A Novel Bidirectional T-Type Multilevel Inverter For Electric Vehicle Applications

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Transactions on Power Electronics

A Novel Bidirectional T-type Multilevel Inverter for Electric Vehicle


Applications
Ahmed Sheir1, Mohamed Z. Youssef1 , and Mohamed Orabi2
Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering, University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT)
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, L1H 1K7
Aswan University, Faculty of Engineering, Egypt2
Ahmed.Sheir@uoit.ca, Mohamed.Youssef@uoit.ca, morabi@apearc.aswu.edu.eg

Abstract—This paper introduces a new configuration of voltage to be at the level required to allow the power to flow to
bi-directional multilevel converter in electric vehicle (EV) the electric machine in motoring mode over the designed range
applications. It has multilevel DC-DC converter with a of modulation index (𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚). In breaking mode (regenerative), the
direct current (DC) link capacitor voltage balance feature. bi-directional converter stepped the DC voltage to allow the
The multilevel DC-DC converter operates in bi-directional power to flow in reverse direction from the electric machine
manner, which is a fundamental requirement in EVs. back to the utility grid or electrical storage units as in electric
Compared to the conventional configurations, the proposed vehicle. Based on the power source connected to the propulsion
one only implements two extra power switches and a system, the bi-directional converter can be designed as boost
capacitor to balance the voltage of the T-type MLI converter in motoring mode and buck converter in during
capacitor over a complete drive cycle or at fault conditions. breaking, or vice versa.
Therefore, no extra isolated sensor, control loops and/or Although conventional dc-dc converters are very reliable in
special switching pattern are required. Moreover, the controlling the dc bus voltage, it is not always the case when
proposed configuration due to the high frequency cycle-by- are connected to a multilevel inverter [11], [12]. As mentioned,
cycle voltage balance between 𝑪𝑪𝒏𝒏 and 𝑪𝑪𝒑𝒑 the bulky multilevel inverter that is connected to a single dc power source
electrolytic capacitors used in T-type MLI are replaced with is relying on split capacitor as an input stage to produce its sub-
longer life more reliable film capacitors. This will result in level output voltages. Such arrangement is susceptible to
a size and weight reduction of the converter by 20%. This unbalanced capacitor voltages and hence voltage deviation of
allows more real estate for the EV battery in the chassis’ the neutral point [1]. Therefore, an extra circuitry with or
space envelope; to increase its capacity. The proposed without control loop is to be added to ensure a balanced voltage
configuration is tested and validated using a on the capacitors and balance the neutral point [13], [14] .
Matlab/Simulink simulation model. A laboratory prototype Another solution is applying a modified switching scheme [15]
1 kW is built to provide the proof of concept results as well. that chooses between a different set of switching state to
reestablish the voltage balance once detected.
Keywords—Multilevel inverter, T-type MLI, Multilevel Nonetheless, modified switching as presented in [16] [17]
DC-DC converter, bi-directional converter, Capacitor voltage [18] can successfully mitigate this issue. Without a feedback
balance, natural voltage balance; controller, the converter still susceptible to temporary faults
that affected the balance in capacitor voltages. A voltage
I. INTRODUCTION balance circuit offers a much robust and accurate method to
Many multilevel inverter topologies has been introduced to balance the voltage on the capacitors and control inverter’s
address different types of applications [1] [2] [3]. Generally, neutral point. While the first method is preferable when it
multilevel inverters either rely on isolated dc power sources or comes to the power train cost and space envelope. The second
split capacitors connected to a single dc power source to one can recover the balance and control neural point against
synthesis its stepped output voltage levels. The first type is more wider range of faults. With proper design, it also has advantage
reliable but require as mentioned increasing number of dc power of reducing the control complexity and eliminate the need for
sources and power switches such as cascaded H-bridge isolate voltage sensors, which not only affect the cost but the
multilevel inverter. On the other hand, the split capacitor based inverter lifetime as well.
MLI such as neutral point clamped NPC MLI [4], flying Many techniques are presented to control the capacitor
capacitor FC MLI [5] and T-type MLI [6] [7] required lower voltages and the neutral point in split capacitor based multilevel
number of power components. Nonetheless, as the voltage inverters. In [16], a hybrid space vector modulation SVM is
across each capacitor is relaying on an ideal natural balance, introduced. It integrates two modulation techniques to cover the
their voltages in practical are susceptible for voltage drifting total range of modulation index. An optimized SVM at low
which leads to voltage imbalance operations. modulation which results in low total harmonics distortion and
reduce the switching states. The high modulation area is covered
In electric vehicle applications, the three-phase inverter in
by simplified SVM which reduce the complexity of the required
propulsion system is fed by a bi-directional DC-DC converter
calculations. Such technique sustain the balance in the capacitor
[8] [9] [10]. It controls the dc bus voltage by regulating its

