Numerical assessment of integrated thermal management systems in electrified powertrains

Temperatures in internal combustion engines (ICE) impact fuel consumption and pollutant emissions, especially under transient operating conditions. In hybrid powertrains, where the reciprocating internal combustion engine has intermittent operating conditions, a optimum control of these temperatures is critical. In this work, a detailed methodology for studying integrated thermal management systems for hybrid propulsion system was presented. Both experimental measurements and 0D/1D models were implemented and validated for the different components of the hybrid vehicle powertrain. The novelty of this work consists in the extensive experimental measurements involved for the development of the different models, specially the ICE, in order to study the integration of the different thermal flows of a hybrid powertrain. Furthermore, the simulation methodology used in this work integrates different modelling tools and takes advantage of their strengths when compared to using a single modelling tool. Two different thermal management systems have been evaluated under different Real Driving Emission (RDE) cycles at two different temperatures (at 20 degrees C and-20 degrees C). Results have shown that during the ICE warming up, the integrated thermal management system improved energy consumption by 1.74% and 3% for warm and cold conditions, respectively. This was because, the integrated TMS allows to avoid the temperature drop of the ICE when the propulsive system is in pure electric mode.