Vehicular power control apparatus

• US 7,471,003 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2006
• Issued: 12/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Masaru, Kuramoto, Yuji, Nishiyama, Ryoji, Maekawa, Hirotoshi, Anzai, Kiyoharu
• Primary Examiner(s): Ponomarenko; Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cuevas; Pedro J
• Application Number:
  US11/450,342
• Publication Number:
  US 20070093359A1
• Time in Patent Office: 932 Days
• Field of Search: 290/40.C, 318/139, 123/399, 123/492
• US Class Current: 290/40.00C
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 6/48 Parallel type
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/025 using field orientation; Vector control; Direct Torque Control [DTC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2210/20 AC to AC converters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2220/12 Induction machines
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2220/14 Synchronous machines
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/18 by enquiring driving style
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/56 Temperature prediction, e.g. for pre-cooling
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/003 relating to inverters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0069 relating to the isolation, e.g. ground fault or leak current
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0092 with use of redundant elements for safety purposes
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/04 Cutting off the power supply under fault conditions protective devices and circuit arrangements in general H01H; H02H
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/16 with provision for separate direct mechanical propulsion
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/08 including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/00 Control systems specially adapted for hybrid vehicles hybrid vehicle design, B60K6/00; electric vehicles B60L
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/50 Control strategies for responding to system failures, e.g. for fault diagnosis, failsafe operation or limp mode
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/10 Transducer, e.g. piezoelectric elements
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/30 Driving style
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 Hybrid vehicles
• 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 10/7072 : Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility

Abstract

A protection operation control part switches a gate signal interruption switch for protection of power elements to a gate signal interruption side, and invalidates a switching signal from a hybrid control unit to place transistors into a nonconducting operation. A motor current signal from a motor current detector is converted into a current value by a motor current calculation unit, and is inputted to a short-circuit abnormality detection unit through a motor control arithmetic part, and a short-circuit abnormality is detected. At a time of detecting the short-circuit abnormality, an internal combustion engine operation instruction unit gives an instruction to an internal combustion engine control unit so as to limit output of an internal combustion engine, and releases a conduction state of an abnormal motor current.

Claims

1. A vehicular power control apparatus for performing power control of a hybrid vehicle using output of an internal combustion engine and output of an AC motor as sources of power, comprising:

an internal combustion engine control unit to control the output of the internal combustion engine;

an electric power converter that is connected to the AC motor and a DC power supply to form, together therewith, an electric power supply passage, performs power conversion by a switching operation of a switching unit, and supplies electric power from one of the DC power supply and the AC motor to the other;

a hybrid control unit that has a function to control the output of the AC motor by controlling the switching operation of the electric power converter and cooperates with the internal combustion engine control unit to perform an arithmetical operation for the power control of the hybrid vehicle;

a short-circuit abnormality detection unit that is provided in the hybrid control unit and detects an abnormality due to a short circuit fault of the electric power supply passage; and

an internal combustion engine operation instruction unit that is provided in the hybrid control unit and gives, when the short-circuit abnormality detection unit detects the abnormality, an instruction, which causes the internal combustion engine to perform an operation corresponding to the abnormality, to the internal combustion engine control unit.

2. The vehicular power control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the short-circuit abnormality detection unit detects the abnormality due to the short circuit fault based on information relating to switching of the electric power converter and information relating to a current flowing to the AC motor.

3. The vehicular power control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the short-circuit abnormality detection unit detects the abnormality due to the short circuit fault based on information relating to the amount of instruction of output control of the AC motor and information relating to a current flowing to the DC power supply.

4. The vehicular power control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a temperature detector to measure temperature of at least one of the switching unit of the electric power converter and the electric power supply passage,

wherein the short-circuit abnormality detection unit detects the abnormality due to the short circuit fault based on information relating to the amount of instruction of output control of the AC motor, information relating to switching of the electric power converter, and information relating to the temperature detected by the temperature detector.

5. The vehicular power control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the internal combustion engine operation instruction unit gives an operation instruction, which is adapted to a degree of the abnormality due to the short-circuit fault obtained based on at least one of information relating to temperature of the electric power supply passage and information relating to a current flowing to the electric power supply passage, to the internal combustion engine control unit.

6. The vehicular power control apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the information relating to the current is information relating to at least one of a conduction mode of the current and a current value.

7. The vehicular power control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the internal combustion engine operation instruction unit gives an operation instruction adapted to a vehicle operation state of the hybrid vehicle to the internal combustion engine control unit.

8. The vehicular power control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the internal combustion engine operation instruction unit gives an instruction, which limits a rotation speed of the internal combustion engine by changing an output adjustment parameter of the internal combustion engine based on an internal combustion engine output upper limit characteristic at a time of the abnormality calculated based on a correlation among a rotation speed of the AC motor, temperature of the electric power supply passage, a current flowing to the electric power supply passage and the rotation speed of the internal combustion engine, to the internal combustion engine control unit.

9. The vehicular power control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the internal combustion engine operation instruction unit gives an instruction, which limits a rotation speed of the internal combustion engine by changing an output adjustment parameter of the internal combustion engine to perform traveling continuation or traveling stop of the vehicle in conformity with vehicle operation information including at least one of an acceleration/declaration amount of the hybrid vehicle, an acceleration/declaration frequency, a steering amount, a steering frequency and a vehicle speed, and a degree of the abnormality obtained based on temperature of the electric power supply passage and/or a current flowing to the electric power supply passage, to the internal combustion engine control unit.