2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, VOL. 14, NO.

1, JANUARY 2018

Multiple-Input Configuration of Isolated

Bidirectional DC–DC Converter for Power Flow
Control in Combinational Battery Storage
V. Karthikeyan , Student Member, IEEE, and Rajesh Gupta , Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—This paper proposes a multiple-input config- uninterrupted power to the load [4]. The bidirectional dc–dc
uration of isolated bidirectional dual active bridge dc–dc converters are essential to control the power flow in and out of
converter (MIBDC) for power flow control in combinational the energy storage system.
battery storage. It can be operated in an independent source
or combinational source mode of operation to control the Generally, there are two classifications of bidirectional dc–dc
power transfer, with the capability of bidirectional power converters: i) nonisolated and ii) isolated. The isolated bidi-
flow and smoother transition. The proposed configuration rectional dc–dc convertors (IBDC) [5] are becoming popular
has the benefits of reduction in circulation power and peak due to several advantages such as provision of isolation be-
current stress in an independent mode of operation, which
tween two ends, smooth power flow control, smaller size, and
enhances the efficiency of dual active bridge converter. It
also offers a wide range of power transmission as compared less cost. Different topologies, such as multiple-input and sin-
to the conventional IBDC. The proposed configuration can gle output, single-input and multiple-output, and multiple-input
also be used with unequal voltage level sources by connect- and multiple-output, have been introduced to achieve high power
ing them in series on multi-input side. The operation and transfer rate [6]–[8]. In all these configurations, multiple dual
investigation of the proposed configuration are presented
active bridge (DAB) converters are required and they are con-
in detail. In addition, the strategy of power flow control with
multiple-input sources is discussed. The operation of the nected either in series or in parallel or in both. The concept
proposed MIBDC has been verified through simulation stud- of multiple-input isolated dc–dc converters (MIC) has been in-
ies using PSCAD/EMTDC and experimentally demonstrated troduced for nonisolated dc–dc converters in [9] and [10]. It
using ARM LPC 2148 processor. has the benefits of a simpler circuit structure and lower cost
Index Terms—DC grid, dual active bridge (DAB), multiple- for hybrid power systems [11]. Many authors have proposed
input isolated bidirectional dc–dc converter (MIBDC), power different modulation techniques to enhance the performance of
flow control. the IBDC [12]–[15]. However, the technique of dual phase shift
I. INTRODUCTION (DPS) control is simpler and has good performance than all
HE dc output can be locally generated by renewable energy other modulation techniques [16]–[20]. Several optimal modu-
T sources such as solar PV system, wind power generation,
and fuel cell and can be connected to a common dc bus [1].
lation strategies have been proposed to enhance the efficiency of
DAB converter by reducing circulation power (CPF) and current
A suitable dc/dc or dc/ac converter is desired at the output stress [21]–[23]. However, it is a challenge to expand the effi-
of these resources for maximum power extraction or power ciency under light load conditions, since DAB generates more
conditioning. In remote or isolated regions where the power grid CPF and higher peak current stress.
cannot be extended, off-line dc grid schemes have been found to The multimodular converter has been proposed in [24], in
be a suitable solution for electrification [2], [3]. The renewable which the multiple inputs are connected to the bidirectional
energy sources alone are not suitable to meet load demand and dc–dc converter through buck converter for high power trans-
auxiliary energy sources such as batteries are required to provide fer applications. The multiport dc–dc/ac converters proposed
in [25] and [26] accumulate the energy in individual source
Manuscript received August 17, 2016; revised November 18, 2016 through separate control, which provides better flexibility of
and April 9, 2017; accepted May 2, 2017. Date of publication May 23, power transfer. To improve the performance of DAB, the reso-
2017; date of current version January 3, 2018. This work was sup- nant circuit is preferred in high-frequency link conversion stage,
ported by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi,
India, through the project “Power Electronics Converter Based Bidirec- which helps to avoid the usage of transformer [27]. Among all
tional Power Flow Controller for Energy Storage Applications,” Sanction resonant converters, LLC type has superior performance com-
No. 22(0691)/15/EMR-II. Paper no. TII-16-0873. (Corresponding author: pared to other resonant types having lesser losses and improved
Rajesh Gupta.)
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Motilal harmonics properties [28]–[30]. A hybrid dc–dc converter com-
Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad 211004, India (e-mail: bining the resonant and DAB has been proposed in [31], for
[email protected]; [email protected]). better operation under normal and overload conditions.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. In this paper, multiple-input configuration of an IBDC
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TII.2017.2707106 (MIBDC) is proposed to achieve a wide range of power

