LAUSR

Power routing (PR) provides a good choice to improve the modular converter reliability by equalizing the lifetime among multi-cells. The existing PR strategies just equalize the lifetime of power semiconductor devices by routing lighter loads for aged cells. However, the neglect of capacitor may mislead the multi-cell lifetime convergence. Besides, the light load allocation of the aging cell does not always mean the lifetime extension considering topologies and operation principles. Hence, this article proposed a capacitor lifetime-based PR for input-series-output-parallel connected dual active bridge converter. The proposed strategy can achieve the same accuracy as existing PR strategies, greatly reducing computation time and the complexity of the hardware circuit. Moreover, the nonmonotonic relationship between the damage growth rate and load of each cell is revealed and a damage growth rate constraint is developed to ensure the PR feasibility. Simulation is performed to verify the validity of the proposed strategy and constraints. Finally, a scaled down prototype has been developed to verify the PR feasibility and obtain the nonmonotonic relationship, verifying the necessity of proposed constraints. In addition, the effect of PR on the thermal stress and cumulative damage of capacitors is verified by a temperature test.