ICIIS'2017 1570378254

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Design of a Dual Energy Storage Power Converter for
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a Small Electric Vehicle
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8   Nuwan Herath, Prabath Binduhewa, Lilantha Stefano Longo
9   Samaranayake, Janaka Ekanayake Advanced Vehicle Engineering Centre
10   Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Cranfield University, Bedfordshire,
11   Engineering, University of Peradeniya, 20400 Peradeniya, United Kingdom MK43 0AL
12   Sri Lanka s.longo@cranfield.ac.uk
13   nuwan.herath5@gmail.com, prabathb@ee.pdn.ac.lk,
14   lilantha@ee.pdn.ac.lk, jbe@ee.pdn.ac.lk
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17   Abstract—Conventional Electric Vehicles (EV) rely on the Main aim of this paper is to design two bidirectional dc-dc
18   battery as the sole energy source to power the vehicle. However, converters which can use power from two energy sources to
19   the battery being a low power dense type of storage, high power be used in an Electric vehicle. Proposed system architecture to
demands (acceleration and braking) will degrade the battery or carry out this is shown in Fig, 1. The two converters will be
20   will not possible at all in some cases. Supercapacitors, on the
21   connected to a dc link where the electric machine will be
other hand, have high power density and are more suited to connected via its drive circuit and the controller. One of the
22   absorb or release high power demands dc-dc converters will be powered by a battery bank of 24 V
23   and the other converter will be powered by a supercapacitor
24   In this paper, the design of a power electronic converter
module of 32 V[3].
25   system comprising two bidirectional dc-dc converters to handle
26   power of the two energy sources, namely the battery and the
supercapacitor, is presented. The design of voltage regulating
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controller for the dc-link is also presented. The PSCAD
28   simulation of the controller and the experimental verification of
29   the design followed by an analysis of the results are presented.
30   The experiment has been extended to investigate EV scenario
31   consisting of a brushless dc motor following New European
32   Driving Cycle.(NEDC)
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Keywords—Dual energy source, bidirectional dc-dc converter,
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simulation, battery, supercapacitor, electric vehicle, NEDC
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36   I. INTRODUCTION
37   In present world, Electric Vehicles (EVs) have become an
38   attractive solution for the problem of air pollution in cities and
39   the ever depleting petroleum sources. EVs have a battery, a Fig. 1: Block diagram of the proposed system.
40   power converter and an electric machine. When considering a II. DESIGN OF CONVERTERS
41   conventional drive cycle of an electric vehicle, time periods of
42   acceleration, braking and constant speeds can be observed. To comply with the proposed system, two bidirectional dc-
43   The highest power demand from the machine will occur dc converters were designed. The non-isolated topology in the
44   during the acceleration and the power demand from the battery schematic diagram shown in Fig. 2 allows controlled level
will be comparatively lower when the EV is running at conversion of dc power in both directions without any
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constant speed. In order to provide the high power required for transformer because of the voltage of the sources. Also this
46   topology supports high power conversions as required by the
47   acceleration, batteries with high capacity must be used, which
also increases the weight of the vehicle while occupying larger EVs. The energy storage elements will be charged and
48   discharged during the buck mode and boost mode
space.
49   respectively. When VL acts as the input, VH act as the output
50   A solution can be suggested by using a supercapacitor and QL controls the power flow as shown in Fig. 3 (a). Thus
51   bank along with the battery bank to provide power to the EV. the converter acts as a boost converter. However, when VH
52   The supercapacitor can be used to provide pulse power acts as the input, VL act as the output and QH controls the
53   demand during acceleration and sink power spikes caused power flow as shown in Fig. 3 (b). Then the converter acts as a
54   during regenerative braking operation, as it is a high power buck converter flowing power in the opposite direction.
55   density and low energy density device[1]. This allows the
56   battery to cater the average power demand without current
spikes. Thus a battery in smaller capacity can be used and
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thereby life of the battery can be improved[2].
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978-1-5386-1676-5/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

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 When calculating the inductance, ceiling voltages, i.e., the
maximum values possible for VL and VH, were considered to
limit the inductor current ripple at all times. The converter
passive elements were calculated according to the converter
specifications shown in Table I. It was assumed that the
supercapacitor is allowed to discharge up to 50% of full
capacity. Calculated passive component values are shown in
Table II.

Fig. 2: Schematic diagram of the bi directional DC-DC converter. TABLE I. SPECIFICATIONS OF THE CONVERTERS.

