Analysis and compensation of dead time effects on power transfer in dual active bridge for a general optimized modulation

This paper presents the effect of dead time on active power transfer of the dual active bridge (DAB) and a novel mitigation technique for the same. The whole power range is categorized into five zones based on the switching instant link current direction and the modified active power expressions with effect of dead time are derived for each zone. The novel compensation method for dead time improves the performance of any general optimized techniques for DAB with extended phase shift. Firstly, the link current values at different switching instants are estimated using the mathematical expressions obtained using a linear piece-wise method. Secondly, the values are used for compensation logic formulation in the whole power range. The compensation process is applied to two different configurations, open loop (circulating mode) and close loop (voltage control mode). The mid-power zone is compensated using a constant phase shift modification and the low power zone is compensated using a PI controller based phase shift modification. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed compensation technique is verified through MATLAB Simulink model and 1.2 kW experimental prototype.