Conventionally, it has not been possible to evaluate current and temperature in power control units (PCU) for hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) during vehicle operation without using an actual permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM).
The research discussed in this paper developed a motor emulator to take the place of an actual motor, making it possible to conduct tests for the evaluation of current and temperature in PCU during vehicle operation without the need to use a motor.
The motor emulator is provided with a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulator that calculates motor models at high speed using a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The developed system models the motor in detail via the HIL simulator, while a 3-phase current generator accurately reproduces the transient current in the PCU during vehicle operation.
Evaluative tests of current and temperature in the PCU during vehicle operation were conducted using the developed motor emulator, producing the same results as actual vehicle tests. This demonstrated that the use of the developed system makes it possible to conduct tests for the evaluation of current and temperature in PCU without the use of an actual motor.