Battery Supercapacitor
Specification
Converter Converter
Power rating / kW 5 5
Input voltage range / V 16 - 29.2 22.62 - 32
Nominal input voltage / V 24 32
Nominal output voltage / V 55 55
Output voltage range / V 49.5 - 60.5 49.5 - 60.5
Inductor current ripple /
30 30
% from average current
(a) Output voltage ripple / %
2 2
from nominal
Switching frequency of the
25 25
switching elements / kHz

TABLE II. PASSIVE COMPONENT VALUES.

Battery Supercapacitor
Component value
Converter Converter
(b)
Fig. 3: Operation of the bidirectional converter in (a) boost mode (b) buck Steady state duty ratio 0.56 0.42
mode. Low voltage capacitor (CL)
2930 1470
/ μF
For the boost converter output voltage, considering the volt High voltage capacitor
6750 5100
(CH) / μF
second balance across the inductor, the input-output voltage
Inductor (L) / μH 6.44 8.2
relationship was derived as Equation (1). Equation (2) shows
the relationship between the inductance, voltage, inductor
current ripple (∆Iind), duty ratio (D) and switching frequency III. VOLTAGE REGULATOR FOR THE CONVERTER
(fs). In Equation (3), it gives the required capacitance at the
high voltage side (CH) considering the charge balance of the An automatic controller is required to regulate the voltage
capacitor and the allowed voltage ripple at the high voltage at the required level when the power is drawn from the
side. Equation (4) gives the capacitance at the low voltage side converters. PI controllers were implemented for both
(CL) considering the charge balance of the capacitor and the converters for buck mode and boost mode[5], [6]. The basic ac
allowed voltage ripple at the low voltage side[4]. modeling technique was used to linearize the converter[7].
Fig. 4 shows the two states (ON/OFF) of the boost converter
= (1) and Equations (7) to (9) represent the average linearized
dynamic equations of the converter. Similarly, Fig. 5 shows
= (2) the two states (ON/OFF) of the buck converter, while
∆
=
∆
= (3) Equations (10) to (12) represent the average linearized
∆ ∆ dynamic equations.
∆ ∆
= = (4)
∆ ∆
IH

For the buck converter, the selection of the capacitors IL L R

remains the same. However, the output voltage (VL) was I ind CH VH

obtained after considering volt-second balance across the VL

CL
inductor according to Equation (5) and the required inductance
was calculated using Equation (6).
= (5) (a) ON state (b) OFF state
Fig. 4: Two states of the bi-directional dc-dc converter in the boost mode.
= (6)
∆

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 implementing the real controllers for the converters, manual
tuning was carried out to reduce the high inrush currents,
voltage sags and dynamic effects due to stray inductances and
stray capacitances that were not modeled.

TABLE III. CONTROLLER GAINS.

Battery Supercapacitor
(a) ON state (b) OFF state Controller gain
Converter Converter
Fig. 5: Two states of the buck converter.
Current controller Kp 0.126 0.161
Current controller Ki 397.3 505.8
= − (7) Voltage controller Kp 3.337 2.748
Voltage controller Ki 262.161 84.816
= − − 1− + , (8)
IV. PSCAD SIMULATION RESULTS
= 1− − , − (9)
The designed controllers were simulated using PSCAD
simulation software for transient response. Fig. 8 shows the
= − (10)
simulation results of the battery converter and Fig. 9 shows the
simulation results of the supercapacitor converter, where
= − − − , (11) simulations carried out with command change and load
change. Fig. 8 (a) and Fig. 9 (a) show damped step response as
= + , − (12) expected with negative real poles. Fig. 8 (b) and Fig. 9 (b)
show the response for a load change at the high voltage side.
The plant model of the boost converter is represented using The voltage rises with load reduction and reduces with load
differential equations from Equations (7) to (9) and the plant increment, but the PI controller is able to limit the voltage
model of the buck converter is represented using differential spike within the acceptable limits of the motor controller. Fig.
equations from Equations (10) to (12). To control the voltage, 8 (c) and Fig. 9 (c) show the buck operation of the two
initially, the average inductor current was controlled via a PI converters with command tracking. However, the buck mode
controller. Disturbances are decoupled for better performance. is activated only to charge the two devices, and hence this will
Fig. 6 shows the inductor current controller with PI controller not cause significant impact on the expected performance.
for the boost converter. Fig. 7 shows the voltage controller for
the boost converter. It was assumed that the inner controller is
much faster than the outer loop thus the effects of inner loop is
neglected when designing the outer loop.

Fig. 6: Inductor current controller.

(a) Boost operation command tracking

Fig. 7: Voltage controller.