1551-3203 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
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 KARTHIKEYAN AND GUPTA: MULTIPLE-INPUT CONfiGURATION OF ISOLATED BIDIRECTIONAL DC–DC CONVERTER 3

multiple-input circuit stage, shown in Fig. 2, with m battery

sources Vi ; i = 1, 2, 3, . . . , m, there are two switches with an-
tiparallel diodes connected with each battery. The switches Si
are connected in series with the batteries; Sm +i are the switches
connected in parallel with the batteries; Di and Dm +i are the
antiparallel diodes of the switches Si and Sm +i , respectively,
where i = 1, 2, 3, . . . , m; Sa1 , Sa2 , Sa3 , and Sa4 are the LV
bridge switches with corresponding antiparallel diodes; Sb1 ,
Sb2 , Sb3 , and Sb4 are the HV bridge switches with correspond-
ing antiparallel diodes; C1 and C2 are the capacitors connected
with LV and HV bridges, respectively.
The power flow control can be achieved by creating phase
Fig. 1. Generalized block diagram of renewable energy sources fed dc
shift between the two voltages, i.e., HV bridge voltage vHV and
distribution grid with MIBDC. LV bridge voltage vLV . The DPS modulation scheme has been
employed to control the power transfer with inner phase shift
duty ratio d1 and outer phase shift duty ratio d2 . The range of
d1 and d2 should be 0 to 1, whereas the summation of d1 and
d2 should be less than 1.
There are two categories of power transfer control that de-
pends on the power range need, which is based on whether an
independent source or combinational sources is used. The fol-
lowing content clarifies about these two categories of power
control. For better understanding of the operation of the pro-
posed MIBDC, m is considered to be 3 in this section, i.e., three
batteries are connected to the MIC stage. In addition, it is as-
sumed that all three battery voltages are equal. The two modes
of power flow controls are summarized as follows.

Fig. 2. Proposed multiinput configuration of IBDC. A. Independent Source of Power Control

The equivalent circuit for an independent source of power
transmission with combinational battery storage. It can be op- control is shown in Fig. 3(a)–(c). Here, at a time any one of
erated in an independent mode and a combinational mode of the battery source is connected with the IBDC. In order to
power transfer. It improves efficiency under light load condi- charge/discharge the battery energy, the switches would op-
tions by operating in an independent mode. The main benefits erate accordingly. When the switches S1 , S5 , and S6 , are ON,
of the MIBDC are reduction in CPF and peak current stress as the battery-1 is independently connected with the IBDC to ex-
compared to the conventional IBDC for the same power trans- change the power. The energy is stored in the battery-1 when the
mission, thereby expanding the efficiency improvement. devices S5 , S6 , and D1 are conducting and it is released when
the devices D5 , D6 , and S1 are conducting, as shown in Fig.
II. OPERATION PRINCIPLE OF MULTIPLE-INPUT IBDC 3(a). The charging and discharging operation with battery-2 and
3 is similar to battery-1, as shown in Fig. 3(b) and (c).
Generalized block diagram of the renewable energy sources
The power transmission from each source of the battery is
fed dc distribution system grid with an MIBDC is shown in
proportional to the voltage across MIC stage Vx and the battery
Fig. 1. Renewable energy sources, dc and ac loads, and MIBDC
average current Io . The voltage Vx depends on the number of
are interconnected in the distributed dc grid to access the power.
batteries connected in MIC stage. In order to control Io in the
The MIBDC is fed from the combinational battery storage. It
independent mode, the inner and outer phase shift ratios (d1 and
serves as a flexible backup source or provide necessary power
d2 ) are adjusted.
buffer as storage.
The proposed multiple-input configuration of an IBDC is
shown in Fig. 2. The input stage is supplied from combinational B. Combinational Sources of Power Control
battery storage. It has the following three stages: 1) multiple- In this mode of operation, at a time two or more batteries are
input circuit stage; 2) low-voltage (LV) bridge inverter stage; connected together to increase the power transfer through the
and 3) high-voltage (HV) bridge inverter stage. In multiple- IBDC. For charging and discharging operation, the energy gets
input circuit stage, m numbers of batteries are connected in stored either in battery-1 and 2 or battery-2 and 3 or battery-1
series on the dc side of the LV bridge to perform power transfer and 3, or battery-1, 2, and 3, through the respective switches
between the dc grid/bus and energy storage. and antiparallel diodes. The equivalent circuit of combinational
The LV and HV bridges are connected through a high- sources of power transfer is illustrated in Fig. 4(a)–(c). In this
frequency transformer with turn ratio of 1: n. In the case, the two batteries are connected in series and the voltage

