Semi-Active Hybrid Topology with Three-Level DC-DC Converter for Electric Vehicle Application

A bidirectional DC-DC converter is employed to control the power of the secondary storage element according to the references set by the energy management system in a semi-active hybrid topology for an urban electric vehicle. This study proposes an improved DC-DC converter to connect supercapacitors to the main DC bus. The DC-DC converter controller is oriented by references provided by an online management algorithm. The feeding system model including its inner control layer is addressed to introduce the energy strategy system, considering an improved three-level DC-DC converter. Decisions at the energy management strategy level are supported by a fast meta-heuristic approach. Simulations using Matlab-SimulinkTM are provided to demonstrate the performance of the selected topology in order to keep the batteries and supercapacitors within physical limits on the driving cycle.