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A Control Strategy to Minimize Fuel Consumption of Series Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Stefano Barsali, Carmine Miulli, and Andrea Possenti
AbstractThis paper presents an approach to the problem of controlling the electricity generation of series hybrid electric vehicles (SHEVs) and proposes an algorithm with the goal to minimize fuel consumption. Starting from the knowledge of the vehicle electric generator consumption maps, as well as information on the vehicle battery behavior, and on some overall parameters characterizing the expected trip, the algorithm is able to define: whether to continuously keep the generator in the ON state or not; when to, if is the case, switch the generator ON or OFF; the instantaneous power to be delivered by the electric generator when in ON state. Adopting such parameters enables avoiding to previously know the battery losses on a given trip and offers the possibility to update the control according to online measures. Addresses are also given on how to online assess the trip parameters to be used as inputs for the algorithm. Index TermsBatteries, energy conversion, fuel optimal control, load forecasting, road vehicle control, road vehicle propulsion.

Length of the dc source ONOFF cycle. Time constant for the filtering function. Time of operation of the dc source in . Average battery terminal voltage and resistance.

I. INTRODUCTION

NOMENCLATURE Instantaneous ratio . Battery operating energy range. Vehicle fuel consumption in a time interval . Parameters of dc source consumption curve. Hourly fuel consumption. Specific fuel consumption. Fuel consumption of each dc source start-up. Battery emf and internal resistance. Battery current. Battery terminal power and power losses. Net battery power . Drive power. DC source power. Desired values of and . Average values of and . Equivalent ripple of . Battery state of charge. Optimization time.

, ,

, ,

, ,

Manuscript received October 3, 2002. The authors are with Dipartimento di Sistemi Elettrici e Automazione, University of Pisa, Pisa I-56122, Italy (e-mail: barsali@dsea.unipi.it). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2003.821862

YBRID electric vehicles exploit the capacity of a storage system installed aboard to reduce the modulation of the primary energy source. This allows a reduction of fuel consumption and a better sizing for the primary engine. In a series hybrid electric vehicle (SHEV), propulsion power is provided only by an electric drive made of an electronic power conditioner and an electric motor. The electric power, in turn, comes from the storage system (flywheel, battery, or ultracapacitors) and a dc source (see Fig. 1). The electricity generator (EG) converts energy from fuel into electricity either using an intermediate mechanical stage or directly (e.g., fuel cell). In the first case, it is composed by: a prime mover (PM): usually an internal combustion engine (ICE), but other devices can be considered such as a gas microturbine [1]; a conventional electric generator (CG) [i.e., a rotating machine converting mechanical energy into electrical energy]. The so produced electrical energy is, in turn, adapted through a power conditioner (PC) block. The battery storage can be connected to the dc directly or by means of a dcdc converter. In the remainder of this paper, a system in which the EG is constituted by a PM plus a CG and direct connection of the battery is considered. To study possible strategies to control this system, the scheme reported in Fig. 1 can be used. The scheme includes two power conditioners (one included in the dc source and one in the electric drive) for managing the power-flow balance on the dc bus in the whole range of battery voltage variation. reflects the driver request to obThe desired drive power tain a given performance from the vehicle and depends on the accelerator position, vehicle inertia, and road slope; this , or, constitutes the load of the electric nearly equivalently, the sources (i.e., the dc source and the battery). The main control objective is to make the electric source supply this power, while managing the power sources so that the corresponding fuel consumption is as low as possible. Thanks to the largely reduced modulation of the primary energy source,

