Investigation of an Electrified Air Conditioning System for an SUV by Means of Multi-Physical Simulation

In this work two concepts of automotive power trains are analyzed and compared using multi-physical simulation. The focus of the presented investigation is the energy consumption improvement due to the electrification of the air conditioning (AC) system in a sport utility vehicle (SUV). A full vehicle model representing a real SUV with conventional power train (internal combustion engine (ICE), clutch, gearbox, multi speed transmission gear, differential and driving axles) is developed. This conventional SUV model gets compared with a mild hybrid concept including a starter-generator, a battery and an inverter fed drive with control unit. Mechanical, electrical and detailed thermal effects are considered in the simulations. By comparing the energy consumptions, the potential of efficiency improvement due to the implementation of an electrified AC system is shown at the example of a state-of-the-art SUV.