Realization of ultracapacitor as sole energy storage device in induction motor drive electric vehicle with modified state timing based field weakening control algorithm

Abstract

This article employs the concept of realizing an electric vehicle (EV) driven by an induction motor (IM) with an ultracapacitor (UC) as a sole energy storage device for a short distance range in city drive. In battery-driven EVs, the performance of batteries will extensively degrade during frequent start, stop, acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle. However, UC can withstand that circumstance without any degradation. High charge/discharge efficiency, high power density, high temperature withstand capabilities and quick charging capability allows UC to run the EV for an extended range, including the regenerative braking technique. Apart from source, EVs also require efficient drive control for a smooth vehicle operation in the entire driving range. To achieve the vehicle characteristics, it is preferred to operate the propulsion drive in the field weakening (FW) region over the constant torque region. This paper also proposes a Modified State Timing SVPWM Based Control Algorithm for the FW region operation of IM for EV applications. The proposed algorithm is designed to overcome the torque ripple issue of the conventional SVPWM Based Control Algorithm in the FW region. The reduction in torque ripple is achieved by imposing current and voltage limits on the motor d and q axis by considering a maximum modulation index of 1.2732 and with an additional current loop for mitigating the transients in the torque due to sudden variation of the load. The simulation/hardware studies show a smooth operation of UC-driven EV for an entire driving range with a 78.57 percent improvement in torque ripple in the FW region by the proposed algorithm compared with the conventional FW control algorithm. The real time Lab prototype of UC driven EV has been developed and the proposed algorithm has been validated in real-time using the STM32F407VGTx ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller.