Design and Implementation of a Bi-directional Power Converter for Electric Bike with Charging Feature

Chang-Hua Lin Dept. of Electrical Engineering Tatung University Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. lin@ttu.edu.tw Hom-Wei Liu Dept. of Electrical Engineering Tatung University Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. g9702033@ms.ttu.edu.tw Chien-Ming Wang Dept. of Electrical Engineering National Ilan University Ilan, Taiwan, R.O.C. cmwang@niu.edu.tw

AbstractThis paper presents a bi-directional converter applied in electric bike. The main structure is a cascade buck-boost converter, which transfers the energy stored in battery for driving motor, and can recycle the energy resulted from the back electromotive force (BEMF) to charge battery by changing the operation mode. Moreover, the proposed converter can also serve as a charger by connecting with AC line directly. Besides, the single-chip DSP TMS320F2812 is adopted as a control core to manage the switching behaviors of each mode and to detect the battery capacity. In this paper, the equivalent models of each mode and complete design considerations are all detailed. All the experimental results are used to demonstrate the feasibility. Keywords- electric bike; bi-directional converter; SOC, BEMF

proposed to control and manage the buck-boost converter to improve the system efficiency [7-8]. Presently, in order to provide high power and high current output characteristics at instant for electric vehicles, many kinds of secondary batteries are manufactured. Among the existing power batteries, lithium batteries possess higher energy density, lighter weight, and compact size. However, the lithium battery is still suitable for lower power applications due to high cost, temperature rise, and lower output current at instant. On the other hand, the lead-acid battery can offer higher instantaneous output current, very low cost, and more safety, even though its volume and weight are not good for feature design trend. Moreover, the electric capacity of the battery will influence the endurance of electric vehicles. Generally, an energy management mechanism is very important for improving system efficiency and extending endurance. Therefore, welldesign charging strategies incorporating estimation approaches for monitoring battery capacity are key features in energy management of EV or HEV. There are many common used methods regarding battery charging, such as constant voltage charging, constant current charging, and pulse charging [9, 10]. Besides, many existing techniques of state of charge (SOC) estimation are also proposed, such as open-circuit voltage method [11-13], coulometric estimation method [11], impedance measurement method [11, 14]. In this paper, the proposed bi-directional converter not only transfers the energy stored in battery for driving motor, but also recycles the energy resulted from the back electromotive force (BEMF) to charge battery. Moreover, the charger having SOC estimation function is also integrated in the proposed bidirectional converter to compact size and to reduce cost. II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGY AND ANALYSIS OF EACH MODE

I.

INTRODUCTION

Recently, in order to comply with the policies of energy saving, carbon reduction, and environmental protection, all of the electric equipments and energies are requested to satisfy the green demand. However, massive fuel oil vehicles result in serious air pollution and destruction environment. Therefore, the development of the electric vehicles (EV) or the hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) are becoming important policies in many countries. The secondary batteries are the main energy sources of the EV. Thus, energy management is the most important key factor in EV or HEV design. Nowadays, bidirectional converter applied in electric vehicles can provide energy stored in battery for driving motor and offer battery charging or energy recovery. Many advanced techniques, research results or control strategy related to the bi-directional converter are explored in succession. In reference [1], the power management and circuit topologies of single-phase and multi-phase bidirectional converters including non-isolated type and isolated type are all detailed. The non-isolated converters can be categorized into: buck, boost, and buck-boost types, which are low cost, compact size, without transformer, and easy to control due to having common ground. However, a transformer is still essential based on safety considerations, e.g. the voltage ratio between the primary side and secondary side is high enough or these two sides cannot be grounded together. Moreover, flyback type bi-directional converter is commonly used in many related applications [2]. The buck-boost type bidirectional converters not only possess step down and step up functions, but also can control the energy flow to achieve energy recovery, which is also suitable for many EV design [36]. Besides, there are many different control strategies are

Fig. 1 shows the system block diagram of the proposed bidirectional converter, which is used to link a battery, a motor driving inverter and a rectifier. With this system, the battery can provide energy to motor, and the BEMF generated from motor can be transferred to store in the battery. Besides, the bidirectional converter is also served as a charger, which converted the rectified voltage from AC source to charge the battery.

