System power loss optimization of electric vehicle driven by front and rear induction motors

Power loss optimization aiming at the high-efficiency drive of front-and-rear-induction-motor-drive electric vehicle (FRIMDEV) as an effective way to improve energy efficiency and extend driving range is of high importance. Different from the traditional look-up table method of motor efficiency, power loss optimization of the dual- motor system based on the loss mechanism of induction motor (IM) is proposed. First of all, based on the power loss characteristic of FRIMDEV from battery to wheels, the torque distribution optimization model aiming at the minimum system power loss is put forward. Secondly, referring to d-q axis equivalent model of IM, the power loss functions of the dual-IM system are modeled. Then, the optimal torque distribution coefficient (β _o) between the two IMs is derived, and the theoretical switching condition (T _sw) between the single- and dual-motor-drive mode (SMDM and DMDM) is confirmed. Finally, a dual-motor test platform is developed. The derived torque distribution strategy is verified. The influence of motor temperature on β _o and T _sw are tested, and the correction models based on temperature difference are proposed. Based on the system power loss analysis, it can be confirmed that, under low load conditions, the SMDM takes priority over the DMDM, and the controller of the idling motor should be shut down to avoid the additional excitation loss. While under middle to high load conditions, even torque distribution (β _o = 0.5) is preferred if the temperature difference between the two IMs is small; otherwise, β _o should be corrected based on dual-motor temperatures. The theoretical T _sw derived without dealing with temperature difference is a function only of motor speed, while temperature difference correction of it should be conducted in actual operations based on motor resistance changing with temperature.     

Lateral Collision Avoidance Robust Control of Electric Vehicles Combining a Lane-Changing Model Based on Vehicle Edge Turning Trajectory and a Vehicle Semi-Uncertainty Dynamic Model

This paper presents a new control scheme for lateral collision avoidance (CA) systems to improve the safety of four-in-wheel-motor-driven electric vehicles (FIWMD-EVs). There are two major contributions in the design of lateral CA systems. The first contribution is a new lane-changing model based on vehicle edge turning trajectory (VETT) to make vehicle adapt to different driving roads and conform to drivers’ characteristic, in addition to ensure vehicle steering safety. The second contribution is vehicle semi-uncertainty dynamic model (SUDM), which is SISO model. The problem of stability performance without the information on sideslip angle is solved by the proposed SUDM. Based on the proposed VETT and SUDM, the lateral CA system can be designed with H_∞ robust controller to restrain the effect of uncertainties resulting from parameter perturbation and lateral wind disturbance. Single and mixed driving cycles simulation experiments are carried out with CarSim to demonstrate the effectiveness in control scheme, simplicity in structure for lateral CA system based on the proposed VETT and SUDM.     

Gain scheduled linear quadratic tracking system tuned optimally by covariance matrix adaption evolutionary strategy for automotive engine coldstart control

In this paper, a gain scheduled linear quadratic tracking system (LQTS) tuned optimally by an evolutionary strategy (ES) is devised to reduce the total tailpipe hydrocarbon (HC) emissions of an automotive engine over the coldstart period. As the engine’s behavior during coldstart operations is nonlinear, the system dynamics is clearly analyzed and represented by a number of separate linear models generated based on a coldstart model verified by experimental data. An independent LQTS is then implemented for each of these linear models. In this way, several control laws are created, and the corresponding gains are calculated for each of the independent control laws. ES is then used to tune the adjustable parameters of LQTSs to calculate the control inputs, namely air/fuel ratio (AFR) and spark timing (Δ), such that the resulting exhaust gas temperature (T _exh) and engine-out HC emissions (HC _raw) be close to a set of optimum profiles. This enables the controller reduce the cumulative tailpipe hydrocarbon emissions (HC _cum) to the highest possible extent. To demonstrate the acceptable performance of the proposed controller, an optimal controller derived from the Pontryagin’s minimum principle (PMP) is also taken into account. Based on the results of the conducted comparative study, it is shown that the proposed control technique has a very good performance, and also, can be easily used for real-time applications, as it consumes a remarkably trivial computational time for calculating the controlling commands.     

