Vehicle electric power simulator for optimizing the electric charging system 2000-05-0054

The electrical power system is the vital lifeline to most of the control systems on modern vehicles. The demands on the system are highly complex, and a detailed understanding of the system behavior is necessary both to the process of systems integration and to the economic design of a specific control system or actuator.

The vehicle electric power system, which consists of two major components: a generator and a battery, has to provide numerous electrical and electronic systems with enough electrical energy. A detailed understanding of the characteristics of the electric power system, electrical load demands, and the driving environment such as road, season, and vehicle weight are required when the capacities of the generator and the battery are to be determined for a vehicle. An easy-to-use and inexpensive simulation program may be needed to avoid the over/under design problem of the electric power system.

A vehicle electric power simulator is developed in this study. The simulator can be utilized to determine the optimized capacities of generators and batteries appropriately. To improve the expandability and easy usage of the simulation program, the program is organized in modular structures, and is run on a PC. Empirical electrical models of various generators and batteries, and the structure of the simulation program are presented. For executing the vehicle electric power simulator, data of engine speed profile and electric loads of a vehicle are required, and these data are obtained from real driving conditions. In order to improve the accuracy of the simulator, numerous driving data of a vehicle are logged and analyzed.