Dual-function fault current limiter for electric vehicles protections

Abstract

ABSTRACT Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasingly popular and the development of reliable and efficient protection systems for their DC systems has become a pressing issue. In response to this need, this paper proposes a novel Dual-Function Fault Current Limiter (DF-FCL) to protect EVs against fault currents. The DF-FCL is comprised of a DC reactor with a superconductive resistor that acts as a short circuit in normal and dynamic operational modes, and as a fault current limiter in fault operational mode. The unique advantage of this structure over existing protection systems is its low weight and negligible impedance in normal operational mode, combined with its ability to provide high impedance during a short circuit occurrence time using a simple superconductive resistor. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed DF-FCL, MATLAB/Simulink software is used to model its performance, and a prototype is built to verify the simulation results. Overall, the proposed DF-FCL offers a promising solution for protecting EVs against fault currents.