Computational and Experimental Analysis of Fuel Consumption of a Hybridized Vehicle

Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) currently represent an alternative to reducing fossil fuel consumption used by internal combustion engines. This paper analyses, in a platform of computational simulation and also in experimental condition, the vehicle fuel consumption, before and after hybridization. It checks the similarity of behaviors and/or the investigation of possible differences between the developed mathematical model and experiments performed. Computer simulations help, through mathematical models, a better understanding of physical phenomena related to engineering problems. A well elaborated computer model has a high fidelity degree with the real systems, becoming a powerful analysis tool. The experiments besides allowing a proof of results, they contribute to a refinement of the simulated models. The hybrid technology under study is characterized by the coupling of two electric motors directly to the rear vehicle wheels. A model for the vehicle longitudinal dynamics described in the literature is implemented in Matlab/ Simulink™ software and the results are compared with the experiments performed on a roller dynamometer.