Modeling and Simulation of High Performance Electrical Vehicle Powertrains in VHDL-AMS

Nowadays the air pollution and economical issues are the major driving forces in developing electric vehicles (EVs). In recent years EVs and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are the only alternatives for a clean, efficient and environmentally friendly urban transportation system (Jalalifar et al., 2007). The electric vehicle (EV) appears poised to make a successful entrance to the personal vehicle mass market as a viable alternative to the traditional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICE): Recent advances in battery technology indicate decreasing production costs and increasing energy densities to levels soon acceptable by broad consumer segments. Moreover, excluding the generation of the electricity, EVs emit no greenhouse gases and could contribute to meeting the strict CO2 emission limits necessary to dampen the effect of global warming. Several countries around the world have therefore initiated measures like consumer tax credits, research grants or recharging station subsidies to support the introduction of the EV. Finally, the success alternative vehicles like the Toyota Prius Hybrid proves a shift in consumer interest towards cleaner cars with lower operating costs (Feller et al., 2009). Nonetheless, the EV will first need to overcome significant barriers that might delay or even prevent a successful mass market adoption. Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) is a good candidate for EVs. In this work, a high level modelling and an optimization is reported for the determination of time response (Tr) and power (P) of Electric Vehicle. The electric constant of backelectromotive-force, stator dand qaxes inductances, switching period, battery voltage, stator resistance and torque gear ratio were selected as factors being able to influence Tr and P. The optimization process was carried out with Doehlert experimental design (Jaber et al., 2010). The optimization is based on simulations of the chain of the electric vehicle; every block is simulated with a different abstraction level using the hardware description language VHDL-AMS. The chain of electric traction is shown in Figure 1. It consists of 4 components: Control strategy, Inverter, PMSM model and Dynamic model. A right combination of these four elements determines the performance of electric vehicles. VHDL (Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language) is a commonly used modelling language for specifying digital designs and event-driven systems. The popularity of VHDL prompted the development of Analog and Mixed-Signal