Using an advanced vehicle simulator (ADVISOR) to guide hybrid vehicle propulsion system development

An advanced vehicle simulator model called ADVISOR has been developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to allow system-level analysis and trade-off studies of advanced vehicles. Because of ADVISOR`s fast execution speed and the open programming environment of MATLAB/Simulink, the simulator is ideally suited for doing parametric studies to map out the design space of potential high fuel economy vehicles (3X) consistent with the goals of the Partnership for New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV). Five separate vehicle configurations have been modeled including 3 lightweight vehicles (parallel, series, and conventional drivetrains) along with 2 vehicles with 1996 vehicle weights (parallel and conventional drivetrains). The sensitivity of each vehicle`s fuel economy to critical vehicle parameters is then examined and regions of interest for the vehicles mapped out through parametric studies. Using the simulation results for these vehicles, the effect of hybridization is isolated and analyzed and the trade-offs between series and parallel designs are illustrated.