Stability and accuracy considerations in the design and implementation of a kilowatt-scale DC power hardware-in-the-loop platform

Power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) is a developing simulation technology for the virtual prototyping of electrical systems, wherein switching power converters are controlled to represent the dynamic behavior of a simulated system at their power terminals. PHIL allows for advanced studies to be performed on system interactions by virtually coupling a realtime software simulation of electrical components to a physical piece of hardware through the use of an interfacing amplifier and appropriate control algorithm. Special consideration must be made in the design of a PHIL test platform to ensure that the overall system remains stable in operation and yields accurate results for both the software simulated system and the interfaced hardware under test. The contributions of this paper include the implementation of a highly stable power interface control algorithm, development of impedance based design constraints for interface amplifier design, and accuracy and stability evaluation of a simulated PHIL test platform. The resulting test platform is assessed through the PHIL simulation of a representative kilowatt-scale MVDC distribution system.