Method to design the leakage inductances of a multiwinding transformer for a multisource energy management system

The paper at hand proposes to employ a multisource DC-DC converter to interconnect energy sources, storage devices, drives and the motion control unit of an electric vehicle. This converter topology is well suited to interconnect more than 2 sources/loads that need galvanic isolation. It is particularly advantageous in the case of different voltage levels to be connected, with the power flowing in any direction. The multisource DC-DC converter employs a single magnetic core with multiple windings. The maximum transmissible power for each pair of sources, the energy efficiency and the controllability of the system depend on the multiwinding transformer´s leakage inductances. The paper presents a solution to adjust the leakage inductances in order to obtain a given converter characteristic. The approach works with uneven transformation ratios and is validated experimentally for 4 sources/loads.