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 4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, VOL. 14, NO. 1, JANUARY 2018

Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit for independent source of power control. (a) Charging or discharging of source V 1 . (b) Charging or discharging of source
V 2 . (c) Charging or discharging of source V 3 .

Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit for combinational sources of power control. (a) Charging or discharging of sources V 1 and V 2 . (b) Charging or discharging
of sources V 2 and V 3 . (c) Charging or discharging of sources V 1 and V 3 . (d) Charging or discharging of all three source of V 1 , V 2 and V 3 .

output of the LV bridge gets doubled when both the battery

voltages are equal. Moreover, the power transfer also gets dou- The waveform of dc side input current iin and battery output
bled. When further higher power transfer is required, then all current ibat can be obtained using (1) for respective durations,
three batteries are connected together and the equivalent circuit as shown in Fig. 5. Let us define the voltage conversion ratio
is shown in Fig. 4(d). In the charging or discharging mode, once k = Vin /nVx , where Vin is the input voltage across the dc
the switches are turned ON, the batteries are connected with an bus; Vx is the output voltage across the MIC stage; n is the
IBDC and it is ready to transfer or receive the power. When vHV turns ratio of the transformer. The current at various instants for
leads vLV , the power can be stored in the batteries via MIC stage 0 ≤ d2 < d1 < 1 can be derived and expressed as follows:
and vice versa. The power range transmission can be decided
nVx
by number of batteries connected in MIC stage. iL 1 = − [(k(1 − d1 ) − (d1 + 2d2 − 1)] (2)
4fs L
III. POWER FLOW CONTROL nVx
iLP = − [(k(1 − d1 − 2d2 ) + (d1 − 1)] (3)
4fs L
There are two ways to control the power with DPS control: i)
0 ≤ d2 ≤ d1 < 1 and ii) 0 ≤ d1 ≤ d2 ≤ 1. The operating nVx
iL 2 = iL 0 − [(k(1 − d1 ) − (d1 − 1)] (4)
waveforms with these two conditions are shown in Fig. 5(a) and 4fs L
(b), respectively. In steady state, the ac current iL through the where fs is the switching frequency; d1 is inner phase shift duty
inductor L can be written by the following expression [15]. ratio; and d2 is outer phase shift duty ratio.
diL (t) (vin (t) − nvx (t)) Similarly, the current at various instants for 0 ≤ d1 ≤ d2 <
= . (1) 1 can be derived. The expressions of iL 1 and iLP are the same
dt L

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 KARTHIKEYAN AND GUPTA: MULTIPLE-INPUT CONfiGURATION OF ISOLATED BIDIRECTIONAL DC–DC CONVERTER 5

Fig. 5. Operating waveforms of DAB converter under DPS control. (a) 0 ≤ d2 < d1 < 1. (b) 0 ≤ d1 ≤ d2 ≤ 1

as derived in (2) and (3). The expressions of iL 0 and iL 2 , can be equations for m ≥ 2.
derived as follows:
Nswitch = 2m + 8 (11)
nVx
iL 0 = [(k(d1 − 1) − (2d2 − d1 − 1)] (5) 
m
4fs L Vx = Vi . (12)
nVx i=1
iL 2 = − [(k(2d2 + d1 − 1) − (d1 − 1)] . (6)
4fs L In (11), 2m switches correspond to the MIC stage and eight
switches are used in the LV and HV bridges. In a combina-
Let us define average current Io using battery current ibat , tional source mode, the possible combination of multiple-input
which can be obtained from piecewise geometry of ibat current configuration of an IBDC is defined as follows:
waveform in Fig. 5(a) and (b). The average power transmission
P can be written as 
m
m
k= C2 (13)
P = Vx Io . (7) r =2

