EcoCAR 3: Architecture Selection Validation through Vehicle Modeling and Simulation for the Colorado State University Vehicle Innovation Team

The Colorado State University's Vehicle Innovation Team (CSU VIT) is one of 16 universities competing in the EcoCAR 3 competition. This competition is the latest in the Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) series and tasks the competing universities with the production of a 2016 hybrid electric Chevrolet Camaro. This is done with the goal of increasing vehicle fuel economy and decrease emissions while maintaining stock vehicle performance and safety. A major component of this year's work was the design and selection of a vehicle architecture that will be built in the coming years. The CSU VIT has developed a suite of detailed fuel economy and performance models of its proposed hybrid vehicle that can be used to represent the vehicle throughout the design process. These models serve several purposes: they provide decision support for the powertrain architecture choices; they allow for control strategy comparison and development; and they provide a framework for future software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation and development. This paper presents on the development and use of these modeling tools.