Non-Isolated DC-DC Converters in Fuel Cell Applications: Thermal Analysis and Reliability Comparison

Abstract

An alternative energy source that has appeared beyond expectations and has seen a lot of progress is the fuel cell. A proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell is chosen for analysis and requires a DC-DC boost converter as an interface between the fuel cell and the load to provide a high-gain regulated voltage. Although great effort towards developing different converter topologies has been made during recent decades, less attention has been devoted to the reliability and thermal performance assessment of the present converters. In this paper, five non-isolated DC-DC converters are analyzed in terms of both thermal behavior and reliability. The temperature estimation of semiconductor devices as a critical part of the thermal analysis has been made via a detailed thermal model and the reliability is evaluated by means of a power cycling test. Finally, a performance score has been attributed using the TOPSIS ranking methodology and considering all the criteria (e.g., the number of components and cost) at the same time. The results indicated that the floating interleaved boost converter is always at the top of the list, even if the weight of the indicators is changed. When the weight of the cost criterion is higher than the reliability criterion, the multi-switch boost converter will be in second place. If the weight of the reliability criterion is greater than cost, the interleaved and multi-switch converter are ranked second and third, respectively. Additionally, the Cuk converter with a closeness coefficient of zero is always associated with the most unfavorable performance.