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Final Project: Design of an Electric Vehicle
Create a MATLAB model of electric car which uses a battery and a DC motor. Choose suitable blocks from Powertrain block set. Prepare a report about your model including following: Objectives: 1. System level configurations 2. Model parameters …
Bipin Lakshapati
updated on 01 Oct 2021
Create a MATLAB model of electric car which uses a battery and a DC motor. Choose suitable blocks from Powertrain block set. Prepare a report about your model including following:
Objectives:
1. System level configurations
2. Model parameters
3. Results
4. Conclusion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ans:
ABSTRACT:
INTRODUCTION:
One of the greatest challenges that is facing the environment in the world is energy saving. Our global energy environment as well faces many difficulties. Although no one knows accurately the future of the energy, we still believe that transportation will play a major role in saving the future energy.
Today, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are one of the technological progress results that have contributed and continue to contribute in order to make our lives easier and safer. Because EVs do not only consume energy, but they also produce, store, and transport electricity. That is what makes them an excellent alternative for the fuel vehicles. Moreover, they are more economical and ecofriendly compared with the traditional cars that use gasoline or diesel fuel because they have a reversible energy storage device.
In this modelling, MATLAB-Simulink is used in order to design the BEV components and integrating the whole system. Moreover, it is used to simulate the BEV model and its equations.In the MATLAB modelling we will study simulation of the BEV, its relevant electrical system components and its corresponding equation for verification. In addition, it examines all simulation results. The BEV components are Vehicle body, Transmission, Electric Motor, Battery Charge Controller, Driving Cycle, Driver Model and Longitudinal Vehicle.
Simulation:
It is a great tool to predict the performance of the system or product. MATLAB simulation software is a professional tool used by engineers & researchers over the world. It offers a huge variety of tools and ready-to-use models for various areas of engineering and science. A very basic library of MATLAB named "Simulink" is being used in this program to develop the simulation model of the vehicle and motor. It will help to understand the simulation of an electric vehicle with more clarity and ease.
OBJECTIVE:
To create a simulink model of an electric car using different components and connections and to understant the following entities.
- Power rating of DC motor and maximum vehicle speed
- PI control loops for tracking reference speed
- Battery discharge and Km per full charge
- Regenerative braking effect
- Various model library (simscape, simulink and powertrain blockset) categories
- Simulation time and drive cycle time
- Backward and forward facing models
- Effect of gradient on vehicle power requirement
- Creating own drivecycles and test with vehicle to get different vehicle speed output
- Trying other types of motor and power converters (electrical powertrain)
Why Electric Vehicle?
An electric vehicle is powered by electricity. It includes plug-in hybrid, hybrid, and fuel cell electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles, sometimes called BEVs. In these EVs, there are no tailpipe emissions, as electricity from the battery powers an electric motor which then turns the wheels and sends the vehicle forward.
Just like energy efficiency has driven down emissions in the power sector, efficiency is also a primary driver of cleaning up the transportation sector. Electric motors makes vehicles substantially more efficient than internal combustion engines (ICEs). Electric motors convert over 85 percent of electrical energy into mechanical energy, or motion, compared to less than 40 percent for a gas combustion engine. These efficiencies are even lower after considering losses as heat in the drivetrain, which is the collection of components that translate the power created in an electric motor or combustion engine to the wheels. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), in an EV, about 59-62 percent of the electrical energy from the grid goes to turning the wheels, whereas gas combustion vehicles only convert about 17-21 percent of energy from burning fuel into moving the vehicle. This means that an electric vehicle is roughly three times as efficient as an ICE vehicle.
Types of Electric Vehicles are shown in the below images:
Fig. Different types of Electric Vehicles
BLOCK DIAGRAM OF EV MODEL:
Fig. Electric vehicle architecture
System Level Configurations:
The Vehicle Model Mainly consists of :
1) Drive Cycle Source
2) Motor and Controller
3) Battery Pack and Power Converter
4) Vehicle Block
The battery pack is the powerhouse of Electric Vehicle model which provides/supplies power to motor and the other equipments necessary for efficient operation of the Electric Vehicle. The power converter converts the energy from battery to an optimum level as required by motor. The converter used is bi-directional which helps in taking back the regenrative energy to the battery thereby providing charging while deceleartion of vehicle. The vehicle body represents body of the vehicle with wheels which are connected to motor through a transmission system. The motor takes power from battery as per the load requirements with the help of controller which reviews load requirements and produces proportional control signals with the help of a feedback from vehicle so as to obtain a smooth and efficient operation of the vehicle. The drive cycle source is a reference driving pattern taken for simulation as per Drive cycle data.