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and is offering energy to the motor driving circuit as shown in Fig. 4a. Therefore, the inductor voltage VL can be expressed as
VL = Vbat Vm = L diL dt

(1)

Then the inductor voltage ripple is given

iL |S1
Figure 1. The block diagram of the proposed driving system.

on

Vbat Vm DT L

(2)

Where
D=

At the next state, the switch S1 is turned off and the freewheeling diode D2 is turned on due to forward biased, the energy in the inductor L and the capacitor C will supply to the motor driving circuit to drive the BLDC motor. Fig. 4b depicts the current path of this state. We can obtain the inductor voltage VL as
VL = Vm = L
Figure 2. The schematic of the proposed bi-directional Buck-Boost converter.

t ON 100% T

(3)

diL dt

(4) (5)

That is,
V i L di L = = m (1 D)T dt L

Then the inductor voltage ripple is

iL |S1

off

In steady state, the inductor current deviation within one switching period is zero, that is
(a)

Vm (1 D )T L

(6)

iL |S1

on

+ iL |S1

off

=0

(7)

By substituting (2) and (6) into (7), this equation can be restated as
V Vbat Vm DT + m (1 D)T = 0 L L

(8)

(b) Figure 3. The equivalent circuit of each mode (a) motor driving, (b) battery charging.

Then we can get the transfer function of this mode as follows:

A complete circuit configuration of the proposed bidirectional buck-boost converter is shown as Fig. 2. The main circuit structure of the proposed system consists of three switches and four diodes. Various functions including bidirectional power flow control can be switched under different operating mode. Fig. 3a shows the equivalent circuit in motor driving mode or energy recovery mode. In battery charging mode, the equivalent circuit is depicted as Fig. 3b. Each of the operating mode and the related mathematical models are described and derived, respectively, in the following. Mode I: Motor driving mode In this mode, the switch S2, S3, diode D1 and diode D4 are all turned off, diode D3 is turned on continuously. By switching the switch S1 and diode D2, this equivalent circuit behaves as a buck converter, and the battery Vbat can provide energy to the converter to drive the brushless DC (BLDC) motor. There are two states within an operating period like basic buck converter. When the switch S1 is on and the freewheeling diode D2 is off, the battery Vbat is charging to the inductor L, the capacitor C2

M md =

Vm =D Vbat

(9)

Since the average current in capacitor C2 is zero, the inductor current can be expressed as
IL = Im = 1 I L 2

(10) (11) (12) (13)

Then, the inductor current ripple is

I L = I L max I L min

Where
I L max = I L + I L min

In boundary condition, the minimum inductor current equals zero. By substituting (6) and (10) into (13), we obtain
I L min = I m Vm (1 D )T = 0 2L

1 | i L | 2 1 = I L | i L | 2

(14)

And then, the relationship of the desired inductance value can be expressed as the following equation.

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Lmin =

Vm (1 D) 2I m f

(15)

This operating mode is the same as Mode II. When the back electromotive force (BEMF) generated by motor is higher than the battery voltage Vbat, then, we can step down the dc voltage to charge battery via the bi-directional converter by switching the switch S1 and diode D2. In this mode, the energy generated by BEMF is recycled to reuse. The simplified equivalent circuit can be depicted as shown in Fig. 6. Referring (9) and (15), the transfer function and the minimum inductance value also can be obtained as follows:

(a)

M cm1 =
Lmin =
(b) Figure 4. The current path of the motor driving mode (a) S1 on, (b) S1 off.

Vbat =D VBF

(18) (19)

Vbat (1 D) 2 I bat f

(a) (a)

(b) Figure 6. The current path of the regenerative charging mode (a) S3 on, (b) S3 off. (b) Figure 5. The simplified circuit of the battery charging mode (a) S3 on, (b) S3 off.

