Predictive Thermal-Management Methods and Use Cases in a Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle

In recent years, the numbers of battery electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles are strongly increasing in the European Union. For these vehicles dedicated thermal-management solutions have been developed. Since thermal-management has a high impact on these vehicles' efficiencies and ranges, its improvement with new potentialities is of ongoing high importance to cope with the latest European carbon dioxide-reduction targets. For boosting the efficiency of an electric vehicle, two predictive thermal-management methods are presented in this work, which receive information on the upcoming route profile and powertrain heat release. Thermal and mechanical behavior for the projection duration of e.g., 5 minutes are prognosed, and optimized control parameters are calculated, that allow specific thermal and energetic optimisations of the vehicle, that help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The optimized control algorithm is tested in combination with a coolant temperature lift strategy, a complex integration of a phase change material storage as well as with an air-conditioning compressor control. The detailed methods as well as their dedicated benefits are described in this work. Additionally, hurdles and further challenges of such predictive control approaches are reported.