Safety Modeling of High Voltage Cabling in Electrified Powertrains

Modeling of High Voltage (HV) wires is an important aspect of vehicle safety simulations for electrified powertrains to understand the potential tearing of the wire sheath or pinching of HV wiring. The behavior of the HV wires must be reviewed in safety simulations to identify potential hazards associated with HV wire being exposed, severed, or in contact with ground planes during a crash event. Modeling HV wire is challenging due to the complexity of the physical composition of the wire, which is usually comprised of multiple strands bundled and often twisted together to form the HV electrical conductor. This is further complicated by the existence of external insulating sheathing materials to prevent HV exposure during normal operating conditions.

This paper describes a proposed method to model and characterize different types of HV wires for usage in component- and vehicle-level safety models. The resulting approach enables the Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) analyst to visualize the 3D behavior of HV wire during a crash event simulation. In addition, this paper provides steps needed to validate the model via simplified physical lab testing of wire samples. An example of how to apply these models to a generic HV battery design is also provided.