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Transactions on Power Electronics

voltages and allow for operating in both motoring and breaking converter which make it impractical in electric machine drive
modes. On the other hand, it requires an addition of isolated applications especially in EV. Therefore, the proposed
sensors and a controller that can handle the necessary converter configuration modified its structure by replacing the
calculations. Hence, increase the system cost and reduce its clamping diodes connected with 𝐶𝐶𝑀𝑀 by two active power
reliability. Similar balancing techniques based on the modified switches. These two switches are operated in a complementary
modulation are also introduced in [17] and [18], which also manner and in conjunction with the boost converter
suffers from the same drawback by adding more isolated voltage synchronous switches as shown in Fig. 2. So, the simplicity of
sensors and control loops. the original contracture is reserved as well as the number of
controlling signal. Therefore, the proposed converter
In conclusion, the modified modulation based techniques do
configuration is able to achieve a bi-directional operation where
not require adding an extra components in terms of power
the input voltage is boosted in motoring mode, and the
components (active/passive switches, capacitor and/or
combined capacitors’ voltage is bucked in breaking
inductors). Thus, it has been seen as an optimum solution.
(regenerative) mode.
However, it requires adding extra sensors and control loops if a
This paper is organized as follow, first the operation of the
wide range of operation and fault tolerance are to be achieved.
proposed configuration has been explained in details, including
Moreover, their ability to control and equalize the capacitors’
the switching states in different operating modes. Then, the
voltages are limited by the redundancy states that are offered by
converter’s capacitor sizing is discussed. Finally, the validity of
the construction of multilevel converter itself.
the proposed configuration has been investigated using both
As mentioned, capacitors’ voltage balance in multilevel simulation model and experimental prototype.
inverter can also be achieved by adding an extra circuitry T-Type MLI
between the input power source (batteries connected to a bi-
directional in EV) and the MLI, as shown in Fig.1. The added

Capacitor Voltage balance


circuitry can be an active circuit as introduced in [19]. In [19], Boost CP
the introduced voltage balancing circuit consists of two active Converter Q4
Q2 Q8
power switches, three diodes and coupled inductors per two L a
b
capacitors. Although the overall configuration is able to reduce DC CN Q7 c
Q1 Q5
the magnetic flux fluctuation in the coupled inductor as well as
uniformly distribute the power losses across the power switches.
It requires an addition of feedback control loops, harmonic
injection and as mentioned increasing number of components
and can only operate in applications without regenerative
breaking. Therefore, it is suitable in medium voltage drive
application, but less desirable in low voltage application as in
electric vehicles. Fig. 1. The conventional configuration, a dc-dc converter
connected to a voltage balancing circuit before connected to
Similarly, in [20] a capacitor based auxiliary circuit is the T-type MLI.
introduced to balance capacitor voltage in 5-level NPC
multilevel inverter. Its generalized form consists of twenty-one II. PROPOSED SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
active switches and six auxiliary capacitors but a simplified Conventionally, from the propulsion system design point of
version is also introduced based on one auxiliary capacitor and view, the dc input power source is connected to the bi-
twelve active switches. However, it suffers from the same issues directional dc-dc converter, which controls the voltage of the
as it requires adding more components and control which dc bus. The voltage balancing circuit is placed between the
increase the system complexity. Moreover, it does not limit the output of the dc-dc converter and the input of the multilevel
operation to motoring only as in [19]. In [21] a novel multilevel inverter.
converter based on the same principle is introduced, which On the other hand, in the proposed configuration, the input
although, solves the capacitors voltages imbalance in MMC, its dc power source (such as batteries in EV) is connected to a bi-
contracture does not allow for four quadrant machine drive. directional multilevel dc-dc converter as shown in Fig. 2. Its
In [22] the capacitors’ voltages are balanced using three split output capacitors supplies the multilevel inverter is with
active switches and two inductors to achieve voltage the sub-level voltages requires to generate its ac output voltage.
equalization across three input capacitors. These components The added capacitor CM in the multilevel bi-directional dc-dc
configure two-buck converters, which can successfully control converter acts an intermediate energy storage. It transfers the
the capacitors’ voltages. For such configuration, this balancing excess electrical energy from the higher capacitor CP to the
circuit requires a adding more feedbacks and control loops. lower one CN and vice versa. Hence, the converter can achieve
Moreover, compared to the capacitors based voltage balancing natural voltage balance between CP and CN without any
circuit, the inductors based on are less preferable. feedback or added control loop.
The multilevel dc-dc boost converter originally introduced Although multilevel dc-dc converter utilizes two extra
in [23] [24] [25] can only operate as uni-directional boost switches and a capacitor which affects power train cost and
size. It introduces an advantage of increasing its voltage

