. The NPC inverter has an
limitations of voltage rating and current rating in order to advantage of low output voltage harmonics due to 5-level
deliver high power. Emerging Wide Band Gap (WBG) like phase-phase voltage output which helps to lower motor loss,
Silicon Carbide (SiC) devices have high voltage capability and the inverter has low equivalent switching frequency
and low loss, which show potential to achieve high power which will reduce inverter loss. This solution also enables
traction inverter design, however, currently this type of new high voltage motor design to achieve higher motor efficiency
power devices faces two main challenges before they can be as well.
widely used for traction inverter production: 1) cost is very In applications, the HV battery is directly connected to
high (10X or higher) compared to Si-IGBT; 2) reliability of inverter DC bus without a DC-DC boost converter. So, the
SiC devices for automotive application is not fully verified. inverter DC bus voltage is equal to HV battery voltage. If the
Therefore, from a practical point of view, conventional three- HV battery voltage is designed low like 350 V or less. It is
phase 2-level single inverter still faces difficulties to meet the impossible for conventional inverter to drive a high voltage
high power demands from e-drive systems in eletric vehicels. motor. For this situation, the paper proposes the third solution
High current and/or high voltage are necessary to achieve to deliver high power by cascading two inverters with open-
high power. Power devices in parallel can extend current winding motor [4]-[6]. As a result, the inverter outputs
capability, but imbalance current between paralleled devices doubled voltage to motor phase windings even though DC
restricts the number of devices in parallel. As a result, bus voltage of each inverter is same as HV battery voltage. In
achievable power rating is still limited. Moreover, consistent this design, two inverters have same phase current and same
characteristics of power devices and gate drivers are required DC bus voltage. However, motor windings have actual higher
to minimize imbalance issues. Therefore, paralleling devices voltage and lower harmonics of multilevel configures, and
has challenges in mass production due to piece to piece part this combines with high voltage motor to improve high power
variation of power devices, and gate drive circuits introduced e-drive system efficiency. Because two inverters are
different gate control propagation delays. connected through motor windings, there is no circulating
Paralleling inverters is another way to extend power rating, current concerns, and high voltage output is achieved by
but direct paralleling inverters has the same issues that were using low voltage rated power devices.
explained in the aforementioned case of devices in parallel, This paper focuses on the above proposed three high power
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 583

traction inverters. Firstly, their topologies and typical Fig. 2 employs cascade topology to double output voltage.
modulation control methods are introduced, and then, optimal As shown in Fig. 2, the inputs of two inverters are connected
modulation methods are proposed to reduce DC bus capacitor in parallel and share same HV battery voltage, the outputs of
volume by minimizing current ripple. The detailed technical two inverters are connected in series with motor phase
evaluation, theoretical analysis, and comparison are carried windings. As a result, the applied voltages to motor windings
out, and at the same time, simulation results are included to are actually increased, and motor windings are actually
verify the proposed high power traction inverters design and supplied with three-level phase voltages, which contribute
analysis. low harmonics. Therefore, motor efficiency can be improved.
II. PROPOSED THREE HIGH POWER ELECTRIC DRIVES This solution also has no circulating current concern because
windings are actually connected between the two inverters.
Fig. 1 shows dual-inverters parallel e-drive which uses It can be observed from Figs. 1 and 2 that the inverters
parallel method to extend current capability. To achieve high present the same topology, but motor side connections are
power output, as shown in Fig. 1, two inverters are connected different. Both topologies better utilize advantages of motors
to two sets of electrically isolated windings. So, circulating and inverters even though they have different structures.
current path is disconnected electrically. This topology avoids However, their DC-link capacitor current ripples are different
issues of direct inverters parallel and inductors-aided parallel. because of their different modulation methods and different
Inverters’ DC bus is equal to HV battery voltage, and two phase angles of fundamental currents flowing through six
paralleled inverters output doubled current. As a result, phase legs in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively. There exists
inverter power rating is also doubled when compared with a minimum current ripple for each of them and will be
single inverter. In this e-drive system, motor can be a six discussed in following sections.
phase motor or dual-windings three-phase motor with 30 deg Fig. 3 shows NPC three-level inverter based e-drive
phase shift. This type of multiphase motor design has system, which has the same IGBT number when compared
advantages of higher torque per ampere and lower torque with Figs. 1 and 2. This topology can support high DC bus
ripples. voltage even though low rated voltage devices are employed.
Output phase-phase voltage shows 5-level step cases with low
harmonics. Average switching frequency of inverter is also
reduced. So, this solution helps to reduce both motor loss and
inverter switching loss. High voltage motor design can be
employed to improve e-drive overall efficiency.
Fig. 1. Dual-inverters in parallel fed e-drive.
Fig. 3. Three-level neutral point clamp inverter fed e-drive.

III. INVERTER CONTROL AND OPTIMIZATION
A. Dual-Inverters Paralleled E-Drive
Figure 4 shows typical modulation methods of dual three-
phase inverters. Two inverters, i.e., INV-1 and INV-2 in Fig.
1, are controlled by two sets of carrier waves comparing with
their own three-phase modulation signals. In particular, three-
phase modulation signals vam1, vbm1, and vcm1 compare with
the carrier wave Carrier_1 to control the inverter INV-1;
vam2, vbm2, and vcm2 compare with the carrier wave Carrier_2
to modulate the inverter INV-2. In Fig. 4 (a), two carrier
waves Carrier_1 and Carrier_2 are in phase with 0 deg phase
Fig. 2. Dual-inverters cascaded e-drive. shift, and 180 deg phase shift of two carrier waves Carrier_1
584
and Carrier_2 is performed in Fig. 4 (b). Both actaully has the phase shift greatly affects the ripple current and the ripple
high dc-link capacitor current ripples. reduction reaches 31%.
(a)
Fig. 6. Advantage of optimal modulation method over typical methods for

dual-inverters paralleled e-drive when two sets of three-phase windings of
motor have 30 deg phase shift.
(b)
Fig. 4. Typical modulation methods for dual three-phase inverters. (a) Two
carrier waves in phase (0 deg phase shift); (b) two carrier waves out of phase
(180 deg phase shift).
Fig. 7. Advantage of optimal modulation method over typical methods for

dual-inverters e-drive when their phase currents are in phase.
Fig. 5. Normalized ripple ratio versus phase shift of fundamental currents.
In Fig. 1, the DC-link capacitor Co should absorb majority

of ripple current from both inverters to keep minimal ripple
current flow through the HV battery. High current ripple
requires big capacitor. The EV has limited space for inverter
design, minimization of capacitor size is especially important.
The size of capacitor Co depends on DC-link voltage rating,
required capacitance, and ripple current. A reduction of the
rms ripple current in the DC-link will significantly lower the
thermal stress and volume of the capacitor.
In fact, phase shift of fundamental currents out of two
inverters significantly affects DC-link ripple current, and
there exists optimal phase shift angle to minimize ripple
current. Fig. 5 shows the normalized ripple current ratio at Fig. 8. Advantage of optimal modulation method over typical methods for
dual-inverters paralleled e-drive with standard six-phase motor.
different phase shifts of fundamental currents. It shows that
585
Furthermore, using phase shift of carrier waves for two shown in Fig. 9 are switching signals of the INV-1 and the
inverters will significantly reduce DC-link ripple current. INV-2, respectively. Therefore, the INV-1 performs
Figs. 6 and 7 show the normalized ripple current ratios versus switching for 180º range in one period and the INV-2 fulfills
the phase shift of carrier waves. As shown in Fig. 6, when switching for the remaining 180º range. The method shown in
two sets of three-phase windings of motor have 30 deg phase Fig. 9 has 50% average switching frequency reduction when
shift in the dual-inverters paralleled e-drive, two carrier compared with Fig. 4.
waves with phase shift angle of 90 deg will reduce ripple
current by 24% in comparison of the typical methods. When C. Three-Level NPC Inverter Based E-Drive
phase currents of dual-inverters are in phase with 0 deg phase Fig. 10 shows an example of gate drive signal Sa1, Sa2, S’a1,
shift, Fig. 7 shows that two carrier waves with phase shift S’a2 in Fig. 3. It can be seen that average switching frequency
angle of 80 deg will reduce ripple current by 38.7% and 11% of each switch is half carrier frequency, which lowers inverter
in comparison of the typical methods of 0 and 180 deg phase loss. Inverter’s phase-to-phase output voltage is five-level
shift, respectively. For standard six-phase motor in the dual- waveform, which contributes low harmonics components to
inverters paralleled e-drive, Fig. 8 shows that two carrier motor current and improves motor efficiency. Both of these
waves with phase shift angle of 100 deg reduce ripple current two points help the e-drive system to achieve high efficiency.
by 11% and 38.7% when compared to the existing methods of
0 and 180 deg phase shift, respectively. The significant
Sa1
reduction of ripple current will greatly lower capacitor size,
loss, and thermal stress.
Sa2
B. Dual-Inverters Cascaded E-Drive
For dual-inverters cascaded e-drive system shown in Fig. 2, S’a1
phase current and modulation waveform of the inverter INV-
1 has 180° phase difference from those of the inverter INV-2,
S’a2
respectively. Carrier waveforms in Fig. 4 could be used for
inverters INV-1 and INV-2. Optimal solution like Fig. 7 can 0.1375 0.15
Time (s)
be found to minimize DC link capacitor current ripple.
Fig. 10. Gate drive signals of phase leg a in Fig. 3.
IV. COMPARISON OF PROPOSED THREE HIGH POWER

ELECTRIC DRIVES
Three high power e-drives shown in Figs. 1-3 are compared
for EV applications. For comparison, three systems are
designed in the same power rating of assumed 358 kVA.
According to Section II, DC-link voltages of Figs. 1 and 2 are
375 V, but Fig. 3 has a 750 V DC-link voltage. Table I lists
the designed components and parameters of three high power
e-drives, which include motors, DC bus capacitors, IGBTs,
diodes, current sensors, switching frequencies, current
ripples, and output voltage harmonics. It can be seen that the
NPC inverter based e-drive and the dual-inverters cascaded e-
drive have half average switching frequency when compared
with that of the dual-inverters paralleled e-drive. The NPC
Fig. 9. Alternative modulation method for dual-inverters cascaded e-drive
system. inverter shows the lowest voltage harmonics. It should be
noted that current ripple and voltage harmonics in Table I are
In addition, Fig. 9 shows alternative modulation method by calculated by using only basic modulation methods. If the
comparing two modulation waveforms with two positively optimal modulations are employed, current ripple will have a
shifted triangular carrier signals. When phase U is used as an significant reduction for the dual-inverters paralleled e-drive
example in Fig. 9, two modulation waveforms Ref-1 and Ref- and the dual-inverters cascaded e-drive. The NPC inverter
2 have 180° phase shift. The Ref-1 and Ref-2 are for the requires 6 more diodes but 3 less motor winding connectors.
inverters INV-1 and INV-2, respectively. The two carriers Figs. 11-13 show simulation results and harmonics analysis
Carrier-1 and Carrier-2 also have 180° phase shift. The of three e-drive systems. In simulation, each phase current is
Carrier-1 and Carrier-2 are for the inverters INV-1 and INV- 450 A rms, load frequency is 100 Hz and carrier frequency fc
2, respectively. Two switches of each phase leg have is 5 kHz. Simulation results verify the theoretical analysis
complimentary switching states. The Pulse-1 and Pulse-2 shown in Table I.
586
(a) (b)
Fig. 11. Simulation results of dual inverters paralleled e-drive system. (a) Steady state waveforms; (b) spectral analysis of dc bus current and phase-to-phase
voltage.
(a) (b)
Fig. 12. Simulation results of dual inverters cascaded e-drive system. (a) Steady state waveforms; (b) spectral analysis of dc bus current and phase voltage.
(a) (b)
Fig. 13. Simulation results of 3-level inverter based e-drive system. (a) Steady state waveforms; (b) spectral analysis of dc bus current and phase-to-phase
voltage.
587
TABLE I. COMPARISON SUMMARY OF THREE HIGH POWER E-DRIVE SYSTEMS.
NPC 3-Level Inverter Dual Inverters Paralleled Dual Inverters Cascaded

Inverter Type
(358 kVA) (358 kVA) (358 kVA)
Number of Phases 3 6 3
Voltage Rating (p.u.) 2 1 2
Motor Current Rating (p.u.) 1 1 1
Power Rating (p.u.) 1 1 1
Terminals 3 6 6
DC Bus Voltage (V) 750 375 375
Number 2 4 2
Current
Sensors
Current Rating (p.u.) 1 1 1
Number 12 12 12
IGBT Voltage Rating (p.u.) 1 1 1
Number 12+6 12 12
Diode Voltage Rating (p.u.) 1 1 1
Number 2 1 1
Capacitor Voltage Rating (p.u.) 1 1 1
Current Ripple (A) 242 A (Iph=450 A rms) 485 A (Iph=450 A) 340 A (Iph=450 A)
Voltage Harmonics THD: 0.4 (line-line) THD: 0.84 (line-line) THD: 0.69 (phase voltage)
Equivalent Switching Frequency 0.5fc fc 0.5fc
inverters," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 52, no. 6,

V. CONCLUSIONS pp. 4928-4934, Nov.-Dec. 2016.
[2] B. Rannestad, S. Munk-Nielsen and K. Gadgaard, "Discontinuous
Three high power e-drive systems such as dual-inverters interleaving of parallel inverters for efficiency improvement," in 2017
paralleled motor drive, dual-inverters cascaded motor drive, 19th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications
(EPE'17 ECCE Europe), Warsaw, 2017, pp. P.1-P.10.
and 3-level NPC inverter based motor drive were proposed [3] S. Payami, R. K. Behera and A. Iqbal, "DTC of three-level NPC
and analyzed for electric vehicles. The topologies and inverter fed five-phase induction motor drive with novel neutral point
modulation methods were described. The optimal modulation voltage balancing scheme," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics,
vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 1487-1500, Feb. 2018.
methods were proposed to reduce DC bus capacitor volume [4] David Solomon George, M. R. Baiju, “Decoupled random modulation
by minimizing current ripple. Three high power e-drives were technique for an open-end winding induction motor based 3-level
compared in terms of their motors, DC bus capacitors and Inverter,” in the 2009 IEEE Symposium on Industrial Electronics and
Applications (ISIEA 2009), October 4-6, 2009, Kuala Lumpur,
current ripples, output voltage harmonics, average switching Malaysia, pp.1022–1027.
frequencies, numbers of IGBTs and diodes, current sensors. [5] V. T. Somasekhar, K. Gopakumar and M. R. Baiju, "Dual two-level
Three 358-kVA e-drive systems were simulated for inverter scheme for an open-end winding induction motor drive with a
single DC power supply and improved DC bus utilisation," in IEE
comparison and verification of proposed high power e-drives Proceedings - Electric Power Applications, vol. 151, no. 2, pp. 230-
design and theoretical analysis. 238, Mar 2004.
[6] R. U. Haque, A. Kowal, J. Ewanchuk, A. Knight and J. Salmon, "PWM
REFERENCES control of a dual inverter drive using an open-ended winding induction
motor," in 2013 Twenty-Eighth Annual IEEE Applied Power
[1] M. J. Tsai and P. T. Cheng, "Evaluation of PWM methods for Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), Long Beach, CA,
suppressing circulating current among parallel-connected four-pole USA, 2013, pp. 150-156.
588
On the Period-doubling Bifurcation in PWM-
controlled Buck Converter
Sen Li and Babak Fahimi
The University of Texas at Dallas
Richardson, 75080, United States
Email: sxl149030@utdallas.edu, fahimi@utdallas.edu
Abstract—DC-DC converters are being widely used in + h(t)

electrified transportation systems. It has been proven that chaos +
- A
in this family of converters can lead to instability. This digest y(t)
- Vref
Comparator
presents a mathematical study of bifurcation and chaos in PWM- Error Amplifier
controlled DC-DC buck converters. The derivation of discrete i
time models for the period-1, period-2, period-4 and period-8 SW L RS +

orbits are demonstrated. A practical circuit has been constructed Vc C +
and tested, and the experimental results verified the validity of Vin D
-
V R
the theoretical analysis. -
RC
Keywords—Chaos; Buck converters; Orbits; Stability analysis;

Pulse width modulation Fig. 1. System diagram of the PWM -controlled 2nd order buck converter.
PWM-controlled DC-DC converters are among the most
fundamental circuits in electrified systems. In [1]-[6], it has − − −
been shown that bifurcation and chaos are ubiquitous in this = =
( ) ( )
(2)
family of converters, and it can lead to potential instability. A −(
brief summary of complex behaviors in switching-mode ( ) )
converters is provided in [7]. In general, these phenomena

cannot be captured by the conventional averaging methods, 0 0 1/ 0
which is the most commonly used approach in design of = = (3)
0 0 0 0
controllers. Therefore, there is a need for a method to identify
these issues and avoid them in practical applications.
This paper presents a systematic method to identify = (1 − ) = [0 − (4)
bifurcation and chaos in DC-DC buck converters, using the
discrete time modelling technique [8]. Through this For period-1 orbit, the large-signal discrete time dynamics
comprehensive study, one can gain thorough understanding of of the system is given by:
its high frequency dynamics, which are mainly due to the
periodic nature of this type of converters. = ( , )
I. BIFURCATION IN BUCK CONVERTER = ( )

+ ( )
The circuit diagram of a PWM-controlled 2nd order buck

converter is shown in Fig. 1. Assuming continuous conduction
mode, for each clock period, two circuit topologies are found. ( )
+ (5)
The corresponding state equations are given by:
( )= ( )
= + , +
1:
= +
+ − ℎ( )=0 (6)
= +
2: (1) (0) + ( )
, ∈ [0, )
= +
( ) = ( )
( ) + ( )
, ∈ [ , ) (7)
The state matrix of the system is given by ( ), ≥
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 589

where ( , ) and g(xn, dn) are the discrete time mapping state xn = x(nT) at t = nT is mapped to at t = (n+m)T.
function and the condition function, respectively. Let Similar to the previous cases, the intersection of y(t) and h(t)
denotes the small perturbations around , i.e., = − determines the switching instant of the two topologies, i.e.,
(0), the linearized dynamics of the system is then given by: y((n+i-1)T + dn+i-1) = h((n+i-1)T + dn+i-1), i=0,1,2,…,m. The
large-signal dynamics of the system is given by:
= (8)
( )
= +
The next step is to derive the analytical expression for .
Notably the total derivative of xˆ n +1 to x̂n is expressed as: ( )
( )
+ ( )
(16)
( , ) ( , )
= + (9)
( , ) ( ( ), ) ( , ) = +
( )
The relation between and is given by Equation (6), + − ℎ( )=0 (17)
using implicit function theorem, it is found that:
The above equations indicate m constrained nonlinear
( , )
( , ) ( , ) discrete-time dynamics, in which g(xn+i-1, dn+i-1) = 0,
=− ( , ) =− (10) determines the switching instants from to , to
, …, to , respectively. The fixed point
(0) of the mapping function can be found by Equation (18).
thus Equation (9) can be rewritten as
The periodic solution ( ) corresponding to this fixed point
( )
is then given by Equation (19).
,
= −
=
( , ) ( , ) ( , ) (18)
(11) ( , )=0
( , ) ( ),
since ( )=
( , ) ( )
= (12)
( , ) ( ),
( , )
(19)
= [ ( )+ − ℎ( ) (13)
( , ) ( ),
The linearized dynamics of the system is:
( , )
= (14) = , = 1,2 … (20)
( , ) ( ),
where
therefore, can be expressed as ( )
( ) ( ) ( )
= − ( ( ) ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( )
( )
= − ( ( ) ) ( ) ( )
( )
= − ( )
(21)
( )
0( −) +
− 0
= 2( − ) − 1 (15)
0( −)
−ℎ( ) Using the chain rule, one can find that
The eigenvalues, or characteristic multipliers, of = =⋯= … (22)

determine the local orbital stability of the system. Specifically,
if all eigenvalues of are inside the unit circle in complex One interesting property of is observed here:
frequency plane, then the system is asymptotically stable. On
the other hand, if any of the eigenvalues resides outside of the ( )= ( … )= ( … )=
unit circle, then the system is unstable.
… = ( … ) (23)
For period-m orbit, the state repeats itself after each m
switching cycles from t = nT to t = (n+m)T. In this case, the where ( ) denotes the eigenvalues of .
590
TABLE I. EIGENVALUES AND SYSTEM STATES AT DIFFERENT
INPUT VOLTAGE
Input
Magnitude of
Voltage Eigenvalues State
Eigenvalues
(V)
λ1,2 = - 0.7684 ±
18 , = 0.8119 Period-1 Orbit
0.2623i
λ1,2 = - 0.8047 ±
20 , = 0.8119 Period-1 Orbit
0.1085i
λ1 = - 0.6592, λ2 = | | = 0.6592, | | Period-doubling
21.009
-1.0001 = 1.0001 Bifurcation
λ1,2 = 0.5371
22 , = 0.6592 Period-2 Orbit
± 0.3822i
λ1,2 = 0.1536
24 , = 0.6592 Period-2 Orbit
± 0.6411i
(a)
λ1,2 = -
26 , = 0.6592 Period-2 Orbit
0.2318 ± 0.6172i
λ1,2 = -
28 , = 0.6592 Period-2 Orbit
0.6046 ± 0.2627i
28.6225
- 1.0000 = 1.0000 Bifurcation
λ1 = 0.9986, | | = 0.9986 | |
28.623 Period-4 Orbit
λ2 = 0.1891, = 0.1891
λ1 = 1.0074, | | = 1.0074 | | Saddle-node
28.6283
λ2 = 0.1875, = 0.1875 Bifurcation
λ1 = 0.7238, | | = 0.7238 | |
λ2 = 0.2609, = 0.2609
λ1,2 = 0.1943 ±
29 , = 0.4346 Period-4 Orbit
0.3887i
λ1,2 = - 0.0265 ±
29.2 , = 0.4346 Period-4 Orbit
0.4338i
λ1 = - 0.7070, λ2= | | = 0.7070, | |
(b) 29.6 Period-4 Orbit
- 0.2671 = 0.2671
29.6902
- 0.1888 = 0.1888 Bifurcation
λ1 = - 1.0290, λ2 = | | = 1.0290, | |
29.7 Period-8 Orbit
- 0.1836 = 0.1836
λ1 = 0.3577, | | = 0.3577, | |
λ2 = 0.0997 = 0.0997
λ1,2 = -
29.78 , = 0.1889 Period-8 Orbit
0.0106 ± 0.1886i
λ1,2 = - 0.1328 ±
29.8 , = 0.1889 Period-8 Orbit
0.1344i
| |
λ1 = - 0.7141, λ2
29.84 = 0.7141, | | Period-8 Orbit
= - 0.04995
= 0.04995
λ1 = - 0.9821, | | = 0.9821, | |
λ2 = - 0.0363 = 0.0363
λ1= -1.0007, | | = 1.0007 | | Period-doubling
29.8614
λ2= - 0.0357 = 0.0357 Bifurcation
(c) λ1= -1.1150, | | = 1.1150 | |
λ2= - 0.0320 = 0.0320
TABLE II. SUMMARY OF EIGENVALUE TRAJECTORIES OF PERIOD-1,

2, 4, AND 8 ORBITS
Orbits Period-T Period-2T Period-4T Period-8T
13.787 – 21.009 – 28.6225 – 29.6902 –
Range of Vin (V)
21.009 28.6225 29.6902 29.8614
Radius of
0.8119 0.6592 0.4346 0.1889
trajectory circle
Difference of
- 0.1527 0.2246 0.2457
adjacent radius
Multiple of
1 1.2316 1.5168 2.3007
adjacent radius
Saddle-node
bifurcation
(d) Abnormal when Vin in
N/A N/A N/A
phenomena range of
Fig. 2. Eigenvalue trajectories of Φ when Vin varies from: (a). 18 V to 21.1 V 28.6283 V to
(period-1 orbit); (b). 21.009 V to 28.7 V (period-2 orbit); (c). 21.009 V to 28.7
28.7202 V
V (period-4 orbit); (d). 29.6902 V to 29.8622 V (period-8 orbit).
591
For illustrating the above analysis, the following circuit
parameters are selected: = 11.5 V, = 4 V, = 8 V,
= 4.7 mH, = 10 F, = 24 Ω, = 7, and = 100 .
Fig. 2 shows the complete eigenvalue trajectories of when
Vin varies from 18 V to 29.8622 V, which correspond to
period-1, period-2, period-4, and period-8 orbits, respectively.
These figures reveal one common feature of the eigenvalue
trajectories: it always starts or ends at the real axis, and, for
the intermediate stages, it evolves along four circles within the
unit circle, whose radiuses are 0.8119, 0.6592, 0.4346, and
(a)
0.1889, respectively. An interesting phenomenon is observed
when = 28.6283 V: one eigenvalue crosses the boundary
point (1, 0), hence a saddle-node bifurcation occurs in the
system. Then, as increases to 28.7202 V, both eigenvalue
suddenly jumps to a new position (λ1 = 0.7238, λ2 = 0.2609).
Therefore, the system regains the stability at period-4 orbit.
The eigenvalues and system states at different input voltages,
as well as summary of eigenvalue trajectories for period-1, 2,
4, and 8 orbits, are given in Table. I and Table. II, respectively.
II. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS (b)

To validate the results an experimental prototype of a buck
converter has been built. The input voltage is implemented
using a linear regulator (LM317) that generates stable +12 V
supply for the control circuit. The ramp signal of 10 kHz is
produced by a timer circuit (TLC555) and fed to the inverting
terminal of the comparator (LM311). The non-inverting input
of LM311 is connected to the output of the error amplifier
(LT1792), which amplifies the difference between the scaled
output and reference voltage with a linear gain of 7. The
switching transistor is of NMOS type (BSC093N04LS), hence
a high-side gate driver is employed. For measuring the inductor (c)
current, a sense resistor of 0.1 Ω is connected in series with the
inductor and a current sensing amplifier (MAX4372F) is used
to amplify the voltage drop across the sensing resistor.
Fig. 3 to Fig. 5 demonstrate the time-domain waveforms,
FFT analysis, and phase portraits of output voltage and
inductor current when is set to 20 V, 25 V, 31.8 V, 32.5 V,
and 35 V, which correspond to period-1, period-2, period-4,
period-8, and chaotic orbits, respectively.
Bifurcation diagrams are useful tools for identifying the
pattern of a system’s qualitative behavior as certain selected
parameters are changed. The testing configuration and the (d)
experimental setting for displaying bifurcation diagram are
shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 respectively. A typical bifurcation
diagram has its horizontal axis (x-axis) corresponding to
variation of the bifurcation parameter and its vertical axis (y-
axis) corresponding to the sampled steady-state data (from the
S/H module) of a chosen variable from the system under test
(SUT). For digital storage oscilloscope, the X-Y mode display
(with waveform persistence time set to infinity) can be used
for displaying the bifurcation diagram. Two basic steps should
be performed in this process:
1. Sweeping (or manually adjusting) a given parameter of
(e)
the SUT with homogeneous steps and then applying the signal
to the X-input of the oscilloscope. Fig. 3. Time-domain waveforms of the output voltage (upper) and inductor
current (lower): (a). Vin = 20 V (period-1); (b) Vin = 25 V (period-2); (c) Vin =
31.8 V (period-4); (d) Vin = 32.5 V (period-8); (e) Vin = 35 V (chaotic).
592
(a) (a)
(b) (b)
(c) (c)
(d) (d)
(e) (e)
Fig. 4. FFT analysis of inductor current waveform: (a). Vin = 20 V (period-1); Fig. 5. Phase portraits (vertical axis: output voltage, horizontal axis: inductor
(b) Vin = 25 V (period-2); (c) Vin = 31.8 V (period-4); (d) Vin = 32.5 V current): (a). Vin = 20 V (period-1); (b) Vin = 25 V (period-2); (c) Vin = 31.8 V
(period-8); (e) Vin = 35 V (chaotic). (period-4); (d) Vin = 32.5 V (period-8); (e) Vin = 35 V (chaotic).
593
2. Sampling a given signal from the SUT and sending the
DSO/Computer sampled data to the Y-input of the oscilloscope.
Sweeping
Signal
Generator X Y Choosing as the bifurcation diagram, the simulated and
experimental bifurcation diagrams of inductor current are
shown in Fig. 8. From these figures, one can easily identify
Bifurcation Parameter to the operating modes of the converter.
Parameter System Under be studied
S/H Module
Test (SUT)
III. CONCLUSIONS
This paper provides analytical and experimental analysis of
Triggering Pulse
Sampling nonlinear behavior in the PWM-controlled buck converter. In
Control
light of the previous works, the major contribution of this work
lies in the mathematical derivation of discrete time model for
Fig. 6. Testing configuration for displaying bifurcation diagram. period-1, period-2, period-4, and period-8 orbits, which shows
the complete eigenvalue trajectories and the route to chaos for
this type of converter. In addition, a practical circuit has also
been proposed, and the experimental results have shown good
agreement with the theoretical analysis. Through this study,
one can gain analytical insight to the intrinsic nonlinear
behavior of the converter operation, and acquire experimental
techniques for exploring other types of nonlinear dynamics in
diverse power electronic converters and drive systems.
REFERENCES
[1] D. C. Hamill, and D. J. Jeffries, “Subharmonics and chaos in a
controlled switched-mode power converter,” IEEE Transactions on
Circuits and Systems, Vol. 35, no. 8, pp.1059-1061, Aug. 1988.
[2] J. R. Wood, “Chaos: A real phenomenon in power electronics,” in
Fourth Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and
Fig. 7. Experimental setting for displaying bifurcation diagram. Exposition, 1989, pp. 115-124.
[3] D. C. Hamill, J. H. Deane, and D. J. Jefferies, “Modeling of chaotic DC-
DC converters by iterated nonlinear mappings,” IEEE Transactions on
Power Electronics, Vol. 7, no. 1, pp.25-36, Jan. 1992.
[4] K. Chakrabarty, G. Poddar, and S. Banerjee, “Bifurcation behavior of
the buck converter,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 11,
no. 3, pp. 439-447, May. 1996.
[5] E. Fossas and G. Olivar, “Study of chaos in the buck converter,” IEEE
Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Fundamental Theory and
Applications, Vol. 43, no. 1, pp.13-25, Jan. 1996.
[6] S. Maity, D. Tripathy, T. K. Bhattacharya, and S. Banerjee, “Bifurcation
analysis of PWM-1 voltage-mode-controlled buck converter using the
exact discrete model,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I:
Regular Papers, Vol. 54, no. 5, pp.1120-1130, May. 2007.
[7] C. K. Tse, and M. Di Bernardo, "Complex behavior in switching power
converters," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 90, no. 5, 2002, pp. 768-
(a)
781.
[8] M. Di Bernardo, and F. Vasca, “Discrete-time maps for the analysis of
bifurcations and chaos in DC/DC converters,” IEEE Transactions on
Circuits and Systems I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 47,
no. 2, pp. 130-143, Feb. 2000.
(b)
Fig. 8. bifurcation diagrams of the inductor current: (a). simulation result;
(b). experimental result.
594
A Comparative Study of Inner vs Outer Rotor
Transverse Flux Machine Performances Based on
Silicon-Steel Stator Structure
Adeeb Ahmed Iqbal Husain
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
North Carolina State University North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC, USA Raleigh, NC, USA
aahmed4@ncsu.edu ihusain2@ncsu.edu
Abstract-Inner vs outer rotor topology is compared for a reduce the negative flux linkage but still, it fails to make full
laminated steel based transverse flux topology in terms of torque magnet utilization [4]. To fully utilize the rotor magnets, an
density. Whereas outer rotor motors often guarantee higher
torque density for conventional radial flux machines, the outcome intricate stator structure comprising of true 3D stator flux paths
for laminated steel based transverse flux motors requires detailed have been proposed [5]. This structure ensures full magnet
investigation. Finite element analysis based comparison of flux utilization with the use of only one ring coil. One pole of such
linkage and leakage performance is provided and outer rotor structure is shown in Fig. 1(b) where the anticipated flux lines
structure exhibitted superior performance when certain are shown with yellow arrows. But such magnet utilization
geometric features were included. Experimental results matching
with the FEA data are provided for the constructed outer rotor comes at the cost of a complicated rotor structure where flux
TFM. concentration in the rotor is a mandatory feature to achieve the
benefit. As shown in Fig. 1(c), if simple surface mount
Index Terms-- Permanent magnet machines, transverse flux
machine, synchronous machine, AC machines, laminated steel. magnets are used, only half of the magnets can truly contribute
to the flux buildup. Moreover, irrespective of the rotor
I. INTRODUCTION structure, full air-gap area utilization cannot be achieved with
such structure as seen from the figure. Furthermore, the 3D
Transverse flux machines (TFM) are mostly known for their flux path in the stator requires the use of isotropic material such
high torque producing capability. Though the concept was first as soft magnetic composite (SMC) for motor construction.
introduced more than 100 years back, widespread industry A third variation of TFMs is shown in Fig. 2 where the flux
applications of these machines have never materialized. The path in the stator is confined in a 2D plane permitting the use
topology relies on the transverse nature of flux path in the of silicon-steel in the stator construction while utilizing all the
stator where a ring-shaped winding is used to harvest the flux magnet flux. But it comes at the cost of using two separate ring
linkage. This often requires non-conventional material usage coils to form a single-phase winding. This largely increases
as well as added complexities in the construction process. the end winding length and associated copper loss. The
One-quarter of a simple form of TFM is shown in Fig. 1(a) advantage of this topology comes from the fact that it allows
which comprises of several ‘C’ shaped cores wrapped around the use of conventional motor fabrication material such as
a ring-shaped winding. The magnets are radially magnetized silicon-steel and eliminates the necessity of flux concentration
and magnets with opposite magnetization polarities are shown in the rotor. Though the use of silicon-steel lamination
in red and blue. The ring winding goes through all the stator introduces some trade-offs in the design procedure making
poles and is shown in orange. The anticipated flux path is such choice questionable. The trade-off becomes significant if
shown with green arrows and all the counter-clock-wise flux an outer-rotor structure is desired which is highly appreciated
from the magnets are linked to this single coil at the rotor for the capability of yielding higher torque output for most
location shown in the figure. This simple form of TFM was the motor structures.
one that was first proposed by Morday and later popularized In this work, a comparative study will be presented based on
by Weh during the 80s [1]. This particular topology can be the topologies shown in Fig. 2 to aid the TFM developers with
acknowledged as the simplest form of TFM and many others engineering design insights. The design objective is primarily
such as [2][3] have worked on it. The downside of such simple set on achieving high volumetric torque density with the use of
structure is the underutilization of rotor magnets and conventional material like silicon-steel. The rotor structure
consequent reduction in torque density, power factor, and was kept simple and surface mount magnets were considered
thereby, the overall performance. Moreover, the unutilized in the design process.
magnets are not truly idle but rather reduces the flux linkage
created by the neighboring magnets further deteriorating the
performance. Researchers have proposed using shunt flux
paths using I-shaped cores in the middle of the ‘C’-cores to
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under the
award ECCS-1307846
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 595

II. OUTER ROTOR TFM WITH OVERLAPPING STATOR to the angular space designated for the adjacent poles. In this
POLES special case, the thickness of each stator pole can be calculated
3D view of an inner rotor double coil TFM proposed in [6] as
is shown in Fig. 2(a) whereas the 3D view of three poles of the =2× ( × ) (1)
proposed outer rotor TFM in [7][8] is shown in Fig. 2(a). It is
where is the number of poles, is the inner radius of the
evident from the previously discussed TFM topologies that the
stator and is the over span factor. This number determines
simple ‘C’ core based TFM fails to capture flux linkage from
how much each pole extends to the neighboring region and
all the magnets and the only way to do so using standard
impacts largely the flux linkage profile.
lamination core is to use two coils. The bottom coil or coil-1 in
the figure is linking all the flux coming from the central magnet
in Fig. 2(a) and the 2D flux path is shown in Fig. 2 (b).
Similarly, the top coil or coil-2 is linking the flux coming out
of the alternate poles.
(a) (b)
(a)
(c) (d)
Figure 2: (a) Double-coil inner rotor TFM (b) Double-coil

(b) (c) outer rotor TFM (c) 2D flux path for the outer rotor TFM
(d) Top view of the double coil outer rotor TFM for over-
Figure 1: Transverse flux structures (a) Simple C-core spanning effect realization.
based with single coil and idle magnets (b) Single coil with
3D stator flux path with flux concentration in the rotor (c)
Single coil with 3D flux path without proper magnet III. INNER VS OUTER ROTOR COMPARISONS
utilization. Though for a radial flux machine, the outer rotor structure is
always the winner in terms of torque density, the
Since steel laminations are stacked along the circumferential circumferential placement of laminations makes it challenging
direction, these stator poles must have the same thickness at to design the TFM and special measures were taken to address
any radial location. As evident from the 3D view, the thickness the issue. It simply raises the question of using the outer rotor
of these poles can be readily calculated by the number of poles structure for such topology and an impartial comparison
and inner radius of the stator. Smaller results in a between the inner and outer rotor structures should be
thinner stator pole thickness and this reduces the effective pole performed. As such, two TFMs, an outer rotor and an inner
face area at the air-gap. This causes inefficient utilization of rotor with identical inner and outer geometry have been
space which becomes even more challenging with smaller considered. The major contributor that creates the differences
diameter designs. Even with larger diameter machines, are as follows
increasing to reduce this effect requires keeping a large i) Outer rotor has larger air-gap area giving it a major
hollow space at the center. The issue is mitigated by creating a advantage. The difference is readily visible if Fig. 2(a) and (b)
unique stator pole shape that allows sharing of angular space are compared.
between the adjacent poles or more appropriately an overlap ii) The circumferential leakage shown in red in Fig. 2(b)
between the adjacent poles. To create such structure, a vertical are low for outer rotor whereas the inter-polar gap is the
gap is maintained at the inner section of the poles denoted by smallest near the most leakage prone area for inner rotor
in Fig. 2(c). This vertical space allows each pole to extend structure as seen in Fig. 2(a). The pole thickness, however,
596
needs optimization to maximize the flux linkage before inter- If the flux linkage for two different pole numbers, i.e., 16-
polar leakage overwhelms the gain achieved by an increase in pole and 32-pole are compared, the clear difference between
thickness. the inner and outer rotor is obvious. The outer rotor structure
iii) Inner rotor structure enables using thicker stator pole maintains the same flux linkage which can be considered the
without using any over-spanning. The over-spanning feature key feature in TFM that make this topology stand out. The
used in the outer rotor also reduces the effective copper area inner rotor visibly suffers from higher leakage as the pole
due to the slanting of the pole. However, outer rotor structure number increases. As pole number increases, the gap between
has a smaller winding radius, and hence, lower copper loss. adjacent poles near the air-gap decreases and becomes more
comparable with the air-gap length, and hence, results in major
leakage. Thus, the foundation of the linear pole-torque
relationship is not held for the inner rotor topology. If flux
linkage for the 16-pole version is compared, the outer rotor still
wins with appropriate over-spanning. With no-overspinning
however, the outer rotor gives smaller flux linkage due to very
thin stator poles. It should be noted that, while making the
comparison, we should consider the maximum flux linkage
resulted by the optimized whereas for the outer rotor, the
flux linkage resulted from the maximum over-spanning
without making intersection with adjacent poles can be
considered.
Though outer rotor has some inherent disadvantages e.g,
(a)
higher inertia and issues with thermal management, the
improvement in torque performance is significant in this
topology. The dominant fraction of loss occurs at stator and
being inside, the heat rejection capabiliteis of these stator
reduces and must be be considered during design stage. If a
forced cooling system is used, like oil-spray in the winding, the
heat is transferred through the oil flow and absence of outer
surface heat rejection becomes less of a concern.
Based on all the performance factors, an outer rotor
transverse flux topology was chosen for further studies. The
primary reasoning behind going for outer rotor is the
achievement of same flux linkage profile irrespective the
number of poles as evident from Fig. 3. This feature is one of
(b)
the prime attractions of TFM topology and is essential for high
torque throughput.
Figure 3: No load flux linkage of inner and outer rotor
TFM. (a) Magnet thickness=2.5 mm (b) Magnet IV. PROTOTYPE DESCRIPTION AND EXERPIMENTAL
thickness=3.5 mm RESUTLS
The outer TFM prototype was optimized primarily for high
After comparing the two variations for identical inner, outer torque density while keeping a close oberservation on power
and axial geometric boundaries, flux linkage calculated factor performance. An objective funciion based optimization
through FEA are plotted in Fig. 3 for two different pole algorithm was developed to achieve desirable performance.
numbers with NdFeB magnets in the rotor. In the comparison Detailed design procedure for maintaining such
process, the same wire gauge and fill factor were used to charactersistics is given in [8]. Externel dimension and
compute the number of turns and the outer rotor has slightly mechanical output of the machine was kept to a reasonable
smaller coil turns due to the smaller copper area. In the plot, limit to match with the capability of the laboratory test-bench.
the x-axis represents the gradual increase in stator pole External dimension and design constraints of the prototyped
thickness. For the outer rotor structure, it is the over-span outer rotor TFM is given in Table I. Though small air-gap is a
factor which controls the overlapping and can be increased desirable property to achieve high torque density and power
until the adjacent poles intersect. For the inner rotor structure, factor, due to some initial mechanical issues, the air-gap length
the x-axis represents the pole arc coefficient denoted as was increased to 1.6 mm for the prototype. Despite having
that the stator makes at the air-gap, and the maximum value larger than usual air-gap length, the continuous torque density
must be less than unity to avoid intersection with the adjacent was satisfactory. Due to the smaller copper volume of the outer
pole. The actual thickness, however, depends on the ratio rotor structure, a continuous current density of 5.67 A/mm2
between the inner and outer radius of the structure. (RMS) resulted in a steady state coil temperature of 110℃ with
597
25℃ ambient temperature. This yield a 21 Nm continuous clockwise rotation. The measured and FEA results are given in
torque capability despite having such large air-gap. A revised Fig. 5(a). Use of 3D simulation ensured a very close
prototype with reasonable air-gap can yield much larger torque correspondence between the FEA and measured quantities as
density. seen in the figures.
A closer look at the constructed prototype is given in Fig. 4.
(a) and (b). The test bench with the motor mounted with the
30
dyno is shown in Fig. 4(c) MEASURED CW
MEASURED CCW
25
FEA
Mean Torque (Nm)

20
15
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
RMS Current (A)
(a)
30 Experimental
(a) (b) FEA
25
Torque (Nm)
20
15
10
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Speed (RPM)
(b)
800
600
Experimental
FEA
(c)
Power (W)
400
Figure 4: (a) Stator (b) Rotor (c) Test bench

200
Table I : Motor Design Parameters

0
Design Parameters 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Outer Diameter (mm) 135 Speed (RPM)
Total Axial Length (mm) 124 (c)
Number of poles 32
Air gap length (mm) 1.6
Number of Turns 110
Figure 5: (a) Low speed mean torque (b) Torque-speed
Wire Gauge (AWG) 20 envelope (c) Power-speed envelope.
Magnet Type N42H
DC Bus Voltage (Volt) 250 To assess full motor performance, the motor was operated
RMS Current (A) (@peak Torque) 5.67 with flux weakening control with 250V DC bus voltage. The
RMS Current Density (A/mm2) (@peak torque) 11.34
Peak Torque (Nm) 31
torque speed and power envelope are shown in Fig. 5(b) and
Continuous Torque (Nm) 21 (c), respectively. Space vector modulation scheme was used in
Corner Speed (@peak torque) (RPM) 240 the experiment and similar condition was replicated in the
Corner Speed (@cont. torque) (RPM) 260 FEA-based motor model. Power factor of the mator was
Power Factor (@ peak torque, 240 RPM) 0.68 computed at the corner speed by computing the RMS voltage
Power Factor (@ cont. torque, 260 RPM) 0.8
and current limits and real powers and given in Tab. I.
Reasonable power factor performance also proves reasonable
To compare the performance of the motor, low speed mean leakage performance.
torque was measured both in the clockwise and counter-
598
V. CONCLUSION
Torque producing capability and leakage performance of an
outer rotor TFM has been compared with that of an inner rotor
structure. Due to circumferential lamination placement, TFM
is found to exhibit some trade-offs when going from inner to
outer rotor. But with by properly addressing the issues arising
from lamination stacking direction, it was possible to achieve
significantly better performance with outer rotor compared to
the inner rotor counterpart. Most importantly, the outer rotor
structure exhibited the independence of flux linkage with pole
pair variation which is the primary requirement for achieving
a high pole high torque machine.
REFERENCES
[1] H. Weh, H. May, "Achievable force densities for permanent magnet
machines in new configurations", Proc. Int. Conf. Electr. Mach., pp.
1107-1111, 1986..
[2] J.R. Anglada, S.M. Abu Sharkh, "An Insight Into Torque Production and
Power Factor in Transverse-Flux Machines", IEEE Transactions on
Industry Applications, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 1971-1977, May-June 2017.
[3] M.R. Dubois, H. Polinder, J.A. Ferreira, "Transverse-flux permanent
magnet (TFPM) machine with toothed rotor", Proc. IEE International
Conference on Power Electronics Machines and Drives, pp. 309-314,
2002.
[4] K. Lu, W. Wu. "High torque density transverse flux machine without
the need to use SMC material for 3-D flux paths." IEEE Trans. Magn.,
vol. 51, no 3, pp. 1-4, 2015.
[5] J. G. Washington et al., "Three-phase modulated pole machine
topologies utilizing mutual flux paths", IEEE Trans. Energy Convers.,
vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 507-515, Jun. 2012.
[6] G. Yang, D. Cheng, H. Zhang, B. Kou, "Bidirectional crosslinking
transverse flux permanent magnet synchronous motor", IEEE Trans.
Magn., vol. 49, no 3, pp. 1242-1248, 2012.
[7] A. Ahmed, Z. Wan, I. Husain, "Permanent Magnet Transverse Flux
Machine with Overlapping Stator Poles", IEEE Energy Conv. Cong. and
Expo. ECCE, 2015.
[8] A. Ahmed, I. Husain, "Power factor improvement of a transverse flux
machine with high torque density." Int. Electric Machines and Drives
Conf. (IEMDC 2017), pp. 1-6
599
Trade Studies for a Manganese Bismuth based
Surface Permanent Magnet Machine
Jagadeesh Tangudu1, Gaoyuan Ouyang2 and Jun Cui2
United Technologies Research Center1 & Iowa State University2
Email: tangudjk@utrc.utc.com
Abstract- This paper presents trade studies and performance HIPERCO® needs quenching or special rolling process to
comparison of the design space for a fractional slot concentrated cold rolled into thin sheets [7]. In terms of performance, 3.2
winding (FSCW) surface permanent magnet (SPM) machine
architecture using non-rare earth manganese bismuth (MnBi) wt.% silicon steel offers good saturation magnetization, 2
magnet and 6.5% Silicon Steel laminate. Trade studies were Tesla; low coercivity, 26 A/m; reasonable magnetostriction, 8
performed with following machine parameters, namely, stator ppm; relatively high resistivity, 57 μΩ-cm; and low iron loss
outer diameter, airgap, current density, stator slot and rotor [8, 9]. HIPERCO®, on the other hand, is superior than 3.2
pole combination. This paper also attempts to compare target wt.% silicon in the saturation magnetization, reaching 2.4
performance metrics with different soft (namely, M19,
HIPERCO® and high Silicon steel) and hard magnetic materials Tesla [3]. It also possesses high permeability and high Curie
(namely, NdFeB48, MnBi and Ferrite). Each of these designs temperature (930°C). For motor application, using
was obtained using an external optimizer (Infolytica-OptiNet) HIPERCO® usually means higher power and better thermal
meeting required torque while minimizing active material stability. However, HIPERCO®’s coercivity (160 A/m) and
weight. This paper also verifies that select design can deliver flux magnetostriction (60 ppm) are higher, and the electric
weakening characteristics over the speed range.
resistivity is lower in HIPERCO® than in 3.2 wt.% silicon
I. INTRODUCTION steel, making HIPERCO® inferior to 3.2 wt.% silicon steel in
Several years ago, rare earth permanent magnet prices terms of iron loss and operation noise. Figure 1 shows the
shot up due to market volatility and limited availability. This magnetization as function of field strength for select
prompted several efforts towards developing non-rare earth materials.
based magnets and one such magnet material with potential to
capture the gap in the permanent magnet space is MnBi based
permanent magnet material. This paper presents use of MnBi
magnets in a popular FSCW SPM architecture [1-6] in-
combination with 6.5% Silicon (Si-6.5%) steel which has a
potential for higher resistivity and lower loss density at higher
frequencies. This paper attempts to explore the design space
and identify optimal machine parameters for a prototype.
II. MATERIALS CONSIDERED
A. Soft Magnetic Material
Electric steel (silicon steel) and HIPERCO® are among the
most widely used soft magnetic materials for motor
Fig. 1. Magnetization as a function of applied magnetic field for
application. Electric steel is a silicon iron alloy that may HIPERCO®, 10JNEX900 and M19.
contain silicon content up to 6.5 wt.%. Currently, 3.2 wt.%
silicon steel is produced in great quantities consumed in both Silicon addition effectively increases the resistivity of the
electric and electronic industries including transformer and silicon steel. High electric resistivity leads to lower eddy
small motors. HIPERCO®, also referred as Supermendur, is a current loss contributing to lower iron loss, especially at
cobalt iron vanadium alloy with the composition near higher frequencies. However, higher silicon content causes
Fe49Co49V2. HIPERCO® is typically used in high end brittleness and lower saturation magnetization. With 6.5 wt.%
industrial or military motors where high performance is silicon, the saturation magnetization is decreased to 1.7 T
required. [10], but the electric resistivity is increased by 50% to 72 μΩ-
Comparison may be made between these two types of cm, and magnetostriction is reduced to 0.1 ppm [8, 11]. As
materials in terms of cost and performance. 3.2 wt.% silicon results, 6.5 wt.% silicon steel has lower iron loss and
steel uses the two of most abundant elements on earth’s crust, operation noise than the current 3.2 wt.% silicon steel.
it has predominant cost advantage over HIPERCO® which However, it is difficult to produce thin laminates of 6.5 wt.%
uses high content of cobalt. The good ductility of 3.2 wt.% silicon steel due to the embrittlement by the formation of
silicon steel also ensures the low processing cost for this ordered B2/D03 phases. Currently, 6.5 wt.% silicon steel
material. It may form various width and thickness laminates sheet is commercially produced by chemical vapor deposition
by the cost-effective cold rolling process. In contrast, of Silicon on 3.2 wt.% silicon steel sheet followed by
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 600

