Full-Scale Hardware-in-the-Loop Real-Time Simulator for Cascaded H-Bridge Inverter With Supercapacitor and DC-DC Stage

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) real-time simulation of cascaded H-bridge inverter (CHBI) with supercapacitor and DC-DC stage is one of the important links in the development of its controller. This paper presents a full-scale HIL simulator for the CHBI. Firstly, the discrete mathematical model of the CHBI is derived and implemented by utilizing several field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) as the solving units. Each FPGA is equipped with up to twelve fiber optic communication interfaces, allowing one-to-one connection between the simulator and its controller. The simulation capacity of the presented simulator can be easily expanded through incorporating more FPGAs and combining data communication. Finally, the effectiveness of the presented simulator for the CHBI is verified through the gridconnected charging HIL real-time simulation results.