Investigation of Partial Power Processing DC/DC Converters for Class 8 Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Trucks

Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Trucks (FCHETs) are a promising solution for the electrification of Class 8 long haul transportation. Partial power processing (PPP) converter topologies have been proposed as more efficient and compact alternatives to conventional converters for certain applications, however no investigation has been conducted for the fuel cell DC/DC converter in a Class 8 FCHET. In this paper, detailed simulations are created to compare the performance of various PPP DC/DC converter topologies to the conventional boost converter. Efficiency maps and power loss breakdowns for multiple PPP DC/DC converter topologies are created using PLECS. Then, the performance of the fuel cell DC/DC converter topologies are assessed with an FCHET vehicle model created in MATLAB/Simulink. The results show that for a 400 V DC-link, the PPP FB converter is slightly more efficient than the boost converter, and for an 800 V DC-link, the PPP FB and PPP DAB converters are slightly more efficient than the boost converter.