where k is the number of possible combination of Vx . When

By substituting Io in (7), the average power transmission can equal battery voltage sources are connected in MIC stage, the
be obtained as follows. total minimum and maximum power available in the combina-
For 0 ≤ d2 < d1 < 1 tional mode can be defined as follows:
 
nVin Vx 1 2 Pm in = 2Pn (14)
P= d2 (1 − d2 ) − d1 . (8)
2fs L 2
Pm ax = mPn (15)
For 0 ≤ d1 ≤ d2 < 1 where Pn is the nominal power when any single battery is con-
   nected in the independent mode. When an IBDC is intercon-
nVin Vx 1
P = (d2 1 − d1 − d2 . (9) nected with the dc grid, it transfers the power in bidirectional
2fs L 2
manner according to the required power. From (10), the maxi-
The maximum power transfer Pm ax will occur when d1 = 0 mum power transfer depends on Vin and Vx for constant L and
and d2 = 0.5. In this case, both the voltages of vHV and vLV fs . Essentially, vHV depends on the dc grid voltage and it is usu-
become square wave [15]. Using constrains 0 ≤ (d1 + d2 ) ≤ ally constant. Changing Vx is the main conceivable approach to
1; the Pm ax can be expressed as follows: increase the maximum power transfer. According to the required
power, the voltage Vx can be changed to support the power flow
nVin Vx as required.
Pm ax = . (10)
8fs L
By changing the value of Vx , the range of power transmission A. Switched Modeling of MIBDC
can be changed. Whereas the voltage Vx depends on the number The switched model of the MIBDC is derived by assuming
of batteries connected in MIC stage. But the power transmission that the voltage drop across devices is negligible and voltage
can be controlled by adjusting the inner and outer phase shift across the capacitors is constant. The equivalent resistance of
ratios d1 and d2 using (8) and (9), under two conditions. The total the transformer and the leakage inductance is represented as RL
number of switches Nswitch used in the MIBDC and the total and L. The bridge output voltages of vHV and vLV have three
voltage across low voltage side Vx is defined by the following states of + Vin , −Vin , 0 and + Vx , −Vx , 0. In DPS control, the

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 6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, VOL. 14, NO. 1, JANUARY 2018

