Emulation and Testing for Automotive Propulsion Drive Using Two Cascaded Inverters

Assessing the operation of electric drives under standard operating cycles is mandatory in production lines of electric vehicles drivetrains. This article presents a technique dedicated to the performance assessment of electric powertrains for automotive applications. A numerically controlled experimental setting is developed, including a power system made up of two dc-ac converters with their ac sides connected through chokes and a control system implemented in a national instrument PCI eXtensions for instrumentation (NI PXI) hardware-in-the-loop testing system. This system emulates the dynamic behavior of the electric vehicle and of its powertrain. System analysis is used to assess the stability conditions and to calculate the current ripple and the optimal values of the chokes. The experimental emulation of automotive driving cycles in two case studies highlights the effectiveness of the developed automotive testing system. The power flow is analyzed during the motoring and the regenerative braking phases.