Large-Signal Black-Box Modelling of

Bidirectional Battery Charger for Electric

Vehicles
Galo Guarderas Airán Francés
Antreas Naziris
Centro de Electrónica Industrial Centro de Electrónica Industrial
Centro de Electrónica Industrial
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Madrid, Spain Madrid, Spain
Madrid, Spain
g.guarderas@alumnos.upm.es airan.frances@upm.es
a.naziris@upm.es
Javier Uceda
Rafael Asensi
Centro de Electrónica Industrial
Centro de Electrónica Industrial
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Madrid, Spain
Madrid, Spain
javier.uceda@upm.es
rafael.asensi@upm.es

Abstract— This paper introduces a new approach of black-
box modelling of bidirectional battery chargers for Electric
Vehicles (EV). Due to the increasing penetration of EV, the
number of battery chargers connected to the grid is also
increasing, being a challenge to assess the impact of such
growing number of battery chargers into the grid
performance. The black-box model is able to represent the
behavior of the battery charger using the information
generated from a number of tests applied to the equipment to
be modeled. Due to the variability of the operating conditions a
large-signal modelling strategy based on the polytopic
structure is proposed. This modelling strategy will be tested
with an actual commercial bidirectional battery charger. The
experimental tests of the paper illustrate the Grid to Vehicle
(G2V) and Vehicle to Grid (V2G) operations.
Keywords—Large-Signal, Black-Box, Electric Vehicles,
Bidirectional Battery Charger
I. INTRODUCTION
In the last decades, the amount of smart, green
applications has become part of our everyday life. One of
those applications is the electric car. Their increasing number
can also lead to peaks or a huge drain of energy from the
grid. Consequently, a system-level solution able to represent
the grid behaviour has to be proposed. This paper is dealing
with the system-level problem, and more specifically with
bidirectional battery chargers of electric vehicles, by
introducing a polytopic black-box modelling approach.
Section II describes the black-box models and it is divided in
two subsections describing a linear small-signal and a
polytopic large-signal model. Section III is elaborated with
the experimental part and it can be seen that linear and
nonlinear methods can represent the system under any
condition
II. BLACK-BOX MODEL
In connection with the previous section, the main target
of this paper is to include all kind of battery chargers at a
system level. Since it is not possible for the Transmission
System Operator (TSO) to have detailed knowledge of all
power converter structures, a more elegant and ´smart´
solution has to be found. Thus, the black-box model is
applied. In order to determine the model of a particular
converter [1], first, using the small-signal approach, it has to
be linearized around an operation point obtained from tests
applied to their input/output terminals. The method is
implemented in time domain. However, frequency analysis
[2, 3] can be an alternative.
The black-box model is identified using the inputs and
the outputs of an actual bidirectional ac-dc converter.
Firstly, [4] a step must be added to the input signals of the
model (Fig. 1). The response of the converter to the step is
used to construct the transfer functions. In the validation
part, different tests have been implemented to check the
accuracy of the black-box model in comparison with the
actual converter. In addition, by means of tests, the linearity
of the model has been checked. The response of the
converter to the step is used to construct the transfer
functions. The comparison of the two output signals-actual
equipment and model- proves the capability of the model to
present the behaviour of the converter. In section III, the
accuracy of the system will be shown.
A. Linear Small-Signal Model
This paper presents the extension of the small-signal G-
parameters [5, 6] model for dc-dc converters to ac and dc
input/output signals. In order to convert the ac signal in dc in
the d-q frame, the Park transformation is used. The small-
signal approach is performed by applying small steps to the
input signals, collecting the response of the output signals
and using them for the identification process, as it was
mentioned in the previous section [7]. In the small-signal
procedure, the small step is introduced while the converter is
working in a certain operating point. The dynamic behaviour,
which is produced in that specific period, will be used to
identify the transfer functions associated to that operating
point. As it appears, for a small power change, the usage of a
linear small-signal method provides a good accuracy. On the
other hand, when a higher step is applied to input reference,
the dynamic behaviour gives out a mismatch between the
small-signal black-box model and the actual converter. The
Ibat,ref Ibat,out
Vd
Black-box model
Id
dq
Vac
dq Vq Iq Iac
Fig. 1. Block diagram of black-box model

