Design and analysis of a dual input DC-DC converter for hybrid electric vehicle

Green energy sources such as solar - PV, wind, fuel cell, battery, ultra capacitor etc. are highly recommended in hybrid electric vehicle applications. Power electronic converters play an essential role in the incorporation of these green energy sources in to the vehicle system. Design and analysis of a non-isolated dual input DC-DC converter for the integration of nonlinear V-I characteristic DC sources for the vehicle propulsion system are discussed in this paper. Computer simulations of the DC-DC converter for integrating two input sources has been carried out in MATLAB/Simulink. A hardware prototype of the DC-DC converter has been fabricated successfully. The fabricated converter hardware has been tested for the 5 HP DC motor drive in the laboratory. Performance comparison has been carried out between the simulation and the experimental results of the dual input DC-DC converter. This converter topology has low component count and offers simplicity in operation of two nonlinear V-I characteristic sources.