Unified Thermal System Simulations of an Electric Truck

Effective thermal management of an EV becomes a complex and yet essential topic due to strong dependence of electric powertrain performance on the thermal system performance. Once the powertrain sizing is decided for any new EV, electric vehicle thermal management is major challenge and opportunity to improve on overall energy efficiency. This is more pertinent in the context of a commercial vehicle where range is of utmost importance. A novel approach is proposed hereby to integrate different interfacing systems & subsystems of a vehicle that play a critical role for determination of thermal system sizing. This includes starting from vehicle model, electric powertrain (ePT) HVAC and cooling systems and simulate these in one environment under different scenarios as per customer expectations. A simplified controller is designed and integrated to monitor and control the functioning of such thermal systems for desired performance. Transient simulations are performed to mimic real world routes to analyze and select right under-hood module over a range of different ambient conditions. Commercial software namely GT is used for flow and thermal modelling and Simulink is used for power electric models and controller. Iterative process is established to arrive at right combination of radiators, fan, pump and compressor size along with optimum controller actuation to regulate the events of heat exchange meeting all thermal marginal limits of Battery & PE loop components. The method is being extended to evaluate different thermal concepts through different thermal architecture.