Design Space Optimization of a Three-Phase LCL Filter for Electric Vehicle Ultra-Fast Battery Charging

State-of-the-art ultra-fast battery chargers for electric vehicles simultaneously require high efficiency and high power density, leading to a challenging power converter design. In particular, the grid-side filter, which ensures sinusoidal current absorption with low pulse-width modulation (PWM) harmonic content, can be a major contributor to the overall converter size and losses. Therefore, this paper proposes a complete analysis, design and optimization procedure of a three-phase LCL filter for a modular DC fast charger. First, an overview of the basic LCL filter modeling is provided and the most significant system transfer functions are identified. Then, the optimal ratio between grid-side and converter-side inductance is discussed, aiming for the maximum filtering performance. A novel design methodology, based on a graphical representation of the filter design space, is thus proposed. Specifically, several constraints on the LCL filtering elements are enforced, such that all feasible design parameter combinations are identified. Therefore, since in low-voltage high-power applications the inductive components typically dominate the overall filter volume, loss and cost, the viable LCL filter design that minimizes the total required inductance is selected. The proposed design procedure is applied to a 30 kW, 20 kHz 3-level unidirectional rectifier, employed in a modular DC fast charger. The performance of the selected optimal design, featuring equal grid-side and converter-side 175 µH inductors and 15 µF capacitors, is verified experimentally on an active front-end prototype, both in terms of harmonic attenuation capability and current control dynamics. A current total harmonic distortion (THD) of 1.2% is achieved at full load and all generated current harmonics comply with the applicable harmonic standard. Moreover, separate tests are performed with different values of grid inner impedance, verifying the converter control stability in various operating conditions and supporting the general validity of the proposed design methodology.