• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.335-342
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• 2016

This paper proposes an energy storage-assisted, series-connected module-integrated power conversion system that integrates a photovoltaic power conditioner and a charge balancing circuit. In conventional methods, a photovoltaic power conditioner and a cell-balancing circuit are needed for photovoltaic systems with energy storage devices, but they cause a complex configuration and high cost. Moreover, an imbalanced output voltage of the module-integrated converter for PV panels can be a result of partial shading. Partial shading can lead to the fault condition of the boost converter in shaded modules and high voltage stresses on the devices in other modules. To overcome these problems, a bidirectional buck-boost converter with an integrated magnetic device operating for a charge-balancing circuit is proposed. The proposed circuit has multiple secondary rectifiers with inductors sharing a single magnetic core, which works as an inductor for the main bidirectional charger/discharger of the energy storage. The secondary rectifiers operate as a cell-balancing circuit for both energy storage and the series-connected multiple outputs of the module-integrated converter. The operating principle of the cell-balancing power conversion circuit and the power stage design are presented and validated by PSIM simulation for analysis. A hardware prototype with equivalent photovoltaic modules is implemented for verification. The results verify that the modularized photovoltaic power conversion system in the output series with an energy storage successfully works with the proposed low-cost bidirectional buck-boost converter comprising a single magnetic device.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.320-327
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• 2016

We propose a multi-channel current-balancing single switch light-emitting diode (LED) driver for a 3D TV. Conventional LED drivers require non-isolated DC/DC converters as many as the number of LED channels, whereas the proposed LED driver needs only one power switch and several balancing capacitors instead of expensive non-isolated DC/DC converters. Therefore, the proposed driver features a simple structure with low cost and high efficiency. In particular, because its power switch can be turned off under the zero-current switching condition, the proposed driver has desirable advantages, such as improved electromagnetic interference characteristics and high efficiency. Moreover, it only uses a small number of DC blocking capacitors with no additional active devices for the current balancing of multi-channel LEDs. Therefore, the proposed driver exhibits high reliability and cost effectiveness. To confirm the validity of the proposed driver, we perform a theoretical analysis and present design considerations and experimental results obtained from a prototype that is applicable to a 46" LED TV.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.379-384
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• 2012

This paper presents the power source of wireless sensor node (WSN) using supercapacitors and a solar cell. Supercapacitors have high lifetime cycling compared to that of batteries. Supercapacitors are connected in series to achieve higher voltage and a voltage balancing circuit is required to ensure that no individual cell goes overvoltage. We employ an active balancing circuit that draws minimal current by using transistors. A diode is connected in series with each supercapacitor. A new balancing circuit that equalize the cells-voltage reduces energy consumption of supercapacitors. Voltage of operating WSN is applied 2.2-3.3V by DC/DC converter and supercapacitor voltage 2.2-5.1V. Maximum operating time of wireless sensor node is about 16 hours in full charging.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.2168-2173
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• 2003

Pressure balancing valve is one of important control devices, which is fully automatic and no manual controls, regulating or adjustments are needed. It is typically used to maintain constant temperature of working fluid in power and chemical plants and domestic water supply systems. Pressure balancing valve is composed of body, cylinder and balancing piston. Therefore, the balancing piston shapes are important design parameters for a pressure balancing valve. In this study, numerical and experimental analyses are carried out with two different balancing piston shapes. Especially, the distribution of static pressure is investigated to calculate the flow coefficient($C_v$). The governing equations are derived from making using of three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with standard ${\kappa}-{\varepsilon}$ turbulence model and SIMPLE algorithm. Using commercial code, PHOEIC, the pressure and flow fields in pressure balancing valve are depicted.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.1812-1820
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• 2017

This paper analyzes a symmetric active cell balancer for a battery management system. The considered cell balancer uses a forward converter in which the circuit structure is symmetric. This cell-balancing method uses fewer switches and is simpler than the previously proposed active cell-balancing circuits. Active power switches of this cell-balancing circuit operate simultaneously with the same pulse width modulation signals. Therefore, this cell-balancing circuit requires less time to be balanced than a previous bidirectional-forward-converter-based cell balancer. This paper analyzes the operational principles and modes of this cell balancer with computer-based circuit simulation results as well as experimental results in which each unbalanced cell is equalized with this cell balancer. The maximum power transfer efficiency of the investigated cell balancer was 87.5% from the experimental results. In addition to the experimental and analytical results, this paper presents the performance of this symmetric active cell-balancing method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2067-2075
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• 2016

Cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters are currently used because it enables the integration of various sources, such as batteries, ultracapacitors, photovoltaic array and fuel cells in a single system. Conventional modulation schemes for multilevel inverters have concentrated mainly on the generation of a low harmonic output voltage, which results in less effective utilization of connected sources. Less effective utilization leads to a difference in the charging/discharging of sources, causing unsteady voltages over a long period of operation and a reduction in the lifetime of the sources. Hence, a charge balance control scheme has to be incorporated along with the modulation scheme to overcome these issues. In this paper, a new approach for charge balancing in symmetric cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter that enables almost 100% charge balancing of sources is presented. The proposed method achieves charge balancing without any additional stages or complex circuit or considerable computational requirement. The validity of the proposed method is verified through simulation and experiments.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.219-226
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• 2020

Given the change in the energy market, large energy storage systems (ESS) is rapidly entering the market. In this rapid spread, fire accidents are becoming an issue. This study attempts to approach the fire from the system point of view to analyze the problems caused by bonding from different perspectives. Moreover, to conduct this study, the fabrication of real objects is dangerous, which needs to be verified through simulation. In this study, we approach the cause of fire that occurs in large-capacity ESS from the system perspective. We focus on determining the effects of cell balancing performed on the BMS after charging. Thus, we analyze the cell balancing behavior and the linkage risks to the various stacks. The study also explores why no fire occurs during 70% operation.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2021

In multi-string light-emitting diode (LED) driver system, current balancing is crucial because the brightness of LED is directly related to its forward current. This paper presents a novel LED current balancing topology using current-fed Z-source converter. With the proposed structure, currents flowing through two LED strings are automatically balanced owing to the charge-balance condition on capacitors. Operation of the proposed converter is simple and the proposed converter uses only one active switch and one diode. Moreover, low-side gate driving can be used to operate the active switch. To verify the operation of the proposed LED current balancing converter, a prototype is built and tested with different numbers of LEDs.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.829-838
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• 2016

This paper focuses on the engineering trade-offs in designing capacitor voltage balancing schemes for modular multilevel converters (MMC) HVDC: regulation performance and switching loss. MMC is driven by the on/off switch operation of numerous submodules and the key design concern is balancing submodule capacitor voltages minimizing switching transition among submodules because it represents the voltage regulation performance and system loss. This paper first introduces the state-of-the-art MMC-HVDC submodule capacitor voltage balancing methods reported in the literatures and discusses the trade-offs in designing these methods for HVDC application. This paper further proposes a submodule capacitor balancing scheme exploiting a control signal to flexibly interchange between the on-state and the off-state submodules. The proposed scheme enables desired performance-based voltage regulation and avoids unnecessary switching transitions among submodules, consequently reducing the switching loss. The flexibility and controllability particularly fit in high-level MMC HVDC applications where the aforementioned design trade-offs become more crucial. Simulation studies for MMC HVDC are performed to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed capacitor voltage balancing algorithm.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.348-355
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• 2022

A bipolar DC distribution system suffers from an imbalance in voltages when asymmetric loads are connected at the outputs. Dedicated voltage balancers are required to address the imbalance in bipolar voltage levels. However, additional components eventually increase the cost and decrease the efficiency and power density of the system. Therefore, to deal with the imbalance in output voltages without adding any extra components, this study presents a coupled inductor-based voltage balancing technique with a dual-output CLL resonant converter. The proposed coupled inductor does not require extra magnetic components to balance the output voltages because it is the result of resonant inductors of the CLL tank circuit. It can also avoid complex control schemes applied to voltage balancing. Moreover, with the proposed coupled inductor, the CLL converter acquires good features including zero voltage and zero current switching. Detailed analysis of the proposed coupled inductor is presented with different load conditions. A 3.6-kW hardware prototype was built and tested to validate the performance of the proposed coupled inductor-based voltage balancing technique.