Multi-Criteria Ranking of Z-Source Inverter Topologies for a Three-Wheel Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicle

Replacing the regular two-stage inverters with a Z-source inverter (ZSI), based on single conversion, has come under attention in fuel cell (FC) hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). This substitution is to decrease the circuit complexity, cost, and required space. However, fulfilling these goals highly depends on the selection of a suitable topology. This paper performs a multi-criteria ranking to deeply analyze the impact of different ZSI topologies on the performance of a recreational FC-HEV, composed of FC stack and lithium-ion capacitor bank. First, the dual-energy sources are embedded into the Z-source network (ZSN). Subsequently, the Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) is utilized to rank different possible ZSI topologies based on four scenarios (standard, compactness, input current ripple, and compactness versus input current ripple). This analysis indicates that each scenario can have a suitable topology with respect to its requirements. Finally, the two highest-ranked ZSI topologies according to standard scenario are implemented by signal hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) to validate the effectiveness of the performed analysis. The results indicate that the use of the ZSI topologies lead to higher average efficiencies (1.98% and 4.07%), and smaller size and volume of passive components, compared to a conventional two-stage inverter.