Real-Time Experimental Validation for Assessing Efficiency of On-Board Chargers

The effectiveness of the on-board chargers (OBCs) has a significant impact on the powertrain's ability to optimise energy consumption and extend the range of electric vehicles (EVs), This paper focuses on the experimental validation of unidirectional OBC operating in single-phase mode (7.5kW) and three-phase mode (22kW) using a real-time Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulator. The proposed OBC architecture includes a front-stage AC-DC converter representing the totem-pole bridgeless power factor correction (PFC) arrangement, and a rear-stage isolated DC-DC converter providing zero-voltage switching (ZVS) capability reducing the ripples in the DC bus voltage. The novelty of the paper involves the system design with the experimental validation of the proposed architecture using the dSPACE as HIL simulator. The plant model is developed based on the test system with a real-time executable code embedded into the simulator. In the real-time simulator, the pertinent variables are defined for assessing the OBC efficiency for both single-phase and three-phase system. The OBC efficiency is estimated in the test system using MATLAB/Simulink based on the system design parameters. The efficacy of the test system is substantiated in the real-time simulator, dSPACE SCALEXIO. The approach for evaluating the OBC efficiency with the use of real-time simulators helps in accomplishing higher efficiency without restricting the output voltage range, making it widely applicable in the automotive industry.