A Comparative Study of Open-End Winding Drive Systems for Hybrid Fuel Cell-Battery Fed Electric Vehicles

Pollution is increasing with the increase of the transportation demand. However, the replacement of internal combustion engine by electric motor is a great advantage toward environment. The investigation of hybrid fuel cell-battery system is highly attractive for the drive electric vehicle. Such hybridization improves power quality, allows for quick fuel cell start-up, has a favorable impact on the fuel cell's life cycle, increases fuel cell efficiency, and raises the system reliability and efficiency of motoring and regenerative braking. Moreover, multilevel inverters play an essential role in terms of lower switching action, total harmonic distortion, and smoother output voltage which enhances the performance of the motor. Basically, multilevel output voltage can be produced by a different structure of classical inverter integrated with an open-end winding induction motor configuration. Such configuration is characterized by simplicity of structure and control. Moreover, it overcomes the problem of zero-sequence components and protects the motor from failure. This paper reviews briefly the configurations of open-end winding drive system for hybrid electric vehicle which allow the combination of fuel cell with other DC sources.