10 high electric resistivity and good ductility at 200 °C. MnBi
has the potential to deliver higher maximum energy density to
a theoretical value of 17.6 MGOe [14] providing pure phase
JNEX-Core 200Hz
1 JNEX-Core 500Hz is to be produced and maintained with good alignment.
JNEX-Core 1000Hz Currently, producing bulk MnBi magnet remains a
Flux Density B [T]
JNEX-Core 2000Hz
Arnon 7 200Hz
challenging task due to the peritectic reaction between Mn
0.1 Arnon 7 400Hz and Bi which causes large amount of Mn precipitation that is
Arnon 7 1000Hz
subsequently oxidized during the magnet fabrication process
Arnon 7 2000Hz
M19 200 Hz
[14]. Potential drawback for MnBi based magnet lies in the
0.01 M19 400 Hz criticality of the Bi supply. Bismuth, at an estimated 8 parts
M19 1000 Hz
M19 2000 Hz
0.001
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
core loss [W/kg]
Fig. 2. Loss density[W/kg] as a function of applied magnetic field [T] for
HIPERCO®, 10JNEX900 and M19.
diffusion annealing. [8]. Production of 6.5 wt.% silicon steel
strip with thin thickness using rapid solidification method
was demonstrated [10], but yet to reach industrial scale.
Figure 2 shows comparison of loss density as function
applied magnetic flux density and frequency. It can be shen
B. Hard Magnetic Material
NdFeB and Ferrite are currently dominating the permanent
Fig. 3. Comparison of magnetic properties of MnBi [8], Nd-Fe-B [3], and
magnet market. NdFeB has excellent room temperature Ferrite [3] at different temperatures
magnetic properties with saturation magnetization at 1.4 T
and coercivity at 20 kOe. It possesses the highest maximum per billion by weight, ranks 69th in elemental abundance in
energy product in bulk form, peaking at ~56 MGOe at room the Earth’s crust. This newly created demand in Bi supply
temperature [7]. For motor application, high energy product would result in increased price of Bi, which in turn resulting
and high coercivity directly lead to high energy density and in an increase in the MnBi magnet price, but total cost is still
good resistance to demagnetization field. However, the anticipated to be cheaper than the NdFeB magnet price.
energy product of NdFeB decreases rapidly with increasing Figure 3 shows comparison of magnetic properties for select
temperature, making it unsuitable for motor application. To magnets at different magnets.
increase its coercivity at elevated temperature, up to 8% Dy III. PERFORMANCE METRICS
was added to NdFeB, delaying the “knee” behavior to a
Figure 4 show target performance metrics for torque and
temperature high than 175 °C [9]. In addition to the
power as function of speed. These motor specifications are
temperature limitation, Nd and Dy, are considered as critical
developed for a peak power of 10 kW at 2000 RPM and a
elements subjected to major supply risk [12]. Hard ferrites
rated power of 6 kW from speed ranging from 2000 RPM to
have magnetic properties far inferior to NdFeB. It has much
8000 RPM. Specific power density of 1.3 kW/kg; power
lower energy density (~4 MGOe) [9], saturation
density of 4.5 kW/l and cost of active material is 4.7 $/kW.
magnetization (0.4 T) and coercivity (3 kOe). However, hard
Overall project deliverables includes material development of
ferrites are inexpensive, making it particularly suitable for
both high silicon steel (with improved ductility) and MnBi
low grade motors. In addition, the coercivity of hard ferrites
magnets. Therefore, there is some risks/uncertainity
such as SrFe12O19 increases with temperature [10],
associated with manufacturing of both hard and soft magnetic
providing some advantage in high temperature motor
material in larger quantities for higher power rating, hence it
application.
is decided to develop a 10 kW size electric machines under
With the rare earth supply concern for NdFeB and poor
this contract.
performance for hard ferrites, MnBi permanent magnet has
Table 1 summarizes detailed performance specifications for
been identified as a promising candidate for filling the
above defined target metrics of specific power density, power
performance gap between rare earth magnet and ferrite. MnBi
density and target active material cost. Applying select peak
has far superior magnetic performance to ferrites. The
power to the target performance metrics, estimated target
maximum energy product (8 MGOe) and coercivity (13 kOe)
weight of the machines is 7.7 kg with in a volume of 2.2 liters
have been attained in bulk form [14] at room temperature
and target active material cost of $47. In-addition to the
[15]. The key advantage of MnBi over rare earth and ferrite is
power density and cost metrics, team also aims to achieve an
its exceptionally large positive temperature coefficient for
efficiency of 95% a ½ rated speed and ½ rated torque. Peak
coercivity, creating great potential for high temperature
torque and rated torque at based speed (2000 RPM) are 47.75
applications [15]. MnBi’s other favorable properties include
Nm and 28.65 Nm respectively, while rated torque at
601
maximum speed (8000 RPM) is 7.16 Nm in order to deliver material weight. Note: Weight estimates olny include active
rated power of 6 kW. In addition, maximum fundamental material weight, hence each of these numbers needs to be
frequency to be greater than 300 Hz. viewed from a relative comparison point of view.
As indicated in above section, each of these designs has
gone through optimization which also account for magnetic
non-linearities. It can be seen that, at lower stator outer
diameter, machine weighs more due to longer stack length
and with increase in diameter, machine stack length reduces
and helps reduce the active material weight. Increase in stator
outer diameter further will help reduce the stack length but
Fig. 4. Target performance metrics for torque and power as function of

speed
TABLE I
TARGET PERFORMANCE METRICS
Specifications Units Values

Peak Power kW 10
Continuous Power kW 6
Maximum Speed RPM 8000
Maximum Frequency Hz >300 Fig. 5. Active material weight & cost/kW as function of stator outer
diameter
Specific Power Density kW/kg 1.3
contribution of end winding to the total weight overtakes the
Power Density kW/l 5.7 reduction in weight due to stack length.
Cost Metric $/kg 4.7 Figure 5 shows the comparison and weight break down of
DC Bus Voltage Vdc 325 active material as function of stator outer diameter. It can be
Weight (Active Material) kg 7.7 seen that the weight corresponds to straight portion continues
Volume liters 2.2 to drop with increase in diameter, but end winding weight
increase resulting in optimal weight for required torque at a
IV. TRADE STUDIES stator outer diameter of 250 mm. Cost metric indicates that
For performing trade studies, authors have considered these designs do not meet the target requirement of 4.7$/kW.
following design parameters: stator outer diameter, airgap, B. Airgap
current density, stator slots and rotor pole configurations and Airgap sensitivity is performed to capture any variability in
hard and soft magnetic materials discussed in the above machine weight if a thicker retainment is required for the
section. Performance comparison in-terms of machine power given speed and rotor diameter. Following design parameters
density at peak power i.e., peak torque (52.5 Nm), base speed were kept constant for this trade study. Configuration: FSCW
(2000 RPM) point and cost ($/kW) of active material is stator, SPM rotor; Slot-Pole: 9 slots, 8 poles, Lamination
discussed in the section.
A. Stator Outer Diameter
Using 6.5% Silicon lamination steel and MnBi permanent
magnet materials, trade studies were performed for stator
outer diameter. It is known in the literature that the machine
aspect ratio, defined as ratio of outer diameter to machine
active length changes with change in stator outer diameter.
But its impact on power/torque density for various materials
is not trivial. Therefore, this study is performed to understand
the impact of stator outer diameter. Following design
parameters were kept constant for this trade study.
Configuration: FSCW stator, SPM rotor; Slot-Pole: 9 slots, 8
poles, Lamination steel: 6.5% Si steel; Permanent Magnet:
MnBi; Airgap: 1 mm; Slot fill factor: 0.5, current density 10 Fig. 6. Active material weight & cost/kW as function of airgap
Arms/mm2. For performing these trade studies, each design
steel: 6.5% Si steel; Permanent Magnet: MnBi; Stator outer
for a fixed stator outer diameter has been subjected detailed
topology optimization to meet the performance metrics such diameter: 250 mm; Slot fill factor: 0.5, current density 10
as peak torque of 52.5 Nm while minimizing the total active Arms/mm2. As it is well known in the literature, with
602
increase in airgap, machine weight increases resulting in density 10 Arms/mm2. There are only few slot poles that are
reduction in torque/power density. This study is performed to suitable to produce electromagnetic torque and each offer
study the impact of airgap on the design space and will be different winding factor and harmonic spectrum in the airgap
used appropriately when detail design iterations are due to winding spatial harmonics.
performed between structural and electromagnetics.
Figure 6 shows the comparison and weight break down of
active material as function of airgap. It can be seen that the
total weight continues to increase with increase in airgap but
none of the designs meet target power density metric (power
density of 1.3 kW/kg or 7.7 kg of active material weight).
Cost metric for these designs was also not met for the
required power.
C. Current Density
Similar to airgap sensitivity study, current density
sensitivity study is performed to capture the impact on
machine weight due to current density and the ability to
remove heat due to electromagnetic losses efficiently.
Following design parameters were kept constant for this trade Fig. 8. Active material weight & cost/kW as function of slot-pole
study. Configuration: FSCW stator, SPM rotor; Slot-Pole: 9 combination
slots, 8 poles, Lamination steel: 6.5% Si steel; Permanent Figure 8 shows comparison of total active material weight
Magnet: MnBi; Stator outer diameter: 250 mm; Slot fill as function of slot-pole combination. It can be seen that the
factor: 0.5, airgap 1mm. Also well known in the literature, total weight reduces in general with increase in number of
with increase in current density, machine weight reduces poles. Also, for a given number of poles, with increase in
resulting in increase in torque/power density. This study to slots, active material weight seem to reduce but none of the
performed to understand the impact of current density on the designs meet the target power density. Cost metric for these
design space and will be used appropriately when detail designs was also not met for the required power.
design iterations are performed between thermal and E. Materials
electromagnetics. Each of the above sub-sections presented trade studies that
were performed using 6.5% Silicon Steel and MnBi magnets
to understand the impact of key design parameters such as
Stator Outer Diameter, airgap, current density and slot-pole
combination. In this sub-section, trade studies were presented
to understand the impact of lamination steel (HIPERCO®,
M19/3.2% Silicon Steel and 6.5% Silicon Steel) and
permanent magnet (NdFeB48, MnBi and Ferrite) materials,
while keeping following design parameters constant.
Configuration: FSCW stator, SPM rotor; Slot-Pole: 9 slots, 8
poles, Stator OD: 250 mm; Airgap: 1 mm; Slot fill factor: 0.5.
For performing these trade studies, each design for
corresponding material selection has been subjected detailed
topology optimization to meet the performance metrics such
as peak torque of 52.5 Nm while minimizing the total active
Fig. 7. Active material weight & cost/kW as function of current density
Figure 7 shows the comparison and weight break down of
active material as function of current density. It can be seen
that the total weight continues to reduce with increase in
current density but none of the designs meet the target power
density. Cost metric for these designs was also not met for the
required power.
D. Slot-Pole
Trade studies were also performed to understand the impact
of slot-pole combination on the performance metrics.
Following design parameters were kept constant for this trade
study. Configuration: FSCW stator, SPM rotor; Lamination
steel: 6.5% Si steel; Permanent Magnet: MnBi; Stator outer
diameter: 250 mm; Slot fill factor: 0.5, airgap 1mm; current Fig. 9. Active material weight as function of Material Selection
603
material weight.
Figure 9 showes performance comparison in-terms of
machine power density at peak power. As indicated in above
sections, each of these designs have gone through extensive
optimization which also account for magnetic non-linearities.
It can be seen that, design with NdFeB48 magnets have
higher power density compared to designs with MnBi and
Ferrite magnets. Whereas, design with MnBi magnets have
slightly higher power density than Ferrite magnet based
designs. Similar trend can also be seen with lamination
material too. Design with HIPERCO®50 has higher power
density compared to M19 and 10JNEX900 steel. This trade Fig. 12. Active material weight as function of current density for Higher
Power
study indicates that there is an impact due to selection of
material on the target machine performance and this study
also quantifies this impact using one of the key performance
metric, power density (kW/kg).
V. SCALABILITY STUDIES
It is apparent from the above trade studies presented in
section IV, that none of the designs presented so far had met
both required power density and cost metric due to the
selection of low target power of 10 kW. Therefore,
scalability studies were performed to understand the impact Fig. 13. Active material weight as function of slot-pole combination for
of select material at higher power (US Drive/ 55kW) [4] on Higher Power
the target metrics (1.3 kW/kg and 4.7 $/kW). Classical
electric machine scaling laws were used to perform this study.
Figures 10-14 show the impact on active material weight
Fig. 14. Active material weight as function of Material Selection for higher
power
Fig. 10. Active material weight as function of Stator OD for Higher Power. when scaled to higher power most of the design meet the
target specifications.
VI. FLUX WEAKENING CAPABILITY
While the focus of this paper has been towards machine
specific power density and cost metric based on peak power
(10 kW) operating point at base speed of 2000 RPM, it is
necessary to verify the design for flux weakening capability.
This section presents the flux weakening capability of the
machine with chosen hard and soft magnetic material.
Figure 15 shows torque and power as function of operating
speed both at rated and peak conditions. This study has been
Fig. 11. Active material weight as function of airgap for Higher Power performed for the following configuration: FSCW stator,
SPM rotor; Slot-Pole: 9 slots, 8 poles, Lamination steel: 6.5%
when scaled to higher power (55 kW) and found that most of
Si steel; Permanent Magnet: MnBi; Airgap: 1 mm; Slot fill
the designs actually meet/exceed the required performance
factor: 0.5, current density 10 Arms/mm2. Turns per coil is
metrics both for power density and cost. This study also
adjusted to set characteristics current to close to rated current
indicated that, for smaller power machines, end winding
for infinite flux weakening capability.
weight contribution has detrimental effect on the total weight
and cost, hence performance metric cannot be met, whereas,
604
contribute higher to the total weight, hence it is harder to
meet target metric at lower power rating. For one of the select
designs, it is verified that, select machine configuration can
perform under flux weakening conditions.
VIII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy, Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), under Award Number DE-
EE0007794. This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of
the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency
thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes
any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any
Fig. 15. Peak and ratedt Torque and Power as function of Speed information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would
not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial
product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does
not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by
the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of
authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States
Government or any agency thereof.
IX. REFERENCES
1. A. M. EL-Refaie, "Fractional-Slot Concentrated-Windings
Synchronous Permanent Magnet Machines: Opportunities and
Challenges," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 57,
no. 1, pp. 107-121, Jan. 2010.
2. Fratta. A, Vagati. A and Villata. F, "Design criteria of an IPM machine
suitable for field-weakened operation," in Proc. of 1990 International
Fig. 16. Cutrent and DC bus voltage as function of speed at rated power Conference on Electrical Machines (ICEM’90), 1990, pp. 1059-1065.
3. T. M. Jahns, G. B. Kliman and T. W. Neumann, "Interior permanent-
magnet synchronous motors for adjustable-speed drives," IEEE Trans.
Ind. Appl., vol. IA-22, pp. 738-47, 07, 1986.
4. J. K. Tangudu, T. M. Jahns and A. M. El-Refaie, “Design, analysis and
loss minimization of a fractional-slot concentrated winding IPM
machine for traction applications “in Proc. of 2011 IEEE Energy
Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), IEEE, 2011, pp. 2236-
2243.
5. Z. Q. Zhu and D. Howe, "Electrical Machines and Drives for Electric,
Hybrid, and Fuel Cell Vehicles," Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 95; 95,
pp. 746-765, 2007.
6. N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani and B. J. Chalmers, "Design considerations
for a PM synchronous motor with rotor saliency for high speed drives,"
Fig. 17. Power Factor as function of speed at rated power in Industry Applications Conference, 1999. Thirty-Fourth IAS Annual
Meeting. Conference Record of the 1999 IEEE, 1999, pp. 117-124
It can be seen that this configuration is capable of vol.1.
delivering rated power over entire speed range from base 7. C.W. Chen, Soft Magnetic Materials - Metallurgy And Magnetic
speed of 2000 RPM to maximum speed of 8000 RPM while Properties Of an Fe-Co-V Alloy, J Appl Phys, 32 (1961) S348-&.
8. http://www.jfe-steel.co.jp/en/products/electrical/catalog/f1e-002.pdf.
delivering peak power of 10 kW at base speed of 2000 RPM. 9. O. Gutfleisch, M.A. Willard, E. Bruck, C.H. Chen, S.G. Sankar, J.P.
Figure 16 shown RMS current and DC bus voltage as Liu, Magnetic Materials and Devices for the 21st Century: Stronger,
function of operating speed and Figure 17 shows the power Lighter, and More Energy Efficient, Adv Mater, 23 (2011) 821-842.
10. G. Ouyang, B. Jensen, W. Tang, K. Dennis, C. Macziewski, S.
factor as function of operating speed for rated power Thimmaiah, Y.F. Liang, J. Cui, Effect of wheel speed on magnetic and
conditions. Figures 15-17 confirm that select machine mechanical properties of melt spun Fe-6.5 wt.% Si high silicon steel,
configuration with chosen material can deliver rated power Aip Adv, 8 (2018).
11. H. Haiji, K. Okada, T. Hiratani, M. Abe, M. Ninomiya, Magnetic
under flux weakening condition properties and workability of 6.5% Si steel sheet, J Magn Magn Mater,
160 (1996) 109-114.
VII. CONCLUSIONS 12. M.J. Kramer, R.W. McCallum, I.A. Anderson, S. Constantinides,
Prospects for Non-Rare Earth Permanent Magnets for Traction Motors
This paper presented brief discussion on soft and hard and Generators, Jom-Us, 64 (2012) 752-763.
magnetic material. Paper presented trade studies to 13. M.S. Walmer, C.H. Chen, M.H. Walmer, A new class of Sm-TM
understand the impact of key design parameters such as stator magnets for operating temperatures up to 550 degrees C, Ieee T Magn,
36 (2000) 3376-3381.
outer diameter, airgap, current density, stator slots and rotor 14. J. Cui, J.P. Choi, G. Li, E. Polikarpov, J. Darsell, N. Overman, M.
pole combinations and soft and hard magnetic material. It is Olszta, D. Schreiber, M. Bowden, T. Droubay, M.J. Kramer, N.A.
shown that target specific power density and cost metrics Zarkevich, L.L. Wang, D.D. Johnson, M. Marinescu, I. Takeuchi, Q.Z.
Huang, H. Wu, H. Reeve, N.V. Vuong, J.P. Liu, Thermal stability of
were not met for a 10 kW peak power specifications. It is also MnBi magnetic materials, J Phys-Condens Mat, 26 (2014).
shown that when classical electric machine scaling laws were 15. J.B. Yang, W.B. Yelon, W.J. James, Q. Cai, M. Kornecki, S. Roy, N.
applied, most of the designs meet/exceed target performance Ali, P. l'Heritier, Crystal structure, magnetic properties and electronic
structure of the MnBi intermetallic compound, J Phys-Condens Mat, 14
specification for a USCAR (55 kW) power rating. This (2002) 6509-6519.
confirm that end winding in smaller machines tend to
605
Torque per Ampere Enhancement of a Three-Phase
Induction Motor by Means of a Capacitive Auxiliary
Winding
Mbika Muteba, Member IEEE , Dan Valentin Nicolae, Member IEEE
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technology
University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
mmuteba@uj.ac.za
Abstract— This paper presents the use of a capacitive inductor, solid-state power factor controller, and switched
three-phase auxiliary winding to enhance the torque per capacitors [1]-[6].
ampere of a three-phase Squirrel Cage Induction Motor In recent years, the use of an auxiliary winding, which is
(SCIM) for electric traction, which generally requires high magnetically coupled to the main winding, has been widely
torque density, a high power factor and high efficiency. proposed to address the problems associated with the
The three-phase auxiliary winding is only magnetically complexity and high cost of the synchronous compensation
coupled to the stator’s main winding. A conventional technique [2]. It also addresses the issue of voltage
5.5-kW, 50-Hz, and 4-pole three-phase SCIM is modified regeneration and over voltages, and a very high current inrush
to accommodate the main and auxiliary windings in the during starting in techniques that incorporate directly the
stator slots. The electromagnetic conditions of the machine connection of capacitors [9]-[12]. The use of auxiliary
are studied by means of Finite Element Analysis (FEA). winding also addresses the problem with techniques that
The results obtained from FEA are validated by means of incorporate controlled switches in the stator winding, which is
practical results. The results from both FEA and the generation of large harmonic current in the machine and
experimental measurements evidence that the torque per line. In [9] a static switched capacitor with an auxiliary three-
ampere is tremendously enhanced when a capacitive phase stator winding, which is only magnetically coupled to
excitation is applied to the auxiliary winding of the SCIM. the stator’s main winding, was explored for improving the
starting and operating power factor of a three-phase SCIM.
Keywords—Capacitive auxiliary winding, Efficiency, Power The use of single phase auxiliary winding, which is only
factor, Three-phase induction motor, Torque per ampere magnetically coupled to the stator’s main winding and
enhancement controlled by an active power filter to enhance the power
factor of a three-phase SCIM, is presented in [11]. In [10] and
I. INTRODUCTION [12], the improvement of power factor of a three-phase SCIM
by power electronics static switches to control a capacitive
Three-phase induction motors comprise a vast majority of single-phase auxiliary winding is suggested.
electric motors made in large sizes and mostly used in variable Recently, the effect of capacitive auxiliary winding on a
speed drives because of their simplicity, robustness and lower three-phase SCIM performance behavior has been reported
cost compared to permanent magnet synchronous machines [1]. [2]. In the latter, from both simulation and experimental
Therefore, the SCIM is always a strong contender amongst results, it was reported that the capacitive auxiliary winding
traction motors in Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Hybrid Electric had enhanced the power factor and also had a significant
Vehicles (HEVs). impact on the efficiency and torque. As mentioned, there are
Generally, a SCIM requires reactive power for operation. different techniques that provide reactive compensation of a
Thus, its power factor is inherently poor, and it is worse three-phase SCIM through an auxiliary winding.
especially when starting and running with light loads [2]. In Although the power factor is proven to be greatly improved
EVs or HEVs, the traction motor operates with a motor drive for different loading conditions, the effects on the torque and
for variable speed/torque control as well as regenerative efficiency have been reported with insufficient measured data
breaking. The power factor of SCIM is also poor when to support the simulation and analytical results.
operating with a power electronics converter. The enhancement Furthermore, no analysis has been reported on the optimal
of the power factor of the induction machine requires a means auxiliary reactive compensation required to enhance the torque
of reactive power compensation. Several techniques have been per ampere of the SCIM intended to be used as a traction
suggested to achieve this, including synchronous motor in EVs or HEVs.
compensation, fixed capacitors, fixed capacitor with switched
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 606

II. MOTORS SPECICATIONS AND RATINGS
The main and auxiliary windings have the same number of

series conductors per phase but with different wire gauge. The
auxiliary winding has thinner wire size and high dc resistance
than the main winding. Fig. 1 shows the stator winding
configurations of the three-phase SCIM with auxiliary
winding. Table I depicts the motors specifications and ratings.
(a)
Fig.1. Stator winding configuration
(b)
TABLE I. MOTORS SPECIFICATIONS AND RATINGS
Description Values
Output power (kW) 5.5
Rated current main winding (A) 12.8
Rated current auxiliary winding (A) 3.18 A
Rated Voltage main winding (V) 380-V
Rated Voltage auxiliary winding (V) 380-V
Rated frequency (Hz) 50
Rated Speed (rpm) 1478
Number of pole pairs 2
Number of stator slots 36
Number of rotor bars 44
Number of turns per phase main winding 108
Number of turns per phase auxiliary winding 108
(c)
III. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
In this paper, a two-dimensional (2D) Finite Element

Analysis (FEA) is performed using ANSYS 16.0
electromagnetic package. The ac magnetic-transient solver is
used to analyze the magnetic conditions of the SCIM. The FE
model has been carried out at rated speed under full-load
condition. The full-pitched three-phase main windings are
excited by 3-phase sinusoidal voltage. Skin effect and core
loss are considered in the FEA. The details of how to compute
the performance parameters of a SCIM by means of FEA are (d)
well elaborated in [2]. Fig. 2 shows the flux density
distribution in the different part of the SCIM. It is observed Fig.2. Flux density distribution, (a) auxiliary winding with 0 μF, (b) auxiliary
from the FEA results in Fig 2 that the stator back iron, the winding with 70 μF, (c) auxiliary winding with 80 μF, (d) auxiliary winding
with 90 μF
stator slot and rotor teeth become more saturated when a
capacitive excitation is applied to the auxiliary winding.
607
IV. PRACTICAL RESULTS C. Effect of auxiliary winding on efficiency and power
factor
A. Experimental Set up The performance of the three-phase SCIM is evaluated from
The experimental setting comprises of a three-phase SCIM no-load to 120 % of the full-load for different capacitive
with auxiliary winding coupled to a Model 1 PB 115 powder auxiliary excitations. The power factor and efficiency as
dynamometer having a water braking cooling system. A function of loading are shown in Fig 4 and Fig. 5 respectively.
DSP6001 high speed programmable dynamometer controller Observing from the experimental results in Fig. 4 , it is clear
is used to change the loading condition. The shaft torque, that under no-load condition, the injection of excitation current
into the auxiliary winding, using 70 μF , 80 μF and 90 μF
speed and mechanical power are measured by a rotary type
capacitors, significantly improves the power factor from 0.217
torque transducer. Fig. 3 shows the experimental setup rig
lagging to about 0.585, 0.765 and 0.52 lagging, respectively.
photo. At rated conditions, the power factor is about 0.99 lagging for
all three capacitve excitations. The use of a 80 μF capacitor
gives optimal power factor improvent throughout the loading
cycle, with power factor ranging from 0.765 on no-load to
0.99 on full-load.
Power Factor (p.u)

0.8
0.6
0.4
0 uF 70 uF 80 uF 90 uF
0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Fig. 3. experimental setup rig photo Loading (p.u)
Fig. 4. Power factor as function of mechanical loading.
B. Induction Motors Equivalent Parameters
The conventional dc, no-load and locked rotor tests are 100
used to determine the parameters of the three-phase SCIM. To
determine the magnetizing inductance the machines is fed at 80
rated frequency and rated voltage with dynamometer removed
Efficiency (% )
from the shaft. The machine rotates at speed closer to

1500 rpm which is the synchronous speed. The induced rotor 60
current will be small as the speed of the slip is very small.
With approximate very small induced current, the stator 40
current is approximately equal to magnetizing current. The
rotor resistance and inductance are determined using the 0 uF 70 uF 80 uF 90 uF
20
locked rotor test, while the stator resistances are determined
using the conventional dc test. Table II gives the parameters of
the SCIM. 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Loading (p.u)
TABLE II. MOTORS PARAMETERS
Fig. 5. Efficiency as function of mechanical loading.
Description Values
Stator resistance main winding (Ω) 0.555
Stator resistance auxiliary winding (Ω) 1.9 The presence of capacitors in the auxiliary winding circuit
Magnetizing reactance main winding (Ω) 53.79 does not have a significant effect on the efficiency of the
Magnetizing reactance auxiliary winding (Ω) 63.52 three-phase SCIM. It should be noted that the core loss is high
Stator leakage reactance main winding (Ω) 1.62 when the three-phase SCIM operates with capacitors
Stator leakage reactance auxiliary winding (Ω) 8.39 connected to auxiliary winding. Though the core loss remains
Core loss resistance main winding (Ω) 106.4 constant through the loading cycle, the no-load copper loss
Core loss resistance auxiliary winding (Ω) 581.8 during operation without capacitors connected to auxiliary
Rotor resistance (Ω) 1.01
winding is high as compared to operation with capacitors
connected to auxiliary winding. This is due to the fact the line
608
current is reduced when the motor operates with capacitors E. Effect of auxiliary capacive winding on main and
connected to auxiliary winding. On other hand, the core loss excitation currents
component of the no-lod current in the main winding increases
when a capacive excitation is applies to the auxiliary winding. In previous section, it was evidenced that there is less
This causes the core loss to augment in the SCIM. change in the efficiency of the SCIM when the auxiliary
winding is excited by a capacitive voltage. On the other hand,
it was was observed that the torque per ampere tremendously
D. Torque per Ampere enhancement increases when a capative excitation is applied. Fig.7 and
The mechanical equations that describe the dynamic model Fig. 8 show the behaviour of the main and auxiliary currents at
that takes into account the auxiliary capacitive winding are well rated torque. On other hand Table IV compares the values of
presented in [14]. The electromagnetic torque developed by the the main and auxiliary rms currents obtained from
interaction of the cage winding, main winding and capacitive experimental measurements.
auxiliary winding reported in [14], has components related to
With Load Torque of 35 Nm
the capacitor voltage. Fig.6 shows the effect of auxiliary 30
70 uF 80 uF 90 uF 0 uF
capacitive winding on the torque per ampere for different
20
loading conditions. While Table III depict the comparison
between the FEA and measured (MEA) results.
Load Current (A)

10
3.5 0
Torque per Ampere (Nm/A)
3 -10
2.5 -20
2
-30
0 1 2 3 4 5
1.5 Time (mSec)
(a)
1
20
0.5 0 uF 90 uF 80 uF 70 uF Fund: 100 % 70 uF
18
0 uF
16 80 uF
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 14 90 uF
Magnitude (%)
Loading (p.u)
12
10
Fig. 6. Torque per Ampere as function of mechanical loading. 8
6
The presence of capacitors in the auxiliary winding circuit 4
significantly improves the torque per ampere of the 5.5 kW 2
three-phase SCIM as evidenced in Fig. 6 and Table III. For a 0
0 5 10 15 20
light load of 20% , the torque per ampere is greatly enhanced Harmonic Order
to about twice of its initial value when a capacitve excitation is
applied to the auxilary winding. Observing the results in (a)
Fig. 7. Measured instantaneous main load current at 35 Nm (a) current
Table III, It is clear that there is corroboration between the profile, (b) FFT of the load current ,
FEA and MEA results.
For the light load torque of 7 Nm the main current which is
TABLE III. COMPARISON OF TORQUE PER AMPERE FEA AND mainly magnetizing is reduced from 5.75 A for 0 μF down to
MEASURED RESULTS 2.78 A, 2.52 A and 2.89 A for 70 μF , 80 μF and 90 μF
Cap. Loading(pu) respectively. At the rated torque of 35 Nm, the reduction of
Value Method main current is not significant because the magetizing current
0.2 0.5 0.8 1 1.2
0 uF FEA, Nm/A 1.68 2.74 3.10 3.29 3.33
is very small on full-load. From the FFT results in Fig. 7 (b), it
MEA, Nm/A 1.22 2.49 2.75 2.83 2.82 is noted that the presence of capacitive auxiliary winding also
70 uF FEA, Nm/A 3.51 3.98 4.02 4.06 4.08 affects the shape of the main current. The 7th harmonic of the
MEA, Nm/A 2.51 3.11 3.17 3.14 3.06 main current is the most affected by the capacitive auxiliary
80 uF FEA, Nm/A 3.99 4.67 4.56 4.31 4.35 winding. Fig. 8 shows the instantaneous excitation currents
MEA, Nm/A 2.77 3.16 3.16 3.13 3.05 (auxiliary winding) behaviours for different load torques and
90 uF FEA, Nm/A 3.61 3.85 4.09 4.13 4.17
MEA, Nm/A 2.42 3.03 3.12 3.11 3.06
capacitance values. Observing Fig. 8 (b), it is noted that the
presence of capacitive auxiliary winding significantly affects
609
the current magnitudes of the lower harmonic orders in the As noticed from the measured results, it is possible to have,
auxiliary windings. The auxiliary current profile exhibits a at the same time, better power factor, enhanced torque per
high magnitude of 3rd harmonic for 90 μF capacitor. The ampere and good efficiency through a wide range of loading
magnitude of the 9th harmonic is high for the 80 μF capacitor. operation using an optimal single capacitance value. The
three-phase squirrel cage induction motor with a three-phase
At a load torque of 35 Nm capacitive auxiliary winding is a good contender in electric
10
70 uF 80 uF 90 uF traction applications that require a high torque density, a high
power factor and high efficiency, especially in plug-in electric
vehicles.
Excitation Current (A)
REFERENCES
0
[1] E. Muljadi, T.A. Lipo, and D.W. Novotny, “Power Factor Enhancement
of Induction Machines by Means of Solid State Excitation”,Research
-5 Report 86-3, Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics
Consortium (WEMPEC), May 1986.
[2] M. Muteba and D. V. Nicolae, “Effect of Capacitive Auxiliary Winding
-10 on a Three-Phase Induction Motor Performance Behaviour”, 2017
0 1 2 3 4 5 IEEE African Conference, 18-20 Sep. 2017, Cape Town, South Africa.
Time (mSec)
[3] Bor-Ren Lin, Chun-Hao Huang and Zheng-Zhang Yang. Three-Phase
(a) Power Factor Corrector Based Oncapacitor-Clamped Topology.
Proceedings - IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.
20 pp. 3643 -3646 .2005
Fund: 100 % 90 uF
18 [4] N. Bianchi, S. Bolognani, F.Tonel Thermal Analysis of a Run-Capacitor
80 uF
16
Single-Phase Induction Motor. IEEE Trans Ind Appl. pp. 457-465.2003
70 uF
[5] T. A Lattemer, D.W Novotny and T. A. Lipo, “ Single-Phase Induction
14 Motor with an Electronically Controlled Capacitor”, IEEE Trans. On
Magnitude (%)
12 Industrial Applications, Vol. 27, No.1, Jan/Feb, 1991, pp. 38-43.

10
[6] C. Suciu, L. Dafinca, M. Kansara and I. Margineanu, “ Switched
Capacitor Fuzzy Control for Power Factor Correction in Inductive
8 Circuits,” Proceedings of Power Electronics Specialists Conference,
6 Irlanda, June, 2000
4 [7] Wu Hanguang, Chen XIUMIN, Lu Xianliang and You Linjuan.”An
Investigation on Three-Phase Capacitor Induction Motor”, Proceedings
2 of Third Chinese International Conference on Electrical Machines. Aug
0 29-31, 1999. Xi’an, China, pp 87-90
0 5 10 15 20
Harmonic Order [8] M. A El-Sharkawi, S. S Venkata, T. J Williams, and N. G Butler,” An
adaptive Power Factor Controller for Three-Phase Induction
(b) Generators”, Paper 84 SM 672-2 presented at the IEEE/PES Summer
Fig. 8. Measured instantaneous auxiliary current at 35 Nm (a) current Meating, Seatle, Washington, July 15-20, 1984.
profile (b) FFT of the auxiliary current [9] Jimoh Adisa A. Nicolae Dan V. A study of improving the power factor
of a three-phase induction motor using a static switched capacitor. 12th
International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference,
TABLE IV. COMPARISON OF CURRENTS pp.1088-1093, 2006
[10] A.A. Jimho, D.V. Nicolae, “Controlled Capacitance Injection into a
Capacitor Main Load Current Auxiliary Current Three-Phase Induction Motor through a Single-Phase Auxiliary Stator
Value Winding” 2007 IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference,
7 Nm 35 Nm 7 Nm 35 Nm
[11] M. Muteba, A. A. Jimoh, D. V. Nicolae “Improving Three-Phase
0 μF 5.75 A 12.37 A 0 0 Induction Machines Power Factor Using Single Phase Auxiliary
70 μF 2.78 A 11.13 3.91 3.63 Winding Fed by an Active Power Filter”, 2007 IEEE African
80 μF 2.52 A 11.19 4.30 4.14 Conference, Windoek, Namibia.
90 μF 2.89 A 11.25 4.36 4.13 [12] D.V Nicolae, A. A. Jimoh “A Three-Phase Induction Motor with Power
Electronic Controlled Single-Phase Auxiliary Stator Winding”, 2007
IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives.
V. CONCLUSION [13] I. Boldea, L. Tutelea, “Electric Machines: Steady State, Transients, and
Design with Matlab”,CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, 210
In this paper, a capacitive auxiliary winding as a means of [14] A.S.O. Ogunjuyigbe, A.A. Jimho, T.R. Ayodele, “Dynamic and
torque per ampere enhancement in a squirrel cage induction Transient Behaviour of a Line Start, Capacitve Compensated
motor, which is intended for use as a traction motor in EVs Synchronous Reluctance Machine”, Jour. of Electri. Syst. and Infor.
Techn., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesit.2016.12.012
and HEVs, has been analyzed. From both Finite Element
Analysis and the experimental results, it is clear that the
injection of capacitive current into the auxiliary has
tremendously enhanced the torque per ampere.
610
Improved Sensorless Direct Torque Control Using
Space Vector Modulation and Fuzzy Logic
Controllers
Hossein Saberi, Shahab Mehraeen

Division of Electrical and Computer engineering
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA, USA
hsaber1@lsu.edu, smehraeen@lsu.edu
Abstract— Fast response, robust and simple structure of Furthermore, stator resistance plays an important role in the
direct torque control (DTC) make it attractive in electric drive stator flux estimation, particularly in low speed region where
systems. Nonetheless, in sensorless applications, precise fundamental frequency of the applied voltage and the back
estimation of rotor speed and also motor torque and flux electromagnetic field (emf) are low and resistive voltage drop
estimation are of utmost importance. An adaptive flux observer is considerable in comparison with the back emf, induced in
is presented considering stator current and flux vector the stator windings. Therefore, simultaneous stator resistance
components as state variables and rotor speed as an unknown estimation will provide stable and precise operation of the
parameter that is estimated simultaneously via an adaptive entire system in low speed region.
routine. Stator resistance value plays an important role in stator
flux estimation. Similarly, stator resistance that is varying in The other challenging issue with the DTC drives is the
different temperatures of motor can be updated through the stator current and electromagnetic torque pulsations that
adaptive scheme that provides more accurate performance of the deteriorate steady state performance of the drive systems.
system. Conversely, torque, flux, and current pulsations during Different schemes are presented to enhance steady state
steady state performance are disadvantages of the classical DTC operation. In [1], the hysteresis controller are replaced by PI
method. A combined direct torque control and space vector controllers. A space vector modulation (SVM) unit provides
modulation (DTC-SVM) strategy is presented using fuzzy logic inverter switching signals, according to the reference stator
control. Fuzzy logic controllers (FLCs) are designed such that voltages that are derived using the PI controllers. The steady
obtain high accuracy during steady state, while preserve fast
state operation is enhanced in this method, but the controllers
response in transients.
cannot provide desired conditions in transitions. In [5], the
Keywords— Adaptive observer; fuzzy logic control; Lyapunov authors introduced a novel hybrid controller utilizing
theory; space vector modulation; speed sensorless drive conventional PI controller at steady state and PI type fuzzy
logic controller (FLC) at transients to improve both steady state
and transient conditions of the drive system. Although this
I. INTRODUCTION strategy enhance the system response, complexity of the
Direct torque control is well-known because of the fast control system is increased consequently.
response, robust, and simple structure. However, there are
some issues that should be addressed in DTC drives. One of In [6]-[9] dynamic operation and transients are not studied
the crucial subjects is estimation of motor flux. The DTC drive in the experiments. In [9], although the transients are studied in
is robust against motor parameter variations and perturbations, simulation scenarios, experiments only investigate steady state
provided that the flux is estimated precisely. Accurate flux operation of the system.
estimation results in precise estimation of electromagnetic In this paper, an adaptive stator flux observer is presented
torque and this can guarantee satisfactory condition of the drive for speed sensorless applications. The stator current and flux
system. Additionally, in speed sensorless systems, the rotor are considered as the observer states, and rotor speed or stator
speed is considered as an unknown parameter that is estimated resistance is considered as the unknown parameter. The
simultaneously. In [1], a model reference adaptive system is observer states and unknown parameter are estimated using an
suggested in which the rotor speed is updated using the error adaptive scheme for the observer. Furthermore, DTC-SVM
between two estimated fluxes that are obtained from two strategy reduces the torque and flux pulsations using improved
different methods. Nonetheless, precision of the approach is FLCs. The FLCs are designed such that improve the steady
reliant on accuracy of the other parameters that vary in state performance while preserve the fast transient response of
different conditions. Observer based approaches are presented the system.
in [2]-[4]. These schemes are preferred due to the simple and
robust structure.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 611

II. ADAPTIVE FLUX OBSERVER becomes negative semidefinite and equating the last two
terms. Hence, firstly, the observer should have stable poles
A. Adative Flux Observer For Speed Estimation
that are achieved through defining matrix K as [3]:
An induction motor is represented in a stationary reference
K1 = 2bI
frame as: (6)
K 2 = σ Ls bI
d  iss   a11 a12   iss   b1  s
 =    +   us  = Ax + Bus (1) where b is a negative constant gain. The observer gain matrix
dt λss  a21 a22  λss  b2   
does not relay on rotor speed and assures stable operation of
where iss and λss are the stator current and flux vectors that are the observer over wide speed range.
the state variables, and uss is the stator voltage that is the Equating the last two terms in (5) results the following
system input; a11, a12, a21, a22, b1, and b2 are defined as: equation that will be used for rotor speed estimation.
d ωˆ r
1 1 = Δisd (σ Lsϕˆsq − iˆsq ) − Δisq (σ Lsϕˆsd − iˆsd ) (7)
a11 = −( + ) I − ωr J a21 = − Rs I dt
σTs σTr
1 1 0 B. Adative Flux Observer For Stator Resistance Estimation
b1 = I I = 
σLs 0 1 Operating condition of the motor, such as motor
1 ω temperature, changes during motor operation. Consequently,
a12 = I+ r J a22 = 0 the motor parameters vary that may affect the drive system
σLsTs σLs performance. The stator resistance is of the utmost importance
for stator flux estimation; thus, an online stator resistance
0 − 1 estimation can guarantee precision of the stator flux estimation
b2 = I J = 
1 0  by updating the stator resistance value during the motor
operation. Therefore, the adaptive scheme is modified such that
Ls Lr consider the stator resistance as the unknown parameter that
where Ts = and Tr = are stator and rotor time
Rs Rr results in:
L2m d
constants, and σ = 1 − is the leakage coefficient. Thus, a e = ( A + KC )e + ΔA′x (8)
Ls Lr dt
state observer is created as:
 ΔRs 
dxˆ ˆ ˆ
= AX + BU s + K (iˆs − is ) (2) Δ A′ = A − ˆ ′ =  − σ Ls I
A
0
dt where  
 −ΔRs I 0 
where K is the observer gain matrix and estimated values are
denoted with ^. A Lyapunov function candidate is proposed as:
According to (1) and (2) the estimation error is determined as:
( )
2
d V ′ = eT e + Rˆ s − Rs / λ′ (9)
e = ( A + KC )e + ΔAx (3)
dt and its time derivative will be:
where e = x − xˆ , C= [I 0], and
 Δω r  V = eT {[ A′ + KC ]T + [ A′ + KC ]}e
 −Δω r J J (10)
ˆ
ΔA = A − A =  σ Ls  d
+ xˆ T ΔA′T e + eT ΔA′xˆ − 2ΔRs Rˆ s / λ ′
 0 0  dt
For evaluating system stability Lyapunov function is proposed The K matrix is defined such that provide stable operation of
as: the motor and then, by equating last two terms in (10) an
adaptive scheme for stator resistance estimation is derived as:
V = eT e + (ωˆ r − ω r ) / λ
2
(4)
where λ is a positive constant. The time derivative of V will (
Rˆ s = − K R  Iˆsx eisx + Iˆsy eisy dt ) (11)
be:
V = eT {[ A + KC ]T + [ A + KC ]}e III. PROPOSED DTC-SVM METHOD USING FUZZY LOGIC
d (5) CONTROLLERS
+ xˆ T ΔAT e + eT ΔAxˆ − 2Δωr ωˆ r / λ A DTC-SVM method is proposed that utilizes modified
dt
FLCs. In this scheme, the FLCs receive the stator flux and
Therefore the adaptive flux observer is stable according to the
torque errors as the inputs and provide d-q components of the
Lyapunov theorem provided that the time derivative of V is command voltage in a synchronous reference frame, aligned to
negative semidefinite. The condition is satisfied by defining the stator flux vector. According to the resultant voltage and
the observer gain matrix, K, such that the first term of (6) stator flux angle (Ɵ), the SVM unit applies the required voltage
612
Fig. 1. Input and output membership functions
Table I. RULE MATRIX OF THE FLUX FLC
Fig. 1: Sensorless DTC-SVM system block diagram e

de NB NM NS Z PS PM PB
to the motor using a three-phase two level voltage source NB NB NB NB NB NM NS Z
inverter as shown in Fig. 1. NM NB NB NB NM NS Z PS
A classical FLC is composed of three main parts: linguistic NS NB NB NM NS Z PS PM
rule base, fuzzification and defuzzification processes. The Z NB NM NS Z PS PM PB
fuzzification and defuzzification processes are performed via PS NM NS Z PS PM PB PB
asymmetrical triangular membership functions to obtain fast PM NS Z PS PM PB PB PB
dynamic response and high accuracy in steady state as shown PB Z PS PM PB PB PB PB
in Fig. 2. The control surface, depicted in Fig. 3, demonstrate
input-output relation.
A classical FLC consists of three parts: fuzzification
process, linguistic rule base, and defuzzification process. The
error between reference value and actual value and its time
derivative are considered as input variables. The system output
is control increment whose integral is the real output. The input
and output variables are normalized values, Ke and Kde are the
normalizing factors which map the input variables into the
range of (1, -1), and Ku is defined such that map the
normalized output value to the actual output range.
The fuzzification and defuzzification processes are carried
out using asymmetrical triangular membership functions. To
obtain a fast dynamic response, and high accuracy in steady
state, the asymmetric triangles are selected as the membership
functions, which are different from typical design. Fuzzy Fig. 2. Control surface of FLC used for the flux controller
inference is accomplished through the linguistic rules. The
rules are the most important part of the controller and define
the type of control used in the controller. Appropriate design of
the rules leads to desired performance of the control system.
The FLC, used in flux channel, employs a membership
function with seven fuzzy sets for both the fuzzification and
defuzzification processes, as shown in Fig. 2. Table I
represents associated linguistic rule base which introduces a
PI-type FLC. The control surface, depicted in Fig. 3, shows
how the output is dependent to the inputs. The FLC, in the
torque channel, uses the same membership function for the
Fig. 3. Output membership function
fuzzification, but the defuzzification is performed through a
different membership function. As shown in Fig. 4, two fuzzy
sets are added to the previous membership function to achieve
a precise performance during steady state. The linguistic rule
base, which is used for torque control purpose is given in Table
II. The control surface also illustrated in Fig. 5. In order to
improve the system behavior speed regulating is also carried
out using a FLC that is completely similar to which is used for
torque controlling.
613
Table II. Rule matrix of the torque FLC
150
Actual speed
e Estimated speed
de NB NM NS Z PS PM PB
Speed (rad/s)
100
NB NVB NVB NVB NB NM NS Z
NM NVB NVB NB NM NS Z PS 125
NS NVB NB NM NS Z PS PM 120
50
Z NB NM NS Z PS PM PB
115
PS NM NS Z PS PM PB PVB 1 1.05 1.1 1.15 1.2
PM NS Z PS PM PB PVB PVB 0
PB Z PS PM PB PVB PVB PVB 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Time (s)
60
40
Torque (Nm)
20
-20
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Time (s)
1.5
1
Flux (wb)
0.5
Fig. 4. Control surface of FLC used for torque controller
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS 0

0 0.5 1 1.5 2
In order to verify the theoretical analysis, simulation results Time (s)
Figure 6. System response in normal running up and applying external load
are given. The simulations are performed in
MATLAB\Simulink environment. The sensorless DTC-SVM The system behavior in low speed region is also
method is depicted in Fig. 6, and the motor parameters are investigated with the reference speed of 4 rad/s. System shows
listed in the Table III. an acceptable performance and remains stable while the actual
Performance of the system is evaluated during no load and estimated speeds match reasonably as shown in Fig. 7.
starting; also the nominal load is applied to the motor after
6
running up condition. The reference speed is set on 120 rad/s, Actual speed
Estimated speed
and the reference flux is adjusted on 0.9 wb. The nominal load 5
torque is applied to the motor at t=1s. The estimated speed
Speed (rad/s)
4
tracks the actual speed precisely and the speed error is
negligible as shown in the Fig. 6. The drive system maintains 3
4.1
its desired performance after applying the load torque. 2 4
Furthermore, torque and flux curves are illustrated that confirm
1
efficiency of the observer. 3.9
1 1.05 1.1 1.15 1.2 1.25

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
TABLE III. MOTOR AND INVERTER PARAMETER
Time (s)
Parameter Value 1
Speed error (rad/s)
J (kg.m2) 0.000244 0.5

Number of Poles 4
0
Frequency(Hz) 120
Stator Resistance(ohm) 0.3 -0.5
Rotor Resistance(ohm) 0.32 -1

0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Stator Inductance(mH) 8.8 Time (s)
Rotor Inductance(mH) 8.9 Figure 7. System response in low speed region
Magnetizing Inductance(mH) 8.6
614
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In order to verify the DTC-SVM method in practice, an
experimental setup is developed as shown in Fig. 8. It consists
of an induction motor fed by a two-level three-phase inverter.
The control platform is dSPACE 1104 R&D board. An
interface board that includes opto-couplers devices connect the
control board to the IGBT drivers that run the inverter’s IGBTs
as shown in Fig. 9 in details.
The applied line to line voltage and phase current are
depicted in Fig. 9 at 1200 rpm. The proposed DTC-SVM
method results in an approximately sinusoidal current
waveform that reduces harmonics and noise in the phase
current and stator flux and electromagnetic torque
subsequently.
VI. CONCLUSION
Figure 8. Experimental Setup
In this paper, an adaptive stator flux observer is introduced.
The observer demonstrates a desired performance over a wide
speed range in terms of both stator flux and rotor speed
estimation. Speed estimation scheme is improved using fuzzy
logic control, which enhances the accuracy while preserves fast
convergence rate of the estimation algorithm. Finally, DTC-
SVM strategy is proposed, introducing FLCs for torque and
flux controlling. Appropriate normalizing gains and modified
membership functions of the FLCs guarantees desired
performance of the control system under different conditions
with a simple structure.
REFERENCES
[1] C. Lascu, I. Boldea, F. Blaabjerg “A modified direct torque control for
induction motor sensorless drive,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 36, no.
1, pp. 122–130, 2000.
[2] Z. Zhang, R. Tang, B. Bai, and D. Xie, ‘‘Novel direct torque control
based on space vector modulation with adaptive stator flux observer for
induction motors,” IEEE Trans. Magnetics, vol. 46, pp. 3133-3136,
2010.
[3] Y. Zhang, J. Zhu, Z. Zhao, W. Xu, D. G. Dorrell, “An Improved Direct
Torque Control for Three-Level Inverter-Fed Induction Motor
Sensorless Drive,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 740–
752, 2010.
[4] J. Maes, J. A. Melkebeek “Speed-Sensorless Direct Torque Control of
Induction Motors Using an Adaptive Flux Observer,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Appl., vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 740–741, May./Jun. 2000.
[5] J. Holtz and J. Quan, “Sensorless vector control of induction motors at
very low speed using a nonlinear inverter model and parameter
identification,” IEEE Trans. Industry Application, vol. 38, no. 4, pp.
1087–1095, Jul./Aug. 2002.
[6] H. Saberi, M. B. B. Sharifian, “An improved direct torque control using
fuzzy logic controllers and adaptive observer,” Proc. International
Conference on Computer and Knowledge Engineering (ICCKE) , 2012.
[7] H. Saberi, M. B. B. Sharifian, M. Amiri, “Performance improvement of
direct torque control drives in low speed region,” Proc. Iranian
Conference on electrical Engineering (ICEE) , 2012.
[8] H. Saberi, M. B. B. Sharifian, “A modified direct torque control using
an adaptive flux observer,” Proc. India International Conference on
Power Electronics (IICPE) , 2012.
Figure 9. Experimental Results; applied voltage and stator current of the
induction motor [9] H. Saberi, M. Sabahi, M. B. B. Sharifian, and M. Feyzi, “A modified
direct torque control for induction motor sensorless drive,” IET Power
Electron, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 1675–1684, 2014.
615
Enhanced Algorithm for Real Time Temperature
Rise Prediction of A Traction Linear Induction Motor
Konrad Woronowicz and Alireza Safaee Ali Maknouninejad
Bombardier Transportation Schnieder Electric
Kingston, Ontario, Canada Huntington Beach, California, USA
konrad.woronowicz.2013@ieee.org, az_safaee@ieee.org alimaknouni@gmail.com
Abstract— Thermal optimization is an important design aspect high margin, producing a complex thermal cycling of which a
for electrical and electronic devices. The nominal load is mostly traction propulsion system is a prime example.
used for the thermal design; potential operational overloads are
mitigated by monitoring the temperature via feedback sensors or
by switching the device off based on timing such overloads out,
providing the potential overload level is known. This paper
describes a precise temperature tracking algorithm for a traction
Linear Induction Motor (LIM), which is routinely subjected to a
severe thermal duty. Theoretical predictions and the proposed
algorithm are tested on a LIM-propelled electric traction vehicle.
Application of the algorithm is extended to other components such
as input filter inductors and high voltage DC supply cables.
Keywords— Temperature Rise Prediction; Algorithm; Linear

Induction Motor; LIM
I. INTRODUCTION
This The LIM primary is installed on a bogie and the LIM
secondary, the Reaction Rail (RR), is installed in the track as
shown in Fig. 1. The enclosed nature of the LIM primary as well Fig. 1: LIM primary and a thermally independent secondary
as the rather large gap between the LIM primary and the LIM (rotor equivalent).
secondary together isolate the LIM primary from its secondary During acceleration and deceleration the instantaneous
side so that the secondary heat does not affect the primary current of the application LIM motor exceeds the nominal
temperature. thermal value (400 A for the subject motor) and decreases below
those values in coasting and during station stops as shown in Fig.
On short trains even a single propulsion failure can critically
2 and Fig. 3 respectively. The graphs in Fig.2 and Fig. 3 show
slow the RT train and consequently the entire system. In such
two round trip LIM motor current profiles of a lightly and
cases the train must be removed from service, but before it is
nominally loaded LIM motor propulsion system of a Vancouver
done, to prevent system-wide schedule delays, it is common to
Expo Line transit train, respectively.
boost LIM current supplied from the propulsion inverter to
achieve the performance of a “healthy”. The increased current
inevitably produces much more severe than normal thermal
cycling leading to higher temperatures of DC supply cables, line
inductors and the traction motor. Under the circumstances it is
of critical importance to precisely track the temperature of those
components to prevent subsequent thermal failures and to
provide proper feedback for the LIM controlling algorithm [1-
7].
For all components and devices for which the heat losses can
be defined solely by the knowledge of electric current, such as
inductors, cables, linear motors and actuators, etc., the nominal
current can be associated with a nominal maximum temperature
rise above ambient [6,7]. However, very often the load and
hence the device’s heat producing current varies in a very wide Fig. 2: LIM current profile over the round trip (311 A average
range from zero to values exceeding the nominal current by a RMS – light load) on Expo Line of Vancouver SkyTrain System.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 616

instantaneous current , the maximum temperature rise is
given as ∆ ∙∆ _ . Substituting the last into
(2) and taking into account a different operating ambient
temperature :
∆ ∙∆ _ 1 ∆
(3)
_
The equation shows that the temperature rise is proportional to

a square of current and for any value of the
temperature rise of the device is finite and given as ∆ ∙
∆ _ .
Fig. 3: LIM current profile over the round trip (400 A average
RMS – nominal load) on Expo Line of Vancouver SkyTrain
III. IMPROVED TEMPERATURE RISE EQUATION
System.
Equation (3) is often used as a first level temperature rise
Unlike the power cables and the input inductor, the subject prediction for the equipment such as LIMs, input inductors or
LIM was fitted with an over-temperature protection sensor. power cables. Substituting for from duty cycle current
However, to increase propulsion availability, the software profiles as in Fig. 2 or Fig. 3 the temperature profile of a device
based temperature tracking protection algorithm was can be drawn. However, this approach leads to an error in
developed to enable the LIM powered trains to operate with temperature assessment as it does not account for temperature
malfunctioning hardware temperature feedback in both the dependence of the heat dissipating primary winding resistance
normal and the failure mode of operation. and the resulting temperature dependence of the heat power, ..
Defining the following additional parameters: – resistive
temperature coefficient - 0.00393 (0.00393 ) for copper and
II. TEMPERATURE RISE EQUATION ℃
– conductor resistance at 20℃ (293.15 K) and assuming that
The basic heat balancing equation states that heat energy ohmic resistance of the heated device is proportional to the first
in the system will be partially dissipated into the surrounding degree of temperature rise ∆ , 1 ∆
ambient and partially stored in the heated device increasing its 20℃ , the following is obtained from (1):
temperature. As long as the heat power is constant, the
temperature will stabilize and the temperature rise can be ∙ 1 ∆ 20℃
(4)
described by the following equation: ∙ ∆ ∙∆ ∙
∙ ∙ ∆ ∙∆ ∙ (1) Assuming that a thermal steady state has been achieved at →

∞ we have: ∙ ∆ → 0 . In such case, equation (4)
where P is dissipated instantaneous power [W]; k is dissipation
simplifies and the maximum temperature rise of a device, for
factor [J/K/s]; c is specific heat [J/K]; and ∆T is temperature
current , can be calculated as follows:
rise above ambient [K]. The solution to (1) traces a standard
exponential function of temperature versus time: ∙ 1 20℃
∆ (5)
∆ ∆ 1 ∆ (2)
where ∆ is the temperature rise over ambient at 0 and It can be noticed that now at we have ∆ ∞,
∆ and are the maximum temperature rise over
which signifies the current limit of a thermal runaway. The
ambient at → ∞ and the thermal time constant, respectively. existence of the runaway current could not be inferred from the
Given a device test data: _ – ambient temperature simplified equation (3). Further, (4) is rearranged as follows:
during test, – test current (dc or ac where applicable);
∆
∆ _ – test maximum temperature rise above test . From equation (5)
℃ ∆
ambient; – test thermal time constant, and assuming that
power is proportional to a square of heat producing
617
1 20℃ ∆ As can be seen from (11), there exists such value of current, the
thermal runaway current _ , at and above which the
which when substituted to the former gives: maximum temperature rise approaches infinity. Now, this value
can be found after equating the denominator of (10) to zero
∆
(6) _
∆ ∆
1 (12)
where: _ 20℃ ∆ _
∆ _
(7)
is a thermal time constant. Again, it must be noted that the time Fig. 4 illustrates the maximum temperature rise predicted by
constant is now a function of current and becomes both the simple and the improved temperature rise equation, if
infinite for the same value of current for which ∆ ∞. the operating ambient temperature is equal to test ambient
Solving (6): temperature. At 400 A the temperature rise predicted by both
equations is identical and equal to a test maximum temperature
∆ ∆ (8) rise of 120 °C, which was expected. For any other value of
current the predictions differ. The basic equation overestimates
At 0 we have ∆ ∆ and ∆ ∆ .
the temperature rise at currents below 400 A and
Substituting to (14) and solving for ∆ : underestimates the rise above it. At 700 A the basic equation
predicts the maximum temperature rise of only 367 °C
∆ ∆ 1 ∆ (9)
although, in practice and as predicted by the improved equation,
Which is identical with (2) except, as mentioned above, both 700 A is nearly equal to a thermal runaway current. The subject
the time constant and the maximum temperature rise ∆ LIM is a class H insulation motor with the maximum
can become infinite at a finite value of current. temperature rise of 180 °C. The simple equation predicts that
this temperature rise would be achieved at 490 A, although the
real temperature rise of the motor would reach 235 °C as
IV. INCLUSION OF TEST POINT DATA predicted by the improved algorithm.
Although the maximum temperature rise and a thermal time
constants were derived as given by (5) and (7), the thermal
equation (9) cannot be calculated numerically at this point
because both the maximum temperature rise and the thermal
time constant contain unknown parameters and , specific
to the heated component, the LIM. To calculate those
parameters, we apply the motor heat run test data point
(∆ _ , _ , , ) to (5) and then to (7). From
(5) we obtain:
1 _ 20℃ ∆ _
(10)
∆ _
Substitution of (10) back to (5) results in the following:

Fig. 4: Maximum temperature rise versus current
∆ Substituting the test data to (7):

1 20℃
(11)
1 _ 20℃ ∆ _ (13)
∆ _
618
Next, substituting for as given by (10) into (13): TABLE I:
Test Point Value
1
∆ _ (14) 20 °C
_
_ 20℃ ∆ _ 120 °C
720 s
Finally, substituting (10) and (14) to (7) the thermal time
constant is calculated as: 400 A
∆ 40 ℃
1

∆ _ 1 (15)
1
1 _ 20℃
A graph of the thermal time constant, function of current for the

subject LIM, operated at ambient temperature equal to a test
ambient, is shown in Fig. 5. The time constant, predicted by the
improved algorithm at test current of 400 A, is equal to a test
time constant, as expected. It is clearly visible that a time
constant increases rapidly with current and tends to infinity
when the current approaches _ .
Fig. 6: LIM temperature rise prediction by basic and improved

algorithms for 400 A RMS as in Fig. 2
Fig. 5: Time constant, function of current.
V. IMPACT ON TEMPERATURE PREDICTION