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the related emissions are noticeably curtailed [2] and are not accounted for in the optimization procedure. and the battery state-ofIn addition to the measure of charge , the controller can receive other input signals that are used to perform a forecast of the future vehicle load. Not many algorithms exist in literature for SHEVs. Among them, we can cite [3][5] which adopt rule-based algorithms, dynamic programming, and optimal control theory. In some approaches, the choice of some parameters defining the overall algorithm behavior is empirical while other algorithms are difficult to be implemented in an online control system without an accurate prediction of medium term load. Also, the battery losses are often treated empirically or as an average value, even in a previous approach from the same authors [6]. Other algorithms apply to parallel HEV [7] or to the optimization of the velocity profile of a trip [8]. The algorithm presented hereafter has the advantage of relying on overall parameters characterizing the driving schedule and of being easily adaptable to sudden changes in the driving regime (from urban to highway, etc.) for an online application, without needing offline estimates of battery losses. Some comparisons are made with the Thermostat control1 [3]. II. MODELS OF THE SYSTEM COMPONENTS is a direct consequence of traction The power demand needs (i.e., the driver requests combined with vehicle and road characteristics); therefore, it can be assumed as an unmodifiable data for the problem of minimizing fuel consumption. To reach this goal then, the proposed control will act to maximize the efficiency of the system composed of the dc source and the battery storage. A. Power Flows in the SHEV Let consider in Fig. 2, the qualitative power flows within the system shown in Fig. 1. The dc source can be in ON or OFF state. When in ON state, it operates at a smoother power profile than that of . This is the effect of the hybridization of the vehicle, that, in the hypotheses given in Section III-C, implies a reduction of fuel consumption. B. Load Forecasting The definition of the controller logic requires to know, at least approximately, the future system load, (i.e., the future behavior of the power demand ). However, the fact that the dc source is requested to deliver a much less variable power than implies that, as will be clarified later, it is sufficient to forecast of it, instead of the whole curve, and to give an some average overall estimate of the ripple content by defining the equivalent ripple in the time interval as the root mean square of (1) In Fig. 3, the scheme of the forecasting and control logic is and reported. As a first approach, the forecasted values of
1Under the Thermostat control, the ICE runs at constant power at its most efficient point and turns on and off based on the battery SOC .

Fig. 1. Schematic representation a SHEV showing also the control signals. P and P can be positive or negative. P is always positive.

Fig. 2. Qualitative sample power flows in the reference system, with the dc source ON and OFF.

can be obtained using simple filters of the past history of , or using sliding average values. It is worth while noticing that the forecast algorithm can ex, but also other inforploit not only the previous values of mation (road slope, traffic information, etc.). The definition of forecast algorithms is of great importance and needs to be developed as an autonomous item for theoretical and experimental research. It is deemed that advanced tools, such as fuzzy logic and/or neural networks, can be of help. C. Prime Mover Model and Control It has been stated that, in several cases, the device that has been called electricity generator is composed by a prime mover connected to an electrical machine able to convert the mechanical energy into the electrical form. In the case of an ICE (or microturbines), the specific consumption curves, obtained from the engine efficiency maps, such as those reported in [5] and [9], have the qualitative behavior of the left graph in Fig. 4, one curve for each rotational , speed. To ensure the best efficiency for each value of the ICE should vary its speed so as to follow the envelope of such curves, as shown in the right graph of Fig. 4 [10]. lower than or larger than , nothing but the For minimum and the maximum speed curves can be respectively and , the variable speed curve should followed. Between be adopted. The control scheme is of the type shown in Fig. 5. The minimum hourly consumption curve (either the envelope, or a single curve if no speed modulation is enabled) can with a be interpolated by a quadratic function depending on suitable choice of the interpolating parameters , , and (2)

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Fig. 5. Control scheme to adequate the shaft speed to the requested power. Fig. 3. Load forecasting and control logic.

Fig. 6. Battery equivalent circuit utilized in the paper.

Fig. 4. Qualitative specific consumption of the dc source.

