Parametric study of minimum reactor mass in energy-storage dc-to-dc converters

Closed-form analytical solutions for the design equations of a minimum-mass reactor for a two-winding voltage-or-current step-up converter are derived. A quantitative relationship between the three parameters - minimum total reactor mass, maximum output power, and switching frequency - is extracted from these analytical solutions. The validity of the closed-form solution is verified by a numerical minimization procedure. A computer-aided design procedure using commercially available toroidal cores and magnet wires is also used to examine how the results from practical designs follow the predictions of the analytical solutions.