Search Results

The trend towards renewable energy sources will continue under the pre-amble of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets. The main question is how to harvest and store renewable energy properly. The challenge of intermittency of the renewable energy resources make the supply less predictable compared to the traditional energy sources. Chemical energy carriers like hydrogen and synthetic fuels (e-Fuels) seem to be at least a part of the solution for storing renewable energy. The usage of e-Fuels in the existing ICE-powered vehicle fleet has a big lever arm to reduce the GHG emissions of the transport sector in the short- and medium term. The paper covers the whole well-to-wheel (WtW) pathway by discussing the e-Fuel production from renewable sources, the storage and the usage in the vehicle. It will be summarized by scenarios on the impact of e-Fuel to the WtW CO2 fleet emissions.

India is the market with the highest sales of agricultural tractors and the market with the highest number of agricultural tractor park, as well. Even though taking into account the lower average power of Indian agricultural tractors compared to regions with considerably larger field sizes, their cumulated diesel fuel consumption reaches a significant size. The possible use of alternative powertrains like battery-electric, especially considering the lower power of the Indian tractor market, seems feasible, but might be struggling with challenges in terms of charging infrastructure and the possibly resulting lower productivity due to required charging times. Therefore AVL proposes to investigate the use of alternative fuels for internal combustion engines, a topic which is also being discussed by other global tractor OEMs. In that context the focus is typically on higher tractor powers due to current storage limitations of battery-electric systems and other alternatives.

As electrified powertrains trends towards the new norm in development, the need to consider modular development approaches becomes more prevalent. Modular system developments seek to offer an adaptable product range by considering each system component (transmission, e-motor, inverter, battery, etc.) and system element (park-lock, disconnect, differential, etc.) as interchangeable. This can result in a lower cost development process overall to increase the returns for tier1 suppliers by expanding the marketability of the platform. Such an approach has hitherto held relatively low commercial interest as the rate of technological advancement negated the benefits of a modular development due to the lack of long-term competitivity. Previously large technological advances between successive productions and the relatively limited EV market, centred around SUV and small car applications, reduced the value in committing to a platform development.

In order to meet current and future emission and CO2 targets, an efficient vehicle thermal management system is one of the key factors in conventional as well as in electrified powertrains. Furthermore the increasing number of vehicle configurations leads to a high variability and degrees of freedom in possible system designs and the control thereof, which can only be handled by a comprehensive tool chain of vehicle system simulation and a generic control system architecture. The required model must comprise all relevant systems of the vehicle (control functionality, cooling system, lubrication system, engine, drive train, HV components etc.). For proper prediction with respect to energy consumption all interactions and interdependencies of those systems have to be taken into consideration, i.e. all energy fluxes (mechanical, hydraulically, electrical, thermal) have to be exchanged among the system boundaries accordingly.

Apart of other aspects, the interior sound of a passenger car brand has to meet customer expectations. For optimizing the sound of a passenger car, target sounds have first to be established via the operating range of the vehicle. For an effective sound engineering approach an objective description and evaluation of vehicle interior sound is beneficial. Such an objective description guarantees the effective and reproducible implementation of the required brand sound in the vehicle development process. In such a process it is necessary to reduce on the one hand annoying undesired noise aspects and to create on the other hand the relevant and necessary noise parameters to meet the target sounds head on.

E-mobility is a game changer for the automotive domain. It promises significant reduction in terms of complexity and in terms of local emissions. With falling prices and recent technological advances, the second generation of electric vehicles (EVs) that is now in production makes electromobility an affordable and viable option for more and more transport mission (people, freight). Still, major challenges for large scale deployment remain. They include higher maturity with respect to performance (e.g., range, interaction with the grid), development efficiency (e.g., time-to-market), or production costs. Additionally, an important market transformation currently occurs with the co-development of automated driving functions, connectivity, mobility-as-a-service. New opportunities arise to customize road transportation systems toward application-driven, user-centric smart mobility solutions.

The correct information about legal demands of the On-Board-Diagnostic (OBD) system in a vehicle project is required throughout the entire development process. Usually, the main obstacle in succeeding is to provide the company's expertise of some few experts for all employees who work in OBD related projects. The paper describes the AVL solution for knowledge management and tool supported control system design and calibration: OBD System Development Database. The software enables the user to access the regulatory requirements for a specific application and legislation from past, present and future (proposed rule-making) point of view. Information concerning already available and stored monitoring concepts is linked to the requirements in order to re-use potentially suitable concepts and to enable an efficient knowledge exchange within the company.

