Investigation by modelling of a plug-in hybrid electric commercial vehicle with diesel engine on WLTC

Commercial vehicles have different missions every day: urban or extra-urban itineraries, uphill and downhill roads, and different loads during their trips. Based on these requirements, the vehicle configuration has to enable an immediate traction switching, depending on the type of itinerary and conditions, in this way making an important innovation towards environmentally friendly mobility. Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) is considered as a valid solution to not only reduce dependence on costly oil fuels but also to cut the harmful emissions. In the last decade, the HEV technology has proven efficient outcomes with a better performance and lower emissions, compared to conventional light-duty vehicles. The paper presents a commercial hybrid electric vehicle with detailed diesel engine modelling. A computational analysis has been performed starting from the experimental activity at test bench carried out on the F1C 3.0 l diesel engine. Through ADvanced VehIcle SimulatOR (ADVISOR) software, simulations of driving cycles have been performed, to evaluate consumption and emissions. In particular, the performances of the vehicle have been tested referring to the Worldwide harmonized Light-duty vehicles Test Cycles (WLTC), which is a harmonized cycle valid for the homologation of the vehicle around the world. The goal is to analyze and compare parallel hybrid solutions respect to the conventional commercial diesel vehicle, and to quantify more specifically the amount of fuel saved. Moreover, two different control strategies of the hybrid vehicle have been tested: Charge Depleting (CD) and Charge Sustaining (CS) modes. Results from the comparative analysis confirm that hybrid solution represents a significant starting point for the vehicle’s electrification. Simulation based on the analysis of a vehicle represents an efficient approach in designing the power traction, and the results of this methodology could offer a base to investigate systematically various design alternatives and to obtain in short time a reliable solution.