Robust control for four-wheel-independent-steering electric vehicle with steer-by-wire system

A four-wheel-independent-steering (4WIS) electric vehicle (EV) with steer-by-wire (SBW) system is proposed in this paper. The fast terminal sliding mode controller (FTSMC) is designed for the SBW system to suppress external disturbances. Taking unstructured and structured uncertainties into consideration, a robust controller is designed for the 4WIS EV utilizing μ synthesis approach and the controller order reduction is implemented based on Hankel-Norm approximation. Since sideslip angle is the feedback signal of robust controller and it is hard to measure, the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is employed to estimate sideslip angle. To evaluate the vehicle performance with the designed control system, step and sinusoidal steering maneuvers are simulated and analyzed. Simulation results show that the designed control system have good tracking ability, strong robust stability and good robust performance to improve vehicle stability and handing performance.     

Load Transfer Analysis of a Bus Bay Section Under Standard Rollover Test Using <Emphasis Type="Italic">U</Emphasis>*<Subscript>M</Subscript> Index

Bus rollover accidents are receiving increasing attention due to the associated high fatality rate. In order to improve the bus structural performance during the rollover collision, it is necessary to investigate how the impact force is transferred within the bus superstructure. This paper introduced a method for studying the load transfer behavior of the bus superstructure during the standard rollover test by using the U * _M index. A bus bay section was used as the sample structure to demonstrate the proposed method. The result of the paper reveals that the load transfer analysis based on the U * _M index can provide engineers with the insight of the structural issues and the direction to improve the structural performance, which cannot be accomplished through the conventional finite element analysis.     

Analysis of a special purpose vehicle’s behaviour after an edge drop-off onto a soft shoulder

The article concerns the dynamics of a four-axle 20 ton special purpose vehicle in the driver’s panicky defensive manoeuvre resulting from edge drop-off of wheels onto a soft shoulder. A calculation model in the PC-Crash software environment has been developed to include the complex mechanism of the soft soil response to the wheel movement. The analysis of the results indicates the danger manifested by strong wheels vibrations, instantaneous change of vehicle steerability characteristics and a high rate of increase of the yaw angle and vehicle pitch during braking with steered wheels turned. The calculations indicate an extremely adverse effect of the phase of vehicle oversteer which in the analysed motion of the vehicle lasts over 1.5 s. The calculations prove that in such a short time the driver has very little chance of any practical response to the non-typical behaviour of the vehicle which otherwise is, in general, understeered.     

Effect of Charge Density on Spray Characteristics,Combustion Process,and Emissions of Heavy-Duty Diesel Engines

In-cylinder charge density at top dead center is an important parameter of diesel engines and is influenced by intake pressure, intake temperature, and compression ratio. The effects of charge density on fuel spray, combustion process, and emissions were investigated by using a constant volume bomb and a heavy-duty diesel engine. Spray development resistance increased with the increase of the charge density in the constant volume bomb. It was found that short spray penetration was accompanied by a large spray cone angle in the former stage with high charge density. However, the equivalence ratio was lowered and the degree of homogeneity of the mixture was increased in the later stage owing to the rapid interaction of fuel and gas at a high mixing rate. Combining the first law of thermodynamics and the second law of thermodynamics for analysis, as the charge density increased, the gross indicated thermal efficiency (ITEg) was improved. However, pumping loss had to be considered with higher charge density. Under this condition, the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) trend was increased initially and decreased subsequently. Under high-load operation (1200 r/min BMEP, 2.0 MPa), the minimum charge density value of 44.8 kg/m³ was found to be reasonable. This charge density was suitable for combustion and brought about minimum exhaust energy and trade-off emissions. Moreover, by analyzing two operation conditions in terms of the maximum BTE with the Miller and the conventional cycles, compression temperature and combustion temperature were reduced in the Miller cycle with the charge density 44.8 kg/m³. A high C_p/C_v could improve the cylinder exergy/power conversion process by its positive effect of increasing the specific heat ratio. Owing to the interaction between a high C_p/C_v and exergy loss to heat transfer, the condition with the minimal charge density could produce more piston work.     

