A Simulation Tool for Calculation of Engine Thermal Boundary Conditions

<div class="htmlview paragraph">Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and other advanced propulsion technologies offer greater fuel economy and lower pollutant and tailpipe emissions. Some experts regard the HEV technology as a practical, attractive solution to social concerns about fuel economy (and related fossil fuel conservation) and vehicle emissions. [<span class="xref">Maples 98</span>] The technology is practical; however, an HEV is more expensive to produce than a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE). In a world of limited resources and many petroleum users and emissions sources, the policy question is whether the best use of resources is to build HEV, to improve the fuel economy and lower emissions from other sources, or to devote the resources to other environmental projects.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">We compare the second generation (designed for the United States) Toyota Prius, to the conventional internal combustion engine Toyota Corolla. We examine both private (vehicle purchase price, maintenance, and fuel) and social (the pollutant [non-methane organic gases, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides] and carbon dioxide emissions) costs. For each of the vehicles, we evaluate lifetime vehicle exhaust emissions as well as upstream emissions from producing the fuel.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">We find that the second generation Prius is still not cost-effective in improving fuel-economy and lowering emissions. For the Prius to be attractive to U.S. consumers, the price of gasoline would have to be more than three times greater than the present level. To be attractive to regulators, the social value of abating tailpipe emissions would have to be 14 times greater than conventional values. Alternatively, the value of abating greenhouse gas emissions would have to be at least $220 per ton. We judge that any HEV would have a difficult time competing with the Corolla because of the Corolla's already high fuel economy and low pollutant emissions.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">We also examine the costs and benefits of making a GM Silverado pickup truck into a gasoline hybrid. Like the analysis of the Prius, we again find that the price of gasoline or social value of abating carbon dioxide would have to be higher than the base case values in order to payback the cost of converting the vehicle to an HEV. Finally, we find that at current gasoline prices and carbon dioxide valuation, a conventional vehicle would need to have a fuel economy of 13 mpg or less in order for a $4,000 cost of converting it to an HEV to get 30% better fuel economy would pay off. We conclude that HEV will not have significant sales unless fuel prices rise several-fold or unless regulators mandate them.</div>

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">A highly efficient two-motor plug-in hybrid system is developed to satisfy the global demands of CO<sub>2</sub> reduction. This system switches three operation modes, what is called “EV Drive”, “Hybrid Drive” and “Engine Drive”, to maximize fuel efficiency according to the driving condition of the vehicle. Practical plug-in EV (Electric Vehicle) capability is also realized by adding a high-power on-board charger and a high capacity Li-ion battery to the original system.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">The outlines of the system components including a newly developed Atkinson cycle engine, a highly efficient electric coupled CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) with built-in motor and generator, an integrated PCU (Power Control Unit) and an exclusive battery for plug-in HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) are described in this paper.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">In addition to the switching of three driving modes and the efficiency improvement of each device, cooperative control of the hybrid system is introduced.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">By installing this system in 2014 Accord plug-in hybrid, superior fuel economy is achieved with values of 46 MPG in CS (Charge Sustaining) mode and 115 MPGe (Miles Per Gallon equivalent) in CD (Charge Depleting) mode. 13miles of AER (All Electric Range) is also achieved while maintaining sufficient driving performance as a mid-size sedan.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">MPGe is a unit of fuel economy for the alternate fuel vehicles such as plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles. The ratings are calculated by converting used electric energy into equivalent amount of gasoline.</div></div>

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The success of improved fuel economy is the proper integration of thermal management components which are appropriately performed to reduce friction and wasted energy. The thermal management systems of vehicle are able to balance the multiple needs such as heating, cooling, or appropriate operation within specified temperature ranges of propulsion systems. Since the propulsion systems of vehicle have changed from a single energy source based on conventional internal combustion engine to hybrid system including more electrical system such as full type of hybrid electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, a new transition associated with vehicle thermal management arises. More efficient thermal management systems are required to improve the fuel economy in the hybrid electric vehicles because of the driving of electric traction motor and the increase of engine off time. The decrease of engine operation time may not sustain the proper temperature ranges of engine and gearbox. As an engine starts at low ambient temperature, heat from the wasted heat of exhausted gas can be supplied not only to cabin heater, but also to engine and gearbox at initial warm-up.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">To practically apply recent thermal management technologies in commercial use, improved performance for the low energy density per cost in a viable vehicle package is necessary in general. This research describes the one of cost effective thermal management solutions recovering exhaust gas heat exchanging system with coolant and gear box oil simultaneously. The previous type of recovering the exhaust heat is to exchange the heat between the coolant and the exhaust gas to increase the temperature of the engine coolant, thereby reducing the friction and improving the fuel efficiency. However, the reduction in engine friction loss and improvement of fuel economy remains low due to the short period of exchanging heat between exhaust gas and coolant. It is more advantageous to increase the temperature of the engine oil or gear box oil rather than to increase the coolant temperature. Accordingly, the developed exhaust heat recovery device which performs integral heat exchange of the exhaust gas heat of engine increases the temperature of the coolant and the gear box oil, thereby reducing friction loss and improving fuel economy. The experimental result of this system improved 2.5% of fuel economy at UDDS drive cycles.</div></div>