TABLE I TABLE II
SWITCHING STATES FOR 0 ≤ d2 ≤ d1 < 1 SWITCHING STATES OF MIBDC

States Switching intervals

t0 ≤ τ < t1 t1 ≤ τ < t2 t2 ≤ τ < t3 t3 ≤ τ < t4

s 1 (τ ) 0 0 1 1
s 2 (τ ) -1 0 0 1

voltage across MIC stage Vx and average battery current Io is

equal to the actual power Pact being transferred to the battery.
As mentioned earlier, there are several modulation techniques
available in literature [15]. After comparing Pact with Pref , with
DPS modulation, the switching signals for HV and LV bridges
Fig. 6. Control strategy and mode selector outputs for power flow con-
trol of MIBDC. are generated for the switches Sa1 , Sb1 , Sc1 , Sd1 , and Sa2 , Sb2 ,
Sc2 , Sd2 , respectively. According to Pref , the power flow con-
troller chooses either an individual (Mode I) or a combinational
time intervals of switching function is different in two conditions mode (Mode II) of operation. It generates two digital outputs
0 ≤ d2 ≤ d1 < 1 and 0 ≤ d1 ≤ d2 ≤ 1. X and Y, which select the particular mode of operation in the
MIBDC, as shown in Fig. 6. According to X and Y signal gen-
vHV = s1 (τ ) × Vin (τ ) (16) eration, the switching states of MIC stage switches (S1 to S4 )
vLV = s2 (τ ) × Vx (τ ) (17) are mentioned in Table II.
When multiple batteries are connected in series, the state of
where s1 (τ ) and s2 (τ ) are the switching function at HV and LV imbalance may occur, especially when operated in the indepen-
bridge, respectively. The switching states for 0 ≤ d2 ≤ d1 < dent mode. This may lead to reduction in battery capacities and
1 are displayed in Table I. affects the battery life cycles. To solve this balancing issue, an
Similarly from Fig. 5(b), we can write the switching functions optimal scheduling algorithm need to be incorporated by con-
for 0 ≤ d1 ≤ d2 ≤ 1. Choosing inductor current iL as the sidering the charging/discharging cycles and state of charge of
state variable, the following state equation of the MIBDC can batteries [32]. The algorithm should identify best choice of the
be written: battery combinations when different capacities of the battery
diL (t) Rt s1 (τ ) s2 (τ ) are connected.
= − iL (τ ) + Vin (τ ) − nVx (τ ). (18)
dτ L L L
IV. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Equations (16)–(18) represent the ac side dynamics of the
MIBDC. The operation of the proposed MIBDC configuration has been
verified through the simulation and experimental results. In both
B. Control Strategy simulation and experiment, m is considered 2 with equal battery
voltages.
The primary objective of the proposed topology is to achieve
a wide range of power control through a dc–dc converter. In
order to understand the control strategy of an MIBDC, two A. Simulation Results
number of batteries (m = 2) is considered in this section, with First, the proposed MIBDC configuration has been modeled
equal and different voltage levels of batteries. The power flow and simulated in PSCAD/EMDTC environment. The perfor-
control strategy of an MIBDC is shown in Fig. 6. According to mance of the proposed MIBDC is studied through simulation
the required power, the power flow controller generates PWM results under dynamic conditions.
signals with suitable phase shift command to the mode selector. In order to test the simulation results, the parameters are con-
The control algorithm and switching states of an MIBDC is sidered as follows: L = 500 μH, f = 20 kHz, dc bus voltage
shown in Table II, where Pref is the reference power transfer; = 3.3 kV, and V1 = V2 = 240 V, 300 kAh, with transformer
and P1 and P2 are the power transfer in an MIBDC when battery- turn ratio of 1:10. The HV bridge voltage vHV is considered
1 and 2 are connected with an IBDC, respectively. constant. The simulation results are shown in Fig. 7 with the
In Mode I, the MIBDC operates as an independent source and transition from the combinational source mode to independent
in Mode II, it operates as combinational source. The product of source mode and back to combinational source mode. When

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 KARTHIKEYAN AND GUPTA: MULTIPLE-INPUT CONfiGURATION OF ISOLATED BIDIRECTIONAL DC–DC CONVERTER 7

Fig. 7. Simulation results of MIBDC under dynamic condition.

the mode of operation changes from an independent to a com-

binational source, the voltage gets doubled. The instantaneous
battery current changes, however, the average current converges
to the same value as in both the modes the voltage gets dou-
bled but the average current remains the same. In an indepen-
dent source mode, the current of either battery-2 or battery-1
becomes zero when disconnected from the circuit. In a com-
binational source mode, the current flow through battery-1 and
battery-2 is the same. When an MIBDC makes a transition
from an individual mode to a combinational mode, the dynamic
changes in battery currents are shown in Fig. 8(a) and (b). The
simulation results of battery voltage and power variation under
mode transfer conditions are depicted in Fig. 8(c).

Fig. 8. Simulation results for change in (a) battery current from inde-
B. Analysis of Current Stress and CPF pendent mode to combination mode, (b) battery current from combi-
nation mode to independent mode, (c) battery voltage and power from
To analyze the peak current stress and CPF, the same simula- independent source mode to combination source mode.
tion parameters are considered. For low power transmission or
under light load condition (Pref < P1 in Table II), the voltage
across MIC stage Vx is reduced to either V1 or V2 , with the pro-
for the proposed and conventional operations in (19) and (20),
posed operation, since it can be switched into the independent
respectively.
mode, whereas in a conventional IBDC, the voltage (V1 + V2 )
will appear at Vx . Hence, Vx is less in the proposed operation iLP V2
than in the conventional IBDC, which results in k > 1 in the Gstress = =− [(k(1 − d1 ) − (d1 + 2d2 − 1)]
im ax Vx k
proposed operation and k < 1 in the conventional operation. (19)
Since the peak current iLP depends on k, the expressions (3)
iL 1 1
and (2) are responsible for peak current stress at k > 1 and Gstress = = − [(k(1 − d1 − 2d2 ) + (d1 − 1)] (20)
k < 1, respectively. A unified peak current stress can be defined im ax k

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 8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, VOL. 14, NO. 1, JANUARY 2018

Fig. 9. Comparative unified current stress.

