Variable Inductance for Solar Power Applications Shane McMorrow Supervisor Prof. Ger Hurley Co-Supervisor Dr. Maeve Duffy

Project Outline Primary Aims – Investigate Sloped Air Gapped (SAG) inductors – Design and build a DC/DC converter capable of providing impedance matching for a variable power source – Determine the internal resistance of the variable power supply to allow impedance matching design – Determine the L-i characteristics of the SAG inductor for the buck converter to remain in continuous conduction mode – Design a SAG to provide these L-i characteristics – Implement in hardware

System Design

Design Steps Review & research – Photovoltaic Solar Panels – Buck Converters & impedance matching – SAG inductors Simulation of a PV solar panel to obtain output characteristics Setting up buck converter equations to calculate duty cycle for impedance matching and minimum inductance requirements Simulation and design of a SAG inductor which meets minimum inductance requirements

Simulation of the PV Solar Panel Initial simulation of a solar cell using PSpice PV Solar Panel (Sanyo HIP- 210NH1-BO-1) simulated using Matlab Primary aim of this simulation was to obtain the internal resistance of the solar panel for all light levels

Results of simulation

Key Buck Converter Equations

Results

Inductor types Air Gapped Inductor Swinging Inductor

SAG Inductor

SAG Vs Swinging Inductor

Changing the Slope OriginalLower Gradient

Versatility of the SAG Inductor Lower Gradient

Going to zero slope

Recap of Designed SAG Inductor

Simulated System input Characteristics

Simulated System Output Characteristics

Future Considerations Making the slope on a sloped air gapped inductor curved combine a swinging inductor design with a sloped air gapped design

Questions?