Modelling and control of a light-duty hybrid electric truck

This study is concentrated on modelling and developing the controller for the light-duty hybrid electric truck. The hybrid electric vehicle has advantages in fuel economy. However, there have been relatively few studies on commercial HEVs, whilst a considerable number of studies on the hybrid electric system have been conducted in the field of passenger cars. So the current status and the methodologies to develop the LD hybrid electric truck model have been studied through the literature review. The modelling process used in this study is divided into three major stages. The first stage is to determine the structure of the hybrid electric truck and define the hardware. The second is the component modelling using the AMESim simulation tool to develop a forward facing model. In order to complete the component modelling, the information and data were collected from various sources including references and ADVISOR. The third stage is concerned with the controller which was written in Simulink. This was run in a co-simulation with the AMESim vehicle model. Through the initial simulation, the charge-sustaining performance of this controller was verified and improved. Finally, the simulations for the complete model were carried out over a number of drive cycles, such as CBDTRUCK, JE05, and TRL LGV drive cycle, to evaluate and analyse the effect on the fuel economy and the vehicle performance by the engine operating zone and the EM power capacity. The report presents a comparison of the fuel efficiency of the conventional vehicle and the LD hybrid electric truck. The results obtained by the simulation show the feasibility to build the complete vehicle with the designed controller.