Reliability Analysis of Multi-Level PFC Converter-Based Charger for Light EV Charging Application

Abstract

Electric vehicle (EV) charging architectures with two stages consist of rectification and a DC–DC conversion stage. Multi-level rectifiers are emerging as better alternatives in the rectification stage of EV charging applications. As they possess minimum voltage stress on switches, better harmonic profile at the grid side, lower dv/dt stress, and higher voltage capability. In this article, a five-level rectifier in conjunction with a phase shift full bridge converter is implemented for EV charging applications. The rectifier has the inherent capacitor voltage balancing capability and maintains unity power factor at the source side under varieties of operating conditions. The reliability of power electronic converters can be estimated by accessing the reliability of each component in converters. To establish the suitability of the implemented system for real-time EV charging applications, comprehensive performance analysis has been carried out including reliability assessment, the impact of parametric variations on reliability, calculation of losses and efficiency. The battery charger is mathematically modeled and validated experimentally in laboratory. The comparative analysis of the rectifier with state-of-the-art literature has been also carried out.

Keywords:

• multi-level rectifiers
• phase shift full bridge converters
• power factor correction
• reliability analysis
• self-balanced capacitor

AUTHORS’ CONTRIBUTIONS

Akhilesh Kumar Tiwari: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – original draft. Lalit Kumar Sahu: Methodology, Investigation, Supervision. Manish Kumar Barwar: Methodology, Investigation, Writing – review & editing.

DECLARATION OF COMPETING INTEREST

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Akhilesh Kumar Tiwari

Akhilesh Kumar Tiwari was born in Bhilai, India. He received B.E. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and M.TECH. in Power Electronics from CSVTU, Bhilai in 2012 and 2016, respectively. Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical Engineering, N.I.T. Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. His research interest focuses on power electronic converters, EV charging infrastructure.

Lalit Kumar Sahu

Lalit Kumar Sahu was born in Bhilai, India. He received the B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Madhya Pradesh Christian College of Engineering and Technology, Bhilai, and the M.Tech. degree in electrical drives from the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (M.A.N.I.T), Bhopal, India, in 2008 and 2010, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree from M.A.N.I.T. Bhopal. He is also working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, N.I.T. Raipur, India. His research interests include power electronic converters and hybrid electric vehicular systems.

Manish Kumar Barwar

Manish Kumar Barwar was born in Churu, India. He received B.E. and M.E. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BIT MESRA, Ranchi in 2015 and 2018, respectively. Currently, he is pursuing Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical Engineering, N.I.T. Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. His research interest focuses on power electronic converters design and LED-based lighting systems.