Fig. 10. Comparative unified CPF transmission.

where im ax is the maximum peak current of ibat and is defined

as
nkVx
im ax = . (21)
4fs L
The maximum current im ax can be expressed by substituting
d1 = 0 and d2 = 0.5 in (3). Using (19) to (20), the compar-
ative unified current stress for d1 = 0.1 and 0.4 are shown in
Fig. 9. It is worth noting that the peak current stress is reduced
effectively in the proposed operation as compared to the conven-
tional operation for low range power (light load) transmission.
The leakage inductor is the key element to transfer the power,
but it generates circulation power due to instantaneous phase
angle between vHV and vLV . Fig. 11. Comparative efficiency graph with respect to power transmis-
The CPF is analyzed in the proposed and conventional oper- sion.
ations with k > 1 and k < 1, respectively. Similar to the peak
current stress analysis, the unified CPF can be defined as in [23],
as follows. concludes that the proposed MIBDC enhances the efficiency
For the proposed operation (k > 1) at light load condition by operating it in the independent mode.
CPF V1 [k(1 − d1 ) + (2d2 − 1)]2
GCPF = = . (22)
Pm ax 2Vx (k + 1) C. Experimental Results
For conventional operation (k < 1) To confirm the results, the experimental results have been ob-
tained. The ARM LPC 3128 processor is used to test the experi-
CPF [(1 − d1 ) + k(2d2 − 1)]2
GCPF = = . (23) mental setup built in the laboratory. Following circuit parameters
Pm ax 2k(k + 1) are considered: L = 200 μH, f = 20 kHz, V1 = V2 = 12 V,
Using (22) and (23), the comparative unified CPF for the pro- and 9 Ah. The H-bridge inverter is built using power MOSFET’s
posed and conventional approaches can be plotted, as shown in IRFP250N and connected back to back through transformer turn
Fig. 10. As can be noted from the figure, the CPF in the pro- ratio of 1:2. The experimental setup has been tested under dif-
posed operation is lower than that in the conventional approach. ferent battery voltages and power conditions, as shown in Figs.
The CPF and current stress analysis are compared with the con- 12 and 13.
ventional approach. In low power transmission (light load), due The results have been observed during mode transition for
to the reduction of CPF, the losses associated with the MIBDC Vin = 50 V. Battery voltage-1 and -2 are equal to 12 V. Fig.
can be reduced by operating in the independent mode, thereby 12(a) demonstrates the operation of the MIBDC from a combi-
improving the efficiency. national to an independent mode; then, after a couple of millisec-
The losses have been measured using simulation results data onds, it changes back to the combination mode. The results for
and estimated the efficiency under various power transmission inductor current and LV bridge output are also captured during
conditions and compared with the conventional approach. To the experiment. The duration of pulse is determined by the upper
estimate the efficiency, the losses are measured using simulation part of the LV bridge switching signal, which is clearly shown
results data under various power transmission conditions and in Fig. 12(b). When the required power transfer is higher than
compared with the conventional approach. the maximum power transfer, the operation of MIBDC changes
The comparative efficiency graph is plotted against power and corresponding results are illustrated in Fig. 13. In this re-
transmission, as shown in Fig. 11. From these analyses, it sult, the battery current flows are captured during the transition.

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 KARTHIKEYAN AND GUPTA: MULTIPLE-INPUT CONfiGURATION OF ISOLATED BIDIRECTIONAL DC–DC CONVERTER 9

Fig. 12. Experimental results of MIBDC under dynamic condition. (a)

Transition from combination mode to independent mode. (b) Switching
signal for the switches.