The temperature performance prediction of both the basic and
the improved temperature equations was compared by Fig. 7: LIM temperature rise difference between improved and
simulating the temperature rise of a LIM undergoing duty basic algorithms (400 A rms) as in Fig. 3
cycles as shown in Fig. 3. The simulation takes into
consideration the information, as shown in Table 1, obtained Fig. 6 shown temperature rise prediction of the basic and the
during thermal qualification of the LIM. The results of improved algorithms while Fig. 7 shows a difference in
temperature rise for 40℃ and ∆ 40℃ are shown temperature prediction between the two algorithms. Although
in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 respectively. the average RMS current of a duty cycle applied in Fig. 6 and
619
Fig. 7 is equal to a nominal thermal current of the LIM, the square value of current and the second one making that
predictions of both algorithms differ by as much as 20℃. proportionality additionally dependent on the actual
temperature rise due to change of a heat dissipating resistance.
It has clearly been shown that NOT taking that temperature
dependence into account leads to grossly underestimating the
temperature rise for currents above the nominal thermal current
for which the device has been thermally qualified. The
overestimation of temperature rise for currents lower than the
nominal is not damaging but the prediction cannot be used to
e.g. assess the real time resistance. The improved algorithm,
accounting for the winding resistance dependence on
temperature was shown to have much better predictive quality.
It was shown that the thermal time constant is a function of
current and as such always varies - is NOT constant. Also, the
improved algorithm can estimate the thermal run-away current,
which was not possible using a simple algorithm.
The improved method of temperature tracking and estimation
can easily be extended to other devices, primarily those, in
Fig. 8: Comparison of algorithms versus measured which the losses can be modelled as proportional to a square of
temperature results current, for example cables, PCB transformers, air chokes,
selected linear motors, transformers and more.
VI. PREDICTION VALIDATION REFERENCES

[1] F. Ahmed and N. C. Kar, "Analysis of End-Winding Thermal Effects in
Performance validation of the improved algorithm was done by a Totally Enclosed Fan-Cooled Induction Motor With a Die Cast Copper
comparing the calculated temperature rise against the reading Rotor," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 53, no. 3, pp.
3098-3109, May-June 2017.
of a thermal sensor imbedded in a production LIM winding
[2] I. Kumagai, S. Noda, S. Nozawa, Y. Kakiuchi, K. Okada and M. Inaba,
while operating on Vancouver Expo line with nominal "Whole body joint load reduction control for high-load tasks of humanoid
passenger load as in Fig. 2. The measured data was collected in robot through adapting joint torque limitation based on online joint
temperature estimation," 2014 IEEE-RAS International Conference on
a form of temperature and motor current reading. Subsequently Humanoid Robots, Madrid, 2014, pp. 463-468.
motor current data was fed into the simulator and the calculated [3] M. A. Valenzuela and P. Reyes, "Simple and Reliable Model for the
temperature rise compared with the sensor reading. The results, Thermal Protection of Variable-Speed Self-Ventilated Induction Motor
Drives," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 46, no. 2, pp.
Fig. 8, show that the improved algorithm (blue) predicts the 770-778, March-april 2010.
measured temperature rise results (green) much better than the [4] C. C. Chan, Lietong Yan, Pizhang Chen, Zezhong Wang and K. T. Chau,
basic algorithm (red). The somewhat lower measured "Analysis of electromagnetic and thermal fields for induction motors
during starting," IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 9, no. 1,
temperature is in part due to the additional small cooling effect pp. 53-60, Mar 1994.
resulting from the movement of the vehicle. Due to high degree [5] F. Ahmed, E. Ghosh and N. C. Kar, "Transient thermal analysis of a
copper rotor induction motor using a lumped parameter temperature
of prediction accuracy, the improved software algorithm has network model," 2016 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference
been deployed fleet wide. and Expo (ITEC), Dearborn, MI, 2016, pp. 1-6.
[6] K. Woronowicz and R. Palka, “Optimized thrust control of linear
induction motors by a compensation approach,” International Journal of
VII. CONCLUSION Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics, 19(1-4), 2004. pp. 533-536.
Two temperature-rise prediction algorithms for a traction LIM [7] K. Woronowicz and R. Palka, “An advanced linear induction motor
control approach using the compensation of its parameters.
motor were presented. The first and most commonly used Electromagnetic Fields in Electrical Engineering,” IOS Press, 2002,
assumes that heat dissipated in the device is proportional to a pp.335-338..
620
Evaluating the Feasibility of Single-Rotor
Topologies in Hybrid Excitation Synchronous
Machines for Automotive Traction Applications
Mohamad Salameh, Antonio Di Gioia, Ian P. Brown and Mahesh Krishnamurthy
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Email: msalame1@hawk.iit.edu
Abstract—This paper discusses the feasibility of different constant power speed range of operation.
hybrid excitation synchronous machines (HESMs) for automotive Moreover, the hybridization ratio of the machine can be
traction applications. A comparison is made between different chosen to reduce the usage of rare-earth permanent magnet,
single-rotor topologies, which utilize combinations of permanent
magnet excitation and wound-field excitation. The electromag- and to improve the efficiency of the drive cycle of the electric
netic performance is evaluated using two-dimensional finite vehicle [1], [2], [4]–[6].
element analysis of different rotor topologies in machines with the
same stator and rotor dimensions. The comparison considers the Based on the flux paths, HESMs can be divided into two
torque capability, flux-control capability, open circuit and loaded
main types: series and parallel hybrid excitation synchronous
voltage characteristics and air-gap harmonics of the selected rotor
topologies. Furthermore, the performances of the hybrid-rotor machines (S-HESM and P-HESM, respectively). In the
topologies are compared to those of an interior PM synchronous series configuration, the excitation flux produced by the field
machine (IPMSM) and a pure wound-field synchronous machine winding flows through the PMs, which have low permeability,
(WFSM). and results in a limited flux control capability. In the parallel
Index Terms—Hybrid excitation, permanent-magnet motors, configuration, the two fluxes link to the stator winding through
Finite element analysis, electric machines design, flux weakening
region. independent paths, therefore the flux control capability is
enhanced and the PM is not subject to demagnetization by
the field winding flux if it is reversed [1], [5], [6].
I. I NTRODUCTION
The choice of the field excitation source in synchronous This paper discusses the feasibility of different hybrid exci-
machines is an important factor that affects the performance tation synchronous machines for automotive traction applica-
characteristics and control of the synchronous machines used tions. A comparison is made between single-rotor topologies,
in traction applications. Generally, permanent magnet (PM) which utilize both permanent magnet excitation and wound-
excitation offers better efficiency than wound field (WF) field excitation. The electromagnetic performance is evaluated
excitation at low speed operation, due to the elimination of the using two-dimensional finite element analysis of different
rotor copper losses. Additionally, PM excitation allows higher rotor topologies in machines with the same stator and rotor
torque density, enhanced reliability due to the elimination of dimensions. All the machines have the geometric parameters
slip rings, and the reduction in volume and mass compared shown in Table I.
to the wound-field (WF) excitation. On the other hand, WF
TABLE I
excitation offers simpler and potentially more efficient flux G EOMETRICAL AND P HYSICAL PARAMETERS FOR HESM COMPARISON
control capability, which in turn allows for a better efficiency
at high speed operation in the flux weakening region [1],
[2]. Moreover, the use of rare-earth permanent magnets can Physical Parameters Value
increase the material cost of the machine significantly, which
makes the permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) Stator Outer Diameter [mm] 254
Stator Inner Diameter [mm] 178
much more expensive compared to induction machines and Stator Stack Length [mm] 100
switched reluctance machines of the same power rating [3]. Rotor Outer Diameter [mm] 176.5
Airgap Thickness [mm] 0.75
Pole Pairs 4
Hybrid excitation synchronous machines (HESMs) can
combine the advantages of the PM excitation and the WF
electrical excitation, as they can achieve good flux control The comparison considers the torque capability, flux-control
capability with high torque density and efficiency for a wider capability, open circuit and loaded voltage characteristics and
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 621

air-gap harmonics of the selected rotor topologies. Further- Topology I, Topology III has a single excitation source at each
more, the performances of the hybrid-rotor topologies are pole, but with alternating PM and WF pole pairs. Topology
compared to those of an interior PM synchronous machine and IV, a P-HESM, which has an alternating PM, WF and empty
a pure wound-field synchronous machine. The power rating, pole configuration.
density and size of the reference machine were defined as in Topology I is considered a S-HESM, since the flux pro-
[7], as shown in Table II. duced by the WF in one pole passes through the PM in the
neighboring pole. The flux produced by the WF in Topology
TABLE II
M ETRICS FOR M ACHINE C OMPARISON II, S-HESM, passes through the PM in the same pole and the
PM in the neighboring pole, as shown in Fig. 2. Topology III
combines series and parallel excitation paths, since the WF
Machine Parameters Value flux passes through the PM on one neighboring pole and the
other pole with WF excitation. Topology IV , is a pure P-
Peak Power [kW] ≥ 60
Power Density [kW.kg−1 ] ≥ 1.6
HESM, since it has a consequent pole that shares the flux
Base Speed [RPM] 4000 form the surrounding poles with PM and WF excitations.
Maximum Speed [RPM] 12000
Peak Efficiency [%] ≥ 95
II. T OPOLOGIES
In this paper, four unique single rotor radial HESM topolo-
gies, shown in Fig. 1, are considered for comparison. The
topologies, proposed previously in [8], [9] were chosen since
they cover most of the variations that can be implemented for
a single rotor radial HESM. This paper presents an extensive
analysis for automotive traction applications.
PM
WF
Fig. 2. Flux paths in considered HESM topologies at a stator excitation of

24 A.mm−2 and field excitation of 20 A.mm−2 .
III. M ACHINE M ODELING A PPROACH

I II Machine simulations were performed using MATLAB and
FEMM software as shown in Fig. 3. The stator and rotor
geometries were previously optimized as a WFSM using the
implementation previously presented in [7]. The MATLAB
code was used to generate the dimensional geometry from
a set of input parameters and to initialize the simulations in
FEMM. The results of the electromagnetic simulations are
post-processed to calculate several variables such as torque
ripple, voltage per turn, core and copper losses, etc. Core
losses in the stator were estimated using modified Steinmetz
III IV and CAL2 loss models [10].
In this comparison, the considered machines have the same
Fig. 1. Considered rotor topologies (I) Alternating PM and WF pole S- stator design and airgap length. For this given geometry and
HESM, (II) Integrated pole S-HESM, (III) Alternating PM and WF pole pairs stator copper area, the stator current density was chosen to
S/P-HESM, and (IV) Alternating PM, WF and empty pole P-HESM.
achieve a linear current density (Ks1 ) of 60 kA/m, using (1)
Topology I has a single excitation source on each rotor pole, [11]:
with alternating PM and WF poles. Topology II, integrates two ACu
excitation sources, PM and WF, on each rotor pole. Similar to Ks1 = kw1 σ (1)
πD
622
TABLE III
MATLAB FEMM PM THICKNESS AND ROTOR CURRENT DENSITIES FOR THE SINGLE - ROTOR
HESM TOPOLOGIES TO ACHIEVE A NO - LOAD AIRGAP FUNDAMENTAL
Generate the dimensional
HARMONIC RADIAL FLUX DENSITY OF 1 T
geometry and the Performs series of
simulation settings magneto-static Topology PM Thickness (mm) Rotor Current Density (A.mm−2 )
solutions
I 1.2 13.8
Postprocessing of II 0.5 7.0
electromagnetic solution III 1.0 16.0
IV 3.0 30.0
Fig. 3. Machine Modeling Approach

rotor current density was set to the maximum value used in
this paper, 30 A.mm−2 .
Where kw1 is the fundamental harmonic winding factor, IV. C OMPARISON
σ the stator current density, ACu the total cross-sectional
copper area and D is the machine diameter at the airgap. A. Flux Control Capability
Based on the relation mentioned above, the stator current In order to compare the flux control capability in the field
density was set to 24 A.mm−2 for all topologies. weakening and enhancement regions, the no-load air gap
magnetic flux density was calculated using FEA for different
For the rotor excitation sources, the PM was sized to obtain values of WF excitation and post-processed with a Fourier
0.5 T as the design value of the no-load fundamental airgap transform, as shown in Fig. 5.
flux density (Bag1 ) for each of the P-HESM rotor topologies,
using (2) [11] and FEA, as shown in Fig. 4. Additionally, the Although Topology II is a S-HESM, where the flux passes
rotor current densities were set to obtain an airgap flux density through the PM, it shows the best flux control capability
of 1 T, as shown in Table III. For the pure PMSM case used compared to other topologies, this is due to the presence of
later in this paper, the PM was sized to obtain a fundamental WF on each rotor pole, which allows a wider ampere-turns
airgap flux density of 1 T. range for the variation of the air gap flux density. For the
same reason, the flux control capability is reduced in Topology
lm
4 µ I, since the topology has four WF-excited poles only. The
Bag1 = .sin(αm .90). lrm .Br (2) variation of the flux density in Topology IV is the smallest,
π m
µ +g 0
rm
since the number of the rotor poles with WF excitations is
Where αm is the PM polar pitch, lm the PM thickness, the smallest, which reduces the flux control capability. These
g 0 the airgap corrected by Carter’s factor, µrm and Br the results are contrary to the assumed expectations that parallel
PM material recoil permeability and remanent flux density, hybrid structures have improved flux control capabilities.
respectively.
1.5
0.8
1
0.7
0.5
0.6
Bag1 (T)
0
Bag1(T)
0.5
-0.5
0.4 I
II
0.3 -1
III
IV
0.2 Analytical -1.5
FEA -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
0.1 Rotor Current Density (A/mm2)
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
PM Thickness (mm) Fig. 5. Amplitude of the fundamental harmonic of the radial magnetic flux
density at the airgap for the considered topologies with combined PM and
Fig. 4. Amplitude of the fundamental harmonic of the no-load radial magnetic WF excitation.
flux density at the airgap (machine pole with PM excitation).
The radial airgap flux density (Bag ) for two pole pairs,
It should be noted that in Topology IV, the nominal value shown in Fig. 6, implies that for some topologies the harmonic
of the fundamental flux density can not be attained, since the content might change significantly depending on the field
excitations sources are on four rotor poles only. Therefore, the excitation level.
623
1.5
I As it can be noted in Fig. 8, the ranges for the induced
1
II voltage control are different, reflecting the excitation method,
III e.g. Topology IV has excitations sources on four poles only,
IV
0.5 while Topology II includes double excitation i.e. PM and WF
on each rotor pole.
Bag(T)
0
For the machine operation under load, the induced voltages
-0.5 show a small variation at different values of field excitation
for all topologies, as shown in Fig. 9.
-1
80
-1.5
0 2 4 70
Electrical Angle (radians)
60
Peak Voltage (V)

Fig. 6. Radial airgap flux density at a field excitation of 20 A.mm−2 .
50
40
Topologies III and IV exhibit different harmonic content,
due to the arrangement of the PM and WF on the rotor, as 30 I
shown in Fig. 7. An explanation for this phenomenon is that, II
in topologies III and IV, the amplitude of the flux generated 20 III
IV
by the PM poles is close to the nominal, but it is present 10
on one half of the poles. This airgap flux distribution results 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
in a harmonic component of the flux equal to one half of the Rotor Current Density (A/mm2)
fundamental frequency (Bag,0.5 ) when the field winding is not
excited. Furthermore, the change in the harmonic content of Fig. 8. No-Load stator terminal voltage (L-N) versus field excitation current
density.
the flux density is small in Topologies I and II, this can be
related to the alternating poles arrangement and the presence
of PM on each rotor pole, respectively. 100
0.4
80
Peak Voltage (V)
0.2
60
0
Bag,0.5 (T)
40
-0.2
I
-0.4 20 II
I III
II IV
-0.6 0
III
IV 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
-0.8 Rotor Current Density (A/mm2)
-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
2
Rotor Current Density (A/mm ) Fig. 9. Full-load stator terminal voltage (L-N) with stator current density
loading of 24 A.mm−2 versus field excitation current density.
Fig. 7. Amplitude of the harmonic corresponding to one half of the
fundamental frequency radial magnetic flux density at the airgap for the
considered topologies. Topologies (III) and (IV) have a sub-harmonic. C. Torque and Power Capability
The torque capability at different values of field excitation
(0-30 A.mm−2 ) is shown in Fig. 10, these results refer to a
B. Voltage Control Capability reconstructed transient solution with rotation at the nominal
Figure 8, shows the relationship between the no-load speed of 4000 RPM. In this comparison, the stator current
voltage and the WF excitation, for positive, field enhancing density was set to 24 A.mm−2 for all the topologies, and
excitation. As the WF excitation increases, the peak value the stator current angle was chosen to maximize the output
of the induced voltage increases following the saturation torque per ampere, which was determined with a simple
characteristic of the machine. search procedure to maximize the shaft torque.
624
100
As the rotor current density is increased, the average I
electromagnetic torque increases due to the increased field II
excitation. Similar to the comparison in the voltage control 80 III
IV
Torque Ripple (%)

capability, the number of excitations per pole affects the
average torque. Topology II shows the highest average torque 60
for the different excitation levels, due to the double excitation
at each rotor pole. The torque developed in Topology I and 40
III were the closest, since both topologies have a single
excitation on each pole. The lowest torque was observed in
Topology IV, since half of the rotor poles have neither WF 20
nor PM excitation.
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Moreover, the torque ripple decreases as the field excitation
Rotor Current Density (A/mm2)
increases, as shown in Fig. 11, which is due to the change in
the harmonic content of the air gap flux density. The torque Fig. 11. Torque ripple versus WF excitation current density.
ripple in Topology IV is the highest, especially at low values
of field excitation, due to the sub-harmonic phenomenon
explained earlier. Finally, the four topologies were simulated at
the same operating point (nominal current densities), as shown
in Table IV, and compared with the PMSM and WFSM cases
shown in Fig. 12. It should be noted that the HESM designs
have not been individually optimized to reduce their torque
ripple.
300
PMSM WFSM
250
Average Torque (Nm)
Fig. 12. Cross-sections of pure PMSM & WFSM topologies.

200
150
D. Losses and Efficiency
100 Table V and Fig. 13 , show how the hybrid structures can
I
affect the core losses, copper losses and the efficiency of
II
50 the machine, due to the change in the rotor copper losses,
III
IV compared to WFSM and PMSM. The core losses were
0 estimated using modified Steinmetz equation and CAL2
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Rotor Current Density (A/mm2)
model, as presented previously in [7].
Fig. 10. Average reconstructed transient electromagnetic torque versus WF The four hybrid excitation machine topologies were
excitation current density. simulated at the same torque and speed, 150 N m and 4000
RP M , respectively. As expected, the variation in the stator
losses was small, since the four topologies have the same
TABLE IV stator geometry and excitation levels. The pure PMSM and
AVERAGE TRANSIENT ELECTROMAGNETIC TORQUE AT NOMINAL FIELD HESM Topology II showed the smallest rotor losses, which
EXCITATION OF 20 A.mm−2
is due to the elimination or reduction of the copper losses of
the electrical WF excitation. Topology IV, showed the highest
Rotor Topology Torque Torque Ripple Power Density rotor loss and lowest efficiency, since the WF current needed
(Nm) (%) (kW/kg) to achieve the same torque is larger, which will result in the
increase of the rotor copper losses.
I 172.3 15.2 2.0
II 237.8 12.0 2.7
III 175.3 15.1 2.1 As can be seen in Table V, the efficiency is the same for
IV 125.0 24.1 1.5 HESM topologies, I and III, which have the same type of
PMSM 208.2 12.3 2.6
WFSM 237.2 12.6 2.7 excitation and same number of excitations per pole. The only
difference between the two topologies is the sequence of the
excitation on each rotor pole.
625
TABLE V
L OSSES AND E FFICIENCY AT THE SAME TORQUE AND SPEED , 150 N m rotor pole. Finally, the results from this model contradict the
AND 4000 RP M general expectation that parallel hybrid structures inherently
have improved flux control capabilities.
Topology Stator Losses Rotor Losses Total Losses Efficiency ACKNOWLEDGMENT
(W) (W) (W) (%)
The authors wish to acknowledge the support provided
I 3215 867 4082 93.9 by US Department of Energy through DOE Award DE-
II 3212 554 3766 94.3 EE0007798.
III 3214 827 4041 93.9
IV 3216 1112 4328 93,4 R EFERENCES
PMSM 3164 240 3404 94.8
WFSM 3245 946 4191 93.7 [1] S. Hlioui, Y. Amara, E. Hoang, and M. Gabsi, “Overview of hybrid
excitation synchronous machines technology,” in 2013 International
Conference on Electrical Engineering and Software Applications, March
2013, pp. 1–10.
Rotor & Stator Losses (W) [2] Y. Amara, L. Vido, M. Gabsi, E. Hoang, A. H. B. Ahmed, and
4500 M. Lecrivain, “Hybrid excitation synchronous machines: Energy-
efficient solution for vehicles propulsion,” IEEE Transactions on Ve-
hicular Technology, vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 2137–2149, Jun 2009.
[3] J. D. Widmer, R. Martin, and M. Kimiabeigi, “Electric vehicle
3000 traction motors without rare earth magnets,” Sustainable Materials
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[4] G. Borocci, F. G. Capponi, G. D. Donato, and F. Caricchi, “Mixed-
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[5] K. Kamiev, J. Nerg, J. Pyrhnen, V. Zaboin, and J. Tapia, “Feasibility of
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[6] W. Geng, Z. Zhang, K. Jiang, and Y. Yan, “A new parallel hybrid
Stator Losses Rotor Losses
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Fig. 13. Comparison of stator and rotor losses for considered topologies. [7] A. D. Gioia, I. P. Brown, Y. Nie, R. Knippel, D. C. Ludois, J. Dai,
S. Hagen, and C. Alteheld, “Design and demonstration of a wound
field synchronous machine for electric vehicle traction with brushless
capacitive field excitation,” IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications,
V. C ONCLUSIONS vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 1390–1403, Dec 2017.
In this paper, four hybrid single-rotor topologies have [8] G. Henneberger, J. Hadji-Minaglou, and R. Ciorba, “Design and test of
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been compared for motoring and generating operation in for electric vehicle application,,” 1994, p. 645649.
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PMSM and WFSM, to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks jdus, “Hybrid excitation synchronous generators for island operation,”
IET Electric Power Applications, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1–11, January 2012.
of utilizing hybrid rotor structures. [10] D. M. Ionel, M. Popescu, M. I. McGilp, T. J. E. Miller, S. J. Dellinger,
and R. J. Heideman, “Computation of core losses in electrical machines
using improved models for laminated steel,” IEEE Transactions on
Topologies I and III, reduce the rotor copper losses and Industry Applications, vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 1554–1564, Nov 2007.
the PM usage by half, compared to WFSM and PMSM, [11] A. Cavagnino, M. Lazzari, F. Profumo, and A. Tenconi, “A comparison
respectively. Both topologies have similar performance between the axial flux and the radial flux structures for pm synchronous
motors,” IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 38, no. 6, pp.
characteristics, since they have the same number of the two 1517–1524, Nov 2002.
excitation types on each pole. The values of efficiency and
losses were comparable to WFSM.
Topology II, where two sources of excitation are integrated,

showed similar performance capabilities compared to WFSM,
and the efficiency was the closest to the PMSM. On the other
hand, it does not reduce the usage of copper and PM in the
rotor. As a result, the efficiency and cost are not improved,
compared to PMSM and WFSM, respectively.
Topologies III and IV have a harmonic component of the

flux equal to one half of the fundamental frequency, resulting
in torque ripple that is too high to be suitable for traction
operation. Moreover, the power density of Topology IV was
the least, since field excitation sources are not provided at each
626
Comparison of Low-Pole Axial Flux-Switching and
Surface Permanent Magnet Machines
Ju Hyung Kim, Mingda Liu, and Bulent Sarlioglu
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
sarlioglu@wisc.edu
Abstract- This paper compares low-pole axial flux-switching and

surface permanent magnet machines. Two machines both
having 6-slot/4-pole configuration are designed at 1 kW, 720
r/min. 2-D and 3-D finite element analysis (FEA) are used for
design and comparison. 2-D and 3-D FEA results of AxFSPM
machine show 10% of discrepancy in output torque because of
saturation of stator tooth. 2-D and 3-D FEA results of AxSPM
machine correlate with a negligible discrepancy. Comparison
results of the AxFSPM and AxSPM machines show that
AxFSPM machine produces higher power and torque density
than the AxSPM machine because of less active weight. The
AxSPM machine is less saturated than AxFSPM machine.
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, flux-switching PM (FSPM) machines have
become popular and get more attention [1]–[5]. The FSPM
machines have robust structure because of a salient rotor with
laminated steel. In addition, there is less concern about the
containment issue of a rotary part because there are no
windings or permanent magnets (PMs) on the rotor. Cooling
the FSPM machine is less complicated than other types of
PM machine. The PMs and windings are located on the
Fig. 1. Structure of DRSS AxFSPM and AxSPM machines. (a) DRSS
stator, which provides direct access to windings and PMs and AxFSPM machine, (b) DRSS AxSPM machine
makes them being easy to cool. The unique geometry of the
FSPM machines provides the opportunity to investigate
further about the characteristics compared to other types of loading of the FSPM machines. However, most of the
PM machines. researchers focus on comparison among radial type FSPM,
In the literature, FSPM machines have been compared with IPM, and SPM machines. Less attention has been paid to a
interior permanent magnet (IPM) machines for traction comparative study of the axial FSPM (AxFSPM) and axial
application [6], [7]. 12-slot/10-pole FSPM machine has SPM (AxSPM) machines.
advantage and disadvantages over the IPM machine as To fill the knowledge gap, the AxFSPM and AxSPM
follows: machines are compared in this paper. Both AxFSPM and
• Advantages: Sinusoidal back-EMF; Smaller torque AxSPM machines have 6-slot/4-pole configuration with dual-
ripple; Good mechanical integrity and high reliability for rotor single-stator (DRSS) as depicted in Fig. 1. This paper
high speed; Better thermal dissipation of rotor; Higher attempts to contribute to quantifying the comparison of
efficiency output performance of the AxFSPM and AxSPM machines.
• Disadvantages: Smaller PM utilization ratio; Negligible In section II, the design specification and dimensions of the
reluctance torque; Larger back-EMF which limits AxFSPM and AxSPM machines are provided. In section III,
flux weakening region the design results are compared using both 2-D and 3-D FEA
Similarly, the FSPM machines have been compared with to find the advantages and challenges of each machine. The
surface permanent magnet (SPM) machines for high-speed conclusion follows in section IV.
application [8]. In the literature rotor mechanical properties II. DESIGN SPECIFICATION
are investigated concluding that the mechanical airgap of the
FSPM machines can be reduced as compared to SPM Table 1 summarizes specifications and constraints of
machines and, hence, increasing capability of the magnetic AxFSPM and AxSPM machines. Output power is 1 kW at the
rated rotor speed of 720 r/min. The fundamental frequency of
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stator is fixed to 48 Hz in 6-slot/4-pole AxFSPM. The
fundamental frequency decrease to 24 Hz in 6-slot/4-pole
AxSPM machines because the frequency is proportional to
the number of pole pairs. The fundamental winding factor of
the AxSPM machine is 0.866. Current density is set to be 4.6
A/mm2. Slot fill factor is assumed to be 0.5 for both
machines. The objective of the optimization is to reduce total
weight and loss of both machines.
Because of different dimensions in both axial and radial
direction of axial flux machines, 3-D FEA is commonly used
for estimating output performance. The 3-D FEA provides an
accurate result and is used for virtual prototype instead of (a)
producing the actual machine. However, computation of the
3-D FEA requires a significant amount of resources compared
to 2-D FEA. Furthermore, calculating more than thousand of
designs take substantial effort during the optimization
process.
In reference [9], it was reported that the 3-D FEA can be
converted to 2-D FEA to reduce computation time. In the
literature, output torque calculated in 2-D FEA matches with
3-D FEA results within reasonable error. Therefore, 2-D FEA
is a reasonable alternative to optimize AxFSPM and AxSPM
machines, which requires extensive calculation efforts.
(b)
AxFSPM and AxSPM machines are approximated to 2-D Fig. 2. Converting from 3-D to 2-D of AxFSPM machine. (a) 3-D FEA
FEA, as shown in Fig. 2. In AxFSPM machine, any section in model and its coordinate system, (b) approximation with 2-D FEA at a doted
θ-axis can be selected as depicted in Fig. 2(a). Then the black line of 3-D FEA and its coordinate system.
section is unwrapped as described in Fig. 2(b) resulting 2-D
FEA instead of 3-D FEA.
Fig. 3 presents dimensions used for optimization of the
AxFSPM and AxSPM machines in 2-D FEA. In both
machines following dimensions are considered for
optimization parameters: inner and outer diameters, stator
yoke and tooth, rotor yoke, PM height and width, number of
turns, and rated current. In addition, rotor tooth width and
length are also considered for the AxFSPM machine.
III. COMPARISON OF DESIGN RESULTS
Table 2 summarizes 2-D FEA based design results of the
AxFSPM and AxSPM machines. Outer diameter is bigger in
the AxFSPM machine than the AxSPM machines. Inner to (a)
outer diameter ratios are 0.6 for all the AxFSPM and AxSPM
machines.Total number of turns per phase are 404 and 392, in
the AxFSPM and AxSPM machines, respectively.
TABLE 1 FIXED MACHINE DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS OF DSSR AXFSPM AND
AXSPM MACHINES
Symbol Description Value
Po Output power (kW) 1
n Rotor speed (r/min) 720
Jrms 2
Current density (Arms/mm ) < 4.6
Krms Electric loading (Arms/mm) < 38
(b)
kcu Slot fill factor 0.5 Fig. 3. Dimensions of AxFSPM and AxSPM machines for optimization in 2-
g Air-gap physical length (mm) 1 D FEA. (a) AxFSPM machine having dual-rotor single-stator, (b) AxSPM
machine having dual-rotor single-stator only showing half of the machine.
ma Total active weight Minimize
Ploss Total loss Minimize
628
TABLE 2 2-D BASED DESIGN RESULTS OF AXFSPM AND AXSPM MACHINES machines. Rotor tooth width of the AxFSPM machine is also
Symbol Description AxFSPM AxSPM proportional to the diameter of 3-D FEA.
Table 3 summarizes the 3-D FEA results. Two machines
Do Outer diameter [mm] 150 148
have the same current density of 4.6 A/mm2. The electrical
Di Inner diameter [mm] 91.5 88.9 loadings of the two machines are 38.9 A/mm and 38 A/mm
kd Inner to outer dia. ratio 0.6 0.6 for AxFPSM and AxSPM machines, respectively. Output
dsy Stator yoke length [mm] 5.6 10.1 power is 905 W and 980 W for the AxFSPM and AxSPM
machines respectively. Total loss of the AxFSPM machine is
dst Stator tooth length [mm] 38.7 32.4
125.5 W dominated by a copper loss of 111.5 W and
dry Rotor yoke length [mm] 20.6 12.8
followed by core loss of 13.9 W and magnet eddy current loss
drt Rotor tooth length [mm] 15 - of 0.7 W. Therefore, the efficiency of the AxFSPM machine
wrt Rotor tooth width [mm] 24.3 - is 87.8%. The AxSPM machine produces total 120.4 W of
hpm PM height [mm] 29 4.0
loss. Similar to the AxFSPM machine, the copper loss
dominates the loss by 102.9 W followed by core loss, 9.5 W,
wpm PM width [mm] 9.4 27.2
and magnet eddy current loss, 8 W. The efficiency of AxSPM
g Airgap [mm] 1 1 machine 89.1%.
ns Turns per slot per phase 101 98 Regarding the active volume of the machines, the AxFSPM
machine has 1,216,155 mm3, while it increases to 1,589,270
TABLE 3 COMPARISON OF AXFSPM AND AXSPM MACHINES IN 3-D FEA mm3 in the AxSPM machine. It results in heavier active
weight in the AxSPM machine. The active weight of
Symbol Description AxFSPM AxSPM
AxFSPM machine is 9.8 kg, while it is 12.5 kg in the AxSPM
Jrms Current density [A/mm2] 4.6 4.6 machine.
Krms Electric loading [A/mm] 38.9 38 The weight of core material for stator and rotor is 6.5 kg
Ipk Peak rated current [A] 8.6 8.5 and 9.9 kg for the AxFSPM and AxSPM machines,
respectively. Also, PM used for the AxFSPM machine is 0.7
Em Back-EMF [V] 8.6 8.5
kg while that of the AxSPM machine is 0.5 kg. The specific
Po Output power [W] 905 980 power (W/kg) and torque density (Nm/kg) of AxFSPM
To Output torque [Nm] 12 13 machine are 92 W/kg and 1.2 Nm/kg, respectively. In the
Tp2p Peak to Peak torque [Nm] 1.64 3.8 AxSPM machine the specific power and torque density
decrease to 78 W/kg and 1.0 Nm/kg.
Tp2p% Torque ripple [%] 13.7 29.2
To validate the comparison, Table 4 summarized the results
Ploss Total loss [W] 125.5 120.4 of the comparative study found in [10]. The results in [10]
Pc Copper loss [W] 111.5 102.9 show that the torque density of RxFSPM machine is 1.07
Pi Core loss [W] 13.9 9.5 times higher than that of the RxSPM machine. It corresponds
to the results of this paper that AxFSPM machine achieves
Pm Magnet loss [W] 0.17 8
1.18 times higher torque density than that of the AxSPM
η Efficiency [%] 87.8 89.1 machine.
ma Active weight [kg] 9.8 12.5 Fig. 4 compares flux density distribution of the AxFSPM
mi Iron weight [kg] 6.5 9.9 and AxSPM machines. It is seen that flux density of stator
mp PM weight [kg] 0.7 0.5
tooth increases up to 2.0 T in the AxFSPM machine, while
that of the AxSPM machine maintains roughly 1.6 T. The
mc Copper weight [kg] 2.6 2.1
higher flux density distribution of stator results in a higher
mf PM fixture [kg] 0 0.1 core loss as summarized in Table 3.
vol Active volume [mm3] 1,216,155 1,589,270
TABLE 4 VERIFICATION OF COMPARISON WITH LITERATURE
Pkg Specific power [W/kg] 92 78
Symbol Description Reference [10] This paper
Tkg Torque density [Nm/kg] 1.2 1.0
Type Machine type RxFSPM RxSPM AxFSPM AxSPM
Dimensions captured in 2-D optimization (see Table 2) are ps/pr Slot/Pole 12/10 12/10 6/4 6/4
used for the dimensions of 3-D FEA at the average diameter. T Torque [Nm] 30.4 30.8 12 13
In 3-D FEA, the dimension of stator tooth width increases ma Active weight [kg] 7.91 8.54 9.8 12.5
towards outer diameter from the average diameter. Similarly,
Torque density
the stator tooth of 3-D FEA decreases toward inner diameter Tkg
[Nm/kg]
3.84 3.61 1.22 1.04
from the average diameter. Dimensions of PMs do not change Torque density ratio
with respect to the diameter of the AxFSPM machine, while Tkgr 1.07 - 1.18 -
[FSPM/SPM]
PM width varies proportionally to the diameter of the AxSPM
629
this reason, 3-D FEA result falls into the saturation faster than
2-D FEA.
Fig. 5(b) compares torque-current characteristics of
AxSPM machine. The overall performance of the 2-D FEA
results correlates well with the 3-D FEA results.
Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 depict torque waveforms of the machines
calculated by 2-D FEA and 3-D FEA. The torque waveforms
are calculated at rated conditions which are Iq = 8.6 A and Iq
= 8.5 A for the AxFSPM and AxSPM machines, respectively.
Rotating speed is 720 r/min in both machines.
As depicted in Fig 6(a), torque waveform presents six
cycles per one electrical period in both 2-D and 3-D FEA
Fig. 4. Flux density distribution of AxFSPM and AxSPM machines at rated results of the AxFSPM machine. The peak to peak torque
conditions. (a) 1/2 model of AxFSPM machine and its flux density
ripple is 1.7 Nm in 2-D FEA result. It decreases to 1.6 Nm in
distribution at Iq = 8.6 A and 720 r/min, (b) 1/2 model of AxSPM machine
and its flux density distribution at Iq = 8.5 A and 720 r/min. 3-D FEA results. The FFT results of the torque waveforms
are shown in Fig. 6(b). It only depicts harmonics of the torque
waveform, and the rated torque component (DC) is extracted
from the results. It is seen that the primary source of torque
ripple is 6th and 12th harmonics.
Torque waveforms of the AxSPM machine are presented in
Fig. 7. The peak to peak torques are 4.5 Nm and 4.7 Nm
calculated by 2-D and 3-D FEA results, respectively, as
shown in Fig. 7(a). The magnitude of 3-D FEA result as
depicted in Fig. 7(b). 6th, 12th, and 18th harmonics are the
dominant components of the torque ripple. Torque ripple of
the AxSPM machine is high because of highest common
multiple of the number of slot and poles are relatively low.
(a)
(a)
(b)
Fig. 5. Comparison of torque current-characteristics of AxFSPM machine
AxSPM machines. 2-D FEA results are compared with 3-D FEA results. (a)
AxFSPM machine, (b) AxSPM machine.
Fig. 5 depicts torque-current characteristics of the AxFSPM

and AxSPM machines. Both 2-D FEA and 3-D FEA results
are compared to validate the goodness of the 2-D base design.
It is worth noting that the machine is saturated faster in 3-D
FEA than 2-D FEA resulting reduction of output torque to 12
Nm at the rated current of 8.6 A. The main source of the
higher saturation level in 3-D FEA than 2-D FEA is the
smaller width of stator tooth in inner diameter. In order to (b)
Fig. 6. Comparison of 3-D and 2-D FEA results of AxFSPM machine at rated
keep the same slot area, tooth width of stator decreases in the condition. (a) torque waveform at rated current, (b) harmonic components of
inner diameter than average diameter, and it results in higher torque
saturation in inner diameter than the average diameter. For
630
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[1] J. H. Kim, Y. Li, and B. Sarlioglu, “Novel six-slot four-pole axial flux-
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Trans. Transp. Electrif., vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 108–117, 2017.
[2] J. H. Kim, Y. Li, and B. Sarlioglu, “Novel dual-rotor single-stator axial
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elimination topology,” in ACEMP, 2015, pp. 506–512.
[3] J. H. Kim, Y. Li, D. Bobba, and B. Sarlioglu, “Closed-form solutions
using offset angle for winding configurations of flux-switching
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[6] R. Cao, C. Mi, and M. Cheng, “Quantitative Comparison of Flux-
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[7] J. McFarland, T. M. Jahns, and A. M. El, “Performance and efficiency
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torque waveform at rated current, (b) harmonic components of torque [10] A. Fasolo, L. Alberti, and N. Bianchi, “Performance comparison
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IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, AxFSPM and AxSPM machines are
quantitatively compared for output performance including
torque-current characteristics, active weight, and volume. The
comparison of AxFSPM and AxSPM machines are made for
1 kW of output power at the rated speed of 720 r/min. The
design objective is to minimize both active weight and total
loss of the machine. Following conclusions are drawn in the
study for this particular trade case.
• The AxFSPM machine is advantageous than the AxSPM
machine to achieve high specific power (W/kg) and
torque density (Nm/kg). More study is needed to
generalize this conclusion for other power and speed
ratings.
• AxFSPM machine has 40% heavier PMs than AxSPM
machine. It produces higher flux density in the stator and
rotor cores resulting in higher core loss than AxSPM
machine.
• The AxFSPM machine reaches saturation faster than
AxSPM machine because of the larger volume of PMs in
the stator.
• In both AxFSPM and AxSPM machines, copper loss is
the dominant component in losses because of low speed
operating condition resulting efficiency of ~ 90%.
631
NOISE AND VIBRATION PERFORMANCE IN FRACTIONAL SLOT PERMANENT
MAGNET SYNCHRONOUS MACHINES USING STATOR BRIDGE
Shuvajit Das(1) Iftekhar Hasan(1) Yilmaz Sozer(1) Rakib Islam(2) Alejandro Piña Ortega (3) Jeff Klass(2)
sd178@zips.uakron.edu ih8@zips.uakron.edu ys@uakron.edu Rakib.Islam@nexteer.com a.pina-ortega@ieee.org jeff.klass@nexteer.com
(1)ECE Department (2) Nexteer Automotive (3) Dyson Ltd.
The University of Akron Saginaw Malmesbury
Akron, USA MI, USA UK
Abstract- This research analyzes the use of stator bridges to and vibration while meeting the desired torque/speed
reduce noise and vibration (NV) in fractional slot surface requirements with a very low torque ripple. In addition, the
mounted permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) stator yoke thickness and the housing designs are kept same
having 12-stator slots and 10-rotor poles (12s/10p). Several
stator bridge designs in the stator geometry are proposed and to avoid differences in stiffness. The baseline 12s/10p SPM
investigated for NV reduction. Then structural-harmonic and (without stator bridge) is compared with a full stator bridge
acoustic analysis were used to quantify the comparative (FSB) design and their 3D-Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is
vibration and acoustic noise performance of the investigated compared in Section II. New stator-bridge design features are
design features. proposed, and their electromagnetic (EM) performances are
I. INTRODUCTION compared based on 3D-FEA results in Section III. A
Cogging torque, torque ripple, and magnetic radial forces are comparative study showing the improvements in deformation
the main electromagnetic sources of noise and vibration in between baseline motors and modified ones for reduced noise
PMSM [1]. Lower torque ripple in a permanent magnet motor and vibration (NV) is presented in IV. Finally, a brief
ensures the smooth operation of the motor but does not conclusion highlighting the main findings of this research is
guarantee less vibration [2]. Motors with low cogging torque provided in Section V.
and low torque ripple are not necessarily low in acoustic II. 12 SLOT-10 POLE SPM MOTOR WITH STATOR
noise and vibration when motors excite radial forces with low BRIDGE
dominant modes. Radial forces produced due to the A 12s/10p baseline SPM machine designed for automotive
interaction of the rotor and stator fields excite different modes applications requiring low noise and vibration is shown in
leading to the radial vibration of the stator structure. The Fig.1. Key dimensions of the machine are given in Table I.
radial vibration propagates through the motor housing and
contributes to both airborne and structure-borne noise.
Several researchers [3-8] studied the acoustic noise and
vibration in electric machines. The slot opening width of the
stator for a 27s/24p outer-rotor PM machine was optimized to
reduce the contribution of the electromagnetic forces due to
slotting effect in [3]. In [4], a 36s/12p interior permanent
magnet (IPM) machine was modified using a combination of
field poles and notches on the rotor surface, to reduce the (a) (b)
harmonics of the air-gap flux density. Research has been done
to optimize the shape of the flux barriers in the rotor core, the
shape of the stator tooth and yoke, and to step-skewing of the Stator
rotor to reduce vibration and noise of the motor [5-8].
PMSMs with slot-less stators are attractive for applications Bridge
where it is important to minimize the cogging torque and
reduce eddy current losses due to slotting effects [9]. The
PMSM having 12s/10p configuration has excellent torque (c) (d)
ripple performance, lower cogging torque, and high torque Fig. 1: 12s/10p SPM
density, however radial force acting on the stator excites (a) Base model; (b) Stator of the base model;
mode order 2 and causes significant deformation unlike other (c) Full stator bridge model (d) Stator bridges
slot pole configuration. In this research, the effect of using
closed slots (stator bridges) in the stator, on the vibration and Table I. DESIGN DATA FOR THE BASE 12S/10P PMSM
acoustic noise performance of the machine is investigated on Rotor inner diameter (mm) 10 Stack length (mm) 30
a 12s/10p motor with surface permanent magnet (SPM) rotor
design. Several 12s/10p motor designs with and without Stator outer diameter (mm) 85 Air gap (mm) 0.75
stator-bridges are investigated to see their impact on the noise
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III. VARIATIONS IN STATOR BRIDGE DESIGN
Table II. 3-D EM RESULTS
The loss in the average torque, compared to base model, in
Average torque Torque ripple the FSB model may not be acceptable in certain applications
Model
(N.m) (peak to peak) (N.m) where the required torque is a strict constraint. The loss in
Base 6.331 0.142 average torque is attributed to the fact that there is a flux
FSB 5.646 0.204 shorting between the stator teeth because of the bridges. To
address this issue several design variations of the FSB model
The parts marked in violet in Figs. 1(c) and 1(d) are the
have been tried. Moreover, the effect of using different
bridges closing the slots between the adjacent stator teeth.
materials for the bridge has also been studied later in the
The bridges have same material as the stator core. The idea
paper. Figures 4-7 illustrate the stator modifications
behind proposing this model was to improve the structural
implemented in the proposed models. The model in Fig. 4 has
rigidity of the motor which would presumably result in an
bridges between every other stator teeth pair configuring a
improved NV performance. The FSB method suffers from a
full stator bridge in alternate slots (FSB-AS) model, which is
loss of average torque compared to the base model and has a
basically a modification of the FSB model presented in the
higher torque ripple as presented in Table II. In permanent
previous section. Fig. 5 introduces a new structure having a
magnet machines, radial pressure Pr can be expressed in terms
segmented stator bridge (SSB) rather than a uniform bridge
of the normal component of flux density Bn as follows [10]:
along the entire stator stack. Each identical bridge segments
Pr (α,t) ≈ Bn2(α,t) / 2μ0 (1) are positioned along the stator stack with equal spacing
between them.
Where α is the angular distance from the axis of measurement
and r is the mode number of the force wave. Equation (1)
suggests a reduction in radial pressure when there is a
decrease in the normal component of flux density. Force per
unit area on the stator teeth would diminish with a reduction
in radial pressure, which leads to lower vibration and acoustic
noise. Harmonic content of radial flux density (RFD) and
radial pressure (RP) for the base and FSB model were Fig. 4: Full Stator Bridge- Fig. 5: Segmented Stator
obtained through fast Fourier transform (FFT), which are Alternate Slot (FSB-AS) Bridge (SSB)
displayed in Figs. 2 and 3 respectively. A reduction in the 5th
and 7th harmonic of the RFD in FSB model compared to the
base model, results in a decrease in the 2nd harmonic of the
RP in the same. This 2nd harmonic of the RP is responsible
for the origin of oval shaped mode 2 distortion in the motor.
Since Mode 2 is the dominant order for NV of the 12s/10p
configuration, a reduction in 2nd harmonic of RP in full stator Fig. 6: Segmented Stator Fig. 7: Segmented Stator
bridge model leads to better acoustic performance. Bridge- Alternate Slot Bridge- Ring Pattern
(SSB-AS) (SSB-RP)
Fig. 2: FFT of radial flux density

Fig. 8: FFT of radial pressure
Figures 6 and 7 present slightly modified versions of the SSB

model shown in Fig. 5. Segmented stator bridge in alternate
slots (SSB-AS) in Fig. 6 is characterized by the presence of
segmented bridges of equal axial dimensions between
alternate stator teeth pair. Fig. 7 proposes segmented stator
bridge with ring pattern (SSB-RP) on top and bottom of the
stator stack. Figure 8 presents the FFT of radial pressure of
Fig. 3: FFT of radial pressure these models at loaded condition. The radial pressures were
measured along a circular compound path located at the
633
center of the stack. A reduction in 2nd harmonic of RP, dimensions restrained further optimization of the stator
compared to the base model, for each of these models bridge structures. Two materials tried for the bridge are
suggests an improvement in NV performance. Table III Ferrite and Magnoval. The material properties are
presents the 3-D EM performance of the aforementioned summarized in Table IV. BH curve of Magnoval is given
models. In comparison to the FSB model, the modified stator in Fig. 10. Magnoval has previously been used for
models presented in this section show an improved EM wedges in induction machines [11]. The torque output
performance. The SSB-RP model is given further from the Magnoval model is the same as the base model
consideration, because of its lower torque ripple, to optimize and moreover, the torque ripple is lower. Table V
overall performance. Factors like axial and radial dimension presents the EM performance of the two new models. The
models are referred by the material of which the bridges
of the bridge, positioning of the bridge in the slot opening and
are made in them.
material of the bridge were taken into account. Moreover, a
structure to place the bridges on to the stator slots is also Table III. VARIATIONS IN STATOR BRIDGE DESIGN
presented later in the paper. The axial dimension of the Average Torque ripple
bridges considered so far in this paper is 6 mm. Bridges with Model
torque (N.m) (peak to peak) (N.m)
3 mm (SSB3-RP) axial height were considered to compare its FSB-AS 6.000 0.401
EM and NV performances. Two more variations of the SSB3- SSB 5.937 0.179
RP model were tried which changed the radial dimension and SSB-AS 6.153 0.268
placement of the bridge structure in the slot opening of the SSB- RP 6.082 0.165
stator. The highlighted part of the 12s/10p stator in Fig. 9 (a) SSB3-RP 6.224 0.146
has been enlarged in Fig. 9 (b), (c) and (d) for different SSB3-RP1 6.284 0.144
models. Fig. 9 (b) shows that in SSB3-RP model the bridge SSB3-RP2 6.276 0.134
covers total slot depth of the machine, whereas in Figs. 9 (c)
and (d) it doesn’t. The new models presented show a higher TABLE IV. MATERIAL PROPERTIES
average torque and lower torque ripple compared to the SSB- Mass density Young’s Poisson’s
RP model. All these results are summarized in Table III. This Material
(kg/m^3) modulus (GPa) Ratio
might be attributed to the fact that, there is a flux shorting Magnoval 3500 12 0.3
between two consecutive stator teeth. The shorting takes Ferrite 4600 180 0.3
place because of using lamination material in the bridges. So,
as the quantity of lamination material is reduced by
decreasing the axial height of the bridges the amount of flux
shorting between stator teeth pair is diminished and average
torque goes up.
Fig. 10: BH curve of Magnoval

(a)
TABLE V. DIFFERENT MATERIALS IN STATOR BRIDGE
Stator Stator Stator
Slot Slot Slot Average Torque ripple
Area Model
Area Area torque (N.m) (peak to peak) (N.m)
Ferrite 6.017 0.163
Magnoval 6.330 0.125
Bridge Bridge Bridge
(b) (c) (d) IV. STRUCTURAL AND ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS

Fig. 9: Segmented stator bridge
(a) 12s/10p stator with segmented stator bridge This section presents the NV analysis of all the models under
(b) SSB3-RP (c) SSB3-RP1 (d) SSB3-RP2 consideration. Figure 11 shows the motor housing used for
the analysis. The oval shaped deformation for the base line
Further optimization of the radial and axial dimensions of 12s/10p SPM model is shown in Fig. 12. Table VI shows the
the stator bridge structure is possible. But the idea in this first three modal frequencies, which causes the dominant
paper was to take into account the effect of flux shorting mode 2 oval shape deformation. An increase in the critical
between stator teeth. To reduce the amount of flux modal frequencies for the proposed models indicates an
shorting two materials were tried for the SSB3-RP2 improvement in the NV performance due to lower chances of
model. The availability of these materials in certain
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exciting a higher order natural frequency. The models tried RP, SSB3-RP1 and SSB3-RP2 are respectively 1.69%, 0.74%
after SSB-RP bear small changes in the bridge structure and 0.87%. In terms of acoustic noise reduction SSB3-RP,
which don’t impact the natural frequencies by much. SSB3-RP1 and SSB3-RP2 show a 23%, 10% and 18.86%
Harmonic analysis of the models requires force mapping on improvement, compared to the base model, respectively.
the stator teeth and bridges as shown in Fig. 13. The required SSB3-RP model suffers from higher torque loss compared to
forces were obtained from the EM analysis which is coupled the other two variations of it. SSB3-RP1 and SSB3-RP2 show
to the structural harmonic analysis. Radial deformation (RD) almost similar torque performance, but the much better
and radial acceleration (RA) were measured on the outer face acoustic outcome of SSB3-RP2 model gives it the edge over
of the stator housing as shown in Fig. 14. RD and RA of the SSB3-RP1. There are other models with better NV
proposed models show their peak deformations at frequencies performances but the percentage torque reduction in those
higher than that of the base model because of higher modal models are not acceptable for the application considered in
frequencies. The velocity of vibration of the outer surface of this paper. The material sensitivity of the bridges is analyzed
the motor housing causes disturbances in the air layers by using Ferrite and Magnoval in the SSB3-RP2 model. Their
adjacent to it, which creates noise. Acoustic analysis is done torque performance presented before clearly identifies
by extracting this velocity of vibration from harmonic Magnoval model as the better choice in case of EM
simulation and by modeling the air surrounding the housing. performance.
Fig. 11: Motor housing Fig. 12: Mode Shape 2

(base model)
Fig. 15: Radial deformation
Fig. 13: Force mapping Fig. 14: Surface for

(base model) measurement of RD and RA
TABLE VI. MODAL ANALYSIS

MODE BASE FSB FSB- SSB SSB- SSB-
AS AS RP
1 2184.7 2395.2 2256 2376.8 2255 2352.2
2 2558.5 2736.5 2600.1 2721.8 2600.1 2698.1
3 2771.9 2892.2 2840.6 2879.4 2837.6 2904.9
Figures 15 and 16 show the normalized peak values of RD Fig. 16: Radial acceleration
and RA, within first three modal frequencies for all the
models, respectively. Results for the acoustic analysis are
presented in Fig.17. All the proposed models presented in the
paper show a decrease in RD, RA and acoustic noise
compared to the base model. In choosing a particular design
modification, there would be a tradeoff between the average
torque loss and improvement in NV performance. All the
results presented in this section are normalized with respect to
the base model. FSB model shows the most improvement in
NV performance but suffers from the highest amount of
average torque loss (10.82%) compared to the base model.
SSB-RP model suffers from only 3.93% average torque loss,
while retaining improved NV performance. Even further
improvement in the torque performance is obtained in the Fig. 17: Peak sound pressure level
following models. The amount of torque reduction in SSB3-
635
To further the work harmonic analysis for both of these Contact surface definitions proved to be a prime aspect of
models were done and the results are presented in Figs. 18, 19 harmonic and acoustic analysis. All the edges present in the
and 20. The Ferrite model shows better performance new bridge design were modeled carefully in the simulation.
compared to Magnoval model in terms of RD, RA and Average torque of this new structure made with Magnoval
acoustic noise. Depending on application these two models material is 0.1% lower than the previous Magnoval model,
might have different priorities. For automotive application, while the acoustic noise performance is 9.45% better. The
which the paper aims at, 4.96% reduction in torque for the harnessing structure improves the stiffness of the whole
Ferrite model is not acceptable. So, SSB3-RP2 model with system which leads to a better acoustic outcome.
Magnoval in the bridges would be the better choice
considering that it has almost no torque reduction and offers
almost 16.5% better acoustic performance compared to the Stator
base model. Implementing the stator bridges practically needs
a harnessing structure which would hold the bridges in place
between consecutive teeth in the stator. Figure 21 shows such
a structure. Surface of contact between the stator and the
bridges were modified accordingly in the harmonic
simulation to account for the changes in the bridge structure. Bridge area
(a) (b)
Fig. 21: Stator bridge structure
(a) Slot to slide in bridges in the stator tooth
(b) Modified structure of stator bridge
V. CONCLUSION
Several design modifications focused on improving NV
performance of a 12s/10p SPM motor, suitable for
automotive application, are proposed in this paper. Different
bridge structures linking consecutive or alternate stator teeth
Fig. 18: Radial deformation are tried. The bridges used in the designs differ in terms of
their axial and radial dimensions. The effect of relative
placement of the bridges in the slot opening with respect to
the airgap was studied. Different patterns of the bridges along
the stack length of the machine were also simulated. FSB
model exhibits the best NV performance compared to the
other models but suffers from the highest loss on average
torque because of using stator lamination material in the
bridges, which causes flux shorting between stator teeth. In
this regard, SSB-RP model shows comparable NV
performance as the FSB model, while having only a small
reduction in average torque compared to the base model and
exhibiting quite low torque ripple. SSB-RP model is further
optimized by keeping material availability and machining
Fig. 19: Radial acceleration difficulty into consideration. Two materials are considered for
the bridge structure to reduce the amount of flux shorting
between stator teeth. Bridges with Magnoval material in them
show promising performance in terms of average torque
production and NV reduction as well. Finally, a harnessing
structure to hold the bridges in between stator teeth is
proposed and simulated. The proposed structure improves the
acoustic noise performance while providing almost similar
electromagnetic result as the base model.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors of the paper would like to take the opportunity
to thank Nexteer automotive for its continuous support during
Fig. 20: Peak sound pressure level the course of this work.
636
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637
A Comparative Study of Constant Power Operation
Techniques for Low Inductance Machines
Damien Lawhorn, Narges Taran, Vandana Rallabandi, and Dan M. Ionel, FIEEE
SPARK Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
damien.lawhorn@uky.edu, narges.taran@uky.edu, vandana.rallabandi@uky.edu, dan.ionel@uky.edu
Abstract—In traditional electric machines, it is usually possible The availability of wide band gap semiconductor devices with
to achieve constant power high-speed operation by employing low switching loss, as well as the absence of core loss in
field weakening through the injection of a negative d-axis current coreless AFPM machines make such an approach feasible.
component. However, in machines with low armature inductance,
such as high power density permanent magnet synchronous The second method involves the dynamic relative rotation
machines, and more specifically, coreless machines, which are of the two stators in the coreless AFPM with operating speed.
gaining increasing attention because of their high specific torque, This reduces the flux linkage and thus, operation at very
the extended speed range obtained using this method is very high speeds, theoretically infinite, using this technique can
narrow. This paper summarizes the performance characteristics
of existing approaches for obtaining constant power operation
be achieved. Analytical equations and finite element analysis
and proposes two new techniques, specially applicable to coreless confirm the operation of this method.
axial flux permanent magnet machine namely, current weakening
and relative winding rotation.
II. P ROBLEM F ORMULATION
I. I NTRODUCTION
The desired torque-speed characteristics in an electric vehi-
Electric vehicle applications often employ permanent mag-
cle application are shown in Fig. 2b. This figure shows that the
net synchronous machines (PMSM) because of their high
torque must remain constant up to a base speed, i.e. the speed
efficiency and specific torque. These applications often require
at which the machine’s terminal voltage equals the maximum
a wide constant power speed range (CPSR). In traditional
voltage from the inverter. Since constant power operation is
PMSMs, operation in the constant power region may be
desired at speeds exceeding the base value, in order to meet the
achieved by the injection of a negative d-axis current, however,
dc bus voltage limitation of the inverter, the coil flux linkage
the range of speeds over which this is possible often tends
must reduce with speed. The coil flux linkage is given as,
to be small. The width of the CPSR is a strong function of
the machine’s d-axis inductance, and smaller values, typical 2
λpm = kω1 Nt kvg αi Bgo τp `F e , (1)
of PMSMs with surface mounted permanent magnets, due π
to their large air-gap, often have very limited operation in Br
this region. This issue is further exacerbated in coreless PM Bgo = α τp 2µmr kc kso go
, (2)
i
kα kb hm + kh gm
machines, which present a very small inductance due to the
large electromagnetic airgap because of the absence of the where Nt is the number of turns per phase; kvg , the ratio
core. between amplitude of the fundamental wave and the average
This paper discusses different methods for constant power value of the air gap flux density; αi , the pole-arc/pole-pitch
operation of low inductance machines, and more specifically, ratio; Bgo , the peak open-circuit air gap flux density; τp , the
a multi-disc coreless axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) pole pitch; `F e , the back iron length; kα , the PM leakage
synchronous machine. This motor includes two stators, with coefficient; kb , the number of PMs which provide polar flux;
coils mounted on a non-magnetic supporting structure and hm , the PM height; µmr , the relative permeability of the
three permanent magnet (PM) rotors and an exploded view is PM; kc , Carter’s coefficient; kso , the d-axis saturation factor
seen in Fig. 1. This traction motor is proposed to be employed at open-circuit operation; go , the air gap thickness; kh , the
in the University of Kentucky (UK) solar car, which is pictured number of times the medium length flux line passes through
in Fig. 2a [1]. The performance comparison of different the PMs, and gm , the PM thickness [2].
techniques for constant power operation of low inductance In the surface mounted PMSMs, the saliency ratio is unity,
machines is presented. In addition, two novel methods for and the inductance may be expressed approximately as,
achieving constant power operation, particularly applicable
2mµo (kω1 Nt )2 τp `F e kad
to coreless AFPM machines, namely current weakening and Ld = Lq = , (3)
π 2 pkc go
relative winding rotation are proposed.
The first method involves raising the dc bus voltage of the kc go
kad = , (4)
inverter with speed, using additional power electronics stages. kc go + k2µh gmr
m
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 638