With the official publication of the “RDE package 1” on 31st March 2016 the long awaited start of RDE testing is now fixed. This event marks a milestone in the emission legislation for passenger cars and is the first of a series of four RDE packages to fade-in real world testing of passenger cars in Europe. During the same time India announced in the Gazette of India on 19th February, 2016 - G.S.R. 187(E). - the draft of introduction of Bharat VI by April 1st 2020 [5] which also should include the Real Driving Emissions (RDE) on-road certification as per procedure laid down in AIS137 and as amended from time to time. As European RDE legislation will be the baseline for Indian RDE legislation rules this paper will highlight the differences and challenges expected between the requirements in Europe compared to India during the first tests done by AVL Technical Center Private Limited located in Gurgaon.

Despite the increasingly stringent emissions legislation, users and owners of commercial diesel vehicles are continually demanding that each new engine generation is more economical than the previous one. This is especially important for commercial vehicles where the majority of engines are in the 1-2ltr./cyl. class. The demands are being reflected in new engine designs with lower friction and improved structural stiffness, together with fuel systems having increased pressure capability, higher spill rates, injection rate shaping and advanced control features. These fuel system requirements have led to a variety of new fuel injection systems and in the search for increased injection pressure these fuel systems have placed greater demands on the engine, especially in areas such as the cylinder head and fuel system drive, sometimes with adverse effects on the combustion and fuel injection system induced mechanical noise.

Traditionally, Electric Machine design has primarily focused on factors like efficiency, packaging, and cost, often neglecting the critical aspects of Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) in the early decision-making stages. This disconnect between E-Machine design teams and NVH teams has consistently posed a challenge. This paper introduces an innovative workflow that unifies these previously separate domains, facilitating comprehensive optimization by seamlessly integrating NVH considerations with other E-Machine objectives, such as electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). This paper highlights AVL's approach in achieving this transformation and demonstrates how this integrated approach sets a new standard for E-Machine design. The presented approach relies on AI-driven algorithms and computational tools.

The automotive trend towards increased levels of electrification is showing a clear direction for hybrid technologies. Nowadays Mild- and plug-in-hybrids open a very wide area of future developments whereas battery electric vehicles (BEV) are still evident but still perceived as niche products with limited production volumes. Nevertheless, major OEMs are working on these kinds of vehicles and have also brought such EV concepts into series production. All of these designs show a clear trend that, beside the topic of electric traction motor and energy storage systems, the internal combustion engine (ICE) is also coming into focus again. In many of these vehicles the range extender (RE) unit is foreseen as an emergency unit to recharge the batteries if the state of charge (SOC) is too low. One of the major advantages of a BEV over other designs is the very good acoustic behavior, so the NVH performance becomes the most challenging topic for RE development.

Aerodynamic properties of a BMW car model taking over a truck model are studied computationally by applying the scale-resolving PANS (Partially-averaged Navier-Stokes) approach. Both vehicles represent down-scaled (1:2.5), geometrically-similar models of realistic vehicle configurations for which on-road measurements have been performed by Schrefl (2008). The operating conditions of the modelled ‘on-road’ overtaking maneuver are determined by applying the dynamic similarity concept in terms of Reynolds number consistency. The simulated vehicle configuration constitutes of a non-moving truck model and a car model moving against the air flow, the velocity of which corresponds to the car velocity.

The subjectively perceived playback quality of conventional artificial head recordings does not fully comply with the original perception of engine and vehicle interior sound. There exist differences in subjective perception between different artificial heads and even between models of one supplier. Additionally, the listening situations are often judged unnatural. One important reason for these problems is the fact that the transfer function of an artificial head system is always different from the torso and the outer ear transfer function of a specific person. The neurological processing of a specific test person is not trained to the significantly different head related transfer functions of the conventional artificial heads. Especially the significant differences of the outer ear transfer functions between an artificial head and a specific test person are considered as a main reason for an unnatural playback quality.

The gap between the officially reported CO2 values and the actual performance of the vehicle on the road is continuously increasing. Numerous studies are showing differences between the official values and the real-world measurements of more than 40% in average, with further increases year by year. The fuel consumption of passenger cars are determined as part of the vehicle certification according to Euro 6 via carbon mass balance using exhaust gas measurement. By introducing the new world harmonized driving cycle (WLTC) in September 2017, which is addressing a more realistic speed profile or traffic conditions, the gap between the certification and road test is expected to be reduced in half. Additionally the EU Commission plans to monitor vehicles more closely. From 2020, devices for recording fuel and energy consumption will become mandatory in all passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, reflecting the average real world CO2 emissions.

