Effect of regenerative braking energy on battery current balance in a parallel hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle under FTP-75 driving mode

In recent years, a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) has been considered a successful technology. Especially, in case of a full HEV, the motor can drive the vehicle by itself at low velocity or assist the engine at high load. To improve the hybrid electric vehicle’s efficiency, a regenerative braking system is also applied to recover from kinetic energy. In this study, an experimental control apparatus was set up with a parallel hybrid electric vehicle mounted on a chassis dynamometer to measure ECU (engine control unit) and MCU (motor control unit) signals, including the current and state of charge in the battery. In order to analyze regenerative braking characteristics, user define braking driving cycle was introduced and carried out using different initial velocities and braking times. The FTP 75 driving cycle was then adapted under different initial SOC (state of charge) levels. The experiment data was analyzed in accordance with the vehicle velocity, battery current, instant SOC level, motor RPM, engine RPM, and then vehicle driving mode was decided. In case of braking driving cycle, it was observed that SOC were increased up to 1.5 % when the braking time and the velocidy were 6 second and 60 km/h, respectively. In addition, using the FTP 75 driving cycle, mode 1 was most frequently operated at SOC 65 conditions in phase 1. In phase 2, due to frequent stop-go hills, percentage of mode 1 was increase by 22 %. Eventually, despite of identity, it was shown that the characteristics of phase 3 differed from phase 1 due to the evanishment of the effects of initial SOCs.     

Design and simuation of a vehicle test bed based on intelligent transport systems

As growing demand of vehicle safety system, especially regarding intelligent transport systems (ITS), automotive manufacturers are focusing more on driving safety and efficient transportation for vehicle users. Many safety systems have been launched in the market recently so, it is important to evaluate the vehicle safety systems and ITS. The ITS based intelligent vehicle test bed was constructed to meet the growing demand of test and verification for such ADAS and ITS systems. First, this paper describes in detail concept of the test-bed. This test-bed is carefully designed to meet the requirements of ISO/TC204 standards. In order to verify the design of the test-bed, virtual test with driving siulator was processed on a virtual test tracks. This test-bed will be used to conduct testing on various ITS and ADAS technologies, such as adaptive cruise control (ACC), lane departure warning system (LDWS), cooperative intersection warning system as well as rollover stability control (RSC) and electronic stability control (ESC), etc.     

Shape design optimization of interior permanent magnet motor for vibration mitigation using level set method

This paper presents a new optimization method to obtain the structural design of permanent magnet motor which can reduce the mechanical vibration. The optimization problem is formulated to minimize a multi-objective function including the mean compliance of the whole stator for maximizing the stiffness under the magnetic force and the torque ripple by aligning torque profiles to a constant target value for maximizing the magnetic performance, with constraint for material usage. The level set function is introduced for representing the structural boundaries and calculating the material properties. A coupled magneto-mechanical analysis is performed to verify the vibration characteristic of the motor system and obtain the design sensitivities. To confirm the usefulness of the proposed design method and to obtain the optimum structural design for low vibration motor, a design example of 20 kW interior permanent magnet motor developed for the power train of a hybrid electric vehicle is provided.     

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.     

Lateral stability control of dynamic steering for dual motor drive high speed tracked vehicle

In this paper, the torque and power required by dual motors for electric tracked vehicle during dynamic steering maneuvers with different steering radiuses are analyzed. A steering coupling drive system composed of a new type of center steering motor, two Electromagnetic (EM) clutches, two planetary gear couplers, and two propulsion motors is proposed for the dual motors drive high speed electric tracked vehicle (2MHETV), which aims to improve its lateral stability. An average torque direct distribution control strategy based on steering coupling and an optimization-distribution-based close-loop control strategy are designed separately to control the driving torque or regenerative braking torque of two propulsion motors for vehicle stability enhancement. Then models of the 2MHETV and the proposed control strategy are established in Recudyn and Matlab/Simulink respectively to evaluate the lateral stability of dynamic steering for the 2MHETV with different steering radiuses on hard pavement.The simulation results show that the lateral stability of the 2MHETV can be significantly improved by the proposed optimization-distribution-based close-loop control strategy based on steering coupling system.     

