Utilization of interleaved converter to improve battery performance in electric and electrical hybrid vehicles

Battery Pack life time depending on thermal management is a crucial issue in Electric and Electric Hybrid vehicles. Excessive thermal losses caused by the battery current ripples can be well avoided by introducing suitable topology. This paper proposes utilization of interleaved DC-DC converters to reduce the battery pack current ripples. Interleaved converters have some advantages such as low current ripple, low losses and high reliability. This paper considers Ni-MH batteries used in Toyota Prius 2010 and takes the high frequency model of Ni-MH battery into account to show the effect of ripple current on battery. While design equations and considerations are explored, conventional converter and interleaved DC-DC converter are modeled and simulated to study and compare the battery current ripples in boost and buck modes of operation. It is shown that current ripples of interleaved converter are much lower resulting in extension of battery pack life time.