978-1-5386-8330-9/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 3195

 Points of inflection
cause of that mismatch is due to the fact, the converter
behaviour depends on the operating point. Therefore, a
WF1 WF2 WF3 WF4 WF5
nonlinear approach has to be followed. Summation 1

B. Polytopic Large-Signal Model
According to the linear small-signal section and the
nonlinearities present in the system, which appears in some
tests, the polytopic approach has been selected. The
polytopic idea is to use a group of local models [8, 9] in
different operating points combining them with weighting
functions in a single nonlinear structure.
A nonlinear connection between two factors [10] is one
for which the incline of the bend demonstrating the
relationship changes as the estimation of one of the factors
changes. A nonlinear bend is a bend whose slope changes as
the estimation of one of the factors changes. We can appraise
the incline of a nonlinear bend between two. When we
register the slope of a nonlinear bend between two, we are
processing the incline of a straight line between those two.
Since the slope of a nonlinear bend is distinctive at each
point on the bend, the exact method to figure incline is to
draw a tangent line; the slope of the tangent line measures up
to the slope of the bend at the point the tangent line contacts
the bend. An example of this nonlinear relationship can be
seen in Fig. 2. The red indicators at the axes indicate the A,
B, C and D points of tangent lines.
The most extended kind of weighting function for this
kind of application is the double sigmoid. It is well known
that the summation of the weighting functions must be
always equal to 1 and their range goes from 0 to 1. Every
weighting function has different parameters affecting their
functions. The parameters of the double sigmoid weighting
function depending on the slopes and the points of inflection
of the bend. An example of the slope of the bend it can be
seen in Fig. 2. In Fig. 3 [11], a summation of double sigmoid
in terms of the input current is indicated. In the figure, we
can observe the point of inflection, which is the second
parameter.
The current example indicates that the reference of the
battery (Ibat,ref) current in the black box model changes with
a range of 4A with 4 small signal steps or tangent lines. The
segments of the weighting functions (W.F.) are weighted
50:50 and thus the points of inflections are exactly in the
middle of every small signal (bend). The variability present
in the system can lead to a wide range of operating
of Weighting
0.5
functions (%)
0 1 2 3 4
Ibat,ref (A)
Fig. 3. Block diagram of double sigmoid weighting functions
conditions, which will determine the number of small-signal
models integrated into the polytopic model.
Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 show a clearer view of what is inside of
the polytopic model. Fig. 4 indicates what it has been
mentioned above. There is a group of local models, which
have been identified before from the inputs and outputs of
the converter. The combination of the weighting functions
and transfer functions lead to a nonlinear design. Fig. 5 gives
a real-life example of a polytopic signal from nature. As it is
mentioned, a large-signal model can be reproduced from a
group of small signals, likewise, the combination of a group
of small drops can result to a pond.
III. EQUIPMENT SETUP AND RESULTS
The experimental setup consists of a bidirectional AC-
DC converter (Cinergia B2C-30), to be modelled. If the
power flow is going from the ac side to the dc side, an
electronic load working in resistive mode is connected in the
dc side. In addition, a DC power supply (Sorensen DHP
Series) represents the battery in the V2G operation mode.
The system is connected to the single-phase grid. The
following subsections illustrate the connection diagrams of
the real equipment. The tests, which have been implemented,
Polytopic model
Weighting function 1
Transfer
X
function 1
. Polytopic
.
Weighting function N
Σ signal model
Ibat,ref step
Transfer
X
function N

Fig. 4. Polytopic model interior view

Ibat,ref (A)
Battery
reference
D current
C
B

Time (s) Time

Fig. 2. Nonlinear connection between two factors Fig. 5. Real life application of polytopic model

