Energy optimization tool for mild hybrid vehicles with thermal constraints

The current global scenario is such where impact on the environment is becoming a rising concern. Global automotive manufacturers have focused more towards hybrid and electric vehicles as both more aware customers and governmental legislation have begun demanding higher emission standards. One of the many ways that Volvo Car Group approaches this trend is by mild hybridization which is by assisting the combustion engine by a small electric motor and a battery pack. A smart energy management strategy is needed in order to get the most out of the benefits that hybrid electric vehicles offer. The main objective of this strategy is to utilize the electrical energy on-board in such a manner that the overall efficiency of the hybrid powertrain becomes as high as possible. The current implementation is such that the decision for using the on-board battery is non-predictive. This results in a sub-optimal utilization of the hybrid powertrain. In this thesis, a predictive energy optimization tool is developed to maximize the utility of hybridization and the practical implementation of this tool is investigated. The optimization considers both the capacity as well as the thermal load constraints of the battery. The developed optimization tool uses information about the route ahead together with convex optimization to produce optimal reference trajectories of the battery states. These trajectories are used in a real-time controller to determine the battery use by controlling the adjoint states in the Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy equation. This optimization tool is validated and compared with the baseline controller in a simulation environment based on Simulink. When perfect information about the road ahead is known, the average reduction in fuel consumption is 0.99% relative the baseline controller. Several issues occurring in the real implementation are explored, such as the limited computational speed and the length of the route ahead that can be predicted. For this reason the information input to the optimization tool is segmented and the resulting performance is investigated. For a 30 second segmentation of the future route information, the average saving in fuel consumption is 0.13% relative to the baseline controller. It is shown that the main factor limiting the amount of savings in fuel consumption is the introduction of the thermal load constraints on the battery