Figure 1. Exploded view of a coreless multi-disc axial flux permanent magnet
machine with 2-stators and 3-rotors proposed to be used as a traction motor in
the UK solar car. The stator includes coils placed in the airgap due to which
the machine has a very low inductance. Figure 3. Torque speed characteristics of a permanent magnet synchronous
machine with different values of the pu d-axis inductance. Smaller values,
exhibited by the coreless AFPM machine, result in a very narrow constant
power range, although a wide range is required for the application.
(a)
(a) (b)
Figure 4. Motor drive operation range of two surface-PM machines, limited
by voltage and current constraints. (a) A machine with a λpm /Ld ratio of
1. (b) A machine with a λpm /Ld ratio of 7.07. Operation is achievable in
the regions encompassed by both circles. Dashed red lines indicate increasing
speed.
(b)
Figure 2. (a) Gato del Sol V of the University of Kentucky’s Solar Car Team. torque per ampere is obtained when the d-axis current is driven
(b) Desired torque-speed characteristics for the traction motor.
to zero, or β is maintained at 90 degrees. At higher speeds, a
negative value of Id can be used to reduce the terminal voltage,
otherwise directly proportional to speed, as seen in (3). The
where m is the number of phases, and p, the number of poles.
value of Id is increased such that the total rms phase current
The required terminal voltage to operate at a given angular
is constant, i.e.
velocity, ω, is given by
q Id2 + Iq2 = Is2 , (7)
V = ω (λpm + Ld I cos β)2 + (ξLd I sin β)2 , (5) where Is is the phase current, at 1 pu This serves to reduce
where I is the motor current; β, the torque angle, and ξ = Lq the torque, as it is directly proportional to Iq . The flux linkage
/ Ld , the saliency ratio. reduces with increasing value of negative Id (i.e. 90◦ < β <
180◦ ) such that the terminal voltage is constant.
The electromagnetic torque produced by the machine is
given by The dependence of the width of the constant power region
on the value of d-axis inductance is seen in Fig. 3. Lower val-
m 1 ues of pu inductance, as typical of the coreless AFPM machine
T = p[λpm I sin(β) − (ξ − 1)Ld I 2 sin(2β)] . (6)
2 2 lead to a very narrow constant power region. The analytically
Since the machine is non-salient, only alignment torque is calculated torque-speed characteristics for different values of
present. In a non-salient PMSM, rotor reference frame oriented pu Ld are illustrated in Fig. 3. The torque-speed characteristics
control is employed to decouple the currents into direct (d) and were calculated assuming an available terminal voltage of 1
quadrature (q) axis components. From (4), as ξ = 1, maximum pu in all machines. By setting a voltage constraint of 1 pu
639
Figure 5. Schematic of winding reconfiguration. The series connection is
employed at lower speeds, while at higher speeds, the coils are connected in
parallel.
Figure 6. Schematic of a machine with open ended windings fed by two

voltage source inverters. Figure 7. Current weakening technique and traditional field weakening
approach in the constant power region.
on (5), the voltage limited capability of a machine’s drive can

be defined as a function of speed, inductance, flux linkage, For instance, in one implementation, the windings can be con-
and current. The current limitation is expressed by (7). The nected in series for operation in the constant torque region of
limitations are illustrated in Fig. 4. Operation is achievable at the torque-speed characteristics, and in parallel when constant
any point within the intersection of the voltage and current power operation is desired (Fig. 5).
limitation circles. The radius of the voltage limitation circle This technique requires each phase winding to be divided
is V /ωLd , and it is centered at −λpm /Ld . As the operating into two sections. During the shift in configuration from series
speed is increased, the radius reduces. The figure shows two to parallel, the current and voltage per winding are maintained
machines, one with Ld = 0.707 pu, for ideal field weakening constant [3]. Connection of the windings in parallel leads to
operation and the other with Ld = 0.1 pu, representative of a a reduction in the number of turns, and therefore a smaller
machine with ultra-low inductance, such as a coreless machine. λpm and Ld , as indicated by equations (1) and (2), and thus,
The condition for ideal field weakening is higher speed can be achieved. This method requires no d-
axis current to be injected, thus maximum torque per ampere
λpm = Ld Is . (8)
(MTPA) can be maintained, as long as the maximum desired
Since V = 1 pu, and Is = 1 pu, and for a surface mounted operating speed is twice the base speed. Actual implementation
PMSM, Ld = Lq , the value of λpm can be found by of this method could be achieved using back-to-back thyristors
substituting these values in (5) to be 0.707 pu as suggested in [4].
It can be seen that for the lower inductance, the voltage limit Due to the fact that current across the coils would double
circle has a much larger radius, and the center of the circle is when the winding configuration is switched from series to
shifted far from the origin due to the very small inductance. parallel, this method does add an increase in required current
Thus, as speed is increased, the machine reaches the inoperable and therefore, volt-ampere rating for the inverter. However, this
regions quickly and alternative methods are required to achieve increase in current rating may be justified, as traction motor
operation at speeds higher than the rated speed. inverters are often over-sized in order to meet the desired
acceleration at low speed.
III. R EVIEW OF E XISTING M ETHODS FOR C ONSTANT Another method for extending the speed range involves the
P OWER O PERATION addition of an external inductance in series with the machine,
Operation at higher speeds for machines with a small induc- which leads to a reduction in required terminal voltage at
tance may be achieved by dynamic winding re-configuration. higher speed as seen in equation (5). This method extends
640
the field weakening range of the machine. Operating speeds
past the rated value can be obtained through tradition means
of d-axis current injection. Since all of the current is not
maintained in the q-axis in this method, MTPA is not achieved
at higher speeds. The amount of external inductance added to
the machine may be dynamically controlled by the required
operating speed. Minimal external inductance is desired, as the
reactive impedance negatively affects the power factor during
operation of the machine.
In a PMSM with open ended windings, it is possible to
use an additional voltage source inverter (VSI) to boost the
terminal voltage to the machine. The main or primary inverter
is fed from a voltage source, and the secondary inverter is
housed at the output terminals of the machine and is fed by (a) (b)
capacitors Fig. 6. In this configuration,
√ the terminal voltage Figure 8. Phasor diagram for two generic permanent magnet machines with
available increases by a factor of 3 [5]. saliency operating at 2 pu speed and neglecting stator resistance. (a) Field
weakening operation in a machine with per unit inductance of 0.707 through
Additional increase in terminal voltage can be achieved injection of d-axis current. (b) Current weakening operation of a machine with
when the capacitor is charged to a greater voltage than the per unit inductance of 0.01. In this method there is no d-axis current injection
supply battery. In one possible implementation, equal AC and an oversized voltage rating of the drive.
voltage is applied to all the phases such that the resulting zero-
sequence current is used to charge the secondary inverter’s
feeding capacitor to a higher voltage due to the boosting effect
of the winding inductances. Benefits of this method include
the ability to operate at MTPA at all speeds. Unity power
factor operation can be achieved by control of the secondary
inverter. Additionally, the introduction of a secondary inverter
adds redundancy. In the case of a primary inverter failure,
the connections of this inverter can be disconnected from the
battery and machine and the corresponding motor terminals
may be shorted. The battery may then be connected to the
DC side of the secondary inverter [6]. If the failure occurs in
the secondary inverter, the same actions can be taken with the
exception of exchanging the battery connection. Figure 9. A three port dc-dc converter fed from solar panels and battery. A
The main disadvantages of this method include added cost variable dc-bus voltage is provided to the inverter driving the traction motor.
to the system through requirement of a secondary inverter, Such a configuration can be used to implement the current weakening method.
and the restriction of application to open winding machines
exclusively.
prohibitively high. Since current weakening does not involve
IV. E LECTRONICALLY C ONTROLLED C URRENT reduction of flux linkage and flux density, this method would
W EAKENING lead to prohibitively high core loss in conventional machines
owing to the high frequency and flux density. This can be seen
The available terminal voltage limits the maximum oper-
in (9),
ating speed and therefore, increasing it would mitigate this
limitation. In order to obtain constant power operation, the
Phy = Kh f B 1.6 , Ped = Ke f 2 Kf2 B 2 . (9)
torque must reduce inversely with speed, which is accom-
plished by decreasing the q-axis component of the current as where Kh is the hysteresis constant, Ke is the eddy current
seen in Fig. 7. The phasor diagrams in Fig. 8 show how the constant, and Kf is the form constant.
voltage and current compare between this proposed method This approach becomes feasible for use in coreless ma-
and the traditional field weakening approach. In the current chines, wherein the steel and PM losses are nearly negligible
weakening approach, the d-axis current is maintained at zero due to the large electromagnetic airgap. Although at very
at all speeds and therefore, maximum torque per ampere is high operating speeds, these losses could become significant,
maintained. The current weakening approach may be viewed they can be virtually eliminated by special winding techniques
as a means of extending the constant torque region of the [7]. Thus, since most of the loss occurs in the windings, the
motor. efficiency may in fact increase with operating speed owing to
In a traditional field weakening approach, at high speeds, reduction in Iq .
the fundamental component of the flux density in the steel is The increase in terminal voltage with operating speed can
reduced such that the core losses in the machine do not become be achieved through the introduction of a either a traditional
641
Figure 11. Torque-speed characteristics obtained using the air-gap variation
and winding rotation techniques, along with the desired characteristics.
(a)
(a) (b) (c)

Figure 12. Constant power operation at higher speeds by relative rotation of
the stators which reduces the winding factor, (a) Machine geometry without
relative angular shift between the stator, (b) the 3D flux paths under these
conditions, and (c) machine geometry after relative angular shift between the
two stators is implemented. The shift angle, α, can be calculated based on
the desired ratio of operating speed to rated speed.
proportion with the voltage due to the smaller switching loss

and heat sink requirements. The smallest rated WBG devices
that meet current requirements of the motor drive which are
commercially available have voltage ratings that exceed the
(b)
rated voltage of the inverter present in UK’s Gato del Sol by
Figure 10. Motor phase currents and voltages of (a) a machine with 1mH a factor of 3-4. Other benefits of this technique include the
armature inductance, (b) a machine with 0.5mH armature inductance.
control of dc-bus voltage with load such that current ripple is
always maintained within desirable limits.
boost stage prior to the inverter, or by the use of a multi- V. M ECHANICAL C ONTROLLED A IR - GAP L ENGTH AND
port converter as shown in Fig. 9 [8]. Boosting the DC bus R ELATIVE S TATOR ROTATION
voltage requires that the inverter is rated for a higher voltage Constant power operation for axial airgap machines can
by a factor proportional to the ratio of desired speed to rated also be achieved by modifying the machine mechanically as
speed. Power electronics efficiency enhancements are possible suggested in [9]. The method proposed utilizes a mechanical
if the boost stage incorporates soft switching. actuator to vary the air-gap distance dynamically. This serves
The proposed technique may be suitable for use in conjunc- to affect λpm and Ld as seen in equations (1) and (2).
tion with WBG inverters, which would be required to reduce An increase in the effective air gap, leads to a reduction
the excessive current ripple in such low inductance machines in λpm , thereby permitting operation at higher speeds for a
(Fig. 10). Although the devices must be rated for the maximum constant terrminal voltage. In [9], Heins et al. modeled the
dc-bus voltage, the power electronics cost may not scale in required air gap required for optimal efficiency over a given
642
addition of an external inductance, the field weakening range
can be expanded, although at the expense of reduced power
factor at the rated operating condition. Existing methods that
reduce λP M are dynamic winding reconfiguration and air-
gap variance, both of which achieve this through mechanical
means. Finally, the existing method discussed that raises
terminal voltage does so through introduction of a secondary
inverter. Each of these methods have their various advantages
and disadvantages.
The first proposed method, current weakening, involves
raising the dc bus voltage with speed using a special power
electronics arrangement. This method is particularly suitable
for a coreless machine with virtually negligible core loss. Such
Figure 13. Flux linkage variation with shifting angle modified as a function an approach is enabled by wide band gap device technology
of speed for a coreless AFPM. which allows high frequency and voltage operation.
The second proposed method suggests dynamic relative ro-
torque speed characteristic curve. The results of this study have tation of stators, which reduces flux linkage, thereby allowing
been represented in Fig. 11. This method maintains MTPA operation at higher speeds. Analytical equations and 3D finite
through all operating ranges as no d-axis current is required element analysis confirm the operation of the machine in the
to be applied. The peak operating speed is limited by the constant power region by this method.
maximum value of air-gap that maintains structural integrity ACKNOWLEDGMENT
of the machine.
The authors are thankful to Greg Heins and Chris Heintz
Operation at higher speeds can also be obtained in the
for their suggestions and technical contributions. The support
coreless multi-disc AFPM by dynamically rotating the two
of the NASA Kentucky Space Grant Consortium, University
stators relative to each other with increasing speed. This
of Kentucky, the L. Stanley Pigman endowment, and ANSYS,
reduces the coil flux linkage due to decreased winding factor.
Inc. is gratefully acknowledged.
An illustration of this approach is represented in Fig. 12. The
shifting angle can be chosen, depending on the desired ratio R EFERENCES
of maximum speed to base speed, and is calculated as, [1] N. Taran, V. Rallabandi, D. M. Ionel, and G. Heins, “A comparative study
of coreless and conventional axial flux permanent magnet synchronous
machines for low and high speed operation,” in 2017 IEEE Energy
sin mα

2 sin(α) α n
r Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Oct 2017, pp. 321–327.
k= = = cos = , (10)
m sin( α2 ) 2 sin α2 [2] D. M. Ionel, J. F. Eastham, T. J. E. Miller, and E. Demeter, “Design con-

2 n
siderations for permanent magnet synchronous motors for flux weakening
n
r applications,” IEE Proceedings - Electric Power Applications, vol. 145,
α = 2 arccos , (11) no. 5, pp. 435–440, Sep 1998.
n [3] M. Boxriker, P. Winzer, J. Kolb, and M. Doppelbauer, “Increasing the
where m is the number of stator discs and α is the shifted angle operating range of permanent magnet synchronous motors by switching
the winding configurations,” in 2016 IEEE 2nd Annual Southern Power
between two consecutive stator discs in electrical degrees. For Electronics Conference (SPEC), Dec 2016, pp. 1–6.
this example m = 2. nr is the rated speed, 600 rpm, and n is [4] S. Hemmati and T. A. Lipo, “Field weakening of a surface mounted per-
the operating speed. manent magnet motor by winding switching,” in International Symposium
on Power Electronics Power Electronics, Electrical Drives, Automation
The maximum value of α is 180 electrical degrees, which and Motion, June 2012, pp. 736–740.
results in zero flux linkage, and thus it may be inferred that the [5] T. Gerrits, C. G. E. Wijnands, J. J. H. Paulides, and J. L. Duarte, “Dual
maximum operating speed is limited by only the mechanical voltage source inverter topology extending machine operating range,” in
2012 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Sept
constraints. The flux linkage versus speed with shifted discs is 2012, pp. 2840–2846.
plotted in Fig. 13. The torque speed characteristics calculated [6] J. Kim, J. Jung, and K. Nam, “Dual-inverter control strategy for high-
from 3D FEA for the machine in Fig. 12 at different speeds speed operation of ev induction motors,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Electronics, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 312–320, April 2004.
with shifted coils is shown in Fig. 11, which demonstrates the [7] V. Rallabandi, N. Taran, and D. M. Ionel, “Multilayer concentrated
successful operation of this technique. windings for axial flux pm machines,” IEEE Transactions on Magnetics,
vol. 53, no. 6, pp. 1–4, June 2017.
VI. D ISCUSSION [8] V. Rallabandi, D. Lawhorn, J. He, and D. M. Ionel, “Current weakening
control of coreless afpm motor drives for solar race cars with a three-
This paper presents a systematic review identifying the port bi-directional dc/dc converter,” in 2017 IEEE 6th International
limitations of the conventional methods for low inductance Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications (ICRERA),
machines and proposes two new methods, which are exempli- Nov 2017, pp. 739–744.
[9] G. Heins, M. Thiele, D. Patterson, and N. Lambert, “Increase in operating
fied for an in-wheel solar car practical application. range and efficiency for variable gap axial flux motors,” in 2014 IEEE
The existing methods achieve a higher speed range through Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Sept 2014, pp.
three fundamental modifications: increasing Ld , decreasing 5870–5876.
λP M , or increasing the available terminal voltage. By the
643
Novel Core Designs to Miniaturise Passive Magnetic
Components
Adam Walker, Gaurang Vakil, Christopher Gerada
Power Electronics Machines and Control Group
University of Nottingham
Nottingham, UK
Adam.Walker@nottingham.ac.uk
Abstract—Converter sizes are often dominated by passive losses. Machining amorphous and iron powder cores post-
magnetic components. Passive magnetic component sizes are in manufacture leads to several difficulties, the brittleness of the
turn limited by electromagnetic saturation and thermal limits. material causing issues during the process and even successful
This paper covers two modifications to the air gaps of tape wound cuts resulting a high loss zone along the machined edge. This
amorphous magnetic cores, made available by the advancement of
has recently been counteracted by the potential use of additive
additive manufacturing with magnetic materials. These are
modifying the width of the core at the air gap and moving the air manufacturing of magnetic cores [5-7]. This will allow for
gap to a different location in the core. The objective was to reduce bespoke cores to be produced with reasonable costs and times.
the effect of fringing flux, and to overcome the issue of a high loss A typical problem when trying to miniaturise inductors is that a
zone and thermal hot spot being generated at the air gap, situated large portion of the losses are produced at the air gap. These
under the windings. These modifications will reduce temperatures losses then cause a hot spot, and because this air gap is under
and thus allow for smaller components before thermal limits are the windings it is difficult to build an effective thermal pathway
reached. The changes this causes to inductance, flux density and to it [8]. This leads to a thermal limitation in the core, restricting
losses are highlighted and discussed. the miniaturisation of magnetic components. Using additive
Keywords— Magnetic core design, Magnetic losses, Passive manufacturing the core shapes can be modified to overcome
magnetic components, Inductors this issue. This paper will focus on these modifications of the
I. INTRODUCTION core shape for a specific application, presented in section II,
investigating how the losses can be reduced and the thermal
Magnetic components are required in a wide range of management improved. Analytical models validated with finite
applications, from automotive to aerospace to power element analysis are used for the electromagnetic design and
generation. These components often contribute a significant simulation. Lumped parameter thermal networks are used for
portion of a converters mass and volume, potentially larger than the thermal analysis.
50% [1, 2].
A key issue restricting the size of magnetic components is the II. BACKGROUND
restriction of selection in off the shelf cores available. The cores Considered here is a case study of amorphous C cores inductors,
typically come in fixed sizes and generic shapes - toroid, C originally designed for an automotive DC-DC converter for the
cores and E cores. The differences between one size of core and project ‘Frequent Integrated Robust Soft Stop Start
the next can be significant, amorphous cores are typically Technology’ (FIRS3T). The project was aimed at designing a
available in the steps of 10% [3], while speciality iron powder motor along with the power electronics and energy storage for
cores can have a 30% size increment between cores [4]. If the a hybrid electric bus. This specific inductor was to provide
performance requirement of an inductor necessitates a core size current smoothing for the energy storage system, as shown in
which is not readily available the closest purchasable option Fig. 1. The performance requirements are given in TABLE I
must be used. However this closest option must be larger than and the details conventional inductor deigned are in TABLE II.
the calculated requirement, to ensure the core does not saturate
or overheat, leading to the development of an oversized
magnetic component.
Innovation in core design is restricted by the off the shelf
available cores. Bespoke prototypes outside these fixed sizes
and shapes are expensive to produce, typically several orders of
magnitude higher than off the shelf cores. This price difference
limits investigation into novel core shapes. A moderate increase
in performance is often not justifiable for a drastic increase in
price. Which in turn, restricts any new core shapes being mass
produced, as there is no evidence they would be beneficial. Fig. 1. Vehicle energy storage inverter
While laminated cores can be cut to shape, at high frequencies
amorphous or iron powder cores must be used to minimise the
Work funded by EPSRC Challenge Network in Automotive Power
Electronics Grant on Miniaturising Magnetics Through 3D Design and
Manufacture (Mini Mags).
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 644

TABLE I INDUCTOR PERFORMANCE REQUIRMENTS between the core and winding, potentially shielding the winding
Idc rated (A) 20 from the fringing fluxes. These are in comparison to the
Idc peak (A) 1 second 42 baseline traditional core shown in Fig. 3a. Both options offer
Ipk2pk (A) 8.5
potential advantages but it was not immediately clear what side
Frequency (kHz) 50
effects these modifications would have on the inductor
performance and therefore which of these would be more
Vdc (V) 800
beneficial.
Inductance (μH) 500
Ambient temperature (ᵒC) 105
TABLE II ORIGINAL INDUCTOR DETAILS

Core AMCC40
Material Metglas Alloy 2605SA1
Turns 38
Conductor Width (mm) 2
Conductor height (mm) 3.55 A B C
Mean Length Turn (mm) 108
DC Resistance (Ω) 0.0097
Fig. 3. Width of Core Air gap a) Standard core, b) Wider Core, positive offset
and c) Narrower Core, negative offset
III. CONCEPT
Using the benefits provided by additive manufacturing cores Moving the air gap to a different location in the core is unlikely
two avenues of investigation will be considered. The first is to result in lower losses, however moving the hot spot to a more
modifying the area of the air gap to minimise the fringing flux. thermally accessible location would result in lower operating
The other is moving the placement of the air gap within the core, temperatures. Some examples of the most interesting locations
with the goal of negating the fringing flux and moving the high are given in Fig. 4.
loss zone to a more thermally accessible area. To help with
understanding, in Fig. 2, areas and measures of the new cores
are displayed.
1. Tooth
2. Tooth Tip – the area of the tooth adjacent to the air gap.
3. Slot Length – the longer side of the core
4. Slot Width – the shorter side of the core
5. Air gap placement offset – the distance from the base of the slot
length to the air gap.
6. Positive air gap width offset – width of material added
7. Negative air gap width offset – width of material removed
A B
C D
Fig. 2. Explanation of terms Fig. 4. Placement of air gap. a) Base of slot length b) Traditional location. c)
Base of slot width d) Middle of slot width.
Fringing flux is the main contributor to the high losses around IV. ELECTROMAGNETIC RESULTS
the air gap. If the air gap area was made wider, as in Fig. 3b,
this would help guide the flux away from the windings and A. Air Gap Width Offset
reduce saturation at the air gap. A narrower air gap area, as in Given in Fig. 5 are the flux path contour plots for the
Fig. 3c, would mean that fringing fluxes had a larger air barrier modification to the width of the air gap, although all show
645
leakage flux, the fringing flux significantly varies between the
widths. There is a small amount of fringing flux in the standard
core, which can be seen intercepting the windings. The wider
core shows no fringing flux. With the narrow core there is much
more fringing flux, although most of it is contained within the
air gap there is still a considerable amount intercepting the
windings.
Fig. 7. Flux density change with air gap width
These changes in flux density levels also have a direct effect on

the iron loss of the inductor core, shown in Fig. 6b. The formula
for the loss is given by the Steinmetz equation, in equation (1).
Where Ph is the hysteresis loss per kilogram, f is the frequency
A B C and B is the flux density, with the constants found from the
suppliers data sheet [9].
Fig. 5. Flux path for widths of Core Air gap. a) Standard core. b) Wider Core. . .
c) Narrower Core = 0.00019 (1)
The effects in the change of air gap width are shown in Fig. 6, The copper losses, Fig. 6c, are at a maximum with no offset,
with 0 mm on the x axis representing a standard core, negative then decrease with a wider offset, due to lower fringing flux, or
numbers are the amount cut away from both sides of the core a narrower offset due to reduced fringing flux intercepting the
whilst positive amounts are added, as previously shown in Fig. windings compared to the conventional width. The formula for
2. A wider air gap is shown to have an increase in the the loss given per unit in the conductors due to the fringing flux
inductance, with a narrower gap reducing inductance. This is is given in equation (2), with the components of H⊥ defined by
due to the levels of total flux in the core at each width, as can equation (3) and equation (4) [10]. Where Pcu_fringe is the power
be seen in Fig. 7. The flux density in the air gap stays relatively loss per unit length of conductor, ρ is the conductor resistivity,
constant throughout the widths, causing the total flux to be μ0 is the permeability of free space, f is the frequency, w the
proportional to the air gap width. With a total flux dependant conductor width and t the conductor thickness. For equation (3)
on the air gap width, the flux density in the fixed width of the and equation (4), Hg is the air gap magnetic field, x is the
tooth is also proportional to the air gap width in Fig. 7, while distance between air gap and conductor in the x-axis direction,
operating below saturation. The originally designed core was while y is the distance in the y axis direction, lg is the length of
limited thermally and so approaching saturation was not an the air gap.
issue.
1 (2)
A B _ = ( )
6
+ − (3)
( , )= ln
2 + +
2 (4)
( , )=− tan +
+ −
C D Changing the width of the air gap effects Hg, lg, x and y. For
example when considering the extreme points of this, a width
offset of -6mm gives 26% of the fringing flux losses in
comparison to a traditional air gap, while the +2mm offset gives
73% of the fringing flux losses of the traditional air gap. The
remaining copper losses are due to the typical winding losses
(DC component, skin effect and proximity effect).
However these results can be misleading, as it is not effective
to reduce losses if inductance is also reduced. So Fig. 8 takes
Fig. 6. Inductance and loss effects of air gap width. A) Inductance. B) Copper
Loss. C) Core Loss. D) Total Loss
this into account. The inductance shown here is the per unit
646
inductance, with the base of 0 mm width offset being an
inductance value of 1. The losses are per unit but also per
inductance value at that given width offset. The equations for
these two calculations are given in equation (5) used for the
inductance and equation (6) used for each of the losses. Where
Lpu is the inductance per unit, Loffset is the inductance value at the
current width offset and L0 is the inductance value with no
offset. Similarly PpupL is the loss per unit per inductance, Poffset
is the loss value at the current width offset and P0 is the loss
value with no offset.
(5)
= A B
(6)
= ×
Fig. 8c shows that even with normalisation, the core iron losses
still increase with wider offsets, as inductance increases linearly
yet loss increases as a polynomial with increasing flux density.
However an interesting effect can be seen with the copper
losses, Fig. 8b, while they still reduce with a wider core, there
is initially a slight reduction with a narrower core, then a
significant increase. This results in wider cores giving lower
total losses than a traditional core and a slightly narrower core
also giving lower losses for a fixed inductance.
C D
A B Fig. 9. Flux path for air gap placement a) Base of slot length b) Traditional
location. c) Base of slot width d) Middle of slot width.
A B
C D
C D
Fig. 8. Per unit inductance and loss effects of air gap width A) Inductance. B)
Copper Loss. C) Core Loss. D) Total Loss
B. Air Gap Placement Offset Fig. 10. Inductance and loss effects of air gap placement
Considering the movement of the air gap placement, Fig. 9
shows the flux paths for the same 4 positions displayed in Fig. While there is a change in inductance, with spikes at the
4. Fig. 9 shows the position of the air gap does not have an effect extreme positions, this variation is minimal, <10%. The spikes
on the quantity of the fringing flux. It only affects where the are when the air gap is on the corner arc of the core, changing
fringing occurs and which windings are intercepted by flux. Fig. the width of the air gap, which has already been shown to have
10 shows the effect of the air gap placement on the inductance an effect on the inductance. The iron core losses mirror the
and losses. The dashed vertical lines represent key points, with inductance, again negligible change with spikes when the air
0 being position A in Fig. 4 and Fig. 9, the red line is position gap passes the corner arcs.
B (traditional position), yellow is position C (when it first The copper losses show significant deviations, with the
moves to the slot width, i.e. the top and bottom of the core) and traditional location being the lowest loss on the slot length leg
purple is D (middle of the slot width, i.e. the top and bottom of (left and right of Fig. 4 and Fig. 9), however this value drops
core). 38% when the air gap is in the middle of the slot width (top and
bottom of Fig. 4 and Fig. 9). The U shape of copper losses seen
647
along the slot length positioning is due to, at the extreme ends,
the fringing fluxes being condensed through a smaller group of
windings, this is even worse at the upper of the slot length
where only a single layer of windings are present. The copper
losses were much lower with the air gap along the slot width, as
the fringing flux losses are dependent on the distance from air
gap to winding. The same formula for the loss given per unit in
the conductors due to the fringing flux, (2), can be used. With
this it can be seen that, with the air gap in the middle of the slot
width, position D, the nearest conductor is x=2.2mm and
y=3.7mm, compared to the values at the traditional, x=1.2mm,
y=0mm. This difference in x and y reduces the fringing losses
to 10% of their original value, essentially leaving just the
typical copper losses (DC component, skin effect and proximity
effect). This type of benefit could be achieved from such
methods as winding the conductors so that they are not adjacent
to the air gap or utilising a thicker insulation layer between core
and winding, as explained in [11], but is described here to Fig. 12. Thermal results with air gap width offset range for a fixed inductance
explain the difference in copper losses observed.
B. Air Gap Placement Offset
V. THERMAL MODELLING Fig. 13 gives the change in temperature with the movement of
As the goal is to reduce the temperature of the core, the thermal the air gap. It can be seen that there is correlation with the
model must be considered. The housing design of the losses, as expected, but also significantly increases as the air
components had the inductors impregnated in a potting gap moves to less thermally accessible areas. Here it can be
compound (Robnor Resins PX439XS) within a small clearly seen that moving the air gap to the slot width, the top
aluminium box sized for the component. The base of this and bottom of the U cores, has significant benefits to the
aluminium box was then water cooled. As this is for automotive thermal performance of the inductor.
applications the cooling fluid is at 105ᵒC.
For this a lumped parameter model was used. While more
advanced methods are available, such as thermal FEA, this is
sufficiently accurate for this application [12-14]. For high
accuracy a high node number model was used, with multiple
slices throughout the core, for accurate distribution of the losses.
A. Air Gap Width Offset
Fig. 11 shows the effect of changing the air gap width on the
temperature. This appears promising for a reduction in air gap
width, but from before, this also had a much lower inductance.
Fig. 12 shows the temperature for a fixed inductance. This
shows, as was seen with the losses, when the inductance
achieved is taken into account, the wider air gap has superior
performance.
Fig. 13. Thermal results with air gap placement offset range
VI. CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER WORK

The advancement of additive manufacturing for magnetic cores
is allowing for more freedom in the design of inductors. One
critical area for this is investigating the effects of changing the
size or placement of the air gap that would have been difficult
to manufacture previously. Increasing the width of the air gap
can lead to lower copper and total losses for a fixed inductance,
but reduces the potential slot area. While this is not an issue
Fig. 11. Thermal results with air gap width offset range with this case study, as adequate fill factor is still achievable, in
648
more packed applications it could be a limitation. Reducing the permeability magnetic cores," in 2017 IEEE Energy
air gap width can lead to lower core losses and copper losses, Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 2017,
provided the reduction in width is not too extreme. pp. 881-886.
Moving the air gap has little effect on the inductance but can [6] Y. Yan, D. Chao, K. D. T. Ngo, Y. Mei, and G. Q. Lu,
significantly reduce the copper loss. The main benefit of "Additive manufacturing of planar inductor for Power
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649
Compact Busbar-Integrated Current Sensing
using 2D Magnetoresistive Point Field Detectors in
Power Electronic Systems
Muhammad H. Alvi, Minhao Sheng, Robert D. Lorenz Matthias Brusius
WEMPEC, University of Wisconsin-Madison Sensitec GmbH
alvi,msheng,rdlorenz@wisc.edu Matthias.Brusius@sensitec.com
Abstract- Current sensing is an integral part of most power these characteristics, MR-based current sensors have also been
electronic systems. For increased power density and galvanic used in commercial current sensors [11]-[14].
isolation, module integrated current sensing using Giant AMR can be observed in bulk material but is more defined in
Magnetoresistance (GMR) Point Field Detectors (PFDs) has been thin films. GMR and TMR are strictly thin film effects with most
demonstrated. In this paper, submillimeter 2D Tunnel of the films being magnetic materials [17]. AMR and GMR
Magnetoresistance (TMR) PFD is characterized for galvanically effects are explained using the internal magnetization which
isolated current sensing. TMR properties that make it superior to changes due to the external magnetic field causing the material
AMR and GMR are evaluated. The 2D field shaping and to exhibit change in resistivity. GMR current sensors have been
characterization methodology is developed, and 2D PFDs are used used in power module integrated current sensing systems [6][7].
Both GMR and AMR are unipolar due to which bias magnets
in compact integrated current sensing in busbars. It is
have been used in [6][8] and [11]-[13] to get a bipolar current
demonstrated how the 2D Magnetoresistance (MR) PFDs can
sensing output, crucial for AC systems [15].
inherently provide disturbance decoupling with fewer PFDs than
The challenges with MR PFD based Current Sensing are
1D MR PFDs, in power dense traction applications.
twofold. The first stems from the non-ideal point field detector
properties [16][17]. The second originates from the non-ideal
I. INTRODUCTION
relationship of current and magnetic field due to the skin effect,
Current Sensing is an integral part of electromechanical and proximity effect and disturbance field coupling [7][18]. Both
power electronics systems, which actively regulate current. 1D issues are addressed in this paper. In section II, prototype TMR
Anisotropic Magnetoresistance (AMR), Giant is characterized for properties which are critical for current
Magnetoresistance (GMR) and 2D Tunnel Magnetoresistance sensing. In section III, AMR PFDs are integrated in a busbar to
(TMR) Point Field Detectors (PFDs) can be used to sense form a 1D current sensing gradiometer which inherently
currents with full galvanic isolation unlike the shunt current decouples non-spatially varying cross-coupled fields. Section
sensing. Shunt resistors are the simplest form of current sensors. IV introduces the 2D field shaping metrics developed for 2D
They were originally prone to power loss, parasitic inductance MR PFD based sensing. In Section V, a fabricated 2D GMR
and were sensitive to operating temperature [1][2]. Shunt PFD is used in a 2D gradiometer for busbar integrated current
resistors have been significantly improved over the years [3][4], sensing.
however, they do not offer complete galvanic isolation. II. TUNNEL MAGNETORESISTANCE POINT FIELD
Electromagnetic methods of current sensing like Hall effect DETECTOR
sensors, transformers and magnetoresistance PFDs provide
inherent galvanic isolation. Hall effect sensors are the most The PFD evaluated for use in current sensing is a 2 D TMR
prevalent form of current sensing in power electronics PFD developed by Sensitec initially for position sensing. This
applications. The main shortcoming of Hall effect sensors is low paper evaluates the position sensing TMR PFD for current
sensitivity, which leads to the need for a core, which is prone to sensing applications, since both position and current sensing
saturation and nonlinearities [2]. Transformers, generally, applications detect magnetic field. The submillimeter chip
require a core, are more expensive, and only work with AC consists of two Wheatstone bridges with one sensitive in the X
current [2][5]. and the other in the Y direction, i.e. orthogonal directions. The
Magnetoresistance (MR) is defined as the change in resistance output of each of the two bridges is a differential voltage,
of a material due to the presence of a magnetic field. MR PFDs proportional to the magnetic field.
are commonly used in isolated applications for position and TMR PFD Characterization
velocity measurements. In ideal conditions without disturbance Bipolarity of TMR PFD is a significant advancement
fields, the point magnetic field near a conductor which is compared to the unipolarity of the GMR PFD used in [6] and
detected by a magnetoresistance detector is a function of the AMR PFD used in [11]-[13]. Bias fields, sometimes used to
current passing through the conductor and is modelled by make output bipolar in unipolar PFDs, are a costly
Maxwell-Ampere’s Law. Magnetoresistance based current manufacturing variable as well as a function of temperature. The
sensors aim to introduce simplicity, galvanic isolation, low TMR PFD characteristic curve is not impacted by a
power loss, and high bandwidth without a core [6]-[10]. Due to perpendicular bias field as shown in Fig. 1a.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 650

Linear Range
Voltage[mV]
_Bias =2.5mT
Voltage [mV]
_Bias = 0
[mT]
(a)
(a)
(a)
Magnetic Field (mT)
Sensitivity
[mV/mT]
Magnetic Field (mT) __Data, __trend line, o points for trend line
(b)
Voltage [mV]
__X field
__ Y Field
% Lin Error
Hysteresis
[mV]
(b) (b) (c)
Magnetic Field (mT) Magnetic Field (mT) Magnetic Field Sweep Range (mT)
Fig. 2. (a) TMR PFD characteristic curve with Fig. 3. (a) Linear range, (b) Sensitivity
Fig.1. (a) TMR PFD characteristic curve
best fit trend (b) TMR PFD characteristic and (c) Hysteresis of TMR PFD w.r.t.
with and without bias (b) TMR PFD X and
curve’s linearity error w.r.t. the maximum the range of swept field
Y characteristic curve
output
Fig. 1b shows that the characteristic curves for the X and Y Vo [V/A]
direction Wheatstone bridges are identical, except for an offset
which can be eliminated in analog or digital conditioning. Fig. 2
I
shows the characteristic curve along with the best fit trend line
and linearity error. The TMR PFD output is linear for +/- 4.5mT
which is enough for most integrated sensing applications. The
TMR PFD was also tested under different ranges of magnetic
field sweeps to verify the insignificant impact of exposing the
 [deg]
TMR PFD to extreme magnetic fields. The TMR PFD

sensitivity, hysteresis and linear range are shown as a function
I 
Vo
of the range of magnetic field sweep in Fig. 3. The linear range,

∠

which is the magnetic field range in which linearity error stays

below 1%, and sensitivity, which is the voltage output per unit Frequency [Hz]
magnetic field, do not depend upon the extreme magnetic fields. Gain at 100 Hz is used to scale the signal
Venable FRF Single Sin FRF
The sensitivity of the TMR PFD, in the range of 40mV/mT, is Fig. 4. FRF of the current input and TMR PFD voltage output
higher than most state of the art PFDs which exhibit similar
bandwidths. The hysteresis, which is the vertical height of the causes a phase lag. The reason for the phase offset is dynamic
hysteresis loop in the characteristic curve, changes minimally hysteresis. This offset is not phase since it is not temporal. Phase
when the magnetic fields are very large. Due to the temperature is a time property, and dynamic hysteresis in degrees stems from
decoupling of the Wheatstone bridges, the TMR PFD has TMR PFD’s internal hysteresis.
minimal temperature sensitivity. TMR PFD Dynamic Hysteresis
Bandwidth and Frequency Response Hysteresis data for different ranges of current or magnetic
The frequency response function (FRF) of TMR PFD current field is collected by passing a triangular wave at 100 Hz through
sensing with respect to reference current probe was evaluated by a straight wire and measuring it with a current probe as well as
passing sinusoidal current through a straight wire with the a TMR PFD with amplification and conditioning. Current
frequency incremented from 10 Hz to 10 kHz manually and then reference is used for plotting hysteresis since it is available, and
using Venable frequency response analyzer. The amplitude of magnetic field reference is not. The hysteresis loop can be
the current is kept constant throughout the frequency sweep. formed by plotting current reference on X axis and, TMR PFD
The results of single sine frequency sweep FRF and Venable conditioned output on Y axis. Different minor loops are plotted
FRF are shown in Fig. 4. The magnitude remains inside 3.5% in Fig. 5 by increasing the amplitude of the triangular wave in
for the 10kHz range. The most noticeable feature of the the wire. Hysteresis in the conditioned signal is significant and
frequency response is the phase. There is a frequency remains virtually constant with the current range. This hysteresis
dependency as well as an offset. The low pass characteristic of remaining constant for minor loop might seem contradictory to
the phase frequency response can be attributed to the parasitic the characterization, but it must be noted that in the
capacitance and the 25 kΩ series resistance of TMR PFD. The characterization hysteresis increase is very minimal and range
TMR PFD is designed with a very high resistance for low power of magnetic field is much larger leading to major loop formation.
consumption but a high resistance combined with parasitics
651
shows that dynamic hysteresis reduces as the amplitude of the
sinusoid increases. This is because the ratio of hysteresis in volts
to amplitude in volts decreases with increasing amplitude. For
very low amplitudes the hysteresis gap is minimal due to which
Output Voltage [V]
dynamic hysteresis is also very small. Dynamic hysteresis is

theoretically independent of the frequency of operation.
1D and 2D MR PFDs
Due to the dynamic hysteresis in the TMR PFD, it is not used
for integrated current sensing. Instead an AMR PFD with an on-
chip bias magnet to produce bipolar linear response in +/- 2.25
mT range is used in 1D applications as a replacement of TMR
PFD. For 2D applications, two 1D GMR PFDs are overlaid on
Current [A] opposite sides of the PCB with the sensitivity axis orthogonal to
Input current at 100 Hz triangle wave at different amplitudes each other. This leads to a fabricated 2D GMR PFD. The
Fig. 5. Minor Loops (hysteresis) of TMR PFD
thickness of the PCB is 1.6 mm in the insensitive axis, hence it
remains a PFD with sensitivity in two dimensions. This GMR
PFD is the same as the one used in [6]. Fig. 7 shows the AMR
Dynamic Hysteresis [deg]
and GMR PFD characteristic curves with more details in

[19][20].
III. 1D MR PFD GRADIOMETER FOR CURRENT
SENSING
The current sensing 1D gradiometer consists of two AMR
PFDs integrated across a busbar as shown in Fig. 9a. AMR PFD
is used only because TMR PFD has dynamic hysteresis. The
single axis of sensitivity of both PFDs is identical; as current
flows, the output voltages of the PFDs move in opposite
Amplitude of Current [A]
directions. Fig. 8a shows that the differential voltage between
Simulated Dynamic Hysteresis Experimental Dynamic Hysteresis
Experimental current at 500 Hz the two chips increases linearly as the current passing through
Fig. 6. Dynamic hysteresis as a function of current the busbar increases. Fig. 8b shows that the linearity error of
voltage output vs current remains below 1% for +/- 100A.
The testing of dynamic hysteresis involved varying the Similar devices have been developed with Hall sensors [21] [22]
amplitude of sinusoidal current at a constant frequency in the that use the magnetic fields around a conductor without a core
straight wire. This current is measured using a reference probe or shield but using MR PFDs can improve the sensitivity and
and the TMR PFD. The experimental dynamic hysteresis in bandwidth.
degrees can be calculated as the relative phase between the The gradiometer measures the field gradient; hence it
inherently decouples disturbance fields which are homogenous
reference current and the TMR PFD output. Simulated dynamic
over both the PFDs situated across the busbar. This inherent
hysteresis in degrees is calculated as relative phase between decoupling is shown in Fig. 9b by the constant output voltage
ideal TMR and TMR PFD with hysteresis for sensing current. when homogenous disturbance field is superimposed on the
The simulation uses experimentally collected minor loops which sensing system. The disturbance is parallel to the field produced
are noisy. The overlay of experiment and simulation in Fig. 6 by the current.
Output Voltage [mV]
Output Voltage [mV]
(a)
(a)
(a)
Output Voltage [mV]
Output Voltage [mV]
% Linearity Error
(b) (b) (b)
Magnetic Field (mT) Current (A) Disturbance Magnetic Field (mT)

__Data __trend line o points used for trend line Disturbance Field is parallel to B shown in schematic
Fig. 7. (a) Characteristic curve of AMR PFD used in Fig. 8. (a) AMR PFD gradiometer output voltage w.r.t. Fig. 9. (a) 1D AMR PFD gradiometer schematic (b)
1D gradiometer (b) Characteristic curve of GMR current with best fit line (b) Linearity error of AMR Inherent disturbance decoupling of 1D AMR PFD
PFD used in 2D gradiometer PFD gradiometer gradiometer
652
Complexities in this gradiometer topology may arrive due to dual axis sensitivity and can only be utilized by shaping fields
the skin effect, proximity effect [18] [23] or disturbance fields in two dimensions. One of the structures proposed to shape
with a high spatial gradient. Although 5% Flat Bandwidth fields in 2D is an S-shape carved on the rectangular busbar. Fig.
(FBW) can be used to counter the skin and proximity effect from 13 shows the design of this busbar. As current flows along the
[18], the cross-coupled disturbance fields of stacked conductors length of the busbar, its path is shaped such that it has flow in
both the X and Y axes. This path allows magnetic field
are not fully decoupled with the 1D gradiometer due to their high
generation in both the X and Y axes. The X and Y fields above
spatial gradient. and below the busbar are in opposite directions, thereby yielding
IV. 2D FIELD SHAPING AND CHARACTERIZATION X and Y field gradients.
2D Flux density
Magnetic field, a vector quantity, can be described using its
orthogonal cartesian components. To keep the analysis to 2D
only two of the three components are analyzed. Following
convention, they are called Bx and By for X and Y components
respectively. Bx and By are plotted in Figs 10 and 11 for DC and
10kHz current to show the skin effect in 2D gradiometer busbar
described in detail in next section. The 2D flux density metric,
Bxy, is the product of flux density in X and Y axis. The 2D flux
density plotted in Figs. 10c and 11c shows the locations which
have good field strengths in both axes.
2D flat bandwidth Fig. 13. Design of 2D gradiometer Fig. 14. 2-D PFD placed on the
5% FBW at a point in space is the frequency at which the busbar manufactured busbar
magnetic field originating from the current deviates by +/- 5% The 2D PFDs can be placed on the top and bottom side of the
from its value at DC [18]. FBW is a direct result of skin and busbar to create a 2D gradiometer as shown in Fig. 13. 2D
proximity effects [18]. FBW is defined for a magnetic field in gradiometer creates a redundancy without additional PFDs. The
one dimension hence it is only applicable to 1D PFDs. The 2D differential voltages of the bridges of the 2D PFDs is
5% flat bandwidth is computed using the lower of the X and Y proportional to the field gradient and the current.
FBW at each point and is shown in Fig 12 for 2D gradiometer A busbar is manufactured for 2D gradiometer with the S cut
busbar. 2D bandwidth and flux density can lead to optimal 2D out. The thickness of the busbar is 1.5mm, width is 18.5mm and
PFD placement. depth of the cutout is 12mm as shown in Fig 14. FEA of the
busbar is used to compute the 2D flux density and 2D
V. 2D MR PFD GRADIOMETER FOR CURRENT
bandwidth. FEA results of the busbar on XZ plane 2 from Fig
SENSING
13 are shown in Figs. 10, 11, and 12. The best locations which
The fabricated 2D GMR PFD can be used to create a 2D lead to a good balance between the flux density and bandwidth
gradiometer. The 2D PFD doubles the degrees-of-freedom by are found from this analysis.
Z position [mm]
(a) (a) (a)

Z position [mm]
(b) (b) (b)

Z position [mm]
(c) (c) (c)
X position [mm] X position [mm] X position [mm]
Fig.10 (a) Bx (b) By (c) Bxy 2D Flux density 1ADC Fig.11 (a)Bx (b)By (c)Bxy2D Flux density at 1A 10kHz Fig. 12. (a) FBWx, (b) FBWy, (c) FWBxy 2D FBW
653
Vo [V/A]
I
 [deg]
I 
Vo
∠

Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]

Fig. 15. Multiphase stacked Gain at 10 Hz is used to scale the signal, frequency range 5Hz-10kHz from Venable
busbar with staggered S cutout Fig. 16. FRF of fabricated 2-D GMR PFD voltage output (Left X sensitive)(Right Y sensitive)
Disturbance Field Decoupling: response function (FRF) of PFD outputs in both X and Y
2D MR PFD based Gradiometer current sensing topology directions. The FEA and FRF of seond PFD are not shown due
provides an increased capability to decouple disturbances while to symmetry.
using only two PFDs. The 2D field gradient between the top and The FRF in Fig 16 shows that the gradiometer can provide 5%
bottom of the conductor can achieve current sensing with performance for well over 1kHz. The PFD location has
disturbance field decoupling as modelled in (1). This model sufficient bandwidth for busbars, which are not expected to
applies to both axes independently. carry more than 1 kHz fundamental current. It must be noted that
1 1   I   VBx1/y1  as shown by FEA, better locations are still possible, generally at
Cx/y  (1)
 -1 1   Dx/y   VBx2/y2 
= the cost of weaker flux density. The frequency dependent
degradation is a direct result of skin effect which causes the
where I is the current being sensed, VBx1/y1 is the output voltage
of the PFD 1, VBx2/y2 is the output voltage of the PFD 2, D
represents the disturbance and C represents the coefficients for
X direction Output Voltage [V]
converting I to VB. X or Y refer to the axis being used. The

gradiometer only inherently decouples fields detected
homogenously over the 2 PFDs. This 2D gradiometer provides
the freedom to choose the axis that has the smaller spatial
gradient of disturbance fields for better inherent disturbance
decoupling and minimal calibration. The spatial gradient of the
disturbance field depends on the stacking and orientation of the
busbars in multiphase systems.
Engineering decisions can also be realized to reduce the
disturbance with spatial gradients from neighboring busbars.
The FEA and experimental results in [24] show that in case of
co-planar busbars, X axis fields don’t extend to the neighboring
busbars; this can lead to the designer choosing the X axis
Y direction Output Voltage [V]
gradient for current sensing. The designer also has the option of
choosing the Y axis since that has no coupling for neighboring
fields either. In the case of stacked busbars, X gradients might
have high spatial gradient fields from neighboring conductors.
In such a case, the design is very versatile and the S cutouts in
the busbar can be spaced out as shown in Fig. 15 such that the
Y field gradients from each of the busbar stay uncoupled.
PFD placement and Current Sensing Experimental
results
The fabricated 2D GMR PFDs are positioned close to the
Current [A]
region shown in Figs 13 and 14 and are 8.5mm apart in the Y
PFD 1 output PFD 2 output Gradiometer output Gradiometer
axis and 3mm apart in the Z axis. Sinusoidal current is passed output for current in stacked busbar acting as disturbance
through the busbar. The frequency of the current is swept, and a Fig. 17. 2-D GMR gradiometer voltage output with respect to current
Venable frequency response analyzer is used to plot a frequency with stacked busbar
654
redistribution of current in the busbar leading to a change in the in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 908-917,
magnetic field outlook. July 2004.
Fig. 17 shows the differential voltage of X and Y outputs of [6] T.J. Brauhn, M. Sheng, B.A. Dow, H. Nogawa, R.D. Lorenz, "Module-
the two 2D PFDs in the gradiometer with respect to the current Integrated GMR-Based Current Sensing for Closed-Loop Control of a
in the busbar. Output voltage and current in the busbar have a Motor Drive," in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 53,
perfectly linear relationship. As shown in FEA, the flux density no. 1, pp. 222-231, Jan.-Feb. 2017.
is higher in X compared to Y, hence the outputs are much higher [7] P.E. Schneider, M. Horio, R.D. Lorenz, “Integrating Giant Megneto-
for the X direction. 2D gradiometer outputs have twice the Resistive (GMR) Field Detectors for High Bandwidth Current Sensing in
sensitivity of the PFDs and the output is linear and is expected Power Electronic Modules,” IEEE Transactions on Industry
to stay linear with in the magnetic range of the PFDs. Applications, vol.48, no.4, pp. 1432-1439, 2012.
Fig. 17 also shows the inherent decoupling of disturbance [8] E.R. Olson, R.D. Lorenz, “Effective Use of Miniature, Multi-point, Field-
fields from a busbar stacked 14mm on top and carrying equal based Current Sensors Without Magnetic Cores,” IEEE Industry
current. The X direction output of the gradiometer, has some Applications Conference, pp. 1426-1433, 2007.
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(INTELEC), Austin, TX, 2016, pp. 1-7
VI. CONCLUSIONS
[10] S.J. Nibir, E. Hurwitz, M. Karami, B. Parkhideh, "A Technique to
This paper develops current sensing methodology using 2D Enhance the Frequency Bandwidth of Contactless Magnetoresistive
MR PFDs. The 2D MR PFDs are integrated in busbar for current Current Sensors," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 63,
sensing with inherent decoupling. Key conclusions are no. 9, pp. 5682-5686, Sept. 2016.
summarized as follows: [11] Sensitec, “CFS1000 Integrated MagnetoResistive Current Sensor,”
• 2D TMR PFD is a bipolar, high linearity and high range CFS1000 datasheet, April 2016.
PFD, however, it has dynamic hysteresis which prevents it [12] Sensitec, “CMS3100 Highly Dynamic MagnetoResistive Current Sensor
from being used in current sensing in its present form. (IPN = 100 A),” CMS3000 sdatasheet, June. 2015.
• 1D MR gradiometer is a simple current sensing technique [13] Sensitec, “CDS4100 MagnetoResistive Current Sensor (IPN = 100 A),”
but it only inherently decouples disturbances that are CDS4000 datasheet, Oct 2017.
homogenous over the 2 PFDs [14] Crocus technology, “CT219 Series Differential Current Sensor,” CT219
• 2D metrics can be used to shape and characterize fields datasheet, 2017.
appropriate for 2D PFDs. [15] S.J. Nibir, H. Niakan, B. Parkhideh, "Characterization of
• For 2D MR based current sensing, both X and Y fields magnetoresistors for contactless current sensing in power electronic
detected by the 2D PFD should have appropriate strengths applications," 2017 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition
and bandwidths. (ECCE), Cincinnati, OH, USA, 2017, pp. 433-438.
• 2D gradiometer doubles the degrees-of-freedom of current [16] M. J. Caruso, T. Bartland, C. H. Smith, R. Schneider, "A New Perspective
sensing with inherent disturbance decoupling by producing on Magnetic Field Sensing," 1998
field gradients in 2 dimensions with 5% bandwidth of over [17] S. Tumanski, “Modern magnetic field sensors - a review”, Przeglad
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[18] E. R. Olson, R. D. Lorenz, "Using the Dynamic Behavior of
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655
Design of Wireless Temperature Monitoring System for
Measurement of Magnet Temperature of IPMSM
Donghoon Park*, Hyun-Sam Jung*, Hyung-June Cho* and Seung-Ki Sul*,
* Seoul National University
School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, Korea
donghun94@snu.ac.kr
Abstract— Residual flux density of permanent magnet is For last 15 years many methods for the measurement of the
significantly influenced by its own temperature. In case of Interior temperature of the magnet of IPMSM had been reported [2] –
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (IPMSM), which is [5]. However, only some of them could be practically applicable
widely used as a traction motor of EV/HEV, its torque capability to the measurement because of following reasons. In case of slip
is directly affected by the temperature of the permanent magnet.
ring, machine speed should be limited due to mechanical
Also, the irreversible demagnetization of the magnet, which is a
problem and noise issues [2]. In case of using IR camera, it
major concern of automotive industry, is deeply related to the
temperature of the magnet of the motor. Therefore, the issue of cannot measure buried magnet temperature [5]. For these
the identification of the temperature of the magnet on line is reasons, direct temperature measurement using contact type
getting wide attention from automotive industry. The temperature sensor had been preferred [4]. However, if the shape of rotor
can be estimated based on thermal model or terminal core is modified for the installation of temperature sensors, there
characteristics of IPMSM, which may be linked to the temperature is a possibility to alter the basic characteristic of IPMSM
of the magnet. To analyze variation of characteristics of IPMSM because of the distorted flux path due to the sensors [6].
according to the magnet temperature, accurate measurement of Accordingly, when designing IPMSM temperature
the temperature of permanent magnet is crucial. In this paper a measurement system and investigating characteristic along
system to measure the temperature of magnet of IPMSM is temperature, care should be taken that the temperature
designed and tested. Since the invasion of the measurement system
measurement system constitution does not alter the basic
before and after the installation of sensors is minimized, the
characteristics of IPMSM such as back EMF and flux
variation of the basic characteristics of IPMSM such Back-EMF
and flux distribution due to the measurement system are not distribution in the rotor.
noticeable. In addition, the measured temperature can be easily This paper presents a direct measurement system integrated
monitored through wireless communication channel. The in the rotor and transmitting the measured data wirelessly. The
accuracy, effectiveness, and robustness to EMI of inverter driving
system can minimize the variation of basic characteristics of
IPMSM have been verified by experimental test.
IPMSM thanks to its minimum invasive design of the
Keywords—IPMSM, Magnet temperature, Wireless installation of the temperature sensors on the magnet. The
Temperature measurement variation of Back EMF and flux distribution is evaluated through
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation before and after
I. INTRODUCTION modification of the rotor of IPMSM for the installation of the
sensors. And, the variation of Back-EMF is observed
Researches about high-end control technology for traction experimentally before and after the modification.
motor have been increased with fast growing demand of
automotive application. Interior Permanent Magnet
II. IPMSM DESIGN AND TEMPERATURE MEASURING
Synchronous Machine (IPMSM) has been widely used in
SYSTEM CONSTITUTION
automotive application due to its wide operating speed range,
higher torque density, and better efficiency. In automotive A. Modification of Rotor of IPMSM
applications, there are demands of wide operating temperature
range, typically -40 oC to 150 oC, and the characteristics of Rotor of IPMSM is carefully modified to accommodate
IPMSM would vary significantly according to the magnet temperature sensors on the permanent magnet minimizing the
temperature, because the residual flux density of magnet is variation of Back-EMF and flux distribution of the rotor due to
sensitive to the temperature of the magnet itself [1]. In order to the sensors. High frequency components in Back-EMF are
observe the characteristic of IPMSM according to the affected by slot opening. To attach the sensor on the magnet,
temperature, the magnet temperature should be measured. additional holes are required. These holes have influence on flux
However, it is challenging because the magnet rotates path because it has an effect like additional air gaps. Therefore,
synchronously with the rotor. these unintended air gaps should be minimized. For the sensor,
1 mm × 2 mm rectangular shape hole is required for the
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 656