Therefore, the specific consumption is (3) Moreover, to account for the additional fuel consumption and life costs due to the prime mover start-up, a fixed amount of fuel is considered for each start-up. As proved effective in literature ([5], [9], [11], and [12]), the engine maps and the steady-state curves reported in Fig. 4 are supposed valid also in dynamic conditions as well as (2) and (3). This assumption is reinforced by the hypothesis that only a small quota of the power ripple demanded by the drive is followed by the dc source (see Fig. 2 and Section IV.) D. Battery Model and Energy Limits Several studies (e.g., [13]) have shown that the battery storage to be installed aboard a hybrid vehicle must have a high power-to-energy ratio; therefore, the battery considered in this paper is of the NiMH type. To define the vehicle control laws, it is important to have a reference model for the battery. It is deemed that for the purposes of this paper, a simple model is adequate. Therefore, a simplified version of the complex battery model reported in [14] that some lab tests made by the authors (not yet published) have shown to be valid also for NiMH batteries has been adopted. This model can be described by an equivalent circuit of the type shown in left part of Fig. 6. It has two branches: one, containing and , represents the main, reversible battery reaction and accounts for the charge storage inside the battery; and the second parasitic reactions branch accounts for other, normally unwanted, electrochemical reactions, that cause the charge available during discharge to be lower than the one introduced in the battery during the charge process. For low values, the parasitic reaction branch draws a negligible current ([15]); therefore, since the technique proposed in this paper for managing the battery requires avoiding

larger than a maximum value , this branch can be suppressed from the equivalent circuit. For a given electrolyte temperature, the behavior of emf and internal resistance of the model have a behavior of the kind range shown at the right part of Fig. 6; however, for the of interest for this paper , they can be assumed to be linear. For computing the , the model needs the knowledge of the capacity (charge) the battery is able to deliver at given temperatures and currents. These data are available from the battery manufacturer. In addition, the equivalent circuit of Fig. 6 needs and . In the identification of the numerical values of the this paper, this has been done only for the electrolyte temperature of 25 , with reference to which all simulations have been performed. In this case, the identification requires just a four and two values of ); these numbers (e.g., two values for can be easily obtained from the data available from the battery manufacturer, or simple experimental tests [15]. In the proposed control, the battery is to be operated so that the state-of-charge, and thus, the level of energy stored inside, and . In particular: is within two limits, called as is the energy corresponding to the minimum , chosen so that the corresponding couple determines a bipole able to deliver the peak power required by the drive in the worst conditions. is the energy corresponding to the maximum that still allows the battery to absorb a power peak without strong activation of parasitic reactions (i.e., with minimum power and life losses in the battery). The actual operating range in which and are the lower and upper energy levels, respectively, should respect the obvious relation . It must be noted that such a model, in the range , gives the maximum battery efficiency when . To achieve analytically meaningful results, for the purpose of the definition of the proposed control algorithm only and not for the simulations, the battery losses are assessed, supposing to have a constant voltage at battery terminals and a constant value for the internal resistance . This assumption is justified by the consideration that the error introduced has opposite

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signs when charging and discharging the battery, thus largely compensating its effect in a charge-discharge cycle, as happens when operating a hybrid vehicle. Therefore, with the notation indicated in Fig. 1, battery power losses can be evaluated as
Fig. 7. A cycle of the dc source.

(4)

III. CONTROL ALGORITHM The following information will be supposedly available for operating the system: the dc source consumption curve (2) (identified by the three parameters , and ) and its start-up cost (in terms ; of fuel consumed for each start up) the average value of the power requested by the electric in the optimization period and its equivalent drive as defined in (1); ripple and and the range the battery parameters (i.e., of the battery energy levels). It will be furthermore hypothesized that the power supplied is made of an average value and a by the dc source time-varying term proportional to the instantaneous difference between the drive power and its average value (5) For , the dc source operates at constant power; therefore, the power flow in the batteries is the largest. , the dc source exactly follows the drive demand For , thus making the batteries useless. The solution of the optimization will be a compromise between the maximum efficiency of the dc source (constant power ) and the minimum losses in the batteries . Based on these data and assumptions, the proposed algorithm and and defines when to switch gives the optimal values of on and off the dc source. Analytical details are reported in the appendix. A. ONOFF Mode Operation Supposing to operate in an ONOFF mode (Fig. 7), each cycle of the dc source lasts and includes an operating time in which batteries are charged up to a maximum level and when the batteries discharge supa nonoperating time plying the electric drive until a minimum level is reached. The total fuel consumption in a given time has the expression (for we have the hourly consumption ) (9) (7) To eliminate the dependence of the result on the times and , the energy balance on an ONOFF cycle can be written by equating the range of variation of the battery energy level during the ON time and on the OFF time and calculating the and the ratio values for

Fig. 8.

