Topic: Generalised power converters in battery charging.

Aim: To understand the electrical power conditioning process and the power
electronic switching process in a basic battery charger for electronic gadgets. It also
aims at creating awareness among students on the proper usage of battery
chargers.
Learning outcomes: On successful completion of this course, the student will be
able to
1. Describe the power conditioning process inside a battery charger.
2. Explain the process of producing an ac supply from a battery (reverse power
flow application in battery powered vehicles).
3. Explain the need for switching off the charger from the utility once the
charging is done.
Learning activities:

First activity: Split students in to two groups. To each student a card will be
given where specific characteristics of utility supply and battery will be asked
and it is multiple choice type. After this discuss among the group and the
group has to come up with what is the total electrical characteristics of utility
supply and battery. Important characteristics considered will be wave shape,
frequency and amplitude. I expect this activity will take near 120 seconds.
Second activity: From the knowledge obtained from the battery charger power
electronic configuration each group has to come up with a reverse power flow
application in day to day life and how it can be achieved with the same power
electronic configuration explained in the battery charger application. Students
will be using the simple mathematical formula provided in the previous
section. I expect this activity will take 150 seconds.
Third activity: Each student has to think and write in a paper what will happen
if a battery charger is continually switched on without the battery for a longer
duration of time. I expect this activity will take 60 seconds.

Analysis of Learning Activities:

From the first learning activity it is possible to know how much the students know
about the subject. With the collaborative discussion the students can correct their
answers. If the group even dont know the answer they will be giving wrong
answers and the facilitator is getting a feedback on the level of knowledge of
students about the area. From these two activities combined together students
can understand there is a requirement of power conditions process and for that
reason a battery charger is used. On top of this the facilitator will describe a
power electronic converter with a simple mathematical formula based on the
active states of the switches. In the second activity the students has to think
about a reverse power flow application and how it can be achieved with same
power electronic configuration described previously. So students are building new
level of knowledge from the previously explained power converter structure and
can correlate to day to day life. This activity helps to build and share the
knowledge obtained. The third activity helps a student to assess the risk involved

in a potential bad behaviour in the usage of battery chargers. This task is

designed to be an individual task since risk assessment is the basics of
experimentation that every student has to follow as an engineer.