Vehicle dynamic stability improvements through gain-scheduled steering and braking control

This paper is concerned with the synthesis of a robust gain-scheduled ?_∞ MIMO vehicle dynamic stability controller (VDSC) involving both steering and rear braking actuators. This VDSC aims at improving automotive vehicle yaw stability and lateral performances. The aim of this work is to provide a methodology to synthesise such a controller while taking into account the braking actuator limitations and use the steering actuator only if it is necessary. These objectives are treated in an original way by the synthesis of a parameter-dependent controller built in the LPV framework and by the solution of an LMI problem. The proposed solution is coupled with a local ABS strategy to guarantee slip stability and make the solution complete. Nonlinear time and frequency domain simulations on a complex full vehicle model (which has been validated on a real car), subject to critical driving situations, show the efficiency and robustness of the proposed solution.     

Numerical Analysis of the Mixture Formation in a Two-Stroke Wall-Guided LPG DI Engine for Extended-Range Electric Vehicle

The use of automotive LPG characteristics which are easy to evaporate vaporization and carry. The paper presents a design of extended-range electric vehicle for wall-guided two stroke LPG engine with direct injection combustion system. Based on the modified vehicle LPG spray model, a database describing the characteristics of vehicle LPG fuel was built and imported into the CFD software. And the accuracy of the model is verified by the Schlieren experimental results. The concentration and velocity field of the mixture in the cylinder under different load conditions are numerically analyzed. The analyzed result indicated that the start injection time θ = 60°–70°CA BTDC under part load condition, the plug electrode near the gathering of a richer mixture is easy to be fired at spark ignition time, the obvious formation of mixture in cylinder is formed and the overall air-fuel ratio is above 40: 1. The start-transition working condition and large load conditions in the piston moves upward before closing the exhaust port to start injection LPG. The optimized LPG injection start time θ ensures that the fresh gas is locked in the cylinder when the exhaust port is closed (63°CA ABDC). In the ignition time of the spark plug, an ideal homogeneous mixture in the cylinder is realized.     

Development of route information based driving control algorithm for a range-extended electric vehicle

A route information based driving control algorithm was developed for an RE-EV which consists of two motorgenerators, MG1 and MG2. A threshold power which controls the engine on/off to charge the battery was obtained by an optimization process using route information, such as the vehicle velocity and altitude. The threshold power allows the vehicle to travel to the final destination while making the final battery SOC close to SOC _low. Using the threshold power, route based control (RBC) was proposed by considering the driver’s characteristics and traffic conditions using the driving data base. In addition, a relationship between the threshold power and various initial battery SOC was obtained by off-line optimization. The performance of the RBC was evaluated by simulation and human-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) for city driving. It was found from the simulation and HILS results that the RBC achieved approximately 4 % to 12 % reduction in fuel consumption compared to the existing charge depleting/charge sustaining (CD/CS) driving control.     

Research on control strategy for differential steering system based on H mixed sensitivity

The differential steering system (DSS) of electric wheel vehicle gets rid of the restrictions of traditional steering system completely. As an ideal steering technology, it not only realizes the perfect combination of the road feel and the steering portability, but also realizes the harmony and unification between the steering maneuverability and safety. The structure and basic theory of the DSS of electric wheel vehicle are discussed in this paper. Based on these, the dynamic model of the steering system is built. Considering of the uncertainties and disturbances existing in the model, the H_∞ mixed sensitivity control theory is applied to achieve better tracking performance and road feel in the process of steering. Then, a H_∞ mixed sensitivity controller is designed to restrain the effect of the road disturbance and model uncertainties. The simulation results indicate that the DSS with the designed controller can effectively restrain the effect of noises and disturbances caused by random motivation from road, torque sensor measurement and model parameter uncertainty, and enable the driver to obtain satisfactory road feel.     