Shape of the function C (T; P

; ) for a given T .

Using the hypothesis (5) and the definition (1), the integral , , , and terms of (6) can be written in terms of giving

(8)

The function obtained by substituting (8) and (9) in (7) has the shape shown in Fig. 8 and has the searched satisfying the equations minimum for and (10)

B. Continuous Operation (6) where is the total number of start-ups in . The couple solution of (10) must also satisfy the calculated from (9) condition that the relevant value for must be a fraction of the cycle be not greater than 1 (since

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Fig. 9.

Driving schedules used for testing the algorithm.

). If not, the optimum solution needs the continuous operation of the dc source. In the latter case, the battery energy level should remain constant on an average basis. So and are linked by the conin (9) dition expressed by posing equal to 1 the ratio

that has a minimum for (13)

(11)

Considering the uncertainty of the parameters and the model simplifications, the choice of given by (11) will not ensure the exact constancy of the battery energy level. A slow integrative control is then needed to ensure to keep the battery at a constant level on an average basis. IV. CASE STUDIES

(no modulation of ), is In fact, for the largest since the power flow in the battery has the maximum amplitude and the battery losses are the highest. For higher , needed to the battery losses decrease and the average value keep a constant energy level in the storage decreases too. With such a condition, the total fuel consumption in the time interval does not depend on and is expressed by

A. Standard Driving Schedules The algorithm has been tested by means of computer simulations on the model of a SHEV having the characteristics reported in the appendix. The driving schedules (DS) used are: EPA urban dynamometer DS (UDDS); EPA highway fuel economy test DS (HWDS); EPA New York City DS (NYDS); Japanese 1015 exhaust emission and fuel economy DS (JPN 1015). The speed schedules and the relevant power schedules for the adopted vehicle are shown in Fig. 9. The values calculated for the average drive power, for the equivalent ripple, and for the energy delivered to the drive are reported in Table I. For each driving schedule, the algorithm suggests a couple and the kind of control logic (ONOFF or continuous) to be followed for obtaining the minimum consumption. Despite the large differences among the four driving schedules, the optimal value of remains quite unchanged.

(12)

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TABLE I PARAMETERS OF THE DRIVING SCHEDULES

TABLE III PARAMETERS OF THE COMPOSITE DRIVING SCHEDULES

TABLE IV ALGORITHM AND SIMULATIONS RESULTS FOR THE COMPOSITE SCHEDULES TABLE II ALGORITHM AND SIMULATIONS RESULTS

TABLE V AVERAGE FUEL CONSUMPTION IN THE ONLINE OPERATION

For high average power schedules (HWDS), the algorithm suggests the continuous operation while the ONOFF mode is the optimal solution for lower average power schedules (UDDS, NYDS, JPN1015). Systematic simulations have been carried out to check the minimum point calculated by the algorithm (using steps of and 0.1 for ). 0.5 kW for Table II gives , , the hourly consumption , the spe(in grams per kilowatt hour delivered cific consumption to the drive) calculated on the basis of (7)(9), and obtained by simulating the system operation at the calculated and . These values are compared with the results given in the minimum consumption situation by the systematic simulations. The rightmost column shows the results obtained with the Thermostat control for the schedules with a low-enough average power to admit a thermostat operation. By the comparison between the algorithm results and the systematic simulations, it is worth noticing that the algorithm gives and . This means that for the estimated a good choice for couple, the minimum consumption is obtained and that the simplifications made for developing the algorithm do not prejudice its effectiveness. The actual value for the specific consumption assessed by means of the simulation tool differs from that given by the formulas by 2% due to the approximations made in the model adopted for the analytical formulation with respect to the simulated one. The efficiency improvement with respect to a thermostat operation varies from 1.6% for the NYDS up to 5% for the UDDS. is very low (Fig. 10); For the NYDS, in fact, the ratio thus, the benefit of the proposed algorithm in reducing the battery losses is exploited only for a very small fraction of the time. ratio allows a better result. In the UDDS, a 0.5 B. Composite Driving Schedules Only in a few cases a vehicle will follow the same driving schedule for the majority of time. The most common condition is that of a vehicle following nonrepetitive schedules having difand in each subschedule. ferent values of For instance, we have hypothesized a composition of some repetitions of an urban (e.g., the NYDS) schedule and a few rep-