Mode II: Battery charging mode The equivalent circuit of this mode is shown as Fig. 3b, where the switch S1, S2, diode D2 and diode D3 keeps off, diode D1 is turned on continuously. The output of AC source is rectified and filtered to provide a constant voltage source, then, we can step down the dc voltage to charge battery by switching the switch S3 and diode D4. Although inverting the operating direction of the proposed system, it is also behaves as a buck converter with two states in an operating period. In the first state, the switch S3 is on and the freewheeling diode D4 is off, both the inductor L and capacitor C1 storage energy from the DC source, while the battery is also charged. After simplifying, the equivalent circuit can be depicted as shown in Fig. 5a. At the next state, the switch S3 is turned off and the freewheeling diode D4 is on, then the energy stored in the inductor L and capacitor C1 will be used to charge the battery. The simplified equivalent circuit is shown as Fig. 5b. According to (9) and (15), the transfer function and the minimum inductance value can be expressed as

Mode IV: BEMF charging mode (VBF < Vbat) Operating in this mode, the switch S1, diode D2, D3, D4, are all off, and the switch S3 is turned on continuously. When the back electromotive force (BEMF) generated by motor is lower than the battery voltage Vbat, then, we can step up the dc voltage to charge battery via the bi-directional converter by switching the switch S2 and diode D1. In the first state, the switch S2 is on and the freewheeling diode D1 is off, the energy generated by BEMF is stored in the inductor L and capacitor C1, respectively. The equivalent circuit can be depicted as shown in Fig. 7a. The inductor voltage is obtained as
VL = VBF = L di L dt

(20) (21)

Which result in

The change in iL is then

di L i L VBF = = dt DT L

iL |S 2

on

M bc =
Lmin =

Vbat =D VS
Vbat (1 D) 2 I bat f

(16) (17)

At the second state, the switch S1 is turned off and the freewheeling diode D1 is on, then the inductor voltage in series with the BEMF resulting from the motor will be boosted to charge the battery and capacitor C1. The simplified equivalent circuit is shown as Fig. 7b. The inductor voltage is given as
VL = VBF Vbat = L di L dt

VBF DT L

(22)

(23)

Mode III: BEMF charging mode (VBF > Vbat)

And then the ratio of change of inductor current is

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The variation of inductor current is obtained as

V Vbat i L di L = = BF (1 D)T dt L

(24)

iL |S 2

off

In steady state, we can get the transfer function of this mode as

VBF Vbat (1 D )T L

(25)

M cm 2 =

1 Vbat = VBF 1 D

(26)

Assume all of components are ideal, that is, there are no any losses in conversion. Thus, the input power PBF equals the output power Pbat, that is,
VBF I L = Vbat I bat

(27) (28)

Then,
IL = Vbat I bat VBF

According to (13), and (22), the minimum inductor current can be expressed as
I L min = I L VBF DT = 0 2L

(29)

By simplifying (29) and substituting (26), (28) into (29), the minimum inductance value can be derived as follows:

Lmin =

Vbat D(1 D) 2 2 I bat f

(30)

Figure 8. The flow chart of the system.

(a)

(b) Figure 7. The current path of the regenerative charging mode (a) S2 on, (b) S2 off.

1. Motor driving mode: While user selects this mode, the handle signal, which is an adjustable dc voltage, will be detected to control the duty cycle of the motor driving inverter, further, to regulate the motor speed. The bi-directional converter will enter Mode I when the handle signal is detected, i.e., the battery offers energy for driving motor. Conversely, the system will detect whether BEMF occurs or not. If not, it represents system idle, and the program will return to initial state. On the other hand, the electric bike may be decelerated or in descent state as the BEMF occurs. And then, the system will automatically select Mode III or Mode IV to recycle energy to battery according to whether the BEMF higher than battery voltage or not. 2. Battery charging mode: The proposed bi-directional converter will behave as a buck converter when this mode is employed. Both having precise SOC estimation and suitable control strategy are essential for a well-designed charger. Generally, the open-circuit voltage method is used to estimate the initial battery capacity under no load. Besides, the coulometric estimation method can provides accurate measurement in normal operating state. In this paper, we combine the open-circuit voltage method and the coulometric estimation method to estimate the battery capacity. In general, the battery capacity or state of charge is defined as:
SOC = QT 100% Q

III.