Automobile aerodynamics influenced by airfoil-shaped rear wing

Computational model is developed to analyze aerodynamic loads and flow characteristics for an automobile, when the rear wing is placed above the trunk of the vehicle. The focus is on effects of the rear wing height that is investigated in four different positions. The relative wind incidence angle of the rear wing is equal in all configurations. Hence, the discrepancies in the results are only due to an influence of the rear wing position. Computations are performed by using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations along with the standard k-ε turbulence model and standard wall functions assuming the steady viscous fluid flow. While the lift force is positive (upforce) for the automobile without the rear wing, negative lift force (downforce) is obtained for all configurations with the rear wing in place. At the same time, the rear wing increases the automobile drag that is not favorable with respect to the automobile fuel consumption. However, this drawback is not that significant, as the rear wing considerably benefits the automobile traction and stability. An optimal automobile downforce-to-drag ratio is obtained for the rear wing placed at 39 % of the height between the upper surface of the automobile trunk and the automobile roof. Two characteristic large vortices develop in the automobile wake in configuration without the rear wing. They vanish with the rear wing placed close to the trunk, while they gradually restore with an increase in the wing mounting height.     

Robust yaw stability control for electric vehicles based on active front steering control through a steer-by-wire system

A robust yaw stability control design based on active front steering control is proposed for in-wheel-motored electric vehicles with a Steer-by-Wire (SbW) system. The proposed control system consists of an inner-loop controller (referred to in this paper as the steering angle-disturbance observer (SA-DOB), which rejects an input steering disturbance by feeding a compensation steering angle) and an outer-loop tracking controller (i.e., a PI-type tracking controller) to achieve control performance and stability. Because the model uncertainties, which include unmodeled high frequency dynamics and parameter variations, occur in a wide range of driving situations, a robust control design method is applied to the control system to simultaneously guarantee robust stability and robust performance of the control system. The proposed control algorithm was implemented in a CaSim model, which was designed to describe actual in-wheel-motored electric vehicles. The control performances of the proposed yaw stability control system are verified through computer simulations and experimental results using an experimental electric vehicle.     

Robust hierarchical controller with conditional integrator based on small gain theorem for reference trajectory tracking of autonomous vehicles

ABSTRACT

A robust trajectory tracking controller is designed for autonomous vehicles based on a hierarchical architecture to make the autonomous vehicle track a given reference trajectory. The controller consists of two sub controllers: kinematic controller and dynamic controller. Based on the kinematics of tracking reference trajectory, a desired yaw rate is calculated by kinematic controller to make the lateral deviation global asymptotic stable. Then, steering wheel angle is calculated by a vehicle dynamic controller to make the vehicle yaw rate converge to the desired value and make the vehicle dynamic stable. Conditional integration method is used in the sub controllers. This method guarantees global asymptotic stability of tracking reference values and considers the uncertainty of parameters and constraints of desired yaw rate and actuators. Then based on small-gain theorem, the condition of the finite-gain L stability is given to the hierarchical controller to ensure the interconnected sub systems stable and prevent the amplification of system disturbance. Finally, the effectiveness and robustness of the controller are validated by real vehicle experiments.     

Lateral handling improvement with dynamic curvature control for an independent rear wheel drive EV

The integrated longitudinal and lateral dynamic motion control is important for four wheel independent drive (4WID) electric vehicles. Under critical driving conditions, direct yaw moment control (DYC) has been proved as effective for vehicle handling stability and maneuverability by implementing optimized torque distribution of each wheel, especially with independent wheel drive electric vehicles. The intended vehicle path upon driver steering input is heavily depending on the instantaneous vehicle speed, body side slip and yaw rate of a vehicle, which can directly affect the steering effort of driver. In this paper, we propose a dynamic curvature controller (DCC) by applying a the dynamic curvature of the path, derived from vehicle dynamic state variables; yaw rate, side slip angle, and speed of a vehicle. The proposed controller, combined with DYC and wheel longitudinal slip control, is to utilize the dynamic curvature as a target control parameter for a feedback, avoiding estimating the vehicle side-slip angle. The effectiveness of the proposed controller, in view of stability and improved handling, has been validated with numerical simulations and a series of experiments during cornering engaging a disturbance torque driven by two rear independent in-wheel motors of a 4WD micro electric vehicle.