Issue link: https://resources.randsim.com/i/1512033
A multidomain approach to simulation with tightly integrated solvers en- ables engineers to model, simulate, analyze and optimize complex systems, such as electromechanical, electromagnetic, power electronics and other mechatronic designs. Design engineers can create effi cient yet highly accurate models across multiple domains, leading to high-fi delity simulations of entire complex systems. Power Electronics Design Power electronic systems often include inverters, converters, electric machines, related mechanical or hydraulic loads, sensors, semiconductors (IGBTs switching at requested PWM frequencies), parasitic eff ects from circuit boards and cables, and control algorithms. Important issues to con- sider for design and management of these systems include semiconductor loss and thermal performance during cycling, surge currents and voltages during switching, and conducted and radiated emissions (EMI/EMC) due to increasingly higher switching frequencies. Simulation software should support device and component characterization tools, including IGBT model generation of behavioral, average and/or dynamic models. Such capabilities allow users to easily select the fi delity of the simulation. These detailed models represent the electrical and thermal performance of the switching semiconductor device and, thus, are suitable for predicting thermal performance of the system. Thermal performance is enhanced by extracting the thermal network of the power electronic enclosure. Methods of reduced-order modeling can very effi ciently extract data from detailed CFD models for use in a system simulation, resulting in very robust electrothermal simulations of the power electronic systems. Using reduced-order models from detailed fi nite Journal Article Power Electronics for Hybrid Electric Vehicles Today's rapidly evolving products are getting smarter and often include complex interactions between components, subassemblies and systems. In industries such as automotive, aero- space and industrial automation, organizations use robust systems-level simulation to identify potential problems, early in the design stages, that other simulation or build-and-test methods cannot detect. In particular, the automotive industry is steadily increasing the amount of power electronics in mechatronic applications as it keeps up with consumer, environmental and government demands. Engineers and system designers are turning to electric-drive systems for signifi cant benefi ts of weight and cost reduction, increased reliability of electrical systems, and convenient control and automation via electronic means to improve effi ciency. 1 Mark Solveson, Lead Application Engineer, ANSYS, Inc. Figure 1. System simulation example of inverter, coupled with ANSYS® Icepack® thermal model, electric machine model and reduced-order model shaft Figure 1a. Inverter output voltages