High Power power supply for testing EVs motors controllers without battery pack

[Astrogator]

Hi for everyone,
This is my first post on this forum so please don't ban Me instantly .
I'm interested in building a high power supply for testing motor controllers for electric vehicles.
I would like to use a three-phase thyristor-based rectifier to regulate voltage on the output. But I don't have plenty of engineering experience in this matter. Until now I have only worked on single-phase thyristor rectifiers.
Is there any schematic of something like this already there ? ( YES. I googled this subject and there wasn't anything that would fit in my application).
Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[john61ct]

But why?

How many watts for how long are needed?

Even a low Ah pack will deliver much more power than you could with a reasonable PSU

and if warm, then fully recharge in 10min or so, without losing too much lifespan.

So two more normal PSU/chargers, two packs, swapped out. . .

 

[Astrogator]

Sorry for that little miss understanding. I didn't include the most important facts.
So clarifying this situation.
The devil is in details.
The problem appears when we connect the controller to the motor and then start tests. The time it takes to do a proper, high-resolution, highly accurate efficiency map of the motor and drive would take few hours or even more so here is the problem.
We aren't talking about few hundreds watts of power and forty or sixty volts.
The peak power could even oscillate on the level of ~ 130kW and the voltages we would like to design our motor and whole power train would oscillate around 350-450V.
So battery pack would be very bulky and problematic to utilize it safe mater.

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[everythingisawave]

IMHO efficiency mapping can be done more quickly if you automate and sync your data logging. It makes it even easier if you automate your motor command routines.

I assume you are using a dyno setup, in which case if you can connect the two inverters back to back then the power supply only needs to supply loss power, that will help a bit with capacity.

In my previous work we had a diode power supply, but it's not trivial to make a proper unit with controllability and safety. We asked another company to build a custom one. Definitely if you have the budget, you should use CV / CC controlled power supplies as it is much safer and they can prevent overcurrent/overvoltages from causing undue damage. They respond more quickly to faults, although the total for that amount of power could cost a lot. In this case you will need to consider if your building has adequate distribution of three-phase power to supply what you need, both power and voltage-wise. A thyristor converter needs to conform to certain power quality requirements if it is drawing a lot of harmonic current.

Otherwise, if it is only for temporary testing, consider renting equipment, or cooperation with university labs etc. One project I did we didn't have enough three-phase power for some massive motor tests, so we rented a huge diesel generator for a week.

Just my two cents.