Design and Modeling of Hybrid Electric Vehicle Powered by
Solar and Fuel Cell Energy with Quadratic Buck/Boost Converter
Abstract: - Considering technological advancements and international standards mandating reduced greenhouse
gas emissions, automobile manufacturers have shifted their focus toward innovative technologies related to
fuel-cell electric vehicles. Despite having an all-electric powertrain, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) utilize a
fuel cell stack as their energy source, which runs on hydrogen and results in the emission of only water and
heat. Due to the absence of tailpipe pollutants, fuel-cell electric vehicles are considered zero-emission vehicles.
Among fuel cell types, low-temperature and low-pressure fuel cells, such as Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel
Cells (PEMFCs), are well-suited for vehicular applications as they exhibit high power density, operate at lower
temperatures (60-80°C), and are less prone to corrosion than other types of fuel cells. The main objective of
this paper is to investigate solar-assisted electric fuel cell vehicles that efficiently integrate the fuel cell system
with an electrolyzer and solar power to fulfill the fluctuating power demands of the electric motor and auxiliary
systems. A novel EV configuration with a fuel cell, electrolyzer and onboard PV cell is proposed. An onboard
PV cell can assist the fuel cell when the irradiation is enough to generate the power. During the idle conditions
of vehicles, PV-generated power can be converted into chemical energy using an electrolyzer and generated
hydrogen can be stored in a hydrogen tank. To match the voltage required by the motor and sources a quadratic
bidirectional buck-boost converter is employed. The proposed configuration is examined by considering
variable irradiance and variable speed values. To obtain the maximum power output from the photovoltaic (PV)
panel, a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm is employed to regulate the PV system. To
enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of PV systems, an enhanced version of the incremental
conductance algorithm is utilized as the MPPT control strategy. Outer voltage and inner current control are
adopted to regulate the DC output voltage of the QBBC converter. An indirect vector-controlled induction
motor is used as vehicle drive. Simulations are performed to investigate the proposed EV configuration in
MATLAB/SIMULINK.
Key-Words: - QBBC, Hybrid Electric Vehicle, PV generation, MPPT, Fuel Cell, Induction Motor, Vector
Control
Received: April 19, 2022. Revised: March 13, 2023. Accepted: April 14, 2023. Published: May 8, 2023.
1 Introduction
During the 20th century's early days of
transportation, there existed a spirited competition
between electrically powered automobiles and those
with internal combustion engines (ICEs). The
internal combustion engine emerged victorious,
mainly because liquid fuels store a significant
amount of energy, enabling automobiles to travel
long distances without the need for frequent
refueling. In comparison, approximately 28
kilograms of thirty liters of fuel contain around 250
kWh of energy, whereas a lithium-ion battery
weighing the same 28 kilograms only provides
about 5 kWh of energy, [1]. The undeniable energy
advantage of liquid fuel has ensured the dominance
of the internal combustion engine for the past
century, despite its relatively low efficiency. The
drawbacks of utilizing internal combustion engines
and fossil fuels are well anticipated, such as
decreased efficiency, air pollution, reliance on fossil
fuels, dependence on foreign oil, and lead
poisoning. Over the years, various alternatives to the
gasoline-powered internal combustion engine have
been proposed to combat these issues, including
steam power, turbine engines, electric vehicles, and
the utilization of alternative fuels such as methanol,
ethanol, compressed natural gas, and propane. While
fuel cell electric vehicles powered by hydrogen
were developed in the mid-90s, it was not until after
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DOI: 10.37394/23201.2023.22.7
G. Divya, Venkata Padmavathi S.
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G. DIVYA1,2, VENKATA PADMAVATHI S.1
1GITAM School of Technology, GITAM Deemed to be University, Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA
2CVR College of Engineering, Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA
2010 that their widespread commercial availability
increased, [2].
