Distributed Heterogeneous Simulation of a Hybrid-Electric Vehicle Drive System Using the Simplorer Software Product

Hybrid-electric military vehicles provide many advantages over conventional military vehicles powered solely by diesel or turbine engines. These advantages include improved acceleration and fuel economy, stealth capability for silent mobility and silent watch, and ability to carry future energy weapons and advanced armor protection. The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) and Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (T ARDEC) have sponsored the modeling and distributed simulation of a hybrid-electric vehicle as a design and validation tool for the development of future military vehicles. This paper describes the structure of the electricaVpropuls,ion system of the vehicle, and the modeling of the components within this system. In particular, modeling of the prime mover (a diesel engine), the generator/motor, the vehicle control system, and other major components are discussed. Distributed simulation was accomplished using the Distributed Heterogeneous Simulation (DHS) tool. Specifically, the model of the system was divided into multiple subsystems, whereupon DHS was used to connect the subsystem models to form a synchronized simulation, which can be executed on one computer or multiple networked computers. In addition to increasing simulation speed, DHS also anows the interconnection between component models developed in different simulation languages, without requiring them to be translated into a common language. This advantage is particularly important if component models developed in other languages, likely from component manufacturers, are to be added to the vehicle model in the future. The performance of the vehicle system was evaluated under various operating conditions, and simulation results demonstrating the behavior of the system are presented.