SIMULINK MODEL:
Fig. Simulink model of an EV
DETAILED MODEL STUDY: (Configuration & Parameters)
1] Input Circuit:
Fig. Input signal system block
This is the input circuit where the user defines driver cycle and defines behaviour of the vehicle movement for an particular time. In this input circuit, we have provided four different types of inputs to run simulation of the EV model. A Multiport switch is used to allow which drive cycle input need to be run for the simulation by changing value of the constant.
(1) Drive Cycle Source:
The Drive Cycle Source block generates a standard or user-specified longitudinal drive cycle. The block output is the specified vehicle longitudinal speed, which you can use to:
-
Predict the engine torque and fuel consumption that a vehicle requires to achieve desired speed and acceleration for a given gear shift reference.
-
Produce realistic velocity and shift references for closed loop acceleration and braking commands for vehicle control and plant models.
-
Study, tune, and optimize vehicle control, system performance, and system robustness over multiple drive cycles.
- We can choose different drive cycles for our simulation such as WTO, US06, FTP75 by opening the drive cycle source block.
(2) Signal Builder:
The Siganl Builder block is used to generate and create interchangeable groups of signals whose waveforms are piecewise linear.
This is a defined drive cycle for a period of 100secs with acceleration at 20th sec and becomes constant after attending the top speed of 35 kmph. After the 65th sec vehicle starts deceleration up to the speed of 10 kmph and becomes constant till the end of drive cycle.
Fig. Signal builder drive cycle created for 100 secs
(3) From Spreadsheet:
The From Spreadsheet block reads data from Microsoft® Excel® (all platforms) or CSV (MicrosoftWindows® platform with Microsoft Office installed only) spreadsheets and outputs the data as a signal. The From Spreadsheet block does not support Microsoft Excel spreadsheet charts.
The From Spreadsheet icon displays the spreadsheet file name and sheet name specified in the block File name and Sheet name parameters.
(4) Slider Gain:
The Slider Gain block performs a scalar gain that we can modify during simulation. Modify the gain using the slider parameter. By using this block we can create our own drive cycle while simulation is running by changing the slider position.
(5) Multiport Switch:
The Multiport Switch block determines which of several inputs to the block passes to the output. The block bases this decision on the value of the first input. The first input is the control input and the remaining inputs are the data inputs. The value of the control input determines which data input passes to the output.
Input Ports:
- VelRef - port associated with input reference velocity of the vehicle (m/s)
- VelFdbk - port associated with velocity feedback from the vehicle body which helps in smooth control of system.
- Grade - port associated with gradeability of vehicle.
Ouput Ports:
- Info - port associated with a bus signal for deceleration, acceleartion, error in velocity etc
- AccelCmd - port which is associated with acceleration command with reference to input signal.
- DecelCmd - port which is associated with deceleration commads with reference to input drive signal.
When a positive current flows from the electrical + to - ports, a positive torque acts from mechanical C to R ports. Motor torque direction can be changed by altering the sign of the back-emf or torque constants.
Parameters:
The model parameterization of DC motor block is set as by rated load and speed. The rated DC supply voltage is kept as 100 V which is same as H-bridge's output amplitude voltage. The speed values of the motor at no-load and rated speed kept is 8000 rpm and 5000 rpm simantenously. And rated load is fed as 50 kW. The mechanical and Faults parameter are keep as default.
The output voltage is V = Vs, where Vs is the numerical value presented at the physical signal port.
The block has one physical signal input port and two electrical conserving ports associated with its electrical terminals.
The block creates a Pulse-Width Modulated (PWM) voltage across the REF and REF ports. When the pulse is low the output voltage is zero and when the pulse is high, the output voltage is equal to the Output voltage amplitude parameter. Duty cycle is set by input value.
The Simulation mode can be set to Averaged or PWM. In the PWM mode, the output is a PWM signal. In Averaged mode, the output is a constant with value equal to averaged PWM signal.
Parameters:
The PWM frequency is set to 1000 Hz and the simulation mode selected is average mode.
The input voltage for 100% duty cycle is kept as default 5 Volts.
The output voltage amplitude is set for 50 volts for more precise results.