(a) (b)
Fig. 1. Magnetic flux density of designed IPMSM (a) with no hole for the sensor (b) with holes for sensor
installation of a temperature sensor on the magnet. These holes Even though the size of these holes is adapted to be
for the sensors are placed around magnets to measure the minimum, it may alter electromagnetic properties of IPMSM.
temperature at several different points of magnet considering the FEA simulation has been done to verify the effect of the holes.
flux path. The magnetic field flux density of the motor under test with and
without holes is shown in Fig.1. Fig.1 (a) and Fig. 1 (b),
respectively. Regardless of the holes and sensors, the magnetic
flux density has very similar distribution and magnitude at
overall region of the rotor except region just near the sensor
holes.
The difference in the operating characteristics of the motor
due to the sensors would be seen as a difference of magnetic flux
linkage between two models (before and after modification) in
the same current condition. In order to show the variation due to
the holes in numerical value, d- and q-axis variations can be
normalized by using (1) and (2).
λdsr , hole − λdsr , no_hole
λdsr , diff (%) = × 100. (1)
max(λdsr , no_hole ) − min(λdsr , no_hole )
(a)
λqsr , hole − λqsr , no_hole
λqsr , diff (%) = × 100. (2)
max(λqsr , no_hole ) − min(λqsr , no_hole )
In these equations, λds , hole and λqs , hole are d- and q-axis magnetic
r r
flux linkage with the holes and λds , no _ hole and λqs , no _ hole are d-
r r
and q-axis magnetic flux linkage without holes. Fig. 2 shows the
results of normalized difference of d- and q- axis flux linkages
r r
based on these equations. In this figure, ids and iqs vary from -
3.75 p.u to 3.75 p.u to consider magnetic saturation.
From the figure it can be seen that λ ds has been more
r
affected than λqs by the the modification, because the holes are
r
located near magnets whose main flux path flows through d-axis.
The magnitude of maximum flux difference ratio compared to
full range is 1.2% in d-axis and 0.4% in q-axis. And, the
(b)
difference would be negligible.
Fig. 2. (a)Magnitude of difference of d-axis flux linkage | λdsr ,diff | , (b)
Magnitude of difference of q-axis flux linkage | λqsr ,diff |
657
Digital Temp
x16 PTS
Filtering Calculation
Constant A/D
Current Converter
Source
Filtering Bluetooth Wireless Host

&Amplifying Module Device
500μA
DC Current
Voltage from RTD
Fig. 5. Temperature measuring system block diagram
Temperature Detector (RTD), and digital temperature sensor are

some of them. To minimize the invasive nature of the sensor, the
Fig. 3. Back-EMF through FEA simulation result size of the sensor should be minimized and simultaneously the
Back-EMF of each model before and after modification is signal from the sensor should be strong enough to get robustness
shown in Fig. 3. From the Fig. 3, it can be noticed that the against EMI from switching of the inverter. For these reason,
maximum difference between Back-EMF of two FEA model is RTD type sensor is used for this measurement system.
less than 2.5V and it is under 1.5% of the peak of the Back-EMF. The temperature sensor board, shown in Fig. 4, is located on
This value is within the tolerance of the manufacturing of a plate which is connected to the rotor and rotating together with
IPMSM [7]. the rotor. And it transfers the measured data to the host device
via Bluetooth communication. The maximum data transfer
B. Temperature Measurement System speed is limited for UART communication speed which is
It is difficult to collect the measured information directly 115200bps. This transfer speed is fast enough, compared to
from the sensors because the sensors are in the rotor, which is temperature variation of the magnet and the thermal response
rotating. In previous researches, several data collecting schemes time of temperature sensing resistor. Detailed description about
from the rotor had been devised such as slip ring, wireless data specification of temperature sensing board is shown in Table 1.
transmission, thermal imaging camera. Each method has their Contrast to the measuring range, the operating range is limited
own pros and cons. In the case of the scheme based on slip ring, because of the battery on the board. By using non-rechargeable
because of its mechanical weakness, the scheme had been used lithium thionyl chloride (LiSOCl2) battery, the viable
only in low speed. And, the scheme based on IR camera can be temperature for battery can extend up to 125oC. Thirty-two
only applicable to surface mount magnet machine where the sensors are placed on the various parts on surface of the magnets
magnet is visible from the camera. But in the case of IPMSM, of the rotor and temperatures of 16 RTD sensors among 32 RTD
the scheme cannot be applied due to the buried magnet. In this sensors can be measured simultaneously via 16 analog channels.
paper, scheme based on wireless data transmission is chosen as The overall system block diagram is shown in Fig. 5.
a viable solution for data collecting. In this scheme, EMI and
For each sensor, the calibration process has been done in the
extra battery on the rotating board are challenging issue.
thermal chamber. The error bound of the system has been
There are multiple candidates as the temperature sensor identified less than ±1.5 oC.
attached to the magnet. Thermocouple (TC), Resistive
TABLE I. TEMPERATURE SENSING BOARD SPECTIFITION
Parameter Value
Channel 16
Resolution 12bit
Wireless Transmission Bluetooth
Measuring Range -55 oC ~ 155 oC
Temperature Sensor Class F0.3
-20 oC ~ 65 oC
Operating Temperature
(-20~125oC with LiSOCl2 battery),
Battery Capacity 3.7V 900mAh 2cell
(a) (b)
Fig. 4. Temperature sensing board (a) front (b) rear
658
Hall Sensor
IR Thermometer
Heat Source Magnet
(a) (b)
Fig. 8. Experiment set-up for the identification of magnet temperature coefficient
(a) IR temperature measuring device (b) heat source and magnetic field sensor
(a) (b) setup
Fig. 6. IPMSM temperature sensor integration process and result (a) Sensor on
the temperature of the stator coil too, as shown in Fig. 6 (a). The
the stator coil (b) Temperature sensing board installation and sensor terminal
connections FPCB lines are collected via the hole in the shaft and pulled out
through the hole along the hollow shaft. Fully assembled motor
C. Constitution with the measurement system is shown in Fig. 6 (b).
The temperature sensors have been integrated in the rotor

III. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION
during the curing stage of fabrication process of the rotor
assembly. The curing process of the IPMSM rotor has been Back-EMF characteristic has been tested with the
proceeded at 120 oC for 3 hours. Temperature sensor stick temperature measurement system organized in section II.
should maintain its shape and electrical connectivity throughout IPMSM was driven by a load machine at constant speed, 1200
the curing time. Materials used for Flexible Printed Circuit r/min, which is equivalent to 40 Hz electrical frequency to
Board (FPCB) are polyimide or PET. Glass transition IPMSM under the test. And the terminal voltage of IPMSM was
temperature (Tg) of polyimide (230oC) [8] is much higher than measured with an oscilloscope. The measured line to line
PET (80oC). Additionally, polyimide FPCB has more flexibility voltage has been converted to the phase voltage under the
than PET. For these reasons, polyimide FPCB has been used to assumption of the balanced three phase voltages. The
connect temperature sensor to sensing board. waveform is shown in Fig. 7 where measured voltages and
simulated voltages by FEA are compared too. Although there is
The fabrication processes are shown in Fig. 6. After the little imbalance between phases in measured Back-EMF
curing process, the FPCB and temperature sensors are stuck to voltage compared to simulated one, two voltages are well
the rotor. The temperature sensors were installed not only on the matched to each other. The imbalance may come from
magnets in rotor side but also on the stator windings to measure manufacturing tolerance of IPMSM.
Permanent magnet temperature directly affects the residual

flux density of the magnet. Decrement rate of Br is defined as
Reversible Temperature Coefficient (RTC), which is calculated
as (3), and it generally denoted as α .
ΔBr
RTC = × 100 = α [%] . (3)
Br ΔT
Voltage[V]
λ f ∝  Br dA . (4)
The magnet used for IPMSM under test is N40SH, which is

a kind of NdFeB magnet. Temperature coefficient, α is
generally known as around 0.1 %/oC in case of NdFeB magnet.
However, since the exact temperature coefficient was not given
by the manufacturer, the reversible temperature coefficient was
identified through the test using the same magnet installed into
Fig. 7. Back-EMF voltage of each phase the rotor of the motor. As shown in Fig. 8 (a), the temperature
659
1.01
0.99
0.98
0.97
0.96
0.95
0.94
0.93
0.92
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Temperature[ o C]
(a) (b)
Fig. 9. Decreasing ratio with temperature (a) normalized residual flux density (b) normalized motor back-EMF Vab fundamental component
of the magnet is measured using an infrared thermometer. The monitored through wireless communication channel. Because
error bound of the infrared thermometer is specified as of the minimum invasive nature of the measurement system,
maximum ± 2 oC. As shown in Fig. 8 (b), the magnet is heated Back-EMF, flux distribution of IPMSM, and magnitude of flux
directly from the heat source. During the natural cooling linkage have not been noticeably altered. That is confirmed by
process by the ambient air, the temperature of the magnet and FEA simulation before and after modification of the rotor. The
accuracy, effectiveness, and robustness to EMI of inverter
the magnitude of the magnetic field are recorded
driving IPMSM have been verified by experimental test.
simultaneously. The magnet is heated up to about 90 oC and
Through the calibration process in the thermal chamber, the
data points are recorded after the temperature distribution inside error bound of the measurement system has been identified less
the magnet is stabilized during the natural cooling process. Fig. than ± 1.5 oC. From the experimental test, the reversible
9 (a) shows the relative magnitude of Br at temperature point temperature coefficient of magnet is confirmed to be -
from 14.3oC to 72.0oC. The trend line graph shows that the 0.1016 %/oC in the temperature range of 14.3 oC to 72.0 oC. The
reversible temperature coefficient is -0.1016 %/oC, which can Back-EMF decrement ratio along temperature has been
be comparable to typical value of NdFeB magnet. calculated as -0.0956 %/oC in the temperature range of 14.0 oC
to 81.3 oC. The developed measurement system can be
If the saturation of the magnetic flux linkage of rotor core is employed to extract terminal characteristics of IPMSM
ignored, flux linkage λ f can be calculated as (4). Because according to the magnet temperature. The characteristics would
magnitude of Back-EMF is proportional to λ f , the magnitude enhance the reliability and accuracy of the torque capability of
of Back-EMF would vary proportionally to the magnet IPMSM.
temperature and have same decrement ratio along temperature
with magnet. The fundamental component of Back-EMF
REFERENCES
voltage, which is 40 Hz component in the test, has been
calculated through FFT from the measured terminal voltage at [1] S. Li, B. Sarlioglu, S. Jurkovic, N. Patel and P. Savagian, "Analysis
of temperature effects on performance of interior permanent
different temperature of the magnet. The results are shown in magnet machines," 2016 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and
Fig. 9 (b). As the magnet temperature increases, the magnitude Exposition (ECCE), Milwaukee, WI, 2016, pp. 1-8.J. Clerk
of the Back-EMF decreases linearly. The reversible Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd ed., vol. 2.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1892, pp.68-73.
temperature coefficient can be calculated from the result. From [2] M. Ganchev, H. Umschaden and H. Kappeler, "Rotor temperature
14.0 oC to 81.8 oC, decrement ratio for line to line Back-EMF distribution measuring system," IECON 2011 - 37th Annual
voltage Vab has been calculated as -0.0956 %/oC. Extracted Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Melbourne,
VIC, 2011, pp. 2006-2011.
reversible temperature coefficient from Back-EMF is
[3] J. H. Dymond, R. Ong and N. Stranges, "Instrumentation, testing,
comparable value to the identified value, -0.1016 %/oC. and analysis of electric machine rotor steady-state heating," in
IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 38, no. 6, pp.
1661-1667, Nov/Dec 2002.
IV. CONCLUSION
[4] D. Fernandez, D. Reigosa, T. Tanimoto, T. Kato and F. Briz,
In this paper a system to measure the temperature of magnet "Wireless permanent magnet temperature & field distribution
of IPMSM has been designed and tested. The rotor of the measurement system for IPMSMs," 2015 IEEE Energy
Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Montreal, QC,
IPMSM has been modified to accommodate the temperature 2015, pp. 3996-4003.
sensors. The measured temperature data can be easily
660
[5] D. D. Reigosa, F. Briz, P. Garcia, J. M. Guerrero and M. W. variation influencing cogging torque and back EMF in the mass
Degner, "Magnet Temperature Estimation in Surface PM production of the permanent magnet synchronous motors," 2012
Machines Using High-Frequency Signal Injection," in IEEE IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE),
Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 1468- Raleigh, NC, 2012, pp. 3032-3039.
1475, July-Aug. 2010. [8] Haiyu Qi, S. Ganesan, Ji Wu, M. Pecht, P. Matkowski and J. Felba,
[6] C. Du-Bar, J. Åström, T. Thiringer, S. Lundmark and M. Alatalo, "Effects of Printed Circuit Board Materials on Lead-free
"Design of an online temperature monitoring system for an Interconnect Durability," Polytronic 2005 - 5th International
experimental IPMSM," 2016 XXII International Conference on Conference on Polymers and Adhesives in Microelectronics and
Electrical Machines (ICEM), Lausanne, 2016, pp. 1533-1538. Photonics, 2005, pp. 140-144.
[7] M. A. Khan, I. Husain, R. Islam and J. Klass, "Design of
experiments to address manufacturing tolerances and process
661
Modeling the Degradation of Relative Permeability
in Soft Magnetic Materials
M. Cossale1, G. Bramerdorfer 1, G. Goldbeck1, M. Kitzberger1, D. Andessner2, W. Amrhein1
1
Department of Electrical Drives and Power Electronics; Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria,
2
Linz Center of Mechatronics, Linz, Austria,
Abstract—Soft magnetic material in manufactured electrical In literature, a variety of research activity dealing with the
machines may have quite different material properties than impact of cutting and assembly stress on the magnetic
expected. As known, the manufacturing processes such as properties degradation as well as on electrical machine
cutting, welding or assembly introduce local mechanical or performance is available [6]–[16]. Focusing on the magnetic
thermal stress into the material which results in a decrease of material degradation modelling, the most common approach
magnetic permeability and an increase of hysteresis losses. This approximates the different local material properties by
paper deals with effective modeling the decadence of relative subdividing the iron core into layers. Each layer is associated
permeability in soft magnetic materials due to manufacturing to homogeneous material having deteriorated magnetic
process. Despite the non-linear characteristic of the relative
characteristics depending on the distance from the cutting edge
permeability degradation, the proposed approach uses only one
[8]. Recently, more complex models featuring continuous
parameter to describe the degradation profile. This simplified
but easy to use approach is particularly relevant when the model material properties have been presented and implemented in
is implemented in numerical simulation tool. The activity is based finite element software [12]. The material characteristics and
on experimental approach and it is supported by analytical and the thickness of the damaged zones are assessed by means of
numerical simulations. experimental measurements on ring samples or strips. As an
example, in [13] the local polarization distribution is based on
Keywords—soft magnetic material, relative permeability, the conservation of energy on lamination strips. However, its
manufacturing effect, damaged material, punching, cutting; use for electrical machine applications appears challenging. In
I. INTRODUCTION [14] the local material behaviour is described as local
dependent relative permeability by means a complex function.
In recent years, the environmental issues combined to the In [15] the authors provide scaling factors using raising
increase of energy cost and improvement in technology has hysteresis losses. Therefore, the model can only be used in post
powered a significant growth in transportation electrification. processing for iron losses scaling. In [16] it is proposed a
Beside to hybrid and electric powertrains, a variety of on-board model to calculate the magnetic hysteresis from the distribution
devices such as valvetrains, steering systems, oil and water of the mechanical stress and plastic strain. The main difficulty
pumps have been replaced by electrical drives. In this frame, a encountered during the implementation of more or less
detailed knowledge of the magnetic material characteristics is a sophisticated models to numerical tools is the correct selection
crucial prerequisite in the design of high performance and high of the model parameters. For instance, the thickness of the
efficiency electrical machines. Typically, the magnetic material damaged zone and its associated relative permeability have to
properties, provided by the manufacturer, are obtained be defined. For what it concerns the thickness, as a first
experimentally with Epstein frame or toroidal rings following attempt, it is possible to refer to the data reported in literature
the International Standards of material characterization under where its value can extend up to several millimetres, depending
alternating magnetic flux [1] [2]. Nevertheless, it is well known on the actual definition of this depth [6]-[16]. As it regards the
that the magnetic material in the manufactured electrical relative permeability, its characteristics is strongly nonlinear
machine may have quite different material properties than with respect to the magnetic field and it is locally dependent
expected [3]. For instance, a typical rotating electrical machine from the distance to the cut edge. Therefore, the assessment of
is exhibited to different types of magnetic fluxes, alternating the relative permeability of damaged zone can be considered a
and rotating, which leads to different magnetic excitation and critical issue. In addition, in case of multilayer models, a
iron losses [4]. In addition, the manufacturing process such as number of different magnetic characteristics describing the
cutting, welding or assembly introduce local mechanical or degradation profile need to be evaluated.
thermal stress inside the material which results in a decrease of The focus of this paper is on modelling of degradation of
magnetic permeability and an increase of hysteresis losses [5]. the relative permeability due to manufacturing processes. In
It should also be remarked that different materials react particular, the novelty of the proposed approach lies on a
differently to each manufacturing step or to other influences function which involves only one parameter to describe the
such as the lamination thickness, the sharpness of the punch degradation profile. Starting from the undamaged magnetic
tool or the energy of the laser. In this context it is evident that, material characteristics, the degraded material characteristics
on the one hand the adoption of catalogue data leads to a low can be obtained by means of the proposed simplified model.
accuracy of the simulation results, and on the other hand, the The presented activity is based on experimental approach and it
variety of factors which influence the magnetic properties is supported by analytical and numerical simulations.
make the setup of a generic validity model very challenging.
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 662

TABLE I.
INVESTIGATED RING CORES
Sample Assembly type Heat treatment Thickness

Sample 1 Single sheet No 0.5 mm
Sample 2 Single sheet Yes 0.5 mm
Sample 3 Stack with glue No 15 mm
Sample 4 Stack with interlock No 15 mm
Sample 5 Stack with interlock Yes 15 mm
Fig. 3 Wounded sample under test.

The annealing is performed in controlled atmosphere
according to the temperature profile reported in Fig. 2. The
characteristics of the investigated samples are listed in Table I.
III. EXPERIMENTAL ACTIVITY
The magnetic characterization of the sample has been
performed according to the standards IEC 60404-6 using the
ring core method. Each sample is wound with a primary
Fig. 1 Details of the sample with interlocks. winding for the excitation and with a secondary winding for
the voltage sensing as shows Fig. 3. All the measurements are
conducted for flux density magnitude up to 1.65 T in a
frequency range between 50 and 800 Hz. The material
characterization is performed by applying a controlled current
in order to obtain the desired sinusoidal flux density
characteristics.
The power stage for the primary excitation is represented
by a linear amplifier having rated power of 2 kVA. The
electrical measurements are acquired with a sample rate of
2 MS/s and then get processed in order to obtain the B-H
characteristics as well as the iron losses. A detailed description
of the used setup can be found in [17].
For the investigated samples, the results in terms of BH
Fig. 2 Thermal treatment temperature profile. characteristics and relative permeability are reported in Fig. 4
and Fig. 5, respectively.
II. INVESTIGATED SAMPLES From Fig. 4 can be noticed that the magnetic properties of
some measured samples differ largely from the catalogue data,
The experimental activity is conducted on a set of ring in particular, it is evident the dramatic degradation of the
cores having outer diameter of 86 mm and inner diameter sample with interlocks. This difference in the magnetic
77 mm. This particular geometry, having a yoke thickness of characteristics of the samples can be explained by a local
4.5 mm, was selected since it has a large damaged material decrease of the flux density value in proximity of the cut edge
zone with respect to the overall volume. In fact, as reported in due to the residual stress induced by cutting. Since the
literature [6]-[16], the cut edge effect has been proven to be in magnetic field strength can be considered uniform along the
the range of 0.5 to 10 mm. The laminated material used for the sample according to Ampere’s law, then the damaging of the
samples is a silicon-iron alloy grade M330-50A, which has material can be associated to a local degradation of the relative
been cut by means a punching tool. In this analysis samples permeability. Nevertheless, it can be noticed that the heat
having different assembly type were investigated: single sheet, treatment largely restores the magnetic properties of the
stacked with glue and stacked with interlocks. As it regards the investigated sample. Looking to Fig. 5 it can be noticed that the
latter sample type, it has 14 interlocks equally distributed along wider discrepancy of the relative permeability occurs for
the ring yoke. The sample is depicted in Fig. 1, where the magnetic field strength lower than 1000 A/m, while, for higher
length and the width of each interlock are 4 and 1.5 mm, field strength the deviation progressively decreases. In
respectively. In addition, selected samples have been annealed particular, the measured maximum relative permability value
in order to relax the mechanical stress due to punching and for the annealed sample and for the sample with interlock is
therefore restore the magnetic properties. 8000 and 2000, respectively.
663
Fig. 4 Measured magnetization curve at 50Hz. Fig. 6 Magnetic characteristics obtained for different degradation
coefficient values
Fig. 5 Measured relative permeability vs. magnetic field strength at 50Hz. Fig. 7 relative permeability obtained for different degradation
coefficient values
Furthermore, it should be highlighed that the peak value of the
relative permeability for the three investigated samples is where τ is a factor that allows modulating the degradation
reached at the same field strength, at about 150 A/m. As a profile. In Figs. 6 and Fig. 7 the magnetic characteristics
support of this outcome, similar behaviours of the relative obtained by varying the modulation coefficient are reported.
permeability are reported in literature for both, Silicon-Iron [6], In this case, the relative permeability of the undamaged
[12] and Cobalt-Iron alloy [18]. material has been selected to be equal to that of the annealed
Based on these findings, in the next section the authors propose sample. As shown in Fig. 7, the peak of the relative
a simplified modeling of the relative permeability which permeability for all the plotted curves is obtained for a field
accounts for the degradation due to manufacturing processes. strength equal to about 150 A/m.
IV. MODELING OF D AMAGED MAGNETIC MATERIAL In addition, it can be observed from Fig. 6 that for very high
magnetic field intensity the flux density obtained for the
As described in the previous section, the effect of cutting plotted curves is coincident and nearly equal to the one of the
process on the laminated material can be seen as a degradation undamaged material.
of the relative permeability. However, this degradation is
difficult to be modeled due to the strong non-linearity V. ANALYTICAL AND NUMERICAL V ALIDATION
behavior of the relative permeability with respect to the
magnetic field. Obviously, using a constant degradation factor A. Reluctance Model Definition
leads to inaccurate magnetic characteristics.
As shown in Fig. 3, a high degradation of the permeability is The experimentally tested cores were studied with analytical
measured for H-field up to 1000 A/m. On the contrary, at high and numerical analysis with the aim to validate the proposed
field strength, the degradation causes almost negligible function.
effects. To model this phenomenon, the authors propose a The magnetic circuit of the investigated samples, depicted in
function which is represented by a saturating exponential as Fig. 8, was modelled by means of a layer-based approach
described in (1) where each layer of the sample has a different relative
permeability. The central layer represents the undamaged
  
H
material and its relative permeability is associated to the one

r damaged ( H )  1  e  r not damaged + 1 (1) of the annealed sample. The most external layers, inner and
 
  outer, represent the damaged material where the relative
permeability is modelled by (1).
664
The reluctance associated to each layer has been computed
according to the following relations (2) and (3)
l
Rd ( H )  (2)
 0   r d ( H )  d  h
l
Rnd ( H )  (3)
 0   r  nd ( H )  ( y  2d )  h
Where y is the thickness of the yoke, h the axial length of the
stack, l circumferential length of each layer and d the
thickness of the damaged zone, see Fig. 8.
Then the equivalent reluctance, Req, of the sample can be
calculated as the parallel of the three reluctances.
Fig. 9 Comparison of measured and computed reluctance of the

Rd up sample stacked with glue.
Rd up
Rnd
Rnd y
Rd down
Rd down
d
l
Fig. 8 Planar sketch of the adopted layer model and the
associated magnetic circuit
B. Parameters determination
In order to compute the reluctances it is necessary to evaluate Fig. 10 B-H characteristics of the material used for the sample
two unknown parameters, namely the thickness of the stacked with glue.
damaged zone, d, and the degradation coefficient, τ. The
procedure for finding the optimum value of these two Rd up
parameters is based on minimizing the square deviation Rd up
between the reluctance obtained from the measured magnetic Rnd Rll
characteristics and the one obtained by the analytical model.
Rnd Rll
It should be remarked that the reluctance from the
measurement is deducted from the well-known equation (4) Rd down
l Rd down
Rmeasured ( H )  (4)
0  r ( H )  A Fig. 11 Sketch of layer model with the associated magnetic circuit for
where μr is the relative permeability obtained by the measured sample with interlocks.
BH characteristics of the sample, l the average circumferential
length and A the cross section of the sample. It can be noticed a good agreement between the measured
The results of the procedure for the investigated sample lead curve and the equivalent obtained from the analytical model.
to a damaged zone thickness d of 1 mm and a degradation The slight deviation between the measured and computed
coefficient τ of 1000. It has to be noted that these parameters curves can be associated to the layer discretization and
are referred to this particular lamination and this particular approximation of the model. However, the proposed approach
cutting process. Different materials and manufacturing can be considered as a good tradeoff between model
processes may lead to different thickness and degradation complexity and accuracy of the results.
coefficient. In Fig. 9 the comparison of the reluctance
obtained from the measurements on the sample and the one C. Model validation
obtained by applying the analytical model is presented.
The results of this modelling approach can also be represented The parameters obtained following the described procedure
in terms of magnetization curves as depicted in Fig. 10. This have then been used for the investigation of the sample with
figure gives the BH characteristics representing the damaged interlocks. Since the interlocks are obtained by plastic
and undamaged materials, the measured characteristics of the deformation of the material, the magnetic properties of the
sample and the one obtained from the analytical reluctance interlock region can be considered as strongly degraded.
model.
665
Fig. 12 Comparison of measured and computed reluctance of the
sample stacked with interlocks Fig. 14 Chromatic map of the flux density distribution for magnetic
field equal to 400 A/m.
Fig. 13 B-H characteristics of the material used for the sample

stacked with glue. Fig. 15 Comparison of B-H characteristics obtained by means
measurements, analytical and numerical simulations.
For this reason the modelling of that sample requires an
additional reluctance accounting for the damaged material at VI. CONCLUSIONS
the interlocks. Since the interlocks are positioned in the
middle of the sample, the associate reluctance is thus In this paper a simplified model accounting for the magnetic
material degradation due to manufacturing effects has been
connected in series to the one of the not damaged material.
presented and validated by means of an experimental
The modified circuit with the additional reluctance is depicted
in Fig. 11. The comparison of the measured and computed approach.
reluctance of the sample with interlocks is depicted in Fig. 12 The investigation has been conducted using silicon iron ring
while the comparison of BH characteristics is shown in samples manufactured through punching. The proposed
Fig. 13. Once again, the analytical model results show a good function is based on a saturating exponential for modelling the
matching with respect to the measured data confirming the relative permeability of the damaged material. Since the
validity of the proposed method to take into account the degradation profile can be adjusted by varying only one
parameter, this model can be used for continuous material
material degradation.
Furthermore, the sample with interlocks has been modeled in modelling in numerical software.
FEM software [15] with reference to the same layer approach Furthermore, it is the author’s opinion that the proposed
function is suitable for different lamination grade, thicknesses
used for the analytical calculation. The thickness of the
and cutting processes. Additional investigations are ongoing in
damaged zone as well as the magnetic materials are the same
adopted for the analytical method. As an example, the color order to confirm this outlook.
map of the flux density along the sample for an excitation ACKNOWLEDGMENT
field of 400 A/m is reported in Fig. 14. The results of the
simulations in terms of obtained magnetic characteristic are This work has been supported by the COMET-K2 “Center
depicted in Fig. 15; the comparison between simulations and for Symbiotic Mechatronics” of the Linz Center of
measurements shows, also in this case, a good agreement. This Mechatronics (LCM) funded by the Austrian federal
finding confirms that the proposed model of the relative government and the federal state of Upper Austria. The authors
thank all supporters with special thanks to voestalpine Stahl
permeability is suitable for the implementation in numerical
GmbH who provided funding for this particular research.
software.
666
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667
Additive Manufacturing of a Soft Magnetic Rotor
Active Part and Shaft for a Permanent Magnet
Synchronous Machine
1st S. Urbanek and B. Ponick 2nd A. Taube, K.-P. Hoyer and M. Schaper
Institute for Drive Systems and Power Electronics Chair of Material Science
Leibniz Universität Hannover Paderborn University
Hanover, Germany Paderborn, Germany
stefan.urbanek@ial.uni-hannover.de taube@lwk.uni-paderborn.de
3rd S. Lammers, T. Lieneke and D. Zimmer

Chair of Design and Drive Technology
Paderborn University
Paderborn, Germany
stefan.lammers@dmrc.de
Abstract—This paper describes the design, the additive manu- L0 transient inductance
facturing process and the testing of a soft magnetic rotor active m mass
part and shaft region for a permanent magnet synchronous n speed
machine (PMSM). In a first step, the best possible ferromagnetic P power
material was identified by investigating additively processed T torque
ferro-silicon and ferro-cobalt alloys which achieve both mechanic U voltage
and electromagnetic requirements for PMSM. After this, a ys yield strength
surface-mounted PMSM was chosen to serve as reference. Both δ air gap length
µ permeability
the rotor active part as well as the shaft were made of a ferro- ψ flux linkage
silicon alloy and produced generatively by using laser beam
melting (LBM). To underline the high potential of additive Subscripts
manufacturing technologies in the field of electric machinery 1 stator value
design, a supplemental feature was added to the rotor which 2 rotor value
only could be realized expediently due to the rapid development d direct axis
of metal-additive manufacturing. To be more specific, supple- hf high frequency
mentary slots were added underneath the magnets, which – one max maximum value
per pole – contain short-circuited copper wires for increased N rated value
pm permanent magnet
self-sensing performance due to increased magnetic anisotropy. q quadrature axis
After assembling the additively manufactured rotor shafts into a ref reference value
conventionally laminated stator, the general functionality of the
machine as well as the influence of the additional rotor coils were
tested and compared with each other. I. I NTRODUCTION
Index Terms—Additive Manufacturing, PMSM, Rotor, Self-
Sensing Control In general, the outstanding development in additive manu-
facturing technologies of processing metal-based materials
N OMENCLATURE allows the extension of conventional part design and pro-
duction across all fields of engineering. One of the most
Symbols
A cross-section area crucial milestones implementing metal additive manufacturing
Bδ air gap flux density in industrial production on a large scale is the existence and in-
Br remanence flux density vestigation of suitable materials. An additively manufacturable
d diameter
h height material, which is supposed to be suitable for PMSM rotor
I current active parts, has to fulfill different needs, from being available
k0 transient anisotropy in high-quality powder form to achieving electromagnetic and
L stationary inductance
mechanical conditions. Electric machines containing additively
manufactured parts should thus exhibit the same or better
characteristics than entirely conventionally manufactured ma-
This work was supported by the German Research Association for Drive
Technology (Forschungsvereinigung Antriebstechnik, FVA) under the project chines do. The idea of having three-dimensional freedom when
731 II ’Soft Magnetic Materials for 3D Printing’ designing electric machines could radically extend the present
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 668

layout boundaries [1]. Getting away from a two-dimensional
layout process, where the layout is mostly fixed due to the
usage of laminated sheet cores, could for example be used to
improve cooling concepts or extend embedded functionality
already during the engineering and design process of the
machine [2].
As s result of prior work of the present research consortium, a
lightweight shaft and rotor yoke was made of hardly ferromag-
netic steel, due to absence of suitable soft magnetic materials
at that time [3]. In this case, hardly ferromagnetic means poor (a) during production
hysteresis and magnetic flux conductance characteristics of the
active part material. An additively manufactured synchronous
reluctance rotor yoke – also using steel – is presented in [4].
[5] and [6] just show numerical calculations of prospective 3D
printed machine parts. Since printing of laminated active parts
has been practically impossible so far, this project focuses on
fabricating permanent magnet rotor cores, where a lamination
is not essentially mandatory.
In the present paper, the additive manufacturing process and
the testing of a soft magnetic rotor active part and shaft (b) during assembly
region is described. For this purpose, a short description of the
production method LBM and constructional and mechanical Fig. 1: Additively manufactured functional model during the
boundary conditions as well as the state of research in the production and assembly process
field of material science is given in chapter II. Then, the rotor
dimensioning method and calculation results are pointed out in thickness and the process starts again until the component is
chapter III. In a final step, the testing scenario and experimen- finalized. In order to protect the component against oxidation
tal results are presented in chapter IV. For this purpose, three and contamination during the process, it takes place under a
different rotors – one conventionally fabricated laminated core protective gas atmosphere [9]–[11]. In additive manufacturing,
and two additively manufactured rotor active parts and shafts several factors influence the quality of components differently.
– were assembled and set into a laminated stator of a small For example, the process parameters or the chosen orientation
servo motor. Fig. 1 shows one of the additively manufactured influences are strongly responsible for the achievable density,
rotor shafts (hereinafter called ’functional models’) during the mechanical strength and geometrical deviation of the compo-
production and assembly process. nents [9], [12], [13]. Component qualities, which often have
to meet high requirements for application (e.g. bearing seats),
II. M ETAL A DDITIVE M ANUFACTURING can only be realized with extensive process understanding
A. Laser Beam Melting (LBM) and suitable post-processing methods. Particularly due to the
Additive manufacturing processes produce components and high surface roughness and resulting geometrical deviations
assemblies layer by layer without using formative tools. LBM (see Fig. 3) of LBM components, conventional manufacturing
– also referred as SLM (selective laser melting) – is a powder processes are currently used to meet the geometrical require-
bed based additive manufacturing process for the production ments [9]. In addition to the high design freedom offered by
of metallic components. LBM can be used to manufacture additive manufacturing, process-specific restrictions have to be
complex components that are currently being used for example
in aerospace engineering, medical technology and tool or mold
making. The use in drive technology is currently limited,
which is why a more detailed investigation of the potentials
and application of the LBM in drive technology is necessary
[3], [7]. The process flow is described below and shown in Fig.
2. The supply of the powder is carried out in layers by means
of a recoater. In the next step, the laser exposures the area of
the component layer. For this purpose, the digital component
is divided into layers in the pre-process. The generated layer
information is used to control the laser. The laser locally melts
the areas that need to be solid for the component. Due to this
process, components with a material density of over 99% can
be manufactured. After these steps, the completion of a layer Fig. 2: Schematic representation of the laser beam melting
is completed. The building platform is lowered by one layer system [8]
669
Fig. 3: Dimensional deviations depending on nominal dimen-
sion and orientation (x, y, z) [13]
considered. [10], [14] and [15] list suitable design guidelines

Fig. 4: EBSD inverse pole figure map for the ferro-silicon
for a robust production. Minimal wall thicknesses, realizable
alloy being exposed to heat aftertreatment (2 hours at 900 °C)
radii and free overhang lengths are described qualitatively and
quantitatively. These design aspects must also be considered a columnar epitaxial grain morphology along the building
while developing additively manufactured drive technology direction [18]. The resulting mechanical properties directly
components. after the manufacturing process are slightly anisotropic. For
reducing the residual stresses, and to improve the magnetic
B. Materials for Additive Manufacturing properties, a heat aftertreatment (2 hours at 900 °C) was
In this study, two soft-magnetic materials, a ferro-silicon conducted. The mechanical characteristics for both materials
alloy with a silicon content of 2.9 weight percent (wt%) and are above the required yield strength ys of 400 MPa (ferro-
a ferro-cobalt alloy having a cobalt content of 50 wt%, were silicon: ys > 450 MPa; ferro-cobalt: ys > 500 MPa). In
selected for processing with LBM. In the electrical industry, particular, the ferro-silicon alloy is characterized by a lower
both alloys are widely used as sheet material due to their anisotropy. Due to the selected heat aftertreatment a significant
increased specific resistance, in particular in the ferro-silicon increase in the maximum relative permeability (µmax = 3000)
alloys. The conventional production methods of electrical steel for the ferro-silicon alloy in comparison to the initial, as-built
sheets have been extensively researched and optimized for condition (µmax = 950) was achieved. A reduction in the re-
cost-effectiveness. Therefore, new production techniques have magnetization losses (eddy current and hysteresis losses) was
to be taken into account to increase the efficiency of motor also observed.
components, e.g. rotors. Both alloys were gas-atomized in
III. ROTOR D IMENSIONING P ROCESS AND C ALCULATION
a nitrogen atmosphere by the company m4p material solu-
R ESULTS
tions GmbH (Magdeburg, Germany). The particles produced
were spherical in shape and showed the desired particle size A. Boundary Conditions and Requirements
distribution of 10 µm to 45 µm. In this investigation, the The pre-investigated ferro-silicon alloy was applied in a
samples and rotors were generated using a SLM 280HLma- rotor shaft of a surface-mounted PMSM with distributed wind-
chine, supplied by SLM Solutions Group (Lübeck, Germany), ing. The machine data and dimensions are pointed out in Tab.
equipped with a 400 W ytterbium fiber laser. Furthermore, I. To underline the material capabilities in the best possible
the targeted variation and adaptation of the laser parameters
during the LBM process enabled a suitable parameter window TABLE I: Machine data of the reference machine.
for the processing of both selected materials. In particular, machine mass mref 3.456 kg
the ferro-cobalt alloy was characterized by a relative density rotor mass m2,ref 0.602 kg
above 99.9% as compared to ferro-silicon alloy, which had rotor diameter d2,ref 43.47 mm
rotor axial length l2,ref 35.00 mm
a relative density of 99.5%. The microstructural evolution of magnet height hpm,ref 2.52 mm
both alloys is typical for LBM-processed iron-based materials rated power PN,ref 0.75 kW
without a phase transformation in the solid state [16], [17]. rated current IN,ref 1.54 A
rated torque TN,ref 2.36 N m
The electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) micrograph in
Fig. 4 shows an epitaxial grain growth in building direction
as well as the structure of melt pools along the scan di- way, the rotor cross-section of the functional models should
rection of the laser. The high temperature gradient, as well not be modified compared to the conventionally laminated
as the high solidification velocity of the melt pool, evokes reference rotor. The only exception was an additional feature,
670
the functional models were equipped with, which underlines with MATLAB/Simulink. After defining the FE model and
the three-dimensional freedom of design using additive man- the boundary conditions, the machine characteristics – in
ufacturing. To be more specific, additional rotor slots right particular the flux linkage components – were identified nu-
underneath the magnets were added during the manufacturing merically, taking into account the additional rotor coils. Post-
process. Inserting short-circuited copper wires into these slots processing includes primarily the calculation of the stationary
influences the magnetic anisotropy which improves the self- and the transient inductances, the magnetic anisotropy and
sensing performance of the machine. The basic theory of using the additional ohmic losses in the rotor coils. The impact of
short-circuited rotor coils for improving self-sensing machine skewing and different relative positions between stator and
characteristics is also described in [19] and [20]. Fig. 5 shows rotor on the anisotropy was considered as well.
the concept which is an alternative to a meandering wire The tool chain was validated by comparison of measurement
directly positioned in the q-axis. Regarding surface-mounted results with simulation results of the conventionally laminated
PMSM with usually reference motor (see Fig. 8a and Fig. 11a). After adapting the
Ld < Lq , (1) model regarding geometry and material data, the best possible
rotor active part design was identified by varying the following
the aim is a decrease of Ld and/or an increase of Lq . By
two degrees of freedom:
means of flux barriers or additional teeth in the q-axis, the
magnetic anisotropy can only be influenced to a limited extend • Copper wire cross-section to gain the best possible damp-
and this would furthermore affect the saturation behavior of the ing while minimizing the ohmic losses (see Fig. 6a)
machine. Regarding the predefined boundary conditions, the • Radial position and therewith the flux which is enclosed
presented approach just influences the differential inductances by the particular coils considering mechanical and man-
0 ufacturing process boundary conditions (Fig. 6b)
Ldd L0dq

0 dψd /did,hf dψd /diq,hf
L = 0 = (2) Referring to Fig. 6, four possible coil positions I to IV and
Lqd L0qq dψq /did,hf dψq /diq,hf
three different cross-sections A3,i were defined. A coil side
by observing the current response of a superimposed high- located at the pole gaps (position I) represents the concept
frequency voltage signal. Theoretically, the additional short- described in [19], a serially connected meandering rotor coil.
circuited rotor coils will dampen the signals in direct axis – and Considering that one coil segment always consists of two
consequently decrease L0dd – and will not influence those in components, an axially aligned part and a peripherally aligned
quadrature axis. In this way, the transient magnetic anisotropy connection part, the short-circuited coils underneath the mag-
L0qq − L0dd nets can approximately be described as two parallel-connected
k0 = (3) meandering coils with half the cross-section each. One advan-
L0qq + L0dd
tage of a meander-shaped coil is that it encloses more flux than
will be increased. Referring to [19], a transient magnetic the coils underneath the magnets. The particular coils in turn
anisotropy of k 0 ≥ 15%, or possibly lower under laboratory will not need any further centrifugal force lock. Furthermore,
conditions, is recommended to ensure improved self-sensing the meander-shaped coil end connectors are located outside
performance in a wide speed range. Due to high frequency and the soft magnetic rotor core, whereas the particular rotor coils
low amplitude compared to the fundamental signal, the super- are short-circuited underneath the magnets as well. Though
imposed signal will rarely influence the stationary machine three-dimensional effects could hardly be taken into account,
behavior. using the tool chain was suitable for dimensioning the rotor
B. Evaluation Tool and Applied Method active part.
The tool chain used here combines numerical computation
with the finite element software FEMAG, analytical post-
processing with MATLAB and transient system simulation
(a) total view (b) partial view

Fig. 6: Schematic partial view of a PM rotor. Shown is the
Fig. 5: Basic principle of the rotor with short-circuited rotor parameter variation of the two degrees of freedom defined in
coils [19] this context: a) wire cross-section and b) coil position
671
C. Evaluation Results anisotropy in %
1,5
8
The worst operating point regarding magnetic anisotropy
9
4
1,25
in surface-mounted PMSM is usually the operating point of
current iq =iN
1,0
maximum q-current (due to saturation) and negative maximum
10
6
7
5
9
0,75
d-current (due to permanent magnet field weakening). Thus,
the anisotropy of this operating point is the most crucial design 0,5
parameter to ensure a stable self-sensing operation of the
10
0,25
11
9
8
7
6
5
machine. The anisotropy depending on the positioning of the
-0,6 -0,4 -0,2 0 0,2 0,4 0,6
axial parts referring to Fig. 6 in peripheral direction is shown current id =iN
in Fig. 7. A coil located at q-axis (position I) encloses the
(a) reference machine
whole permanent magnet flux, whereas a coil side position
towards the d-axis (positions II to IV) leads to decreased anisotropy change in % anisotropy change in %
1,5 2 1,5
2
4
1
4
0
2
enclosed flux. Fig. 7 shows two different wire cross-sections 4 0
1,25 1,25
2
6
with A3,2 > A3,1 . In the present case, a wire with the cross-
current iq =iN
current iq =iN
2
2
0
0
2
1,0 8 0 2 1,0
2 4
3
section A3,1 will only fulfill the anisotropy requirements if
6
4
6 2 0
0,75 0,75
it is directly positioned in q-axis, whereas in case of A3,2 , 6 2
2
5
0,5 6 4 2 0,5
position III would be adequate. This is why the coil sides 8
3
6
4 2
should be located close to the q-axis and should be as large 0,25 6 4 0,25
6 8 2 7
as feasible to obtain the best possible damping effect. In this -0,6 -0,4 -0,2 0 0,2 0,4 0,6 -0,6 -0,4 -0,2 0 0,2 0,4 0,6
current id =iN current id =iN
respect, it has to be considered that increasing the cross-section
or locating the coils underneath the magnets always leads to (b) functional model FM1 (c) functional model FM2
a slight change of the rotor active part cross-section which Fig. 8: Calculated anisotropy over the whole Id -Iq range
consequently influences the stationary motor behavior.
Fig. 8a shows the calculated anisotropy of the reference
IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
machine (REF) depending on id and iq . Figs. 8b and 8c
show the change of anisotropy of the additively manufactured The test setup and the test scenario are described in this
functional models compared to the reference machine. In this section. The measurement results of the reference machine
case, functional model 2 (FM2) represents the rotor shaft are compared to the measurements of the functional models.
which was, in contrast to functional model 1 (FM1), undergone A. Test Setup
to heat aftertreatment which improves the maximum relative
permeability significantly. Both FM1 and FM2 had additional The power supply was provided by two linear power
slots and where turned on a lathe machine after the additive amplifiers (Rohrer PA2065) and the control was realized
manufacturing process. In case of FM1, it was necessary to by a real-time control system (dSpace MicroLabBox). The
grind the surfaces on which the magnets were applied after- devices under test (DUT) were coupled with a torque meter
wards. By means of the additional rotor coils, the simulation (Kistler Type 4503A) and a load machine (Lenze MCS14D36)
shows an increased anisotropy over the whole operating range which was controlled via a frequency converter independently
without influencing the stationary operating behavior. and could also act as a brake. For recording the real-time
values of phase current and phase-to-phase voltage, current
measuring calipers (Agilent/Keysight N2782A) respectively
difference voltage probes (Tektronix P5200) were used. The
22 rotor position was measured by the DUT’s resolver.
selected threshold
smaller cross-section A3;1
20 larger cross-section A3;2
B. General Functionality
magn. anisotropy in %
Table II compares the electric and mechanic basic data

18 of the DUTs. The rotor shaft mass could be reduced by
about 16% applying lightweight lattice structures into the
16 shaft region. The rotor diameter of FM2 was about 0.35 mm
smaller than the rotor diameter of FM1 due to manufacturing
14 tolerances. The stationary machine behavior changed slightly
as shown in subsequent figures. Fig. 9a shows the induced
12
phase-to-phase voltages under generative no-load conditions,
q-axis/pos.I pos.II pos.III pos.IV d-axis !
Fig. 9b the machine torque over load current. The difference
rotor coil side position in peripheral direction between the induced voltage of the reference machine and
the induced voltage of FM1 is about 4.6% (FM2: 8.0%).
Fig. 7: Magnetic anisotropy depending on the peripheral Similarly, the torque of the functional models is about 3.8%
positioning of the axial aligned coil sides (FM1) respectively 9.1% (FM2) lower than the reference
672
TABLE II: Electric and mechanic basic data comparison.
air gap .ux density change in %

Values in brackets describe the respective change compared +2 min. magnet height +2 min. magnet dimensions
induced voltage change in %

max. magnet height max. magnet dimensions
to the reference machine. 0 0
-2 -2
REF FM1 FM2
machine mass 3.456 3.362 (-2.7%) 3.357 (-2.9%) -4 -4
in kg -6 -6
rotor mass 0.602 0.508 (-15.6%) 0.503 (-16.4%)
in kg -8 -8
rotor diameter 43.47 43.52 (+0.05 mm) 43.18 (-0.29 mm) -10 -10
A-side in mm -0,4 -0,3 -0,2 -0,1 0 +0,1 -0,4 -0,3 -0,2 -0,1 0 +0,1
rotor diameter deviation d-dREF in mm rotor diameter deviation d-dREF in mm
rotor diameter 43.47 43.52 (+0.05 mm) 43.15 (-0.32 mm)
B-side in mm (a) air gap flux density (b) induced voltage
magnet height 2.52 2.50 (-0.02 mm) 2.54 (+0.02 mm)
in mm Fig. 10: Rotor active part diameter variation effect on the air
voltage constant 1.000 0.954 (-4.6%) 0.920 (-8.0%)
in k/kref gap flux density and the induced voltage
torque at iN 1.000 0.962 (-3.8%) 0.909 (-9.1%)
in T /TN,ref mensions. Fig. 10a illustrates that changing the rotor diameter
influences directly the air gap length and so the mean air gap
flux density. The induced voltage is almost sinusoidal under
specific conditions regarding the winding and the pole pitch
machine’s torque. These differences can be explained by the
ratio. Basically, the induced voltage or rather the torque is
different geometry and dimensions of the particular DUTs or
the production tolerances of the manufacturing process itself. T ∼ Uind ∼ Bδ , (5)
More precisely, the additional slots increase the effective air
gap in direct axis with δ 0 = δ ·kC and the Carter factor kC ≥ 1 so that a decrease of the rotor diameter leads to an almost
which represents the slotting effect on the air gap [21]. In proportional decrease of torque (see Fig. 10b). Fig. 10b does
addition, both functional models have different dimensions and not include additional factors like e.g. varying remanence
especially slightly different rotor diameters and magnet heights flux densities of the permanent magnets or varying axial
(see table II). The diameter of FM2 was 0.34 to 0.37 mm length. In summary, the differences of induced voltages and
smaller than the diameter of FM1 and slightly cone-shaped. torque values are plausible taking geometry variations and
Regarding the fact that in small servo motors the air gap length manufacturing tolerances into account and are in particular
is smaller than 1 mm, rotor diameter changes of the present not traced back on the applied material itself.
order are hardly negligible regarding the permanent magnet
C. Magnetic Anisotropy
flux distribution. The mean air gap flux density
The magnetic anisotropy was experimentally determined
Br
Bδ = (4) by evaluating the transient inductances using (2), (3) and
δ0
1+ hpm · µpm the identification routines according to [20]. It has to be
using surface-mounted magnets with the remanence flux den- considered that the additional slots lead to a slight change
sity Br depends in particular on the ratio between air gap of the rotor cross-section and consequently to a change of
length δ and magnet height hpm [22]. The magnets of the the stationary inductances, too. Fig. 11a shows the measured
reference machine were from another production batch than anisotropy and Figs. 11b and 11c the anisotropy change of
the magnets mounted on the functional models which could FM1 and FM2 in relation to the reference machine over
also lead to different remanence flux densities and magnet di- the whole operating range. Even though the impact of the
additional slots was not as high as expected, in case of FM1,
the anisotropy could be increased over the whole operating
range. It is shown that in case of FM2, the anisotropy becomes
phase-to-phase voltage in u=uN
0,9 1,75
0,8 1,50
even worse for id > 0. This could – in addition to common
0,7 measurement inaccuracy due to finite measuring precision –
torque in m=mN
1,25
0,6 be explained regarding the following boundary conditions of
0,5 1,0
the dimensioning and manufacturing process:
0,4 0,75
0,3 • Rotor geometry variation: Rotor diameter decrease could
0,50 mlinear
0,2 REF REF hardly be neglected afterwards. Referring to [19], the
FM1 0,25 FM1
0,1 FM2 FM2 short-circuited rotor coils should be located close to the
0 0 stator to achieve the best possible effect.
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0 0,25 0,50 0,75 1,0 1,25 1,50
speed in n=nN phase current in i=iN • Magnet data variation: The magnets can vary regarding
(a) no-load voltage (b) torque characteristic remanence flux density and dimensions, especially when
they are from different production batches.
Fig. 9: Measurements of the three DUTs: REF (blue lines), • Three-dimensional effects: The tool chain was limited to
FM1 (red) and FM2 (green) two dimensions, so that end effects, like e.g. the impact
673
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1.6
0.6
-0.4
1
-0.6
0.4
0,75 0,75 2014.