3196
illustrate the G2V and V2G operations of the converter (Fig.
6 and Fig. 7).
A. Grid to Vehicle
The power is transferred from the grid to the EV battery
at charging mode. In Fig. 8 and Fig. 9, the ac current
changes, according to the demand of the dc part,
corresponding to the EV battery load -here the electronic
load-. The changes of the active power reference applied to
the system are coming from the software program of
Cinergia. Cinergia charger is working as a current source, by
creating current steps in order to verify the behavioural of the
equipment.
Several tests have been implemented and the most
representatives are shown. During this experiment, ac current
and dc current collected from single-phase ac part and from
the dc part of the Cinergia charger respectively. Those values
used to create the local models with ac current signal and dc
current as model output signal in identification process. Test
1 is represented in Fig. 8.
On the second graph, one local model was obtained from
the response of the system to a step in the output current
from 3A to 4A. The first local model follows the same
procedure but with the output current from 6A to 5A. The
operation point of the test is 3A with a step of 1A at t=1.35
seconds, which indicates that the second graph has the same
operation point. It can be observed that during the steady
state, the response of the 2 signals does not have any
difference.
However, during the transient response, the small-signal
model obtained around the operating point of the test has a
better accuracy than the one obtained in a different operating
Cinergia B2C30 converter
Chroma dc electronic load
AC current Battery current
Fig. 6. Equipment setup of G2V
Cinergia B2C30 converter
Chroma dc electronic load
R Sorensen power source 3-ph plug
R
S
T
N
N
AC current
Battery current
Fig. 7. Equipment setup of V2G
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point -1st graph-. This test demonstrates, first, that the
converter has an operating point dependent behaviour and,
second, that a local model is able to reproduce the behaviour
of the device around its operating point for small steps. In
Fig. 9, the second test is illustrated. In this case, the accuracy
of the model is tested with a large-signal step. The battery
reference current is at 3A as in the previous test, but the step
change is +5A at t=5s up to 8A. As it can be seen, in the
upper graph, the linear method that has been used cannot
reproduce the real equipment response.
B. Vehicle to Grid
In this subsection, the power is transferred from EV
battery to the grid at discharging mode. The discharging
mode of the battery implemented with the help of an AC-DC
power source (Sorensen DHP Series) connected in parallel
with the dc electronic load. The procedure of the experiments
was the same with the only difference that the Sorensen
operated as a voltage source and the current reference to the
Cinergia charger is now negative, changing the direction of
the power flow.
The most representative experiment in this part is the
180 degrees phase shift between the ac voltage and ac
current grid. This effect happens due to the change of the
current direction back to the grid, which can be seen in the
above figure of Fig.10. In the figure grid voltage and grid
current are represented. The current, which is initially
returned to the grid, is 3A peak and a step of +6A is given up
9A peak. In the upper part of Figure 10, the ac voltage and ac
current of the actual Cinergia charger are shown. In the lower
part the comparison of the ac current in the actual charger
and the proposed polytopic model is also shown. This
Time (s)
Fig. 8. Test with local model
Time (s)
Fig. 9. Test with large signal step

Time (s)
Fig. 10. Vehicle to Grid test
comparison illustrate the good accuracy of the non-linear
black-box model described in this paper, when the battery
charger is in V2G operating mode.
CONCLUSIONS
Summing up, this paper illustrates the implementation of
an accurate model, which can be used for system-level
analysis of architectures that integrate bidirectional battery
chargers. Moreover, this model is tested with an actual
battery charger converter. Both of the responses showed in
section III confirm a very good accuracy.
The polytopic method has been applied in both directions
V2G and G2V with very good results. From the results
above, we can see that the model has a good accuracy in the
application with a commercial converter. This information
can be useful to analyse the influence of the battery charger
in the dynamic behaviour of the rest of the system.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of
Economy and Competitiveness under the project
IDENMRED with reference DPI2016-78644-P.
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