Vehicular Electrical Distribution System Simulation Employing a Current-Injection Algorithm

Modeling and simulation have been permeating all development areas within the automotive industry, such as structural simulation, powertrain, engine, thermal management, electronics, and also the electrical distribution system (EDS) design. Rapid adoption of simulation techniques has the potential of reducing prototype manufacturing and, thus, vehicle time-to-market. This article provides a methodology toward vehicle EDS simulation based on the current-injection algorithm to calculate electrical variables within the network and detect early phase design problems. This algorithm allows for a high convergence speed of the computed results and is applicable to combustion vehicles, hybrids, or full electrical vehicles (EVs). We compare the simulated results with the measurements on a test bench of a real automotive wire harness and a vehicle prototype to validate the calculated results.