PFI-RP: Efficiency and Driving Range Improvements of Electric Vehicles through a Novel Battery-Inverter Architecture

这个创新研究伙伴关系（PFI-RP）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使汽车行业能够使电池供电的电动汽车（bev）更实惠，行驶里程更长。该项目将支持从化石燃料向清洁电力能源的过渡。更低的成本和更高的性能以及更长的行驶里程将加速纯电动汽车技术的采用。该项目还将与汽车行业领导者建立独特的合作伙伴关系，培训下一代技术和创业领袖，领导美国汽车行业。通过学生竞赛和“工程师你的世界”高中工程项目开展的外联工作将扩大不同学生群体的参与。拟议的项目是基于一个颠覆性的电池逆变器架构。目前纯电动汽车中的电池是由多个低压电池单元串联而成的高压系统。在这样的体系结构中，所有单元必须作为一个整体一起执行，任何不良单元都会降低整个系统的性能，并由于需要复杂的管理和缓解组件而增加成本。拟议的项目通过允许电池单元根据其健康状态和充电状态几乎独立地运行来解决这个问题。这种架构可以大大延长整体电池寿命，有效降低系统成本。新型逆变器还可以实现更高的功率转换和电机效率，进一步扩展纯电动汽车的驱动范围。该项目将开发一个原型系统，该系统将进行测试，以验证电池逆变器系统的热学和电气性能，以及其在未来纯电动汽车平台上的适用性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Research Partnership (PFI-RP) project is to enable the automotive industry to make battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) more affordable and with a longer driving range. This project will support the transition from fossil fuels to clean electric energy. Reduced costs and improved performance in terms of higher efficiency and longer driving range will accelerate the adoption of the BEV technology. The project will also create a unique partnership with an automotive industry leader that will train the next generation technical and entrepreneurship leaders to lead the US automotive industry. The outreach efforts through student competitions and the Engineer Your World high school engineering program will broaden the participation of a diverse student population. The proposed project is based on a disruptive battery-inverter architecture. Today’s battery in a BEV is a high voltage system based on series connection of many low voltage battery cells. In such architecture, all cells must perform together as a whole and any non-performing cell degrades the whole system’s performance and increases the cost due to the need for complicated management and mitigation components. The proposed project addresses this issue by allowing battery cells to operate almost independently based on their state of the health and state of charge. This architecture can substantially extend the overall battery life, effectively reducing the system cost. The novel inverter can also achieve much higher power conversion and motor efficiency, further extending the drive range of the BEVs. The project will develop a prototype system that will be tested to verify the thermal and electrical performance of the battery-inverter system and its suitability to be implemented in future BEV platforms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.