In a fuel-cell hybrid electric vehicle, the main
power source is a fuel cell stack, which is
accompanied by a supplementary energy storage
system used to power the vehicle’s electric motor,
[3]. Compared to conventional hybrid electric
vehicles or those based on internal combustion
engines (ICEs), fuel-cell hybrid electric vehicles
have several advantages. The utilization of an
electric motor instead of a petrol or diesel-powered
ICE improves efficiency and minimizes
environmental impacts, making them a more
sustainable option, [4]. In a plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle (PHEV), an internal combustion engine
(ICE) is utilized to increase the vehicle's travel
range, [5]. It also generates the electric power
required to power the vehicle's electric motor when
the battery level reaches a predetermined state of
charge (SOC), [6]. Fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles
offer several advantages, such as increased
efficiency, reduced air pollution, utilization of clean
and cost-effective energy resources, and suitability
for various industrial applications, [7], [8], [9]. An
FC stack generates electric power through a
chemical reaction that occurs in the presence of
hydrogen, oxygen, and an electrolyte. Among the
various FC systems available, the proton exchange
membrane FC technology is the most suitable for
use in vehicles due to its higher density in electric
power generation and reduced heat generation,
which improves overall efficiency, [10].
The primary disadvantage of using an FC stack
in a vehicle is its inability to respond adequately to
sudden changes in the vehicle's load demand, [11].
The FC stack is not capable of responding
effectively to sudden increases and decreases in
power demand, such as those required during
acceleration and deceleration, or the significant
initial power needed to start the vehicle, [12]. An
additional drawback is that the FC stack itself is
unable to store the regenerated power produced
during braking and deceleration, thereby
necessitating the use of an electrolyzer.
In this paper, a novel EV configuration with a
fuel cell, electrolyzer, and onboard PV cell is
proposed. An onboard PV cell can assist the fuel
cell when the irradiation is enough to generate the
power. During the idle condition of the vehicle, PV-
generated power can be converted into chemical
energy using an electrolyzer and generated
hydrogen can be stored in a hydrogen tank. To
match the voltage required by the motor and sources
a quadratic bidirectional buck-boost converter is
employed. The proposed configuration is examined
by considering variable irradiance and variable
speed values. Section 2 is explained about proposed
EV configuration and fuel cell and electrolyzer.
Section 3 is about the indirect vector control of the
induction motor. The model outcome is shown in
Section 5.
2 Proposed Electric Vehicle with
Solar Onboard
The need for Continuous power requires the use of
equipment with an energy storage system, which
raises the cost and reduces reliability. In a nutshell,
solar energy and fuel cells are regarded as efficient
and environmentally friendly power generation
methods in the twenty-first century. Both solar
energy and fuel cells have benefits and drawbacks.
The proficiency and consistency of Hybrid Electric
Vehicles (HEV) can be adjusted by combining their
advantages. Figure 1 depicts a typical electric
vehicle structure with solar and fuel cells.
Moreover, Figure 2 presents an HEV with a Solar
and a Fuel Cell.
Fig. 1: Outline of Hybrid Electric Vehicle
Fig. 2: HEV with Solar and Fuel Cell
HEVs utilize DC-DC bidirectional boost-buck
converters that enable power to flow in both
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directions. High-gain boost converters have
emerged as a hot research topic in power electronics
due to their increasing demand in various fields,
including fuel cell systems, distributed photovoltaic
generation systems, and uninterruptable power
supply systems. Applications such as fuel cell
systems, distributed photovoltaic generation
systems, and uninterruptable power supply systems
require a relatively high gain, Vout/Vin (where Vout
is the output voltage and Vin is the input voltage),
which has made the development of high-gain boost
converters a hot research topic in power electronics.
However, conventional boost converters have
limitations, such as the need for an extremely small
off-time for the switch, high-voltage stresses on the
switches, and low efficiency, making it challenging
to achieve such a high step-up gain. As a result,
there is a need for high-gain, high-efficiency
converters that do not have the limitations
mentioned above.
By adjusting the duty cycle or increasing the
turns ratio of the coupled inductor, the voltage gain
of a converter can be increased. However, many of
these converters suffer from significant input current
ripple. One alternative approach is the use of
quadratic converters, which have gained increasing
attention among power electronics researchers as
they can also increase the voltage gain of
conventional boost converters.
