Development of an Adaptive Efficient Thermal/Electric Skipping Control Strategy Applied to a Parallel Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle

In recent years automobile manufacturers focused on an increasing degree of electrification of the powertrains with the aim to reduce pollutants and CO₂ emissions. Despite more complex design processes and control strategies, these powertrains offer improved fuel exploitation compared to conventional vehicles thanks to intelligent energy management. A simulation study is here presented aiming at developing a new control strategy for a P3 parallel plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. The simulation model is implemented using vehicle modeling and simulation toolboxes in MATLAB/Simulink. The proposed control strategy is based on an alternative utilization of the electric motor and thermal engine to satisfy the vehicle power demand at the wheels (Efficient Thermal/Electric Skipping Strategy - ETESS). The choice between the two units is realized through a comparison between two equivalent fuel rates, one related to the thermal engine and the other related to the electric consumption. An adaptive function is introduced to develop a charge-blended control strategy. The novel adaptive control strategy (A-ETESS) is applied to estimate fuel consumption along different driving cycles. The control algorithm is implemented on a dedicated microcontroller unit performing a Processor-In-the-Loop (PIL) simulation. To demonstrate the reliability and effectiveness of the A-ETESS, the same adaptive function is built on the Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS). The PIL results showed that the proposed strategy ensures a fuel economy similar to ECMS (worse of about 2% on average) and a computational effort reduced by 99% on average. This last feature reveals the potential for real-time on-vehicle applications.