APPLICATION OF Z-SOURCE INVERTER IN FUEL-CELL VEHICLES

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to demonstrate a low-cost, efficient, and reliable inverter for traction drives of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). Because of the wide voltage range of the fuel cell, the inverter and the motor need to be oversized to accommodate the great constantpowerspeedratio. The Zsource inverter could be a cheap and reliable solution for this application. Currently, two types of inverters are used in FCV and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) tractiondrives: The traditional pulse width modulation (PWM) inverter Thedc/dcboostedPWMinverter . For FCVs, the fuel cell voltage to the inverter decreases with an increase in power drawn from the fuel cell. Therefore, the obtainable output voltage of the traditional PWM inverter is low at high power for this application, so an oversized inverter and motor must be used to meet therequirement of high-speed, highpower operation. The dc/dcboosted PWM inverter does nothave this problem; however, the extra dc/dc stage increases the complexity of the circuit and the cost and reduces the system efficiency. To demonstrate the superiority of the Z-source inverter forFCVs, a comprehensive comparison between the three inverters has been made for the efficiency, price and switchingdevicepowercomparision(sdpc). Several PWM schemes with shootthrough are proposed and compared. The PWM scheme with the maximum constant boost, different from other PWM schemes proposed, results in less switching loss. The test results demonstrated that the original objective of the paper had been achieved: high efficiency (greater than 97%), low cost (with minimal device ratings), improved reliability (because no deadtime is needed), and wide constant power speed ratio (1.55 times that of the traditional PWMinverter, thanks to the voltage boost). The results of this paper demonstrate the many unique features of the Z-sourceinverter and its high feasibility for use in FCVs. As the automotive industry has been urged to develop HEVs based on a combination of internal combustion engine and batteries as a bridging technology to FCVs, issues and possibilities are addressed for the use of the Z-source inverter in ICE HEV traction drive systems.

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4. Input fuel cell voltage: 0420 V dc INTRODUCTION: z-sourceinverter is a low-cost, efficient, and reliable inverter for traction drives of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). Because of the wide voltage range of the fuel cell, the inverter and the motor need to be oversized to accommodate the great constant power speed ratio. The Z-source inverter could be a cheap and reliable solution for this application. WHY NEED A INVERTER FOR FUELCELLVEHICLE: Fuel cells, as one of the most promising energy sources, Have been using such as, utility applicationsand traction applications .Unlike batteries that havefairly constant output voltage, the fuel cell has a unique VIcharacteristic and wide voltage change range as shown in Fig. TRADITIONAL INVERTERS: Currently, there are two existing inverter topologies usedfor hybrid electric and fuel cell vehicles: the conventional 3-phase Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) inverter and 3-phasePWM inverter with a dc-dc boost converter, which is alsovery

1. As can be seen from the figure, the output voltage of thefuel cell decreases as the output current increases. This results in difficulty for high-speed, and high-power operation to achieve a great Constant Power Speed Ratio (CPSR). Inaddition, a larger inverter is required. Specifications of the inverter for fuel cell FCVs are as follows: 1. Continuous power: 30 kW 2. Peak power: 55 kW for 18 seconds 3. Inverter efficiency >97% at30kW popular in other applications. 3.Because of the widevoltage range and limited voltage level of fuel cell stack, the conventional PWMinverter topology imposes high stressesto the switching devices and motor, and limits the motorsconstant power speed ratio. 4.The dc/dc boosted PWM inverter topology can alleviate the stresses and limitations, however,suffers problems such as high cost and complexity associatedwith the two-stage power conversion.

The newly proposed Z-source inverter has the capacity to solve the above problems and unique feature that 1. it can boost the output voltage by introducing shoot through operation mode, which is forbidden in traditional voltage source inverters. 2. With this unique feature, the Z-source inverter provides a cheaper,simpler, single stage approach for applications of fuel cell. 3. Thus, the Z-source inverter system can minimize stresses andsize of the motor and increase output power greatly. 4. Moreover, it highly enhances because theshoot through can no longer destroy the li mitations of the Traditional Converters: Limited output voltage (> or < Vdc) Either buck or boostoperation only Not interchangeable main circuits Vulnerable to EMI noise Difficult to use IGBT module and IPM for ISource Start-up difficulty Shoot-through or opencircuit problem reliability EXISTENCE OF Z-SOURCEINVERTER: EEEEWe need a new type of inverter to solve the following problems for fuel cell: Two-stage power conversion High cost Low efficiency Difficult to start up (in-rush) Reliability problem (vulnerable to EMI) To have a new power conversion technology . The Z-source inverter outputs a required voltageby adjusting the shoot through duty cycle with the restrictionto keep the voltage across the switches not to exceed its limit. Shoot through for PWMcontrol: Control methods for z-source inverter : Several control methods have been proposed: simple control , maximum boost control ,and maximum constant boost control . Compared with a traditional voltage source inverter, the Z-source inverter has an extraswitching state: inverter. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