2.1 Electrolyzer
The Unipolar Stuart cell is a reliable and robust cell
that is both low maintenance and highly efficient.
This cell produces either H2 (cathode) or O2
(anode) from each electrode's single polarity. The
electrolyzer is composed of numerous cells that are
separated from one another within separate cell
compartments. The electrolyzer enables circulation
of the electrolyte through the channels between the
electrodes and cell separator by utilizing the H2 and
O2 gases that rise in those channels. The cell
voltage, which typically ranges from 1.7 to 1.9 V, is
maintained under normal operating conditions. The
material constraints in the electrolyzer are reduced
as its operating temperature does not exceed 70°C.
The H2 produced has a purity of 99.9%.
Additionally, the current efficiency is 100%,
resulting in a hydrogen production rate of:
 (1)
The current between electrodes is represented by Ie,
and the produced H2 is stored in a tank at 3 bar
pressure. This stored hydrogen is utilized to supply
the load power when the insolation levels are low
and the fuel cell needs to be fed.
2.2 Fuel Cell
The system design should consider an important
factor that affects the electrolysis process. It is
important to note that when the electrolyzer current
reaches zero, it is necessary to maintain a protective
voltage to prevent excessive corrosion of the
cathodic potentials. The proposed electric storage
device is designed to address this issue by isolating
the electrolyte from the electrolysis cell and
introducing N2 into the electrolyzer. This helps to
protect the electrodes from corrosion when the
electrolyzer current drops to zero[13].
The system proposed utilizes air as the oxidant and
maintains a cell pressure at atmospheric conditions
with a temperature of 70°C. The electrical
performance of the fuel cell is related to the state
variables by the Nernst equation at atmospheric
pressure, considering the current density designed as
400 mA/cm2, which requires the use of 90 fuel cells
in a stack.


 (2)
A detailed description of a PV generation system
with incremental conductance-based MPPT and fuel
cell with a DC-DC converter is presented in [14].
2.3 Quadratic Bidirectional Boost /Buck DC-
DC Converter
Figure 1 illustrates the power topology of the
Quadratic Bidirectional Boost/Buck DC-DC
converter. Unlike the classical Boost quadratic
converter, this topology does not require additional
passive components such as inductors and
capacitors. Additionally, it features a fixed voltage
gain with a quadratic function for both Boost and
Buck modes of operation. Furthermore, the charging
or discharging of the converter depends only on a
single transistor. To investigate, the bidirectional
DC/DC converter will be assumed to be in steady-
state operation. The power converter operates in two
different modes: The bidirectional DC/DC converter
operates in two modes: Boost mode and Buck mode.
In Boost mode, the converter transfers energy from
the input side to the output side. During this mode,
two IGBTs (T1 and T4) remain in the OFF state,
while IGBT T3 remains in the ON state. The
switching time of T2 can be controlled using PWM
with an output voltage control and inner current
control.
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During Boost mode, the bidirectional DC/DC
converter operates by transferring energy from the
input side to the output side. The IGBTs T1 and T4
remain in the OFF state, while IGBT T3 remains in
the ON state. The switching time of T2 is controlled
by pulse width modulation (PWM) with a time
interval of ΔTs, which can be adjusted using output
voltage control and inner current control. When T2
is in the ON state, the inductors L1 and L2 are
charged with a linearly increasing current,
transferring energy stored in the capacitor C to the
inductor L2. When T2 is in the OFF state, the
inductors L1 and L2 are discharged with a linearly
decreasing current, transferring energy stored in the
inductors to the capacitor and output side.
󰇛󰇜󰇛󰇜 (3)
󰇛󰇜󰇛󰇜 (4)
Then voltage gain is given as


󰇛󰇜 (5)
Fig. 3: Quadratic bidirectional boost /buck DC-DC
Converter
When the converter operates in reverse mode, it
transfers energy from the output side to the input
side and is categorized as a Buck converter. The
IGBTs T2 and T3 are always in the OFF state and the
IGBT T4 is always in the ON state. PWM with
altering the time of Tc can be applied to T1 using
output voltage control and inner current control.
