Method to design the leakage inductances of a multiwinding transformer for a multisource energy management system

The paper at hand proposes to employ a multisource DC-DC converter to interconnect energy sources, storage devices, drives and the motion control unit of an electric vehicle. This converter topology is well suited to interconnect more than 2 sources/loads that need galvanic isolation. It is particularly advantageous in the case of different voltage levels to be connected, with the power flowing in any direction. The multisource DC-DC converter employs a single magnetic core with multiple windings. The maximum transmissible power for each pair of sources, the energy efficiency and the controllability of the system depend on the multiwinding transformer's leakage inductances. The paper presents a solution to adjust the leakage inductances in order to obtain a given converter characteristic. The approach works with uneven transformation ratios and is validated experimentally for 4 sources/loads.