Simulation of an electric vehicle EMR and IBC MATLAB/SIMULNIK

Abstract:
In this report we will present the the modeling and simulation results of an electrical vehicle
using the Energetic Macroscopic Representation (EMR) and its Inversed Based Control
(IBC).

Introduction
The studied electric vehicle (EV) has a traction system that consists of the following
elements:

Batteries (NiMH 9.6kW module)

Power converter (4 Quadrant DC/DC converter)
Electrical machine (DC permanent magnet machine)
Shaft
Gearbox
Differential with the wheels
Chasis

Sources:
The energy sources in this study are NiMH batteries used for powering the DC machine.
Environment:
The environment of the vehicle is considered as a mechanical source. This source yields a
resistant force
which consists of three components defined as:

Other elements are represented with their mathematical equivalents:

Shaft:
Because we work with the assumtion that all rotating masses have a negligable inertia, there
will be no need to model the shaft.
Gearbox:

Where

Differential :

Wheels :

If we assume that the vehicle will drive only in a straight direction we can represent the
wheels of the wehicle with only one equvalent wheel and therefore we have :

4-quadrant converter :

Permanent Magnet DC machine :

Chasis :

The used values for the parameters in this case are:

The obtained EMR with its full IBC structure is obtained and represented in the following
figure (Figure 1):

Figure 1

Analysis of the obtained results:

In the first case we will consider only the implemented EMR model without the IBC. In order
to observe the behavior of the model we will consider a step change of the modulation factor
of the converter where the initial value is 0.8 (this will provide us a positive current and
therefore the acceleration of the vehicle in one direction) and after 100 sec the step change
will occur and set a new value being 0.4 (this will provide us a negative current and the
movement of the vehicle in the opposite direction). The obtained results are presented in
figure 2 where different areas are identified and will be explained.
The violet curve in the figure represents the speed profile which has to be followed. Because
we havent implemented the IBC this is right now not achieved. In the first 100 sec of the
simulation, because of the modulation factor, we have the positive speed which is represented
in the figure with the yellow curve. Because we have obtained a certain speed the distance of
the vehicle from its initial point will linearly increase during time, this is shown in the same
figure. After a certain distance our vehicle has arrived to a positive slope which is also
presented, but in this case as a step function. This can be validated by analyzing the speed in
the area marked as A. In this zone we can observe that our speed has decreased which is
logical if we take into account the fact that our vehicle is on the positive slope and therefore
the gravity will slow down the speed of the studied vehicle. By analyzing the distance we see
that our vehicle is still moving.

Figure 2

At the time t=100 sec our simulation takes the step change into account and the modulation
factor gets the value 0.4 which corresponds to a negative current and therefore the change of
direction for the vehicle. This can be observed in the marked zone B where the speed has a
negative value as well as in the distance profile where the distance decreases (the reference is
the initial starting point). We can also observe that after a while our speed slightly decreases
which corresponds to the moment when we are no longer on the slope and therefore there is
no additional speed due to the gravity. Afterwards we have a constant negative speed and that
means that our vehicle is going backwards which again is seen from the distance profile.

The second analysis of our simulation will be done according to the measured voltage and
current of the vehicles battery and its state of charge (SOC). This is shown in figure 3 where
again some characteristic areas are identified and will be explained.

Figure 3

From the previous figure we identify the zone C which corresponds to the condition where
our vehicle starts accelerating in one (positive) direction while still not reaching the slope. As
expected the SOC is decreasing and therefore we are extracting energy from our battery.
Looking at the marked areas C and C which corresponds to the battery voltage and current
respectively we see that at the very beginning there is a sudden increase of the current and at
the same time a decrease of the voltage. This has a physical meaning due to the start of the
vehicle. During the time where we do not reach the slope (C and C) the voltage and current
stabilize to a certain value. At the moment we reach the slope (D and D) we see that

discharge current increases and the battery voltage decreases. Also we see from the SOC
(zone D) that our battery discharges faster which is the consequence of demanding more
energy from the battery in order to climb up the slope. At the moment where we suddenly
change the modulation factor and force our vehicle to go backwards we see that there is a
peak change in the battery current and voltage (the unnamed zone between D and E as well
between D and E). In the zone E we observe a negative current which actually represents
the charging current of the battery (regenerative braking mode). This has as a consequence
the increase of the battery voltage (E) as well as the charging of the battery. This is seen in
zone E where the SOC increases. After reaching the flat ground (the vehicle is no longer on
the slope) we see that again the battery is discharging in order to move the vehicle in the
opposite direction as well that the current again has a positive value.
From the previous analysis we conclude that our implemented model responds to the
environment in an expected way according to the physical limitations and therefore we
conclude that it is valid. In the next step we proceed to the definition and implementation of
the IBC.
Design of the IBC structure
From the EMR we can identify one tuning parameter which is the modulation factor of the
converter. The corresponding tuning path is:

The speed profile of the vehicle will be our reference quantity and it is defined as a look-up
table. The implemented SIMULINK block diagram with the IBC is presented in figure 4.

Figure 4

By analyzing the given EMR we identify two energy storage elements (armature windings of
the PM DC machine and the chassis of the vehicle) which in the IBC are represented with
two conventional PI controllers. All the other elements are direct inversion elements. In the
first approach we set the gains of the PI controllers arbitrary to see how our simulation will
perform. After some trial and error we derived some values for the parameters and the
simulation result which is given in the figure 5.
We can observe that after implementing the IBC the speed obtained from the vehicle matches
the given reference. By having a better look at the given speed profile and the obtained one
we see that there is a small mismatch (due to the response speed of the controller) but still in
the global view we can say that the designed IBC fulfils its role in an appropriate way. Also it

is clear that the distance profile behaves as expected (no change of distance when there is no
speed).

Figure 5

Figure 6

If we analyse now the battery SOC, voltage and current we can obtain the following results
which are represented in figure 7.

Figure 7

From the previous figure we see the changes in the voltage and current profile which indeed
correspond to the obtained speed profile. The relatively high changes (peaks) of the battery
current correspond to the sudden change of the speed (this is plausible because in order to
maintain the desired speed). We also observe the change of the current due to the presence of
the slope after a certain distance. The current has a constant value only during the time where
a constant speed has to be maintained. We note also some time periods where the current has
a negative value which is a direct consequence when the vehicle decreases its speed or when
it is on the negative slope. Again, this negative current represents the charging current of the
battery which is also shown in the SOC profile. By analyzing the voltage profile we see that it
corresponds to the battery current and in fact its shape is similar to the current profile. The
voltage changes can be explained due the internal resistance of the battery.