Meeting the particle number (PN) emissions limits in vehicle test sequences needs specific attention on each power variation event occurring in the internal combustion engine (ICE). ICE power variations arise from engine start onwards along the entire test drive. In hybrid systems, there is one further source for transient ICE response: each power shift between E-motor and ICE introduces gas flow variations with subsequent temperature response in the ICE and in the engine aftertreatment system (EAS). This bears consequences for engine out emissions as well as for the EAS efficiency and even for the durability of a catalytic converter. As system calibration engineers must decide on numerous actuator parameters, their decisions, finally, are crucial for meeting legislative limits under the boundary conditions given by the hybrid vehicle’s drive environment.

A growing development of hybrid or fully electrical drives increases the demand for an accurate prediction of noise and vibration characteristics of electric and electronic components. This paper describes the numerical and experimental investigation of noise emissions from power electronics, as one of the new important noise sources in electric vehicles. The noise emitted from the printed circuit board (PCB) equipped with multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) is measured and used for the calibration and validation of numerical model. Material properties are tuned using results from experimental modal analysis, with special attention to the orthotropic characteristic of the PCB glass-reinforced epoxy laminate sheet (FR-4). Electroacoustic excitation is pre-calculated using an extension of schematic-based EMC simulation and applied to the structural model. Structural vibrations are calculated with a commercial FEM solver with the modal frequency response analysis.

The parameterization of the electrochemical pseudo-two-dimensional (P2D) model plays an important role as it determines the acceptance and application range of subsequent simulation studies. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is commonly applied to characterize batteries and to obtain the exchange current density and the solid diffusion coefficient of a given electrode material. EIS measurements performed with frequencies ranging from 1 MHz down to 10 mHz typically do not cover clearly isolated solid state diffusion processes of lithium ions in positive or negative electrode materials. To extend the frequency range down to 10 μHz, the distribution function of relaxation times (DRT) is a promising analysis method. It can be applied to time-domain measurements where the battery is excited by a current pulse and relaxed for a certain period.

Growing development of hybrid and fully electrical drives increases demand for accurate prediction of noise and vibration characteristic of electric and electronic components. This paper describes the numerical and experimental investigation of noise emission from PMSM electric machine as a one of the most important noise sources in electric vehicles. Structural and air borne noise is measured on e-machine test rig and used for calibration and validation of the numerical model. The electro-magnetic field in PMSM is simulated using finite volume method. Electro-magnetic forces are applied as excitation to the 3D FE model of e-machine, mounded on test frame. Material properties are tuned using results from experimental modal analysis including identification of orthotropic characteristic of stator laminated core, assembled together with coil and end winding. Structural vibrations are calculated by modal frequency response analysis and applied as excitation in air borne noise simulation.

This paper presents a comparison of a hybrid and a conventional powertrain using physical based simulation models on the system engineering level. The system engineering model comprises mechanistic sub-models of the internal combustion engine including exhaust aftertreatment devices, electric components, mechanical drivetrain, thermoregulation system and the corresponding controllers. Essential sub-models are discussed in detail and their interaction on the system level is pointed out. Special attention is paid to compile a real-time capable model by combining mean value air path and drivetrain models with a crank-angle resolved cylinder description and quasi-steady state considerations applied in electrical and cooling networks. A turbocharged gasoline direct injection engine is modeled and calibrated based on steady-state measurements. The conversion performance of a three way catalyst is compared to light-off measurements.

Intensive R&D is currently performed worldwide on hybrid and electric vehicles. For full electric vehicles the driving range is limited by the capacity of currently available batteries. If such a vehicle shall increase its driving range some range extending backup system should be available. Such a Range Extender is a small system of combustion engine and electric generator which produces the required electricity for charging the batteries in time. Since the acoustic response of an electric motor driving the vehicle and of a combustion engine as part of a Range Extender is very different by nature an extensive acoustic tuning of the Range Extender is necessary to meet the requirements of exterior vehicle noise and passenger comfort. This paper describes the NVH (noise, vibration & harshness) development work of a range extender within the AVL approach of an electrically driven passenger car with range extender.