Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulator With Virtual DUT Impedance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing Power Hardware in the Loop (PHIL) simulations face challenges in maintaining accuracy and stability due to signal transmission delays and instability caused by interfaces, particularly when the device under test (DUT) has complex or nonlinear impedance characteristics, making it difficult to match the explicit impedance with the DUT impedance.
Innovation Solution
A simulator and simulation method that uses a virtual electrical characteristic element to represent the DUT's impedance, calculating compensation and feedback signals to improve simulation accuracy and stability by emulating the DUT's impedance characteristics, and optionally combining this with explicit impedance elements to maintain system stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If explicit impedance elements are used to match DUT impedance characteristics, then simulation accuracy is improved for linear passive components, but the system becomes unstable or inaccurate when DUT has complex or nonlinear impedance characteristics
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the impedance matching approach by changing from fixed explicit impedance elements to dynamic virtual impedance elements whose parameters can be adjusted in real-time. The virtual impedance elements modify their electrical characteristics dynamically to match the DUT's impedance at different operating points, enabling accurate representation of nonlinear and complex impedance behaviors while maintaining system stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the DUT's impedance characteristics through virtual impedance elements rather than using physical explicit impedance elements. This virtual modeling approach allows the simulation system to replicate the DUT's complex or nonlinear impedance behavior without requiring physical matching components, thereby achieving both accuracy and stability.
2Measurement precision
If virtual electrical characteristic elements are used to represent DUT impedance, then simulation accuracy is improved for complex and nonlinear characteristics, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the traditional mechanical/electrical approach of physically matching impedance elements with a computational/virtual approach. Instead of physically constructing complex impedance networks, the system uses software-based virtual impedance elements that calculate and apply the appropriate impedance characteristics through algorithms, thereby reducing physical complexity while maintaining or improving accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual impedance elements serve multiple functions: they can represent linear and nonlinear characteristics, passive and active components, and various frequency ranges within a single unified framework. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for different physical impedance networks for different DUT types, simplifying the overall system architecture despite the computational complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
To facilitate improvement in accuracy of a simulation and improvement in stability of a system, a simulator calculates a compensation signal, which is for compensating output of a power supply element of a simulation model 33, by using an electrical signal of the DUT 5, an electrical signal of a power system model 41, and a virtual electrical characteristic element virtually representing a part or all of an electrical characteristic related to the resistance of a DUT 5, calculates a feedback electrical signal by using the compensation signal and the electrical signal of the DUT 5, and outputs the feedback electrical signal to the power supply element of the simulation model 33.