0.2
0.8
1.8
1.2
1.4
[7] S. Lammers; F. Quattrone; R. Morzek; D. Zimmer; H.-J. Schmid; B.

0
0,5 1.4 0,5

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-0.8
1.6
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0,25 0,25 Leichtbau-Rotorwelle für eine permanentmagneterregte Synchronmas-

0.6
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0.8
-0.6
0.4
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0 0
-0,6 -0,4 -0,2 0 0,2 0,4 0,6 -0,6 -0,4 -0,2 0 0,2 0,4 0,6
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674
A Comparison of the Performance and Thermal
Management Requirements of Lithium-Ion Batteries
During Ultra-Fast Charging
Melissa S. He, Phillip J. Kollmeyer, Mike Haußmann, Ali Emadi
McMaster University, McMaster Automotive Resource Centre, 200 Longwood Rd. South, Hamilton, ON L8S 0A6 Canada
E-mail: hems@mcmaster.ca
Abstract- Ultra-fast charging of electric vehicles will soon be fracturing of the electrodes [7]. As a result, the cell can no
available, but very few studies of batteries under these conditions longer be cycled and severe capacity fade is observed.
exist. Here, the performance of three lithium-ion batteries during
Differences in the charge capability of batteries can then be
ultra-fast charging were investigated. The cells were charged at
1C to 5C current rates, or as high as 10C, and the surface attributed to differences in the electrolyte composition and/or
temperature of each cell was measured. Power loss calculated electrode materials. In particular, Park et al. show that the
from the charging tests were used in the thermal analysis of the cathode is the most important component in the charging time
three batteries. The batteries were modeled in a simple cooling [8]. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) has shown promise for fast
apparatus to determine their thermal management requirements.
charging, retaining about 80% of its capacity after 20 cycles of
Test results show that ultra-fast charging is possible with very
little loss, but it is dependent on the battery. The analysis 3C charging but recovering to almost 100% capacity after
illustrates important trade-offs between battery type, charge rate, charging at 1C for 15 cycles [9]. More recently, lithium nickel
thermal management system, and system energy density. manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) has demonstrated fast-charge
capabilities [10]. Wu et al. show that NMC can be charged and
discharged to 100C where there was no significant change in
I. INTRODUCTION the electrode’s capacity until 20C charging. Current work is
With rising oil prices and stricter emissions regulations, focused fast-charging protocols and their effect on the cycle
electrified vehicles, especially electric vehicles (EVs), are an life of different battery types [11]–[14].
attractive alternative to combustion-engine-only vehicles. The Ultra-fast chargers, which are capable of 350 kW of power
high energy and power density of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and can provide charging times of fifteen minutes or less, are
make them ideal for these vehicles [1]. However, a barrier to expected to alleviate the inconvenience of long charging times.
adoption of EVs is their charging time. Vehicle chargers are Plans for networks of ultra-fast chargers have been announced
currently classified in three groups: Level 1 chargers, which in Europe and the United States [15]–[17]. Unfortunately,
have power levels between 1 and 2 kW and charging times up research published on LIB performance during ultra-fast
to 36 hours, Level 2 chargers, which have power levels charging is limited. Prezas et al. studied effects on the battery
between 4 and 20 kW and charging times up to 10 hours, and at 6C charging [18]. Yang and Miller have investigated the
Level 3 (or fast) chargers, which have power levels between effect of charging at 16C [19]. Keyser et al. present simulations
50 and 120 kW and charging times up to around an hour [2]. that give the thermal implications of ultra-fast charging for
In attempt to solve the problem of long charging times, there different battery formats [20]. As ultra-fast charging will likely
has been a significant push for fast chargers. From 2015 to be a feature in most next-generation EVs, more research is
2016, the number of Level 3 chargers globally increased by
needed to inform the design of the battery packs with ultra-fast
290%, while Level 1 and 2 chargers combined only increased
charging in mind.
by 30% [3]. But faster charging has serious implications for
The objectives of this paper are twofold: (1) compare the
the batteries. The high charge rates required to achieve the
shorter charging times puts considerable stress on the batteries ultra-fast charging performance, specifically efficiency and
[4]. Tesla, for example, limits the number of fast charges to loss, of different LIBs to evaluate their suitability for EVs and
ensure the batteries’ health [5]. (2) identify the trade-offs between battery performance and
Charge and discharge occurs in LIBs from the insertion or thermal management system design. To do so, the power loss
extraction of lithium ions and electrons from one electrode to of selected LIBs was obtained for a range of charge rates, up
another. The charge capability of a battery is dependent on the to ultra-fast charging levels (≥6C). The temperature rise was
ability of lithium ions to move through the electrolyte and into simulated using finite element analysis for a range of thermal
solid active material [6]. If a battery cell is charged faster than management system designs. The study builds upon literature
the rate at which lithium ions can diffuse back into the and presents a holistic view of the batteries that can help in
electrodes, phase transformations and structural changes occur battery pack design specifically for ultra-fast charging.
in the electrodes, causing fragmentation, disintegration, or
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 675

II. BATTERY SELECTION A123
Three batteries were selected for the study (Fig. 1). Table I
gives the specifications for each cell. These batteries were
chosen for potential high-rate charge capabilities as well as
differences in energy density and power density.
The A123 LFP cell has the most mature battery technology
and is the most well-known in industry. A123 Systems has also
published a design guide focused on this cell, which contains
a comprehensive study of the cell [21]. The thermal behaviour
of the cell has also been well-studied [22]–[24]. As such, it will Turnigy
be used as a benchmark for the other cells
The A123 NMC cell, in comparison, has similar dimensions
to the LFP cell but a different chemistry. This cell uses newer
battery technologies from A123 Systems and has about a 40%
higher energy density and a marginally higher power density.
It will be used to qualitatively examine how chemistry affects
the performance and thermal behavior of the batteries during
ultra-fast charging.
The Turnigy cell, which is typically used in remote control
Fig. 2. Fixtures for the selected batteries. The fixtures were used to apply
vehicles and rated for 65C discharge and 10C charge, is an uniform pressure to the cell faces during cycling to minimize cell expansion
unconventional choice to consider for EV applications. But the and prolong battery life.
cell has a comparable energy density to the A123 LFP cell and
more than two and a half times the power density, making it an
excellent candidate for ultra-fast charging. III. EXPERIMENTAL BATTERY PERFORMANCE DURING
In summary, the cells were chosen to cover a matrix of ULTRA-FAST CHARGING
characteristics: (1) A123 LFP: medium energy density and A series of experimental tests were performed on each cell
medium power density, (2) A123 NMC: high energy density to determine the battery’s charge capabilities and characterize
and medium power density, and (3) Turnigy: medium energy the cells for thermal analysis. The A123 cells were tested in the
density and high power density. top fixture and the Turnigy cell was tested in the bottom fixture
shown in Fig. 2. Temperature sensors were attached to the
surface at the center of each cell to observe the thermal
A123 LFP A123 NMC Turnigy response of the cells during ultra-fast charging. The tests were
performed in a large thermal chamber with substantial air
circulation, which helped to cool the cells during the tests.
The batteries were charged at a series of increasing rates of
charge, up to the limits of the battery. The testing is performed
with parallel-connected 75 A, 0–5 V, 0.1% accurate channels
of a Digatron Power Electronics Universal Battery Tester
system. Prior to each charge, each cell is discharged slowly at
a rate of C/2 until a voltage cut-off, which correlates to about
10% state of charge (SOC) (3.2 V for LFP, 3.5 V for NMC).
Then, after a 30-minute rest period, the cell is charged using a
constant current / constant voltage (CC/CV) profile at the
Fig. 1. Selected batteries for ultra-fast charging. The A123 LFP cell has a desired C-rate until the constant upper voltage limit is reached
medium energy density and power density. The A123 NMC cell is more
energy-dense, while the Turnigy cell is more power-dense. (3.6 V for LFP, 4.2 V for NMC) and the current has reduced to
less than 0.1 A. Following another 30-minute rest period, the
TABLE I discharge and charge steps are repeated a second time at the
SPECIFICATIONS OF THE SELECTED BATTERIES
same rate. The entire process is then repeated over the desired
A123 LFP A123 NMC Turnigy
Chemistry LFP NMC NMCa charge-rate range.
Dimensions (mm) w = 160 w = 161 w = 49.4 The charge/discharge cycle is repeated twice at each charge
h = 227 h = 227 h = 135 rate to allow accurate calculation of the charge efficiency and
t = 7.25 t = 7.5 t=9 power loss, which are calculated from the second cycle. The
Mass (kg) 0.496 0.550 0.140
charge efficiency is defined as,
Rated Capacity (Ah) 20 26 5
Nominal Voltage (V) 3.3 3.7 3.8
Nominal Resistance (mΩ) 2.6 2.7 2.9 Edis + Edis,loss
Energy Density (Wh/kg) 131 180 136 ηchg = (1)
Power Density (W/kg)b 1600 2100 8000 Echg
a b
Not specified on datasheet, For discharge, assuming nominal resistance, minimum
voltage of 2.5V, and open circuit voltage equal to nominal voltage
676
Where Edis is the measured discharge energy, Echg is the
measured charge energy, and Edis,loss is the estimated discharge
energy. It describes how much energy, in watt-hours, was
removed from the cell during the discharge step and put back
into the cell during the charge step. The discharges were
performed at a slow rate to minimize the impact of discharge
loss on the calculation. But loss still occurs during discharge, A123 NMC Battery quickly reaches
and it is assumed to be one-fifth of the total loss for a C/2 A123 LFP
CV limit, so loss and
charge time saturate
discharge / 1C charge cycle. This loss, Edis,loss, is added to the
experimental value to give the total discharge energy. Turnigy
The charge efficiency for the Turnigy cell was very high,
ranging from 99.6% at the 1C charge rate to 96.6% at the 10C
charge rate, as shown in Fig. 4b. The A123 cells have lower
efficiencies, ranging from approximately 96% at the 1C charge
rate for both cells to 91.3% and 88.9% at the 5C charge rate for
the LFP and NMC cell, respectively. The performance of the
A123 NMC quickly drops with charge rate. Fig. 3. Loss per cell for the selected batteries normalized to the cell capacity
The average charging loss power, Pchg,loss, is calculated and extrapolated beyond experimental charge rates.
from the charge tests and used as the loss value for the steady
state thermal analysis performed in section IV. The parameter Charging times of less than 10 minutes to 80% SOC were
Pchg,loss is defined as the average loss until 80% SOC is reached, achieved for the Turnigy cell and the A123 LFP cell, as shown
and is calculated from the charge loss energy, which occurs up in Fig. 4a. However, as mentioned earlier the charging is
until 80% SOC is reached, divided by the time to reach 80% limited in the A123 NMC cell, with a charging time to 80%
SOC. The calculated charge loss power, extrapolated or SOC of 14 minutes for the 4C and 5C case. These results show
interpolated to all charge rates from 0 to 10C and normalized that the batteries are more than capable of ultra-fast charging,
by the cell amp-hour rating, is shown Fig. 3. The high power but the battery impedance will limit the charging time when
density Turnigy cell has, by far, the lowest loss with the A123 the C-rate is high enough.
LFP having about four times the loss and the A123 NMC
having about six times the loss. The A123 NMC’s charging
rate also quickly saturates for charge rates beyond 4C. Once IV. STEADY-STATE THERMAL ANALYSIS
charging reaches the 5C rate for the A123 NMC cell, the
constant current portion of the charge is very short, only two Thermal analysis of the batteries during ultra-fast charging
minutes or less. This results in similar charge times and loss was performed using a finite element analysis modeling tool,
values for the 4C and 5C charges.The peak temperatures, as ANSYS. A simple cooling apparatus was modeled with the
shown in Fig. 4c, correspond to the calculated loss trends batteries to determine their thermal management requirements,
shown in Fig. 3. The A123 NMC cell was, for the most part, i.e. how effectively loss must be removed from the system to
the hottest and the Turnigy cell was the coolest. All obtain the desired temperature. The apparatus consists of two
temperatures are within the acceptable operating range of the cooling plates sandwiched between three cells, with the
batteries. The peak temperatures of the batteries increased with cooling plates attached to cold plates on either end of the cells
charge rate, but interesting behaviour in the Turnigy cell was which are referred to as the end plates. The end plates are set
observed. For the Turnigy cell, there is a decrease in peak to a fixed temperature of 20°C; all other surfaces are assumed
temperature after charging at 2C, when compared to charging to be thermally insulated. In practice, the end plates could be
at 1C. This may be attributed to the endothermic reaction air or liquid cooled heatsinks, but are assumed here to be a
during charging as observed by [25]. fixed temperature sink for simplicity. In order to provide a fair
A123 NMC
Turnigy Turnigy
A123 LFP
A123 NMC A123 LFP
A123 LFP
A123 NMC Turnigy
(a) Charge Time to 80% SOC (b) Charge Efficiency (c) Peak Temperature
Fig. 4. Experimental results from the charging tests.
677
A123 Turnigy the cells with an assumption that heat is generated evenly
through the cell.
Isometric y
The modeled steady-state temperature rise for the cells at
different charge rates and plate thicknesses is shown in Fig. 6,
z x assuming the loss values given in Fig. 3. The figures show for
example, that for the A123 LFP cell, a 20°C rise will occur for
8C charging with a plate which is 50% of the cell thickness,
and for 4C charging with a plate which is 10% of the cell
thickness. Likewise, for a 20°C rise, the Turnigy cell is capable
of 9C charging with a 25% of cell thickness plate and 7C
charging with a 10% of cell thickness plate. Because the
charging rate of the A123 NMC cell does not really increase
beyond a 4C charge rate, the temperature rise asymptotes
above 4C. Any plate thickness greater than 10% of the cell
Top thickness will keep temperature rise below 20°C.
The simulated temperature distribution of the cells at 6C
charging (ultra-fast charging conditions) with different plate
thicknesses is shown in Fig. 7. The thermal conductivity
perpendicular to the cell’s surface is an order of magnitude
End Cell Cooling End Cell Cooling greater than the conductivity parallel to the cell surface so, in
Plate Plate Plate Plate this cooling apparatus, heat at the center of the cells cannot be
Fig. 5. Geometry used in the thermal analysis of the selected batteries. Three as easily removed. With thinner cooling plates, less heat can
(or fifteen) cells were used, such that heat is provided to either side of the be transferred through the plates, resulting in higher
center cell, simulating the environment of a cell found at the center of a battery temperatures overall. At the cell centers, this is even more
pack. The end plates were set to a constant temperature to emulate the effect
of an effective liquid or air cooling system. prominent as heat is generated faster than what can be
removed. Thicker cooling plates transfer more heat out through
TABLE II the end plates but it comes at the cost of increased volume and
THERMAL PROPERTIES OF THE SELECTED BATTERIES weight of the battery pack. In a battery pack, a 50% of cell
Material Density Heat Thermal Conductivity thickness plate would add approximately 50% more volume to
(kg/m3)a Capacityb (W/m·K)b
(J/kg·K)
the pack, which is not ideal when space in an EV is limited.
x, y z
A123 LFP 1884 610 16.4 0.51 To consider the contribution of the thermal management
A123 NMC 2007 885 23.3 1.15 system on the total mass of the battery pack, the system energy
Turnigy 2333 1029 27.1 1.31 density, which includes the cell and cooling plate, is given in
a
Calculated from values in Table I, bAssumed based on values in the literature Table III for cooling plate thicknesses that keep the battery
temperature rises to about 16°C for the 6C charging rate. The
A123 cells require a 25% of cell thickness cooling plate to
comparison of the A123 cells to the Turnigy cell, which has a
meet this specification, and the Turnigy cell only requires a
much smaller capacity, five Turnigy cells are modeled together
to achieve stored energy similar to the A123 cells.
Dimensions of the cooling plate are based on the dimensions TABLE III
of the cell (Table I). The height of the plate is given by the COMPARISON OF FAST CHARGING PERFORMANCE AND THERMAL
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DESIGN FOR 6C CHARGING
height of the cell. The width of the cooling plate is the width
of the cell with a 10 mm overhang on either side of the cell. A123 LFP A123 NMC Turnigy
Charge Rate (C) 6 6 6
The thickness of the cooling plate is relative to the thickness of Charge Time to 9 14 8
the cell where p describes the percentage of the cell thickness 80% SOC (min)
that is used for the plate. It has been normalized to the cell for Efficiency 91%a 89%a 98%
pack design purposes. Four plate thicknesses, including 100%, Plate Thickness (p) 0.25 0.25 0.1
50%, 25%, and 10% of the cell thickness, are investigated. The Loss Per Cell (W) 46.0 48.8 3.0
Temperature Rise, 17.2 15.5 15.7
thicker the plate, the more heat can be transferred through the Center Cell (°C)
plate and out of the system. Energy Density, 93 131 121
Thermal properties for the batteries are listed in Table II. The System (Wh/kg)
a
heat capacity and thermal conductivity for the A123 LFP cell Estimated
was obtained from [23], [26], while values for the NMC cells TABLE IV
were based on [27]. The NMC thermal parameters given in EQUIVALENT CHARGE CAPABILITIES FOR THE TURNIGY CELL
[27] were scaled by the ratio of the NMC cell densities (see Plate Thickness (p) 0.1 0.25 0.5 1
Table II) to the cell density in [27], which accounts for Energy Density, 121 104 84 61
differences in density between the cells. Thermal properties for System (Wh/kg)
Charge Rate (C) 6 8 12 15
aluminum were given by ANSYS. For the analysis, loss from
Temperature Rise, 15.7 15.3 17.6 15.9
each battery was input as an internal heat generation value for Center Cell (°C)
678
p = 0.1 Battery quickly reaches

p = 0.1 p = 0.1
CV limit, so loss and
charge time saturate
p = 0.25 p = 0.25
p = 0.25
p = 0.5 p = 0.5 p = 0.5
p=1 p=1 p=1
Fig. 6. Temperature rise obtained from the steady-state thermal analysis of the selected batteries for four cooling plate thicknesses, p = 1, 0.5, 0.25, and 0.1.
p=1 26.6°C 25.6°C 23.0°C
p = 0.5 30.6°C 29.3°C 25.1°C
p = 0.25 37.2°C 35.5°C 29.2°C
p = 0.1 53.2°C 50.8°C 35.7°C
Fig. 7. Simulated temperature distribution from the steady-state thermal analysis of the selected batteries at 6C charging for the four cooling plates above.
10% of cell thickness cooling plate due to it’s much lower V. CONCLUSIONS
power loss. The resulting system energy density is 93 Wh/kg High rate charging tests were performed on three different
for the A123 LFP cell, 131 Wh/kg for the A123 NMC cell, and batteries. The tests indicate that more power-dense cells, i.e.
121 Wh/kg for the Turnigy cell. The NMC cell, even when the A123 LFP and Turnigy NMC cells in this research, are
considering cooling, still has the highest energy, but requires more suitable for ultra-fast charging. They were capable of
14 minutes to reach 80% SOC rather than the 8-9 minutes charging at high rates with reasonable efficiency and power
required for the other two cells. This slower charging, loss. Thermal analysis of the three cells modeled with cooling
combined with the A123 NMC cell’s efficiency of just 89% systems illustrates trade-offs between performance and
during 6C fast charging, suggests that the Turnigy power cell, thermal management. It shows that battery selection is key in
with a charge efficiency of 98%, may be a better option for fast ultra-fast charging. A less energy dense, more power dense cell
charging. If the rest of the cooling system were considered, the can provide similar overall energy density to a more energy
full system energy density would likely also tilt in favor of the dense, less power dense cell after taking into account the
Turnigy cell. This comparison generally illustrates that a more thermal management requirements when it is in a pack. Next
power dense battery will require less cooling, and vice versa. steps for the study is to perform a transient thermal analysis of
To examine how thicker cooling plates can allow for even the batteries to see how loss changes with time, and to validate
higher charge rates, the charge rate, which can be achieved for the results with a prototype cooling apparatus and additional
a similar to 16°C temperature rise, is given in Table IV for a experimental testing.
range of cooling plate thicknesses for the Turnigy cell. With a
plate thickness of 25% of cell thickness, 8C charging can be
obtained, and with 100% of cell thickness plate, 15C charging
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
can be obtained. However, the additional cooling plate
thickness significantly reduces system energy density, so an This research is supported, in part, thanks to funding from
alternative cooling system design, such as a liquid cooling the Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) Program. The
plate between each cell, may be desirable for achieving the battery testing was performed at the McMaster Automotive
highest charge rates. Resource Centre’s Centre for Mechatronics and Hybrid
Technologies battery lab, which was funded in part by Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles.
679
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680
Single-Phase Charging Operation of a Three-Phase Integrated
Onboard Charger for Electric Vehicles
Jimmy Ye, Student Member, IEEE, Chuan Shi, Student Member, IEEE, Alireza Khaligh, Senior Member, IEEE
Maryland Power Electronics Laboratory (MPEL), The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Institute for
Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742; EML: Khaligh@ece.umd.edu; URL:
http://khaligh.ece.umd.edu/
Abstract —Although three-phase integrated onboard chargers phase inverter, which are not practical for the electric
for electric vehicles (EVs) are important for high-power fast vehicles due to high cost and the need for a custom design.
battery charging, the single-phase battery charging is still This paper proposed a single-phase charging method
highly demanded in the consumer markets. The single-phase using the three-phase integrated onboard charger for EVs,
charging provides EV owners the ability to conveniently
proposed by authors in [18]. The organization of the paper is
charge their vehicles through standard single-phase power
outlets. In this paper, the single-phase charging operation of a as follows. Section II discusses the circuit configuration of
three-phase integrated onboard charger is investigated. The single-phase charging operation and its operation principles.
single-phase charging operation can be achieved without any In Section III, the control strategy of the single-phase
hardware modification to a three-phase integrated onboard operation is presented. Furthermore, the control system of
charger. The circuit topology, operation modes, control the charger in single-phase charging is analyzed in details.
strategy, and controller design for the single-phase operation Section IV presents the experimental results to verify the
are presented in detail. A three-phase integrated onboard proposed approach. Section V presents the conclusions.
charger designed by the authors is operated and tested as a
single-phase charger with up to 1.6kW output power.
Experimental results show that unity power factor (PF) can be II. OPERATION PRINCIPLES
achieved with a peak efficiency of 93.7%.
The topology of single-phase charging circuit is
Keywords: Electric vehicles, on-board chargers, off-board constructed on the basis of the three-phase integrated
chargers, integrated charging, boost power factor correction charger. The three-phase integrated charger topology,
converter. discussed in this paper, shown in Fig. 1(a), is composed of a
three-phase interface and the propulsion system of an EV
I. INTRODUCTION [18]. The DC side of the three-phase interface is directly
Electric vehicles (EV) chargers can be characterized as connected to two external terminals of the propulsion
either an onboard charger or offboard charger [1]-[2]. system, as shown in Fig. 1(b). To enable single-phase
Offboard three-phase charging can deliver level-3 power to operation of the three-phase system, several switches in the
quickly charge a typical 24kWh EV battery pack in 0.2-1 three-phase integrated charger need to be turned on or
hour [1], depending on the power level of the charger. On turned off continuously.
the other hand, traditional onboard level-1 or level-2
chargers can be utilized to charge vehicle batteries using
conveniently available single-phase power outlets in much
longer time periods [3].
Researchers have investigated and proposed integrated
onboard three-phase chargers using the already available
(a)
electrical components onboard the vehicle, to enable high-
power level-3 charging [4]-[10], [11]-[17]. While the fast
charging ability of three-phase integrated charging benefits
consumers, not all the three-phase integrated chargers offer
the ability to charge EVs at private facilities, where only
single-phase power outlets are available. Since most EV
consumers are expected to charge their vehicle overnight at (b)
home [2], a single-phase charging operation using the three- Fig. 1. (a) Topology of the three-phase integrated onboard charger; (b)
phase integrated charger becomes necessary. Topology of single-phase charging operation of three-phase integrated
The single-phase charging of a three-phase integrated onboard charger.
charger has been considered in [16]. However, the three- Assume that the single-phase power source is connected
phase integrated charger requires a multiphase propulsion to bridge legs S1/S2 and S3/S4 in the three-phase interface.
system, including a nine-phase electric motor and its nine- Switches S1-S4 are turned on during single-phase charging,
allowing bridge legs S1/S2 and S3/S4 in the three-phase
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 681

interface to function as a diode bridge, rectifying the input where, Vac,rms is the root mean square (rms) value of the
grid voltage. The bridge leg S5-S6 is disabled by turning off input voltage; Ts is the switching period; Po is the output
switches S5 and S6. In addition, the bridge legs S7/S8 and power; and Vo is the output voltage.
S11/S12 of the propulsion inverter are also turned off, making This ripples should be kept minimal, to minimize the
the inductor current flow through the bridge leg S9/S10. The power loss in the inductor core [19]-[21]. In this case the
switch, S9, is turned off, but its body diode, DS9, operates as inductors are the motor-windings of the propulsion machine.
a freewheeling diode. Therefore, the topology of single- The phase-A and phase-B motor-windings are utilized in
phase charging circuit can be simplified to a boost PFC Fig. 1. For the permanent magnet synchronous motors
converter, as shown below in Fig. 2. (PMSMs) applied in electric vehicles, the inductances of
motor-windings ranges from 1mH to 20mH [22]-[23].
B. Small-signal model
The small-signal model of the single-phase charging
circuit is analyzed. The average inductor voltage, <VL>, and
the capacitor current, <IC>, are derived as Eq. (2) and Eq.
(3).
< iC >TS =
− < vo >TS  <v >
d +  < iL >TS − o TS
 d < vo >TS (2)
Fig. 2. Single-phase equivalent circuit of the three-phase integrated charger d ' = C
R  R  dt
during single-phase charging operation.
d < iL >TS (3)
A. Operation modes < vL >TS =< vg >TS d + (< vg >TS − < vo >TS ) d ' = L
dt
Whenever the switch is turned on, the freewheeling
where, d’ is 1-d; d is duty cycle; <iC>TS is the average value
diode, DS9, is turned off and the capacitor, C, discharges
of the capacitor current in one switching period; <iL>TS is
leading to a decreasing voltage over the capacitor. The
the average value of the inductor current in one switching
inductor voltage is positive, which indicates that its current
period; <vo>TS is the average value of the output voltage in
is increasing. Consequently, when the switch is on, the
one switching period; <vg>TS is the average value of the
freewheeling diode conducts and the inductor current
rectified input voltage in one switching period; and <vL>TS
charges the capacitor, resulting in increasing the output. In
is the average value of the inductor voltage in one switching
this condition, the inductor voltage is negative, which means
period.
the inductor current is decreasing. The operation modes of
Linearizing Eq. (2) and Eq. (3) via perturbations, Eq. (4)
the single-phase charging circuit are shown in Fig. 3.
and (5) are derived.
 dV dvˆ  −Vo −vˆ (4)

C o + o = + I L D '+ o + iˆL D '− I L dˆ − iˆL dˆ
 dt dt  R R
 dI diˆ  (5)
L  L + L  = Vg − Vo D '+ vˆg − vô D '+ Vo dˆ + vô dˆ
 dt dt 
(a)
where, vˆg , vô ,and d̂ are perturbations of rectified voltage,
output voltage, and duty cycle; D’, IL , Vo , Vg are the DC
components of duty cycle, inductor current, output voltage,
and rectified voltage.
Eq. (4) and Eq. (5) can be simplified by removing the
(b) DC terms since the DC terms on both sides of the equation
Fig. 3. Operation modes of the single-phase charging circuit, (a) S10 on, (b) are equal. Hence, Eq. (6) and Eq. (7) can be obtained.
S10 off.
dvô −vô ˆ
Based on the analysis of the operation modes, the C = + iL D '− I L dˆ (6)
dt R
inductor current ripple can be calculated. The ratio of
inductor current ripple with respect to the peak inductor diˆL
current, %Ripple, can be derived using Eq. (1). L = vˆg − vô D '+ Vo dˆ (7)
dt
1 Vac , rms
2
 2Vac ,rms  (1)
% Ripple = 1 −  TS
L Po  Vo  Based on Eq. (6) and Eq. (7), the equivalent small-signal
 
model of the single-phase charging circuit can be
constructed, as shown in Fig. 4.
682
loop can be considered as constant when analyzing the inner
current loop. The block diagram of the closed current
control loop is shown in Fig. 6.
IL,ref + IL,error Vc 1 d(s) IL
 GC VM
Gid
−
Fig. 4. Small-signal model of the single-phase operation converter. Fig. 6. Block diagram of the closed current control loop.
The small-signal transfer function can be derived by GC is the transfer function of the current controller, and
taking the “Laplace Transform” of Eq. (6) and Eq. (7). its transfer function is shown in Eq. (9).
Using substitution and isolating the independent inputs from
each other, the duty cycle to inductor current transfer 1 + sT (9)
GC ( s) = k
function can be derived in Eq. (8). sT
Vo + I L D ' R The close loop transfer function of Fig. 5 can be
s+ (8)
iˆ V Vo RC described by Eq. (10) below.
Gid = L = o
dˆ L 1 D '2
s2 + s+
RC LC IL GC Gid (10)
=
I L, ref 1 + GcGid
III. CONTROL STRATEGY
To compute the phase margin, the aforementioned
During single-phase charging operation, the output small-signal model for the single-phase charging circuit
voltage is regulated by controlling the duty cycle of the needs to be utilized. The gain and the time constant selected
switch, S10. In a DC-DC converter, the output voltage can be for the current controller are selected to be 0.5 and 100 µS.
characterized by Vout = Vg / (1 − D ) , where D is the duty Fig. 7 depicts the bode plots of the uncompensated loop
cycle of the switch, S10. Fig. 5 shows the cascaded control transfer function, the compensated loop transfer function,
strategy to regulate the output voltage and to implement the and the current controller transfer function.
power factor correction (PFC) rectification.
Fig. 5. Cascaded control strategy of the single-phase charging circuit.

Fig. 7. Bode plots displaying the open loop, PI, and inner closed loop
transfer function.
The cascaded control strategy is composed of an outer
voltage loop to regulate the output voltage and an inner At the crossover frequency, it can be observed that the
current loop to shape the inductor current. For the outer loop, phase margin is 85.7°, which ensures the stability of the
the measured voltage, Vout, is compared with the reference system. Hence, as long as the compensator transfer function
voltage, and the voltage controller is utilized to regulate the does not lower the margin too much at low-frequency area,
output voltage. For the inner current loop, the rectified input the inner current loop should be stable.
voltage is sampled using the voltage sensor. This signal, Having selected the parameters for the inner current
multiplied by the output of voltage loop, is the reference controller, the next step is to design the outer voltage loop,
inductor current, which is compared with the measured which regulates the output voltage. Fig. 8 shows the block
inductor current. The error signal is processed by the current diagram, illustrating the block diagram of the outer voltage
controller, which determines the duty cycle of S10. Since the control loop.
outer voltage loop is designed to have much lower
bandwidth than the inner current loop, the output of voltage
683
Gain = 1
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Vo,ref + d(s) Vo
A three-phase integrated onboard charger, designed by
Vo,error IL,ref + IL,error Vc 1 IL
 GC2  GC VM Gid Gvi
−
authors, is operated and tested as a single-phase charger
−
with up to 1.6kW output power. For this circuit, the

H switching frequency is chosen to be 20 kHz to minimize the
switching loss in the switches. The rated output voltage is
Fig. 8. Block diagram of the closed outer voltage control loop. set to be 420 V. A PMSM motor is used with the inductance
of motor-windings measured to be 1.575mH. Table I shows
Since the bandwidth of the inner current controller GC is
the components parameters of the single-phase charging
at least an order of magnitude greater than the bandwidth of
the outer voltage controller GC2, the closed current control circuit.
loop can be simplified as a constant gain, which is equal to TABLE I
one. In other words, inductor current will respond to the COMPONENT PARAMETERS OF SINGLE-PHASE CHARGING CIRCUIT
reference current so quickly that the gain appears to be # of
Device Part # Value
unity. Thus, the closed loop transfer function can be device
described by Eq. (11). PMSM BY122BL320 220V,rms/3-phase 1
Current sensor LTS15-NP NA 1
Voltage sensor LV20-P NA 1
Vo GcGvi Motor-winding NA 1.575mH 1
= (11)
Vref 1 + HGcGvi inductance
IGBT in inverter FGL60N100 NA 6
Based on the small-signal model, the current to output DC capacitor LGW2W561 3.3mF 6
voltage transfer function, Gvi, can be derived as Eq. (12). PFC controller TMS320F28335 NA 1
Diodes in three-phase C4D30120A 1200V /30A 6
D 'Vo interface
s−
vô I L ILL
=− L (12)
iˆL VoC 1 I L D' The waveforms of the gate-source voltage for the switch
s+ +
LC VoC S10, the output voltage, the input voltage, and the input
current are shown in Fig. 10. The waveforms of the input
Similar to inner control loop analysis, Fig. 9 depicts the
current, the input voltage and the output voltage are shown
bode curves of the uncompensated outer voltage loop
in Fig. 11. The output voltage is 400V, and the input voltage
transfer function, the compensated loop transfer function,
is 120V,rms. The charger is operating with almost unity
and the voltage controller transfer function.
power factor since the input voltage is in phase with the
input current.
Fig. 9. Bode Diagram displaying the uncompensated outer voltage loop

transfer function, voltage controller, and compensated outer voltage loop
transfer function.
In order to ensure that there is enough phase margin, the

gain and time constant for the second voltage controller are Fig. 10. Waveforms of converters during charging.
selected to be 0.01 and 500 µS, respectively. The parameters
of the voltage controller need to be selected so that the The efficiency of the boost PFC converter is shown in
bandwidth of the voltage controller is at least an order of Fig. 12. The efficiency increases along with the output
magnitude less than the current controller. At the crossover power. The peak efficiency is measured as 93.7%.
frequency, the phase margin is 66°. Thus, the outer voltage
loop is stable.
684
Although three-phase onboard integrated chargers
enable onboard high power charging with three-phase high
power outlets, the convenient single-phase charging using
the standard single-phase outlets are still highly demanded.
A three-phase onboard charger with a single-phase
operation allows consumers the flexibility of both options.
The single-phase charging operation of a three-phase
integrated charger is analyzed in this paper, in which the
three-phase interface of the integrated charger is
reconfigured as a diode bridge. The motor-windings of the
propulsion machine are utilized as a PFC inductor. A three-
phase integrated onboard charger is operated and tested as a
single-phase charger with up to 1.6kW output power.
Experimental results show that the peak efficiency is 93.7%
with unity power factor. The loss breakdown at full load
Fig. 11. Waveforms of converters during charging. shows that the power loss caused by the motor windings and
the diodes in the interface contributes to the majority of the
total power loss.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work has been sponsored by the National Science
Foundation (NSF) Award Number 1559845 (REU Site:
Summer Engineering Research Experiences in
Transportation Electrification) and the NSF Award Number
1507546 (GOALI: Integrated On-Board Universal SiC-
Fig. 12. Efficiency curve of single-phase operation of three-phase charger. based Fast Charging for Plug-In Electric Vehicles), which
are gratefully acknowledged.
To better understand the efficiency, the loss breakdown
at full load is provided, as shown in Fig. 13. The
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686
High-Frequency High-Density Bidirectional EV
Charger
Rimon Gadelrab, Yuchen Yang, Bin Li, Fred Lee, and Qiang Li
Center for Power Electronics Systems
The Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
Email: rimongg@vt.edu
Abstract—Due to the rapid adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs)

worldwide, On-Board/Off-Board Battery Chargers are facing
numerous. One challenge is charging time since petrol and diesel
vehicles are charged 10 times faster than electric vehicles. A
second challenge is power density especially for the on-board
chargers where minimal space for installation is allocated inside
the vehicles. Another challenge is the wide battery voltage range
which makes it difficult to optimize the converter over the entire
battery voltage range and efficiency drops when either the battery
voltage is too high or too low. Finally, the bi-directional operation
is a challenge to allow the EV to support the grid in peak periods
or even standalone loads. In this paper, a 6.6 kW two-stage
structure is proposed utilizing a variable dc-link voltage
operation. One of the most promising challenges in high-power
applications is implementing the magnetics component into
Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). PCB winding transformers are Figure 2. Switching Loss comparison: Si Vs GaN, Si device:
widely in use in low power applications. Compared with IPX60R165CP and GaN device: GS66516T
conventional litz-wire transformers, the manufacturing process is than 100 kHz switching frequency, possess only 3~12 W/in3 power
greatly simplified and the parasitic is easier to control. However, density, and at most offer 92 to 94 percent efficiency [2]–[9].
due to the limitation of high winding loss and high multi-layer
PCB cost in high power applications, the transformer design with Emerging wide-bandgap (WBG) devices provide the enabling
PCB winding becomes a challenge. Emerging wide-bandgap technology to realize bi-directional operation and dramatically
devices provide the opportunity to adopt PCB transformers into increase the switching frequency as well as efficiency of power
high power applications. In addition, the low inductance electronics converters. From Figure 2, we see there are less turn-on
requirement brought by high frequency also makes possible the and turn-off losses with WBG devices. Although, the turn-off loss for
realization of magnetic integration in PCB transformers. WBG devices is smaller than turn-on loss, however if zero voltage
switching (ZVS) is achieved, there is almost no switching related loss
Keywords — high frequency on-board charger, wide-bandgap [10], [11]. Recently, in order to increase the power density and reduce
devices, PCB transformer, magnetic integration the volume of the on-board charges, some research papers are using
WBG devices to increase the frequency higher than 200kHz [12]–[15]
I. INTRODUCTION
In order to push for high switching frequency, a soft switching
Due to concerns regarding increasing fuel costs and air pollution, technique is utilized even for WBG devices [10], [16]. For the ac/dc
plug-in electrical vehicles (PEVs) and plug-in hybrid electrical
vehicles (PHEVs) are attracting more attention. Many countries are
announcing plans to ban petrol and diesel vehicles starting in 2040 or
earlier [1]. A PEV or PHEV carry a rechargeable battery that is
restored to full charge by inserting the charging cord of the vehicle
into an external electrical source. One crucial obstacle facing the
commercialization of PEVs and PHEVs is the demand and
corresponding supply of lightweight, compact, and efficient on-
board/off-board charging systems. The state-of-the-art level-2 on-
board charging products are primarily Si-based designs, operate at less
EMI Battery
Filter
Figure 3. Soft switching (CRM) Vs hard switching (CCM):

Buck converter, Vin=380 V, Vo=200 V, Po=1.2 kW and fs=500
Figure 1. Conventional Si-based OBC system architecture kHz
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 687

stage, a bridgeless totem-pole power factor correlation (PFC) is the
simplest topology when compared with other PFC converters. With
critical conduction mode (CRM) operation, ZVS is achieved for all
fast switches, making it an excellent candidate for high frequency
operation [17], [18], as shown in Figure 3. In addition, the symmetrical
structure guarantees the bi-directional operation.
For the isolated dc/dc converter, an LLC resonant converter is
widely used for high frequency operation due to the ability to achieve
ZVS for all switches under all load conditions as well as a small turn (a)
off loss [9]. However, a CLLC resonant converter features the same
soft switching technique while having a symmetrical resonant tank,
which is more suitable for bi-directional operation [19], [20].
However, gain regulation capability is one challenge for a resonant
converter. For applications such as a battery charger, the output
voltage range is wide with a different state of charge of the battery.
The switching frequency of the converter must repeatedly deviate
from the resonant frequency to realize the large gain range, making it
difficult to optimize the converter and compromising overall charging
efficiency. The chart shown in Figure 4 summarizes the state-of-the-
art products and the design target in this paper.
In order to optimize the converter over the entire battery voltage
range, a variable dc-link voltage structure is proposed so the second
stage resonant converter is always working around the optimal point
and achieving the best efficiency over the entire battery voltage range.
The topology selection is briefly introduced in Section II. The
performance comparison of WBG-based line design and proposed
design are discussed. Then, as the transformer design of the dc/dc
stage is the focus of this paper, detailed design considerations are
elaborated in Section III. And the improvement of is illustrated in
section IV. Then the improved design of the PCB based inductor for
the PFC is presented. The prototype and experimental results are (b)
shown in Section VI for verification purposes. Finally, Section VII is
the conclusion. Figure 5. a) Base line design with GaN devices and (b) proposed
design with SiC and GaN devices.
II. TOPOLOGY SELECTION OF THE ON-BOARD CLLC resonant converter as the dc/dc stage. The basic system
CHARGERR (OBC) structure is shown in Figure 5(a) with a 400V fixed dc-link voltage.
The control of this structure is simple, but the challenge is with PEV
Limited by the large reverse-recovery charge of Si MOSFETs, a
applications since the output of the OBC system is connected to a
conventional Si-based OBC design is unidirectional. Two-stage
battery with a wide voltage range. In order to achieve more flexibility,
structures are most popular (see Figure 1). The drawbacks of this
the actual output voltage range is set from 250 to 450 V, which is close
structure are unidirectional power flow and significant switching loss.
to a two-to-one variation. Therefore, the wide output voltage range is
The drawbacks of a dual active bridge converter are high turn-off loss
a serious challenge to the design of the CLLC resonant converter.
and limited ZVS region.
Specifically, the optimal operating point of a resonant converter is
when the switching frequency (fs) is equal to the resonant frequency
(fo). In the case of a wide output voltage range, the switching
frequency of the resonant converter deviates dramatically from the
resonant frequency in order to achieve the required wide voltage gain.
Then, the efficiency of the resonant converter suffers significantly.
According to the curves shown in Figure 5(a), the voltage gain is at
unity when the output voltage is 350 V and the switching frequency is
equal to the resonant frequency. Then, at the two boundaries when the
output voltages are 250 and 450 V, the gains are 0.7 and 1.3, while fs
are 130 and 65 percent of fo, respectively.
In order to solve this issue, we propose the structure of the variable
dc-link voltage in [21] as shown in Figure 4(b), where the VDC−link
is changed from 400V fixed voltage to 500–840V variable voltage.
With 650V Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices, the dc-link voltage
variation cannot achieve this range since the lower boundary is limited
Figure 4. State-of-the-Art On Board Charger Products and CPES by the peak value of the ac input voltage, while the upper boundary is
prior-art limited by the device voltage rating. Therefore, in order to further
expand the dc-link voltage range, it is necessary to change 650V GaN
For use with WBG devices, the proposed topology is a totem-pole devices to 1.2 kV SiC MOSFETs in the ac/dc stage and the primary
bridgeless PFC rectifier operating in CRM as the ac/dc stage, and a side of dc/dc stage. It then becomes possible to have a wide dc-link
688
voltage range to cover the entire battery voltage range with a 2-to-1 calculation of planar transformers. It is simple and accurate with the
ratio. Finally, since 1.2kV SiC-MOSFETs can have a higher current assumption the flux is only distributed in one direction. This
rating, the ac/dc stage is simplified from a four-phase interleaving assumption usually holds for an ideal transformer where magnetizing
structure to a two-phase interleaving structure. current is small and therefore is ignored. However, for an CLLC type
resonant converter, magnetizing current is utilized to help the primary
Benefiting from the wider dc-link voltage range, the frequency switch achieve ZVS. As a result, the magnetizing current is not small
range of the dc/dc stage is significantly narrowed down to less than 10 enough to be ignored, especially for high power applications where
percent variation. Accordingly, efficiency is expected to significantly junction capacitance of a device is larger and the required magnetizing
improve. current is larger. In addition, there is significant impact on winding loss
This structure is preferred because the dc/dc stage operates like a due to the fringing effect brought by flux around the air gap,
DCX with fixed frequency, while the dc-link voltage is regulated by compromising the accuracy of the 1D model proposed by Dowell.
the ac/dc stage. Therefore, the resonant converter operates at resonant In [23], [24], a two core PCB winding transformer structure with
frequency with optimal efficiency. integrated leakage inductance is proposed as well as an associated loss
The estimated efficiency versus charging voltage of the total system model which considers magnetizing current and fringing effect. With
is plotted in Figure 6. The efficiency estimation is based on device the proposed structure, one magnetic component with a 6-layer only
switching loss measurement, device analytical loss model, and finite- PCB board is enough for the 6.6kW CLLC resonant converter. Among
element-analysis (FEA) simulation of magnetic components. The the-state-of-the-art magnetic components this selection is one of the
results further verify the previous analysis where the proposed best. However, improvement is required to address some understood
structure outperforms the base line design. challenges.
A. Controllable leakage inductance integration
III. TRANSFORMER DESIGN WITH ADJUSTABLE
LEAKAGE INDUCTANCE Using the matrix transformer concept with a perfect interleaving
winding to reduce ac winding loss, we can only control the
Another benefit of high frequency operation is the volt-second magnetizing inductance by controlling the air gap, as shown in
across the transformer is significantly reduced. With a similar flux Figure 7. However, one feature of this kind of structure is the
density inside core, the required number of turns becomes less leakage inductance is too small. 3D simulation shows the resulting
making it possible to use a printed circuit board (PCB) as leakage inductance is only around 100 nH, which is small to serve
transformer windings. In addition, because of high switching as resonant inductor in a CLLC resonant converter if regulation
frequency, the required inductor value is also reduced which capability is required [12].
simplifies integration of the leakage into the transformer.
To achieve the required leakage, the windings are redistributed
However, challenges come with the high switching frequency so a symmetrical structure no longer exists. Then the center leg is
and PCB winding transformers. One challenge is high ac winding added to the original core. With this transformer structure, there is
loss. Due to skin effect and proximity effect, ac winding loss of the flux flowing through the center leg, which is not fully coupled
PCB winding is significant. Compelling research is underway in between the primary and secondary windings. Therefore, most of
this area to understand how best to calculate and reduce ac winding the interleave between the primary and secondary windings is kept
and consequently the impact on ac winding loss is small.
loss within the PCB winding [22]. Interleave is the best solution
since it cancels the magnetic field between windings and therefore
greatly reduces the ac related loss. However, due to winding
interleave the transformer leakage inductance becomes small [8] and
usually is not adjustable. This may become a drawback for some
applications where certain leakage inductance is required to achieve
magnetic integration.
Another challenge is optimization of PCB winding transformer. The
1D model proposed by Dowell [22] is widely used for ac winding loss
Figure 7. Conventional UI core with perfect interleaved

Figure 6. Estimated total system efficiency of 6.6kW OBC winding, Lm=18 uH and Lk=103 nH
689
Another benefit of this structure is leakage flux is controlled by To solve this issue, this paper proposes a new transformer design
the reluctance of the center leg. If the center post reluctance is large, with controllable magnetizing and leakage inductances with two
then less leakage flux will flow through it which results in small uniform air gaps, as shown in Figure 9.
leakage inductance. If the center leg reluctance is small, then more
leakage flux will flow through it which results in large leakage First Improvement: Change the core material, so we can decrease
inductance. In addition, most of the leakage flux is confined and the core loss. DMR51W is chosen instead of 3F36, as shown in Figure
controlled inside the magnetic material instead of leaking in the air, 9.
avoiding additional eddy current loss and a potential Second Improvement: In this design we set lg1=lg2=lg as shown
electromagnetic interference (EMI) issue. in figure 10, which are used to control the magnetizing inductance. Aec
Based on this transformer structure, a reluctance model is built, is used instead of lg2 to control the leakage inductance.
as shown in Figure 8. Two assumptions are made to simplify the With this improvement we sacrifice the footprint of the transformer.
model without losing accuracy. First, the permeability of the core Accordingly, the footprint must increase by 20 percent compared to
is larger than 1 (permeability of the air). Second, leakage flux in the the previous design. The core shape is changed to improve the
air is small and is ignored. With these two assumptions, only transformer design with the uniform air-gaps, as shown in Figure 9.
reluctance of the air gap needs to be taken into consideration, which
is Rg1 and Rg2 for the outer post and center post, respectively. Third Improvement: by changing the winding shape we are able to:
1. Shorten the winding length by 10% to reduce the winding
length by 8%.
2. Reduce the winding width to reduce the footprint by 20%.
In order to optimize the transformer, we must first calculate the
transformer Loss Model. In this case the transformer design is
optimized based on two types of loss:
1. Winding Loss: this is obtained using FEA Simulation which is
a function of the transformer parameters: a, b, bc, c, lg as
shown in Figure 9 and Figure 11.
2. Core Loss: this is calculated based on rectangular extension of
Steinmetz equation [25] which is also a function of the
transformer parameters.
Figure 8. Reluctance model of the proposed transformer
So we have five design parameters: a, b, bc, c, lg. which need to be
Magnetizing inductance and leakage inductance are calculated by reduced into two design parameters by identifying design constraints.
the following equations:
18 2
1
2
4
2
2
Where,
4
Figure 9. Magnetic Materials for 500 kHz
, and lg1, lg2 are the area and length of the outer post and center 4P2S 2P4S
post air gap, respectively.
Due to the symmetry of the primary side and secondary side,
leakage inductance on both sides is the same and the turns ratio N is
1.
IV. IMPROVING THE TRANSFORMER DESIGN
As in the previous design, if lg1 is used to control the
magnetizing inductance and lg2 is used to control the leakage lg1 lg2 lg1
inductance, then the transformer has two non-uniform air gaps which
are difficult to control in the manufacturing process and mechanically lg lg lg
unstable.
Figure 10. Proposed Transformer Structure
690
c b
c
b Figure 12. Determination of td

c
a c
b
Figure 11. New core shape
Step 1: Set fs = 500kHz to determine Lm

The Lm is determined as a function of the dead time so the charge of
the magnetizing current during the dead time is enough to discharge
the Coss so ZVS is achieved:
(5)
(6)
Step 2: Design td to minimize Device Loss Figure 13. Transformer Loss and Device Loss
The primary and secondary rms currents are derived as a function of
td, so we determine td to minimize the device related losses.
From Figure 12, td=120ns is chosen which corresponds to Lm=18uH.
Step 3: Determine lg to provide desired Lm
From the reluctance model in Figure 8, we develop the expression for
the Lm:
=18uH (7)
Therefore, for a Given Lm, lg is expressed as a f (a, b, bc, c).