When T1 is in ON state (in the time interval of ΔTs)
the flows in inductors L1 and L2 will increase
linearly as capacitor C is discharging since its
energy will be transferred to inductor L1. When T1 is
in the OFF state (during the time interval of 1-ΔTs),
the currents in the inductors L1 and L2 will decrease
linearly and During the Buck mode of operation, the
energy that was previously stored in the inductors
L1 and L2 is transferred to the capacitor C and the
input side of the converter. During Buck Mode
󰇛󰇜󰇛󰇜 (6)
󰇛󰇜󰇛󰇜 (7)
Then voltage gain is given as

 (8)
Fig. 4: Control Strategy for QBBC
The controlling strategy for the bidirectional DC-
DC converter is presented for both buck and boost
modes in Figure 3. Depending on power flow or
current direction, mode selection selects the
converter to work as buck mode or boost mode.
Controlling of a DC-DC converter comprises an
outer voltage control loop for voltage regulation and
the proposed converter has several advantages,
including the use of an inner current control loop for
precise current regulation and the use of PI
controllers for both voltage and current regulation.
1. The proposed converter is suitable for low-to-
medium power applications due to its low input
current ripple and low conduction loss.
2. The proposed converter provides a significantly
higher step-up voltage gain than a traditional
quadratic boost converter.
3. The proposed converter also experiences
significantly lower voltage stresses on its main
switch and diodes compared to a traditional
quadratic boost converter at the same output
voltage, which can contribute to improved
reliability and longer operating lifetimes.
3 Indirect Vector Control of Induction
Motor for Electric Vehicle
Induction motor is chosen as electric vehicle drive
due to their reliability for dynamic conditions,
simple construction, ruggedness, minimum service
requirement, and commercial moderation. Due to
the absence of brushes, friction losses are reduced
and it's possible to rise restrictions for probable
maximum speed. High-output mechanical power is
possible to increase maximum speed. The frequency
of input voltage can be altered to change the speed
of the motor or vehicle.
The vector control of an induction machine involves
predicting the position of the rotor flux linkage
phasor, denoted as . A phasor diagram depicting
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the vector control is presented in Figure 4, where
is located at an angle of with respect to the
stationary reference. Here,  represents the field
angle.
The three-phase stator currents can be transformed
into q and d axes currents in the synchronous
reference frames by using Park transformation.


󰇯󰇡
󰇢 󰇡
󰇢
󰇡
󰇢󰇡
󰇢󰇰
(9)
󰇛󰇜 (10)
and the stator phase angle is
󰇡
󰇢 (11)
where  and  The 'q' and 'd' axes currents in the
synchronous reference frame are obtained by
projecting the stator current phasor on the 'q' and 'd'
axes, respectively. It is important to note that the
current phasor magnitude remains constant
regardless of the chosen reference frame.
Fig. 5: Phasor representation of stator and rotor
quantities
The rotor flux and torque are produced by the
stator's current . To ensure that the current
component responsible for producing the rotor flux
is in phase with , the stator current phasor is
resolved along , revealing the field-producing
component . The torque-producing component
is then identified as the perpendicular component to
. (12)
(13)
In a steady state, the components and become
only DC components as their relative speed with
respect to the rotor field is zero.
By considering the synchronous reference frame,
the orientation of is determined, allowing the
flux and torque-producing components of currents
(and ) to be considered as dc quantities that can
be used as control variables. Till now it was
assumed that the rotor flux position is available, but
it has to be obtained at every instant. This field
angle can be written as,
 (14)
where is the rotor position and  is the slip
angle. In terms of the speeds and time, the field
angle can be written as
󰇛󰇜󰇛󰇜 (15)
Vector control schemes can be categorized as direct
and indirect vector control schemes, depending on
the method used to determine the instantaneous
rotor flux position. Direct vector control schemes
calculate the field angle using terminal voltages and
currents, Hall sensors, or flux-sensing windings. In
contrast, indirect vector control schemes obtain the
rotor flux position using rotor position measurement
and partial estimation with only machine
parameters, without relying on other variables such
as voltages and currents.
