A Comparative Investigation of Clamping techniques for Bi-directional Energy Harvester Interface (BEHI)

Abstract

This paper presents different clamping techniques; (1) Passive (2) Active (3) Flyback snubber for Bidirectional Energy Harvester Interface (BEHI) using Isolated Boost Mode Full Bridge (IBMFB) configuration in order to mitigate the transient voltage peak or voltage overshoot caused due to parasitic elements. Simulation results verify the benefits and drawbacks of each clamping methods. An experimental prototype of BEHI converter is designed, built and tested by incorporating different clamping techniques using reconfigurable hardware structure. In this work, the experimental results of BEHI converter are verified using active clamp method around rated power of 5 kW with drastic reduction in transient voltage peak (less than 100V) and thereby achieved higher converter efficiency(~92%). The comparative investigation between passive and active clamp methods has also been experimentally carried out in the prototype hardware and highlighted in this paper.