International Journal for Research and Development in Engineering (IJRDE)

www.ijrde.com ISSN: 2279-0500 Special Issue: pp- 278-282

Methods Enriching Power and Energy Development (MEPED) 2014 278 | P a g e



PV Based Bidirectional Soft-Switching DC/DC Converter
with Auxiliary Switch Control for Battery Recharging

Neenu Therese Antony
1
, S. Shantha Sharmila
2
, B. Karthika
3
, N. Tejesvi
4
,
Dr. M. Sasikumar
5

1,2,3,4
PG Scholar,
5
Professor,Head of the Department EEE
Jeppiaar Engineering College, Chennai.

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a PV based bidirectional
dc/dc converter with auxiliary switch control
which performs soft switching, which have been
used for battery recharging applications. In
conventional method topologies applied with
soft-switching technique, not only the resonant
components but also additional power switching
devices are required which will results in
additional switching losses and conduction
losses. In the proposed converter topology, soft
switching can be applied to the conventional
bidirectional dcdc converter through adding
auxiliary circuit to the converters and which is
operated at buck and boost mode. Through the
buck and boost mode analysis, soft switching
technique of zero voltage switching and zero
current switching are explained. The aim of this
paper is to introduce a high efficiency PV based
bidirectional dc/dc converter for the battery
charge and discharge system. The proposed
bidirectional converter is modeled and verified
through simulation by using MAT LAB
/SIMULINK.

Keywords - Bidirectional dc/dc converter,
photovoltaic (PV), regenerative braking,
resonant converter, soft switching.

I. INTRODUCTION

The bidirectional dc-dc converter along
with energy storage has become a promising option
for many power related systems, including hybrid
vehicle [1], fuel cell vehicle, renewable energy
system and so forth. It not only reduces the cost
and improves efficiency, but also improves the
performance of the system.
In the electric vehicle applications, an auxiliary
energy storage battery absorbs the regenerated
energy fed back by the electric machine. In
addition, bidirectional dc-dc converter shown in
Figure 1.1 is also required to draw power from the
auxiliary battery to boost the high-voltage bus
during vehicle starting, accelerate and hill climbing
[1]. With its ability to reverse the direction of the
current flow, and thereby power, the bidirectional
dc-dc converters are being increasingly used to
achieve power transfer between two dc power
sources in either direction.
The photovoltaic (PV) module-integrated
converter (MIC) system is the key technology for
the future distributed production of electricity using
solar energy [2][3]. The PV MIC system offers
plug and play concept, greatly optimizing the
energy yield from the PV module [3]. Each PV
module has its own power conversion system,
generating the maximum power from the PV
module [4]. To make the PV MIC system
commercially viable, a low-cost and high-
efficiency power conversion scheme should be
developed. The PV module voltage has a low-
voltage characteristic [5]. In order to deliver
electric power into the grid, the low PV module
voltage should be converted into a high dc voltage
[6]. The electricity available at the output of the PV
module may directly give to the light loads. In
some applications requires additional converters to
process the electricity from the module. To regulate
the current and voltage at the load, also to track the
maximum power, these converters are used. Thus, a
dcdc converter with a high-voltage gain is needed.
The regenerative braking is a process to
create their own power for battery recharging in
hybrids and all-electric vehicles. In the motion
control industry, regenerative braking refers to
charge a battery by using back emf voltage of the
motor. In this operational mode motor acts as a
generator . Since it is opposite to the normal mode.
So, instead of wasting the back emf power into heat
heat loss, it can be used to recharge the battery by a
bidirectional converter.
In this paper, a resonant bidirectional
buckboost converter topology applied with soft-
switching technique of zero voltage switching
(ZVS) and zero current switching is proposed. The
supply is given from a pv panel. In the new
proposed topology, the fundamental operation
equals the conventional bidirectional buckboost
converter [14][15]. The resonance of the proposed
International Journal for Research and Development in Engineering (IJRDE)
www.ijrde.com ISSN: 2279-0500 Special Issue: pp- 278-282


Methods Enriching Power and Energy Development (MEPED) 2014 279 | P a g e


converter is caused by the resonant capacitor and
inductor of the auxiliary circuit and the auxiliary
switch is operated in boost mode and buck mode.


Fig. 1. Proposed bidirectional soft-switching dc/dc
converter.

The aim of this paper is to introduce the auxiliary
switch turn-on time control for the bidirectional
dc/dc converter in a battery charging and
discharging system supplied by a solar source.

II. CONVERTER OPERATION
A. Proposed Converter Configuration
Fig.1 shows the proposed pv based
bidirectional soft-switching dc/dc converter. The
circuit consists of conventional buck-boost circuit
and an auxiliary circuit powered by a photovoltaic
module. This proposed converter is formed by
adding one resonant inductor, two resonant
capacitors, and two switches to the conventional
bidirectional converter circuit. Before turning ON
the main switch, the resonant inductor L
r
in the
auxiliary circuit is energized with the voltage
difference V
high
Vl
ow
.There by soft-switching
operation is obtained. The voltage across Lr is
maintained with V
high
V
low
by operating the upper
converter in continuous conduction mode, before
the main switch is turned ON.
B. Operation Mode
The circuit consists of two operational modes.
They are Boost mode and Buck mode operations.
Each operation mode topology is divided into
seven operating intervals.

