Kettering Researchers to Apply Simulation Technology to Hybrid Vehicle Electronics Optimization

6 March 2007

Two researchers as Kettering University recently received a $75,000 grant from Mentor Graphics to support the development of computer models of a hybrid drivetrain that will allow them to perform a complete analysis of a hybrid vehicle design.

Dr. Juan Pimentel and Dr. Jim Gover will focus initially on the inverter and power electronics. Gover will develop computer models of the power electronics system, while Pimentel will model the control electronics for the inverter.

Both will use the Mentor Graphics’s implementation of the IEEE modeling language VHDL-AMS (very high speed hardware description language-analog and mixed signal). The hope is to calculate the heating rate generated in the inverter semiconductor switches to determine cooling requirements over the full range of drive train speeds as well as the performance sensitivity to electrical parameters.

Eventually, they hope to develop computer models of an entire hybrid drive train that will allow them to perform a complete analysis of a hybrid vehicle design. They can then determine its “functionality, lifetime, effects of component aging, EMI generation, mechanical and electrical effects of thermal cycling, cooling requirements and costs, among other things,” according to Gover.

Gover also noted that while this project focuses on the various power electronics components of hybrid vehicles, he and Pimentel are not attempting to invent new power electronics topologies. The computer models under development should allow what he describes as the payoff of inventions to be determined without having to build hardware.

The automotive sector, which is dominated by mechanical engineers, is far too dependent on testing and underutilizes math-based simulation for electrical systems. In a hybrid vehicle, more than 50 percent of the cost is electrical. The result is that automotive manufacturers will soon find out that they simply cannot afford to contract all of their electrical systems to suppliers and only work with performance specs, which requires them to conduct expensive tests to determine if their supplier has met their specifications.

—Jim Gover

Up until 1998, Kettering was the GMI Engineering & Management Institute, formerly the General Motors Institute of technology. GM opened the predecessor of the institute in 1919 as part-time training school and then fully inaugurated the institute in 1926. The Institute became the GMI Engineering and Management Institute and an independent educational institution, separate from General Motors, in 1982.

Mentor Graphics is a leader in electronic design automation that provides software and hardware solutions.