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boosting gain by two for the same duty cycle in conventional power will be transferred from CM to CN as shown be the
boost converter. It is done without increasing the reverse arrows in Fig. 3 (c). Consequently, when CM is connected to CP
blocking voltage seen by any of the power switches. In other it will be charged though Q4 as shown in Fig. 3 (d) and the cycle
words, for the same output voltage, multilevel dc-dc converter will be repeated. In regenerative mode, the electric machine
utilized power switches with half of the blocking voltage Vb , acts as a generator forcing the power back to the dc bus.
and operates in half of the duty cycle D in comparison with the Therefore, in order to increase the efficiency of the driving
conventional boost converter. system, the bi-directional operates as a buck converter to
Capacitor T-Type MLI recovers this energy back to the DC power source. Fig. 3. (a)
balance and (b) show the operating states over a complete switching
Q4
period TS .
In motoring mode, the first state occurs at DTS > t > 0 in
Boost Q3 CP which Q2 and Q4 are ON while Q1 and Q3 are OFF. The
Converter CM
Q4 regenerative power is transferred from CN to the DC source and
Q2 Q8
a
L
b charging the inductor L and the capacitor Cin . Meantime, Cp is
DC c
Q1
CN Q7
Q5 charging to CM through Q4 as VCP is now higher that VCM , as
shown in Fig. 3 (a).
The second state occurs at TS > t > DTS , where, Q1 and Q3
are ON while Q2 and Q4 are OFF. While Q1 allows the power
to transfer from the inductor L and the input capacitor Cin , Q3
connects CM to CN as shown by the arrows in Fig. 3 (b). Due to
the power transfer from CN to the input DC its voltages VCN is
reduced compared to VCP and VCM . Thus, CM charges CN which
Fig. 2. The proposed configuration, a multilevel bidirectional
increases its voltage again.
DC-DC converter connected to the T-type MLI.
Nonetheless, it is possible for the power flow between CN ,
A. Circuit operation CM and CP to be reversed as shown in Fig. 4 (c) and (d). For
The operation of the proposed converter configuration is example when the voltage across CN is higher than Cp (VCN >
divided based on the two modes of operation into VCP ). In such case, at TS > t > DTS the power will be
1) Step-up mode in in machine motoring state; and 2) bucking transferred from CN to CM as shown be the arrows in Fig. 4 (d).
mode in machine breaking (regenerative) state. It is important Consequently, when CM is connected to CP it will charge it
to notice that the boost converter is operating in continuous though Q4 as shown in Fig. 4 (c) and the cycle will be repeated.
conduction mode where the average inductor current is more It can be notice that, the converter can now work as bi-
than its ripple. Fig. 3 (a) and (b) show the electrical power flow directional converter instead of being only able to work as a
from the input dc voltage to the lower capacitor CN to the CM uni-directional one. In typical operations, the dc-dc converter
and to the upper capacitor CP over a complete switching (in boosting mode) charges the lower capacitor CN at output
period TS . In such case, the multilevel inverter operates in voltage VCN = VDC /(1 − D) . CM acts as an intermediate
typical condition where the power delivered by each capacitor storage that charges from CN and charge CP at the same
CN and CP are qual. Hence, the boost converter always pushes voltage, all within once switching cycle. At the bucking mode,
the power to CN which is transferred to CP via CM as will be CM is charged from CP then charges CN which ensures the
explained. voltage balance in reverse power flow. Therefore, the balance
Fig. 3 (a) shows the first state where DTS > t > 0. The switch between the capacitor is sustain and the voltage across the dc
Q1 is ON while Q2 is OFF allowing the inductor current to bus equals VCP + VCN = 2VDC /(1 − D) (in boosting mode). It
increase iL . At the same time, Q3 is ON and Q4 is OFF, is worth to mention that the reverse voltage seen by any of the
connecting the middle capacitor CM to CN . Because of being power switched Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 is clamped to the Vrev =
connected directly to the boost converter, CN has a higher VCN = VCP = VDC /(1 − D).
voltage VCN than CM voltage VCM , thus, the power is transferred
from CN to CM as shown by the arrows. The second state is Q4
shown in Fig. 3 (b) where TS > t > DTS , in which, Q1 is OFF
Three phase T-type MLI

while Q2 is ON. The inductor starts to discharge through Q2 to CP


Q3
CN which increases its voltage VCN . At the same time, the power CM
M
is transferred form CM (which is being charged at a higher
Q2

L
voltage ( VCM = VCN ) fromCN ) to Cp by connecting Q4 and
DC Cin CN
disconnecting Q3. Q1

