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Range Extender Development for Electric Vehicle Using Engine Generator Set

Ambaripeta, Hari Prasad

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Science in Engineering, University of Akron, Electrical Engineering.
The modeling, simulation and implementation of a range extender for an existing truck are presented in this document. The objective of this thesis is to re-engineer an existing electric truck into a series hybrid electric vehicle through a range extender. A LiFePO4 (Li-Ion) battery pack powered electric vehicle is used as a platform to implement a range extender using an advanced control strategy. A range extended electric vehicle has been simulated using series hybrid electric vehicle architecture to size the range extender by studying the behavior of the system under different drive cycles. To determine the size of the range extender, a specific drive cycle in which the vehicle is considered to be cruising at 65 Mph was selected to study the operation of the range extended electric vehicle. By analyzing the results of the simulations it has been concluded that a 30 kW engine and generator set is an appropriate size of the range extender to design a range extended electric vehicle. The range extender was designed, simulated and tested at a bench before it was implemented on a vehicle. A 30 kW range extender was developed by mechanically coupling a 40 hp V-twin horizontal shaft gasoline engine with a 30 kW permanent magnet generator from one of the electrical machines in the transmission of 2004 Toyota Prius. A range extended electric vehicle control algorithm was developed to control the operation of the engine and generator set relative to the state of charge (SOC) of the battery pack. The main objective of the developed algorithm is to maintain the SOC of the battery pack between a certain limits predefined by the programmer. It was determined that by maintaining the iii SOC of the battery pack in between 60% to 80% the targeted distance of 100 miles was achieved with 2 gallons of the gasoline. A novel power converter was developed to convert three phase AC output of the generator into an appropriate DC voltage to charge the battery pack. The developed power converter consists of a three phase diode rectifier electrically coupled with a three legged interleaved buck converter. This power converter was tested on different electrical loads before implementing on the range extender. The main objective of the developed power converter is to reduce the size of the components. By combining three buck converters in parallel the maximum amount of the current through each buck converter, is reduced to one third of the original current. A constant current battery charging algorithm was developed to control power converter. Three PWM signals with 120 deg phase shifted with each other were generated using the control algorithm which will help to reduce the ripple content in the output battery current. With this sequence of the generated PWM the ripple content is reduced by a factor of 6. Additional future work was suggested in this thesis work to increase the reliability of the developed range extended electric vehicle.
Yilmaz Sozer, Dr (Advisor)
Malik Elbuluk, Dr. (Committee Member)
Tom Hartley, Dr. (Committee Member)
168 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ambaripeta, H. P. (2015). Range Extender Development for Electric Vehicle Using Engine Generator Set [Master's thesis, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1424202532

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ambaripeta, Hari Prasad. Range Extender Development for Electric Vehicle Using Engine Generator Set. 2015. University of Akron, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1424202532.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ambaripeta, Hari Prasad. "Range Extender Development for Electric Vehicle Using Engine Generator Set." Master's thesis, University of Akron, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1424202532

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)