Fig. 13(a) and (b) shows the results for the transition from an
independent to combinational mode. Initially, the current flows
through the battery-1 and the battery-2 current is zero. After
changing to the combinational mode, the same current flows
through both battery-1 and battery-2, with the same average
value as that in the independent mode of operation. When the
required power is lesser than the maximum power transfer, the
MIBDC operation gets changed to the independent mode and
the respective currents are shown in Fig. 13(c) and (d). It can
be observed from the results that the transition from one mode
to another takes place smoothly and instantaneously. The labo-
ratory experimental setup is shown in Fig. 14. When the mode
changes in the MIBDC in order to meet the reference power
requirement, the transient condition may lead to rise in power.
There is also a possibility of inrush current flowing through the
switches due to presence of the capacitor. Therefore, a suitable
current limiter and protection circuit must be employed [33],
[34].
In this paper, a current limiting inductor along with switch Fig. 13. Experimental results for the proposed MIBDC under dynamic
protection has been used to avoid any damage to the switches load condition. (a) Change in battery current from independent to com-
and protection of the batteries. However, for higher power appli- binational mode. (b) Battery-2 current during mode transfer. (c) Change
in battery current from combinational mode to independent mode. (d)
cations involving multiple batteries with the proposed MIBDC, Battery-2 current during mode transfer.
a suitable current limiting circuit should be designed to reduce
inrush current during mode transition [31]–[34].

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 10 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, VOL. 14, NO. 1, JANUARY 2018

[7] S. H. Choung and A. Kwasinski, “Multiple-input DC-DC converter

topologies comparison,” in Proc. 34th Annu. IEEE Conf. Ind. Electron.,
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 KARTHIKEYAN AND GUPTA: MULTIPLE-INPUT CONfiGURATION OF ISOLATED BIDIRECTIONAL DC–DC CONVERTER 11

[30] L. Corradini, D. Seltzer, D. Bloomquist, R. Zane, and D. Maksimovic, Rajesh Gupta (S’05–M’08–SM’11) was born
“Minimum current operation of bidirectional dual-bridge series reso- in Allahabad, India, in 1970. He received the
nant DC/DC converters,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 27, no. 7, Bachelor’s degree from Madan Mohan Malviya
pp. 3266–3276, Jul. 2012. Engineering College, Gorakhpur, India, in 1993,
[31] L. Wang, Q. Zhu, W. Yu, and A. Q. Huang, “A medium-voltage medium- the Master’s degree from Birla Institute of Tech-
frequency isolated DC–DC converter based on 15-kV SiC MOSFETs,” nology, Ranchi, India, in 1995, and the Ph.D.
IEEE J. Emerging Sel. Topics Power Electron., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 100–109, degree from the Indian Institute of Technol-
Mar. 2017. ogy, Kanpur, India, in 2007, all in electrical
[32] T. Kim, W. Qiao, and L. Qu, “A series-connected self-reconfigurable engineering.
multicell battery capable of safe and effective charging/discharging and He is currently an Associate Professor
balancing operations,” in Proc. 27th Annu. IEEE Appl. Power Electron. in the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Conf. Expo., Orlando, FL, USA, 2012, pp. 2259–2264. Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, India. He is
[33] S. Butler, “Controlling inrush current in dc-dc power converters,” Appli- currently the Head of the Electrical Machines Laboratory in the insti-
cation note, VPT Inc. [Online]. Available: www.vptpower.com tute. He has supervised eight Ph.D. and 30 Master students. His re-
[34] A. Kaknevicius and A. Hoover, “Managing inrush current,” Texas In- search interests include control and system theory in power electronics,
struments, Dallas, TX, USA, Appl. Rep. SLVA670A–Aug. 2014–Revised bidirectional dc–dc converters, energy storage, and solar/wind power
May 2015. conversion.
Dr. Gupta is a regular reviewer for the IEEE, IET, and others. He was a
Branch Counselor of the MNNIT Student Branch from 2011 to 2016 and
V. Karthikeyan (S’14) was born in Coimbatore, received the Outstanding Branch Counselor Award by IEEE of Region-
Tamilnadu, India, in 1987. He received the Bach- 10 (Asia-Pacific) for the year 2013.
elor’s and Master’s degrees in electrical and
electronics engineering from Anna University,
Chennai, India, in 2008 and 2010, respectively,
and the Ph.D. degree from Motilal Nehru Na-
tional Institute of Technology, Allahabad, India,
in 2017.
He was an Assistant Professor in KPR
Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Coimbatore, India, from 2010 to 2013. His re-
search interests include bidirectional power converters and its control,
energy storage, and renewable energy systems.
Dr. Karthikeyan has received the best paper awards in the interna-
tional conferences ICES-2011, and ICACCS-2014, held in India.

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