Three-Dimensional Thermal Simulation of a Hybrid Vehicle with Energy Consumption Estimation and Prediction of Battery Degradation under Modern Drive-Cycles

As more electric vehicles (BEV, HEV, PHEV, etc.) are adopted in the upcoming decades, it is becoming increasingly important to conduct vehicle-level thermal simulations under different drive-cycle conditions while incorporating the various subsystem thermal losses. Thermal management of the various heat sources in the vehicle is essential both in terms of ensuring passenger safety as well as maintaining all the subsystems within their corresponding safe temperature limits. It is also imperative that these thermal simulations include energy consumption prediction, while considering the effect of battery degradation both in terms of increased thermal losses as well as reduction in the vehicle’s range. For this purpose, a three-dimensional transient thermal analysis framework was coupled with an electrochemical P2D-based battery model and a vehicle dynamics model to test different scenarios and their effect on a hybrid vehicle’s range and the lithium-ion battery life. Thermal losses from the battery, electric powertrain, combustion engine powertrain and exhaust/after-treatment systems were incorporated in the analysis. To test the proposed vehicle-level analysis framework, a full vehicle lifetime analysis was conducted on a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle after validating all the physics models. The effect of ambient temperature, different SOC range, driving conditions and battery degradation was examined in the tested vehicle scenarios and the trends of each effect were identified and illustrated.