High Efficiency Integrated Transformer Design in DAB Converters for Solid-State Transformers

Solid-state transformers (SST) are emerging technologies to replace the conventional low-frequency main transformer (MTR) in railway vehicles. In order to isolate the load side from the AC 25 kV high-voltage (HV) side and to reduce the whole size of the SST, HV insulation and high-frequency transformers should be used in DC/DC converters. Furthermore, due to the severe constraint of installation space and difficulty of heat dissipation management in the bottom of railway vehicles, high-power density and minimum transformer loss should be considered. To satisfy such design requirements of the proposed SST for railway vehicles, high efficiency integrated transformers, which inherently have leakage inductance, are proposed for dual-active-bridge (DAB) converters in this paper. In order to obtain appropriate equivalent leakage inductance for the DAB converters, a calculation methodology for the leakage inductance has been introduced and verified by simulation. Two separated winding structures in the center-core are adopted to improve the core loss, and appropriate winding turns with 60 kV HV insulation capability are selected, according to the proposed design procedure of the integrated transformers. In order to compare the proposed transformers with the conventional transformer having additional inductors and to verify the major characteristics of the transformers, two 125 kW proposed transformers and conventional transformers have been built and evaluated by an 250 kW SST module, operating at 10 kHz switching frequency. Under a 125 kW full-load condition, 99.7% transformer efficiency was obtained by the proposed integrated transformers, which are 4.7% smaller and 7.0% lighter than the conventional transformer. As a result, 26°C maximum temperature improvement has been obtained and 60k V HV insulation capability has been satisfied by the proposed integrated transformers.