Study and Analysis of 2-Phase DAB DC-DC Converter for Fuel Cell Applications

Abstract

This research paper studies a DC/DC converter known as the double active bridge (DAB) converter which operates at high frequency. This converter has a broad range of applications, especially for fuel cell (FC) and hybrid and electric vehicle applications. An inverter and rectifier make up the converter; which are galvanically isolated through a high frequency planar transformer. This last is utilized in extend to adapt voltages and to isolate the ports. A Single-Phase Shift (SPS) technique has been employed in favor of providing control signals for the Mosfet devices of the output bridge with respect to those of the input bridge. This phase shift angle (PSA) has been introduced for the sake of controlling the transferred power. The major strength of this converter is the compactness of its components due to the high frequency operation. In addition to that, it has an important voltage amplification with a broad voltage scale and it promotes a significant efficiency. A clear and detailed study of the DAB converter is presented in this work. Using Matlab/Simulink software, simulations were conducted for a variable PSA in order to validate its operation. Finally, detailed analysis and discussions has been carried out.