The indirect vector control scheme assumes a
current source inverter, in which case the stator
phase currents serve as inputs, allowing for the
neglect of stator dynamics. The dynamic equations
for the induction motor in the synchronous reference
frame can then be derived, with the rotor flux taken
as the state variable. These equations can be
expressed as:

  (16)

  (17)
Where  (18)
 (19)
 (20)
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If the resultant rotor flux linkage, , also known
as the rotor flux linkages phasor, is aligned with the
direct axis, and the induction motor achieves field
orientation. This alignment reduces the number of
variables that need to be considered. Aligning the d-
axis with the rotor flux phasor results in
 (21)
 (22)

 (23)
Then  (24)

 (25)
 
 (26)

(27)
The equations for the rotor currents in the d and q
axes can be written as follows:
󰇟󰇠 (28)
 
(29)
Where
, ,
, 
 (30)
Replacing the rotor currents, the torque is given as



 (31)
From Equation (31) torque is related to the rotor
flux linkages and the stator q-axis current .
That means torque is directly proportional to stator
current by making rotor flux linkage to be constant.
The stator current phasor is the resultant of the ‘d’
and the ‘q’ axes stator currents in any reference
frame given as
󰇛󰇜 (32)
The speed of the motor and input currents can be
measured and fed back to the indirect vector
controller to generate reference currents. The
indirect vector control is implemented as illustrated
in Figure 5, where the PI controller takes the speed
error as its input and generates a reference torque
signal. Similarly, the implementation of vector
control is presented in Figure 6. Torque reference
generated from the PI controller reduces the error
between reference speed and actual speed. From the
field weakening technique reference flux is
calculated from the speed of the motor which is
given as
󰇫
󰇛󰇜 (33)
where is rated rotor flux and rated rotor
speed. Up to rated speed reference flux is met to
rated flux and for speed more than valued speed
reference flux can be weakened near keep the power
output to be constant.
Fig. 6: The implementation of vector control
4 Simulink Model of the Proposed
System
The proposed hybrid electric vehicle configuration
is modeled in MATLAB/SIMULINK to check the
efficiency. The outline of the simulated system is
shown in Figure 1. A fuel cell is the main source for
the electric vehicle, a rooftop solar cell is considered
a secondary source, and regenerative energy during
braking or deceleration of the electric vehicle can be
stored in a hydrogen tank by converting electrical
energy into chemical energy by using an
electrolyzer. Indirect vector control is adopted for
speed control of vehicle drive. Change in
irradiation, change in speed, and change in torque
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are considered to simulate the behavior of the
proposed configuration. The parameters of the
system are depicted in Table 1.
Table 1. Parameters of the System
Induction Motor Parameters
Nominal Power, voltage,
and frequency
50KW, 460V,
50Hz
Stator Resistance and
Inductance
87mΩ and 0.8mH
Rotor Resistance and
Inductance
228mΩ and 0.8mH
Mutual Inductance
34.7mH
Inertia, Friction Factor, and
Pole Pairs
1.662kg.m2,
0.1N.m.s. and 2
QBBC Parameters
L1, L2 and C
2mH, 15mH and
5µF
PV Array and DC-DC converter Parameters
Series connected modules
and Parallel Strings
2 and 3
Voc and Isc
65.1V and 6.46A
Vmpp and Impp
54.7 and 5.98A
Cin, L, and Cout
100µF, 70mH and
100µF
Fuel Cell and DC-DC Converter Parameters
Nominal Voltage and
Power
200V and 50KW
L and Cout
3mH and 1600µF
CASE 1: In this case, reference speed is increased
from 100 rad/sec to 120 rad/sec at 10 seconds with
constant irradiation of 1000w/m2 as shown in Figure
7. The reference speed of the motor in vector
control is 100rad/s up to 10 seconds, after that speed
is increased to 120rad/s. Motor response with a
conventional bidirectional buck-boost converter is
presented in Figure 8. Stator currents when speed is
increasing from the initial state are shown in Figure
8a. The speed of the motor and electromagnetic
torque is indicated in Figure 8 b. Due to limited
power, low voltage gain and high current stress will
increase the ripples in stator currents and hence
speed and torque. The tracking ability of the actual
speed of the motor is also very poor as rise time,
percentage ripples, and stability time are very high
as shown in Figure 8 and Figure 9. With the adopted
QBBC converter generated voltage, current, and
power from the PV array are shown in Figure 10.
