A Novel Multifunctional Multi-Port Integrated Converter for Fuel-Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Designing the powertrain of Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FCHEVs) properly is the key point of designing high efficiency FCHEVs. The powertrain of traditional FCHEVs consists of different separated converters. This issue decreases the entire system efficiency. In this paper a multifunctional multi-port integrated converter is proposed which can be used in fuel cell-based hybrid electric vehicles. The proposed converter is designed for a FCHEV that uses ultra-capacitor and battery in addition to the fuel cell stack, in order to improve system efficiency and starting time dynamic response. This converter has the ability to work in three types of operating modes: battery charging, propulsion, and regenerative braking. The regeneration operation enables the converter to return the regenerative braking energy to the battery, which helps the battery to work in a specific state of charge (SOC). One of the most important features of this converter is the ability to charger the battery with pure sinusoidal input current and controllable active and reactive power due to its exclusive topology and the control strategy which is explained in this paper. A useful energy management strategy is also introduced which helps the converter to work properly with high efficiency. This topology with introduced control strategy is simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK and results confirm the system analysis.

A Novel Multifunctional Multi-Port Integrated Converter for Fuel-Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles Keywords:

On-Board Charger , Fuel cell hybrid EV , Integrated converter , multi-port converter , active and reactive power , Regenerative braking energy , Energy management strategy