Evaluation of applicability of system inversion to fault detection and isolation on switched power converters

Fault detection has been an open problem in power converters for several years. In this paper, we aim at detecting faults by means of left invertibility techniques. Using a mathematical model of the power converter it is possible to exploit the principle of injectivity of I/O map, which allows the recovery of unknown inputs applied to the system from the measure of the outputs. To achieve this end, we utilize the existing current and voltage sensors of the converter without the need for any additional sensors. Finally, a case-study of a multiport converter is presented and simulated to illustrate the methodology. Experimental results obtained under realistic conditions illustrate the effectiveness of the scheme and prove that fault detection based on the inverse method is possible.