Design of a bidirectional buck-boost dc/dc converter for a series hybrid electric vehicle using PSCAD/EMTDC

A process for the design and development of a bidirectional buck-boost dc/dc converter for use as a generator controller in a series hybrid electric vehicle is presented. The converter allows a single permanent magnet dc (PMDC) electric machine to be used for both engine starting and generating modes. The power electronics and the control system methodology are studied and refined using the PSCAD/EMTDC transient simulator as a design tool. Several operation scenarios are studied using parametric studies. A control system is developed for which the parameters are selected and optimized using nonlinear simplex simulation based optimization. The converter and optimized control system are tested under a simulated scenario to verify acceptable functionality and performance.