The power flow between CN , CM and CP can be reversed as


shown in Fig. 3 (c) and (d). For example the voltage across CN
is lower than Cp ( VCN < VCP ). This can occurs due to a (a)
temporary switching fault. In such case, at DTS > t > 0 the

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Transactions on Power Electronics

Q4

Three phase T-type MLI


Q4

Three phase T-type MLI


CP
CM Q3
M CP
CM Q3

Q2
L M

Q2
DC L
Cin CN
Q1
DC Cin CN
Q1

(b)
(a)
Q4

Three phase T-type MLI Q4

Three phase T-type MLI


CP
CM Q3
M CP
CM Q3
Q2

L
M

Q2
DC Cin L
CN
Q1
DC Cin CN
Q1

(c)
(b)
Q4
Three phase T-type MLI

CP
CM Q3
Q4
M

Three phase T-type MLI


Q2

L
CP
CM Q3
DC Cin CN
Q1 M

Q2
L

DC Cin CN
Q1
(d)

(c)

Q4
Three phase T-type MLI

CP
CM Q3
M
Q2

DC Cin CN
Q1

(e) Capacitors’ voltages waveforms and Q1 gating signal in


steady state.
Fig. 3. The operation of the proposed configuration in (d)
boosting mode in motoring drive mode. Fig. 4. The operation of the proposed configuration in bucking
mode in breaking (regenerative) drive mode.
While the output voltage at the dc bus = 2VDC /(1 − D). Fig. 3
(e) shows the capacitors’ voltages theoretical waveforms with Finally, it is important to note that as two capacitors charged at
respect to Q1 gating signal in steady state which further different voltage levels are come to contact, an inrush current
demonstrate the capacitor charging / discharging to achieve spike is generated. Therefore, a small inductance is added in
voltage balance. series with the middle capacitor CM to limit such current. Here

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a 1uH inductor is enough to limit the inrush current to about the Unlike three phase voltage source inverter, in typical three-
load nominal current at switching frequency fs = 50kHz. phase T-type multilevel inverter, the capacitors are designed to
compensate for the variation in the load power at low frequency
B. Capacitor design
f = 180Hz (for 60Hz system) with voltage ripple =10%, as
Fig. 5 (a) to (c) shows the output ac voltage generation at shown in Fig. 6. Nonetheless, because of the voltage ripples
the load terminals for one phase (phase a) of T-type multilevel seen across the capacitors (VCP and VCN ) are 180° out of phase,
inverter. In the positive half cycle, the load is connected to the resultant will be a dc voltage level VDC bus with only the high
capacitor CP through Q4, as shown in Fig. 5 (a). While in the frequency ripple of the bi-directional converter [26] as shown
negative half cycle the load is connected to CN through Q5, as in Fig. 7 (a).
shown in Fig. 5 (b). The zero voltage level is generated by Therefore, even tough the bi-directional converter operates
clamping the load using the bi-directional switch configured by at higher switching frequency compared to the multilevel
Q7 and Q8, as shown in Fig. 5 (c). inverter. It can not detect and compensate for the capacitors
Therefore, the capacitance of CP and CN should be high voltage variation due to the low frequency power variation.
enough to supply the load rated power and maintain their
VCp
voltage ripple at minimum. The capacitance can be calculated
as follow: Va Vb Vc

P
C= 2 (1)
2∗π∗f∗dv∗V

Where, P is the load power, V is the load voltage, dv is the


voltage ripple and finally f is the frequency of the load power VCn

variation.
Fig.6. Compensate for the variation in the load power at low
Q4 frequency f = 180Hz (for 60Hz system) in T-type MLI.

Q3 CP
CM

Q2 Q8
Q4 Vdc
L Va=Vcp
DC CN Q7
VCp
Q1 Q5 VCn
Load

t
(a) Capacitor voltages of T-type MLI connected to a
(a) conventional bi-direction DC-DC converter

Q4
Vdc

VCp
Q3 CP
CM VCn
Q4
Q2 Q8
L Va=-Vcn
t
DC CN Q7
Q1 Q5 (b) The capacitor voltages of T-type MLI in the proposed
Load

configuration.

(b) Vdc

Q4

Q3 CP t
CM
Q4
Q2 Q8
(c) The capacitor voltages of T-type MLI in the proposed
L Va=0
configuration after compensated by the controller.
DC
Q1
CN Q7
Q5
Fig. 7. The variation of the dc bus VDC bus voltage and
Load

capacitors’ voltages.

