Consortium addresses automotive dc/dc conversion
1 min read
A consortium of British companies, led by motorsport specialist Prodrive, is developing a dc/dc converter for use in automotive hybrid and electric vehicles which will be more efficient, smaller and lower cost than those currently available.
The project, part funded by the Technology Strategy Board, will pool expertise from companies including Prodrive, HILTech Developments, International Transformers, LDV, Sloan Electronics and the Universities of Manchester and Newcastle.
An automotive dc/dc converter balances the voltage between the motor and the energy storage device, boosting or reducing the voltage as necessary. This reclaims more of the energy under braking and provides more under acceleration, making the vehicle more efficient.
“Our converter will be designed for use with 50 kW systems,” said Pete James, electronics specialist at Prodrive. “This means it can provide an additional power boost of up to 67bhp, which allows a hybrid car to use a much smaller petrol engine without any loss in performance. The other exciting prospect is that such a system could be used instead of a turbo or supercharger on higher performance sports cars.”
The project will require new technologies in the fields of power electronics and thermal management. One important feature of the system will be the prognostics and health monitoring, providing the converter with the ability to predict failure and shut down, or run in a reduced ‘limp home’ mode. Such functionality is a prerequisite in the automotive industry.
Project targets are 96% efficiency, a 6kW/litre power to volume ratio and a power to weight ratio of 4kW/kg.
