Vehicle power supply device

• US 20090146493A1
• Filed: 12/05/2008
• Published: 06/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Komazawa, Eisuke, Hirakawa, Mitsuaki, Noguchi, Minoru, Fujino, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,008,801 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 307/9.100
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/2045 for optimising the use of energy
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2210/10 DC to DC converters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/40 for controlling a combination of batteries and fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18127 Regenerative braking
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/64 Electric machine technologies in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/92 Energy efficient charging or discharging systems for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors specially adapted for vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/40 Application of hydrogen technology to transportation, e.g. using fuel cells

Abstract

A vehicle power supply device which prevents a lack of power supply to the motor and insufficient recovery of regenerative electric power of the motor at the time of switching between power running and regeneration. First input-output sections (3a, 3b) of a first DC-DC converter (3) are connected to second input-output sections (4d, 4e) of a PDU (4), second input-output sections (3c, 3d) of the first DC-DC converter (3) are connected to a fuel cell (1) and a capacitor (2), first input-output sections (20a, 20b) of a second DC-DC converter (20) are connected to second input-output sections (4d, 4e) of the PDU (4), and second input-output sections (20c, 20d) of the second DC-DC converter (20) are connected to a lithium-ion battery (21). A voltage control means (31) places the first DC-DC converter (3) or the second DC-DC converter (20) in a direct connection state and controls an output voltage of the other DC-DC converter according to an output voltage of the DC-DC converter placed in the direct connection state during the power running of the motor (5) and during regeneration thereof.

Claims

1. A vehicle power supply device which is mounted on a vehicle and connected to a motor rotating with a driving wheel via an external input-output section so as to supply the motor with driving electric power during power running of the motor and to recover regenerative electric power of the motor during regeneration of the motor, the vehicle power supply device comprising:

an inverter which has first and second input-output sections with the first input-output section connected to the external input-output section and which generates a driving voltage of the motor from a DC voltage, which is input to the second input-output section, and outputs the driving voltage from the first input-output section during the power running of the motor, while converting a regenerative voltage of the motor, which is input to the first input-output section, to a DC voltage and outputting the DC voltage from the second input-output section during the regeneration of the motor;

a fuel cell;

a capacitor connected in parallel with the fuel cell;

a first bidirectional DC-DC converter which has first and second input-output sections and wherein the first input-output section is connected to the second input-output section of the inverter and the second input-output section is connected to the fuel cell and the capacitor;

a secondary battery;

a second bidirectional DC-DC converter which has first and second input-output sections and wherein the first input-output section is connected to the second input-output section of the inverter and the second input-output section is connected to the secondary battery; and

a voltage control means which places one of the first DC-DC converter and the second DC-DC converter in a direct connection state and controls an output voltage of the other DC-DC converter according to an output voltage of the DC-DC converter placed in the direct connection state during at least one of the power running and the regeneration of the motor.

2. The vehicle power supply device according to claim 1, wherein:

an output voltage of the secondary battery is set to a voltage higher than an output voltage range of the fuel cell; and

the voltage control means places the first DC-DC converter in the direct connection state and causes the second DC-DC converter to perform a step-down operation so as to decrease a difference between the output voltage of the first DC-DC converter and the output voltage of the second DC-DC converter during the power running of the motor.

3. The vehicle power supply device according to claim 1, further comprising a capacitor voltage detection means which detects a voltage between terminals of the capacitor, wherein the voltage control means controls the inverter so that an output voltage from the second input-output section of the inverter becomes higher than the voltage between the terminals of the capacitor by a predetermined level to place the first DC-DC converter in the direct connection state during the regeneration of the motor.

4. The vehicle power supply device according to claim 3, further comprising a secondary battery voltage detection means which detects a voltage between terminals of the secondary battery, wherein the voltage control means controls the second DC-DC converter so that an output voltage from the second input-output section of the second DC-DC converter becomes higher than the voltage between the terminals of the secondary battery by a predetermined level when controlling the inverter so that the output voltage from the second input-output section of the inverter becomes higher than the voltage between the terminals of the capacitor by the predetermined level to place the first DC-DC converter in the direct connection state during the regeneration of the motor.

5. The vehicle power supply device according to claim 1, further comprising a secondary battery voltage detection means which detects a voltage between terminals of the secondary battery, wherein the voltage control means controls the inverter so that an output voltage from the second input-output section of the inverter becomes higher than the voltage between the terminals of the secondary battery by a predetermined level to place the second DC-DC converter in the direct connection state during the regeneration of the motor.

6. The vehicle power supply device according to claim 5, further comprising a capacitor voltage detection means which detects a voltage between terminals of the capacitor, wherein the voltage control means controls the first DC-DC converter so that an output voltage from the second input-output section of the first DC-DC converter becomes higher than the voltage between the terminals of the capacitor by a predetermined level when controlling the inverter so that the output voltage from the second input-output section of the inverter becomes higher than the voltage between the terminals of the capacitor by the predetermined level to place the second DC-DC converter in the direct connection state during the regeneration of the motor.