Thus, as mention, it limits the ability to reduce the


(c) capacitance values of CP and CN in order to replace the
Fig. 5. The switching states of the T-type multilevel converter. conventional electrolytic capacitors with film capacitors. For
example, if the dc bus capacitors are designed based on

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equation (1), then, for a 120kW, 750V dc bus voltage with waveform with output levels ( 750V, 375V, 0V, −375 and −
dv=10% and rated speed at 60Hz. The minimum values of the 750V). Therefore, the peak output voltage is 750V multiplied
dc bus capacitors is 1.9mF which is only available in range of by the modulation index mi = 0.8 at switching frequency fs =
the electrolytic capacitors. 5kHz.
In the proposed configuration, on the other hand, the voltage The capacitors voltages, three phase line-to-line output
of both capacitors (Cp and CN ) VCP and VCN are balanced by the voltage and the three phase output currents in the motoring
middle capacitor CM as shown in Fig. 4. That means in every mode are shown in Fig. 10. Where the motor is represented by
switching period Ts of the bi-directional converter, the voltage series RL load (R=5Ω and 1mH). The dc-dc stage is connected
across all the capacitors are equalized, VCN = VCM = VCP . to the battery to boost its voltage from Vdc = 200V to 375V at
Hence, all the capacitors voltage ripples are in phase and the duty cycle D = 0.53 at switching frequencyfs = 50kHz.
resultant voltage ripple at VDC bus is increased, as shown in Fig.
7 (b). Although, this is consider a disadvantage, it allows the
feedback controller of the bi-directional converter to detect and
compensate for the voltage variation. Thus, it maintains all
voltages of all capacitors at their reference values as shown in
Fig. 7 (c).
Therefore, the capacitance of each capacitor is chosen based
on the design of the high frequency bi-directional converter to
filler its switched voltage, which can lead to implement
capacitors with significantly lower capacitance. Thus,
electrolytic capacitors normally associate with such multilevel
inverter can be replaced with film capacitors that offers much
higher life-time and stable performance [27], [28]. This is all
done without affecting the dc bus voltages or introduces
unwanted harmonics to the drive train. Equation (2) is then used Fig. 8. Three phase line to line output voltage.
to calculate the minimum capacitance required by any high
frequency boost converter as follow:
VD
C= (2)
2 fs dv R
Where V is the VDC bus , D is the boost nominal duty cycle, fs is
its switching frequency, dv is the allowed voltage ripple in
voltage (V) and R is the load equivalent Ohmic resistance.
Thus, following the same input of the pervious example, (with
200V input voltage), the required capacitance is 15 uF which is
within range of film capacitors available in the market.
Nonetheless, as the low frequency ripple is to be compensated
from the boost input side, such ripple will be reflected in its
input current (inductor current). Thus, an attentional should be
paid to when designing the values of the inductor and the
capacitors in accordance to maximum allowing low frequency Fig. 9. Low frequency ripple on capacitors voltage Vcn, Vcm
ripple in the inductor current, to prevent the converter from and Vcp in corresponding to the three phase output power;
operation in discontinuous conduction mode, where, the three phase output voltage; and three phase output current.
inductor current may reach zero ampere. Equation (3) shows
the boundary that must be satisfied for any boost converter to
operate in continuous conduction mode.
2Lfs
> D(1 − D)2 (3)
Rcritical
Where, L is the inductance value of the inductor of boost
converter and R critical is the equivalent output resistance that
caused the boost to operate in discontinuous conduction mode.
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
Fig. 10. Capacitor voltage at steady state.
A simulation model is constructed to test and validate the
performance of the proposed configuration. The output voltage The dc-dc stage inductor is 52 uH and the three capacitors
of the multilevel inverter is shown Fig. 8. The voltage of each and the input capacitor connected to the battery (used in
capacitor in the T-type multilevel inverter is controlled to be at bucking mode in regenerative mode) are equal and equal to
375V. Thus, the line-to-line output voltage is a five levels 10uF / 400V which is in the range of film capacitors available
( +2Vdc , +Vdc , 0, −Vdc and − 2Vdc ) stepped sinusoidal

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in the market. A better sizing of the components of the proposed and T-type MLI, the capacitor ripples as 180ᵒ out of phase at all
configuration (capacitors and inductors) can be achieved with time, as shown in Fig. 7 (a). Thus, it can’t be detected by the
optimized type three compensator that will provide an accurate controller of the dc-dc converter. Hence, the voltage balance
control of the dc bus and hence reduces its voltage ripple. cannot be restored without extra control loops and sensors.
Benefit from the capacitor voltage balance circuit the
middle capacitor CM charges the upper capacitor CP as
explained up to the output voltage of the boost converter VCP =
VCM = VCN . Fig. 10 shows the capacitors voltages at steady
state operation where the converter is able to stabilize and
equalize the output voltage of the capacitors CM , CN , and CP .

