Heavy-duty engine design What are the most significant factors influencing the way engine developers approach near-term design and development cycles? Two experts provide their insights from recent programs.Reducing winter range loss for electric trucks Researchers at the Austrian Institute of Technology have developed an air exchange system that's capable of reducing heat load by 37% in real-world tests.Narrower focus, bigger payoff Design teams are targeting focused markets for their commercial electric-vehicle programs to combat challenges like range and infrastructure.Removing complexity for autonomous trucks Narrowing the operating domains for driverless commercial vehicles reduces the requirements of autonomous technology and speeds time to market.Plastics innovations 2019 The 49th annual SPE Automotive Awards highlight the ongoing benefits of lightweight polymers and composites.Editorial Hop on the hydrogen highwayLeak testing of commercial-vehicle AC systems critical as move to HFO refrigerants loomsAkasol packs industry-leading energy density into new battery designMahle and partners develop super-efficient natural-gas engine for stationary powerHow battery technology will drive truck electrificationPlatinum nanoparticles for fuel-cell catalysts may cut costCaterpillar launches next-gen mini hydraulic excavator, skid steer and compact…

Small electric vehicles are challenging in nature while designing the power train and especially the mounting of batteries within the volume available. In this research, power train of small electric vehicle is designed and it is compared with the electric vehicles. The designed vehicle should meet the requirements of urban car so that it can be preferred in urban mobility. Emphasis is given on studying performance parameters such as motor speed, torque for different urban driving cycles by altering the motor and its no. of poles. Battery pack is designed to fit under the front hood of the vehicle whereas motor is fitted at the rear. Range is estimated using Simulink and it is validated with mathematical calculation using Peukert method performed in MATLAB. It is concluded that the designed vehicle with Switched Reluctance Motor 6/4 configuration of 15 kW, 110 Nm is sufficient to meet the urban car in 2020 targets. NCA battery is preferred for range improvement. Retro fitment is given higher priority while designing battery pack.

“NuGen Mobility Summit-2019” Paper Title : Determining the State Of Health [SOH] of Li Ion cell Authors: Sushant Mutagekar, Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Prabhjot Kaur Objective Cells age with life. This aging is dependant on various factors like charging/discharging rates, DOD of operation and operating temperature. As the cell ages it undergoes power fade (ability to deliver required power at particular State of Charge [SOC]) and capacity fade (the charge storage capacity of cell). In an Electric Vehicle it is important to know what power shall be demanded from a battery irrespective of what its current SOC is and number of cycles it has undergone. With minimal accuracy and less computational power, it is difficult for a Battery Management System [BMS] to accurately determine SOH; the paper proposes a a precise model that may help. Methodology To understand different cells aging at different conditions, an experiment was setup to simulate various conditions of a cell. • Cycling: Cells of different form factors were cycled continuously at different ambient temperatures, different discharge rates and Depth of discharges. •…

Engineering objective Light Electric Vehicles (LEV) with Li-ion batteries suffer from short battery life and poor efficiency, due to low grade electronics. Battery management systems (BMS) cannot always keep the pack in balance, and after cell voltages drift, capacity of the pack diminishes and some cells may destruct, causing a fire. The paper describes a novel approach to LEV powertrains using parallel connected battery cells & control methodology that keep cells in balance naturally, thereby eliminating BMS and hence safer to use. Li-Ion cells with different chemistries can be used and superior thermal management reduces temperature rise, resulting in longer battery life. Methodology Based on the original invention by the author, the system circuit schematics was designed and simulated using OrCAD PSpice. After obtaining results from the simulation, the first prototype device was constructed and tested in laboratory. Heat mapping and thermo couples were used to find hot spots and improve the efficiency, at the same time creating a thermal pattern that was easy to cool. Different components were tested to find the most efficient…

Introduction: The advent of electric mobility is changing the conventional mobility techniques and with this comes challenges to improve the performance of battery to optimize power consumption in electric vehicles. Objective: This paper would focus on the optimization of battery performance incoherent with vehicle power consumption behavior in terms of efficiency using decision-making ability based on given input signals

Chemical reaction inside a cell, converts chemical energy into electrical energy and causes electric current to flow. If electric current passes backwards in a cell, it charges the cell. In a Li-Ion battery Lithium ions move from negative electrode to positive electrode during discharge and backwards when charging. The characteristics of a good Li-Ion Battery are: - High no of Cycle Times (Recharge) - High C Rating (Charging & Discharging), causing no degradation to performance - High Energy Density - Low Heat dissipation - Safe during operation against hazards - No impact of Overcharging or Undercharging - Reasonable cost For the EV Space in Indian region, top 3 most important requirements are as follows: - much higher cycle times than available in the most popular NMC cell chemistry - battery performance not impacted by charging or discharging at higher temperatures - Lowest cost that can drive the market adoption In this paper we will detail our the proposed solution for the Cell Chemistry which is suitable for Indian Market and also can be adopted by…

Electric vehicle works on stored energy inside the batteries or cells. These units needs to be regulated by cool down or heat up to perform utmost. This temperature regulation also ensure individual battery or cell life. BCS are installed on vehicles to regulate the temperature around battery packs. To ensure maximum performance of these units, numerical simulation is performed and detailed optimization of flow rate as well as flow path into BCS is carried out. All the parts are assembled inside the unit as per defined packaging area or size. Numerical modelling (CFD) is performed to examine the flow path. Flow path is very important to examine, as BCS units consists of condenser. It is very important for condensers to perform efficiently, which means air flow should happen across it appropriately. If sufficient flow is not happening across the condenser, then performance of condensers comes down and optimum temperature around battery packs cannot be maintained. This will affect the performance of battery pack capacity as well as individual battery life. Based on results obtained from…

Hybridization continues to be growing trend in vehicular applications. Current study shows a holistic system approach for the design & integration of the powertrain in Off-Highway tractor applications. It includes study & benchmarking of system architecture of an all-electric and diesel-electric drive systems as per application requirement. Further comprehensive study was done on functional components for an electric powertrain, which includes electric drives, batteries & controllers. Selection & design of these components was studied & component selection approach was developed for typical Off-Highway tractor application. Current study was divided into three parts. 1.Study of different Off-Highway tractor applications & selection of all-electric, series & parallel hybrid architectures as per application requirement. For Parallel hybrid configuration, Comprehensive approach was developed for selection & optimization of degree of hybridization required as per Off-Highway tractor application requirement. Architecture selection approach considers the way to take care of % increase of cost price with conventional tractor, market availability of components, Integration constraints, fuel consumption, and efficiency of transmission & smooth delivery of power as required by operator. 2.For above…

Battery operated vehicle needs accurate management system because of its quick changes in State of Charge (SoC) due to aggressive acceleration profiles and regenerative braking. Li-ion battery needs control over its operating area for the safe working. The main objective of the proposed system is to develop a BMS having algorithms to estimate accurate SoC, balance individual cells, thermal management, and provide safe area of operation defined by voltage and temperature. Proposed methodology uses Coulomb Counting as well as Model-based Design approach wherein nonlinear behavior of battery is modeled as Equivalent Circuit Model to compute the SoC and degradation effect on battery to decide the end of life of battery. Also performing Inductive Active Balancing on cells to equalize the charge. The study aims on deploying the model-based system on embedded platform which would help industry to reduce the model development time and focus on development of controlling algorithms for high end users. Active Balancing Architecture proposed here reduces the complexity of algorithm and at the same time decreases the balancing time.