Abstract
The transportation sector, which has to-date relied primarily on internal combustion engine technology, is responsible for a high consumption of fossil fuels worldwide. In addition to fuel security and energy sustainability concerns, this high rate of usage has significant environmental impacts. Vehicular emissions adversely affect air, soil and water quality and contribute to global climate change. Owing to well-established low carbon emissions electricity generation methods such as nuclear power, coupled with their zero emissions output during actual driving, electric vehicles represent an attractive route to reducing the harmful environmental impacts of the transportation sector.
Nevertheless, electric vehicles still have a number of drawbacks, with battery technology remaining expensive and heavy, and market acceptance of electric vehicles being thwarted by the “range anxiety” of potential consumers. Some of these limitations can, however, be addressed through the addition of a small internal combustion engine – a range extender - which permits the benefits of the electrification of the powertrain while addressing the arguably main limitation of electric vehicles. Rotary engines fulfil the most critical requirements of range extender engines of comprise good noise, vibration and harshness characteristics, low mass and compactness.
In this research, an approach for modelling a range extender Wankel engine using AVL Boost is presented. Such simulation approaches find utility during engine design, control systems development, calibration and verification testing through hardware-in-the-loop approaches and can allow different scenarios and designs to be evaluated without the need for expensive and time-consuming experimentation. The main subsystems of the model are detailed in the paper along with validation results from engine testing. The results indicate that the simulation approach is able to accurately represent the behaviour of the real engine.
Nevertheless, electric vehicles still have a number of drawbacks, with battery technology remaining expensive and heavy, and market acceptance of electric vehicles being thwarted by the “range anxiety” of potential consumers. Some of these limitations can, however, be addressed through the addition of a small internal combustion engine – a range extender - which permits the benefits of the electrification of the powertrain while addressing the arguably main limitation of electric vehicles. Rotary engines fulfil the most critical requirements of range extender engines of comprise good noise, vibration and harshness characteristics, low mass and compactness.
In this research, an approach for modelling a range extender Wankel engine using AVL Boost is presented. Such simulation approaches find utility during engine design, control systems development, calibration and verification testing through hardware-in-the-loop approaches and can allow different scenarios and designs to be evaluated without the need for expensive and time-consuming experimentation. The main subsystems of the model are detailed in the paper along with validation results from engine testing. The results indicate that the simulation approach is able to accurately represent the behaviour of the real engine.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication status | Published - 22 Oct 2019 |
| Event | AVL International Simulation Conference 2019 - MesseCongress, Graz, Austria Duration: 22 Oct 2019 → 24 Oct 2019 https://www.avl.com/-/avl-international-simulation-conference-2019 |
Conference
| Conference | AVL International Simulation Conference 2019 |
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| Country/Territory | Austria |
| City | Graz |
| Period | 22/10/19 → 24/10/19 |
| Internet address |