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The overall efficiency of hybrid electric vehicles largely depends on the design and application of its energy management system (EMS). Despite the load coordination when operating the system in a hybrid mode, the EMS accounts for state changes between the different driving modes. Whether a transition between pure electric driving and internal combustion engine (ICE) powered driving is beneficial depends, among others, on the respective operation point, the route ahead as well as on the energetic expense for the engine start itself. The latter results from a complex interaction of the powertrain components and has a tremendous impact on the efficiency and quality of EMSs. Optimization based methods such as dynamic programming serve as benchmark for the design process of rule based control strategies. In case no energetic expenses are assigned to a state change, the resulting EMS suffers from being sub-optimal regarding the fuel consumption. However, an exact determination of such engine start costs has hardly been researched, yet leads to a more efficient EMS.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper focuses on the experimental evaluation of the energetic expense for engine starts in (plug-in) hybrid electric vehicles (P)HEVs under various conditions and the assessment of its impact on optimal EMSs. First, reproducible engine starts are performed on both a chassis dynamometer and a transient engine test bench for a wide speed and load range. The experiments are carried out for two plug-in hybrid test vehicles in a parallel driving configuration equipped with a 4- and 6-cylinder spark ignited (SI) engine. Subsequently, the results are discussed and broken down to the respective influence of individual powertrain components. Second, the start costs are embedded into a dynamic programming approach for EMSs as a function of the evaluated influencing parameters. The impact of the engine start costs is outlined by analyzing the optimal EMSs for a representative driving route.</div></div>

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Nowadays, a push towards decarbonisation to reduce the problem of the environmental pollution is increasingly pressing. In the current automotive context, a tendency among the cars manufacturer to consider the development of hybrid vehicles is growing. Indeed, thanks to the battery downsizing due to the addition of the range extender (REx), a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) allows to overcome the limitations of pure electric vehicles (EV) such as the infrastructure which is linked to the battery charging process. Moreover, the performance of battery in terms of efficiency and operating limits are strictly related with the temperature of the battery pack and with the energy management strategy (EMS). The proposed work aims to analyse the performance of a Plug-In series hybrid vehicle (Plug-In HEV) depending on the temperature of battery pack and the EMS. The considered Plug-In HEV is equipped with a hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engine that is used as REx. First, a lumped dynamic thermal model of is proposed to compute the performance of the battery pack depending on the operating temperature. Moreover, a Rule Based (RB) and a Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle (PMP) Energy Management Strategy (EMS) are considered. The results in terms of fuel consumption are discussed accounting for the battery lumped thermal dynamics. The effects of the battery pack thermal transients according to the EMS decisions are analysed. The relationship between the EMS metrics, the battery pack downsizing and the cooling mechanism of the battery pack is discussed. The authors will observe how the adoption of an optimal EMS can help to simplify the vehicle powertrain by allowing a battery pack downsizing and avoiding the use of an active cooling system of the battery pack.</div></div>

<div class="htmlview paragraph">Alternative powertrain configurations such as hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles seem to be the best response to the need of reduced pollutant emissions, especially in urban areas, and to meet future emission limits, that appear to be very severe targets for traditional technologies.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">In hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) an internal combustion engine is combined with one or more electric machines, with the aim of extending the range of the electric and making the entire vehicle more energy–efficient. The architecture of a hybrid drive train is complex, comprising at least two different energy conversion devices (i.e. internal combustion engine and electric machine) drawing energy from at least two different energy storage devices (i.e. fuel tank and battery). Moreover, complex control strategies must be defined in order to properly control the division of load between the thermal engine and the electric machines.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">To meet increasing global competition, which means reducing lead-time and costs for hybrid vehicles design, it is necessary to develop methods that wouldquickly evaluate various design concepts. Even if many computational models are available to simulate the performances of HEVs, there’s still a lack of generalized mathematical analyses.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">An analytical model has been developed in order to study power flows in hybrid vehicle drive trains. The mathematical formulation allows a quick analysis of the complete energy cascade from fuel energy to tractive power, comprising electricity generation and consumption and energy recovery from braking. As a result a general formulation of the total tractive energy and of the global efficiency of hybrid electric vehicles in function of the main characteristics of its components is provided.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">The goal of the analytical model is to enable a quick exploration of design possibilities of hybrid powertrains. Some results are presented in order to show how the present model allows a quick insight into the effects of the main system characteristics on the power flows and the corresponding component losses of the drive train.</div>