(a) Step change in the dc link voltage reference from 275V to


Fig. 11. Duty cycle of the dc-dc boost with the low frequency 375V at t=0.05s; capacitors voltage Vcn, Vcm and Vcp; three
180 Hz superimposed ripple; and inductor current at motoring phase output voltage; and; three phase output current.
mode.
Fig. 11 shows duty cycle of the dc-dc boost d and the
inductor current iL where the waveforms reflect the
compensation of the dc bus variation due to the positive half
cycle of the three-phase 180Hz ripple as shown in Fig. 6. Thus,
low capacitance capacitors can be implemented and therefore
replacing the short lifetime electrolytic capacitor with a long-
life film capacitor. Moreover, it is important to note that either
in boosting mode or bucking mode, all of the power switches
experience a peak inverse voltage equal to half of the peak to
peak output voltage (VPIV = VCP = VCN = 375V). Therefore,
compared to a conventional dc-dc converter, the proposed
configuration implements power switches with a lower R ON
resistant which in return offers higher efficiency and better
thermal properties. (b) Capacitors voltage; dc-dc duty cycle; and the input current
To validate the ability of the proposed configuration to at fault condition by connecting 20 ohm resistor to Cn at
balance the capacitors’ voltages and to control the neutral point t=0.02s.
voltage at step change in the dc bus voltage or at fault condition.
Fig. 12 (a) shows the converter response to a step change in the
dc bus reference from 550V to 750V at t = 0.05s. The balance
in be between Cn and Cp is reserved by Cm , keeping the
symmetry of the ac output voltage levels and the balance of the
ac output current. A fault has been introduced to the system by
connecting a 20Ω resistor in parallel with the lower
capacitorCN . Fig. 12 (b) shows the capacitor voltage restoration (c) Voltage of CP and CN at fault condition in conventional
after applying the fault condition at t = 0.02s. It can be notice configuration.
that the ripple at the lower capacitor CN has been transferred to Fig. 12. The voltage of the converter’s capacitor at step
the other two capacitors CM and CP . However, the dc-dc change and fault condition.
converter successfully restored the output voltage at its
reference value while continues compensated for the excess The performance of the proposed configuration is also tested in
power drain from the lower one, as can be seen in duty cycle bucking mode to prove the bi-directional operation of the
and input current (inductor current iL ) in Fig. 12 (b). On converter. Fig. 13 shows the three phase motor regenerative
contrary, with a conventional dc-dc converter when the same currents. While Fig. 14 shows the inductor current iL at
fault has been introduced, the capacitors’ voltages continue to regenerative mode. The negative value indicate the reverse
deviate from their reference values, as shown in Fig. 12 (c). power flow from the motor (which acts now a generator) to the
This is due to that fact that, with a conventional dc-dc converter

0885-8993 (c) 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2871624, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics

battery. The converter successfully is able to transfer the power (T-type based MLI) is shown in Fig. 18 (a), which is
in the reverse direction by bucking the DC bus voltage 750V to constructed by connecting the load terminal to the upper
375V and then to 190V. This is being done which keeping the capacitor CP at the positive half cycle and to the lower one CN
capacitors’ voltage balanced over the complete breaking cycle, at the negative half cycle. The zero voltage (freewheeling) state
as shown in Fig. 15. is achieved by clamping the load voltage by the bi-directional
switch as mentioned earlier. Thus, a line-to-line 5 levels output
voltage is achieved (400V, 800V, 0V, −400V and −800V).

Fig. 13. Motor current in regenerative mode.

Fig. 16. Experimental setup

Fig. 14. Inductor current in regenerative

(a) Capacitor voltage VCN (Ch2), VCP (Ch3) and VCM (Ch4)
(200V/div); line-to-line output voltage (Ch1) (1000V/div).

Fig. 15. Capacitor voltages in regenerative mode.


IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
A laboratory prototype is built to test and validate the (b) Capacitors voltages ripple (ac coupled) VCN (Ch2), VCP
performance of the proposed configuration. Fig. 16 shows the (Ch3) and VCM (Ch4) (10V/div) against Q1 and Q3 gate signal
experimental setup. Both bi-directional multilevel dc-dc (Ch1) (5V/div).
converter and the T-type MLI uses A22N60AE power switches. Fig. 17. Capacitor voltage of CN , CM and CP
The output capacitors of the bi-directional converter are 10 uF,
450V capacitors and its inductor is 1mH inductor wounded Fig. 18 (b) shows the three phase output current while
around N87E magnetic core. suppling a 120Ω, 80mH load. It is worth mentioning that, the
Fig. 17 (a) shows capacitors’ voltage VCN , VCP and VCM in peak inverse voltage of the power switches and capacitors are
conjunction with the proposed converter line-to-line output equal (400V) and limited to half of the dc bus voltage (800V)
voltage. The input voltage is boosted form 200V to 400V at d = at the input of the multilevel inverter. It can be seen, that during
0.5 and switching frequency fs = 50kHz. Fig. 17 (b) shows the the operation, the proposed configuration successfully
capacitors’ voltage ripple (oscilloscope channels in ac coupled maintained the capacitors’ voltage and the dc bus voltage at
mode) and the gating signal applied to Q1 and Q3 and its their reference values. The experimental results are therefore
complementary applied to Q2 and Q4 as explained in section II. matches the simulation results proving the validity of the
The capacitor’s voltage VCN , VCP and VCM are balanced cycle- proposed configuration in electric vehicles drive applications.
by-cycle while their voltage ripple (due to high frequency Furthermore, the proposed configuration is tested against
switching fs = 50kHz) is kept at 20V peak-to-peak at all time, fault conditions. A fault stimulation is introduced to the
despite the voltage ripple cause be converter’s switching converter by connecting 20Ω resistor to the lower capacitor CN
frequency 5kHz and triple line frequency ripple. and then disconnecting it periodically using a series external
The three phase line-to-line output voltages power switch.
(Vab , Vbc and Vca ). of the proposed configuration output stage