etitions of a highway one (HWDS), and a schedule alternating one UDDS, and one HWDS as shown in Fig. 9. The composite schedules have the parameters of Table III. For such cases, the algorithm would suggest an ONOFF mode giving the performance reported in Table IV. The table also shows the weighted average of the hourly consumption derived from the results of each subschedule. Since the latter values are considerably lower than the others, it is preferable to look at the overall schedule as the sum of several shorter ones, rather than as a single long schedule. The control logic will be periodically updated to follow the variation and , assessed on shorter periods. of An online estimate can be practically obtained, for example, and by continuously filtering the instantaneous values of , with a suitable choice of

(14) Besides, looking such a long schedule (with low-power periods alternated to high-power ones) as a single one, the battery might exceed its minimum operational limit . it is worth noticing that About the choice of A too small value would force the dc source to start even for short power peaks before the battery reaches ; thus, increasing the fuel consumption with useless start-ups and running far from the minimum point of the consumption curve of the dc source (3). A too large value implies the risk of an excessive battery discharge in high-power periods and would give a bad performance even if this limit is not overcome (see Table IV). ranging from 100 to 10 000 Simulations performed with of s have shown that for short schedules, even a value of

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Fig. 10.

Samples of operation in six different drive schedules.

300 s makes the system operate with constant values of and (avoiding improper start-ups), while a good adaptation is obtained on a longer time basis. on the six driving Samples of the behavior for schedules are shown in Fig. 10, where the following are reported: the drive power demand; the dc source-supplied power; ; the battery state of charge

and given by (14) with the values of ; a Boolean variable showing whether the continuous operation (high) or the ONOFF mode (low) is chosen. The values obtained for the average fuel consumption with are reported in Table V for the six different this choice of schedules and schedule combinations. It is worth noticing that for the four standard driving schedules, the values obtained are the same reported in Table II; a shorter filtering

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time results in increased consumption while no improvements are obtained for longer values; for the composite schedules, such values are close to the weighted average ones shown in Table IV. Both a shorter give higher consumption. and a longer filtering time In the same Table V, the rightmost column shows the consumption values expressed in liters per hundred kilometers. Considerable improvements could be obtained using a properly designed ICE, instead of the adapted genset used here2 . A final note is due to the choice of the initial values of and . It is deemed that two options can be properly exploited for this purpose: the final values of the previous journey, or typical values chosen relying on information about the service the vehicle is going have (e.g., urban or highway). , even a wrong choice is rapidly Anyway, for compensated by the filtering functions (14) [Fig. 10]. V. CONCLUSION The proposed algorithm proved effective in optimizing the operation of the SHEV primary energy source. It suggests whether to keep it continuously ON or to switch it ON and OFF according to the battery energy level. It gives the value of the average power the source has to deliver to minimize the system consumption and the amount of power ripple to be followed. The comparison with the thermostat control (when possible) shows efficiency improvements between 1.6% and 5%. Moreover, the choice done for the overall parameters describing the driving schedule, and used as input data for the algorithm, eases the practical operation. APPENDIX ANALYTICAL DETAILS Equations numbered with (#a) have already been reported in the paper text. In the ONOFF operation, the fuel consumption in the time interval is expressed by (6a), here reported for convenience

Considering that

(17) Equation (16) gives the first integral term of (6a)

(18) while the second one is (19) Using the hypothesis (5) and the definition (1) we have

(20) and we rewrite the integral terms (18) and (19) of (6a) as

(21) By substituting such terms into (6a), we obtain (7a)

(6a) The power balance at the dc bus gives in ON conditions in OFF conditions (15) At the end of an ONOFF cycle, the energy level in the battery is restored at its initial value; therefore, the variation of the energy stored in the battery is null The battery energy level variation

(7a) in the ON period is

(16)
2The

best overall fuel efficiency for this genset is 315 g/kWh at 9.6 kW

(22)