The H-Bridge block represents an H-bridge motor driver. The block has the following two Simulation mode options:
-
PWM — The H-Bridge block output is a controlled voltage that depends on the input signal at the PWM port. If the input signal has a value greater than the Enable threshold voltage parameter value, the H-Bridge block output is on and has a value equal to the value of the Output voltage amplitude parameter. If it has a value less than the Enable threshold voltage parameter value, the block maintains the load circuit using one of the following three Freewheeling mode options:
- Via one semiconductor switch and one freewheeling diode
- Via two freewheeling diodes
- Via two semiconductor switches and one freewheeling diodeThe first and third options are sometimes referred to as synchronous operation.
The signal at the REV port determines the polarity of the output. If the value of the signal at the REV port is less than the value of the Reverse threshold voltage parameter, the output has positive polarity; otherwise, it has negative polarity.
-
Averaged — This mode has two Load current characteristics options:
1) Smoothed
2) Unsmoothed or discontinuous
Ports:
PWM - Input port for PWM voltageREF - Input port for reference PWM voltage
REV - Input port for reverse signal
BRK - Input port for brake signal
The output current is I = Is, where Is is the numerical value presented at the physical signal port.
The positive direction of the current flow is indicated by the arrow.
Port
The block has one physical signal input port and two electrical conserving ports associated with its electrical terminals.
(2) Current Sensor:
The Current Sensor block represents an ideal current sensor, that is, a device that converts current measured in any electrical branch into a physical signal proportional to the current.
Connections + and – are electrical conserving ports through which the sensor is inserted into the circuit. Connection I is a physical signal port that outputs the measurement result.
(3) Voltage Sensor:
The Voltage Sensor block represents an ideal voltage sensor, that is, a device that converts voltage measured between two points of an electrical circuit into a physical signal proportional to the voltage.
Connections + and – are electrical conserving ports through which the sensor is connected to the circuit. Connection V is a physical signal port that outputs the measurement result.
(4) Electrical Reference:
The Electrical Reference block represents an electrical ground. Electrical conserving ports of all the blocks that are directly connected to ground must be connected to an Electrical Reference block. A model with electrical elements must contain at least one Electrical Reference block.
(5) Mechanical Rotational Reference:
The Mechanical Rotational Reference block represents a reference point, or frame, for all mechanical rotational ports. All rotational ports that are rigidly clamped to the frame (ground) must be connected to a Mechanical Rotational Reference block.
(6) Solver Configuration:
Each physical network represented by a connected Simscape™ block diagram requires solver settings information for simulation. The Solver Configuration block specifies the solver parameters that your model needs before you can begin simulation.
Each topologically distinct Simscape block diagram requires exactly one Solver Configuration block to be connected to it.
5] Vehicle Block:
The vehicle block is shown below which consists of vehicle body, gear and transmission system.
Fig. Vehicle Block subsystem
For this subsystem a set of 4 tire block are used - 2 for the front axle and 2 for the rear axle and the required connections are made with vehicle body block. The normal force signals from the vehicle body block are sent to the normal force input ports of the tires.
A ports of the tire is the mechanical rotational conserving port which receives mechanical rotational input from the gearbox which receives its input from the DC motor.
H port of the tire is mechanical translational conserving port for wheel hub and is connected to H port of the vehicle body through which the thrust developed by tire is applied to the vehicle.
For our modelling we are not considering any slip, so an terminator block is connected to all the slip port of each tire. Also, grade angle and wind velocity are not considered PS contant block for termination are used.
The input is received from the DC motor to the simple gear block which is then transmitted to the wheel for the propulsion.
(1) Vehicle Body:
The Vehicle Body block represents a two-axle vehicle body in longitudinal motion. The vehicle can have the same or a different number of wheels on each axle. For example, two wheels on the front axle and one wheel on the rear axle. The vehicle wheels are assumed identical in size. The vehicle can also have a center of gravity (CG) that is at or below the plane of travel.
The block accounts for body mass, aerodynamic drag, road incline, and weight distribution between axles due to acceleration and road profile. Optionally include pitch and suspension dynamics. The vehicle does not move vertically relative to the ground.
The block has an option to include an externally-defined mass and an externally-defined inertia. The mass, inertia, and center of gravity of the vehicle body can vary over the course of simulation in response to system changes.
Parameters
The kerb weight of the vehicle is considered as 1200 Kgs and the rest all parameters are kept as default.
