The Power Electronics and Electric Drives research group carries out research into all aspects of Power Electronics and Drive systems including motor design, power semiconductor device applications and circuits, and advanced control strategies. The blend of interests and skills amongst its academic and research staff is unique and has been recognised by the large number and wide variety of sponsors for the Group’s research work.
Research Agenda
Energy Storage Hardware for Future Vehicle
Energy storage systems are vital to future electric vehicles (EV’s) for both their traction and auxiliary systems. Most power train solutions proposed for future EV’s are based on electrochemical batteries which have a finite energy, and owing to a recharge time of approximately an hour, need to be carefully monitored and managed. The charge/discharge of the battery bank is dependent on the battery management system and the power electronic converters; this research will target both of these areas.
Advanced battery management solutions will be investigated against a range of drive cycle profiles which must reliably and accurately determine the availability of state of charge.
Power electronic converter topologies and advanced controllers, targeting improved efficiency and power density, will also be examined to enable the finite energy to be most effectively used, while also lowering the system weight to reduce energy consumption.
The converter topology and control, the battery management and the integration of the systems will initially be investigated by computer simulation, and then a hardware demonstrator system will be designed and built to show the practical implementation of the research.