Automatic dimensioning of a power converter based on predefined parameters

This paper presents an optimization algorithm to automatically dimension the driving power stage of an electrical vehicle based on the characteristics of the motor and the driving profiles taking efficiency, cost and lifetime into account. The dimensioning process focuses on analyzing and modeling the two major components: the capacitor bank and the IGBT module in a 3-phase 2-level voltage-source inverter (VSI). A mechanism based on the Genetic Algorithms (GA) is implemented for solving the multi-criteria optimization problem. In addition, a simulation of an electric vehicle with an interior permanent magnet synchronous machine has been performed to show the dimensioning procedure and to gather the required parameters for the optimization.