The future is electric
AVL Inverter TS ™
- Reliable and reproducible test results – globally
- Fully comprehensive, accompanying test methodology development
- Flexible, accurate and fast mapping of all common motor concepts
- Emulating fault situations and inverter behavior testing
The Inverter – Heart and Brain
The inverter is an intelligent mini-computer in electrified and electric vehicles. Together with battery and e-motor, they form the basis for the final driving experience. But, before all these components are tested together, every single one should be developed and validated on a dedicated test system. The frontloading of tests leads to shortened integration tests and therefore shorter time to market.
The inverter controls and monitors all driving conditions and the vehicle’s safety-critical functionalities. Power electronics, in combination with a high level of signal complexity, require an appropriate test methodology and the use of adequate testing equipment.
The AVL Inverter TS™ consists basically of an e-motor emulation and a battery emulator – so there is no need to have the real e-motor and the real battery available.
This test system design provides a safe test environment where all inverter functionalities and failure modes can be tested and optimized. Especially failure testing is simply not possible or extremely dangerous on an e-motor test system with rotating parts. In addition, compared to the inverter validation in a real-world prototype vehicle, the testing time can be reduced significantly.
The INVERTER is the heart and brain of an electric drivetrain.
Dedicated test systems for efficient development and validation:
Inverter development must cover three main design aspects
Safety & Standards
Performance
Reliability & Lifetime
New Generation of Test Systems
In order to keep and expand our technology leadership in the field of inverter testing, we have developed a new generation of test systems
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Dedicated inverter testing
Since the intelligence of a vehicle’s electrified powertrain resides in the inverter, it can be considered as the central component in the vehicle. The behavior and handling of the inverter influences the driving behavior of the vehicle and influences the vehicle user’s perception of the driving experience. The driving experience that is created in a moving vehicle causes the user to either be enthusiastic or dismissive of the vehicle. Among other things, the driving modes are also controlled by the inverter. This includes the driving behavior in eco mode, standard mode or sport mode.
In addition, a large part of the overall efficiency of the powertrain depends on the inverter or is significantly influenced by the inverter. Due to its intelligence, the inverter can be optimized for different e-motors and batteries and their tolerance ranges. This means that even an electric motor with the worst properties, but one that passed inspection in production, can be handled by the inverter in the overall drivetrain. Only if the inverter adjusts itself accordingly, the overall efficiency can remain high. Similarly, the interaction in general can be optimized so that efficiencies of up to 98 % can be achieved in the overall drivetrain.
It is important to us to provide our customers not just with individual parts, but with a state-of-the-art, complete test system that is based on years of application know-how and thus enables our customers to use a highly efficient test methodology.
The new generation of AVL Inverter Test systems
The exact replication of the electric motor is carried out with high dynamics quasi-continuously in real time with the help of extremely high-performance power electronics. In combination with a high-precision motor model, which calculates the behaviour of the emulated machine every 320 ns, this ensures the outstanding accuracy of our emulators and thus generates real, meaningful and reproducible test results.
Our Benefits
1
Worldwide reliable and reproducible test results
Thanks to the validated and globally established test system concept of the AVL Inverter TS, the test results can be made available, usable and reproducible worldwide. Results from the inverter testbed are reproducible, standardized and can be used by any AVL Inverter TS worldwide. Based on the application know-how that we have acquired as a technology leader in electric motor emulation, the input can be realistically mapped as output on the UUT via the software and hardware. This is the only way to ensure high accuracy in the emulation, which makes the results real, valuable and reproducible.
2
Fully comprehensive, accompanying test methodology development
Cost-effective inverter development is achievable with a well-thought-out test concept run on a suitable inverter testbed.
The AVL Inverter TS provides a clever test system design as well as all relevant functionalities to develop an efficient inverter test methodology.
AVL offers customer-specific inverter testbeds tailored to a customer’s specific application and can also accompany a customer’s ramp-up phase when installing such testbeds.
3
Flexible, accurate and fast mapping of all common motor concepts
How can common electric motor types on the market be mapped with the AVL Inverter TS?
This is a fundamental question that must be answered since there are now many different motor concepts that must be handled by a single testbed concept. AVL’s inverter testbed contains validated motor models that use motor data as parameters: The better the data in the motor database, the higher the quality of emulation and the greater its added value.
4
Emulating Failure situations and testing the inverter behavior
Testing critical failure situations such as short circuits and cable breaks in the high-voltage connections of an inverter is dangerous and sometimes simply not possible. Wrong! With the AVL Inverter TS and the integrated Failure Emulation Cabinet (FEC), this can be done easily, safely and reproducibly over a wide variety of situations and operating points. Potential failure and the inverter’s reaction to them can be emulated repeatedly to check development progress.
Examples of failures that can be emulated in this way are cable breaks, motor phase short-circuits, or even cables that are torn off in a traffic accident. Such situations are hardly possible to emulate using mechanical testbeds without extreme danger for material and personnel. The AVL Inverter TS offers a simple, safe and fast way to test these situations.
5
Small Facility Connection , but hight Active Power
With impressive performance figures of up to
1.000 kW of power, 2.400 ARMS phase current and 1.000 VDC link voltage, doubt may arise as to how long such performance can be maintained. The unique power supply concept employed in AVL’s inverter testbed is designed to only draw power from the mains to cover losses, hence load connection loads are sufficient to provide large UUT outputs.
In figures, this means that the mains connection power is reduced by a factor of 5 compared to similar comparable test solutions due to the optimized energy concept.
6
Future-proof through the coverage of high voltage levels
With the AVL Inverter TS you are able to provide all high voltage supply levels currently required by an automotive electrified powertrain with test object voltages up to 1000 VDC.
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