CONTROL STRATEGY

A single-chip DSP TMS320F2812 provided by Texas Instruments was used to implement a control core for the proposed bi-directional converter. This DSP has event manager and embedded control features, thereby allowing a sophisticated control algorithm to be implemented for power converting systems. There are many operating mode in the proposed system, including driving of BLDC, charging of battery, and detection of the battery capacity. Moreover, mathematical operation capability and multi-I/O features are required. Therefore, the DSP controller is employed to reduce component counts, to simplify controller structure, and improve the system reliability. Fig. 8 shows the flow chart of the proposed system, which is divided into motor driving mode and battery charging mode.

(31)

Where Q represents the total capacity of the battery, and QT is the residual capacity on the instant.

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QT (t) = Q(t0 ) +

t t0

i(t)dt

(32)

Where Q(t0) is the initial capacity, and i(t) indicates the charging current. Therefore, the instantaneous battery capacity can be estimated by the initial capacity plus the integral of the charging current with time. After switching on battery charging mode, the system will first detect the battery capacity at the moment by using the open-circuit voltage method. If the estimated SOC is lower than 90%, then constant current charging is employed to shorten the charging time; otherwise, the battery will be charged by using the constant voltage charging until the battery is full to avoid overcharging.

(34) DS 3 = 15% ~ 18% The corresponding waveforms are illustrated as Fig. 9b. Assume the operating frequency f=30 kHz, and the charging current about 2A, then the minimum inductor value Lmin=198H can be calculated by (17). The selected inductor value must satisfy the requirements of Mode I and Mode II simultaneously and plus 20% tolerance, thus, the practical inductor value L=238H is selected in this system. Mode III and Mode IV: Operating in these two modes, the BEMF caused by the motor will be recycled to battery. The corresponding waveforms are illustrated as Fig. 9c and 9d, respectively.

(a)Mode I

(b)Mode II
Figure 10. Measured waveforms of the mode I; Vm, Vbat, and S1. (Ver: 10V/div for Vm; 10V/div for Vbat; 10V/div for S1; Hor: 20 s/div )

(c)Mode III

(d)Mode IV

Figure 9. Switching pulses of each mode.

IV.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

In the design procedure of the proposed bi-directional converter, if the voltage ripples across C2 can be neglected to simplify the design consideration. Then the key factor is merely the calculation of the inductor L. Therefore, the relation between the inductor value and the duty cycle will be estimated in each operating mode in the following. Mode I: As Fig. 4, the battery voltage Vbat is about 24~ 28V and the output voltage Vm= 24V, according to (9), we can get the duty cycle of the switch S1 as follows: (33) The corresponding waveforms are illustrated as Fig. 9a. If we preset the operating frequency f=30 kHz, and the current through motor in the range of 2~10A, then the minimum inductor value Lmin=30H is obtained by (15).
DS1 = 85% ~ 100%

Figure 11. Measured waveforms of the mode II; Vbat, VS, and S3. (Ver: 20V/div for Vbat; 100V/div for VS ; 10V/div for S3; Hor: 20 s/div )

V.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Mode II: In this charging mode, the AC input voltage is rectified to obtain dc voltage Vs=155V, suppose the battery voltage Vbat=24~28V as Fig. 5, then according to (16), we can get the duty cycle of the switch S3 as follows:

The BLDC used in this experiment is GIGA J01, which has a rated voltage of 24V, a rated power of 250W. Moreover, the tested two lead-acid batteries NP7-12 manufactured by YUASA have a rated voltage of 12V, a rated capacity of 7AH. Fig. 10 shows the measured waveforms of the Mode I, where the Vbat=28V converted to Vm=25V, and the duty cycle of the power switch S1 is 87% as estimated in previous section. When operating in Mode II or battery charging mode, the rectified dc voltage VS=155V is step down to charge battery by CC-CV charging. In Fig. 11, the duty cycle of the power switch S3 is 16%, that is, the charging procedure has changed to CV mode. Figs. 13 and 14 show the measured waveforms of Mode III and Mode IV, respectively. Entering these two modes, the BEMF will be recycled to battery. It is obvious to note that the duty cycle of the power switch will be regulate with the magnitude

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of the BEMF, VBF, to obtain a steady charging voltage. Fig. 14 displays the DSP controller and the proposed bi-directional converter.

not only recycle energy to battery to improve system performance, but also reduce component count to reduce the overall cost. And then, a driving, charging and electric capacity estimation strategies are all embedded in proposed the system to promote system reliability. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, R.O.C., Project number: NSC NSC 97-3114-E-036001.