Step 4: Set Ln=10 to provide desired Lk
From the reluctance model we develop the expression for the Lk:
1.8 (8)
Figure 14 Total Transformer Loss

For a Given Lk, bc is expressed as f (a, b, c).
For a Given footprint, b is expressed as a f (a, c).
Step 5: Set footprint = 4000mm2
We reduce the five design parameters into two parameters which are
4 2 2 = 4000mm2 (9) a, c. As shown in Figure 13, we see both transformer loss and device
691
L1 L2
L2 L1
L3 L4
Figure 16. PCB winding inductor structure

be reduced. An effective and low cost solution is to reduce the
overlapping area of inductor windings. In order to do that, the
inductor is re-designed and optimized. As shown in Figure 20, with
the fixed cross-section area of core, there are two variables: the
winding length “a” and core length “b”. Figure 21 shows the loss
breakdown for this inductor with different combinations of
variables a and b. From this figure, an optimized design point is
Figure 15. Tradeoff between Loss and Footprint found. The loss breakdown for the optimized design is shown in
Table 1. It is shown there is less loss with the optimized design
loss are a function of the transformer parameters. So the optimization than the previous design.
process is based on the total loss, as shown in Figure 14.
Next we determine the point of minimum loss noted as point (A). All
the previous steps are repeated again sweeping the Footprint and fs.
Then from Figure 15, we see beyond 500 kHz there is a diminishing vgs1 (40V/div)
return.
Therefore, the chosen design point (A) is: iL1 (20A/div)
fs = 500 kHz
Footprint = 4000 mm2
Compared to the previous design, we achieve a 20 percent reduction vgs2 (40V/div)
in the footprint and a 25 percent reduction in the total transformer loss.
In addition, the transformer has two uniform air gaps, which makes
manufacturing simpler and easier.
V. PFC INDUCTOR IMPROVEMENT i (20A/div)
Conventionally, the inductor of the PFC converter is made using Figure 17. Experimental waveforms of
litz-wire, which is not cost effective and labor intensive. By pushing PFC converter
to high switching frequency and using a coupled inductor structure, the
PFC inductor is integrated into the PCB. By using PCB winding, the
PFC inductor achieves a low profile, automated production, better
parasitic control, and low EMI noise. In addition, with PCB winding
parasitic capacitance is easily controlled. This will make the
balance technique more effective [17], [18].
Figure 16 shows the inductor structure of the positive coupled
inductor with balance. The PCB is still six layer. The total loss of
PCB winding is 36 W compared to 25 W for the non-coupled litz
wire. With the acceptable extra loss, the PCB winding inductor Figure 18. Zoom-in waveforms of PFC converter
achieves automated manufacture and lower discharge mode and
charging mode noise.
From the tested efficiency it is found that there is a 0.7 percent
efficiency drop in the integrated inductor version comparing with the
discrete inductor version. In previous analysis, the efficiency drop of
the integrated inductor is only 0.3 percent. The experimental
waveforms are shown in Figure 17. The zoom-in waveforms are shown
in Figure 18. It is shown there are spikes and ringing in the inductor
current waveforms. The spikes are caused by the equivalent
parasitic capacitance (EPC) of inductor and dv/dt of switching
performance. As shown in Figure 19, when the bottom switch of
phase 1 is turning off, there will be dv/dt in the switch node. This
dv/dt will generate current through the EPC of inductor. The Figure 19. Path of current spikes and ringing
ringing current will go through the inductor and switch devices to
generate loss. It is shown there is a 35 W loss due to current spike
and ringing. In order to reduce this loss, EPC of inductor needs to
692
Figure 20. New Inductor design
Figure 24. Experimental waveforms of PFC converter

with the improved inductor 300 V battery voltage at full
load condition
Figure 21. Inductor loss breakdown with different designs
Figure 25. Tested efficiency of total system (ac/dc and

dc/dc) in charging mode in comparison with the previous
design.
Table 1. Loss breakdown for optimized coupled inductor

Winding Core Ringing Total
Loss(W) Loss(W) Loss (W) Loss(W)
Optimize
28 25 3 56
design
Original
design 19 17 35 71
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Figure 22. Prototype of the 6.6-kW OBC.
A prototype for the improved version is built, as shown in Figure
22. The ac/dc stage is on the right, while the dc/dc stage is on the
left. The power density of the total system is 45 W/in3 which is 22
percent higher than the previous design.
Figures 23 and 24 is the experimental waveforms of the dc/dc
and ac/dc stages at 600 V dc-link voltage (300 V battery voltage).
The waveforms show ZVS is achieved.
Figure 25 is tested charging mode efficiency of the two stages.
Approximately 96.2 percent peak efficiency is achieved. This
realized efficiency is higher than the previous design by 1 percent
a half-load to 0.5 percent at full-load with 23 percent higher power
Figure 23. Working waveform of DC/DC stage under charging density of 45 W/in3. Each stage achieved higher than 98 percent
mode @300 V battery voltage and full load. Ch1: primary devise efficiency.
VDS, Ch2: secondary side VDS
693
VII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION applications of 600V/650V enhancement-mode GaN devices,”
WiPDA 2015 - 3rd IEEE Work. Wide Bandgap Power Devices
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694
Challenges and Advancements in Fast Charging
Solutions for EVs: A Technological Review
Chengxiu Chen1, Fei Shang2, Mohamad Salameh1, Mahesh Krishnamurthy1
1
Electric Drives and Energy Conversion Lab, Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL, USA
2
Hatco Corporation, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Abstract— The growing demand for battery electric vehicles has compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. The majority
expedited the need for new charging approaches to improve speed of BEVs need 2-6 hours to fully charge the high-power battery,
and reliability of the charging process. DC fast charging has shown which leads to range anxiety of BEVs owners [2].
great potential to meet the requirement. However, it also brings
significant challenges to the current technologies in terms of DC Fast Charging is a potential solution to create a ‘filling a
battery chemistry, charging profile, power electronics converter tank’ experience on BEVs. The Society of Automotive
topologies, and grid impact. This paper explores a technological Engineers (SAE) has proposed DC level 3 charging to charge
roadmap for this fast-developing area and evaluates challenges the battery of BEV to 80% of State of Charge(SOC) within 10
and advancements. A detailed overview of lithium-ion batteries mins (Table I) [3]. Current research targets include a charging
discusses several candidates for DC fast charging along with
thermal management for the battery pack design. The selection of
rate of 3-C or higher, with an increase in battery SOC by at least
charging algorithm is also very important, and several potential 50%.
candidates have been developed, which are compared. Based on Challenges associated with fast charging have been targeted
the study, it is clear that there are several opportunities for
by several manufacturers. Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi
improvements in this area. The modular design of power
converter is essential, and new wide-bandgap materials shall play
partnered together and established the CHAdeMO quick charge
an important role. standard which is fast enough to charge a Nissan LEAF to 80%
SOC in about half an hour [4]. Another standard is Combined
Keywords—EVs; Fast charging; Charging algorithms;
Charging System (CCS) which is based on open and universal
I. INTRODUCTION standards for electric vehicles. The CCS inlet integrated the DC
charging option (up to 200 kW) into their current AC Charging
With emerging trends in transportation electrification, system. The DC charging option expects to reach 300 kW in the
automotive manufacturers have led significant advancements in future [5]. Tesla is also building their own Supercharger
Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). The number of models in Network, which can charge its all-electric vehicles (Model S, 3
BEVs available in the market has considerably increased with a and X) with up to 120 kW [6].
significant improvement in their performance. It is expected that
by 2030, 25% of all vehicles sold will be either fully electric or The ability of a lithium-ion battery to perform fast charging
hybrid [1]. At the same time, several challenges still exist, which depends on various factors, including the acceptability of the
impede the widespread adoption of BEVs. These includes the active materials in lithium-ion batteries, thermal management
relatively long charging time and low range per charge and pack design, charging algorithm [7] and power electronics
converters in the charger.
TABLE I. SAE DC CHARGING RATINGS TERMINOLOGY
This paper analyzes different aspects of a DC Fast Charging
EVSE Includes an off-board charger
system, including the challenges and opportunities in battery,
200-450 V DC, Up to 36 kW(80A) thermal management of pack design, charging profiles and
DC Level 1
Est. Charging Time (20 kW off-board charger)
power electronics devices. This paper first presents a detailed
overview of current battery technologies suitable for the DC fast
1.2 hrs. (SOC: 20% to 80%)
charging. It then evaluates available thermal management
EVSE Includes an off-board charger schemes, which significantly affects the battery pack design.
200-450V DC, up to 90 kW (200A)
Finally, a thorough evaluation of charging algorithms and
DC Level 2 converter topologies for providing high charging current needed
Est. Charging Time (45 kW off-board Charger) for fast charging, and associated charging profiles are discussed.
20 min. (SOC: 20% to 80%)
II. BATTERIES FOR DC FAST CHARGING
EVSE Includes an off-board charger
The lithium-ion battery (LIB is widely used in BEVs, due to
200-600V DC(Proposed) up to 240 kW (400A)
DC Level 3 its high power and energy density, low memory effect, and long
Est. Charging Time battery life. Several types of LIBs have been explicitly
< 10 min. (SOC: 20% to 80%) developed for BEV. These LIBs include a wide variety in terms
of chemistry, cathode and anode materials, geometry shapes of
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 695

TABLE II. CURRENT COMMERCIAL AVAILABLE LITHIUM-ION BATTERY CELLS’
SPECIFICATIONS
Nominal Maximum
Specific
Battery Types Cell Charging Cycle Life
Capacity
Voltage Rate
Lithium Cobalt 145

Oxide 3.8 v 1-C 500
mA/g
(LCO)
Lithium 120
Manganese Oxide 4.1 v 1-C 1000
mA/g
(LMO)
Lithium Nickel
Manganese Cobalt 160
3.7 v 5-C 2000-3000
Oxide mA/g
(NMC)
Lithium Iron 165
Phosphate 3.4 v 8-C >3000
mA/g
(LFP) Fig. 1. Comparison of Different Lithium-ion Batteries
Lithium Nickel
Cobalt Aluminum 200
3.7 v 5-C 2000-3000 MiEV [12] and the Honda Fit [13] have reported using LTO
Oxide mA/g
(NCA) batteries from Toshiba.
Lithium Titanate 210
1.9 v 8-C >5000 NMC and NCA batteries are very similar to each other and
(LTO) mA/g
are very mature technologies. The NMC batteries are being used
by General Motors. Its 2017 Model of Chevrolet Bolt can be
the cell, etc. The design focus of each variation is unique in charged with up to 50 kW DC using SAE J1772 Combo protocol
terms of energy density, power density, and charging and [14]. Tesla Motors has reported using NCA batteries from
discharging rate. Panasonic in its BEV Models. Through the Tesla supercharger,
For DC fast charging, the battery pack needs to be able to the battery can be charged at 120 kW [15].
withstand high charging currents. The high charging currents LFP batteries are used by BYD, who have built a 10
will lead to an increase in the battery temperature and the rate of Gigawatt-hour battery factory to provide LFP batteries for their
side reactions, which can consequently affect the performance, electric buses and passenger EVs. This E-Bus is equipped with
cycle life and safety of the battery. Furthermore, when charging LFP batteries and can be charged at 300 kW [15].
current rises, the possibility of lithium plating increases. When
the lithium formation at the electrode interface exceeds its B. Thermal management system for battery pack
intercalating rate, metallic lithium starts accumulating at the
At the pack level, the battery thermal management system
interface, which would accelerate capacity fading and aging of
plays a vital role in the adoption of DC fast charging. The high
the battery.
charging current would substantially increase the Ohmic heat
generation in the battery pack. Temperature is one of the most
A. Active materials in Lithium-ion Batteries
dominant factors influencing the performance of the battery
At the cell level, the active material of cathode and anode pack and its lifetime, which can also be a crucial factor when it
need to be examined for the suitability for DC fast charging and comes to safety and reliability [16]. If the surface temperature of
the compliance to the other requirements from the powertrain of the battery pack exceeds 50 °C and approaches the temperature
the EV. A list of current commercially available Lithium-ion limits, the battery pack has a high risk of thermal run-away,
battery and their specifications are shown in Table II [8]–[11]. gassing and even explosion [17].
To charge a battery pack for 50% or higher SOC in 10 minutes,
the charging rate should be higher than 3-C. According to Table Many strategies have been developed for thermal
II, except LCO and LMO, all the other types have been tested at management of battery packs. Some solutions are based on
3-C or higher charging rate. NMC, LFP, NCA, LTO Batteries passive cooling systems, which only relies on the ambient
have shown great charging capabilities. To have a more detailed environment. Others use an external source to provide heating
comparison of these 4 types of Lithium-ion batteries, a radar or cooling. In general, the thermal management system can be
chart is presented in Fig. 1. divided into 3 categories [18].
LTO is a strong candidate for DC Fast Charging in terms of 1) Air Cooling: Active air cooling systems can be realized
charging rate, cycle life and specific capacity. However, LTO with simpler designs with the advantages of direct contact with
battery has the lowest nominal cell voltage which results in the cells, relatively lower cost, easier maintenance, less mass and no
lowest energy density among those 4 types of Lithium-ion potential for leaks [17]. However, they provide less effective
batteries. The cost of Titanite material is also higher than other heat transfer and they cannot be easily sealed from the
technologies. Despite of a better charging capability and longer environment. Additionally, due to the small heat capacity of air,
cycle life, the two short slabs LTO results in a low usage in it is difficult to maintain the uniformity of temperature within a
automotive industry. Only the Japanese version of Mitsubishi’s- single cell or between the cells in the battery pack. Furthermore,
696
the cooling control through the air flow rate is limited by the in contact and enclosed, which maximizes the heat transfer out
blower’s power and size. of the cells. This is not possible with indirect liquid cooling,
where the cells are not fully and directly in contact with the heat-
2) Liquid Cooling: Liquid cooling systems can allow higher
removal medium. As explained before, graphite in the phase
heat transfer rates even if the coolant is not in direct contact with
change composite can guarantee uniformity of temperature
cells. Liquid systems offer more effective heat transfer in a
within the pack, which results from its high thermal conductivity
smaller volume, but they typically requires more components
that surpasses the thermal conductivity of air or other fluids. The
and maintenance, which adds to the complexity and cost of the
heat capacity of air and mineral oil used in active fluid cooling
system.
is 3-4 times smaller than the heat capacity of the phase change
When it comes to the choice of the cooling fluid, different composite, which allows the absorption of the heat from the cells,
factors need to be considered. Water and glycol solution can be without increasing the temperature of the PCC coolant
used in the indirect liquid cooling, as they offer ease of handling significantly. The maximum temperature limit can be flexible,
compared to the direct liquid cooling, which uses dielectric by choosing the suitable wax with the desired phase change
mineral oil as a coolant fluid [19]. The cooling fluids used in the temperature to suit different environments of application.
indirect cooling system have much lower viscosity than
dielectric mineral oil for direct liquid cooling. Therefore, III. CHARGING PROFILES AND CHARGER DESGIN
increasing the coolant flow rate may not be as severely restricted
by the pump power as it is in a mineral oil direct cooling system. A. Charging Profiles
Water/glycol has a higher heat capacity, so the change in the Constant Current-Constant Voltage Charging Algorithm
coolant temperature within a system can be greatly reduced by (CC-CV) is the most widely used methods for charging a lithium
using water/glycol as a heat transfer fluid in the system. This battery. With increasing charging current during the CC mode,
means that cell temperature uniformity can be effectively the battery will reach the preset cell voltage threshold more
achieved even in a serial cooling system if the coolant paths are quickly. However, the charge stored in the battery cells is not
properly designed. Water and glycol solutions have better increased as much as the cell voltage due to the charge transfer
thermal conductivity than oil. However, due to the added limitation [21]. Besides, the high charging current in the
thermal resistance between the coolant and cell surfaces in the Constant Current (CC) mode could lead to significant stress on
indirect cooling system, such as jacket wall and air gap, the the thermal management system, accelerate the aging process.
effective heat transfer coefficient at the cell surface is
significantly reduced. A mineral oil direct contact liquid cooling The above mentioned thermal and chemical reaction limits
system has a much higher heat transfer coefficient at the expense of the lithium-ion batteries have drawn much attention in the
of high pressure loss in coolant channel. So, a mineral oil research recently. In [21], an optimized charging procedure has
cooling system can be preferred for limiting the maximum peak been defined as providing a short charging time, good capacity
temperature of a cell and damping out the temperature utilization and high energy efficiency, while maintaining a long
oscillation in certain circumstances such as in highly transient cycle life. Several charging profiles other than CC-CV have
heat generating battery systems. been proposed in literature.
3) Passive Cooling and Phase Change Materials: The 1) Boost charging: The boost charging concept was
Phase Change Composite (PCC) is a patented wax-graphite proposed in [22]. According to the Boost Charging Concept, a
material that has been successfully used as a standalone thermal lithium-ion battery with can be charged at a very high current of
management system for a variety of Li-ion batteries. The a short period of time without introducing any detrimental
material is composed of a phase change component, typically a effects.
wax, and a graphite matrix as host. PCC can be used to encase This concept was validated in [7] with experimental results.
lithium-ion cells. An LFP cell was charged at the 4-C rate for the first charging
When in use, the PCC material in solid phase absorbs the stage until the cell reached the 3.6 v cutoff voltage. In the second
heat generated by the Li-ion cells and undergoes phase change charging stage, the 1-C charging rate was used. A 5-min
into liquid state, thus limiting the temperature rise of the battery. Constant Voltage stage was added in the end to stabilize the
Upon cessation of use, the PCC material can reject the stored capacity. The results showed that the charging technique did not
heat to the environment, return through phase change to ambient seem to introduce any significant accelerated deterioration. Full
temperature, and be ready for use again [20]. If one cell goes charges were achieved within 20 min. After 4500 full
into thermal runaway, PCC absorbs and wicks away heat to charge/discharge cycles, only 17% of capacity was lost. The
prevent a domino effect within the pack. battery’s internal resistance remained steady throughout cycling.
The long-term effects of the boost charging algorithm were
Phase change composite stands out to be a practical, passive, analysis in [23]. The degradation modes that cause aging of
inexpensive thermal management solution. The lightweight, battery cell were quantified using Coupling incremental capacity
absence of moving parts and maintenance free, allows the use of Analysis.
phase change composite as a thermal management solution to
have the edge over the air and liquid active cooling methods. 2) Ohmic-drop compensation (ODC): In standard CC-CV
Moreover, the cells within the PCC based battery pack are fully charging method, when the cell voltage reaches the preset
697
voltage threshold, the charging will converter into CV charring. In [26], an energy loss based method was proposed. The
As a variance of CC-CV charging, the Ohmic-drop method uses experiments data to find the function of the internal
Compensation(ODC) method increases the preset cell voltage resistance of each cell in the different SOC. Then an objective
threshold and takes the ohmic-drop resistance of the battery into function which balances charging time and energy loss is
consideration. The new threshold voltage is given by: established. The multistage charging current curve is designed
with different weight factors for real-time operation.
= + (1) Another approach to determine the multistage current curve
is to use a design-curve based algorithm. This method plots the
Where is the manufacture suggestion threshold voltage, current and anode lithium concentration as a function of time,
is the compensation rate, is the measured internal resistance the intersection of the two curves provides an optimal parameter
of the battery cell and is the charging current[24]. value of charging current to be used for a given initial state of
charge [27]. This method ensures minimization of charge time
The reported maximum charging rate for ODC is 6-C on LFP and the maximization of charge capacity. In a real
cylinder cells[24]. The compensation rate and charging implementation, because the SOC is also a function of anode
current need to be determined offline by experiments for lithium concentration, the optimal point could be found by
different types of lithium-ion battery cell. numerically finding the intersection between the SOC growth
3) Linearly decreasing current charing (LDC): In the LDC, and the applied current vs. time curves.
the charging current is decreased linearly depending on the SOC 5) Pulse-based charging: Pulse Current Charging features
of the battery pack [25]. The battery will be charged at high successive changing in current rate rather than using a constant
current at first; then the charging current will be reduced linearly charging current [28]. The concept of pulse current charging was
as the SOC increasing with charging time. Same as the first to be used in Lead-Acid Batteries. Recently, due to the high
multistage current charging the initial SOC need to be taken into demand for the fast charging speed, adopting the Pulse Current
consideration. Finding the charging current profile requires Charging to Lithium-ions Batteries has drawn a significant
detail parameter of the battery to establish simulation model. amount of intentions in research. The relaxation time between
Also, experiment validation is necessary. two charging pulse gives the batteries enough time to spread out
4) Multistage charging: Multistage current charging the heat generated by the large charging current and stabilize the
electrochemical reaction to prevent lithium from accumulating.
divides the entire charging period into 3 or more charging stages.
However, the effect of Pulse Current Charging on variety of
In each stage, a different current is applied to the cell according
active chemical materials has not be done thoroughly.
to the charging current curve. To find the optimal charging curve,
a detailed battery model is essential for optimization. Such In [29], a theoretical analysis was performed based on the
battery models usually require detailed parameters of the cell as internal mode of Lithium-Ion batteries. It is shown that by
well as the pack. Also, the initial state of charge will affect the proper selection of the current waveform parameters, the
charging curve accordingly. Therefore, a real-time optimization capacity range over which lithium does not saturate at the
needs to be done at the beginning of the charging process. The interface can be extended, thereby significantly enhance the
computation time for the whole optimization needs to be charging rate.
considered.
TABLE III. DIFFERENT CHARGING PROFILES’ IMPLEMTATION REQUIRMENTS
Pulse-based
CC-CV Boost Charging ODC LDC Multistage Charging
Charging
1.Boost current 1.Initial SOC 1.Initial SOC

1.Pulse Frequency
Parameters need 2.Boost duration 1.Compensation rate 2.Initial Charging Current 2.Number of Stage
1.Voltage threshold 2.Current Magnitude
to be Identified 3.CC stage current 2.Voltage threshold 3.Current Decreasing rate 3.Charging current in each stage
3.Duty Ratio
4.Voltage threshold 4.Voltage threshold 4.Voltage threshold in each stage
1.Charging current 1.Initial SOC 1.Charging Current

1.Charging current 1.Charging current 1.Initial SOC
2.Internal resistance 2.Charging current 2.Cell voltage
Parameter need 2.Cell voltage 2.Cell voltage 2.Charging current
3.Cell voltage 3.Cell voltage 3.SOC
to be monitored 3.Charger's terminal 3.Charger's terminal 3.Cell voltage
4.Charger's terminal 4.Charger's terminal 4.Charger's terminal
Voltage voltage 4.Charger's terminal voltage
voltage voltage voltage
Parameter need 1.Number of stage 1.Pulse frequency

1.Initial charging current
to be optimized NA NA NA 2.Current decreasing rate
2.Current Magnitude 2.Magnitude
online 3.Voltage threshold 3.Duty Ratio
Stress level on High

Power Electronics Low Medium Low Medium Medium (Due to the high frequency
Devices current pulse)
698
However, how to determine the optimal charging waveform B. Charger Design: Power Electronics Design Considerations
parameters (e.g., frequency, magnitude and duty ratio of the The Charger DC charging system is mainly power
charging current) will be a question. Limited number of research electronics applications. The requirements from different
have been done in this area. In [30], a Taguchi Orthogonal charging algorithms have brought many challenges into the
Arrays based searching method using the electrochemical power electronics device in the chargers, such as the selection of
impedance of the battery cell is proposed for finding optimal power topologies, power device application, etc. The design
pulse charging parameters. In [31], a variable frequency and focus on power electronics device would vary for each charging
variable duty ratio pulse-based charging method have been algorithm. Although, numerous topologies have been proposed
proposed. A searching-based method is used to find the optimal for DC fast charging, the impacts on power electronics devices
frequency and duty ratio for pulse charging current. The from adopting different charging algorithm has not been studied
magnitude of charging current is determined by the polarization thoroughly
boundary of the battery at different SOC Level. The battery state
parameters could be changing during the charging process. To 1) Power Electronics Design Considerations
make sure the charging process is always in optimal charging Despite the impacts brought by different charging
current waveform, the optimal frequency and the magnitude of algorithms, some common facts need to be considerate when
charging current would be updated every 5% of SOC increase, designing power electronics devices for DC fast charging.
while the optimal duty ratio would be updated 2% of SOC
increase. The proposed pulse-based charging method claim to a) Removal of Line Frequency(LF) transformer: An LF
reduce the charging time, but it only compared the proposed transformer is commonly used for stepping down the voltage
pulse-based charging method with a CC-CV method at 2-C from medium voltage level(11kV [32] or 4.8 kV [33]) to 480V
charging rate. Furthermore, the proposed pulse-based charging system. The step-down LF transformer is usually very bulky,
method was also compared to a non-optimal fix pulse charging results in a lower total power density. Moreover, High power
current method. The non-optimal fixed charging current demand during the charging results in high input current at 480V
performance was worse than CC-CV charging method at 2-C voltage level, which will cause a high conduction loss. Therefore,
charging rate. Therefore, in order to exploit benefits of the pulse- the efficiency will be compromised, and the thermal stress will
based charging current method, an optimal charging current be increased.
waveform must be ensured. Otherwise, the effort to adopt the b) Modular design: The high-power demand also makes a
pulse-based charging current method could be impractical. single converter not be able to meet the power requirement. The
Implementation requirements of the mentioned charging modular design of power converter can significantly benefit the
methods is summarized in Table III. From the table the pulse- design consideration of the power converter [34]. It brings down
based charging method requires 4 parameters to be monitored, the power requirements of each module to reduce the design
and 3 parameters to be optimized online to achieve the best complexity of the power converter. Moreover, it achieves a
performance. As a result, the computational stress on the better power flow control of each module to make sure all the
controller is the highest. Moreover, the high frequency charging modules are running in the optimized efficiency range. However,
current pulse will have high stress on power electronics device a sophisticated control algorithm is inevitable for this power
in the charger. Therefore, the implementation of pulse-based architecture.
charging algorithm could be complicated in the real world. The c) Soft-switching: Soft switching capability of converter
multistage charging and the LDC also need online optimization, topologies can significantly reduce the power loss of the
since the optimal charging profile depends on the initial SOC of converters. However, it should be noted that soft switching only
the battery. The computation stress on these two methods needs achieves in the specific power range of the power converter
to be considerate when designing the controller. The ODC, topologies [35]. In order to maintain the optimal operating of
along with boost charging and standard CC-CV method would these converters, it is better to limit the power range of these
not require any online optimization. Therefore, the computation converters. Thus, the abovementioned modular power converter
stress on these three methods is the smallest. As for the stress design shall be able to achieve this target.
level on power electronics devices, the boost charging, the
multistage charging, the LDC would have massive changes in d) Adopting wide bandgap devices: The high voltage and
charging current at different charging stages. This will lead to current requirement of DC fast charging also bring high stresses
power changes at different charging stages. Therefore, the to the power electronics devices in the power converters. The
power converter in the charger needs to be designed with wide high-efficiency requirement demands the power converter to
load range. reduce the power loss while the high-power density goal drives
towards smaller heatsink. All these challenging requirements are
Regarding the performance and aging impact on battery of pushing the power devices to go beyond the limitation of Si. For
the charging algorithms, the tests results reported in different example, the increasing voltage level up to 600V stops the
literature using different testing procedures. Some of the application of Si MOSFET because of their low voltage rating
charging methods are only tested with one specific type of property. Si IGBT has a high current capability and high voltage
Lithium-ion battery, which make it difficult to draw a fair rating, however, it is also not a target device because of it low
comparison between charging algorithms. switching speed and high switching loss. The new wide-
699
bandgap devices, such as SiC and GaN, are good fits for this The stress brought by high-power demand and aggressive
application [35]–[37]. These new devices can meet increasing charging profiles requires power electronics applications
voltage level requirement. The low power loss, high- research in several different directions. Firstly, a single
temperature durability, and smaller package make them converter is not able to meet the power requirement. Cascaded
extremely suitable for this application. and paralleled application is evitable for power topologies. The
modular design of power converters with the capability of
2) Impacts of Aggressive Charging Profiles cascading and paralleling may emerge and develop quickly. This
In Section III. A, five different charging algorithms other trend also requires the more complex and dedicated algorithms
than standard CC-CV methods were introduced and compared. to balance different topologies and avoid energy circulation
Each of them features different current waveforms during between the topologies. Secondly, in power device aspect, the
charging which will have different impacts on the power new material will play a significantly important role in this
electronics devices. Therefore, some adjustments need to be application. Both academia and industries have been placing a
made according to different charging profiles. considerable effort to make the wide-bandgap devices more
Regarding ODC method, the only difference between ODC reliable and less costly compared with their Si counterparts. The
and CC-CV method is the threshold voltage. It is the most power electronics application in DC fast charging will
similar one compare to standard CC-CV charging. significantly benefit from these devices.
The Boost Charging, LDC, Multistage Charging are the IV. CONCLUSION
variances of standard CC-CV methods. In above three charging
Preparing for the rapidly growing DC fast charging system,
algorithms, the CC stage is divided into two or more stage to
NCM, NCA, and LFP are the types of Lithium-ion battery are
accommodate the massive charging current stress. The primary
seen as strong candidates and are favored by several
concern of these charging algorithm is the load range. As
manufactories. In terms of the onboard thermal management
mentioned in last subsection, the soft-switching can only be
system, the PCC has high thermal conductivity and heat capacity
ensured in the specific power range. In Boost Charging, only
as well as lightweight. A maintenance-free, passive cooled
two preset charging currents value are used. Therefore, the
system utilizing advantages of PCC could be the most promising
control algorithm can be designed according to the preset power
solution. As the charging current increases, more precise control
range. Although it may add complexity to the control side, the
must be applied to charging current to avoid catastrophic failure
soft-switching is still achievable. For example, in [35] a phase
and reduce the impact on cycle life. Pulse current based charging
shift controlled, dual active bridge ac/dc converter is proposed
profile have high complexity regarding control. Moreover, the
for DC fast charging application. Three sets of control
stress from pulse current could make it very difficult to design a
algorithms are used for different load conditions to guarantee the
suitable power converter. The effectiveness and the long-term
soft-switching.
aging impact of pulse current charging need to be studied in the
However, for multistage charging and LDC, the charging future. In the power electronics converter design, modular
current waveform is decided by the online optimization. The design and wide-bandgap devices will play essential roles.
power requirements for these two charging algorithms can vary However, both will also add complexity to the control algorithm
dramatically. It is impossible for them to stay in the power range for power converters.
that soft-switching can be achieved. Therefore, the modular
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701
Impact of Temperature Variation on Fuel Economy
of Electric Vehicles and Energy Saving by using
Compensation Control
Silong Li, Di Han, Bulent Sarlioglu
silong.li@wisc.edu, dhan24@wisc.edu, sarlioglu@wisc.edu
Abstract—For electric vehicle (EV), the performance of widely improvement by using temperaure effects compensation
used interior permanent magnet (IPM) machines is influenced control algorithm will also be demonstrated.
by temperature variation, and the influence could be profound.
During temperature variation, torque accuracy as well as the II. PROPOSED COMPENSATION CONTROL
efficiency of IPM machine degrade without compensation ALGORITHM
control, which will further lead to higher energy consumption
and worse fuel economy of the EV. In this paper, the impact of To maintain the torque accuracy of IPM machine under
temperature variation on the energy consumption and fuel temperature variation, a temperature effects compensation
economy of a baseline IPM machine designed for EV application control algorithm is proposed and implemented in this paper,
will be analyzed. Additionally, energy saving and fuel economy as shown in Fig. 1. It utilizes offline tested look-up tables
improvement of a proposed compensation control algorithm are
shown. (LUTs) of different machine operating temperatures and
nonlinear interpolation technique to generate the current
Keywords—electric vehicle, hybrid electric vehicle, interior commands for arbitrary temperature. There are mainly five
permanent magnet machine, temperature variation, fuel economy,
driving cycle.
function parts.
In Part I, the maximum allowable torque T*e_max for the
IPM motor is generated by the temperature, the maximum
I. INTRODUCTION available flux, and a stored 2D LUT. The torque command is
Modern high-performance IPM machine drives are in limited by the maximum allowable torque. This function
high demand for electric vehicles (EVs) applications. One of prevents the machine controller from generating infeasible
the most important performance requirements for IPM torque command, which exceeds the torque production
machine control is accurate and efficient torque production capability at any given temperature, speed, and DC-bus
over a wide range of environmental conditions. A major voltage limitation.
source which will impact the torque production accuracy is In Part II, the d-axis and q-axis current references are
the variation of temperature. In addition, the temperature generated by the torque command, the maximum available
variation will also influence the maximum torque per ampere flux value, and stored 2D LUTs. 2D LUTs for several
(MTPA) trajectory of the IPM machine. As a consequence, if different temperatures are stored (number of LUTs depends
the temperature effect is not compensated properly, both the on the accuracy requirement and storage space). For example,
torque accuracy and the efficiency of the IPM machine will LUTs for 20 °C, 80 °C and 170 °C can be stored. Only the
be greatly reduced [1]–[3]. look-up tables for adjacent temperatures (one temperature
There are different compensation control algorithms for high and one temperature lower than the actual temperature)
temperature variation in the literature, as concluded in [4], will be used for generating current references. For example, if
[5]. These previous works provide discussions on the
the actual temperature is 130 °C, two sets of current
methodologies to improve torque accuracy [6]–[12], and to
references will be generated for 80 °C and 170 °C and send to
maintain MTPA operation [13]–[20]. However, the influence
Part V.
of temperature variation on energy consumption, and fuel
economy at vehicle level has not been studied in the In Part III, the flux limitation is calculated using the speed
literature. There is also a lack of understanding on the of the motor and the DC-bus voltage. In Part IV, the
benefits of temperature compensation control on energy command voltage is compared with the voltage limitation, so
saving and fuel economy improvement. the robustness of the control is improved for possible
The goal of this paper is to investigate the impact of problems such as variation of machine parameters due to
temperature variation on the energy consumption and fuel manufacturing tolerance, and other uncertainties in the real
economy of traction IPM machine and electric vehicle. application. In Part V, interpolation is used to generate the d-
Additionally, the energy saving and fuel economy axis and q-axis current references for the actual operating
temperature based on the two set of current references from
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 702

Part I Part II Part V
*
i
Te*
Te*_ max Te*_m iq* iq
* q1
τ
λmax
Te* λmax
iq*2
T* *
idq
Thermal
τ 2D LUT
2D LUT Te*_ me _ m Interpolation
of Current
+
Current
Regulator
6
Inverter &
Motor
*
Model id* i Reference -
idq
id* d1
PWM
λmax
Te*_ max λmax id* 2 θe Feedback
τ T *
Phase Current
Te*_ m
e_m
2D LUT
2D LUT Measurement
LUTs for Several Temp.

2D LUT λ max θe = P / 2 ⋅θr
*2 *2
Part IV v +v
d q Speed & Position
Est/Meas. • DC Link Voltage
λmax - + Vdc • Phase Current
DC Link
PI ÷ 1/ 3 Voltage Meas. • Position
• Coolant Temp.
Vmax = Vdc / 3
Part III ÷
ωr
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the proposed compensation control algorithm.
Part II. By utilizing the proposed compensation control

algorithm, both torque accuracy and MTPA operation can be
maintained. The energy saving and fuel economy
improvement under different operating conditions will be
evaluated using this control algorithm.
III. ENERGY IMPACT INVESTIGATION UNDER
DRIVING CYCLE ANALYSIS
In order to show the impact of temperature variation on
energy consumption and fuel economy of EV, and benefits of
using compensation control, driving cycle analysis of a
Fig. 2. Four different standard US driving cycles: US06, UDDS, HWFET,
baseline traction IPM machine and EV are presented in this NYCC.
section with and without the torque compensation. Four
different driving cycles are simulated and compared: Urban A. Vehicle Dynamics Model
Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS), high acceleration
aggressive driving schedule (US06), Highway Fuel Economy The basic principles of vehicle tractive effort are
Driving Schedule (HWFET), and New York city stop-and-go summarized in several published literature [21]–[23], and will
driving cycle (NYCC). These four different standard US be roughly introduced here. Fig. 3 shows the force
driving cycles are shown in Fig. 2. UDDS represents a typical components acting on a vehicle driving up a hill. The slope
city drive cycle in which a light-duty vehicle moves at low angle is ϕ, and the total mass of the vehicle is m. The total
speeds in urban traffic with frequent stops and starts, resulting force or the total tractive effort on the vehicle can be
in a considerable amount of regenerative braking power due represented by (1). Each of the force components shown in
to many decelerations. In contrast, the HWFET schedule has (1) can be calculated using (2) to (5).
few decelerations that provide low regenerative braking F = Fla + Frr + Fhc + Fad , (1)
power. The US06 schedule includes hard accelerations and where F is the total tractive effort on the vehicle, Fla is the
decelerations as well as high-speed cruising during the cycle. force due to acceleration, Frr is the force due to tire rolling
NYCC represents a drive cycle which has more stops and resistance, Fhc is the force due to hill climbing, and Fad is the
starts. force due to aerodynamic drag (or air friction).
dv , (2)
Fla = ma = m
dt
703
where m is the vehicle mass (kg), a is the vehicle acceleration machine torque and speed is done by considering the wheel
(m/s2), v is the vehicle speed (m/s), and t is the time (s). dimensions and drivetrain gear ratio. The baseline EV
Frr = μ rr mg ⋅ cos ϕ , (3) configuration used for driving cycles analysis is shown in
Table I [24]. Using the vehicle dynamics equations and the
where μrr is the coefficient of rolling resistance baseline EV configurations, the speed and torque of the
(dimensionless), g is the gravitational acceleration (m/s2), and baseline IPM machine under different driving cycles are
ϕ is the hill slope angle (degree). calculated, as shown in Fig. 4.
Fhc = mg ⋅ sin ϕ , (4) TABLE I: THE BASELINE EV CONFIGURATION [24]
Configuration Value
1
Fad = ρ AC d v 2 , (5)
Speed ratio (motor shaft to 3.17:1
2
wheel) [25]
where ρ is the air density (kg/m3), A is the car frontal area
Tire P185/55R15 Bridgestone
(m2), and Cd is the aerodynamic drag coefficient low rolling resistance all-
(dimensionless). season Blackwall
Tire circumference [mm] 1836.26
Tire rolling resistance coefficient 0.007
(RRC) (estimated) [26]
Gravitational acceleration [m/s2] 9.8
Vehicle mass [kg] [25] 1345.81
0-60 mph acceleration time [s] 7.6
Fig. 3. Forces acting on a vehicle when it drives up a hill. [25]
The total tractive power on the vehicle is, Dragging coefficient [27] 0.326
P = F ⋅v . (6) Car frontal area [m2] 2.1784
(estimated)
In the driving cycle analysis, the calculation of the IPM
Drivetrain efficiency (estimated) 95%
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 4: Distribution of torque/speed operating points overlaid with the efficiency maps at 80 °C for the baseline traction IPM machine for four driving
cycles (a) US06, (b) UDDS, (c) HWFET, (d) NYCC
704
(a) (b)
Fig. 5: Comparison of (a) average motor copper loss [Wh/mile], (b) average motor core loss [Wh/mile] under different temperatures and driving cycles
with and without the compensation control algorithm.
driving cycle with compensation is 2.42 Wh/mile, and the

B. Losses and Efficiency Comparison
core loss under 20 °C and UDDS driving cycle with
The baseline IPM machine and vehicle model were compensation is 3.08 Wh/mile. The core loss under 80 °C is
simulated under different temperatures and driving cycles 16.8% higher than the 170 °C case and is 5.84% lower than
with and without compensation control. The nominal the 20 °C case. Similarly, for the HWFET driving cycle, the
temperature of the machine is assumed to be 80 °C. In order
core losses under 80 °C (3.66 Wh/mile) is 18.8 % higher than
to have a fair comparison of the losses and efficiency, the
the 170 °C case (2.97 Wh/mile) and is 6.3% lower than the 20
torque commands of non-compensated cases have been
°C case (3.89 Wh/mile).
modified (emulating manually controlling the gas pedal
during operation to maintain the accurate torque) when the Even though the proposed compensation control does not
vehicle is operating at high or low temperatures. In such a aim at reducing core loss, the reduction of current for a given
manner, the actual torque for both compensated and non- torque condition also leads to core loss reduction as a side
compensated controls are the same. benefit. As can be seen from Fig. 5(b), the core loss with
Fig. 5 shows the comparison of average motor copper loss compensation control are slightly lower compared to without
and core loss in [Wh/mile] under different temperatures and compensation control. For example, the core loss under 170
driving cycles with and without compensation control. In °C and NYCC with compensation are 2.14 Wh/mile, which is
general, the copper loss under high temperature is higher 2.8% lower compared to without compensation (2.20
compared to low temperature for any investigated driving Wh/mile). Similarly, the core loss under 20 °C and US06
cycles. For example, the copper loss under 80 °C and NYCC with compensation is 4.57 Wh/mile, which is 2.41 % lower
driving cycle is 41.4 Wh/mile, the copper loss under 170 °C compared to without compensation (4.68 Wh/mile).
and NYCC driving cycle with compensation is 59.5 Wh/mile, The comparison of average motor total loss in [Wh/mile]
and the copper loss under 20 °C and NYCC driving cycle and average motor efficiency [%] under different
with compensation is 32.5 Wh/mile. The copper loss under 80 temperatures and driving cycles with and without the
°C is 43.7% lower than the 170 °C case and is 21.5% higher compensation control algorithm are shown in Fig. 6. The
than the 20 °C case. Similarly, for the HWFET driving cycle, average motor total loss has a similar trend of variation
the copper loss under 80 °C (2.27 Wh/mile) is 50.7 % lower compared to the average motor copper loss since the copper
than the 170 °C case (3.42 Wh/mile) and is 22.5% higher than loss is the dominant loss component in the baseline IPM
the 20 °C case (1.76 Wh/mile). machine. In general, the average motor total loss in the IPM
Also can be seen from Fig. 5(a), the copper loss with machine increases with increasing temperature for all the four
compensation control is slightly lower compared to without different driving cycles. For example, the total loss under 80
compensation. For example, the copper loss under 170 °C °C and UDDS driving cycle is 17 Wh/mile, the total loss of
and US06 with compensation is 6.6% lower compared to the 170 °C and UDDS driving cycle with compensation is 22.9
copper loss without compensation (21.0 Wh/mile). Similarly, Wh/mile, and the total loss of 20 °C and UDDS driving cycle
the copper loss under 20 °C and UDDS with compensation is with compensation is 14.1 Wh/mile. The average total loss
11.0 Wh/mile, which is 2.7 % lower compared to the copper under 80 °C is 34.7 % lower than the 170 °C case and is 17.1
loss without compensation (11.3 Wh/mile). % higher than the 20 °C case. By using the compensation
The core loss under high temperature is lower compared to control algorithm, the average motor total loss is reduced.
low temperature for these investigated driving cycles. For The highest average motor total loss reduction is 5.08 %,
example, the core loss under 80 °C and UDDS driving cycle which happens under 170 °C and the US06 driving cycle. In
is 2.91 Wh/mile, the core loss under 170 °C and UDDS the majority of the cases, the saving on the average motor
705
98
96
Average Motor Efficiency[%]

94
92
90
88
86
84
(b) US06 UDDS HWFET NYCC
(a)
Fig. 6: Comparison of (a) average motor total losses [Wh/mile], (b)average motor efficiency under different temperatures and driving cycles with and
without the compensation control algorithm.
total loss are greater than 2%. In general, reduction of motor ηdt = 95%, and the regenerative braking efficiency is assumed
total loss is more obvious in stop and go type driving cycles. to be ηrg = 25%.
Due to the reduction of motor total loss, the efficiency of The total required energy from the battery during one
the IPM machine is slightly improved. The saving on the driving cycle can be calculated by the summation of the
average motor efficiency range between 0.23% to 0.49%, as motoring and the regenerated braking energy of each time
shown in Fig. 6(b). interval as shown below,
t final  
 1 1 
C. Estimated Fuel Economy Comparison
The losses and efficiency of the baseline IPM machine
Etot =   Pm _ i
i =1  
(
 + Pg _ iη dt _ iη m _ iη rg _ i Δti
η dt _ i η m _ i  
)
 , (7)
under different temperatures and driving cycles have been
compared with and without the compensation control. where Etot is the total required energy from battery, Pm_i is the
However, on the vehicle level, the total energy consumption mechanical motoring power delivered to the wheels in the i-th
and fuel economy during operating are more important for the interval, Pg_i is the mechanical braking power extracted from
users. In this section, the total energy consumption and the wheels, ηdt_i is the drivetrain efficiency, ηm_i is the motor
estimated fuel economy of the baseline EV under different efficiency, ηrg_i is the fraction of the total mechanical braking
temperatures and driving cycles are compared with and energy that is recovered from the wheels for electrical
without the compensation control. regeneration, and Δti is the length of the i-th time interval.
During motoring operation, the power delivered by the Since the operating distance of different driving cycles is
motor is equal to the total tractive power to move the vehicle. different, the average energy consumption per mile is used to
In comparison, during deceleration, if regenerative braking is compare different driving cycles and temperatures. Fig. 7(a)
effective, a portion of the braking energy can be recovered by shows the comparison of average energy used by the vehicle
the motor (as a generator). The recovered braking energy will in [Wh/mile] under different temperatures and driving cycles.
be feedback to the battery pack for charging. In the As can be seen in the figure, higher temperature operation
calculation of the total energy consumption, the drivetrain typically requires more energy. In addition, energy
efficiency and regenerative braking efficiency are assumed to consumption can be reduced by using compensation control
be constant for simplicity. Additionally, it is assumed that the algorithm. The maximum energy saving is 0.94%, during the
battery is lossless. The drivetrain efficiency is assumed to be high temperature operation of the US06 driving cycle. From
the results, it also can be seen that either the aggressive or
260
Average Energy Use Converted to [MPGe]
280
260
Average Energy Used [Wh/miles]
240
240 220
220
200
200
180
180
160
160
140 140
120 120
US06 UDDS HWFET NYCC US06 UDDS HWFET NYCC
(a) (b)
Fig. 7: Comparison of (a) average energy used by the vehicle [Wh/mile], (b) average energy use converted to [MPGe] under different temperatures and
driving cycles with and without the compensation control algorithm.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
ampere (MTPA) control of an IPM machine based on signal injection
This research is partly funded using the gift fund provided considering inductance saturation,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol.
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707
Experimental Validation of Energy Management
Strategy in Hybrid Energy Storage System for
Electric Vehicle
Maciej Wieczoreka, Mirosław Lewandowskia, Krzysztof Starońskib, Mikołaj Pierzchałaa
a
Warsaw University of Technology, Power Engineering Institute, Electric Traction Division, Koszykowa 75,Warsaw, Poland.
b
Electrotechnical Institute, M. Pożaryskiego 28, Warsaw, Poland.
E-mail address: maciej.wieczorek@ee.pw.edu.pl
Abstract - Within the scope of the paper, an energy management allows for a longer battery life. Increasing the durability of
strategy (EMS) for a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) is energy storage allows for decreasing operational costs of an
described and validated. The HESS is composed of a lithium EV. The performance of a HESS is dependent on the energy
battery pack and a supercapacitor pack. Major objectives for
management strategy (EMS) utilized. Designing a strategy for
the designed EMS to achieve are the reduction of battery pack
a specific application is a laborious process and can raise the
current rates and extending its lifetime. The operation of the
HESS with the described EMS has been validated by means of
price of a HESS. There are number of publications
simulation and experimental results in a laboratory model. The concerning the EMS [10]–[21]. Generally, they can be
battery aging model has been developed to estimate its lifetime divided into rule-based strategies and optimization strategies.
under power demand for both the HESS and a battery-only The rule-based ones are simpler in mathematical description
system. The results show a significant reduction of current rates and easier to implement than optimization strategies.
of the battery cells, which allows for improving battery However, rule-based strategies are characterized by worse
durability. properties when the parameters of driving cycle, vehicle, or
road profile are changing, since they are designed for specific
I. INTRODUCTION
values of those parameters. To solve that problem, a number
A battery pack is one of the most expensive components of
of real-time optimization strategies have been proposed in
the electric vehicle (EV) drive system, as well as has a
scientific publications. Most often used method in those
decisive impact on its price [1]. Although the specific energy
strategies is model predictive control [10], [14], [21]–[25].
of lithium batteries is sufficient to ensure EV range of up to
Other strategies also utilize reinforcement learning [26],
400 km on one charge, the price of lithium cells is still high.
dynamic programming [27], [28], fuzzy logic [29], [30] or
Moreover, the durability of the cells is limited. High load
genetic algorithm [15], [31]. The optimization strategies use
current, variable temperature, and a high depth of discharge
complex descriptions on EMS and are more difficult to
all accelerate the aging process of the battery [2]–[6]. In real-
implement in real-world than rule-based strategies. They also
life operation on board of an EV, batteries are subjected to
rely on the accuracy of the models of the energy storage
higher current and temperature loads than in the case of rated
system used in the optimization process. Such applications
conditions. Even though an EV has a notably less negative
would require real-time parameters detection to update those
environmental impact during its operation, its production
models.
process results in a significantly higher energy consumption
In this paper, simulation and experimental validation of
and greenhouse gas emissions than in the case of an internal
gamma-based strategy (GBS) developed by the authors, is
combustion engine based vehicle [7]–[9]. The battery pack
presented. Calculation results for the strategy have been
production process is mainly responsible for this. Therefore,
presented in [15]. The GBS aims to be a compromise between
to reduce the negative impact of the production process on the
the simplicity of the rule-based strategy and the resistance to
environment, EVs should be used for as long as possible.
parameters changes obtained by real-time optimized
Battery life is the key here. The solution to the problem of
strategies.
lithium battery durability is connecting them with
supercapacitors in a hybrid energy storage system (HESS). II. HESS CONFIGURATION AND ENERGY
A supercapacitor has a remarkably higher specific power than MANAGEMENT
a battery and can perform up to 1 million charge and The study has been performed for typical urban vehicle
discharge cycles. In a HESS, it is used to support the battery parameters (Table 1). Supercapacitors and batteries have been
at high power demand, thus reducing battery current. This
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 708

Fig. 1. Vehicle drivetrain powered by HESS.
connected to one DC bus using DC/DC half-bridge Pbatt = γ ⋅ Pload

converters. They allow for a smooth regulation of the current (2)
of the utilized devices and the design of the EMS. The PSC = (1 − γ ) ⋅ Pload
diagram of the vehicle's propulsion system is shown
The operation of GBS for the general case of acceleration,
in Fig. 1b.
TABLE 1 cruising and regenerative braking has been presented
VEHICLE AND AMBIENT PARAMETERS in Fig. 2.
Parameter Value
Mass [kg] 1360
Drag coefficient [-] 0.28
Frontal area [ m2] 2.2
Rolling resistance coefficient [-] 0.02
Power train efficiency [-] 0.8
Air density [ kg/m3] 1.225
The major objective of the discussed strategy is to limit the

current rate of the battery and prolong its lifetime, so it is
important to avoid the situation when the supercapacitor is
fully discharged during acceleration and battery is forced to
provide maximum power. Therefore, the utilized strategy
should enable charging the supercapacitor by using the
battery when the power demand is low and during
regenerative braking to provide full power for the upcoming
acceleration. The mathematical representation of the power of
the supercapacitor and battery pack used in GBS allow for
that by establishing only 4 parameters - A, B, C and D. In this
method, the power of a battery in HESS is described by
functions γ given in (1).
 p0 B 
γ = 2 ⋅ A /  +  for p0 ≥ 0
 B p0 
(1)
p D
γ = 2 ⋅ C / 0 +  for p0 < 0
 D p0 
Where p0 denotes power demand related to maximum vehicle
power. Values of function coefficients are as follows: A=1.1,
B=0.05, C=0.25, D=0.5. The power of battery Pbatt and Fig. 2. Operation of GBS for general case. Figure a) presents the γ
supercapacitor PSC in HESS has been calculated from (2) function and figure b) - the battery power corresponding to the function
using load power Pload. Important, favorable features of GBS have been described in the figure.
709
Fig. 3. Experimental setup a) picture and b) detection diagram.
III. EXPERIMENTAL MODEL The developed energy management strategy has been
executed by means of using the Texas Instruments
To obtain the power of each device in the HESS, the
microcontroller F28335 (Fig. 3b). The voltage measurements
simulation model and scaled laboratory model have been
and current measurements from hall sensors are sent both to
used. Parameters of both models and scale are presented in
microcontroller and the National Instruments acquisition card.
Table 2. The detection diagram of the built system is
presented in Fig. 3b. To obtain reference load current
TABLE 2
corresponding to the load current of simulated vehicle, a SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL MODEL PARAMETERS.
programmable load has been built. The reference load current Simulation Experimental
Parameter ratio
iDC_ref plot has been programmed in Simulink. The PC sends model setup
information about the iDC_ref to Arduino microcontroller in Maximum power [kW] 100 1.2 83.3
real time with simulation using the Simulink Coder tool. Maximum power in NEDC [W] 40000 480 83.3
Arduino creates digital outputs with information about
DC link voltage [V] 400 60 6.7
reference current for the Texas Instruments microcontroller
which controls the current of the battery. Load power in Maximum current (NEDC) [A] 100 8 12.5
laboratory stand has been generated using a battery pack Supercap. stored energy [Wh] 375 4.5 83.3
connected to the DC bus via a half-bridge converter (Fig. 3).
Supercap. capacity [F] 16.9 9 1.9
The converter is the same as the DC/DC converters used to
connect the HESS to the DC bus. All of the converters are Battery stored energy [Wh] 42666.7 512 83.3
using IGBT transistors.
710
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION supercapacitor from battery for a fixed range of power
demand p0 (in Fig. 2a it is the range for which the γ is higher
Experimental results relating to HESS currents, voltages
than one). Therefore, in some cases, during long cruising, the
and powers, conducted for a single cycle of acceleration,
supercapcitor may get fully discharged. The solution to that
cruising with a constant speed and breaking shown in Fig. 4
problem could be limiting the supercapacitor SOC dependent
confirm simulations results. The EMS and control algorithm
on vehicle speed or adjusting the parameters of EMS in real
allows for the supercapacitor charging at the beginning of
time, as it was proposed in [15].
acceleration and for controlling the supercapacitor recharging
The EMS is also designed to charge up the supercapacitor
from battery during regenerative braking. The DC link
from the battery during regenerative breaking. However, this
voltage is stable during the cycle (Fig. 4b). However, keeping
increases supercapacitor current and hence - energy losses are
voltage on a higher level when the reference load current is
greater while comparing them to charging the supercapacitor
equal to zero causes additional energy losses. Therefore, it
on standstill, but it also reduces the risk of fully discharging
should be considered to raise DC link voltage only when the
the supercapacitor when the acceleration comes directly after
load power is nonzero. Other way is to resign from one of the
breaking.
DC/DC converters and connect battery directly to the DC
Results for power and battery currents are presented for the
link. Nevertheless, said configuration may influence the
ECE-15 cycle. To determine the impact of driving dynamics
power control precision due to changes in DC link voltage.
on battery wear, the test has also been performed for cycles of
The proposed EMS is designed to charge up the
1.5 and 2 times greater speed than the one of the rated cycle.
Battery and supercapacitor pack powers are presented in
Fig. 5. The calculations and experimental results are
presented respectively in Fig. 5a and 5b. It can be seen that
the peak power of the battery in the HESS is significantly
Fig. 4. Parameters of HESS during single cycle of acceleration, cruising Fig. 5. Power of devices in HESS - a) simulation and b) experimental
with constant speed and deceleration, a) - currents, b) - voltages and c) - results
power.
711
Fig. 6. Current of single cell in experimental model.
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713
Cable Modeling for Accurate Estimation of Current
and Voltage Ripple in Electric Vehicles
Andreas Henriksson John Simonsson Urban Lundgren, Peter Ankarson
Chalmers University of Technology Volvo Cars AB RISE AB
andreas.henriksson@chalmers.se john.simonsson@simtech.se urban.lundgren@ri.se
peter.ankarson@ri.se
Abstract- An electric vehicle is a complex system where multiple the AC-side coupling [16, 17] and the DC-side CM-coupling
converters are connected to a common DC-bus. In order to in the inverter [18-20] has been analyzed in detail but without
determine the current and voltage harmonics on the DC-bus, all
ingoing components and subsystems needs to be modeled on a focus on current and voltage ripple on the DC-bus. It has
detailed level. In this paper, the focus lies on cable modeling previously been concluded that the majority of the CM current
where a high frequency cable model is incorporated in a drive will flow in the cable shields [21] and that the y-capacitors in
system model. The resulting current and voltage ripple in the the system will play an important role [22, 23] for the overall
system is then compared to measurements in an experimental CM-behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to account for all
setup. Due to the improved cable model and an extensive system
parameter identification procedure, the usage of the system subsystem CM-couplings in a detailed system model.
model was found valid for harmonic frequencies up to 1 MHz. The effect of cables on the AC-side in an electric vehicle
The main harmonic component at 20 kHz was simulated with drive system has been analyzed in [24] and the common mode
~1.7 % accuracy and the components in the range 35 kHz to noise has been analyzed in [19, 25]. For the cable design in
200 kHz with <6 % accuracy compared to measurements. electric vehicles, the concept of multi conductor transmission
line models has been explained in [26]. The traction inverter as
INTRODUCTION
a disturbance source has been analyzed [27, 28] and impedance
As the electrification of the automotive industry continues, based component models have been implemented [29, 30] but
more detailed analyses of the vehicle at a system level must be without proper experimental verification on system level.
performed to optimize each subsystem. In order to accomplish In this paper, all aspects are brought together and a cable
this, it is necessary to use accurate models of each subsystem model based on measurements and simulations is implemented
which when connected together form a validated system model in a system simulation model. The model is then verified in an
with known limitations. In a typical hybrid vehicle, several experimental setup based on an actual electric vehicle which
devices such as a DC/DC converter, battery charger, main ensures its validity over a large operating area.
traction inverter and a generator/starter are connected to a SYSTEM MODELING
common high voltage DC-bus. The vehicle powertrain can
create high amounts of voltage and current harmonics within The analyzed system consists of a battery, an inverter and a
the system that must be taken into account in a detailed system permanent magnet traction motor with associated cabling both
model. In previous work, the DC-link voltage and current on the AC- and on the DC-side, see Fig. 1 for implementation
ripple in the drive system has been calculated analytically but in Ansys Simplorer. In order to be able to simulate current and
several simplifications (e.g. disregarding the AC-side current voltage harmonics with a very high level of accuracy, the
ripple) have been made [1, 2]. The DC-link current and voltage impedance and behavior of each subsytem needs to be
ripple has also been measured and analyzed in more complete characterized thorughly. Therefore, the most important
systems but without connection to a detailed simulation model subsystems of the drive system model are described in more
[3, 4]. For more advanced systems with respect to impedance detail in the following sections.
analysis [5] and parameter identification [6, 7], measurements
MATLAB Simulink
in a real vehicle have been lacking.
Control System
Many aspects of how the DC-link voltage and current ripple Compiled C-code
is affected by the switching pattern have been analyzed; e.g.
classic swtiching strategies [8-11], loss reduction purposes
[12] and optimized switching strategies [13-15]. For the
HVpos_In HVpos_Out
DC Cable
4mm2 State Machine that controls thetime step. The purposeis Generation of synchronization signal at eachvalleyof thetriangle
Wm
to obtain a detailedsimulation oncesteady stateis reached carrier wavedetermined by the switching frequency(Fsw).
SubSheet 9 S& H
SET: Hmin:=1000n SET: Hmin:= 20n Used for synchronizationof the SVM3, 4, 5 gatepulses.
rpm_r amp_ERAD SET: Hmax:= 100u SET: Hmax:= 20u
SYMPcm. n*2*pi/60 SET: Hmin:= 2500n STATE_C1
t Y Wm_ref SET: Hmax:= 2500u SET : Pulse: =1 T RANS4
GAIN Delay1== 1
HVneg_In HVneg_Out DEL: Delay1##2*Hmin
TRANS10 TRANS8
$rpm_ramp_ERAD_300rpm 2*pi/60 Time>= 100u Time> =640m NEEDLE1
ia_meas STAT E_C2
analyzed system in this paper, space vector modulation (SVM)

S& H SET: Pulse:= 0
Shield_In Shield_Out SIMPARAM1 TRANS5
Length= 1.85met er NEEDLE1.VAL>= 1
SAH_Ia FREQ=Fsw
ib_meas
S& H idq_reference_selection:
SAH_Ib 1: Analytic calculation of iq, idis set to 0.
Bat tery_Pack_V8 AM_IbatPos_OBC ic_meas
2: MTPA calculationof id andiq.
S& H 3: MTPA calculationof id andiq withFieldWeakening Generationof synchronization signal at each peakand valley
HVpos_OBC HVpos_HVCH
4: Fixedvalues of id andiq (id_ref and iq_ref) of thetriangle carrier wave determined by the switching
A
Parameter values from SAH_Ic

Impedance Model V2 frequency (2*Fsw). Used for controller timesampling.
VM_Vba t_OBC
CONST1 T het aElec

+
is implemented which is advantageous since it has been shown

SET: dq_hold_OnOff:= 0 SET: dq_hold_OnOff: =1
SET: I d_ref:=- 85 SET: Id_r ef:= -85 STATE_C12
V CONST i_meas_abc_to_idq
HighVoltage SET: I q_ref:=182
SET: Jfactor: =0.5
SET: Iq_ref:= 182
SET: Jfactor :=1000000
SET : PulseSample:= 1 T RANS7
I nitial_pos*pi/180- pi In_Sync_Ramp DEL: Delay2##2*Hmin Delay2== 1
SET: idq_ref_selection:=2
Battery Pack AM_IbatNeg_OBC SET: dpwm_selection: =3
SET : idq_ref _selection:=4
SET : dpwm_selection:=4 NEEDLE2
HVneg_OBC HVneg_HVCH SAH_PHIelec FREQ= Fsw IEM Contoller V8 SET: pwm_select ion:= 4 SET: pwm_select ion:= 4 STAT E_C11 Ldq and Psimvalues for 20degC takenfrom:
SET: gatepulse_select ion:= 1 SET: gat epulse_selection: =1
A
S &H
EQUBL S& H Vdc_meas MDL1 T RANS9 TRANS6
NEEDLE2.VAL>= 1
SET: PulseSample:=0 torque_r amp Siemens_PMD210L135_parameterdata_20160405.xls
AM_IbatShield_OBC T ime>=600m FREQ=4*F sw t Y
ERAD_515h_Psim_20deg ERAD_515h_Ld_20deg ERAD_515h_Lq_20deg
Shield_OBC Shield_HVCH SYMPcm.phi i_ref_dq_t o_iabc SAH_Vdc
A
$torque_ramp_ERAD_800Nm n m n m n m
to give the lowest current and voltage ripple [9].

