Robust Approach for Development and Analysis of Electric Three Wheeler Vehicle Using Digital Twin

Objective of this project was to establish very comprehensive, robust vehicle model of three wheeler electric vehicle. This was achieved by simulating vehicle operation and performance on standard as well as realistic driving cycles. Purpose of building a virtual electric three wheeler vehicle model was to validate the mathematical model with respect to real time road load testing. Electric 3 wheeler vehicle model was built in Ricardo-IGNITE. This model includes advanced vehicle which consists of detailed vehicle parameters like mass & CG locations, suspension, brakes and aerodynamic input parameters. Also other parameter includes road load resistances, rotational, transnational inertial effects and power-train efficiencies and detailed battery and motor model with its thermal & inertial properties respectively. Simulation results of performance and range are validated by actual vehicle testing on dynamo-meter and road for standard and realistic driving-cycles respectively. Parameters like tire sizes, coefficient of rolling resistance & mechanical coupling were optimized for enhancement of driving range. Different combinations of gear ratios are undertaken to achieve maximum grade keeping motor maximum torque constant. Driving range of electric 3 wheeler vehicle for Indian driving cycle, rural duty cycle, urban duty cycle is validated for day mode and night mode with real time test results. As model was successfully validated, on similar platform different vehicle models like electric passenger and cargo models were built to predict performance and driving range with different combinations of battery and motor packs which avoids regular prototype building and testing and thus reduce overall time & cost for concept generation and power pack finalization. Vehicle specifications in terms of gear box selection, vehicle mass optimization, controller selection and calibration were adopted for imminent vehicles.