In recent years, the numbers of battery electric vehicles and hybrid electric
vehicles are strongly increasing in the European Union. For these vehicles
dedicated thermal-management solutions have been developed. Since
thermal-management has a high impact on these vehicles’ efficiencies and ranges,
its improvement with new potentialities is of ongoing high importance to cope
with the latest European carbon dioxide-reduction targets.
For boosting the efficiency of an electric vehicle, two predictive
thermal-management methods are presented in this work, which receive information
on the upcoming route profile and powertrain heat release. Thermal and
mechanical behavior for the projection duration of e.g., 5 minutes are
prognosed, and optimized control parameters are calculated, that allow specific
thermal and energetic optimisations of the vehicle, that help to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions.
The optimized control algorithm is tested in combination with a coolant
temperature lift strategy, a complex integration of a phase change material
storage as well as with an air-conditioning compressor control. The detailed
methods as well as their dedicated benefits are described in this work.
Additionally, hurdles and further challenges of such predictive control
approaches are reported.