Non-intrusive polynomial chaos for efficient uncertainty analysis in parametric roll simulations

Monte Carlo analyses are generally considered the standard for uncertainty analysis. While accurate, these analyses can be expensive computationally. Recently, polynomial chaos has been proposed as an alternative approach to the estimation of uncertainty distributions (Hosder et al. A non-intrusive polynomial chaos method for uncertainty propagation in CFD simulations. In: 44th AIAA aerospace sciences meeting and exhibit, Reno, Nevada, 2006; Wu et al. Uncertainty analysis for parametric roll using non-intrusive polynomial chaos. In: Proceedings of the 12th international ship stability workshop, Washington, DC, USA, 2011). This approach works by representing the function as a series of orthogonal polynomials; the weights for which can be calculated via several methods. Previous studies have demonstrated the usefulness of this technique for comparatively simple systems such as parametric roll modeled by the Mathieu equation with normally distributed parameter values (Wu et al. Uncertainty analysis for parametric roll using non-intrusive polynomial chaos. In: Proceedings of the 12th international ship stability workshop, Washington, DC, USA, 2011). In the present work, a polynomial chaos method is applied to a nonlinear computational ship dynamics model with normally distributed input parameters. Test cases were selected where parametric roll was expected to potentially occur. The resulting probability distributions are compared to the results of a Monte Carlo analysis. In general, these results demonstrate good agreement between Monte Carlo simulation and polynomial chaos in the absence of capsize with significant computation gains found with polynomial chaos. Overall, we conclude that polynomial chaos is an effective tool for reducing simulation time costs when studying parametric roll, and potentially other ship dynamics phenomena, particularly in the absence of capsize-like bifurcations.     

Ballast Water Risk Indication for the North Sea

The ballast water from ships carries marine organisms that have invasive potential. The International Maritime Organization Ballast Water Management Convention (2004) requires ballast water exchange or ballast water management (BWM) systems either onboard or ashore. Ships can be exempted on the basis of risk assessment, when exclusively sailing between specific ports or in an enclosed area. In reply to our questionnaire, the shipping sector argues that the North Sea is ecologically homogeneous and exemptions could therefore be granted. This paper proposes that the North Sea area is, in fact, not homogeneous in terms of hydrographical and biological conditions; therefore, ballast water is a relevant transport mechanism for organisms. Within the North Sea, the short shipping routes indicate a high risk for survival. We examined actual simulation models for ballast water risk assessment in the North Sea, and we have identified the major parameters that need to be included in such models. These models provided a basis; they further need to be combined and adapted for the purpose of evaluating the rationale for an exemption. We concluded that exemptions from BWM are not recommended for the North Sea area. Anticipating the Ballast Water Management Convention, ship owners might do well to study possibilities for installing BWM systems onboard.     

The Gulf Stream, rings and North Atlantic eddy structures from remote sensing (Altimeter and SeaWiFS)

Seasonal SeaWiFS chlorophyll a concentrations cycles and annual changes of altimeter Sea Level Anomaly are derived for the subtropical North Atlantic near  35°N and along a Gulf Stream axis. Spatial structure of SeaWiFS, is defined in terms of deviations from a local seasonal cycle and examined in relation to altimeter eddy structure. In the subtropical region near 35°N, SeaWiFS structure is evident during the spring bloom period with a scale of  430 km, or about twice the eddy scale. A Gulf Stream axis has been selected as a region where the Sea Level Anomaly variance is a maximum. Eddy propagation speeds and scales are examined. Cold-core (cyclonic) rings correspond to areas of high SeaWiFS chlorophyll a. Warm-core (anticyclonic) rings relate to areas of low chlorophyll concentration. Both SeaWiFS structure and eddy structure have a spatial scale of  450 km or twice the ring scale along the Gulf Stream axis. SeaWiFS chlorophyll anomalies and Altimeter Sea Level Anomaly structure have an overall negative correlation coefficient of r = − 0.34. Swirl currents between eddies redistribute surface chlorophyll concentrations and can spatially bias maximum and minimum concentration levels off eddy centre.     