Boost mode of operation:
When the power transferred from the low
voltage side to high voltage side it behaves as a
boost converter. To avoid the inrush current, the
output voltage is always higher than the input
supply voltage. In boost mode, voltage increases
rapidly and current decreases slowly. In this mode,
S1 and Sa1 are the main and auxiliary switches .
.Before starting conduction, all the switches are off
and the resonant inductor current (I
Lr
) is increses
and transferred to the output voltage through the
body diode of S2. The auxiliary switch S
a1
is turned
on under ZCT condition and main switch S
1
turned
on under ZVT condition.
Buck mode of operation:
When the power flows from high-voltage
side to low voltage side it behave like step down
converter .To avoid the inrush current input supply
voltage higher than the output voltage. Here S2and
Sa2are the main and auxiliary switches. During
buck mode voltage decreases and current increases
and power remain constant. Buck mode of
operation is otherwise called as step up mode of
operation. Before starting conduction, all the
switches are off. However, switches S2 and
auxiliary switch Sa2 are active in buck mode
operation. Both switches are turned on under ZVT
and ZCT conditions. Like boost mode operational
characteristics are same and buck mode operates in
complement with the boost mode.
The boost and buck mode operations are simulated
by MATLAB.
C. Soft-Switching Principles:
To improve the efficiency of the converter resonant
and soft-switching is implemented in the power
stage. Switching transition occurs under favourable
conditions device voltage or current is zero. Soft
switch auxiliary circuit is composed of a switch and
capacitor. Zero voltage switching means, under
turn on condition the switch voltage brought to zero
before gate voltage is applied. Under turn off
condition a parallel capacitor act as a loss-less
snubber, thats why turn off condition are called as
low loss transition. Zero current switching means,
under turn off condition the switch current brought
to zero before the gate voltage is removed. So turns
on conditions are called as zero loss transition.

III. MODELING OF PHOTOVOLTAIC
ARRAY SYSTEM
The equivalent of PV cell is shown in Figure 2.
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Methods Enriching Power and Energy Development (MEPED) 2014 280 | P a g e



Figure 2:Equivalent circuit of PV cell

The PV panel is modeled as an equivalent current
source. From the MATLAB Simulink ibrary the
mathematical model for the various equations
describing the PV panel characteristics are
modeled. The below figure 6 shows the equivalent
circuit model of the PV panel. This simulation is
done for standard test condition (STC) when
temperature is 25o C and Irradiation is 1000 W/m2
.

Figure3: Equivalent circuit of solar PV using MATLAB



Figure4: Maximum current (Im) of Solar PV using
MATLAB


Figure5: Current generated by the incident light(Ipv)


Figure6: Reverse saturation current (Io) using MATLAB

IV. SIMULATION AND RESULTS

With the above pv modelling, the output of the pv
panel is given to the bidirectional dc-dc converter
which is simulated in MATLAB 7.10.The output
obtained from the pv module is shown in figure7.


Figure7: Output of th pv module.
The output of the open loop boost operation
supplied from solar cell is given below in figure8.


Figure8: Output voltage in boost mode operation

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Methods Enriching Power and Energy Development (MEPED) 2014 281 | P a g e


The output of the open loop buck operation is given
below in figure 9.


Figure9: Output voltage in buck mode operation

The modelling of the bidirectional converter with
battery driving RLE load is given in the figure.
Figure 9 shows the bidirectional operation mode
with closed loop control.



Fig.10. Simulink model of bidirectional converter

The battery used in the simulation is
Nickel-Cadmium with maximum capacity of
22.727Ah, nominal voltage 85V, fully charged
voltage 97.2548V and nominal discharge current
4A. PID controller is used to control the overall
circuit.
Figure10 shows the output voltage
obtained from the bidirectional converter.



Fig.11. Output voltage of the bidirectional converter

For a certain period bidirectional converter
operates in boost mode and after that period
converter operated in buck mode. At the boost
mode operation converter boosts the voltage and
driving the load. In boost mode of operation, output
voltage is 225V and current obtained is 17A. In the
regenerative mode of the system, converter is
operated in buck mode. So the regenerative energy
become stored in the battery. At the buck mode
operation the voltage obtained is 115V and the
current obtained is -25A.



Fig.12. Output current of the bidirectional converter

The output current waveform of the
bidirectional dc/dc converter operating in boost and
buck mode is shown in figure11.

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, pv based soft switching
converter with auxiliary switch control for battery
charge and discharge system is proposed. The
supply to the bidirectional dc-dc converter is given
from a pv module. In the intelligent control
techniques for the tracking of MPP were
investigated in order to improve the efficiency of
PV systems, under different temperature and
irradiance conditions. The design and simulation of
a fuzzy logic based MPPT controller was proposed
using MATLAB. The soft-switching condition for
all semiconductor elements is achieved only by
adding two auxiliary switches and resonant
parameters for full duty cycle range. The switches
International Journal for Research and Development in Engineering (IJRDE)
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Methods Enriching Power and Energy Development (MEPED) 2014 282 | P a g e



are turned ON and OFF under zero-voltage and
zero-current conditions by adding the LC resonant
circuit to the conventional bidirectional converter.
The proposed converter reduces the switching
power losses, increasing power efficiency and the
topology is analysed using MATLAB/SIMULINK.

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