PV voltage is boosted up using MPPT operated DC-
DC boost converter up to 400V. The incremental
conductance algorithm is adopted as MPPT due to
its robustness to the variation of atmospheric
conditions. With 1000 w/m2 irradiation, generated
power from the PV cell is 2.01 KW. Figure 11
displays the output voltage, current, and power of
the PV converter. The voltage, current, and power
generated by the fuel cell are illustrated in Figure
12, while Figure 13 shows the voltage, current, and
power of the fuel cell converter.
Fig. 7: Irradiance of PV cells
Fig. 8: Response of Induction motor currents with
conventional Bidirectional Buck Boost converter
(b)
Fig. 9: Response of Induction motor Speed and
Torque with conventional Bidirectional Buck Boost
converter
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The voltage, current, and power of the electrolyzer
are represented in Figure 14 and Figure 15.
Additionally, Figure 16 presents the input and
output voltages of the QBBC converter. input
voltage of 400V is boosted to 780V, which is
required by vehicle drive, by the QBBC converter
by using voltage and current loops. The speed of the
vehicle drive and its torque are shown in Figure 17
and input three-phase stator currents are shown in
Figure 18.
Fig. 10: PV array output voltage, current, and power
Fig. 11: PV converter output voltage, current, and
power
Fig. 12: Fuel Cell output voltage, Current, and
power
Fig. 13: Fuel Cell converter output voltage, current,
and power
Fig. 14: Electrolyzer output voltage, current, and
power
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Fig. 15: Electrolyzer converter input voltage,
current, and power
Fig. 16: QBBC input voltage and output voltage
Fig. 17: Motor Speed and Torque
Fig. 18: Motor Stator Currents during Starting
CASE2: The performance of the proposed
configuration of EV is investigated for variable
irradiation in this case. Reference speed in vector
control of vehicle drive is increased from 100
rad/sec to 120 rad/sec at 10 seconds. Irradiance is
600w/m2 at starting increased to 800w/m2 in the 3rd
second increased to 1000 w/m2 in the 6th second
decreased to 400w/m2 in the 9th second and again
increased to 900 w/m2 in the 12th second. Variable
irradiance is shown in Figure 19. PV and its boost
converters output voltage, current, and power are
shown in Figure 20 and Figure 21. Figure 22 and
Figure 23 display the voltage, current, and power
outputs of the fuel cell and its converters. Figure 24
and Figure 25 show the voltage, current, and power
of the electrolyzer and its converters. Furthermore,
the input voltage and boosted output voltage of the
QBBC converter are shown in Figure 26. Due to the
regulated and boosted output voltage of QBBC, the
variance in irradiance of the PV cell does not affect
the output voltage that is supplied to the vehicle
drive inverter, as shown in Figure 27 where the
motor speed and torque are displayed.
Fig. 19: Irradiance of PV cells
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DOI: 10.37394/23201.2023.22.7
G. Divya, Venkata Padmavathi S.
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Fig. 20: PV array output voltage and power
Fig. 21: PV converter output voltage, current, and
power
Fig. 22: Fuel Cell output voltage and power
Fig. 23: FC converter output voltage, current, and
power
Fig. 24: Electrolyzer input voltage, current, and
power
Fig. 25: Electrolyzer converter voltage, current,
and power
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DOI: 10.37394/23201.2023.22.7