Suspended sediment and erosion dynamics in Kugmallit Bay and Beaufort Sea during ice-free conditions

The Mackenzie River is the largest river on the North American side of the Arctic and its huge freshwater and sediment load impacts the Canadian Beaufort Shelf. Huge quantities of sediment and associated organic carbon are transported in the Mackenzie plume into the interior of the Arctic Ocean mainly during the freshet (May to September). Changing climate scenarios portend increased coastal erosion and resuspension that lead to altered river-shelf-slope particle budgets. We measured sedimentation rates, suspended particulate matter (SPM), particle size and settling rates during ice-free conditions in Kugmallit Bay (3–5 m depth). Additionally, measurements of erosion rate, critical shear stress, particle size distribution and resuspension threshold of bottom sediments were examined at four regionally contrasting sites (33–523 m depth) on the Canadian Beaufort Shelf using a new method for assessing sediment erosion. Wind induced resuspension was evidenced by a strong relationship between SPM and wind speed in Kugmallit Bay. Deployment of sediment traps showed decreasing sedimentation rates at sites along an inshore–offshore transect ranging from 5400 to 3700 g m^− 2 day^− 1. Particle settling rates and size distributions measured using a Perspex settling chamber showed strong relationships between equivalent spherical diameter (ESD) and particle settling rates (r² = 0.91). Mean settling rates were 0.72 cm s^− 1 with corresponding ESD values of 0.9 mm. Undisturbed sediment cores were exposed to shear stress in an attempt to compare differences in sediment stability across the shelf during September to October 2003. Shear was generated by vertically oscillating a perforated disc at controlled frequencies corresponding to calibrated shear velocity using a piston grid erosion device. Critical (Type I) erosion thresholds (u) varied between 1.1 and 1.3 cm s^− 1 with no obvious differences in location. Sediments at the deepest site Amundsen Gulf displayed the highest erosion rates (22–54 g m^− 2 min^− 1) with resuspended particle sizes ranging from 100 to 930 µm for all sites. There was no indication of biotic influence on sediment stability, although our cores did not display a fluff layer of unconsolidated sediment. Concurrent studies in the delta and shelf region suggest the importance of a nepheloid layer which transports suspended particles to the slope. Continuous cycles of resuspension, deposition, and horizontal advection may intensify with reduction of sea ice in this region. Our measurements coupled with studies of circulation and cross-shelf exchange allow parameterization and modeling of particle dynamics and carbon fluxes under various climate change scenarios.     

Modelling daily activity program generation considering within-day and day-to-day dynamics in activity-travel behaviour

This paper presents a comprehensive econometric modelling framework for daily activity program generation. It is for day-specific activity program generations of a week-long time span. Activity types considered are 15 generic categories of non-skeletal and flexible activities. Under the daily time budget and non-negativity of participation rate constraints, the models predict optimal sets of frequencies of the activities under consideration (given the average duration of each activity type). The daily time budget considers at-home basic needs and night sleep activities together as a composite activity. The concept of composite activity ensures the dynamics and continuity of time allocation and activity/travel behaviour by encapsulating altogether the activity types that are not of our direct interest in travel demand modelling. Workers’ total working hours (skeletal activity and not a part of the non-skeletal activity time budget) are considered as a variable in the models to accommodate the scheduling effects inside the generation model of non-skeletal activities. Incorporation of previous day’s total executed activities as variables introduces day-to-day dynamics into the activity program generation models. The possibility of zero frequency of any specific activity under consideration is ensured by the Kuhn-Tucker optimality conditions used for formulating the model structure. Models use the concept of random utility maximization approach to derive activity program set. Estimations of the empirical models are done using the 2002–2003 CHASE survey data set collected in Toronto.