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TABLE VI VEHICLE DATA

while in the OFF period

(23) From (22), we immediately have

[5] A. Kleimaier and D. Schrder, Optimization strategy for design and control of a hybrid vehicle, in Proc. Int. Workshop Advanced Motion Contr., Nagoya, Japan, Mar./Apr. 311, 2000. [6] S. Barsali, M. Ceraolo, and A. Possenti, Techniques to control the electricity generation in a series hybrid electrical vehicle, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. 17, pp. 260266, June 2002. [7] M. Salman, N. J. Schouten, and N. Kheir, Control strategies for parallel hybrid vehicles, in Proc. Amer. Contr. Conf., Chicago, IL, June 2000. [8] W. C. Morchin, Energy management in hybrid electric vehicles, in Proc. Digital Avionics Syst. Conf., Bellevue, WA, Nov. 1998. [9] C. C. Chan and K. T. Chau, Modern Electric Vehicle Technology. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2001. [10] M. Ceraolo, L. D. Andreis, R. Giglioli, G. Pede, and A. Possenti, Experiences on control of internal combustion engines of series hybrid electrical vehicles, in Proc. Int. Elect. Vehicle Symp., Bejing, China, Oct. 1216, 1999. [11] H. Wallentowitz and R. Ludes, System control application for hybrid vehicles, in Proc. 3rd IEEE Conf. Contr. Applicat., Glasgow, U.K., Aug. 2426, 1994. [12] M. Ceraolo, E. Rossi, and G. Pede, Control of series hybrid electrical vehicles: algorithms and experimental tests, in Proc. Int. Elect. Vehicle Symp., Montreal, QC, Canada, Oct. 1518, 2000. [13] A. D. Napoli, F. Crescimbini, L. Solero, G. Pede, G. L. Bianco, and M. Pasquali, Ultracapacitor and battery storage system supporting fuel-cell powered vehicles, in Proc. Int. Elect. Vehicle Symp., Berlin, Germany, Oct. 2024, 2001. [14] M. Ceraolo, New dynamical models of lead-acid batteries, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 15, pp. 11841190, Nov. 2000. [15] S. Barsali and M. Ceraolo, Dynamical models of lead-acid batteries: implementation issues, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. 17, pp. 1623, Mar. 2002.

(8a) and posing , we obtain (9a) Equations (8a) and (9a) and put in (7a) give the function [Table VI]. REFERENCES
[1] M. Ceraolo, S. Barsali, R. Giglioli, and P. Pelacchi, Microturbines for dispersed generation, in Proc. Int. Conf. Elect. Dist., Nice, France, June 14, 1999. [2] L. Lave and H. Maclean, Are hybrid vehicles worth it?, IEEE Spectrum, vol. 38, pp. 4750, Mar. 2001. [3] N. Jalil, N. A. Kheir, and M. Salman, A rule-based energy management strategy for a series hybrid vehicle, in Proc. Amer. Contr. Conf., Albuquerque, NM, June 1997. [4] A. Brahma, Y. Guezennec, and G. Rizzoni, Optimal energy management in series hybrid electric vehicles, in Proc. Amer. Contr. Conf., Chicago, IL, June 2000.

Stefano Barsali was born in 1969. He received the master degree in electrical engineering and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Currently, he is Assistant Professor at the University of Pisa in the field of electric power systems. His major research interests include electricity market liberalization, simulation of power systems, distributed generation, hybrid, and electric vehicles.

Carmine Miulli was born in 1972. He received the master degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, in 2000. Currently, he is working under contract at Dipartimento di Sistemi Elettrici e Automazione of University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, on the topic of dynamic modeling of PEM fuel cells. He is also working on dynamic modeling of NiMH traction batteries.

Andrea Possenti was born in 1939. He received the master degree in electronics engineering from the University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, in 1965. Currently, he is a Collaborator of the University of Pisa. From 1967 to 1997, he was with the Italian electricity utility ENELfirst at the research center for automatic controls (CRA), then in the technical sector of production and transmission division of ENEL. His major fields of interests are dynamic simulation of thermal power plants, power plant control and protection systems, and on condition maintenance.