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Conventional charging systems for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles currently use cables to connect to the grid. This methodology creates several disadvantages, including tampering, risk, depreciation and non-value added user efforts. Loose or faulty cables may also create a safety issue. Wireless charging for electric vehicles delivers both a simple, reliable and safe charging process. The system enhances consumer adoption and promotes the integration of electric vehicles into the automotive market. Increased access to the grid enables a higher level of flexibility for storage management, increasing battery longevity.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">The power class of 3.7kW or less is an optimal choice for global standardization and implementation, due to the readily available power installations for potential customers throughout the world. One of the key features for wireless battery chargers are the inexpensive system costs, reduced content and light weight, easing vehicle integration.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper demonstrates a wireless charging design with minimal component content. It includes a car pickup coil with 300 mm side length and low volume and mass 1.5 dm<sup>3</sup> power interface electronics. After an overview of its hardware requirements, power transfer and efficiency benefits are presented, providing the anticipated horizontal and lateral deviations.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">An intense magnetic field is required to transfer the target power at low volumes between the transfer units. This field heats up any metal object over the transfer coil, similar to an induction oven. Consequently, the system should be powered down whenever a metal object is detected in this area. A Foreign Object Detection (FOD) design has been developed to continuously monitor the critical high field area. Device testing results are also provided.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">Field characteristics are verified alongside the vehicle, ensuring system safety for living beings; compliant with all applicable standards reference limits which is more challenging than the basic limits [<span class="xref">13</span>].</div></div>

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Today turbo-diesel powertrains offering low fuel consumption and good low-end torque comprise a significant fraction of the light-duty vehicle market in Europe. Global CO₂ regulation and customer fuel prices are expected to continue providing pressure for powertrain fuel efficiency. However, regulated emissions for NO</div><div class="htmlview paragraph"> and particulate matter have the potential to further expand the incremental cost of diesel powertrain applications. Vehicle segments with the most cost sensitivity like compacts under 1400 kg weight look for alternatives to meet the CO₂ challenge but maintain an attractive customer offering. In this paper the concepts of downsizing and downspeeding gasoline engines are explored while meeting performance needs through increased BMEP to maintain good driveability and vehicle launch dynamics. A critical enabler for the solution is adoption of gasoline direct injection (GDi) fuel systems. GDi provides the ability to utilize increased scavenging without sacrificing hydrocarbon emissions because fueling and air controls can be separated. In-cylinder injection with GDi also provides charge cooling benefit yielding the knock reduction necessary for turbocharged applications. Several options within GDi are explored including multi-hole and single pintle spray generators, as well as side-mount versus central-mount applications. Both 3-cylinder and 4-cylinder base engine configurations are explored for turbocharged engines downsized to 1.2 L. Improvements in hydrocarbon emissions, heat losses and scavenging favor fewer cylinders. This is re-enforced by packaging and cost considerations. The next system aspect considered is emissions aftertreatment. Stoichiometric turbocharged GDi provides the lowest cost using the established 3-way catalyst. Stratified GDi is expected to require a lean NO</div><div class="htmlview paragraph"> trap (LNT) and diesel Euro 6 systems require addition of a diesel particulate filter (DPF) and possibly NO</div><div class="htmlview paragraph"> aftertreatment. Although the aftertreatment system to meet Euro 6 NO</div><div class="htmlview paragraph"> requirement is not known today, addition of a DPF, DPF with LNT, or DPF with urea selective catalytic reduction (SCR) represent significant cost and packaging challenges. The analysis concludes by comparing the 3-cylinder turbocharged GDi to other offerings in the context of value tradeoff of CO₂ reduction to system on-cost. Stratified 3-cylinder turbocharged GDi systems offer up to 22% CO₂ reduction compared to a baseline port-fuel-injected 4-cylinder engine. CO₂ reduction of 18% is possible for a stoichiometric GDi mechanization that employs variable valve actuation (VVA) and a conventional 3-way catalytic converter. At Euro 6 emission levels, stoichiometric 3-cylinder turbocharged GDi powertrains offer excellent value. The 3-cylinder turbo-diesel offers similar value if it is capable of meeting the NO</div><div class="htmlview paragraph"> emissions standard without lean aftertreatment. Powertrains with higher engine-out NO</div><div class="htmlview paragraph"> levels that require lean aftertreatment are significantly disadvantaged. Based on the price sensitivity of the compact car segment, the value analysis predicts the 3-cylinder turbocharged GDi engine as the powertrain of choice.</div></div>