G. Divya, Venkata Padmavathi S.
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Volume 22, 2023
Fig. 26: QBBC input voltage and output voltage
Fig. 27: Motor Speed and Torque
CASE 3: In this case, Irradiance is constant at
1000w/m2. Speed is increased from 30rad/s to
50rad/s at 2.5 seconds then increased to 100rad/s at
the 5th second then increased to 120rad/s at
7.5second then to 150rad/s at the 10th second then
decreased to 100rad/s at 12.5second then decreased
to 70rad/s at 15th second and decreased to 50rad/s at
17.5 seconds. The input and output voltage of
QBBC is shown in Figure 28. The output voltage of
the converter is regulated at 780V which is required
by the vehicle drive inverter. Figure 29 depicts the
motor speed and torque, while Figure 30 displays
the output voltage, current, and power of the PV
cell. Additionally, Figure 31 illustrates the output
voltage, current, and power of the fuel cell. The
motor's active and reactive power is shown in Figure
32.
Fig. 28: QBBC input voltage and output voltage
Fig. 29: Motor Speed and Torque
Fig. 30: PV converter output voltage, current, and
power
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on CIRCUITS and SYSTEMS
DOI: 10.37394/23201.2023.22.7
G. Divya, Venkata Padmavathi S.
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Volume 22, 2023
Fig. 31: FC converter output voltage, current, and
power
Fig. 32: Motor Input active and reactive power
Fig. 33: Motor Speed and Torque
Fig. 34: PV converter output voltage, current, and
power
CASE4: In this case, step changes in speed and
variable load torque are considered. Reference
speed is increased from 100 rad/sec to 150 rad/sec at
10 seconds. Load torque is increased from 50Nm to
100Nm at 2.5 seconds then increased again to
200Nm at the 5th second then decreased to 180Nm
at 7.5second then to 150Nm at the 10th second then
decreased to 120Nm at 12.5second then decreased
to 70Nm at 15th second and decreased to 50Nm at
17.5 second. Vehicle drive speed and torque are
shown in Figure 33. The output voltage, current, and
power of the PV cell are shown in Figure 34. Figure
35 shows the output voltage, current, and power of
the fuel cell, while Figure 36 displays the active and
reactive power of the motor.
Fig. 35: FC converter output voltage, current and
power
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DOI: 10.37394/23201.2023.22.7
G. Divya, Venkata Padmavathi S.
E-ISSN: 2224-266X
52
Volume 22, 2023
Fig. 36: Motor Input active and reactive power
5 Conclusion
The paper introduces a new electric vehicle (EV)
configuration that incorporates a fuel cell, an
electrolyzer, and an onboard PV cell, which is a
novel concept. The onboard PV cell can help the
fuel cell when there is sufficient irradiation to
generate power. Moreover, an electrolyzer is
employed to convert excess electric energy into
chemical energy, which can be stored for later use.
A quadratic bidirectional buck/boost converter is
used to match the source voltage with the inverter
DC side voltage of the vehicle drive. To extract the
maximum available power from the PV panel, the
system employs an incremental conductance
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm
to regulate the PV system. Outer voltage and inner
current control loop are adopted for QBBC
converter to regulate and boost up the voltage
available at sources. To check the efficiency of the
proposed configuration simulations are performed
for changes in reference speed and change in
irradiation. The simulation results presented
represent efficient tracking of the reference speed of
the motor. The efficiency of the proposed
configuration is compared with conventional
configuration and results are tabulated. By replacing
the PI controller used in VCIMD with Model
Predictive Control, the behavior of EV
configuration can be evaluated with different
driving cycles.
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G. Divya, Venkata Padmavathi S.
E-ISSN: 2224-266X
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Volume 22, 2023
[14] Lakshmi, P. Naga, R. Ashok Kumar, and K.
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Contribution of Individual Authors to the
Creation of a Scientific Article (Ghostwriting
Policy)
The authors equally contributed to the present
research, at all stages from the formulation of the
problem to the final findings and solution.
Sources of Funding for Research Presented in a
Scientific Article or Scientific Article Itself
No funding was received for conducting this study.
Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
(Attribution 4.0 International, CC BY 4.0)
This article is published under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
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WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on CIRCUITS and SYSTEMS
DOI: 10.37394/23201.2023.22.7
G. Divya, Venkata Padmavathi S.
E-ISSN: 2224-266X
54
Volume 22, 2023