Power generation controller of vehicle power generator

• US 7,227,339 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2005
• Issued: 06/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Masaru, Anzai, Kiyoharu, Morimoto, Hiroaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Schuberg; Darren
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cuevas; Pedro J.
• Application Number:
  US11/092,720
• Publication Number:
  US 20050218815A1
• Time in Patent Office: 797 Days
• Field of Search: 322/24, 310/263, 318/254
• US Class Current: 318/400.01
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/2434 with pulse modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H02P 9/305 controlling voltage H02P9/302 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/92 Energy efficient charging or discharging systems for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors specially adapted for vehicles

Abstract

The present invention relates to a power generation controller of a vehicle power generator, which includes: voltage detection means for sampling a voltage of a battery based on a reference clock signal; duty range setting means for setting a range for an ON/OFF ratio of a field switching element from the rotation speed of the power generator; control duty computation means for computing the ON/OFF ratio of the field switching element based on thus set duty range from a deviation between a power generation target voltage and voltage information as a result of sampling; and field PWM drive means for controlling the ON/OFF switching operation of the field switching element with an interval based on the reference clock signal from the computed ON/OFF ratio.

Claims

1. A power generation controller of a vehicle power generator, comprising:

a rectifier for convening an alternating current (AC) power to be generated by a wound-field type synchronous generator to a direct current (DC) power for supply to an electrical load and a battery;

rotation speed calculation means for calculating a rotation speed of the synchronous generator;

a field switching element for performing ON/OFF switching of voltage application to a field winding of the synchronous generator;

voltage detection means for sampling a voltage of the battery or a DC-side voltage of the rectifier in synchronization with a periodic sampling signal based on a reference clock;

duty range setting means for setting a range (duty range) appropriate to an ON/OFF ratio of the field switching element based on the rotation speed calculated by the rotation speed calculation means;

control duty computation means for computing the ON/OFF ratio of the field switching element based on the duty range set by the duty range setting means for agreement between the voltage sampled by the voltage detection means and a power generation target voltage; and

field PWM drive means for calculating an ON/OFF timing for the field switching element with a predetermined interval based on the reference clock from the ON/Off ratio computed by the control duty computation means, and generating a field switching signal for driving the field switching element.

2. The power generation controller of the vehicle power generator according to claim 1, wherein

the ratio of the field switching interval in the field PWM drive means to the voltage sampling interval in the voltage detection means is n:

1, where n is an integer.

3. The power generation controller of the vehicle power generator according to claim 1, wherein

the rotation speed calculation means calculates the rotation speed based on a potential difference between ends of a rectifier element in the rectifier.

4. The power generation controller of the vehicle power generator according to claim 1, further comprising

control duty correction means for correcting the setting value of the ON/OFF ratio of the field switching element in accordance with a change of the ON/OFF ratio of the field switching element provided to the field PWM drive means.

5. The power generation controller of the vehicle power generator according to claim 4, wherein

the control duty correction means includes limit value calculation means for calculating a limit value of a change rate for the ON/OFF ratio of the field switching element based on the rotation speed calculated by the rotation speed calculation means and the duty range set by the duty range setting means, and change rate calculation means for calculating the change rate of the ON/OFF ratio calculated by the control duty computation means, and upper and lower limit values of the change rate calculated by the change rate calculation means are corrected through control by the limit value of the limit value calculation means.

6. The power generation controller of the vehicle power generator according to claim 1, wherein the amount of field current that serves as a boundary point between power generation and no power generation, at any predetermined power generation voltage and rotation speed is calculated by the following equation:

i_f=(π

/(3√

3))((V′

_b+a)/(ω

L_f))

where i_f is the amount of field current, V′

_b+a is the DC voltage at an output of the rectifier, L_f is the inductance of a field winding and ω

is the angular frequency.

7. The power generation controller of the vehicle power generator according to claim 6, wherein the amount of field current needed to derive any specific level of power is calculated by the following equation:

i_f=(π

/(3√

3))(1/(ω

L_f){(V′

_b+a)+(Ra+ω

L_a) (√

3(α

/(V′

_b+a))}

where i_f represents the amount of field current needed to derive any specific level of power, ω

is the angular frequency, L_f is the inductance of a field winding, V′

_b+a is the DC voltage at an output of the rectifier, and L_a is a winding inductance.