Ports
V - output port for vehicle velocity
Beta - output port for road inclination angle
W - output port for headwind speed
H - It is the mechanical translation converting port associated with the horizontal motion of the vehicle body
NR - output port for rear normal wheel forces
NF - Signal output port for front normal wheel forces
(2) Tire:
The Tire (Magic Formula) block models a tire with longitudinal behavior given by the Magic Formula, an empirical equation based on four fitting coefficients. The block can model tire dynamics under constant or variable pavement conditions.
The longitudinal direction of the tire is the same as its direction of motion as it rolls on pavement. This block is a structural component based on the Tire-Road Interaction (Magic Formula) block.
Ports
S - output port that reports the tire slip
A - It is the mechanical rotational conserving port for the wheel axle
N - input port that applies the normal force acting on the tire
H - It is the mechanical translational conserving port for the wheel hub
(3) Gear:
The Simple Gear block represents a gearbox that constrains the connected driveline axes of the base gear, B, and the follower gear, F, to corotate with a fixed ratio that you specify. You choose whether the follower axis rotates in the same or opposite direction as the base axis. If they rotate in the same direction, the angular velocity of the follower, ωF, and the angular velocity of the base, ωB, have the same sign. If they rotate in opposite directions, ωF and ωB have opposite signs.
Parameters
For our modelling we have kept the gear ratio as 5. The more the gear ratio the better the speed along with more traction power. Usually for simulation the gear ratio is kept between 5-10.
5] Output Circuit:
The output of the vehicle block is the Velocity which is inturn sent as feedback to longitudinal driver block and is also used to calculate the distance travelled by the vehicle through an another subsystem called distance calculator.
The velocity signal is integrated first to calculate the distance covered and then divide by 3600 to convert the distance covered into km.
Fig. Output System Display Block
Simulation Result:
The simulations are run for various drive cycles such as Drive cycle source FTP75, Wide open throttle and using slider gain and from spreadsheet source. From simulation we can valuate the performance of designed model through monitoring speed comparison of reference and feedback signal alongwith the total distance covered by the vehicle model.
1)FTP75 Drive Cycle:
The speed from the drive cycle and feedback speed from vehicle block are plotted in order to understand the response of the model. Simulation provides the following results in speed comparison.
The simulation is carried out for about 2474 seconds. Speed comparison shows that the actual velocity (yellow curve) almost follows the reference velocity (blue curve).
For the simulation of 2474 seconds, the distance travelled by vehicle is 5.81 Km.
The battery current and voltage utilised to drive the vehicle is shown in below graph.
2) WOT Drive Cycle
Speed Comparison
For WOT condition, vehicle is accelerated with full value of throttle in reference to 30m/s and reaches a value of 8m/s gradually in 20 seconds and decelerates with respect to reference speed of 0m/s after 20 seconds of the drive. Due to inertial effects and instantaneous velocity variation, the actual velocity curve (yellow curve) of model varies from that of WOT condition velocity curve (blue curve).
Distance Travelled:
Battery voltage and current drawn by motor are represented in below graphs.
3) Drive cycle From Spreadsheet
Speed comparison
The drive cycle data is taken from the Excel file by using From Spreadsheet block and simulation is carried out for 150 seconds. Here also the actual speed of the vehicle tries to match the reference speed input. We can see a bit large difference between the actual and reference velocities because due to instantaneous velocity variation in Drive cycle data which is not exactly followed by the vehicle in actual scenario. Further refinements in parameterisation will help the drive system to perform in a trend which will inturn make the vehicle to follow the drive cycle pattern with very minor variations in velocity which will make the vehicle cover further more distance.
Distance Travelled
4) Drive Cycle (Signal Builder)
Speed Comparison
Here also we can say that the actual speed of the EV model tries to meet with the reference speed of the drive cycle.
Distance Travelled
CONCLUSION:
- In the speed comparison plots for all the drive cycles which are discussed in this study, the feedback/actual speed plot and the reference speed plot overlap each other almost completely but there are some regions where both speeds are different. It is when vehicle is decelerating. The reference speed graph falls sharply but actual/feedback speed doesn't. This is because of the inertia of the vehicle body. As the inertia of vehicle body is higher, it takes a longer duration for it to decelerate. That is why the overlapping is not 100%.
- In this study, BEV and its components have been simulated in order to investigate the energy flow, performance and efficiency. Good results for Battery Voltage, Current, and Power were shown by using MATLAB-Simulink.
- From the simulation we can say that the BEVs are much more efficient compared to thr traditional IC engine vehicles as they are non-polluting and the power loss is comparatively less.
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