REFERENCES
[1] Figure 12. Measured waveforms of the mode III; Vbat, VBF, and S3. (Ver: 20V/div for Vbat; 20V/div for VBF; 10V/div for S3; Hor: 20 s/div ) J. S. Lai and D. J. Nelson, Energy management power converters in hybrid electric and fuel cell vehieles, Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 95, no. 4, pp. 766-777, Apr. 2007. T. Bhattacharya, V. S. Giri, K. Mathew, and L. Umanand, Multiphase bidirectional flyback converter topology for hybrid electric vehicles, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 78-84, Jan. 2009. F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, F. Giulii-Capponi, and L. Solero, Study of bi-direectional buck-boost converter topologies for application in electricl vehicle motor drives, in Proc. IEEE APEC, pp. 287-293, Feb. 1998. A. A. Boora, F. Zare, G. Ledwich, and A. Ghosh, Bidirectional positive buck-boost converter, in Proc. EPE-PEMC 2008, pp. 723-727, Sep. 2008. X. Ren, X. Ruan, H. Qian, M. Li, and Q. Chen, Dual-edge modulated four-switch buck-boost converter, in. Proc .IEEE PESC, pp. 3635-3641, Jun. 2008. H. Qiao, Y. Zhang, Y. Yao, and L. Wei, Analysis of buck-boost converter for fuel cell electric vehicles , in Proc. IEEE ICVES, pp. 109113, Dec. 2006. N. Su, D. Xu, M. Chen, and J. Tao, Study of bi-directional buck-boost converter with different control methods, in Proc. IEEE VPPC, pp. 1-5, Sep. 2008. X. Yan, A. Seckold, and D. Patterson, Development of a zero-voltagetransition bidirectional DC-DC converter for a brushless DC machine EV propulsion system, in Proc. IEEE PSEC , pp. 1661-1666, Jun. 2002. T. J. Liang, T. Wen, K. C. Tseng, and J. F. Chen, Implementation of a regenerative pulse charger using hybrid buck-boost converter, in Proc.IEEE PEDS 2001, vol.2, pp. 437-442, Oct. 2001. W. S. Jwo, and W. L, Chien, Design and implementation of a charge equalization using positive/negative pulse charger, in Proc. IEEE IAS, pp. 1076-1081, Sep. 2007. D. J. Deepti, and V. Ramanarayanan, State of charge of lead acid battery, in Proc.IEEE IICPE, pp. 89-93, Dec. 2006. C. S. Moo, K. S. Ng, Y. P. Chen, and Y.C. Hsieh, State-of-charge estimation with open-circuit-voltage for lead-acid batteries, in Proc. IEEE PCC07, pp. 758-761, Apr. 2007. K. S. Ng, C. S. Moo, Y. P. Chen, and Y. C. Hsieh, State-of-charge estimation for lead-acid batteries based on dynamic open-circuit voltage, in Proc. IEEE PEcon 2008, pp. 972-976, Dec. 2008. M. Coleman, C. K. Lee, C. Zhu, and W. G. Hurley, State-of-charge determination from EMF voltage estimation: using impedance, terminal voltage, and current for lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries, Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 2550-2557, Oct. 2007.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

Figure 13. Measured waveforms of the mode IV; Vbat, VBF, and S2. (Ver: 20V/div for Vbat; 20V/div for VBF; 10V/div for S2; Hor: 20 s/div )

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11] [12] Figure 14. The picture of the experimental bi-directional converter and the DSP controller.

[13]

VI.

CONCLUSION

[14]

The major objective of this paper is to design and to implement a bi-directional converter applied for electric bike. Three power switches are just required in the proposed converter, which integrates motor driver and battery charger,

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