HEV Modeling:
GM Crada

Argonne National Laboratory and General Motors Corporation have entered a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to develop a Plug-and-Play Powertrain and Vehicle Model Architecture and Development Environment. This software will support the rapid evaluation of new powertrain/propulsion technologies for improving fuel economy through virtual design and analysis in a math-based simulation environment.

The software will be an extension of PSAT (Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit). It will have an open architecture to support the rapid integration and analysis of powertrain/propulsion systems and technologies for rapid technology sorting and evaluation of fuel economy improvement under dynamic/transient testing conditions. The capability to sort technologies rapidly in a virtual design environment will result in faster improvements in real-world fuel consumption by reducing the time necessary to develop and bring new technologies onto our roads.

The output of this CRADA would be a working software prototype/strawman to be used as a proposal for the development of an industry standard for modeling and integration of models.

The enhanced PSAT will open up the development of models for automotive propulsion system technologies, permitting models to be developed by anyone and everyone (universities, national laboratories, manufacturers, and suppliers) through a common language and means of exchanging technology. Without the need for costly and time-consuming hardware design iterations (building, testing, debugging, refining and rebuilding), new fuel economy technologies could be sorted faster in the virtual development environment through faster design iterations, so only the best and most promising technology solutions are moved rapidly to hardware build for confirmation and deployment in real world products.

An industry-standard Plug-and-Play Powertrain and Vehicle Model Architecture and Development Environment would serve as a catalyst for mobilizing the entire automotive industry to work efficiently toward solutions that reduce our national energy needs through technical solutions that minimize fuel consumption.

May 2008