A Single Inductor Multi-Port Power Converter for Electric Vehicle Applications

This research presents a non-isolated multi-port power converter feasible to hybridize energy alternatives in electric vehicles. Due to the hybridization of the various input sources, there are several advantages in load power distribution in the system. Flexible control of discharging as well as the charging process concerning the energy sources can be achieved. The developed converter can able to boost the voltage levels with dual inputs such as a renewable solar PV and the other input as a battery and provides dual outputs with various voltage levels, which can able to suit the converter fed for several loads like motor drive and the low-rated loads like lighting and other auxiliary supplies in electric vehicles. Also, as the various voltages appear at the output, this converter can be interfaced with multilevel inverters fed electric vehicle drivetrain. The utilization of multilevel inverters reduces the total harmonic distortion and torque ripples in motor drives in electric vehicles. The proposed converter consists of less number of components making the circuit simple and cost-effective. With one inductor, two various modes are obtained for charging and discharging states concerning the energy storage units. A state-space analysis is designed for all the converter operating modes along with its control design. The proposed multi-port DC-DC converter is designed in MATLAB/Simulink and tested in a laboratory environment with a hardware setup.