Dual Mechanical Port Machine Based Hybrid Electric Vehicle Using Reduced Switch Converters

Due to the increased environmental pollution, hybrid vehicles have attracted enormous attention in today's society. The two most important factors in designing these vehicles are size and weight. For this purpose, some researchers have presented the use of the dual-mechanical-port machine (DMPM) in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). This paper presents two modified converter topologies with a reduced number of switching devices for use on DMPM-based HEVs, with the goal of reducing the overall size and weight of the system. Beside the design of the DMPM in the series-parallel HEV structure along with the energy management unit, the conventional back-to-back (BB) converter is replaced with nine-switch (NS) and five-leg (FL) converters. These converters have never been examined for the DMPM-based HEV, and therefore, the objective of this paper is to reveal the operational characteristics and power flow mechanism of this machine using the NS and FL converters. The simulation analysis is carried out using MATLAB/Simulink considering all HEV operational modes. In addition, two proposed and the conventional converters are compared in terms of losses, maximum achievable voltages, required dc-link voltages, the rating of the components, and torque ripple, and finally, a recommendation is made based on the obtained results.