I nputs Values Inputs V alues I nputs Values
IEM_IVchar_V8 Cable_35mm2_AC_V8
AM_I ac_PhA_In
EQUBL AM_I ac_PhA_Out
I EM_Input_F ilter _John_V8
PhA_Pos I n_CondA Out_CondA
A
Parameter values from Parameter values from

Cable_35mm2_DC_V8 BreakOut Box_V8
AM_Ibat Pos_IEM AM_Iinv_pos Impedance Model V3 AM_Iac_ShieldA_I n Impedance Model V3 AM_Iac_ShieldA_Out + SYMPcm
VM_Vab
HVpos_CIDD HVpos_Out HVpos_I EM LegCpos

HVpos_I EM HVpos_In HVpos_Out HVpos_I n IEM LegC_pos
IEMSwitches PhA_shield I n_ShieldA
AC Cable 35mm2 Out_ShieldA
V
A
PhA_in PhA_mach a ao
Breakout Box Input Filter ERAD
AM_Iinv_ShieldPos LegB_pos LegBpos AM_I ac_PhB_In AM_Iac_PhB_Out PhB_mach b bo
DCCable (John)
R_Shield=R_Shield
CM Model
Since it is the common mode coupling in the system that

ShieldPos_I EM ShieldPos_In ShieldPos_Out ShieldPos_In ShieldPos_Out ShieldPos_IEM R_Ph_I EM= 1mOhm In_CondB Out_CondB PhC_mach c co
35mm2 PhB_Pos
A
LegApos SubSheet11
VM_Vie m_ Shield
LegA_pos
SubSheet13 R_ShieldCon= 1mOhm Infineon FS600R07A2E3
+ + + AM_Iac_ShieldB_In PhB_in
VM_ Vba t_IEM
AM_IbatShieldPos_IEM R_Cond= 1mOhm AM_Iac_ShieldB_Out

VM_ Viem
with iv-character istics.

V
VM_ Vca
No parasitics. PhB_shield In_ShieldB SubSheet3 Out_ShieldB +

V V V
A
VM_ Vbc
HVneg_CIDD + PhC_N
AM_IbatNeg_IEM AM_Iinv_neg LegA_neg LegAneg AM_Iac_PhC_In AM_I ac_PhC_Out V PhB_N
N_cells=96
A
V_cell= 3.555 HVneg_IEM HVneg_I n HVneg_Out HVneg_I n HVneg_Out HVneg_I EM AM_ILegA PhC_Pos I n_CondC Out_CondC PhC_in PhA_N
A
A
A
Shield_CIDD R_Cond=1mOhm LegB_neg LegBneg

VM_Va n_ mach
A
VM_Vb n_ mach
VM_Vcn_mach
R_Shield=1mOhm AM_ILegB AM_Iac_ShieldC_In AM_Iac_ShieldC_Out + + +

Ch assis_ERAD
AM_Iinv_ShieldNeg
generates many of the unwanted disturbances, all subsystems

ShieldNeg_I EM ShieldNeg_In ShieldNeg_Out ShieldNeg_Out ShieldNeg_In ShieldNeg_IEM LegC_neg LegCneg PhC_shield I n_ShieldC Out_ShieldC
V V V
A
A
Lengt h=0. 6meter

Length=1.9meter AM_ILegC
C ha ssis_IEM
H ousing _IEM
AM_IbatShieldNeg_I EM R_Shield= 1mOhm

C ha ssis_HVba t
AM_I_I emF eGnd AM_I_I emSwGnd

R sh ield1
R sh ield2
1 mOhm
1 mOhm
1 mOhm
R sh ield
A
AM_I_HVbatGnd AM_I_GND3 AM_I_GND2 AM_I_GND1 AM_I_EradGnd

A
need to include a CM-representation. In previous work, both

0
Fig 1 – System simulation model in Ansys Simplorer
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 714

A. Inverter and Machine Modeling was found sufficient to model the switching stage with IGBT
A permanent magnet machine can in the dq-frame be models that only account for forward voltage drop; no actual
described as switching events are accounted for in the simulation model.
In the input stage of the inverter, a CM-choke and two
= + − (1)
y-capacitors are connected together to reduce the common
mode disturbances. For the differential mode current and
= + + + (2) voltage, the DC-link capacitor is the most important
where vd and vq are the voltages and currents in d- and component and in the analyzed system, the DC-link film
q-axis respectively. Moreover, RS, Ld, Lq, λPM and ωr are the capacitor consist of several tabs where each tab is connected
stator resistance, the dq-stator inductances, the permanent directly to each phase leg. Hence is an 8-terminal capacitor
magnet flux linkage and the rotor electrical speed, respectively. model implemented in this paper which accounts for the
The developed electromechanical torque can be written as parasitic effects in each tab [35].
3 The CM model of the electric machine is based on [18] and
= + − (3) fitted by measurements, see Fig. 2. The model accounts for
2
where Te is the electromagnetic torque and np is the number of stray capacitances both between the stator and the housing as
pole pairs. The analyzed machine is an interior permanent well as rotor capacitances by two lumped RLC-networks
magnet machine (IPM) with 4 pole pairs, the most important where the parameter data is extraced from measurements. It
machine properties are summarized in Table I. also accounts for the core losses in the IPM by a resistor
connected in parallel over each phase.
TABLE I – MACHINE PARAMETERS L_cm_PhA
70nH
Rated continous power 28 kW PhA_in

PhA_mach R_CoreLoss_A
350ohm
PhA_N Ra_CM_N_GND
1mOhm
Rated speed 13.000 rpm L_cm_PhB
Rated continous torque 80 Nm 70nH
R_CoreLoss_B Rb_CM_N_GND
Rotor length 135 mm

PhB_in PhB_N 1mOhm
PhB_mach 350ohm
L_cm_PhC
70nH
For the analytical machine model described in (1) to (3), the

Rc_CM_N_GND
PhC_in R_CoreLoss_C PhC_N 1mOhm
PhC_mach 350ohm
machine parameters are typically treated as constants. C_cmA

2.25nF
C_cmB
2.25nF
C_cmC
2.25nF
However, since Ld, Lq and λPM will show both a temperature R_cmA
2ohm
R_cmB
2ohm
R_cmC
2ohm
C_CM_N_GND
6.75nF
R_CM_N_GND
1megohm
dependence and a dependence on the stator currents, they must

be implemented as a function of id and iq in a look-up-table.
Also the correct machine temperature needs to be considered. Fig. 2 – CM model of the analyzed electric machine
The advantage of the analytical machine representation is the
B. Battery Modeling
fast simulation speed, but due to the varying Ld, Lq and λPM, the
The impedance of the entire battery must be accounted for
model will still be accurate to simulate the current and voltage
and in this paper, the pack is modeled with the schematic
ripple over the entire operating range of the system.
presented in Fig. 3. The equivalent circuit is based on well-
A FEM model of the machine was implemented in Ansys
known RLC-models for each battery cell [36, 37] but with
Maxwell and the machine parameters were extracted. The
addition of series inductances that accounts for both electrode
machine parameters were verified by two measurements; a
inductances [38] and inductances in the busbar connectors. A
measurement to verify the inductances at no-load condition
detailed description of the measurement method and a
and a measurement of the back-emf to verify the flux constant
parameter sensitivity analysis can be found in [39].
[31, 32]. A summary of the machine parameter verfication can
Based on the impedance measurements of the entire battery
be found in Table II.
pack, it has been conluded that the cell chemistry and resulting
TABLE II – SIMULATED AND MEASURED MACHINE impedance will be dominating below ~1 kHz. For frequencies
PARAMETERS FOR id = 0 A AND iq = 0 A L_barFix1a_HVbat
0.075nH
MEASURED SIMULATED
R_dummy5
1mOhm
Magnet flux (λPM) 0.0519 Wb 0.0547 Wb R_barFix1a_HVbat

28.125mOhm
Lesl_Y1a_HVbat
Stator resistance 10.7 mΩ 11.4 mΩ

70nH
Vbat
Resr_Y1a_HVbat
d-axis inductance 196 µH 201 µH

Bleeder_1a
90mOhm 500kOhm
q-axis inductance 408 µH 435 µH L_pack_HVbat

C_Y1a_HVbat
L_bar1a_HVbat L_bar0a_HVbat
240nH 45nH
K_Lbar0_HVbat
L_packFix_HVbat
The IPM is controlled with field oriented control (FOC)

R_packFix_HVbat K_Lbar1_HVbat K=0
200nH
K=0.375 L1=L_bar0a_HVbat.L
L1=L_bar1a_HVbat.L L2=L_bar0b_HVbat.L
L2=L_bar1b_HVbat.L
L_bar1b_HVbat L_bar0b_HVbat
240nH 45nH
where the dq-currents are calculated for maximum torque per Lesl_Y1b_HVbat L_Y1gnd_HVbat
ampere (MTPA) based on the machine parameters [33, 34].

70nH
120nH
C_pack_HVbat R_packA_HVbat
Resr_Y1b_HVbat Bleeder_1b
90mOhm 500kOhm
The switching pattern in the analyzed system is space vector C_Y1b_HVbat

R_Y1gnd_HVbat
10mOhm
modulation (SVM) which is advantageous not just because it

R_packB_HVbat
L_barFix1b_HVbat
0.075nH
R_dummy4
1mOhm
gives higher level of fundamental voltage as compared to R_barFix1b_HVbat

28.125mOhm
standard PWM but also since it has been shown that it

Chassis_HVbat
Fig 3 – Schematic of the proposed model for the high voltage

minimizes the current and voltage ripple on the DC-link [9]. It battery pack including busbars and capacitors
715
greater than this, the pack geometry will determine the frequency increases, the shield resitance and the copuing factor
impedance and it therefore becomes important to include all between the inductances will become dominant, see Fig. 6.
elements within the battery such as busbars, connector and If the models are compared with impedance measurements
filter capacitors in the proposed system simulation model. of a real cable, the agreement is very good for frequencies up
to ~1 MHz, see Fig 6 that shows both DM and CM
C. Cable Modeling
measurements of a 10 m cable with short circuited ends. For
The AC-side and the DC-side cables in the analyzed system
higher frequencies, the resonances that occur are not well
are individually shielded cables and have the same physical
predicted by a single π-section. For an increased upper
buildup. In order to extract the parameters of the cable, the
frequency limit, the model can be expanded with more
geometry was implemented in Ansys Q3d, see Fig 4.
sections. This was not found necessary in this system since the
cable lengths are relatively short and the maximum frequency
of interest is below the resonance point. Due to the positioning
of the cables (>1 dm over ground), the CM-capacitances (C1-4
and Cs1-2) can be neglected in the analyzed setup.
Fig 4 – Field simulation of the DC-cable in Ansys Q3d.

The RLGC parameters can in Ansys Q3d be calculated as a
function of frequency and extracted to an equivalent circuit. To
verify the model, analytical calculations were also made, see
Table III for a summary of the cable parameters. For the
equivalent model, a π-representation is chosen due to
simplicity, see Fig. 5. The model consist of series elements
(R1-4 and L1-4ab) that represent the resistance and inductance of
the cable inner conductor and the shield, respectively. In
addition to the self inductance of the conductor and the shield,
the magnetic coupling between the conductors and shields are
also accounted for (Ka-b and Ks). The shunt elements (Ccond1-4
and Cs1-2) represent the differential and common mode
capacitances between the conductors and the shields,
respectively. These capacitances account for the capacitive
coupling between the conductors and the shields as well as the
coupling to the surrounding ground structure.
Fig 6 – Theoretical breakpoints of the cable model (upper graph).

Comparison of measured and simulated common and differential
mode impedance of the DC-cable (mid and lower graphs).
D. Connector Modeling
When modeling the connectors in the system, their
Fig 5 – π-section equivalent circuit of the DC-cable. contribution to the overall inductance and capacitance on the
TABLE III – ANALYTICALLY CALCULATED CABLE PARAMETERS
DC-link and on the AC-side is assumed to be so small that it is
Conductor Resistance (R1-2) 0.53 mΩ/meter
neglected in the system simulation model. However, to account
Conductor Inductance (L1-2) 420 nH/meter for the behavior of the shield currents, the contact resistance in
Shield Resistance (R3-4) 3.5 mΩ/meter the connectors has to be accounted for. It was found that the
Shield Inductance (L3ab-4ab) 260 nH/meter contact resistance of the inner conductor does not vary on the
Differential Mode Capacitance (Ccond1-4) 598 pF/meter
Common Mode Capacitance (C1-4) 41 pF/meter
contact pressure and can therefore be considered constant.
Coupling, Shield to Conductor (Ka-b) 0.90 However, the contact resistance of the shields may vary
depending on the pressure of the connector due to poor chassis
For low frequencies (f < 100 Hz), the cable resistance and connection. A summary of measured contact resistances for
the differential mode inductance will be dominant. But as the both conductors and shields can be found in Table IV.
716
TABLE IV – MEASURED CONTACT RESISTANCE FOR THE CONNECTORS
DC-Link Cable Conductor incl. Connectors 1.2 mΩ
(1.9m length) Shield Connector (battery end) 2.4 mΩ to 5.8 mΩ
Shield Connector (inverter end) 5.4 mΩ to 7.5 mΩ
AC-Side Cable Conductor incl. Connectors 0.4 mΩ
(0.6m length) Shield Connector (battery end) 3.0 mΩ to 4.1 mΩ
Shield Connector (inverter end) 0.4 mΩ to 0.8 mΩ
SYSTEM VERIFICATION
A. Measurement Setup
For each subsystem, the impedance as a function of
frequency has been verified and in order to verify the entire
system simulation model, an experimental rig with
components from an electric vehicle was designed and built,
see Fig 7. The analyzed PM machine is driven by an inverter
that is powered from a high voltage vehicle battery and the
outgoing driveshafts are speed controlled by two DC-drives. Fig 8 – Comparison of simulated and measured phase leg
The voltages and currents are measured by several current and line-to-line voltage.
oscilloscopes (CM and DM currents and voltages on the both
capacitors in the system. This resonance is mainly seen in the
the DC-link and on the AC-side, phase leg currents internally
differential mode voltage and the common mode current on the
in the inverter) and the internal communication signals are
DC-link. For the DM-quantity measured at the inverter end, the
monitored via the CAN-bus. Also, it is possible to evaluate
resonance originates from the components in the inverter and
different system configurations in the rig, see Fig. 7 where
is primarily not affected by the battery or cable inductance. For
different cable lengths are implemented in the setup.
the CM-quantity, the main contributors are the y-capacitors,
Battery
0.8m and the IGBT stray y-capacitance and as for the DM-quantity,
it is primarily not affected by the battery or cable inductance.
4.6m
Inverter 1.6m
IPM
Fig 7 – Experimental setup with different cable lengths

on the DC-Link
B. AC-Side Quantities
The current ripple on the AC-current is well represented by
using machine parameters (Ld, Lq and λPM) that are a function
of the dq-currents, see Fig 8. It is concluded that the measured
switching pattern matches the simulations very well and that
the addition of an AC-cable model helps increase the accuracy.
C. DC-Side Quantities
If the DC-link voltage and current is analyzed, a clear Fig 9 – Comparision of measured and simulated DC-link
20 kHz component is apparent which originate from twice the differential mode current ripple
switching frequency of the inverter [7], see Fig. 9. For the
analyzed operating point (3000 rpm, 78 Nm, IDC = 86 A, D. Effect of Cable Length
VDC = 371 V, PDC = 28 kW) the current ripple is significant The cable parameters will change if the length of the cable
(~15 % of the total DC-current) and therefore necessary to take is changed and therefore will also the current ripple on the DC-
into account when optimizing the drive system. In addition to link change, see Fig. 10. A longer cable will attenuate the
the 20 kHz component the first multiples thereof, several ripple and the switching frequency component (20 kHz) is
resonance will occur in the system that will amplify the lowered with ~40 % if the DC-cable length is increased from
harmonics. The most significant resonance is located at 0.8 m to 4.6 m. In addition to the change in the fundamental
~350 kHz and originate from the stray couplings and the y- frequency component, the characteristics of the resonance will
717
also change, see Fig 11. Due to the high level of detail in each current will be significanly lower (~10 A peak). On the DC-
subsystem, these oscillations are accounted for in the system side, the shield currents will only be slightly affected by the
simulation model for different cable lengths. contact resistances due to the higher frequency components
that are present on the DC-link , see Fig 13.
Fig 10 – Effect of cable length on the DC-link DM current. Com- Fig 12 – Comparison of simulations and measurements of the AC-
parison of simulations and measurements for 0.8 m cable (upper side shield current for ideal connector (upper graph), 1 mΩ contact
graph), 1.6 m cable (mid graph) and 4.6 m cable (lower graph). resistance (mid graph) and 5 mΩ contact resistance (lower graph).
Fig 13 – Comparison of simulations and measurements of the DC-

side shield current for ideal connector and 5 mΩ contact resistance.
CONCLUSIONS
With the analyzed system model, the voltage and current
ripple on the DC-bus can be predicted with high accuracy up
to 1 MHz. It is concluded that the DC-cable with its parasitic
Fig 11 – FFT of the DC-link DM current. Comparison of elements helps to filter the DC-bus current and voltage ripple
simulations and measurements for 0.8 m cable (upper graph), and that the proposed cable models are a necessary addition to
1.6 m cable (mid graph) and 4.6 m cable (lower graph). the system model in order to reach high accuracy. In addition
to correct ripple determination, different system configurations
E. Shield Currents can be evaluated and other quantities such as shield currents
The shield currents will become significant if the contact can also be assessed by the proposed model.
resistances are very low due to the low impedance of the shield
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719
Modeling EV fleet Load in Distribution Grids: A
Data-Driven Approach
Qiyun Dang, Yuchong Huo
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Email: qiyun.dang@mail.mcgill.ca, yuchong.huo@mail.mcgill.ca
Abstract—This paper proposes a modeling method for electric The types of electric vehicles connecting simultaneously
vehicle (EV) charging loads in the distribution grids. Different into the power grid may vary, which drives complexity in
from previous work that modeling under general car travel modeling load of an EV fleet. However, the energy storage
distance based statistics, we advocate using real world power technologies they adopted are same. The energy storage units
consumption data, which collected from the charging port meters. in vehicles currently used widely are packages of lithium-ion
The essential charging behavior characteristics were retrieved batteries, due to their energy density and power density
from such high-resolution data. The vehicle behavior indicates advantages [7][8][9]. Therefore, different EVs has essentially
that the distribution of the initial SOC when EV put into charge identical charging profile, the modeling of either PHEVs or
is not necessarily lognormal type. Possible causes for such non-
PEVs charging can be reduced to one modeling problem. The
ideality are discussed. The new model proposed here can
incorporate the stochastic nature of EV charging to improve
remaining differences between charging profile of a PHEV and
researchers’ analysis. An explicit description of the model along a PEV, as further illustrated in Section II, occurs to be 1) the
with its operating dynamics and a practice to analyze the total instantaneous peak charging power (kW) and 2) charging cycle
power load of a mid-sized EV fleet is provided. We demonstrate duration (min). Compared to PHEVs the PEVs have relatively
that the proposed model can more correctly reflect the total higher battery capacity. Thus, the average charging cycle of
power need of a fleet and can be adopted as a load-forecasting PEVs is longer.
tool of EV fleet charging load. Modeling EV fleet charging load is a concept analogous to
Index Terms—Charging behavior, Electric vehicles, Power
the residential total load modeling. Assume the load profiles of
demand, Probability distribution, Smart meters. appliances are linearly independent, the aggregated residential
load P L can be represented as a linear combination of home
appliance load pL,i on the site. Similarly, in a given fleet of EVs,
I. INTRODUCTION assume the charging event of cari does not interfere with the
The load model is essential to the distribution system charging process of another carj (i≠j) , then the fleet total load
simulation. The objective of load modeling is to represent profile at time t can be represented as PL(t) = Σ [pL,i (t)]. In a
dynamic profiles of a variety of loads, ranging from appliance real situation, the available charging facilities at a given
level to grid level, into simple mathematical models in order to charging station could be limited. When the station experience
reduce the complexity of computation [1]. According to a full load operation, the arriving vehicles carn in fleet may
appliance level models, previous research has been focused on have to wait or choose a nearby station, thus their charging
studying heating, motoring, and air conditioning (HVAC) loads cycles could be delayed, the time denoted as Tn. In this paper
[2]. In recent years, as a larger population of electric vehicles we assume adequate EV charging resources is available for the
are integrated into the power grid, there has been a lot of fleet, however if there is a congestion, the fleet total load at
interest in modeling the electric vehicle charging loads (EVCL) time t can be simply modified as, PL(t) = Σ [pL,i (t), pL,n (t-Tn)].
[3][4][5].
The EV charging model in this paper is developed on direct
There are mainly three types of electric vehicles, classed by observation on the EV charging profile through charging port
the degree of its energy source electrification [6]. The Hybrid smart meters. Smart meters are designed to offer high-
Electric Vehicles (HEVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles resolution load readings to utilities and users, down to the
(PHEVs) are powered by both petroleum and electricity. The minute level [10]. Before large-scale deployment of EV
Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) are fully electric and do not charging smart meters, there has been some literatures on the
equip a petrol engine. The HEVs battery is recharged by its EV load modeling, based on general travel statistics of
own braking system thus grid operator does need to consider traditional vehicles [11][12]. In [11], a specified operation
its interaction with the distribution system. However, the model for EVs under domestic and public charging situation is
PHEVs and PEVs are recharged by plugging-in to an external proposed. The model assumed a lognormal type probability
electrical charging point, which charging process can be density function of battery state of charge (SOC), according to
measured, observed from grids, and generalized into load the distribution of vehicle daily travel distance from the
models. national travel survey by U.K. in 2009. The model also
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 720

assumed a Gaussian distribution of start time of EV charging,
with a center around 1:00 am. In [12], a similar EVCL model
based on U.K.’s vehicle travel survey is demonstrated, the
model sees the single lithium-ion EV battery charging process
as a right-angled trapezoid figure, and the model is further
employed to optimize power system demand. The work in [13]
employed bivariate normal distribution model in a theoretical
analysis, and described the total power demand of EVs in a
station in a Weibull distribution. The [14] monitored charging
of a fleet of 15 Mitsubishi EV in Ireland for 9 month, result in Fig. 1. Comparison of charging profile of a PHEV and a PEV.
a model adopted conditional probabilities of variables
including state of charge (SOC), and trip number. Except from
[14], most previous work made estimations of EV behavior
using travel surveys.
This paper holds identical views with [14] that a charging
model should be built on charging data and avoid generalized
vehicle behavior assumptions. For instance, as further
illustrated in Section III, the start charging time of EV is
largely personalized. There are a large portion of EV user fix
their start charging time in a specific hour, e.g. 4:30 am, to Fig. 2. EV charging load component in total residential load (kW) in 3 days.
fulfill their needs in the daytime, thus cannot be described as a
general Gaussian distribution over 24 hours in a day.
Power usage /kWh
The paper is organized as follows. Section II presents the

meter side profile of EVCL and compared EV loads proportion
to total residential load. Section III introduced the parameters
of modeling the charging load of single EV and EV fleet. In
Section IV, we evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed
method by providing an aggregated EV load profile. We
conclude this paper in Section V.
II. BACKGROUND Fig. 3. Compare EV charging load energy consumption to the total
residential load (kWh) in 30 days.
The meter data adopted in this study are collected from
Mueller community in Austin, Texas. It is envisioned as a
 t
sustainable community that deployed smart meters at device-  p  ( t ), 0  t  t1
level, including EV charging port, to continuously monitor the  1
power use and feedback to residents. Under community’s 
p(t )   p, t1  t  t2 (1)
consent, the datasets intended for research purposes is available

on Dataport [15]. The total number of EVs in Muller  p  ( t3  t ), t2  t  t3
community is around 120, the type of EVs vary from HEV,  t3  t2
PHEV and PEV.
As the minutes level transient process in [0,t1] or [t2,t3] is
A. Electircal Vehicle Charging Process trivial compared to the steady charging stage [t1,t2]. The (1)
The charging process of EVs from meter data is visualized can be further simplified in (2).
in Fig.1. As shown in the figure, two different kinds of EV,
 p, t1  t  t2
PHEV and PEV have similar charging profile. The PEV here is p(t )   (2)
referred to a Tesla Model S and PHEV referred to a Ford 0, others
Fusion Hybrid in database. The charging profiles are based on
their meter data on 03.10.2016. According to their charging The (2) in nature represents a train of square waves in the
process, the EV charging power p(t) reaches its on-board time domain. From meter side data, shown in Fig.2, the EV
charging rate max[p(t)], or p̄ rapidly in just a few minutes. profile component in total residential load is square wave type,
although the intervals of each square may vary.
The power maintain a constant value in the course of
charging and it rapidly decreased to zero towards the end of the The benefit of modeling EV charging profile in pure
charging. The process can be mathematically expressed as (1). square pulse in (2), besides a reduction of computation cost, is
Where t in [0,t1] represents the rising edge of charging and it help us become more aware of the impacts when EVs
[t2,t3] represents the down edge. The p̄ , peak-charging power terminates their charging. As the system is always seeking a
for the given EVs is 10kW and 3.33kW respectively from the balance between generations and demand, when demand of
figure 1. EVs decrease concurrently on the shape of the negative edge of
721
square pulse, the power mismatch may happen and result in a
quick increase in system frequency.
B. EV Charging Loads Component in Residential Loads

To understand the EVs future influences in grids, we
compared the EVCL of an EV user’s house to its total home
load in Fig.2 and Fig.3. Unlike adding traditional appliances,
the emerging EV loads will remarkably increase the peak
house power. As shown in Fig.2, the residential peak power
0.15
was lower than 5 kW before an EV is integrated. The peak
power nearly tripled to 14 kW when a vehicle is under recharge.
probability
0.1
Moreover, the periodical minute level minor spikes on Fig.2
results from start-stop of refrigerator compressor.
0.05
Also as shown in Fig.3, the emerging EV loads in
residential side will take up around 30% of total power need in 0
each day. The percentage data at day n is derived from 0:00 3:00 6:00 9:00 12:00 15:00 18:00 21:00 24:00
local time in a day/h
ration 
 p(t )dt 100% (3) Fig. 4. Comparison of start charging time distribution of different types EV
 P (t )dt
1
user. (a) shows fixed-time charging type (b) random time charging type.
where P1(t) represents total appliance power. In addition, for

residents have more EVs, the EVCL may take up 50% in total
load. This situation calls for a more redundant design in
distribution system protection, it also enables economic and
environmental analysis on EVs charging aspects in distribution
grids. An accurate EV fleet charging model will support in
solving both problems.
III. PARAMETERS FOR EV CHARGING

The EV fleet charging load contains superimposed layer of
single EV charging loads. The feature analysis of single EV
charging load requires a group of data handling methods. Note
that the meter data needs cleansing before it is loaded, a basic
pre-processing method is shown in [16].
As illustrated in expression (1) and (2), the profile of single
EV charging can be expressed as pure square wave with fixed Fig. 5. Start charging time distribution of vehicles in the sample EV fleet.
amplitude p̄ , the onboard charging rate. The EV charging The fleet size is 30 and each color represents one vehice.
features to be modeled here is the start of charging time in a
day, t1 , and the length of charging cycle tc= [t2-t1]. The value shown in Fig.4(a) The other one is random charging, shown in
of variable t1 and tc are determined by their probability Fig.4(b).Empirically if the probability value of a certain hour is
distribution function. higher than 0.3, this EV owner can be regarded as a fixed-time
charging user. The random charging user’s t1 distribution is
seemed as Gaussian distribution, however for user who
A. Probability Distribution of Start Charging Time
schedules their charging at certain times, the distribution is lack
Assume the meter data loaded is m(t), the first step is to of randomness. A synthesized model should consider both
convert m(t) into binary code [0 0 0 1 1 1..] under expression situations.
(4).
Randomly pick 30 EV users’ one year start of charging
 p time data from database, around 35% users are fixed-time
1, if : m(t)  charging type. Together with the 65% random charging users,
M(t)   2 (4)
0, others the overall distribution is shown in Fig.5. The total distribution
in the figure can be described as
the length of m(t) chosen is 525,600 (365day×1440min/day). -(t1 -1 )2 -(t1 - 2 )2
The start of charging time t1 can be derive from rising edge of 1 2 12 k 2  22 (5)
f (t1 1 ,  2 ,  1 ,  2 , k )  e  e
binary strings M(t).  1 2  2 2
Two types of the accumulated t1’s distribution of single EV The (5) describes the bimodal feature of distribution of t1.
is shown in Fig.4. The first type is fixed-time charging type Such distribution is a continuous probability distribution with
two different modes, appears as two distinct peaks (local
722
maxima)in the probability density function, as shown in Fig.5
Density
Density
The k is the mathematical bimodal ratio of the left and right
peaks. The μ and σ are the mean and standard deviation of
first and second Gaussian distributed peaks. In profile of Fig.5,
the [ 1 , 2 ,  1 ,  2 ] are [3.22, 19.18, 0.83, 4.61] respectively.
Density
Density
B. Probability Distribution of Charging time Duration
The total charging duration each time a EV put into charge
is stochastic. However as the energy storage capability of the
EVs battery (Ebat) is limited, then the distribution range of tc
will be bonded by (Ebat / p̄ ). The value of tc is derived by
Density
Density
t2
tc  [  p (t )dt ] / p (6)
t1
The duration tc reflects the initial Depth-of-Discharge (DoD)

of the vehicle when it put into charge, the longer the tc the
deeper DoD the EV battery has. Fig. 6. Distribution of Depth of Discharge (DoD) in each sample, each
sample represents 10% of total charging data.
To ensure more generalizable results, first pick 50 different
types of EV’s one year charging data from database. According
to the data, vehicles is averagely charged 342 times per year.
To see the distribution of the tc (or the DoD), randomly take
10% of the tc data as a subset, do it 6 times and see each of
subset’s probability distribution. Result is concluded in Fig.6.
As shown in Fig.6 the charging probability at each percent
Density
DoD is different. The general shape of each distribution all

follows bimodal type, as two distinct peaks can be seen from
each figure.
A combination of Fig.6 is shown in Fig.7. A turning point
at DoD = 80 % can be seen from the figure. The figure’s left
segment ( DoD <80% ) part is similar to a left-centered normal
distribution (or lognormal distribution), the right segment can
be viewed as a normal distribution which centered at 90% DoD. Fig. 7. Aggregated initial DoD distribution profiles of 50 EVs in one year.
Previous literatures describe the distribution of DoD of EV put Use ideal Gaussian or Weibull fitting curves is not suitable here because there
into charge as Normal or Weibull distribution. However, as is a second peak in distribution.
Fig.7 shows, from the observations of meter side data, neither
fitting curves is good enough to represent the DoD distribution.
As the distribution has a 2nd peak begins at 80% DoD, the
mismatch of the such fitting curves will be very high when
DoD is in range 80% ~100%.
The reason for such second peak at high DoD may result
from battery energy loss between two trips. A stand-by mode
EV is still consuming energy, thus at the time when EV battery
put into recharge, the DoD is deeper than its DoD at the end of
last trip. The longer EV not put into use, the more energy loss
(including battery self-discharge). When EV has a long enough
stand-by time, the DoD would be close to 100%.
In addition, from Fig.7, most of charging events seemed
only refilled 15%~20% of battery capacity, this may result
from people tends to not wait DoD to be 100% (battery used up)
to charge their vehicle, and intend to fully charge the vehicle
again even if the distance of last trip is short.
The bimodal distribution of the tc (or the DoD) can then be Fig. 8. Flowchart illustrating the model implementaion.
generalized in the expression (7).
The second term in (7) represents the second peak in
-( ln tc -1 )2 -(tc -2 )2 bimodal distribution. The parameter μ2 is around 0.91 and σ2
1 k (7)
f (tc 1 ,  2 ,  1 ,  2 , k )  e 212
 e 2 2 2
around 0.03.
tc   1 2  2 2
723
cannot be direct mapped into battery initial SOC distribution in
EV.
The case study showed that the proposed approach can
reflect the stochastic nature of EV charging and can predict the
Instant power /kW
peak power of EVCL in a given period. Besides, in the

proposed method, the fleet size and fleet constitution can be
adjusted to reflect the local EV market and to fulfill simulation
needs.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work has been supported in part by the Natural
Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada .
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final/
724
Methodology for Evaluating Potential Benefits and
Economic Value of Residential Photovoltaic and
Battery Energy Storage System
Pablo Castro Palavicino*, Yujiang Wu*, Matthew Smuda*, Wooyoung Choi*, Woongkul Lee*, *Student Member, IEEE
Bulent Sarlioglu**, **Senior Member, IEEE
Madison, WI 53706 USA
sarlioglu@wisc.edu
Abstract- Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are considered An energy storage system can be used for various benefits,
to be an effective approach to mitigating the intermittency of including: mitigation of intermittency, supply and demand
renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. The cost versus mismatch, and providing peak shifting. The cost and benefits of
the benefit of the total energy stored and utilized needs to be these systems need to be carefully evaluated to find out the
evaluated for each BESS installation. However, solely focusing on feasibility for residential applications.
the cost of the energy saved is not sufficient to confirm the
economic value. The capital investment also needs to be Moreover, there is an increase in the potential benefits of
considered for the BESS. This paper provides a methodology for energy storage systems (ESS) on grid stability and reliability.
an economic analysis of a PV system both with and without a This arises the discussion of supporting policies on battery
BESS. These two systems are analyzed by the benchmark energy storage systems. Thus, there is a need to do an economic
provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
evaluation on the benefits of increasing the incentives for ESS,
The study presented in this paper focuses on the procedure to
determine the economic viability of a BESS system. including possible incentives for BESS on PV systems.
Keywords— Battery energy storage systems, economic analysis, So far, there is no deep consideration of, equipment
photovoltaic cells, PV systems, renewable energy. investments, and operational and maintenance (O&M) cost to
evaluate the potential economic benefits of PV plus BESS. The
I. INTRODUCTION main reason is that, based on current grid rates and energy
storage market prices in the United States, energy storage
It is estimated that oil and natural gas resources will be used cannot justify its economic value in the residential application.
up in roughly 50 years and 60 years, respectively, if there is no A similar conclusion was obtained in the Australian market [10].
reduction in the rate of consumption of these fossil fuels [1]. However, this situation can be changed with the significant
Renewable energy generation technologies are being regarded price reduction of batteries and the balance of system (BOS).
as one of the sustainable solutions to the energy crisis and are
attracting increasing attention worldwide. Among all the This paper proposes a procedure for an economic analysis
renewable energy sources, solar photovoltaic (PV) energy of a PV system both with and without a BESS for a residential
generation is one of the most popular sources. application. The methodology includes the electric bill savings,
the cost of initial investment, and the cost of O&M. The net
The developments made in PV cell technology are expected present value (NPV) and the payback period (PBP) are obtained
to have an important relevance on PV arrays at low scale, such as indexes to evaluate the economic value. The procedure is
as at the residential level [2]. There are current policies that applied to an example which used equipment, weather, and
encourage the public to invest in renewable energy, including loads of a typical residential customer. The analysis is
PV systems for residential systems [3]. In particular, PV performed using the System Model Advisor (SAM) software
generation could possibly make up 81% of renewable-energy- distributed by NREL [11].
based power generation in the future [4]. Based on these trends
it is expected that PV renewable energy sources will have a This paper is presented as follows: Section II depicts the
considerable impact at the residential level. considerations for electrical equipment, electric utility tariffs,
project financing, inclusion of a BESS, available PV energy,
Under such high PV penetration, the irregular and stochastic and electric load. Section III shows a case study applied to a
output variations of PV power, due to cloud transients, can residential system. In Section IV, the case study is analyzed,
bring uncertainties in power system planning and operation. first for PV only and then for PV with a BESS. Section V shows
Delay of supporting policy for PV projects has been reported, the methodology to do the economic analysis calculations for
largely due to the negative impact caused by aggressive PV cash flow, NPV, and PBP. These indices are calculated and
expansion on the grid, including overvoltage and reverse power discussed in this section. Finally, in section VI the conclusions
flow [5], [6]. Energy storage systems (ESS) such as batteries are presented.
and ultra-capacitors can mitigate this problem as an energy
buffer[7]–[9].
978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 725

II. EQUIPMENT CONSIDERATIONS, ELECTRIC TARIFF AND The considerations for available power from the PV panels
INCLUSION OF BESS IN RESIDENTIAL PV SYSTEMS include the irradiation and temperature profile of the specific
geographic location. In addition, the operating point of the
In this section considerations regarding electric equipment
PV+Inverter determines how much power can be generated
costs, financial models and incentives, available PV energy,
from the PV panels at any point in time. Typically, maximum
electric loads, electric tariffs, battery dispatching methods, and
power point tracking (MPPT) is used to achieve the maximum
battery degradation are discussed. These considerations are
power output possible at any point of time.
essential to performing an economic analysis of a PV system
with a BESS for a residential application. NREL collects hourly residential building load data in some
places in the United States. The load dataset for thousands of
A. Equipment cost considerations residential buildings is available through OPENEI [14]. With
This paper focuses on evaluating the economic value of a this data available, several electric loads can be chosen
residential PV system. Ratings for residential systems vary depending on which location is being evaluated.
between 3 and 10 kW. In this paper, a 5.6 kW PV system is
chosen for the case study. The energy storage selection of 3 D. Electric tariff
kW/6-kWh assumes that the battery could meet about 2 hours Prevalent utility rate types are summarized in Table II.
of daily peak electricity demand of a typical household at 3 kW Although the utility rates used to be a flat $/kWh, most of the
power, or up to 4 hours of off-peak electricity demand at 1.5 rates have shifted to time of usage (TOU) and tiered rates to
kW. The details of the equipment costs are shown in Table I. encourage energy efficiency, load-shifting, peak-shifting,
renewable energy, or energy storage. The enforcement by
B. Financial Model and Incentives policy makers of TOU rates instead of Net energy metering,
The financial model of purchasing a BESS can be similar to tends to promote energy storage.
a mortgage or loan debt plan. Certain incentives provided by
Feed-in-tariffs (FiT) are being mainly used in Europe while
the state, federal government or utility can be included in the
net metering is currently more common in the U.S. [15]. It is
model. A 25-year loan or mortgage is very common in the
debatable which scheme is more beneficial for residential PV
residential rooftop PV market because a 25-year loan is usually
owners. Net metering is more suitable for residential-scale PV
the lifetime of a PV system. Typically, home mortgage loans
systems where the system can be appropriately sized for the
and other consumer installment loans are amortized using the
electrical load. FiT is preferable for commercial-scale PV
equal total payment method [12].
systems, which can be designed to maximize the profit without
Incentives can be divided into two categories: direct cash considering the load size.
incentives and tax credits. The direct cash incentives consist of
investment-based incentives (IBI), capacity-based incentives E. Dispatching methods and degradation of BESS
(CBI), and production-based incentives (PBI). The tax credits- Battery dispatching will affect the load shaping and the
based incentives can be investment tax credits (ITC) and value of the energy. The most optimal way of dispatching the
production-based tax credits (PTC). The most popular battery is still an on-going research topic. In this paper, two
residential solar incentive in the United States is the residential dispatching methods will be considered for economic analysis.
ITC in Section 25D of the tax code [13].
With more charge-discharge cycles, the battery
TABLE I. PV & BATTERY SYSTEM COST MODEL performance degrades. It also degrades with deeper discharging
of the stored energy in each cycle. Therefore, information on of
Item PV only PV and Battery the depth-of-discharge (DOD) and number of charge-discharge
Module (5.6 kWdc) $3,584 $3,584 cycles is used for evaluating the degradation, over time, of the
Inverter (4.9 kWac) $882 $882
BESS’s performance.
Battery bank (6 kWhdc) $0 $3,000
BOS (5.6 kW) $1,736 $1,736+$1,341 TABLE II METERING SCHEMES OVERVIEW
Installation labor $1,736 $1,736+$1,457
Installer margin and Tariff name Description
$1,848 $1,848+$5,630
overhead Feed-in-tariff • Customers receive a set price from their utility for
Subtotal $9,786 $21,214 (FiT) the electricity they generate and provide to the grid
Contingency $1,663 $3,096 Net energy • For the energy that the customer feeds into the grid,
Total direct cost $11,449 $24,310 metering they get a bill credit.
permitting $560 $560+$704 (NEM) • The customers use the bill credits when they cannot
Engineering& developer meet their own energy demand
$3,038 $3,038
overhead Self-generation • The utility compensates customers for net metered
Sale Tax
$298 $632 electricity at the same rate that the utility pays for
power from large solar arrays (usually lower than the
Total indirect cost $3,896 $4,934 use in NEM for residential customers)
Total installation cost $15,345 $29244 Time-of-use • The utility charges more per energy during peak
O&M cost $112/year $112/year (TOU) hours. Peak hours vary in every location.
Tiered rate • If the customers use less energy than a fixed baseline,
C. Available energy and electric load they get charged with a low rate or vice versa
It is necessary to provide information of the available PV
energy and the electric loads to evaluate how much energy the
customer will be consuming and generating.
726
III. CASE STUDY PARAMETERS am pm
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
In this section, the information used for a specific case study Jan
is described. The location selected for the study is Phoenix, Feb
Arizona. The equipment costs are provided in Table I. A 25- Mar
Apr
year fixed rate with an equal payment mortgage is considered May
for financing the project in this paper. The 30% ITC is not Jun
Jul
applied since the true value, without the aid from incentives, is Aug
assumed in this paper. Sep
Oct
Nov
A. Available energy and electric load Dec
(a)
The irradiation and panel temperature profile chosen for am pm
Arizona for one year is shown in Fig. 1. This information is 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
available in SAM. The inverter efficiency and solar panel Jan
voltage and current curve used in this paper are shown in Fig. 2 Feb
and Fig. 3, respectively. Combining this data, it is possible to Mar
Apr
obtain daily information of the energy available and the electric May
load for the studied location as shown in Fig. 4. Jun
Jul
1200 Aug
Sep
800 Oct
Nov
400 Irradiance [W/m2] Dec
(b)
100
Prices ($/kWh) : 0.264 ; 0.0738 ; 0.216 ; 0.0734
75 Fig. 5. APS Residential service TOU ET-2 Electric tariff,
50 (a) weekday, (b) weekend day.
25 Panel temperature [Co]
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
B. Electric tariff
The specific utility tariff used for analysis is residential
Fig. 1. Irradiation and panel temperature for study case. service TOU time advantage 7PM-Noon (ET-2) from Arizona
100 Public Service Co (APS).
90 Most of the TOU rates in the United States have the same
Efficiency [%]
trend as APS TOU ET-2. They have peak price in the afternoon
80 MPPT low voltage and relatively low rates in the morning, evening, and night. A
70
MPPT high voltage diagram for the chosen tariff is shown in Fig. 5.
0 20 40 60 80 100 C. BESS dispatching methods and degradation

Rated output power [%] The battery improves the value of the PV energy through
Fig. 2. Inverter efficiency with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for
low and high voltage operation - Shenzhen BYD BSG5000-U (240V) two operations: load-shifting and peak-shifting. Two
dispatching methods are considered: dispatching method 1
Module Current [A]
8 (DM1), shown in Fig. 6, and dispatching method 2 (DM2),

shown in Fig. 7. Both methods are assumed to keep the state of
6
charge (SOC) of the battery between 20% and 100%, and they
4 both assume 6500 cycles and a final capacity of 60% in a 25-
2 year period as shown in Fig. 8.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 DM1 is load shifting oriented. The intention is to avoid
Module Voltage [V] charging the battery from the grid during high-rate periods. The
Fig. 3. Voltage- Current curve from LG Electronics LG280S1C-Be PV battery is charged during the low rate-periods and it is
panel discharged during the high-rate periods. The second priority
setting for high-rate periods is harvesting extra generation from
Aug 09 load Aug 09 array power
6 PV as much as possible.
Power [kW]
Feb 09 load Feb 09 array power

4 DM2 is a modified version of DM1. On non-summer days
2
the battery has the priority to collect excess energy from the PV,
and on summer days the battery, as a first priority, is targeting
to discharge during high-rate periods and, as a second priority,
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
am pm collect as much PV excess generation as possible. This is
Fig. 4. PV array and load power as function of day time for study case. achieved by charging the battery from the PV and the grid in
the low rate period. The battery is not used in DM2 during the
weekend.
727
am pm
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov Fig. 8. Battery status used for case of study.
Dec
(a) Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 show energy flow for summer and non-
am pm summer days for DM1 and DM2, respectively. It can be seen in
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Fig. 9 that the battery is shifting energy in low rate periods and
Jan is totally charged when the high-rate period starts. This makes
Feb the battery unable to absorb the excess energy from the PV. The
Mar
Apr PV generation is enough to supply the load during high rate
May periods, so there is no need for the battery to discharge.
Jun
Jul A better utilization of the battery is achieved using DM2, as
Aug shown in Fig. 10. The battery can absorb energy from the PV
Sep
Oct and use this energy during a small portion of the high-rate
Nov period on summer days.
Dec
(b)
4
Charge from PV Charge from grid Discharge
Power [kW]
1st Priority 2nd Priority N/A Summer day

2nd Priority N/A 1st Priority 2
1st Priority 3rd priority 2nd Priority
Fig. 6. Dispatching method DM1, (a) weekday, (b) weekend day.
am pm 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 am pm
Jan
Feb 4 Non-summer day
Power [kW]
Mar
Apr
May 2
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Oct am pm
Nov
Dec Load, Grid to load, PV to load, Battery to load, PV to grid,
PV to battery, Grid to battery
(a) Fig. 9. Daily energy flow on a typical day DM1.
am pm
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 4
Power [kW]
Jan
Feb Summer day
Mar 2
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Aug pm
am
Sep
Oct
Nov 4 Non-summer day
Power [kW]
Dec
(b)
Charge from PV Charge from grid Discharge 2
1st Priority 2nd Priority N/A
N/A N/A N/A
1st Priority N/A N/A 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
pm
am
N/A N/A 1st Priority Load, Grid to load, PV to load, Battery to load, PV to grid,
Fig. 7. Dispatching method DM2, (a) weekday, (b) weekend day. PV to battery, Grid to battery
Fig. 10. Daily energy flow on a typical day using DM2.
728
IV. CASE STUDY ANALYSIS V. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
The electricity usage and charged electricity for a one-year When conducting the economic analysis of the PV system
period are shown for the different systems in Fig. 11. A baseline with and without BESS, there are several factors that must be
system without BESS and PV is selected for comparison to considered. First, the cash flow of each system must be
evaluate the economic value of PV system with and without calculated. Then, from this, the net present value (NPV) and
BESS. The data is separated between the baseline system, the payback period (PBP) can be calculated to determine the
PV only, the PV+BESS with DM1, and the PV+BESS with viability of the system. The following sections will show details
DM2. High and low rate periods are shown separately. on how to calculate the NPV and PBP along with the levelized
cost of electricity (LCOE). This analysis uses SAM to perform
Without the PV system, almost one-third of the electricity these calculations.
usage is during the high utility rate period, as shown in Fig. 11
(a). Thus, consumers are charged a higher rate. A large amount A. Cash flow analysis
of high-rate period electricity usage disappeared with the PV
only system. Especially in the non-summer period, such as Nov. The analysis of the cash flow of a system is used to calculate
to May, the PV system fully supports the load, so there is no the return on installing a PV system with and without a battery.
grid usage during high rate period. This cuts down the energy Cash flow is the money that is moving in and out of a system.
charge significantly. However, a decent amount of grid usage In this case, the cash flow is determined by calculating the
during summer time (June to Oct.) still exists when the load is difference between the cash flow in (energy value of the
high. system) and the cash flow out (property tax costs after
deduction, debt interest after deduction, principal payments,
As a result, the value of energy under DM2 is improved a insurance expenses, and O&M capacity-based expenses).
small fraction during non-summer days due to storing PV
energy for later usage, as shown in Fig. 11 (b). However, this B. Net present value analysis
value of energy is limited because the grid electricity price is The NPV is the present value of a system relative to the
only 0.073$/kWh during this period. Technically, energy value it will have in the future. There are several ways to
storage works, but it cannot justify the economic value under calculate the NPV depending on the financial model used. The
typical TOU in which the high utility rate period is largely NPV is used to determine how profitable a project can be. If the
overlapped with the high PV generation period. In this case NPV is positive, then the project will be considered profitable.
study, about 260 kWh more PV excess generation (2.75% and If it is negative, the project will result in a loss.
PV annual production) is collected due to DM2. However, only
$19 more is saved because every kWh PV energy cycled C. Payback period
through the battery is only worth $0.073. Further optimization The payback period is the amount of time required for a
in dispatching can be made to improve the economic value of system to recover the cost of its initial investment. Regarding a
including a BESS. PV system with and without BESS, a payback period of 25
250
years or less is necessary given the lifetime of the system. The
No syst. (L) No syst. (H)
PBP calculation only considers the cash flows in the project’s
200
PV only (L) PV only (H)
PV+B DM1 (L)
lifespan that will recover the cost of the initial investment. Thus,
PV+B DM1 (H) to have a feasible PBP, the analysis must have positive cash
Electricity Charge [$]
PV+B DM2 (L)

150 PV+B DM2 (H) flows after the installation of the PV system with or without
BESS.
100
D. Levelized cost of electricity

The LCOE is the minimum cost electricity must be sold at
50
so that there is no loss over the lifetime of the system. It

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
represents the per kilowatt-hour cost of installing and operating
(a) a system. This is calculated by measuring the lifetime costs of
the systems divided by the energy produced.
2000
+∑
1800 No syst. (L) No syst. (H)
1+
PV only (L) PV only (H)
Electricity Usage [kWh]
1600
1400
PV+B DM1 (L)
PV+B DM1 (H) = (1)
PV+B DM2 (L)
∑
1200
1000
PV+B DM2 (H)
1+
800 Where:
600 : Total annual cost in year t
400 : Initial investment
200 : Annual energy yield
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec : Discount rate
(b)
Fig. 11. Impact of different systems on electricity usage and energy charge,
(a) Electricity usage without PV, with PV only, BESS using DM1, and BESS
using DM2, (b) Energy charge without PV, with PV only, with BESS using
DM1, and BESS using DM2.
729
The main conclusion of the case study presented in this
2000 PV system only
paper is that the investment in a BESS system, despite its
1500 potential benefits, is not economically justified This is mainly
Dollars [$]
because there is an overlap between the high-rate electric tariff

1000 Energy value period and the time interval when the PV system has the
Property tax cost
500 after deduction ; maximum available energy. Therefore, it is difficult for the
Debt interest after
deduction
BESS to maximize its time-shifting benefits.
Principal payment
3000 Insurance expense PV+BESS systems are expected, in the future, to have a
PV system +BESS with DM2
2500 ;O&M Capacity-
based expense
positive economic value due to the inclusion of incentives, the
2000
After tax cash flow decrease in the price of BESS installations, the increased
1500
optimizing of dispatching methods, and favorable changes in
Dollars [$]
1000
500
electric tariffs.
0
-500 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
-1000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
years
This research has been funded in part by the DOE Sunshot
Initiative under award DE-0006341
Fig.12. Annual value of energy, cost, and after-tax cash flow of PV only
system and PV+BESS with DM2.
REFERENCES
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730
Indices to Determine the Environmental and
Economic Impact of Using an Electric Vehicle over
Gasoline or Hybrid Vehicles on a Regional Basis
Arpan Guha1, Subhaditya Shom2, Ala’a Rayyan3, Mahmoud Alahmad4

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Omaha, NE, U.S.A
1
arpan.guha@huskers.unl.edu, 2sshom@unomaha.edu, 3arayyan@unomaha.edu, 4malahmad2@unl.edu
Abstract— Transitioning to electric vehicles (EV) can lower proposed a comprehensive comparison between EVs, ICEVs,
emission to mitigate the effects of climate change. Labeling an EV HEVs, and fuel-cell vehicles over the life-time of the vehicles in
as completely ‘zero emission’ is incorrect, as it ignores the consideration, and proposed several economic and
emissions produced by the electricity generation used to charge environmental indicators to achieve the same. There were five
the vehicle. The local electricity provider’s energy mix will indicators that are proposed separately and then a combined
determine the emissions of an EV, and the fuel efficiency will general indicator. They are all normalized to a value of 1. From
determine economic savings. This paper will describe the their analysis, the authors concluded that HEVs and EVs are
development of two indices to gauge the regional environmental better than the others.
and economic impact of a new EV as compared to a new
conventional internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) and Amongst recently published research, several studies discuss
hybrid elect

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2018 IEEE Transportation and

Electrification Conference and

Long Beach, California

IEEE Catalog Number: CFP18TEB-ART

IEEE Catalog Number: CFP18TEB-ART

A1P-L Poster Session 1a

A1P-M Poster Session 1b

B1P-L Poster Session 2a

C1L-A Power Electronics I

C1L-C Electric Machines II

C1L-F Motor Drivers I

C1L-G Thermal Management and Packaging

C1L-H Electric Vehicle Systems and Components I

C1L-J Smart Grid, Electrical Infrastructure, and V2G Applications I

C2L-A Power Electronics II

C2L-C Electric Machines IV

C2L-F Magnetic Materials and Components

C2L-G Battery Charging Applications and Systems I

C2L-H Electric Vehicle Systems and Components II

C2L-J Policy, Economics, and Grid Impact of Transportation Electrification

C2L-K Modeling, Simulation, and Control I

C3L-A Power Electronics III

C3L-B Electric Machines V

C3L-F Wireless Charging Systems

C3L-G Battery Charging Applications and Systems II

C3L-H Connected and Automated Vehicles and Smart Grid

C3L-J Smart Grid, Electrical Infrastructure, and V2G Applications II

C3L-K Modeling, Simulation, and Control II

C4L-C Motor Drivers III

C4L-F Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Applications

C4L-G Battery Charging Applications and Systems III

C4L-H Smart Grid, Electrical Infrastructure, and V2G Applications III

C4L-J Heavy-Duty, Off-Road, and High-Power Applications

978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 1

(a) (b) (c) (d)

TABLE-I. NUMBER OF COMPONENTS DETAILS

Proposed voltage doubler based 2LCm-Y converter voltage

A. Voltage Doubler Based 2LCm-LVD Converter G X 2 LCm = G X = 

(a) (b) (c)

High-performance Integrated Modulation Scheme

978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 7

Here, KT represents output torque which is constant at differ-

Fig. 2. Illustration of VBC technique in terms of the modulation signal and

as virtual dc-bus clamping. Since there is always one arm

Fig. 9. Performance comparison of DPWM (VBC) and SVPWM in terms of

Fig. 10. Performance comparison of DPWM (VBC) and SVPWM in terms

important performance consideration is converter efficiency.

978-1-5386-3048-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 13

II. AC RESISTANCE: SKIN AND PROXIMITY EFFECTS

  TABLE I. SKIN DEPTH AND MINIMAL MESH SIZE

IV. ELECTROMAGNETIC ANALYSIS OF PMSM

   0 (1   (T  T0 ))  + Coil

where 0 is the copper conductivity at a room temperature - Coil

Fig. 5 2-DAnalysis of 32kW EV/HEV Traction Motor

B. AC Resistance of MSO and Rectanguler Coil

resistance of the rectangular coil remains higher. On the other 0.06

 Fig. 9 d-q Equivalent Circuit of PMSM

The transformation matrix that converts from the three-phase 

coordinate system to the d, q coordinate system is as follows.  Ld ioq   a  Ld iod 

In a permanent-magnet synchronous motor, the inductance of

Motor Speed [rpm]

Fig. 10 Torque and power of 32 kW traction motor according to speed.

Current Angle [°]