Modular Heavy Duty Vehicle Modelling and User Interface Development

Engine calibration work requires the use of realistic simulation models for designing and testing powertrain control algorithms in offline simulations before hardware-in-the-loop, dynamometer and road testing. These models should be computationally efficient for repeated offline simulation runs. Also, they should have a modular, standardized structure to make it easy for a team of engineers to work on it simultaneously. In this paper, such a modular Simulink model is developed for heavy duty vehicle powertrain dynamics. The model framework is formed using subsystems such as engine, transmission, driveline, vehicle dynamics, auxiliaries, driver, environment, test scenarios, hardware-in-the-loop and analysis. A user interface is developed to ease the model usage and also to analyze the simulation results using plots and previously defined metrics. Well established and widely accepted simulation scenarios such as drive cycle test, performance test, gradeability test, cruise test and coast-down test are coded and integrated into the user interface.