Method to Analyze Driving Dynamics During Faults in the Electric Drivetrain on a Vehicle-in-the-Loop Test Bench

The mechanical components of drive systems for electric vehicles are less complex than those of conventional drives and are therefore generally less prone to faults. On the other hand, a challenge lies in the relatively limited experience in dealing with faults in the electric drivetrain and their effects on driving dynamics compared to conventional drives. To meet these challenges, this paper presents a method to simulate faults in the electric powertrain of a real demonstrator vehicle on a full vehicle test bench and to evaluate the influence on driving dynamics. For this purpose, the demonstrator vehicle was modeled in detail in a co-simulation between the driving dynamics simulation software CarMaker and the real-time solution for simulating and testing electrical components Typhoon HIL. This enabled the investigation of the vehicle’s behavior in the event of a fault. Subsequently, tests with the vehicle were performed on the Vehicle-in-the-Loop full vehicle test bench and the behavior of the vehicle in the event of a fault was reproduced. The results of this approach show the transferability from simulation to the reality and that the drivability of vehicles in the event of a fault can be investigated on the test bench. In addition, it is shown that even in the event of a fault the demonstrator vehicle used does not get into any critical driving situations and therefore remains drivable.