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A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) system model, which directly simulates vehicle drive cycles with interactions among driver, environment, vehicle hardware and vehicle controls, is a critical CAE tool used through out the product development process to project HEV fuel economy (FE) capabilities. The accuracy of the model is essential and directly influences the HEV hardware designs and technology decisions. This ultimately impacts HEV product content and cost. Therefore, improving HEV system model accuracy and establishing high-level model-test correlation are imperative. This paper presents a Parameter Diagram (P-Diagram) based model-test correlation framework which covers all areas contributing to potential model simulation vs. vehicle test differences. The paper describes each area in detail and the methods of characterizing the influences as well as the correlation metrics.

The powersplit transaxle is a key subsystem of Ford Motor Company's hybrid electric vehicle line up. The powersplit transaxle consists of a planetary gear, four reduction gears and various types of bearings. During vehicle operation, the transaxle is continuously lubricated by a lube oil pump. All these components consume power to operate and they contribute to the total transaxle losses which ultimately influences energy usage and fuel economy. In order to enable further model-based development and optimization of the transaxle design relative to vehicle energy usage, it is essential to establish a physics-based transaxle model with losses distributed across components, including gears, bearings etc. In this work, such a model has been developed. The model accounts for individual bearing losses (speed, torque and temperature dependency), gear mesh losses, lube pump loss and oil churning loss.