GOALI: Integrated On-Board Universal SiC-based Fast Charging for Plug-In Electric Vehicles

推动下一代插电式电动汽车广泛采用的重要现实之一是能够长途行驶。由于几乎所有住宅和企业都已经配备了120VAC交流电源连接，并且大多数都配备了240VAC交流电源连接，因此假设大多数车辆充电将发生在车辆在家中夜间停放或白天在办公室停放时。这种模式的缺点是，根据可用功率和电池大小，1级和2级充电可能需要4到20个小时；这意味着任何相当长的距离都需要一定的计划和车辆停机时间。目前的替代方案是高功率3级非车载充电。非车载充电器体积庞大，制造成本高，安装成本高，如果没有全面的国家充电基础设施的发展，就不实用。该GOALI项目致力于设计一款集成的通用车载快速充电器，兼容1级、2级和3级充电功能。此外，研究团队将通过培养年轻而有才华的研究生、本科生和高中生，确保最高质量的综合教育和研究，以满足美国能源和交通行业新兴的劳动力和教育需求。该项目的目标是设计、控制、开发和验证一种通用的基于碳化硅的电动汽车用大功率电机集成逆变器/充电器。该项目背后的根本基础是提供一个革命性的解决方案，以克服目前充电方法的局限性，该方法整合了电气工程和机械工程等不同学科，从而促进了多学科的合作研究。这项重要工作将(1)推动板载大功率充电器设计的理论进步，并引入独特的控制策略，以防止在三相充电过程中产生扭矩；(2)针对基于宽带隙的转换器，采用创新的封装和热管理方法以及故障模式物理分析，从而以更低的体积、重量和成本提高效率；以及(3)涉及电力电子、控制、变速驱动、封装、可靠性评估和热管理等领域的跨学科研究。

One of the important realities which would facilitate widespread adoption of next generation of plug-in electric vehicles is the capability of traveling long distances. Since nearly all residences and businesses are already equipped with a 120VAC mains connection, and most with a 240VAC connection, it is assumed that the majority of vehicle charging will take place when the vehicle is parked either overnight at home or during the daytime at the office. The drawback to this paradigm is that level-1 and level-2 charging can take anywhere from 4 to 20 hours depending on available power and battery size; meaning that trips of any substantial distance would involve some amount of planning and vehicle down-time. The current alternative is high power level-3 off-board charging. Off-board chargers are bulky, costly to manufacture, expensive to install, and are not practical without the evolution of a comprehensive national charging infrastructure. This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) project addresses design of an integrated universal on-board fast charger, compatible with level-1, level-2, and level-3 charging capabilities. In addition, the research team will ensure the highest quality integrated education and research to meet the emerging workforce and educational needs of the U.S. energy and transportation industries by educating young and talented graduate, undergraduate, and high school students.The objective of this project is to design, control, develop, and validate a universal onboard Silicon Carbide based high-power motor-integrated inverter/charger for electric vehicles. The underlying foundation behind this project is to provide a transformative solution to overcome present limitations of the charging methods, which integrates different disciplines such as electrical engineering and mechanical engineering, thus fostering multidisciplinary collaborative research. This important work will (1) lead to theoretical advancements in the design of onboard high-power chargers and introduce unique control strategies to prevent torque generation during three-phase charging; (2) result in innovative packaging and thermal management methods as well as physics of failure mode analyses for wide band gap based converters, leading to increased efficiency with lower size, weight, and cost; and (3) involve interdisciplinary research in power electronics, control, adjustable speed drives, packaging, reliability assessment, and thermal management.