0885-8993 (c) 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2871624, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics

which can better compensate and reduce the oscillation of the


capacitors’ voltages.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a new integration of the five levels T-
type multilevel inverter with a modified bi-directional dc-dc
multilevel converter for electric vehicle applications. While the
T-type MLI utilize more power switches compared to the
(a) Line to line voltage. conventional voltage source inverter. It generates a higher
number of output voltage levels utilizing power switches with
half of the peak inverse voltage. However, if such converter is
connected to a conventional bi-directional dc-dc converter, the
converter power switches have to be designed to withstand the
full voltage of the dc bus. Moreover, such conventional
configuration needs an addition of voltage balance circuit or
special switching pattern with feedback and control loops to
insure the voltage balance of the dc capacitors. On the contrary,
the proposed configuration takes advantage of the high
(b) Three phase output current.
frequency cycle-by-cycle voltage balance between the dc bus
Fig. 18. Multilevel output voltage of the T-type MLI.
capacitors CN and CP as explained in section II, these capacitors
are designed according to the dc-dc input stage high frequency
ripple not the line low frequency ripple at 180Hz (triple the
rated frequency). Therefore, the required capacitance is reduced
from several hundreds uF capacitors to tenth uF capacitors,
allowing for replacing electrolytic capacitors with film
capacitors. Such advantage of the proposed converter doesn’t
interfere with its ability to operate in step-up mode in motoring
and in step-down mode in braking the electric motor. Moreover,
the peak inverse voltage of all the power switches and the rated
(a) Capacitors voltage ripples VCN (Ch2) and VCP (Ch3) voltage of all capacitors is limited to half of the peak ac output
(100V/div) against line-to-line voltage (Ch1)(1000V/div) and voltage, which reduces the voltage stress and allow for
phase current (5A/div) at applying a fault resistance (20Ω) implementing higher efficiency power switches in the dc-dc
periodically. side similar to the ones in the T-type MLI side. The proposed
configuration has been tested and validated though simulation
model and experimental prototype. The results are compared
and discussed, to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed
configuration over the conventional one available in the market.
In addition; efficiency levels are measured to be around 90%,
which is far better than the market range. This work is to be
extended by testing the proposed configuration against a
complete EV driving cycle at low, medium and high speed to
study evaluate the performance of operating EV with a higher
(b) Capacitors voltage ripples VCN (Ch2), VCP (Ch3) and VCM
rated voltage motors and its impact on the kWh per mileage
(Ch4) (100V/div) against line-to-line voltage
consumption.
(Ch1)(1000V/div) at applying a fault resistance (20Ω)
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0885-8993 (c) 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2871624, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics

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[12] B. Wu and M. Narimani, High-Power Converters and AC Drives, ISBN- industrial electronics and control engineering
10-1119156033: Wiley-IEEE Press; 2 edition , Jan 17 2017. from the Fac- ulty of Electronic Engineering
Menofia University, Menofia, Egypt, in 2012,
[13] A. K. Yadav, K. Gopakumar, L. U. K. r. R, K. M. GAE and H. Kubota,
and the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering
"Instantaneous Balancing of Neutral Point Voltages for Stacked DC-link from the Faculty of Engineer- ing, Aswan
Capacitors of Multilevel Inverter for Dual Inverter fed Induction Motor University, Aswan, Egypt, in 2016.
Drives," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, pp. 1-1, 2018. He joined the Aswan Power Electronic
[14] R. Castillo, B. Diong and P. Biggers, "Single-phase hybrid cascaded H- Application Research Center, Aswan University,
bridge and diode-clamped multilevel inverter with capacitor voltage as an Assistant Researcher in 2013. His current
balancing," IET Power Electronics, vol. 4, no. 10, pp. 700-707, 2018. research interests include design and modeling
[15] Q. M. Attique, Y. Li and K. Wang, "A survey on space-vector pulse of single phase multilevel inverters both power
width modulation for multilevel inverters," CPSS Transactions on Power stage and modulation
Electronics and Applications, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 226-236, Sept. 2017. strategies using the sinusoidal pulse-width modulation and low-frequency
harmonic cancellation modulation, for distributed generation and renewable
[16] W. Li, J. Hu, S. Hu, H. Yang, H. Yang and X. He, "Capacitor Voltage energy applications.
Balance Control of Five-Level Modular Composited Converter With
Hybrid Space Vector Modulation," IEEE Transactions on Power Mohamed Z. Youssef (SMIEEE); completed his
Electronics, vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 5629-5640, July 2018. Ph.D. in Power Electronics at the ePEARL Lab,
[17] R. M. S. Busquets-Monge, J. Nicolas-Apruzzese, E. Lupon, S. Munk- Queen’s University, Canada in 2005, where he was
Nielsen and J. Bordonau, "Enhanced DC-Link Capacitor Voltage later an adjunct Assistant Professor involved in
Balancing Control of DC–AC Multilevel Multileg Converters," IEEE teaching and research. In 2007, he joined Bombardier
Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 2663-2672, Transportation where he worked as a Senior Research
May 2015. and Development engineer. In 2012, he joined
Alstom Transport as a Research and Development
[18] A. M. Y. M. Ghias, J. Pou, M. Ciobotaru and V. G. Agelidis, "Voltage-
Engineering Manager. His research interests include
Balancing Method Using Phase-Shifted PWM for the Flying Capacitor
Electromechanical Systems for the Transportation Industry, Electromagnetic
Multilevel Converter," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol.
Compatibility (EMC) for the Railways and Power Electronics Applications for
29, no. 9, pp. 4521-4531, Sept. 2014.
the Information Technology. Mohamed was the motor and electronics manager
[19] K. Hasegawa and H. Akagi, "Low-modulation-index operation of a for Armstrong Pumps before coming back to Academia. Dr. Youssef is
fivelevel diode-clamped PWM inverter with a DC-voltage-balancing currently an Assistant Professor in the ECSE department at the University of
circuit for a motor drive," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. Ontario, Institute of Technology (UOIT) in Canada. He is the director of power
27, no. 8, pp. 3495-3504, Aug. 2012. electronics and drives lab (PEDAL) at UOIT and the university leader of Space-
[20] Z. Shu, X. He, Z. Wang, D. Qiu and Y. Jing, "Voltage Balancing X team. He has more than 80 papers in the top tier IEEE journals and
Approaches for Diode-Clamped Multilevel Converters Using Auxiliary conferences with 5 US/Canadian patents. He is a fellow of the Canadian
Capacitor-Based Circuits," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Council of Professional Engineers. He is a senior IEEE member and a
vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 2111-2124, May 2013. professional engineer in the province of Ontario. He is an appointed Adjunct
Professor at the Royal Military College (RMC) of Canada. Mohamed is a
[21] X. Liu and e. al., "A Novel Diode-Clamped Modular Multilevel
member of the IEEE committee of Transportation standards and a fellow expert
Converter With Simplified Capacitor Voltage-Balancing Control," IEEE
of the Canadian government on many future infrastructure directives. He was
recently appointed to the consultancy board of Sustainable Development

0885-8993 (c) 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2871624, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics

Technology Canada (SDTC); He is also a member of the Egyptian syndicate of


Engineering.
Mohamed Orabi (M’04–SM’08) received the
Ph.D. degree from Kyushu University, Fukuoka,
Japan, in 2004.
He was with Enpirion Inc., USA, and Altera
Corp., USA, from 2011 to 2014, where he was
the Senior Manager of Altera-Egypt Technology
Center. He is currently a Professor with Aswan
University, Aswan, Egypt. He is the Founder and
the Director of the Aswan Power Electronics
Application Research Center, Aswan University.
He has authored over 200 papers in international
conferences and journals.
His current research interests include dc–dc and PFC converters,
integrated power management, nonlinear circuits and inverter design for
renewable energy applications. He has lead several projects on power
electronics applications on renewable energy.
Dr. Orabi is an Associate Editor of the IET Power Electronics Journal
and the Guest Editor of the IEEE JESTPE. He is also the PELS Egypt
Chapter Chair. He was a recipient of the 2002 Excellent Student Award of
the IEEE Fukuoka Section and the Best Young Research Award from the
IEICE Society, Japan, in 2004. He has also received the SVU
Encouragement Award for 2009, the National Encouragement Award in
2010, and Aswan University Supervision Award for 2015 and 2016.

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