Week-3 Challenge: ADVISOR Tool

Aim: To use the ADVISOR tool for simulation.

Objective:

1. Using EV_defaults_in file, if cargo mass is 500 kg with all other default conditions, To find whether the vehicle can travel for 45 km with FTP drive cycle? and To Conclude observations.

2. In the above case, try changing the battery capacity and repeat the simulation.

3. To Perform gradeability test with PRIUS_Jpn_defaults_in file. To compare results in the table and conclude.

Introduction

ADVISOR tool, developed in November 1994 by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), allows users to simulate and analyze conventional, advanced, light, and heavy vehicles, including hybrid electric and fuel cell vehicles. The tool allows users to assess the effect of changes in vehicle components (such as motors, batteries, catalytic converters, climate control systems, and alternative fuels) and other modifications that might affect fuel economy, performance, or emissions.

It is a set of models, data, and script text files for use with Matlab and Simulink.

The benefit of using ADVISOR

• Estimate the fuel economy of vehicles that have not yet been built
• Learn about how conventional, hybrid or electric vehicles use (and lose) energy throughout their drivetrains
• Compare relative tailpipe emissions produced on a number of cycles
• Evaluate an energy management strategy for your hybrid vehicle’s fuel converter
• Optimize the gear ratios in your transmission to minimize fuel use or maximize performance, etc.

How To start ADVISOR Tool

• Launch MATLAB and first set default location folder to the advisor.
• Now in the command window of MATLAB type “advisor” and press enter.
• A new window will open and then set “metric” for unit and start ADVISOR.
• It will launch in a new window.

Advisor tools have 3 windows:

1. Vehicle Input window

2. Simulation Parameter window

3. Results window

1) For EV_defaults_in file, if cargo mass is 500 kg with all other default conditions, can the vehicle travel for 45 km with FTP drive cycle? Conclude your observations.

- Load the ADVISOR TOOL from the matlab command window and select metric system, and load EV_default_in file and change the cargo weight to 500 and keeping the remaining variables same and hit continue to load the drive cycle page.

for our requirement, we need to use FTP based cycle select the following and hit 'run'

as we can see an error occur as the EV ran out of battery for this type of drive cycle

as we need total distance covered to be 45 kilometers and this drive cycle can only complete 17.8 so we need more than 1 drive cycle to complete more than 45 kilometers. so we can use 3 drive cycles

as we can see a warning sign pops up which means that the distance is more than the range of the current battery pack so the vehicle can not travel 45 kilometers but will be short by 3.2 kilometers.

2) In the above case, try changing the battery capacity and repeat the simulation.

the current battery capacity is kept ar 25 we need to increase the battery pack capacity so that the vehicle can run more than 45 kms.

so for this we will increase the battery capacity from 25 to 45

by increasing the battery capacity we can see that the range has been increased to 53.3 km which is more than the required range we need.

3) Perform gradeability test with PRIUS_Jpn_defaults_in file

Select 'Prius_JPN_default_in' file from the load file option to load the Prius model

Hit continue and select the Grade options to open the Grade Test options in this we need to change the option which will include both fuel and energy storage system, hence we will select all systems to enable and in basic parameters the speed of the vehicle can be controlled we need to change the speed from 5-35 mph with an increment of 5 mph to check the gradeability at different speeds

after running the Prius model with different speeds we can check the gradeability percentage, we need to take the values at different speeds and tabulate the information

SPEED (MPH)	GRADEABILITY
5	32.8
10	30.2
15	24.4
20	19.8
25	16.5
30	14.7
35	13

From the above table, we can see that the gradeability decreases with increase in speed the maximum gradeability during 5 mph and lowest during 35 mph