Co-simulation to evaluate acceleration performance and fuel consumption of hybrid vehicles

The vehicle longitudinal dynamics estimates the requested power to attend a specific route by means of the motion resistance forces such as aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance as well as factors related to the road grade and driver behavior. In high speeds and accelerations stretches proposed by the US06 standard, the conventional 1.0 l Brazilian vehicles do not achieve the required velocity. One alternative to increase the vehicle speed is to use a combination of gear shifting strategies because it changes the engine operating point. The hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are also an alternative to increase the vehicle performance and reduce the fuel consumption, maintaining the safety and trustworthiness of the conventional vehicles. The aim of this paper is to compare a conventional vehicle with a parallel HEV in terms of dynamic behavior and also to analyze the influence of the gear shifting tactics in both vehicle configurations. The analyses were performed through co-simulation between the multibody dynamics software Adams (TM) and Matlab/Simulink (TM) where the power demand was defined based on the motion resistance forces equations.