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Future stringent emission norms are impelling researchers to look for new emission control techniques. Today, gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines are becoming more popular because of high potential to reduce exhaust emissions over a wide operating load range, unlike conventional port fuel injection (PFI) engines. Also, turbocharged GDI engines allow engine downsizing with a certain restriction on compression ratio (CR) due to knocking tendency, thereby limiting the fuel economy. However, use of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) delays combustion and lowers the knocking tendency which will aid in improving the fuel economy. Therefore, this study is aimed to evaluate the effect of EGR rate on the performance and emission characteristics of a two-liter turbocharged four-stroke GDI engine by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. For the analysis, the CR of 9.3 and the engine speed of 1000 rev/min., are selected. The engine is operated at full-load conditions in the stoichiometric homogeneous mixture mode. The full cycle CFD simulations are carried out using the CONVERGE. The CFD results are validated by the available experimental data from the literature. The quantity of cooled EGR is varied from 0 to 15% to evaluate its effect on combustion, performance and emission characteristics of the engine. The results showed that the engine indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) is increased by about 2% and the indicated thermal efficiency is increased by about 2.3% at 5% EGR rate as compared to that of no EGR. It is also found that heat release rate decreased with increase in EGR rate. The mean in-cylinder temperature decreased with increase in the EGR rate reducing NOx emissions.</div></div>

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The automotive industry continues to develop new powertrain and vehicle technologies aimed at reducing overall vehicle-level fuel consumption. While the use of electrified propulsion systems is expected to play an increasingly important role in helping OEMs meet fleet CO<sub>2</sub> reduction targets, hybridized propulsion solutions will continue to play a vital role in the electrification strategy of vehicle manufacturers.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and range extender vehicles (REx) come with unique NVH challenges due to their different possible operation modes. First, the paper outlines different driveline and vehicle architectures for PHEV and REx. Given the multiple general architectures, as well as operation modes which typically accompany these vehicles, NVH characterizations and noise source-path analysis can be more complicated than conventional vehicles.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">In the following steps, typical NVH related challenges are highlighted and potential solutions for NVH optimization are discussed. While the overall noise levels are low in electric mode, the NVH behavior of electrified vehicles can be objectionable due to the presence of tonal noise coming from electric machines and geartrain components. Additionally, road and wind noise shares can be relatively high during mid/high vehicle speed operation.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">The switch-over from pure electric drive to operation with the combustion engine introduces transient NVH challenges, such as engine start and hybrid architecture dependent drivetrain torque disturbances. Downsizing and boosting of modern combustion engines can increase the combustion related excitation and hence requires detailed attention during vehicle NVH integration. Further, operation strategy of the combustion engine during operation must be refined for pleasant NVH while not compromising fuel economy of the vehicle. The NVH assessment of PHEV drivetrains require evaluations under multiple operating conditions for identification and characterization of the various issues which may be experienced by the driver. Examples from case studies are provided to illustrate the NVH challenges and solutions.</div></div>

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) connect two energy systems—the electric power network and the transportation sector—in ways that could provide significant public health benefits. To begin, it is important to...

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">For modern vehicle development, on-board vehicle Mass and road Gradient Estimation (MGE) can offer great benefit to many sub-systems on the vehicle, such as vehicle control system, transmission control system, and active safety system etc. However, there are still several challenges that need to be solved. Firstly, thanks to good accuracy, reliability, and robustness, regression analysis-based approaches: Recursive Least Squares (RLS) and Kalman Filter (KF) are very popular for MGE, but the trade-off between estimator’s accuracy and converge time is challenging. Furthermore, depending on vehicle and powertrain types, the implementation of MGE function could be very different. It is desired to have a structured approach for various vehicle applications’ MGE development. Lastly, good reliability of MGE does not always satisfy for complicated real-world driving maneuvers and road conditions.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper introduced a mature MGE development approach which utilizes an innovative Series Kalman Filter (S-KF) structure with a 3-axis accelerometer to address the challenges above, leading to the demonstration on 3 different types of vehicles with different powertrain applications: a truck with Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) gearbox, a mid-size Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) SUV, and an A-segment Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) mini car. They are tested under wide range real-world driving maneuvers and road conditions. Moreover, to improve the converge time whilst keeping the same accuracy of MGE, several dedicated designed engineering features are implemented and introduced in this paper. The vehicle-based experimental result and structured development approach showed good performance and maturity of the production oriented MGE, and good efficiency and flexibility to adapt it to various applications.</div></div>

