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The safety, performance, and operational life of power dense Lithium-ion batteries used in Hybrid and Electric Vehicles are dependent on the operating temperature. Modeling and simulation are essential tools used to accelerate the design process of optimal thermal management systems. However, high-fidelity 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of such systems is often difficult and computationally expensive. In this paper, we demonstrate a multi-part coupled system model for simulating the heating/cooling system of the traction battery at a module level. We have reduced computational time by employing reduced-order modeling (ROM) framework on separate 3D CFD models of the battery module and the cooling plate. The order of the thermal ROM has also been varied to study the trade-off between accuracy, fidelity, and complexity. The ROMs are bidirectionally coupled to an empirical battery model built from in-house test data.

High strength and thin materials are widely adopted in modern electric vehicles for lightweight design to achieve high energy efficiency. For battery modules, 5000 and 6000 aluminum are typically utilized as a structural material with a thickness range between 1 to 5 mm. Laser welding is one of the most optimum welding tools for joining such a thin material due to its unique advantages, e.g., high welding speed, high accuracy, high energy yet the smallest possible heat affect zone, etc. This paper aims to develop a simplified yet effective FE modeling procedure to simulate the laser welding effects on the aluminum structures used in electric vehicle battery modules. A sequentially-coupled thermo-mechanical analysis procedure is developed to determine the softened zone size for aluminum weldments. Then a tie-rupture weld model incorporates the softened zone to predict the weld failure strength.

Electric vehicles are becoming a rapid growing part of the automotive scene. Batteries are considered as one of the most important and challenging components in the development of electric vehicles. The mechanical performance of the battery module is of great interest and the crashworthiness analysis of the battery module is always a critical design aspect. In crash and other severe events, the battery module is subject to impact loads from different directions. The module is designed with a capability to be deformed and collapsed in a controlled manner to mitigate safety critical damage to battery cells inside the module. In the design process, it is necessary to consider the distribution of the impact loads during the crash to minimize the local damage. In this paper, a finite element model is developed and used as an efficient simulation tool to analyze the dynamic behavior of a generic battery module upon crushing and shocking.

One of the major concerns in the vehicle trim part design is the acoustic targets, which are generally defined by absorption area or coefficients, and sound transmission loss (STL) or sound insertion loss (SIL). The breaking down of acoustic targets in vehicle design, which is generally referred to as cascading, is the process of determining the trim part acoustic targets so as to satisfy full vehicle acoustic performance. In many cases, these targets are determined by experience or by subjective evaluation. Simulation based transfer path analysis (TPA), which traces the energy flow from source, through a set of paths to a given receiver, provides a systematic solution of this problem. Guided by TPA, this paper proposes a component level target setting approach that is based on the statistical energy analysis (SEA), an efficient method for vehicle NVH analysis in mid and high frequencies.

Electric motors and generators produce vibrations and noise associated with many physical mechanisms. In this study, we look at the vibrations and noise produced by the transient electromagnetic forces on the stator of a permanent magnet motor. In the first stage, electromagnetic simulation is carried out to calculate the forces per tooth segment of the stator. The harmonic orders of the electromagnetic forces are then calculated using Fourier analysis, and forces are mapped to the mechanical harmonic analysis of the second stage. As a third stage, the vibrations of the structure are used to drive the boundary of acoustic domain to predict the noise. Finally, optimization studies are made over the complete system to improve the motor design and reduce noise. A simulation environment (ANSYS Workbench) is used to integrate a seamless workflow.

In this case study, the thermoforming of an automotive instrument panel is considered. The effect of different oven settings on the final material distribution is studied using structural FEA simulation. The variable thickness distribution of the thermoformed part is mapped onto a structural model using a new simple mapping algorithm, and a structural FEA simulation is carried out to examine the final warpage of the instrument panel. The simulation predicts that the minimum thickness of the formed part can be increased by 10% by optimizing the oven settings. Although the optimized process uses oven settings that are less uniform than the baseline settings, the model indicates that warpage experienced by the optimized part will be less than that of the baseline case.

The Adaptive Multiple Euler Domains technology in MSC.Dytran has been extended for the Multi-material Euler Solver. This paper demonstrates the application of this new method to the dynamics of fuel tank filling. The interest in applicability of MSC.Dytran to fuel tank filling originated from a major car manufacturer. The model includes both the fuel and the air inside the tank. The simulation process starts with properly initializing the fuel and air inside the tank under gravity loading. The fuel filling process will then be demonstrated, including the venting of air through a venting tube. The simulation is performed with MSC.Dytran.