Modeling of a Buck Converter at the System Level with ANSYS
In this video, I'm going to show you how to model a buck converter using ANSYS PE Expert and Simplorer at a system level.
Steps to Model a Buck Converter
1. Using PE Expert
- Open PE Expert and select the buck converter under the inductor section.
- Set the input voltage to 42 volts and the output voltage to 12 volts.
- Adjust other parameters as needed.
- Navigate to the Modeling Options tab and select Show All Solutions.
- Go to Calculations and click Start Design Process.
- After a few seconds, a list of valid designs will be displayed.
- Select Window Filling and choose the design with the lowest filling as the target design.
- Proceed to Modeler and click Generate Model.
- Choose 2D without capacitive effects and click OK.
- A new window will pop up; click Start.
- PE Expert will generate the Maxwell-FEA model and a PE Expert 1D model.
- Exit from the curve fitting and return to PE Expert.
- Save and close PE Expert.
2. Building the Circuit Model in Simplorer
- Create an open-loop circuit model in Simplorer.
- Note: The buck converter has not been added yet.
- Go to TwinBuilder and select Add Component > Add PE Expert Static Component.
- From the results folder of the PE Expert model, select the file.
- Drag and drop the 1D PE Expert model to the correct position to connect it to the circuit.
- Analyze the buck converter in open loop; this will take a few seconds.
- The load is a variable load, which will reduce the current and drive the converter to discontinuous mode.
- Observe the output voltage; a big spike will be visible due to the absence of a control loop.
3. Adding a Control Loop
- Navigate to View Component Libraries.
- Find the PID controller in the SMPS library.
- Drag and drop the PID controller into the circuit.
- This completes the circuit with the PID controller added at the top.
- Run the analysis and check the results.
- The analysis will complete in a few seconds.
- Observe the output voltage; the spike is significantly smaller compared to the previous analysis without the control loop.
- Confirm that the input voltage is 42V and the output voltage is 12V.
For more information, please contact us at Ozen Engineering, Inc.
In this video, I'm going to show you how to model a buck converter using ANSYS PE Expert and Simplorer at a system level. When we open PE Expert, make sure to select the buck converter under the inductor section. The input voltage is 42 volts and output voltage is 12 volts.
Other parameters are also shown here and can be changed. If we go to the Modeling Options tab, make sure we select Show All Solutions. Then we can go to Calculations, Start Design Process. It will just take a few seconds to complete, and a list of valid designs will be shown here.
Then click Window Filling and select the design with the lowest filling to be our target design. Then we need to go to Modeler, Generate Model. In this case, we will select 2D without capacitive effects. Click OK and a new window will pop up. Then click Start.
PEXpert will start to generate the Maxwell-FEA model and a PEXpert 1D model. We can exit from the curve fitting and go back to PEXpert. Now we can save and close PEXpert. Next, we need to build the circuit model in Simplorer.
This is the open-loop circuit model that I've created, but the buck converter has not been added yet. We need to go to TwinBuilder, Add Component, Add PE Expert Static Component. Then from the results folder of the PE Expert model that we created earlier, select the file.
Then drag and drop this 1D PEXpert model to the right position so that it is connected to the circuit. Then we can analyze the buck converter in open loop. It will take a few seconds to complete. The load here is a variable load.
This change will reduce the current and drive the converter to discontinuous mode. If we look at the output voltage here, we can see a big spike because there is no control loop. In order to add a control loop, go to View Component Libraries. We can find the PID controller from the SMPS library.
We only need to drag and drop to the circuit. This is the complete circuit with PID controller. The PID controller is added at the top. Now we can run the analysis and check the results. The analysis will just take a few seconds to complete.
If we take a look at the output voltage, we can see the spike here is much smaller compared to the previous one, which has no control loop. We can also see that the input voltage is 42V, and the output voltage is 12V. Please contact us at https://ozeninc.com/contact for more information.