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The Future Automotive Systems Technology Simulator (FASTSim) is a high-level advanced vehicle powertrain systems analysis tool supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office. FASTSim provides a quick and simple approach to compare powertrains and estimate the impact of technology improvements on light- and heavy-duty vehicle efficiency, performance, cost, and battery life. The input data for most light-duty vehicles can be automatically imported. Those inputs can be modified to represent variations of the vehicle or powertrain. The vehicle and its components are then simulated through speed-versus-time drive cycles. At each time step, FASTSim accounts for drag, acceleration, ascent, rolling resistance, each powertrain component's efficiency and power limits, and regenerative braking. Conventional vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, all-electric vehicles, compressed natural gas vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles are included. Powertrains with electric-traction drive can optionally be simulated using electric roadway technologies such as dynamic wireless power transfer. FASTSim also has an interface for running large batches of real-world drive cycles. FASTSim's calculation framework and balance among detail, accuracy, and speed enable it to simulate thousands of driven miles in minutes. The key components and vehicle outputs have been validated by comparing the model outputs to test data for many different vehicles to provide confidence in the results. A graphical user interface makes FASTSim easy and efficient to use. FASTSim is freely available for download from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's website (see <a href="http://www.nrel.gov/fastsim" target="_blank">www.nrel.gov/fastsim</a>). <figure id="F1" class="figure"><div class="graphic-wrapper"><img class="article-figure figure" src="2015-01-0973_fig0001.jpg" alt="No Caption Available"/></div></figure></div></div>

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Energy management plays a key role in achieving higher fuel economy for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) technology; the state of charge (SOC) profile of the battery during the entire driving trip determines the electric energy usage, thus determining the fuel consumed. The energy management algorithm should be designed to meet all driving scenarios while achieving the best possible fuel economy. The knowledge of the power requirement during a driving trip is necessary to achieve the best fuel economy results; performance of the energy management algorithm is closely related to the amount of information available in the form of road grade, velocity profiles, trip distance, weather characteristics and other exogenous factors. Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) allow vehicles to communicate with one another and the infrastructure to collect data about surrounding, and forecast the expected events, e.g., traffic condition, turns, road grade, and weather forecast. The ability to effectively interpret this traffic and weather data to estimate the power demand is important for the energy management and plays crucial role in the battery utilization.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper presents an important step towards ITS integration with energy management of PHEVs: the goal of this research is to determine the correlation (or heuristic relationship) between different road events, weather conditions and PHEV energy management performance. The first step of this study utilizes real world data collected from a plug-in Toyota Prius (after-market conversion kit Hymotion L5) to determine the correlations between events and velocity profile characteristics. The second step finds the impact of power profile characteristics on the performance of equivalent consumption minimization Strategy (ECMS) for PHEV energy management using a high fidelity, validated PHEV simulator. The goal of this study is to identify the impact factors and define qualitative impact on the energy management algorithm and vehicle fuel economy.</div></div>

<div class="htmlview paragraph">The hybrid electric vehicle is currently changing the automotive market at an impressive rate. While not as highly publicized, the transit bus market is being transformed at an equal rate. As these markets move forward, the school bus market remains largely unchanged. As an unchanged market, there is still the opportunity to optimize a hybrid vehicle platform for school buses.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">This study begins the modeling process of an existing class C school bus and investigates the potential that both series and parallel hybrids hold to reduce fuel consumption and emissions for a school bus. The primary focus of this study is to investigate the potential benefits of adding an electricity grid interconnection to hybrid electric school buses, allowing them to add to the hybrid potential with a pre-charged battery pack from the electric utility grid. These vehicles are known as plug-in hybrids.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">The school bus models shown in this paper were generated in a Matlab/Simulink-based program developed by NREL called ADVISOR. ADVISOR is used by vehicle manufacturers as a tool to experiment with different vehicle configurations. In this study both a generic series hybrid and a generic parallel hybrid are generated and then each is used in both charge-sustaining and charge-depleting scenarios with varying sizes of battery packs to increase the “grid energy.” The results of each model are presented by both fuel economy and emissions reductions taking into account the power plant emissions and electricity costs.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">The results of the study show that by adding a plug-in connection to existing hybrids, significant savings can be achieved, both in fuel costs and in overall emissions. By analyzing the emissions both at the power plant level and at the vehicle level we show that emission of NOx, Particulate Matter and Carbon Dioxide emissions can all be reduced while saving on fuel costs. This study also shows that some models of traditional hybrid can be operated as plug-in models with little or no change to the system to gain significant benefit from the initial charge.</div>