Design Procedure of DC-DC Multi-Port Active-Bridge Converters

Abstract:
Dual active-bridge converters (DABs) have been well studied in the literature. Converters with more than two active-bridges are becoming popular today, because they propose the same advantages as DABs, while being able to connect several sources and loads. However, the design procedure of DABs cannot be easily generalized for these multi-port active-bridge (MAB) converters. The goal in designing is to size and choose elements so that the converter can operate with desired efficiency within a wide-enough safety margin. However, several constraints such as size, weight and cost are usually be taken into account. In order to achieve these goals, good knowledge of the losses in MAB is required. This work presents a scalable model of MAB that can determine losses and combines it with common design rules to propose a design procedure for MAB converters. The model of losses is validated experimentally.