Development of an automatic evaluation process for simulation of operating strategies of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Abstract

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are already on the market. Its aim is to reduce the fuel consumption of a conventional vehicle using reversible energy sources such as a battery. There are multiple ways to do that and if the aim is to minimize the fuel consumption, it is clear that all the capacity of the battery has to be used. However, when a user has to drive a route that is bigger than the electric range, there is the challenge to know where and when the vehicle has to use each energy source. Even having a complex algorithm to determinate which is the most optimal way to use the battery, the methodology to test this algorithm is still not optimal and requires a lot of time and money. It is known that simulation and automation can brought down test cost, so an automatic evaluation process is required to test the viability of an operating strategy. The results show that it is possible to design an automatic evaluation process ensuring that the simulations behaves equal to real test. By this way, the velocity of the algorithm development can be considerably improved.