shoot-through. During the shoot-though state, the output voltage to the loadterminals is zero, the same as traditional zero states. Therefore, to maintain sinusoidal outputvoltage, the active-state duty ratio has to be maintained and some or all of the zero states turnedinto shoot-through state.

through state can minimize the voltage stress;however, doing so also causes a shootthrough duty ratio varying in a line cycle, which causes inductor current ripple [10]. This will require high inductance for low-frequency orvariable-frequency applications.

simple control: The simple control uses two straight lines to control the shoot-through states, as shown in Fig. 4.1. When the triangular waveform is greater than the upper envelope, Vp, or lower than the bottom envelope, Vn, the circuit turns into shootthrough state. Otherwise it operates just astraditional carrier-based PWM. This method is very straight forward; however, the resultingvoltage stress across the device is relatively high because some traditional zero states are not utilized. (a) Maximum boost control.

(b) Maximum boost control with third harmonic injection. Maximum Constant Boost Control The sketch map of maximum constant boost control Maximum Boost Control To fully utilize the zero states so as to minimize the voltage stress across the device,maximum boost control turns all traditional zero states into shootthrough state, as shown inFig. 4.2. Third harmonic injection can also be used to extend the modulation index range.Indeed, turning all zero states into shootis shown in Fig. 4.3. This methodachieves maximum boost while keeping the shoot-through duty ratio always constant; thus itresults in no line frequency current ripple through the inductors. The sketch map of maximumconstant boost control with third harmonic injection is shown in Fig. 4.3(b).

With this method, theinverter can buck and boost the voltage from zero to any desired value smoothly within the limitof the device voltage.

.Act ual price comparision: Again, the Z-source has thelowest price among the three inverters. In addition, because it has fewer components, a higher mean time between failures canbe expe cted, which leads to better reliability.

comparision between the inverters: Switchingdevice powercomparision: The Z-source inverters average SDPR is the smallest among the three, while theconventional PWM inverters SDPRs are the highest in both average and peak values. average SDPR also indicates thermal requirementfrom a distributor are listed in table2. The Z-source also reduces the total averageSDP by 15%, which leads to costreduction. EFFICIENCY COMPARISION: 1..The Z-source inverter can increase inverter conversion efficiency by 1% over the two existing systems 2.Invertermotorsystem efficiency by 1% to 15% over the conventionalPWM inverter.

 A new type of inverter has been presented. The Z-source inverter is specially suited forfuel cell applications. Unique features include buck-boost inversion by single power-conversion stage,improved reliability, strong EMI immunity,and low EMI. The Z-source technology can be applied tothe entire spectrum of power conversion. .ADVANTAGES: Provides the buck-boost function by onestageconversion; Is immune to EMI noise and misgating(i.e., misgating on and off by EMI noisewill not destroy the converter) Has the advantages of both traditional converters: V- and I- converters; Solves the problems of the traditional converters; Has low or no in-rush current compared with the Vconverter; and Has low common-mode noise .Improves power factor and reduces harmonic currentand common-mode voltage. CONCLUSION: References: 1. F. Z. Peng, Li Hui, Su Gui-Jia, J. S. Lawler, A new ZVS bidirectional dc-dc converter forfuel cell and battery application, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 19 pp. 5465. 2. S. E. Gay, Gao Hongwei, M. Ehsani, Fuel cell hybrid drive train configurations and motordrive selection, presented at Vehicular Technology Conference, 2002, 2(2428), Sept. 2002,pp. 007 1010. 3. Tadaichi Matsumoto, Nobuo Watanabe, Hiroshi Sugiura, Tetsuhiro