A NOVEL HIGH-GAIN DC-DC CONVERTER APPLIED IN FUEL CELL VEHICLES

Fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) require DC-DC converters with high-gain, low voltage stress, and high efficiency to efficiently manage the power conversion between the fuel cell stack and the electric drivetrain. Conventional boost converters, including two-level, three-level, and cascaded topologies, struggle to meet these stringent demands, particularly in terms of voltage gain and efficiency.This paper proposes a novel nonisolated DC-DC converter that incorporates switchedcapacitor and switched-inductor techniques to achieve high voltage gain with a wide input range, low voltage stress across components, and a common ground structure. The converter's operating principles, component design, and comparative performance analysis with other high-gain topologies are presented. Additionally, the state-space averaging and small-signal modeling methods are employed to develop a dynamic model of the proposed converter.Simulation and experimental results validate the proposed converter's performance. The experimental prototype operates with an input voltage range of 25V to 80V, delivering a rated output of 200V with a power rating of 100W and a peak efficiency of 93.1%. The novel converter is particularly suitable for fuel cell vehicle applications due to its high efficiency, reduced size, and the ability to handle wide input voltage variations, contributing to improved energy management in FCV powertrains.