The PI controller gains were initially tuned such that the

poles of the current controller were placed at 1/10th and 1/40th
of the switching frequency. The poles of the voltage controller
were placed at 1/400th and 1/1600th of the switching
frequency. Table III represents the PI controller gains
calculated from this procedure. This tuning procedure makes
sure that the system always has poles with negative real part to
(b) Boost operation respond to load variation (1kW→0.6kW→ 1.5kW)
ensure the stability of the system[8]. However, in

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 (c) Buck operation command tracking
Fig. 9: Supercapacitor converter PSCAD simulation. (red-reference voltage,
(c) Buck operation command tracking blue-output voltage)
Fig. 8: Battery converter PSCAD simulation. (Red-reference voltage, blue-
output voltage)

V. HARDWARE RESULTS
The two converters were implemented as shown in Fig.10
and Fig.11 and the controller was implemented using Texas
instruments LAUNCHXL-F28377S development kit. The
voltage controllers tested with step changes of different values
in voltage command and the results are shown from Fig. 12 to
Fig. 15. This test helps to analyze the response speed and the
steady state error of the converter controllers. It should be
noted that these results are taken without the effect of snubber
circuits. It is anticipated that the high voltage spikes can be
eliminated from the output voltage with the use of proper
snubber circuits.

(a) Boost operation command tracking

Fig. 10: Battery converter.

(b) Boost operation respond to load variation(1kW→0.6kW→ 1.5kW)

Fig. 11: Supercapacitor converter.

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 The battery converter was connected to an inverter fed,
Input Voltage
20V /div
three phase, 5 kW brushless dc motor and the speed reference
of the motor controller was set to follow the NEDC[9]. The
Output Voltage output voltage and current with the drive cycle is shown in
10V/div Fig. 16. This test was carried out to find the behavior of the
converter under real life working conditions. The load current
and the PI controller regulated output voltage under different
load change was observed from this test.
Inductor Current 40
10A/div

Speed / ms-1
30
20
10

Fig. 12: Battery converter boost operation: output voltage reference 0 2000
0 4000 6000 8000 10000
subjected to a step change of 10V (250ms/div) (a)
8
Input Voltage 6

Current / A
50V/div 4
2

Output Voltage 0 2000

0 4000 6000 8000 10000
5V/ div
(b)
55.5
Voltage / V 55

54.5
Inductor Current
10A/div 54
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
(c)
Fig. 13: Battery converter buck operation: output voltage reference Fig. 16: Results obtained by operating the converter in NEDC. (a) speed
subjected to a step change of 5V (250ms/div) reference, (b) motor current, (c) converter output voltage.

Input Voltage It can be observed that the load current varies according to the
20V/div speed reference. Thus the above speed profile can be accepted
as a continuously varying load change. The load profile was
Output Voltage run when the voltage reference for the converter was given as
5V/div 55V. From Fig. 16 (c) it can be observed that the converter
can provide a well regulated voltage.

VI. DISCUSSION
Inductor Current The converters were able to convert power according to
5A/div
their design. The converter controllers showed that the voltage
could be regulated according to the reference command and
Fig. 14: Supercapacitor converter boost operation: output voltage reference respond by regulating the voltage in load changing in both
subjected to a step change of 5V (100ms/div)
simulation and hardware testing. Additionally, the
implemented converter controller seems to have better
Input Voltage response than the PSCAD simulations. The settling time
50V/div
comparison for both converters for simulation and hardware
implementation is presented in Table IV. As seen in Fig. 16,
Output Voltage the converter controller is fast enough as the converter voltage
10V/div stabilizes within an acceptable time throughout the NEDC.
Overall, the two converters can convert power in a
conditioned manner to develop a dc link to drive the electric
Inductor Current
motor drive.
5A/div TABLE IV. SETTLING TIME FOR BOTH CONVERTERS.

Hardware
Controller settling time Simulation / ms
implemented / ms
Fig. 15: Supercapacitor converter buck operation: output voltage reference
Battery converter 150 50
subjected to a step change of 22V (100ms/div)
Supercapacitor converter 25 40

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 VII. CONCLUSION
A battery-supercapacitor hybrid energy storage method
was proposed for an electric small vehicle, such as the
common three wheeler taxis. The designed converters were
simulated and hardware implemented. The converters met the
specifications. The converter was able to provide adequate
power to run the motor. The controllers implemented to
regulate voltage in both converters were robust. Thus a stable
and stiff dc-link was developed to power the motor converter.
These two converters can hence be used with batteries and
supercapacitors to develop a dual energy source system. The
controller proved to be adequately fast to respond the speed
changes in the NEDC, thus ensuring stable voltage at the
motor controller.

VIII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors would like to acknowledge the EPSRC Global
Challenges Research grant titled "Development of a
controllable DC-DC converter for dual energy source electric
vehicles" and the University of Peradeniya Research Grant
URG/2016/32/E for supporting this research.

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